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Fieldcraft If you're forced to leave

The weather on most of the east coast is supposed to be in the 60's-70's next week. I wonder if this is warm enough to slow the spread of the virus?
 
staying where i'm at. Fairly isolated, plenty of food, been prepping for the last 15 years, my own chickens, pleanty of beef in the freezer, raise meat rabbits, my own well, generator , plenty of fuel, and a couple young sons that know how to handle themselves still living at home.
 
Trump supporters aren't going away, in fact if anything, this re enforces his base as he's tried to get the wall built to keep the scum out that is bringing the crap across the border. Just another thing he'll point out the dems fought him on
All options are tyrants. All options want to take your guns. Support Trump all you want, he's just another statist that wants you controlled.
 
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POLITICS: The ability to control men's minds and therefore their actions = SLAVES!
 
staying where i'm at. Fairly isolated, plenty of food, been prepping for the last 15 years, my own chickens, pleanty of beef in the freezer, raise meat rabbits, my own well, generator , plenty of fuel, and a couple young sons that know how to handle themselves still living at home.

Right before Easter, I ask people I know, after I state...since you have turkey for Thanksgiving, do you have rabbit for Easter??? ;)
 
I would be here at my home for a while. Though I have prepared for having to bail out if necessary. I live in a fairly rural community, worst case scenario we have a location to bug out to.

I'm not as prepared as I would like to be, but that's the point I think. To continually question your plans, gear and physical ability to successfully pull it off. To always poke holes in all your best laid plans and adjust accordingly.

So my plan is always in flux I suppose. I try to cover every possible scenario and then some. Then practice it until I am confident I can pull it off if need be.
 
How is one to know that your bugout location isn't going to have people there, doing exactly what you're wanting to do? Unless you have 100 acres with a camp built smack dab in the middle with some way of concealing your driveway, I don't know how anyone can know how well their secondary location will be any better than your primary.

There are plenty of off grid cabins in the hills of West Virginia that have squatters in them or worse yet, where the cabins have been destroyed by people other than the owners. I can only imagine this is the case all over the country. Unless you're living there, the locals will take advantage of a vacant building.
 
It can be a problem, we don't necessarily have an issue with squatter's moving into vacant cabins and vacation homes in my area, but I can see it happening if things turned to shit. The one benefit we have in my area, there's usually limited access because of our long Winters, where you can have snow on the ground 8-months out of the year, which will stop most people, unless determined to get in by snowshoe or post-holing it. I'd say 95% of cabins and vacation homes don't keep their driveway clear, so they are relatively safe, except from those who know about them, and their contents.

My bugout location is visited on a weekly basis, so I'm not too worried about squatter's.
 
One thing you can do for a bugout location is make it look undesirable, hard to access, etc. You can drop a bunch of tree's across the access road to block people from getting in. An hour of work with a chain saw will open it up. If it's your property, besides dropping trees, you can stretch cables or chains across the road. Steel gates, with protected lock boxes, dig trenches that can easily be filled in, etc. Most people are lazy, and will look for places with easy access. If you have an existing cabin, camper, or home at the bugout location, you can do things to make it undesirable to stay. For example, take the stovepipe from your wood burner and hide it. Remove the main circuit breaker from the main panel. Disable the well pump by removing fuses and circuit breakers. I could think of a million other things to make a bugout location undesirable to the common person.
 
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Right before Easter, I ask people I know, after I state...since you have turkey for Thanksgiving, do you have rabbit for Easter??? ;)
a rabbit has more meat per pound than chicken. Believe it nor not, a buck and 3 does can produce as much meat as a cow per year. And do it all in a 10x10 area.
 
a rabbit has more meat per pound than chicken. Believe it nor not, a buck and 3 does can produce as much meat as a cow per year. And do it all in a 10x10 area.

That is a llitle known fact. Rabbits can sustain a family of 4 easily. Those young ones are tasty too.
 
Bullgear...
I can attest to this because I'm actually in WV. If anyone knows anything about your location, you can bet it will be raided at best, occupied at worst. Even having a well worn foot trail can be enough. I have idiots on multiple trail cams. That's why other than my state, I don't post much about details of my location.

That's why I try to have as many different locations as possible. I have routes marked on rite in the rain topo maps for myself and my family to get to our different places and rally points. These places are no joke, they are not the easiest to get to. But we have walked them enough to be confident we can if need be. We have even done it in the dark, rain, snow, etc. A couple times out of necessity due to flooding.

Our strategy has been to immediately take to the woods, avoiding trails, roads or anything convenient where people would likely be. No plan is ever 100%, but I agree with avoiding people. My bug out location is literally located just below a point of a ridge. Nothing permanent there, a cache is buried but is only accessible to us, no markings.
 
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I would go to my farm house in MS. Biggest possible reason would be the ABOVE ground nuclear plant (where I worked above ground until I retired) or a hurricane. Other issues like public unrest would likely be worse there than at my home, although if food supply became an issue rural MS would be much better with a lake and lots of eatable critters!
 
There is also talk about the Corona virus possibly being a seasonal virus with temperatures being the determining factor to it's longevity.
 
Rabbits are great for meat, but for the people reading this that might not know you can eat to much rabbit and get what's called rabbit fever. There is not enough fat in the lean meat and can mess you up.
 
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Bullgear...
I can attest to this because I'm actually in WV. If anyone knows anything about your location, you can bet it will be raided at best, occupied at worst. Even having a well worn foot trail can be enough. I have idiots on multiple trail cams. That's why other than my state, I don't post much about details of my location.

That's why I try to have as many different locations as possible. I have routes marked on rite in the rain topo maps for myself and my family to get to our different places and rally points. These places are no joke, they are not the easiest to get to. But we have walked them enough to be confident we can if need be. We have even done it in the dark, rain, snow, etc. A couple times out of necessity due to flooding.

Our strategy has been to immediately take to the woods, avoiding trails, roads or anything convenient where people would likely be. No plan is ever 100%, but I agree with avoiding people. My bug out location is literally located just below a point of a ridge. Nothing permanent there, a cache is buried but is only accessible to us, no markings.
What would happen if somehow your family got split up or one of them was caught. Maybe the backpack gets left behind in a high stress situation. Would you be comfortable with maps of your location being in the hands of someone you dont know? Just something to think about. Somethings are best being memorized.
 
What if? What if? What if.....

The never-ending game of 'you could have done more'
 
I think being dependant on a bugout location that's on public land i.e. National Forest, State Park, etc. is being unrealistic, unless it's in some remote parts of the country. If your bugout location is in an area that is visited by large amounts of people that have vacation homes, or are there for recreating, hiking, hunting, camping etc. That area will be overwhelmed by those who often visit that area, and know it well. Living off the land, or trying to stay safe and secure in a remote area, will only accept so many humans before it becomes unacceptable. And of course, there's that mindset of idiots without any prior planning, other than let's head for the hills to survive. In many cases, it may be safer to stay in a town of 100K, than to try to survive in difficult environmental conditions of a remote location.
 
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I think being dependant on a bugout location that's on public land i.e. National Forest, State Park, etc. is being unrealistic, unless it's in some remote parts of the country. If your bugout location is in an area that is visited by large amounts of people that have vacation homes, or are there for recreating, hiking, hunting, camping etc. That area will be overwhelmed by those who often visit that area, and know it well. Living off the land, or trying to stay safe and secure in a remote area, will only accept so many humans before it becomes unacceptable. And of course, there's that mindset of idiots without any prior planning, other than let's head for the hills to survive. In many cases, it may be safer to stay in a town of 100K, than to try to survive in difficult environmental conditions of a remote location.


Crime will be everywhere in a bugout situation. I would worry about trying to get to your bugout location during these times. I would expect this location to be many miles from your residence, so you're going to be putting yourself in areas where you may not know the area like the locals do. A truck/tree across the road could be the beginning of a bad time for you and your family.

I'm not saying that a bugout location is a bad situation, but it's not as safe as most people think it will be.
 
And as for "Easter Dinner', I've been saying for years that "Haasenpfeffer" is ON the menu.. Seriously, what does 'a rabbit' have to do with Easter? Food, with Thanks.
 
Best rabbit came from wheat fields after they had been on it for a month or longer.

Sweet and tender.