Weeeeeellllll… cause I hate wasting time in silly discussions. 
According to my wife it’s her own personal curse. She tries to get into an emotionally based argument, I say something that shuts down the subject, she then stares at me for a few seconds with seething resentment in her eyes and says, “I’m getting NO satisfaction out of this fight.” and storms away.
Then we make up two minutes later cause being borderline sociopathic I can’t hang on to resentment 
BINGO!!! Give that man a cigar!!!
I agree completely. I find the concept of “bug out” misguided at best (except in some undetermined exceptional case such as your home is no longer there). Bug out to where, exactly? Everything I would need in an extremis situation wouldn’t fit in my car, and at 78 I’m not likely taking off on shanks mare. Besides, at home I know where (almost) everything is.
“Bugging out” is not an “option”, it’s a potential necessity and should be treated as such. Because if it gets to the point that you have too and don’t, you’re going to die.
Again, everyone can decide how they want to go. If it comes to that, I’m not dying defending my crap at home.
Civil Unrest? I’m pretty sure we could survive 20-30 days here in home 20. My concern is destruction, here it would probably be an earth quake others have weather related events. We plan mostly for getting out of a wrecked building and getting out of town. We have some stores hidden in the mountains and the desert but as we all know “Everyone has a plan until they get hit with a hurricane or earth quake..”
My plan is NOT leaving until I HAVE TO. But if I’m FORCED TO then I’ll be going full feral SWIFTLY.
I wasn’t talking about defending anything. I was talking about food, water, shelter and maintaining a defensible position (to the extent possible), and being able to protect my wife. As far as if and when to go that is an individual decision everyone will need to make when/if the time comes. Bugging out in a snowstorm? Not for me. Planning ahead? Definitely. I have several places identified that I could go, but that will be a last minute decision (I don’t have an alternate address). I have gear bags ready to chuck into the car. But what if all the egress roads are blocked? I think a clear head and fluidity will be the critical elements of survival.
I get it. The problem with the “what ifs” is that the amount of variables is insurmountable for planning purposes.
Bug out for a snowstorm? Not even on my radar. Bug out because we have marauding bands of downtown dirtbags organizing and launching armed attacks onto the “nice” neighborhoods? Highly likely.
I have good insurance for the stuff I’ll leave behind and the idea that any home is sustainably “defensible” from more than a handful of attackers, silly enough to come at you from one direction, more than once or twice is not realistic.
The word will get out about the crazy guy with all the guns and ammo and the following attack will be overwhelming.
In a true SHTF scenario, “they” will band up and go full lawless first. So I’ll secure my wife and caches first and then go hunting while hopefully finding some more good, likeminded people to team up with.
But again, this is all mental masturbation.
Acquiring SKILLS, not mountains of ammo is the absolute best investment for anyone looking to have a chance.
Yeah. But I still like the thought of mountains of ammo. 
Oh I do too!!!
I just don’t want my friends being deluded by some ammo company into some sort of sense of safety just because they are sitting on a pile of crates of 5.56.
I’m sure there are tons of those out there. Probably just as many as folks as those that actually think their house is some sort of a “fortress” while failing to understaff that any scumbag with an AR 15 and ZERO training can stitch any modern house right through and kill everyone and everything within it with two 30 round mags full of steel core M855 that they can buy at Academy on sale.
Not sure about those penetrations statistics but I do live in a brick house and chose a living situation well enough away from gang bangers and the other usual suspects to feel protected. When I tell people I’m just a simple sailor, my girlfriend laughs. She knows that anyone who takes that statement at face value is in for an unpleasant surprise. When I married her, I stared into her beautiful crystal blue eyes and promised that I would protect her with my life. She already knew me well enough by then to know that that I don’t f-ck around. Part of my plan for survival in what is becoming a very dangerous world includes living in an area of the country away from all the phuckery.
Why is anyone serious about survival still living in an urban environment?
I think a large part of this is age (and health) dependent. I’ll soon be 52. My husband is 63 and has a pre-cancerous condition (not actual cancer, thank goodness) that has induced osteoporosis. If sh*t hits the fan, our goal will be to either hunker down to defend our suburban home or flee to someplace safe until everything calms down. If things get bad enough, the latter might be a more realistic possibility. How much ammo would we need for that? Well, not as much as some sort of Civil War II foot soldier would need, right? But enough to get us out of scrapes we might run into.
I acknowledge my physical limitations, and I also acknowledge my financial limitations. I’ve had to use credit cards for some firearms and ammo purchases this year. That said, I’ve paid them off as quickly as possible to avoid the interest rates that come from unsecured debt. Amassing a full arsenal of guns and ammo for every possible contingency isn’t financially responsible for me. Besides, I have a feeling that any SHTF scenario will have a huge element of unpredictability In it. We could spend tens of thousands of dollars buying The Best Guns and Ammo Ever and find out they’re obsolete due to some new development in technology.
As for range/practice ammo…Well, recently, I decided to scale back my shooting from weekly to biweekly to avoid burning through ammo. I also try to be disciplined and only shoot 25-35 rounds per range visit. That way, I only end up spending $40-$60 a month on it. Hell, I have some ideas of how to mix things up so that I’m only spending around $35 per month on it. I have a public range about a half hour from my house with an annual fee of $25. Get there early enough on any given morning and you beat the crowds. And it’s in a pretty, wooded area, too. Pretty relaxing out there! A lot more fun (and affordable) than going to an indoor range. But I have one of those local to me too, and have used it from time to time.
Anyway, all of this is just my two cents. Your mileage may vary.
Being a financially responsible Republican… I do not see the need to spend all my money for prepping, like a wack job … All I need is a couple cans of spam … 1000 rounds for my sniper rifle … Another 1000 for my AR15… At that point. I can hunt for “anything” I need … Just leave the lights on people… Ok ok and some 9mm …
Ok maybe 3 mags. But plywood and drywall do not stop bullets, barely slows them down in most cases.
What you say sounds sounds very sensible. I did the same with my wife and then I put a gun in her hand and told her she would get trained and that was part of my promise of protecting her, because I can’t be with her 24 hrs a day or promise that I won’t “go” first.
So a big part of my promise was to make her self-sufficient. She fought me in that until the first day of real training at the hands of one of MY mentors. Then the thirst for skill and knowledge organically took over as I knew it would. Now she not a sheep following me or cowering behind me. She’s an integral part of my survival team. And she’s already proven herself in that job.
Just something married folks should think about. Did the same with the kids and they they went in for decades of Uncle Sam doing more. Now I don’t have to worry about them at all.
Indoor ranges suck. Your thinking is absolutely correct. It’s better to have an exfiltration plan than sit on a stockpile of ammo. Color me skeptical but punching holes in stationary paper targets is a form of masturb…tortur…
Never mind, forget it, that’s just me venting
I must be confused, I always thought range ammo automatically became survival ammo in a SHTF? In other words “use what ya got”
Oh lord no 
Ammoland needs you to buy 50,000 rounds of each because we all know that range ammo just bounces off the bad people!
Note to Self: start diet immediately! 
Caution - politically incorrect
