Just How Prepared Are You - A Challenge

To all you "preppers" out there, I have a challenge for you. This should be one that any person who claims to be able to survive after TSHTF should be able to do EASILY.

I'd just like to see if you really can.

The challenge is for one month in length.

You have to assume that only what you have in your grab bag is available to you.

No power, no fuel, no way to go into a store and replenish supplies. No reliable water supply on the mains system. No sewage, no medication, no hospitals, no police, no emergency services of any kind. All major highways impassable, no public transportation of any kind. No communications of any electronic variety.

My challenge is to survive for a whole month, totally off the grid.

Im not a "prepper" but I could survive a month off the grid easily as long as it was not winter. I would survive winter but it would be a major bummer (have to chop wood all day). I live in northern Ontario and most of the people I know could handle it. We have lots of fish and animals to hunt, berries and other wild things to eat. I have made my own long bow thats capable of easily killing a deer. Water, food and warm shelter is easy to come by up here. Ive lived in a tent for 3 months before but we had food supplies but if not we could have killed a bear, deer, birds or fish. Everyone I know has a shotgun and has hunted at one time or another. 1 month would be like a long camping trip for me. Do I get to live in my house? My water is from a natural well, there is a wood stove to heat the place, deer and partridge in the back and blueberry and apple trees. Anyone having a hard time when SHTF should come over for a bonfire cookout.

My bug out bag has 3 pounds of beef jerky, 420 rds of .223 and 150 rounds of .45 acp, along with 1,000 rds of .22 lr.

I have an AR-15, a Ruger 10-22 and a Kimber .45 automatic.

I also have cookwear, a full set of knives for butchering and 10 pounds of rice.

I have a water purification pump that will treat 500 gallons of water also.

A hatchet and a machette are also in there along with 20 snare wires.


My much larger bug out bag is my camper and Suburban. Too much in there to list on here.

I have enough gear and supplies in there to last my entire family for at least 6 months.

I bought 20 drums of VP racing fuel that are stored in my shed and by my calculations that should get me anywhere in the U.S. and very deep into Mexico.


All told I have about 50k invested.

reply to post by babybunnies


For this challenge, will you be paying my bills during the month?

Seriously? I'm all for your challenge, but someone is going to have to clear it with my boss, and replace my salary for the month.

Originally posted by AGWskeptic



All told I have about 50k invested.

Holy Moly. I got a hatchet. Spend less cash and more time living out in wilderness and learning

Originally posted by AGWskeptic
My bug out bag has 3 pounds of beef jerky, 420 rds of .223 and 150 rounds of .45 acp, along with 1,000 rds of .22 lr.

I have an AR-15, a Ruger 10-22 and a Kimber .45 automatic.

I also have cookwear, a full set of knives for butchering and 10 pounds of rice.

I have a water purification pump that will treat 500 gallons of water also.

A hatchet and a machette are also in there along with 20 snare wires.


My much larger bug out bag is my camper and Suburban. Too much in there to list on here.

I have enough gear and supplies in there to last my entire family for at least 6 months.

I bought 20 drums of VP racing fuel that are stored in my shed and by my calculations that should get me anywhere in the U.S. and very deep into Mexico.


All told I have about 50k invested.

HI, what size of drums did you buy? I'll assume the 15 gallon ones because of weight.

Why would you buy super expensive light ether racing fuels? You do understand that these types of fuels have limited shelf lives.

From Circle Track , about Racing Fuels.

Time and sunlight rank as the biggest enemies to a racer's fuel supply.Gasoline has a limited shelf life, so it's important to give it propercare.

"Don't let ultraviolet rays hit the fuel," said Burns. "It will causethe lead to fall out of the composition. Take some fuel, put it in ajar, and set it in a window. You'll see how quickly the lead separatesfrom the fuel."

For that reason, storing fuel in clear containers is never a good idea.Many racing product suppliers sell plastic fuel jugs, usually red orsome other opaque color, for storing fuel.

Keeping the fuel fresh also requires using it soon after you acquire it.You cannot expect the fuel you purchased at the beginning of the year tohave the same efficiency at the end of the year. The lighter elements ofthe composition will be gone by the time you get around to using it. Thebest teams calculate fuel usage and buy accordingly. Fuel should also bekept in sealed containers for obvious reasons and stored in areas notsusceptible to moisture. Like the UV rays, temperature can be harmful toa fuel's efficiency, so a cool storage area is helpful.

Read more: www.circletrack.com...

reply to post by babybunnies


Are you a little crazy? I'm not going to do something like that unless I have to. If I was eighteen again maybe it would be fun. If tshtf, I'll just stay here and cook with the woodstove, grow a garden in the spring, and eat some wild game. I consider an acceptable challenge as having no TP in the house for a month.

Not a problem... Heck, back in 1996, I actually lived like this for 9 days after Hurricane Fran came through NC.

Then, 2 years later, I lived like this again when my wife and I seperated and divorced. Really roughed it for a couple of months until I saved enough for a wood stove. It was late winter and early spring.. cold as hell and winter just would never end. I used to sit by the camp fire for hours in the evening eating nothing but cornmeal patties fried in grease. To switch it up, I would take wild garlic/wild onions and mince them and add to the batter for flavor. Got my water from a well... the old way... with a bucket... lived in a small horse barn I converted eventually into a cabin.

The day I got my box wood heater and finally had heat and fixed me some hot bath water... better than a million bucks.

I did it then and could easly do it now. The key is to go ahead and accept life and a lifestyle like our great grandparents had... cooking on a fire, rising with the sun and working all day to survive and resting only as the sun set and night falls.

Cast iron cookware is essential, a good axe, good butcher knife, an old fashioned coffee pot that sets on a stove, lots of toilet paper, a shovel to dig your out house with, and knowledge. Lots of knowledge and practiced skills. The Foxfire Series is essential.

My biggest challenge and my next essential purchase is a cross cut wood saw... the old fashioned kind you generally see hanging on someone's wall as decoration. Long, curved heavy toothed blade with handles at each end. It is easy to guess the chainsaw gas will eventually run out, so this saw is a must have for firewood, lumber for building and repair.

It is also good to have candles or oil lamps to read buy and mend clothes by in the dark hours of winter.

Oh, and mucho mass matches. This is the God's honest truth... I just opened the last 6pack bundle of wooden matches I amassed for Y2K. I stored them in surplus ammo tins and they lasted me 12 years... and my wife smokes and we have burned wood in our farm house since we married 11 years ago.

Just think of it as a very long camping trip.

reply to post by morethanyou


For peak racing performance, yes, you need to use it within 6 months.

But to power a stock Suburban used to 87 octane it will last for 5 years.

It comes in blue metal drums, sunlight isn't an issue.

Originally posted by AGWskeptic
reply to post by morethanyou

 

For peak racing performance, yes, you need to use it within 6 months.

But to power a stock Suburban used to 87 octane it will last for 5 years.

It comes in blue metal drums, sunlight isn't an issue.

I'm very aware of VP fuels. Ive used it for 25 or so years. But using VP fuels for your suburban would be like buying the best french perfume, and then pouring it on your barn yard sow.

It don't make any sense. It don't add up. You would be the first person in history to do so.

Now if you had a 780BHP Skyline or RX7, I could see it.

Just out of curiosity, what flavor and what is the LOT # from the spec label on the back of the cans?
Ill tell you when it was made. I know Bruce Hendel personally.

reply to post by babybunnies


I'm really saddened by "preppers" you can go 3 weeks without food......and as long as your smart enough to head for a river, creek, you'd have water, crawfish, mussels, etc...etc...
22days was my last outing...