While many people have taken the time and expense to protect their families and homes in case of a disaster. They may have missed a few key components that will leave them surprisingly unprepared. By providing you my tried and tested Best Prepper Tips, you should be able to avoid the common prepper mistakes made my many. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Sometimes even the prepared and well-intention prepper forgets this basic prepper tips below.
Best Prepper Tips
1. Neglecting To Train
You can have the largest and most expensive stockpile of survival gear and weapons in the world. But if you don’t educate yourself on how to use them, they will be worthless. Arrange training sessions in which you and your family practice some easy survival skills. Go for a hike with your packs on and try swimming while carrying the equivalent weight of a body. Even practice evacuating your home in an organized manner so that everyone is ready when the time comes.
Make sure that you know how to use the survival stove and water filtration systems that you’ve purchased. Would you actually know what to do with that gas mask in your basement quickly enough for it to be effective? Regularly train with any weapons that you own so that you are comfortable handling and using them. An emergency situation is not the time to familiarize yourself with your firearm.
2. Stockpiling Everything In One Place
Disaster can come in a variety of forms. You may need to get home from work, hunker down at your home or hit the road to a safer location. A failure to prepare for all these scenarios can leave you stuck. While sometimes the safest place to be is at your main residence, which should be adequately stockpiled. But staying put may not always be possible.
Your vehicles should be supplied with a car bug-out bag containing dried food, water, a tactical knife, flashlights and other basic supplies. Don’t neglect to consider the weather when packing your bag. While you may not need a heavy parka and boots for the half hour commute in your car in winter weather. You will if you are walking home because roads have become impassable.
If possible, have a secondary bug-out location prepared in case your home is not a safe place. This could be a cabin in the woods or even a cache of supplies at the homes of relatives or friends who live in different areas than you.
3. Being Medically Unprepared
Having food, water and ammo is a good place to star, but medical knowledge is essential to surviving a disaster situation. Your prepper supply should include first aid and medical supplies and the knowledge to use them correctly. Taking a basic first aid class to learn how to dress wounds, treat injuries and practice CPR is a good idea. Don’t just keep the basics in your medical bag.
With the possibility that medical care may be unavailable, you may be required to treat yourself or others in ways beyond the norm. Be sure to include antiseptic and antibiotics as well as sterile needles in case stitching is required. Common ailments such as diarrhea and allergies can become big problems without medicine. So don’t forget to include them in each bag. Be sure to pack potassium iodide which will protect you and your family against thyroid cancer in the case of a nuclear reactor accident or detonation of a nuclear weapon.
4. Not Having Adequate Survival Skills
Do you know how to start a fire and maintain it with just matches? How to build a shelter from scratch? What about the use of a compass? These are all skills that you may need to use in a disaster scenario, even if you have a bug-out location. Watch videos online or take a class on basic wilderness survival skills and practice them until you are comfortable. Roads could be blocked, forcing your family to trek to your location and this skill set can keep you alive
This also brings up a point that many preppers don’t consider, which is their physical fitness. You may have a pack that is filled with every supply needed for a three-day walk. However, if you can’t carry it, it will do you no good. Get yourself in shape by hiking with your full pack throughout the year. You may get a few odd looks from the neighbors, but the added weight will help you build muscle and endurance.
Take a self-defense class to protect yourself during a disaster scenario. Even if you have weapons at your home, you may not have one with you when disaster strikes. When people are in a panicked state, they act irrationally. Don’t risk your chances of survival by assuming you will always be armed.
5. Under-Preparing For Life Without Internet
It only takes a bad snowstorm or hurricane to lose power and the endless supply of information and entertainment that the internet contains. Have hard copies of the information you might need on hand. Whether that means purchasing books or printing out information and collecting it in a three-ring binder.
These hard copies should include directions on how to use all of your survival gear and weapons. Have a list of local resources that you may be able to utilize in the case of disaster, such as areas of fresh water. Old-fashioned paper maps could be invaluable to you in the case of a long-term electrical outage.
You may be planning to hunt for food when your emergency supplies run low. But have you ever butchered a deer before? If not, having a step-by-step guide will be invaluable. The same can be said for gardening. Keep a disaster and suvival planning book along with seeds that you have stored.
A medical book that describes common ailments and their causes and treatments should be in your emergency supplies. Include with this a book of herb identification and herbal remedies. When the medicine cabinets are bare, nature can provide a fix for many illnesses if you know where to look and how to use them.
Best Prepper Tips Conclusion
If you are a prepper who has checked the boxes when it comes to basics such as food, water and weapons. But not considered some of the other ways that you will be affected during a disaster. You have the opportunity to correct that now. Take notice of this list of the best prepper tips and enroll in that class, buy that book and schedule some survival training. Practice today so you are prepared tomorrow.