Two Pieces of Advice: Keeping a Low Profile and Storing Bug-Out Gear

Hello, again fellows.

One of the things we have to consider as preppers is keeping a low profile. This is going to be a good idea no matter what happens. If someone´s desire is to make something outstanding and being famous, better work also in a good plan to go black once things start to go bad. Therefore, here I will discuss how we can stay low as much as possible.

But we necessarily have to take some gear with us, that is too valuable and useful to be stashed inside the bug out location (BOL). I see many preppers have some years roaming around and they’re not exactly young. Being almost solo now, I could imagine how hard it would be for just one person, or a senior couple to upload all of our gear in a truck. My family was once 6 persons, with two young under their 20s, and the baby. The world keeps going, and now it’s just two of us.

Thinking on this possibility, suggestions are covered as well given the need to upload our gear by ourselves efficiently, discreetly, and quickly.

Learn and practice Silent Submarine Discipline.

I want to expose a thought that has been around in my mind for some time. Depending on the nature of the situation, and how it evolves, a strategy that may be useful is to hunker down in a secluded location until everything calms down. Just like a submarine going silent. You have a place stocked with 4 or 5 or more months’ worth of supplies, then go black with your family and monitor the radio frequencies you have previously selected, using your HAM equipment and your setup of previously installed (and well-hidden) antennas. If you have some cash stashed for a mobile satellite internet system that can be activated while you’re on the route to the BOL for an extended stay, so much better. Maybe for those with a family, this is a more difficult option or can be exactly what you should do (if you live in a densely populated city that is just waiting for a spark to ignite, for example), that’s up to you. Leaving on time, discreetly but with everything valuable and needed for a long stay to a place already stocked up, while there is a hazardous situation is a big plus.

But let’s say you are riding solo, or with a few friends, each one nearby inside their own place fully stocked and ready to take whatever comes around.

I have a question for you: Would you keep your normal day life schedule, like getting up early, preparing your coffee (that can be sniffed from kilometers away in a good day that can turn easily in a very bad one if this calls the attention of the wrong gang), and doing your things exposed in the middle of the day? If there is some kind of hostile forces patrolling around, don’t you think this would increase the risk of being detected?

Is not better to get out at some odd hours (that is, if you really need fresh air) to collect maybe fresh fruit or even hunt or fish a small piece for dinning something fresh? Under abnormal circumstances, normal behavior can bring us problems. Old habits must be changed or even abandoned. They make us predictable…and could make us prey. But you get my point. I am not talking about this BOL being the place where you normally live but a hideout where you could go to remain unnoticed, undisturbed (hopefully) and be safe in case of something like, say, a pandemics or a prolonged civil turmoil sweeps your area.

There are things you can do to make your BOL inconspicuous.

As a bonus, I would suggest covering with some kind of camouflage whatever vehicle you use to get there. Low profile means exactly that. You need to be undetected even if a patrol walks over or nearby your place. Hiding cameras in 4 strategic spots will allow you 360 degrees vision of what is happening outside. No need to use wiring that could be tracked up to your place. Modern cameras can be motion activated and use very low energy. Rigging a small solar panel to each one would avoid the need to even getting out to change batteries. These could be detected by professionals with a drone or something, but for an average roaming gang that is not looking for anyone hidden, it’s hard to believe they have that kind of equipment. Camouflaging everything, of course.

Same with the fumes extraction system. The exhaust of the stoves should NOT be at body height, as the fumes then can be perceived by people walking around. Use whatever you can to direct it far away from the main location, way up high, so the upper airwaves will sweep odors and take them up before someone can trace it. Of course, if they use dogs, that´s a different story. Those LEOs that prep know more about this than I do, and they can provide better advice. Smoke should be diffused somehow, this is paramount, and I would like to think that thick brush would be a great place to hide in, with lots of advantages. Good thing is, my area is filled up with such places. The tropical forest is great for that, people. Run over it with a truck loaded with supplies, and in a few days, it will be just like 100 years ago. Plants will grow up again, and rain will clear any tire tracks printed on the soil.

Store your BOV supplies so you easily can grab them and go.

I was thinking about senior preppers, with grown kids living far away (just like my dad although he isn’t a prepper) and made me think about how these persons or some elder women could upload a truck full of supplies without harming themselves and still be able to drive 4 or 5 hours to safety. If you have a garage and it’s somewhat cluttered (like most of us normal regular people have it) I would say use the space close to the roof to hang your supplies and gear – out of the way, but ready to deploy in a second.

Building a very simple but robust structure to hang everything will work for two purposes: One, it will be saving useful space and keeping your gear out of the way. Two, it will be still available to deploy in a heartbeat in the truck bed, over your van roof, or wherever you need it. Going beyond, I would put everything together in one single stack, and hang it in a way that just with one hand it could be put over a roof cabinet, with a pulley. You could put the stacked and tied up gear vertically against the garage wall until you need it, and then just take the pulley hook, lift it by the gravity center, and have it over the BOV roof in less than a minute. If you have one of those roof hard shell carriers, great. I mention this because that´s exactly what I´m going to do. I know, maybe some of you can think “dude but you bugged out already”, but now the rig will be useful to load whatever I need into the truck. Especially the products of the homestead I´m going to make once I can come back. (I´m not sure there will be any jobs in the oil industry, so I have a plan B. And a plan C. And even a plan D). You just have to make sure, if you’re going to leave the stack suspended, that it can’t fall down. The choice is yours, though.

If you’re disabled and can’t even operate a manual lift pulley, there are lots of small, not so expensive electric lifts that can hang from a roof hook attached to a sturdy structure, and driven with a remote cable control. 125 Kg lift should be enough! 375 kilograms in 3 separated lifts is a lot of supplies.

As this is a really useful tool, so PLEASE! don’t forget to throw it in the truck bed once your gear is in place. Maybe you’ll need it to get everything down once arrived at the BOL.

Thank you.

Thanks for being there, as usual, caring and supportive. I feel a strong bond with many people I’ve come across this website, truly.

Your support is highly appreciated, no matter the form it comes on.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next article, or the next video. Whatever comes first.

What do you think?

Have you thought about how you will stay under the radar in the event you need to bug out? Have you come up with ways to store your bug out gear in a way that will make it easy for you to grab it and go if you need to leave your area quickly? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

About Jose

Jose is an upper middle class professional. He is a former worker of the oil state company with a Bachelor’s degree from one of the best national Universities. He has a small 4 members family, plus two cats and a dog. An old but in good shape SUV, a good 150 square meters house in a nice neighborhood, in a small but (formerly) prosperous city with two middle size malls. Jose is a prepper and shares his eyewitness accounts and survival stories from the collapse of his beloved Venezuela. Thanks to your help Jose has gotten his family out of Venezuela. They are currently setting up a new life in another country. Follow Jose on YouTube and gain access to his exclusive content on Patreon. Donations: paypal.me/JoseM151