I have started whole new pages elsewhere on this site for my survival plans, gear and so forth. It is still under construction as yet, of course, but much of the information that is now found here will soon be moved over there. You can check them out below.
Links to my Survival Plan pages: * Page One: Bugging In and Bugging Out * Page Two: Digging In for Awhile * Page Three: Living in the Aftermath
Links to my Fortified BOL pages: * Page One: Fortifying The Castle * Page Two: The Curtain Wall
When I started thinking way too much about zombies: Right around the time I saw my first Zombie movie.
What started my zombie fixation: I've always been interested in the particulars, but all in one single weekend back in June of 2010, I read Max Brooks ZSG, and watched Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Diary of the Dead plus both of the first two Resident Evil movies, so it kind of kick started my interest anew.
Favorite zombie book: Zombie Survival Guide (it's the only zombie thing I have ever seen in book form) but now that I know other things are available, I'll be on the lookout for them.
Favorite zombie movie: Pretty much all of them, but if pressed to narrow it down, I'd have to go with Zombieland, or any of the Resident Evil movies. At least when they go after the Zeds in those films, they go strapped. They might be doomed anyway, but at least they tried, and that's better than watching some dip$hit wandering around in the dark with nothing but a flashlight, going, "Where's all that moaning coming fr... Aaaah!"
Favorite quotes in any zombie movie: "I'm quite all right Barbara, I ran it under a cold tap. We had our jabs when we went to the Isle of Wight." - Phillip, Shaun of the Dead (2004)
"When Tallahassee goes Hulk on a zombie, he sets a whole new standard for 'Not To Be F_cked With'." - Columbus, Zombieland (2009)
My result for The Comprehensive Zombie Survival Test: Master Survivor! You scored an 82% for Survivability, 100% for Knowledge, 74% for Preparedness and 82% for Weapon info! You have advanced knowledge of the undead. You can survive almost every situation thrown at you. No doubt that, by days end, you'll be standing on a large pile of "Meat Snacks" and "possible survivors".
My Survival Plan:
My “handle” should you look for you on the radio waves or web: White Knight or Gallahad
My location: I live in a City in Eastern Newfoundland, Canada (Pop: Over 100,000).
Is my plan dependent on zombies in your home town, or anywhere? Unfortunately, I don't have a specific plan as of yet. I'm nowhere near as prepared as I should be, but I'm using this site as my inspiration, and hope to have something in the works before too long, actual details will follow soon, after we have gotten settled into our new place. (UPDATE - As the employment that I had previously been guaranteed fell through, turning out to be not so guaranteed after all, my family has packed up and relocated one more time. We are living in a new city, almost 900 miles away from our previous location, and this new home is in an apartment building. UPDATE TO THE UPDATE - Having grown tired of the drug use and the gang/criminal element, both of which are much too prevalent in and around the apartment building in which we were living upon first moving back to this province, my family has packed up and relocated one more time. We are still living in the same city, although our new place is a house rather than an apartment in a building (ironically, this is the VERY SAME HOUSE that we were renting when we lived in this city almost ten years ago), which has it's good points and it's bad points as far as defensibility and preparation is concerned, this will be detailed in the first part of my Survival Plan, Page 1: Bugging In. We've lived in this city once before, right on this same street in fact, and so we have a better idea of the lay of the land, which again is a positive thing about another move anyway. This was actually our sixth move in only four years, and again, will HOPEFULLY be our last for quite some time, but then, that's what I said the last time too. Planning is rather more difficult if you don't know where you'll live from one year to the next.)
PICTURES OF OUR NEW HOME WILL FOLLOW SOON
Will I be staying in my home or headed somewhere else? See previous. I should like someday to have a decently fortified home somewhere just outside city limits, but near enough to a city or town where I could forage (ie - Scavenge) for supplies. I have a set of blueprints for my dream home that I designed when I was around 17 (I am 35 now) that should be rather easy to fortify. It already has no doors and windows on the ground floor, was designed to be outfitted with alternate power sources, and also has a panic room / shelter area beneath the basement (maybe even one with hidden exit tunnels for use in an emergency). I'll include drawings and plans of this dream house in my Fortifying The Castle page as soon as I can recover them off my old hard drive.
If I ever get the dream house built, then I'll likely be Digging In there. Otherwise, I'll have to Bug In here until the Panic has passed, then Bug Out, as my current home could be made defensible enough to repel intruders or Zeds over the short term, but I doubt that my family could survive any drawn out siege here. As we have only recently moved to this town, and are not yet sufficiently familiar with the lay of the land outside of our own neighborhood, I therefore do not have any particular BOL prepared or even planned at this time. This will come after I have gotten a better idea of what places are available in the area that might lend themselves to fortification.
If I'm heading out, how do I plan to get there? Again, for the moment I do not have anywhere to get to. I do not currently own any vehicle, so I'll probably end up having to steal... I mean, borrow, yeah, borrow something after the fall. Probably a 4WD pickup truck or something for supply runs and so forth. Take a look at my Survival Plan page for my thoughts on a customized Bug-Out-Vehicle-from-Hell.
Got anyone I want to take with me? My wife and our three children are currently the only ones who live close enough for me to be feasibly capable of bringing. I would like to include my two best friends (who unfortunately live about 700 miles away, including an eight hour ferry ride, now that we are at our new place), and also my parents, my sister and two nephews (who are now about 500 miles away, again including the ferry ride). If I can get to them (or they to me) they could be part of my group, but again, this might not be feasible, due to distance. UPDATE - Actually a good buddy of mine from our former province has just moved into this city as well and now lives, as luck should have it, just up the street from me. His girlfriend is going to be moving up here as well within the next month or two, and she has a biochemistry degree and will be studying medicine, while he has a pretty well rounded knowledge of survival skills, and so both would be an asset to our group.
How will I communicate with the outside world, or do I plan to go the hermit route? By any form of CB, Ham, FRS and/or GMRS radio that I can get my hands on either before or after the SHTF! Cel phones and internet can also be used, at least for as long as such services still continue to work.
How am I planning to get food or water? If I ever get a Fortified BOL (even if I don't for that matter), I plan to begin long term stockpiling of foodstuffs, to be supplemented with scavenging, hunting and fishing, as well as foraging for edible wild plants.
If the Z-Poc lasts long enough, agricultural farming will also be undertaken. Please see my Survival Plan page for further details.
Drinking Water will be stockpiled as well, but this will be supplemented by nearby local water sources and underground Rain Cisterns, fed by my forts eaves-troughs. Further details can be found, again, on my Survival Plan page.
In addition to the household systems, I'll try to acquire one or more portable purification systems, such as those pictured here, for myself and for everyone else in my survivor group. These will be for use during the rare times that we are away from the stockpiled water, and are forced to rely on other water sources (during supply runs, etc).
Battling the Undead (Real World):
Weapons I Actually Own or Have Access To: I admit I don't own a single firearm. In a pinch, I do own two Kukris, as described hereafter, and a wakizashi that I could use to defend myself, and I also own three European hand-and-a-half swords in addition to these. The latter were only intended to be training swords, and thus are made without any sharpened edges, but being made of a good steel bar stock (one of them is made from leaf spring for strength and flexibility), they'd all make for fine blunt weapons, sort of like steel bokken. See my main Survival Gear page for why blunt weapons will likely be better choices in any event. These particular swords, however, are all rather poorly balanced, thus they would be tiring to use for any long period of time. They should still be better than nothing, though, if push came to shove and shove came to bite.
My father has a Lee Enfield .303 bolt action rifle, a .30-30 lever action rifle and a Ruger .22LR pistol. He also usually has a couple of other hunting rifles around that belong to out-of-province buddies who often store them at his house for use during the hunting season. He usually has about 20 rounds for the .303 Lee Enfield and 40 rounds each for the .30-30 and the Ruger, but I have no idea how much ammo is around for any of his buddies rifles. If I were able to get to them before things get too bad, I'd take those weapons as well (and my parents too while I was at it, LOL). All of these weapons are likely too far away for me to access, though, now that I have moved to the new place which is almost 500 miles away. Whether or not I can get to them will depend on how much advance warning I have before the SHTF.
Battling the Undead (Wish List):
What are my weapons of choice? These are my dream weapons, I freely admit that I don't own any of these, but given the opportunity (and pending Canadian legal status of the weapons that follow) these are the ones I would try to acquire. These weapons have been described in more detail, along with my reasons for choosing them, on my main Survival Gear page.
Long Range: I've set my sights on the AR10 platform in .308 Win, such as the Sig Sauer 716. It has pushrod operation, rather than a direct gas impingement operation seen in many other AR platforms. A Pushrod or Gas Piston system is preferable, in my opinion, as it is often both easier to maintain and more reliable if used under less than ideal conditions. I would want to get a custom length barrel for the upper receiver, 22-24" or greater, with a removable muzzle brake that can be replaced by one of those telescoping silencers that fits on over the barrel.
This LB receiver should be equipped with a long range scope (plus a BORS unit from Barrett whilst I'm dreaming) in addition to the Flip-Up Iron Sights, and should use the standard 20 round mags. Aside from a supply of .308 JHP rounds, I will also try to lay in a supply of sub-caliber .224 sabot rounds.
Mid Range: The 12 inch Sig 716 CQB upper receiver assembly for the same rifle, equipped with the dual function Tritium short range / mid range sights (with built-in back up iron sights) and a tac light/laser combo, using the same 20 round mags as the long barreled upper for regular day to day usage.
CQB receiver would be equipped with some model of mag fed underbarrel shotgun, such as the M-26 MASS, or some sawed-off jury rigged equivalent thereof. The 12ga shotgun provides some additional capabilities (such as door breaching with special slugs, increased lethality at short-range with slugs or 00 buckshot, and less-lethal capabilities with tear gas, rubber slugs, rubber pellets, etc) but without increasing in the overall number of individual weapons that would otherwise have to be carried. This underbarrel shotgun should be equipped with a commercial adjustable hunting choke when buckshot rounds are fired, to make up for the reduced barrel length.
Short Range: As one possible alternative to a pistol; any pistol shaped SMG that has 20-30 rounds in the magazine. I've set my sights, if we pardon the pun, on the RMR-30, shown to the left. I'd originally had my eye on a PLR-22 also from that manufacturer, but that weapon is manufactured only in the .22LR, I'd have to take it to a gunsmith to have it re-chambered for the .22WMR at added cost. This PMR-30 Carbine, though, comes in .22WMR straight out of the box, and aesthetically, it appears to be Kel Tec's answer to the H&K MP7. Their PMR-30 pistol, upon which this RMR-30 was based weighs less than a pound unloaded, and given Kel Tec's proclivity toward weapons made almost entirely from lightweight polymers, I expect that it will likewise keep the weight down to a minimum. The RMR-30 would be fitted with Tritium sights and a tac light/laser combo, and will be loaded with HP rounds. An SMG can be worn in any standard military type Drop-Leg holster, as several of them are open ended on the bottom, allowing the long frame to pass through from the inside.
Several other alternatives to this weapon, some chambered in 9mm, can be seen on my main Survival Gear page.
Short Range (Back Up): A revolver such as an NAA Mini Master. My Back Up pistol will also be chambered in the .22WMR HP, for ammo commonality with the sidearm described above. Meant only as an emergency "Get the F*ck Off Me" pistol in case the Zed has crept up without me noticing, and is already standing right in my shorts, I have decided on a revolver, in spite of the lesser capacity, because it can't jam or mis-feed the way semi automatics can, which is something that certainly MUST NOT HAPPEN if the Zed is already within chewing distance.
Several other alternatives to this weapon, some chambered in 9mm, can be seen on my main Survival Gear page.
If whatever back up pistol I end up with is small enough, as is the Mini Master, it will be kept in one of these cool spring loaded Quick Draw Rigs strapped to my right forearm like the one used by Antonio Banderas in Desperado.
Hand to Hand: I don't like the idea of getting that close to a Zed, but for those occasions when I'm out of ammo, or I just don't have the time to reload, the Riggers Framing Axe will be a good choice. It chops like a hatchet and it doubles as a hammer, and has a full steel handle. It's a little short for use during hand to hand combat, but its reduced reach as a weapon is offset by the fact that it is also less unwieldy when used as a camp tool. As I don't plan on fighting Zeds hand to hand at all, if avoidable, such an axe is more likely to be used as a camp tool anyway.
I also own a couple of kukris (one of them is hand forged) so I guess I could also bring one of those along as a back up melee weapon, or just for use as a camp knife. Pictured here is a Photoshopped generic kukri which I found on the net (This one is a cheap a$$ P.O.S., and I'm only using it because I have no pics of the one I actually own.)
I want a Hollow Handle Kukri, a One-Piece model with the blade and handle milled together out of one solid billet of quality steel, thereby omitting the weak point that is traditionally found in most hollow handled knives where the two were joined. If any such a kukri also included a gut hook and saw teeth milled into the back edge, as shown above, along with a hole near the tip, for use with a wire cutter sheath like the M9 bayonet, it would kick wholesale a$$.
The M40 Wilderness Survival Skills Website also shows a way to upgrade the sheath that improves on this already perfectly fine field knife. He also adds a belt-pouch sized survival kit that straps onto the sheath, described here.
Additional weapons that I would like to have access to, as alternatives or backups, are discussed on my main Survival Gear page.
You need to reload that thing? Got a plan for that? Should I ever get the weapons that I want (or any other firearm for that matter) I will stockpile as much ammo as I am able to acquire (as far as legal status and financial ability permit) and I will acquire and learn to use all of the equipment and supplies to reload that ammunition (again insofar as legal status and finances allow) as many times as it is safe to do so. Given that the sidearm and backup mentioned earlier both fire the .22WMR round, which is a rimfire and thus cannot be reloaded, stockpiling will be my only alternative. Fortunately, these rimfire rounds are relatively cheap.
This of course assumes that I am Bugging In. If I am on the move, I will bring along as much of my ammo stockpile as I can, given the limitations of my mode of travel.
Got any survival philosophies? "Nuke 'em till they glow so you can shoot 'em in the dark!" LOL. Seriously, though, I'll sum up my philosophies by quoting numbers 15 and 29 from Murphy's Laws of Combat: "Anything that you do can get you killed, including nothing" and "Exceptions prove the rule, and destroy your plan of battle." This basically means, to me at least, that no matter how well you plan something, you can't possibly account for every single variable, so you can't possibly assume that your plan is going to work every time (or even at all for that matter).
Being able to plan, and think on your feet, is important, but so is being sure (or as sure as you can be, in any case) that you have the right equipment and resources available to you. That way you aren't left with nothing to fall back on if a plan comes apart at the seams. It may be surprising, given all the firepower that I want to carry, but my plan is to avoid combat as much as I can. For instance, as I will be traveling with my wife and four children, it will usually be safer to find a way around a mob of Zeds, if it is feasible to do so, than it will be to engage them unnecessarily. Always remember, though, that it isn't usually necessary to go looking for trouble, because sometimes trouble comes looking for you.
For the Post Z-Day survivor, combat WILL happen occasionally, no matter how far we plan to go out of our way to avoid it. Believing anything else is nothing but an exercise in wishful thinking. If we aren't prepared to fight them, then we're only prepared to feed them, and I for one don't plan to be kibble.
Am I willing to hook up with other survivors? On a very tentative basis. I would be extremely wary of joining up with other folk (unless they were people I knew, or were vouched for by people I knew). I don't wanna invite someone in, just to figure out when it's too late that they only wanted to join forces so they could wait for an opportunity to steal what's mine. As long as it's people I could trust, though, then sure, there's safety in numbers and all that, right?
Is my plan based off of any book/movie/blog/scientist other survivors may have heard of? What rudimentary plans I do have are largely based off of information that I have gleaned from this and other survival sites.
Greetings fellow ZSDW Members. I would have posted this announcement sooner, but the last couple of days have been a little busy, for reasons which I will now make apparent:
It pleases me to announce that as of 11:53 am, Nova Scotia time, on the 21st day of March, 2012, a new addition was made to the White Knight Survival Group. Weighing in at 6 lbs 10 oz, we welcomed Jackson, our fourth child and first son, into the world.
He wasn't due until the third week of April, but he was apparently anxious to get out into the world and get started on his zombie slaying training. Before we know it his diaper bag will graduate to an EDC Kit, and I bet he'll be out-shooting and out-hunting dad soon thereafter. LOL
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There is not civilian .308 rifle being made by FN Scar, but Heckler and Koch are. The MR762 will run you about 4k and will be available sometime this year.
In the event of Z-Day The United States Army is switching to the MK16 and MK17 while the Marines are switching to the Ruger556 and keeping the SAW still active.
I hope this info helps you.
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I held the MR762 a few weeks ago and I have to say that had I had 5K to blow I would have bought it, loved the way it felt"
I'm not sure about these anymore. I'd think that the R308 will do most of the same job just as well or better, it has double the capacity in the factory issue mags, comes in several barrel lengths and it's about two grand cheaper.
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Damn I cant imagine how front heavy, Let alone just how heavy that AR is with a fully loaded masterkey on the front would be. Trying to keep that thing Eye level would be rediculous.
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I am also a fan of the Kukri and I found a good one on Cold Steel's website, however, I found the exact same thing but for less money on budk.com. I also plan on buying cold steel's Trench Hawk Tomahawk which can also be found on budk for $22 less. They have a huge selection of whatever sharp object you are looking for.
I don't have any guns as of yet either but soon.... very soon!
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