BOB (Bug Out Bag), generic

(Survival Manual/2. Social Issues/Bug Out Bag, generic)

What is a ‘Bug Out Bag’?
The term “survival kit  refers a relatively large, portable survival kit also known as a “Bug-Out Bag” (BOB), Personal Emergency Relocation Kits (PERKs) or Get Out Of Dodge” (GOOD) kit; the kit is comprised of emergency items which are pre-packed into backpacks or duffel bags. The kits are designed specifically to be carried by individuals in case alternate forms of transportation are unavailable or impossible to use in the face of or immediately following a disaster.

The bags contain small quantities of supplies such as food, water purification equipment, clothing, medical equipment, communications gear, and tools. You should supply your BOB with the thought  that you’re going wilderness camping for 3-5 days.

The Bug-out Bag is considered by many to be the first level of preparedness that anyone should put together, simply by virtue of its overall usefulness. As noted elsewhere, the man-portable kit can be also be used when you don’t have to leave. It can be thrown into a vehicle when the situation allows you to drive away from the area. It also provides you with a kit that can be carried out of an affected area if damage to the transportation infrastructure is extreme, such as  after a severe earthquake, a technology busting EMP pulse, or widespread wind or flood damage.

[Photos above: (L) A back pack with an internal frame; one each, appropriately sized for each member of the family.
(R) High Sierra Wheeled Duffle, 30 inch, 6100 cubic inch capacity.  Loaded dimensions: 31 in. wide x 22 in. deep x 14 in. high. Has backpack straps, roller wheels with telescoping, handle, bag carry handle. One of these duffle’s carries supplies for 1+ person, 2 duffel’s  for 3-4  people.]

BOB-How to make a ‘town and country’ (Family style) portable emergency survival pack
eHow, By Alan Kirk
From <http://www.ehow.com/how_2311996_make-survival-pack.html>
With hurricane season upon us annually, the off season is a good time to put together a survival pack. In fact, survival packs are not just for hurricane season, but for any time of the year. A survival pack comes in handy in case of a natural disaster or power outage, or even an ice or snow storm. Survival packs received the most attention after Sept. 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina, but most government agencies recommend that every family have one prepared at all times.
See Ready Gov/FEMA: <http://www.ready.gov/build-a-kit>

Things You’ll Need:

• Suitcase/duffle bag/back pack with several days’ change of clothes
• Flashlight
• Bottled water
• Batteries
• Cell-phone charger
• Copies of important documents
• Cash (1/3-1/2 weeks net income)
• Food–72 hour  (3 day) supply.

A.  Preparing a Survival Pack
Step 1- Suitcase/duffle bag/ back pack prepacked with emergency clothing: Pack suitcases for your family. When you pack clothes for a survival pack, you should fill one large suitcase with enough clothes for all of your family members. In general, you should include at least two days’ worth of clothes for each family member. If you have a young child in your family, don’t forget to pack diapers and wipes as well. Keep in mind that, in case of an emergency, you might not have time to look for these items before you have to leave your house. Pack clothing appropriate for being outdoors in the weather.

Step 2- Small suitcase prepacked with ‘survival’ food: Prepare a small suitcase full of food. Obviously, the food must be non-perishable, considering that it will be sitting in your survival pack for a long period of time. Do not pack items that must be microwaved or cooked on a stove, since you will not know when you will next be in an area with electricity. Some of the best items include snack bars, peanut butter, cereal, beef jerky, canned fruit and dried fruits.

Step 3-Important documents: Put copies of your important documents in an envelope and pack it in one of your suitcases. This envelope should contain a copy of everyone’s birth certificate and Social Security card. It should also include recent tax filings, automobile registration and/or loan documents and home-ownership information. If you think an original document will be required instead of a copy, pack that. Just make sure you have extra copies of the document somewhere for backup purposes. In this envelope, include several hundred dollars in cash. If there is a loss of power, ATMs will not operate.

Step 4- Flashlight, batteries & charger: Keep in mind that, in case of a natural disaster, you will not know how far you will have to travel, or how long it will take to get somewhere that has electricity. Make sure you have a flashlight in your survival kit. You can purchase a battery-powered emergency charger for your cell phone at cell-phone stores, grocery stores and convenience stores. Make sure you have an extra charging cable for your cell phone your kit as well. If you plan on taking a laptop computer with you, pack an extra battery, along with a charging cable.

Step 5- Phone numbers: Create a list of the phone numbers you feel you must have if you are forced to leave your home. It is a smart idea to print out these numbers on a business-card-sized piece of paper and have it laminated. You should have one of these made for each member of your household who will be with you. This way, everyone will have the phone numbers they need. This card should include your cell-phone number and your spouse’s number, labeled as “mom” and “dad” on your child’s laminated card. This will come in handy in case you get separated and someone finds your child.

Step 6- Be prepped for fast evacuation: Keep all of these items in a location in your house that will be easily accessible in the event of an emergency. This location should not be in the basement if flooding is common in your area. Neither should you store survival materials in the upper levels of the home, or in hard-to-locate areas. Your kit should be stored so that you can find it in five minutes, in case you have to evacuate immediately.
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B.  Component ideas for your BOB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bug-out_bag
A bug-out bag is a portable kit popular in the  survivalism subculture that contains the items one would require to survive for 5 days when evacuating from a disaster.
The focus is on evacuation, rather than long-term survival, this distinguishes the bug-out bag from a 1)  survival kit, 2) a boating or aviation emergency kit, or 3) a fixed-site disaster supplies kit.

Rationale
The primary purpose of a bug-out bag is to allow one to evacuate quickly if a disaster should strike. It is therefore prudent to gather all of the materials and supplies that might be required to do this into a single place, such as a bag or a few storage containers. The recommendation that a bug-out bag should contain enough supplies for seventy two hours arises from advice from organizations responsible for disaster relief and management that it may take them up to seventy two hours to reach people affected by a disaster and offer help. [Disaster relief organizations have recently increased the recommended emergency survival period from  3 days (72 hours) to 5 days.- Mr Larry]

In addition to allowing one to survive a disaster evacuation, a bug-out bag may also be utilized when sheltering in place as a response to emergencies such as house fires, blackouts, tornadoes, and other severe natural disasters.

1) Recommended contents for a generic BOB.
The suggested contents of a bug-out bag vary, but most of the following are usually included:
Check the suggestions at  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bug-out_bag> and <http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t469988/>
Enough food and water to last for seventy two hours. This includes:
•  Water for washing, drinking and cooking. One gallon per person per day.
•  Non-perishable food. [Mountain House Freeze dried camp meals, Wasa Crispbread or other hard crackers, peanut butter, canned tuna, dried fruit…]
•  water purification supplies.
•  Cooking supplies.
•  Cutlery and cups/dishes.
•  A first aid kit
•  Mosquito repellant
•  Fire starting tool (i.e. matches, ferrocerium rod, butane lighter, etc.) More than 1 way to start a fire.
•  A disaster plan including a local map(s) with the marked location of emergency centers, family rallying points, possible evacuation outes, etc.
•  Professional emergency/survival literature explaining what to do in various types of disaster, studied and understood before the actual disaster, but kept for reference.
•  County, state and regional maps and travel information.
•  Standard camping equipment, including sanitation supplies.
•  Weather appropriate clothing (poncho, headwear, gloves, etc.)
•  Bedding items such as sleeping bags & blankets.
•  Enough medicine to last an extended evacuation period.
•  Pet, child and elderly care needs.
•  Battery or crank operated radio.
•  Lighting (battery or crank operated flashlight, glow sticks).
•  Firearms and appropriate ammunition? Arms level– situation dependant.
•  FuBar or Crowbar [Photo at right: Stanley Fat Max Xtreme FuBar Utility  Bar: Firemen use these to gain access to locked buildings, wrench handles off doors, rip their way through walls, the ultimate handheld demolition tool. Good for SHTF urban survival situations.]
•  Cash and change, as electronic banking transactions may not be available during the initial period following an emergency or evacuation. Have enough money for potential motel expenses, auto gas and food for 3-5 days, in other words a week’s income – stored in the BOB.
•  Fixed-blade and folding knife.

2)  The ‘Wilderness BOB’
If you are going into the boonies to weather out a  five day emergency/crisis situation, your ‘Wilderness style’ BOB should additionally include many items from the list below:
_a) Staples:
 •  Some MRE’s and/or freeze dried foods (mentioned above)
•  Beef and chicken bouillon packets
•  Tea bags
•  Instant coffee
•  Honey crystal packets
•  Mess kits

_b) Medical Kit:
[Photo at right: Use simple, light weight quart and gallon size zip lock Baggies for compartmentalizing your BOB sub-kits: medical supplies, toiletries, survival items, and other miscellaneous small and use related parts]
 •  Adhesive Bandages
•  Gauze Pads
•  Non-adherent Pads
•  Adhesive Tape
•  Gauze Roll Bandages
•  Compress Bandag
•  Betadine wipes
•  Alcohol wipes
•  Wound Closure Strips
•  Bandage Scissors, stainless steel, small
•  Single Edge Razor Blade (5)
•  Splinter Forceps
•  Thermometer
•  Antibiotic Ointment
•  SPF-15 sunblock packets
•  Tylenol
•  Tylenol
•  Benadryl
•  Vicodin 750mg
•  Several antibiotics: Amoxicillin, Ampicillin, Doxycycline, Tetracycline, Zithromax (see Survival Manual/Medical/Medicine & Supplement/Patriot Nurse antibiotics– not yet posted)

_c) Survival Kit:
 •  Katadyn Hiker PRO Water Filter w/ 2 extra filters, or similar device.
•  Water containers
•  Water Purification Tablets – 2-30 packs
•  Coffee Filters (to filter natural water)
•  Waterproof survival matches
•  Magnesium fire starter
•  Several disposable mini butane/Bic lighters
•  Mess Kit – knife, fork and cup set
•  Mil-spec Para Cord, 550 test – (100 feet)
•  Duct Tape
•  Zip lock bags of various sizes, (6)
•  Sewing Kit
•  Compass
•  Survival Shake Flashlight (no batteries required)
•  Fishing Kit
•  Army Poncho
•  Tarp: 10′ x 12′ (1 -2 persons) or 12′ x 16′ (3- 4 persons), camoflauge colors.
•  Nalgene Collapsible Water Canteen, 48 oz

_d) Hardware:
•  SOG Fusion Tactical Tomahawk
•  Leatherman Tool
•  Pocket Chain Saw
•  pistol or revolver + 100 rounds
•  Ruger 10/22 (with light weight black synthetic folding stock) + 300 rounds

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3)  Desert Environment and Hot Climate BOB
_a) Clothing:  When spending days or weeks in the desert, choose the type and color of clothing that with increase your comfort. Clothing should be worn very loosely and long sleeves, trousers should also be baggy. Hats should be worn in extreme temperatures to protect from the day time heat plenty of high factor sun tan lotion should be worn on exposed areas of the body. Footwear should be lightweight and have good support (military desert boots ideal).

_b) Night time: In the night time the desert temperature tends to drop rapidly and from being high 30-40 degrees will drop to anything below 5 degrees to include minus temperatures Therefore you need to take into consideration warm clothing and to the extent of a waterproof (don’t be fooled). A good sleeping bag is useful a two season bag is adequate. Sleeping on the floor is not a problem in the desert a good ground mat will make life easy also a bivi bag is ideal to keep out unwanted guests.

_c) Suggested list of equipment for a ‘Desert BOB’
•  Good size rucksack 4300 cu in.
•   Small rucksack  1728 cu in. (hand baggage)
•  Sleeping bag Lightweight
•  Bivi bag
•  Ground mat
•  Cooking stove
•  Water bottles
•  Drinking mug
•  Camelpak water carrier.
• Water- Purification tablets
•  Survival kit
•  Knife- Leatherman
•  Compass
•  Mess tins/ pot
•  Mosquito repellent
•  Lighter/ Spare matches
•  Candle
•  Head lamp & Spotlight flashlight
•  String/Para cord/Bungee
•  Sunglasses
•  Large bandana
•  Sweat rag
•  Goggles
•  Floppy hat
•  Spare warm clothing.
•  Sun Block 50%
•  Lip Salve
•  Poncho

Weapons
The .22 LR is the recommended cartridge for a survival rifle. The object here is to kill small animals and birds for food, not blow them apart with a powerful cartridge. The .22 LR High Velocity (not Hyper Velocity) cartridge loaded with 36-37 grain hollow point bullets is just about perfect for the purpose of harvesting such game. And .22 LR ammunition is so compact that a 50 round box takes up little more space than a single 12 gauge shotgun shell or three .410 shot shells or center fire rifle cartridges. Remember at this point the situation is expected to be temporary, you do not need assault rifles, body armor, etc.in the aftermath of a hurricane

[Image above: Ruger 10/22 with 5 power scope]

For the Bug Out Bag, it really doesn’t matter much if your handgun is a compact or a full framed pistol, but if you intend to carry it on your body you may want to take that into account.  Get one that fits your hand and that you are comfortable enough with how it works, it should be the right caliber for you, and then practice.  As far as bug out bag application goes, buy extra magazines for and stock them in your bag.  Just remember, ammo does have weight to it, so the more you plan to carry, the heavier it is going to get.

Remember this topic is a discussion of the Bug Out Bag, meaning that you’re dealing with a short term situation, most likely a natural event; ie., a hurricane, flood, fire, etc…  If there was a need for firearms it would most likely be for your peace of mind. Civilization is not falling apart, people will remain civil.
However, the larger the global or national disaster, the greater its affect on the food and water supply, on energy distribution and the impact on individual lives, the greater the need for ballistics and personal armor. It will take until three days after an ‘unparalled, widespread, global or national disaster’ before things could get dicey; that’s when the cupboards get thin and bottled water runs out.
Unless society has disentegrated into a situation where there is no law, you will not be permitted to walk around in public with an assault rifle, wearing armor plate, etc. Don’t bring attention to your self, don’t bring grief to your self. There’s no glory in looking ‘tactical’. Blend.