What kind of prepper are you? And why?

Ok, I’m not talking about becoming vigilantes, but more so exploring the different tactics of sustainment.

The way I see it, you have four options.
1A-Defensive Static Position
1B-Offensive Static Position
2A-Anti Contact Mobile
2B-Pro Contact Mobile

I believe most preppers consider themselves 1A going folks. Whereas a static group of banditos would be considered 1B. Maybe a bunch of goons got lucky enough to lock down a small trade town, or power plant, or key choke point for travel. Now I think those who get left out in the cold, and were ill prepared for the crunch are most likely going to find themselves facing 2A. 2B’ers would be the ones preying on the 1A and 2A’ers.

It’s easy to perceive 2B’ers as the pillagers. But if these perceptions can be put off to the side for a moment and the tactics by themselves studied, it’s apparent to me that if you employed these offensive strategies on the ones doing wrong, that it could actually be a lucrative sustainment advantage over the resource limited 1A’ers.

My idea scenario would be a teaming of a trustworthy 1A and 2B groups. The 2B’ers conduct regional security, and trade gathered supplies and resources with the 1A’ers in exchange for the use of a rest and refit base camp.

Knowing myself, there’s no way I could stay static for long, wondering if today is the day the banditos or federalies come pay a visit. I prefer to be more proactive and to maintain standoff and order. I could see myself as a Tactical 2B’er. With that said, one who wouldn’t be picking random fights, but instead a employing a methodical, intel based, hit and run warfare on those deemed as threats to patriotic and lawful civilization.

What say you?

One more kind of prepper.

Sheeple Prepper -with gunz!

Oh, dead prepper..

I could see a set up similar to Lights out (Where a static group sets up a pro-active roving team or teams outside their static perimeter) as a 1B. I realize that that's basically what you have in mind, but our shared frustration with being static would easily be buffered by the Roving. The roving would also GREATLY expand the gathering capabilities, defense, and networking abilities of the main group. Adding folks that have / are living a purely static or purely mobile life would benefit the group, sure, but would not be necessary.

I think that, as has been said here many times, cooperation and mutual support is what will succeed if the SHTF. I KNOW my family won't be alone for long. As we add folks, we could then add a roving contingent. Those rovers could offer support to folks, make contacts, visit known friends, contact "authorities";basically all things that would put them in the Good Guy group. It's all a planning thing and good mental exercise. Something that I think folks that post here take for granted (the mental exercise thing).

jim

Well said.

OPSEC

1A by your definition. This will probably make me a target on down the road, but I'll deal with that when the time comes. I have BOLs that can be suitable; but I honestly dont see much difference in the 'target' that I will make wherever I am at. I may as well stay on familiar territory.

Would you consider yourself open to trade/commerce, or more so staying out of sight out of mind.

Fantasy Prepper?

commerce/trade would be with known individuals. ghosted for everyone else. a few people will people that I know have expressed their desire to stay with me in shtf, and my response is "fine, but you have to work to eat.' I guess I'll need them as workers.

1A

And why? What's your pro's and con's.

3A - Situationally aware, armed farmer

I say that tongue-in-cheek, but only halfway. Rural, agriculture-based communities already have and practice many of the skills it takes to be survivors, and most won't be the easy pushovers some think when/if the SHTF. They already work cooperatively with their neighbors (look at how many tractors are in any one field during hay season, for example), and extending that to include security and defense won't be much of a stretch. It's one of the reasons I live where I do.

Well, so much for the laconic approach, I guess

In no particular order,

I'm old. Well, oldish. While I can walk forever as long as I'm not rushed––

Where in hell do I think I'm goin' anyway? My uncle once had a weekend cabin up in the lakes, but he had money. I've got a lot in town. I live in what's commonly called "high desert". While you can pretty much pick a direction and start walking, you won't find much and surface water's pretty scarce. BOL is still a remote possibility, but getting remoter by the day unless the economy changes pretty drastically. Being either of the '2's means being a refugee, and that's the last thing on my list of "I wanna do that!"s

All my stuff's here. I don't mean the big screen (although it's nice) or the air conditioning (which I don't really use except during the hottest days), but I mean the guns and food and water and all of those other supplies. It's stored pretty well and in a secure area. Much more secure than in a truck or trailer that I can drive or tow. Also, it takes much less effort to leave it in place than to lug it around. I wonder about guys who think you should have a couple of thousand rounds for each of your main weapons and then suggest that you bug out.

I have an elderly mother to worry about. She's a tough old bird, but today's her 79th birthday and she's got a number of ailments. I can keep her pretty comfortable for a reasonable period of time here (barring TEOTWAWKI), but the road would kill her in fairly short order, even riding.

I'm in a reasonably defensible building with the materials at hand to make it more defensible, if the problem is civil unrest. 72 year old concrete building with limited egress. Molotovs? Bah! I spit on them and fart in your general direction!

The people who need me know where to find me, and I'm close enough to be found/find them. I'm not one of those HSLD types, but I get by if I don't have to run much. Cross town I can do pretty quick in E&E mode, even with a load. Cross country? No thank you, sir, I believe I'll just sit here and wait.

I picked a decent AO to live in for not having to evac purposes. For instance, again, in no particular order, what could root me out?

Nuke on the airbase. I'm dead as hell in a matter of less than a second, probably a stain on a wall. Problem solved.

Nuke accident on the base. See above.

Yellowstone Caldera pops. Lessee... Volume of ash, distribution, wind.... Yep. Dead as hell in a matter of minutes, buried under three or four hundred feet of crap. Problem solved.

Blizzard? Are you kidding me? The last thing I want is to be running around eastern Wyoming in a blizzard!

Civil unrest? As previously noted, defensible and stuff in hand to make it moreso. Even more important to hunker down there.

Chemical spill (we're on a major rail artery). If it's upwind, it'll be a race to clear the plume before it hits. If it's even a little downwind, no worries. Let the Nebraskans worry, it'll be there in a couple of minutes.

Gas plant explodes? For that matter, the Chemical plant (which is upwind and more likely to be a problem). I guess it depends on how bad. Yeah, there are levels. I've gone through three or four fires at the refinery (Yes, there's an oil refinery downtown and we still pay through the nose for gas!) since I moved here, and I've never had to displace. A couple of them were doozies, so I hear, and I never even knew about them until I watched the reports on the news. If the whole thing went up all at once, I'd probably have issues. Or not, because I'm less than half a mile away and I'd probably be dead. Problem solved.

Yeah, I'll have to de-ass over chemical spills, but it will be short term.

As I think about it, really, the only thing that might make me bug out would be a slow grind into poverty with no light at the end of the tunnel. At that point, though, is it really a bug out?

I'm a common sense prepper.

Mostly a hard times prepper, with an eye out for tyranny.

Situation depending, I'd say that most would likely be all 4.

This.

TheOTHERmaninblack touched on some key points as well.
Each one of those choices is pretty situational dependent.

I am probably in the minority here, as I consider a full Mad Max scenario pretty far down the list of probabilities,
I can imagine a lot of bad things happening, but most of them will involve staying close to home, keeping a low profile and remaining vigilant.

To me, prepping simply provides options that unprepped people will not have.

I've had some medical training. I consider myself a Dr. Prepper.

+1

I am a what you do is dictated by the totality of the circumstances prepper.

Why?

Options don't guarantee survival. But they do increase the odds.

As others have pointed out, your options are really tactics. Without tying them to a scenario, then they really mean nothing.

I'm sure you have a scenario in mind but It appears not everyone shares the same, obviously, EOTWAWKI scenario.

I will make a constructive comment however.

A plan with no alternatives is not a plan, that's a decision. The key to survival in nature is not the biggest or meanest but the ability to adapt.

A decision to do this without a definition of why often makes us like Captain Smith of the Titanic determined to go down with the ship.

Tj

I guess I'm not a "real" prepper. All I have is enough stuff to outlast the typical power outages & floods from hurricans & tornados we have here, plus flood insurance. Two tornados hit here in the last two months! Hurricane alerts every year, last one to actually hit us was about 3 years ago, so I guess we are due for another one soon.

There are houses and condos here that are still not completely repaired from past storms, and many people were without power for long periods. Others were flooded out or had their roofs blown off. Still a lot of houses with their roofs covered with blue plastic tarps, and at least one major condo is in the process of being completely rebuilt. Large chunks of the roof and walls were blown off.

I like this approach. The wife and I decided early to not buy any prepping gear that we would not use in everyday life, based on the fact that EOTWAWKI is very unlikely. But, being self sufficient has a set of advantages all it's own. So OP, per your scale, 1A and 2A.

Can't say I agree. You have tactics based on situational keys. What I've mapped out are purely identifiers. Tactics are constantly changing as your mission set dictates. I'm using these identifiers to ask folks which they currently consider themselves. "Scenario" aside, if you've prepped, you know it could be anything. And as far as your blanket adaptation statement, I believe any of the popular "Scenarios" will require everyone to adapt, some will just do it better than others.

Yes, I totally agree. Skills are more expandable than any hollow point.

Me neither. I have no time to plan on fighting off hordes of mutant bikers or zombies... that shit just isn't on my radar, nor is a Mad Max apocalypse. I plan for stuff that's somewhat more likely to occur, put away a little something here and there for a rainy day, and try to make sure I'm not helpless in a crisis, plus I really like to hunt, fish, camp and hike. No multicam, trauma plates, or load bearing vest needed, but I can throw a hell of a cookout 50 miles from civilization with little preparation, skin a deer, run a trotline, sleep in the woods, and shit in the bushes as required.

I think I am a prepare for the most likely event prepper and a prepare for the worst, but hope for the best prepper.

My nature is to help folks, heck its my job. I plan on abiding by the US Constitution. All force will be reasonable and swift.

Who thinks that? Who thinks that rural communities will be easy pushovers? I grew up in a rural community, and per capita, we were better organized, better skilled, and better armed than any urban area I ever lived in. When I lived back home, I knew who my neighbors were. Now I live in cities, and I am unacquainted with my neighbors. There are no gardens (to speak of) in my city, no livestock. No water that doesn't come out of a city-service pipe. Rural communities are the BEST place to survive bad times, I'm thinking.

I meant the golden horde, who-needs-preps-I've-got-plenty-of-bullets marauder-types. I think a lot of big city folks (not you!) perceive farmers and other country-dwellers as being slackjawed yokels who don't have enough sense to take advantage of the wondrous marvels that city life provides. Generalization is dangerous, though, and I know good and well that's not true across the board... it's as wrong of me to slap that sticker across all urbanites as it is for them to assume I don't know how to brush my teeth just because I don't live within walking distance of an art museum or trendy nightclub. But I've seen that attitude first-hand enough times to believe there'll be people out here trying to relieve me of my goodies should worse come to worse.

Not all country folks are shining examples of humanity either, of course. We've got some real losers out here too.

1A is my first desire, but our intent is to be prepared to have and exercise as many options as possible.
Options and the training and ability to exercise them give us the chance to be proactive or reactive as needed.
We would prefer to remain under the radar, and have taken great pains to do so. But putting all of your eggs in one basket and not being able to flex into another mode is foolish, and in even the most localized SHTF such as fire or flood the inability to be flexible is a recipe for disaster.

Copyright © 1996 - 2013 :: AR15.Com LLC :: All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.