Envision SHTF as something that could disrupt the normal function Government if you would. A disruption in government that would cause law enforcement to become non-existent. Total chaos martial law type scenarios in which it’s everybody for themselves. Smaller scale examples of this such as Hurricane Katrina aftermath comes to mind. Tactical survival skills are critical in situations where people have intent to kill you for what you have.
Larger scales affecting all of us at a national level is more of the worst case scenario we’d all like to be prepared for. I often think of the impacts the Great Depression had on the country at that time and how the times have changed. There is a big difference between now and the 1930s! Back then people still knew how to cook meals from scratch. What would people do without Wal-Marts, ATMs, or electricity? We can only speculate but it sure doesn’t look good.
Related: Survival Bushcraft Skills That You Should Master
Traditional Survival vs. SHTF Survival
Television has made self-proclaimed survivalist such as Bear Grylls or Cody Lundin famous for surviving harsh environments. These survival skills have their merit of importance don’t get me wrong. Could we drop Bear & Cody off in a war zone such as Alleppo and expect them to make it to the nearest Embassy? Or could they survive a night on the streets of Chicago? As skilled as they are I doubt it.
Observing survival for many years now I find myself extremely fascinated with stories of survival of ordinary people. One example that quickly comes to mind is that of Steven Callahan who survived 76 days on a life raft in the ocean. Steven was not a survivalist, but he was able to retrieve some survival gear, and he made it. Surviving on a life raft for that long is pretty amazing to me!
If you look hard enough you’ll find plenty of amazing survival stories from ordinary people who survived great odds. Thing is these people had to survive elements of the environment and those elements didn’t involve a human threat. The need for tactical survival in these cases simply wasn’t there.
Preppers Wake Up Call
If you’re a preparing for the worst case SHTF scenarios you should realize that the greatest threat will be other human beings. SHTF hasn’t even happened yet and statistically you are more likely to get robbed; shot or killed in a random act of violence than needing any traditional survival skill. Preaching the importance of tactical survival skills is important due to the impression that many preppers neglect it.
Acknowledging you can’t put up much of a fight if you’re starving to death I’m in no way discrediting the need or value of those traditional survival skills. Point being made here is you can’t raise chickens or pick tomatoes if you’ve been killed by rogue gangs. When SHTF happens you can fully expect the worst to come out of those who are unprepared. Like it or not stealing and killing will be the means of survival for such people.
Related: Five Emergency Survival Tools
Easy Targets and Rich Targets
In a SHTF Situation preppers will be considered rich targets because they have the things others need and lots of it. We can expect that evil will combine forces and form small groups to go after the prepared few. Take advantage of the time we have now to improve marksmanship and other tactical survival skills. Plan to be outnumbered but do what you can to be better equipped with skills as well as combat multipliers.
Don’t be an easy target for such people! Being able to defend your family and what you have should be top priority. Having a years worth of emergency food for four without adequate means to defend it is irresponsible. As your level of preparedness grows your defensive capability should grow with it.
SHTF Planning & Preparation
Survival isn’t just about guns, gear and equipment but mental preparedness is key to using the tools at your disposal. When it comes to tactical survival there is plenty you can do to improve your readiness. Here is a list of a few suggestions to focus your preparations to make yourself a harder target.
- Survival Pistol. – Pistols should be a priority for everyday personal defense. Once you have a pistol there is lots of training and practice that can be done without firing to save money. Snap caps can be used to practice reloading speed, dry firing, and drawing from the holster and shooting. Start slow and ensure you’re using good technique so you don’t form bad habits.
- Battle Rifle & Marksmanship. – Good quality battle rifles don’t have to be extremely expensive. It is better to equip yourself with an $800 rifle and $2200 worth of rifle training than having a $3k rifle and no formal training.
- Physical fitness. – Take steps to improve your physical fitness level. You are only as hard as you train and good fitness will also help with marksmanship.
- Combat multipliers. – Rifle scopes and night vision are examples of combat multipliers.
- Study tactics. – Military manuals can be found online in .pdf format in which you can learn tactics and implement them into your personal training. These would be a free resource that cost nothing but time.
- OpSec – Keep your preps low-key for the sake of operational security. Keep friends, family, and co-workers on a need to know basis. Just having a lot of guns makes the non gun owning family want to your run to you for safety if something happens.
