Prepper Group Guide

I. Purpose – The purpose of this guide is so that we can have a resource of multiple
ideas and methods to prepare for foreseeable disasters, both man-made and natural.
It is not meant to be the end all be all of prepping but a collection of supplies,
methods, thought processes to be implemented as the individual chooses, based on
his or hers situation, abilities and needs.

Survival priorities
a. Water
b. Food
c. Clothing
d. Shelter
e. Security

Things you must assume.

a. No electricity.
b. No water or other utilities, such as sewer.
c. Civil unrest.
d. No police or fire services.
e. No Hospitals or Medical services.
f. No fuel, gasoline, diesel, natural gas.
g. Travel will be limited to the fuel in your vehicles tank for range. And you have to
consider that road will be impassible.

II. Prepping for what? Setting the Scope?

a. Prepping for every contingency is not possible, so what do we think will be the
most likely scenario?
i. EMP is a viable threat with Russian War and the potential of Chinese
aggression in the West Pacific.
ii. That we will have an economic collapse, global hyperinflation (money will
become worthless), tangibles will be king.
iii. Now people have been flocking to gold, silver, etc.; but you cannot eat or
wear gold and silver.
iv. I think it will be food riots and roving bands looking for food and fuel,
some will be well armed and violent.
v. I expect 3-5 years before society rebuilds.
vi. Probably 5-10 before the economy is rebuilt to the point of some
semblance of normalcy.
b. Setting Priorities
i. No one can get everything; I suggest that setting priorities and making a
list getting what is needed and budgeting across categories so at least
you have something of everything and not just all guns or food or
whatever.
III. Primary Needs
a. Water
i. Water purification
1. Filtration – ie. Big Berky, and 5-10 years of the good filters
stocked up.
2. There are other filters out there assume you will need many filters.
“Life-straws” are a common suggestion, however you have to suck
water through them, and doing that for any period of time is a
pain. Also it takes your attention away from other tasks. You are
much better off with a large volume gravity filter. When you stop
and rest or camp you can process a bunch of water and the filter
can work while you are doing other tasks.
a. https://www.rei.com/product/866422/platypus-gravityworks-
water-filter-system-4-liter?cm_mmc=aff_AL-_-145262-_-
180150-_-NA&avad=180150_c3152f909
b. https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-
hiking/backpacking-water-filter/msr-autoflow-xl
3. Homemade filter can be made from sand, gravel and charcoal.
4. Boiling water requires a lot of fuel and is not generally a long term
viable option.
5. Chlorine dioxide drops --
https://www.rei.com/product/866996/aquamira-water-treatment-1-
oz?cm_mmc=aff_AL-_-145262-_-180150-_-
NA&avad=180150_a31531ce1
6. Bleach can be used to purify water – DO NOT use thickened or
scented bleach products.
a. Volume of water Amount of Bleach to Add*
b. 1 quart/liter 2 drops
c. 1 gallon (4 liters) 8 drops (1/8 tsp)
d. 2 gallons (8 liters) 16 drops (1/4 tsp)
e. 4-5 gallons (16 liters) 32 drops (1/2 tsp)
f. 8-10 gallons (32 liters) 64 drops (1 tsp)
g. *Use bleach that contains 5.25% to 8.25% sodium
hypochlorite.
h. Mix well.
i. Only use cold water when treating with bleach, hot water
will deactivate the bleach.
j. Allow the water to sit for a minimum of 30 minutes.
k. You can filter the water for better appearance after bleach
treatment, if you want to.
7. You can only live 6-7 days without water. However, that is just
basic survival. You will be incapacitated in 2-3 days without
water. Unable to process information or function physically or
mentally.
 8. Water is heavy, so if you are traveling by foot, you will not be able
to carry much water with you. Water is 8.33 pounds per gallon;
you need at a minimum one half gallon of water (2 liters) per day
to stay healthy. This assumes you are not exerting yourself
physically.
9. https://www.humansforsurvival.org/how-much-water-per-person-
per-day-for-survival/
10. That half gallon does not include water needed for cooking or
preparing foods.
11. Physical activity will require you to increase your water intake,
possibly up to 2 gallons.
ii. Wells
1. Hand pump such a one from:
a. https://simplepump.com/our-pumps/hand-operated
2. Aeromotor windmill to a well pump.
3. Solar powered electric pumps, battery may be needed for night
use.
b. Food
i. Short term – MRE’s, dehydrated meals, Patriot Supply, Wise, etc.
ii. Long term – ideally one year to get you to the next growing season
iii. Growing Vegetables
1. Seed bank, early season, main and late growing season plants.
iv. Raising Livestock
1. Ideal live stock are animals than can feed themselves and require
little human intervention – but you need larger areas for them to
feed from, and some protection from predators and other hungry
humans.
a. Grazing animals, sheep, goats
b. Muscovy ducks
c. Chickens, get a good combo meat/layer bird i.e. Rhode
Island Red.
d. Pigs
2. Rabbits and quail grow fast but need to be fed.
v. Preserving foods
1. Canning
a. You will need 2 gallons of canning volume per person per
week.
b. That is 33 cases of quart jars per person per year, or,
c. 66 cases of pint jars per person per year.
2. Smoking
3. Drying
4. Fermenting
5. Don’t forget seasonings, you will need something to put on top of
that stewed raccoon.
 vi. Long Term Storable Food
1. Wheat, Rice, dried beans, sugar
2. Salt (~100 pounds per person)
vii. Have 3 or 4 ways to cook food, save indoor methods and fuel for winter,
use wood fire and wood stove as much as possible.
1. Assuming you have planned for wood processing without
electricity and gasoline. Saws, spare blades, files and stones,
axes, wedges, splitting mauls, etc.
viii. Hunting & Fishing – do not plan on these as being viable. Fish and
wildlife were practically wiped out during the great depression, this will be
worse.
1. Fishing might be viable if you have land and a private pond or
lake.
c. Shelter –
i. Bugging in (think permanent shelter, house, cabin, parked RV etc.)
1. Electrical
a. Do mental inventories of your home, bug out location, etc.,
and now picture it without electricity.
b. Yeah, everybody knows about no lights, well pump, A/C,
refrigeration, etc. (Here is a drill, Saturday morning turn off
you main breaker in your house. Live like that until Sunday
night. See what you have to do to live.)
c. What else is not working without the power on?
d. Computers, so if you haven’t got your pdf files printed hard
copy, you have no information library.
e. Communications, you got no cell phone probably (if grid
down issue), and probably if grid down, no land lines.
What else do you have? FRS radios, CB, ham, flags,
Morse code, smoke signals? Got the consumables to run
them, and for how long (batteries, etc.)?
2. Heat
a. What kind of heat do you have?
b. Does it require electricity to run?
c. Wood is a great option but you need a wood stove! not a
fire place. You lose most if not all you heat up a chimney
with a modern fireplace.
3. Waste
a. Sump pump.
b. Sewage pump. If you’re on a municipal system, they likely
have pump stations. Are the nasty’s going to back up into
your home? Does your basement have an ejector/lift pump
to get the next stage of gravity fall into the flow?
i. If you have a septic, when was it last pumped?
How long can it go until it needs pumped again?
 (this was an issue in Rawles’ Patriots book). How
can you handle the waste stream long term if grid is
down for good?
c. What do you do with other household waste when Waste
Management Service isn’t running every week to collect
your pile of Hefty cinch sacks?
d. Ventilation. Most old homes were set up with ways for
natural venting. Most new super insulated modern
efficiency jobs are set up for HVAC. Are you in a climate
where you are going to broil in the summer time due to
poor airflow/ventilation even if the windows are open? Is
the house so tight that in winter you have zero air
exchange, and if using open combustion for
light/heat/cooking are you going to asphyxiate yourself?
e. Guess my reason for this one is to look at things people
take for granted and don’t usually even think about if
infrastructure fails. Everyone hoards TP, but never think
about where it goes and how it gets there when you flush
kind of things… Need to audit the systems in your place,
and do basically a FMEA (failure mode and effects
analysis) on it. If something happens, what is the resultant
potential failure, and how can I design around it?
ii. Bugging out (think mobile car, truck, van, tent, poncho, on the run, or just
evasion)
d. Clothing
i. Primary considerations
1. Environment
a. Most modern people do not have true cold weather
clothing. Can you spend a night outside sitting or lying
down and stay warm in your winter clothes and boots when
it is 0°F?
b. Do you have good boots for hiking, warm for winter, like for
summer?
ii. Weather
1. Consider extremes, winter outside overnight.
2. Bugs, mosquitoes if you are outside.
3. Heavy rain.
4. Heat in summer, camp in the day move at night.
iii. Tanning hides and furs for clothing.
e. Security
i. Firearms
1. Weapons (have guns in chambered in common cartridges.)
a. Rifle
i. .223 Remington/5.56 NATO
 ii. .308 Winchester/7.62 NATO
iii. .22 LR
iv. .30-06 Springfield
b. Shotgun
i. 12 gauge
ii. 20 gauge
c. Handgun
i. 9mm Luger
ii. .357 Magnum (.38 Special)
iii. .45 ACP
iv. .40 S&W
d. Muzzle loader
2. Ammunition
a. Factory
b. Reloading
c. Black powder
3. Reloading
a. Metallic reloading
b. Shot shell
c. Bullet Casting
d. Making black powder
4. Stocking levels
a. 5,000 rounds per person per rifle. There will be no
resupply. (Combat load is 300 rounds)
ii. Other Weapons
1. Archery
2. Knives
3. Martial arts
iii. Tactical Situational Awareness
1. Get to know your neighbors, build relationships, if possible build
local groups with people with skill sets, former military, in
particular combat vets (Army/Marines).
2. Veterinarians, doctors and nurses, EMTs.
3. Get USGS quadrangles for your locations, they are free PDF
online.
4. Figure out chokepoint and funnels
5. Pre-plan methods to block roads.
6. Secure neighborhoods.
a. Ingress/egress routes other than roads and established
paths.
iv. Surveillance
1. Optics
a. Daytime scopes and binoculars
b. Night vision (light amplification)
 c. IR vision
d. Thermal scopes
e. Spare and back up batteries
f. Equipment to charge via solar (USB or inverters)
2. Watch rotation
a. You need enough people to have security manned 24/7
b. 3 shift/section minimum, 4 sections or more is better.
c. In 24 hours, 8 hours on watch, 8 hours working, 8 hours
rest and personal time.
3. Booby signals/traps.
4. Barbed wire etc.
5. Ballistic barriers, filled drums, totes, sand bags, etc.
v. Communications
1. Radio
2. Non-electronic
a. Flags
b. Smoke
c. Gun-fire
d. Air-horns
vi. Emergency Pack/Exfiltration
IV. Secondary Needs
a. Medical
i. Home kits: (each kit is kept in a Rubber Maid tub w/lid)
1. 2 tourniquets
2. 2 rolls of 2" duct tape
3. 20 absorbent compress dressings (5 x 9 inches)
4. 150 adhesive bandages (assorted sizes)
5. 100 antibiotic ointment packets (1 gr. ea.)
6. 150 antiseptic wipe packets
7. 50 packets of aspirin (81 mg. ea.)
8. 3 space blankets
9. 10 instant cold compress
10. 10 pair of non-latex gloves, large
11. 20 hydrocortisone ointment packets (1 gr. ea.)
12. 2 Scissors (one large and one small)
13. 4 rolls breathable medical bandage (3" x 20 yd.)
14. 4 rolls breathable medical bandage (4" x 20 yd.)
15. 15 sterile gauze pads (3" x 3")
16. 15 sterile gauze pads (4" x 4")
17. 2 Oral thermometers
18. 20 triangular bandages
19. Tweezers
20. 2- 16 oz. bottles 91% alcohol (red label)
21. Blood pressure cuff
 22. First aid instruction booklet
ii. Group kit – We also decided to have one kit of medical equipment and
supplies for more serious injuries and minor surgical operations. One of
our members had a 5'Lx3'Wx3'D Knack steel tool box that was in great
shape. We scrubbed that sucker real good and painted the interior with
white epoxy coating. It is located in a barn at the most central (to all of us)
location. Among other things this kit contains:
1. One complete set of anatomical flip charts.
a. Brain and Head Charts
b. Ear, nose, and throat charts
c. Female anatomy charts
d. Male anatomy charts
e. Skin anatomy charts
f. Vascular system charts
g. Dental anatomy charts
h. Skeletal charts
i. Muscle charts
j. Spine & vertebrae charts
k. Eye charts
l. Digestive system charts
m. Urinary system charts
2. 2 folding stretchers
3. 4- 3gal. S.S. buckets
4. 20 surgical masks
5. 4 surgical gowns
6. 6- 14"x20"x1" surgical trays
7. 2 pr. bandage scissors
8. 1 iodine cup
9. 6 iodine swabs
10. 1 gal. surgical iodine
11. 2 gal. enzymatic detergent and presoak
12. Assorted Adson forceps
13. Assorted Adson hemostat forceps
14. 10 disposable scalpels (sterile individual wrap)
15. 2 IM suturing sets
16. 4 Ethicon nylon monofilament black suture (36" sterile pkg.)
17. 2 pkg. Primacare aluminum finger splints
18. 12 wooden universal 12" splints
19. Medi-pak syringe assortment
iii. Books/references/knowledge
iv. Materials
v. Pharmaceuticals
1. Jase Medical for antibiotics
2. Mexico/Canada
 vi. Natural medicines
b. Fuel
i. Liquid fuel storage
1. Gasoline – Ideally purchase ethanol free gasoline that is a
challenge here in Hellinois. Treat with x2 the recommended treat
rate of STA-BIL Storage, store in a dark cool place. You can
easily store the fuel for 2 years. Purchase summer blend fuel for
storage vs. winter blend fuel. Winter blend had more butane in it.
It reduces the energy per gallon of the fuel and will evaporate over
time. Also, it can lead to vapor lock in fuel systems in the
summer.
2. Diesel – Power Service White Bottle. I treat between 1x - 2x
recommended dose when I fill my bulk tanks. Along with the Sta-
Bil Diesel. My entire bulk diesel is straight #2, I do not run winter
blend. I also keep some PS 911 for winter on hand, I add it to the
"vehicle/equipment" tank as needed when filling. I have not had
issues since I switched to B0 fuel and preempt with 911.
a. Unlike ethanol in gas which is just stupid anyway you look
at it. Biodiesel has it pros and cons. Pros, same BTU
(energy value) as diesel, great solvents (cleans your fuel
system and keeps it that way!) and great lubricity, no need
for additives with ULSD.
b. Cons, storage it degrades with storage, so if you are
turning your tanks over every month or two, run it you're
fine. The methyl esters will hydrolyze over time and the
methanol will evaporate leaving the fatty acid behind and
start varnishing, oxidizing and generally sludging and
making a mess of everything.
c. Also if you have to deal with cold weather, biodiesel will
freeze fall out of solution and clog up your fuel system. So
if you live in a cold climate, you have to take precautions.
Also bio fuels in general drive up the cost of food as the
markets compete for a limited supply. That is why farm
lobbies love biofuels. Higher pricing.
ii. Bio and alternative fuels
1. Used oils can be used for diesel engines, ideally a 50/50 mix.
2. Fatty oils can be used in diesel engines.
3. Ethanol can be used for gasoline engines, again mixing with real
gasoline would be ideal.
4. Down side of ethanol is you will likely be fermenting food to
generate alcohol.
iii. Others
1. Fuel oil – is basically diesel fuel less the additives and taxes paid.
After an event, run it like diesel.
 2. LP – once you run out you are screwed. It does last in the tank
indefinitely.
3. Propane – once you run out you are screwed. It does last in the
tank indefinitely.
iv. Also, you will need oil for oil changes and replacement filter, spark plugs,
spare parts, etc.
1. Generally I keep enough filters and oil on hand for 2 oil changes.
c. Heat
i. Wood
ii. Solar
iii. Maybe coal based on where you live?
d. Tools
i. Hand tools will be king.
1. Buck saws
2. Ripping saws
3. Axes, wedges
4. Wrenches, screw drivers, hammers, etc.
5. Files, cutting tools, etc.
ii. Power tools
1. Cordless and the needed equipment to charge off solar panels.
e. Equipment
i. Mills for grinding grain
ii. Generators if you have the fuel
1. Gensets will have to be run minimally.
2. This will extend fuel as long as possible.
3. Also running engine will attract unwanted attention.
4. Pre-plan sound proofing for running engine, ridge foam and
plywood.
f. Chemicals
i. Bleach (sterilizing)
ii. Hydrogen Peroxide (anti-septic)
iii. Beaded caustic (soap making)
iv. Potassium nitrate (black powder)
v. Sulfur (black powder)
g. Travelling
h. Monetary/financial concerns and preparedness
V. Other Resources
a. Websites
i. http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/
ii. http://www.crosscutsaw.com/prodindex.html
iii. http://www.skylighter.com/
iv. http://www.sunshineworks.com/contact-reply.htm
v. http://www.thetotalcollapse.com/wp-
content/uploads/It_sTheEndOfTheWorrldAsWeKnowIt_AndIfeelFine.pdf
 b. Printed Material
i. Books
1. ABC’s of Reloading
2. Lee’s Reloading Manual
3. Where there is no doctor
4. Where there is no dentist
5. Physician’s Desk reference book-great for dosing of meds
6. Pre-hospital trauma life support
7. Brady's EMT and Paramedic texts
8. Gray's Anatomy
9. Mayo Clinic guide to self-care
10. Medicinal plants of the prairies
11. "A Distant Eden," Lloyd Tackitt; is a hybrid technical survival
manual, and adventure novel.

Title Author
Whiskey, Brandy & Cordials, Manufacture of Hirsch, Irving
Primitive Skills and Crafts Jamison, Richard and Linda
Combat Shooting Ayoob, Massad
Contact! Velocity, Max
Handgun Marksmanship Casada, Jim
On Combat Grossman, Dave and Christensen, Loren
On Killing Grossman, Dave
Principles of Personal Defense Cooper, Jeff
Small Wars Manual USMC
The Art of War Sun Tzu
The Tactical Pistol Suarez, Gabriel
The Ultimate Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook Borgenicht, David
Total Resistance Von Dach, H.
US Army Guerrilla Warfare Handbook US Army
Warrior Mindset Asken, Michael and Grossman, Dave
Build Your Own Small Wind Power System Shea, Kevin and Brian Howard
Homebrew Wind Power Bartman, Dan and Dan Fink
Solar Electricity Handbook, 2013 Edition Boxwell, Michael
Exterior Ballistics Klimi, George
Modern Weapons Caching Benson, Ragnar
Rifle, 5.56mm, M16A2, 1984 USMC
Sniper Training and Employment US Army
The Marksmanship Primer Casada, Jim
Curing & Smoking Lamb, Steven
Preserving Meat, Fish and Game, The Complete Guide to Oster, Ken
The Prepper's Cookbook Pennington, Tess
Dentonators, Ragnar's Homemade Benson, Ragnar
Gunpowder Cookbook, The Do-It-Yourself McLean, Don
Improvised Munitions Black Book, Volume 1 Frankford Arsenal
Improvised Munitions Black Book, Volume 2 Frankford Arsenal
Improvised Munitions Black Book, Volume 3 Frankford Arsenal
The Chemistry of Powder & Explosives Davis, Tenney L.