Author Topic: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!  (Read 6963 times)

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Offline Dannyboy53

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Do you consider yourself to be a prepper? Are you ready to defend your house, protect your family, and protect those you love from danger?

Over the years preppers have got a bad rap. Often portrayed as tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists waiting for the end of the world, the mainstream media has done a serious disservice to those who are just trying to protect the ones they love from the very real dangers that are out there.

If you have given up on prepping, or think it’s only for those who are preparing for some end of the world disaster to strike, you need to consider these eight very real threats that everyone should be prepared for.

http://offgridsurvival.com/reasonstoprep/

Offline montigre

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2016, 01:56:58 PM »
I'm not a prepper, but I am prepared to survive off of my own means should the need dictate--thanks Uncle Sam, Dad, my own inquisitiveness, and my Buyu family.  thumb1

There probably is not a foreseeable need to stockpile currency--if the SHTF, paper money will probably be worthless, know how to barter and have a stash of gold, silver, copper, and gems for larger purchases.  Become somewhat familiar with what plants, berries, and nuts found in the wild can be used as food sources--that along with our plentiful game will keep people alive and kicking for some time. Learn basic first aid and herbalism--there are very few drugs manufactured that do not have their foundations in plants and herbs.

There probably will not be an all out invasion of our shores by terrorists--can you imagine the logistical nightmare controlling a country with 2 very long coastlines would be?  No modern army has the capabilities to pull that one off.  Invasion from internal factions/government gone haywire, again, probably not a long-term problem.  Let's face it, there is an "army" of 200 million ordinary Joes who would fight tooth and nail to prevent or quash that occurrence.   tommy1

So, I am not a prepper; I refuse to live my life in fear of anything.  But I am prepared through my living and learning to survive just about any eventuality I can think of.  bat1
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."  ~Benjamin Franklin

Offline Dannyboy53

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2016, 02:45:07 PM »
I agree, currency under most situations will be worthless, except maybe as filler material or toilet paper. As for bartering, my belief is if you have to barter to obtain items to survive you are already partially in the tank. This only indicates to others (good or bad people) what you have plenty of and are willing to give up. The meat, vegetables & fruit my wife has canned, dried and otherwise packaged will last the two of us approx a year or longer. We have an abundance of ammunition, medical supplies, water purifying equipment, etc. and constantly add to our supplies. We have a 7000 watt gen that is good in some situations but only as long as the fuel lasts! People have asked me "how do you know when you have enough?" My answer is, when what you want to stock is no longer available.

We have no idea what scenario(s) we may face, there are a number of possibilities. Mary and I have not been comfortable with anything less than attempting to be ready in some measure for any of them, TRYING to leave nothing to chance. But we all know how that works out! I also live in fear of nothing, I learned years ago fear is a waste of my time.  Through my own experiences, training and abilities I have gained the confidence to weather any storm.

Offline Greasemonkey

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2016, 02:50:01 PM »
Yes and no.. :o I think being prepared is important for just in case... But do I stash hoards of food and other stuff, not so much. Maybe a 4 to 6 day supply. But, I guess thats me. Alot of people, and I mean a metric crap ton of people, I know don't have the common sense the man gave a rock, they can't, lets say grow corn, or some beans or even find the eye on a potato to grow it, they can't identify a walnut from a hickory nut from a chestnut, or gut a deer, sheep, cow, pig or even deal with a chicken, fish or squirrel. They wouldn't know poison ivy if it were swiped through their butt crack like a credit card, yet alot of these same people claim to be preppers cause of their hoard. These same people are truly inept at mechanical devices, know nothing of electrical, can barely change their own oil in their car or a spark plug in their mower, if it weren't for You-Tube or the interweb they would be helpless.

I hope growing up in a very rural area, I've learned to do quite a bit with very little, the hillbilly ingenuity factor, I guess you could call it. Farming, ok, lets do it, what are we planting, growing, havesting, butchering, or rip any engine down, a 2 stroke chainsaw to an 21 liter Caterpillar, split a tractor in half, drive and operate or use a dozer, excavator, pan or trash truck. Wire up a house or genset, fix a genset, hotwire a car or semi, or heck just get them to run if you have the key and it won't start, use a welder or torch. On the same token above, I know people you give them a rusty junk pile, they will have a MadMax dragcar built in 2 days.

I think it's not just about ones food and ammo stash, it's about having the knowledge, skills, life experiences and basic common sense to do other things, get mobile by any means necessary, fix, repair and skirt by off of nothing and or making it off of very little.
I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse......

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

I said I was an addict........I didn't say I had a problem

Offline Dannyboy53

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2016, 02:59:50 PM »
Exactly right Greasemonkey, I grew up that way. All my life I have been a country boy, fishing, camping, hunting. Didn't have the money to put my truck in the shop, I had to fix it myself or by God walk...which I did a lot of in those days.

It's sort of like the old adage...I've done so much with so little I can do practically anything with nothing! But as you said it takes common sense and attitude...attitude is everything in my book.

Offline Greasemonkey

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2016, 03:43:55 PM »
The ability to convert chicken sh*t to chicken salad thumb1 it's an art.
I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse......

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

I said I was an addict........I didn't say I had a problem

Offline Dannyboy53

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2016, 08:47:55 PM »
The ability to convert chicken sh*t to chicken salad thumb1 it's an art.

Funny, but exactly right!  chuckles1

Offline likemeasks

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2018, 01:16:22 AM »
Sorry for pulling this thread back to life, hopefully you guys will remember I'm a newbie here. Although I agree with everything Montigre, Greasemonkey and Dannyboy have pointed out I have a few reservations. I'm 63 yrs old as is my wife. I'm of reasonable health but by no means able or willing to work out and train to be a Rambo type. My wife is a cancer survivor but it has left her dependent on a variety of medications that would not be available in a WWOL situation. My best realistic assumption is she would last maybe a month in a total civilization collapse. Being down here 40 mls from the Gulf O Mex. and on the edges of the great Louisiana basin food stocks would not be a problem. Water purification for her use would be difficult, for me no problem. Protection from the hordes of hostiles can only last so long. And realistically how many attackers can one man stop by himself. Mechanical niceties can only last as long as fuel. Can you distill alcohol? I can. Can you harvest nitrates to make black powder for when your smokeless runs out? I can. What are you going to do for primers? I have flintlocks. Can you start a fire with out matches of firewater? Yes herbal medicine is good but when the marauders come, and they will, how big is your army?
When the Sh-- hits the fan even you best friend or family is likely to turn on you to save themselves. Ever had a drowning man pull under to save himself? Make no mistake I won't go easily and quite a few of them will die before me but there will be to many of them for me to kill before they get me. So I see no reason to build reserves of things that will likely go bad before I can use them. I'll just try to hunker down and be as invisible as possible. Small wild life will be taken with pellet guns, bow & arrow and slingshots so as to not draw attention to my position. In a true prepper world so many will die their homes and pantry supplies will be the best resource for my survival.
If I were a young man or even middle aged I would think different. But I'm old and realistic. As they say, DON"T F0UKAY WITH AN OLD MAN, HE HAS NOTHING TO LOOSE !!

Charlie   

Online echo1

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2018, 06:28:06 PM »
Charlie,

I'm in a similar age situation, but geographically different. We're in the middle of Kali ag dirt, so not lack of good folks to contribute to a common cause, well armed too.

But I always look at these types of questions from a single perspective, it's either all gone south, or it's a temporary situation, AND, it's the luck of the draw. If it's your time, nothing can be done about that. PAX
  You need a crew  

"A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined" (George Washington),
But they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of Independence from any who might attempt to abuse them. echo1

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.~John Adams 1798

Offline Greasemonkey

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2018, 11:20:31 AM »

it's either all gone south, or it's a temporary situation

If it's all gone south, end of the world and gotten that bad and to that extreme.... why bother.. you, me and everyone else will meet our maker..

But, realistically...... any situation is temporary, if you wait long enough.    Prime example.. Puerto Rico.. and electric power, it's only been 4 months..   Now Cape Town and running out of water..     
I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse......

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

I said I was an addict........I didn't say I had a problem

Offline likemeasks

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2018, 11:22:32 PM »
I agree whole hardheartedly with you guys about the all gone or temp situation. For clarity, most down here in the swamp and marsh lands will give you the shirt off their back. But as Katrina proved there is a social element that will prey on those that have or "may" have and do so in mass numbers. The media never spoke of the events of the "gangbangers" shooting at the first responders and law enforcement. I work for one of the area utilities and some of our linemen had to have Nat. Guard escorts to be able to repair lines and get the lights back on. It seemed the bangers believed they could control the streets and set up their own "government" similar to the story line from "The Book of Eli". These are the ones I refer to as coming in mass to raid and try to control. They are the ones that will get me in the long run. But they will loose many of them to get the single me and those like me in the Louisiana Heart Land. There are neighbors that have discussed mutual protection of our little piece of creation. We all have specific capabilities but we all realize a long term SHTF will bring us down just from being far out numbered. Our Government has created too large of a give me society so as to be re-elected and when government can not give that social low class will come hunting and they already far out number those of us that can do for ourselves.

Charlie

Offline Justin Hell

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2018, 11:51:29 PM »
I just hope the pile of bodies outside my doorstep will get the point across.  My Chunky soup is mine dammit.  bat1

If anything, when the heavy hitters show up, they will just bunker bomb us and Chunky soup will be everywhere.... 

'Those aren't dumplings...those are my intestines!'

Offline Greasemonkey

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2018, 12:40:45 AM »
On the flip side Charlie.... a large percentage of those gangbanger types will not venture outside of the metro areas I'd be willing to bet, they might venture into suburbia, but thats about it.. anywhere and everything else, requires either travel or work to get to or get at and would be little gain for the effort put forth to get. Most have never been in a rural area, much less in the environment, they would be lost and way outside their comfort zone. And I would also bet, when they start to get desperate and have plundered suburbia..they will start writing checks their arse cant cash...because eventually they will run up against someone bigger, badder and who also has one more bullet than they do. I think it will be kind of hard for them, banger types once away from their comfort zones, when all they are facing is open pasture, cornfield or woods, and no clue who's scope or binoculars they are being watched from.

Me, I grew up and currently live in the hills of western Virginia, a stones throw away from West Virginia.. I have lived in the, what I call the ghettos south of Richmond Va, and in Houston Tx... mention "country" to some of these people, and their lost. I had a friend come visit me from south of Richmond.. the sight of actual livestock, blew his fricken mind when he touched a dairy cow, he had never even seen a tractor up close. Now mind you, this was a college educated fella, who had a good white collar job, not some dope dealing, color wearing, pimp packing a pistol with the sights on the side of the slide. I can deal with either environment...but I choose to stay away from metro areas, much like my friend stays away from the country and as he puts it, "stays the hell away from backwoods hillbilly land on the other side of the state".



I just hope the pile of bodies outside my doorstep will get the point across.  My Chunky soup is mine dammit.  bat1

If anything, when the heavy hitters show up, they will just bunker bomb us and Chunky soup will be everywhere.... 

'Those aren't dumplings...those are my intestines!'

Pack them guts back in, take 2 asprin and fight back.. rofl2
I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse......

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

I said I was an addict........I didn't say I had a problem

Offline likemeasks

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Re: Why to be a Prepper: 8 Realistic Threats you should be Ready For!
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2018, 11:32:14 AM »
GM I agree with you 100% in regard to your situation. In my case 1) I'm too old to trek through marsh and swamp lands where the wildlife exist. 2) Down here there is damn little free range land left and all of it is in north Louisiana. That's a 250+mile trek for me and we're talking all the supplies needed to make a permanent stand. 3) As I mentioned my wife has poor health and has never been out of the city. She comes unglued and panics when the neighbor's cat walks down the side walk. So my reality is when SHTF on a permanent basis it's sad to say but I wait for her to pass from lack of her meds and then just eek out whatever existence I can in my suburban corner of South Louisiana.
I have no doubt you and YOUNGER ones than me, that can make the proper plans and know the old ways of doing without electricity, modern plumbing, and the corner Walmart have a better than 50% chance of survival. Given your background and the area you live in you have an advantage. Down here food mostly has to be fresh due to the heat and humidity. Ave. summer days 97/nights 83, Winter days 45 nights 40. Rare to be below 38 in the winter down here. As I mentioned with my background I will have electricity but not enough for refrigerator and all those creature comforts. Lights, communication if there is anyone to comm with or to. Fuel from distilled alcohol. If I can put together enough generation I can weld and electro cut metal . And if I could take over an abandoned farm I would have fresh food and sources for black powder production. But all that just for an old man alone dying of old age anyway. More trouble than I'm worth. I'll just make my stand where I am and when they come, eliminate as many of them as I can before they do the same to me. It'll be less of them for you guys to worry about.

Charlie