When you first join the survival community, you hear a lot about bugging out, but for most people in most survival situations, retreating is a better option.
Bugging in is the act of fortifying your home and having all of the required supplies on hand to live for an extended period of time.
With most SHTF scenarios, staying at home is considerably more useful than packing your belongings and heading off somewhere. You must be ready for this to work.
Let’s begin with the basics of bugging in.
Bugging in Basics
You need to know how many people will join in with you and what they can do.
Some members of your group may be less capable than others. They might be more needy, for example, as an infant or a tiny child, or an elderly or disabled family member.
So, it’s a good idea to make a list of these individuals, their ages, and their skill levels.
It’s also crucial to think about where you live, as well as the types of crises or catastrophes that may affect you. Of course, no one is immune from a pandemic or nuclear war.
Even if you live in an earthquake-prone area, or a hurricane or ice storm zone, you will want to be prepared for the unexpected. Whether it’s pandemics or nuclear strikes that affect your community or other widespread catastrophes, where you reside will matter.
Do you reside in, near, or work in a major city or an army base? It’s vital to think about the aforementioned things. After you’ve considered everything, you can start thinking about how you’ll get ready for bug out.
Bugging Out VS Bugging In
Scenarios Where You Can`t Stay at Home When SHTF
For many people, the option of fleeing home is more appealing and safe than staying put. There are several reasons why it’s more likely and safe to bug out in these cases – aka “bug out.”
Here are a few examples of those times.
- A major catastrophe is on the verge of happening. Is a hurricane or a huge forest fire on its way? It may be an excellent opportunity to depart if you and your family are in the line of danger. Staying at home is far riskier than departing.
- Is your house located in the middle of everything? It’s time to say goodbye if that’s the case.
- A transportation system is disrupted. If your transportation system is down, things will get out of hand. Stores will close, leaving people without food and water. It’s time to flee.
- Your supply is nearly depleted. Take a look at your stockpile and see if you have enough to last until the crisis ends, if the disaster lasts longer than you anticipated. If not, it’s time to think about your next move.
Scenarios Where You Could Stay at Home When SHTF
To begin, you must first determine when it is appropriate to bug in. nSecond, like with bugging out, you must decide when it is safe to bug in.
Here are a few scenarios to consider:
- Outside is more dangerous: When the SHTF, most people are terrified, especially those who aren’t prepared. They’ll go to any length to survive. Being shut in your home may be the greatest option for survival on occasion.
- You don’t have a safe destination: However, if you’re wondering where to stay in the woods, keep in mind that you’ll be alone. It’s best to wait it out if you don’t have a safe place to go.
When you are on the road during an emergency, you become a more attractive target, especially if you have kids. You don’t know who or what you’re stepping into, which makes everything stressful.
Bugging In | Prepare Your Home Before SHTF
Step 1: How To Get Ready
Have a Plan
The most essential aspect of covert operations is to have a strategy in place for protection. People rarely live on high alert 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in a protected location. That implies there will be work to do when SHTF. You must determine your priorities and ensure that everyone in your family knows what to do if the situation arises.
Furthermore, you must practice this exercise on a daily basis to ensure that everyone is prepared to bug out.
Step 2: How To Prepare Your Home
Preparing Your Home For Survival
One of the most essential aspects of burglar protection is to ensure that your house is safe. Looters or other intruders may break in, so you must build several levels of security for your property.
- The first layer of protection is the perimeter of your property: for us, this is a barbed wire fence that encircles the entire property.
- Next, we’ll look at on-property security: dogs, cameras, motion sensors, and even armed patrols can all be used.
- The final component of your home security is the outside protection: door locks, window bars, and a home security system are all examples of this.
- Finally, you’ll need a home security strategy: having a choke point between you and the intruders and having weapons on hand to defend that choke point.
With these levels of protection in place, you and your family will have a hard time being harmed.
How to Set Up Your Home to Survive When SHTF
Staying at home is often simpler than packing up and heading for the hills, since you at least have a shelter ready – especially if you have an underground bunker or storm enclosure.
Make sure you have enough water on hand. You’ll need one gallon per person each day. Plan to store at least a week’s worth of water, but you can never have too much.
Heat is important. If it’s cold outside, how will you keep your home warm? A generator or a wood-burning stove may be necessary if the electricity goes out. Propane in confined areas can be dangerous. Decide how you’ll acquire more water. Is there a nearby spring or are you able to establish a water collection method?
Stock up on nonperishable items. You do have more alternatives, such as canned goods and other long-lasting foods, since you’re bugging in. Comfort supplies for your family may be kept.
Prepare for security. Have boards and weapons if you want to secure your home, as well as other necessities.
Are you safe in your own home? 5 mistakes we all make…
Step 3: How To Store Food
Survival Preparedness
Food is always a concern when it comes to survival situations. You can hunt, fish, or find food, but having meals on hand for bug-in or bug-out is an even better alternative. And finding something that has high calories, vitamins, and salt while being inexpensive might be difficult.
Prepare to live without electricity, therefore frozen foods are out of the question. Canned foods can survive a long time, but they aren’t ideal. Dried goods are your best bet for keeping things going for many months. Jerky, hardtack, pemmican, and other salted or dried or dehydrated items are included here
Dried pasta is useful, and all grains and beans are good if they are kept free of insects. MREs are fine, but they’re expensive for long-term survival.
Step 4: How To Get Clean Drinking Water
If the pumps that move the water are shut down, it might be tough to supply water to your house.
Both a well and a pond for water are available to us, which is fantastic. Water collection systems are an excellent method to maintain a constant supply of drinkable water. If you must go looking for drinking water, you should have the necessary equipment as well.
You may purify water from any stream or pond with a decent filter, boiling, or iodine tablets. Remember that you can survive only three days without water.
Related post: 17 ways to get clean drinking water
Step 5: How To Stay Warm
If you’re living in a cold environment, you’ll need to stay warm. Fire is always an option, but the house may catch fire and carbon monoxide poisoning might occur.
You should have lighters and Ferro rods in addition to other fire-starting options. Furthermore, having a sufficient quantity of blankets might make a significant difference. Wool blankets and emergency blankets are the finest choices.
Wool can keep you warm even when wet, and emergency blankets reflect 90% of your body heat back to you.
Step 6: How To Communicate
Communication is an important issue to consider when subterfuge. Even when you are at home, you must be aware of what’s going on in the world. If there is still electricity, keep an eye on the local and regional news.
Should the power go out, emergency announcements may still be issued, and you’ll need a radio to hear them. Make sure you have a hand-crank or solar radio in your preparedness stash.
Walkie-talkies can be used for short-range contact between members of your group. Have a HAM radio so that you may intercept communications from other sources. Getting your HAM radio license is ideal, so you can communicate via Morse code.
However, even if you aren’t authorized, you can still eavesdrop and learn what’s going on.
Have another way to communicate. Even if you’re bugging in, your team could get separated. This might include predetermined locations where you may leave messages for one another as part of a strategic plan.
It may also include a method of codes that you can use to communicate without being intercepted or understood by others.
Prepping Must Haves
You must be ready to bug out at a moment’s notice, no matter how much you intend to stay. In a metropolis, things can change rapidly. Lawlessness and gangs may take control, or epidemics and unsanitary circumstances could grow overwhelming, making it safer to leave the city.
Even if you are camping in your rural area, you may never know when you will be overwhelmed and unable to defend your home. As a result, always be prepared to depart on short notice. Every person in your family/group should have a bug out bag ready and waiting.
You have the ability to get out of Dodge as swiftly and safely as possible if you need to. This implies you should have a place in mind when leaving. Even if you don’t have a friend’s house, family member who is expecting you, or another bug-out location ready, pick your destination carefully.
A unique location or a national park in the area is an excellent idea. Now it’s time to get down to business.
Here is a …
Bonus Tip For The Pros
Did you know the #1 Cause of death in a disaster?
In the next 20 seconds you’re going to discover a very common misconception about surviving a disaster millions of people simply don’t know.
Not only will you know more than most people on the planet when it comes to crisis survival… but you’ll also improve your chances of surviving considerably!
You’ll instantly know how to take the simple measures that will enable you to confidently overcome a typical survival scenario that could kill you in minutes once you learn this information.
Curious what this fact might be?
Here it is: Despite what most people think, the first pieces of survival gear you should have aren’t about food or water! That’s correct. Food and water are not nearly as crucial as most people believe.
This is due to the fact that you can go 2-3 days without water and 1-3 weeks without food before dying.
The most deadly aspect of this season, and what kills more people each year, is exposure to the elements. Exposure will cause your life to be hanging by a thread within 15 minutes if you aren’t prepared to deal with it.
It’s because exposure to weather conditions causes far more fatalities than thirst, and starvation combined that we wanted to introduce you to one of the most useful and most underrated survival tools on the planet.
