I am a 21 y/o college student. I live in an apartment with 3 other guys who do not enjoy guns or hunting or basically anything outdoors. I like to hunt, fish, eat meat that i kill or catch, i have two ar's and two pistols and various shotguns and rifles, and about at least 100 rounds for each, almost 1000 rounds of .223 or 5.56. I buy tuna and other canned goods but not really to stockpile, just to eat. I have some venison, pheasant, and beef in the freezer. What can i do/buy/build that can get my survival/shtf prep up to par?

First things first.  Eliminate your debt then get the hell out of that apartment.  Your monthly payments add up.  Why pay for an apartment when you could be putting it towards a downpayment on a house or morgtage payment.  Besides, It sounds like you are surrounded by a bunch of douchers anyway.  Not sure what your field of study is or how much capital you have to work with but you may seriously want to consider looking for a career and house in that particular order.  The price is right (and may get even cheaper) Obama is offering mucho bucko to college students as well as those who can safely buy a home.  Essentially there's free money in these stimulus packages, make sure you get yours.

i dont think you can prepare successfully with a bunch of room-mates... how can you store stuff without them going thru them?

i agree.. i am in my third year of college so i am trying to hurry and finish up. the way thejob market is, looks likethe family farm is my best bet. we have about 3500 acres of wheat and 600 cows so we are big enough to make that my career until things turn around. any other thoughts?

Read.

Seriously, there is a Master's level education in the survival forum. What will work for YOU is highly dependent upon your specific circumstances and your available resources and skills.

Search. Read. Rinse. Repeat.

k thanks

You seem to have a good start on a survival battery. After that, take an inventory of the stuff you use daily: food, water, toilet. These 3 things will be just as necessary, if not more so, than they are in peacetime.

And ditch the roomies. They won't support you before OR after SHTF. In fact, they will become even more dependant upon you when the stores are empty. Your preparations, meant to last you for a year, won't even last 3 months with them mooching.

buy a safe-

roommates and your guns dont mix. also break in's. Sorry whilei nomrally preach food,gear,training etc.
SHTF isnt always about zombies,beans and bullets.

Next-
think of what you will want to "survive".
make a plan.
for shortterm events and longterm events.
Get a basic BOB/Kit going.
plan some more

maintain some preps in your room for events- nothing crazy maybe some extra cans of food, mre's, mnt house etc. maybe 1-2 weeks of stuff- wont take up much room.

plan some more.
network..do you have a place to BO to?
plan again,revamp old plans and keep thinking of ways to better your plan.

debt stay out of it!!!!
dont drop funds into a fancy truck,car,gamining system when you couldbe buying  a BOL or getting out of exsisting debt.

Find roomates who share your interests.
Buy a safe for your guns.
Find a cheap room somewhere for awile and pay as little as you can to get buy. (buy a cheap used RV and park it on your farm for free for a year?)
Pay off all debt.
Build up an emergency savings plan.
Work two jobs for awhile or live on the the family farm for free and work there.

Do not focus on guns.
Develop a plan for your life for 5 and 10 years.

Bingo.

We may not agree on camoflage, but we do on most everything else.  The first thing that you need is a PLAN.  What are you gonna sit still and ride out, what events will be sufficient to bug out?  How far away is the family farm, and how do you plan to get there?  What threats do you face where you are, and will they be much different at home?  I'd suspect 2 weeks worth at college, some stored gasoline, and one handgun would suffice at school, but I am not there so I don't know.

Write it out on paper, rate each threat as far as likelihood of occurance, as well as consequences.  Prep accordingly.

Ops

Here is your tasks:

Make a 72 hr. kit that you can grab and go.
Take your apartment and secure it.  (don't cry that your roommates make that impossible involve them).
Make a fire escape plan and convince your buddies to review it.  Bonus if you can practice it.
Secure your stuff.
Be more aware.  Practice identifying threats and then raising your awareness though yellow to red.



www.providentliving.org

I would try and move out of there if at all possible. Three roommates is way too many, especially since they don't share your views on prepping. If you can't afford a place by yourself, try and get one with just one roommate, and like minded if at all possible.  If the SHTF, and your forced to stay at your place, it will be a lot easier having one roommate than three.

I agree with getting a safe and also maybe some kind of metal locking storage cabinet for stuff that you can't fit in the safe. This "should" keep your roommates out of your guns and preps.

How far are you from home? Could you bug out to the family farm?  Make sure your vehicle kit is in order and have your BOB ready to go.

Do you live near any family that you trust?  Maybe you can take the other members' advice and build up your stock pile of goodies and a safe at their place.  I'm not sure how much you trust your roommates with survival preps, but it seems you trust them enough to have guns in the apt.

Lots of good information so far.  However, one thing sends up the red flag.  Everyone has harped on him getting out of debt, conserve money, etc.  Well, it's a lot more financially intelligent to live with others, as it cuts costs way down.  Where I live here in Pittsburgh, it can get ridiculous in some cases.  I live with three guys, and if I didn't, I would be paying well over double the costs each month.  Granted, they are all like minded individuals but, you get the gist.

I live an hour and a half away from the farm. I have to go through a couple major cities to get home which i KNOW is a major problem but it is the fastest. If something is going down in those cities, I can avoid them but it will take 15 minutes to a half hour longer to get home. My truck is ALWAYS full on gas. I always have water and tuna and crackers in my room (i love tuna). I lock the door to my room when I am in my apartment and when I am gone. I lock the apartment door at night. I go shoot a couple times a week and my neighbors see me carrying my guns. They aren't too savvy with stuff like that either and it freaks them out so not sure they would try and steal my guns. one neighbor just got back from Afganihstan and he seems alright. One of my roommates owns a pistol and we discuss what we would do if someone were to break-in in the middle of the night. I try to think of probable events and what i would do, what other people would do to screw up my plans and how to fix that. I try to think of unlikely but still possible scenerios and what to do. I am not "paranoid", but hey, if some forgein country decides to take over my college, I want to be able to defend myself and those closest to me in an intelligent manner.

I have NO DEBT. I DO have pointless college-kid stuff, xbox, flatscreen, blah blah blah, I know this could be meaningless in any catostrophic event but i get bored after cleaning my guns and reading the labels on tuna cans and all the arfcom stuff that my brain can hold. I do have a 3-day pack ready to be snatched up and me be gone. not sure what the BOB/kit is??? anyone help me with the acronym, not too good at new ones to me. Anyways, in the process right now of making a ghillie suit, not so much for survival but it could be usefull in some way i am sure. Plus i coyote hunt and those things really work with those suckers.

No gun safe YET, but i will have one in a month (my B-day present). I keep my guns locked in my room and out of sight and not loaded except for my pistol. But i do have two mags loaded for  each gun, also hidden but easily grabbed.

Living at home and working on the farm is what I do every summer and love it. I want to move out but its not possible with the economy and being in school at the same time. I ahve to pay for an apartment at at school while i work at home. What a bitch. But i make enough in the summer working and have enough cows with calves and wheat stored after summer that when/if i need money, i can sell a steer or two or a couple 100 bushels of wheat to get me by. cash is no problem. I hate the plastic and i hate the bank/checking accounts. I try to have enough cash wherever I am that i can leave the country and have enough to getby wherever i go. Kinda weird but you never know. Just wish my university pres. or the state laws would let us excercise our CCW rights on campus. Sometimes i get that "uneasy" feeling about a class on certain days, so i sit where i can see the door and and have at least two exits quickly. If i had my CCW, not sure i wouldn't do the same, but at least i would feel more comfortable about passing some whacked out kid in the hall that looks like he just wants to go postal on somebody, anybody.

Water, Tuna, Gas, 3-day pack, gun, ammo, batteryless radio (one you can crank a handle and charge it), flashlights w/ batteries,

Also my apartment has two doors and virtually zero windows. good in the event of a tornado, unsure about in the event of a fire. I have two fire extinguishers in the house and a new sprinkler, smoke alarm system that gets checked every three months. Easily able to barracade the two doors for zombies or forgein assholes. Easy to hunker down or get the hell out. i do live close to the campus which i don't like much in terms of thinking for catastrophic events, but nice to only have a ten minute walk to class. a


ANny other thoughts???

Nobody recommended starting a mobile meth lab? Things sure have changed.
Information seems to be your biggest need first. Gather enough and the next course of action will reveal itself.

Good Ideas
Buy a Safe
and

Umm How big are your room mates?  
And how well do you clean Deer?  

It's supposaed to be funny  
As in a joke

thats disturbing

You sound like you are doing pretty good. I'm in a similar situation. Live at home, almost done with college. my only storage space is my room.  GET ORGANIZED. that this buggiest pointer I can give. The more organized you are the more space you will have to store supplies. Not sure how much water you have, but def store as much as possible. Get a backpacking water filter, so if you find a water source you wont get sick using it. +1 on the safe, I have one just cuz my collection is starting to grow. But its a huge piece of mind. I also lock my ammo.  I keep one gun loaded and accessible for me, the others are locked in the safe, and all my ammo is in a lockable chest. Without ammo you don't have a gun.

Start your SHTF habits mitigating the risks you have today, like right now.

Sit in your living room (with a beer) and play what if:

- do the roommates use drugs that could cause a "yellow tape on the door for 4 weeks" bust?

- what is the fire protection / suppression like?  If it's like typical student housing you will get about 60 seconds warning to get out with enough stuff to start your life.

- your plumbing/water could go bad, you could lose heat

Mitigate those risks with things you will find useful later when you can do more prep.

Currently am going through the "Katrina Blog"
http://www.theplacewithnoname.com/blogs/klessons/p/map.html
This will cover my "fire" risk (my biggest one) with preps to let me get started after a total loss of my apartment in fire.  MOST of this is done with a computer and scanner, with a small BOB or crate.

When I am done with it, I am going to finish off with water preps (I had the plumbing go out for 4 days in my previous apartment) which will cost a bit more.

Then do about a month of food (just regular stuff).

This spring, it's tomatoes in buckets on my 2nd floor deck.

I have cash and savings squirreled away, enough to live off of with no job for about 8 months before I risk getting evicted or losing my health.  (You probably can't do this as a student yet!)

I do this simple stuff as a start, and greatly reduce the risk I think I face. I am saving the AR and thousands of rounds of ammo for later. Saving the 4 wheel drive truck BOV for later.  Saving the 6 months of food until later.  So far, I really enjoy the planning, and have learned a bunch of new skills and techniques with very little outward appearances of "weird stuff", and very little outlay of cash.

So you might do well with starting with your primary risks first. And going on to the TEOTWAWKI stuff later.  TEOTWAWKI has not happened for our civilization yet, though others have had it.  Fire on the other hand, will happen to one out of every 40 people some time during their lifetimes, and happens every day in some communities.  Which is more bang for your buck?  Only you can decide that. Don't focus on what others are doing, they don't have the same risks and situation you do.

[also, read everything you can on the subject]

BOB = Bug Out Bag

For Acronyms and Abreviations try this link

Id have a smmall cache of supplies on hand. Enough to bug out back to the farm. With roomates id leave most guns with the parents. Finish school asap and get back to the farm to make your stand

AMEN

I say, now, I say –– I say it's a JOKE, son, a JOKE, don'tcha get it (boy's sharp but he doesn't listen to a word y'say)–– now, c'mere, boah, it's a JOKE, y'see?

~FogHorn

get a locking foot locker like a usgi one. get a case for the guns like a guitar case so it is not so obvious you are carrying guns. put together a small stash of canned foods for your self , The same basics I see on here in several threads water food and some form of protection to get back to the farm, make sure you have enough gas in the car to make the trip.

If I were you and in your situation, I would write the roommates off as a lost cause in every capacity other than simply being roommates, and instead focus all my attention on getting back to your family farm if SHTF.

Keep the bulk of your preps at the farm. In fact, it sounds like you already have some very useful things there. Beef and wheat are both very nice things to have. Having so much wheat, you should be able to squirrel away enough of it to make bread for your entire family from now on at very little expense. You won't have to order it from Honeyville for $50+ for a 5 gallon pail like many folks here.

As far as preps to keep at the apartment, I would probably elect to keep those at a minimum. Keep enough food on hand to last you a week or two. Keep some basic supplies on hand for power outages and other lesser emergencies. Keep a good first aid kit. Have a way of receiving news and info without power (battery or hand cranked SW radio would be one option). And keep at least some of your guns there. And keep a 72 hour kit, i.e. the before mentioned BOB, which your 3 day pack will handle quite nicely. Next, focus your remaining attention of having with you at your apartment the items you would need to get back to your family farm. Keep some extra gas on hand if you would need it to reach your destination should you need to avoid the cities and use backroads. Perhaps even keep a bicycle (a nice trail bike) as an alternative form of transportation.

Use the family farm as your location to bug out to. Keep the bulk of your preps there. Focus everything else on obtaining the stuff needed to get you there in the event SHTF. A simple BOB and a form of reliable transportation should meet most of those needs. I wouldn't allow myself to be consumed with worry about the roommates. It is everyone's own duty to make their own preparations and if they are really that clueless, there's really not much you can do to help them without causing greater risk to yourself. So just keep on hand what is needed to get you the hell outta there and back to a safer, more defensible location where like minded people are present. Let those jokers fend for themselves.

Not sure how much water you have, but think a gallon per day, and its not as if you'll be there sipping while your roomates die of thirst. In an appartment space can be a probelm, but have at least two weeks worth fo water. TAke it easy and be conservative about spending money on preps. It's easy to spend a fortune under the mantra "its for survival" or the dreaded, "it will be worth its weight in gold... when SHTF" For emergency funds, save up some cash and PM later on.

FerFAL