Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Prepper and survivalist are not synonymous terms. Yes, there is a lot of cross-over between the two types of individuals, but the skill level and focus of each makes them mutually exclusive terms.
Preppers are focused on stockpiling supplies to use when bugging in or at a bugout location – and having the skills to use them. More often than not, the quantity of supplies outweighs the amount of survival skills honed.
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Survivalists are more heavily focused on the skills they possess to get them through an SHTF scenario – with usually no more stockpiled preps than can be carried in a rucksack on their back.
That being said (well, typed) there surely are a lot of preppers with essential survival skills. In fact, being a prepper with skills is the best of both worlds and will surely enhance your chances of breathing longer during a doomsday disaster.
Generally speaking, it is newbie preppers, suburban preppers, and urban preppers who most squarely fall into just one category when dividing up the preppers, survivalists, and prepper-survivalists.
There are exceptions to this rule, of course, especially when it is a military veteran, first responder, or Eagle Scout that is new to prepping or living in a non-rural area.
What Is The Difference Between Preppers And Survivalists?
The term “prepper” was coined to describe individuals who are focused on preparedness. These folks may be planning to bug in during a long-term disaster or are stockpiling shelf-stable food, weapons, and other survival supplies at a bugout location.
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Unlike survivalists, preppers often raise livestock and gardens as a part of their SHTF plan. A prepper is focused on remaining in one spot during a disaster and does not plan to move about and travel light like a survivalist. If the prepper is living in a suburban, small town, or urban area, backyard chickens and meat rabbits often replace the goats, sheep, and cows kept by rural preppers as a source of protein.
Most preppers also have a bugout plan with a scaled-down version of their gear going with them if the doomsday event, be it large or small, forces them to relocate. But, the portion of the prepping stockpile that will move with the prepper will fit in vehicle(s) and not in a rucksack – unless absolutely necessary.
Water
Preppers will stockpile not only water, but create rainwater collection systems, dig ponds or buy land with at least one natural water feature on it – in addition to a well, and have an ample amount of water purification supplies at their disposal.
Survivalists may live in a rural area that allows for natural water features and wells, but their self-reliance plan is not dependent upon them. Lifestraws and often DIY water purification supplies that fit inside an INCH (I’m Never Coming Home) bag AND the ability to find water in the woods are what a survivalist will rely upon for this basic essential.
Food
Preppers not only grow and preserve their own food by canning and dehydrating it, they also have garages, basements, and storage buildings filled with long-term storage food buckets, buckets of wheat, powdered milk, and from-the-shelf grocery items that can last about two years before going rancid.
A survivalist cannot carry a 25-pound bucket of wheat in his or her rucksack, therefore it is not a vital part of his SHTF plan. To garner the protein, calories, and nutrients required to stay strong and alive, a survivalist will have honed the skills necessary to hunt, trap, fish, and forage for the vast majority of their food intake.
Keeping livestock for milk, eggs, and protein is not a priority for a survivalist. If a survivalist does keep some livestock, walking away from them during a bugout situation will not cause great worry due to the hunting, fishing, trapping, and foraging skills he or she possesses.
Shelter
While a prepper will spend a lot of time and money safeguarding their land and home from intruders, making it as difficult to penetrate physically or with weapons as possible, a survivalist might also spend some effort and funds on securing a bugout location, but he or she is unlikely to feel a great need to be tied to a certain location in order to survive.
Medical
This is perhaps the most difficult aspect of being prepared for what may come for both preppers and survivalists – unless there is a medical professional of some type in their group.
A prepper with the funds available to do so, will not only have stockpiled over-the-counter medications, made natural herbal remedies, but perhaps even purchased fish or livestock medications to create an SHTF medical clinic.
A designated room inside the home or bugout retreat or even a detached enclosure set up in a manner where surgery could be conducted is any prepper’s dream. A survivalist, on the other hand, prefers to travel light. A first aid kit with only the essentials and the skills to use them, even on themselves, is far more likely to be a part of a survivalist’s SHTF plan.
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A survivalist will usually have the supplies to make a tourniquet, sew stitches, stop intense bleeding rapidly, and disinfect wounds in a rucksack – and the skills to make splints and crutches along with a solid knife to help them do so, tucked away in their emergency bag.
Fuel And Power
Preppers stockpile all types of fuel in great abundance – along with fuel stabilizers. It would not be unusual to see dozens (if not more) cans of gasoline, diesel, propane, and kerosene stored in a garage or outbuilding.
A prepper will also have at least one generator, likely a multi-fuel type and perhaps even a solar generator to help power their bug in or bugout location.
A survivalist will be prepared to rely upon the matches and tinder stored in the rucksack to build a fire to provide warmth and to cook from as he or she walks on foot or rides a horse from place to place while securing food, water, and shelter.
There are pros and cons to being either a prepper or a survivalist. A prepper with a huge stockpile of food or a big garden can lose it all due to a fire, weather, bugs, or a crop disease. A survivalist, no matter how accomplished at hunting, trapping, and fishing, could find themselves in a healthy forest that has been overly taxed by others trying to score food in the same manner – or shot by a marauder.
In the end, neither being a prepper nor a survivalist is better. It will ultimately be our skillset—and that of our self-reliant tribe members—that determines if we will be a survivor or a statistic.
By reviewing the major components of the prepper life vs the survival life detailed above, you should be able to determine which category you best fit in based upon your type of preparedness activities and skills. Perhaps you have your feet planted firmly in both worlds. If so, congratulations. Your chances of surviving a disaster either short or long just increased substantially.
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The author’s done a really good job of explaining the differences between the two as well as the crossover that frequently occurs. It really comes down to the difference in mindset between the two. The advantages of having both skill sets should be obvious to a rational mind. There was a short film that was shown in a survival class I took in the early 70’s. I don’t remember the name of the actors involved, but the entire premise of the film was that just having the supplies on hand, without the skills was recipe for disaster. In the film, the main character had a room full of canned goods, but no can opener. His various attempts at trying to get the cans opened were self injurious ranging from minor cuts to deep lacerations, all because he lacked the knowledge and skills to safely open a can without an opener.
“What skill level is needed” is the question we should be asking ourselves, and that will depend upon each skill. Learning how to use a Flint and Steel to start a fire under difficult conditions being a good example. Trying to force muscles to work in an unfamiliar way, becomes even more difficult if the body’s approaching or in the early stages of Hypothermia. This is why those skills need to be practiced until they’re second nature, because there’s a lot more steps to success than just being able to strike a spark.
The skills needed vary both in their complexity and difficulty. One advantage to Prepping is it does give the Prepper more time to learn or hone those skills, although there are a few that take a lot of time to master and be sufficient at. Hunting being a good example. Becoming a successful hunter doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a lot more to the task than shooting and trapping game. Butchering your game, as well as preserving as much as possible (in the absence of refrigeration) is no small task. Knowing what prey is available, as well as knowing what season is the best and safest time to harvest is knowledge you need beforehand. Rabbits are a good example, as late fall, winter and early spring are the best time in general, because in some areas of the country, worms are a factor during the warm months.
In my view, successful survival requires both prepping and survivalist mindsets. The goal isn’t just to survive, but to thrive too.
I believe that a survivalist believes that N.Korea has the ability to nuke Dallas,Texas. Plus that a ZOMBIE OUTBREAK could actually happen. I have been researching prepping for about three years(I’m writing a book about a prepper). One thing I’ve never understood is the paranoia about E.M.P. weapons( If they are so EFFECTIVE; why hasn’t someone used one by now?) I lived in Houston,Texas for over 40 years. So I understand why yiu should prepare for a hurricane.I live in Rhode Island now.So I now prepare for possible 5′ snow drifts. Could someone describe an incident where you’d need an I.N.C.H. bag?
an inch bag would have enough in it so you could continue on to your other cache’s
You have to be both.
In true SHTF all the game will be hunted out in just a few days by desperate people who have no storage and are trying to survive. Right down to the squirrels. Unless you are in a very very remote area.
In true SHTF, you might be driven off your land by marauders, or your home might burn down from various causes.
You don’t know what you will have to deal with until it happens. Just try to cover as many bases as you can, and still try to live your normal life in the mean time.
A lot depends on where you live. I would say the best plan if possible is to live somewhere where emergencies are unlikely and resources are good if they do happen. For example I live on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. There is a good community spirit here, and the infrastructure both physical and social is well developed for most emergencies that happen. Usually gale force winds.
When our house burned down a few years ago due to an electrical fault we were given good quality temporary accommodation by the local council until it was rebuilt. Scotland has an efficient and fair government which does well protecting the populace despite having one hand tied behind it’s back by England, as has been shown by the recent pandemic response.
I still stockpile where I can and this has come in useful. I had Brexit preparation stocks in place for the last couple of years, and this has come in useful recently as we didn’t need to do much shopping during the present Covid crisis until the systems had been put in place to keep the shops stocked and everyone had calmed down a little.
The best thing is that we are an Island, so the ferries and planes were restricted early on to essential traffic only, as a result we have only had 8 cases and no deaths on the whole island.
I think there is a lot of crossover in the Terms.
Also I heard the survivalists started around 50s 60s in the time of the cold war in the U.S. this was mainly
due to the fear of Nuclear Strikes and also invasion from the Soviet Union, this prompted a lot of training
with weapons and in Camouflage uniforms in isolated areas & woods. This continued until the first well known cases of Terrorism started and people started pointing their fingers at the survivalists. At some time then they started calling themslves “Preppers” and said they were preparing for an emergency.
Wether the story is True or not it shows how people can grab the “wrong end of the stick” and even the innocents of the craft/Art have a need for OPSEC
I like to work on both. By crises crossing you can cover more bases. Also by developing in both you gain an advantage. I recommend not waiting until the SHTF or the CHTF, C= CRAP. Work on developing daily as you go so if and when anything or everything happens your ready to Wipe the SHTF, CHTF and keep on keeping on if and when all hell breaks loose.
I am what the situation demands.I can dig a hole or run. Ready for what ever.
My simple definitions of prepper and survivalist:
A survivalist prepares to be able to do without.
A prepper prepares so she/he will not have to do without.
Just my opinion.
That makes perfect sense.