Is Your "Go Bag" Ready?

[spectr17]

What is a "Go bag" or "BOB" (Bug Out Bag)? ###A "Bug Out Bag" or Personal Evacuation/Relocation Kit (PE/RK). is an emergency pack with enough supplies to enable you to relocate, with just a minutes notice, and allow you to survive for 2 to 3 days..

I still keep my " Bug Out Bag" as we called them in the military, handy in my vehicle and home. A "Bug out Bag" has to be readily available so you can just head out the door and be able to make it several days if you have to immediately relocate. DO NOT REMOVE items from your "Bug Out Bag" until you really need them, it will bite you in the butt, trust me.

I've got some backpack food, 2 quart canteen, pistol with 2 holsters and ammo, compass, maps, gas mask/respirator, helmet, flashlite, nomex gloves, 12 foot of parachute cord, 10 feet of 1/2" rope for Swiss seat and 2 locking carabiners, handheld scanner, small first aid kit. cig lighters, space blanket, ###Leatherman tool, solar powered AM/FM radio, cellphone, signal mirror, TP, night rescue strobe with IR lens and GPS. I keep it all in one backpack so I can have my hands free. I also have my running gear from the military which is a harness and web belt setup.

Your first priorities are security, then shelter then water. You can go several days without food but you'll need to find something to eat to keep your wits about you.

If you're not hip on survival techniques, toss in a Boy Scout handbook and survival guide to your "Bug Out Bag".

If you don't own a sidearm, get one and learn to shoot and maintain it properly.

Your best weapon is between your ears. The more info you can cram into that little pea the better your chances of surviving any scenario.

Link for US Army field manuals on Starting fires, signalling, solar stills, first aid, food procurement, Field-Expedient Weapons, Tools, and Equipment, Psychology of Survival, Survival Planning and Survival Kits.

http://155.217.58.58/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/21-60/Ref.htm

You can save these Army field manuals onto your hard drive by clicking the "File" drop down menu in the upper left of your browser window, then click "Save As". Then under "Save as Type", click and select .mht (web archive file). Also type in the folder you want to save the info to.

[Marty]

You kind of need one around here when the ground shakes over a 5. ###Especially if you are held out, away from home.
Jesse, do you have a larger bag for the family?

[steve]

If your preparing for that earthquake store those items in a sealed container outside your home.

[Speckmisser]

I've always kept my truck loaded with supplies for about a week. ###This includes basics, water, flashlights w/spare batteries, dried food, fire starters, and blankets. ###The back of the truck generally carries an air mattress and some basic camping equipment. ###Most of the time, there is also a pistol and a rifle stowed in a safe spot on board. ###

There's also tons of rain gear, tools, automotive supplies, etc. ###

I just bought a new truck last week, so I'm still working on resupplying. ###This one is a quad cab, so all that behind-the-seat storage is history. ###Have to figure it all out again. ###Oh well. ###

I took a lot of ribbing about how I could "live out of that old truck", but I always acknowledged that whoever was picking on me was absolutely correct. ###I could live out of it, any time the need or desire arose. ###It won't be much longer before the new truck is outfitted just as well.

[troll]

Thanks for the new forum and the suggestion on the go bag. ###When all this hit and I didn't know how big the threat was, I remembered I didn't have much ammunition at home. ###Time to stock up a little and be more prepared.

[steve]

Speckmisser,go ahead and fill up the back seat,it will look like your old truck except you will be able to access all your supplies through a door instead of sliding your seat forward and have everything fall over.Cant say I'm well enough prepared but it is amazing how fast needful items at the stores disappear ###as soon as a problem arises wither real or imagined.

[Passthru]

###I always keep plenty of reloading supplys around,always figured that if possible i could relocate it to supply myself with emergency Ammo.I have dies for all my Rifles and pisols,and for the .22 rifle(cheap ammo)several of the boxes full of loose ammo from wally world,this gun although small is pretty rapid fire and holds more than a high power rifle.all I can say is i wouldnt want to be hit with several .22 bullets.
###Most of the stuff i put into big plastic containers ready to throw into the truck.
As far as close in fighting Shotgun does very well.

[spectr17]

I think some of you are missing the point of the "Go bag". You will not have time to throw things into containers, retrieve stashes out side the home, nor do you want to lug around things that are not vital to your survival for several days. You must be able to grab this bag/backpack and be out the door in less than 60 seconds. If you can't carry this bag or put it on your back it is useless.

It would be nice to have a sleeping bag and pillow but you can always set up a improvised shelter and bedding. You may have to move quickly and being loaded down with cumbersome gear is not what you want.

A "Go bag" means just that, you get the word, no matter where you're at, and you go out the door. If you have to stop to fill the bag, shuffle stuff around, find tools etc, it will not work.

A "Go bag" is not just having survival and camping gear on hand.

I've read several first hand survival reports already from the WTC disaster and some said how glad they were they had water bottles in their packs, but gloves, goggles and small emergency respirators would have been even better. All this would have fit in a small daypack. You would think after the 1993 WTC bombing these people would have learned. I saw many people on TV ###stumbling around, blinded by the ash and overcome by smoke. If say you get trapped, you have something to sustain you until help arrives.

These people had little or no warning to move quickly to get out of a rapidly changing environment, which is the whole idea of a "Go bag".

[Stryder]

My hutning truck which is a Toyota 4x4 has a tool box in the bed and from that box I can survive for two weeks including water, sleeping bag and shelter. I never thought about a respirator or goggles, guess that will have to be added soon. My Chevy is still in the process of being outfitted but I do have a bag with the basics to live for a couple of days.

### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ###Stryder

[Stryder]

Hey Specter, what is a swiss seat and how do you make it? I've never heard of it before.
### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### Thanks
### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### Stryder

[gantley]

Drag bag, Ready sack, Ditty bag....etc

all these thing you grab and hold in one hand. ###I keep my truck full of crap but there is a bag with all the necessary stuff to live on. ###Not the contents of my truck.

Back pack, water bottle, water filter, some pull top bean-e-weenes, vin sausages, space blanket, lighter, knife, hatchet...... ###A person can survive on little to nothing. ###Your ready kit just makes thing easer.

Keep the truck stocked but have a bag stocked and ready! ###My ready kit has made a few tight cases seem like nothing at all.......

[spectr17]

Stryder,

A Swiss seat is a rappel harness that fits around your waist. You've probably seen rescues on TV where rescue helos pluck people off of trees or homes during floods or fires in buildings. Sometimes the rescue helo may only be able to get you a rope to save you. You just hook it into your ###Swiss seat carabiner and off you go.

I use a piece of 1/2" rope to make my Swiss seat, you can buy already made Swiss seats in outdoor stores. I use a piece of rope because it can serve more than 1 purpose than a Swiss seat. Lowering out a window etc.

We were discussing the WTC fire the other day and why no one had a parachute. Sound riduculous? In a TV interview, a little boy asked his Dad "Why didn't those people have parachutes?" From the mouths of babes. If it was me working on the 98th floor I would have had a $300.00 square parachute and $200.00 of lessons to provide me with a plan B.

Fire ladder trucks are good to the 5th floor and a helo rescue may not happen if you even can get to the top or open window. Plus, with all those people, who goes first in the helo?

After watching Mexican TV footage that showed many more people jumping off the window ledges than US news TV did, I only wondered why no one used a chute. You would have to get above or away from the fire to deploy the chute so the fire didn't burn it. You steer to the nearby water or park if possible.

I'd rather break a leg hitting hard into a car or tree than burn up or jump, certain death in both situations.

After being in a high rise in Las Vegas during an earthquake and another time in a bad wind storm, I don't like being up in high rises. The fire in 1983 at the MGM Grand Hotel in LAs Vegas also left an impression on me the next day when we watched the bodies being brought out.

Call me paranoid, I just like having another option to go to if I need to.

[doghouse95]

We are relocating within the next few months. ###This was in the mix before 9-11. ### We have thought a lot about our new location and come up with a set of guidelines.
I will not live,
Downstream from a major dam.
Near an interstate highway.
In any city.
Where I am dependent on a water system. ###I will have a well.
Near any port or bay.

I will have,
A large gun safe well stocked
A large pantry well stocked.
Weather soil and growing season that will allow a garden.
Enough pasture to raise some goats in an ongoing manner.
A windmill,
Solar pannels everywhere I can put them.
A generator.
Fule storage for generator and vehicles.
Air tight wood stove for heat.
A wood cookstove for the kitchen.
A large woodshed full of wood, 10 cord+ split and stacked.
I live out in the sticks now, so this is no big change for my family, when I stop and look at it, it isn't much of a change at all.
I will not live in fear, our lives will continue as they do now and did before.
I will also keep my horses until it becomes hard to feed them. ###horse meat anyone???

[MNHNTR]

I was watching the news on Sunday and there was a segment on a new parachute that could be used from an office building. ###people are already jumping on the bandwagon with new and old products which might work. ###

[songdog]

10 cords of wood? ###Whew, that's a lot. ###We have a fire pretty much every day from mid October through March and it's still tough on my body to cut that 2-3 cords of wood that it would take for the whole season.

[doghouse95]

Songdog,
Not really, I have about 5 cord here at home now, and 3 or 4 at my mom,s that I also cut. ###I cut for both households every year.
I cut green lodgepole on private property, run it past the splitter, then on into the stock trailer and head for home.
With the wife and a kid or two to help, 2 cord a day is normal. ###Let it dry in the sun for 30 days, and it's ready to go.
Last year I cut two and a half cord of oak to go with it. ###I still have about half of that too.
All we have, at both houses, is wood heat.
I'll be cutting some ceder, and more oak after hunting season is over.
5 cord cut, split, and and delivered = one new rifle. ###Have to see how much time I have before the snow gets here.

[troll]

Here is my preliminary checklist for a Go Bag. ###It's going to have to an awfully big bag at this point. ###I know there are more things I might add. ###What things do you suggest I get rid of to lighten the load?
-----------------------------
Go Bag Checklist

9 Food Packets
Snare Wire
Smoke signals
Illumination signals
Waterproof matchbox
Wood matches
Magnesium match
First Aid Kit
Leatherman tool
Hunting Knife
2 Compasses (one wrist)
Saw-knife-shovel handle
Military mess kit
Illuminating candles
Compressed trioxane fuel
Signaling mirror
Survival fishing kit
Plastic spoon
Army survival manual
SAS survival manual
Peterson’s Field Guide to Edible Plants
Peterson’s Field Guide to Medicinal Plants
Poncho
Insect Headnet
Folding Shovel
Water bag
Packing list
10’ large diameter nylon rope
10’ small diameter nylon rope
Leather shoe laces
Sidearm with regular ammo and tracers
2 Adult Gas Masks
1 Infant Gas Mask
Shotgun with buckshot and tracers
Ziploc bags of various sizes
Butane lighter
Canned drinking water
Plastic whistle
Sunscreen
Toolkit
Tarp
Crank Radio
Sharpening Stone
Duct Tape
Magnifying lens