Bug Out Bag (BOB)

[Black Blade]

Bug Out Bag (BOB)

Should be need arrive that I have to evacuate my home then I will have to grab my "go to" rifle and "Bug Out Bag" (BOB) and hit the road to my "Bug Out Location" (BOL). I have an Alice Pack with enough gear for hopefully a minimum of three days.

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http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/ccd36ff31fcea74722b312833def9886904208c7.pjpg

My "go to" rifle in this case is a modified Russian AK-47 with two attached 30-round magazines and a vinyl magazine pouch with five 30-round magazines. The AK has attached a uni-green lasermax laser and AimSHOT holographic sight. This is a fairly decent short to intermediate range rifle.

http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/d9516412a72a1a3b99c41de45f554193a0587634.pjpg

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Mounted to the pack and frame is a PSL-54C rifle (7.62x54R). A plastic canteen is clipped onto the pack and a U.S. military mummy bag rests on the top of and straps to the pack and frame.

Bug Out Bag Contents

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The Bug Out Bag contents inventory top to bottom and left to right (Lower Photo):

1. First Aid Kit (includes Celox blood clotting agent and magnesium fire starter)
2. Collapsible fishing pole and fishing kit (8 lb line and box of lures, flies, sinkers, etc.)
3. Wyoming Saw (in black folding case)
4. Mountain House freeze-dried packs
5. Coleman propane canister and burner
6. Katadyn water filter
7. Clothes
8. Mess Kit and flask of "medicinal" brandy
9. Leatherman multi-tool
10.Pocket Knife
11. Water filter bag and kit
12. Quick oats and energy bars
13. Reading Glasses and Glass Case
14. Solar and Crank Radio (charging attachments for cell phone)
15. Package of Kleenex
16. Gloves
17. PSL-54C pouch with four 10-round magazines and cleaning kit.
18. Glow Sticks
19. 2 vinyl ponchos (rain protection and shelter)
20. Boonie hat with full head mosquito netting
21. Paracord (various lengths)
22. Package of handwarmers (10 packs) and extra loose packs
23. Folding Shovel
24. Folding reading Glasses
25. Sewing Kit
26. Package of black ties
27. US Army mummy bag
28. Package of plastic ties
29. PSL-54C rifle (7.62x54R)
30. CZ-82 auto handgun (9x18mm) with extra magazine in camo holster

Granted, I live in the rural Rockies so my requirements are much different than many others. The point of having the BOB as well as the companion Get Home Bag (GHB) is to be able to get to the Bug Out Location (BOL) where I am well stocked and can replenish supplies. Failing that, the BOB will help me get from cache to cache until I reach my final BOL destination where I can settle in to ride out the disaster.

- Black Blade

[Book]

Granted, I live in the rural Rockies so my requirements are much different than many others.


That is an understatement...lol.

:)

[Black Blade]

Yep, I don't have many neighbors - not the two legged kind anyway. My ultimate goal is complete off-grid self-sufficiency. I am a long ways from that right now but closer than I had hoped.

http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/4f126c31c4acf2341523bc9caee0cd652bda7ed6.jpg

http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/3d516218ae2d143f956682866b4e9e2e26f04537.jpg

Still close enough to the high country just in case. I really have nowhere to run to unless really pushed. Even then I do have a plan B, a plan C, etc.

- Black Blade

[Book]

My ultimate goal is complete off-grid self-sufficiency. I am a long ways from that right now but closer than I had hoped.


You are already better off than 99% of us Black Blade. Your posts here are both educational and fun to read so please continue.

:D

[mick silver]

nice place black blade

[Celtic Rogue]

Thats an awesome place for sure.. I am stuck in suburbia with no way to sell my house without a loss.

[MNeagle]

Very nice BOB & place. You must be single.

[Occamsrazor]

I recomend maxpedition bags and Countycomm BOBs. You should have a good carbon steel chopping knife like MMHW, Greco (my fave) or production like TOPS, Reeve etc.

[Black Blade]

The Grab And Go Survival Pack

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/2009/06/bug-out-bag.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GUroCnFjVic/SkleY0vhSEI/AAAAAAAADHo/MmSqX38AeCo/s200/alicep5.jpg

"'Which is heavier a soldiers pack or a slaves chains' Napoleon"

"Soon after you confront the matter and necessity of survival planing and stockpiling, another question will occur to you: 'What will I do if I loose all this stuff?'"

"It's a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental answer: You need a backup plan."

"There are many things that can happen separating you from your main cache and retreat."

"Theft and fire are two that come to mind and the threat of organized gangs of raiders scouring the countryside looking for sources of resupply are always a threat to the survivor." ...

Pack and Contents

1. The Pack - I have a LC-1 "Alice" pack but any quality pack with enough capacity will do. Stick with camouflage, dark green or other natural colors that blend with the terrain.

2. Water - A canteen with cup and cover for your belt, water bottle and a good filter.

3. Fire - Waterproof matches, a magnesium fire starter and tinder.

4. Food - Pack enough to last 5 to seven days. Rice, oat meal, beef jerky, energy bars etc. Another option is MRE's and the freeze dried foods often sold to campers and hikers. Choose foods that are light weight and a suitable shelf life.

5. Stove - A small stove is essential it you want to stay hidden. Smoke and noise from the cutting and burning of wood would be undesirable if you are in hostel territory or being pursued. I have a Peak-One backpackers stove, there are others but this is what I have and can recommend.

6. Sleeping bags - If you are in a cold area a good sleeping bag could mean the difference between life and death. Get a light weight "mummy" style bag rated to -20 degrees.

7. Shelter - Rain poncho and tarp or compact tent, stick with natural colors that blend with the surrounding area.

8. Cooking - I have a Stainless Steel 5-Piece Mess Kit, that I ordered from amazon.com but any light weight kit will do.

9. First aid kit - It's best to assemble your own kit, tailored to your individual needs, or if you are lazy you can purchase a ready made kit. Don't forget to add personal meds.

10. Light - I have a 2-AA Cell Mini LED Flashlight Mini LED Flashlight and a 9-Hour Candle.

11. Tools - A folding saw, Swiss Army pocket knife, and fixed blade knife. A light weight shovel and Machete are nice, but add extra weight.

12. Extra Clothing - At least one extra pair of socks and underwear add other items if you feel the need and have the space.

13. Fishing kit - Line, hooks and sinkers and a few small lures. I also have a small gill net for catching fish.

14. Snare wire - I make my own from copper wire. Don't forget to include at least 50 ft of parachute cord.

14. Plastic bags - Two or three large lawn bags and several zip-lock sandwich bags, can be used fo a number of tasks and to keep things dry.

15. Small Binoculars - See the game and enemy before they see you.

16. Sewing kit - Needle and thread don't forget to include a few extra buttons.

17. This n' that - Head net, electrical tape, face paint, gloves, sharpening stone etc.

18. Firearms - This is were feathers get ruffled and wounds opened. Everyone has their own idea of what the "perfect" survival firearm is or should be.

I am not going to get into all the choices here, which would be an article in and of itself. Instead I am going to tell you my personal grab and go weapons of choice. Ready? Springfield XD9, Ruger MK II and Savage bolt action in .308 Win.


Black Blade: Fairly close to what I have including the Alice Pack. Like the author says, everyone has their choice of firearms at the ready for when they high-tail it out for the high country. My problem is that I have so many choices that narrowing it down can be difficult. For now my "grab and go" guns in order of importance are:

1. PSL-54C - ammo is cheap and comparable to a .308 (good for hunting)
2. Glock 19 - common gun in common cal.
3. Tokarev TT-33 - in my part of the world a "bear gun" is advisable.
4. P-64, Makarov or CZ-82 - a couple of these pocket rockets fit easily in the pack as backup.

[Book]

I recomend maxpedition bags and Countycomm BOBs.


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41U6IyBk8eL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

Doctor Mamboni has one of the coolest bugout bags I have ever seen. He spared no expense...lol.

:D

[Black Blade]

Bugging Out

Richard Cooke

Simon Beer has spent the past five years trying to convince himself that the Apocalypse will be fun. Not that he calls it the Apocalypse. His fellow survivalists call it TEOFTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) or the Long Emergency, the Collapse, the Shift or the Event, as in, "There may be marauding bands of cannibals post-Event." But Simon doesn't call it anything at all. "I guess I'd call it 'When the oil runs out'," he says. "I don't really have a name for it." So far this nameless thing has been far from fun: it has cost him his job, his relationship and his health, and it hasn't even started yet.

In the back garden of a modest Blue Mountains home sit the remains of Simon's meagre preparations for the Event. Even before he became seriously weakened by fibromyalgia, a condition with symptoms that include whole-body pain, he was never the kind of survivalist interested in having a bunker full of tinned food and weaponry. "Those can just be taken from you by force," he says. "Skills, primitive skills, on the other hand, will be more valuable. If your value is in your head, they can't take it from you - and they can't kill you, because you're too valuable."

In the moist dirt is a collection of sticks and cord, half-buried. This is what's left of a broken-down 'mangle' trap. Post-Event, it would be baited with meat and an animal hapless enough to pull at it would be crushed under a toppling log. (Today a recycling bin takes the place of the log.) Simon has never caught an animal. "I've never even made friction fire," he says, picking at a muddied stick. "There were so many things I was starting to teach myself, before I got sick." He does know which weeds are edible, though, and we eat some dandelions and an acrid-tasting sheep's sorrel leaf before going back inside.

Simon taught himself to read at the age of two. At ten, he could explain the sub-atomic workings of a semi-conductor. Later, his work in physics won him a university medal: "I discovered two new star nebulae. Very minor ones." But he was already disillusioned by the academy, because "a scientist is someone who finds out more and more about less and less, until they know everything about nothing." After September 11, he began to read about the theory of peak oil. He was compelled by the idea that vast population growth has relied on cheap oil and that vast populations will use all the oil, or at least make it very expensive, resulting in massive, rapid population decline. After a great deal of reading and thought, he could find no way around this impasse.

"The attraction of civilisation fits so many of the characteristics of addiction," he says. "It has appeal. It has immediate benefit and gratification. It has hidden costs. My mistake was trying to quit civilisation cold turkey." For a time he tried to spread the word about peak oil, but soon realised that an end-of-the-world evangelist was just another Jeremiah. He moved back to his mother's place in the Blue Mountains and started to learn the forgotten skills necessary to survive in the wild: cordage and fire-starting, bush tucker and shelter, trapping and tracking. "I really thought that unless I learned these skills I would die," he says. "I wouldn't recommend that others embrace the idea with the same intensity I did."

Some survivalists arrive at their conclusions through rational thought alone. Some want to renounce society in the manner of a hermit or a religious ascetic. Some are driven by misanthropy, latent or fully expressed. (Analogies between humans and vermin, humans and viruses, are common currency, often buoyed by a quote from Gore Vidal: "Think of the Earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the [parasite] dies, or both die.") There are clues to what primed Simon for his conversion: his mother threw herself into rapture-heavy Pentecostalism; his recalcitrant father built the family house.

But what finally sealed Simon's conviction was the fact that his beliefs seemed to trigger a personal cataclysm. Soon after he found out about peak-oil theory, he collapsed at a local swimming pool. He collapsed again at his computer. A terrible, gnawing pain took hold of his gut; he lost 20 kilograms in three weeks; his right hand swelled so much that he had to learn to write with his left, one of the few skills he was able to learn after the onset of the illness. Simon was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which is thought to be psychogenic, perhaps a demonstration of the mind's awesome ability to wreak havoc on the body. Exercise has put the lost weight back on, but he has a prison pallor and throughout the many hours of our discussion he must stay standing, because of the pain.

Some survivalists carry a 'bug-out bag', a pack full of vital goods. Simon's bug-out bag (contents: 1 x small knife, 2 x fire-starters, 1 x roll of parachute cord) was a work in progress when he developed fibromyalgia. He now has a new bug-out bag of sorts, which contains the medicines required if his muscles spasm when he is out of the house.

"Most people can't prepare, because they don't know about peak oil and what it means," Simon explains. "I know, but I can't prepare." What about telling others? "Most people don't want to know, or can't really deal with it. Besides, if everyone became convinced, the markets would collapse and the process would just happen more quickly." He smiles serenely at this salient point. Occasionally he will pass on material to a curious friend: "One guy had just bought a brand new Subaru WRX, and the first CD he listened to [in it] was one I gave him, an interview with a peak-oil expert. Not long after, he bought some acreage in Tasmania. Tasmania fares well in climate-change models."

The only real form of preparation left for Simon is mental preparation. "I'd almost like to become the survivalist version of [the self-help guru] Anthony Robbins: someone who can talk to people about these terrible things that will happen, but make them seem positive." He has stripped all the pessimism from his webpage, focusing instead on the rewarding skill set of the hunter-gatherer. He makes it sound like an endless camping trip. "I know I might have romanticised it," he admits. "But I need to. It's going to happen; I have to make the change seem positive. Happiness is all about the perception of growth, of going forward. So if our current use of resources is imbalanced, then getting that balance back will be an improvement."

Would Simon be disappointed if the Event didn't happen in his lifetime, after all the sacrifices he has made? "That's a difficult question. No civilisation survives forever. It's a question of if, not when. Things the way they are now, I'd be happy if society managed five good years. Ten, at the most. It's difficult for me to imagine 30 years." And if the Event happens now, with him in this state of ill-preparedness? "Oh, I'll die of course. But then, almost everyone will die."

For all his careful reflection, there seems to be one factor left out of Simon's consideration of post-Event life. The first generation of the new human race will be drawn exclusively from a gene pool of survivalists.

http://www.themonthly.com.au/node/513

[MNeagle]

Well, that was depressing!

[Book]

Well, that was depressing!


Yeah...if we start thinking about Preps and becoming prepared we will get fibromyalgia like Simon:


Simon was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which is thought to be psychogenic, perhaps a demonstration of the mind's awesome ability to wreak havoc on the body.

Absurd article...lol.

:D

[SHTF2010]

i don't have the link for this
but i thought i'd throw this in here

B.O.B. questions

1 Where are you bugging out to?

2 How far do you have to travel?

3 Cross country or following roads?

4 What season is it? What kind weather could you expect?

5 Are you going through urban or rural environments?

6 What kind of topography will you have to deal with?

7 Travel by day or by night?

8 On foot or using some sort of vehicle?

9 What are the potential obstacles/threats?

10 Going it alone or do you have company?

11 Figure out alt routes, re-answer the questions for the alts.

[SHTF2010]

again, no link

B.O.B. rating

Portability - 10% defines BOB's ease of movement

Hydro Power - 16% defines BOB's ability to keep you hydrated

Feedability - 12% defines BOB's ability to keep you fed

Sheltering Ability - 21% defines BOB's ability to keep you warm and dry

Fire Making Ability - 11%

Combat - 5% - defines BOB's ability to protect your from malicious harm and does NOT include any weapons you already regularly carry on your person.

Durability - 5% defines BOB's ability to take abuse

First Aid - 5% defines ability to keep you alive in the event of injury or incapacitation

Communication - 5% - - Navigation - 10%