Zombie Bug Out Bag

Zombie Bug Out Bag Essentials.

Surviving a zombie outbreak in short term and long term emergency situations will depend on how well prepared you are to meet the basic needs of yourself and your family. More than ever, many people are seeing the wisdom in having the essentials they need to survive packed and ready to go ahead of time regardless of what the emergency turns out to be. Being prepared beats squatting in a fema shelter hoping for doughnuts.

These survival essentials include all of your basic needs like food, water, shelter, protection and first aid. When you’re preparing for survival, you have to think of both your long term as well as your short term survival.

You need to be ready to leave your home within seconds of a knock on the door if the worst should happen. You need guidance so that you can be prepared to effectively handle all of your survival needs, so here’s a look at some of the most important things you can prepare.

The Short Term: Why Do I Need a Bug Out Bag?

Sometimes, you can bug out (which means get out of wherever you are home or out and get to a secluded spot) by making it to a vehicle and driving to your next meet up place.

But if you can’t, maybe because the roads are impassable due to traffic jams or unsafe due to zombified individuals that are roaming the roads, you need to have your gear stowed in a bag that you can sling over your shoulder and go.

These bags are usually made of sturdy, waterproof canvas. A bug out bag is a bag, backpack, kit filled with the basic gear that you’re going to need to have with you in order to make it for at least three days.

Some people also refer to these bags as their 72-hour bag. The items that go into this bug out bag are the things that you absolutely have to have so that you can make it to your next step of survival. Free report 100 Ways to Disappear and Live Free

What goes into the bag is in part common to all such as a fire starter, first aid, food, light, shelter, water, and items unique to the expected local experience be it cold, desert, forest, heat, mountains, swamp, wet, wilderness.

Everyone in the family strong enough to carry a bag should have one. Supplies should be evenly divided so an individual member dragged off by zombies won’t cause the loss of all the food or ammunition and so on.

This is also the bag that you need to grab in that moment when you have to leave and rendezvous at whatever pre-arranged relatively safe secure destination you’ve planned for yourself or your family.

You’ll want to keep this bag in a place where you can get to it fast and get out the door if necessary. Some serious survivalists also keep multiple bug out bags handy – one at home, one in the car, and one at work, so that they are as fully prepared as possible no matter what.

What Goes Into the Bug Out Bag?

There are several things that need to be in your bag and all of them are important – but the top three items will be your water, food and shelter. The body can’t survive without having enough water to drink.

The last thing you want to end up doing is being afraid that you’re not going to have the water that you need. You have to have water inside your bag because in the event of some kind of catastrophe, there’s no guarantee that you’ll find immediate access to clean water.

Even if you live near a large body of water, there’s no guarantee that you can get to that water if the roads are blocked off or it’s been compromised in some way. Since your survival depends on water, you’ll want to have a water for every person who’s going to be with you.

You’ll need to figure out your water supply based on the formula of 1 liter x 1 person x days. Since a bug out bag is a 72-hour bag, your formula will figure in 3 days.

If you have 3 people in your family, you would take 9 liters of water. This is only a temporary solution to your water needs. So you’ll need to know ahead of time what you’re going to do at the end of the 72 hours, and take purifiers to help cleanse natural water that you find on the go.

Food is something else you need in the bag. Remember that the bug out bag is a short term solution only. The food items that you put in the bag will be simple foods that can last the 72 hours.

Short term foods are items such as granola bars or energy bars. You can buy energy bars that contain 2,400 calories per bar which would give each person the calories they needed to survive for each of the three days. Even long term supplies have expiration dates that should be respected and note, a pin hole instantly negates the expiration date. A string tag on the bags with expiration dates for the food and water pouches will reduce the need to regularly handle the items allowing their protective packaging to survive longer.

You’ll need to pack a temporary shelter in your bug out bag. This can consist of single person tents, multiple person tents or a tarp. You’ll also need a sleeping bag(s) or liner(s). A survival blanket can also be a handy addition in case of cold weather and keep insects, snakes and small vermin off you during warm weather.

Taking along a couple of complete sets for your clothing changes along with extra socks and underwear is also an essential need. Some people also choose to take along rain ponchos. You should pack a pair of sturdy shoes or hiking boots to change into if your escape plan may be out in nature the whole time.

What Other Gear Should I Take?

There are certain items that you want with you because it can make apocalypse survival a lot easier and it helps remove some of the stress from the situation. Take things that will aid in your survival.

That means that you’ll need to make sure that you have small tools that can double as weapons with you. Those tools would be a folding camping shovel, a survival knife, a small hatchet and a wire saw.

You’ll want to have tough string for tying together tree branches or for securing a tarp. Also handy to make warning trip lines beyond the campsite. In a pinch, you can use a sharp survival knife to cut through any wood – but it won’t do for thicker pieces and it will take a longer amount of time you may not have available if freezing.

Taking a compass along is a necessity in case you have to navigate areas that you’re not familiar with. In case you want to start a fire, you’ll want to have matches, a cigarette lighter or fire starter materials.

Cotton balls some dry some soaked in heated petroleum jelly then cooled and zip lock packaged are quick to help damp kindling get a fire going to a good burn – making it easier to light the kindling. They’re so lightweight and compact that you can carry these in your bag without issue.

You’ll want to bring personal hygiene supplies along for toilet necessities. This is an area where the folding camp shovel will come in handy. You may have to dig holes for using the bathroom. Don’t forget to squash flat some rolls of toilet paper.

A first aid kit is a necessity and should contain the essentials that you’ll need in the event someone needs medical care. You should also make sure that you’re prepared with any medications that you or family members need to take on a regular basis.

Your first aid kit should contain allergy (anti-histamine) medications good for insect bites as well as a snake bite kit if there’s a possibility you may have to be in a wooded area or an area with lots of snakes. Many of these items can be found at the dollar store or sporting goods store, pick up plenty of water purification tablets at the same time.

Having a crank/solar powered radio is also a good idea. By having a way to listen to emergency broadcasts, you can stay on top of who’s winning the zombie war in your area (if reports can be believed).

Because you may find yourself in the dark, you’ll want to also have crank powered flashlights for long term and a strong battery tactical torch so that you can see prowling zombies and your way around obstacles and possible debris. If you can afford it, a pair of night goggles is a welcome addition.

To be prepared for a situation where you may need to signal someone, you should have a mirror or other reflective device or solar fire starter that can help you be located if there’s an emergency.

What Kind of Protection Should I Take?

When society falls apart through any kind of disaster, people intent on stealing from and causing bodily harm to others seem to come out of the woodwork. These people won’t bat an eye at taking what you need to survive.

So you need to be prepared to defend yourself and your family. Every essential survival depends on having the right kind of knife. Not only can these knives be used to cut twine, but they can also be used to help secure a tarp or can be used to help make a sling or a leg brace in the event someone breaks a bone.

You can use knives for fighting if you’re in a tumultuous situation, and they can be used to help skin and cut up meat from wild animals if you have to turn into a hunter during this time.

Remember that the blade of your knife matters. You want to get a knife that has a stainless steel blade because stainless steel can handle inclement weather better than knives made of other elements.

Look for a knife that’s at least six inches in length, balanced so the tip doesn’t drop after time in your hand. You might also want to find a knife that you’re comfortable carrying on a sheath on your belt. That way, it’s handy if you have to defend yourself.

You’ll also want to look at other weapons such as guns. Carrying a .357 can help you keep your family safe while you’re trying to survive. But you’ll also want a longer range weapon such as a shotgun or rifle.

The Long Term: Food Essentials

Your long term survival needs to be something that’s on your mind right now. You can’t wait until something happens to wish you had been prepared. You don’t want to deal with the worry about being the one responsible for taking care of other family members and feeling helpless to do anything about it.

You have to take care of your long term food needs immediately. That means you need to plan a way to feed your family. You can get a lot of prepared emergency foods that you can buy in bulk – but what are you going to do when that runs out? There might not be any place for you to get more.

Even having a few years’ supply of canned goods you purchased or foods that you’ve canned yourself won’t help you long term because eventually that, too will run out.

You have to always have a way to replenish. The best way to do that is by having seeds that you can plant. You can harvest your own seeds, but the down side of that is there won’t be a guarantee that the seeds will still be viable – especially if they get wet and mold sets in.

Buying the seeds that you need is always the best option. Some people that plan to be self-sufficient are already working on growing their own food supply. But if that food supply is flooded out or raided by others, you’ll need to have a way to grow it again.

You want to buy seeds that are known as heirloom seeds. These seeds are seeds that are guaranteed to still be usable longer than regular seeds. The reason for this is found in the way that the seeds are put in the containers.

You’ll usually find wording on these seed containers that state that the seeds have long viability dates. These seeds can be used to grow everything that you need to survive.

You can select the seeds a few at a time, choosing from vegetables and fruits or you can buy the seeds that offer you a variety of several vegetables and fruits all in one container.

Because you may not have access to a pharmacy or easy access to medicine, you might also want to look into buying what’s called medicinal seeds. These seeds grow into plants that ancient civilizations used to treat illnesses.

Once you have the seeds on hand, you’ll need to store them properly until you’re ready to use them. Keep your seeds away from temperatures that can cause damage to them. You’ll want to keep them away from light as well.

Aside from seeds, you can start storing large quantities of foods that you’ll want, such as grains and pasta. Have spices on hand to flavor foods, and make sure everything is stored in airtight containers that pests can’t get into.

The Long Term: Water Essentials

Obviously, the three day supply of water in your bug out bag is a short term solution and not a long term one. You won’t know right away how long you’re going to have to depend on finding your own water supply.

After a man-made or a natural disaster, land located water, flood water is often contaminated by machinery fuels and fluids, sewage, zombies and other dead things, dirt and bacteria. Drinking water that’s contaminated will make you extremely ill or kill you.

So the first thing you need to make sure that you have is a way to purify any water that you need to drink. Boiling water is a fast and effective way to kill off the bad things in water that can make you ill.

But just in case you can’t heat water, you can use purification tablets. You can use tablets or concentrate that’s designed to last for five years or longer. That will give you all the time you need to put your other methods of collecting water to use.

You should begin now to use a rain water system. For this water collection system, you’ll need to buy or make 55 gallon water barrels. These can be positioned below the eaves of your home to collect the water that runs off the roof of your house.

Until the water is needed for survival, you can use this to water crops or feed livestock on your property. But when the time comes that you need to use the water for survival, you can mount a siphon pump on the water barrel to siphon out the water for washing or through a filter for cooking and drinking.

There are emergency filter units that you can use that are designed to purify your water long term. For people who live in a place such as an apartment where using a rain barrel isn’t an option, the best bet for them for essential water preparation is to start buying additional gallons of spring or drinking water and storing filtered hand and dish washing water in 2 liter plastic soda bottles, rotating them out periodically with fresh containers.

Since water is absolutely vital to your survival, this is something that you can’t be without. Have a map of your area on hand and on that map, highlight all of the places near where you live that you can get water.

There may be streams, rivers or lakes nearby that you can use to tap into that water for your survival. Remember – you may not be able to get to it from a roadway, so having the map can help.

The Long Term: Shelter Essentials

If your home has become uninhabitable, you can survive for awhile in a tent or by using a tarp that’s positioned like a tent – but that’s not a long term solution if the weather becomes too cold for tent living to be warm enough. Most camping tents are summer, 4 season are often 2 season, spring and fall.

You’ll need to construct a shelter using what you have on hand or what you can find in your environment. You construct a shelter by thatching grass together and tying it with cord.

You can also construct a shelter using tree limbs that you saw and strap together. But if you plan ahead, you can create a shelter now that you can go to if there is a disaster.

You can spend the time pre-emergency and create a shelter that would house you and your family. This shelter should be sturdy enough to be considered a regular home and should provide shelter from inclement weather as well as cold and heat.

These shelters can be constructed from wood or from metal such as through the use of old trucking containers on low cost property you own out of sight of code enforcement inspectors. Some people choose to hire contractors to build underground bomb hurricane tornado (zombie) shelters.

While the thought of gathering all of the essentials that you need to survive can seem daunting, it’s always better to be prepared than to wish you had been – and weren’t. If cost is a concern, you can pick up most of what you need at the dollar store and the health and sporting goods departments at the local Mart. When price isn’t an object, you can order 72 hour kits online provided you ask about expiration dates before purchase (a year or two left is really old/stale). Knowing how you’ll escape and survive if there’s a zombie catastrophe is far better then having nothing ready what-so-ever and is the first step toward making sure that you and your family succeed.