Urban Bug Out after the Collapse

Received this message from an Urban Survivor: ”Dear Urban Man. I have recently came across this site and have found it very informative and eye-opening. It got me thinking a little bit about what will I be able to do. I live in the greater (city deleted) area, living paycheck to paycheck, in a small 2 bedroom apartment, with my wife and 7 month old baby. For supplies we only have a weeks worth of food tops, a Ruger GP100 and a Winchester M12 with about 50 rounds each. Also some camping gear I like to hold on to (sleeping bag, ponchos, old army ruck sack). Not much, but it's what I have to work with. What advice if any would you be able to provide myself and for people living in these apartment buildings, if any, should the need arise to bug-out? Thank you.”

UrbanMan’s response: I intentionally left this gent’s name and city off, but suffice to say it was a large city on the Northeastern coast.

Unless a substantial part of your apartment complex population are prepared, equipped and can act as a cohesive unit, your best bet is to develop a Bug Out plan. You are reduced simply by the nature of geography on what direction you can go. You are hampered by the fact that one of you, your wife or you, will have to be a full time caretaker of the baby for several more years. You have a good start on a survival firearms battery with the Ruger GP100 and the Winchester Model 12 shotgun.

You Bug Out plan should consider a safe place to go, outside of normal refugee routes, possibly is the mountainous areas to your West. If you do not know anybody in a remote or rural location, then you may want to consider some weekend trips to do so. A lot of small communities are slowly dying. Looking around and letting people know that you are thinking of re-locating is a good way to get the feel of the area and to meet some people. You don’t need to articulate that you would be re-locating there just ahead of a Zombie mob or Mushroom cloud. You may have some close friends who do have some other friends of relatives in rural – remote areas.

As far as how you are getting there the best option is to be able to get ahead of the crowd of refugees. That’s means being ready to execute your Bug Out plan before all hope is lost or even if the situation is still undetermined. You probably be using a vehicle. It’ll pay to always keep your vehicle in some stage of readiness such as with some gear loaded and a fuel tank probably never below ¾ full. If you plan requires travel at the very limit of your vehicle range, then to pre-stage fuel cans and to fill them when the small indicators of a collapse start tingling your spidey sense.

A well stocked Bug Out bag for you and your wife is a requirement. Sleeping bags, ponchos, survival gear like multiple lighters, knifes, Gerber or Leatherman pocket tools, flashlights are all necessary; canteens and hydration packs are very necessary as well. I would put long stay food like MRE’s and/or Main Stay Food bars in my Bug Out Bags. A bucket or two of Wise type Survival meals and larger water containers like five gallon water jugs would be in my vehicle.

I would choose my routes out of the city carefully, avoiding the more dangerous choke points like narrow bridges and two lane roads. Have multiple routes so that you can transition from your primary to alternate to contingency to emergency (PACE) as necessary. Have some linkup points that are easy to find and that provide some cover and/or concealment in case you and your wife get separated.

Consider a couple more firearms so that you and your wife each have a handgun and a long gun. I think you priority on weapons now would be a decent repeating rifle. An AR platform such as an civilian M-4 is great, but you would not be handicapped much a pump action or small magazine fed semi-auto rifle.

I would also think about adding some Silver coins, bullion or old U.S. silver coins for their melt value to my Bug Out bags. They may come in handy. Have adequate amount of ammunition for each firearm.

Read the Survival Chronicles of Jim, from Chapter 1 to present and you’ll get an idea on how Jim and his plan and preps have evolved. Good luck to you.

The Basic Ambush

In a worse case collapse scenario survival groups will be faced with the threat of armed groups that will try to take resources by force. Imagine a suburban community based survival group gaining intelligence or otherwise being informed of a large group of well armed gang bangers going from street to street invading homes and killing people for their supplies and equipment. This was a scenario in Rawles' latest book, "Survivors" where an increasingly well armed and populated gang lived by going from community to community robbing and murdering for food and supplies.

The ability to protect yourself, your family and the bigger group from threats may require the survival group to be able to perform "offensive" type tactical operations such as an ambush.

The Ambush is a surprise attack from covered and/or concealed position upon a threat that is moving or temporarily halted.

Ambush can be hasty in nature or they can be deliberate.

Hasty Ambush. A good definition of a hasty ambush would be your patrol spots a threat group moving towards or near your patrol. Contact may be imminent so you take covered or concealed position and initiate the ambush from your covered/concealed position catching the threat unaware and unprotected. A hasty ambush is also associated with a withdrawal from the ambush positions and not the movement to and occupation of the kill zone. In other words in a hasty ambush you are not assaulting or closing with the threat. The kill zone being the area you project the threat to be in when you initiate the ambush and the area you can cover with your collective weapons.

Deliberate Ambush. This would be a planned action most likely requiring good intelligence on a threat group that will in the immediate or near future pose a sufficient threat to you and your group, and you have information on the routes (and possibly times) this threat is going to be moving on. This is the best type of ambush as you can plan the ambush better, prepare positions and most likely rehearse.

Many factors on setting up ambushes: how many people you can dedicate to the ambush against how big the threat group is; quality of shooters you have against the professionalism and organization of the threat; the type of terrain you will set up and execute the ambush is; type of weapons you have available - probably would not be a good idea for a survival group of ten with bolt action rifles to ambush a threat group armed with semi-automatics.

There are many different type of ambush formations with the linear ambush and the L shaped ambush being the most basic. Being the most basic, they are easier to control.

The basic linear ambush is easy to control; allows minimal chance of fraticide - that is shooting your own people;

The L shaped ambush allows for a cross fire into the kill zone. The short leg facing any vehicular traffic into the kill zone allows for fire into the front of the vehicle;s engine compartment and windshield. While a little bit harder to control, the L shaped ambush would be preferably if the group had to break contact under pressure from the threat they initially ambushed.

Ambush Tips:

o Use listening/observation posts (LP/OPs) to provide early warning of the threat group you are ambushing as well to warn of or delay threat re-inforcements or to prevent threat escapes.

o Make sure the kill zone does not offer any immediate cover and concealment for the threat group. You do not want to initiate an ambush then find yourself just in a fire fight from a threat under covered positions.

o If you are not going to assault through he kill zone, such as conducting a harassing ambush, then best case to have some sort of obstacles between your ambush positions and the kill zone to prevent the threat group from assault to your positions.

o The kill zone and coverage of the kill zone with your weapons has to be big (long) enough to contain the threat you are ambushing....or you will face the prospect of getting maneuvered on (getting flanked).

o If the threat is in vehicles and you are desiring to decisively engage the threat, then the ability to disable both the front and rear vehicle will at least momentarily fix the threat group in the kill zone so you can concentrate maximum firing.

o Mechanical devices such as spike strips, expedient incendiary and/or explosive devices are greatly enhance the ambush. And it is preferred to use a casualty producing device to initiate the ambush - worst case a gun shot, better for coordinated fire or use of mechanical devices. Do not use an initiation signal like a whistle.

o Plan for signals (visual and audio) to command a cease fire, withdrawals, and/or the assault of the kill zone (if this is what you are planning).

o You will have the best chance of success if you rehearse and once you establish the ambush position, assign areas of responsibility to each shooter so you have coordinated and overlapping fields of fire.

Too Late for Gold and Silver?

Too Late for Gold and Silver? I get that a lot. People write me saying buying Gold and Silver are worthless or at best will only have value if someone accepts these precious metals for commodities. Many people write me advocating the purchase and stockage of guns, ammunition and food rather than Gold and Silver.

From my perspective, and considering the capabilities of the common person, anybody preparing for any kind of collapse – nuclear attack, dollar collapse, economic or infrastructure collapse, must consider all aspects of preparation from guns, ammunition, food, viable water supply and sources, transportation, gear and equipment,…and,…precious metals. Not to have any quantity of Gold or Silver is to leave a hole in your survival preparations.

I get that people are scared off by the costs of silver or more so Gold. Purchasing Gold and Silver as a survival asset has to compete with all other aspects of survival and most often places second, third or is not considered on the priority of purchases. That needs to change. Even if you can only afford $30 worth of junk silver coins (for silver melt value) or one ounce silver round, then get started today.

Mike Maloney from the ElevationGroup TV produced a video called “Is It Too Late To Buy Gold and Silver? This is a good education on paper money and how Fed policies influence how the dollar collapse will happen.

Watch more on GoldandSilver.com

Doomsday Scenarios from Ron Paul

According to a Reuters News Report, Texas Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) author of "End the Fed", fears eroding Civil liberties,  a United Nations take over of the U.S. money supply, and violence in the streets following a  Soviet Union-style economic collapse.

Congressman Paul, seen as a loon by some and the People's Champion by others, often warns of a deeply indebted federal government and hollow currency.  He draws parallels between the current situation in the United States and that of the former Soviet Union, whose economy collapsed amid the union's breakup and civil unrest in 1991.

Paul acknowledges that his proposal to avoid that outcome - an immediate, $1 trillion spending cut that would slash the federal budget by more than one-third and eliminate the departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, Interior, and Housing and Urban Development - could have some unpleasant side effects.

Unpleasant side effects?  How about $10 a loaf bread and $25 a galon gasoline, when you can find it - to me that's unpleasant.  

"I'm afraid of violence coming," he recently told a crowd while campaigning in Iowa.  "When you see what the government is preparing for, and the arrests and military law, and the demonstrations in the streets, some people aren't going to be convinced so easily that you don't owe them a living."

What Paul say's does ring true with the recent passing of the NDAA which gives the military unprecedented  ability to hold U.S. citizens as hostile combatants.

Paul also warns that the Federal Reserve was soon to "bail out" the Euro zone, a move that he said ultimately would cause the United States to surrender control of its own currency to the United Nations.  "This monetary crisis is well known by the international bankers. They want the U.N. to come in and solve this problem," he said. "The dollar will probably eventually disintegrate and be taken over. But I don't want the U.N. issuing that currency."

Economists note that Paul's long-standing proposal to return the dollar to a gold standard would force the United States to relinquish control of its currency.  "We would still have monetary policy - it would be set by gold miners in South Africa and Uzbekistan, rather than bureaucrats in Washington," said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist with JPMorgan Chase.


JPMorgan? - Oh Yeah, the robber barons....he has a lot of credibility.   

"If you like what OPEC means for oil prices, you'd love what the gold standard would do to financial markets."

You can read the original article here.