Urban Survival - The Goal is not Literally Surviving, it's Surviving with Quality

One of our buddies reported having a recent conversation with a older gent the other night. They were discussing Urban Survival versus Wilderness Survival, the main difference being having a permanent shelter, or not. Yes, you could be surviving in a remote part of the country in a log cabin or barn and that would be different from literally Wilderness Survival. By Wilderness Survival, we mean bare bones survival,…procuring all your foods from animals or edible plants, living in a dug out or lean to, having no survival aids but want you can carry with you.

This may be survival but it certainly is literally survival and not decent living – although the first rule IS to stay alive. The whole reason to prepare with Survival Food, Material, Gear and Equipment, not to mention a re-location or Bug Out Plan to a safer location, is to ensure that we can maintain life under some level of quality.

Almost all Urban Locations will require a Bug Out plan to a safe location, as Urban locations are dependant upon city/county water supplies which will dry up once the infrastructure collapses. Water is your number one concern. However you won’t be able to drink the water that you stockpile if you can defend yourself,…….this takes a rifle,…nor if you starve to death. Long term stay in Urban locations would require a teamwork approach and a water supply – community pond or lake, several swimming pools, etc. This would eventually dry up and again we’re looking at a re-location to a Safe Location.

Urban locations because of the density of structures, lack of usable open land for growing food and bigger population will be problematic for Urban based Survival. You’ll have a hard time seeing threats coming unless your neighborhood is organized (a la “Lights Out”) as well as feeding all of the unprepared families. “What are you gonna do when the neighbor comes over begging for food for his children?” We think personalities, standards of conduct, work ethic, maybe even religious beliefs will be so diverse that long term Urban Survival will be simply too difficult to maintain in a an Urban environment.

There is the chance of a large segment of the population in your Urban environment would move on, leaving a smaller percentage of the population and therefore a better chance of organization for the better good of all. This may well open other resources such as water,……think water heaters, swimming pools and polluted sources of water that you can purify. Even then unless you have a full time water source and ability to grow food for yourself, and, maintain security this will be iffy.

So back to the conversation between my buddy and the older guy. They discuss the older gent’s plan to move to an unpopulated stretch of river were he would have a water source and where he could hunt and fish for food. This will rapidly turn into literal survival scenario,…..scratching an existence out of nothing, as opposed to decent living. A camper, six months or more of stored food, seeds and a small group of alike minded and supplied people would make this much more viable.

This all boils down to preparation. Everybody be safe and prepare well.

Urban Survival Gear - 5.11 Tactical Pants

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a comment from T. Jenkins asking for some ideas on what clothing items he and his group can wear, besides jeans, in the urban environment and not stand out but still be useable in the forests.

UrbanMan’s comments:

Jeans are good urban wear, my choice in jeans are Wranglers, and they come in different colors. Tan and Brown would be good colors for urban environments. The disadvantages with jeans are that they are limited in their pockets and are more or less designed for skinny Cowboys.

A great uniform that would not standout in urban or suburban environments would be the 5.11 Tactical Pants. These come in nine different colors: charcoal, black, grey, khaki, coyote brown, olive drab green, tundra (?), fire navy, sage and walnut. You are going to have to visit their site (link to the left) or at the bottom of this post, in order to see the colors. Wearing a common color of 5.11 pants would help attain what you may be looking for in a common survival group uniform item. Shown below are the Black 5.11 Tactical pants, faded from repeated washings.

These are great pants for urban survival wear. Made out of tough and durable 8.5 ounce cotton canvas, they have double thick seat and knees and are knee pad ready, and have 7 pockets. The rear pockets are huge and the leg cargo pockets are well sized. These are the choice of many Federal Law Enforcement agencies as a causal or training uniform.

5.11 also offers a Tactical Duty Uniform (TDU) pants made from 65% polyester and 35% cotton ripstop. We don’t like these pants near as well as the 5.11 Tactical Pants.

5.11 also offers a Tactical Vest called their VTAC (for Viking Tactics) Load Bearing Vest (LBE) Tactical Vest which is a Molle compatible vest that comes in 3 colors: black, flat dark earth and olive drab green. Our choice is the flat dark earth which is an earth brown color. They offer a wide range of pouches as well, from pistol and rifle magazine pouches to first aid kit pouches, to handgun holsters and many more, all which can be configured onto the VTAC LBE Tactical Vest using the Molle system. These are as high as quality a product as you can find, otherwise Viking Tactics would not have put their name on it. If we didn’t have our current decade old tactical rigs, we would be buying several of these.

Additionally, 5.11 offers a TacLite Pro Vest which is a 17 pocket photo journalist style vest, made from 65% poly 35% cotton ripstop that accommodates all sorts of gear like water bottles, binoculars, rifle magazines, etc. This TacLite pro Vest is cut long to conceal a handgun holster to your belt. Most of the members of our survival group have this vest or a similar vest in order to carry equipment in an urban environment without appearing to some militia group.

Visit the 5.11 website, click here, you’ll probably be surprised at the breadth of 5.11 products.

Urban Survival Weapons - Guns for Your Wife

UrbanMan received a private message from a reader (Jake) who asked what handgun would be appropriate for his wife. He further stated that his wife is going along with his Urban Survival Preparations for the Collapse kind of grudgingly. She has been to the range a few times; shot a couple of handguns and didn't really get into it.

Well Jake, here are some things to think about:

A handgun is primarily a defensive weapon. I always carry two handguns, a Glock 19 and a Kel-Tec .32 ACP even then I am under gunned if faced with Mutts and semi-automactic rifles. So getting your wife a handgun is a good idea; getting her a rifle is a better idea.

As the indicators for the Collapse (or TEOTWAWKI as you prefer) get stronger, our levels of preparedness needs to rise. Right now, it really wouldn't make sense to keep rifles and all magazines fully loaded in all corners or at all fighting positions in your house. Not would it make sense for you sling an M-4 as you perform land work or gardening. So the handgun is sometimes you ALWAYS carry for personal protection and to be able to fight your way to safety and your long guns.

Your wife may get more involved with shooting if you can make shooting or firearms training more fun. Rimfire (.22 LR) bullseye competition, shooting exploding targets or other targets that provide immediate feedback may serve this purpose. A .22 LR or .22 WMR Revolver are always good bets for firearms novices as they have no external mechanisms like safeties, hammer drops (de-cockers), magazine releases or bolts/slides to manipulate.

Another good choice would be a Ruger or Browning .22 LR semi-automatic. These are not only good guns to train new shooters on, but every Survival Firearms Battery should have one,...or more, plus a couple thousands of rounds of .22 LR ammunition.

You should have a .22 LR rifle as well. I have several. These are also good to train new shooters on long guns with. However, neither handguns or rifles in .22 LR are good defensive firearms, simply because they don't have the stopping power or vehicle penetration power of center-fire cartridges. The next step up would be a carbine in a centerfire handgun chambering such as the old Marlin 9mm or .45 ACP carbines; .357 magnum, .44 magnum or .45 Long Colt lever guns; an old M-1 carbine in .30 caliber carbine; and others. However, long guns in a handgun chamberings leave alot to be desired in stopping power as well as effective range.

The first rule of a gun fight is to have a gun. If you have to give up stopping power, magazine capacity and effective range in order to get your wife trained and ready to use a firearm, as well as to carry it when the indicators dictate, then so be it. You can always do some familiarization training on bigger guns, as you should, including shotguns. I think as she sees the need, her mindset and acceptance of firearms will grow. Good luck, Jake.

Urban Survival Weapons – Rifle/Shotgun Combination Guns

Months back UrbanSurvivalSkills.com wrote about the M-6 Aircrew Rifle (to see the past post click here) as it’s suitability for a “pure” survival firearm, meaning one meant to procure game as opposed to a defensive firearms. The M6 Aircrew Rifle as you’ll remember was meant as a survival firearm, mainly for game procurement, for down air crews,…… hence the name “Aircrew Rifle”. These guns are no longer manufactured, but if you can find one, you’ll be paying around $400.

Recently we were asked about other combination rifle - shotgun’s such as the Savage Model 24 series, over and under rifle-shotgun combination. Savage makes very good, high quality firearms and it is no exception to the Model 24 Series. Available in several rifle calibers: .22 Magnum, .22 Hornet, .17 HMR, .223 Remington, .357 Magnum and .30-30 Winchester ; and two shotgun gauges: 12 gauge and 20 gauge, this combination gun provides the user with the ability to take rabbits to deer, quail to turkey.

Savage Model 24 Combination guns are no longer made, but if you could find one, you would have to pay in the range of $450 for the .22 WMR – 20 gauge version and up to $1,500 for the .357 Magnum – 20 gauge model. We have shot a version of this rifle, in .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire and 20 gauge, and the gun had a decent enough trigger to take rabbits at 25-30 yards.

If anyone was fixated on getting a Savage Model 24 combination gun I would suggest a .223 Remington and 12 gauge, as it is probable provides the best capabilities and the ammunition is more readily available than say the .22 Hornet and 20 gauge.

There is another gun option with the EAA-Baikal IZH Model 94MP Combination Gun, an import model available through most Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) Dealers albeit at a hefty cost,…around $1,200.

The EAA-Baikal IZH Model 94MP Combination Rifle-Shotgun is available in several combination gauges/calibers:

12 gauge / .223 Remington

12 gauge / .30-06 Springfield

12 gauge / .308 Winchester

12 gauge / .45-70 Government

410 gauge / .17 HMR

410 gauge / .22 Long Rifle

410 gauge / .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire

On both the Savage and EAA Comination guns, there are provisions for mounting a scope, which may be a necessity due to the rudimentary sights on either gun.

If you are set on owning a combination rifle-shotgun for survival, I would suggest a Savage Model 24 in whatever caliber-gauge combination you want (or can afford), then maybe the M-6 Aircrew Survival Rifle in .22 LR and .410 gauge. Although I know some people happy with their Baikal Shotguns, I think you would be better served spending the money on a high quality .22 LR rifle and separate 12 gauge pump action shotgun,….even then you would still have enough money left for a decent .22 LR handgun.