SEW-ON-THE-GO: Here is a tip: the old-timers often purchased cotton tube stocking material instead of ready-to-wear pairs of socks. They then simply cut off a length of cotton tubing and sewed one end shut to make a sock. They always cut the tube extra long so as the toe end wore out, they could cut it off and sew in a new toe. You can only carry so many pairs of socks. A strip of elastic is a good idea for garters, and it can be reused. By-the-way, don't forget the sewing kit! Even the best of clothes will tear or hole at strategic points. Since buying new clothes in the wilderness is not possible, you can see the value of your sewing kit.
You don't need many colors of thread as you probably won't be attending that many fashion shows in the field. It is the type of thread that is important. You will need strong nylon upholstery thread for mending tents and sleeping bags and lighter thread for clothes. Always include some white cotton thread for mending socks and larger cuts on people. Pick a useful assortment of needles, and include a set of sail mending needles. They are great for mending tents and making sutures. The usual assortment of buttons, pins, and clips is handy too. Another good idea is to carry some patching materials. These don't need to be carried in the sewing kit, but may be laid in the bottom of a back pack. Carry a little material to match the types of clothing and gear that you intend to carry. Again, the color is quite unimportant, but light cloth for shirts and heavy cloth for pants and gear is a good idea. Always carry a sharp pair of scissors and a stone for keeping them sharp. The stone you use for sharpening knives will do.
CHOOSING BOOTS AND SHOES: Don't be cheap. Good boots and shoes cost good money, but they are worth every penny of their price. Rest assured that it won't take much field experience before you will rank them right at the top of your list of indispensable items, for without them, your chances of survival are less than likely. Every good outdoors person should have at least two good pairs of boots and some light walking shoes that will double as slippers around camp. Why? Comfort, that's why. Your feet will thank you for those soft shoes after a long day trudging about in those hot, heavy boots. Also, there won't be a shoe store at every cross trail in the wilderness. Boots are the thing for rough country traveling, but for working or lounging around camp, they are too heavy and restricting. Camp shoes are more in order as they are lighter in weight, offer greater freedom of movement, and let your feet breathe. You need a change. Let's face it, fungus grows in damp places, and sweaty feet live in damp places. Changing footwear often is desirable in a survival situation as your feet will be remain dry while your other pair of boots has a chance to air out. The new lightweight materials make this possible.
Also consider the type of country in which you will attempt survival and choose footwear made from appropriate materials. For the dryer climates, leather is quite durable, but when moisture is a factor, synthetic materials will prove more serviceable. They are also lighter and take up less space in your pack. You see, swamps and jungles have a way of rotting leather in no time at all as the Armed Forces soon discovered in Southeast Asia. Be sure, however, that your boots have hard soles as the softer types, though good on flat, paved surfaces are worthless over rocky terrain. Boots should be of the high, lace-up variety as pull-on boots give no ankle support, and walking upon uneven surfaces will require the use of muscles not normally used while walking in the cities. The stiff sole and tight-laced uppers of a good boot will add rigidity and protection to your "Tender feet" until you develop stronger ankle muscles. The military learned the hard way, so you may as well benefit from their mistakes and consider purchasing similar boots. However, should you choose boots or shoes of synthetic materials, consider only those with heavy fabric uppers as solid plastic uppers will not allow your feet to breathe.
MAKING THE FINAL SELECTION: Never by shoes or boots that are too small! When going to the shoe store, wear a pair of soft cotton socks next to your skin and a good pair of winter wool socks over them. Now try on prospective boots. When you find a pair of boots that you like, leave them on and walk and stand in them for a while. Don't be in a hurry as you will spend a lot of time in them later. Give them a chance to make a good impression upon your feet. A half an hour is about right. Now, take off your new boots and both pairs of socks. Check your feet for red marks or sore spots. Often a particular boot will have a rather sharp appendage somewhere inside. Look for its impression on your foot. If you find such a mark on your feet, investigate what put it there. You certainly don't want to find out about it later, for it will cripple you in the field. Try another boot or pair of boots. Often you can purchase one boot from one pair and the other from another pair. In any case, come home with a pair of good boots that fit perfectly and do not have any internal sharp spots. If you can't find such a pair of boots, wait until you can. Do not buy a pair of boots that are too tight, cause pain, or have sharp spots. This is true for leather or synthetics.
BREAKING IN SHOES OR BOOTS: Always break in new shoes or boots at your leisure. Don't just buy a new pair of boots and set them in the closet expecting them to be ready to ware. Pick an off day, and break in your foot gear. Here is a good way to do it: start in the early morning. Soak your new boots in warm water for a half hour, then shake them out and dry them off with a rag. Put on two pairs of socks, and then put on the boots or shoes. The rest is easy, just wear and walk them dry. The leather or other common shoe materials will conform to your foot and end up a perfect fit. In warm weather, they should be dry by bed time. If not, put them in a plastic bag, squeeze out excess air, seal it tight, and then wear them again the next day. In the case of leather boots, Once they are form fit to your feet, apply some Neatsfoot compound to them to soften and waterproof the leather. Smooth leather can be polished with a good wax polish, dull leather is best kept supple by the Neatsfoot compound or mink oil. Always keep your leather boots protected as raw leather will crack and scuff, robbing you of years of service.
Now you might think that I've spent a lot of time talking about basic outdoor clothing, but read it again. If you don't have the right clothing and footwear, you and your family won't make it. It's as simple as that. Every concept discussed here so far is of great importance, and the lack of this simple knowledge and these basic concepts will spell the death of 99% of the people who survive the initial upheaval. They will not be prepared. They will be driven by fear and desperation as they have no plan, and they will die.
NECESSITIES: Now once you and yours arrive on- site, You will have immediate need of food and shelter. You will also need security. Let us dwell upon these points next.
FOOD: If you planned well, food should be no problem as you should have enough en cache for immediate use. If you have already started your gardens and planted some fruit trees, you are well on your way to success. Also, if you did your homework and read some books on your area, you should know what foods grow naturally and where to find them. If you did your scouting, you'll also know where there are friendly farmers where certain supplies may be obtained.
Now you will need meat, and most land supports animals, and those animals will support you. You will need to acquire some of those animals. The best ways to do that are hunting and trapping. Traps may be purchased from sporting goods stores or mail order houses. Guns are another matter. There is much preference and emotion involved with them, so I will not get into that. Instead, I'll suggest what works. You can do what you wish, but remember, you'll have to carry your gun and ammo. They are heavy. Remember, the bigger the gun, the heavier the ammo. Let's face it, you can only carry so much weight and bulk, so make your choices well.
KEEP IT SIMPLE: A .22 rifle is all you need. In this case, you are not in a sporting mood. You want to eat. A .22 rifle will drop quail out of shotgun range, shoot turkeys, ducks, pheasant, partridge, doves and pigeons on the ground as well as the finest shotgun, and you can keep your ammo in your shirt pocket. As far as four-footed creatures go, a .22 will kill anything from a rabbit to an elk with a well placed shot. Up on the Indian Reservations, more elk are taken with old fifteen dollar, .22 single-shot rifles than with any other gun. Keep in mind, what you want is meat. A .22 long rifle bullet fired at close range will drop a raging bull like a stone. They do it all the time at the stock yards. You can do it too! Don't let the prejudices of gun magazine writers influence you too much. Most of them think that you need a .338 magnum to kill a squirrel, when whole herds of buffalo and elk were wiped out with old black powder weapons, arrows and spears. Sometimes the animals were simply stampeded off of a low cliff.
A WELL PLACED SHOT: The trick is to get up close and go for a brain or neck shot. Check out an animal anatomy book from the library and all will be revealed. For all practical purposes, consider that if you drove a rod in one ear and out the other of most food animals, the rod would pass directly through the brain. The rod is the axis. Always imagine that axis, no matter what angle or direction the animal is heading. Place your shot directly in center of that axis, and you will have meat. Eyes and ears offer less resistance than other parts of the skull. Try to reach the center of the axis through an eye or ear. From the rear, a shot placed at the base of the skull will bring results, for there lies the Medulla Oblongata, that turns all bodily functions on and off. Never shoot high into the top of the skull as you will encounter thicker bone or antlers. Never try a heart or lung shot, as a .22 does not have the power to penetrate well. A neck shot though, once you are familiar enough with anatomy to pick out the spinal column, is a sure bet. The little bullet only has to penetrate a couple inches of meat to shatter the spinal column and short-circuit the nervous system.
Buy any type action you like as long as you are smart enough to fix it in the field. The best choices are bolt actions and semi-automatics. Both are simple. Pumps and lever actions are too complicated and break too often. Pay attention to the extractor of any weapon you buy. The spring clip type of extractor is easy to fix, but wears out quickly. The machined extractor, seldom causes problems. However if your rifle has a spring clip extractor, simply purchase a couple of spares. They are inexpensive. If your weapon has a clip magazine, buy spares, as you will surely lose them. Tube feed guns are slower to load, but almost never cause problems, neither are their magazines easily lost.
FIELDSTRIPPING: Learn to field strip your weapons, and while you are at it, look for lightweight or weak parts. Ask your local gunsmith what parts usually break on your weapon, and then order replacement parts. There aren't many gun shops in the woods. Buy a cleaning kit for your weapons, and by all means keep your weapons clean and lightly oiled. Gunsafe products are excellent for this purpose. "To scope or not to scope, that is the question". If you can see well enough to use iron or peep sights, use them. Iron sights are much better for moving targets, and seldom will you shoot much past 50 yards with a .22 anyway. Of course, the best ammo is Long Rifle Hollow Points of quality manufacture. You can make them even more effective by cutting a small cross on the tip with a Stanley Razor Knife. Such ammo is devastating on small game.
OTHER POSSIBILITIES: Archery is another excellent mode of hunting. The gear is light, and the arrows can be reused. Again, gear preference is up to the individual, so I'll just state what works. Select a bow of a poundage you can pull without shaking and going cross-eyed. For men, 50 to 80 pounds, for women, 30 to 50 pounds of pull. Like computers, bow design changes by the moment, and there are those who trade in their tackle every few months to acquire the latest and greatest. Take advantage of this knowledge, and buy an out-of-tech, two-wheeler compound bow for reasonable money.
A shorter bow is best for hunting, because there is less of it to get caught in the bushes. Aluminum arrows seem to hold up better than most, and sharp, three-vein, broad-head hunting points work best as they cut more meat and are less wind sensitive. Most arrows now have plastic fletching which holds up well. For deer and larger animals, a forty or more pound pull is best. Of course, a 40 Lb. pull compound bow will cast an arrow much faster than a recurve or long bow of much greater weight. Also, a bow quiver is handy as it keeps broadhead arrows accessible and safe. You don't want to get cut with one of them.
