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.
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!
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!