Define SHTF?

If the $100 bill is not toilet tissue, it's not shtf. The only prep needed will be lots of money or gold coins. Just get out of the afflicted area. If there's no power, no water in the lines, and it's the same world wide, then it's shtf. Otherwise, it's a minor, local prob, easily gotten out of.
 
If the $100 bill is not toilet tissue, it's not shtf. The only prep needed will be lots of money or gold coins. Just get out of the afflicted area. If there's no power, no water in the lines, and it's the same world wide, then it's shtf. Otherwise, it's a minor, local prob, easily gotten out of.

Ya, but it's not always easy to leave. Whether it's floods, severe snowfall etc you can't always count on just being able to leave the area.

For me, I'm probably not leaving anyways. Fleeing on the highways with millions of others, hiding out the woods looking for food, not appealing to me. At home with a wood stove, a nice vegetable garden, a near by source of freshwater - that's more like it for me.

Now if we have to hide from professional soldiers that's a bad thing, but I think it's much more likely the problem will be criminals basically doing home invasions. I'm pretty confident that which ever one of my rifles I grab (the AR, the AK, the SOCOM) most thugs are just going to move on to a different neighborhood. That's really what I'm rigged for if SHTF - groups of gangbanger types driving up the street in a few cars looking to rob people. I think you would see this pretty fast once the police went away. Looters/thieves don't wait too long to out once the power goes down and the cops aren't around- this will probably be the first threat (and probably most significant) in any major disaster.

I'd much rather defend an area I know (that I can hunt and fish in) that take my chances wandering around.
 
I dont see why you couldnt get out, with a mountain bike, snowmobile or an inflatable? Got too much money tied up to leave it? Elderly? Who says that you have to go by the highway, or by any road? Know what the biking record is, NYC to SanFran?8 days! :) 20 mph for 20 hours a day, 8 days straight. People used to walk across the US, to save the Oxen having to pull them in the Conestoga. Today, if they can't get there by car, people would stay in place and die. If you regularly get deep snow, a snowmobile is a fun, good investment, if it's a low $, used one, that is. If snow is normally not a prob, then it will soon melt, so all you need is a way to protect yourself from the cold (with power off) for a week or2. Then the snow will be gone, eh? You won't starve in two weeks (just lying around),and everyone keeps at least several days' worth of food in the house, anyway. Need a way to melt snow for water, maybe. Multitool has a wire cutter in it for a reason, you know. Cut the fence and ride the (offroad) motorcycle AROUND the stalled vehicles. The mountain bicycle can just be lifted over the fence, then do the same with the BOB. I've thrown my bike across a (nasty, polluted mud) 10 ft ditch, then ran and jumped the necessary 13-14 ft to stay safely "away" from the edges of the stream. Could have tossed the BOB just as easily. Just have to do the discus or hammer type of spin and let it go. :)
 
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I see "SHTF" as falling into three basic categories with several subcategories. Sorted by likelyhood. I've seen 1.1 twice (no deaths), 1.2 several times (1 death)

1. Short term problems (problem lasts minutes until emergency services arrive)
1. 1. Medical (heart attack, choking, stroke, etc.)
1. 2. Fire (self explanitory)
1. 3. Criminal (robbery, assault, etc.)
EDIT: I need to get some medical training for 1.1, I have fire extinguishers for 1.2, and I carry either pepper spray or a gun for 1.3.

2. Regional issues (problem affects a small area for 1 to 30 days)
2. 1. Weather (example: Hurricane Katrina, Blizzard of '78)
2. 2. Civil unrest (example: 1992 LA riots)
EDIT: For both issues, I try to keep a few weeks worth of food along with cold weather gear on hand. I should probably pick up a huge can of pepper spray for 2.2, but I'm not really worried since I live close to 40 miles for the nearest city.

3. Kiss events (as in "Kiss your ass good bye")
3. 1. War (civil or otherwise)
3. 2. Economic collapse (hyperinflation, etc)
3. 3. Asteroid strike (maybe in 10k years a dinosaur will dig up my fossil)
3. 4. Zombie Apocolypse (brains are yummy)
EDIT: I don't think there's any way to really plan for any of those.
 
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I disagree. The Viet Cong handled the world's best armies for decades, using tunnels as their main defense. If shtf, things will calm down a whole bunch in a year, either because some sort of authority has restored order, or because nearly everyone is dead from the diseases and the fighting. Either way, alll you have to do is stay undetected for a year (dugout shelter nearby, and cached food) and then have discrete garden plots. After this initial year or so, I'd recommend a move to an area where moving a few hundred miles was a big help with the temps, like NM. That will help you stay a lot cooler in summer, and a lot warmer in winter, saves a lot of work and risk. 200 miles is just 2week's easy ride, pulling a trailer behind a mountain bicycle.
 
I do have a question regarding this. I live in an elderly/disabled apt complex. I am sure no one else here is armed. If a gang trys to break in, should I just shoot them at the frount door, or where they try to break in, or just defend my own apt? What would you guys do? Thanks for any advice.
 
I would not risk prison or lawsuits defending others. You can easily get involved in stuff that's nobody's biz, or misunderstand a situation and shoot/threaten to shoot the wrong person or at the wrong time. I'd restrict even SHOWING my gun except to those who actually pose an unavoidable, lethal threat to myself or those I am sworn to protect. I would not let anyone else even know I had a gun, in fact. Loose lips get cops called on you, or get your home or car broken into, stuff stolen, etc.
 
Thanks Walkit, I ment during a SHTF situation, when there are no police around. In an ordinary time, I would just show anyone trying to break into my apt my AK-47 replica to frighten them away, only after calling 911.
 
I think TSHTF is here with gunkid around.

Yes, it is getting annoying, someone hit him with the hammer.

banhammer1.jpg
 
Apparently you missed the whole Katy Perry Sesame Street cleavage controversy / Saturday Night Live response? Katy Perry had a clip removed from Sesame Street over concerns that too much cleavage was visible. She hosted SNL the next week and this was the skit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJWdqzz5Ues

First off, thanks for the clip. It was very entertaining and I appreciated that someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to cut out Rosie.

Second, in my view, SHTF is nothing more than a mnemonic to talk about or prepare for "some" disaster that could range from a wicked bad snow storm to a biological assault by terrorists, wiping out 3/4 of the population.

Nobody knows what form SHTF will take. It's hard to talk about formless threats so you just hang a term on it, decide how you might react when various things go wrong and do your best to be as prepared as possible.

I'm not hiding in a cabin with a bunker full of MRE underneath waiting with one ear plugged into a solar powered transistor radio, but have some hopefully adequate plans and supplies that might even work for the form SHTF takes... If not I'll see you on the other side.
 
SHTF happens when I say it's go time....and there's no time like go time.

Go time also happens when you divide by zero....
 
And when you cross the streams.

Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
Time paradox...oh shi-
 
And when you cross the streams.

Egon: We'll cross the streams.

Venkman: 'Scuse me Egon? You said crossing the streams was bad!

RayCross the streams...

Venkman: You're gonna endanger us, you're gonna endanger our client - the nice lady, who paid us in advance, before she became a dog...

Egon: Not necessarily. There's definitely a *very slim* chance we'll survive.

Venkman: I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it! LET'S DO IT!
 
Whos to say a "Zombie" attack could never happen? That isnt classified as the dead rising from the grave.I actually think that idea is outrageous. My idea is a medical pandemic,disease that turns people crazy sick. It could definitely happen, im talking like the affects of Meth/PCP 24/7 until the person is completely dead. Just a pandemic that turns people hostile. But that scenario is on the backburner, My SHTF scenarios are played out to be economic collapse, or "dirty" spontanious attacks by terrorist cells, equivelant to 9/11 attacks, but on a rapid scale like everyday or a few times a week. Last scenario I see possible is an EMP attack, Iran has alomost got it down and North Korea is testing to get it down, And of course the "Katrina" type situation...natural disaster, looting ect. If you wish to know more or follow this topic, in my profile there is my channel link to youtube where I talk with other survivalist and have many great SHTF preppers as subscribers, please feel free to check it out.
 
Whos to say a "Zombie" attack could never happen? That isnt classified as the dead rising from the grave.I actually think that idea is outrageous. My idea is a medical pandemic,disease that turns people crazy sick. It could definitely happen, im talking like the affects of Meth/PCP 24/7 until the person is completely dead. Just a pandemic that turns people hostile.//
I thought that was called Spring Break?[laugh]
 
Depending on the depth of the S, I think you could see a fair amount of this.

Nonchalant cockiness interrupted by a sudden epiphany that you are on a 2 way range. (depending where you work maybe NSFW...no gore but someone does get hit)

Sorry if anyone is offended...but I get a chuckle at their reaction to their "Oh Shit" moment?

 
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