{"id":38911,"date":"2015-06-28T01:02:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-28T05:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=38911"},"modified":"2015-06-28T01:02:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T20:12:33","slug":"prepping-101-no-bs-bugout-bag-basics-essentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/prepping-101-no-bs-bugout-bag-basics-essentials\/","title":{"rendered":"Prepping 101: NO BS Bugout Bag Basics & Essentials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>

This is the Molle II Large Rucksack, which is current military issue. The main pack is 5000 cubic inches, which is the equivalent of 80 liter commercial packs, which I consider inferior. Though they sell online in good condition for upwards of $200 in many places, I just bought 2 of them, with the extra side sustainment pounches on Ebay for under $75 each including shipping.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have avoided the subject of “bugging out” in this series until now, and it was intentional. Most bugout articles are absolute garbage. I even saw one in a large format news stand magazine that compared **children’s backpacks** because in the same issue were several advertising spreads from Columbia. Bugging out is a great topic if you want clicks and magazine purchases, but few people address what it means to actually bug out, and the different scenarios that may force you to leave a secure location. Think about it. Are the roads jammed? Am I going to be on foot at some point? I can’t hide that I am carrying resources, and at some point I may have to deal with “the authorities” who are going to make sure that I am unarmed. How do I maximize the money that I can spend right now, to perhaps survive at some point out on the road to somewhere. <\/p>\n

First lets talk about why you would bug out to begin with. Because if you have been following some of the advice in this column, most likely you already have some resources stocked up, and those resources are not going to be easily transported. For instance, in my very early article on food<\/a>, I suggested #10 cans of freeze dried food from Honeyville. I just did another order with them recently (and no, we have never gotten a discount or anything free). I also suggested filling 6 gallon plastic buckets with commonly available survival supplies. These don’t travel well for anything like bugging out. <\/p>\n

In my initial water article<\/a>, we covered the individual filtration unit called the LifeStraw, which you for sure would put in a bugout bag, but we also covered a water storage system that fits in your bathtub, and even a 250 gallon water storage unit made to fit through apartment doorways. In one closet you could keep enough resources to survive several months, for less than $1,000. People will be killing each other in the streets. The best advice is to accumulate as much as you can where you are when a “situation” hits, then hunker down and avoid all human contact. Why would you bug out?
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\"Make<\/a>

Make sure that your pack is sufficient size to carry what you can physically carry, and don’t discount using extra space to hold other bags, like duffel bags, in case you need them down the road. Make sure you get a frame pack, even if you don’t get this specific one. Older ALICE packs are really cheap, and they are huge.<\/p><\/div>
\nThere is also the issue of being able to get out. Unless you get some kind of early warning, everyone else is going to be trying to get out too. If you are in the city and you know that no matter what you have to get out, have a plan now. In advance you should build an evacuation plan, and ideally have a place to go. I reviewed the book “Strategic Relocation<\/a>” a while ago, and it gives you good escape routes off the beaten path for most major cities. Don’t think you are going to go to public government land and wing it, please. The writers who suggest that are going to die in the first wave as they rush to the same place everyone else is going, only to die fighting over the one wild hog that hasn’t been killed yet when they get there. Get a closet water container and hunker down until those idiots all kill each other. <\/p>\n

When You Have to Leave RIGHT NOW<\/h2>\n

This is where the whole subject of bugging out gets interesting. If you are close to one of the coasts, earthquakes all over the world have been showing up in the strangest places<\/a>. There are cases where you absolutely have to leave, because you will die if you stay. <\/p>\n

Do you have to leave **right now** because a tzunami just wiped out your neighborhood, and it is either get on the rescue boat or take your chances with staying on the roof? Did your geiger counter just spike to 5 rads an hour because your local nuke plant is melting down after that pretty light from space turned out to be an EMP attack? Have you exhausted your food and water at your current location and now have to forage? Those are all very different scenarios that will require different pack essentials. <\/p>\n

Are you in a vehicle or on foot? Are you going to try a vehicle, from which you may have to exit quickly and abandon? From the outset, I would delineate what goes in the packs and what goes in the car. From the outset I would delineate what stays and what goes. Having a plan now is going to make a huge difference if the rubber ever actually meets the road.
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\"My<\/a>

My original article on survival food suggested Honeyville.com. I still feel that they are the best. This pack of 6 #10 cans of prepared recipes is $157, and 6 packs of veggies and cheese products are much less. Shipping is always $4.99, and no, they don’t pay us to say that.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Food<\/h2>\n

Obviously, the majority of your pack supplies should be food. If you have read my original article on survival food<\/a>, you know that I am not a strong proponent of sole reliance on freeze dried food sold for survival purposes. Lots of regular supermarket food has a long shelf life, and with your own oxygen absorbers, you can store things like rice, beans, flour, pasta and nonfat dried milk for just as long as freeze dried food. <\/p>\n

For your bugout bag, I don’t think it is as cut and dried, but some foods, like flour, don’t travel well, or they will require too much preparation. I think your bugout bag should have about 1\/3rd or less prepared food, so if you can’t stop to cook, you have some food that you can eat on the move. This could be foil pack tuna, non-refrigerated meat products, and some canned food if your back can handle the weight. The rest should be freeze dried survival food, and\/or dry beans, rice, and grains, as well as nonfat dried milk, which I consider an absolute must staple.<\/p>\n

Ultimately it comes down weight, and whether you carry your water as food, meaning wet food, or if you carry dry food and plan to hydrate it with carried or found water. I prefer to carry water as water as much as possible, and hope that I’ll find water on the road to hydrate the food. I tell people to steer away from military MREs. They are expensive, and they are meant for a system that has “supply lines,” people dropping or delivering food, which you won’t have. If you have to carry the food, you are much better with dried food that you can, then hydrate.
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\"If<\/a>

If you read my original article, you will see that I suggest you buy bulk rice, beans, pasta, tuna and dried milk from Walmart. This is my latest find. 4 bucks a pound for actual meat, and the stated shelf life is over 6 months, though I suspect it will be much more.<\/p><\/div>
\nThen you have to ask the question, where do I get the freeze dried food? I still suggest that you buy #10 cans from Honeyville explained in the previous article. I looked around a lot back then, and have since, and they are the source that the serious preppers use. I have noticed that since I wrote the first article the prices have come up 20-30%, but in bulk I would say that they are still the choice. Just beware that as a rule there is almost no actual meat in any of the freeze dried meat products. Read ingredients. <\/p>\n

If you want to go with individual packages of recipe foods, what I would call the gourmet route, we recently got some review product in from Valley Food Storage<\/a>, and they seem to be very high quality. When they first contacted us to review their products I compared their quantities and prices vs. other more common brands like Wise, and they seem to stack up with more actual value. I don’t suggest that you forgo the 4 pound packages of pasta and dried milk at Walmart that I suggested before, as well as large amounts of beans and rice, before you buy the gourmet food. A good backpack has about 5000 cubic inches, or 80 litres of space, which is the equivalent of more than 3 of the 5 or 6 gallon buckets. But if you have the means, and you want easy to cook, tasty meals, I think Valley is a good option. They also have a pretty cool subscription program where you get food mailed on a budget every month.
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\"Most<\/a>

Most canned food has an indefinite shelf life, but any food that hasn’t had the water removed from it is heavy, and you can carry less of it.<\/p><\/div>
\nI do not, however, suggest that you buy a prepared “survival” backpack from them or anyone else. You are better to choose what goes into your pack, and use every available cubic inch, even if it means carrying empty water containers. Also keep in mind that when you are dealing with designer recipe long term storage foods, you have to store them at ideal temperatures. I have stored the Valley Food samples for a few months in a South Florida not well air conditioned side room and the “Cheesy Mac” has expanded the bag like a balloon. It may say 15-25 year shelf life, but freeze dried recipe foods are extremely sensitive to temperatures. On examination, the Cheesy Mac seemed fine, but something chemically is going on in there, so they are not long for this world. I have not experienced that with #10 cans of powdered cheese from Honeyville stored in the same room, and my guess is that Valley uses the same supplier for their cheese powders. The people who make these recipes test for taste, but they don’t have a complete understanding of what ingredients may react with others over time.
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\"Valley<\/a>

Valley food storage sent us a pack of sample food a few months back. They seem like a great source for smaller, more transportable packages of recipe foods in freeze dried.<\/p><\/div>
\nTo cook your freeze dried food I would plan to bring some Mealspec heaters<\/a>. I reviewed these products early in this column and they work great, but they are of course only one use each. I am testing a DIY rocket stove<\/a> this week that is a bit heavy, but there are other backpack style rocket stoves<\/a> that I haven’t gotten in yet to try. <\/p>\n

Canned food may be all that you have in the house to take with you, and that’s fine if you have the backs to carry it. Hopefully you’ll find some support down the road, and the cans will get you through to the next phase of your survival journey. Take everything you can, and bring empty packs with you if you can’t fill them when you leave. You never know what the road will bring. Take a can opener or two!<\/p>\n

Carrying Water vs. Filtering Water<\/h2>\n

As we all know, you can’t go very long without drinking clean water. And as I explained in my original article on water, you really should have a plan for long term water acquisition where you live. But what if you have to leave? I think that the LifeStraw is a good, lightweight tool that we can all carry for like $20, but I also think that you need to carry water with you. I don’t suggest that you purchase packaged water, or that you rely on supermarket water bottles. From my research, the cheapest and most efficient way for a person to carry a good deal of water is in surplus military canteens. There is a one quart that you can find on Ebay<\/a> really cheap, like $4 with shipping, and there is a 2 quart that sells around $10-$15 each with shipping<\/a>.
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\"The<\/a>

The only issue we have seen with the Valley food has been in storing it at 80 or so degrees. the Cheesy Mac bag expanded due to some kind of reaction. It seems fine, but that isn’t a good sign. Similar cheese powders from Honeyville in #10 cans with oxy absorbers have not reacted in the same room.<\/p><\/div>
\nIf you are a fan of water bladder systems that are built into backpacks, like the Camelbak brand, they definitely have their merits, but I have found the few I have used over the years to be leaky and prone to unscrewing. The backpacks are usually completely useless as well, because they are meant for day hikers and bicyclists. For the money, I prefer the US Military 2 quart canteen. <\/p>\n

The major difference between the 2 quart and the older, oval shaped 1 quart, besides the obvious double size and availability of shoulder slings, is that the new canteen usually comes with a “chem cap,” which fits the drink tube of most gas masks. Any military canteen case will also have Molle clips to attach to your pack, which is a huge plus for saving space. Water is heavy and bulky.
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\"We<\/a>

We covered most water storage systems in the original article on water in this series, but for the road you should invest in these 2 quart military canteens available cheap on Ebay.<\/p><\/div>
\nI would also make sure that you have a good supply of empty water containers, even old water or soda bottles, to fill dead space in your pack. After your food is eaten or stored, you will need to transport water to your location, and the fewer trips out the better. Collapsible 5 gallon containers are great, but they are too bug to squeeze into small spaces to expand your pack to its biggest. Small bottles will maximize your space and weight. <\/p>\n

I would also carry some pool shock and iodine for purifying stream and lake water. They won’t remove chemicals, but they will take out pathogens from animals dying upstream, dirty people bathing in the lake, and Giardia. <\/p>\n

Do I Need a Gas Mask?<\/h2>\n

I am actually working on a lengthy gas mask overview right now (like literally right now in another window) and I hope to have it out within a few weeks. There is a ton of disinformation out there on the gas masks that are available in the market today. As a general rule, some mask is better than no mask. And because you have no idea what the threat you face is right now, I think that everyone should have a good “NBC” mask, which means Nuclear, Biological and Chemical, just in case. If you have a lot of people to protect and you just can’t afford even the basic Russian GP-5 civilian mask, at just under $20 each with filter<\/a>, a regular N95 mask will protect you against sneezed viral infections in a mass evacuation. I think an N95 is a little too easy to grab off of your face, but they are at least a level of protection above a surgical mask. One up from there is the dual filter NIOSH masks, but if you are going to spend the money on those, just go for a full face gas mask. There are also some good and cheap options for children, which I’ll get to in the article. The Russian GP-5 and PDF masks for children saved a lot of lives after Chernobyl, and they are available now for cheap, and no, they don’t have asbestos in the filters.
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\"The<\/a>

The new canteen have what is called the “chem cap” on them, which connects to drinking systems on gas masks, including Israeli and some Russian civilian masks.<\/p><\/div>
\nI personally don’t think that biological and chemical threats are worth the weight and bulk of a gas mask, but that’s just me. A gas mask filter is only good for 6 to 8 ours under the best conditions, and they are really difficult to function in. If you are part of a large refugee group running from a biological outbreak, if you are the only one in the crowd with a full face mask, you are going to have it taken by the mob at some point. <\/p>\n

Chemical weapons are also a lost cause when it comes to gas masks. Most inexpensive civilian masks will melt from exposure to things like Mustard Gas, and you really need a full chem suit if you expect to fight in a chemical weapons theatre. The good news is that chemical weapons have to be hand spread, or exploded in a small circumference in rockets. so they are therefore extremely localized. If you are just bugging out after an event, if you already survived the event, most likely you don’t have to worry about chemical warfare chemicals right now.
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\"That<\/a>

That of course begs the question, “do you really think I need a gas mask?” If you consider nuclear threats to be serious, and I do, having to move outside during a nuclear crisis will require an NBC “gas mask” and filter. This is the cheapest option, the Russian GP-5, usually under $20 including shipping from Russia.<\/p><\/div>
\nThe biggest reason that you would need a gas mask is in the case of nuclear war, or a nuke plant meltdown, which masks gas masks highly conditional when it comes to your bug out pack. You either need one or you don’t. And as I explained in my most recent article on radiation detectors<\/a>, if you need one, you need one. Nuclear particulates are extremely dangerous to long term health, even if they don’t kill you right away. But the good thing about both Alpha and Beta particles is that they are heavy, and they generally fall straight down once they are released from clouds. So if you are indoors, even without room filtration you probably won’t have much exposure to particles. Having to go outside, however, is a problem. <\/p>\n

If you know that you are more than 7 -10 miles from ground zero of a radiation source and your survey meter is still showing high levels, most likely there are particles falling in the air around your location, which means you don’t want to be outside and breathing the air. If you have to move though, you have to move, and that is where an NBC gas mask is going to be a life or death item. Have one for each person on hand, preferably with a few extra filters. If the eventual collapse doesn’t involve radiation, I would leave it behind.
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\"For<\/a>

For children, a container of Russian PDF masks were brought into the country in the 90s, and they are available in “Evirstar” packages today on Ebay for cheap, in brand new condition. Don’t be scared away by false claims that the Russian filters have asbestos. I have an article coming on masks in the future, but go look at Youtube for a video of a guy who took a filter apart.<\/p><\/div>
\nIf you do need a mask to travel, don’t worry about long term, because of course you can’t wear a gas mask for the rest of your life. Radioactive isotopes degrade very quickly, even the ones with long half lives like Cesium-137. As a rule, unless you are near the core of a nuke plant meltdown, overall radiation degrades by 10x every 7 hours<\/a>. So two days after a nuclear event, the radiation exposure danger is one hundredth times as great. So if one hour after an event the rate is 400 R\/hr. <\/p>\n