Shelter Camo

[Scythe13]

Right, another thread brought about by recent conversations on this forum (I'm loving how it's running. There are still the odd 'pointless' posts, but it's really pushing certain thought processes). Please note, I'm try to cover the bases for a worst case scenario, and this is not neccessarily my first option to pursue.

Lets say that you're driven out of your home for some reason or another, and you're now bugging out. It could be on foot or in a vehicle, I don't care.

But the thing is, you're bugging out.

Now that you're out of the immediate danger zone, it's time to go to your BOL, or to hang out in the woods for a while waiting for the heat do die down, so that you can return home to your hidden preps.

There is clearly the chance that your BOL will be discovered. Especially if it's a big old white house in the middle of nowhere. That kind of thing will stand out like a sore thumb.

What'll you do to stay hidden? To camo your BOL? To camo your 'woodland' camp area?

You want to keep a low profile, so how will you manage that?

So far, I'm taking another 'worse case scenario' style approach, and I'm going with the idea that my BOL is compromised and already occupied. So I'm having to opt for woodland camping for a while...shame haha.

My view is a low profile shelter, well off the beaten track, within walking distance of water, but up hill, incase of flooding. Heavy foliage is important, but so is ease of movement. Lines of sight would be good, but as we all learned as kids playing hide and seek, if you can see them, they can usually see you too. Also, I'd look at digging a shelter lower into the ground to even further lessen the profile. Staying away from 'noteable' landmarks, e.g. random large rocks, upturned trees that caused a clearing, would be high on my priorities. Below horizon lines too, as I don't want to silhoutte the skyline.

As for the car, I'd look at leaving it quite a distance from where I planned to bug out to. However, if I never even managed to bug out with the car, that would make concealment even easier. If I had the car...I'm not 100% certain. Camo net, small dug-out to lower the profile. Burlap over the windows to stop shine. Maybe, if there was a barn near I could hide the car in that, but the barn will be attracting attention.

Other ideas would be appreciated. What would you do?

[Midnitemo]

Unless you're on hard routine your attempt at being stealthy will be wasted , camps in close country tend to have a limited lifespan in regards to stealth as you will however hard you try alter the terrain,and it gets worse the longer you're in situ....animals and birds will move away(sign) you will create tracks and paths(sign) collection of wood and kindling gets noticed because of its absence(sign) , in these circumstances if I wanted to find you I would look for tracks to follow from the easiest most obvious water source assuming you're not lighting fires as that really would be too easy

[bigpaul]

only a "straight" would paint their house white (magnolia ??), someone in a village near here just painted their house custard yellow, you can see it for miles. most houses out in the countryside(unless they are made of cob) are built of stone..so they are "stone coloured" not painted at all and would tend to blend in.

[Scythe13]

Which is why I'd get far off the beaten track to begin with, as it's less likely to an area where people will be walking around to pick up on these signs.

So what would you recommend then?

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(11 April 2014, 11:42)bigpaul Wrote: only a "straight" would paint their house white (magnolia ??), someone in a village near here just painted their house custard yellow, you can see it for miles. most houses out in the countryside(unless they are made of cob) are built of stone..so they are "stone coloured" not painted at all and would tend to blend in.

That's interesting information, but back to the question. How would you develop a stealth camp?

[Midnitemo]

Hard routine....if you're not making sounds or smells and leaving no sign you should not get bumped...would be a random event in this case...need at least 2 emergency rv's preferably 3 ways in or out.... if observing hard routine properly you will hear any approach and be away pronto.

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I don't actually fancy your chances of finding an out of the way hidey hole that nobody will know about or find in the UK , there are just to many people, just looked up the pop figures , shade over 63 million(probs more!!!) giving a density of 252 people per square kilometre , the rural population accounts for a little over 10% of the whole population so say people per square kilometre in the countryside , how much woodland is there out there....not fantastically scientific but it sort of illustrates how few of these hidey holes there will be and potentially how many people might be looking to use them.

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25 people per sq km in countryside.

[bigpaul]

depends where you live in the UK, near major cities and population centres its going to be pretty hard to get anywhere very far away from people, but don't assume cos that where you live that there isn't anywhere quiet and remote away from prying eyes cos you'd be wrong. not that I'm going to tell anyone on an open forum where such places are!

[Midnitemo]

if you've found them(hidey hole) then somebody else will know of them too....to many people to little land! if things have got bad enough for you to bug out then chances are its bad enough for some of your neighbours to have done the same.....we dug dens in the woods in some of the most ridiculously unimaginably difficult places to access and people still found em.

[bigpaul]

not a chance, places I go they don't see a stranger for months on end, and even then its a lost tourist(aka an "Emmett").like I say, just because the area you live in is highly populated don't go thinking all Britain is like that, get away from cities, large towns and the coast and all those "adventure centres", and the amount of people drops like a stone

[Devonian]

I think as Mo is indicating, there are so many people and so little land, that someone WILL know you are there, maybe not straight away, and they may not even do anything about it, but don't "assume" that no one knows you are there.....

As for sealthiness (is that a word??) if I was making camp in the woods and trying to hide, then digging down is OK, but I wouldn't do it on level ground as it could fill with water, instead I would opt to dig horizontally into the side of a hill, preferably with a big bush or similar in front of you.

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sealthiness > stealthiness

[bigpaul]

already got my place sorted and I wont be digging in the ground like a mole thank you very much, not at my age I'm not!