Bug out bag?

[ZVP]

What pratical items would you include?
What guns are you taking? What Calibers? A Shotgun or a Rifle?
Knives Ammo Communication devices?
JUst what would it take to get you or you and your family out to safety?
Pistols: Model 10HB S&W
Model 36 S&W
Beretta Model 21 >22 LR
Shotgun: Stoger 20 GA SXS Takedown Double
Ammo: 300rds .38 SPecial
500rds .22 LR
Mixed Buckshot, 4 boxes of slugs

Communications: (2) Cell Phones, A 2M handneld Ham Radio
Knives: Buck 110 Folder
Uncle Henry Bear Paw Folder
misc: 50'3/8" braded nylon line
4 pairs of drivers leather gloves


JUst fr starters... What can you add?
BPDave

[seansean1444]

some type of first aid

[dakota.potts]

Where are you trying to go and what situations are you trying to survive?

There was a family that became stuck in a broken down vehicle in the middle of nowhere and left the vehicle. I believe maybe all but the father died? It was a grim outcome either way.

For him, I would have said a .22 rifle, a good knife, a portable soda can stove (http://www.instructables.com/id/Soda-Can-Stove-3), and some alcohol in his car. Also, something for water filtration. Those things probably would have kept that family alive. I'm not aware of the climate. In Florida, you really don't have to worry about cold weather, but if you do some kind of blanket would also be advised.

If you're planning on being mobile, maybe some black trash bags which can be used for many things including improvised shelter.

I plan to tend more for a "get-home" set up than a bug out set up. Something that stays in the car so I can use it in case of short term emergency, natural disaster, etc.

I'd say some canned food, your EDC and ammo for it, a good knife, blankets, a first aid kit, water filters would be a good start. I've thought about getting a locking hard case for a shotgun and drilling it into the back of a car if it's important to you to have a long gun. You can get a Savage 12 gauge pump new for just over $200.

[psychopuppy1]

That's the whole point, Dakota, a BOB is not something you have time to ready for! You don't get to pick your emergency's, so your bag has to be able to cover everything for a couple of days!
I have a range bag, and a hunting bag, both have things that, when combined, will hold me for a couple of days!
I think you should add some type of fire starter, other than just a lighter or matches!

[dakota.potts]

This is true. I like to start from things I gauge most likely (auto accident, somebody hurt, car broken down, hurricane) and then go up from there. I would pack more things for a short term emergency than for a long term because I believe it's more likely.

If I believed an EMP was the biggest threat to our security (I don't), I might pack some electronics in a Faraday cage, so that I might be able to communicate with other people.

If I believed I was more likely to face a tornado threat, I would pack items for that first.

Also taken into consideration is money. Nothing I listed is overly expensive. If I had beaucoup money, my girlfriend and I would both have a satellite phone in our cars charged and ready to go. But we can make small concessions in between that are cheap and will prepare you for lots of things -- trash bags, food, cordage, good knives, an extra box of ammo for your EDC, maybe some fishing hooks, a first aid kit, a small tool kit. From there you can work your way up to the more specialized.

That's why I ask the OP's purpose.

[Jim243]

Bug out Bags are good for short term natural disasters, as such mine is set up for short term travel to a safe zone. For long term survival situations the staying put and use of existent resources will be a better survival plan.

Jim

[WardenWolf]

The idea of a single bag is generally flawed. Normally you want to have a collection of supplies that you can quickly throw in your vehicle and go. For example, a .30 caliber ammo can holds exactly 500 rounds of boxed Wolf 7.62x39 ammo. That makes both a handy range can, and a great grab-and-go can. Load 2 cans into your vehicle, along with the rifle, and get going. There's enough room left in the top of a can to fit a sight tool, boresnake, and other minor accessories.

The "bug-out-bag" itself should contain more basic supplies. Food, water, season-appropriate clothes, first-aid kit, etc. A pistol is an option, although it may be a better choice to have its own ammo can, with the pistol plus ammunition stored inside, that you can relocate to your belt or the bag at a later point.

Really the most important thing with most disasters is getting out FAST, before the roads get clogged and before whatever it is gets close enough to affect you. Your vehicle is going to be your primary mode of transporting your items, not a bag you are carrying on your back. So prepare a gearkit that can be loaded in your vehicle quickly.

[RBid]

My EDC and emergency system is a 3 part system. I have on-body, bag, and vehicle components. It's space and weight efficient, and built to keep me mobile.

My basic concept for the bag was: "if I had to walk home from the most distant location I drive to in a week, what might I need?"

To help keep me organized, I used these types of categories:

- protection from the elements

- water

- calories

- information gathering

- security

- hygiene

- tools

The end result is light and practical. I am pleased.

[Frank Ettin]

And let's keep this focused on real world situations. The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI), SHTF and Doomsday threads are off-topic on this board.

If this starts to drift into that territory, it will be closed.

[Koda94]

>spaceblanket
>small first aid kit
>leatherman juice multitool
>state hwy map preferrably with detail views of major towns
>compass
>small Platypus SoftBottle, collapsible water bottle rolled up
>Aquamira Frontier Emergency Water Filter System
>matches
>1 firestarter cube
>keychain pepper spray
>New Trent: iTorch 5200mAh Ultra Portable USB Port External Battery Charger/Power Pack for Smartphones
>any one of the many 300lumen cree mini flashlights sold on Amazon for under 5 bucks

All of these are relatively small and legal to carry and not a super big loss if stolen from your car.

[ZVP]

Yhe whole purpose of this thread is to get "MW" and others thinking about the pratical needs to set up a BOB that will suit you and your Family if that is the case.
Great ideas about sheltering from the elements/ Disasters fon't always happen in fair weather!!
Good to be thinking in a pre planning stage rather than trying to remember stuff as the bullhorns go off or the siren wails!
We need to think short term survival, gwtting from Grandma's back home and surviving getting to work for a week under great duress!
Thank you all for these ideas and I hope this string still expands so's we can all see areas where we need to get organised!
All you Ham's out there olease remember that you may be the only link to vital services and farry extra batteries for at least a 5 day run...
CB Radio and FRS radios could also lend a hand! A;; basic comms may be down and these may ne our lifelines to medical and police assistances.
Please kwwp this thread going and see where it gets us, OK?
No silly stuff allright because we really need this topic out in the opwn.
Thanks.
BPDave

[Garycw]

Every situation is a little different. The climate and distance of travel are things to consider. I have a bob with alot of things that may be impractical to keep with you always. I have a smaller sling bag for edc that has just the essentials.

[Ben Towe]

Some of these lists are pretty comprehensive. I tend to think of a bug out bag as a bare minimum survival kit. In that case, if I had to walk out the door in 10 minutes and live off the land, give me my AR, three mags, two hundred rounds of ammunition, my FNS-40 with three loaded mags and a spare box of 50, Ka-Bar, Case XXChanger (for game processing), camp ax, Mag light, my little Interstate spotlight (greatest thing ever), two cigarette lighters in a sandwich bag, my mess kit, and a handful of plastic grocery bags. A Lifestraw would be nice but not necessary, I would take it if I had one handy. Obviously I would dress warmly if I had to go today. With that load-out, alone, in my part of the country, I could survive for a very, very long time. I wouldn't be overly comfortable, and I wouldn't smell very good, but I could live. Your mileage may vary of course, depending on region, situation, etc.

Very cool discussion, let's keep it realistic though, otherwise the padlock will no doubt appear.

[kraigwy]

I'm not going anywhere

[ClydeFrog]

I'm not a major "prepper" or "preppie" .

I could see having a milspec duffy or gear bag with a few items;

7 day supply of food(pre packaged MRE type meals) in a sealed container.
Basic first aid kit or "blow out kit" for treatment of injuries or medical issues(since EMTs or hospitals may be down/out of service).
A few LED/Li battery flashlights like Streamlight, Fenix or Surefire.
A Henry AR-07 .22LR rifle with about 500-1000 .22LR rounds.
A Cutco KaBar milspec knife. www.cutco.com
A few emergency blankets & milspec ponchos.


There are a few other items, Id need to think about adding.

[dayman]

I actually do a fair bit of minimalist hiking/camping, so while I don't keep a "bug out bag" pe-rsay, I do have some experience packing a bag to live out of in the woods for an extended period of time.
I had a lot more than I needed of some things, and a lot less than I needed of others the first time I went out, but at this point I have what I feel is a pretty good list.

First off, if "the woods" is your destination, you don't need (or want) nearly that amount of weapons/ammo. They're going to take up space in your bag, and they're heavy. If you have a "bug out cabin" it might bee good to stock up, but you will get very tired of carrying around that much weight.
A .22 target pistol and maybe 50 rounds of ammo would be as much as I'd bring. Hunting takes too much time and energy to be worthwhile when you're trying to cover ground, and a .22 is all you need for the small game you're likely to stumble across.
Maybe a couple extra mags/speed loaders for your edc. Other than that:

A big knife. I like the Ka-Bar BK-2 as it's rugged enough to baton with and use as make-shift hatchet, but still small enough to be weildly for other "knife" jobs.
A little knife. Something you can clean fish or small game with, cut string, etc. I just use one of my EDC folding knives.
A flashlight. Also, spare batteries.
A 8"-12" lightweight tarp. Getting rained on is no fun.
A Mosquito Net. Mosquitoes are even less fun than rain.
A Wool blanket. There are lighter options for warmth, but wool works wet.
Water purification. Iodine, chlorine, or - if you feel like hauling it - a filter.
Fire-starter. Matches/lighter, with firesteel as a back up.
Water bottles. I like steel because you can boil water in them
Salt. Doesn't take a lot of space, and makes your food taste better. I also generally bring a little bottle of hot sauce.
TP. If you don't pack it you will regret it.
Spare socks. Underwear/shirt too if you have space, but socks are a necessity to prevent blisters.
First Aid. Just in case. Include superglue if you can't use a suture kit.
Food. I like power bars, but anything that packs a lot of calories into not a lot of space/weight
Compass/maps. Or GPS if you prefer.
Lots of 550 para cord. Strong enough to tie a raft together, or take it apart if you need something thinner for snares etc. 1001 uses.
Fishing kit. If you're going to be by water fishing is a easy way to get more calories.

And that's about it.
I generally also try to pack some rain gear, a pair of flipflops, and a small crank operated radio, as well some other small things, but they're not really necessities.
You will come out of the woods skinnier than you go in, but with 2 power bars/day you can survive for a quite a long time.

[ChasingWhitetail91]

Im with Kraigwy, I feel comfortable where i'm at.

[Ben Towe]

Originally Posted by kraigwy

I'm not going anywhere

I probably wouldn't either, Kraig, but one might be left with no choice. Even if I only had to go out to hunt for food in a such a situation, I would probably still take the kit listed above, in case circumstances changed or I simply had to forage farther afield to obtain necessary foodstuffs. That kit isn't very heavy, it's pruned to what I would consider necessary to bivouac for an extended period.

I've been through a couple of pretty bad storms, one ice storm about twenty years ago when I was a kid, and things were pretty dicey there for a couple weeks. One was a bad tornado six years ago and fuel and supplies were a bit difficult to come by for a couple days. I was in New Orleans within days of Katrina and it was chaos; no one was in control. It was probably the most impressive civilian mobilization of men, equipment, and supplies in the history of the world. The only problem was, we could get close, but getting in was nigh to impossible, and there was no organization on the ground. In Slidell there was a pile of donated clothes in parking lot that would have filled a tractor trailer, just piled there and laying in the rain. The people on the other side of the Ponchartrain that needed those and other things couldn't get to them.

Forgive me if I have strayed too far from the spirit of the thread, but my point is that things can get bad, quickly, and stay that way for awhile. A little preparation goes a long way.

[gyvel]

Maybe an extra 5 gallons of gas?

[Bill DeShivs]

Hand sanitizer is gelled alcohol. It burns readily and makes a good fire starter.
A multi blade real Swiss Army knife is very useful.
A folded piece of aluminum foil is good to have, as are generic OTC medications like aspirin, ibuprofen, decongestants, Pepto Bismol caplets, antacids, etc.

[fastbolt]

None of my various "BOB's" (to use the OP's term) contain firearms. They're broken down into collections of essential & useful things I can take with me for various reasons, when going various places by vehicle.

My training and experiences makes me focus more on immediate & short-term critical necessities. Clothing (warmth), medical supplies, short term shelter, having some emergency food & water (including purification, simple but efficient tools for expedient necessities, etc.

Yes, this includes some practical folding & fixed blades, but as tools.

If I'm at home when some natural disaster or other major emergency occurs, unless there's an imminent threat requiring movement & evacuation (fire, flood or other natural disaster threatening the property), we're staying put. Why deprive myself and any family members present of the advantages of shelter and all the preparations already at home?

If we're away from home when something befalls us? Well, depending on the duration and intended area of travel, if we're driving I'll have some general and area/season-specific supplies in our vehicle. If flying? Knowledge, training & experience always travel with me.

I've often made some specific purchases to add to whatever we're carrying with us while traveling, either as we travel, or after we've reached our destination. Things that aren't necessarily critical while on the road, but which might take up too much extra space in the car/SUV for some trip, but which might come in handy once we've arrived at our destination if something untoward occurs. (We always seem to have more room in the vehicle on the return trip, so this stuff often gets taken home. )

Firearms? Oh yeah. If at home, I can choose whatever I feel may be appropriate. If on the road, then it's whatever I've taken along as a LEOSA handgun (or handguns, as I sometimes take a couple of them).

Guns are only potentially useful for problems which require guns to solve, and that is typically a very narrow range of things when it comes to natural disasters and emergencies.

For example, we just returned from a driving trip to the PNW. After having been caught and stranded for several days by that last storm-of-the-century when we were visiting a family member's rural property several years ago (snowed in, closed roads and no power) , I put together some extra odds & ends I'd wished we'd had with us that last time.

Sure, I took along a couple handguns as LEOSA weapons, but they weren't in anticipation of natural disasters or social upheaval. Just the normal "minimum" I'd normally carry around my resident state (1 of my J's and a LCP). Pocketable and handy. I wasn't anticipating dealing with packs of feral dogs or other dangerous animals where we were going, nor was I concerned about the Zombie Apocalypse.

I did, however, want to be prepared to deal with short-term emergencies involving bad weather, veh problems, medical issues, etc.

You know, whenever this sort of thread comes up, I often think back to my childhood in southern CA. We lived a short driving distance from the desert, and it was pretty common to see the pickups, station wagons and even sedans/coupes of folks who had reason to drive outside the cities and small rural communities to carry lots of every essentials. Things like canvas water bags (for radiators and drinking), shovels, blankets, baling wire, spare clothes, etc.

Nobody considered such stuff to be special preparations, but more like just common sense. Help might not be handy, or even able to be summoned. Being stranded in the mountains or the desert was no joking matter. My father had been a cowboy on a working ranch, and other things that it took to live in KS, OK, CO & AZ when I was a youngster. He was what I later learned to be a self-sufficient person, and always carried extra stuff, and it just seemed, well ... normal.

So ... "tactically", it would seem prudent to fill the training, knowledge & experience "bags" as much as possible, first ... and then use that to figure out what equipment, tools and other items might be useful, or downright necessary, for continued survival in whatever type of emergency or disaster is anticipated.

Stuff is just ... stuff. You can drown in stuff without being able to know how, why or when to really use it. It can become clutter, and even a distraction.

Mindset, and then the training, experience and mindset to be able to effectively use stuff? Priceless.

Just my thoughts.

[RetiredMajor]

I travel for work and can be up to 200 miles away from home on any given day so I keep a "Get home bag" in my car. It's based on the ultra light backpacking concept. I have a sleep system (tent, sleeping bag, mat), food, water, water purification device, first aid, fire making materials, cook system, small tools, clothing, gloves, hat, light, batteries, a weapon and a few other odds and ends. It weighs 36 lbs and I can carry it all day. I've hiked with it and spent a number of overnights with it. In the event of an emergency, my plan is to stay with my vehicle as long as possible but if I have to leave it, I'll start heading home with my pack.

[skoro]

Originally Posted by ZVP

What can you add?

Large plastic flask of bourbon, preferably Makers Mark.

[Deja vu]

I would add any medications you are on as well as extra glassed/contacts if you use them may be an inhaler if you have asthma.

water purification, MREs portable cooking gear fire starter, blankets.

The top thing I would add is Cash. If the power is out cards may not work. Having $1000.00 at hand for an emergency is really nice. Id have it in bills no bigger than $20.00s

[Justice06RR]

I've been slowly putting together my own B.O.B. Nothing too extreme, and I still need to add a few things to it. So far I have:

- A full change of clothes
- Basic medical supplies
- Knife and scissors
- Lighters
- Flashlights and batteries
- Duct tape
- Pens
- Firearm, ammo, and mags
- Hand sanitizer
- Soap
- Face masks
- Safety glasses
- Water
- Hat
- Plastic bags
- Rope and rubber bands

I Need to add a few things including more non-perishable food, communication equipment (walkie talkie), aluminum foil, etc.