# Do You Prep Alone Or With A Group?



## C5GUY (Mar 22, 2012)

First of all let me give you all some background on my prepping history. I grew up in a pretty rural area and the only access into our home was over a bayou that frequently had the bridge washed out for sometimes over a week or more and also it was pretty normal to lose our electrical power for up to 10 days at a time. We grew or raised much of what we ate and never gave it a second thought. Fast forward many years and I always felt more secure with spare flashlights, food, water and firepower. Then came 9/11 and my entire outlook on my world changed that day and I knew that I owed it to my family to be as prepared for the worse and started prepping in ernest. For many years I kept my prepping a secret except to my wife and 1 of my 4 grown kids and never gave it a thought to do different. Then a few years ago I bumped into an old friend of mine that had moved into my area and quite by accident we finally figured out that we were both heavy into prepping and between us we had a large amount of supplies, arms and ammo and identical thoughts on survival in the case of SHTF. After tossing around some worse case scenarios we knew that our survival percentages would increase significantly with a larger group of like minded people. First of all just the concept of security of our base would be better served with more people. Imagine trying to stay awake or alert 24/7 with just 2 or 3 people versus a group of 5 or 6. About 2 1/2 years ago we had a family meeting and we discussed the future with the entire family. Now our core group includes 6 men, 5 women and also 6 children. Of this group most, but not all bring needed talent to the entire group. All will pull together and all will perform their assigned tasks, but of this group there are only 2 that in my opinion already possess the actual ability to take another person's life to protect the group and only 5 of the group can handle firearms and ammo and 1 of these is my wife. At first blush it appears that the others in the group would be an hinderance to the entire group and maybe even drag the group down. Then we made a list of other talents that these others can bring into the group and other than being a warm body that can tote, carry, garden, or cook they are also computer/electrical nerds and have medical training and woodworking experience. I guess my point of the looonnggg post is two fold: (#1) A larger group has a much better chance of long term survival than a small one. (#2) Most people have talents that you will be glad to have if SHTF lasts over a few weeks. Now I am wondering how many of you have a group or do you plan on going it alone even if things last for a long time??


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Alone.
I do not see a raider band/inner city zombie uprising/ end of the world scenario happening out here in the boonies.
I do not believe the economy will suddenly collapse overnight either, but a slow sinking.
Groups = trouble. Even in Vietnam not everyone was on the same page and not everyone had their head on straight. 
And to deal with others that had never even been trained in teamwork concepts? No thanks.

Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Myself, i have prepped alone for over 3 decades.
I do have friends who i have convinced that is what the need to do. They follow my lead on what is needed.
Most are leo's, myself, a retired leo. The objective is for everyone to gather what they need and if the shtf they will make their way here. 
There will be a total of 15 of us with kids not included. Half have swat training and some of us prior combat tours. 
By coincidence all are weapons are of the same calibers.


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## shotlady (Aug 30, 2012)

im alone. i have a friend who suposed has a group. im unsure about even grouping with him as our direction differs. i dont see anyone. i am aware of a coupla other acquatANces prepping or they are yer basic gun and ammo hoarders. not sure thier angle.
i jsut havent really found anyone. and thats scary as 1 is none and 2 is one i wish i could say i had a solid group. but i dont.


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## JAGER (Oct 10, 2012)

I'm preeping alone kind of, but I have 3 families that prep as well (Not to my extreme as I, but enough) and I've served in Combat zones with all 3 of the men. We have very similar weapons and we all know how to use them minus my tree hugging wife! She can lock and load, but I'm not sure she can pull the trigger unless her backs in the corner and our Daughter is behind her. I believe that a group will last longer than and individual if you bug in. Now bugging out, the odds are against you. I plan on bugging in and If I can spend 12 months with these guys in Iraq with no clean water, very little food and no power. I can live in my big house, with solar power, plenty food and 3 springs (1 in which is ran into my house) of 100% clean water. Yeah I'll take my chances.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

shotlady said:


> im alone. I have a friend who suposed has a group. Im unsure about even grouping with him as our direction differs. I dont see anyone. I am aware of a coupla other acquatances prepping or they are yer basic gun and ammo hoarders. Not sure thier angle.
> I jsut havent really found anyone. And thats scary as 1 is none and 2 is one i wish i could say i had a solid group. But i dont.


one of the hardest things is to find like minded people.
You mention prepping and you are looked at like you have three eyes. 
A useful tool is to reference katrina and sandy, shows what a failure big gov. Is. 
My nearest neighbors have me get them storage food when i get mine. They let me decide the product. 
Most guys you find in gun stores are just gun hoarders, have little of anything else put away. Use prepping as a justifier.
A great way to find out if someone is a prepper is to ask, how do i store -------? Watch the b.s. Come out. 
If you get a reasonable answer, ask another question. Act as a threshold novice, not a survival expert.
Persue it if you feel comfortable with the person. This also avoids flags for fed snoops to see.


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## WVTactics (Mar 26, 2012)

I prep alone at the moment.. I am slowly bringing it visible to other members of my family so they could either comfort me or hate the idea. I do this because I want to do this and I need to do this for my family. So I guess what I am trying to say is, I am alone at the moment but I am currently opening my mind to new things. Do I want a group?? Yes, I am a tactical guy and I love being prepared for the worse. So that is my opinion on that subject. Thanks for reading my rambles


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

I'm a natural-born loner and could happily go it alone in a short-term disaster, but if it was a longterm disaster I'd have no choice but to try to join a farming-type community so we could all pull together to stay alive through a many-years-long nuclear winter or whatever.
An ideal group would consist of individuals with skills in agriculture, hunting, fishing, trapping, butchery, cooking, guns, medicine, first aid, brewing, foraging experts for berries/nuts/fruit/mushrooms, engineers, mechanics, electronics and radio experts etc.
I can't do anything on that list and no group would want me, so i'd be forced to go it alone anyway, ha ha!
But the advantage of being a Lone Survivor is that whatever food you do manage to find won't have to be shared with anybody because a single person could probably live on a couple of carrots a day..
This graphic shows how a food stockpile dramatically reduces by half with just one extra mouth to feed, so if the pile had to feed a whole bunch of people it'd last just a couple days.
The moral is- a big group might sound good on paper, but they better make damn sure they can produce enough food to feed everybody..


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## nadja (May 1, 2012)

I totally agree with RicePaddyDaddy on this one. I also am a vet from the mid to late 60's, and also have found that a lot of people have their heads screwed on backwards. 
I also live very rural and don't play well with others. My wife and I don't have all the bases covered, but I am as sure as Rice that we can fix that in a few minutes or even one long day. Also, have never been comfortable trusting my life to many other people. 
And as Lucky Jim shows very well, it takes more food for more people. More land to break up, plow, fertilize, more seeds, and especially water, which is very scarace up here where I am. Dogs would be my very early warning, as their noses and ears cannot be fooled. Then, second alarm system is very carefully placed wireless driveway alerts. Then there is me. Again, I don't play well with others, and don't like surprise visits. And that is after you have come 26 miles from the nearest town and the last 6 miles are dirt road after dirt switch back roads. Then the old wagon trail. Remote, nasty and hidden


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## whoppo (Nov 9, 2012)

shotlady said:


> im alone. i have a friend who suposed has a group. im unsure about even grouping with him as our direction differs. i dont see anyone. i am aware of a coupla other acquatANces prepping or they are yer basic gun and ammo hoarders. not sure thier angle.
> i jsut havent really found anyone. and thats scary as 1 is none and 2 is one i wish i could say i had a solid group. but i dont.


You've got all of us


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

nadja said:


> ..Then there is me. Again, I don't play well with others..


Me neither, UNLESS I'M IN CHARGE..
For example I was an admin/mod at The Few Good Men wargaming/military discussion club (with the name Poor Old Spike), and quite liked it even though I was only second-in-command.
I ran the place single-handed for a few years while the Big Boss was at work or down the pub but then he went bananas and kept making bad decisions and overuling me so I walked out, and I'd also walk out of any badly-run SHTF survival group too.










PS- I was perhaps a little too hard on myself when I said earlier that no survival group would want me because I've got no survival skills.
Fact is, my skill is as a PLANNER, able to see the big picture in all situations and adapt, improvise and overcome accordingly.
It's kept me alive on PC wargame battlefields for 10 years so I must be doing something right..


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## Daazy (Oct 11, 2012)

We have a group. Really defined rules about how much food everyone has to have stored, etc. We also have rules about which weapons we need and calibers and also how much ammo we have stored. It's nothing crazy, just making sure we could make it for the short term without having to do too much 'running around' to get supplies. I understand the reasoning behind not having a group, but I think it would be crazy scary long term. Especially for a family group with kids, or anyone past the age of 45 or so when medical things start to crop up. The one thing we all decided across the board, is that everyone over the age of 12 needs to have decent firearm skills. Some of us, of course, are real experts with military or other 'gun' backgrounds. Also, we have really got the medical stuff covered, because in our estimation that's going to be one of the biggest needs. We have a trauma surgeon, a family practitioner, a pharmacist, a dentist, and two nurses. We also have two farmers, a professional dog trainer and an electrical engineer. Many of our group are ex-military, two of them are married doctors who met in the Army. That's 5 couples. Between us we have 8 children ranging in age from 2-14. We have an agreed upon location to meet at for both 'staying in the city' or 'getting out of dodge' scenarios. For our group, in a long term situation, we could provide a lot of medical services to other groups as 'trading' options. And we will also be able to take care of ourselves pretty well. We all know each other really well though, and this isn't some random group of people we put together who have no 'history'. We actually hang out with each other all the time. We didn't start out as a 'prepping' group, that's just a happy by-product of us all being like minded people.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

*"You need us, we need you"*
This clip from Survivors explores how mutual support might be a good thing after 95 percent of the earths population has been wiped out by plague-






*PS*- I'd rate Survivors as the best survival series i've ever seen, it first aired on Brit TV in 1975.
I watched all 38 episodes again on youtube earlier this year (type 'Survivors 1975) into your youtube search box or buy it on DVD.
(Don't get it mixed up with the krap 2000's remake)


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## preppermama (Aug 8, 2012)

I'm not a Vet, but I am on board with what Nadja and RPD are saying. Honestly, I just don't like other people enough to prep with them and keep my emotional walls pretty high for some very good reasons. George Carlin once said inside the heart of every cynic is a disappointed idealist. I am definitely the disappointed idealist and have lost a lot of faith in our government and society at large. I'm a happy loner here.


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## glhadiator (Nov 9, 2012)

Alone or as a Group?

This is something we should all think about before the SHTF. There are of course pros and cons to each. Many of them will only apply to specific conditions or scenarios. But if you decide or have already decided to go with the group thing you should do some reading up on group dynamics. I know, I know some of you are saying to yourself that you don't need to worry about that because you already have a group and you get along great.

What is important here is what happens to the group after the SHTF. Every group must have a leader. And in every group one or more in the group think they can do a better job. That's human nature and group dynamics at play. Things like this can splinter the group. What was a well thought out plan now puts you in danger.

When everything goes crazy people will act irrational because they are afraid. And if they for some reason feel they must act for their own welfare they will. Even if that act means killing someone in the group. This could be the person you played bridge with for 20 years or your best friend.

I think that each person must decide if they would be better off in a group. Simply make two lists.

What I need to survive What a group offers for survival

Then compare the two lists. Cross off anything that is duplicated. Then decide if you can go it alone or need a group.

I'm going at it with just the family.


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## Retronatrix (Nov 14, 2012)

Right now I prep alone though my bestie is also getting in to prep as well. We're both hoping to find more people interested in survival and prep, though out here in MT there's already a good amount of people who could already survive on the skills they know.


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## fedorthedog (Feb 28, 2012)

I prep with my wife and family. But we live in an area with a large number of preppers and have a lose knit group. I am not worried about working with these people as we have already done it as a community during a couple of disasters. We also have the benefit of rivers, a local water system and lots of live stock and farm land with people who grow food for a living. It makes sense here to work as a community if things go bad.


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

I'm hoping to go it alone only with the wife. I do have friends that are preppers, and I think that when SHTF we won't be a "group" but we will be a few people.....only one way is to wait till it happens...


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

This Survivors 1975 clip explores what happens when a young agricultural college graduate named Mark (circled) joins the group.
At first they're delighted to have him and his valuable expertise, but they get fed up of his arrogant insulting manner which demoralises the whole group.
They don't have the heart to kick him out but he realises he's not wanted so he leaves in a huff.
The moral- no matter how skilled at something somebody is, nobody wants him around if he's a pain in the ass..


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