Bug Out Simulation

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peterbennett9

Forager
Nov 20, 2010
119
0
41
Belfast
Hi just tonight i have put together what i think is a pretty decent bug out bag based on the old faithful response pak. I will be doing a post tomorrow hopefully on my set up to see what you all think.

I was also wondering have any of you simulated a bug out situation to test this kit? Ie grab it one day and just walk out of the house and hike to a location with only it and the clothes on your back and see how you fair? I will be doing this in the next few days since im off work, i may even post the results.

I feel it necessary to randomise it though, im not just going to head out to somewhere familiar that i always frequent, im gona stick a pin in the map, make sure i subconciously havent dressed differently for the occasion and choose a random time to do it.

Is this not a true test of a bug out bag? A true 'caught on the hop' situation? I will however have the missus briefed and on stand by to come get me if it all goes pear shaped lol

Anyone else tried this?

Peter
 

forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
The way to do this is to ask a friend to call or message you at a random time. Set up a rule (e.g. what you are wearing as outdoor clothes that day if you are indoors, anything in your pockets and one item no further than 1 m away). The bring that on a 36 h trip.

No, I've never done that. I have spent 10 days with only clothes (and extra outer layer). No knife, no FC sticks, no cookpot, no fancy toys. Unless I'm in the shower, sleeping or having sex(1) I'm always better equipped than that...

(1) Get your mind out of the gutter. Besides, unless you are into knifeplay most sex toys and dito accessories are pretty useless in a survival situation. How exactly will a pair of handcuffs, a riding crop, a table tennis racket, a can of crisco, 10-15 m of rope and a roll of plastic wrap help you survive? I suppose you can eat the crisco in an emergency...
 
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Xunil

Settler
Jan 21, 2006
671
3
55
North East UK
www.bladesmith.co.uk
Other than testing how quickly you can get yourself and your bug out bag/kit/gear et al out of your given location you really can't test any other aspect of the process.

Bugging out, by definition, would normally entail long queues of traffic where you are one of many trying to exit a given area. That term 'traffic' is misleading since it will include road vehicles, off-road vehicles, perhaps even people on horseback and people on foot. Unless you happen to have advanced notice of any disaster that you need to get away from then you will be caught in a tide of humanity who will all be trying, with varying degrees of success, to reach safer ground.

Testing your exit time from your location is a worthwhile exercise - assuming you have your bag prepped then it should simply be a matter of grabbing it, leaving the property and making your next move. In a real world situation (a house fire for example) this could be getting dressed using the contents of your bag (assuming you had to leave the house naked - note: I don't recommend that you test this process for the sake of your neighbours :) ), calling friends, family or emergency services for help, or getting out of your area to a safer location using any available and suitable mode of transport.

Bugging out really is tough to test properly because, by definition, you cannot replicate the circumstances involved that so adversely affect the whole process until disaster strikes. Practising your exit time and strategy is a great and very sobering exercise, and I would suggest you try it from home and your place of work as a starter for ten. Once you are out of that location, the rest is academic until you are one of many in a moving tide of humanity, with all of the various issues and hazards that brings.

I'll get my coat....
 

nenook

Need to contact Admin...
Sep 24, 2010
130
0
stafford
this really is a subject in which we could face one day , through terrorism or natural dissaster , fuel shortage , and one which ive given alot of thought to, in my wanting to get out , what would i take? winter summer? what about my son who lives the other side of town ?I live in Stafford and if something happens on the M6 then we at at a stand still so what would it be like in an event? what if it happend whilst at work? I work 3 miles from swmbo, and 7 miles from home, but the river trent and canal network are on my works land, and we have lots of canoes there, I could paddle to swmbo in an hour using canal and river . if its summer what about when winter comes , the qustions are endless and therefore so must the answers, .

nenook
 

BOD

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
...

(1) Get your mind out of the gutter. Besides, unless you are into knifeplay most sex toys and dito accessories are pretty useless in a survival situation. How exactly will a pair of handcuffs, a riding crop, a table tennis racket, a can of crisco, 10-15 m of rope and a roll of plastic wrap help you survive? I suppose you can eat the crisco in an emergency...

This intrigues me. Perhaps we can get Les Stroud or Dave C and Cody L to survive using these items. I see possibilities.

Scenario; You grab the wrong bag in the dark , flee the house in your undies and have to survive....

Maybe it is more appropriate for Man, Woman, Wild Sex toys than the others
 

peterbennett9

Forager
Nov 20, 2010
119
0
41
Belfast
I agree with the problem of readying yourself for a mass exodus with out having a real life situaton to train in, however i firmly believe in survival of the fittest and in that type of situation the fitter you are the more likely you are to survive, move quicker, be strong enough to move at a faster pace than the crowd but be able to move through the slower crowd to maintain your pace.

i think in these situations a vehicle would be nigh on useless, your fitness on foot, as the crow flies (which would bring strength and agility also into play to negotiate obstacles) would be the key, as well as your ability to do this while carrying loads, perhaps in a calorie depleted state which is extremely demanding not only from a physical point of view but also a mental one. i know from experience having ridden several centuries on my bike near the end of the summer (and completely underestimating my caloric requirement on the rides) that once you start to run low on fuel your motivation turns to mush and so do your legs! making it very hard to continue at the pace you need to to survive. This can be prepared for by doing loaded speed marches in such a state which teaches your body to be more efficient with its fuel and also trains your mind. I have done a few of these recently and found them very rewarding, i would recommend them and i will be incorporating this into my bug out simulation

But how far is far enough? how far would you need to be able to march to be safe? wholly dependant on the situation but i recon 20miles would be a good starting point

Peter
 

forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
The nice thing about living in the country is that I really don't need to bug out. I need to light some candles or lanterns when the electric light goes, and start to worry about the moose in the two chest freezers. Other than that most things will manage ok with no power. Water will work, toilets flush into a tank and leach system, heat is firewood, woodstove for cooking anyway,
 

forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
This intrigues me. Perhaps we can get Les Stroud or Dave C and Cody L to survive using these items. I see possibilities.

So do I, the rope would be quite handy, and I suppose one could fashion tools from the handcuffs. I wonder if one could make a suoer-shelter from plastic wrap?

Scenario; You grab the wrong bag in the dark , flee the house in your undies and have to survive....

Maybe it is more appropriate for Man, Woman, Wild Sex toys than the others

Dual survival?
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
I can't see many situations where my family and I would need to leave our home apart from something like a gas mains exploding (so a stay at the inlaws) so this means more a 'Bug In Bag' me me and I suspect many of us here. I'm semi rural, clean water supply, ample woodland to hand, lots of sheep etc so my priority maintaining a healthy food and fuel stock at home, food for several months, 100++ litres or paraffin etc

That said, a bug out exercise like this could be fun and if nothing else give you something to think about and plan. With aparant changes in winter weather car kit planning seems to be on the cards too.
 

Xunil

Settler
Jan 21, 2006
671
3
55
North East UK
www.bladesmith.co.uk
OK, if we assume a 'survival of the fittest' rationale, what happens if you and your significant other are in different locations when things start to unravel ?

How do you coordinate your movements ?

What happens if you have young kids ?

What happens if you have an infirm parent/grandparent living with you ?

A slow moving but high load bearing car suddenly becomes a lot more realistic and appealing.

Personally I think that all modes of transport will cause equal chaos - roads will be clogged with cars and larger vehicles, tracks and trails could be clogged with motorbikes, horseback riders, mountain bikes and people on foot; basically the world and his wife will all be trying to get some place, all at the same time.

A hard walk with limited supplies will cover nominal mileage per day. A lot of gear/kit/supplies can be carried with multiple people over long distances with little effort, even if traffic is moving slowly.

Absolute gridlock is something else entirely though, at which point some pretty horrific decisions would have to be made, but for anyone intending to get out of Dodge with their family unit intact this will normally involve a vehicle, multiple people and a lot of stuff.

Keep in mind that a vehicle can be stripped for bits, it offers rudimentary shelter from the elements, warmth, light etc, and if yours is reliable and not a gas guzzler you can cover a lot of ground on a single tank of fuel, especially in relation to a small island like Great Britain or an even smaller one like Ireland. It's tough to consider how you could easily replicate that combined shelter/load carrying capacity and range with what you can hump on your back.

Me ?

A fast exit over distance is impossible due to my 3 year old daughter and leaving her behind is no option at all. I can't easily carry a heavy or even reasonably well loaded pack AND her over significant distances or difficult terrain, so, what are the realistic options ?

This is what I was getting at earlier.

Testing your response time for exiting your home is a great exercise, especially for fire readiness. I am comfortable that I can get myself and my daughter out of the house very, very quickly. After that your movements depend largely on the nature of the threat and where you hope/expect to be able to weather the storm (no pun intended).

Once you've tested your exit strategy for getting out of the house or place of work quickly about all you can do is a timed yomp to your planned destination which, under emergency circumstances (especially those that are weather related) will almost always be significantly slower due to adverse conditions.

Exiting your home is the first and (arguably) most important step. After that, everything depends on the nature of the threat and whether everyone else is having the same "let's get out of here" idea.

I keep a bug out bag in the boot of the car and another in the house.

I also have a few small caches of supplies in the garden adjacent to the house and in similar places at my cottage on the Scottish Borders. Even if I can't get into those properties I can at least replenish supplies from their surrounds.

Beyond that I am relying on being able to scavenge most of what I need a week or two after Sainsbury's runs out of food which, these days, is about the greatest threat faced by folks in the British Isles :)

One factor often NOT discussed instead of bugging out is the whole idea of whether to stay and, if you do, how best to go about it. Bugging out would necessitate having some threat or other that absolutely cannot be handled by staying. That's a tough one to visualise in the UK and surrounding islands. Keep in mind that bugging out leaves behind the very best shelter and resource you have - AKA your home.

It's interesting to think about the various possibilities that could cause any kind of exodus, and how we would cope with things in the event of major change.

I do feel that far too much emphasis is placed on leaving everything behind and going somewhere else in some kind of semi-self-sufficient style (all somehow contained in a rucksack) when, in fact, staying put could well be the best option in many emergencies and locations. I think there is as much if not more mileage in preparedness at home as there is in gearing up for bugging out and here in the UK, other than for domestic fires or, in some areas, perhaps floods, there aren't too many circumstances one could imagine having to scoot from, which I am thankful for :)
 

peterbennett9

Forager
Nov 20, 2010
119
0
41
Belfast
i agree with you there Xunil a family or dependants of any kind definitely change the ball game, however none of these apply to me which is why i didn't consider them in my own personal philosophy, and your right there may be scenarios where sitting tight is the best option. To that end i guess my BOB is aimed toward a scenario where i have had to get out and leave the area in a hurry.
 

akabu

Tenderfoot
Apr 23, 2006
78
0
79
USA
Bug out bag not just for leaving an area,had tenants call me about a gas leak in a building when I arrived they were all outside and each and every one man women and child had a Bug out bag I should note they all came from third world country's with earthquake's and civil disorders. So dead of winter Fire! you do not want to run out in bare skin have a bag loaded and handy.
 

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