Recommendations for a newbie

[archertom]

Hi all you good people who are preparing for the worst to come. I have a question that is a blanket question and am hopeful that you can help a newbie out here. As my profile shows I am 52 and have accumulated what one would think a person of my age would acquire over the course of 5 decades of living in the country. My two oldest Children are out of the house or soon will be and I and wife have two small children at home at this time. Their ages are 10 and 6 and both boys.

We were given 450 #10 cans of various food stores two years ago now and sadly we have lost about 5% of it due to rusting of the cans. The food storage had been submersed for a few hours during a flood but they were all in cardboard boxes. Some are rusting and the others are still fine.

So my question is, where would any of you recommend that I start in getting prepared to meet the challenging times that are surely coming? I have a few firearms with the bulk of what I have being Shotguns of .410, 20ga. and 12ga. I have 1 Ruger 10/22 in excellent condition, 1 SKS in excellent/pristine condition and 1 .40 Sigma, 1 .25 Baby Browning and two .50 Cal. Smoke Poles of the original design. One of those is a Pistol and the other is a Rifle. I have ammunition for the shotgun in the number of 250 rounds and 200 for for the Sigma, 1 canister of powder and 100 round balls for the .50s. I have a Shotshell reloader that is still in the box new but NO components to reload.

That is about the base of my defensive weaponry and food stores. I live on 3.5 acres of good Georgia land but instead of the infamous Red Clay, I have rich dark earth with which to work with. So that in a nutshell is what I have with which to work with. So I am open and most grateful for all your thoughts and ideas.

[helomech]

I shoot for sustainability instead of large stores. I don't have much in stored food, but what I do have is wild game, fish in my pond, chickens, rabbits, and working on my aquaponics garden. IMO it is much easier to grow or raise your own food, than to try to store lots of it. Storing food will only last so long, but growing or raising your own can last forever.

Also IMO get them young one shooting. My 13 year old has been shooting for about 8 years, and is one heck of a shot. He can consistently kill game at over 300 yards. In fact he owns a .243 rifle, AR-15, 20 gauge over and under, and a .22lr semi auto. He is about to get a 9mm pistol.

[The Stig]

Archertom,

First off, welcome aboard. Thanks for choosing to spend time with us.

You are right, getting started is a broad question so it's hard to say "do X, Y and Z and you'll be prepared."

That said, I'd first ask how united you and Mrs Archertom are regarding preparing for the various SHTF events you'll face?

I'd suggest sitting down and listing out all the various bad situations that could potentially happen in your location. Being south of Atlanta you probably don't have to worry much about blizzards, but what about tornadoes and forest fires? Think of things from small scale (say an active shooter in your neighborhood or chemical spill) to full blown catastrophic. I find that preparing for "bad things" is just too vague and I end up with a bunch of useless junk I don't really need.

Once you know what you are preparing for, you can begin the process of preparing.

Look at your list and determine what you'll do should a specific event take place.

For example, if there's a chemical spill perhaps you'll round up the kids, jump in the family truckster and head upwind. Ok. What goes in the family truckster to take with you? How do you know how to drive upwind? What if the family truckster dies on the side of the road? What will you do once you get there (ie food, medicine, spending money)? What if the Mrs and kids are not at home when you figure out you need to leave? How do you know when it's safe to go home?

In other words you are simply asking "what if" for a specific scenario and then trying to figure out how you'll respond.

If you spend the time going through that process for all the likely SHTF events that could take place in your area you'll start mapping out what you need to do next. Likely you'll discover something you need to purchase, or a skill you need to acquire.

Focus on the basics: firearms are but one small aspect of being prepared and you've already got that covered. Food, water, medicine, emergency money, power sources, etc all need to be considered.

But as I said, start with figuring out what you are preparing for, determine how you'll respond in those scenarios and that will tell you what specific items/skill sets you need.

Hope this helps. Welcome aboard....dive in and read up. There's lots of great information in the various threads here.

[LUNCHBOX]

Stig said it very well. Also look at gear/equipment you might need, IMO any event that I have to get up and go from is a standard packing list. Gear is gear, food...shelter....protection all go hand in hand no matter the scenario. Browse around here and you'll find numerous posts/info to help you out. If you have any specific questions, post them in that section and the members here will go out of their way to try and answer them. Good people here and welcome.

[bacpacker]

Welcome Archer! Some good info has already been passed here. I'll go a little different direction. You mentioned you had some land, do you garden? Do you put up produce? Canning,freezing, dehydrating are great ways to store your goods thru the year. If not it might be something to consider. SHTF senario's can run the gammut from weather issues and natural disaster. But they can also happen from losing your job/income, family illness, to economic collapse. One thing I have found useful is using prepping to save money. We grow a large part of our food (over 50% last year) which saves significant money. Also when you get started buying in bulk allows you to purchase a lower prices.
Jump in with both feet and discuss what comes to mind.

[piranha2]

Welcome aboard, my friend.

[Sniper-T]

As mentioned... you cannot prep for everything! pick your battles. know what can, might, will affect you, and plan accordingly. I can post volumes on how to survive a week/month long blizzard, but in hurricane country, is it useful?

Standard preps are standard... water/food/shelter! bug in or bug out. pick your poison(s), and we can/willl all help you out.

[Stg1swret]

Go slowly. Try things out before commiting to them fully. What works for someone else may not work for you.

[Taz Baby]

Welcome to the colony.

if you want to start growing your own food you can start small. Since you ,have kids get them a few rabbits to take care of. Since you have two
kids,each one get a pet. That's your breeding pair. Get a few chickens for eggs. Then start a small garden. Each person get to grow something that they have to take care of. Read up on everything you can on what you are raising and growing. Everytime you got to the grocerystore, go to the dollartree store first and buy 5 of one item for stocking it. We made alist of 10 things we want to stock pile. So we rotate our list each time we go. Perioxide, bandades, anti bacterial salve, shampoo, bar soap, toothpaste bleach, razor blades, toothbrushes, lighters. We buy 5,go through the list and then sart it over again.

[izzyscout21]

Great advice, Taz. Wish I had a DOllar tree around these parts