Your chances in a post-apocalyptic world

[stry]

Stone the crows GPS !

From a food thread that plumb spoilt my love of food, albeit temporarily; to Armageddon !!!

And here I was, feeling quite at peace with things.

Ah well - cogitation on the curly issues of life is good mental exercise.

[corvus]

I may be one of the lucky few who will be dead before this occurs
corvus

[matagi]

When we lived in rural NSW, we were on a road that only had one way out and was occasionally cut by flood waters. We always had a pantry full of non-perishable supplies (dried beans, rice, lentils, etc) plus stuff like canned tomatoes, canned fruit and UHT milk. Sort of a "bug-out pantry", I guess. Although the only thing that was really part of an emergency supply was the UHT milk - everything else was stuff that was part of our regular diet.

We managed for a week without electricity and cut off by flood waters in the big storm that happened on Queen's Birthday weekend 2007. The thing I missed the most was not being able to have a decent shower. Reading by candlelight was interesting. Our routine changed very quickly to an "early to bed, early to rise" one to take maximal advantage of daylight.

[GPSGuided]

Stone the crows GPS !
From a food thread that plumb spoilt my love of food, albeit temporarily; to Armageddon !!!
And hear I was, feeling quite at peace with things.
Ah well - cogitation on the curly issues of life is good mental exercise.

Should I apologise here?

[GPSGuided]

... Our routine changed very quickly to an "early to bed, early to rise" one to take maximal advantage of daylight.

That's an interesting observation, one that's more in sync with nature. Potential survival advantage?

[Travis22]

A lot of 'nature' beds and or rests during the day and tends to feed and travel moreso at night.

There are so many variables but this is certainly one method you might need to adapt to follow as well.

Travis.

[GPSGuided]

Now we are seeing 20% of respondents coming in on the 81-100% survival band. Impressive! Confidence is rapidly growing.

[Moondog55]

A lot of 'nature' beds and or rests during the day and tends to feed and travel moreso at night.

There are so many variables but this is certainly one method you might need to adapt to follow as well.

Travis.

Also never sleep where you eat and never allow yourself to become so tired that you sleep too deeply to hear changes in the local environment, travel 2 hours rest for 20 minutes the standard cowboy/commando regime and the old way of covering long distance quickly was run 20 minutes then walk 20 minutes.
This of course assumes you have somewhere to go.
Learn to use a snare to catch food, rifles make noise and attract attention, cache seeds in lots of places. learn to like wild mustards and kangaroo apple, buy a big rifle and learn how to use it and when not to, practice stick and blade fighting ( Kendo) know how to keep still and quiet and learn how to really LOOK & SEE and develop a network of real friends whom you can rely on
Everything else will probably boil down to plain dumb luck, I mean there's no point in having a years supply of food stored if your cellar is under 10 meters of flood water or rubble

[GPSGuided]

Also never sleep where you eat and never allow yourself to become so tired that you sleep too deeply to hear changes in the local environment, travel 2 hours rest for 20 minutes the standard cowboy/commando regime and the old way of covering long distance quickly was run 20 minutes then walk 20 minutes.
This of course assumes you have somewhere to go.
Learn to use a snare to catch food, rifles make noise and attract attention, cache seeds in lots of places. learn to like wild mustards and kangaroo apple, buy a big rifle and learn how to use it and when not to, practice stick and blade fighting ( Kendo) know how to keep still and quiet and learn how to really LOOK & SEE and develop a network of real friends whom you can rely on
Everything else will probably boil down to plain dumb luck, I mean there's no point in having a years supply of food stored if your cellar is under 10 meters of flood water or rubble

MD55, can you help form and lead a secret society for fellow forumites, in preparation for that day. Please! We'll need a closed sub-forum for it to start.

[Moondog55]

This is all very standard & basic School of Infantry stuff, handbooks aren't even on the secret list anymore

[Moondog55]

And I do realise that was very "Tongue in Cheek"

[Franco]

I will survive at first because I have a Titanium pot.*
My fear is to die when I breath in fibers from disintegrating asbestos suits .

In a similar thread on a US forum I pointed out that Rambo always survived because he wrote the script...

BTW the interesting part is that End Of The World scenarios have always been popular throughout history.
Mostly to do with religion (zero success rate in accurate predictions so far...) but not always.

I wish I had remembered to take my Ti spoon on my last trip. Took me almost 5 minutes to make one out of wood.

[drakkar]

My biggest issue will food. Who here can genuinely live of the land?

I'm quite confident making a useable snare out of a shoelace. And hunger would make you learn pretty quickly how to find animal 'routes' and growing up on the coast with a Hawaiian sling and spearing fish. Make me realise I might catch 1 or maybe 2 meals a week in the current climate... I'd poison myself before i worked out what plants i could eat. It would take me possibly months to get to a true wilderness area with abundant wildlife.

Could you leave your partner or children behind? Mine aren't strong or resourceful enough to be useful...

[GPSGuided]

Could you leave your partner or children behind? Mine aren't strong or resourceful enough to be useful...

Even as a hypothetical, that'd be a subject that's really hard to consider.

[perfectlydark]

Yeah true. If you survived by leaving your family to die..could you live with that? I couldnt

[Franco]

I couldn't...

The difference between surviving or not often is the result of how we handle the situation and not the same as how we think we would handle the situation.
For example what would you do if you were sitting on a plane waiting for take off and another plane crashed into it ?
Well it turns out (real story) that one guy grabbed his wife and quickly exited through the gap on the plane fuselage, all other passengers remained seated (I suppose waiting for instructions..) and burnt to death within a few minutes.

My point here is that what we think we would do and what we end up doing is not often the same.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Unthinkable-S ... 0307352900

[Wollemi]

<Joke>
'... quarantine is out of the question'.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/zombie_how

[22F]

Come the Apocalypse, I give myself a 50/50 chance.

My aim is to setup or join a community as fast as possible!
Being part of a community, is the best surefire way I can think of me and mine surviving. To my mind, it's not just about my personal survival, it's about the survival and flourishing of my children. That means a community, where many hands make light work.
Some will be dedicated to growing food and animals. Others to educating children, to maintaining equipment, blacksmithing, defence of the community and every function that a thriving society and community needs to grow and prosper.

As a former soldier, and a scientist, with unique skillsets (like industrial chemistry, employment and setup of defensive works and other fun stuff), and my work ethic, I don't anticipate too many communities turning me and my family away should we knock on the gate

[GPSGuided]

22F, acceptance of you may also depends on how much fat and meat you have on your body.

[22F]

I dunno about that mate!
With the amount of left-wing hippies in this world, and knowing my luck and history for bumping into the most militant amongst them when out walking the wilds, a part of me is waiting to try some grassfed "long pork" myself!

Besides, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

[Travis22]

22F - how did u know I am blind in one eye

(From birth - no joke lol)

Travis.

[22F]

*big belly laugh at Travis*

You're all set for the Apocalypse mate! All you need now is the athletic cup as an eye-patch and a rather large decrepit oil tanker to draw in your motley crew of minions!

[Moondog55]

@ 22F
Can I please have the co-ordinates of your impregnable fortress.
I'll bring my "Twilight Zone"recipe book

[22F]

*big belly laugh*

I'm still in two minds about that mate.
My goal is to be "Emperor of All I Survey" - out to tube artillery range anyway...

On the one hand, any singular, monolithic defensive works created by man can be breached by another man with enough firepower, bodies and resources.
Although it's nice to have a big fortress wall to feel safe behind, I don't think I'd fall for the same mistake Kurtz made in "Heart of Darkness". My ego isn't big enough to wish to have all the heads of my enemies facing me every morning I arise, I want those heads facing oncoming/incoming living adverseries

The other option is to run things like the old Mongol Horde. Keep a very mobile camp/baggage train, with primary, alternate and backup positions that can be easily relocated to. Keeps any major enemies on their toes, because they'd need three times the resources to lay siege to me. That's not counting the harder job of actually locating and fixing me in position within my realm. Would also keep plotters and malcontents within the realm under confusion to where I could be any given time
I'd need horses though, and lots of them.

[Moondog55]

Defense in depth and always more ways out than in.
I take it then you had seen that particular episode of TZ. one of my favourites
Horses yes. it would take to long to genetically engineer rideable kangaroos

[GPSGuided]

...it would take to long to genetically engineer rideable kangaroos

Riders will need to be genetically modified too to accommodate the bounce, in particular the bum.

[iluvhiking]

better start "buyin Up" and watchin the US Guns and Bug Out websites.
Just last night watching "iraqveteran8888" - they were debating on ( this in Jan 2013) - the 5 guns you need to buy before the government comes to take them.
Thank God us Aussies don't fall for this Survivalist crap etc.
Nothing wrong with firearms, however thousands of US citizens, "planning" or "prepping" for the takeover etc....
Australia - thank you John Howard for banning semi-auto etc. Any firearm enthusiast will appreciate what happened.
I owned prior to ban - ruger 10/22, SKK, SKS, and a L1A1 SLR. All gone now, and guess what?! - I love my new AIA Enfield, and my other bolt action rifles. HS Precision HTR
Moondog - When were you in the regs at Singo?
If the Apocalypse happens, I got one up the spout, and a ticket to the Golden Triangle in Burma....

[Moondog55]

Not me I was a chocolate soldier, 10Med and 10/22nd Sig and cook respectively

[Strider]

...it would take to long to genetically engineer rideable kangaroos

Riders will need to be genetically modified too to accommodate the bounce, in particular the bum.

With this in mind, I reckon my wife would be a champion kangaroo rider...

[22F]

You're a far braver man than I Strider. If she asks, I never heard nuthin'

Out to you mate.

Moondog: Erm, not sure mate. The Twilight Zone was a wee big before my time. Enlighten me?