When the chips are down, mistakes can be fatal. Even those who have spent the better part of their life preparing for a disaster are prone to mistakes. And once you make them, there’s no going back.
Some of these mistakes are rooted in misconceptions, others in heat-of-the-moment errors. However, the outcomes are the same.
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In order to keep yourself from succumbing to a fatal blunder if a worldwide collapse happens, here are 7 mistakes you will want to be sure to avoid:
1. Going it Alone
Preppers are often a distrusting sort, with a natural tendency to strike out on their own when SHTF. While understandable, this is generally a bad idea.
The truth is that there’s safety in numbers. Other people’s skills will be able to compliment your own (for example, a group that contains a doctor, a skilled hunter, and a ham radio operator is much more likely to survive than an individual with just one of these skills).
Meanwhile, sticking with a group of people ensures that if you are incapacitated for any reason, there are others there to help you along.
It’s a not a bad idea to be wary of others in a disaster scenario; just don’t let that wariness block you off from the benefits of working with others.
2. Preparing for a Fight Above All Else
After a worldwide collapse, you may very well find yourself having to fight for your life. Chances are, though, that you’ll have many other more pressing concerns.
Far too many preppers have a bunker stocked full of enough guns, ammo, and bulletproof vests to supply a militia, but not enough food and water to make it a week. Perhaps it’s the fact that guns and ammo are a lot more fun than canned goods, or perhaps it’s the warrior mentality that many preppers are instilled with.
Regardless, don’t be one of the people who end up armed to the teeth and starving to death.
3. Planning for a Bugout That Requires Superhuman Abilities
If your bugout bag weighs 50+ pounds and your bugout plan is to take off at a full sprint up a hill through the woods, chances are you aren’t going to make it very far.
Even if you are in above-average shape, the simple truth is that most people do not have the physical abilities to pull something like this off. When designing your bugout plan, be sure to avoid overestimating your abilities. Practice, if you have the chance, to make sure it’s doable.
Just make sure you don’t end up collapsing and breaking your neck fifty yards into your mad-dash bugout.
4. Not Knowing Your Gear
It’s not enough to stock up on a ton of gear; you’ve got to know how to use it. If you’ve never canned a jar of vegetables in your life, that canner in your bunker probably isn’t going to do you any good. Likewise, if you haven’t put in a significant amount of range time, then that brand new firearm might as well be a paperweight.
In the digital era, people have grown accustomed to being able to learn new skills on the fly thanks to the information on the web. If that information is cut off, though, you may find that figuring out a piece of equipment you’ve barely touched is a real challenge.
Therefore, it’s important to spend time learning how to properly use all of your gear before the day comes that you have to.
5. Not Paying Attention to Proper Food Storage
A can of tomatoes that’s been contaminated with botulism will kill you as dead as a bullet to the head. To make matters even worse, it’ll be a much more miserable way to go.
It’s a sad reality that stored food doesn’t last forever. Some food items will last longer than others, but only a select handful have a shelf life that is indefinite. This becomes even more of a problem if you are not storing your food supplies properly.
Make sure to research the shelf life of the food you store, learn the signs of spoilage, and learn how to store food in a way that will maximize its shelf life. Otherwise starvation and/or food poisoning could be what does you in.
6. Preparing for a Single Event
The preparation required to survive a pandemic is not the same as the preparation required to survive a nuclear war. Nevertheless, many preppers get caught up in thinking they can predict the future and will prepare for only one disaster scenario that they’re sure will happen.
Instead of focusing on any one event or any one date, make sure you are putting back general as well as specific supplies necessary to survive any event. Otherwise, you’re playing doomsday roulette and betting your life that the ball lands where you think it will.
7. Making Yourself a Target
There are a lot of ways a person can make themselves a target in a disaster scenario, and almost all of them run the risk of getting you killed.
In disaster scenarios, some people take on the mentality of criminals, stealing what they need to survive. Aside from the moral considerations, the problem with this approach is that supplies which can be stolen have owners who are probably willing to kill you to defend them.
There are also preppers who plan on decking themselves out in full combat gear and roaming the streets like the new form of law-enforcement they envision themselves being. The problem is that doing this is like holding up a sign that reads, “kill me, I’m a threat, and rob me because I have valuable stuff.”
In a true disaster scenario, you’re going to want to blend in. Don’t do anything that draws the ire of anyone else, and don’t behave in any way that could make you a target. The best preppers are the ones you’d never guess are as prepared and capable as they actually are.
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A well rounded “stockpile” of water (minimum 1 gallon per person per day, don’t forget pets / livestock) , food, fuel, basic hygienic and medical supplies, as well as equipment such as hand tools, food prep, cleaning and maintenance items & supplies, firearms and other defensive items, portable solar powered lights and rechargers, hand cranked radio/flashlights, stainless steel single walled water containers, portable water containers (2.5 & 5 gallon), and anything else you can think of if you have to “rough it” like a tent, sleeping bags, camp stove, good boots & gloves. It’s also good to learn usable skills such as fire making from scratch by multiple methods, learning to hunt / fish / gather / grow and raise food in the environment you live in, and any building & crafting skills you can learn in advance will all be useful in a SHTF situation. I suggest you plan ahead to take care of yourself during and after natural disasters, as well as any societal disruptions / breakdowns – the government will NOT be able to “come to your rescue” in any timely fashion, if at all. Preparing in advance can be done on a budget by smart planning and shopping – I recommend searching Walmart.com first for everything from survival / camping type water filters, water storage barrels, dehydrated foods, camping / survival type equipment, and anything else you can think of. Part of my “planning”, in addition to long term food storage, is to grow vegetables in containers and letting some go to seed every year, then planting those seeds the next year, and repeating with the saved seeds. I started with “off the shelf” packaged seeds, not “heirloom”, but what I replant may eventually become “heirloom” because they survived and seeded in my environment, the produced seed themselves. I am also doing this with a few trees like Lemons and Moringa, but seeds take a long time from planting to fruiting, so I also need to learn to get them to grow from cuttings, then maybe on to grafting. I bought two “rain barrels” (Walmart.com) and am going to learn what it takes to collect rainwater to use for my gardening in case the piped in water ever stops. I will probably need to expand to a lot more barrels, but two will get me started so I learn how it’s done – for now.
PS: I also have six 55-GAL potable water barrels besides the two rain barrels – different designs and processes. I forgot to mention you really need to stock up on a few gallons of generic liquid bleach (no scent or additives) for water sanitation – 8 drops per gallon.
If you want to make a worthwhile long term purchase, they sell these water storage in sizes to several thousand gallons at Tractor Supply, Home Depot or Lowe’s. We got a 325 gallon one for around $200. If you have gutters or a tin roof that water flows easily off of, you can bury the majority of the storage tank and throw a piece of plastic screen over the opening to keep leaves and bugs out of it. Most come with lids attached, so you can keep the water safe when it’s not raining, and open it up when it is.
Just a quick mention: The ptb are in a project to literally block and or take down the C.B. and HAM frequencies. So have alternative modes of communication among our people. Thanks.
Unlike the two gentlemen who’ve previously commented on this post, I have no military training. Moreover, my version of prepping, quite possibly to my detriment, involves little in the way of firearms or related resources. However, none of that overshadows my appreciation for the terrific advice shared in this list of concerns for preppers.
I really appreciate the suggestion to learn one’s gear. Without previous training, and relying solely on self-motivation and a desire for resourcefulness, I admit that I have limited experience and under-developed skills with some of my tools and prepping concepts. That lack of working knowledge is a recipe for disaster if things go sideways. Being that mindful practice in any skill is the only way to be prepared to use it, I know I need to spend more time working to master my gear.
Another key item in this post is the suggestion to be prepared to physically exert oneself in a way many of us — I’m pointing the finger squarely at myself — are simply too out of shape to hope for. Perhaps one way to prepare oneself is to carry one’s pack on hikes. And if hikes aren’t possible, in order to get in bug-out shape, then humping one’s bug-out bag around the block, or through the neighborhood, is in order.
Most importantly, thank you for the thoughtful and well-written article full of sound advice. There’s much I’ve taken from here and will use to guide my future prepping decisions.
Good ideas about the real-life backpacking challenge. I’m in a city, but could practice carrying it around the local high school track if necessary. Very true. A friend of mine turned off the electricity and water for one weekend to see where the gaps were in her preparations. She reports there were many, but fortunately, it was only a ‘test, ‘ and gave her time to shore up her equipment and skill sets.
Trying my best to get ready! Thank you for these excellent articles.
I agree with the rather military mind-set of ‘playing it down’ especially if you’re around people. Because in a disaster, it will be a dog-eat-dog world and they will kill you and take what you have if necessary for them to survive!
And I like the idea about having a cache in more than one place, good idea!
On the one hand you do not want to look like a overt threat, but on the other hand you do not want to look like an easy prey, victim either!
Balance is the key. So is blending in with the average, armed joe.
Since probably most people will be armed to the teeth, beware of thinking that you can get away with just a few weapons. It is better to have a bit of a stock pile and not carry them, than to need them and not have them.
To much of this thinking is of one extreme or the other, way to many weapons or way to few. A variety of types of weapons is good also. Like a knife or 2 , a handgun, a rifle or shotgun, maybe a bullet proof vest, depending upon the circumstances.
each had a purpose, learn them and use and carry them, as needed.
Blending in and being “unseen” is the key. My job in the Army required me to be as invisible as possible. Multiple cache sites to spread your resources so that losing one site doesn’t cripple your survival plan. You also need to be able to abandon a site if the threat posture gets too high and return later when things cool off.
In the movie The Shootist John Wayne said most people die in a shootout because they don’t have the will to kill. Question is do you have the will to kill? The US army rangers taught us two is one, one is none; meaning teamwork with people who are willing to kill. There’s a lot of talk about bugging out and there’s not much said about it. Historically it takes a ratio of 3 to 1 to take a fortified position; meaning three attackers for every Defender and the attackers must have machine guns to suppress defensive fire to keep the ratio as low as 3 to 1. This creates the need of the offensive tactic of burning the target down; are the Defenders ready to put out the fires while still defending their position? The Rangers also taught us one shot one kill. How skilled are you and your other Defenders with firearms; this includes children using 22 long rifle firearms to defend their parents, their friends, them selves and fellow Defenders? It’s not a game.
I need to get to the range! Point well made.
I agree! I haven’t been to the range in a while either. I do re-acquaint myself occasionally with the operation of weapons, but it needs to be second-nature to use and reload, and with speed!
I think you missed the points.
1) You need to be willing to kill, going to the range does not guarantee that.
That is a mindset, a choice, that you need to make well before you get into a shootout.
2) Range training is not the same as shooting at moving targets or ones that shoot back!
Paintball or Air soft or similar games should be added to Range training, to help you get a feel for this kind of thing.
3) If they can’t over come you in a shoot out, they will burn you out!
How are you firefighting skills?
This training doubles up in case of Wild fires or the City burning, out of control.
4) The Above list applies to everyone in your group!
This means training for everyone…..
Each person should have a primary assigned duty, but be able to do anything that is needed.
The difference between shooting rounds at the range and shooting a round at a real, live person standing 40 feet away, looking for some food for his family is pretty great. Can you look into a man’s eyes and pull the trigger? If you can and do, and shoot him dead, you’ve effectively killed him, his wife and their children. We should all be practicing vigilance, prayer, and helping our fellow citizens.
Yes. Something to consider.
Lock ‘n’ load! As a Vietnam Veteran, our rules of engagement were to our advantage – probably why I survived.
David gives life saving advice!