The Prepper Thread

Teufel, Barkey isn't saying he wouldn't get his hair mussed.

I think poor barkey would be safe outside of deliberate targeting for single warheads which is kind of what is implied.

But realistically it is likely to be Mnogo warheads.

In that situation I think his hair being mussed is the least of his worries.

edited 9th Jan '14 8:07:55 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Radiation drifting on the wind down from Vandyland is a much more legitimate concern.

Get Danners or Bellevues online. Danner boots are a bit expensive, and the break-in period on them sucks ass, but once they are broken in they are the best boots I've ever had.

I dont know how I feel about buying footwear online. I have unusually shaped feet, and that's one of the things I really need to try out before I buy it.

Also, I dont see anything about the temperature rating of the Belleville boots.

Footwear is one of those categories that I'll only buy online if I've previously tried them on in a shop and know that they'll fit.

Sizing seems to be a random number more than an actual indicator of fit and varies wildly between brands.

Once I've tried on and bought shoes or boots in a store, I'll order replacements online when needed. Last time I bought shoes in my usual size online, they were a trifle long and I didn't want to have to pay courier fees to send them back and get another pair sent out - and there was no guarantee that the next size down would have fitted me as the shoes I got seemed the right width, which suggests that the next size down would probably be too narrow.

Of course, it's often tricky finding a local shop that stocks the brands and models of shoes/boots in order to try them on.

You know what, this whole mess with Ukraine gets me thinking. Folks complain that Maidan protesters included and depended on lots of crazy right-wingers. Well, I'm gonna say, normal people don't really spend their free time preparing for urban warfare or mass close combat, so you don't get much choice when you need folks to form your shield walls. And this brings to me that I have so far only heard of the Yanks that can engage in these sorts of preparations and roughly remain within the cultural mainstream.

^ Within limits, anyway.

Prepping for surviving natural disasters without help is generally considered anywhere from benign to prescient, depending on the likelihood of said disasters. Everyone's heard of hurricanes, earthquakes, or tornadoes wiping out what passes for "modern civilization", leaving those that depend on it hanging.

The extremes of those who don't trust the government (local, state, national, or combinations thereof) are, however, often dismissed as "redneck hicks" at best or otherwise laughed at as Right Wing Militia Fanatics or Crazy Survivalists, if not outright stated to be a threat the government should put down (what could possibly go wrong with that? ).

edited 8th Mar '14 5:58:32 AM by Nohbody

Preppers are not known for their support of mass protest movements.

Except maybe a few pro-gun politics demonstrations... Sorry, I had to mention that.

Yeah, maybe I'm biased here and I'm looking through the movement with pinko coloured glasses, but the movement does seem quite political, on the right spectrum...

Because it's not totally political on the other side of the argument, yeah.

That aside, I have actually been looking into a "bug-out bag", using a large camping backpack that I rarely use otherwise for that 3 days of Stuff(tm). Not looking that closely yet, though, but if anyone has suggestions that don't involve some flavor of "look it up on the internet" I'm open to them.

Well, you could "look it up on the internet", which is to say there's a couple of good links for info with suggested lists:

Article on The Other Wiki, with suggested list (subject to the whims of the WikiHiveMind, natch.

This site is from the Government, and it's here to help.

That's just because the most vocal ones are all Americans and all Americans are right wing to a greater or lesser degree.

Also, most left-wing folks want to try and 'fix' society when the sensible response to the way things are now is, of course, to pull the stripey handle and shoot out through the roof.

@Nohbody, plan for the disasters most likely to strike in your area. The building you live in catching on fire is probably the most probable. Flooding, earthquakes, wildfire, tornadoes, hurricanes, whatever your location favors, you should plan around those. The standard kit will do for most, it's the extras that will switch out depending on circumstances.

Don't bother with a gun unless you're willing to put in the hours to get really good at maintaining it and hitting what you aim at. A novice with a gun is much more of a threat to themself and innocent bystanders than they are to looters.

OTOH, guns are very good at maintaining value. If anything, they probably go up in value in the event of the sort of societal collapse (even if only local) that tends to devalue most other expensive things.

Granted, it'd be a bit of a weird sight to see a gun collector in some disaster movie setting trading guns and ammo with passers-by for food and cold weather gear. And haggling with them.

^ Instead of what, just killing or robbing them? Contrary to the propaganda of those opposed to private firearm ownership, simply having a gun doesn't make one a psychopath. Given the numbers of firearms owned versus crimes committed while armed, most gun owners are law abiding citizens. While "the world's going to hell, so why not?" types do exist out there, I'd say a majority of them will still be lawful (if not stupidly so) even if SHTF.

edited 19th Mar '14 4:55:45 PM by Nohbody

No no, I just mean the surreal quality of a little roadside vendor with a selection of firearms with prices listed in beans and bottled water.

*snrk* Yeah, that is an amusing image.

Or combine the two images.

"No way am I giving you all of my water for a dinky revolver!"

[Dramatic Guncock] "Are you sure?"

"Eh I can drink from a river, right?"

edited 19th Mar '14 5:14:37 PM by AFP

So, ready.gov has some PS As that I found pretty amusing (in particular, I caught the "Seat of Your Pants" PSA on AFN yesterday):

Ready.gov PSA & Multimedia

Neat! Although I must say that "PREPARING MAKES SENSE IN INDIAN COUNTRY" has some unfortunate implications at first glance...

I haven't seen that one. I'll have to watch these when I get home from work.

Honestly, even in the hands of someone without a ton of experience, I think the important part with a gun is knowing how to intimidate with it to make people back off. Consider Last Of Us, where ammo is at a premium, but the greatest thing you can do with the gun is point it at people to make them not try to beat you to death.

Resurrecting this thread since I just got my amateur radio license. Anyone else in that community? Looks like some of them do a lot of training for stuff like disaster response (if the power, phone, and internet lines go down, a series of radios running off batteries or generators or car engines can quickly establish communications again until landlines are repaired).

In addition to talking about that skillset in a Prepper sense, I've also set up a Ham Radio Discussion Thread. If plugging it here isn't kosher (heh, kosher ham), one of the mods please boop this post and let me know.

Seemed the place to ask, do we have a genre or subgenre for prepper stories?

@ Inverurie Jones: But even from some UK preppers they tend to lean a bit on the right side of politics, although a lot of people are a bit more on the right side of things than my lefty-arse.

Yeah I get what you mean, but prepare for the worst hope for the best, like I hope a lot of things in society can be fixed but it helps to have a back up. So that's one of the main reasons I'm so political and prep, I want to improve society but I gotta prepare for what can go wrong

So I know a prepper lives near me and I'm hoping to start up some kind of comradery and maybe some cooperation between the two of us. Anyone have any experience of doing that?

edited 7th Feb '18 6:24:20 AM by RevolverZen