Are you really a prepper?

Outdoor Life Survival | Prep | Gear
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When SHTF, I don’t think about a collapse in government, invasion or civil war. I think about “Sandy Hook School Shooting”, “Florida Night Club Shooting” and most recent “The Las Vegas Shooting”. I think about every day things that could happen. Running out of gas. Wildfires. And natural disasters.

I met a lot of “preppers”, who have every possible scenario planed out. From what to do when mugged outside the bar, to what’s gonna happen when the government comes down. But have no clue how to treat wounds. Simple CPR. Or my favorite; isn’t even fit enough for the fight their always lookin for.

I live in California, where if you didn’t know; you can not conceal carry. A armed security guard may open carry, but he must be in uniform, and directly in transition from home to work (or vice versa). But even that is touchy.

Despite this no carry, guys still train to “If I get mugged, I’ll break the grip and pull out my gun and shoot em in the face three times.” This same gentlemen also considers himself a “prepper”. But can’t lift his body weight, walk 30min in his SHTF gear, or can’t apply simple medical attention.

Now I’m not sh*ting on all preppers. If you are a sane and logical human being; you will understand what I’m saying.

Maybe I’m confusing “prepper” with a tacti-cool. Maybe. But nowadays…theyre the same to me.

Let’s use the all and terrible “Gov’ment has collapsed and there’s civil unrest. All store have been looted and now there’s looting in homes, where families are still held up.” Scenario.

I imagine; people leaving their homes to venture to the wilderness. Survive off the land. Possibly have to defend themselves, family and items. Sure you have guns. Good for you. What happens after the bad guys are dead. Youre injured and/or worse…a love one is injured.

Do you know proper medical training. Do you know the correct usage of gauze, needles etc. can you do 10 solid push up in the gear you carry. Can you do just 1 pull up.

How can you fend off another man when you can’t even lift your weight. Can you even carry your buddy or your wife.

These are what I prep for. Medical. Basic fitness. I’m not saying you need to become a doctor bodybuilder rocket scientist. But knowing the simple basic of each would be nice.

I think about the Las Vegas Shooting often. Dozens of people injured. First responders doing what the can but still not enough. How many tacti-cool guys were there. How many preppers. How many ran off because they were either scared, didn’t know what to do or both.

You’ve got the guns. The pack with your big out gear. Now map sure you know basic medical. Make sure you can read a map. Can you walk 1 mile in your gear. Can you throw someone over your shoulder and carry them 40-50 ft.

Your more likely to have to carry an injured person, rather than be the one causing injuries. Sure train and prep to SURVIVE. But train and prep to keep others ALIVE. When you thinking of prep, take then events like Sandy hook, Florida, San Bernardino. Las Vegas; in to account. Are you prepared for something like that too?

Please sure your opinions!!

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I’ve been a prepper for a long time. I never did it for any set reason like an EMP attack. I just did it to be prepared for what ever. My goal was to have a years worth of food in storage. Just over four years ago I got sick and could no longer work. That put a financial burden on the family. To help ease that burden I tapped in to the pantry. I’m still working through it to this day. Yes, it’s smaller, but having that food in storage really helped a lot. IMO, prepping should be what is needed in your area. For me it’s blizzards or tornadoes.

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At 57 I can still lift over my body weight and carry it . I was in the boy scouts when they still taught you first aid and have taken first responder training at work . Taught wilderness survival in my younger years .Was raised in a farming family so I can butcher and grow what we need.

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I like your topic!!

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You do what you can with what you’ve got in the circumstances. If you don’t have the prepper mindset, then I don’t care how many push ups you can do, how much medical training you have, or how many years of food you’ve stored. If you DO have the prepper mindset, then you adapt, improvise, and overcome.

We’re all different, with different abilities, different backgrounds, and different beliefs/values. We have different threats, different liabilities, and different weaknesses. No one knows exactly what will happen or when. We only know that bad things do happen. More often than not, dumb luck plays one hell of a bigger role in deciding who lives and dies than all the prepping in the world. So, do your own thing in your own way, but stay humble. And may you get lucky!

[That said, getting the F*#K out of California is probably more important than either calisthenics or CPR.] :wink:

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I agree that luck plays a big part in it . But you can buy some luck by being in an area that increase s your chances. As in get away from large city’s and totalitarian regimes ( California ).

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i pretty much already live in the wilderness, so prepping for me is more homesteading then it is prepping i guess. make sure the water wells are taken care of (we don’t use them now, rural water is too cheap), making sure the land is ready for easy farming, making sure we have food plots for critters (post apocalyptic livestock), long term food storage options like makeshift root cellars, things like that. the wife is a nurse, my aunt is a nursing instructor, we have all sorts of medical equipment and things too. it is past its “expiration” as far as hospitals using it but my aunt gets them to using as training aids and i always hand pick items i want. for hospital use they may not work but in a pinch they will be far, far better than nothing at all. also, knowing proper dosages of things with vet medicines to use on people can be helpful, those meds are way cheaper and can be bought online with little to no hassle. odds are in the event of a catastrophe it will be the little things to likely kill you, things we take for granted every day.

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Seeing as how I want the animals to take over, wear nothing but natural everything, do not bathe or brush… and hope that a virgin from heaven takesall bad people away for ever and ever, why would I need to know anything at all? The sun tells me and shows me everything!
By the way, I lost all my gear and those evil bang bang things in a horrible boating accident… somehwere… in deep water. Not sure were, I forget. And I am to weak and worthless to do anything. I can hardly even breath let alone spank the old monkey. You are disturbing my happy place. I need a safe room from my safe place, so I can cry softly and hold my stuffed teddy bear. The end.

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Your so full of it you make a squishing sound when you walk.:grin:

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:grin::laughing::joy::rofl::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::crazy_face:

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SHTF?

That was about eight and a half years ago, when (in the middle of the Obama economy where people were complaining about not being able to find work) a flood put the final nail in the coffin for the company I worked for. The general manager had warned us, 8 or 9 months earlier, that the company was going out of business, so I had time to save as much money as I could. Between the savings and the canned and dried food I had been putting away, I only needed an occasional contract job to keep us fed and the utilities on for the next 10 months, when I got my next steady job.

I’m still working on getting the new house the way I want it. Plenty of woods to cut firewood and hunt in. Spring on the edge of the property, and an old well that I plan to eventually get working again with a hand pump. I grew up in this area, and power being knocked out for days at a time wasn’t exactly a rare result of a storm. Ice storms have been rare, but when they happen, power can be out for even longer. You learn to not depend on the utilities, too much.

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Like the kid said:
“Cardio Cardio Cardio”

So many huff and puff just standing up from the shooting bench at our club. Got a $2k AR though.:roll_eyes:
Talking shit means nothing if you are worthless to the cause.

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While I have to agree that taking personal responsibility for your physical self is very important… everyone can fill a roll depending on the situation.
As I approach 50 years, and after 3 major wrecks… I no longer run marathons. I cannot… I know older guys who have a hard time walking now… but back in the day they were badasses. Place them where they are useful. Because in a tight situation, while maybe physical strength or speed is not there, the mindset is. Many young men will pass over a 70 or 80 year old shuffling along. That would be fatal if you did that around my father… once special forces, always special forces… he is going to be 79 next year, looks like he is 68… and he does exercise. You just would not know it unless you know him.

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There’s some saying about age and experience vs youth and vigor…

I’ve been training a guy in his mid-20s at work. Management gives me a fair amount of say in who I train for the type of work I do, and I let them know early that he is currently the best choice in the shop. He can easily get into tight spaces and positions that are an ordeal with my back. He already had the basics, when I started training him, but he lacked experience in applying it. The main thing that made me single him out, was that he listens and thinks - something that seems to be far more rare than it should be. He can easily beat me on cardio, lifting, and probably just about any physical activity, but there are times I’ll notice he has started some little ‘project’, ask him what he’s trying to accomplish, then show him how to get the same result with a tenth of the effort. He’s learning.

One of my daughter’s friends helped with the foundation work on my current house. Other than that, it was just me and my daughter, from the point of clearing the site to moving in. In the planning stages, I wanted to minimize the requirement for air conditioning, because you can heat just about any house without electricity, but cooling a house without electricity (during August in the southeast) is a much more complicated problem. Trees make good allies in this, so I cut as few trees as possible, when clearing the site. Putting it on a northwest facing hillside also helped. Next was air circulation, with the staircase being near the center of the house, placement of windows in each upstairs room to maximize airflow, and vaulted ceilings upstairs. This past summer, we kept the house comfortable with just a small window unit that I picked up at Walmart.

The thing that will trip up most people, is having to do a quick inventory of what they have available, and how to find a workable solution with just that.

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A friend sent me this on the conditions in Venezuela:
It might give us a new perspective on what life is like when civilization collapses.
https://www.prepperwebsite.com/10-survival-rules/

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Holy hell! That’s f-ed up.

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The collapse of a modern society is not a pretty thing.

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Bring on the zombie apocalypse

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You can find your zombie apocalypse on any crack corner in Newark, Camden, Baltimore Chicago etc…
Guess who runs and ruins all the shitholes?
Old but timely:

ghetto%20freaks
ghetto%20freaks792×570 83.1 KB

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Hahahahhaaa

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