| |
Every prepper's website has articles on bug-out bags (BOB) and every survival forum has threads on the subject as well. If you were to line them up side by side, you'd be hard pressed to find two alike. But that is okay. There are multiple reasons for a BOB and there are lots of reasons why Jim's BOB from Arizona will be considerably different from Craig's BOB in Illinois. Regardless, some individuals get very passionate when defending "what's important" in a BOB. Before we even start discussing my opinions on the subject, we need to clarify: what exactly is a bug-out bag? Part of the reason why many people argue over a BOB's contents is because they're not even talking about the same thing. In prepper's lingo, any fabric sack that you put survival items into could be considered a BOB. I am going to break BOBs down into four categories to remove some of the confusion.
First would be what I, and most others, refer to as a “Get Home Bag.” This is a bag that you have in the trunk of your car consisting of the bare essentials to get you home should a catastrophe strike while you are away from home, such as at work. The second category would be what I like to call an “Assault Pack.” This bag is lean and mean, containing the minimal survival items you will need if you get stuck out away from your retreat for a day or two. This is also what you would carry on a day hike in the forest pre-SHTF, or while walking patrols around your retreat at night post-SHTF. The third category would be your actual “Bug-Out Bag,” sometimes referred to as a “3-day BOB.” This bag is intended with just enough supplies to get you from your home to your retreat location while still staying as light and lean as humanly possible. The common misconception is typically found when comparing a 3-day BOB with what I consider a “Lone Wolf Pack,” the final category. Now you all know where I stand on the Lone Wolf survival approach, but that doesn't mean you don't need a pack designed for a Lone Wolf. A Lone Wolf Pack is a very large pack with everything you may need to survive for an extended period of time on the road or in the forest. After reaching your retreat or bug-out location, you should repack your 3-day BOB into a larger Lone Wolf pack and place it near your back door, ready to go at all times, in case your retreat gets overrun or a chimney fire breaks out which you can't control.
Here are the five core essentials that ALL of these packs MUST have (these will be discussed in detail in the next chapter):
1. Water canteen and purification system or tablets
2. A fire-starting kit
3. Knife and multi-tool
4. Flashlight
5. First Aid kit
The Get Home Bag
Let's start with the smallest of the four packs and work our way up. A Get Home Bag is very important to have in your vehicle at all times as you never know when things may fall apart. The importance of it increases the further you travel from home. If you work less than a mile from home, it may not seem that important to you. But what about those instances where you go to visit your Aunt Martha an hour away? If we experience a grid-down scenario when you're 45 miles from home, you will regret not having one. In truth, it doesn't really need to be that extravagant or large. In fact, mine fits in a Camelbak MULE ($115) or Condor Fuel ($50) hydration pack. At the bare minimum, you need to have the items listed above.
As far as proper clothing for a get home bag, you need to use common sense here. If you work in an office where you need to wear dress shoes, I would highly recommend you have a pair of sneakers in your trunk (or waterproof boots in the winter). If you get a massive blister from your dress shoes walking the twelve miles home from work, you are going to hate life the next day when you lace up your hiking boots, throw on a pack, and start your 100-mile hike to your retreat. Don't start your bug out on the wrong foot (pun intended). If you are a female who regularly wears skirts to the office and it’s winter, consider carrying a pair of sweat pants or even insulated snow pants in your trunk. Even you guys may appreciate a pair of sweats under your dress pants if it's really cold out. Obviously, having a spare heavy winter coat, warm gloves and hat in your trunk is good advice regardless of your preparedness mindset.
If it’s summer, I would consider having a light waterproof jacket in case it takes you longer to get home for whatever reason and you get stuck walking home in the rain at night. You can figure it out; just use common sense and take some time to actually think through your personal travel habits. Also, don't get complacent about switching out your summer clothes/shoes with your winter coats/boots when the weather changes. The last thing you'll want is to find is a spare t-shirt and a pair of running shoes in your trunk when there's six inches of snow on the ground. Most smart phones have calendars with reminders that pop up on your phone. Just set a reminder for October 1st and April 1st each year, or whatever dates the weather changes in your area.
Another consideration for a get home bag would be a pistol with a couple spare mags. Again, in most catastrophes like a grid-down situation you shouldn't have any looting and rioting on day one while you're walking home. However, it never hurts to have some protection on you, even in normal times. There is no reason why you need to carry an AR-15 or AK-47 in the trunk of your car unless you are travelling far from home and things will deteriorate before you can get back there. It's just an extra 8 pounds you will need to carry home from work, and it will earn you sideways glances. You'll get plenty of practice carrying around the extra weight of that weapon in the near future, I assure you.
All that being said, please check your local laws about keeping handguns in your trunk and FOLLOW THEM. If you live in a place like Maryland or New Jersey, which outlaw the practice, don't be stupid. Follow the law. Four days after the SHTF when the police are staying home to protect their loved ones from the looters, THAT is when these types of laws go out the window. Don't get arrested and lose your future rights to own guns over something stupid. Personally, I have a conceal carry permit and you would be hard-pressed to find me out in public without a concealed Glock 19 and a spare Glock 17 +2 magazine. I'm not paranoid or trying to be a hero, but every victim of a violent crime probably thought at one point, "It won't happen to me." I have a wife and a three-year-old boy to protect, and I refuse to let them be victims!
The Assault Pack
The other small sized BOB you should have is what I call an Assault Pack. My personal assault bag is the Voodoo Tactical Praetorian Lite pack ($100). The reason I love this pack is because it is extremely streamlined and only extends off your back about 6 inches while also offering a built-in scabbard system for carrying a rifle. Another great assault pack is the Camelbak Coronado ($130) which is also an exceptionally streamlined pack. On a budget, you could feasibly dual-purpose your get home and assault packs and buy something that serves both purposes. Just remember that you will want this pack to be as compact as possible so as not to interfere with your weapon sling or plate carrier. This pack will be primarily used to carry your survival essentials, a single MRE, and extra magazines of ammo. You'll be using this pack the most once you are established at your retreat. This is the pack you will take with you if you need to leave the retreat to go out hunting, gather firewood, set an ambush, or while walking a patrol of your property. It will provide enough supplies to get you by if you get stranded out for a day or two away from home.
The Bug-Out Bag
Next comes your actual 3-day Bug Out Bag. In previous years, my BOB resembled more of a Lone Wolf Pack and it wasn't until after an extended backpacking trip that I realized there is no reason to carry half the crap I was carrying with me to my retreat. Over the course of three days in the forest, I hadn't used half of the items I had brought with me. So why was I carrying it? Each item had seemed like a good idea at the time.
Some of the stuff you plan to take with you should probably be staged at your retreat location. Why would you want to burden yourself with a 70-lb pack when you could just as easily reach your destination while keeping your BOB to under 30 pounds (in the summer)? There is no need to carry a bulky hand-crank radio as you can easily go three days without outside information. There is no reason to carry a survival fishing kit as you're going to be walking the whole time and you don't have the time to stop, drop a line in the water, and wait for the fish to bite. Your priority is reaching your bug-out location as quickly as possible. You don't need soap, toothpaste, or a change of clothes (other than spare t-shirt and socks). You might get a little funky, but who hasn't gone three days without a shower before? Why carry the extra weight?
As I went on and on, pulling items out of my pack, I realized that I was going to need to buy a smaller pack! This is going to be a very stressful time for you and your family. You can't really make it an enjoyable trip, but you can make it suck a whole lot less by carrying half the weight. Plus, you will get to your destination much faster with fewer breaks.
One of the big things I look for when purchasing a pack, besides the overall quality, is whether its hip belt rides fairly high. I want it to circumvent the lower part of my stomach so I can effectively wear a Battle Belt around my hips at the same time without the pack getting in the way of my pistol draw. Luckily, I am 6’ 4” and most average-sized packs fit me that way anyhow. My personal BOB is the Eberlestock Little Brother with the separate hip belt attachment and internal frame (unfortunately, they are sold separately). All were bought for around $225. I realize this may be a lot of money for some people, but if you’ve ever handled or used an Eberlestock Pack, you will understand. They are the gold standard in tactical packs and well worth the money. If you are on a budget, I would recommend the Drago Assault pack which can be bought for around $60 or a medium-sized military surplus Alice pack, which you can find on eBay in good condition for around $40. Just be sure you get an Alice pack that includes the frame. I used an Alice pack for many years while I was in the military and they are extremely durable and capable packs.
As subsets of the BOB, you can have what I consider a spouse BOB and a BOB for a child. Your spouse's BOB will closely resemble your own, but there are multiple items you can easily remove and share items from the main pack. One of these shared items is your first aid kit. However, I would still want my spouse to have a Trauma kit on her battle belt at all times. Spend some time and really ponder what items you could possibly share with your spouse and eliminate anything that is not mandatory.
A child's BOB is totally dependent on their age and size. At the very least, a young child's backpack should have his/her own food and water in it. I would be sure it includes a small Camelbak bladder as staying on top of children to drink and stay hydrated may be difficult. For kids, Camelbak makes a smaller 70-ounce bladder. One of the big considerations you'll need to consider is sleeping bag arrangements. I have yet to find a good quality, reasonably priced, toddler-sized sleeping bag. Also, in winter time, I'm not so sure I'd want to put my small child in his own sleeping bag since I wouldn't be able to monitor how cold he is getting throughout the night. You may need to consider a double sleeping bag for you, your spouse, and your child. If that is the case, finding a Gore-Tex bivy sack for a double sleeping bag could be tough. In this situation, you may need to carry some sort of waterproof tent, once again increasing the weight of your main pack.
The older a child gets, AND THE MORE YOU TRAIN him/her on the use of various survival tools like the ferro rod, the more you can expect them to carry. Teenagers’ packs could resemble your spouse's BOB. After looking at numerous packs for my short wife, I settled on the Drago Scout pack ($45). Since your children won’t be carrying very much weight, almost any small school backpack will work unless you can afford to splurge on them. Buying cheaper packs for your wife and children is one area where you could cut costs if you don’t expect the packs to get regular use. If you plan to go on numerous backpacking trips before the SHTF, then get them something better quality like a Kelty brand pack.
The Lone Wolf Pack
The Lone Wolf Pack is the largest of the four packs and totally dependent on your particular circumstances and the geographical area into which you will be bugging out. Again, I am staunchly against the Lone Wolf approach as a bug-out strategy, but once you are at your bug-out location, you need to put together a lone wolf type of pack just in case you get overrun or need to flee at a moment’s notice. This is a very tough pack to nail down as there are SO MANY things you are going to need for living off the land until you are able to find a new retreat location. As a human, you can only carry so much weight and your individual body shape, size and condition will determine the best pack to carry this weight.
When I was in my early twenties, I regularly carried over 100 pounds in a Kelty pack during my SERE days in Washington State. Today, I wouldn't make it two miles with a pack like that. You need to pack your lone wolf pack with as much gear as possible, yet still remain mobile. My personal preference for a lone wolf pack on a budget would be the ALPS OutdoorZ Commander Freighter Pack with frame ($110). I must admit that I have yet to purchase this pack, but the features are exactly what I’d want in a lone wolf pack and the reviews on Amazon are pretty stellar. The other option would be to purchase a quality Kelty or Eberlestock Pack. Unfortunately, most large Kelty packs don’t come in earth tone colors and they don’t have molle webbing or options for attaching a rifle scabbard. A close friend of mine has the Eberlestock Terminator ($499) and it’s one of the coolest and most comfortable packs for carrying a lot of weight. Unfortunately, spending $500 on a seldom-used pack is out of the question for a mere mortal such as myself. On a budget, purchase a large-sized ALICE pack with frame which can be purchased on eBay for around $45.
Most of my suggested pack recommendations in this chapter were geared towards a summer bug out in a temperate environment. When choosing the correct BOB for your specific situation, remember there are multiple things that you will want to consider, like the time of year you are travelling and the geographical area where you live. My recommendations may not work for you. In the following chapters, I'll go in depth on the actual items to carry in your various packs and explain the pros and cons of each item.
* Check the back of the book for multiple BOB checklists...