Doomsday Preppers - New Show on National Geographic

I feel like that first guy was trolling the show a bit... I know he's been around the community awhile as I've seen the video he made on making that shelter. It's the definitive guide on burying a storage container... most folks seem to think you can just bury one but facts are it will collapse. IIRC he's either an engineer on in construction.
 
Shark_Cage said:
A boat, in fact a boat no larger than 40' is an ideal SHTF get the F out of Dodge transport. You can slip out while the city's are burning (I said this before in another thread) and loiter for months out on the sea or visit another part of the Earth.
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waterworld21.jpg


sent from the Evo
 
Hiltonizer said:
I feel like that first guy was trolling the show a bit... I know he's been around the community awhile as I've seen the video he made on making that shelter. It's the definitive guide on burying a storage container... most folks seem to think you can just bury one but facts are it will collapse. IIRC he's either an engineer on in construction.
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I've never seen them collapse? I guess it all depends how much dirt you put on top of it? If you want to go deep then it can be reenforced cheaply. Way cheaper than buying a custom made shelter. The ones the guy builds on doomsday shelters look to be way less sturdy than a container? I would buy a 4000 buck container way quicker than I'd ever buy a 300 grand shelter!!! You can link the containers together and make a way cheap shelter that will work super good. 2 40 foot containers buried two feet deep with the proper ventilation tubes and antenna silos would be my dream shelter. A shelter with those spec's can if equipped right keep two people underground for a year or more!!
 
One thing about the show bugs me - in almost every "expert analysis", the advice "get a garden" is put in. Now....I understand where food comes from, but many of the scenarios are not "depopulation events", just social upheaval.

Anyone that's had a garden knows how tough it is to keep out quarupedal pests....if there's a crapload of people wandering about, looking for eats, how is onw to protect it 24/7? Also....gardening is not a "instant on" deal - it takes practice to get it right. If part of a long term prep is stockpiling, it should also be finding out what crops grow well, store well with a minimum of energy (e.g. beans are good - dry them; tomatos are bad - canning is a resource and energy-intensive procedure), and have high nutrition that will grow in your area.

Having 5,000,000 seeds is a waste, unless you know that what you're planitng will "work", and you know how to use them. I have a 15 x 30 back yard Deer Buffet, and a 150-gallon rain collection system, that uses gravity to drip-irrigate. Using tomatos, cukes, potatoes, onions, and beans, I get enough for a few meals....but theres nowhere enough to support a person, much less a family, for any period of time.

If you get more land under cultivation, and it's dry for a month, will you be able to keep it watered? Without turning on the faucet? Can you fence it (or guard it) from hungry critters? Unless you've practiced it, you've got a minimal chance for success.....

I understand that the show is not informational...it's more about WTF? entertainment.....but this sort of thing needs to be addressed in reality.


/rant
 
radioman said:
I've never seen them collapse? I guess it all depends how much dirt you put on top of it? If you want to go deep then it can be reenforced cheaply. Way cheaper than buying a custom made shelter. The ones the guy builds on doomsday shelters look to be way less sturdy than a container? I would buy a 4000 buck container way quicker than I'd ever buy a 300 grand shelter!!! You can link the containers together and make a way cheap shelter that will work super good. 2 40 foot containers buried two feet deep with the proper ventilation tubes and antenna silos would be my dream shelter. A shelter with those spec's can if equipped right keep two people underground for a year or more!!
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The panels on them are more the concern, my dad has one for storage for his business... and I've been on top of it.. just my ass on top of it and it feels like the ceiling is going to come in. People assume because these things get stacked on big time on ships means they can handle the weight... but they only touch each other at the corners which is a big steel post. Other than the steel post, these things are flimsy as crap. I'm sure they can be reinforced to some extent, but from the research i've done is to do a traditional cinderblock and steel beem set up around them and just use the shipping containers as an extra barrier against those basement qualities.

alp1r9.png


If I were to do something like this, which I may eventually if even just for storage... I wouldn't completely bury anyway, but rather build a hill around it for geothermal purposes. A few episodes back a guy used school buses which are actually built to support a fair amount of weight and far cheaper than shipping containers. That'd likely be the route I'd go. At the going rate of $4k a container, even just a cinderblock building would be a small premium.
 
MisterHappy said:
One thing about the show bugs me - in almost every "expert analysis", the advice "get a garden" is put in. Now....I understand where food comes from, but many of the scenarios are not "depopulation events", just social upheaval.

Anyone that's had a garden knows how tough it is to keep out quarupedal pests....if there's a crapload of people wandering about, looking for eats, how is onw to protect it 24/7? Also....gardening is not a "instant on" deal - it takes practice to get it right. If part of a long term prep is stockpiling, it should also be finding out what crops grow well, store well with a minimum of energy (e.g. beans are good - dry them; tomatos are bad - canning is a resource and energy-intensive procedure), and have high nutrition that will grow in your area.

Having 5,000,000 seeds is a waste, unless you know that what you're planitng will "work", and you know how to use them. I have a 15 x 30 back yard Deer Buffet, and a 150-gallon rain collection system, that uses gravity to drip-irrigate. Using tomatos, cukes, potatoes, onions, and beans, I get enough for a few meals....but theres nowhere enough to support a person, much less a family, for any period of time.

If you get more land under cultivation, and it's dry for a month, will you be able to keep it watered? Without turning on the faucet? Can you fence it (or guard it) from hungry critters? Unless you've practiced it, you've got a minimal chance for success.....

I understand that the show is not informational...it's more about WTF? entertainment.....but this sort of thing needs to be addressed in reality.


/rant
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I think a prepper without a garden is not a prepper at all, I agree with the analysis that people need to start gardening. Better to have it and risk losing it than to not have it at all. You are correct though, it takes some serious learning... we're on year 4 and while I've got all the book knowledge, something comes up every year that's a major setback.

The garden is part of a well rounded system, not everyone can produce 100% of their own food... but fresh food in addition to stored is key... a garden + canning helps you store more... that deer/rabbit buffet can be a buffet for you too if SHTF... if their are deer and rabbit still around. I'd rather have wildlife in my yard after SHTF than not... mmm canned meat. Also, all the LTS food i've seen will kill people with sodium anyway. People need to store ingredients and not meals.

Fruit nut trees are key too, though I know not everyone has that kind of space. I personally would never live anywhere where I couldnt have atleast 5-6 trees... only problem is it takes so long for them to get to production age. I have 2 apple and 2 pair and a crab-apple (for canning pectin).. they'll be 3 years old now and probably still wont produce. I'm going to see if I can find a source for some almond trees that are older than a year and put those in soon too.

Chickens are another must for free fertilizer and bugs-and-scraps to egg conversion machines.

Canning is no more energy than a basic fire used efficiently, my wood stove that I would need to heat the house anyway could do it, or in the hot months I can throw a rocket stove together with some spare bricks and can with just twigs.
 
Watching the show it seems that when folks are showing off their guns they have too many different guns in too many different calibers. I understand wanting variety for fun, I sure as hell have a lot of guns I want. But for SHTF guns I would think that redundancy would be the most desirable aspect when purchasing firearms. I would find one model in one caliber each for a handgun, rifle, and SG. Probably 9mm, 5.56, and 12 gauge. The folks on the show seem to have different weapons stowed around the house, I would have them be the same so sight picture would be the same.
 
I thought that this week's preppers were nuttier than usual. I do not understand the thinking of that furniture repairman, having his bug out location in a basement in the center of town. He's got to at least consider the fact that a row of old wooden stores have a fair chance of burning down in a SHTF situation. His reason for not keeping the stuff at home, so as not to scare his family, seemed like total crap. Plus, I didn't actually see any preps in his store basement. Then, he says that it is an advantage that there is only one way in or out of his basement? It looked like a death trap to me.

The guy shooting at the pictures of pandas, maps of china, and some blurred-out (probably racist) chinese image, and setting off firecrackers on his sand table, is making us all look like idiots.
 
mclina said:
I thought that this week's preppers were nuttier than usual. I do not understand the thinking of that furniture repairman, having his bug out location in a basement in the center of town. He's got to at least consider the fact that a row of old wooden stores have a fair chance of burning down in a SHTF situation. His reason for not keeping the stuff at home, so as not to scare his family, seemed like total crap. Plus, I didn't actually see any preps in his store basement. Then, he says that it is an advantage that there is only one way in or out of his basement? It looked like a death trap to me.

The guy shooting at the pictures of pandas, maps of china, and some blurred-out (probably racist) chinese image, and setting off firecrackers on his sand table, is making us all look like idiots.
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I couldn't agree more about that furniture guy. Wouldn't be surprised if his wife grabs the kids & leaves him at some point.
I wouldn't be surprised if the BATFE came down on the other guy for making pipe bombs. Some of these people are truly messed up and yes, they do make us look bad. [thinking]
 
OK, let's see what sort of wonderful people they have on this week to make Preppers look like lunatics.




ETA: Well, wasn't expecting a recap of most of the preps from this season.
 
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Bill Katt said:
Thanks Derek.

Somehow I knew that guy would go down. [hmmm]
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Tell me about it. The 65 year old guy who's never broken a law in his life was preparing to defend his family and property from the potential bad guys. He had to be taken down. The illegals drunk driving killing people and raping women can stay though.
 
derek said:
Tell me about it. The 65 year old guy who's never broken a law in his life was preparing to defend his family and property from the potential bad guys. He had to be taken down. The illegals drunk driving killing people and raping women can stay though.
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They are not illegal. They are geographically challenged. [laugh]

As for the old guy – he’ll feel at home among the other 2 million totally innocent/harmless people we keep caged. [sad2]
 
derek said:
Tell me about it. The 65 year old guy who's never broken a law in his life was preparing to defend his family and property from the potential bad guys. He had to be taken down. The illegals drunk driving killing people and raping women can stay though.
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Yup...WTF happened? The good guys lose & scum rules. [puke]
 
derek said:
Remember kids the .gov is not your friend.

http://offgridsurvival.com/doomsdayprepperssendsmantoprison/
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Thats 2 guys so far that got jammed up over this show. I know they are trying to get ratings, but they are doing a huge disservice to the viewers by making prepping look so "fringe".

Everyone preps to some degree. When you fill up your gas tank, you are prepping for your weekly travels. When you make a sandwich to take to work, you are prepping to get through the day. Everyone does it to different degrees, but they really have gone out of their way to find all the screwballs for this show.

The only thing about prepping that I think is crazy? Not doing it.
 
In God We Trust said:
Thats 2 guys so far that got jammed up over this show. I know they are trying to get ratings, but they are doing a huge disservice to the viewers by making prepping look so "fringe".
Everyone preps to some degree. When you fill up your gas tank, you are prepping for your weekly travels. When you make a sandwich to take to work, you are prepping to get through the day. Everyone does it to different degrees, but they really have gone out of their way to find all the screwballs for this show.

The only thing about prepping that I think is crazy? Not doing it.
Click to expand...

YOu have it backwards.....they're doing a service to themselves ( and their shareholders) by making the preppers look so fringe.

Nobody would watch a show about UNitarians or Congregationalists....but Snake Handlers, pedophile preists, Jihadis and polygamist fundamentalist mormons will bring in viewers.

It's not an educational show ( unless it's "DON'T BE DUMB ENOUGH TO COME ON A SHOW LIKE THIS!) , but WTF? entertainment.

Kind of like Whale Wars...you learn nothing but that True Believers will do anything to Spread the Word.
 
While watching I was counting all the federal crimes being committed. I thought behind the scenes they had some sort of deal with the fed's. I know Mithbusters do all kinds of things illegal to the normal man but have special dispensation with the fed's.
 
radioman said:
While watching I was counting all the federal crimes being committed. I thought behind the scenes they had some sort of deal with the fed's. I know Mithbusters do all kinds of things illegal to the normal man but have special dispensation with the fed's.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised if the victims were encouraged to believe they had such protection.

Sent from my chimney using smoke signals.
 

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