[The Reaper]

No worries, grog.

When I went through SF survival training, we were dumped in the woods for five days with our uniform and LBE, a chicken or a rabbit, a large knife and a pocket knife, a handful of 550 cord, and a pack of paper matches in a ziploc. They also gave us a list of projects to accomplish, like building traps, snares, fish traps, fish hooks, a shelter, a reflecting wall for the fire, etc.

I used a Kabar as the large knife for shelter construction, splitting firewood, and all of the other camp chores that required a large blade. The rest of the time, I was using a Swiss Army Knife, because the multi-tool had not been invented yet.

I used that SAK for all of the small whittling tasks, skinning and gutting the rabbit, cleaning fish, etc.

While a big blade is handy for some tasks (and if I could only have one, it would be a large knife), there are many tasks that a small knife is much better suited for.

Not to mention the pliers, scissors, screwdrivers, can and bottle openers, saws, file, wirecutters, etc.

If you put a Leatherman or a SAK on your belt, perhaps with a piece of ferrocerium rod and a Micro-light on the lanyard, I think you might not even notice that you were carrying it until you needed it. The multi-tool is a no-brainer for this scenario.

I think most of you have viable plans. I would challenge you to take a weekend off this year and go camping for a couple of days and nights with your BoB. There is no better way to identify the deficiencies in your kit than to try and live with it.

FF, a good pellet rifle weighs as much as a real rifle. A .22LR pistol would give you a lot more range and power, and would weigh less as well. Suppressed, it would be almost as quiet as the pellet rifle. Just something to think about. Don't forget a water carrier of some sort and a water purification technique. Good costume, but I think you would still stand out.

Chaplain, I think you have to snag a horse or a vehicle if they are on site in five minutes. You could not sprint to the few trees in the picture in the time allotted, so if the creekbed is not viable, and a concealed route out of the area to another concealed area, you have to be mounted.

To respond to your question, BO, I think people deep in a metropolitan area and on foot are pretty much screwed, unless they can get out ahead of time or can gather a gang superior to the existing gangs that are going to rule the streets. I like your choice for a stealth weapon, but I would definitely opt for a compact semi-auto rifle as well. Maybe a short, folding stock AK or shorty M-4, assuming the city leadership would permit you to own such a thing. Under the big coat of course.

This brings up another point. There are times you want to blend in and look like everyone else, and there are times you want to look like you are well-equipped to defend yourself and ready to do so. It is up to you to develop the SA to know when is the right time for each. If the street urchins can shoot straight, and you have to go through miles of them to reach a safe zone, unless you have a group of warriors, I think the odds are not in your favor.

There are a couple of excellent forums that describe life in major cities during recent economic or political break-downs, and those who survived to write about it mostly stayed in their homes, venturing out only to forage. You have to hope that you do not look like you have sufficient wealth (not just money, food, ammo, fuel) to make it worth their time and lives to get what you have. If I thought I would lose more of my people than your resources I could recover would replace, I would not attack unless I was desperate.

This is also a good time to point out that letting people know you have resources is a good way to lose them. Better to appear poor and run down when TSHTF. Anyone outside your group you feed or give items to is a potential leak and will be back for more, either begging, or with someone else who wants to take what you have.

One of the reasons I offered a scenario that required moving was that there is no weight or movement penalty associated with staying home. You could assume a Ma Deuce on the roof with 10,000 rounds and a moat filled with alligators in that situation, but you can't really take that with you. I don't think a .22 by itself is a good course of action, but as long as it made you think about what you really need to survive, it was worth it.

TR