So I joined a prepper/ homesteading group on Facebook because it kept popping up and I was bored. I prep but don't really interact with the " wider community" I guess. Well I gotta say , it seem most preppers are way more concerned with guns and gear then anything else. And this is coming from me... A gun nut.. Actually made a few posts last few days just to see what would happen ( also because we have been kinda locked down due to a front coming though...can only clean so much lol ) . Ask about livestock options , few comments genetic answers , ask about medicinal herbs , nothing . Gardening... Not much at all Trapping and modern traps for SHTF ....they just decline the posts ... Making stuff you could trade ... nada

Something gun related that been hashed 20million times like , best AR15 optic or is the mosin nagnat still viable .... HOLY CRAP 300 something. Comments in an hour and half of them are at least a paragraph for the sake of some of these folks if it hits the fan it better go full blown mad max or red dawn because if it just ends up being another great depression ( which I honestly think is one of the more likely deals) idk how there gonna do not being rambo fighting of the hordes of raiders every day lol.

Like dont get me wrong hard skills are important..but if that's like 90% of what you have ......

Idk mabye no one just wants to talk about the boring stuff is all or maybe it's not manly enough or something because most of the good chats I had have been with the women folk about animals and plants

Yep,, enough guns and ammo to last 5 life times. 2 ,, 5 gallons of gas and a 5 gallon plastic bucket filled with food with a shelf life of 20 years. Yep, there ready. lol I don't think the people who are real preppers even talk about it to anyone.

I got a prepper that buys honey from me. Buys five gallons every October for the last three years. I asked the lady what she thought of the honey….she said she hadn’t eaten any of it. Said she was saving all of it for bartering. She could use it for bear bait for all I care, but I thought that was kinda odd that she was stockpiling it.

Most of the preppers have watched too much tv and too many movies. They think in a shtf situation it's going to be all firefights and raids. It's going to be mostly farming and protecting your stuff only as needed.

Keith

It's an interesting thing. I've talked to a few of the guys that call themselves preppers. Very little knowledge about gardening, farming, hand tools, food preservation, wild edibles, etc. but if you ask about guns they will talk your ear off. I would guess that if things got bad, their only option would be to become the folks that they are currently preparing against.

If you’re already living a lifestyle where your knowledge and skills provide for many of your needs, you should do better than most. In fact, you probably already are doing better than most. Maybe not in a monetary sense, but certainly in your mentality.

I don't think most who would be classified as "actual" preppers even really consider or think about it . It's just something. That they do and it makes sense. Remember I was at some house helping them do something and they said we had to go check the back for something. Proceed to go to a back room with like 10 shelves stacked like 8' tall just packed with jar of everything! Beans , peas , sauces , fruit ,jams jellies , herbs , asked if they where a preppers and she just laughed and said nah it just makes sense to keep plenty of yummy food around . Had a small garden and would just constantly can.

Honey, historically, has always been extremely sought after and useful if you don't mind me asking how much would 5 gal of honey run a guy ?

Yeeepp honestly it's like a borderline sexual fantasy with some of these folks. Remember watching doomsday preppers with my grandma one time. She'd lived though A LOT and she said she actually enjoyed it a good bit and it was pretty funny watching a lot of these folks who can barley grow a tomato think they'll survive just because they have big guns.

Wolfdog, ask about making booby traps and landmines. Find out who the real nuts are.

I’d bet most only have semi auto guns as well, there not bad, but as most here know there’s o ring’s and such that go bad and in bad situations you may not be able to find them.

get them to talk about their round counts , spare parts and maintenance.
training , drills and ammo per gun.

I knew a guy he had few ARs and AKs and enough ammo to burn the barrels out of each of them twice , but he only shot his hunting rifle a few times a year and I don't think he had any spare parts.

there are a lot of mall ninjas in that community.
a lot of people in any "community" want to buy the answer rather than do the work and live the lifestyle of independence.

I dabbled in the prepper thing some years ago , I like my guns but I worked on a lot more skills and food based stuff and I never had any grand idea that if something went on for very long we would be A-OK based on preps.

you can easily get to the place where you have to ask do you own stuff or does your stuff own you.

All the gun and ammo talk just gives some preppers a stronger justification to invest in ammo and more firearms. Just looking for a reason to dive deeper. In reality, if crap hits the fan, the most important thing will be food preservation and production. Water can be caught from rainfall or gathered from a source, shelter is in place, so long term food availability is the most important.

Back when I was shooting long range and living sniper fantasy, custom rifles ect. I got asked often if I was in a militia and when I said no if I wanted to start one. I never answered that instead switched topic to gardening, communication (ham), medicine/ med training, food preservation. The people would show no interest in that and circle right back to bullets and guns. At that point I answered nope militia stuff has never been my thing.

That ak/AR and few k of ammo will be utilized by whoever picked it up off their body. Your prepped post reminded me of the militia people.

If a thread on silver ever mentions bartering with junk silver someone will always pipe up and say you are better off buying guns and ammo. Because with guns you can take whatever silver or gold or other prepper stuff they have. I think they think preppers are sheep to be sheared instead of armed castles that will have to be stormed. You are always better off with your own stuff instead of relying on others generosity or risking your life by theft.

I sell 5 gallon for $360 . That’s $18 a quart.

"prepper" is such a catch all term. Most peppers are pretty much short term preppers, like if the power goes out for a few weeks.

If we're at the point of the post emp type event where electricity is a thing of the past, if you aren't already off the grid living before the zombies come, most people won't last a year without a community of other families that know how to live off the land without electricity.

I work with a guy that's a big "prepper" type. The type that has 50 guns buried in the backyard and a room full of ammo and MREs type. He was talking about a lot of the stuff he's learned from the internet. To me it sounded like what most country people already do- hunt, fish, garden and raise animals. Some of the things he was talking about was really out there to me. He got on the subject of protecting your property if things go sideways. Started talking about these elaborate booby traps. I just laughed at some of them. I told him that I wouldn't need to do all of that. I'm a trapper and know how to weld. I have plenty of potential "booby traps" hanging in my shop. I didn't go into details with him because I could see him burying a bunch of 330s with nails welded in them around his house.

As any combat veteran knows all the prepping goes out the window when the bullets start flying. If I need an AR I'll pick one up in the street when the shooting starts.