This report was originally published by Selco at The Organic Prepper
I have used survival caches as part of my prepping for a long time. This is because my experience that says no matter how well you are prepared, one day you may find yourself out with only what you have on you, so any help that you can get in that moment will be important.
Why should you have survival caches?
There is a big talk behind having your important stuff hidden somewhere in case that you might need it, but let’s try to simplify it.
Mistakes
A really big SHTF event will usually come as a surprise for us, no matter how much we like to thing that we will recognize the moment. In a situation that comes suddenly, you will make mistakes for sure.
You will not operate 100% in accordance with your survival plan – no one does. So even if today you think that you covered everything in great detail you will (because of many reasons) most likely fail in some field.
In a situation like that, some equipment hidden in couple of places can give you a lot of help.
Actually, it can save your life.
Losing everything
No matter how hardened you think that your home is, your stuff inside your home can change in a matter of days, or sometimes in a matter of minutes actually.
You can be in one moment the best prepper on your street, with everything that your family needs to survive, and next day you can be evicted with only the things that you can carry in your pockets.
Or you may be forced to run for your life, leaving everything in your home, all your preps, no matter how wll armed you are. Some people like to think this can never happen but they are wrong.
You may be even labeled when the SHTF as a person who by the law needs to give all your preps to the “goverment” or who ever gonna have force on their side in a particular moment.
You never know.
Bugging out
People usually think about bugging out like it is gonna happened just like they imagined it or planned it, while in reality, it may be completely different.
Caches on your bug-out route should help you to resolve that change of plans.
Not to mention that your bug-out trip may start out with you not at your home, or without all your bug out bags for another reason.
The philosophy of survival caches
We should simplify it and use the words why, what, where, how, and when.
We went through the why details above, and you have also to add your own personal circumstances there, just like always.
What?
One basic rule that I like to implement is: never cache something that you can not afford to lose.
So for example, if you have only one weapon, and you want to cache it, your survival philosophy might be wrong and you need to reconsider it.
The usual response here is that you do not have enough weapons, so you need to work on solving that, not to mention that it is pretty strange not to have that one and only weapon close to you, not buried somewhere.
Another thing that I use is the rule that the cache (if someone else found it) cannot be traced to me, so no, I am not caching my important papers there.
However, I do keep there some tools that are illegal to keep it at my home (or wherever) with me, but that can help me a lot when SHTF.
It might look like this: you go through your prep list, choose items from every pillar of survival that will cover your basic needs in a particular amount of time (three days, week, month?) and put it in survival cache. Your money is the only limit.
For example:
And so on and so on.
It is completely based on your wishes and the amount of money you want to invest in this.
I do not like big caches. I would rather have more small caches. It is partly because of my budget, but the bigger and more important reason is that based on my experience it is better to have more chances. Usually half of your caches will be inacessible to you when SHTF.
Either it is going to be dangerous to go there, or you are not gonna have a chance to go and take it, or any combination of this.
If your main reason for having survival caches is as a help on your way to BOL you need to factor in the very high probability that the route that you plan and the route that you will take to your BOL will be different, This could be because of many reasons (angry mob, looters, police, fire, whatever). It’s better to have more caches that are not on the planned route but also on alternative routes there.
How?
There is advice like “you need to bury it” or “never put it in building” or similar.
But remember that all of this is very specific to your situation and surroundings. You need to check how things work in your case only.
For example, I have two caches in an abandoned building 10 kilometers from me. It works for me because the building has been abandoned for the last 15 years. It probably will be abandoned until someone buys the land and destroys it. Hopefully, I will learn of that on time and remove my stuff from there, but even if not, I can afford it to lose that stuff.
Of course, the most common way is to bury it, but do not blindly look to bury it if that does not work for your own case.
For burying, I use water pipes (PVC), combined with plastic bags (bags in bags).
Are there better ways?
Yes of course, there are probably very good brand name survival cache containers that will last much longer and keep stuff much better but I cannot afford it, and even if I could, I would invest that money in something that I find more important.
Where?
If you have more of the caches, you need to have some system of keeping the data where you planted all of that.
A GPS system works great for that, but remember that it can be gone one day. Having a map marked with places works well too, but in the wrong hands, it can leave you without anything.
The best thing is to keep it in your head, but again if you have a lot of caches, it might not work.
I heard a long time ago about a system of keeping track of your caches with photos.
In each place where you hid something, you take a photo of yourself with your family, dog or whatever. Just a regular photo from sightseeing, hiking, or taking a nature walk.
Then you will have a memory about the place of your cache that looks like a regular day out.
You can even add on the back of photo sentence of two in simple code so you can know what is in that cache.
Here is your imagination only limit.
I mean, having a map in your pocket or on your book shelf with red circles and words like “gun, ammo, bandages, MREs” is very helpful but sometimes could get you into trouble.
Having a wall with photos above your desk with of you and your friends or family looks just like that – photos.
When?
It is question that is the easiest to answer.
NOW.
Survival caches are things that you might never use, but if you gonna need it you probably gonna need it very hard, so start to work on it now.
Again, you can start small, with very small caches, based on your budget and see where that will lead you.
Don’t rely only on caches to survive
Survival caches are just one aspect of survival preparedness. They are not most important one, so do not invewst a lot in it and fail to invest in something maybe more important.
I mean do not find yourself in the middle of the night when SHTF without everything useful just because all your cool stuff is buried 25 miles from you.
It is about balance.
***
About the Author
Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today. He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations like Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months. Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world. Read more of Selco’s articles here: https://shtfschool.com/blog/ And take advantage of a deep and profound insight into his knowledge and advice by signing up for the outstanding and unrivaled online course. More details here: https://shtfschool.com/survival-boot-camp/
Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.
Daisy is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her websites, The Organic Prepper and DaisyLuther.com She is the author of 4 books and the co-founder of Preppers University, where she teaches intensive preparedness courses in a live online classroom setting. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter,.
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This is mentioned in the classic post-apocalyptic film Panic in the Year Zero.
When you can’t cache food due to spoilage, then it’s better to eat it or trade it. Excess protein is eliminated by the body but carbs and fat can be stored. Your neighbor may have a trade item in exchange for food that is perishable and near worthless to you.
In fact, smart preppers might organize the neighborhood if they suspected a EMP event occurred and cook the perishable food and rally the men to do security, firewood and water collection, teach about hot water tanks, rocket mass stoves, organize well digging, a medical clinic, a school, church services, burial detail, trade day, etc.
If you don’t form a tribe, a horde will develop instead and harm everyone.
Tweet me when their ready to eat you……of course you given all them food….but now there’s no more for them…. Just for YOU AND YOURS……
BTW: I’ll be glad to throw you on the Barbie ………
Maranatha,
I couldn’t agree more. The “lone wolf” survival prepper, more than likely, is going to be in worse shape than the individuals that compose a “tribe” or community of like minded individuals. No man is an island.
In history, no lone wolf ever could compete with the tribe. Ever notice how they are the ones who talk about cannibalism all the time? Satan already possesses their souls.
For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and lose their souls? Mark 8:36
Total BS. Your group think is for useless weak sheep who flock together for safety, just make themselves a bigger target to hit for slaughter. A lone wolf can adapt in seconds and make changes. The group will be anchored down by their weak links and chaos and lack of organization and created mini revolts with in a group think stink tank. When the whooting starts tge cowards will hide, kids give away your OPSEC. Crying babies and chatteting woman. Noise makers giving away your position for the lone wolf to pick off one by one. Group think is a death sentence.
Group think like the lost Donner Party at the Cumberland pass lead to cannibalism. Not the lone wolf. Lone wolf eats Filet Minion at his own choosing. Groups are slow, noisey, lazy, rebelious, complaining, weak and half of groups are next to useleds..Group think is like communism. Takes a village idiot mentality. Religion is superstitious satire. But good to keep you plenty dumbed down.
On second thought……libs can’t be eaten, it’s that shit for brains smell… Just wont go away
You obviously have no clue…….
OT. The Russian “foreign agent”, Maria Butina, they arrested today is a “Right to Bear Arms” advocate. They’re trying to bring in the NRA as the boogie man since she was a big supporter of them and the rights affirmed by the second amendment:
https://www.rt.com/usa/433427-russian-activist-arrested-us/
She’s also been connected to the National Prayer Breakfast and she’s conservative (graduate of American University), and white. They will throw away the keys.
Because “Russia” and “muh guns”.
What a bottomless crock pot of shit they are stirring.
Funny how they arrest a Russian for joining the NRA, but hundreds of thousands of illegals from foreign countries can march and protest the government and that it OK.
Unfortunately, for many years Cambridge (Mass.) has desperately wanted to be Berkeley (Calif.) and Portland (Maine) has desperately wanted to be Cambridge.
Portland is now taking yet one more step in this direction with a current movement to allow ILLEGALS to VOTE in municipal elections!
Are there any other countries so starry-eyed with the concept of self-destruction that they encourage criminal non-citizens to vote themselves more and more benefits at taxpayer expense?!
I swear, this country is doomed, utterly doomed.
No disrespect meant,but I’m not gonna be running over hell and back looking for cached supplies in the middle of a shtf event.
I LIVED THROUGH A MODERATE SHTF EVENT. I DID CACHE SUPPLIES IN SEVERAL PLACES AND RUN MANY MILES AT NIGHT TO GET THEM BACK. YOU SIMPLY CANT CARRY VERY MANY PREPS IF YOU HAVE TO MOVE AROUND (AND YOU WILL). YOU PROBABLY WILL STILL HAVE TO WORK DURING SHTF. THE GOVERNMENT MAY HAVE A MANDATORY EVACUATION. THINGS MIGHT GET TOO HOT IN YOUR HOOD. YOU MAY NEED TO MOVE TO A LOCATION CLOSER TO A FOOD DISTRIBUTION CENTER, A FRESHWATER LAKE, ETC. PLAN IN ADVANCE AND HAVE BACKUP PLANS AND BACKUPS FOR YOUR BACKUPS. THE BASICS OF PREPPING.
What is your housing like in Puerto Rico? Do you live in an apartment, house, farm or what?
Where you live and what type of home you live in may make bugging out or cashed supplies unnecessary.
If you already live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, why bug out? If you live in an apartment in the middle of the ghetto, bugging out likely will be very necessary.
I mean do not find yourself in the middle of the night when SHTF without everything useful just because all your cool stuff is buried 25 miles from you.
It is about balance.
Bravefart BH casched all his preps 6 hours away in another State in his Cuz’s shed under latch and key. What if they close off interstate traffic? Abandon your vehicle and walk another 300 miles on foot? Can you carry all your van preps or abandon it all if they seal off the state line crossing. Or 20 check points and rifle through your belongings amd loot half your stuff.
Every plan has flaws.
Ive been at my BOL now for 3.5 years, working on the homestead. I casched more PM’s yeasterday. And plenty more to go. The map is in my head and Im not talkn’. Out of sight, and spread out, reduces my exposure to theft. You can also bury a map of the burried treasure location casches.
Well Obummer signed ten different confiscate executive orders in times of martial law. You realize that, right? This is why you never tell family and friends, much less strangers that your family are preppers. If you don’t have hidden survival caches, then if the horde comes, they will just take your supplies.
This happens THRICE in the film One Hundred Mornings as neighbors attempt to loot, law enforcement loots, and then neighbors come back and loot. Meanwhile the idiots left all there supplies where a child could get them. It dooms the two couples who then end up thieving an armed neighbor.
You all may want to take a look at what is happening in HA. right now:
http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/
Don’t see anything on the news about it.
I have a cache of credit cards just in case…
(Sarc off)
I had the unfortunate opportunity to be in a “Wally World” check out line the other day. Cashier asked me if I wanted to sign up for a “Wally” credit card. Just for grins ‘n giggles I asked what the APR was on the card. Lady told me with a straight face “24%”. After choking on my own laughter, I wondered how many suckers took up this card to get $25 bucks off their current purchase. You gotta be a dumb $hit to sign up for that amount!
Sign up for it, get your $25 discount, pay it off, then cancel it, or run it through your shredder so you never use it again.
Got a Lowes CC with a $10K credit line. Use the card get 5% off, carry a balance and its like 24%. I bought about $13K over the last few years, using the card, always paid off the balance quickly and never paid a penny in interest since I’ve had the card. Thats why I have a good credit score. Good fiscal Discipline. Zero bal on the card, and about to put an addition on and going to use their Cc money for a month, then pay it off. Know the rules and play the game.
Got a Lowes CC with a $10K credit line. Use the card get 5% off, carry a balance and its like 24%. I bought about $13K over the last few years, using the card, always paid off the balance quickly and never paid a penny in interest since I’ve had the card. So $13K x 5% off is $650 in savings. Who’s laughing now?
Thats why I have a good credit score. Good fiscal Discipline. Zero bal on the card, and about to put an addition on and going to use their Cc money again for a month, then pay it off. Know the rules and play the game to win.
Losers fail to plan or know how to manage money and maintain a healthy credit score.
Don’t need a credit score when you work strictly with cash.
Manage the money just fine that way. No interest rates to worry about either.
I see Snyder is still writing his B/S. Man, this site must be really hard up for articles. I can’t think of one prediction that failed lawyer has been right on.
Exactly,,,, They don’t know shit about what they write about
“but if you gonna need it you probably gonna need it very hard”
Hell YES!
“but if you gonna need it you probably gonna need it very hard”
Hell YEAH!
Bury your cache only to have metal detecting hobbyists find it before you need it.
That’s some real SHTF for your ass.
2018 if you cache any kind of food around here, I don’t care how it’s sealed, it ain’t metal detecting hobbyist you have to worry about, it’s them dang bears. Trekker Out
MT, thanks for the laugh.
Yup critters will dig it up.
I planted fruit trees, they are developed and produce lots of fruit. Dear were eating it all. I read that Irish spring soap is a good reliant. Yup it works, so now the squirrels are eating all my fruit and nuts.
If the SHTF, ime eating all those fat squirrel, and the deer.
It would be better, to be resourceful, on any given day, rather than geocaching piles of cheap, Chinese, pegboard crap (which you can afford to lose) all over the countryside.
This is not economical, in terms of calories and so many campy voyeurs.
Jesus is very clear in Mathew 24. Christians might want to read it again. If a person calls Jesus the Lord, but then doesn’t help at least one of the least of these who was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, or in prison, Jesus labels them goats who are bound for HELL.
Jesus doesn’t say we are required to help all. It’s implied in theNew Testament that all should carry their own burdens by being responsible as well. See Galatians chapter six. We help others but they should carry their own burdens.Christianity is very practical and built around tribal living.
But if Lucifer is your master and your plan is to cannibalize otgers, then you might as well not prep whatsoever because you will eternally burn in Hell by such actions.
Sorry but Jebus was a homeless drifter selling snake oil to the gullible in each town. Scam still works today on low IQ IMBICLES!! They will be easy pickings in SHTF.
A miracle should be useful, if you can get one.
King James Bible
Bear One Another’s Burdens
1Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 4But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5For every man shall bear his own burden.
6Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. 7Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 10As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:1-10
So both Matthew 24 and Galatians 6 state the same idea. You may think saving your own skin is better, but that path DOES NOT lead to eternal life but instead to corruption and hellfire.
I get the long black funnel at Walmart and cut it to fit 5 gallon gas plastic gas cans and fill with rice, beans ,split peas ,lentils ,macaroni,cooking oil, powdered milk,flour, corn meal, bleach,detergent,insecticide, raisins fermented. And I bought a shovel.
Oh yeah God almighty and powerful moves heaven and earth, but just seem to know how to print his own money, so he begs for yours every Sunday. Because this scam takes lots of money, your money. A fool is soon parted from his money.
The funniest thing about religion is they promise you an IOU of everlasting life if you believe this hoax, and you pay them to be saved with more “IOU” fiat currency that says God trusts this money. Do you dopes ever connect the dots you been suckered and conned??? When did your God start doing fiat dollar endorsement deals with the money changers Fed Reserve? Most people are dumb and gullible. Easy targets for plunder.
You don’t strictly have to pay anything.
Do you see Christians? Snakes in the tall prairie grass!
The longer a feller talks, the more he reveals his intentions. Such a lone wolf is no different than any villain from history who would result in sociopathic or psychpathic behavior. Why? Because without a basis for objective morality ie the standards of good and evil and right and wrong, then the nonbeliever will justify whatever behavior as right for THEMSELVES.
Well in history such people terrorized others who lived in tribes, and since they did, JUSTICE prevailed.
There are no instances of lone wolfs controlling nations. Instead TRIBES control nations.
People banding together as TRIBES as Americans from many tribes overcame 10-12,000 tribes who occupied the lands of America. Single lone wolfs were WIPED OUT when confronted by TRIBES.
This kind of nonsensical doomesday prepper who really is just a psychopath waiting until they can ignore the LAW and do whatever they think is right for them, will run over anyone who doesn’t band together.
Because as soon as you are sick, weakened by hunger, helpless due to being an infant or elderly, then they are perfectly happy to steal what you own and abduct women and children.
Well, unless you are a blacksmith, preacher, physician, herbalist, weapons maker, armorer, engineer, farmer, verternarian, soldier, etc then YOU will need a tribe.
YOU cannot do every single task and do it well. Instead all our ancestors lived in tribes and were jacks of many ancestral skills and mastered one skill.
That is the history of human civilization for the last 10,000-14,000 years due to agriculture.
The lone wolves lived on the edges of the tribe UNTIL their children needed husbands and wives and were most often not trusted.
When your house catches fire, are you and your family going to put it out? Are you and your son alone going to raise a barn? What total BS.
Think about how you learned your ancestral skills. It’s unlikely that you ALONE learned much of anything but had countless mentors who slowly taught you how to grow crops, preserve food, defend yourself, canoe, hunt, trap, fish, rock climb, orient yourself using a map and a compass, cook, sew, live outside, build a debris hut, locate wild edibles, find medicinal herbs, defend and fight unarmed, shoot a handgun, shoot a rifle, shoot a bow and arrow, and on and on.
BUT if you subscribe to the lone wolf theory, then instead you should NEVER teach anyone outside your family.
If that is so, then say me teaching about various ancestral ways to gather wild edibles and locate water from trees and which ways of cooking grain produce the most calorie versus work and firewood cost, then all of that is POINTLESS because literally everyone but my family are the enemies.
That is the doltish conclusion of being a lone wolf. A lone wolf could never be a soldier. A lone wolf could never be a physician. A lone wolf dies out in one generation typically as he has no way to procreate because no one trusts him.
America was a tribe that formed a republic. It is not founded by lone wolves.
There is zero trade when there are lone wolves fighting for scraps. And then they kill off each other.
It was not a roman lone wolf but the LEGION who protected the Roman empire.
A lone wolf by definition is anti-American because he cannot claim to be an American if he hates tribes.
Those abandoned boarded up row homes in the skirt of center city limits, usually sell for pennies on the dollar.
BEST urban bunker. most locals, especially if your purchase in a hood, already consider it nothing. one can enter through a back or side means, keeping facade boarded up, brick up the ewindows and entrances from the inside, and secure it tight, unknown to anyone.
when crap hits fan, those areas will become desolate first as the mobs move outwards once supply run low.
in the mean time one can be stocked for years inside
Caching is the stupidest idea that preppers have. If you hide it, it is gone forever. Either someone will find it or you will be unable to return.
Over the years you have read many stories of individuals finding cans/jars of coins someone hid. There is a lesson there. Forget cashing.
my caches are still there, and have been for twelve years.
it’s called checking up on your gear…..
you won’t loose what you regularly check upon
Caching is only valid if you have a plan to ‘get’ somewhere. Perhaps a BoL or a family farm or a house where several people agree to meet. In such cases you do not cache beans or guns. But you should have several small caches with some ammo, poncho, water filter, first aid, etc. You will be on the move, so cache what you need to ‘get’ somewhere. You will be carrying your gun(s) but might want more ammo (heavy stuff to start out with). You won’t be cooking food on the move, so cache MREs or energy bars.
If your home is your castle – you might still want one nearby cache – in case you are evicted by a large gang.