Survival UK Forums

This was/is in reply to SD's piece on "The peace of the countryside" on the main site, but as not everybody goes on it I thought i'd post it here for your perusal...
I want to make you think about your plans and your preps for protecting you and yours post shtf, because for me theres seems to be a thread of over confidence on security post shtf.
Have a read and have a think...

I never held out much hope for post shtf country areas being protected areas.
Reason one being my bols out in the country side, and whilst its remote there are farms and such around it.
Now whllst I have my own food and supplies I’d be looking at recce’ing isolated properties that look abandoned to resupply or getting re equiped with tools etc should I require them.
Now whilst I and my tribe are courteous and wouldnt take from an inhabited place and would try and barter and trade for gear, others will not and will attempt to take by force, that herd of cows or sheep or chickens wont last a week unless protected 24/7/365.
As you said after shtf wrol applies and things are different and thieves will get whats coming to them. I think youd be under serious amounts of intrusions, probably on a daily basis to probe you and your security,if you dont believe me a lowly infantry grunt ask southern prepper1. This at the very least will be overwhelmingly tireing and unless your willing to reply to any and all intrusions with deadly force you may as well give up prepping now. You can have all my preps when you pry them from my corpse and not before.
The FIRST place ANYBODY from the city is going to look for food after the supermarkets have run out is the countryside. Dont believe me?? What do you think of when you think of the countryside?? I think cows, sheep, ducks, geese,eggs, bacon, ham, onions, cabbage, turnips…..mmmmmmmm the list goes on.
It isnt just me that thinks countryside equals food, yes millions will die because theres no takeaways anymore, no asda no tescos etc… but not everybodys stupid.
In the army the biggest mistake you can make is to underestimate your enemy. If you overestimate their abilities and they fall short, well you were prepared for them to be better so the battles easy.
You underestimate them and the battles lost because they throw things at you, you never even expected them too.
IMHO the one flaw with a lot of preppers in general is underestimating what they’ll face post shtf.
What does it matter if you over prepare for an enemy that may never come?? It dosnt.
But it will matter if you dont prepare and the enemy does come wont it??

Im Prepared for townies to come out to the countryside after, My preparations are been able to live off the land, eat wild food and catch wild animals, Most city slickers will be looking for the farms to steal, I'l be hiding out where there are none, already got a few places in mind.

Can tell you I've thought it through, can't say I'll ever be ready! but can only try my best to stay out of site and harms way, would fight to kill to save mine or my girls life, but would not risk our lives to save my stores, I'd let them go before I'd put us in danger.

with out your stores you might die anyway
overwellming firepower is the way and the ability to move around quick
and team work if you can ?

I have to agree with you Mike. I think a lot of preppers have too much confidence in their abilities and don't give the rest of the community enough respect for their own survival instincts. Many think because they prep they are going to be the ones who survive, well they may have improved their chances but nothing is guaranteed.

Your right TOF.
This "we're armed and ready" cockiness is everywhere in the survivalist and prepper worlds. Mostly by people who think they can shoot their way out of trouble. Mostly by those who have never had to.

No matter what firepower me and my friends can lay down, it'll only attract attention anyway. I also consider that attackers may be better armed than me i.e. pilfered military weapons.
Crossbows, bows, shotguns, 30-50 yards maximum? Or will it be kukri's full on one on one? It takes me 15-20 seconds to reload my crossbow. During most of that time my eyes are off target. In combat? You're toast.
I sometimes wonder if they also considered shooting at a woman or child? The joke is “apply less of a lead”, the reality is . . . different.

I'm country based and am sure that city dwellers will migrate outwards when the ROL collapses and the shops are emptied.
Problem is what are they looking for? Farms, yes BUT what will they be looking for AT FIRST?
It'll be your STORES, FOR YOUR TAPS, YOUR BED, and there is always the danger of DISEASE!

All this leads to the conclusion that home invasion will be the number one worry for me. Am I equipped to deal with this?
Probably not because there will be more of them than me or even our little group to handle. There lies the problem. If AND WHEN we're overrun, where do you bug out to if you are already bugged out (so to speak)?
Readers are probably saying, isn't that a negative approach?
Not really but one I was taught. Plan for the worse but always have a better plan for escape and evasion!

My REALISTIC option, like a lot of country folk, is therefore very limited and will revolve round keeping folk away from my dwelling, fortifying, and deception i.e. looking like it's not worth the effort, or just too damn hard, or too visually dangerous (diseased shredded bloody carcasses for instance).
It'll not stop a determined force but making life hard to approach me and even harder to enter or use my out buildings seems the only option. Basically security and DOGS with a last resort of things that go boom!

As for the zombies? I've yet to see a film where they can unlock gates.

p.s. Sorry if I've offended anyone especially the crossbow and shotgun fraternity.

This is exactly what I've been saying about fitness and being able to run!

In a straight fight, no weapons, one to one, I admit I feel pretty secure. However, reality will show the odds of that are 1 in 40,000 (not a real stat, just an example). In a fight there will be weapons and things like that. And it's VERY unlikely to be one on one!

This comes back to being able to up and off!

I'm intensely realistic with some things. My ability to defend myself is good. My ability to defend more than just me....not as good. My ability to fight 1 person, good. My ability to fight 2 people, not as good. My ability to fight 3 People, it'll hurt, but I'm taking one of them out, at least. When it comes to 4 or more people....I know I'm going to get hurt.

Let's put a weapon into the scenario. A fight, 1 guy with a knife. I have a 100% chance of survival! I'm not kidding. There's no way he can catch me, I'll be running well fast!!! Don't be stupid taking that on.

In a knife fight the whole thing is about limiting the number of times you get cut. If you think you can totally avoid a knife in a fight, then you've never been in that situation!

Realism can suck! But it'll keep you alive.

You've pretty much captured what I think there Paul.

i think your all crediting the sheeple with too much intelligence, OK there may be a few older ones with a bit of country knowledge, but most of your ordinary joe public hasnt the faintest idea where their food comes from or how to deal with an animal even if someone else has killed it for them! as for great hordes of them streaming out into the countryside, most sheeple will leave it for far too long, firstly they will wait for the govt to come to their aid, it will take them a long time before they realise help isnt coming and their on their own, by which time they wont have the strength to walk anywhere! i know in the 50s and 60s, maybe even in the 70s i would have taken a different point of view, but people these days are just so stupid, i mean look at the woman decanting petrol in her kitchen by a lit cooker, that just shows you the mentality we are dealing with, so dont credit them with any intelligence, cos most of them are as thick as 2 short planks.

i think maybe up around Birmingham or Manchester(sorry Mike),there may be some areas where you will get people coming out of the cities-is there any countryside near Birmingham?? i can only go on my own location, Devon only has 2 cities which are some considerable distance from us, and we have Dartmoor in between them and us, once you get away from the coast where most of the urban sprawl is, the rest of Devon is quite underoccupied, our nearest large town is a 20 mile round trip, and only has a population of 5,000, most of which are incomers( lets face it-locals cant afford the house prices!).