Canadian Airgun Forum

My wife and I have no fear of an Zombie Apocalypse coming but we have always watched sales and built up several months supply of food etc. During the big COVID scare folks emptied the shelves and caused quite the scare that even toilet paper was scarce.... LOL

Call us weird but we have done this for decades and save a lot of cash doing so. Yes, we rotate our stock so zero food waste!

We have a bit of a supply of food, but if the electricity goes out, what's frozen will spoil.
The canned & dry stuff will be OK.
Still well armed, so wild game is still viable.
I don't consider myself a prepper, but I do have some skills and experience with "camping" on what's available.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Lots of jerky, dried berries, nuts, powdered whole milk, and other room temperature stable foods are vacuum sealed and living in the deep freeze. Several airgun options and firearms on hand for small game - in a city with lots of pigeons and squirrels, and not a lot of people with the skills to take such game with any precision.

Of course I don't fool myself into thinking this is 'enough' for a sustained period of societal collapse, but it'll get us through a few months at least. And my son and I are highly adaptable people, quick learners. We'll figure it out when the time comes. Redundant water purification is of course a priority. I've gone 96 hours without any food for a recent fast, so I know I can go with little or no food and still be functional for a while. But water? good luck without that on hand for even a couple of days. So dozens of gallon jugs of water, regularly refilled, bleach on hand to make sure it's safe even after long storage (8 drops per gallon, wait an hour), and three filtration systems to take care of biological hazards in rainwater.

And of course the 'arsenal' of 'weapons' and the 'hoard' of ammunition are imperative. Just in case.

What duration are people considering for their preparations?

IMO, if one lives in any degree of urban area, the chances of sustaining on game are virtually zero, plus the security problems due to desperate people could be overwhelming. As for rural, almost the same, IMO, and for remote, finding game, transporting and storage could be insurmountable. Life expectancy for people living in pre-technological times was in the early to mid-20s so I wonder how more modern/less experienced people could expect to fare even that well, especially given that fish and many game resources are much smaller.

Interesting to speculate, but most of the preppers whom we encountered when living in the North weren't what one would consider as high functioing.

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Slavia 618 .177
Webley Senior .22
Jelly SUPER 4.5 mm
Webley Viscount .177
Kral Mega Marine Walnut .22
Artemis PP750 .22
FX Streamline .22 walnut
FX Streamline .22 composite
FX Dynamic 500 .22

You need a good supply of yeast for brewing beer or making moonshine.

But coffee's a problem. I only like strong darkroast., no freeze dried. Need to build some kind of greenhouse to grow it in our climate.

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Be The Pellet

The water thing with adding bleach is a great idea. We have a supply of LifeStraws both personal and the large capacity ones for cooking. We have a large supply of freeze dried packets as well and are stored in sealed 5 gallon pales. If pales are never opened, contents are meant to last 20 - 25 years......



I have often thought as well, desperate people would bonk ya over the head and take what you have? Who do you choose to help or not help is another factor? LOL
My thoughts are, if the internet went down and had no access to cash or supplies temporally dried up, it would sure suck to suffer. But yeah, I agree this would only be a short term situation (3 - 6 months), most of us need medicine also etc.

I also have silver and gold coins, I'm not sure how nutritious they are but, we can only hope the price on the stocks go up and or could be used as trade?

I agree, beer is a food group of its own......As far as strong coffee, nothing beats "cowboy coffee" cooked on an open fire!

I decided in late 2021 not to drink alcohol again. Was having a conversation with my then-15-year-old son about his mother's habit of drinking to 'rest' after a hard day at work, how it made him feel lonely... She was never really a hard drinker, but diving into a gin or three and playing bubble-popping games on her phone for a couple of hours isn't exactly good parenting. They get along better now that she's long moved out and doesn't drink either, something that took a while for her to grasp as maybe being a good idea. So yeah, I remember how good a beer tastes. But I drank lots of beer in my decades as an adult, don't feel any compulsion to continue, so it's a non-essential.

Coffee is something I like. As I do tea. But with tea causing a conflict with the new cancer medication I've been taking (sunitinib - the effects of the drug diminished by black tea somewhat, almost completely eliminated by green tea), I don't drink tea now. Coffee I have once or twice a day, more as a vehicle for turkey tail mushroom powder than for enjoyment, as another 'fun' aspect of this medication is that it blows my sense of taste to smithereens. Some things taste normal and good. Others, like coffee, taste rather foul. Oh well. The mushroom powder may be helping with the kidney cancer effort, so I'll keep it up. And if the grid goes down and I can't run my little espresso machine, I'll just put the mushroom powder on my food. And then I won't take it, because supply chains will be gone and I'll run out. I can continue making my own of course, as turkey tails grow in abundance in our local forests. Just a lot of work. But cooked for a while in water, the 'tea' is actually rather tasty.

For water we have a couple of Sawyers with washable ceramic filters, and a big gravity fed filtration bag, also with a washable ceramic filter. Giardia and other pests shouldn't be a problem, but the few drops of bleach will be reassuring anyway. Really don't want an intestinal illness in times when medical help may be impossible to find.

I have doubts about urban small game being non-viable. Crow is very edible, with one episode of Meat Eater (Steve Rinella's show) demonstrating preparation and eating, the two guys saying it was like very fine venison. I like crows, they're very cool, very smart critters, but in desperate times... sorry, crows are getting shot. Seagull is supposed to be terrible eating, but in a pinch? And pigeons are in abundance. Grey squirrels appear around here on average a couple of times a week. Not a lot of eating there, but every bit helps. I collect butternuts from our tree every year and keep those in the freezer, and each fall brings a lot more, so some fatty protein there. Even rats can provide sustenance. Lots of them living in city neighbourhoods, and with night vision on an airgun they are easy prey. Same for raccoons.

Not suggesting eating will be easy. But survival will be possible, for at least half a year I'd guess. Beyond that, alternate plans would be necessary, whether more distant exploration for food, or actually relocating to somewhere with hunting access. Depends largely on what kind of disaster might unfold. With that report for the US Government a couple of years ago suggesting that as many as 90% would die off in the first year if the grid shut down entirely, competition for resources would be minimal. A smelting net can bring a lot of little fish down at Kits Beach - my dad used to bring home 40 to 60 smelts for just a couple of hours in hip waders, pulling in his net whenever he felt hits and filling a bucket. Shellfish are also an option, plenty on docks and beach rocks, so long as one pays attention for dangerous red tides in the heat of summer.

Got the silver taken care of. Figured gold is too awkward in terms of value for smaller transactions. But the Yugoslavian civil war showed that precious metals were entirely ignored during the conflict. People traded food, ammunition, and critical tools such as Bic lighters. Practical stuff has value. As do skills. If you can fix stuff, you'll do better in such a crisis, whether it's maintaining your own gear or trading skills for food.

Been there -done that.

We invested in a Generac generator about 4 years ago and consider it one of the best investments we have ever made. No more worries on loosing freezer food or not having heat in our home. It has already proven itself several times to date.

Bill

Simple country folk tend to have food stores ,fuel reserves , back up generators, Firefighting equipment and pumps,not to mention heavy equipment as a normal part of life . Deep freezes and wildfires are pretty normal as is being cut off from big cities due to natural disasters washouts & slides . its just a part of life in the country .

Well I’ve always been one who thinks many many steps ahead, like many. I wouldn’t call myself a prepper but I’m ready to be independent if and when the time arrives. Those who are prepared usually aren’t scared. Most of us by now can tell something isn’t right in our world so be ready with extra supplies and lots of love, as many won’t be prepared.

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Steoger XP4 .177
Hatsan AT44MW-10 .177
Daisy 953S .177
Artemis CR600W .177
Diana Stormrider .177
Seneca Dragonfly MK2 .177

Yeah I looked into those Generac generator units as well, those are sweet units for sure. I'm really thinking about getting one installed this summer?

Things I have done in the new house I built 10yrs ago. I installed a gas fireplace with no fan driven option. I installed a Bertazzoni 100% gas stove, oven and burners run on gas only. High efficient furnace that has 3 zones thus having 3 thermostats to control each level. Supply on demand water heater, luv this unit until the power goes out then it is completely useless. Zero fiberglass insulation. Zero electric heat sources.

I don't believe we will ever see a total electric grid malfunction unless some terrorist hits it with a bazooka? There will always be enough power to keep the pressure levels to feed natural gas to our houses.....I could live without air-conditioning but I surely need my heat in the winter.

One can have all the materials and tools to survive. But without ‘mental’ preparedness one will fail eventually. Love, Peace, Respect and kindness are key elements of survival as well.

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Steoger XP4 .177
Hatsan AT44MW-10 .177
Daisy 953S .177
Artemis CR600W .177
Diana Stormrider .177
Seneca Dragonfly MK2 .177

Dry beans last longer than the canned stuff, I believe. Also, I know that smoked or cured meats aren't that good for you, however if you are looking for your food to really last, it might be a good idea.

Learning to be self sufficient is always a good idea. I am hoping to learn more.

A few bay leaves in every bean container, same for grains, flour, nuts, will suppress hatching out of the tiny beetles which are present in all such dried foods.