Thread: Bug-out Bags - Do you have one / what's in it?

Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger

While reading the zombie apocalypse survival thread here, Many were talking of just jumping in their land rovers and escaping civilisation in the advent of a major catastrophe. But this would usually require more preparation than just a bottle of water, a muesli bar, and a full tank of diesel.
Now I'm not a 'prepper', but being prepared is never a bad thing. It could be the coming of the zombies, or an impending flood, fire or tornado that causes you to reach for your bug out bag, and get the heck out of dodge... but what you have inside could make you much more comfortable / safe at your destination.

Do you have a Bug out bag / Grab bag for such emergencies? If so, what's in it?
Is it a survival based item, or is it chockers full of papers, keepsakes and sentimentals... or something completely different?

Any one who has lived in Cyclone prone areas could answer that question. They have been doing it for years. Common sense , really. Log on to any SES site, in your area.

I often wonder what would happen if we had an especially powerful solar flare. All energy production could be halted with only minutes to prepare. No power to pump water or sewerage, or for refrigeration or communication.

How will people go for more than a few days?

While there are guidelines put forth by organisations such as the SES as bob suggested (their recommendations are here), the real question becomes what balance of these necessities would you need?
For 2 people, you'd think you would need at least 10L of water to survive more than a 48hrs away from potable water (commonplace in a flood or cyclone). What food to pack? What if you need to escape danger on foot instead of in a vehicle? The first thing you see on TV in an emergency is the empty shelves in the supermarkets leading up to an event, so the onus cannot be on existing incfrastructure / services to meet your needs.

There are so many questions, and so many scenarios to consider, so there is no limit to what people's answers might be. I guess this is the point of the thread.
My old man used to keep a old brown briefcase in the study with all our passports / certificates and other items in it. I'm not sure whether this was his idea of a grab bag for an emergency, or if it was just a convenient place to keep papers that didn't go to die in the filing cabinet
I, myself, don't have anything in place to grab if I needed to leave in a hurry, so would benefit from other's thoughts on what is essential to have at hand.

We live in a bush fire area. Every summer the missus gets all our most important paper work, photos etc and takes them to her mum. Then if it looks like a particularly bad day we will get ready to leave. We have had to get out once before.

I often wonder what would happen if we had an especially powerful solar flare

There is also a solar event that NASA is taking serious enough. They have deployed a dedicated satellite. This will give them enough time to put there heads between there legs and kiss there rears good bye. Not that bad, but a major problem if it happens. Some thing a long the lines of a magnetic pulse. Like a nuclear bomb pulse. It will knock out a key component in the electrical grid. Make some new ones you say. World supply has been made over the last decades. There are only a hand full of factory's that make these components. They have estimated it will take over a hundred years to replace all the components. so the world would have to be mostly powerless for some time. And until they start making these components totally powerless. Hence why NASA is interested enough to park a satellite between Earth and the Sun. Apparently there is evidence that it has happened before.
Cheers Hall

my pack, webbing and camelback contains.. (and it varies from loadout to load out depending on what I'm expecting to head into)

2 sets of outer cloths (long sleeve shirt and long pants)
2 shorts
2 shirts
4 tshirts
4 jocks
4 socks
1pr thongs
1pr boots
1pr shoes
3l camel pack bladder
jaffle iron + some other misc cooking gear
some food
machete
hatchet
mozzie net
first aid gear
hootchie
pegs + detergent
milbank filter
pegs
hootchie cord
some rope
some occy straps
water purification tabs (enough for 50l)
water filter (will handle 500l of sea water and upto 5000l of brackish)
toiletries (soap, razors, toothbrush, shampoo toothpaste sunblock)
solar battery tank
some minor electrical gear (mulitmeter usb chargers 12/24 +120/240v worldwide radio, torch, cig plug socket light duty wire small battery charger)
2 decks of cards
2x cylum sticks
large microfiber towel
light weight sleeping bag (good to zero degrees with no wind chill factor)
a small folding chair
hammock
garbage bags
ziplock bags
elastic bands

my webbing holds
4l of water
cups canteens
water filter
puritabs
zipties
hootchie/poncho
hootchie cord
first aid gear
24 hours of food
rope
lighter
usb charged led torch
matches
lighter
multi tool
gloves
electrical tape
small microfiber towel
2xhand held uhf with recharable batteries
garbage bags
ziploc bags
deck of cards
field notebook set
sunscreen mozzie repellant foot powder



my camel back currently contains
3l water
pushbike tool kit
tyre pump
some food
emergency blanket
emergency poncho
charge cables for my bike lights
wallet Id Phone
sunscreen


but if its prepped for travelling it also carries spare socks, spare jocks, a spare water filter, my ebook, gps and a second solar battery tank


thats about 2/3 of my max carrying ability. the last 3rd is usually where I change things up I'll add another 6l worth of water if im up in the tropics or another 3kg of cloths and 3kg of dried foods if im down south along with any specialist gear I might want for what Im expecting to head into.

If Im not expecting to have additional problems getting food water or need extra clothing then I'd load more first aid and hygiene gear


The intent of the setup is not to walk everywhere with it but to give me enough quickly accessible gear that I can get to mobility quickly and easily (bulk evac on a bus/train) and then setup at a base camp and maintain a high degree of mobility by leaving the pack at the base camp and cross loading into the webbing and the camelpack as needed. In theory, if I'm vehicle mounted I can support myself for 10-12 days with out resupply, foot pounding about 4-5 (water then food are the limiting factors) with just food and water resupply I can operate for months and with the extra stuff thats in there like the additional first aid kit stuff, the cooking gear, the extra hootchie and the emergency blankets I can "support" up to 5 people so long as they have their own food/water without impacting my own surviveability It also gives me the ability to fully support 2 adults or 1 adult and 2 kids for 2 days with no additional resupply.

it also helps that its mostly what I'm supposed to have packed in my field deployable kit

If i was expecting to go it on foot Id ditch a fair bit of it at the outset (pretty much most of whats in the pack)

I don't have a zombie bug out bag but I do have a firefighter strike team bug out bag as some strike teams your unsupported for 24h before your relived.

Fruitbars, small lightweight, unbreakable
Hydration mix, makes water taste better
Toilet paper. Cause using fire hose to wash your bum is unacceptable.

Some strike teams you sit around for 6 hours, so I pack the following.
Battery bank with phone cable
Bluetooth speakers
Pack of crimes against humanity.

I don't have a zombie bug out bag but I do have a firefighter strike team bug out bag as some strike teams your unsupported for 24h before your relived.

Fruitbars, small lightweight, unbreakable
Hydration mix, makes water taste better
Toilet paper. Cause using fire hose to wash your bum is unacceptable.

Some strike teams you sit around for 6 hours, so I pack the following.
Battery bank with phone cable
Bluetooth speakers
Pack of crimes against humanity.

Not a bag, but the caravan is always ready to go - when I come back from camping, I always restock it, clean out the toilet, check the gas level, etc so all we have to do to go away is throw a few clothes in - socks and jocks mainly, and only perishable food stuffs but there's enough tinned stuff to last quite a few days.

There have been times when we've decided to head out at a moments notice and we can be hitched up and moving in 15 minutes with everything we need (including the fur babies).