We had this talk recently.

My best guess is half the population would be gone in the first month or two

Ummm.. I suppose I die sooner?


.

You have to go somewhere where resources are limited, otherwise it will be crowded. If you have stuff providing the capability for you to survive, the dismantling of the rule of law will lead gangs of thugs to come take your stuff. Avoidance of others and coalitions of like minded people will be the only ways in which anyone will be able to survive.

22 LR will be key to securing protein and establishing a small sound footprint.

Looks like I'm the city slicker who's just out of luck! Yall dudes in rural places have it made in this scenario. I have a destination in a more remote place but I'd have to get out of the major Houston/Katy area. Luckily I live on the outer part of the larger area, towards the direction I want to head. But the goal is something more akin to Fireman. Screw all yall, I love the confidence. Especially when one can back it up with skills practiced, including shooting. It aint the only reason, but this prepper idea is one of the many reasons why I like to sharpen some skills AND stay in shape. A huge part is the mental game. yes I entertain myself being weekend warroir, but to me it's more like developing/improving skills in the controlled manner so that when shtf I have something to draw upon. Even a huge book nerd like means recognizes the limitations. I watch a TON of Alaska shows and reaad survival books so I can claim i know a bunch about survival. In one way I do but I'm staying my Texas rear away from that winter until I experience something less cold first, like Denver for a weekend.

I have "stuff" to survive; long term food for 28 days + all the food that current exist in my house, multiple water filtration systems, guns + ammo galore and I even keep my 4wd suv gassed up past half always too. BUT with all that taken care of, I'm relying on my wife (who is quite proficient too in firearms), my other "posse" members to do what they need to, skills maintained and having a plan.

This has always been one of my FAVORITE thought experiments. My wife and I tend to discuss this from time to time to update our plans (kids getting bigger all the time), add/remove people from our posse and we even go through the effort of eyeballing the stuff. We are a typical suburban family living very comfortably. Which means we tends towards becoming soft. I try to keep us hardened and sharpened in the event the need arises. Regular exercise, maintain firearms, keep sufficient ammo loaded, etc.

My answer is roughly the same as FJG, indefinitely or at least until I say I'm done.

Within cities? Communications, power and water will be gone in a week, maybe less. In all honesty the criminal element is going to take over quickly. There will be so much chaos, you won't be able to get any real news and you will have zero idea who to trust or what to do. If you don't make it out of the city in the first few hours you will be in serious trouble. If we're talking all-out war, your 25% estimate may be low.

I have two freezers full of meat and enough salt/spices to dry it all post-haste. 200lbs of meat goes a long way for a couple of people. Squirrels and dove are plentiful, I'd start trapping immediately.

Caliber of choice is .223. I have the most rounds for that on hand, it's suppressed, and has iron sights and two types of available optics. Backup will be 9mm handguns and suppressed .22 pistol for close-range/quiet work.

Prescription drugs will be a large issue as mentioned above. Many people will die quickly from lack of insulin and other important drugs.

I feel comfortable making my own sausage etc. but if you turned the power off now and I had to go home from work and process all of our game into a state that would stay edible and wouldnt need refrigeration i'd be out.

Lets see, house 90 percent on solar, water well, septic tank, flock of chickens, deer in the neighborhood, shop to fabricate in, tractor, Extra fuel, fire power (pretty good shape), garden area. Just not quite far enough away the city when they go crazy because face book goes down.

I’m going to live forever!!!

The rest of my life I guess.
If we could make it west to the ranch then forever. Plenty of meat and cactus to eat.

Read the book One Second After. It’ll scare you, but it will answer your questions about what would happen in a societal breakdown. The book made me uneasy, and I still think about it from time to time.

Was gonna bring that book up 603. Another good book to read is the A American Series "Going home" and its subsequent books in the series.

Reality of it is, most of us would likely falter at some point because NO ONE can be prepared for every possibility. What you can take is a generalized understanding of survival and some serious ingenuity to be creative, adaptable, and shrewd. I have wanted to get some hard print copies of homesteading books to make some of the "lack of internet" more easily subverted.

As much as some of us may wish for something like a doomsday scenario to take place, the sheer number of zombies looking for food, water, and shelter would likely wipe out the vast majority anywhere close to any city. I would imagine you would have to be at least 4 days walk from the nearest big city in order to get outside the zombie zone. So figuring about 20-25 miles/day walking through texas terrain, that puts anyone within 100 miles of the edge of a major metro in reach of the zombie crush....that will be our biggest hurdle. Dealing with the zombies. That and the microscopics....disease would make some serious ground and lots would die from things such as cholera, dysentery, and things that we don't deal with in todays world due to sanitation.

I just happened to take a quick trip to the future and found such a poem that was read at your funeral...


For forty years, he did it folks
He kept his friends and family safe!
Amid the chaos and detriment
Not a single day did he waste

He lived of recycled rainwater
And kept his garden green
He was known to be a good man
Though some forum folks thought him mean

He was honest and hardworking
And perhaps opinionated, too
But did you know he had a secret?
One that I can now confirm is true!

Yes, he used his rifle to supply each meal
- A claim he did attest
But did you know it was Remmy 710,
Topped with a Diamondback Vortex!

I told him I’d keep his secret to his grave
And I guess I can now also mention
He actually preferred factory rifles
And factory ammunition!

That is excellent bravo sir!

lol

I would have to eat a lot of catfish,

MO

These threads always bring out the badazzes who could fight off an army by themselves.

The reality is, none of us know what would happen and how long we would last.

I think someone like Fireman would actually be in trouble because he is talking about how prepared he is and so people would hunt him out to take it lol.

I don't stockpile guns, ammo, food, etc.. so I would be in trouble in that aspect. My advantage would be I live in a less populated area of the state with alot of farmland to hide out on and mule deer to kill for food. There are just enough water sources to be ok and I do have water filtration from camping.

Nothing wrong with that. Catfish are good eaten.

You guys that are within 100 miles of the metroplex are not going to live 3 days. Get real; 6 million people going crazy looking for food and water are taking everything you got. You can defend against 15 or twenty people, but 5000 rushing your little ranch, no chance.

If I could choose, I would stick with Family and close friends whom I know I can trust. It also helps that I have Family and friends in the Medical and EMT field. I can gunsmith, I can reload, I can kill food, prepare and preserve it...but real medical knowledge would probably be more useful in the long run if the SHTF. My group would have a surgeon, a nurse, and a pair of Paramedics. Assuming we could make it to the ranch, we have well water, generators, a garden, and a seemingly endless supply of pork.

Makes perfect sense.

Be on the lookout for Lucille...

While that is all neat to think about, what good is a surgeon without his tools? How are you going to take your reloading and gunsmithing tools with you on the run if you have to flee your residence and the mobs to get to the country etc.

Lord knows many are more prepared than I am by far, but I think even the ones who think they are well prepared are going to have a wake up call when/if the day ever comes.

For me it's not a matter of how long my food, water, shelter, guns, ammo and fishing gear lasts. I can go a long ways on that.
As a Type 1 diabetic it's how long my supply of insulin lasts. After it's gone I'll be useless after about thee days and dead 3 or 4 after that.

Well, Duh. I would have to take it with me. Would the extra 15 minutes taken to throw it all in the bed of the truck kill me? Probably not. And yes. The surgeon could do way more with a pocketknife, needle, thread, and a bottle of whisky than I could. Sure are some killjoys for us Walking dead SHTF hero wannabe's!

Lol I’m with you Mike!! I’ve watched Book of Eli and I Am Legend I know what’s up.