Bugging Out To Nowhere: A SHTF Fantasy

[@mr.normalguy69]

"If you're bugging out, you're just a glorified refugee." - John Lovell, ex-Army Ranger

[@SandyRavaged]

Truth

[@BrassFacts]

I think this is a good point to bring up. Sometimes you HAVE TO bug out, think natural disasters and such. In these scenarios you're at the mercy of the state apparatus. You can/should have plans in place to allow this to be less of a painful process. But ultimately you're reliant on having a functional gov to bail you out, and return normalcy to you. At the moment, that's very much the case in the US

[@Barrett619]

Never thought of it that way before. That’s a good one.

[@tnh723]

That crashed toxic train, flash floods, fire, etc. Couple of scenarios why you'll want to bug out. Agreed that its far from ideal unless you have a stocked cabin as your goal.

[@yoinky]

​@tnh723 in those scenarios, bugging out would just be renting a hotel room 3 cities over

[@SnakeyRaptor]

Reject bugging out, embrace becoming a suburban warlord. Logistics win all wars.

[@dennislosee]

You’re damn right! An army marches on its belly!

[@Brimwald]

Unless your house was flooded, burned down, swallowed by a mudslide, eaten by a sinkhole, polluted by toxic waste from a train derailment, destoyed by artillery, or they want to throw you in a gulag, and now you need to bugout to a hotel in another city, a relative's house, a refugee camp, or another country.

[@Snapper314]

I agree... for the most part. There ARE potential SHTF situations that might require "Bugging Out". Some Natural disasters like a Tidal Wave, Major Earthquake, or Yellowstone, would require leaving certain areas.

[@Brimwald]

@@Snapper314 yep, lots of reasons that require bugging out. Ideally we would be bugging out to somewhere (like parents/inlaw's homes) which might require a day or three of camping to get there depending on the event and gridlocked roads

[@myamericanpeople]

That's my plan😈

[@AclockworkPurple]

The biggest problem with the SHTF scenario is everyone is wanting to shoot everyone. You need people. That guy you are taking a shot at because he scared you by just walking around might be a paramedic, an engineer or even just someone you can teach a skill that contributes to a group. People need each other for long term survival. That is going to be the biggest deciding factor and a realization a lot of people are going to have too late.

[@lipp1992]

I feel like Hollywood is partly to blame for this type of scenario. Every cataclysmic or survival movie/series is always kill or be killed and now it's the normal assumption of what should happen in an event like that. What people fail to realize is that humans were not always top of the food chain until we remained in large groups. Alone, we are more fragile than any other animal on this planet.

[@AclockworkPurple]

@@lipp1992 Yeah, pretty much. In the modern developed world most of us often don’t know our neighbors very well if at all, don’t have to cooperate with each other and we don’t share a real community bond. I think about how all these manufactured social/cultural, political and religious wars that are being waged by people and how it drives us apart. It’s a real shame. If we could just cooperate and focus on things that benefit us we would likely be colonizing space by now, curing or preventing most diseases, protecting our land and the flora and fauna and taking care of each other on a large scale. We could do it but we’re too busy with our collective BS and can’t help but letting our worst impulses take over. It’s good to want to protect yourself and your group. It’s a natural instinct. If taken too far you isolate yourself from others and miss out on opportunities to grow stronger and more successful.

[@ostrich67]

And it's the people out in BFE who would do that. People living in cities would know better. Look at what happened during the pandemic. The ones out in the rural areas and small towns and yes, conservative communities were getting COVID and dying because they wouldn't mask up, wouldn't stop packing themselves into their churches, and wouldn't get vaccinated, while people living in cities masked up, stayed home, got vaxxed, and were careful when they did go out. And if you got sick, medical facilities were close, paramedics could come and get you, and friends, neighbors, coworkers could help if necessary. I decided that being in the city was a far safer bet than being in some small town during that emergency.

[@AclockworkPurple]

@@ostrich67 There would be a lot of suspicion of outsiders in rural areas and small communities, without a doubt. That anti-vaccine/anti-mask stuff happened because it got tied up in politics and the manufactured social and culture wars being waged by others mostly to stir up their political base. Cities are a problem because people are tightly packed together. Disease and a shortage of resources make cities a bad place to be of it’s going to be an extended scenario and there is no relief. Food, fresh water, medicine, electricity (for heat), etc… will run out quickly in cities. You wouldn’t want to be crammed together with people for extended periods because desperate people will do desperate things. It’s necessary to protect yourself and the group you are relying on but it needs to be reasonable. In SHTF scenarios there is a lot of stress and people will tend to overreact. You have to be aware of this so you don’t overreact. It’s the ones that think they can handle stress but can’t and are prone to be aggressive with others and have a “shoot first ask questions later” mentality that will create more chaos and stress. It’s a complicated thing and more about being cool, staying calm and thinking before acting.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

There will be _many_ Darwin awards handed over the first few weeks. And a lot of loot bags to pick up by those who secure their locations and resources during the worst of the starting turbulence.

[@gobbodoezdrum]

Here in South Africa the SHTF in July of 2021. What ended up happening was everyone in the suburbs banded together and started coordinating roadblocks, patrols etc. effectively keeping the looting hoards out of the residential areas. The town centers, most malls and especially trucks on the main highways weren't so lucky and were looted and torched throughout the first day, the police were completely useless and it took almost a week to deploy the military. What we learned that week was, the only realistic way to stay safe in a SHTF scenario was to hunker down and coordinate with your fellow neighbors and absolutely stay of the roads.

[@tsubadaikhan6332]

What caused that? At first I assumed Corona, but that would have been half way thru that shit.

[@gobbodoezdrum]

Civil unrest on an epic scale, the cause or rather "spark" itself was something as stupid as the imprisonment of the former president, but most agree the root cause was a combination of all the social ills of the country like mass unemployment, lack of service delivery etc. etc. etc. just reaching boiling point. The big pot itself however, is yet to boil over... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_South_African_unrest

[@benpearson49]

​@@tsubadaikhan6332 It's a complicated, and bad situation, but basically the government is extremely corrupt. President Zuma was arrested, and imprisoned, and his supporters went apeshite. I actually recommend Americans study the history of South Africa, because it's kinda all gone wrong.

[@tsubadaikhan6332]

@@benpearson49 Ah. I'm actually Australian. I know a little about SA history, and I'm on the West Coast. We have quite a few SA ex-pats, but they generally have a white persons perspective on that history. There was a patch when we were easier to migrate to, and a popular choice being almost the shortest journey to a Euro style Gov from SA's Eastern side. I'm fairly well versed that Zuma was very corrupt, but ignorant of any particulars. The little I know is that SA's far more complicated than Australia.

[@therealamon]

underrated comment everyone thinks shtf happening is every man for himself thats not human nature real humans...idk we are social

[@Eodbatman]

I’ve done a lot of “survival backpacking” and camping. People have no idea how difficult it is to sustain yourself off foraged meats and plants. Wild foods are not as calorie dense as farmed foods, and most of us don’t even know what’s edible or how to prepare what is without killing ourselves (e.g. Indian turnips). Conversely, you can grow enough calories in potatoes in your backyard. It’s all about team work; know your neighbors.

[@BrassFacts]

The demographic that like bugging out are probably inversely related to those that have actually backpacked. Even a basic 3 day trip is very eye opening, and even then you're 100% living off of supplies.

[@silent_stalker3687]

That’s why I like any smart man have removed my arms and legs so I don’t have to eat so much. 😎 become the reason your town has rumors of the snakeman today

[@holliday.]

Why do you think people wouldn't farm food? I know many animals that multiply faster than you'd want, take up little space, will eat grass or whatever.

[@holliday.]

I can get food or water in almost any environment that I foresee myself in assuming I have freedom of movement.

[@holliday.]

​@BrassFacts I've gone on hundreds of backpacking trips. People live in so much luxury I think many would perish without Starbucks and chipotle but actually our bodies are made for handling less than what we'd ever consider putting into a bug out bag... but not everyone would live without having someone else gather, hunt, farm, fight, processs foods, provide potable water, and handle basic injuries. For these people a bug out bag is about as helpful as a chemistry kit is to me.

[@History_Coffee]

The Donner party was made up of determined, intelligent well provisioned people who made an error in judgment crossing the mountains too late in the season. Most people's bug out plan is to go up into the mountains with a backpack regardless of the season. 😅

[@BrassFacts]

A backpack and 12 bricks of 22LR haha The donners are a interesting case study, I actually almost mentioned it here. They were far far more skilled in what they were doing. And they still got clapped by slightly bad timing.

[@yoinky]

​@BrassFacts at least they got to eat their grandparents 😂

[@DronesUnder2A]

​@@yoinky woah. "Got to" ...?

[@kevinm.n.5158]

​@@BrassFactsthat 12 bricks of .22 made me bust out laughing, I used to think that way.

[@BrassFacts]

@@kevinm.n.5158 we all did. why do you think 22LR was so hard to find in 2012 gunscare

[@newdefsys]

The 'bug out' term is been flipped on its head. Military units bug out of their forward outpost and return to the more fortified position of their base. If you're leaving your home to go stay in the mountains you're not _bugging_ _out_ you're evacuating.

[@coolgamers2794]

Bugging out should always be a last resort. If the odds are against you if you stay in one spot; then retreat. If not then stand your ground. You will have a better time to fortify your home along with having a few friends defend against a larger force than if you all make a run for it and get picked off.

[@jayrowe6473]

Or _cowering_ would be a more accurate description.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

So each time a cat 3+ hurricane comes we bug out as we always return instead of evacuating?

[@lordgarion514]

Not sure where you got that from. "popularized in the Korean War (1950-53) in such phrases as “bug-out fever” (rout) and “the big bug out” (November/December 1950 retreat) and entered civilian slang by mid 1950s." It has always meant what it means here.

[@lordgarion514]

No, you bugout when you have to do it in a hurry. You evacuate when you have plenty of time. There's a reason you keep a bugout bag. It's specifically so you can grab it and run like hell.

[@dingusdingus2152]

Your bugout bag must absolutely include a 10 foot slate bed pool table, balls, and cues. Because you will get bored out there, waiting for zombies to shoot at.

[@The_world_is_not_worthy_of_Him]

boredom keeps you productive and more importantly alive. Bugging out or not, if you can't handle being bored then the long nap is your best bet for survival. 🤷

[@dingusdingus2152]

@@The_world_is_not_worthy_of_Him you might also consider keeping a jacuzzi in your bugout bag, and a 9 foot long grand piano...

[@Phearsum]

Just get a faraday sleeve and pack some form of portable entertainment. Get a dummy phone and fill an SD card with survival books/guides/mp3s/movies. Slap it in a faraday pouch with a small foldable 20W solar panel and 10,000-20,000mah power bank. Worth it if you aren't too too concerned with weight. There's also products you can buy to turn that same phone to function as a ham radio.

[@chrisbohanon403]

Here in Portland we do have zombies everywhere!! I'm not kidding!!

[@dingusdingus2152]

@@chrisbohanon403 perhaps fairly soon you will be able to use them for target practice...

[@EricDaMAJ]

That “secret place in the wilderness only you know about” is probably gonna be a prepper’s convention when you get there. And a battlefield not long after.

[@jackmemphis777]

Random dude at the preppers woodland convention: "I bet you are all wondering why I gathered you here". The survivor of the gunfight "So anyway, I started blasting"

[@TD_YT066]

It will be a nice loot drop for the Locals.

[@LK-bz9sk]

😂😂😂😂😂😂 truth

[@Jaybearno]

Curious why so many people think the outdoors would be swarming with people. I’d conservatively say that

[@EricDaMAJ]

@@Jaybearno If the cities run out of food those people will be roving the landscape like locusts. A good many will be survivalists/outdoorsman heading to your "secret spot" either on purpose or by accident.

[@jimbonuetrin2593]

My family survived the 70’s in Bolivia, when governments only lasted a year on average, often falling to violent coups. So they went through multiple SHTF scenarios over the course of a decade. How’d they do it? They spent most of their time in an appartment building near the center of La Paz, the country’s capital. They would keep the pantry stockpiled with rice, beans, powdered milk, and dried fruits. Anything they forgot they could barter for with neighbors. Hunker down, and keep their metal door locked up tight. After 3-6 months, one of the warring factions would take power, and the cities were the first places to get their electricity, water, and services back, since that’s where most people, engineers, doctors, etc where.

[@jamesrowlands8971]

Who knew! Cities are valuable resources, and economic centers!

[@WoobooRidesAgain]

Reminds me of the stories I heard from the Argentine economic collapse. The people who suffered the worst were those who fled the cities to bug out and make bunkers in the wilderness, while the ones who did best stayed in the city. A bunch even kept vital local industries going and kept their jobs by effectively working within the law to legally take ownership the places they worked at.

[@pizzaiq]

Exactly. Paranoid preppers imagine that cities are the most unsafe. That is the most untrue belief they have. Cities get re-established because that's where the smartest, most capable, most able people are. Also farming comunities.

[@MrChickennugget360]

ya "bugging out" as in fleeing the cites is a REALLY bad idea. Unless you are planning to go live with friends or relatives who have food and supplies you are just going to be a statistic. Storing enough food for yourself and some of your neibours, friends ect is a better option.

[@capthawkeye8010]

This is the only SHTF take that people should pay attention to. The real ones that have already happened 1000x to POC and happen to them everyday in places like Africa and the Middle East.

[@ThePaintballer1994]

Bugging out -dangerous -liable to become a loot drop -no more food after three days Bugging in -you know the area -people around you to work with -the hills have eyes has intensified

[@garrettlundy3959]

I take some small amount of pride knowing that when I eventually become a loot drop I will be a legendary loot drop. I have a recurring nightmare that my murderer doesn’t bother to take my Vacheron Constantin because “It’s not a Rolex” 😂

[@LaughingMan44]

And what if the area you live in is full of undesirables?

[@spencer5028]

​@@LaughingMan44move, especially if you live around 13%

[@griftinggamer]

​@MudHut67 Then bug out now, buy a place and establish yourself in a community and suffer the long drive to work. It's great for learning languages and listening to podcasts lmao

[@thisismychannel607]

​@@spencer5028that's something that never really gets addressed or it's just rolled into "the undesirables" or the "masses" They're human locusts, they just destroy and consume and eventually you'll have to cross paths with the 13%

[@c.shrine1470]

People like to conveniently forget that even our ancient ancestors who subsisted on hunting and gathering NEVER did it alone. They hunted and gathered in highly organized groups of dozens or more. Their survival depended ENTIRELY on their ability to cooperate with one another. The John Wayne rugged individual fantasy is just that, a fantasy.

[@Urbanizegaming]

Individualism is a death cult

[@WalterDavis-y1t]

Yeah, and remember that a person who made it to the age of thirty was considered an old man...

[@Brent-jj6qi]

@@WalterDavis-y1tnot really actually, we have evidence that old then was still old now (60+), after all, we have people now that survive to 80 or more without modern medicine. Elders were in fact old and frail, something which 30 year olds don’t spontaneously become, they were just rarer

[@iivin4233]

@@WalterDavis-y1t The infant mortality rate in ancient groups is what drags their average age down. If enough of children don't make it past the age of 1 then it is going to lower a group's average age. I also don't understand the troll, here. Are you trying to say those people would have lived longer as "rugged individuals"? Did you misunderstand what the OP was saying when you commented and now you're too embarrassed to say anything else?

[@lycosa2000]

Not only that, there weren’t population densities that were even remotely close to today. The human population was miniscule while the wildlife population was bountiful.

[@zerofox2030]

Bugging out has always been a last ditch effort to survive for anyone that's had to deal with logistics. Roughly 20% of the Army is made up of people that actually fight the enemy, the other 80% is support, says a lot.

[@johnvannewhouse]

"Boy, is that true!" - one of the 80% support personnel

[@w.redmond3534]

I thought it was 10 percent to 90 percent. Maybe that is prior to WWII that I was thinking of, though.

[@rhs5683]

Depending if youre at your home continent; murica version @@w.redmond3534

[@brycecolvert8860]

@@w.redmond3534 I had always heard that combat arms make up about 10% of the military, and the rest of us are support. it takes quite a bit of support to keep the grunts grunting.

[@johnwalker5622]

In WW2 I read where only 1 out of 100 saw combat. I bet now it would be even less.

[@straubury5991]

I have always thought of bugging out being if you are FORCED to leave your home (nuclear explosion, home burns down, raiders take over, etc.) it’s a last resort.

[@JohnSmith-qx8ll]

Precisely

[@Janzer_]

that's correct. he's just trying to dispel the idea that bugging out is a good option. it's a required option, if the time comes, but not something you should look forward to.

[@Moneymagi]

Yes. It is the last option. I ironically have not prepped anything except my inner self. I'm still working that out unfortunately and a little worried when in my ego, otherwise surprisingly calm as well. I know we must face whatever we have to and that it is all preplanned and the return of Christ comes after this tribulation.

[@__WJK__]

Exactly!

[@NoahSpurrier]

How’s that going to work with the roads full of cars? Freeways get backed up bumper to bumper just on ordinary days.

[@RexusOutfitters]

The bug-out fantasy is like a five-year-old who decides he's gonna run away from home cuz he can't have ice cream for dinner. He gets a block away from his house and then realizes, "Now what?"

[@Strideo1]

Also even if you are an amazing survivalist you're still going to have to deal with the fact that the already scarce resources of the wilderness are going to be quickly depleted by how much of the human population that will wander out into the wilderness trying to do the exact same thing that you are.

[@klown463]

And “networking” is a 80 year old boomer fantasy. SHTF is not a job hunt, it’s survival aka every man for himself. No one except maybe family and close friends is gonna help you.

[@FlankerJackChannel]

I just don't understand the thinking of it. You have a well stocked well-defended home and hopefully you have got to know your neighbors so you can collectively protect yourselves but your first thought is to grab a backpack and run away from all of that. No one ever said the American consumer was smart.

[@FlankerJackChannel]

@@JustSomeGuy-xe2mf blah blah blah. Do any of you seriously think you're going to survive whatever you think is going to happen? You all think you're going to be mad Max but instead you're going to be the leather clad gay bikers.

[@TheChiefOrg13]

@@Strideo1 If you've ever read World War Z this is exactly what happens in the book. The US government encourages everyone to evacuate North into Canada, and almost everyone winds up dying from hunger, cold and overcrowding because everyone was competing for the scarce resources available

[@widget0028]

Not only was there more game for prehistoric hunter gatherers (and intact ecosytems with stuff to gather) , they had established communities and trade networks. They werent lone wolfing it

[@The_world_is_not_worthy_of_Him]

No. They were roughing it out with *_THEIR OWN FAMILY._* Not random losers who happen to live on the same street as them. In other words; not their competition. You must be a real nice guy or really well stocked to think you can worry about your competitions survival. Also there is literally no proof of established comms and trade networks in *_PREHISTORY._* Do you even know what prehistory means? You do realize prehistory _literally_ predates societies and cultures, right? You know, the 2 things required to establish comms and trade?

[@tomhannigan2234]

Yeah, they estimate the population of North America was about 50 million before Europeans arrived- not buildings, no cities, vast forest and plains with herds of bison so big you couldn’t see the end or beginning of them. Rivers and lakes full to the brim with fish. Flocks of birds that made the sky dark, and fruit and nut trees in abundance. And for Europeans without experience of surviving in the wilderness, they dropped like flies. Now 10x the population and a tiny fraction of natural resources left

[@KrikZ32]

@@tomhannigan2234 There actually were buildings and cities, Tenochitlan was a pretty massive city and even further north in places like the Chaco ruins or the NE USA where a lot of tribes had settled down and made permanent villages. The idea that there wasn't any civilization pre europe is old propaganda. I agree with the greater point about communities though.

[@tomhannigan2234]

@@KrikZ32 Sorry, I am aware of Tenochitlan, I was referring more to the Northern Nomadic populations- because that is a little more relevant to this kind of survival. My mistake on not differentiating.

[@mgs85]

Lone wolfs would've been largely impossible for any significant amount of time in prehistory. Nowadays things are much more plausible and reasonable. If you were going to be that lone wolf surviving until your 70's nowadays would be the time for it, at least there's that. But starting from scratch and lone wolfing it today? No chance. Odds are way, way out of your favor.

[@diogenes9809]

As an off grid homesteader i can honestly say: you are almost always better making things work where you are in a crisis. Ive spent three years living on a plot of truly wild private land in the canadian woods. (30 minutes to a small town, 1.5 hours to a city, 15km from power lines). The first winter was an exercise in survival even with a truck, money, friends in the nearest town, and a cabin built during the first summer. It took two to get comfortable with the prospect of surviving long term if it all went away. If the world goes to hell in a handbasket, you'll either need to fix it at the local level or have built up years worth of infrastructure to truly avoid it without being one flu in the winter from packing it in.

[@BrassFacts]

thanks for that insight. Eventually I want to set something up like that

[@LaughingMan44]

What if my area is very diverse and full of people that hate my people and want to kill me? Living in the woods as a hobo is preferable to a long, drawn-out death

[@stefanstirbu6070]

​@@LaughingMan44Move to a rational white country like Romania or Hungary where people are against immigration and diversity.

[@diogenes9809]

@@LaughingMan44 look, ill assume you're in a big modern city, all i can say is whether the world ends or not, you're gonna have to deal with that for the rest of your life if you stay there. If you want out, trust me when i say moving to a small town is an economic sacrifice, but its worth it. The people aren't backwards, houses are cheap, you need to work not to make friends, and most modern problems don't exist. If you're commenting on brass facts videos ill assume you're a single young guy, you can literally pack your things, drive or bus to the nearest town that only has one bar and one grocery store, find a job and a place, and never look back. If you need somewhere to sleep for a couple weeks, go to the local motel and ask if they have a weekly or monthly discount rate. If you aren't too proud, you'll be able to find a local job in a couple days just walking in to places. The rural west, culturally, is still very much like when the boomers were growing up.

[@lenney872]

@@LaughingMan44move

[@chris.t1629]

Often, Bugging out seems to be a reaction from people that subconsciously know and fear they have not adequately gathered enough food, water, emergency supplies for them to last in their own homes/community.

[@BrassFacts]

yeah this. It's part of the mindset that SHTF is the "great reset"

[@BrassFacts]

@@assclapper2231 no? Huh?

[@gfin4576]

this has to be a troll, lol@@assclapper2231

[@DronesUnder2A]

Nailed it. Fight or flight? Nah. Some FREEZE. And then when they realize they've frozen, they panic. Repeat

[@peanutarbuckle2879]

​@@assclapper2231 Having a home base =/= sitting at home doing nothing

[@ajones8008]

I'm surprised you didn't talk about being in shape and healthy. So many preppers have prepared for everything except physical resilience.

[@ThePhukst1k]

I haven’t came across a prepper that doesn’t take the potential for retirement seriously and haven’t planned or allocated anything to it. They are making a choice to work until they die. As well as have a severely deteriorated quality of late life, so they can “bug out.” The logic there alone tells me they lack the risk benefit analysis (discussed in the video) skills necessary to even survive in this completely hypothetical situation. Preppers to me are similar to civil war renactors, medieval martial arts practitioners and hobbyists of similar activities. They are cool and fun, though not particularly useful or realistic. What I’m getting at ultimately is return on investment. Prepping is not that. However it is certainly ok to play in the woods with guns, I support that.

[@deriznohappehquite]

They have plentiful fat reserves!

[@ajones8008]

@@ThePhukst1k you nailed it. fun but not real.

[@CrizzyEyes]

@@ThePhukst1k Prepping is very useful for more conventional, non-SHTF emergencies though. Hurricanes that make neighborhoods inaccessible for 3 or more days, due to floods, for example.

[@ThePhukst1k]

@@CrizzyEyes My argument there would be, If you have a strong hurricane inbound get in the car and drive somewhere else. If you get caught off guard by a cat 5 hurricane in todays world, I don’t think the individuals prepping will help them a whole lot. Even during Covid when people where about to kill each other of toilet paper in the Walmart aisle, it was really as simple as walking over to the auto department and buying armor all wipes. Speaking from experience.

[@poppysworkbench6508]

Angle grinding in parking lot=your catalytic converter is being "liberated"

[@americankid7782]

Comrade, we must liberate the catalytic converters and return them to the people.

[@Mamba503]

Viva la catalytic converter

[@kicktheball9893]

My great uncle was a professional meat hunter in the winter for logging companies in Northern Maine. One common tactic was to make many caches during good times to make it through the bad. He was born in the 1800s, And I believe he knew far more about wilderness survival than the average urban survivalist.

[@donoberloh]

He is a great example of experience being the only real knowledge that matters in the wild.

[@bakersbread104]

he probably was already in the wilderness though(or at least not urban), so to be fair its a different situation than those trying to prep starting in a city when it goes down.

[@RBMK-ym4dm]

The funny thing everyone forgets about hunter gathers? They lived in close communities. Your community around you is your biggest survival asset.

[@yeastov5470]

Yeah, and humans are social animals, not being able to survive alone isn't a sign of weakness, it's just how our species survives. No one can claim that ants aren't good at surviving or that they're weak insects. But even the strongest ant wouldn't survive very long if seperated from their colony.

[@norml.hugh-mann]

Small groups of hunter gathers also went ti war with other small groups for the plentiful game that existed then, but this scenario puts exponentially more people seeking game, all with no intention of "only taking what they need" but determined to get it all ..with exponentially less game reserves and land to do it....even if most know little about hunting there's enough that do that wild get wouldn6 last long at all. Most would just start taking the 2 legged variety of game

[@ObsceneSuperMatt]

@@norml.hugh-mann Depends on where you are, there are millions of wild boar in Texas spreading outwards throughout.

[@andrewalden8364]

You don’t even have to look at Hunter gatherer humans. Just look at nature. Do the pride of lions seek to attack the animal in the middle of the pack? Or do they go for the animal that has strayed away from the pack?

[@entrepreneursfinest]

You'd better have a medic of some skill level and a practical mechanical engineer would be great. You need a well rounded group if you have kids and family. I've survived off the land - not like the TV shows - the real deal. If you're going hungry more than twice a week you're likely going to die. Not from starvation but from ignorance. 80% or more of the KZbin videos and survival shows you watch are absolute garbage and what they teach you will waste your time and/or get you killed. It's easy if you're good at it, but that's being able to move about freely without worrying about getting a bullet in your spine. In a post apocalyptic period I wouldn't even dream of attempting it unless it was forced upon me. They bring said, if you can get to some super remote area in the heart of Alaska where other people can't reach you and game is abundant then by all means do so. If it's the BLM or National Forest then you may as well off yourself as to go there. Wait until three kinks shake out and see who's in charge in those places and join up with a good one if you don't have a group. Anyway. My two cents

[@AH-ql4pw]

“The Area Intelligence Handbook” by former army Intel NCO Mike Shelby really helped correct my thinking when it comes to the fantasy of bugging out. Buying mountains of disaster “stuff” isn’t a plan, building a network of neighbors, assets, and knowing how to best prep your home for long term sustainment is infinity better than running away.

[@ericaman5393]

Tannerite in the lawn gnomes!!!

[@handroids1981]

@@ericaman5393 Tannerite in the Battle Gnome's booty hole!

[@cagneybillingsley2165]

doesn't work for people who live in liberal ifnested cities. you'll only dox yourself when you try and build a network for neighbors lol

[@gulfcitylibrarian5801]

Cannot recommend this book enough. I've read the thing cover to cover already.

[@y0h0p38]

​@@ericaman5393Fake stones that are just AN/FO with a detonator inside wrapped up in plastic wrap and spray painted

[@giobikefans]

I totally agree with you. Just go on a weeklong backpacking trip. It’s the quickest way to find out how long you can survive comfortably off of what you carry on your back, which isn’t very long. It also gives you an idea of how small items add up to a lot of weight and in turn more calories burned. And if you have kids just forget it. The bug out / pepper culture has certainly generated a lot of money for certain businesses.

[@lanejohnson7656]

Do you honestly think staying home with endless threats all around you is going to be “comfortable”.. lol

[@dmsawyer]

@@lanejohnson7656 it will be way more comfortable ...do you think anyone is going to sustain an attack with people in every direction shooting at them?

[@lanejohnson7656]

@@dmsawyer No.. That’s why I think it’s ridiculously stupid to think you can stay home and sustain an attack from all directions, depending where you live.. Now if you live out in the country sure. But if you live in a town with neighbors all around you not so much. If you live in a city or suburb you are pretty much screwed. Take myself for example.. I live in a town of maybe 1,500 people. Few years ago a tornado more than 1 mile wide hit like 36 miles south and stayed on the ground for like 45 minutes. We were without power for over a month and people were acting like they were about to die regardless the grocery store having a natural gas generator and they had to drive a whole 20 miles to get gas for generators. And thankfully the city has natural gas generator to run the sewage pumps so toilets didn’t back up.. All tho it wasn’t extremely horrible the meth heads still took advantage and stole a lot of stuff.. I pretty much know everyone here and can easily count several hundred people that would be a problem in SHTF. And I would be willing to bet 98% of people here have less than a weeks worth of food in their house.. The trouble makers we do have like the meth heads their families make excuses for them and defend them regardless what they do so when their family members act up in SHTF people won’t be able to deal with them without having to deal with their families also. I pretty much live in a town people would think it’s relatively safe to stay home, but no way am I safe here nor could I defend it.. It’s utterly ridiculous thinking I could.. Especially talking to many of them trying to build a community and make plans.. They haven’t a clue what I have, but they will know I have more than they do when they have nothing. I only have a handful of people in my group that are prepared and we all have agreed there is no f’n way we could defend one of our homes in town and why we have multiple locations out of town. Between the handful of us we pointed out over 100 guys that are already egotistical azzes that will try to run the show and won’t listen to anyone. They will also lose their f’n mind and be a major pain in the azz in SHTF. One of them is a member of my groups brother and even he admits it.. Moral of the story is if you live in town you might get a long with those living around you now. But wait when SHTF happens and they are doing without, especially if they have children and are severely disparate to provide. Defending your home won’t be so easy when they are coming from all sides, especially if they suspect you have supplies.. You might be hella prepared with solar and everything to live comfortably, but you might as well be waving a flag saying come get it if you use power recklessly and cooking will be extremely hard.. When people are hungry the scent of you cooking is going to travel a LONG ways..

[@dmsawyer]

@@lanejohnson7656 lolol you just spoke in circle around what I said...you are in a hardened place at home ...your merry band of marauders will face attack just getting near my home from all people defending their bug in...clue in

[@dmsawyer]

@@lanejohnson7656A i don't even think you live in an environment where there has been a disaster B mutualism is by far the norm in a social animal C people actually see the value in banding together in fixed locations since the dawn of time wins most of the time... by having resources... defensive perimeters situational awareness coms and home field advantage ...when two of your raiding party get gut popped ...it's going to take 6 or more just to get them out pretending the Offense is a winning game plan in SHTF is child's play fiction

[@gaian2000]

I'm a Boomer and started gathering "survival" supplies during the 1980s. The more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed that I could avoid other humans while gathering the required number of daily calories required to subsist. Then I aged out of any possible post apocalyptic survival options. During the pandemic some of those hoarded supplies were actually useful but I have given up on the fantasies I nurtured when I was younger. I keep enough supplies in the house for a couple of weeks, but if things don't return to something sustainable by then I will likely use my extensive gun and ammo collection to check out. 9th Infantry Division, Vietnam, 1968-69

[@alexevasic8411]

That's not a good idea, that's a terrible way to check out. You're going to give yourself a bad trip. You fail to account the physical trauma to thr body and how that _may_ effect the journey of the soul. Dying is traumatic and most people are not ready to die... Imagine a hyper real senario where you pull the trigger and at that moment the universe explodes like the splitting of the atom. Or time stops for what seems like eternity. The bullet freezing just before it hits your skull... time doesn't work linearly. If the bullet kills you, you can still experience life 0.000001s as the destruction of the brain kills you. The brain and soul complex reverses time. The soul is outside of space and time. It's a foolish and unwise way to kill one's self. For fuck sakes get a large amount of heroine or morphine. Get a big stash and learn how to comfortably overdose. That way you trick the dying process. You die peacefully in your sleep, for all intents and purposes. Most religions have some conception of the journey of the soul. Valhala. The tibetan book of the dead. Egypt mythology. Reincarnation. Most religions post-life accounts are non-linear.

[@rednhrailroad]

Better to help a young family survive. Live, and let live.

[@HANKTHEDANKEST]

@@alexevasic8411 I'm not on board with the spiritual stuff, but just speaking pragmatically: a massive OD of opiates is nearly always 100% effective, whereas a pop to the noggin... well, there's a lot of ways to mess that up, so to speak. Save the guns for the pirates or the wild animals.

[@bitkrusher5948]

Aging out now but bugged out for good.... off-grid .9th Marines here .....good luck brother!

[@bloodyblade916]

@@alexevasic8411 , HOLY SHIT! I've never heard it put that way me myself I won't commit suicide , but well put sir I'm 55 .

[@BrapBang]

I think you got it right at the end; Hunting your way out of the boog isn't possible because there are too many people, not because its difficult to hunt/fish/trap. We have very healthy fish and game populations in North America because of hunting and fishing regulations/management etc. Take away all that management and millions of people will head for the hills to spotlight deer, trap small game and gillnet every body of water, decimating game populations. Step 2; starve.

[@scherry9198]

The boog has been romanticized way too much. Your best hope is to restore order, not to run away to the wilderness.

[@ZSC001]

Bingo. It’s a good idea to know how to hunt/trap, but everything will be damn near extinct after a year. You’re also going to be eating far(while they exist) more… less desirable game like Possums, Raccoons…. cats… than you are big game like Deer or even a turkey.

[@user-nm9qd6bo6h]

eat people then

[@thebarefootadventurer8467]

But also alot of people don't have that skill so they just die of dehydration/lack of food, leaving more for the rest of us

[@seanoneil277]

Anyone who has been a trout fisherman and seen the influx of people (thanks to the internet era, so at least 20 years watching/doing) to trout streams that already were managed with an assumption of public fishing... yes all-out meat fishing will deplete the trout population in no longer than 2-3 years, probably in one. The coastal fishery fishermen, if they can get their boats out, stand a better chance with larger fish populations. Inland? It's already something you can predict. Look at a put-and-take fishery. How long after annual stocking is the stream empty of the deposited fish? And that's with management of the fish population, supplemented for put-and-take. Why is the put-and-take artificial stocking even there in the first place? Fishing pressures or ecosystem doesn't support native population. There's your inland fishery food source!

[@Apathy293]

Realistically, bugging out is only for getting to a place with even more supplies and infrastructure than where you are. If I'm in the city, "bugging out" means getting back home. If home is destroyed, "bugging out" means getting to family who live four hours away. If I have to travel further than that, "bugging out" is less survivable than making my house more secure and better provisioned. I live in a desert, so if I can't wait out the problem and can't go somewhere supplies are, I'm kinda fucked.

[@ChrisParrishOutdoors]

I always thought bugging out meant bugging out to a preprepared location and your bug out gear is meant to help you get there .

[@watch7966]

It is. But some people don't know that. Hence the point of this video.

[@zombieresponder]

That's the well reasoned conclusion of a properly thought out plan. For a large number of people, they just plan to go "somewhere" and "live off the land", while knowing nothing about gardening, foraging, hunting, fishing , trapping, food preservation, or any of a wide variety of skills required. They'll be loot caches for the unscrupulous.

[@zakkyummms]

Or being able to stay alive while there's a violent presence near where you used to live. Basically, waiting it out remotely till they move on.

[@justinfriedman2039]

Your bug out bag should be enough supplies to travel to somewhere else. It shouldn't be your plan to survive in the wilderness indefinitely, which is another more complex set of skills.

[@tjlambaes]

@@watch7966most people can not afford there own home as well a second location just in case.

[@Spessforce]

The limit of bug out plans should be to consolidate into another home out of necessity, like moving into your parent’s larger or safer home with all your supplies.

[@BrassFacts]

exactly what I do actually. My parents live in BFE. Tons of space for preps. don't talk about it much

[@3nertia]

@@BrassFacts I wish we all had such options! Wise not to talk about it though :)

[@maxwellcox2844]

Parents basement bugout meta

[@tray22]

This is what I always considered to be a bugout plan. Now that I live in a better place instead of bugging out I have a get home setup. Where I lived before I would have 100% been bugging out to my parents because people you don't trust are worse than any actual failure of society or disaster.

[@USMC6976]

And you already have your supplies stored there.

[@davidkanengieter]

I've always had an issue with the "I'll bug out to the country!" BS. In the midwest, it's mostly open farmland. Nearly every grove has a farmplace with people already living there who will dirt nap you before you get on the yard.

[@guytech7310]

The Bugging out people are coasters (east coast, west coast) living in the burbs or cities. They never make it anywhere near the midwest.

[@davidkanengieter]

@guytech7310 There's a lot of people in Midwest cities that think they're going to bug out to the country, not just coasties.

[@benchgoblin]

there are a lot of delusional people thinking they need to drop $1000s on toys while lying to themselves that they need it for an emergency

[@AndrewScott1337]

@@benchgoblin Spoiler alert: the emergency never happens but at least you made some friends along the way

[@200130769]

​@@davidkanengieterwho said anything about walking through their yard? Just pass through. I live in mostly farmland and there are still tons of woods to navigate through.

[@marytica123]

WE'RE TOO OLD TO "BUG OUT". As retirees in our 70's, we've decided to "hunker down" in our rural home. Our adult sons would join us, so at least we'd have some "muscle" to augment our chances. In reality, in a MAJOR SHTF scenario, most folks our age wouldn't last more than a few months. It's a simple matter of your PRESCRIPTION MEDS running out - after which, you're on borrowed time.

[@bluemouse5039]

I'm 66 years old all though still in good enough shape to bug out and survive, my wife isn't, we have been married for 43 years she is my world and without her I really have no desire to scratch out a existence living like a Nomad by bugging out, my home is where I make my final stand

[@cagneybillingsley2165]

if you're old, you are going to 100% not make it in shtf. it's kind of a "tough luck" situation

[@isaakjunkeer785]

@@cagneybillingsley2165it’s all relative. There’s going to be tons of young and dumb people dropping like flies.

[@bluemouse5039]

@@isaakjunkeer785 Yeah, its like in nature the same rules apply to humans, when herd animals get old and unable to keep up with the rest of the herd and no longer have the same strength, speed, endurance to fight off the predator they soon become victims , but in that same thinking a equal number of the young ones become victims also because they take unnecessary risks ,lack patience, make bad decisions, panic and more easily tricked by tactics the predators will use to isolate them from the herd and the older ones have the experience to avoid those same pit falls that the young one will walk into, When you go fishing its much harder to get a old lunker to go for a shiny lure,because it has been hooked before,and more careful , while a juvenile fish will rush in to grab anything bright and shiny thinking it is a easy meal unaware of the hooks

[@SpaghettiFPV-tg3qh]

​​@@bluemouse5039like fishing like hunting Theres always that wise old big boar roamin

[@socoman99]

Got a good film for you on this topic: "Panic in Year Zero", which came out in 1962. It shows what happens to a family already in the mountains when nuclear war breaks out and they struggle to survive, with the camping equipment they brought for their vacation. It was actually pretty realistic in its portrayal of what might have happened in the event of such a scenario,

[@okletmesignup]

Gonna watch that, thanks for the recommendation.

[@yedman1958]

Good call, I’d forgotten about movie!

[@buyerofsorts]

Ha! I just watched that a couple months ago. You're right, it was pretty realistic and educational!

[@Westerner_]

“Romantic appeal to having nothing but the back on your shoulders” anyone that’s backpacked for more than about 3 days will tell you it gets old pretty quick. A shower and a cheeseburger starts sounding pretty nice.

[@austindecker7643]

Too true then after a week you forget what you look like if you never see a reflection

[@Agg1E91]

There's a reason why, all over the world, humans developed forms of community (some individuals) and society (some communities). It's scalable, defensible, and it just works. Billions of people and thousands of years can't be wrong.

[@stevenmarecle5502]

Idk about that. I went backpacking for two weeks when I was a teen, in Philmont, New Mexico. I didn't want to go back to civilization. There's this serenity that comes with backing packing in the mountains. The gorgeous views. Not worrying about anything but what's in the moment. Every little task you do feels important. Everyone on the trail feels like an equal. And there's since of freedom I haven't felt since then. It def made me crave a nomadic lifestyle. But then again I didn't have to deal with the logistics of living that lifestyle.

[@Westerner_]

Everything about the experience you just described is subsidized by a functional society. The fact that you can go into the wilderness and be relatively safe from modern humans is because we’re living under rule of law. There’s also a huge difference between the serenity of nature under free will vs being forced to live in said circumstances.

[@Westerner_]

Everything about the experience you just described is subsidized by a functional society. The fact that you can go into the wilderness and be relatively safe from modern humans is because we’re living under rule of law. There’s also a huge difference between the serenity of nature under free will vs being forced to live in said circumstances.

[@ChopperChad]

One thing I learned in SERE is that most people, with a basic kit and basic skills, will only survive about 3 days to a week before they succumb to the elements or the enemy. Or as I like to say, eventually someone with a bigger truck, a bigger gun and a bigger beard will take your stuff and leave you dead. You need a community.

[@bobburnitt5761]

That is EXACTLY what will happen.

[@jankom.7783]

Yeah, most of SHTF presume training for a situation, in which people will fight/avoid people and then live alone in wilderness with skills that they've learned. Which is the opposite of what people should prepare for. They should learn survival skills, so in case of SHTF, they can became valuable member of community, who help others to survive by teaching them how to hunt/gather together. Not only is more efficient to do it as a group, there is also a bonus of additional safety for "the teacher", because nobody will go against person who knows how to get food/survive after collapse of supply chain

[@russpendergraft5057]

That's the plain truth right there! I prep, have means of protection, if I stay put in my somewhat country house I might make it 60 days without electricity, running water and med supplies, IF I DONT GET SHOT, OR HAVE A MAJOR INJURY ! After that I'll probably starve, of die of dehydration! Those are just facts! I'm to old to try to load up a bunch of stuff and trek off into the woods! The best chance of groups serviving a total grid down SHTF situation would be to live somewhere that the land and water haven't been poisoned and they have the ability to hide away from groups of people who would Rob and pillage others, like military groups! Otherwise all that lone Wolfe fantasy thinking is horseshit!!! Unless your a Navy seal, or an elite military survivalist! As for me, I probably couldn't hike 2 miles through the woods with a 30 pound pack until my heart would give out!

[@dawidlijewski5105]

​@@bobburnitt5761because it happened in the past, that's how tribes were born

[@helixator3975]

One of the biggest trouble with bugging out, is encounters with all the other heavily armed people with the same idea

[@SCIFIguy64]

This. The only people who will pose a threat to a prepper are the very same people. If cities are flattened, small agricultural communities are going to thrive, with refugees becoming essentially serfs for food and shelter from existing residents that won’t feel too much shock from events. Meanwhile all the fuds are playing cowboy in no man’s land, half dead, the rest coughing out chunks of lung and stomach lining within a week because “I don’t hide in place like sheep. Gimme my Potassium Iodine, I’ll live forever!”

[@MrKoalaburger]

When you try to bugout to Appalachia and it turns into a preppers meetup group.

[@patriot9455]

You have to hope you are better tracker and a more accurate shot than the ones who got there first.

[@LK-bz9sk]

😂😂😂😂😂 truth

[@bunk95]

Why humans have to be abused/tortured in specific ways so they never learn who the waste is.

[@jellyfish1433]

I think something huge that people forget is that most of the land surrounding towns and cities is also owned by people who most likely really don’t want you hiking around their property. If you live in a city and don’t have a designated bugout area that is properly set up, corner camping in your bedroom is 100x better than having to maneuver around trees and rocks for cover because you stepped onto the wrong persons land

[@davidmccue3591]

In a situation like this, you'll soon find out you don't own your land at all . Y'all drank the cool aid. How did you actually think you can own a piece of the globe which has been here billions of years and you're going to be here....100, maybe?

[@SonnyCrocket-p6h]

if you're too stupid/cheap to have night vision and hide during the day there's little to nothing anyone can do to stop you moving at night.

[@jellyfish1433]

@@SonnyCrocket-p6h good luck walking through my field without being spotted, even without nv/thermal. Also, not wanting to drop $2k+ on a piece of equipment that 99% of the population will never use is not being cheap or stupid.

[@SonnyCrocket-p6h]

@@jellyfish1433 yes, it is cheap and stupid. I've been hearing this same ignorant crap for25 years now. You can't watch 24-7 and 360 degrees. and you'll be outnumbered 20 to 1 by the city folk. They can easily detect your buildings and just snipe you, or put sand bags around a vehicle and drive right up to your place.at night and set it ablaze. The only realistic answer is to shtf's obvious, very common threats is to have a year's long term food scatter-buried at your BOL, which BETTER be in the woods around your local water source, cause you wont be going any further. All it takes to stop traffic is some 1" wood with 3" nails driven thru the wood. you wont be going far with 4 flat tires, and the ambushers can easily follow and catch you. Your neighbors will be the ones raiding your place, NOBODY knows everyone who lives within just ONE nigh'ts hike of their farm, much less one night's bicycle ride (ie, 100 miles) You're just another internet blowhard. If and when shtf, dig a 10m long tunnel. with a spiderhole at both ends You can have one spiderhole in advance and be able to get out of sight the first night of shtf. You can create the spiderhole in one night and the tunnel in a week. You're too lazy to even do the spiderhole, so I know you aint got a minefleld 1/4 radius of your "fort".

[@tsubadaikhan6332]

@@SonnyCrocket-p6h Your batteries last forever do they?

[@FlankerJackChannel]

I've always enjoyed the bug out trend over the last 15 odd years. I imagine swarms of people with tiny backpacks heading up in the mountains thinking they can survive up there for months on end because they saw it in an '80s movie.

[@helloitsjay38]

Wait for that to blow over and they're just a bunch of loot drops.

[@adamelliott2302]

​@@helloitsjay38ha! Was gonna say the same thing!

[@lohikarhu734]

and, fewer people, with too much ammo, and no sense of "community", and not enough brains, to have to fight off...

[@frankcobbs8350]

The complete lack of physical fitness is going to be nullifier for most.

[@Yorktown-pb8bd]

The local people will be protecting their stuff from them. They may become targets from locals if they start bothering people. There is not enough game for them to survive. They can just handle deer season as it is.

[@HolyRollerGuero]

Watching a season of “Alone” showing people with good survival skills waste away into nothing really brought me back to reality that I’m not gonna go f off to the woods I’ll probably be dead a couple weeks

[@LuckyCharms777]

There will be a lot of cannibalism.

[@caesarsalad1170]

@@Faber-cator I've noticed a lot more people in town have chicken coops in their backyards, its a small town but like, bruh you guys are going to be the first targets. Chickens would be worth more than gold in a bad enough situation.

[@rainbowodysseybyjonlion]

@@caesarsalad1170 lol not the first targets if they aim several guns with targets at you!

[@caesarsalad1170]

@@rainbowodysseybyjonlion Most people here own guns anyway, and the people with the coops are 50+ I'd hope people would band together instead of looting, just a small 6k town

[@davemcmullen6682]

Listened to and older man from Tennessee who had lived through the great depression...they wipe the game out quickly...it was hard to even get a squirrel... sustainable systems like agriculture , livestock and community it what will survive the hardship..and be prepared to defend yourself.

[@peterkratoska4524]

One would think theres plenty of livestock to go after first. But really solo bugging out is not going to last. People are social, your best chance is some kind of communal farms. Then you need to defend against raiders. As happens often when there is a breakdown in law and order you get warlords springing up with small armies.

[@sealofakatosh]

I live in small town Jones, Oklahoma & we're a military town. We got lots of vets & most of us serve some time. We all help each other & we all got land with livestock & agriculture. We're comfortable

[@DKOutdoorAdventures]

People then were more primitive than they are now. Very few have any chance of being out in the wild very long let alone wipe out game.

[@DKOutdoorAdventures]

@@sealofakatosh that's good because if a man can't survive on his own, how in tf is he going to be able to take care of anyone else?

[@sammiller6631]

@@peterkratoska4524 theres not plenty of livestock to go after. Those are the people locals will target first.

[@mjweber0313]

Watch one season of "Alone" and you'll gather how incredibly difficult it is to live off the land. Plus, those people have well above average skills. You'd also be in competition with everyone else in the area trying the same. Unless you'll living near the coast in a safe location and can reliably fish... you're likely screwed like the rest of us. You might survive a little longer but 6 feet under soon enough. A stable community with security, medical, shelter and fairly reliable food is the ideal.

[@scromp]

It's even harder to live off the land if you forget to pack your firesteel!

[@lanejohnson7656]

I would love to hear all about this community you belong to that has medical stockpiled and reliable food sources.. How many people are in this community? Does all the families in this community have enough food storage to get them to the point can have reliable food source? Do you all already have your tasks you will be responsible lined out like security, medical, maintenance and who will be growing, gathering and hunting the food? Do you have like a governor or a handful of people making decisions for the community? Is all the food going to be combined into a community pantry and rationed out until crops can be grown and hunting and gathering goes into full swing for this sustainable food source you mentioned? Really curious how y’all got your community set up..

[@LowenKM]

Yep, and unlike the 'bugout' types, the typical urban/suburban SHTF folks are more likely to be 'organized', and if so, personally would much rather be located _within_ the main access points to the city, than _outside_ of 'em!

[@lanejohnson7656]

@@LowenKM How is your organized suburban area structured? Really curious how y’all have things set up and organized..

[@taxesarefun]

If I may, I'd like to add my 2 cents on this. A few of us have been slowly building a like minded community in our area. We are cautious as to who we discuss this with. A few of us meet regularly to discuss holes in our preparations and how we can improve. While we don't become obsessive, it is on our minds. I recommend starting with one or two people you trust and have common concerns with. Discuss SHTF scenarios. Most people suffer from cognitive bias and believe things will remain the same because they always have been that way. Hopefully you can start with a people who see what you see. Be cautious about those you don't know well.@@lanejohnson7656

[@WarPoet-In-Training]

When covid hit, i was living in a dense suburb with nearly 100k people within a 20 minute radius. I and some close by friends began having talks around my firepit in my back yard about scenarios and planning and bugging out. I planned to go to my grandpas house, which was about 20 minutes north in a farming community. He lived in a small house on 7 acres. While that is certainly not a SHTF fantasy environment, i was worried about him (my g-pa) in his failing health and older age. It also affords a lot more space than the suburbs. As we know now, we never had a situation where we needed to bug out, but my mind could not be changed. I didn't want to live in the suburbs anymore. I certainly didn't want to live in the city. Then, a bunch of things happened rapidly that paved a way forward. First, in the fall of '22, my grandpa passed, and my mom and uncle inherited his land and house. Then, a couple weeks after he passed, someone broke into the house and stole a bunch of stuff and was squatting there. I talked things over with my wife, and we made a deal with my dad and mom, and by extension, my uncle, to buy the property and move in. My uncle sold his half to my dad, and i bought it all from him/my mom. The last year has been spent not planning to bug out, but to bug in. And for my freinds and family to make their way to my house in a true SHTF scenario. Having a community is probably one of the hardest, but most vital, facets of recovering from a SHTF scenario. Im trying not to go completely off the deep end with preps, but i do have some excellent options for long term water access and storage, as well as supplimentary food. And of course, im trying to not break the bank buying ammo and power bank/solar/generator supplies. I think bugging in is probably much more feasible for people if they have a good community, and bugging out is for people who are in a community of people who will lose it in a disaster.

[@sonicimperium]

Sure, great story...

[@YouarethinkinglikeAlbertFish]

How deep did you bury the squatter?

[@ninja5672]

Realistically, "bug out" is for when your home is threatened/damaged by something like wildfire, tornado, chemical spill, etc. A semi-short term event, where you have somewhere to go and the ability to recover. Preparing a bag and having a plan means the whole event is less stressful, more comfortable, and possibly less financially and physically damaging to you personally. Prepper fantasy for some WROL/apocalyptic event: If you are bugging out well armed and you don't have destinations with cached supplies, you are basically planning to become a roving armed criminal and you are going to get killed in the first couple attempts to steal supplies from the country folk. You will survive between raiding farms until you die in the process. Maybe quick, or maybe slowly from that infected bullet wound. If you do have a bug out location with cached supplies, or you already live there, you better have enough people to stand guard against the roving criminals trying to steal your supplies. Chief among them will likely be gov officials, followed by neighbors who don't have food, followed by "preppers" related to those neighbors who didn't cache enough supplies but "bugged out" to that neighbor's house anyway. Don't put yourself in the position to choose between starving to death, or hurting someone to take their food.

[@bobburnitt5761]

You are EXACTLY CORRECT!! Or, if you are wrong, then I am wrong too. People like to "feel safe" so they invent all kinds of things to do that "feel safe".

[@TheArmedHermit]

This is why community & strong relationships with your neighbors are important. Everybody has to sleep, take a crap, etc. The more friends to watch your back & share the workload the better.

[@bobburnitt5761]

@@TheArmedHermit Yes, that is the ONLY WAY. Even when authoritative regimes with their martial law etc take over, if you don't have a NETWORK, you are dead. The Elites will be the War Lords, that always happens, the Thugs with MEANS will recruit the THUGS with NOTHING, and they will soldier for their "boss". Whatever we think it will be like, it won't. It will be like something else. The ONLY constant is if you don't have a network, you are dead in such a scenario.

[@sword-and-shield]

"Don't put yourself in the position to choose between starving to death, or hurting someone to take their food"....An eventuality, for everyone.

[@ninja5672]

​@@sword-and-shield I knew plenty of people who lived and died and never had to choose between crime and starvation. If you think it is the only future, I'm afraid you live in a SHTF fantasy. Most of the time people end up in that situation because of their own actions.

[@zizkazenit7885]

One guy can hunt and gather successfully, but when throngs of people are out there trying it, game animals get eradicated. This can be seen in history with basically every army trying to live off the land while on the march

[@jamesrowlands8971]

There's one place where this wouldn't be true that I can think of. Australia. There are more camels than people. The number of roos is just stupid. Deer are a monumental environmental catastrophe. There's pigs, wild buffalo, brumbies (wild horses). Your issue is going to be knowing the area well enough to survive the elements, not get meat. You'll die of thirst, or if not thirst, fire, or if not fire, many many other things because this is a harsh land. Hence why it's not that heavily populated.

[@coryhoggatt7691]

Armies didn’t “live off the land.” They foraged from farms and towns. They relied on supplies stocked by the local populace, and they took those by force.

[@zizkazenit7885]

@@coryhoggatt7691 Indeed. They did that because like I said, living off the land for a sufficiently large number of people is impossible

[@DRum886]

This is what I like about nutnfancy. He always talked about Rule of Law vs Without Rule of Law and how it was vitally important to move from a WRoL situation back into RoL. It makes sense do so because it increases our chance of survival greatly.

[@TheChadavis33]

I remember walking into a military surplus store, and the owner was going on about how everything’s gone to shit, and “fuck it, let it all go to hell! I’m ready!” First off, nah bro, I don’t think you are. And second, why the fuck would you want this all to fall apart? I have a daughter, and a fiancé, no thanks.

[@asiandwanemeighan6479]

Tell thatto the MAGA people 😂

[@callusklaus2413]

He's ready to die from exposure because he was out in a rainstorm and didn't have anything dry to change into lmao

[@RealAmericanStar]

He owns a surplus store. He might be one of the few who could actually make it 😂

[@DTreatz]

Ah, because *_YOU_* have something to lose lmao To the _overwhelming majority_ of men who have been disassociated by society and culture since the 50s, they have _nothing_ to lose, which is the same reason they aren't participating at best, or at worst _accelerating_ societal decline. Society should have known better to upend men's rightful place in the hierarchy of society. There is nothing more stupid than treating your _beast of societal burden_ like trash, and still expecting it to service you. 🤣

[@MitchJohnson0110]

Survival alone is just as you say, a simple fantasy. Humans have survived throughout history by being social and working in groups. Surviving long term, alone, would be extremely difficult for even the most seasoned survival expert. I always use Les Stroud as an example. He's probably the most legitimate and honest of all survivalists to ever make it to TV. He recently has been doing directors commentary on his KZbin channel that goes into more depth about the episodes of Survivorman he filmed. He has more real world survival experience than any "bug out bro" i've ever met by a mile, yet he is the first to admit how difficult it is even staying for a week in the wild with nothing but basic supplies. While foraging and hunting for the majority of your food. In his words the only real exceptions are certain mild tropical type areas where the temperature is always pretty warm, there's consistant rain so water isn't a huge concern, and food is abundant as long as you know where to look. People simply underestimate how brutal nature can be. You can do everything right and still die just because you drew a short straw through no fault of your own.

[@guytech7310]

communities are going to work. Very few people have sufficient skills & likely end up being a drag on your survival. More than likely they end up causing more problems do to carelessness, incompetence, unfit, or just too lazy.

[@MitchJohnson0110]

@@guytech7310 Thats why it's important to have good people. Humans survive better in groups. That is a simple fact and how we have survived as a species this entire time on earth. In my experience it's the people that think they're hot shit and better than everyone that cause the most problems.

[@callusklaus2413]

I think something that people should learn from more is the misery of getting *really* sick for the first time after you live alone for the first time. Even if you live in a nice warm apartment alone, you're going to miss meals, things will pile up, and you're going to be extra miserable. Imagine what jiardia, malaria, or dysentery does to you alone and outside? Imagine how helpless you would be from a nasty but treatable cut that required stitches because you had a bad fall down a slope? Shit, even an ingrown toe nail can get infected and highly painful. You need people to look out for you, even these suburban bug out bro larpers use the help of others all of the time, they just pretend they don't.

[@MitchJohnson0110]

@@callusklaus2413 couldn't say it better myself. Like even rolling your ankle in the wilderness could be a death sentence. Breaking an arm or leg? forget about it

[@dogguy8603]

Another great example is the tv show "Alone" these people who are not novences in survival skills are more or less slowly starving to death from day one, it shows how humans really cant survive long term alone

[@redkatana7450]

Totally agree. The concept of bugging out is such a fantasy. So instead of leaving the shelter where you have everything, you are gonna carry a few hundred rounds of ammo, 1 or 2 guns, water, food, and your loved ones to the mountains and survive there. People have no idea how hard it is to survive out there.

[@donovanteale6502]

when that sleeping bag goes moldy and starts to rot..... it gets harder to crawl into lol

[@androgenoide]

A widespread disaster like the zombie apocalypse of nuclear holocaust seems like an excellent argument for staying put. If you can't make it in your own house what are your chances in the open?

[@davidledford3522]

I plan on living off all the dead preppers stuff 😂

[@donovanteale6502]

@@davidledford3522 when I was prepping people would say "I know where I am coming if the SHTF LOL" and yea I always thought to myself, hell yea bring me loaded vehicles of fresh supplies :) saves me going shopping

[@williamanderson2326]

“a few hundred rounds of ammo, 1 or 2 guns” The over emphasis on guns with these types is always hilarious and lets you know you’re dealing with a child with very little wilderness experience.

[@davidmccue3591]

The thing I find funny about "bugging out" is that all the places people think they're going to run to are exactly the places where guerrilla groups build their training facilities, etc. and build their forces for the big attack. The mountains are where the guerrillas are.

[@PRH123]

gorilla groups... Bigfoot....? :)

[@almost_harmless]

I feel fantasies like that are often showing the age and experience of the dreamer. I have two mates who actually tried to live off the land, both very capable hunters, ex-military, fit men. After a month of living like that, they came back, skinny and depleted. It isn't always skill that decides how well you manage, but also luck if you haven't lived off the land from when you were very young or were properly taught how to by someone who actually did.

[@MrDedushkoMoroz]

agree 100%

[@patriot9455]

Imagine the number of displaced people looking for the same deer multiplied by 1,000 or more people.

[@ostrich67]

"I feel fantasies like that are often showing the age and experience of the dreamer." Not to mention the race, judging by some of the comments here.

[@almost_harmless]

@@ostrich67 what has race got to do with anything? Who cares about that.

[@ostrich67]

Ask the people using dog whistles like "diversity" and "13%" in that tone of theirs.

[@bebopwing1]

I'm in coastal Georgia and was talking to a DNR guy a couple of years ago about water pollution. He was saying it's not uncommon around here for a female dolphin's first calf to die because the dolphin had been exposed to fat soluble toxins it's entire life; not enough to kill the mother dolphin, but those end up stored in fat and then the toxins get expressed in the fatty milk, and it is enough to kill the calf. We also have fun signs at all the boat ramps saying what kind of fish you can eat and how often, because if you eat too much of certain kinds of fish you'll eat too many toxins yourself. So in any kind of preparedness scenario, fishing doesn't play any role in that at all for me.

[@flopus7]

I was surprised that I saw these even in fresh water lakes in Georgia. Thought it was an ocean thing

[@bebopwing1]

@@flopus7 Maybe I'm naive for being surprised by this, but like 10 years ago we had a situation on the Ogeechee River where a company called King America Refinishing dumped 'too much' toxins into the river and killed several hundred thousand fish all down the river. Apparently they have a permit to discharge chemicals into the river, they just discharged too much. I don't recall any punishments being leveled against the company, which its insane to me that they're allowed to do that at all. I'm all for business, but literally their business plan is poisoning our backyards.

[@Tattlebot]

@@bebopwing1 And we deride China for this. How ironic.

[@guytech7310]

Throw in chemical plant leaks, raw sewage, etc, Maybe in a some remote lake Fishing could work, but forget about anything near cities or burbs. Homesteading is the only real long term option: Grow crops, chickens & livestock, also nee access to wood for heating\cooking.

[@mattmarzula]

Every river east of the Mississippi is poison.

[@johncostello2948]

I'm a hunter and can tell you that you might score one out of three hunts. I would rely on hunting as a supplement, not a game plan. Recall hunters in prehistoric times were part of tribes, so there was a support network. Think of shows like Alone which document slow starvation of hunters trying to make it alone.

[@MrProfchaos71]

You certainly have good points. However the show alone doesn’t allow guns or modern archery and most anyone watching this video is armed and hunts already.

[@benjaminbrown45]

Another thing people don't consider is millions of people suddenly hunting for survival will deplete the animal population quickly and you will have to ruck farther and farther into the wilderness to find food.

[@MrProfchaos71]

@@benjaminbrown45 It’s going to have some effect. However a majority of people don’t know how to hunt or clean game. Remember that literally millions would die that live in cities very quickly. The herd is going to get thinned out pretty fast.

[@jupitercyclops6521]

Many native tribes that practiced kicking out members of their tribe considered it to be a death sentence because survival required the tribe.

[@johncostello2948]

@benjaminbrown-bi6vw "millions"? Doubt most people are in shape to do it. Most people never get 50yds from a highway, so there is that barrier. Also, hunting is a skill you learn over years; you can't get a late start.

[@JoeCensored]

I think bugging out only makes sense if it's planned to be very temporary. I'm talking weeks at most. You leave, lay low, and wait for things to blow over, then return.

[@chrisr6749]

Community is essential in a disaster scenario. Lay low, bug in, and stockpile now. The odds are still against long term survival for most.

[@cagneybillingsley2165]

bushcrafters can bug out no problem. most bug out preppers are larpers

[@MitchJohnson0110]

@@cagneybillingsley2165 Even seasoned bushcrafters go back into town every few weeks or so. A smart bush crafter would have a off grid cabin set up with a well and woodstove way out in the boonies and they would live out of that. Not bug out into the woods with nothing, forever

[@papimaximus95]

Don't forget to become a local Warlord...uh, I mean Militia.

[@USMC6976]

A local or regional disaster, yes. But bugging out isn't about that. Bugging out is about getting away from the chaos and surviving it. The question is, is there really any place that you can get away from chaos, a total breakdown of law and order?

[@chrisr6749]

@@USMC6976 Great point. Probably not, nor are most people able to survive long enough to matter once they do bug out.

[@ShadySaltMiner]

I've always found "bugging out" to be ridiculous. You'll never be more prepared than you are at home. That said, my experiences living in California during fire season and seeing what happened in East Palestine has made it pretty clear you should have a strategy for rapidly evacuating your home and consider what special items might be useful in those scenarios.

[@roundrock63]

Your point is spot on. If you have to because of a fire or chemical accident, you have no choice. Everything else is putting yourself at a disadvantage. Finding like minded people, which there will be a lot of, is better than isolating yourself.

[@DankasorusRex]

Bugging out should be a temporary thing and only if your area is going to be a hotbed of violence. Bug out for a few days, week at most and come back after it’s settled down a bit. Don’t bug out asap because people will be civil for a few days, but days 3-10 after a grid down will get hairy. Make sure even if you have supplies, go to any FEMA or govt handouts and don’t feast (lose weight a bit) so people don’t know you have food. Most I’m sharing is some radios for my neighborhood but never mention food stores or guns

[@moss8702]

​@@DankasorusRexthat's very dependent on the conflict. If it's a civil war there's no telling when it'd settle. A collapse in society would be alot more feasible and peaceful eventually.

[@ShadySaltMiner]

@@assclapper2231 Pretty sure my wife would still want some way to deter goons stealing from her garden 😂

[@sirbalanced5486]

@@DankasorusRexYou Should rethink that one dude. FEMA camps would be the worst spot to be at during a SHTF event.

[@bennyb.1742]

This describes a (married in) family member of mine. Heavily armed (in a country where its possible/legal but kinda weird), conspiracy enthusiast, VERY unfit, has never trained once ever, and went camping one time and hated it. Yet, at every possible family event we're subject to hearing about how when the SHTF because of X, he'll be SO ready and completely the boss of everything.

[@cagneybillingsley2165]

sounds like 90% of guntubers tbh

[@TheJbower76]

Hell get smoked in his first gunfight when he forgets to disengage his safety

[@bjlewis5431]

That's great, he sounds like a terrific.. loot drop. Tell him not to skimp, (not ever!)..on the cost & quality of any of his weapons, ammo, gear, food & supplies..this is very, very important. Or else, the first person to drop him, and loot his corpse, will NOT be happy at all..to only find cheap & nasty junk, and the human equivalent of dog food rations.. and they will likely murder him all over again. Even in death, you too, can always be a legendary loot drop HERO, to someone else! Never underestimate your ability to bring absolute, posthumous joy to another prepping survivor's day! It's what we live for. Please make sure your friend gets all his best prepping advice from real pro's..not just sales-creatures, hype-hyenas & jerk-jackals, or adds on social media. Let him know that this would not earn him many friends, and we'll all be very dissapointed. As all loot-dropper shoppers should know well; "What goes around, comes around, until it finally comes home to us!" Fair winds & following reticles, to you all.

[@crayolascents]

LOL I have a Brother in Law who is a talker ... sounds just like him. Narcissism, I think.

[@austindecker7643]

@Appalachias_Sonthat’s the guy you want as a “friend” that prepares stuff for you

[@emomuzz5883]

I will be bugging-out to the local public library... NOBODY will ever get me THERE!

[@MargaretFinnell]

I remember a young man at work who just couldn't wait for the SHTF. He bragged that a group of friends (3 of them) had a secret place in a nearby park and were going to live off the land and hunt the deer. Getting real tired of his nonsense I asked him to go over to a over grown lot and identify three edible weeds, two I could see from the parking lot. He had no idea. Then he got mad at me for disrespecting him. A good laugh was had by all. He got fired soon after. Crazy fantasies by the ignorant. If he knew any history the deer disappeared in this area during the depression and were reintroduced in the 70's

[@BrassFacts]

thanks for that anecdote. Same sorta logic I've seen to this day.

[@lorenzovillegas2457]

“…he got fired.” Lol Worst bug out ever!🤣

[@dallascarney2986]

one of my extremely stupid dad fantasies is my child getting the prepper/survivalist bug, and me just taking them out into the woods for a week with no prior prep/training and seeing how far we can get before they've had enough (i'd check in with the local ranger and do whatever i have to do to ensure they're in on the joke beforehand, of course - if they're NOT in, then no go). maybe at least i can teach them how to navigate and build fires and defend ourselves from imminent threats and laugh about our suffering, hell if i know how to do anything else, lmao

[@Char-hx4rb]

I thought bugging out was to buy a little time until you can get somewhere reasonably secure. 3 days tops.

[@MrChickennugget360]

a lot of this "bug out" stuff is just guys wanting to go camping and hunting and never have to go back to their "desk job" Its like being a soldier and fantasying about an alien invasion so you can get out of Motorpool duty

[@bigwilf1966]

One thing you didn't touch on was that 50 miles during a SHTF senario. You need to travel through areas where the people will be at best suspicious of you and at worst down right hostile to outsiders as what would be happening will be happening everywhere. Then you get to your area and find 12 other groups also bugging out.

[@AngelaH2222]

Exactly, every place is somebody's territory already

[@inkey2]

If you haven't seen the old movie titled PANIC IN YEAR ZERO....it's a must see

[@jamesrowlands8971]

I've got a property in a small town 5 hours by "Google Maps" from the nearest major city in Australia. 7 hours by the time you've taken breaks etc. During out major lockdowns for what was a relatively moderated disaster (COVID) compared to the things a lot of preppers prep for, the local general store pretty much put up a sign saying fuck off if you're not from here. The pub (hotel with bar) had a hand written note saying "I'm too old to deal with this shit, I'm closed until it blows over". You got the feeling that if you showed up and stuck around, especially during the state mandated lockdowns you would've gotten a genuinely hostile reaction from the locals who lived there. And rightly so. The average age out there is high. A lot of the elderly there died when the virus finally made it into the community.

[@ffarmchicken]

@@inkey2 But even in that movie, made in the 50’s-60’s, they ran into people. In 2023, there is at least ten times that many. Think all possible escape routes a stand still traffic jam and all gas stations out of fuel, all restaurants out of food and all hotels full. So now try walking a hundred miles with all those people with the same destination. You are now a starving refugee like during WWII.

[@inkey2]

@@ffarmchicken Oh I agree with you but if you haven't seen Panic In Year Zero it is a MUST for prepper entertainment. So you've seen it???

[@familygene9030]

As a long term backpacker in my youth it was ALWAYS hunger that drove us out of the woods . We would have mountains of food in our backpacks . Enough for 4 weeks we thought . Only to return to civilization 2 weeks later quite hungry .

[@lordgarion514]

Yeah, but in a true SHTF scenario, there wouldn't be any food to come back too..... And there would be groups of armed people roaming around. Even a person of just healthy weight can go many months without food. Just need water. Can't do much of course, but we're talking about actual survival for a short period of time. Maybe a year. A couple of rabbits or birds a week would keep you from dying. Add in insects and plants you forage, and you can live a long time. But if you stay anywhere near a city, the sheer number of people will wipeout all the wildlife in short order. Just about everyone posting is talking like if living in the woods doesn't give them the same lifestyle they have now, or if they can't live in the woods for a decade, then it can't be done. That's absolute horseshit. Lol Doing very very little, you could easily make it a year just sitting down next to logs and such, and using a pointed twig to stab and eat insects. People are confusing SHTF with Teotwawki. Good clothes and gear, a high powered .22 or .25 break action airgun with several sets of replacement seals, and a few thousand pellets, water purification tablets and a physical filter. That's about all you need to actually not die for a year or so out in the woods. The biggest thing is to make sure you're out in the woods far enough that you don't meet many people. Of, and some first aid stuff. Including going to a pet store and buying antibiotics. They sell the same ones we take, and at a MUCH lower cost and no prescription needed. Without antibiotics, a paper cut can literally kill you. It's rare, but back in the day, plenty of people had to choose between dying, and having an arm cut off without anesthesia..... And don't forget soap. It kills bacteria just as good as hand sanitizer. So if you get a cut, clean it. Bugging out isn't about living a great life. It's about literally not dying. The people who thisnk they're supposed to be able to remain 20 pounds overweight while surviving a SHTF scenario are the ones who will die. Me? If SHTF ever does happen, I'm hitting the woods, specifically because everyone near me is going to be hungry. Which makes stocking food more MUCH more dangerous to my long term survival than being miserable and losing weight in the woods. SHTF is short term. Teotwawki is a different beast though. Nothing will be fixed, at least not for several years. And in that situation, I only have to not die long enough, that enough other people die to make living off the land long term possible. And as we have seen countless times around the world, people used to living in cities, don't much leave them, even when food and water get scarce. By the time the people in cities wipe it clean, there will already be a LOT of dead people. So a lot fewer to go roaming around the woods.

[@fredgarv79]

I remember once we took a ton of food up on an overnight hike, drank too much the night before then thought we would hide the food in a creek to keep it cold, woke up the next morning and it was all gone, everything. So we faced a long hike out with little food. We finally got back to a cabin famished and made some blueberry pancakes from the blueberries we picked. I don't think I have every been so hungry and ever tasted such great food. And it was only 24 hours being without food.

[@CS-uc2oh]

All irrelevant because backpackers have the worst ideas about nutrition there is. You literally are starving. If you're not carrying pemmican or similar, you'll starve indeed.

[@mikespangler98]

I noticed that too in my backpacking days. Running up and down mountains and living outdoors burns up the calories in the way that office work does not. Bugging out for a week to avoid a wave of panic and stupidity is viable, but as a long term strategy it's not.

[@lordgarion514]

@@CS-uc2oh Umm, a lot of backpackers take freeze dried meals..... Where are you that you know a lot of backpackers that don't take food with them? Or a way to get food. Either way.

[@ryimscaith1593]

The one thing your premise misses is that most plans for Bugging Out are not intended to last forever. As you said, many have plans to head to certain locations. Even the "nomads" however, are only biding their time. In a true SHFT scenario, the cities will eat themselves. Quickly. Cities can not support themselves. They provide nothing, while requiring everything. So, there will come a time when those in the cities would need to head into nature, or simply die out where they sit. Ceasing to be a threat that needs to be avoided. Everything you listed for Bugging Out, is also a point of failure for Bugging In. You can only stock so many resources. Then you have to defend from those that wish to take it from you. And do you turn away those in need to save for your own group, or do you reduce your stores to help them? That one is a tough call in any instance of SHFT. But water won't be flowing from the pipes, nor will you have electric from the pole. Being clean, fresh, well fed, well clothed and having lights, or sounds of electric gear, will get you noticed. Building infrastructure will begin to decay without maintenance. So unless everyone in the city decides to work together, you're going to be out of a lot of things real quick, with absolutely no way to replenish other than taking from others, or heading into nature to start there from scratch. Which plan is done in a SHFT depends on so many factors. If this, then that. If that, then this. So forth and so on. Any prepper with a brain knows the first, last, and continuous aspect of prepping is planning. Most of those that I see that call themselves "preppers" are just larping. No skills, no clue, no plan. Personally, I'd prefer to Bug In. I live on the outskirts of a small town, however, so am in that position. I have access to water from my well, and my garden for food. Nearby woods for hunting/fishing and the knowledge of the land of fifty years walking it. Short of the Red Dawn invasion, nuclear war, or Yellowstone going super volcano, I'll probably sit tight. Of course, I have my Bug Out locations for multiple instances scouted and planned. Being prior EOD, I'm not worried about gangs or raiders, though I have no delusions about holding out against proper military. In short, Bugging Out, or Bugging In is only viable in the short term in a SHFT scenario. Either way, you're going to have to resettle, and work with others to restart a society. Or you're going to die alone, probably sooner than later.

[@buyerofsorts]

Well said.

[@southfloridacounsel]

Damn I just cried in the inside. I won’t make it either way 😢

[@buyerofsorts]

@@southfloridacounsel You could offer your services to a survivor as a Gimp. How bout that?

[@bernieeod57]

The wild fires up in Oregon threw a new curve into the fray. Many preppers had bug out locations in the hills. The wild fire burned up their bug out location first, and then came down to their homes and burned those up. "Head for the hills!" Is a favorite bug out strategy but like up there in Oregon, here in the San Joaquin Valley we had a huge wild fire called the "Creek Fire". We had the opposite, people were "Bugging in" From the hills and into the cities

[@kolsen6330]

A neighbor has some city friends that have a bug out place down here in SW Oregon. He told me that they came down from Portland with another load of prepper stuff and found that the migrant Mexican pot harvesters had been living in their bug out place and had eaten all their stored food and sold everything that wasnt bedded in cement. Its better to put all your prep stuff into a trailer or a dedicated van than to leave it unprotected from scavengers. Of course that means that you have to know enough to leave the city before the fall.

[@MB-jg4tr]

Fire is going to be one of the biggest threats. Extinguishers are your friend, bare minimum you should have more than a few. Most people don't even have one in their house. What will they do against Mr. Molotov or drones with incendiary? There are many methods to suppress fire & fireproof. And there are a few beyond-amazing little-known methods. One of the best is *Starlight* a fireproof super-material that can be easily made with household items. It was invented in the 1960's and can withstand many thousands of degrees. A one inch layer can protect against 2000°C or so, and thicker slabs have been shown to suppress heat up to 10,000° C. When it's exposed to heat it expands, creating a carbon foam insulation barrier. 2 parts Flour 1 part Corn Starch 1 part Powdered Sugar 1 part Borax 1.5 parts water Mix well, form into tiles or whatever shape you wish, and allow to dry. If outside and exposed to water coat the outside in a resin to weatherproof.

[@TheRoys23]

I’m from one of those rural areas that everybody from the cities thinks would bug out to. Something that everybody with bugout plans seems to overlook is the resistance from locals who already live there to keep you out… people in in small rural communities have been talking and planning for a decade to protect there resources from you.

[@thomasw3585]

Very Christian of you

[@TheRoys23]

@@thomasw3585 This comment was not meant to be a sarcastic very Christian comment. I’m bringing up something nobody ever talks about in these videos or prepping circles. But it’s something people should talk about and think about. It’s a real common thing for people to think and talk about in the places people will want to flee to. County sheriffs take part in these conversations. If it was natural disaster or other local/region situation I imagine people would welcome refugees with open arms. But in a true SHTF scenario people in rural communities will protect their food/water supply from other people flooding in. Another added element is the long simmering resentment many people in rural communities have for what the people in cities “impose” upon them. Here in Oregon a couple counties (Portland/Salem) dictate how people around the other 99% of the state must conduct business and act. Can’t farm that way no more, Portland knows what’s best. Here’s some wolves to decorate your cow pastures, Portland knows what’s best plus they’re pretty! Here’s a bus load of drug addicted mentally ill poor souls to help out your local businesses down town, shut up Portland and Salem know what’s best. That’s created a lot of unhealthy resentment…my point is not wether I agree or disagree with this point of view or that. The point is if your take the possibility of a SHTF scenario seriously this is something you should seriously consider.

[@psesolarscott]

Desperate people do desperate things....

[@Dee-nonamnamrson8718]

​@@thomasw3585You don't understand Christianity.

[@larrysamples9406]

Exactly

[@steved8878]

Yep. As I age and my health fails I’ve come to realize if all of society goes tits up my best options are to either get taken in by a very compassionate and successful group, or get taken out in the initial wave of whatever hit us.

[@gracejoy5339]

@SaltyShaman I'm in the same predicament as @steve8878. Similar to you, I've often said that my best case scenario, considering what the elite have planned for us, is for Putin or Iran to drop a nuke on my city. Well, best case after Jesus coming...

[@DrCruel]

@SaltyShaman Speak for yourself. History is full of horrific disasters that people survived. No reason not to think out what you do and what you're going to do, but always go with a positive attitude. That works for the real world as well.

[@sword-and-shield]

Group up now, not then, and you will at least make the first phase.

[@The_world_is_not_worthy_of_Him]

@@DrCruel only an extremely small handful of people survived those. Awfully stupid of you to think you'd be one of them. Stupidity or arrogance 😂 Statistically speaking; you ain't surviving. Most people in these comments are not surviving. I'm not surviving. The rich elites with their doomsday bunkers and spaceships are, and you're not invited.

[@JayDee-x2b]

For Glory!! WAR !!!

[@montre-moi]

I've read somewhere, a long time ago, that most people who survived well during times of crisis (wars, sieges, etc.) were the ones having stuff or skill to trade. Stuff you suddenly can't find when SHTF, like cigarettes, BIC lighters, water filters, tools, carpentry skills. Point is, you're better off trading with a small community than living alone in the woods, being seen as a threat by pretty much everyone.

[@GcD9179]

"Bugging out" has only ever worked under the assumption that you'd be one of the few doing it. In reality it would be EVERYBODY out there all at once bleeding the flora and fauna dry. Doesn't matter if they're prepped for it, they'll take their chances with what they "learned" from videos like this.

[@kabloosh699]

I definitely have the opposite mindset. "Bugging out" is reserved for extreme circumstances such as a foreign military is invading, or a natural disaster strikes those are about the only two "realistic" scenarios and the former is VERY VERY unlikely in comparison to a natural disaster which it would have to be pretty fricken severe. In a societal collapse I'm hunkering down and teaming up with my neighbors. Humans are pack animals and it would be foolish to leave our homes since it is already preestablished infrastructure. We would just need to figure out how to get things like power, clean running water, and food. Finding all of that is is easier when I can be heading back to a building I already occupy in an area I already know. A good "bug out" kit and plan is something more for travel. Having some stuff that can help you get back home is better than needing something to get the hell out of dodge. I'm not fighting in some war at some forward operating base where back up is limited and I may need to move off a location in order to survive because we can no longer handle the incoming assault. It's my house. At that point if that is lost I may as well die trying to keep it.

[@texasforever6950]

Amen brother

[@namelessstranger1270]

If a foreign military invaded and somehow overtook the U.S military; hiding isn't viable. Holding out wouldn't be viable. They'd systemically collapse your access to all national infrastructure whatsoever (food, fuel, water, electricity, healthcare, etc). They'd unleash a bio-weapon that only kills humans specifically into all wild water. They'd monitor absolutely everything. Their military superiority would be beyond question and they'd find you. Resistance would be self-destructive. They'd torture your family, neighbors, friends if you tried to resist total occupation. Though that'll virtually never happen. The only current military that could even muster the massive manpower & resources it'd take to conquer the U.S mainland is China, and they definitely aren't going to wage such a war & occupation for no reason. But you can put to rest the idea of foiling a superpower military by reinforcing your house with wooden planks or hiding out in the woods somewhere.

[@papimaximus95]

"We would just need to figure out how to get things like power, clean running water, and food. " You should probably be doing that now.

[@SAMMIEJONESJUNIOR]

Thank you saved me allot time. It is a last resort.

[@JohnB-dr8sk]

Everybody here is missing the forest from the trees. Yes, staying where your supplies are is always your #1 choice. HOWEVER, if a Communist state government comes after you, or a warlord's gang of 100 men armed with rifles and torches comes for your supplies, you can bet your life you will be bugging out. Both are a definite possibility in the near future depending on the scenario (with rule of law or without rule of law). John Lovell never said don't bugout. He just emphasized that you don't bug out unless it's life or death or the political situation changes to the point where staying means a long prison sentence. Both are possibilities and so you should ALWAYS have a bugout pack and plans to relocate if necessary.

[@Gottaculat]

Something I invested in are heirloom seeds for a wide array of produce and spices, about 30 different types of plants, with 1,000 seeds for each one, and properly sealed. I've done a test batch, and they produce good crops, and, they can reproduce to make more seeds. Not all seeds you buy will produce crops that can reproduce, so be sure your source are proper seeds that can propagate. In SHTF, I'm going the community leader route, doing my part to organize less prepared people, assign people tasks (because nobody likes to feel helpless in a situation), help organized armed security, and of course establish some sort of group of leadership and advisors so people don't feel like I'm just some tyrant trying to boss people around. Besides, I don't know everything, and I would be a fool to try to be the leader if someone else is a better candidate. That's actually what I would prefer, to be an advisor more than a leader, but in a time of panic, someone has to make the first move and keep a level head about it. People survive better in groups. Trying to lone wolf it, or survive with 2-3 people is suicide. More people does mean more mouths to feed, but it also means more hands, ears, and eyes. You can accomplish more daily tasks in greater volume, and you can better secure your location with multiple guards that can get plenty of sleep off-duty, and not be stretched thin. There is also more collective knowledge and expertise. You are more likely to have doctors and engineers, tradesmen/handymen, cooks, people with local knowledge of flora and fauna, etc. I prefer to think of my bugout bag as my "get home bag." Home is where my supplies, gear, ammo, and shelter is, as well as my family, friends, and neighbors. Only reason to leave all that behind is if it's too risky, such as an invading military is rolling through or its a disaster site of some sort, like a wild fire, floods, or in my area, volcanic soot from an eruption could be a possibility. Only then should you truly bug out and leave home... assuming you aren't in a city. If you're in a city, yeah, get the hell out ASAP.

[@outinthesticks1035]

This is one of the better comments I've seen here , or on any SHTF video . A gun is one of the least used tools . Yes getting some wild meat is nice , but traps work better , take less time. A hoe is more useful and will give more food . I usually keep enough seed for a pretty good garden , know a good selection of wild food . I'm 65 years old , so a heart attack is more risk than bandits . I would want some way to cut wood , some good snare wire and fish hooks The group survival plan is best , let some of the younger guys take on the protection detail . I'll contribute by teaching gardening There was a tv program up here in Canada years back where people started homesteading. Were given farm tools , horse , pigs , seeds and all the necessary that our forefathers had , and they still needed rescue

[@2dclxvi]

One thing almost never mentioned in longer term survival/SHTF scenarios is your eyesight...thanks for bringing it up in this post BTW. If you use glasses or contacts, replacements will no longer be available should you run out/lose/damage them. One of the best investments I have ever made was in Lasix eye surgery. Imagine being in a dire survival circumstance and not being able to read or identify people/objects at more than 25 yards...this will put you at a huge disadvantage in countless ways. Take the next $1500 you were going to spend on your guns, vehicle, gear, computer, etc. and get your eyes fixed. Also, don't ask your eye Dr. if you're a good candidate for the procedure...it is not in their financial interest to have you get the procedure...after all, why do you need to go back to an optometrist regularly when you can see with 20/20 vision? Aside from the general eye health exam, I haven't needed anything from an optometrist since I had the procedure done 7+ years ago. Go consult the people that perform the surgery...they can test your eyes and tell you what is or isn't possible. Even if you can't achieve 20/20 vision it is likely that you can make a vast improvement over your current eyesight, thus improving your overall chance of survival significantly. If you don't think it's a big problem, put on a pair of your glasses/googles that have been smeared with vaseline and try and go about your day...try and shoot a 10" target at 50-100 yards with any weapon...identify a friend's face at 50 yards...read a street sign...read a book.

[@juicythrax8992]

Definitely understated

[@MeelatchiDaibukti]

And learn how to pickle stuff. Scurvy is a motherfucker, and it wears you down, without realising.

[@GlidingChiller]

Biggest problem with bugging out is that even if I trained to have all the necessary skills and physical fitness, my loved ones don't. Am I supposed to leave them behind?

[@kknn-s2h]

If they're really loved ones (as in you legit care about them), I suppose you would gradually train them in skills that they're willing to learn. Gradually pushing them to better themselves and get the hang of mechanics, or gardening, or even knowing what types of vegetation can be used for kindling a fire. Everything can add up (within reason) to relieve your strain. Even an 8 year old can be taught how to load magazines if it comes down to that.

[@kknn-s2h]

@@LostTrailX Definitely not sir, but the kid is growing up to be a youth/man his father's proud of even now (hopefully). In the meantime, consideration must be made for physical and mental limitations.

[@splintercelloo7]

I must admit i romanticized the "lone wolf/survivor" ending in my 20s. Thank goodness none of it come to pass in my 20s or 30s else id probably be dead for many of the exact descriptions you give.

[@jasonharrison25]

This is why I "downgraded" my bug-out bag to a get-home bag.

[@Rudyelf1]

Exactly. Get home to family. Not dragging my little kids through the woods.

[@333jarhead]

This is the best and only answer. Just an old Marines opinion.

[@commiec0n721]

Instead of bugging out, build a strong community. And I mean do that now, I guarantee knowing the people around you to the extent you depend on them to live even today will make almost every scenario a lot more survivable for everyone involved.

[@montre-moi]

This! Also, people often forget than you can barter skills, not only stuff. Learn some trades. In times of crisis, a banker or a lawyer isn't as valuable as a carpenter, butcher or farmer.

[@robertsandberg2246]

Having been betrayed by people, including family, who I was certain I could trust, I have serious doubts about my ability to do that strategy. I'll take my chances going it alone. "I'll be free or die." - Harriet Tubman

[@commiec0n721]

@@robertsandberg2246 if you can be sure that you'll survive entirely on your own indefinitely, more power to you! I don't think that's at all realistic for pretty much everyone. You'd need to learn and consistently practice a ton of skills that all but a few people don't have the time to learn. Communities make things infinitely easier. They have their problems, that's why, in my opinion, accountability, good communication, and established conflict resolution strategies are as important to group survival as knowing how to treat water.

[@chizorama]

That only works if where you live has quality people, instead of toiletpaper hoarding chicken littles who only care about themselves.

[@maxwellschneiter]

"Bugging out" is something you need to do before SHTF. Local geography has got to be the single greatest deciding factor of survival in any scenario. You can turn your suburban neighborhood into a fortress, but what good is that going to do when the entire city is on fire, the fire department is awol, and the water is cutoff. Or when the disease starts spreading as a result of the thousands of rotting corpses in no-go zones that you have no control over.

[@MrGochira]

You can shoot a looter, you can't shoot a blizzard.

[@besticudcumupwith202]

...seems like every bug out scenario video I watch happens in a warm climate. Bugging out in Canada is totally different than doing it in the southern states. I know it gets colder at night in any location, but winter in the maritimes (-25° or more, 3-3k feet of snow) is a whole different thing than it is in most of these prepper vids.

[@B61Mod12]

Next week on Garand Thumb....

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Meanwhile the Hurricane shoots you...

[@Comm0ut]

You can certainly shoot a blizzard but the blizzard may not notice.

[@DataGeek903]

Can't shoot a JDAM Reality is you'll bug out, and steal stuff from people that u come across.

[@j.s.c.4355]

The main problem with bugging out to the wilderness is that once you are there, you are isolated and subject to every other desperate survivalist who had the same idea as you. If you shelter in place, you end up in your own community, where you have friends and resources. After the Apocalypse, you’ll be better off as a pack animal, than as a love wolf.

[@LK-bz9sk]

Well said. Harden the house hold and build the plan with the neighbors

[@The_world_is_not_worthy_of_Him]

I wish I were stupid enough to believe "yOuR OwN cOmMuNiTy" won't kill you for your food stores when theirs run out 😂😂 fuckin a It's them or me and I choose me every single time. And I know for a fact that everyone else will choose them. *_ESPECIALLY_* when they get desperate.

[@The_world_is_not_worthy_of_Him]

@@LK-bz9sk They're just gonna use that plan to kill and loot you. 🤷

[@iskdude9922]

Self sustainable suburban farming is the answer

[@barracksbunny6533]

Hey brassfacts just wanted to let you know I don’t always watch your videos bc I’m not neccicarily intrested in some of the content, I do support your dream and keep going. I’m here for the tism of the items you acquire and your honest reviews of them.

[@BrassFacts]

thanks man

[@splashysiren]

You make bugging out seem like the Oregon trail larp of all time

[@ThrashTillDeth85]

That’s cause it is

[@theKashConnoisseur]

Everyone dies of dysentery.

[@handroids1981]

@@theKashConnoisseur Hooray!

[@Taistelukalkkuna]

@@theKashConnoisseur Well, no shit.

[@SepticFuddy]

@@Taistelukalkkuna Actually, lots of shit.

[@Will-W]

You're spot on with this one. Camping in the woods with the boys is fun for about 3 days, maybe 4 (until the beer runs out). Know your neighbors, have plans to defend your neighborhood, don't live in the city. Food, water, shelter, mutual support is all available in rural areas for cheaper than city life. It's' slim, but you can grow food for a family of 4 on an acre with 5 or 6 goats and a pig. (Normalize buying 40 acres with a few friends and building your families together.)

[@phild8095]

I'm 66. Lately I've been carrying a 20-27 pound pack while walking the dog. We will probably get about eleven hundred miles this year together. I used to solo backpack in the New England hills with a 55 pound pack, sometimes covering 12 miles a day, set up, cook, tear down and repeat. Tent, bag, pad, rations, spare clothes, small tools, cord, rope, emergency supplies. That's a lot of work. I had really low body fat then. I visited some nice spots, fished places that were rarely seen, saw animals and birds big and small. But I couldn't have done it for a month with what I could carry. Learning to survive as a villager is more realistic. learn some skills, know how to cook from scratch, grow some food, raise some livestock, learn to lay brick, cut lumber, tan hides, sew cloth and leather, weave, use tools to make tools. Half the world survives like this already. All countries rise and fall. America is no longer rising; that means...

[@donoberloh]

All great skill sets. Let's also include locating, and purifying, water sources with natural “things.” Self-healing with stress relief techniques, shiatsu, knowing how to stop bleeding, etc.

[@callusklaus2413]

I agree with everything here but it leaves out something important: Learn to live with people. Learn how to make good friends, how to cooperate, learn how to smooth over arguments. A lot of the prepper community values this individual bullshit over how much you need other people. I was badly injured on a multi day hike. Ankle was as purple as a bunch of wine grapes. My friends were everything. It's a funny story only because I had my buddies. It's absurd to try to do this alone.

[@theunraveler]

Ha! Your country has had it's time in the sun...it's time to retire old man

[@phild8095]

​@a-oc1wl I understand that get home travel should be fast light while staying safe and comfortable. These guys with 30 pound get home bags make me laugh. Gonna filter water, set up a tent, have supper in stead of just trotting home. That backpacking was in the 70's through 90's now a guidebook, map, camera and compass have been replaced by one seven ounce emergency evacuation device, the cell phone. No one brings paper and pens anymore. We would sometimes leave notes on the trail. Boots, packs, sleeping bags, tents, mattress pad, even water bottles have gotten lighter. Water bottles went from steel or nalgene to bladders. Hell, when I started we had canvas tents and packs. Even water filters have gotten lighter, cheaper. And a lot of my backpacking was solo, so I had to be prepared for an injury and waiting a couple days to be rescued. Extra food, water container, and a piece of innertube to throw on the fire as a signal. I used to walk a lot, I could walk 25 miles just to visit someone for the evening. I never ran a marathon, but my best 25 miles was probably in the 5 hour range. Not fast, but faster than walking. In an emergency I could have shaved an hour or two. Nowadays it is walking the dog in town, 2.5-5 miles a day carrying a pack to have water for him and enough weight to make it exercise. Wife and I also garden, have fruit trees, bushes, vines, medicinal herbs, shoot, fish, reload, sew, can, play a little music, travel some. If I had to walk to the grocery store and come home with 50 pounds I could do it. I'd need to sit down before putting it away, but it would get done. Latest project restoring a Pexto hand drill. Project before that 450 brick raised bed garden for wife's herbs. Skills, old man tough, we'll be here when you get here.

[@PippetWhippet]

@@MrJedi5150 Agreed, ultralight works well if you’re a phonecall away from help and an hour by helicopter to the nearest hospital. If you’ve got a week off work and the trail is 200 miles long, ultralight is the way to go. You’ll stink, because you don’t practice hygiene, you’ll wear out almost everything you take because it’s fragile, if you don’t outright break it but you will tick off the trail. I brought into the Durston tent hype. Two trails later and because it can’t handle the wind like a hilleberg, it’s worn through and is no longer anything but a summer good weather tent. That wasn’t even the ultralight version, just the xmid. You don’t catch people hiking in Northern Scandinavia using ultralight gear. Well you do, sometimes. You read about their foot amputation in the paper because they wore trail runners instead of boots. Or because they took a lightweight sleeping system, they burn the skin off their back believing the myth that the back of your sleeping bag does nothing. Whilst lying on an inflatable instead of a foam roll.

[@tommissouri4871]

For a long time, my bug out plan was to head to my grandparents' farm in Missouri. It was about 75 miles from the city, upwind of a nuclear attack, long way from any main roads, had fresh water, game was abundant, hidden in the woods, and had several other farmers who would band together if things went bad. However, they are gone and so is the farm for twenty years. Unless you are under attack from parachuting Cuban soldiers, walking dead zombies, or others searching house to house for supplies, staying put and fortifying seems the best option. Notice that "The Omega Man" stayed in his house and fortified it against attacks. He could have easily packed a truck in the morning and drove off into the country, but didn't. The only bugging out I'd consider is moving to a house that was more defensible than the one I am in. Most have too many large glass windows that anyone outside can use to get inside.

[@jasonyama333]

I think I read somewhere white tailed deer in a couple of southern states during the depression was totally wiped out. Friends also wish to bug out to mountains and fish, I was like you know they stock all the lakes and streams in area by plane right....? Bugging out might be necessary, friends in Hawaii had to run from fire, lava, and a tsunami (was a dud). Maybe have a fema survival kit lol to survive at a shelter.

[@BrassFacts]

for sure, but in those scenarios you don't have a choice, and you're now functionally a refuge, reliant on others for your survival. Fine now, and during natural disasters. But not something we wanna opt into when there's no higher gov power.

[@StankHill]

Chronic wasting disease has hit in certain areas in the south pretty bad and they’ve laxed some of the limits so deer populations in the affected areas have already taken quite a hit the past 2-3 years

[@3nertia]

"Totally wiped out" - then why are there still deer around today? :)

[@jaycefiene9566]

@@3nertiawildlife and game management

[@3nertia]

@@jaycefiene9566 If they were totally wiped out, there'd be no way for the species to come back smh ...

[@justinjex1]

I live in Slc Utah and there is a critical mass of people that think bugging out is absolutely an option and get really defensive when you question the basics. I once ask a guy if he had ever been on a Utah deer hunt. He said no. I told him its crazy. Orange dots all over the mountain and good luck getting a deer on public land. He accused me of being a cynical pessimist… this is the most realistic picture of bugging out.

[@scottanno8861]

Let's be real, in a SHTF situation Utah is just going to be run by the Mormon church 😅

[@iskdude9922]

​@@scottanno8861lol. Might not be bad having multiple wives....

[@jghifiversveiws8729]

@@scottanno8861 Mormons are some of the biggest preppers on the planet too, they'll have the State up and running again in a matter of days.

[@aired-downdisconnected4125]

Ever wonder why the tops of the temples look like sniper towers. 😉

[@TheCityofTownsville]

The irony of the bugged outter being pessimisticly cynical about society surviving, complaining that you're the one being pessimistically cynical.

[@bikerbobcat]

Living like 5 minutes outside DC my whole life, I've given a lot of thought on this. Depending on how things fall apart and in what way, most of my best outcomes are to be to stay put and organize my already lovely little community for mutual aid and defense. They all know me as the friendly guy with the garden that fixes things and some know I can shoot. I think that's far more valuable than disappearing on my own hoping to scavenge off the corpse of civilization. "Its better to make allies than enemies" or something like that.

[@__WJK__]

The original bug-out concept is only for extreme SHTF situations a/k/a when "staying" = "certain death." That said, soon as people in a community start running low on provisions due to laziness, greed, unlawfulness, a severe winter, a hot Summer, drought, low nutrition, etc... you're not going to want to be around an excessive number of people. Again, the original bug-out concept was intended for extreme SHTF situations a/k/a when "staying put" = "certain death."

[@menastasiyat.3595]

you probably won't survive the major event - like nuclear war, pardon for the grim outlook, but you will be the luckiest to go out early.

[@sleezy5129]

Living near DC is a death sentence, you'd be dead within the first few days, maybe a week if you're lucky. 😅

[@Stable_Genius]

​@@menastasiyat.3595 That's the part I never understood regarding the loony surival types. Sure, keep some extra water and food for short term emergencies, but if the disaster is bad enough, why would you want to survive?

[@The_world_is_not_worthy_of_Him]

I don't trust a single one you. Full stop. Why would I want to make allies of people who want to kill me?

[@bs7497]

If anyone thinks they're just gonna bug out to the country with a moment's notice, and they have no ties to the country, no family with land to welcome them in, or a country home they already own where they get along with the neighboring landowners, they're in for a shock. I moved to the country eight years ago. I own a home and acreage. The country people still don't like me after eight years of living here, trying to do as the Romans do, being a good neighbor/citizen, voting the same way they vote, etcetera. They don't want people moving to the country, anymore than Texans want Californians moving next door to them. So, good luck.

[@xxswamplordxx2079]

The bugout/SHTF community love the idea of surviving alone, but we really need to work together as a community through a crisis. Harder said than done, but I really think that's what we should be on board with & at least attempt. Probably easier in small towns & harder in metropolitan areas, of course, but that's why you live in a small town & befriend your community.

[@My_initials_are_O.G.cuz_I_am]

Yeah, people romaticize the "lone wanderer" trope, but the reality is, society is a billion times more resilient than an individual, We'd recover civic order and services within a few years, maybe a decade after a full scale nuclear war, (with current stockpiles, not Cold War peak stockpiles) The economy wouldn't fully recover for over a century, or more, but it'd still be easier to survive than out in the woods.

[@boopy123]

Where do you get those numbers from?@@My_initials_are_O.G.cuz_I_am

[@GcD9179]

Civilization as we know it didn't start until we developed agriculture, and could work together to feed a village size group at once.

[@dantheman4259]

Know your neighbors Be prepared

[@lordgarion514]

The problem with that is the food runs out, and if it is a SHTF scenario, the food and water will run out. At that point, you're going to start having groups of VERY hungry people forming up into groups and attacking. How many groups can you and your friends kill? How many thousands of rounds of ammo you got? Alone, or with VERY good friends/family way out in the woods is better. Everywhere will suck, but the biggest threat to your survival, is other people. The fewer the better.

[@raphmaster23]

Yep the bugging out into the woods, then walking back into town to resupply is a fun little fantasy.

[@crayolascents]

They leave a home full of supplies and great protection from the weather to go into the elements with a couple water bottles and energy bars, and all the ammo they can carry just to they can tire out quicker.

[@groberts1980]

The only realistic option for bugging out is having a bugout location. I would say a potentially ideal situation would be to buy a few acres in a very rural area, have a camper and truck you could take up to the BOL and live off-grid there. Even then you're going to face a LOT of adversity in terms of eventually having to live off the land, etc.

[@Cabbagepatch66]

Why draw attention to your movement by towing the trailer out, when you can (for the most part) leave it on the property, or build a permanent, concealed shelter?

[@ThrashTillDeth85]

This also assumes you can even get there. Because as we saw during 9/11 and Covid the government will just shut down all forms of travel if it truly gets that bad

[@cagneybillingsley2165]

under ground bunker complex with a large store was basic common sense prep for 1950s men. we've become complacent

[@guytech7310]

Not going to work, You need to establish a homestead and live there year round. You need tools\Farming equipment, seeds & other AG supplies to be self-reliant. Bugging out to a cabin the the woods, won't work in a collapse.

[@clydedoris5002]

You will be found out by people hunting and if its just you have fun being stolen from

[@stanthebamafan]

I’ve always felt this way. Bugging out is a stupid red dawn fantasy. You’re 1000x more likely to want to have supplies in your house and fortify it than to leave. Whether it’s riots or natural disasters.

[@angelaeinwachter5947]

I find it interesting that most preppers do not consider the issue of drinking water. You can live a long time without food and still function. Try fasting for a few days , your mind actually gets more focused when it kicks into survival mode. Water on the other hand is critical. Many people will succumb to intestinal ailments from drinking bad water in a shtf scenario. In the American Civil War more men died of chronic dysentery than in combat, and they were way tougher than us. I see many commenters understand that humans work together to survive , I agree , The "mountain man way" only works in movies.

[@E.L.RipleyAtNostromo]

Thank you! I’m a bit older than most and distinctly remember my boss in 1978 showing up with a new Mini-14 and 1000 rds of .223, and telling me that if things got bad enough he would “bugout to the woods and live off the land.” With his 4 year old daughter and wife. I remember he glared at me when I told him any game animals would be long gone with him and a bunch of other people tramping around the woods in a SHTF situation. And of course other than firearms he had no tent, water purification or other camping supplies, and worse, he was at least 80 lbs overweight. I couldn’t see him even walking up a moderately inclined hill, so think he would be “living” out of his car PDQ, and begging for help. There weren’t going to be deer walking up to him with bottles of water taped to their backs that’s certain. IF I had access to a cabin outside of town that would be ideal, but I don’t so although I have a go-bag I’m setting up to dig in at home, with water, food, power, and defense. I have some land behind the house where I can setup a tent and latrine and cook outside if the house is structurally unsafe for some reason. We do what we can, but the last thing I’m doing is bugging out and leaving all my preps to looters.

[@criticalthinker7822]

The deer walkin up with water was perfect. Ima borrow that one from you.

[@jamesblair9614]

Thanks for nailing down what bugging out means, it’s pretty much an American fantasy phenomenon, I’ve heard it in so many videos, specifically ones about building survival shelters, which themselves are pure fantasy because they are a structure of poles, sticks, leaves and sometimes moss, which take an entire day to build and are neither wind or rain proof.

[@raylopez99]

But nuclear fallout shelters are a good idea. Keep in mind radiation half life for modern weapons is weeks not years (think Hiroshima not Chernobyl) so nuclear war is actually survivable. Posting from Washington DC, the first city to be hit in a nuclear war. :)

[@stillpist]

Finally someone calling out a lot of the bugging out bs. Having said that I do have a kit. Proper hiking pack, 1 man snugpak tent, freezedried food and a water filter ect. I could survive with nothing else for at least 10 days with that kit, but it's really either for an absolute last resort or more likely grab and go supplies to get to a better and preplanned destination if I really need to.

[@benb50001]

I think there is almost no overlap in the Venn diagram of people who plan to go forever camping when SHTF, and people who actually go camping often.

[@Rokaize]

Well because people who actually go primitive camping understand how much of a struggle survival would actually be. Especially alone. When one false step can lead to a sprained ankle or some other injury. And with no one to help you you’re screwed. This isn’t even factoring in the sheer weight of all the stuff you’d need to bring with you to truly bug out in the woods. It’s just a waste of time.

[@mattmarzula]

As someone who goes camping often, I can confirm. My SHTF plan is staying home.

[@rainbowodysseybyjonlion]

lol so funny. why does this sound so true?

[@peachypietro9980]

Been doing survival, bushcraft, primitive living stuff for more or less 18 years - including but not limited to foraging, shelter building, firecraft, and most recently flintknapping. All of these things and more take years of practice in a given area to become proficient with. I went out several times over the past couple of months to look for stone to knap with, camping out each time. Given my mental issues, it took time to overcome the paranoia of being outside, alone, in the middle of the desert. People need to get better at communicating, understanding their deeper motivations, and facing oblivion: communication, introspection, and preparing yourself for the rigors of life where you'll face death in intimate and visceral ways are things you can deal with now, before life changes in substantial ways. You'll come across challenges after such life changes that won't require a gun or knife or any other material weapon, but rather they'll require you to assess, to know when something is serious or not, when to be trusting, how to tell someone you need help and who to tell that to, etc. Those are much more important than knowing whether you want to store 9mm or 7.62, whether you have 45 days or 60 days of rations, or which firestarting tool you want to prioritize. Ultimately, use your head, and practice, because both will help you more than you think (did you see what I did there?).

[@mjo4981]

You have confirmed my intuitive evaluation. Despite it taking an hour and a half to drive over the coastal range to the coast, if the entire metro area bugs out, the whole bugout zone will resemble a zoo, but with two-legged animals.

[@KD-bk7gd]

Thank you for this video. Bugging out into fuck all nowhere is basically going to end for you the same as the show “Alone” or “Naked and Afraid”. There’s a reason even early humans banded together to survive.

[@davewebster5120]

Warrior Poet Society had a similar point. You'll survive waaaay longer if you are part of a community. I'm in with my Church and if anything happens I know we'll come together, because we all have different skills, supplies and capabilities the others don't and they'll look after you if you look after them. Even if you don't have any skills, working hands are necessary too.

[@FinalLugiaGuardian]

What should those who don't have a religious community do?

[@cagneybillingsley2165]

you've just concentrated yourselves into a convenient spot for raiders

[@MitchJohnson0110]

@@cagneybillingsley2165 A group of armed and determined churchgoers is going to have better odds against "raiders" than most.

[@georgewhitworth9742]

@@FinalLugiaGuardianVet clubs, shooting clubs, your local pub, your high school friend group, heck, anything where you interact with a community of people that have varied skill sets and generally "like" you. Could be a chess group, could be your local union, school board, law enforcement agency, extended family, flight school...

[@guytech7310]

I doubt it will work out as your think it will. How many in your church community drive in a vehicle to get to the church? 50%, 99%? Homesteading is the only option if you want a real change to make it.

[@JimYeats]

My family and I are completely off grid. Happened a little bit on accident as the land we wanted away from everyone else just didn't have any good electric access ability. Now we have a fully functional modern home that is completely solar with a propane back up generator and a solar powered water well. We did all the work, and now the thought of "bugging" out seems ridiculous since we could at any given time basically not go into town for probably 3-6 months, depending on the level of discomfort with regards to food or how successful hunting I was. Has been an amazing experience and really changes your perspective on a lot of things.

[@3nertia]

I wish we could all afford to do that :

[@SpecOpsGear]

Off grid, but has youtube

[@3nertia]

@@SpecOpsGear Off-grid just means self-sufficient in terms of water/power/etc.. It doesn't mean they live in the fucking stone-age bruh lmao

[@SpecOpsGear]

@@3nertia by many measures i'm "off grid". But generators take fuel, livestock eats off the land but i still buy grain/alfalfa to feed them in the winter etc. So, pretty much every off grid person i meet is (like myself) only quasi off grid at best.

[@JimYeats]

@@SpecOpsGear Yep, because the "grid" is considered the "electrical grid". That's what being "off-grid" means, off the electrical grid. It's doesn't mean that I can't have a cell phone.

[@jcar1417]

Thank you. I’ve been saying this for years. Just watch the show “ Alone” it shows you the reality of surviving with limited supplies for a long period of time. It sucks! I think a lot of people buy into this bug out mentality just to justify buying a lot of shit. When it seems a large proportion of them are not even physically in shape to “bug out” and don’t even practice their skills by actually bugging out for a weekend or week. I think everyone should have a I need to get home bag because my vehicle is broken/ stuck/trapped on a highway and a 72 hour my home has been hit by a tornado/ hurricane/ wildfire bag.

[@alexpewpew69]

Amen

[@JohnSmith-qx8ll]

In fairness that is ultra minimal…only a few items allowed. It would exponentially easier if they were allowed to have even 3/4 additional items (shotgun, small kayak or rowboat, tarp, saw, etc.)

[@lordgarion514]

We're talking SHTF, and you're talking about inconvenient shit. A hurricane, not even the biggest hurricane in history can't cause anything remotely like a SHTF scenario. Not even New Orleans after Katrina was a SHTF scenario. It was just a shitty situation. SHTF is a country wide shit show. There won't be any food or water for a long long time. No FEMA bringing water, no one driving buses to move people. There won't be cops. There won't be electricity, hospitals, nothing. We're talking many months or even years. Going into the woods isn't about living good, it's about literally not dying. And a human doesn't actually need that much to not die. SHTF is a bad situation that will end. Your goal is to remain alive until it's over. Not live like a king. Go far away, get a good break action airgun in .25, and you can kill anything. Up to and including big game like elk, with good shot placement of course. Snakes, birds, basically everything. And don't forget to eat insects. Damn good for you. The idiots who remain in a city, will be screwed. Thousands, or millions of hungry people forming up into armed groups???? Oh, I want to be as far away from that as possible. You act like staying makes things easier.... It won't. There won't be any food or water, and the woods being hard and miserable is irrelevant. You won't survive in a city if you have food stocked up. They will find out and come for it. You think you're going to defend anything? Ok, say you manage to kill the first group. How about the second one? Or the 100th? How much ammo do you have??? Most cities have at least MANY thousands of people. How many of those desperate people can you kill before they get you??? Everywhere will suck ass. But people are the biggest threat to your life.

[@CrizzyEyes]

I know a guy who did the weekend bugouts you describe. He has trekked into the woods with a friend with only knives a few times. Instead of relying on the skills he learned from that, among other things (he's done a lot of fishing, gigging, hunting, etc), he has a homestead in rural Massachusetts where he farms rabbits and gardens. Dude is set, logistically speaking, if shit hits the fan.

[@jcar1417]

@@CrizzyEyes I would keep in contact with that guy.lol . Always good to know people with skills and as long as you can bring something to the table cooperation can go a long way.

[@charlesdada6434]

One of those supermarket "survival" magazines had an article about bugging out/ homesteading under the ocean. Either the author was deluded, or he was trolling the fools who read his magazine.