Survivalist prepper websites. Are they real?

Obviously,by reading this,you must be semi interested in prepping.Personally,I do a little bit,but nothing like some of the websites claim to do.The standard is "bean's,bullet's,and band aid's". Read some of the articles they write,and claims of 500 pounds of rice,beans,and wheat,and 10k rounds of ammo,4 AR15's,and so on.And of course 500 mre's,or freeze dried food.Sounds like an episode of doomsday preppers! I realize that buying in bulk can be a major cost savings,but even at a dollar a pound,they have 1500 in food,4 ar's would be 6 grand,and 10 grand in ammo.The big site's even recommend night vision and ham radios.Then of course a monster truck bug out vehicle.
How on earth can you bug out with all this in a standard truck?500 pounds of rice,in 5 gallon buckets,lets guess at 50 pounds per bucket,is 10 buckets.Beans and wheat add 20 more buckets.Don't forget your wheat grinder! And the sugar,salt,yeast,whatever to make bread.There's an easy 1500 pounds,at least.What will 10k rounds of ammo weigh? And you need water...
See my point? How can any of these claims be real,unless you own a tractor trailer bug out rig!
Any comments?

they are trying to sell products, it's called marketing...instill fear, collect profits. marketing plays upon peoples emotional responses. true survivalists will carry little, say little, but, know a lot about surviving in nature

reply to post by blkcwbyhat


A real prepper will not advertize it on a website.....there are those who love to brag about how much they have stashed away....not the smartest thing to do. imo

Des

I don't know about all those MREs and dehydrated food they sell. That stuff will probably kill you. I buy stuff when it is on sale locally that I can rotate. I check the dates when I buy them so they have a couple of years. I only stock enough food so that we can rotate it without waste. I have enough for a couple of months for my whole family. If it's longer than that I guess I need to use my hoe and seeds and canning jars. I could see if I lived somewhere where there was more chance of getting isolated, but I live in the Upper Peninsula. It will be easy to barter up here if things go sour, as long as you have things that are really needed to barter with. The crap that society has made valuable will be worthless and what was cheap and is necessary will be in demand and worth something.

There are a lot of people that are survivalists and take this serious. They may be right, I do not know for sure. As long as they are honest and friendly bush hippies, I won't mind. I'll give them a cup of coffee if they pass by. I was a boy scout for many years, that wasn't enough. I camped in the bush a lot with friends and relatives. It was fun when I was young and had the gear. Now I'd have to carry around a big mattress and boxspring or I wouldn't be able to get off the ground in the morning

reply to post by rickymouse


I've never looked into the real nutritional value or ingredients of mre's or the freeze dried cans,but I do know the can's use TSP,textured soy protien,instead of real meat.I believe the mre's are 5 bucks per meal,and the can's are 25-30 bucks each.I understand that they are using your and my fears to try to make a profit.I can't figure out if the people that buy them have more money than skill,or no time to DIY.With a small garden,a dehydrator,some canning supplies and a vacuum sealer,you can do it all at home for a fraction of the cost.

The thing that's always puzzled me is, why do preppers hoard containers of urine?

reply to post by blkcwbyhat


Do you have any links to these prepper website.. it can´t hurt to be prepared for the unknown, and you can make it your hobby and have fun while doing it

reply to post by Spacespider


try www.survivalblog.com .The writer claims to be an ex special forces/cia agent.Lives in a fortress in montana or some such,and writes novels.

$6,000 for 4 AR's?

$10,000 for 10,000 rounds of ammo?

Umm.... People serious about this don't pay anything remotely CLOSE to those prices on their worst day. I've since sold my AR- because I HATE the design with a passion that vibrates. However, I paid $500 for mine, several years ago. Reloading my ammo comes around $0.30 per round...not $1 a round. Less, depending on how many uses I get out of brass ..and that can go up if I just light load them to save wear and tear.

I think your figuring is starting from bad assumptions .... Just my opinion.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


a new AR is 1500,for a cheap one,and ammo is like gold.A brick of 22 is 45 bucks

I like the idea of being independent and especially of eventually 'living off the grid' to the greatest extent possible anyway, but I'm not so sure about a lot of the popular prepping habits. If the idea is to survive some natural diaster where supplies aren't readily available for a while, well yeah, I can see that. If it's for SHTF, where we're fighting off the hordes who didn't prep or the tyrannical government during the great takeover, then it makes a lot less sense. If we have a good stash and anybody finds out about it, we're just a target. You'd have to have one heck of a fortress to keep the storm troopers out (heck, just look at Boston).

reply to post by lynxpilot


all the toys you can horde won't do much to stop the stormtroopers if the want in! Look at sheriff Joe in phoenix,he has anti aircraft guns and a few tanks! Of course,they have never been used,probably broken down.If it were a true disaster,not an earthquake or hurricane,those are temporary issues,but a supervolcano or an asteroid,some earth ending issue,the stormtroopers will bug out too.

I think you only need enough supplies for whatever your local emergencies may be. Mine happens to be getting snowed in so I always keep extra food, water and other various supplies around.

In a real survival situation I would simply head out into the desert as I can easily survive off whatever is out there. I also have a boat that I would try to get to where, once again, I would live off the sea without supplies.

I would recommend finding an area you plan to go to and learn how to live off what the land supplies you. Your supplies will run out eventually so only take enough to get you there. Learn the plants and animals and how to get them, how to build your shelters....don't use tents....make knives from the rocks.....real survival stuff.

Best way to learn is google the area and go try it out....start for a couple days and work your way up till you confident you can make or find anything you need.

Originally posted by blkcwbyhat
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

a new AR is 1500,for a cheap one,and ammo is like gold.A brick of 22 is 45 bucks

As the saying goes.... Mileage may vary on that. If someone is willing to pay $1,500 for an AR-15..That's not a prepper. Thats someone who claims to be and doesn't know a barrel from a bayonet.

Current market for AR-15 Rifles

There are a couple on that page in the $650-$750 range, and I wasn't looking all that hard. I know you said new..but again, we can qualify it any number of ways to come out with a way to pay more. One of the benefits and joys of the AR-15 for many is the fact it's a parts rifle beyond what most others can be called. That is, people who are serious about them tend to buy the upper as one piece, the lower as another piece and even get down to bolt and barrel pieces separately. This not only makes them cheaper, but gives maximum control for price vs. quality on the areas where that trade off makes sense.

In terms of ammo? Well, again, it varies... Depends on what you're looking for. I spent less than a minute coming up with this one, so I'm sure I could do better with more effort but it's a sign of the fact things aren't near as expensive at the moment as they had been before Obama's legislation basically failed in Congress.

500rd Brick of CCI .22lr - $35

Of course... Serious preppers would spend a whole day finding that perfect deal and on more than just this one website to look.

* I really feel sorry for the people who did spend as much as $3,000 for an AR-15 rifle at the height of the madness. Poor guys must feel embarrassed to even talk about it with others they know by now. lol....

reply to post by Wrabbit2000



i wasn't intending to turn this into a discussion of what's the best gun,just the way they doll up the ar is way over what would be needed to survive.If they plan on living in a combat situation 24/7,they won't survive long anyway.For survival needs,a 22,a shotgun,and a deer rifle are plenty.Maybe add a hi power pellet gun! My goal of this post was to address the ridiculous costs,and amounts of supplies.Prepping can be done at home,on a shoestring budget.

reply to post by blkcwbyhat

How can any of these claims be real,unless you own a tractor trailer bug out rig!
Any comments?

I read your OP, and as I noted? I think it's based on some bad assumptions and faulty premise from the word go. I chose the gun and ammo side because people generally find it more interesting than pulling up bulk dry good websites to show the cost of MRE's or 50lb sacks of brown rice or medical supply houses for the cost of gauze to scalpels.

You invited comments..I made some. Sorry if they weren't to your liking, but you did open the door.

I've always had the notion that one our way of life might drastically change and a few years ago I decided to start working towards doing something about it. I started reading many survival/preparedness blogs and websites and I found that I didn't agree with all the advice being given so I decided to create my own website that is more for the common people. www.zombielyptic.com... (if you can't understand the zombie reference as a metaphor it's probably not a site for you)

What I found from these other sites was like already said here is they're suggesting having all this food and ammo, and if you ain't already got it all hope is lost cause it's too late. A lot of these sites have people that outright cocky towards the new guy seeking to start preparing for his/her family. In reality I think we'll all be surprised when SHTF and we see those that are well prepared not survive and those that aren't prepared at all somehow make it thru.

Not discrediting the need for emergency food, and means to defend yourself at all but survival has a lot to do with mental toughness. Some of those that are crazy about preparedness seem to be driven by fear, and while some degree of fear is a good thing, I worry that the fear driving these people might be a weakness.

In respect to the choice of firearms for a SHTF scenario, while a bolt action rifle might be ok for somebody secluded in the woods I don't think that's sufficient for somebody in an urban environment in a situation where armed gangs pose a risk. In a SHTF situation I fully anticipate the need to be prepared for the same kind of bad guys that law enforcement are prepared for and I chose my weaponry accordingly.

reply to post by blkcwbyhat

You have to start out small, and build up from there. That may be a total, after a couple of years of building their supplies up.

I personally have items to last myself and my family for about 60 days, 90 if we are conservative. That is basically food.
Other items are procured, like medical and other supplies.

It takes a bit. No monster truck though.

reply to post by macman


Starting small is fine,as in buying 2 cans of soup instead of 1,so on.A brand name soup is about a buck a can.Thats easy,even on a budget,but...it's only 1 meal for a buck,and the same mre is 5 bucks,so its a no brainer to me! Let's make it even cheaper tho! A 1 lb bag of frozen mixed veggie's is 1.29 or so.Those cheap little gravy packs are 2 for a buck,so get 4 of them.Dehydrate the veggie's,then vacuum seal 1 cup with 1 pack of gravy.
Then you have a homemade mre! Open the bag,remove the gravy pack,rehydrate the veggie's,toss in the gravy mix and water and heat and eat! We just made 4 mre's for a total cost of 3.39! This was the concept of this discussion,getting the same supplies for a fraction of the "list" pricing. I realize its a bit of a time/labor vs cost issue,but if/when the shtf,you will need the dehydrating and preservation skills.

Originally posted by macman
reply to post by blkcwbyhat

 

You have to start out small, and build up from there. That may be a total, after a couple of years of building their supplies up.

I personally have items to last myself and my family for about 60 days, 90 if we are conservative. That is basically food.
Other items are procured, like medical and other supplies.

It takes a bit. No monster truck though.

It seems the average American family has only enough groceries to last a week or 2 without needing to resupply. A person can rather quickly build a stockpile of emergency food just buying a few extra inexpensive items each trip to the store.

At my house we stock extra but being my wife isn't as involved in my preparedness goals she'll quickly rob out the emergency food storage if it saves her a trip to the store. We got pretty far ahead of ourselves with canned goods so now I focus more on dry goods stuff and freeze dried foods. I've tested out lots of the Mountain House foods camping and the whole family finds them to be quite tasty but they'll never be inclined to eat it at home so for us it helps ensure it remains intact for emergency situations.