What is the Purpose of a Bug Out Bag – Miyagi Mornings Epi-140

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I wanted to start bringing some more traditional prepping topics to Miyagi Mornings and this one seems ideal. My fellow Goose on ULG Sal Mayweather sent me a text last night with this question...

"What’s your opinion on bug out bags? Good idea or waste of time?"

My response was simple, it is a great idea, you need one but you also need to really understand the entire point of a Bug Out Bag or BOB.

Overall I at the most macro level divide preppers into two categories and understand there are dozens of subgroups of both an this is MY view, not a statement of fact here, just opinion.

I call them "Red Dawn Preppers" and "Practical Preppers". I don't really talk about this much as division is not usually a good idea, but to really get this point, it is useful. The Red Dawn Prepper sees the "Bug Out Bag" the way a solider sees his ruck sack and "battle rattle". The means by which he will survive "behind enemy lines". Sadly the Red Dawn Prepper seems to mostly fail to understand that resupply is what keeps a solider around for more than a few days, not his carry gear.

This leads to how practical preppers see the Bug Out Bag, which is honestly better called a 72 hour kit. Soon as we call it that, we instantly see its purpose. To support us with basic needs and comforts during a evacuation of a place on the way to a more secure location for at least 3 days.

We then simply break down our needs to the 6 primary survival needs, which are

Food
Water
Shelter
Energy
Security
Heath and Sanitation

Have a bit of a "Come to Jesus" meeting with the reality of what we can practically carry, fill in those 6 needs as best we can, often with many things we have on hand already and at that point, put them in you guessed it a bag. From there were can think about longer term needs which leads to things like vehicle kits, full evacuation set up based on "camping" style gear (tents, trailers, RVs, etc.) or full on BOLs (bug out locations)

In the end though the 72 hour kit is designed to support us when we can't be at home and need to be as self reliant as we can be until a new supply of our needs and other such resources can be acquired.

The key questions that lead you to good decision making on building your own BOB

1. What are your biggest threats that will cause you to bug out
2. Where would you go
3. How would you get there
4. What resources would be easy to acquire once you were there, which would be hard to acquire
5. What do you need to be fully mobile and what can you rely on other methods for (like a vehicle a cache, etc.)

Lastly a Bug Out Bag should Not Be Confused With

1. Active Shooter Bag
2. An E&E Kit
3. A Medical Bag
4. A Wilderness Survival Kit

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