Welcome to the Keep and Bear, LLC 30 Day Preparedness Challenge! We are on Day 5. If you are just joining us, please go to the intro post to learn more.
The purpose of this ‘challenge’ is to provide a paced and measured plan to fulfill some basic family preparedness needs. These needs are real-world, and applicable to the average family.
The below headings are the main survival priorities.
Positive Mental Attitude
In the Day 1 post, the task was to pick a book relating to positive mental attitude. To expand on that, it can be a book on success or mental improvement, such as the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (a great resource), but it can also be about developing mental tenacity. If you haven’t already, google “books on positive mental attitude” or “books on success” and pick one you are interested in.
TASK: Read at least one chapter in your PMA book.
Air
No tasks for Air today!
Shelter
Yesterday we googled a list of common household repairs and took an honest assessment of if we’d be able to do them or not. Today, we’re going to pick one that we are reasonably sure about and check our assessment.
TASK: Take one home repair project you know you can do and “walk through it” step by step. Ensure your assessment of your skills was correct.
TASK: Print this repair process and add it to a Home Repair notebook. Add notes that apply to your specific make/model/situation.
This will be a common task going forth, with each day understanding a new home repair item.
Hydration
We are going for 1 gallon of potable water per person per day for up to 7 days. That means with a family of 4, we need 28 gallons. This is a bare-bones amount suitable for average exertion in temperate weather. If you’re dealing with high exertion and hot weather, double the requirement.
TASK: Clean and fill at least two 2-liter bottles.
As a heads up, we will be filling two 2-liter bottles each weeknight for the entire challenge. If you would rather knock this out in one fell swoop, go for it!
Nutrition
Assess your family’s eating habits. What has short shelf lives (like bread)? What has longer shelf lives (like boxed mac n cheese)? What has nearly indefinite shelf lives (like dehydrated foods, canned goods, or dry goods)?
TASK: Continue putting together a list of typical meals and their ingredients that consist of short, long, and indefinite shelf life items. Identify completed recipes that use at least long-life ingredients.
We’re going shopping on Saturday so ensure you’re keeping up with this!
Rescue/Mitigation/Repair
While we are sheltering at home, getting home can be very important. Furthermore, being able to find a family member who may be stranded is also important. Yesterday, we made maps to and from our workplaces and home’, and started really paying attention to our route. We’re going to keep that up.
TASK: On your normal way to work (Route 1), observe the route for natural hazards such as low areas, high traffic intersections, and other known issues. Also, observe for potential resources such as hardware stores, bike shops (if your vehicle becomes inoperative and it’s a long commute), water sources, and shelter areas. Note them on your maps.
Training
The rescue section and shelter section are also the training for today!
Welcome to the Keep and Bear, LLC 30 Day Preparedness Challenge! We are on Day 4. If you are just joining us, please go to the intro post to learn more.
The purpose of this ‘challenge’ is to provide a paced and measured plan to fulfill some basic family preparedness needs. These needs are real-world, and applicable to the average family.
The below headings are the main survival priorities.
Positive Mental Attitude
In the Day 1 post, the task was to pick a book relating to positive mental attitude. To expand on that, it can be a book on success or mental improvement, such as the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (a great resource), but it can also be about developing mental tenacity. If you haven’t already, google “books on positive mental attitude” or “books on success” and pick one you are interested in.
TASK: Read at least one chapter in your PMA book.
Air
No tasks for Air today!
Shelter
Remember, we are most concerned with Shelter At Home. But in some conditions, we will need to fortify and repair the home so it can continue to shelter us.
The past couple days we assessed our tools and made a list of what we needed against a general list. We also assessed what actions we might need to take in an emergency and assessed ‘consumables’ like wood and hardware. We then ensured these items were in our tool list.
Today, we are going to hold off a bit on adding to our shopping list and do an honest assessment of ourselves and our skills to accomplish these things. Keyword: Honest.
TASK: Google the terms “simple woodworking project”, “simple home electrical repairs”, and “simple plumbing repairs”. Look at the terminology, the steps, and the tools needed. Honestly assess if you could do these or not.
Take a look at the articles and do an honest assessment of your skills. Could you do some of these repairs? Could you do them without internet or youtube? If you find your skills lacking in some of these, it might not be a bad idea to watch a few videos on how to do things, and even start a small library of printouts for the more common ones.
Hydration
We are going for 1 gallon of potable water per person per day for up to 7 days. That means with a family of 4, we need 28 gallons. This is a bare-bones amount suitable for average exertion in temperate weather. If you’re dealing with high exertion and hot weather, double the requirement.
TASK: Clean and fill at least two 2-liter bottles.
As a heads up, we will be filling two 2-liter bottles each weeknight for the entire challenge. If you would rather knock this out in one fell swoop, go for it!
Nutrition
Assess your family’s eating habits. What has short shelf lives (like bread)? What has longer shelf lives (like boxed mac n cheese)? What has nearly indefinite shelf lives (like dehydrated foods, canned goods, or dry goods)?
TASK: Continue putting together a list of typical meals and their ingredients that consist of short, long, and indefinite shelf life items. Identify completed recipes that use at least long-life ingredients.
We’re going shopping on Saturday so ensure you’re keeping up with this!
Rescue/Mitigation/Repair
While we are sheltering at home, getting home can be very important. Furthermore, being able to find a family member who may be stranded is also important. Yesterday, we made maps to and from our workplaces and home’, and started really paying attention to our route. We’re going to keep that up.
TASK: On your normal way to work (Route 1), observe the route for natural hazards such as low areas, high traffic intersections, and other known issues. Also, observe for potential resources such as hardware stores, bike shops (if your vehicle becomes inoperative and it’s a long commute), water sources, and shelter areas. Note them on your maps.
Training
The rescue section and shelter section are also the training for today!
Welcome to the Keep and Bear, LLC 30 Day Preparedness Challenge! We are on Day 3. If you are just joining us, please go to the intro post to learn more.
The purpose of this ‘challenge’ is to provide a paced and measured plan to fulfill some basic family preparedness needs. These needs are real-world, and applicable to the average family.
The below headings are the main survival priorities.
Positive Mental Attitude
In the Day 1 post, the task was to pick a book relating to positive mental attitude. To expand on that, it can be a book on success or mental improvement, such as the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (a great resource), but it can also be about developing mental tenacity. If you haven’t already, google “books on positive mental attitude” or “books on success” and pick one you are interested in.
TASK: Read at least one chapter in your PMA book.
Air
No tasks for Air today!
Shelter
Remember, we are most concerned with Shelter At Home. But in some conditions, we will need to fortify and repair the home so it can continue to shelter us.
With our tools assessed (but not yet ordered, it’s just on your To-Do list), we need materials. The average homeowner should have a reasonable supply of 2×4’s, a few sheets of plywood, and a supply of screws and nails. Look over the stuff you have laying around. Could you board some windows, make some repairs, rig something up?
TASK: Assess the threats you face (hurricanes, tornados, etc) that would affect your home and the steps you want to mitigate them. If it’s boarding up windows, start accumulating the plywood or other materials to do so. Figure out how they will attach to the house, and what hardware you will need to do so. Use FB Marketplace, Craigslist, or other used sources to get these materials cheaply.
Pro tip: Carpenter’s screws that use a Torx bit rather than a Phillips head are far easier to work with and do not strip out like a Phillips screw does.
Hydration
We are going for 1 gallon of potable water per person per day for up to 7 days. That means with a family of 4, we need 28 gallons. This is a bare-bones amount suitable for average exertion in temperate weather. If you’re dealing with high exertion and hot weather, double the requirement.
TASK: Clean and fill at least two 2-liter bottles.
As a heads up, we will be filling two 2-liter bottles each weeknight for the entire challenge. If you would rather knock this out in one fell swoop, go for it!
Nutrition
Assess your family’s eating habits. What has short shelf lives (like bread)? What has longer shelf lives (like boxed mac n cheese)? What has nearly indefinite shelf lives (like dehydrated foods, canned goods, or dry goods)?
TASK: Continue putting together a list of typical meals and their ingredients that consist of short, long, and indefinite shelf life items. Identify completed recipes that use at least long-life ingredients.
Rescue/Mitigation/Repair
While we are sheltering at home, getting home can be very important. Furthermore, being able to find a family member who may be stranded is also important.
For today’s task, we’re going to develop a set of maps that the family references. If you have the means, DeLorme atlases are excellent, but it is just as easy to print (yes, hardcopy!) maps these days.
Print one set of maps for home, and one for each driving-age person or vehicle.
First, identify where your home is, as well as workplaces and all other frequently visited places (such as your kids’ school, daycares, family friends, etc). DO NOT MARK THESE ON YOUR MAPS, rather, mark a major intersection near them. If the maps fall into the wrong hands in an emergency, you don’t necessarily want to give the locations of an obviously well-prepared family away.
In math, when a value is shifted, the ‘prime’ symbol is used. so value X would become X’. With the tick after. We’ll use that nomenclature here.
Mark HOME’ on the map, as well as WORK1′, WORK2′, etc. There are lots of businesses and it may be hard for someone to anticipate where you’re at. For schools, do NOT use school’, just use generic waypoint names, such as WAYPOINT’, and have a nearby main intersection marked.
On the map, draw out your normal route to that location. Label it SPOUSE1ROUTE 1, SPOUSE2ROUTE1, or some such.
TASK: On your normal way to work (Route 1), observe the route for natural hazards such as low areas, high traffic intersections, and other known issues. Also, observe for potential resources such as hardware stores, bike shops (if your vehicle becomes inoperative and it’s a long commute), water sources, and shelter areas. Note them on your maps.
Training
The rescue section is also the training for today!
Welcome to the Keep and Bear, LLC 30 Day Preparedness Challenge! We are on Day 2. If you are just joining us, please go to the intro post to learn more.
The purpose of this ‘challenge’ is to provide a paced and measured plan to fulfill some basic family preparedness needs. These needs are real-world, and applicable to the average family.
The below headings are the main survival priorities.
Positive Mental Attitude
In the Day 1 post, the task was to pick a book relating to positive mental attitude. To expand on that, it can be a book on success or mental improvement, such as the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (a great resource), but it can also be about developing mental tenacity. If you haven’t already, google “books on positive mental attitude” or “books on success” and pick one you are interested in.
TASK: Read at least one chapter in your PMA book.
Air
In the Day 1 post, the task was to determine if your inventories included at least a decent dust/particulate mask for you and your family. There was also a reference to a decent explanation on different masks and qualities.
TASK: Determine the threat conditions you face near your home and work. Determine the most appropriate masks for your needs. Determine their durations. Put getting them on your To-Do list.
Shelter
Remember, we are most concerned with Shelter At Home. But in some conditions, we will need to fortify and repair the home so it can continue to shelter us. Most people have a basic tool kit, but if you do not, it is now time to assess what you do have and fill in what you don’t.
TASK: Assess your tool needs, including any specialty or odd tools needed for your situation. Compare this list to your tool inventory. Identify all gaps and add getting the needed tools to your To-Do list.
An example of an odd tool… I have a utility tractor. It occasionally requires the engine bolts tightened to the frame. It takes a 19mm wrench to do so. Once identified, this required tool was obtained. I have several tractor implements that have even larger bolts. Once identified, a 3/4″ drive bar wrench was needed with sockets of the appropriate size. These are in addition to the kit above.
Hydration
We are going for 1 gallon of potable water per person per day for up to 7 days. That means with a family of 4, we need 28 gallons. This is a bare-bones amount suitable for average exertion in temperate weather. If you’re dealing with high exertion and hot weather, double the requirement.
On Day 1, we started saving/sourcing 2-liter bottles. These are excellent containers because they are relatively sturdy, tolerate stacking, and are a very effective quantity vs weight physical characteristic. Ideally the 2-liter bottles were used for water originally. If they were used for soda, ensure they are cleaned very thoroughly as sugar can allow growth of things we’d rather not drink. Don’t forget cleaning the cap and the cap threading.
TASK: Find a place you will be storing your water supplies. It should be dark, and ideally cool.
TASK: Clean and fill at least two 2-liter bottles.
As a heads up, we will be filling two 2-liter bottles each weeknight for the entire challenge. If you would rather knock this out in one fell swoop, go for it!
NOTE: To disinfect water, 4 drops per 2-liter bottle is the correct ratio, however, adding bleach to the water now (to store it) does no real good. Bleach will remain effective as a disinfectant for about 24 hours in water. If you are uncertain about your storage water purity, add bleach to the water before you use it, not as you store it.
Additionally, if you’d rather buy purpose-made storage containers for water, go for it. It’s a bit out of budget for this exercise, but there can be distinct advantages.
Nutrition
Assess your family’s eating habits. What has short shelf lives (like bread)? What has longer shelf lives (like boxed mac n cheese)? What has nearly indefinite shelf lives (like dehydrated foods, canned goods, or dry goods)?
TASK: Start putting together a list of typical meals and their ingredients that consist of short, long, and indefinite shelf life items. Identify completed recipes that use at least long-life ingredients.
Rescue/Mitigation/Repair
A flashlight in every room, and on you. That’s the goal. There should literally be a small flashlight in easy reach in every location you spend time. Your dad chair? Flashlight in the coffee table next to it. Computer desk? Flashlight on it. Bed? Flashlight in the night stand. Car? Flashlight in the center console or the door tray.
In addition to these flashlights, carry one. Tactical flashlights are cool-guy gear. Get one.
TASK: Collect all the flashlights you have in your junk drawers and put them in useful places that are near the areas you actually dwell. Find a smallish one and keep it on you.
Lastly, have one “high capacity” flashlight, or better, two. These are the lights that will have reasonable brightness for a good long while.
TASK: Have at least one long duration flashlight. Your small lights have one job: Get you to your big light.
TASK: Make a recurring schedule in your To-Do list to replace flashlight batteries at least 1/year.
Training
Yes, we have to learn stuff. Your training should include:
Home skills (sewing, food preparation/preservation)
TASK: Assess your skillset in the above areas and identify if any are missing. Based on your skills, research what you most need extra training in. Enroll in at least one of those training subjects.
Welcome to the Keep and Bear, LLC 30 Day Preparedness Challenge! The purpose of this ‘challenge’ is to provide a paced and measured plan to fulfill some basic family preparedness needs. These needs are real-world, and applicable to the average family..
NOTE: This challenge is running in September 2019. References to weekdays (Sunday, Monday,…) are accurate for this year. If you are referring to this, post-challenge, or running it on your own afterwards, the weekdays may be off somewhat. It was designed to be started on a Sunday, for people who tend to work Monday through Friday. Adjust accordingly!
The scope of this challenge is to provide for the basic family of four for 7 days. We have 30 days to accomplish this but there are multiple considerations. For each task, the goal will be stated (for instance, for hydration we want 1 gallon of water for each family member for 7 days stored up. That’s 28 gallons total) and you may scale it accordingly (if you have 8 family members you’ll need to double it!).
In addition to basic needs, there will be ideas for emergency response and items for simply more resilient living. You will NOT be able to survive a nuclear winter or the zombie apocalypse from this 30-day challenge, but you will be well on your way to being better able to handle what life throws at you.
As far as costs, we have tried to keep this minimal and focus on what can be done cheaply. In some cases, cost cannot be avoided, but in some cases, the costs can be offset. Time investment is also something we’ve tried to minimize where we can. We have a month. If we can devote just 1/2 hour a day to that, we have 15 hours of preparedness forethought devoted to keeping our families safe.
Below is a list of typical survival priorities and a couple other categories we are going to explore. In each of them, we’ll have tasks through the month to accomplish. Not every category will have something allocated to it that day.
TASK: Download a quality task/to-do app. One that has scheduled events, recurring events, and subtasks. Microsoft To-Do is a great app for this purpose, and runs on your smartphone and syncs with your computer. Download it, and use it.
Positive Mental Attitude
A positive mental attitude is the first and most important survival priority there is. Only the will to survive will cause further action. A drowning person can continue to fight for survival, even without air. Eventually his body may give out, but lack of survival should never be because one “gave up”.
TASK: Buy, download, or otherwise obtain a book related to positive mental attitude. For me, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People was a great book about getting things done, prioritization, and, well, becoming more effective.
Air
We obviously need air to survive, and lack of it will cause death very quickly. What can we do to ensure air quality? Should we have SCUBA tanks on hand?
Our end goal will be to simply have reasonable buffer in case of chemical leaks or other airborne threats.
TASK: Determine if your inventory includes a decent dust/particulate mask for you and your family. At least one for each family member, but more is better. Learn about the ratings here. If your home inventory does not include them, add getting them to your To-Do list.
Shelter
For the most part, this challenge will be a shelter-in-home and get-to-home oriented activity. Making bug out bags and the like can be expensive. Let’s do one thing at a time, and since most emergency situations are best weathered shelter-in-home, lets handle the highest probability case first.
Our end goal here will be to ensure we have a means to maintain and repair our home, and plans against common threat events (fire, tornado, etc.)
TASK: On your To-Do app, create a recurring 6 month task to change batteries in your smoke alarms. Create an annually recurring task to inspect your fire extinguishers.
Hydration
How much is enough? We are going for 1 gallon of potable water per person per day for up to 7 days. That means with a family of 4, we need 28 gallons. This is a bare-bones amount suitable for average exertion in temperate weather. If you’re dealing with high exertion and hot weather, double the requirement.
The above was just drinking water. “Gray water”, or water that you can use as a tool (such as doing dishes, adding to toilets to flush, bathe, etc) is an additional requirement and should be accumulated as well, in at least equal quantities.
TASK: Start saving 2-liter bottles. If you buy soda, save them. If you have friends that have them, get them. 2-liter bottles are EXCELLENT water storage containers. Easily enough water for most personal tasks, and small enough to keep weight down.
TASK: Determine your family’s water needs. 28 gallons is the goal for a family of 4. That’s close to 53 2-liter bottles.
Nutrition
Nutrition is not as much a concern in the short term since the body can go many days without food. However, from a preparedness standpoint, extra exertion in an emergency requires more fuel to remain functional.
Additionally, food represents a comfort, a normalcy. In the coming month we’re going to prepare for food stores. These should not be MREs or other survival foods that your family wont even recognize as food. It should be stuff they already know and like, and we’ll simply have to identify what can keep for a longer time.
As always, food supplies should be rotated. If we stock up on Mac N Cheese, don’t just set the emergency boxes aside, eat them! Just have more in inventory to accommodate a 7 day consumption rate.
Rescue/Mitigation/Repair
This is where the cool-guy/gal gear goes. Gear is fun. We like gear. We’re going to get to gear up a bit. Some of this we will talk about in other sections, but a lot of it here, too.
Some other things will be to ensure we’re prepared for events. Do you know multiple ways home? Do you know the resources and risks along those ways? Should you? Yup.
TASK: Determine if each family member has a sturdy pair of work gloves. If not, get them some. In an emergency, there’ll be more things to do, and some of the items will have less familiarity. More injury likelihood is present. Protect your hands. Establish a place to store these gloves and keep them stored there.
Training
Wait what… I have to learn stuff? Yup. You don’t get to buy gear without having to learn the gear. We’ll also talk about stuff you should already know. Like First Aid.
Wrap Up
Each day we’ll have a wrap up. Where we’re at and where we still need to get to. What we spent in time and dollars. Hopefully you’ll hit our FB page to discuss!
For the month of September, we will be posting on our Facebook page as well as on our website a DAILY STEP you can take in the month of September to make your family better equipped to handle common issues the typical Michigan family will take. In these daily steps, we will strive to do a few things:
Keep costs low. Ideally we will be under $100/week.
Keep time commitment low. Ideally we will be under 30 min/day.
Concentration on survival priorities of shelter, hydration, nutrition, and rescue/recovery/mitigation.
If you’re interested in participating, we would LOVE to hear from you and your experiences both along the way and after. Email us at info@keepandbearllc.com and tell us you’re IN. If you prefer to review and participate without letting us know all about it, that’s OK as well! Follow along and we hope you improve your situation.
To begin with, try to save about $200 in August to help lessen the financial burden. Try to allocate some time each day, and try to schedule some weekend time to “catch up” on things you might have missed through the week.
I had the opportunity to provide some advice to a lady who was taking her CPL class (not through us, due to distance). The advice I gave her was to concentrate on her front sights (she had vision constraints) and once she gets her CPL to carry on-body only (no purse, no handbag).
The reasons for on-body carry are, frankly, numerous. In fact, on body carry is appropriate about 99+% of the time under a normal CPL paradigm (carrying a pistol in case of general lethal threat).
Here are a few of the points…
Reduced handling
Firearms are extremely safe on their own. Mechanical safeties render most firearms unshootable except when the trigger is actuated. The act of manipulating a firearm increases unintended trigger actuation. This is irrefutable and merely a function of interaction with the object. To reduce risk, good handling and trigger finger discipline are practices to make this risk as low as reasonably possible.
In on-body carry, the firearm on your person will likely be handled twice per day: When you put it on in the morning and when you take it off at night. If you have non-permissive environments, handling will likely increase as you remove/rearm to access/vacate these places.
In these cases, the firearm in its holster together should be removed if possible. By keeping the trigger area covered in the holster, the risk on unintentional trigger actuation is minimized.
For vehicle staging, there are holsters, magnets, and other devices to make the firearm readily available to the driver or occupant. If these regularly require unholstering from on-body carry to put in the vehicle-staged area, then reholstering to on-body carry when you need to go somewhere, multiple iterations of handling are incurred which is increased risk of unintentional discharge.
All opportunities to reduce casual handling of the firearm increase safety and good practices.
Consistent draw
We have a class called Intermediate Handgun I, which is what the CPL class should really be, and not the home-intent course Michigan requires. We practice tons of drills, and those drills are all from the draw. The average student will draw their pistol about 200 times in those 8 hours. They will PRACTICE it. They will develop consistency. They will develop ‘muscle memory’ as the act of drawing becomes more familiar and effective.
After classes like this, it is unlikely a person will practice drawing as intently. We hope they do, but most ranges do not allow shooting from the draw, and will have a nice bench in front of the stall to operate from. In short, we have a limited amount of range time we can practice from the draw. Why, then, place the firearm off-body in some place you won’t be able to practice it? If it’s in your car’s center console, will you practice that draw? Attached to a magnet under the dash? Will you practice that?
There is no object more familiar to us than our own bodies. Without looking, we can reach our hips, touch our knees and elbows, clap hands, and anything else. After a single class, we can access our holstered firearm with little more than a glance. Maybe not even that. Our bodies provide this ‘familiar environment’ and we can feel the gun there and know to reach for it instinctively.
Reaching into a glove box or a center console or a dresser drawer or any other things is inherently less familiar. Less familiarity equals milliseconds to seconds.
In an ideal world, we would be able to stage the firearm in any container in any proximity near us and have 100% proficiency at accessing it. In the real world, almost all CPLers will not practice that extensively. This is not a bash, it’s an honest assessment of real-world priorities with our time. If we’ve prioritized practice for a couple days, let’s keep our carry methods in line with what we’ve already practiced.
Consistent access
In addition to the consistently drawing the firearm, with on body carry the firearm is always on you. Going in to get a Slurpee? It’ll just be a minute? The temptation of having off-body carry and just leaving the gun behind is there. Yes, we can ‘program out’ this temptation, but with best practices we can negate this temptation. In short, the safest place for your firearm is under your direct control and access. There are hundreds of reasons to not bother holstering. “It’s right there under the seat while I pump gas”, “I’ll just be in there a minute”, etc. Those 10 feet or that closed door might just become miles and walls when you need it the most. “Its always on you” is a far better and more consistent answer than “variable”.
Prioritized handling
A firearm is risk mitigation. Risk is severity, probability, and detectability. A firearm is to deal with a high severity, low detectability risk (armed bad guy ‘comes out of nowhere’). We instruct our students to stage their firearm with that in mind. In other words, don’t let it go somewhere it cannot be gotten immediately, EVEN if its use is infrequent (low probability).
Placement and conflict
Off body carry, namely a purse, handbag, or satchel, is literally putting the life saving tool IN the most likely point of contention. If someone is attacked, odds are it is for their purse or their stuff. Females have the added concern of ‘sexual access’. For a robber, his focus will be on getting the container, and getting away. If it is armed robbery, handing over the purse or bag will be the only action available. You will literally be giving the criminal your gun.
For a female facing sexual assault, she must fight off any percussion attacks, attempt to get away, and attempt to ‘restrict access’. A firearm on body might be able to reached during a fight (please train ground fighting!). If the firearm was in a purse, she must add retaining the purse and getting into the purse to those objectives.
For any altercation with on-body carry, the criminal may not yet notice the gun, and the gun is not (yet) the object of contention. Best case, you’re not putting a gun in the bad guy’s hands. More importantly, you’re not giving up your protective tool. If the situation escalates to “lethal force imminent”, you’re not in a fight over a handbag to get your gun while the criminal has his lethal force weapon in hand.
Minor exceptions
There are of course no absolutes in life, and trying to make the crux of an argument wrong through exceptions is a bit foolish. But, there are some exceptions to on-body carry only.
Bedtime, shower.
There are of course many more, but from a CPL paradigm where the Average Joe/Jane is going about their day responsibly armed, on body carry is right almost all the time.
One aspect of emergency preparedness is knowing when to vacate the home (bug out) and regroup at a safer location. To do so, many preparedness enthusiasts choose to create a purpose-made bug out vehicle to enable this relocation.
We here at Keep and Bear, LLC prefer to keep things realistic. That means unless fantasy vehicles are your hobby, odds are you’re not going to mod an old Deuce and a Half or store a Damnation Alley Landmaster in your back yard anticipating radioactive armored cockroaches.
The more measured approach is to select a vehicle that will serve in an emergency evacuation scenario, and will hopefully fit in with all your other daily needs. This can be difficult in some circumstances, such as needing a highly efficient vehicle for a long commute, that would fare poorly if roads became cluttered with debris.
Below are some considerations when selecting your next vehicle to have some BOV capability. The headings are not in ‘weighted’ order of importance.
Power
During the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire which enveloped nearly 1.5 million acres of land, many Canadians were forced to flee in vehicle. There are hours of harrowing Youtube footage showing a relatively orderly evacuation process. As seen in the video, vehicles were perilously close to the blaze. Certainly there were those who evacuated earlier, and those who came later at even greater danger.
One person who was interviewed regarding vehicles for this made the claim “larger pick up trucks with the ability to push stalled vehicles out of the way were more successful in escaping the situation”.
Independent of the nature of the emergency, stalled vehicles will be a problem. There will be those who didn’t gas up, or were at the low end of their fill cycle when the emergency hit. There will be people attempting to escape in vehicles that are not mechanically sound, but it’s all they have. These vehicles become problems for everyone behind them, and having a vehicle that can push things out of the way is a BOV must-have.
Terrain capability
The most frequent emergency travel conditions are weather related. The two threat components include wind and water. Wind is likely to blow down trees, cover roads with branches and debris, and make many rural or semi-rural routes impassable.
Depending on one’s location, water accumulation is likely to be another issue with roadways making them impassable.
New Hartford, IA June 9, 2008 – Heavy rains flooded this small town of 698 last night. The firechief’s high-suspension jeep is being used to shuttle residents to their homes so they can check damage and rescue their pets. Photo by Greg Henshall / FEMA
For either of these, vehicle ground clearance is important. The ability of the vehicle suspension to stay above debris and have the suspension travel to go over larger debris objects means a faster evacuation since one does not have to stop to deal with smaller obstacles.
There are full books written on good suspension systems as well as off-road capability, and very knowledgeable clubs devoted to doing so. Partake in these clubs! The vehicle does not have to be pushed hard or beaten to death, and modern trucks and off-road-intent SUVs can handle some significant terrain challenges. Understand your vehicle’s capabilities.
Water accumulation is especially hazardous since it can hide significant terrain features, such as a washed out road, sink hole, or sharp objects that will destroy tires. Furthermore, water entering the air intake system of the vehicle can hydrolock the engine. At best it is a time consuming fix, and at worst it can result in the engine’s destruction.
If one’s threat matrix has a high risk of flooding, a vehicle with a reasonable lift kit and a well-equipped snorkel system is a valid investment. The snorkel reroutes the vehicle air intake system through a snorkel that is usually 2-3 feet higher than stock. Well equipped snorkel systems also include routing axle breathers and in some cases exhaust pipes to a higher point on the vehicle.
One of the biggest factors in terrain capability is 4 wheel drive. In reality, 4WD is actually one rear wheel and one front wheel providing propulsion. With some modern trucks, electronic locking is available to ensure both rear and/or front wheels spin. 4WD is one of the most important factors that should be considered in a BOV.
Access for tools
If road debris is very likely (and it is), then getting at the tools to clear the path becomes important. Having a chainsaw, gas, a couple shovels, and some utility straps or chains readily accessible will make an evac go more quickly. Pick up trucks with a bed divider can help ensure the stuff you need right away is conveniently accessible at the rear of the bed, while the not-as-important-for-an-evac stuff stays securely in place near the front of the bed.
This type of accessibility can be more difficult in other vehicles, such as a sedan or enclosed SUV. In these cases, plan on either using the trunk or a vacant rear seat, or in the case of an SUV a rear cargo area divider, if available, for tool access . The tools WILL get dirty and muddy and need to be put back in the vehicle interior. Try to keep in mind this is an emergency evacuation scenario and something that will clean up isn’t an immediate concern.
Your spare tire and changing equipment should be equally accessible. If you must remove multiple containers from the vehicle to get at the spare, it is time wasted that may be crucial in an evacuation.
Recovery
A BOV intent vehicle should have recovery points. These are the hooks you see on Jeep bumpers or the D-shackles on some aftermarket offroad bumpers. All vehicles have tie-down points to facilitate shipping. Know where yours are and ensure they can be used as a recovery point if stuck. If you modify them, ensure they are rated for 3-4 times the vehicle weight.
This vehicle has aftermarket recovery points (the D shackles) and a winch.
A winch helps ensure the vehicle can self-recover if it becomes stuck. It consists of a high torque motor and spool which reels in a steel or synthetic (better) cable. Winching is an involved skill to do successfully and safely, and should be a part of your training. Again, get involved, even if only briefly, with an offroad club or take a class in this.
Vehicle reliability
We need it to go. Period. The vehicle must operate as intended when we ask it to. Most modern vehicles are quite reliable. While some have interesting quirks, they shouldn’t let you down. In the truck arena, Toyota is generally considered to reign supreme with the Tacoma and Tundra, though Ford and Chevy still make the list.
Along with reliability in design, regular maintenance is a must to ensure your BOV will perform as intended when you ask it to. We all tend to ‘get to that repair’ at some point, while eking out as much value from the vehicle as we can, but if you have a vehicle that will be intent as the family BOV, stay on top of its maintenance.
Ensure your vehicle has a full size spare. ‘Donuts’ (small spare tires designed to accommodate up to 50 miles or travel at low speeds) are utterly unreliable in an evacuation scenario.
Hauling capacity
Depending on the nature of an evacuation, you might be hauling a lot of stuff, or your go-bags only. A well-prepared go-bag is essential, but if you can save even more stuff from damage, you’ll do it. A BOV with hauling capacity facilitates this.
The first factor in hauling capacity is the weight/volume in the vehicle and its bed (if applicable). A Chevy Silverado Crew Cab bed has 72 cubic feet of cargo space and can bear nearly 2000 pounds of weight. A Toyota Tacoma bed approaches 37 cubic feet in volume and an bear 1175 pounds. For a hasty evac, either of these are sufficient to haul the ‘what you can grab’ items. For an evac with significant forewarning, more items might be removable.
For that, the tow rating of a BOV can be important. A trailer for extra gear, or better yet a camper or enclosed trailer with some living accommodation helps ensure you will have lodging, even if hotels are full. Most half-ton trucks (the compact trucks such as the Colorado, Ranger, and Tacoma) can tow approximately 7000 pounds maximum. Full size pickups can tow a typical 9500 pounds or so. These are maximums and if terrain and debris are a factor, the truck/trailer combination may not be capable of traversing the exit route.
For a decent blend of transporting volume and having livable space, the hobby of “overlanding” (motorized exploration travel, think backpacking from your vehicle) has produced many trailers that double as equipment storage, a galley, and a sleeping area via roof top tent. These types of trailers might be an excellent blend of utility and bug-out capability. (It’s also a growing and rewarding hobby…)
Mileage and range
Before the late 2010’s, we’d have to agree that vehicle mileage was the sacrificial lamb in these considerations. All of the characteristics that make a good bug out vehicle are typically not so good on gas mileage. But with manufacturers upping their fuel economy games, this is not as true as before. The Chevy Colorado with diesel engine can get 28 mpg. The full size Ford F-150 can get similar highway efficiency.
New non-diesel trucks are still capable of 22 mpg combined, which is a reasonable bump from just 2 decades ago.
Mileage and fuel capacity culminate in ‘range’, the total distance a vehicle can go without refueling. Some smaller vehicles sacrifice fuel capacity for mileage. Trucks typically do not. For a new vehicle shopper with BOV-intent, some vehicles offer multiple size fuel tanks. Get the larger one.
A Chevy Suburban only gets 19 mpg combined, but with its 31 gallon fuel tank, gets a range of 589 miles. A Chevy Colorado with diesel tops out at 580 miles range. A Ford F-150 diesel has a combined mileage of 24 mpg. With the available 36 gallon fuel tank, this yields a staggering range of over 800 miles.
It is important to remember that an evac situation will most likely not yield this kind of mileage. Getting 1/2 the anticipated mileage is close to worst case.
Mechanical vs Electronics
There is a LOT of talk about BOVs being as mechanical as you can get them. Carburators, manual transmissions, virtually no electronics… There are a lot of old school survivalists that swear by old vehicles that are still on the road. The notion is that mechanics are more reliable than electronics.
A lot of this can be confusion over causality, though. Newer vehicles with thinner metals increase efficiency, but make them less tolerant to rusting. Massive heavy engines made from recycled anvils are phenomenal for longevity, but don’t really help efficiency. Crush zones on vehicles that make occupants far safer means vehicles will be declared totaled with a lower threshold of damage than their Ford Flintstone counterparts. There’s a lot of reason there seems to be more older cars on the road than old ‘newer’ cars.
Electronics does not automatically equate to unreliability. Due to electronics vehicles have more power than ever using less fuel than ever to achieve it. Yes, electrical issues can be harder to pin down, but the free market is providing with things like OBD2 bluetooth devices that let you read trouble codes from an app. The shadetree mechanic is evolving with vehicle technology.
Muh Eee Emmm Peees!
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a phenomenon resultant from a nuclear blast or possibly an intense and targeted coronal mass ejection (stuff from the sun jettisons away from the sun and hits Earth). Preparedness enthusiasts tend to keep this idea in the back of their mind, as even a rudimentary nuclear device can produce a substantial EMP. If such a device is detonated far overhead, the coverage area of a single EMP can be significant. EMPs are measured in volts per meter of open space, meaning that two points, 1 meter away, could have a voltage drop of 20 kilo-volts or more. Considering most solid state electronics are rated for not more than 50 volts, the idea that all electronics will be fried is a common one.
Many BOV builders prefer all-mechanical systems just for this eventuality. Many store extra electrical parts (such as spark plugs, condensers, computer modules, and more) in a Faraday cage (an enclosure meant to attenuate an EMP charge).
The reality of an EMP is that they do exist, though the risk is extremely low. The Carrington Event of the late 1800’s disrupted telegraph communications. It is important to remember that telegraph lines in those days were unshielded, and there was no real idea that such a phenomenon existed. Modern vehicles have decent hardening and shielding in place, and the vehicle itself is not a long antenna (meaning, it doesn’t have a large area in which to absorb EMP energy). Fantasy preppers believe most vehicles will fry. Engineers who test for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) immunity aren’t so sure that the vehicle body and internal circuit hardening (usually properly placed ceramic capacitors) won’t provide sufficient shielding to allow the vehicle to run after an EMP strike.
If EMP is on your “I’m concerned” list, storing extra parts for your vehicle in a proper Faraday cage will be important. (Dismiss anyone telling you that a microwave oven or a shipping container are suitable Faraday cages. They are not.) Discussing your concerns with a qualified mechanic who can identify absolutely critical systems to making your vehicle run will be worth it.
And back to reality
The reality is that 90% of all threat events will be shelter at home. For the remainder, when the home is not an option, we need to have a safe, effective, and capable vehicle to get us away from the threat and to safety, however far that may be. While everyone’s needs may vary, it is hard to argue against a mid or full sized pick up truck with 4×4 as a suitable BOV. The platform offers extensive modification capability (there are custom mods out there for virtually any application) to ensure your vehicle is appropriate to your needs. With significant payload and towing capability, a fair amount of personal property can be saved. Depending on the nature of the threat, modern vehicle travel ranges can put your family well outside the area of effect on a single tank of fuel.
Our June 8-9 Training Weekend is approaching quickly. This package deal gets you one admission to our Essential Handgun class (intended for new shooters to learn the basics), one admission to our Michigan Concealed Pistol class (the course needed to fulfill the training requirement imposed by the State of Michigan to get a concealed pistol licence), and one admission to our Personal Protection class (because the firearm is not always the right tool for the job). All classes are held in Brighton MI.
The age-old dilemma shooting sports enthusiasts face is spending their hard earned money on a new gun, accessories, training, or ammunition. Yes, a new gun is shiny and cool. Yes, accessories can act as a force multiplier and increase the versatility of your platform. Yes, training can transform you (eventually) from a jellyfish into John Wick. All of these, though, depend on ammunition to make it go. Unexciting. Non-glamorous. Ammunition.
In order to enjoy the shooting sports more, more ammo is highly desirable. Here are some tips on getting more bang for your buck. (See what I did there?)
Inventory control: Determine how much ammunition you need each month. If you’re in a shooting league and are going through 500 rounds a month, your needs are different than a casual shooter expending one magazine at Uncle Joe’s farm visit every few months. Plan on having an inventory of 5 – 10 times your monthly need. This will help ensure you can go several months in between finding excellent deals, as well as accommodate extra shooting or training opportunities.
Understand the name of the game is $/round: With some ammo coming in 50 round boxes, 250 round value packs, 350 round buckets, 600 round packs, and 1000 round bulk packs, it can be hard to determine what is a good deal. Always divide the package cost by the number of rounds to determine a “cents per shot” value. For instance, $13.99 for a box of 50 rounds comes to $13.99 / 50 = 27.98 cents per shot. As of this writing, 9 x 19 mm comes in at about 23 cents per round for new ammunition (115 grain FMJ). Using once-fired brass reloads for range practice (from a reputable reloader), that cost can drop to 15 cents per round. Some places will even discount you further for bringing them once-fired brass.
Choose firearms chambered for cartridges with economy of scale: In other words, ammo that manufacturers have dedicated mass-production capability to will be cheaper than those that have not. Currently, 9 x 19 mm and 5.56 x 45 mm (and .223 Remington) are the most-produced cartridges in the world. Next up are the .45 ACP and .308 Winchester. If you plan to shoot a lot, do yourself a favor and get a 9mm handgun. It will be far cheaper to shoot than .380 ACP, .40 S&W, .357 Sig, etc. If your go-to cartridge is the .43 ACME Obscurus, it will be unlikely you’ll find sales on it, as only so much is produced each year.
Determine your “buy” threshold: Just like the stock market, set a cents per round value that you will act on when you encounter it. Have some money in reserve ($200 is a fair amount) that you WILL spend when you find that deal. Ensure you include shipping costs if applicable, and be sure you discount out-of-state purchases their sales tax, if applicable.
Identify reload sellers in your area: Google “ammunition reloaders <your town>” for a list of commercial reloaders in your area. Quality can vary from business to business. Do online reviews of each place. Local training-only businesses can guide you to what has worked well in their classes. Gun stores may not be so forthcoming since they have shelves of ammo they’d rather sell you.
Always be shopping: Subscribe to multiple gun-sales emails. Cabelas, Dunhams, Midway, and more have daily and weekly specials. When the cost per round is sufficiently low to justify the order (with shipping) or driving to the store, make the purchase. Even if you don’t have your full allotment of $200 (or whatever it is) saved up, spend what is in your allotment. The name of the game is cartridges on your shelf.
Use a Rewards credit card: The average homeowner spends $1000/month between needed stuff for the house, groceries, gasoline, etc.,. Additionally, some utilities can also be paid by credit card. An easy way to get more ammunition is to simply shift expenses you are already incurring onto a rewards card, such as a Cabelas credit card. Of course, be financially responsible and pay stuff off, but there’s no reason not to use the rewards offered as a supplement to your ammunition purchasing power. An advantage to this is that the discount applies to anything in the store, not just range-intent ammo.
Pro-tip: If you buy ammunition, store it in its packaging. Yes, it’s neat to make a treasure-chest-looking bulk ammo container of loose rounds, but keeping ammo in its original boxes lets you retain TRACEABILITY. If there’s ever a recall on ammo, you will have brand, manufacturing date, and lot number, available to determine if the recall affected you. If you dump it all into a bulk box, you’ll have nothing more than a very nervous feeling until it’s all shot up.
Dry-fire practice: Loading your gun’s chamber with nothing costs you 0 cents per round! Yet trigger control is one of the two biggest factors in improving handgun accuracy (the other being sight alignment). Dry fire practice can be done at home (ensure you are safe!) and even 5-10 minutes per day can yield improvements in a short time.
Shoot .22 intermittently: If your firearm has a .22 LR equivalent training gun or a swappable magazine and barrel assembly, shooting .22 is a decent way to develop shooting skills on the cheap. As just stated, trigger control and sight alignment are the biggest contributors to handgun accuracy and both can be practiced with a .22 training gun. The shooter MUST take caution, however, since he will not be practicing grip control and recoil management with .22 LR practice. This is why it’s best to use the .22 LR as an intermittent practice cartridge.
Get something for your money: For amateurs, it can take somewhere on the order of 1000 rounds downrange to move past the notion that you have a repeated explosion going off in your hands and just being excited you’re shooting. At some point, new-shooter anxiety wears off and improvement-intent training kicks in. At this point, every dime and quarter you send downrange should mean something. You should be getting something for your money. Repeated holes in center of target is great. What’s your grouping on controlled pairs (double taps)? What’s your grouping on move-and-shoot? A fun day at the range is GREAT! Do it! But take the time to learn to really shoot as well. Improving your technique is more about YOU than metal on paper. Shift the focus to improvement. Treat rounds downrange as an investment.
Reloading (maybe): Reloading has a somewhat costly start-up expense as you buy the devices, scales, and other equipment necessary to do so. You then have to buy the consumables (casings, primers, powder, and bullets), then you must spend your time assembling the cartridges. For economy-of-scale cartridges like .223 and 9mm, it will take many thousands of rounds to overcome the start up costs and be money ahead. The more uncommon the cartridge, the faster the savings per round will overcome the initial investment. (An advantage to reloading is being able to tailor your cartridge specs to your specific needs, though.)
