As preppers, we accumulate and stockpile stuff. In fact it’s what we’re most famous for – the public perception of preppers is people with an arsenal of guns and a basement full of canned beans.
In fact a lot of prepping is about acquiring skills and knowledge, but collecting and storing items is important, too. Without food, water and tools it gets pretty difficult to survive any sort of real crisis.
Not everything preppers like to stockpile is equally valuable, though. Have you ever read a discussion or article and wondered exactly why people are so focused on making sure they have enough mousetraps to last until Judgment Day? I certainly have.
So, just to provoke some thoughts and maybe start some helpful discussions, I’ve made a list of the top prepping items I think are massively overrated. Here we go:
Guns
OK, let’s get the controversial one out of the way first: You don’t need a bunch of guns!
One of my first introductions to preparedness and survival was reading Jerry Ahern’s “Survivalist” novels back when I was a teenager.
The protagonist, John Rourke, routinely carried five guns on him. Many years later – including 15 as a professional soldier – I just have to laugh at that.
Carrying two rifles and three handguns is certainly possible, but it’s also pretty uncomfortable and completely unnecessary.
Honestly, even owning five guns is unnecessary from a prepping point of view.
Related: Guns Preppers Need To Buy Before The Upcoming Gun Ban
If you enjoy shooting and collecting them that’s great, but if your main interest in guns is how they’ll help you stay alive after TEOTWAWKI don’t go down that road.
What you need is one good gun, and the first choice has to be an AR15-style rifle. It’s ideal for self-defense, and you can also hunt small and medium game with it. Get one chambered for 5.56mm, because there are billions of rounds of that caliber in the US (plus a lot of .223 that will work in it too).
If you have the budget and inclination you can get a good high-capacity 9mm handgun too (for the same reason – it’s the easiest ammo to find), but remember, for every handgun you carry you could have two extra rifle magazines instead (sorry, John Rourke).
If you don’t fancy a rifle, go for a pump shotgun with a 20” slug barrel. Then, instead of buying more guns, buy more ammo for the one you have. You can never have enough ammo. You can definitely have enough guns.
Multitools
I’ll qualify this and say I don’t mean all multitools here. A good Leatherman is a really handy thing to have.
Unfortunately I can’t say the same for all the multitools that masquerade as bracelets, credit cards, snowflakes and other unlikely objects that are sold online for $9.95.
Either get a Leatherman or carry a good, solid pocket knife with a locking blade; either will be a lot more useful than a gadget that tries to squeeze usable tools into something that fits a credit card slot in your wallet.
Faraday Cages
When it comes to protecting your electronics from the threat of an EMP, the traditional Faraday cage might seem like the go-to solution. But let’s face it: they’re bulky, unwieldy, and frankly, not as reliable as we’d hope.
That’s why I wish more people knew about the EMP Cloth. This cloth was developed after years of extensive research by top U.S. scientists and it provides 98% military-grade protection against electromagnetic waves. You can cover everything in it – as long as you’ve got enough of them – from credit cards, laptop, a fridge and even your car!
The thing is, the EMP Cloth isn’t always available. They don’t restock them that often because they’re pretty hard to produce, so it took YEARS for me to finally get my hands on it. I found a reliable website to order it from, as I wanted to make sure the material is the right one. I recommend you secure your own cloth from here. It’s a rare find and not many people get to own it, which is a shame.
Wheat
I’ve heard a lot of people say you should buy wheat instead of flour because it lasts longer. That’s true; it does, and it’s cheaper too.
On the other hand it takes a lot of work to turn your wheat stockpile into flour when you actually need it.
Is it worth it? I don’t think so.
Just bake your own bread and rotate your flour stockpile. Honestly, the chances of you stockpiling so much flour that it seriously deteriorates before you’ve used it all are pretty remote anyway.
Emergency Food Buckets
We’ve all seen them advertised: Those big plastic buckets that promise 60 or 80 or 120 meals. They’re not cheap, but they look like a good idea: For just $430 you can get 120 servings of freeze-dried food with a 25-year shelf life.
Well, the food’s usually OK, and it can definitely be stored safely for years, but when you see the actual serving size they base their claims on you might not be so impressed.
If you go with the recommended serving sizes you’re going to be hungry – and after a few days of hard work in an emergency situation, you’re going to be tired and weak.
I just looked at a 60-serving bucket that contains 22,240 calories. That’s 370 calories per serving. If you eat three entrees a day you’ll be on a grand total of 1,110 calories. That’s starvation level. And this bucket claims its serving sizes are “1.5 to 2 times larger than competing packages”.
Instead of relying on those overhyped survival food buckets with their meager serving sizes and inflated claims, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I turned to this guide to craft my own survival food solutions.
With over 100 recipes tailored for long-lasting storage without refrigeration, it became my go-to resource to create meals that truly satisfied and sustained me during challenging situations. So, rather than relying on inflated promises and underwhelming servings, I took charge of my prepping by preparing real, nourishing food using this invaluable guide.
Body Armor
Body armor is great at reducing fatalities from small arms fire, fragmentation and terrorist Improvised Explosive Devices.
It’s also expensive, heavy, hot, uncomfortable, awkward if you’re trying to do physical work, and of limited use in a survival situation.
Body armor won’t do anything if you’re hit in the limbs or head, and it’s really only proof against rifle fire if the bullet hits the chest or back plates. Most of your torso is not covered by the plates.
Rifle bullets will rip right through almost all soft body armor, and you’ll still end up with a wound that needs urgent medical attention that, when the SHTF, you’re not going to get. For a soldier in combat it makes sense. For a prepper, it just doesn’t.
Baby Wipes
Unless these are individually sealed they dry out. They’re also expensive for what they are, and seem to be better at spreading dirt around than actually removing it.
A cloth, some water – hot if possible, but it doesn’t have to be – and a bar of good old-fashioned soap will do a much better job.
Button Compasses
I keep seeing tiny compasses included in those survival bracelets woven out of 550 cord, or embedded in the pommels of survival knives – because of course the best place to keep a small, unbalanced compass is right next to a pound of steel.
Related: 5 Maps You Should Have at Home
Unless you’re a shot-down aviator trying to escape from enemy troops, through a forest, at night and in a blizzard, they’re not really much of a navigational aid. Learn how to find north using your watch and the sun; that’s more accurate and reliable.
Gold/Precious Metals
Imagine the scene: Refugees from the nearby city are streaming past your home. One of them is carrying a can of 5.56mm ammo, and you’d like to barter with him for a couple of hundred rounds – after all, you can never have too much ammo for your gun, right? So you talk to him, pull a small bar of gold from your pocket and offer to trade it for some ammunition.
There’s just one problem; he’s hungry, and he can’t eat gold. What he wants is food.
Unless you plan to spend the years after the apocalypse running an electronics factory, gold is basically useless.
It might come into its own after a few years when a real economy starts rebuilding himself, and it certainly has a role to play in protecting your wealth from a currency collapse, but for barter in a SHTF scenario it’s a waste of time. When people are focused on staying alive today, they have no use for gold or other precious metals.
Freezers
OK, I admit it, I keep a lot of prepared meals in the freezer.
None of that plays any role in my survival planning, though, because I just can’t guarantee that I can keep the freezer running in a crisis.
I think I can, but I’m not sure. So I won’t be relying on it for my next meal.
Tactical Knives
A good knife is an essential survival tool – but why does it have to be “tactical”? Actual soldiers don’t carry tactical knives; they like strong, simple blades that can hold an edge and pry open crates without breaking.
What you want in a knife is a sturdy blade, four to seven inches long, that’s made of good steel and is suitable for processing a deer, cutting string and being batoned through a small log.
A good hunting or bushcraft knife, or something like a USMC combat knife, is just fine. “Tactical” implies combat, and if knife fighting plays any part in your survival plans I have some bad news for you – you’re not going to survive.
As I hope I made clear, I’m not saying all these things are useless. Most of them have at least some uses, and in general you’re better having them than not having them.
However, I just don’t think they’re as important as many preppers seem to think. I’m sure a lot of readers are going to disagree with me, though, so don’t be shy about making your feelings known!
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Better get everything there is right now.
Get 2 or 3 or 2oo guns.
Get more and more.
Don’t stop until they make you stop.
Don’t like this article.
It sounds like there telling us to not prep as much.
Remember, only YOU, will know how much you will need.
Don’t stop prepping, get as much as you can…
stay sharp
The time is near
False teachers , false leaders , people who tell yu to do the opposite
this article is like the last few
Do what you think to be right
not what the left who have not clue tell you
what you have, keep , use is what you want
all tradable , all reusable , all for your benifit
if you live rural or away from the citys you will have a chance
if you live in the citys you will be at war for life, for daily survival ,and scared beyond belief
look at all the countries around the world and the lies, fake beliefs, false teaching , outright Godless ways of thinking they follow
Think like you have a brain , not like the idiots of society in the schools
in respect to this article
anything you have or save or keep at this pt is not wasted effert
you can trade, use , reuse or rebuild with any part you have
remember once collapse starts , not one thing in the sheme of things will matter
it will be exponential collapse
and greed, theft , crime , lawlessness will abound , just like the days of noah when a true, loving , holy righteous God say have evil , wicked, and bad mankind had become
Well this is the sequence of event to come :
1. disasaster , failure, collapse
2. man will go into evil mode , try to get all they can on the way down
3. as the sinking , distruction begins , man will commit atricities
4. then mankind will curse God for thier own choices, what they caused , actions
5. as this is happening everything will be a commody for the survival of thier lust , perversion, evil intent of thier heart
6. as in the days of noah , you will have to separate your self for society due to thier evil intent and banding together
They the evil will look at everyone they meet as an opportunity to get, take, steel , all they can for thier own survival .
God has warned you all , and mankind has chosen FAKE , FALSE , Religeons of self, pleasure, godless ways to satisfy thier own ego, pride, daily lust for more .
Because of the intent of mankind will be so evil they will band together and form an alliance of fake , fasle gods who serve thier self . with out God
they will hate truth , hate true christians, hate Godly people , and not repent
this is fortold in the bible prophecies
then the end will come , thier judgement , Gods wrath
But the rapture will precide this . and when that which hold back evil and all that practice evil , then this will happen . God s Holy Spirit which indwells all who invite God into thier life and repent , change, turn to God , for Forgiveness of sin and new life , thru Jesus Christ , savior John 14: all explains
I think storing wheat berries as opposed to flour is better because once you grind wheat, a lot of the enzymes are lost if the flour is not used right away.
Having flour on hand is much more convenient, but freshly grinding the wheat berries then using that flour right away makes for more nutritionally dense food.
Mbl, I agree completely and being able to grind wheat, corn, or any of the grains that I store makes me feel more prepared. Having my Country Living mill is just part of my being more prepared and for a longer time than some other people.
I agree with the author that certain items are high on the “Must Have” list. I would urge quality. Know steels. the 3crv13 knife is junk no matter how gussied up it is. You can find how good the steel is in the knife you are eyeing by going on line and looking up the steel. Many good steels are not stainless. That doesn’t mean they are junk. It does mean that one must clean them assiduously after use or they will rust. If you are bugging out, yeah, you can’t haul all of your “stuff” even if you have an armored up duce and a half. If you are bugging in, there is no such thing as too much stuff. If you are creative you can figure out a use for the most unlikely items. Did you know the little rings that come on various bottles under the cap can be used in a makeshift tourniquet? If our wipes are dried out, a little water added to the package will bring them back to life. That is first hand knowledge, not theory. I have been using wipes to clean my invalid wife for the past four years. If the item is very cheap or included in the price of the item you are buying, I keep it unless doing so is a major chore. Jars with lids will become useful trade items after the collapse when everyone is done smashing all the bottles and jars to vent their rage. Even plastic jars and bottles will become valuable. Look for big mouth jars and bottles. Mayonnaise jars are good example. Need something with a water tight lid to put the extra soup you made in? A mayonnaise jar will do the job. So will pickle jars that have a big mouth. I put them in the plastic bags that are in the produce department and close the bag with the twist ties that are also available there. The cost is de minimus and is included in the price of the produce. A clean trash bag placed in a back pack and closed with a twist tie makes a large water carrier. Even a couple small produce bags, doubled with a twist tie will carry water in a back pack. The best thing you can have is any emergency is a creative mind that is flexible and able to think out of the box.
I pretty much disagree with the entire article.
Article seems reasonable to me. Obviously if you have unlimited funds then buy everything you can if you so choose. To me this is a great list to build a solid foundation for a survival situation.
Is this supposed to be one of those “satire” articles, that tells you the opposite of common sense and good advice? I hope nobody takes this as serious advice.