The Survival Connection Forum for Australian & New Zealand Preppers & Survivalists.

http://neclhg.freeforums.net/board/18/survival-connection

Can our corrupt government take all that we have?

This article is based on the situation in the USA, but, we are now in the same boat in Australia, due to our Anti-Terrorism Laws!!!
http://www.survivaldan101.com/preppers-beware-our-supplies-can-be-deemed-illegal-not-by-a-gang-of-armed-violent-looters-but-by-color-of-law-by-local-or-federal-law-enforcement-agents-or-the-national-guard-and-even-regul/

http://www.survivaldan101.com/the-present-legal-support-for-seizing-our-food-and-other-supplies-part-2/

Food Supplies. Tomatoes, Picking & Preserving.

We have started harvesting our tomato crop & preserving them. We may dry some like last year, but for now we are bottling them.

We always put stakes in for our tomato plants, but sometimes they get away from us! One day they don't seem large enough to tie, & the next time we check they have gone beyond tying! I am never game to try tying them once they have got to a certain size, because invariably the stems break.

Then there are the volunteers from last years crop, we could pull them out, but we never do. We can always use more tomatoes. These volunteers grow madly all over the garden & the paths until the paths are impassable! Stakes do make the picking easier, but I find it no great hardship to pick from the sprawling plants on the ground.

12 jars so far, this is the product of 4 baskets as at the top of this page, & we still have a lot to pick, & the crop is still ripening.

Australian Preppers Forum.

Australia is unique, not quite like any other country. American forums can be okay, but their situation in regards to many things simply do not apply to Australia. If you live in Australia, here is a chance to learn & to share your knowledge. I have not been on this forum for very long, but so far is seems friendly. I am not a manager or moderator on this forum so my hands are tied to just participating & making suggestions, but this forum does need some new blood & more participation. Please check this forum out when you get time.

Thank you.

Keith.

https://australianpreppers.com.au/forum/index.php

A global pandemic WILL happen due to international travel warn experts.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5316429/New-global-pandemics-feared.html

Bugging Out Equipment List. WHAT & WHY.

I decided to post this because when I read lists of other people’s modern equipment for bugging out I often see items that I can’t make sense of. Items that are NOT sustainable & seem of very little use. Some say “well I use this until it breaks & then I throw it away”. The problem with that is that this equipment has taken up room, added weight to the pack, can leave sign to track you by if you don’t dispose of it properly, & meanwhile you could have used this space & weight to either carry a better piece of equipment, or you could have left it out & saved room & weight. If you can afford to throw it away, then you don’t need it in the first place.

Anyway, here is my list. Please feel free to comment, different people sometimes see things in a different way & I like to hear other people’s point of view.

My Equipment List. WHAT & WHY.

.62 cal/20 gauge flintlock fusil. 42 inch barrel.

Why?  Large calibre smoothbore has a lot of knock down power with a round ball, very versatile using bird shot, buckshot, or round ball or a combination of any two of these, able to use other projectiles found in nature, only requires a siliceous rock for ignition which can be found in nature, the lock is easy to repair, if the lock breaks & there are no spare parts I can use it as a matchlock or tinderlock & keep using it, I can use the lock to make fire without the use of gunpowder, I can make my own black powder, I can retrieve spent lead from shot game & reuse it, I can mould my own round ball & shot.

.70 caliber smoothbore flintlock pistol.

Why? Same as above fusil, light to carry, easy to use, good for a back-up & self defence.

Gun tools and spare lock parts.

Why? To keep my firearms working long term.

Shot pouch and contents.

Why? For maintaining & using my firearms.

Leather drawstring pouch of .60 caliber ball (in knapsack).

Why? Back-up supply.

Powder horn.

Why? For carrying gunpowder for immediate use with firearms.

Ball mould, swan shot mould & Lead ladle.

Why? So I can reuse spent lead by remoulding.

5 Gunpowder wallets.

Why? For carrying extra gunpowder, the leather wallet is lighter than a powder horn, once empty they are good for storing spare tinder for fire lighting.

Butcher/Hunting knife.

Why? A good basic working knife made for skinning & butchering game, good self defence knife, long blade but light to carry & use.

Legging knife.

Why? Good back-up knife for hunting & self defence, easy to access, light to use & carry.

Clasp knife.

Why? Good back-up knife, mainly used for camp chores, making kettle hooks, making trap parts, easy to carry.

Tomahawk.

Why? Lighter than a modern hatchet, the helve fits in a round or oval eye & is easy to make in a wilderness situation, the helve can easily be removed to use the head on its own for making a new helve or scraping hides for making leather or rawhide, good for trap making, good for hammering, can be thrown for hunting, defence, offence & entertainment.

Fire bag.

Why? Greased leather waterproof  bag for keeping my tinderbox & contents dry.

Tinderbox.

Why? For preparing plant & fungi tinders for flint & steel fire lighting, contains prepared tinder for fire lighting, is used for fire lighting by striking sparks into the tinderbox.

Flint & Steel. (NOTE: Not a ferocerium rod).

Why? For making fire. This method is sustainable long term.

Belt pouch.

Why? This pouch is carried on the waist belt at all times & contains my fire bag, my fishing tackle container, my sundial compass & my fire steel/striker which is tied to the pouch buckle.

Fishing tackle in brass container.

Why? For fishing & for trapping fowl.

Two brass snares.

Why? Small game snares for trapping .

Roll of brass snare wire.

Spare wire for making small game snares, can be used for making leaders for angling, can be used for repair work.

Knapsack.

Main pack for carrying equipment & food supplies, carries my blanket roll & oil cloth shelter & secures my market wallet.

Scrip.

Why? This haversack is carried just for foraging purposes. I often forage along the trail when trekking.

Market Wallet.

Why? This is secured under the flap closure of my knapsack & is used to carry extra items. This wallet can also be carried indendently.

Tin Cup.

Why? For drinking tea & eating food.

Kettle (Billy Can).

Why? For boiling water for sterilising & making tea, for cooking.

Water filter bags (cotton & linen bags).

Why? For filtering dirty drinking water before boiling, light & compact & easy to carry, unbreakable.

Medical pouch.

Why? Contains medical equipment & supplies, lighter than a hard container, easy to pack & carry in my knapsack near the top.

Housewife.

Why? This is my sewing kit for making repairs to clothing, making moccasins, needles can be used to remove splinters & if necessary to stitch wounds.

Piece of soap and a broken ivory comb.

Why? For bathing & looking after my hair.

Dried foods in bags.

Why? Dried foods are lighter to carry, easy to pack & preserve well for long periods.

Wooden spoon.

Why? For cooking & eating, light to carry.

Compass.

Why? A compass makes it easier to tell direction on very overcast days & nights, makes it easier to maintain a straight direction & travel quicker.

Whet stone.

Why? For keeping my blades sharp, for working on gun lock parts if needed.

Small metal file.

Why? Same as whet stone above.

Oilcloth.

Why? The oil cloth is for making a quick shelter, easy to set up & versatile, enables me to use a fire for cooking & warmth close to my bed, can be used as a rain coat, can be used for water collection, can be used to make a boat, gives me more vision around me & an easy exit if needed.

One pure wool blanket (Monmouth cap, spare wool waistcoat and wool shirt rolled inside blanket).

Why? The blanket roll is easy to carry, does not restrict my movement/escape at night like a sleeping bag will, can be used as a matchcoat, can be used as a Great Coat, retains body warmth even when wet, light to carry.

Spare pair of moccasins.

Why? To wear if my other pair get wet, to wear whilst I make repairs on the other pair, to wear if the other moccasins need replacing & whilst I make a new pair.

Two water canteens.

Why? For carrying drinking water.

Bottle of rum.

Why? Only a small bottle but I like a tot of rum & it helps me relax a little.

Economic Security Equals Personal Security. F.O.A.A.

Not in Australia it wouldn't, "she'll be right mate" !!!!!!!

Economic Security Equals Personal Security.

By Ron | General

WHY DO WE HAVE STARVATION IN A LAND OF PLENTY?

As this site is concerned with our Freedoms, our Rights and our Security, its time to take a broader brush and give a lot of thought to our Economic Security.

Why do we have an economic system that turns the government into an end, instead of a means, and the individual into a means instead of an end?

What has happened to the Constitutional demand that all institutions exist to serve the individual, that the State exists to serve its citizens? Now it appears that the only reason for individuals to exist, is to serve the State.

If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it. The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much. —Ronald Reagan.

Real economic security would mean that individuals in society must have sufficient purchasing power to provide effective demand in order to consume what they produce. Absolute economic security resides in the possession of a sufficient income at all times to buy the goods and services without which their would be no demand, no production and no payments of wages.

We have next to ask, where do wages, and dividends come from? All incomes as purchasing power are distributed into the hands of consumers through the operations of productive industry. All real purchasing power arises in production. It takes the form of wages, salaries and dividends paid directly to individuals engaged in industry or indirectly from them, through taxation, to those bureaucrats and beneficiaries who spend the money we produce. With loans they are spending future income from production. There is no other form of purchasing power in the Western World system of economics.

Why is there never enough purchasing power in our national economy?

Government doesn’t produce, it only consumes and produces a large negative effect. Here are some of the reasons we have poverty amongst the plenty.

In 2015-16 it took $405.4 billion in taxation, but its total expenses for 2015-16 were $434.5 billion, so the balance was a further debt of 29.1 billion. Just paying the interest on that is taking spending’s from our future earnings, or the earnings of our children.

In 2012 Australian Households spent a total of $642 billion on general living costs but in the same year only earned $521.3 billion in wages and income. So again the balance goes in a $120.7 Billion dollar debt which has to be paid from our future earning.

The manufacturing industry in Australia has declined from 30% of GDP in the 1960s to 12% of GDP in 2007. Yet in 2012 we still donated $7.7 billion in Foreign Aid.

From the figures above we can understand that although Australians earn over a Trillion dollars annually their government masters, remove over $400 billion in taxation which is used to pay their governments interest on its debts. (According to a report released in October 2013, the nation’s poverty rate increased from 10.2 per cent to 11.8 per cent, from 2000/01 to 2013.)

The above general formula is endemic to most countries in the Western World, the governments are run in debt to the banks and so to are 90% of there populations.

There is no single cause operating in the western world today which is of such importance and is so fraught with the possibility of world disaster, as is the disparity between purchasing power and prices. The longer it continues, unchecked the more certain and with more speed approaches either Depression, or War, or Both.

What causes that disparity, that lack of spending power? It is simply that when any item is being produced only a part of its final selling price is the wages and income factor. Say with a packet of .22 ammunition, its production can be split into

A. The cost of lead, powder and brass,

B. The cost of wages and dividends,

C. Taxation and Interest.

Only the earnings, wages and dividends goes into the economy to allow income to be spent on purchasing what they produce.

Governments Sell Tomorrow, To Pay For Today.

Taxation and Interest remove money from the economy, so instead of economic security you have economic slavery. All Government spending is borrowed from the four major banks, and all of the Taxation (Government Revenue) goes to pay the Bank interest on the Government Debt. The Governments Principle Debt just increases annually.

Look at your electricity bill only a part of your payment will go back into the economy in wages, the rest will be negatived by government tariffs and interest. Though these costs, representing profits, interest and depreciation, are all loaded into prices, the money to liquidate them is not distributed to the public neither as wages, salaries, nor dividends. So to afford them the public have to borrow from the banks.

Therefore, prices are always greater than the money available to buy them. In other words, there is always a disparity between the flow in the generation of purchasing power and the generation of prices in any one productive period. As can be seen, this is due to accounting all costs into prices without making provision for liquidating all of them.

This is the flaw in the finance-economic system, and is the main cause of all the economic troubles in the world. It is directly traceable to the use of debt for money and to the policies and practices of the monopoly of credit. Under the present financial system, there is no sound means of bridging the gap between purchasing power and prices.

Now I am not suggesting that the current position of some of the people doing well and the majority struggling in debts should be swapped for socialism.

Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979 to 1990, summed up socialism nicely: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

Socialism takes income away from productive people and gives it to non-productive people. When a percentage of your hard-earned money is confiscated, you have fewer choices and a lower standard of living. If a larger amount of money is confiscated in taxation, you’re a slave and your only reason for continuing to work is to lessen the depth of the debt.

Socialism is simply a camouflaged Communism.

The once-mighty USSR fell apart in 1989 due to iron-fisted socialistic policies that destroyed the economy while taking away virtually ALL freedoms from its citizens.

People who have recently visited Cuba report that it’s like time has stopped in 1959 when Castro and communism took over. Literally all the cars on the road were manufactured in, or before, 1959. Cuba today still looks like 1955. Unemployment is 48 percent and 80 percent of those who have jobs work for the government, making Cuba’s economy a disaster.

Venezuela is a bigger disaster, their hospitals are germ-infested trash dumps and they’re currently rioting over food. Venezuela’s hospitals are horrible. In less than 20 years they’ve gone from the most prosperous South American nation to the poorest, all because it elected a socialistic government that did away with good economic policies.

North and South Korea are perfect examples of the difference between a free economy and communism (slavery). In communist North Korea, 2.5 million people starve each year. In capitalistic South Korea, her GDP is the 10th largest in the world.

The application of science and technology to production now enables mankind to ensure a reasonable sufficiency of material needs to all, without continuing economic servitude. But the existing financial system is fundamentally flawed. It is endangering the planet through ruthless exploitation of its limited resources in pursuit of financial profit and its wish for ever greater power over the people.

Industry, to be successful, must get back from the public in the prices of its goods more than it pays out to suppliers of materials and labour involved in their manufacture. Otherwise, it could not make a profit. Then the GST factor takes a great slice out of the available spending power.

As industry by necessity distributes all incomes as purchasing power, where does industry, in its turn, get the money for its infrastructure? A brief examination will show that industry is financed from savings, or from loans or overdrafts from the banking system.

Let us follow logically the results flowing from the disparity in which the producers, wage earners, farmers can never find the money or means of exchange to purchase the goods that they produce and need.

It must be evident at the outset, that in every cycle of production a proportion of the goods must remain unsold. As further cycles are completed, the unsold portions must pile up till it is useless and dangerous to produce more for the time being, so banks restrict credit, production slows down, and men are laid off.

When workers are laid off, wages cease, purchasing power further diminishes, less goods are sold, credit is further restricted or called in and cancelled. There is a rush to sell below cost and bankruptcies occur.

Standards of living now fall rapidly; there is further unemployment; dole conditions and acute depression appear; governments start relief works, and the banks readily lend to governments the credit they refuse to industry. Debt and taxation grow apace. As the spending power decreases much of the surplus goods remains unsold, and we have starvation and poverty in the midst of abundance. Goods are wantonly destroyed by oversized banana, oversized pigs etc. and production is forcibly restricted. With mass unemployment everywhere, we are told to work harder, save more, and spend less. Saving and spending less is also a negative.

Parallel with these manifestations is the struggle to find markets abroad for the goods that cannot be sold at home. As all nations are doing the same thing, and are in the same economic plight from the same cause, this leads to commercial hostility, international friction, and finally and inevitably, to WAR.

Government is not a solution to our problems, government IS the problem…
Government does not solve problems, it is the root source of the main problem. Government gives the nations right to create credit, to the four main‘Banks of Issue’ and allows them to create it and charge us all for the privilege to borrow it from them.

As a simile imagine that all the oil and gas beneath the land mass of Australia, which is really the public credit, or wealth of Australia owned in title by the Commonwealth Government on behalf of all its citizens, was given away to a private company at no charge, and then every time the government, or the people wanted some oil and gas the private company lent it to them and then charged and ever increasing interest rate, plus demanding the full return of the oil and gas.

Current governments have never dealt with the root problem, the monopoly of credit creation by the international banking system, they take the donations from banks into their party election funds and considers themselves lucky. The first government that ever succeeds to handle this problem might never be given an election donation by a Bank but would be elected forever by the people.

The Black Heart of the Problem.

The banks only lend money/credit as a repayable interest-bearing debt, with number one priority over the assets of the borrower, so it is clear that the banks entirely control production in this way. In the national economy of ever increasing disparity between prices and spending power, as loans are paid back and the credit crossed off, and as the interest is paid the spending power within the community decreases, and only increases when the Banks create and issue more debt. The Banks choses who wins and who goes without, who succeeds and who fails.

We have already seen that the money flowing through industry is the only source of purchasing power, so it is also clear that the banks, in controlling production, automatically control consumption as well.

That is to say, the whole economic system is dominated by the banks and, consequently, they dominate the lives and destinies of the people, and dictate the policies of governments. History proves this conclusively.

It must be remembered that the banks have discretionary powers to call in loans and overdrafts even before the goods they brought into existence have been sold, and they sometimes exercise this power with disastrous effects on the community. Now let us go still another step further and ask where do the banks get the money they lend to industry, and which gives them control of the community.

The answer is again quite simple:

THEY CREATE IT.
In the terse phrase of the English economist, Sir Ralph George Hawtrey, “They create the means of payment out of nothing.” The money so created is called bank credit, but it really is the public credit, like the oil and gas under our feet, it belongs to all of us.

Banks do not lend the money deposited with them by their clients as most people suppose. Every bank loan or overdraft is an absolute creation of new credit and this credit functions as money.

When cheques are drawn against this credit, they come back into the banking system and form deposits. Practically all deposits are created in this way. Instead of deposits being used by the banks to create loans, as is generally believed, the loans are book figures, (or electronic) and real money or credit has to be deposited to write the loan off the books.

The actual creation of bank credit is an almost costless operation as it consists merely of written entries in bank ledgers or computers, and made effective by written entries in cheque books, or credit cards. Banking, is mostly bookkeeping. Finance is mostly accountancy, and money is mostly figures.

Though bank credit is supposed to be issued against the security of the borrower, it is really issued against the productive capacity and the real or “social” credit created by the communities wealth as a whole. The banks, however, treat this community credit as though they are the sole owners, and are thus in the unique position of being able to lend something they do not own, and of being well paid for it.

As banks have the sole privilege of creating and issuing money in this way, they thus constitute a monopoly of credit that functions as money which keeps the whole community, to whom the credit rightly belongs, in subjection through debt. This monopoly of credit or money creation is the greatest power ever vested in any institution in the history of the world.

The economy should exist to provide people, as efficiently as possible, with the goods and services that they need to survive and flourish. That is, production exists for the sake of consumption, not for the sake of money-making, employment, satisfying the creative impulse, or ‘moral’ discipline (considered as ends in themselves). It most certainly does not exist for the sake of centralizing wealth and power in the hands of a Banking oligarchic elite.
Ron Owen

The Way Out, and the way to Freedom will be in next months bulletin.

 http://www.foaa.com.au/economic-security-equals-personal-security/

Are You Really Serious About Surviving TEOTWAWKI ?

(Foreword: This article is not supposed to be a blow for blow account of what I think you should carry, it is simply an article to make you think seriously about what it is you are trying to prepare for. To make you think about the items that you may NEED, rather than the items you would LIKE to carry but are not really necessary. If you seriously think that I am wrong, and you think that what you are doing is right, then there is no argument from me, each to their own. This is my personal perspective of the fraternity in general, having read many forums, Australian English and American).

Only A Matter Of Time, By Robert Griffing.

Are You Really Serious About Surviving TEOTWAWKI ?

I ask this question because no matter how much I write, no matter how many questions I answer, people keep coming back with the same questions. So called preppers and survivalists , at least the majority of them, are more interested in modern gadgetry, modern firearms, freeze dried foods, military webbing and camo clothing than they are about actual survival. If TEOTWAWKI actually happens, for the average household, the average family, couples and singles, this is not going to be a walk in the park, nor is it going to be a military exercise where there will be frequent supply drops of food and ammunition.

You will be on your own ; No more food supplies, no more modern ammunition, no more medical supplies, no more batteries. Some say well I have a solar charger and it does not weigh much and takes up hardly any room. Well fine, but what do you need the batteries for? A radio? A torch? Are they really that important to you? You are having to “Bug-Out” into an unknown wilderness where food and water may be in short supply, and you think that a radio and a torch are important items to carry to help in your survival?

If you want to join a survival/prepping forum so you can talk about your favourite interest, fine, but don’t kid yourself that all that gear you are showing everyone is going to save your life. Your clothes will wear out, your footwear will wear out. If you use a modern firearm for hunting and self-defence, your ammo will run out. That Rambo knife you purchased will eventually break if you keep battening it to split wood, and when you try to skin and butcher game, you may find it is blunt. Do you have a back-up blade? Is it any better suited to the task in hand than the survival Rambo knife?

When packing your Bug-out bag or knapsack or whatever, you will have to compromise between two principles, minimum weight, and maximum self-reliance. I will say that again so you fully understand it’s importance; MINIMUM WEIGHT, and MAXIMUM SELF-RELIANCE. Do you know what you will be looking for in your new home? Do you know what tools you will need to make your shelter, gardens, toilet area, drying racks for clothes and meat?

Have you ever been in this situation before? You will have to sleep light, listening for any unusual sounds. A radio playing will mask those sounds and may cost you your life, or someone else’s life. Shining a torch around at night could bring unwelcome company, get used to seeing in the dark. What are you going to use your multi-tool for? Think about it. All that you need are some very basic tools IF you are serious about survival. Don’t carry items that are likely to breakdown and can not be repaired. A bow is a good hunting tool, but you don’t need a compound bow that requires special arrows and a special string.

Woodsmen and woods-women survived in the 18^th century wilderness long term, and generations did this for hundreds of years. Think about that. What did they carry? A flintlock gun, a good hunting/butcher knife, maybe a legging knife for a back-up, and a clasp knife for camp chores and making traps. A tomahawk did the heavier cutting work when making shelters, and it was/is a good tool for self-defence. Learn how to throw your tomahawk and it also becomes a tool for recreation, and hunting if needs be. A few simple tools and spare parts will keep your flintlock serviceable for a life time. Flint, steel and tinderbox are also reliable methods of renewable fire lighting in all weather conditions.

I am not saying don’t take a modern firearm, I am saying don’t take a modern firearm at the expense of carrying a better hunting tool. If you have a partner that can afford to carry a modern firearm and ammo, fine. It will make a good tool for self-defence. Take a good modern medical kit too, and remember to carry plenty of vitamins and any personal medications. Think about what will be most useful to you in a long term wilderness situation. Gun or bow, ammunition, gun tools, water, food, flint and steel, knives, tomahawk, moccasins that you can make yourself, the knowledge to tan hides and make simple clothing items, clothing with no stress points that will last a long time, fishing tackle, a kettle for cooking food and sterilizing water, rope for trail snares, brass picture wire for small game snares, copper wire for gun repairs, a wooden spoon for cooking and eating, soap, hair comb, sewing kit, water filtration bags, a solar still, a canvas for shelter, a good wool blanket, extra clothing for cold nights, gunpowder, lead, ball and shot moulds, lead ladle. Is there anything here that you are prepared to sacrifice for the sake of carrying some modern gadget that is not renewable, that is not really NEEDED?

If I should find that I still have room to carry more, and I can handle the weight, I can think of far more important things to carry than a multi-tool or radio or torch or any number of fancy gadgets. I would be carrying more water, more dried foods, more gunpowder and more lead. IF you are serious about survival, don’t waste this opportunity to choose the right gear for the job in hand. If you are making a b.o.b for your teenager, explain to them why it is important that they carry more food instead of that radio or their mobile phone. Walking along a trail with ear phones blaring music is a sure way to get yourself killed, you won’t hear the warning, you won’t hear what’s coming, use your head.

Now spread out all the gear you have, and give it an honest appraisal. Do you NEED it? Will it help save your life? Is there anything that you should be carrying more of instead of that item? Anyone can make excuses for carrying certain items that are not really needed, but the fact is that they all add up. They all take up room and together they add weight. How many early pioneers finished up ditching furniture, clocks and luggage trunks along the trail? Many of them. Because the trail was long, and at every mile the weight seemed to increase for the horses carrying or pulling this load, it increased for every person carrying too much on their backs. This survival scenario is serious stuff. If you genuinely believe, that in your lifetime TEOTWAWKI situation may arise, then get serious, ditch the rubbish now, don’t wait for the trail so you can leave items behind to help other people follow your trail.

DO NOT assume that you will be driving your vehicle all the way to your destination, you can’t possible know or guarantee this. You may have to ditch your vehicle along the way to your retreat, and if you were to drive your vehicle all the way into the virgin bush, you will be leaving a trail for unwanted company to follow all the way to your hideout. Only take what you can carry on your backs. It may have to be heavy, you may have to take frequent rest stops even if you have kept everything not needed out of your pack.

If you are in company, in a group, then think about what people can carry. Lead scouts need to be able to defend themselves and the group, same with the rear guard and the flankers. Some may need to carry a few personal items, such as a knife, a bow, and a tomahawk. Other than that they will be carrying; food supplies, medical supplies, gunpowder, lead, water. If you are carrying a muzzle-loading gun, then less lead is needed, and you can carry more gunpowder instead. Make sure you have a good mix of archers, muzzleloaders and modern firearms in your group. The bows and muzzle-loading guns are mainly for hunting and back-up defence if required. The modern firearms are purely for defence, nothing else, and long term they are not to be relied upon. You simply can not carry enough ammo for a modern firearm, and you can’t afford the weight of reloaders, nor can you rely on the continued good condition of primers.

So which is it to be, an activity that you enjoy doing but are not seriously expecting to have to face TEOTWAWKI in your lifetime, or if you believe that a SHTF situation could arise for real, are you going to get serious about your survival and the survival of your family?
Keith.