Thread: SHTF gear

Zombies are excellent things to fight against.
Their most important feature is their lack of humanity, conveniently taking away all moral objections that could exist against killing actual human beings.

And they're slow, they are noisy, they don't like weapons much...
At elast if hollywood is to believed. But they wouldn't lie to us, now would they

Originally Posted by zombiehunter80

As a professional zombie hunter I can tell you that you can never be too prepared. However, if you get into a SHTF situation (like when the zombies attack) and you've got nothing, head to wal-mart with your friends and family, barricade the doors and live off the store! If you stop to think about everything available in a wal-mart, you could do a heck of a lot for a very long time.

Problem with that scenario is that Walmart is already full of zombies.

So?

It'll be like playing doom. A large building full of zombies, lots of food, meds, ammo and weapons readily available...

Originally Posted by Bruno

So?

It'll be like playing doom. A large building full of zombies, lots of food, meds, ammo and weapons readily available...

Sweetness!

And who said Armageddon wouldn't be any fun?

Originally Posted by Bruno

Preparing for a natural disaster is a good thing if there's any chance they'll ever happen.
And in rural places, being cut off is something you need to anticipate. But from what I read here, many people seem to think that a second civil war is something that might happen any day now.

Its kind of a worst case thing but If I'm prepared to deal with the total collapse of society along with either foreign invasion or civil war at the same time, I know I'll survive the occasional two or three days snowed in without electricity.

My wife is finally coming around to the idea of getting chickens, and she wants a couple of goats too, so by next spring I expect to be able to "bug-in" as a rural farmer pretty much indefinitely. I already have the horse for transportation and my pony is trained to pull a plow ( the horse drawn plow currently belongs to a neighbor, but he doesn't have a horse). Add in enough "protection" to make the neighbors either leave us alone of find a way to pitch in and become useful and I think I'll do pretty well.

As for gear and weather appropriate clothing in the car that could be used in a bug out, it is also excellent for surviving a crash. I slid off the road in the middle of winter at night once and had to walk for help. Had I not had my gear I would have been extremely uncomfortable both on the walk and during the hour plus wait for the wrecker, I would also have ruined a expensive formal outfit that evening.

A great example of the mental state of many Americans who contemplate this type of thing is the movie Red Dawn from the eighties. This movie is what I think of when I am planning for surviving my worst nightmare.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Do Americans really prepare for the day their society collapses?

I put this separately because it is more political than planning related.

The answer should be YES!

Or rather it is a duty of every citizen in this country to be prepared to act as the ultimate check upon the excesses of our own government. This is a lesson our founding fathers learned the hard way by actually having to remove the government and start over. We, by being prepared to do the same, ultimately keep our government working mostly as it should and in its place.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Thomas Jefferson

I think it's a very geographical thing. The majority of americans probably think as much about what they would do in case of a collapse of some sort as they do about why they're electing their leaders (which is to say not much). Personally, I just like to be prepared. There have been cases where some sort of disaster has hit, and society in that area collapsed. I'm a better safe than sorry sort of guy.

I have a bunch of QED shave sticks, a couple of straights and hones, a few DE's, about a 1000 DE blades, some nice fountain pens, lots of ink and lots of Moleskin journals. So no matter how bad things get I will be clean shaven and can write about it.

I also have a Tavor with 5000 rnds of 5.56mm and a Glock with about 5000 rnds too. So don't get any ideas about taking may shaving or writing gear.

A kindred spirit. Laugh if you want...but you'll be kicking yourself when the zombies attack!

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

And zombies!! Don't forget about the zombies!!

Once, when I was a deputy, I was patrolling along a rather deserted country road. I saw a car parked in a wide spot, so I stop to check it out. It was absolutely jammed full of assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, sacks of flour, MRE's, ammo, gallons of water, etc. It reminded me of something from Red Dawn. I could see where the driver had walked through a hayfield into the woods.....

Since there was a crapload of guns in the car, I figured the guy probably had at least something on him. So, I decided to call for backup. I didn't know if the guy was a drug dealer out to check on his crops, or if he was a survivalist looking for a place to hole up....but I didn't feel like taking any chances. Once my backup arrives, we follow the footprints. We find the guy, a rather plump accountant looking type, fishing out of a small pond in the middle of the woods. We talk to him, and quickly gather that he's ...well, he's only slightly insane, but insane nonetheless. He was an affable fellow, and utterly harmless, and I got him to come willingly to the sheriff's department, and we made contact with his family.

They were much relieved...he'd been missing for about a week, and they feared him dead. Apparently he had been an engineer at NASA, and had suffered an episode. I guess all the stress of Y2K had worn on him.

I was glad it turned out as it did....it could have been worse....obviously if zombies were involved.