This article was originally published by Jeremiah Johnson at ReadyNutrition.com
This is a segment that you can take for ideas and build off of for yourself. Survival is all about improvisation, and adaptability: those who adapt to the situation have a better chance at making it through the tough times. This is a different kind of segment, though. The information here is how to make it on what you can scrounge in the wintertime. Sounds simple, right? It isn’t.
We Live in an Imperfect World That is Not Prepper-Friendly
The reason is the “perfect” world we live in does not present you with many opportunities to train. For that matter, there isn’t a lot of encouragement either. Certainly, no one will encourage you: not your family members, your neighbors, or community in general, let alone the government…local, state, or federal. That’s not “life.”
No, most of these guys just mentioned are only concerned with you playing to the system by getting up in the morning, going off to your work (to earn taxable income) so that you can pay your taxes, consuming foods, materials, and other necessities (with taxes), driving (using fuel that’s taxed) home…the one with your mortgage and property taxes, that have, well…a nice, “established” way for you to keep your lawn, grounds…you know…how to live, right? In an acceptable manner, right? A small cog in a giant machine, working and consuming until it’s time to call your number in. Then your money and property… what you have left, that you paid taxes on all the way? Time to tax it again until the government (kicking and screaming) magnanimously gives what’s left to your heirs.
The Only One Who Will Help You Succeed and Excel is You
As a general reminder, you never know when the next emergency will happen, so make sure you have the basic necessities to get through the most unpredictable situation.
- Lighter (I prefer Zippos, as they can take white gas or gasoline),
- Multitool
- Lock-blade knife
- Flashlight (I prefer the mini-mag, the little pocket one)
- Watch
3 Places That Preppers Would Never Think to Scrounge For Survival Supplies
Remember: these suggestions are SHTF/emergency suggestions…as most of this stuff is illegal, and if it’s not? You’ll be “marginalized” until they come to remove you from Fisher Price-ville.
- Auto Wrecking Yard/Junkyard: It’s amazing the number of supplies you can come up with here. Seatbelts can be pulled out to their length and cut to use as straps. Upholstery sometimes has fabric that can be cut or fashioned for makeshift shoes or clothing. The number of field-expedient weapons you can find or fashion is limited only by your imagination. Mirrors and glass are found here in abundance…glass for lenses to concentrate light and make fire…mirrors for signaling or channeling light. Copper wire can be pulled out of the insides. Metal antennas can make useful tools or weapons.
- Construction Sites: You can find lots of preparedness supplies here. For instance, wood for shelters, for lean-to’s, and to fashion snowshoes or fuel for fires. Insulation can be wrapped up in plastic bags and used. Hardware and other construction materials, such as rebar can be used to make field-expedient tools and weapons. In addition, construction sites are sometimes tapped into a water supply. Don’t sleep in the building! Everyone and their brother will be “grasping” such an idea!
- Dumpsters/Trash Sites: often the source of fuel for burning, scrap/discarded clothing, cheap items to harden your home, and cardboard…plenty of cardboard…plenty of plastic. The cardboard can be “sheathed” in the plastic, and stacked to make a ground cover (preventing conduction of heat), and cardboard also burns. Do not discount the use of paper to insulate your body…newspaper crumpled up tightly gives loft to what you wear…more airspace.
The way to do it is to perpetually scrounge, and utilize things for purposes that they can fill, but were not originally designed. This takes some practice. You have to blend what you can pick up that is used or cast away by a man with what you can forage from the woods. We did some pieces on how to find food during the wintertime, and how to make shelters for yourselves. I give you this one extra caveat before closing the topic:
If it looks as if it can be lived in and is unoccupied, you may have it…but you’ll have a “visitor” eventually.
It is better to take materials and supplies (either man-made or natural) and establish a camp and shelter for yourself away from the haunts of people, out of sight…thence, out of mind. This for safety and security, your first and foremost concerns. Camouflage and conceal your shelter, and keep your supplies out of view, whatever you have with you and what you scrounge. Perhaps you’re “gaming” this in your mind and thinking about challenging yourself with a training exercise. Excellent thought! Plan it out in advance and run with the ball. Remember: Millions will tell you “you can’t,” and millions will not adapt and make it in the long run. Step up to the line of scrimmage, and make the pass. Good luck, and happy scavenging! JJ out!
This article was originally published by Jeremiah Johnson at Tess Pennington’s ReadyNutrition.com
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson was a Special Forces Medic, EMT and ACLS-certified, with comprehensive training in wilderness survival, rescue, and patient-extraction. He is a Certified Master Herbalist and a graduate of the Global College of Natural Medicine of Santa Ana, CA. A graduate of the U.S. Army’s survival course of SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape), Mr. Johnson also successfully completed the Montana Master Food Preserver Course for home-canning, smoking, and dehydrating foods.
Tess Pennington is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint, a comprehensive guide that uses real-life scenarios to help you prepare for any disaster. Because a crisis rarely stops with a triggering event the aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. The well-rounded, multi-layered approach outlined in the Blueprint helps you make sense of a wide array of preparedness concepts through easily digestible action items and supply lists.
Tess is also the author of the highly rated Prepper’s Cookbook, which helps you to create a plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply and includes over 300 recipes for nutritious, delicious, life-saving meals.
Visit her web site at ReadyNutrition.com for an extensive compilation of free information on preparedness, homesteading, and healthy living.
The BIG problem with a Zippo is that the fuel evaporates within 1 to 2 weeks.I have one I use for camping because its at most a one week event. If I wanted a dependable long term lighter Id carry a stainless or titanium “peanut lighter”. The screw on cap and O-ring keep fuel from evaporating for months, possibly longer. Its not something you smokers would want to light a cigarette with every few minutes but for a campfire etc. the peanut lighter is fine. There are at least 3 sizes and the big one will light a lot of fires. The small one can easily be worn on a cord around your neck.
Jeremiah Johnson, you’re right on the money again. Sometimes I watch a TV show called “Dual Survival”. The two stars are dumped in some remote place trying to survive where some poor soul died after an accident. They usually begin by scrounging everything that might be useful at the crash or accident site. The show uses your idea to acquire survival gear that many times makes the difference between life & death. We have to think outside the box. Thanks for the survival tips.
Dual Survival??? Cant remember the last in ime I was dumped in the desert of Zimbabwe. Cody is cool the other military dude is a moron.
You can buy 50 lighters on Amazon for $10. Bought 400 lighters for $80. Use them daily and a great barter item. Thats .20 cents per lighter, and you can sell them for $1.00 easy. Or 6 for $5. And a great barter item. They will last for years. No exp date.
Been off the Grid for 3 years. Im living proof what you need and dont need. What the dumbest prepper item you bought in the past and never used. Like survival matches. Lol. I never bought survival matches. Dumb idea if you are in windy conditions. A lighter you can adjust into a 10 inch torch if you turn the wheel behind the metal safety shield. Now thats fire vs. a tiny one hit match.
“Cody is cool the other military dude is a moron.”
He is not a moron, he has just a totally different background than Cody Lundin has. He is a military kind of guy. The two are simply not very much in harmony, that’s all.
10 inch? Nah, don’t think so. You’re just bragging.
2 or 3 inch at most. LOL!
Besides, while waiting for the Big Event to happen, you’ll be stuck with 400 lighters sitting in your basement which nobody wants. Barter? Forget it.
No thanks, I would rather not scrounge out a living. I’m not working my way down.
I was driving past and came to a stop. Outside my window a black woman came by
with about fifteen little black kids whom looked tb around six years old. One kid stopped
A and began searching through a garbage can. The teacher looked at the little pip squeak,
and shouted “oh no”. Then she hauled off and slapped him across the face.
Now, some people might jump on their phone and call child protective services. This
woman had looked around and was well aware that I and others were observing. She
acted responsibly. She may or may not have been correct in slapping a child in her
care. But, I have no doubt that she acted with the utmost best intentions for that child.
I sometimes wonder when I read some of these articles if the writer is motivated to help
or to harm the reader.
I like zippo lighters and a magnifying glass.
_
Good ideas if push comes to shove, or like Rambo you must improvise if on the lam, but remember that that one man’s junk yard may be HIS treasure chest, not yours. Private property rights will not be abrogated in SHTF.
That holds true for construction sites too, and in some jurisdictions, dumpster diving is a crime. Just saying. 🙂
forget the fact that no one will be putting things in the dumpsters once the economy goes tits up. Trash is a finite resource, generated by an entity.
This is the reality in some countries. Nothing to do with pulling yourselves up by your boot straps. No health care, no social security, very little available resources. America in 10 years?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SaWkg2hRuLg
No thanks, I would rather not scrounge out a living. I’m not working my way down.
Amen…my thoughts also when I saw this earlier on another site.!!!!!!
Yeah because it’s so much easier to just click the ads on this “prepper” site and buy useless stuff peddled here and run to Costco to buy doomsday kits than to know how to improvise and adapt for long term survival when the s truly htf.
Good article, finally.
agreed!
To me, the key to surviving is keeping it simple. Think basic necessities and always be ready to go mobile. There will be many opportunities to find things of necessity/ practical use. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a good set of bolt cutters.
hey buttcrackofdoom that is the funniest screen name ever lol
thank you….grandma always says she’s gettin’ up at the buttcrackofdawn, so when i was pickin’ a name, i thought about crackofdoom, but it was taken……so….the rest is history….i like it, but some don’t….eff them, i say. YOUR screen name is funny, because it’s close to a name i am very familiar with. where did you get that one? call ME instead of answering here, if you actually KNOW me. oh, and it’s an email addy 2.
CrackerJack, Yeh, maybe one out of 20 actually have anything reasonable or realistic or helpful to say.
The writer was trying to say what I have said many times. It is all about your mindset and skills ! Simple as that. Everything is always about how we think and than act on it, always ! Nothing new at all really.
Gotta wonder how many of these pen names and supposed experts are actually real people ? I mean really, anybody with half a brain left knows a junk yard has a lot of very useful stuff ? Did you need to be told that or anything else in the article ?
Yeah, like these places are going to be abandoned. Don’t think so. Protected? Likely? Get Shot? Maybe. If you get this stuff from a working yard, you’ll have to pay for it. Duh!
A working junk yard…yeah, the junkyard dog is no joke. I know I can’t outrun a dog.
As far as repurposing items, heh, that’s been my life. Can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve done a repurposing and someone said, ‘Gee, who would’ve thought of that.’
Keep in mind if there really truely is some SHTF Event, like a total Grid down for years and a 90% die off, there will be plenty of resources and supplies for the taking. Cars to fuel to free shelter, housing, guns, ammo, clothes shoes, coats to boats, fishing gear. After about a year after the great initial die off, the world will be a very peaceful place to live off the grid. People lived off the grid for thousands of years. No IRS, no taxes, no cops, no cell phones, no mail. Just you and nature for free for the taking. Sunshine and clean air, blue skies and quietness. No TV propaganda.
sounds kinda nice…
My Thoughts exactly B from CA. Only unprepared ignoramouses dig out of garbage cans. I prefer to go to estate sales, yard sales and craigs list, and have been for 25 years. I bought so many tools I downsized before I moved out to my bol. Out here, I rarely throw anything away, as it may have some usefulness down the road. I have bought coffee cans of screws for a buck, plenty of hand tools digging tools, and about everything else I need. If not I can ask a neighbor for a specialty tool if needed. I do not loan out any good tools like chain saws, or rakes axes etc, and some people forget to bring the tool back to me. So I stopped doing that. If I borrow a tool I bring it back in a half hour after I use it. Borrowed a metal detector to find the stash I buried. But I borrowed it under the pretense there was an old fire pit with lots of nails in it and I dolt want to get a flat on my lawn tractor. Get a stick magnet to pick up scrap metals or nails or lost screws and bolts.
I also bought more multiple items like boots and shoes and wading knee high boots long ago, and I seem to have more than I need and rarely have to go buy anything. Been off the grid for over 3 years at my BOL. lol 6 deer ran past buy cottage last night. Need meat? check!!
The traitor’s mansions should provide some nice supplies after the occupants are eliminated.
NEVER slap a child in the face.
Grandee;
Good point.
She did it only because she kneW people were watching anyway.
Damn Geri, I’m hopin one of these articles is about teaching us your super soldiering skills. Junkyard survival?……….niiiiiice. Fuckin loser
In times of serious trouble, look everywhere and grab anything you think is useful.
Think of Venezuela, think of what they are doing there to survive.
In Venezuela, they’re begging for donations with their hands out so they can flee to other countries, instead of standing ground and taking action to fix their own country. There was even one article on this site recently with some pathetic sob story trying to get people to feel sorry and send money. Nope, not falling for it.
Cracker Jack – I am Venezuelan and I can tell you a thing or two about survival there right now, as I still have friends and family trapped in that narco-state. It’s easy to criticize from the comforts of your nice living room and large screen HDTV, another is when the military and the narcos are in total power. So what do you suggest about “taking action” when there are no weapons in civilian hands, only handguns, maybe a shotgun or two? Google the heroic actions by many last year, rioting with nothing but homemade shields and gas masks, a few makeshift explosives made from fireworks, only to be pulverized by government forces. You think we haven’t tried? It’s easy to criticize with a full stomach, another is when you have to scrounge for food everyday. Who has the energy or resources to topple a government when you’re hungry? Many were killed last year, and the regime continues to imprison and kill detractors as we speak. So instead of suggesting about “fixing their own country” when we clearly cannot do it without foreign help, post some useful ideas and I’ll be happy to forward those to the many brave resistance fighters risking their lives everyday to take down a murderous and very dangerous narco-regime.
I’m waiting for the keyboard commandos like CrackerJack to lead the heroic resistance in NYC and SF. All of these tough-talking heroes flee to rural states where they hide out and do nothing to restore freedom to America’s most repressive cities and states. Their idea of mounting a resistence is to cower in their BOL.
Johnny Black, you live in reality, many do not because they have never experienced any real events that really tests their metal. Many simply just go along with what some supposed experts tell them to think. and many times those supposed experts are just marketers. Same is true of many politicians ! Also many buy into all manner of the illusions created for them and we see that here at this site quite a lot as well as most supposed prepper type sites. It used to serve a purpose back in the Obama days more so. But it has always been various forms of internet marketing of all manner of junk thinking and products and absurd email sham wows schemes. Seems to be getting worse not better in many ways as the prepper thing is dying from it’s own over sold hype and redundant bad info. There is a far better way to live and think and that way is all about living in truth and reality ! Interestingly many are afraid to do that and choose to stay fat,dumb and lazy because they think it is the easy way ? It isn’t.
Also note that ZH is changing as well in recent years and not even close to what it once was. There is a valid reason for all of this taking place !
Offices and manufacturing plants…..wouldnt believe the amount of food people store in theyre desks,lockers,file cabinets and even their tool boxes
Stupid Americans wrongfully believe that “Best By Date”
means expired! A perfect marketing scam to make dummies throw out perfectly good food and by more…40% of all food in the USSA winds up in landfills.
Try dumpster diving behind the food chains! Check out YouTube videos on the subject and you’ll be shocked!
Get your diving gear on and try it out.
Been there, done that. Also there are lots of other dumpsters with interesting things to find.
Behind a fabric store, there are fabrics occasionally. Ruined bolts, samples, etc. Even found a jackpot load of patterns one time. Old pattern books (those they don’t sell) can provide paper to make “logs.”
The point is to pick a store with a usable dumpster (the giant compactors are dangerous) and keep checking it for a month to see the types of stuff tossed in it. You can even find new items tossed because it was scratched, stained, etc., but still perfectly serviceable. Or scraps like behind an upholstery place–nice spot to find chunks of foam rubber to make into bits for stuffing a pillow, small mat, etc.
Even the Salvation Army can’t rescue all the donations. Perhaps there is an old stained sweater; take it and undo the knitting, wash the yarn (maybe the stain goes away), redye it, and knit it into what you need.
Sometimes the item comes to you. Just watch the neighborhood curbs on pick up days. Whole dining sets, plastic toy houses, and you-name-it can be found for the only the price of picking it up to take with you. (People are too busy or lazy to recycle properly.) If you can’t use it, it can always be sold on Craigs List, eBay, and so on.
Go find this same article over at Ready Nutrition, actually skip the article and go straight to the comments for some interesting first hand experiences by a reader.
Wilson,
The site is OK.
I’ll stay on SHTF,
but visit the other
periodically. It looks
like Oldguy comments
there.
I only comment on SHTF because this site does not censor. rummaging in a junkyard will be a huge risk. Those curmudgeons who own those type places don’t like thieves.
Will do.
I have been scrounging and recycling since I can remember. My family was not rich, I am not rich. I am a cheap guy that cannot stand to waste anything. I am not a hoarder.
The author missed other places that can be a good source of stuff, recyclers and the dump.
I still have a Ring binder cook book I got from a dump more than 40 years ago.
Even today I rummage through the recycling place at our dump.
I’m not much for dumpster diving, but for years I raised pigs on restaurant left overs, that we used to get for free.
“Use it up, wear it out, and then make do”
Amen brother, some of these guys are going to get a rude awakening if “SHTF”
You have that right. If I am driving down the street an see something I can use in the garbage I stop and get it. Just the other day I picked up a perfectly goo medium size dog crate sitting on the curb. If I can’t use u’s it, I know others who can. Most all of my plywood window covers were made from sheets I pulled from someone’s garbage.
“Use it up; wear it out. Make it do, or do without”. That was the rhyme I was taught as a kid by my Depression-surviving mother.
Good ideas,JJ,I’ll be out this weekend
Amen brother, some of these guys will be in for a rude awakening if and when the “SHTF”
i can see a LOT of people have no idea just how bad it’s going to be.
Yep, most people will die off quickly because they didn’t stock any food and water. The next large group to die off will be the self-claimed “preppers” who stacked tons of food, water, ammo, gas masks, iosat pills, fish antibiotics, doomsday survival kits, silver, gold, etc, but never learned any skills essential to survive and thrive after their supplies become insufficient or are taken from them. Skills to improvise and adapt, and scavange for discarded items that can be put to use with some imagination and skill.
You cannot survive by survival kits alone. You need mind and skill too.
I think you are preaching to the choir.
Not everyone can build a house, a boat,
grow/raise tons of food, or have an unlimited
supply of fresh water.
A few of us on this site can do/have these things,
the others need something to survive till
their skill sets or whatever allow them
to continue and thrive.
Make a good stash while you can,
do what you need to to protect it.
CrackerJack, agree on every point in spades, but you left out the most important items of all, health, fitness and your overall mindset ! It is clear many prepper types are simply too lazy to actually be prepared !
Nope, no clue,
Just browse through facebook comments on a few sites and look through the personal pages of the people,,, guess they dont need privacy, so why would they be worried about anything
(How do you know whether I found Shakespeare, in a dumpster –)
CAESAR:
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
ANTONY:
Fear him not, Caesar; he’s not dangerous;
He is a noble Roman and well given.
CAESAR:
Would he were fatter…
Preppers usually want you to beware of radioactive, cannibal, zombie, road warriors.
But, it is ‘Old Economy Steven,’ who has an atavistic hatred for DIY. A crony capitalist (aka champagne socialist.) He “works” (maybe, I guess) in a turnkey and gets a stipend, for showing up. The chubby, toddling tourist, with Kewpie-eyes, helpless in petting zoos, farms, and local, natural attractions. Mediocre-looking collaborators do spy, destroy personal property, and believe they are so credible, that they can become physically-dangerous, with you, the scrounger. This discussion is not complete, without mentioning that kind of person.
Good article. When TSHTF you will go to all three of these areas, just to survive.
When the going gets Tuff. The Tuff get going. It is just that simple, and those places will make your life easier.
Just remember also to look around old abandoned farms. You won’t believe the stuff you can find. Canning jars, to firearms and ammo, to cleaning items, ECT. ECT.
Sgt.
Sarge,
Be careful with old
farms.
They may have old style pesticides
that you don’t even know about and
they are very deadly.
Be careful when poking around.
I never violate any constitutional Federal,
State, or local law.
Public forum so I won’t say more than that.
Be careful as those old farms make just have a mean ass old farmer to go along with that farm on the DL gentleman 🙂
Good luck my fellow brothers.
The time for this is after the crash and burn, and this isn’t any laws.
Growing up on a farm I know what you are talking about. Now a City slicker might not.
Sgt.
Some of that stuff you find hiding on an old farm could be quite useful, stuff like that 25# sack of paraquat, lots of uses
Any bags with “34-0-0” on the label found at some farms could be quite useful, beyond the original farming purpose.
Ehhhhh, When the going get’s tough…
The tough go DRINKING! 😛
I prefer beer.
CV axl ball bearings make good 12 gauge slugs? Just pour out the bird shot and glue?
CV axl ball bearings make goog 12 gauge slugs? Just pour out the birdshot and glue?
But it’s easier to heat up some glue and drill a hole and pour it onto the birdshot?
If you have and use a zippo you will be aware that the cotton will dry out if you leave it laying around. If you take a piece of bicycle inner tube and cut it to make a big in diameter and fat enough to cover most of the zippo case rubber band that will seal the crack between the top and bottom of the case and stop most of the evaporation. Find a tube with a hole in it and it takes a big wheel tube to work well.
Auto Wrecking Yard/Junkyard:
stealing from midnight auto supply?
No good advise for preppers.
Construction Sites:
trespassing at construction sites or stealing from construction sites will surely get you killed.
More bad advise.
And so many of them are covered by CCTV camera systems for security reasons
Dumpsters/Trash Sites:
Probably ok to dumpster dive, but what could you possibly expect to find of value in the trash? Half eaten hot dogs?
Crappy article with bad advise.
When we were kids, growing up in Miami, we were poor. We gardened, had fruit trees, I rode my bike every day ( 8- 10 miles one way, after school during the week )for a little more than a year to the fishing hole and caught our meat ( fish, turtles, and ducks ), and yes we dumpster dived. We got all kinds of “out of date” new food. I hope to never have to do that again, but if I had to to survive, I would.
Never say what you are or are not going to do until it happens. Good luck to us all, and may we never HAVE TO dumpster dive.
We used to do it for fun. Best places to dumpster dive are large box stores. They trash their returns. They will sometimes cut the cords or the return may be broken but if you have repair skills its not a problem.
You would be surprised! One New Years Day, 1987 I think it was, my husband at the time and I were driving around looking for a house to live in. We saw what looked to be a rowing machine next to a dumpster near our apartment.( we lived in the country). We stopped and took a look, and lol and behold, apparently somebody got some new exercise equipment for Christmas, cuz in the dumpster was another type of exercise equipment!( don’t remember what it was). We brought them home, cleaned them up, replaced the bolts that were missing, and sold the pieces for $25 each! It gave us two weeks of grocery money!
Agree. By the time a PREPPER would need to dumpster dive all the other UN-PREPPERS would have cleaned that stuff out. Construction site ditto.
The scrounging will be house to house, hand to hand combat. People will try to take your stuff. See and smell will lead them straight to your door. See you not as skinny as others or patrolling your house, smell the food you are making. Knock-knock…
perpetually scrounge
Agreed. Always be on the look out.
I take my wife and kids to garage sales on Saturday mornings. I hunt for tools, the kids hunt for toys, the wife looks for wifey things.
Makes for a great Saturday morning and gets the kids out of the house and off the X-box.
You can find a LOT of tools really really cheap. I also have a huge collection of hand tools acquired from estate and garage sales. Hand tools will be needed when there is a long term power outage.
The King of Hand Tools in my book is Roy Underhill. Watching his show and watching him work with 100+ year old tools still in great working condition gives me gooosebumps! It’s like walking back into time, and the finished products are all necessary and useful!
You are dating yourself now.
If it looks as if it can be lived in and is unoccupied
how many preppers have bug out locations are are currently unoccupied?
This advise will get you killed.
I don’t know about your state, but in Texas the castle law is supreme. You can kill people burglarizing in your home, no questioned asked.
John : I don’t mean to be picking on you. You make a lot of good points, but aren’t we talking about when there is NO law? Or law of the fittest? Or law of the fastest, or sneakiest?
There will always be law.
Even in SHTF.
It will either be regular law enforcement, tyrannical law enforcement, community residents banning together for self law enforcement or just plan old vigilantly law enforcement.
HIS LIST:
Lighter
Multitool
Lock-blade knife
Flashlight
Watch
How about a usful list:
1) hand gun. If you are in a SHTF, you likely will need more protection than a falshlight and a knife.
2) communication. cell phone or HAM radio. Buy the baofang walkie talkies. They are about 35 dollars and have a several mile range. I got my amateur radio license, but in a SHTF anything goes and nobody will be policing the HAM radio air waves for unlicensed call signs.
3)His list makes me think he would be on foot, so a space blanket or poncho would be important for rain protection.
4) food and water. Just pack a couple of MREs.
I thought the lighter was not the best choice. If you have a reliable one, great. I saw too many fails when I was out camping with the Boy Scouts. (And our troop camped a lot as in at least once or twice a month year round.) The most reliable was properly weatherproofed matches. The striker type fire starters are also good but be sure you are experienced with what you carry. It’s awful to be tired and cold and hungry because your firemaking was unsuccessful.
I go nowhere without a bottle of water. If it’s a trip, I take two or three.
out camping with the Boy Scouts
There is a support group for that now.
www:scoutleaderfuckedme:com
Are you sure it wasn’t a prayer candle that was the best fire starter?
Just kidding.
I look at the stuff JJ put in this article this way: it’s a mental exercise you need to put yourself through so you know what to look for, and where to look for it, when SHTF is the real deal. In no way should you be practicing this stuff, real world; that could get you arrested or killed. Also, what JJ is mentioning is a LAST resort, NOT a first resort.
I used to be in retail asset protection/inventory control for over 20 years. I can walk into any food store or big box store, and basically field-strip the place for anything I need in a real world SHTF scenario in under an hour. I have a very short list of items I would be looking for, because about 3/4 of what you find in these stores is practically worthless in real world SHTF. I’m talking in terms of grabbing what I can carry in a good backpack, then blow out of there before the sheeple wake up, and the welfare monkeys figure out there’s nothing or no one to carry their dead weight around any more. Once these people head toward stores and resources, after finally figuring out the only resources are what’s there and no more will be coming on the back of a truck, they will behave like wild animals.
For me, the mission is simple. Be ready to immediately recognize when real world SHTF is upon me, react accordingly, be on my way out the back door with what I need while the masses are still utterly clueless as to what just happened.
Until then, go out and acquire the high value resources off the shelf while the masses still have their heads buried in the sand, or somewhere else. I try to duplicate my gear as much as possible, so I can have multiple resources in multiple locations if I have to stay mobile. That means I’ll buy the multi-tools, pocket knives, sharpeners, and fire starters off the shelf right now if I find what I want at a good price, then build my kits off that. Bottom line: if you see high value resources on the shelf, and you know it probably won’t be there when it’s time to field strip the store, acquire it now so you are not scrambling later. I know I’ll always be able to field strip some zip-ties, medical supplies and Mountain House from a big box store.
“field-strip the place for anything I need …in under an hour. I have a very short list of items I would be looking for…”
Comments like this are frustrating, because you have not shared with us this ‘short list’. I assume that it’s more than the half-dozen items that you mention towards the end of the post.
Why not share the entire list? Most of these lists are pretty familiar, but I’m always interested because somebody might come up with one or two items that I haven’t thought of.
Hospitals and warehouse zones have lotsa goodies too, just use your head in the hospital. Just about every large city in the US has a warehouse zone. Neglect not the lumber yards, or the auto repair places. Talking about all these possibilities post-SHTF of course. Did any of you realize that a graveyard is a great place for you and your patrol to get some uninterrupted sack time? Temporarily, of course.
Lumber yards are a great place to get material that they rap lumber in, you can use it to cover a lean-to so it will be water proof. then cover with boughs for camo. Trekker Out.
Learned a lot after reading Kate Morris’ 8 books about the “McLane Apocalypse. After reading these books learning where to obtain supplies is described well.
Im surprised at all of you cus not a one of you mentioned the storage units. Thats where there will be alot of useful stuff anything and everything. Ive even seen food vendors like chips ect use them as storage. Also you have whole house and garages stored there. And you know theres guns…
Storage units? Ha, there is also lots of security, fences, cameras, etc. And by the time you break into one you will find a lot of junk, old furniture, old clothes and garbage bags of stuff nobody uses, thats why its sitting in a storage. I have 3 old TV sets sitting in my storage. Try carrying an old TV set away which is useless away. And there is nothing prepper wise or guns or food sitting in my storage. Waste of time. You been watching too many Storage Wars shows. Its all a set up Fake TV. You telling me people can’t pay their storage fee, but there is tens of thoudands of dollars of guns gold and silver sitting in storage, which they could take out pawn to pay the storage fee? Just more Fake Fantasy TV for idiots and dreamers in a fast get rich scheme.
There are not even any tools in my storage.
I went to some of those storage auctions. And they made a big show of cutting the locks from the units. but once opened I could see the unit’s had already been tossed. some even had new bug bomb containers in them. The owners of the storage facility had already picked thru them. The locks where the dead giveaway. every lock was the same cheep Wal Mart brand.
The article has some merit. Think outside of the box.
If SHTF, a junkyard/construction site is abandoned or the owners died off, could be some good items to find.
Flip side, in a WROL go savaging and the site is not abandoned, someone might take exception, well, who is to say who is in the right.
Be well rounded. Having supplies is not a bad thing, but augment those with the skills to do everything you need to stay alive in your area.
Hope for the best, but prep for the worst.
Space is limited in most homes. If you believe in prepping and share a home with non-preppers, it is an ongoing struggle over space. This is in addition to the money that you are spending. There is absolutely no more space in my home for additional preps and there is no way that I am going to rent a storage unit. TharSheBlows is right about the units being filled with junk. You have to be ready to not only weather a crisis but to be ready for a whole new way of living when the crisis is past. That takes preparation which takes up space.
Zippos are great I always have one on me one in my BOB one in my get home bag and one in my work truck get home bag along with the other things I will need I just carry a bottle of fluid and a pack of flints in all my bags . In a SHTF times a lot of abandond cars will be around so start popping trunk lids and see whats in the trunk .
I drove a wrecker years ago. We found a lot of stuff hidden in impounded vehicles. common to find bags of weed. tools and a few firearms.