Survival Scrapping... - Page 2

Originally Posted by Scrappah

It's a toughie because if you're going to prep you need at least a year supply of everything. You might have hard currency but if the ship hits the fan and the supply chain gets cut those things simply won't be available to buy no matter how much money you've got.

It's just a guess but the minimum bid to prep these days has got to be at least 25 thousand dollars.

That is probably true but what if you need to be on the move? You just can't sit in your house and defend yourself forever can you?

Originally Posted by hobo finds

That is probably true but what if you need to be on the move? You just can't sit in your house and defend yourself forever can you?

I don't think we should go there HF. It's pretty grim. It's bound to upset folks.

Originally Posted by smashing

I prefer to keep honing my skills as a beer brewer. Screw gold. Alcohol was once a major commodity and will be again if SHTF

I have made a couple batches of wine... Mead actually. Turned out pretty good. Have to wait quite a while for it to taste good, though.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

That is probably true but what if you need to be on the move? You just can't sit in your house and defend yourself forever can you?

I won't move. Yes I will stay here forever. If I were to driven from my home, I would have nowhere to go. This is not a challenge, it is just that I will back myself in a corner and fight to the death to keep my home.

Originally Posted by olddude

copper is easy to work with at pretty low heat and a small sledge. and with heat and oil can be made almost as hard as iron. You won't be able to run to the store to spend your kugerand for milk and bread.

Barter and valuable experience will be the ticket of the day. I save some lead, some copper, some angle iron like bed rails, some pipe and, some universal brackets.

remember the rule of threes. 3 days no water, 3 weeks no food, 3 months no shelter and your dead.

If the s never hits the fan, you can always sell your stuff. You lose nothing by always being prepared, and it is the only insurence I know of that costs so little and can give so much just my .02

You forgot 3 minutes no air and 3 hours no warmth...

I live on an island off the coast of Maine. It's pretty remote here.

It wouldn't be a very good quality of life but we would get by. There are at least 20 fresh water deep wells within a half mile of my home. There's all kinds of game. There are deer out on my front lawn every night. As a community we land over a million pounds of seafood every year. The house is well built and the generator building was designed to withstand winds up to 120 MPH & the interior is fire rated.

The basics are present.

It's hard for me to figure the scrap though. Got plumbing fittings in brass,copper,galvanized,& Black Iron going from 1/8" up to 2". Plenty of galv. & black iron pipe and the tools to thread them. Similar with flat steel,box,sheet, angle & channel but i see it as more along the lines of stuff that i use every year to make or repair things. It's handy to have around when you're in the middle of a project and the hardware store is closed.

Personally, I think you're better off investing in ammo. Lots of ammo. Lots and lots of ammo. And when you think you have enough? Buy more.

Everything else can come second.

But then, after ammo, I would go with some sort of water filtration system.

Then maybe something solar panel related.

Then gardening materials, books, seeds, etc.

Then bitcoins

I don't know if anyone has mentioned salt. The one thing my, otherwise self-sufficient, grandparents couldn't source in their small community was salt. It was vital for pickling and preserving meat. They grew their own food. Within their village, they could get iron tools re-forged, clothes mended (or spin linen and wool), shoes made etc. They would barter grain for flour and trade labor for the use of horses and wagons.

im on the survialist forum so yes iam a prepper

Originally Posted by armygreywolf

As yall can guess I am a little paranoid as a result of my military service. Seen with the ol eyeballs just what happens when S really does hit the F.

As a mechanic/repairman type of everything from computers to air conditioning to my first trade as a diesel mechanic...I will say this, your most valuable resource is always you. Patriot, you do exactly as I do, make hard copies of valuable information you happen to mine. I also have an expansive collection of tools for a variety of jobs. I've taken to doing things a certain way as a means to learn to do without. He who has the means will survive, that's a fact. Proven time and again by those who don't survive when things go bad.

Specifically, as a scrapper...your valuables are not in what you look at as having a weighted value but as functionally valuable. Copper pipes, solder, lead, aluminum extrusions, iron bar stock, pipe and so on in various lengths. Fittings, even wood has functional value. Screws, nails...THESE are things that will never get cheaper and will always give you the leading edge in barter. Besides all that...gold and silver are just too...risky. Having it on your physical person almost means you need security, and while that sounds doable the fact is, your adding risk in a situation you could avoid all together.

Pipe, fittings, screws, bolts and nails. If nothing else, keep your workbench well stocked. Ohhh and wire, cannot have enough wire.

I know all these people who claim to be preppers talk about is guns, bullets, food...etc. I'm a believer in personal value. If your the guy who can rewire a car or truck...or a house...or the guy who can weld with CAR BATTERIES well...want to guess how much more value you have over a stack of silver coins? Trade your time and skill, first and foremost.


And well...one last thing. A person with my level of training could and probably would take everything from a so called prepper. Your defenses are only as good as the person manning them. It's simple ignorance to think you could possibly survive with just you and yours in mind. Communities survive, neighborhoods survive...individuals suffer.

This this this

The only things that will matter are tradable goods and services. No one will want to trade you for your shiny gold and silver if there's no where to use it. Skills and products and friends are all that's needed. And Ammo.........

Originally Posted by phred59

It will get to the point where the currency will collapse before anything else, and you can use gold and silver to trade for those other things then. It is not going to go from the all mighty dollar to "SHTF" in 3 days, and if you believe that wal mart will be open on Monday and you will be defending your hoard of copper and lead with an arsenal of whatever from the people coming to invade you on Tuesday, you need to turn off the TV.

That's not it at all. There are many ways society can collapse and I believe it will be faster than many people think. Hell - the wrong basketball team wins the championship or a person gets shot by someone of a different color and the city melts down. How do do you think people will react on a national or global incident? I'm not saying to forget about money completely but it shouldn't be your primary. Food water shelter defense and mad skills will be more important IMO. Unless it's fast zombies -} then we're screwed......

Originally Posted by smashing

Unless it's fast zombies -} then we're screwed......

Holy crap! There are fast zombies??!!!!

I agree on having ammo, but for it to come first over EVERYTHING is kind of silly.

You can't eat your ammo.

You can't drink your ammo.

You can't be healed with ammo.

You can't shelter in ammo, unless you want to live in a house made of things meant to be shot an that explode when near heat sources.

An while your ammo could keep you warm, but..is that really practical?

Is ammo on the list sure is. So is food, water, medicine, etc.

Good luck saying you'll just hunt for food, cause if the **** hits the fan like everyone says nature won't be much better. Wildlife will die in a nuclear assault, or you know asteroids falling from space, or super volcanoes, or or..<insert end of the world theory here>.

Not trying to rain on the survival parade, I also believe in being prepared, but again..I can't eat shot gun shells an bullets.

Jus' saying..

Sirscrapalot - You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it. - Bill Cosby

Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

I agree on having ammo, but for it to come first over EVERYTHING is kind of silly.

You can't eat your ammo.

You can't drink your ammo.

You can't be healed with ammo.

You can't shelter in ammo, unless you want to live in a house made of things meant to be shot an that explode when near heat sources.

An while your ammo could keep you warm, but..is that really practical?

Is ammo on the list sure is. So is food, water, medicine, etc.

Good luck saying you'll just hunt for food, cause if the **** hits the fan like everyone says nature won't be much better. Wildlife will die in a nuclear assault, or you know asteroids falling from space, or super volcanoes, or or..<insert end of the world theory here>.

Not trying to rain on the survival parade, I also believe in being prepared, but again..I can't eat shot gun shells an bullets.

Jus' saying..

Sirscrapalot - You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it. - Bill Cosby

In times of a societal collapse, people turn feral in around 24 hours. First and foremost you need protection from those feral creatures that will kill you and your family to take what you have. There's a lot of scum out there that will find it easier to go after the perceived weak than it is to actually work for their food and supplies. Once the urban area's empty and starvation starts to set in for millions of people, I think the defense of friends and family will be first and foremost the most important thing to focus on.

I have no illusions that hunting for food won't be extremely difficult in shtf / teotwawki situation and that is certainly not what I was saying. I think my foraging and gardening skills are probably better than my hunting skills anyway. The hoard of ammo I talked about is more for defense than anything else.

Originally Posted by JustInTime

In times of a societal collapse, people turn feral in around 24 hours. First and foremost you need protection from those feral creatures that will kill you and your family to take what you have. There's a lot of scum out there that will find it easier to go after the perceived weak than it is to actually work for their food and supplies. Once the urban area's empty and starvation starts to set in for millions of people, I think the defense of friends and family will be first and foremost the most important thing to focus on.

I have no illusions that hunting for food won't be extremely difficult in shtf / teotwawki situation and that is certainly not what I was saying. I think my foraging and gardening skills are probably better than my hunting skills anyway. The hoard of ammo I talked about is more for defense than anything else.

It's problematic. Let's take something real life that's going on today as an example: Ebola has broken out in some areas. What there is of a government has instituted a quarantine where people are not allowed to leave the region.

The U.S. government would do the same thing in a similar circumstance. It's MUCH better equipped and the the Department of Homeland Security already has contingency plans in place. It's already got staging areas for refugee camps along with crematories built. They're seven steps ahead of you. By the time you figure out that it's time to "bug out" it will probably be too late.

Have you ever been caught in gridlock traffic ? Maybe a semi trailer truck jack knifed across the highway five miles up the road ? Now imagine every exit out of the city & suburban areas being like that. Your only option would be to throw a 60 lb pack on your back and hoof it out to the rural areas. What about the weakest members of your family ? Would they be able to make the trek ? How long would the be able to live out in the wild ?

See what i'm saying ? Most of the survival scenarios that people have in their heads wouldn't work in a real life situation.

Besides .... all that ammo is heavy as hell to lug around.

Ya'll can refer to Scrappah's post about living on a Island. I'm exactly like him to a degree. Fresh water, seafood, even gator! Can even get a garden going if need be.

Nice thing about my sandbar..it's been lived on since 1587, an before that(Native Americans lived all through the Sandbar an surrounding areas). So yea..one could make do fine here without access to the mainland. I don't have an urban area..I got a sandbar with houses, hardly anyone living on it. Urban worries will be on the mainland.

If anyone plans to visit have a boat, cause I'm sure the bridges would be dropped an taken out if the **** ever hit the fan. Swimming 2 miles in the sound would likely ruin your ammo, an other goodies. So save a boat an some fuel!

Your SMF secret decoder ring will help to, so I know your ok. If you got a Sirscrapalot fan club decoder ring, your good.

Sirscrapalot - Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live! - Bob Marley

PS - Smashing(i think it was) you can come stay with us, I'd appreciate your brewing skills.