Why You Still Need a Bug-Out Bag Even if You Bug In

green backpack with two water bottles in side pockets

Unless you are a complete newbie to prepping, you are probably familiar with the concept of the bug out bag, seemingly every prepper’s favorite piece of equipment. You can think of a bug-out bag as your survival parachute, a survival scuba tank if you will, representing that one prep that will let you survive an … Read more

What Can You Hunt With an AR-15?

Tegra ar-15

The AR-15 remains the rifle of choice for the modern era, and can be found in any shooting discipline, in any shooting activity. From competition to home defense and law enforcement to military service the AR-15 family of rifles remain completely dominant, the total choice for the discerning shooter. But there is still one area … Read more

How to Set-Up a Mutual Assistance Group

group of hikers

For preppers who lack the built-in survival group of a family made up of well-prepared people, like-minded friends or just a loose coalition of associates who they can turn to in times of trouble, the solution to the “lone wolf” prepping problem might be a mutual assistance group. A mutual assistance group, or MAG, is … Read more

How to Tell if Someone is Lying or Telling the Truth

lying faces

Everyone reading this right now knows how it feels to get hoodwinked. Ripped off. Tricked. Scammed. Straight-up lied to. There is one category of people that you will always have to deal with, and those people are liars. It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do liars will always be there to complicate … Read more

How to Use a Knife for Self-Defense

knife

For many preppers concerned about self-defense, guns take center stage and with good reason. Only firearms can afford a concerned citizen the tremendous combination of standoff capability, lethal power and pinpoint accuracy, and can deliver all the above repeatedly with just the pull of a trigger. But there’s another weapon that almost every prepper carries … Read more

How to Make a Blackout Kit

blackout kit

Cities of steel and concrete are testaments to mankind’s ingenuity. We take a lot for granted today, including the internet, our motor vehicles, indoor plumbing and sewage, running water and more. These are far more than niceties; these public utilities and advanced technologies are what make modern life so luxurious and indeed possible. What you … Read more

Maryland State Knife Laws

flag of Maryland

Maryland is a generally permissive state when it comes to the carry of knives, but you will be sharply limited on the style or type of knife you are allowed to carry. Pretty much the only kind of knife you are able to carry concealed is a penknife, a definition that is not commonly encountered … Read more

How Strong Paracord Really Is

Paracord

Paracord is one of those items that you’ll never see a prepper without. This incredibly versatile, super handy cordage is known for rot resistance, flexibility, and tremendous strength out of all proportion with its diameter. Paracord is useful for just about everything: you can easily pitch a tent with it, hang a hammock, use it … Read more

Alabama State Trespassing Laws

Alabama flag

Alabama is a state with easy-to-understand trespassing laws. There aren’t too many of them, they aren’t too long, they are generally logical, and make sense. No matter what kind of trespassing is committed in the state, it only results in misdemeanor charges, assuming no other crimes were committed while trespassing or trespassing was done with … Read more

10 Lost Pioneer Skills for SHTF

caravan wheel

The term “pioneer” evokes a gritty, somewhat romantic image; the first people in a new land or frontier to start carving out civilization from the wild and sometimes hostile bounty of nature all around them. In every culture around the world it is the pioneers who command a certain respect and not a little bit … Read more

Washington State Knife Laws

Flag of Washington state

As some of the readership is probably expecting, Washington State is not particularly friendly when it comes to their citizens owning and carrying weapons. Certainly not firearms, and not particularly knives either. All one has to do is slog through the lengthy, complicated and vaguely written statutes concerning knives to see for yourself. The state’s … Read more

Colorado State Trespassing Laws

Colorado is a state with generally sane and logical trespassing laws. There are relatively few of them, they are short, and they don’t beat around the bush. This makes them easy to understand compared to some other states with long, run-on statutes and byzantine language. But as an unfortunate side-effect, the general and plainspoken language … Read more

Surviving SHTF in Your Car

ford truck

Bugging out is a central idea in prepping, and serious preppers are constantly refining, inventing and debating which procedures are best suited for keeping themselves and their families alive when the time comes to hit the road during a major disaster or some other crisis. For many preppers, making use of a motor vehicle’s speed … Read more

Michigan State Knife Laws

Michigan flag

Michigan knife laws all around are surprisingly solid and easy to follow, with a couple of standout exceptions being restricted concealed carry of fixed blade knives. Open carry of fixed blades are permissible, but I would advise most of our readers to do so with great care. But things aren’t all bad in Michigan, where … Read more

How to Designate and Fortify a Safe Room

locked old door

When most people think of a safe room, they envision a completely enclosed, hardened vault-like room within an existing structure that is completely safe against any threat, against any form of attack or natural disaster. While these popular conceptions certainly do qualify as safe rooms, and very good ones at that, this typical imagining is … Read more

How to Actually Survive an Armed Robbery

armed burglar

Armed robbery is an ancient crime that persists even today. Call it whatever you want: a hold up, a mugging, a stick up, daylight robbery, a shakedown, the outcome is the same. If you don’t part with what the crook wants, it may cost you your life, or if you’re lucky, just some flesh and … Read more

10 Clever Upgrades for Your Bug Out Bag

green backpack with two water bottles in side pockets

Any piece of equipment, no matter what it is, no matter how good it might be, is just a starting point. Somehow, someway, it can always be improved. Maybe you spent a lot on a particular piece of gear, or maybe you just spent a little bit. With most things you get what you pay … Read more

Bugging Out From your City Before SHTF

cars leaving city in a disaster

No matter what kind of disaster you are facing, you generally don’t want to be stuck in the city when it happens, and you especially do not want to be stuck in the city during the aftermath. Cities often turn into hives of bedlam whenever things go wrong, and the delicate economic and supply mechanisms … Read more

The Right Way to Bury Money

dollar bill half-buried in the ground

If you are like me you have probably long hoped that you would come across some buried money in your excavations. It is a pleasant thought, but you likely have not given much serious thought to burying your own cash for safekeeping. Pirates did it, your great-grandparents did it, and perhaps the time is right … Read more

10 Critical Items Most Preppers Overlook

EDC items wallet, sunglasses, keys, flashlight, pen, carabiner, mints and multi-tool.

No prepper who has spent any amount of time focused on improving their personal readiness to face disasters needs to be told that a big part of being prepared is having the right supplies, the right equipment and enough provision to make it through. The myth of the one, lone survivor who knows absolutely everything, … Read more

What’s the Real Shelf Life of Clif Bars?

Clif bars. You have surely seen them, and chances are, if you keep energy bars as part of your food supplies for emergencies, you have bought more than a few of these ubiquitous oh-so-tasty bricks yourself. Clif bars are one of the most common, if not the most popular, energy bars on the market and … Read more

How to Bug In – The Ultimate Guide

a cabin on the homestead

Bugging out is often thought to be the ideal response to all sorts of problems for preppers, but despite its iconic place in pepperdom, in most situations you are likely better off staying put, hunkering down, if at all possible. To bug-in, as the name suggests, is simply planning to stay put where you have … Read more