There are two kinds of preppers in the world.
The first is the type who take their craft seriously. These are the people who read or learn about new skills, and then actually practice those skills.
If they read about a new food storage method, for instance, they actually try to store food using that method.
If they learn a simple survival skill such as how to get a fire going with a magnesium flint striker, they’ll buy a magnesium flint striker and head out into the woods and (safely) practice getting a fire going.
The second type are the type who read or learn about new skills… and then do nothing about it.
These are the people who read a lot of disaster preparedness and survival books, follow a lot of forums and social media pages related to the topic, and may even be ardently passionate about the subject of preparing for disaster.
But at the end of the day, they still do little to nothing to practice their skills.
And truth be told, there are more of the second type of preppers than the first type.
What Is a Real Prepper?
Here’s another way to put it. Prepping is all about learning and then taking action. The second type of preppers as described above will learn, but they won’t take much action. And that’s a big problem.
The reality is that many people who call themselves preppers, primarily those who fall under the second category as described above, get excited about the concept of prepping. These people are not real preppers.
Related: How To Start a Prepper Group in Your Community
They may rightfully believe that there is good reason to prepare for an upcoming potential disaster based on ongoing conflicts and events going on around the world.
Then they read books that teach you how to stock up on food and water and make it last over the long term, how to store ammunition, how to fortify and defend their homes against marauders, and how to select a bug out location and then bug out of town to get to that location.
But those same people won’t actually stock up on much food and water. They won’t actually make any real fortifications to make their homes more defensible. They won’t really grow or preserve their own food.
They’ll keep reading books and articles and watching videos on how to do the above, but they’ll do so largely out of entertainment rather than any substantial desire to actually put what they learn into practice.
This is exactly what happened during the covid pandemic. People were unprepared and they panicked.
They went to grocery stores and supermarkets and in a matter of days, basic necessities like soap and toilet paper, among many other items, were stripped from the shelves completely.
There Is No Middle Ground
There are also people who will attempt to find a ‘middle ground’ between the two above types of preppers.
These people will actually make an effort to stockpile items and supplies so they feel more secure about a potential disaster, but they won’t do much in regards to actually developing any solid skills.
It’s important to note that prepping is not just about storing stuff. Storing a basement full of food, water, medications, first aid equipment, ammunition, and other supplies is a good start, but it’s also not enough.
Let’s say that you find yourself in an extended disaster scenario and your supply of food and water runs out. Can you hunt or forage for more food?
Do you have a self-sustaining food source and the ability to grow crops or raise livestock? Can purify water that you collect? Can you treat injuries without relying on professional help?
To prepare for worst-case scenarios, you should consider stockpiling a variety of medical supplies that can handle everything from minor cuts to serious injuries.
Many illnesses that could become deadly in a crisis. Learn more here about the 10 medical supplies you need to stockpile before it’s too late. With the right supplies and knowledge, you can be better equipped to handle unexpected emergencies and safeguard your health.
Here’s something you need to understand: a true disaster scenario is never the time when you want to be practicing your survival skills for the first time.
Instead, you want to make practicing your skills an ongoing part of your routine so that it’s all second nature to you when the time comes to apply those skills in real life.
How Can You Be a Real Prepper?
In short, you just must practice and take prepping seriously. Besides stockpiling essentials, work on developing your skills, creating plans, and then practicing those plans.
Here’s how you can do it:
Practice cooking without electricity, for instance, using traditional methods like cooking over an open campfire or a dependable wood-burning stove. It’s essential to ensure that you exclusively utilize ingredients that are already a part of your survival stockpile. The idea is to simulate making food in a grid down disaster.- Practice purifying water. Use a family water filter or boil the water to remove any harmful pathogens before allowing it to cool down. This is a critically important survival skill to have.
- Practice growing or raising your own food. If you have the space, you should be growing crops in your backyard and raising chickens, rabbits, or other kinds of livestock. Yes, this is a major commitment, but it’s crucial if you’re truly dedicated to enhancing your self-sufficiency and readiness for extended emergencies. Establishing a self-reliant food source is paramount. If you lack one, you can discover here how to create a year-round self-sustaining garden.
- Practice your shooting and fighting skills. Simply owning a gun and ammunition or other defensive tools doesn’t make you skilled with them. What does make you skilled is ongoing, disciplined practice.
- Practice first aid skills. The time will come during a disaster when you have to tend to medical injuries without having access to professional medical help. Practice making and then applying tourniquets, bandages, splints, and slings.
Practice There are many more skills that you should be practicing as well, such as practicing loading up your car with supplies and then driving out to your designated bug out location (if you have one), but the above ideas are a good place to start.
Real preppers are those who commit themselves to learning, developing, and refining their skills through real-world practice.
If you’re simply reading about prepping but only making minimal effort to storing supplies and practicing your skills live we’ve discussed above, you’re not quite on the right track.
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Diseases like Typhoid and Typhus are common diseases that occur when water is contaminated. It is imperative to not only have the supplies but also know how to purify water. Filtering and then boiling water is an important skill for any wannabe prepper! Disease from contaminated water has killed more people in wars than weapons on the battlefield. This will especially be true when antibiotics run out.
Sure had me fooled!!!
I thought I was going to read an assessment of
the difference between those who prepped thinking only of themselves…
vs. those who prepped
WHILE ALSO thinking about how they could possibly help others in need!
When preppers start they are gun-ho to learn the prepper trade. These are skills acquired by previous family members passing on the knowledge.
We need to look at what most articles brush off as we age some parts of prepping is modified to fit our lifestyle.
We are not enthusiastic about bugging out to the sticks to spend cold nights sleeping on the ground.
We age through life and situations we don’t need to be a 20 year old super star to prove we are preppers. What someone thinks and does at 20 will not be what someone at 70 will do. The prepper mindset in many articles is geared to a 18 to 48. At 50, 60, 70 we have different opinions what we need to survive from those of varying ages.
Like everything else in life we have the doers, middle of the road and the extremist. We learn some skills that are relative to the region we live in.
There are people who mix in religion and politics into prepping which should be neutral. Prepping maybe to some a purist art of just survival skills we add to our life skills. Not make them any more than they are.
Prepping has become a cottage industry like other parts of the economy. The real prepping so to speak of was pert of the early settlers, think we base today’s prepping on. The 1970’s is where our modern day prepping, survival cultism started.
The 1970’s are equivalent to the 2020’s in which we are reliving the Jimmy Carter president years through Biden’s years in office.
We have the same type of oil restrictions when Carter was in office. Except Biden used Executive Orders to destroy our American oil drilling and open Southern border. Now we have an elevated prepping environment like no other time in our American history.
We have unvetted illegals and terrorist cells from many of our adversary countries who can do us harm.
Our prepping community must upgrade our preps to the new liberal normal of life they have caused on us average American citizens today.
I keep saying this, I deeply dislike Joe Biden but he has quietly allowed domestic oil and gas production to rise to record levels. You gotta dig a little to find what’s true, then accept it even though you disagree with it because acting on wrong info can get you in all kinds of trouble.
Not disagreeing with you – that is a good thing if it is actually making us (the US) energy independent(?). Unfortunately, with unchecked illegal immigration (with the extreme danger of an unknown number of cartel and terrorist-associated individuals), still rising inflation, and growing unrest at home and abroad, the increased energy production may not be as relevant as it should be…?
Light sweet crude makes good export material, especially since our antiquated refining system is running as fast as it can.
Natural gas is flowing out too.
Part of prepping is to adjust our preps to the new threat.
We must ask why we are prepping in the first place.
Ever wonder why we have changed our economy to use different products we were comfortable with? Why did we change using certain products in place of tried and true in our daily life. Like switching light bulbs or going from landline telephones to using smartphones. Was it for necessity or were we manipulated into changing parts of our lives to fit what the industry and corporations wanted?
Were those changes for their profits or for a better product in our lives?
Was going DIGITAL and EV, wind mill, solar, Green Energy agenda worth it all?
Gas powered vehicles still rule!
What are the comparison health aspects between Incandescent light bulbs and the LED lights?
The only reason Incandescent burnout faster than LED’s is the on/off switching of electricity.
Somewhere in the 50 States at a firehouse station there is still an original Edison Incandescent light bulb still burning, so far never has been turned off all that time period.
How many people have eye problems with the LED blue light intensity compared to the Incandescent lights?
Why did we really switch from Incandescent to LED lights?
Was this because elected officials were bribed and the unions were something different?
The American light bulb manufacturing went overseas to the usual Chinese buying out American companies. Making them the sole provider of major light manufacturing. Were Incandescent light bulbs really a problem to consumers? Look at the earlier LED lights as compared to recent LED’s there is a lot of printed circuitry. Is part of that a secret surveillance on how much we use the LED’s? That coupled with the CBDC, digital currency be linked to the Chinese Social Credit system to turn off our LED lights? Digital currency the government whether Federal or State can switch off our lighting if we use too much light and electricity.
Think about all those smart devices that utilities monitor. Was it one city in California where the public utility was able to control the NEST heating thermostat by remote control. What about the other smart devices we may have in our homes that get monitored by some company or government agency.
The biggest mistake was going from Analog to Digital devices. Digital is more or less a great surveillance for the government do as it sees fit to adjust our taxes and fees accordingly.
Are you a prepper or a Dr. Prepper, real or a faker?
So what is a real prepper?
Real preppers, hardcore prepping is a joke. It is about the average Joe and Jane in America just trying to stay afloat in a screwed up economy in the 2020’s we live in.
Many of us live paycheck to paycheck while congress and the headcheese send our taxed money overseas to protect some countries border walls than our United States borders from terrorist.
These jerks get elected and do the opposite of what they said being a candidate.
Pass laws to restrict our gun ownership. Send all available ammunition to fight a Ukraine war. Ukraine is not a NATO club country.
Israel is our big commitment to them and our own sovereignty in the world.
Some idiot is letting terrorist into our home country without asking us first.
Idiots keep voting in the same garbage politician expecting a different result. It is not working folks. We got too many liberal California residents moving to our home States ruining our once prosperous economies. Time to vet our own liberals who come to ruin our States like they did back in their once golden State. Time to take action in nonviolent procedures first to weed out these liberal crybabies, many start deporting them and the corrupt lawyers also.
years ago I was a dedicated prepper , then time seemed to go by , then I got old and things, values, views changed
raised a boyscout , hunted all my life , learned survival at very young age and prepped as a way of life , but out of fear of nuclear attacks
now we have new fears : Bioweapons, Medical lies, shots, scams , for profit
others are : invasion by foriegners by the millions thru open boarder s with no way to check, measure , verify with is coming here
untill the crimes happen there is no warning , no early detection program , no way of finding out who is good or bad, evil or not , values as you cannot communicate with them
well that being said : now I practice minimal prepping , knowing that the war is at the door step , matter of time , and when it happen s you will not be able to communicate
so much to say , so little time left , and so much is going to happen
wish is could change the world to be a better place , but choices have consequence
and decision s cost
I know how you feel. I am in my late 60s and spent my youth hunting and camping. I was in the military and later volunteered to work in Emergency Planning in the UK.
I got interested in survival by reading books from Kurt Saxon and that committed me to become a Prepped. Some 40 years later I have just convinced my wife that I am not crazy and she is now wide awake to the calamities that can befall us all. Always better late than sorry ?
Good afternoon all. I’ve been an outdoors person since pre-teen. As an adult, I’ve been lost in the Laurention Mountains, but not for long. Just overnight, but in 45-degree rainy weather, if you’re not somewhat equipped with at least a poncho and a heavier shirt, you are going to be very miserable. In my late 30’s, the rental we lived in was sold without notice and … homeless for 3 months with a wife and 2 children, a cat and 2 dogs. It was the woods for us living under a plastic tarp with tents as rooms. What saved us is that I still had a meager job. We were able to buy, at auction, a home. That was 30 years ago. Today, my wife and I have bought a modest home, kids, grownup and living their own lives. Back then they were not using the term “prepper” back then You were a survivalist.
Today, my prep tools include a Harvest Right. water filter’s, staples, security, prepped foods and more.
We know folks that are Wanna-Be and some just don’t care. Immediate friends and family think we’re short in the head and need adjustment. LOL.
Regardless, I’m a prepper and will remain one. Hopefully, more folks will get on board.
Keep getting into it, prepping that is. Stay vigilant and informed.
Lol! Back when I was in my early twenties I was doing a lot of that- shooting & practicing survival skills. I didn’t just do a few things, I went out and lived it for a week, come back home & go back to work and in my off time read & learn until my next week off. Scared the hell out of my neighbors, they had a real survivalist next door! How scary! Scary enough I got to know the police & sheriffs deputies on a first name basis after the skeered neighbors would call 911 on me. And not only did I not get ticketed or arrested, but started exchanging survival info & lessons with a few. Kinda good kinda bad.
Now that I’m in my 50’s and disabled, I know what has worked for me. Once in a while something new comes up. I know how disheartening it is when I see all these ads people selling survival tools for an arm & a leg when they can get them for a lot cheaper if they only learned about what they are working with!
My wife of, 55 years, got into prepping and watched several channels on You Tube. Accepted everything that was said as gospel. This included filling the house with can goods, hydrated and vacuumed seal packages and dry goods. This was ceiling to floor and wall to wall. She had had hydrators going 24/7 for months on end. All we had were narrow walkways through the house. Made it impossible to live with no room. I finally put my foot down and said enough. We had food for well over 5 to 6 years and most of the can goods were near expiration date. After she passed away, we ended up giving the can goods to the mission and relief centers. We’re going restock but, at a much lower level. As it is, we still have enough food in storage for almost 2 years. This is what happens when the prepper channels put the scare mongering out. She felt everything was immanent and immediate.
Hi Dan. It would’ve taken one storm, grid outage, earthquake, or some catastrophic event and you’d have been happy she did what she did. Now, that’s just food. How about tools, security, ways of cleaning water and such.
The world today is not what it was 10 years ago. I don’t remember being so paranoid about this mad and angry world, and that includes locally. Stay safe and vigilant. Let it not be a surprise.
That is like blaming the gun for pulling the trigger. It isn’t the video, it is the mental state of the viewer.
This is a pretty good article to motivate Group B to be more like Group A, but I will argue that they are already motivated! It can’t be assumed that they are coming from a baseline of zero, either. There may be a few things that are slowing their growth to full-fledged preppers. I can think of three, to start:
1. Money- Not everything about being the most awesomely prepared person takes money, but many things do. And these are tough times for many who need to prioritize their day-to-day struggles.
2. Information- Many (read: me) in Group B are sifting through the myriad blogs, articles, sites, etc. for the true nuggets of good information. They are gathering and formulating plans.
3. People- Not only is this country uber divisive on nearly every issue, families (read: mine) are equally as divided on the issue of prepping. Face it, we have a negative stigma. Spouses may think we’re crazy, that things are not that bad, that it’s a waste of time and mental energy pondering how many 40 mm filters is enough, what is the right AWG to purchase, how exactly do I hide guns and ammo, etc.
I’d hazard to guess that there are VERY few casual, passive wannabe preppers in Group B. They may be in the beginning stages, may not be coming from a zero baseline, and trying to become as prepared as they can as quickly as they can. I pray for all of us!
Empty nester, for now. Three adult children living nearby. To them prepping is a joke, until something happens. My wife and I are prepared for 4+ years, but not if the kids and grandchildren show up soon after. Can’t shoot them, can’t let them starve or freeze to death. Kind of a pickle for a prep minded person surrounded by loved family members who are living for today. I don’t have the answers, do you?
That’s a rough situation, Frenchy, but I do think it calls for tough love. They wanna come running home when the poop is flying? I’d say nope or “And what have you to contribute to our success to get through this?”
My spouse wasn’t really on board. At first, he just figured it was one of my interests or some quirk I had, and it seemed harmless enough, so he went along with it but did not really contribute anything.
Then we had a medical event occur that required a longish recovery time. It also meant that our usual division if labor wasn’t going to work because we had a man down.
That was a bit of a wakeup call for everyone in the household. Having supplies on hand and food on hand meant that no one had to go shopping for anything major. But everyone also realized that while each might contribute in some way, we hadn’t practiced cross-training. We did our best to rectify that.
The next really good test came during a multi-day power outage. I was alone, and had to do everything. I made a list of the good, the bad, and the serendipitous right after power was restored. I set to work on remedying the bad. There weren’t many items on that list. I also saw that while some things were okay, they could stand improvements, and worked on those, too.
One of the things I’ve learned to do, for instance, is to add cooking instructions to every bulk food on the shelf. If somebody else needs to prepare it, that person might not know how to cook. Or how much is a serving size.
The part that’s hardest to practice, imo is mindset. Yes, you can do drills and practice runs, but there’s still a heightened sense of responsibility when it’s for real.
If you’re not homesteading after getting into prepping you’re not a real prepper.
Best comment yet. We have organically gone from stocking up and managing supplies and expanding supplies over more encompassing necessities to actually buying land and improving it to becoming self sufficient and moving out from and away from our old ways of spending our time and money and our very focus of living has changed. This happened as our life experiences and current times has lead us. And no, it is not fun, it is a much harder and disciplined life and we are always working and perfecting our skills and time management. Arguments over the schedule, cross training over daily tasks, moving off grid and not taking utilities for granted, investment of our decreased resources in the best possible way while getting rid of debt and working for ourselves and making ends meet, being on a strict budget!!!!
Gardening? Milking cows? Growing and making our medicines? Carling for chickens? Checking fences? Carrying, walking, fixing, dealing with natural predators, taking care of sick and injured animals and family members, inventory lists, maintaining and organizing. Struggles with nature and humanity and The Creator! Sewing, conserving, fixing, frugal living, home cooking, flexibility, planning that follows the seasons. All THE HARD WORK.
This is a lifestyle choice, simple as that. We have regressed back to the last century.
You can do it by choice NOW or have it forced on you. Homesteaders have and do flatten the learning curve. For others, it will be very steep and maybe impossible. Strive to become the most self sufficient you can be, barter your bounty and skills, find a niche in your community, keep out of trouble and accept that you cannot grow old or weak!
I am trying to be more.of a column A, but unfortunately am in column B. I am very limited in terms of space in a city apartment, and.my husband recently said he would start throwing/donating anymore I do. A large part of this is his mom is a harder, mainly of food past the point of safe to eat as it is perishable foods she hordes not canned, so it has effected him having to have everything neat and orderly. I looked into getting a storage unit, but it seems there are problems that route for a myriad of reasons.
Is there any advise to be had for column b’s who have a desire to be in column a?
When I met my future spouse, I had been doing historical reenactment for 10+ years. That included a lot of tent camping without any electricity and very seldom any running water, lots of campfire cooking, researching and improvising.. We had both lived through hurricanes in Florida and along the east coast and I grew up with snow and ice storms that would knock power out for multiple days. We moved to the Rockies and more storms and wildfires. He started to do research about prepping, started buying freeze dried foods and selling them as a rep for the company he got them through. I started reading, too, and pretty soon I was onboard. Even reading the SHTF and TEOTWAWKI fiction brought lots of possibilities to mind, both the problems and the solutions. We found a bug out location with somewhat less severe climate conditions and then, due to political changes in our state, we made the bug out location our permanent residence. He succumbed to COVID nearly two years ago and I am still trying to sort through everything, both the prepping supplies and the normal, everyday things, plus his hobbies and personal effects. Someone else mentioned putting cooking instructions on the stockpiled items in case a non-cook is is left to prepare meals. Along with that, consider leaving notes on the bits and pieces you have acquired or stockpiled, especially things like firearm parts and accessories. My spouse was a gunsmith, I am not. I keep finding little tidbits that look like they belong to firearms but I don’t know which ones nor what they do. I know I shouldn’t give or sell them but I can’t really sort them, either. It’s like finding a piece of a solid colored jigsaw puzzle. You know the bit is important but there really is no way of knowing the why or the wherefore.
Label everything! Somebody will need to know what it is, what it belongs to, where it came from, what it was worth when you acquired it. You won’t be around forever. Be kind to your heirs.
Sorry for your loss, Sabel. Is there anyone you know from reenacting who might be able to help you?
The only gunsmith I can think of is East Coast. Perhaps calling Townsend’s will help? They know many in the reenacting community and likely know gunsmiths around the country.
I labelled other stuff, too, and used language that a five-year-old could understand. If it be a crisis situation, small words work best.
I’m trying to prep and found it easy to start small. Started with a few items for the truck. Then a bug out bag. I started a food and water supply for 3 days which has grown to 3 months.
Now I’m older and retired. I have time now to improve my skills for cooking and shelter with bugging in or out depending on the situation.
I have tried twice now camping off grid. . These confirm the need to test it out. I aways find a better item to get job done better. This created a new problem of storing it and transporting it on a bug out. Back to basics or stay home.
I tried lone wolf and group. May have lost a good friend in the group. After a week we split up and back to lone wolf so back to being able to survive. Jury still out. Maybe a compromise of individual in a like community with various skills will work.
My parents were preppers, before that word existed! Shopping in a large store was common in my house. My mother wrote in cursive what she would buy, because she knew that in local stores the cost of the same products was older, I remember that my wife one day praised my habit of shopping for the month, I still do it, I have even expanded it, when you live in a country with inflation, buying food is a good alternative, as long as you do it with money, olo credit cards should be used in extraordinary cases.