DTG’s 2021 Updated 10 Week (If You’re Lucky) Plan to Prepare for the Worst-Case Scenario

H/T WRSA 

 

DTG’s 2021 Updated 10 Week (If You’re Lucky) Plan to Prepare for the Worst-Case Scenario

 

This is an excellent Get Your Shit Together and Your Head out of Your Ass article!

To reiterate the most important point:

TIME is of the essence and everything mentioned is going to be harder to obtain and more expensive as time goes by, so ACT NOW!

Gathering weapons and supplies is very important but even more important is HAVING A PLAN and TRAINING!

Here are a few articles in my File Cabinet that might help you:

 

1. The 5 Gun Theory (In Choosing Firearms)

2. Is your Blow Out Kit Stocked and Ready? (Medical/Field Trauma)

3. Outfitting your GO-RIG (Fighting Rig)

 

Stop wasting TIME and start PREPARING!

 

Going Mobile

From the Archives, 2016

A learned a long time ago that when shit goes bad, it goes bad in a hurry. Very often you will have little to no time to think about what you really need to do, you are just going to have to react.

The seasoned prepper knows from experience that there are two basic options when the fecal matter hits the oscillator: Either you Stay Put (Shelter in place if you are using Newspeak terminology) or You Go Mobile, either on foot or by vehicle.

The system I use for going mobile is pretty basic with one of the main advantages being it keeps your gear fairly ORGANIZED so you can lay hands on it in a pinch.

Now without going too deep into the whole “First, Second and Third” Line of gear thing, Here is how I have things laid out.

Slings, Cases, Chest Rigs and Battle Belts

It goes without saying your fighting weapons are your first priority and need to stay ready to be deployed. Ensuring ALL your fighting long arms have a good sturdy sling is mandatory for Going Mobile. Regardless if you prefer 1 or 2 Point slings, just make sure they are durable and will hold up under abuse.

I also have a portable padded rifle case with backpack straps in the event I want to haul more than one long arm at a time. These are bulky and awkward when worn on the back, and I doubt I would ever use it, but it never hurts to have it as a contingency.

There are several options out there for how you stage your ammo and Maintenance and Cleaning gear for these weapons. Some people use Sneaky Bags and Bandoleers. Me, I have found using Chest Rigs and Battle Belts equipped with a holster to fit your Fighting Pistol is much more practical.

For my Pistol since most of the time it is on my person, I simply keep a couple of dual mag carriers (4 mags) stocked and ready to go. This way, irregardless of what goes down, I can either just grab the spare ammo for the pistol or if I feel the need to bring a long gun, holster my pistol in the appropriate chest rig or battle belt and toss the extra pistol mags in my rig or BOB.

For my Rifles and Shotgun I have a Chest Rig and Battle Belt for my Main Fighting Rifle, a Chest Rig and Battle Belt for my DM AR Rifle (.308) Rifle and a simple Battle Belt for my 12 Ga Shotgun. The reason for the different rigs is very simple: CALIBER. I have been asked wouldn’t it be simpler just to switch out the mag carriers and just use ONE Rig? This is a very nifty utilitarian ideal except for the glaring problem that we already mentioned: When Shit goes bad it goes bad in a hurry! You will not have time to be switching out mag carriers, and designing your rig on the fly…you will need to grab your rig and haul ass!

HAVE AMMO, WILL TRAVEL

When you need to move more ammo than what you have on your Rigs and Belts, I suggest using Military Ammo Cans. They are Cheap and Plentiful and stack nicely. The .50 Cal Cans are the  biggest and most predominant, but I also have quite a few of the smaller and narrower .30 Cal Cans, which I have found is great for storing bricks of .22LR Ammo and 12 Gauge ammo. There is also the added benefit of being able to know what ammo is in what can simply by the type of ammo can it is stored in. Just an added perk when you need to get to it in a hurry.

YOUR BOB, VBOB, MEDIC PACK and SURVIVAL PACK

Since this is not a beginners article, I am not going to go into the importance of BOB’s and VBOBS. As far as gear goes, they are pretty much the center piece of a good preparedness plan, so put some serious time, effort and money into building yours.

A Word about VBOBS. Besides the standard items, don’t forget to pack some vehicle maintenance items too; Remember, in a post-apocalyptic, SHTF world AAA is not available. Now obviously you cannot prepare for some of the more major mechanical problem that may arise, but you can prepare for some of the more common ones.

Here is a short list:

• Belts (Serpentine or Individual belts depending on your make/model)

• C Clamps

• Bailing Wire

• Fuses

• Duct Tape

• Work Gloves

• Screwdriver/Pliers (Regular and Needle Nose)/Wire Cutters

Also, regularly check that your spare is aired up and your jack and other equipment is intact. You would be surprised at how many people forget about that one. Remember: PRACTICAL, NOT TACTICAL wins the day!

As far as a MEDIC PACK, I know a lot of you keep a fully stocked Blowout Kit/Trauma pack in your BOB/VBOB’s and that is awesome, but experience has taught me it is more practical to have a separate medic pack fully stocked, ready to grab with everything from your basic “boo-boo” kit to a full trauma workup with surgical tools.

Also if you have a family, tailor your medic pack to their needs. So often folks go full tilt “Tacti-Cool” in outfitting their bags with Quick-Clot and Sucking Chest Wound Seals and forget about the more practical stuff you will be grabbing much more frequently, like Sting-EZE, Burn Balms, Anti-biotic Ointments, Benadryl, etc.,etc. Also if you have anyone in your tribe that had medical issues and takes maintenance medications (diabetes, heart conditions) these need to top the list obviously.

A SURVIVAL PACK to many people is basically a BOB with 2 to 4 weeks of supplies versus 3 days. Experience has taught me however to minimize everything but FOOD and WATER in these. The main reason being is if you have to exfil in a hurry, this is going to be the only bag with large amounts of food and water in it. Because of weight concerns, you will only be able to carry so much water, this is why it is mandatory to include a well made water filtration unit and several dozen water filter straws for everybody in your tribe. I also pack a small camp stove with some fuel and a GI Grill (County-Comm is selling a version of these right now btw.)

EVERYTHING ELSE

As far as organizing the rest of your gear, I suggest you have a bag for each category below:

• Flashlights/Lanterns

• Knives/Tools

• Range Bag/Training Kit

• Gunsmith/Maintenance

• General Field Gear

If I forgot anything, create a bag for it!

Stay Alert, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!

Building your Kids a SHTF “Key Ring”

 

If you are a parent and are like me, for every thought that passes through your mind about preparation, survival and security, there is always another thought that follows close behind that ask how it applies to your kids. In going over a basic SHTF plan, most families have to consider that their is a strong likelihood their kids will be in school when the hammer drops. Now for all you good folks that home school, of course you are one-step ahead on this, and God Bless you for it, but for the rest of us with kids in Public or Private school, we have to deal with the problem of having to scoop them up before doing anything else, whether that be Shelter in place or Bug-Out.

So all this got me to thinking, (which according to my wife, can be a BAD thing), wouldn’t it be SMART to put together a simple, practical little kit that could fit inside your kids school backpack that would contain things to help them survive and stay safe at least until you got there to pick them up or worst case if they got separated from you for a period of time? (Which is one of the reasons you need to have planned RALLY POINTS to meet up at if they have to BUG-OUT from the school).

Now, of course,it goes without saying that none of these items could violate any of your child’s school policies on weapons or other “prohibited items”. I mean you don’t want to appear like that “Crazy Prepper Dad”, but then again, you don’t want to be just another “Asleep-at-the-wheel Sheeple” who depends on EVERYBODY ELSE  (Including the Government and Public/Private School System) to take care of their child’s welfare either!

In putting together such a kit, initially I thought about a full blown mini GO-BAG that could fit in their backpacks, complete with a trauma kit; but after talking to my kids, I realized that no matter how cool kids may think “prepping” is, carrying around a small pack full of gear IN ADDITION to all of their heavy books and other school stuff is not acceptable and just plain not cool.

Comtech Stinger

After brainstorming, I finally arrived at the “Key Ring” Ideal. Now this is not a new concept, by any means, as I am sure many of you, like me, carry practical things on your car key ring like a small pocket  LED light, ITW Survival Whistle, and my trusty Comtech “Stinger”. Now to make this school friendly and keep my kids out of the Principals Office, I would have to remove the Stinger, and replace it with something a tad less threatening, but still just as useful.

Here is what I came up with:

• Instead of the pocket light, replace it with a Small, yet powerful AAA flashlight. I went ahead and added a couple of the pocket LED lights like the one on my key ring to the outer zippers on their backpacks.
•  ITW Whistle (The ones County-Comm sells are LOUD!)
• Metal Match (Could not send a lighter for obvious reasons)
• Water Filter Straw (Don’t buy the cheap crappy ones..these are the best).
• Small, Emergency Micro Signal Mirror (Requires some training, but not hard once you get the hang of it).
• Small Kubotan  for Striking. Not as menacing looking at the Stinger but just as useful in a pinch.

And to make it so they cannot easily lose any of these items, as some of them are small, I hung all of the above on a twelve inch stainless steel mechanics key ring. I found that on my kids backpacks, in the inner pockets, there is a small clip that this key ring can be attached too. This is perfect, as it keeps it secure and out of the way until needed.

E3 Solutions ITK

So in examining the type of things you need to include, just as with a Go-Bag, A First Aid/Trauma pack is mandatory. The only problem is you can’t hang one on a key ring!  Now this is gonna be a judgement call for each parent to make, and I think it depends a lot on the kids age, individual maturity level and how much time you spend training with them, but I have always had my kids carry a ITK (Individual Trauma Kit) in their school backpacks. We use the one that E3 Solutions offers, as it has everything you need and is perfect for discreet carry.

So there it is, a simple SHTF Key Ring to both give you piece of mind as a parent and give your kids a leg up if they ever need it.

Don’t forget: Hardware is Cool, but Software (Mindset and Training) are what is gonna keep them alive. So when you get one of these assembled, go outside with your kids and teach them how to use all the gear…it is great fun and who knows, it might be the one thing that helps keeps them alive some day.

Stay Alert, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous (And Train your Kids to do the Same!!)

 

Outfitting your GO-RIG’s

All of us CO’s worth our salt have our “BUG-OUT” or “GO-BAGS” packed and ready to roll at this very minute, but how many of us have our “GO-RIGS” ready?

A “GO-RIG” is another name for your fighting rig. This is the rig you transport mags & ammo for your Main Fighting Rifle and Sidearm. It will also have your blowout/trauma kit, spare weapon parts for field repairs and maybe some weapon cleaning gear. I have discussed one of these rigs, the“Mad Max” Chest Rig“ in a previous article.  We will discuss some others such as the Rifleman’s Belt, MOLLE Tac-Vest and the Bandolier (Sneaky Bag) as other options.

Before we get into the rigs themselves, let’s talk about how you separate your ammo out. I have found specifying a specific sneaky bag or bandoliers for each weapon is more convenient than piling it all into one bag. There are several benefits to this, the first obviously being weight, the second, is being able to grab specific ammo for a specific weapon when you need it. For instance, one bag may have all your AK mags, another your 12 Gauge, another your .308 ammo and so forth.

An often overlooked issue is being able to have your sidearm holster, IWB or OWB, ready to deploy, along with plenty of mags, first thing. This would be the Number One Item I put on (if I don’t already have it on already for whatever reason like I was asleep or in the shower) when the SHTF before my rig. I also have “MOLLE Pack Holsters” that can be attached to any of my MOLLE packs, giving me the option to carry my sidearm on the pack versus on my person; This just gives you more options on how to deploy. I also keep ALL of my pistol mags together in a bag in the event I need to grab all of them at once or just a couple, depending on the situation.

The MOLLE Tac-Vest

I tend to use this set-up with my DM (Designated Marksman) rifle, but it can easily be used with Assault Rifle too. The great thing about these MOLLE vest, is that you can modify them exactly how you want it. The various pouches (which are sold separately of course), can be placed anywhere on the rig, and there is plenty of MOLLE real estate to move things around.  In this rig, I have 6 Rifle Mag Pouches, a dual pistol mag pouch in which I carry my multi-tool and flashlight, a Trauma pouch, a Camelbak Water Bottle Pouch and a Mag Dump bag on the side. I carry my sidearm on a Spec-Ops Gear drop leg thigh holster which has room on the flank for another dual pistol mag pouch. The only negative thing about this rig is it can get very heavy over time, which is why I prefer it as a DM set-up where I most likely would be doing static over-watch.

The Shihan Chest Rig

This is the rig I use most often to train in. It has 4 AK rifle mag pouches and 4 pistol mag pouches, in which, again, I keep a multi-tool and flashlight in two of them. My cell phone/radio pouch is on the side and I keep a small blowout kit in the back mesh pocket. I wear my drop leg thigh holster for my Glock which has a dual pistol mag pouch, giving me 4+1 mags total. I favor this rig because of the weight, it rides very nicely and because of the waist strap, does not shift when running/ducking/diving, etc. You can also use one of the rifle mag pouches as a pistol holster if you are willing to lose a rifle mag;  the bungee straps work great in securing the gun, but FYI, the draw is awkward if you need it in a hurry.

The Bandolier/Sneaky Bag

This can either be used as a stand alone rig or a supplement rig, depending. In this one I have (10) AK mags plus (4) Glock 30 Mags, on the side I have a small blowout kit and some spare parts. I won’t lie to you, this dude is heavy and I have never used it as a stand alone rig for that reason. I pretty much have this thing packed and ready to go in the event I need ALOT of AK ammo in a hurry! Now I have friends who run AR’s that use this rig as a stand alone, but let’s face it: eight to ten .223 AR mags do not even come close to ten fully loaded AK mags in weight! The key to using this in the field is slinging it so the weight distribution is even, also rigging a supplemental waist strap t the one already provided helps greatly.

The Hybrid Rig

This is a rig I used the most during Hurricane Ike, where I did not need to go into full-blown “Mad Max” mode, but just needed to tote the essentials plus my pistol for basic security. I base all of my BOB’s and VBOBS off Camelbaks or something similar, and this one is no different. Water is life, so every good survival pack needs to start with a way to tote it!   What I typically ended up doing during Ike was securing the firearm on my person in my IWB and then slinging the pack, but keeping everything together like this allows you to be able to grab one bag and then deploy as needed.

The Rifleman’s Belt

There are many variations of this rig, but the one I use is based on the HSGI Padded Belt held up by High Speed/Low Drag Suspenders. I am a big fan of HSGI kit; their “taco” mag pouches are one of the only truly “universal” mag pouches out there, being able to fit a variety of weapon’s, including AK mags. My belt is in the process of being built, but I Googled the above picture for you to get an ideal. Once more, this a truly universal rig, being that the pouches are all platform inter-changeable, you could realistically use this with your DM Rifle, Assault rifle or Shotgun. A word of warning: HSGI kit is expensive, but if you were going to build one rig for ALL your weapons, this is the way to go, no question.

No matter what rig you choose, keep it outfitted and ready to deploy in an instant!

The Vehicle Kit

There is a plethora of info out there about BOB’s, BUG’s and other really cool sounding 3 letter prepper acronyms so I won’t waste your time re-hashing old intel. I do however want to bring your attention to a very important piece of kit in the CO inventory: the Vehicle Kit. Now whether you keep a fully stocked BOB or a minimalist pack in your go-buggy is irrelevant, just be aware that having something available when you need it is the essence of survival. I will tell you what I keep in my vehicles and WHYand you good folk can take it from there.

I am not a believer in keeping weapons stashed in your vehicle, for two reasons: safety and theft. I think weapons belong ON YOUR PERSON, at least a pistol or two anyways. The old adage being “A Pistol is to fight your way to your rifle, your rifle is to fight your way to something belt fed.” Don’t overdo it on ammo and mags either…3 mags plus one in the gun would suffice.

In my experiences, most people that keep BOB’s in their vehicle over-look the obvious and have absolutely no supplies to help you in the event of a mechanical breakdown. The most important things to have in a VK are things to keep your vehicle MOBILE. Spare belts, hoses, clamps, gloves, water and a multi-tool are a good start. The little portable air compressors that plug into your cigarette lighter are pretty handy too. A set of road flares is also a good ideal. Keeping your Trauma kit updated is always smart.  I know of a case where this helped save the life of a man who was bleeding to death on the side of the road after a nasty rollover accident and a CO good samaritan came along, applied Quickclot, an Israeli bandage and pressure and at a high rate of speed, got him to the nearest ER.

So keep it practical people and Stay Dangerous.