Well first off I guess this is assuming you don't already have bug out bags? Also what is the disaster scenario?

what Dave said. wouldn't #1 be your bug out bag? that kinda makes it a quick list. ;)

I'd say anything you would take camping or hunting plus all the food you can carry with a few supplies and a few tool's to make food. Maybe a rifle a little more high performance than the average deer rifle. It's hard to itemize the top 10 most important not knowing the scenario or the region. Just take everything and decide the top 10 as you go along.

Hehe Mitch you crazy. Brent, I use the paracord because you can unravel it and make many threads or a really long one or braid them and make a stronger cord... it's like a bunch of mini threads put together that makes the paracord...so you can use it whole or split it up.. I keep the thin gauge wire for snares... Or I could just build the old figure 4 trap.

I have a BOB in each car. The intent of the BOB in each car is for the Stranded at work after earthquake/fire/whatever and need to hoof it home scenario. Mine is an old Medium Alice pack, Sans frame. (Always hated those...) My Baybee's is in a Swiss gear back pack with hip belt.

Inside is A headlamp and extra batteries, a "transister radio"(Grundig with shortwave) and extra batteries, and FRS radio and extra batteries, an 8 hour candle, 2 bics, a magnesium fire starter and , a road flare, a swiss army knife, a vice grip, A Czech sheath knife(6" blade) with a "saw and File" and sharpening block, a KBAR Kukri machete(12" blade), 2 sets Nitrile gloves, 1 set leather work gloves, 100 yards of 140Lb test braided Dacron fishing line rolled on a pencil, one of those cool MIL type survival blankets with grommets in the corner(od green one side), a survival blanket bag, 3 heavy duty trashbags, small kit with big safety pins, sail needle, dental floss(It's Sterile), Some "20 mil PVC Tape, a gallon of water, a block of life raft emergency food, several Cliff Bars and bags of nuts. Also a 1st aid kit with big ass bandages and waterproof tape, Excedrin Triple antibiotic, Etc. And a spare set of shoes for each of us. When we switch cars, I switch the bags...

At the homestead i have some really nice marine corps surplus Pelican Boxes that have the major basics if we have to leave fast, for a family of 4. But I plan to shelter in place, where my garden and chickens and hundreds of other useful Items.

Those are what go everywhere.

OK my list

1) Bible
2) sheath knife
3) hatchet
4) cordage
5) garbage bags contracter grade
6) bandana
7) Gorilla Tape
8) spare socks
9) water jug/bottle/bladder your choice
10) water filter.

If I spent half as much time worrying about this kind of shit as a lot of you seem to, I wouldn't know nearly as many practical skills as I do. I mean if knowledge and experience aren't the most important things we have to stack the cards in our favor, then we're probably pretty well fucked. Still, I can't help but toss out some possible items. After all, skills and knowledge aren't always enough and we live or die by technology or lack of it no matter how much we know, that's just human.


Hatchet- my small swedish hatchet. It's very light with an extra long handle that I made. It's pretty damn useful and has proven itself through miles of wood and bone. More importantly, I've proved myself with it.

Sheath knife-

A lighter if it was wet out. If not, I'd opt for something more useful and make fire apparatus in the field. Then again, a lighter is pretty damn small, so why not take it AND something else, AND make a fire kit to spare the lighter?

Cordage- probably whatever smallish diameter braided nylon cord was around. I like the para-cord Ok because of the extra strands and all, but I don't think I have any around. I can make cordage and ropes, but it takes time and materials and this is an essential item, so some to start out with is definitely nice. Maybe a hank of 3/8" braided nylon rope.

Sleeping bag- Good sleeping gear is essential, especially if you can't have a fire (attracts attention, and if that didn't matter, why not stay home?). If you don't sleep, you're not worth a shit.

Extra contact lenses and solution.

Extra socks-

A coat- assuming this is an extra item aside from the clothes on my back, because I wouldn't be wearing it most of the time. Might have to be forgone for a waterproof tarp depending on the time of year.

Oil- probably a bottle of olive oil. I think I'd sneak in a little salt with that....

I guess a Gun-Don't know which one. Probably .22 convertible 6 inch revolver. Doubt I'd be shooting it much anyway. Could attract a lot of attention. I assume ammo is allowable with gun as one item. Yeah, rifles shoot better, but lugging a rifle around is clumsy and tiring, not to mention conspicuous.

If I didn't take the lighter, actually even if I did, small diameter copper wire for snaring is definitely on the list.

Pretty hard to run off without a way to carry water, but then I'd probably find an old bottle within a half mile. If I can carry it then, why not take it in the first place.

I hope this wouldn't take me an hour. And I would pack a few more items. This is a somewhat arbitrary exercise as we don't yet know what time of year, what is the motivation, are we alone, etc...

Regardless, I wouldn't plan on being "out" long. I mean the Indians couldn't hide when the population and technology weren't a shadow of what they are now. New technology wouldn't have helped them much.

This is an excellent topic, and I appreciate the information from all you prepared, competent people.

My own bug out bags are constantly evolving and being revised, e.g., the snowshoes just went back in the closet with the rest of the long term gear. That's part of the challenge here in New England. If it really is EOTW, I'll be wanting them soon enough, but if my area is suddenly no longer tenable, snowshoes and other winter gear would be a burden during my escape.

I like that many people's lists include simple tools, like vise-grips or a leatherman, and means of repairing things, like needles and thread or various kinds of tape - there's nothing like Gorilla Tape. That's prudent. When something inevitably starts to wear out or gets broken, there's an enormous difference between having the tools and having to make them.

Kind of on that subject, although several people packed guns and ammo, nobody mentioned a cleaning kit.

Hello ATGI. A couple of times you touched on a subject that I think is essential in a survival situation: having the skills. All the well chosen stuff in the bags would just as well be left behind if the escapee doesn't know how to both use it and maintain it. You've met them, the well meaning folks who buy the finest knife they can afford, but have never learned how to sharpen a blade. Bill Bryson depicted the type in "A Walk in the Woods" (I think), with his anecdotes about people going into the mountains with an early GPS, but no map. When they'd get lost they would know their coordinates, but without a map they still wouldn't know where they were or which way to go. At least when they rang up the rangers or National Guard on their cells, the so-called victims could tell them where to start looking.

I don't mean to imply that anyone posting here fits this description. Far from it.

When my bags are packed I practice. Tracking, making cordage, flintknapping, sharpening my tools, making traps, kenpo, making shelter, identifying useful plants, knots and splicing, and various primitive means of making fire. That is, when I'm not at work, dong homework or in class. My point is, when you're on the run, maybe only a few steps ahead of the unprepared hordes, that's not the time to be reading the owner's manual.

My top ten, at the moment: (most everything is in its own ziplock, some are double bagged)

1. This time of year, two wool blankets. Sleeping bag in the colder months.
2. LED headlamp w/ extra batteries.
3. Knives, small saw, hatchet, stones, oil & a couple of rags. Hatchet is just like Steve e's, though I didn't make my handle.
4. Assortment of line & wire, from hd sewing thread to 250' para cord to 50' 3/8" braided nylon.
5. Multi-fuel stove, fuel, more fuel & cleaning/repair kit. EOTW, stealth may matter. This makes less light & smoke, and is LNT.
6. Magnesium matches, lighters, bow drill, at least some of the big box of matches, & tinder.
7. First aid kit, augmented. Includes crazy glue, vitamins, pain killers and stimulants. I'd like a soporific as well, but... long story.
8. Water in reusable containers, water purification tablets, water filter/pump, w/ extra filters.
9. Camouflage ponchos/shelter halves.
10. As much food as I can carry, freeze dried, Clif bars, powdered Gatorade and trail mix. A lightweight pot to cook in.

Like most of you, I have many more things in my bags, like clothes, lots of socks, bootlaces, cooking gear, tooth care stuff including floss, mink oil, no-perfume Wet-Ones, and more. The above is more a list of short term needs. I pound nails for a living, so those all-important vise grips, multi-tool, Gorilla tape and the like are all in the truck anyway.

Hi Dave. I'm fascinated by the magnetic oxides being used to avoid detection. I don't quite understand, do you chop or grind up the tape into the glue, or glue strips of tape onto the fabric? That's a great suggestion.

Most of the scenarios I can envision involve a lot of walking, probably North, as I live in the suburbs N. of Boston. I don't have a place of refuge to bug out to, and I'd rather be eating bugs in the woods anyway than lingering in some refugee camp, enclave, or worse. Personally, I think that when things get bad they're going to get real bad, and a stealthy, small group, escape and evasion type of nomadic existence might be the best survival strategy.