Captain Dave's Survival Guide
Caching Your Goods
You've planned. You've made lists. You've spent hard-earned dollars on food and gear. But how do you keep it all safe and secure? How do you know it will be there when you need it especially if you need it when you are not home?
Long term storage of supplies in a safe location protected from both accidental exposure and from those aggressively searching for your stash is important. For this reason, creating one or more caches (cache rhymes with stash) of items you believe you will need in a survival situation is a good plan for any serious survivalist.
There are several ways to cache emergency goods. Dave recommends an onsite stash, at lest one off site cache and hidden emergency caches:
- Basic caches
- What to cache
- On-site vs. off-site
- Hidden caches
- What to cache
- Where/how to create a cache
- Locating/recovering your goods
Basic Caches
Your Home Stash
Store you primary food and gear in a basic cache. These caches can be in a closet, basement, or other, relatively easy-to-access locations in or very near your home. They are normally protected by locks or other traditional security measures and some discretion on your part (you know -- keeping your mouth shut). The basic stash should include all your survival necessities (covered in chapters three, four and five). Because these caches are accessible, you can rotate items in and out as necessary.
Basic caches can simply be food, water and other necessities on shelves, in boxes and bags, or in cupboards set aside just for emergency use. A lock on the door can keep family members from rifling supplies (when the portable stereo needs batteries, for example) and nosy neighbors or guests from uncovering your preparedness stash. It should be set aside separately from daily use materials so that you do not draw down on it leaving a hole if you need it in an emergency, yet it should be accessible enough that you can rotate canned food easily.
On-site caches in basements or closets (for those areas where basements are as rare) are convenient, available in most emergencies, and facilitate adding new items and rotating out canned goods, water, and other perishables. Under your bed is the next best location. Avoid garages and attics that are not temperature controlled and get very hot and/or humid or may freeze.
An Offsite Cache
Off-site caches, as discussed briefly in Chapter Two, allow you to stash items near your home or your survival retreat, but hopefully are far enough away that they are not endangered by anything that affects your primary stash, be it a fire, a burglary, or an ex-spouse and their lawyer.
One good off-site cache location that is easy to access but relatively safe and private can be a commercial mini-storage unit. If you have limited space, a commercial mini-storage unit near your residence gives you more room for goods than you might have at home. In this manner, you could keep several months worth of food at home, and store a year's worth or more in a rented storage unit. A single 5' x 5' storage locker (the smallest normally available) can easily hold a year's supply of food for four. A 5' x 10' or 10' x 10' locker with a steel door can hold a huge amount of gear when piled high and jammed in tight. If you are storing food, a temperature controlled locker is recommended. While these facilities are usually more expensive, they often have a better clientele and better security.
The danger inherent in off-site storage is that you will not be able to protect your stash from marauders (should our system of law and order break down) or natural disasters, such as an earthquake or fire. You must also consider transportation concerns. How easy will it be to reach the 24 cases of MREs you have squirreled away in that storage unit 15 miles outside of town? If the disaster is of such a magnitude that you need them, can you get to them? Can you carry them back to your home?
If you are positioning your off-site cache near your retreat or safe house, then your mini-storage unit should ideally be relatively close to your intended route of travel, fenced yet accessible 24 hours a day, and allow you some privacy. For example, a unit that faces the main street will not do. You want one inside the complex that is difficult to observe from the outside.
Using a commercial storage unit requires subtlety and camouflage. You will be asking to be robbed if you move gun cases into your storage unit in plain site on a busy Saturday. Instead, buy a large cardboard wardrobe of the kind used by movers. Put your guns in the center of the wardrobe and pack the outside with old clothes you don't wear much. Put the MREs in a white cardboard file box and label them "Tim's Term Papers," Mom's Recipes" or something equally uninteresting. Store your ammo in old cardboard boxes and put a few layers of books or magazines on top. Thrown a few old pieces of furniture in and your storage unit will attract no unwanted attention and can withstand a cursory inspection.
Safe Deposit Boxes
A safe deposit box is a specialized form of cache. It won't hold much, but it is an excellent location for securely storing important documents and financial instruments. Imagine your house burnt to the ground, what important documents would you need? (Ask your insurance agent if you are not sure). It is good common sense to start with copies of birth certificates, marriage certificates, insurance paperwork, contracts, deeds, judgments, securities, bonds and other items you need rarely but do not want to lose. If you have purchased gold or silver as a hedge against inflation, store a portion of it in your safe deposit box as well. (You won't be able to access it all in an emergency, but you won't lose it all in an emergency either.) Dave also recommends storing some cash in the box, somewhere between several hundred and several thousand dollars. If you need the contents of your box, chances are, you will need some cash.
Finally, Captain Dave recommends storing a handgun and ammunition in your safe deposit box. This serves several purposes: One, it gives you a firearm that cannot be confiscated by the police if you are accused of a crime or subjected to a protection from abuse order. Two, it gives you relatively easy access to a weapon if you cannot return home to get one. Three, if things are so bad that you need to empty out your safe deposit box, you could probably use a gun and some ammo. If not, then just leave it in there it's not doing any harm, and it may be appreciating in value.
If you work a good distance from your home, Dave recommends having a safe deposit box near your work. Your main stash is at home if something happens to your home, hopefully the distant bank will be unaffected. This is the kind of redundancy that survivalists strive for. It will also make the box easier to get to a you can access it quickly and easily from work, say during your lunch hour.
If you like the safe deposit box idea and want the ultimate in redundancy be like the spy in the movies and have one in several cities. Do you frequently travel to New York on business? Have a box there. Is your parent's home one of your retreat locations? Why not have a bank account and safe deposit box there? If you move, keep your old box in the old city it is worth the $50 a year to have insurance, extra back up and redundancy.
Your Car Stash
You should keep basic survival supplies in your vehicle at all times. A few MREs, water bottles, a first aid kit, a shovel, a blanket, cell phone charger, and some jumper cables are the bare minimum. If you are in or frequently travel through a rural area, add a tarp, some rope, a hatchet, fire starter and tinder, water filter, and enough food to last at least three days. If you wear dress shoes to work, make sure a pair of work boots or hiking boots is in the vehicle with extra socks and other comfortable clothing and outerwear. Finally, if you normally carry a gun, be sure you have extra ammunition in your vehicle. Captain Dave carries a fully loaded magazine and a box of extra ammo.
The purpose of your vehicle stash is to allow you to survive for several days if you are stranded away from home. If you run off the road during a snow storm or other adverse event, your vehicle survival kit should allow you to keep alive while you await rescue. And finally, if you have to bug out in an emergency, your vehicle survival kit will supplement and enhance the items in your bug-out-bag, increasing the duration of your ability to remain self-sufficient.
Over the years, Captain Dave has used the following items from his personal vehicle survival kit the most:
- Jumper cables
- Tire repair kit
- Emergency air pump
- Athletic tape (from first aid kit)
- Bottled water
- Duct tape
- Spare socks
- Blanket
- Spare ammunition
Restocking Enroute
People who want the flexibility of picking up and driving away empty handed on a moment's notice should have a cache in a storage unit that is enroute to their destination. 150 miles away from home should be enough to allow you to escape whatever danger you are trying to get away from, yet attainable on a single tank of gas. (You can store more gas at the storage unit, but keep in mind that this will violate their rules. Gas also needs to be rotated to keep it fresh.)
Some mini storage locations allow you to park your RV there for a monthly or annual fee. An expensive but excellent tactic is to buy a used RV, ensure that the engine is in excellent condition but allow it to look shabby from the exterior. Stock it with all the necessities, fill the tank, outfit it with solar battery charger on the roof and you are ready. Park it in the storage unit and wait. Use it every few months to ensure it is running and to rotate your food supplies. When TSHTF, you drive out of dodge post haste, pull into the storage unit 150 miles down the road, and drive out a few minutes later in your fully provisioned RV with your small car towed behind it. You are now mobile and self contained. No need to go to the shelter, report to the government camp, or seek shelter. You are not a refugee -- you are on vacation!
Second Homes
Spies and criminals often use "safe houses" when they are hiding out. But survivalists can use a second home or a retreat to stash all sorts of supplies. If you can afford a second home, have a real estate trust or an LLC (discuss which is best with an attorney as state laws vary) buy the home so that it is not in your name. This will not only make you more judgment proof, it gives you a high degree of privacy anonymity.
Hidden Caches
Like buried treasure, these caches are usually protected from discovery by burial, creating secret compartments in walls and floors, etc. To preserve the secrecy, you shouldn't visit these caches often, no more than once every few years, so there is little or no opportunity for adding or removing items. This means items stored in hidden cache must be suitable for long-term storage, possibly 10 or more years.
If you choose to hind thing in buildings, consider building false walls, putting this above a drop ceiling, installing safes, and building hidden compartments under stairs, at the back of closets and in furniture. This is easiest to do during construction or renovations. Remember, anyone seriously searching for your good will probably find them, so do not keep illegal items in on-site caches.
One of the key benefits of a hidden cache is that you can store items that may be -- or may become -- illegal to own. You may not wish to give up the fully automatic weapon you inherited from your Grandfather who brought it home from WWII. Maybe you think that your high-capacity assault rifle will become illegal due to future legislation and you no longer want it in your home. (While Captain Dave does not advocate the breaking of laws, he is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment and an individual's right to own a gun, even one with a magazine capacity that exceeds most gun control advocate's IQ. ) Burying the gun in a hidden cache will preserve it and protect you from being arrested for a firearms violation,
Coincidentally, guns and ammunition are one of the most popular items to be stored in a hidden cache. And why not, when imported SKS rifles can still be had for less than $200? You could buy and bury 4 or 5 SKS rifles for the price of a single M4 or similar assault rifle, giving you more of that valuable redundancy survivalists should strive for. When specially prepared for long term storage (traditionally packed in cosmoline or grease but now often vacuum sealed) guns can and have been successfully stored for decades. Ammo should be packed in sealed surplus military ammo boxes or sealed in tins. A dab a sealant around the primer is a good idea for those who reload. You can further increase the seal of steel ammo cans by lubricating the rubber seal before you close them and spray painting the sealed can with primer and or paint. Different colors of paint can serve to identify the contents: food, ammo and first aid supplies so when you dig them up, you can grab what you really need.
Captain Dave never caches a single can filled with one type of ammunition. He is likely to have a .50 caliber can with 400 rounds of .223 ammunition on stripper clips, two M16/AR-15/M4 magazines, 25 12-gauge shotgun shells, several hundred .308 rounds, 100 .40 caliber bullets and a Glock magazine, and as many .22 caliber bullets as will fit. This way, whatever gun he is carrying or using at the time, each hidden can will have ammo for it and possibly a magazine. In fact, with the price of most firearms magazines under $20, it makes sense to store a couple spare mags with each can of ammo, because the ammo us useless without the magazine.
Other items appropriate for long-term storage caching include gold and silver. It is commonly held that paper money will have little or no value after a cataclysmic disaster (plague, revolution, nuclear event, etc.) but that silver and gold will always have some value. Other items with a possible barter value, such as knives or hand tools, may also be stored. Again, take care to prevent rust and corrosion.
Evaluate your personal needs, cache location and long term survival plan to determine what you need to store. Perhaps a good knife, hatchet, frying pan and tin cup are your choices. Maybe a box of fish hooks, lead sinkers and line is on your list. Use the information presented in this guide to develop your list, but keep in mind that not everything is suitable for long-term storage. Choose durable items that will not rot, decay, or disintegrate over time.
One item you may need when you open your cache is food. Yet food is not the best item to store in a cache that may not be accessed for five or 10 years because it can deteriorate. Certainly most ready-to-eat items, such as Power Bars, will suffer or deteriorate if buried for a decade. Captain Dave advocates storing dried food such as rice, beans and pasta because these will have the longest storage time. Maybe a powdered soup mix. Remember, for a buried cache, long shelf life is critical so these items should be package in a way that will enhance their shelf life (such as vacuum packed) and help keep it separate from other contents (you don't want your gun oil to mix with your food products, for example). If you can find freeze dried food with a 30-year shelf life, these are probably a good bet, especially if packed in cans
Creating Your Cache
The ideal hidden cache is one that is buried so far off the beaten path that no one is likely to stumble upon it, yet is in a location you can remember and find in the future. There are a number of items sold today specifically for burial. These include sonar buoy tubes and PVC pipes six or more inches in diameter. The tubular design is intended to be buried in a vertical position, to minimize the signature should someone with a metal detector try to locate it, but manually digging a hole two feet in diameter and eight feet deep is easier said than done. For this reason, they are often buried horizontally in a trench. Large caches can also be made from 15, 30 or even 55-gallon drums.
There's nothing wrong with a cube or rectangular box built out of 2x4s and treated plywood. Of course, the box must be strong enough to keep the walls from collapsing, as well as supporting the weight of at least 18 inches of dirt on top. Because a plywood box -- even one lined with plastic -- will not prevent moisture from penetrating, your items must be packaged to withstand water. And even exterior grade plywood will not resist rot and deterioration forever.
For long term secret storage, caches should be buried in secluded areas, on ground high enough to avoid flooding, in open areas where tree roots won't be an immediate problem. If you are using tubes or caches with limited capacity and need multiple caches to accommodate all your goods, bury them in a geometrical pattern. If your caches are buried in a line, 50 feet apart, or a square, finding one cache will allow you to more easily locate the others.
Once you have built your box or purchased your tube, assembled and packed your items for long-term storage, you will need to transport everything to the cache location. While you may be able to make most of the trip by car, you might have to trek everything to the site on foot, perhaps under the guise of a backpacking trip. This is especially the case if you are caching your material on public land. While many would recommend digging your cache in the middle of night, if you pick a secluded enough site, this may not be necessary. Clever camouflage or misdirection can be used to allow you to bury your material without attracting undue attention. Existing caves, abandoned buildings (think log cabins that are collapsing in disrepair) also make good cache locations.
Of course, if you have your own retreat, the entire process becomes much simpler. If you are choosing to bury your goods near your retreat, pick an area where there are metal scraps or junk around that would hide your stash from a metal detector or an area scan. The authorities also have radar and sonar that can identify buried items. If you are building an outbuilding, hide your cache at the same time, perhaps under the floor or buried next to the foundation. (Just remember where.) If you are burying a fuel tank or installing a septic system -- good excuses to have earth moving equipment and to be digging holes -- why not make a cache at the same time? You can also bury items under the old clunker you've been meaning to restore or under the woodpile. This makes them easier for you to find, but harder for others. Be creative!
Finding Your Cache
There's nothing worse than realizing you can't remember the exact location of your cache, filled with more than $1,500 worth of supplies.
To prevent your cache from becoming a brain twister for future archaeologists, you must not only pick your spots very carefully, but draw or mark a map of the location. Note the GPS coordinates and take sightings to prominent landmarks. While you should obviously memorize the location, storing partial directions in your home survival stash is not a bad idea. Unless you are hiding contraband, a complete map should be stored in your safe deposit box. This will allow your family or loved ones to benefit from your advanced planning (or at least recover your goods) should you meet an untimely demise.
While Captain Dave recommends marking a tree or bolder in the areas, painted blazes on trees are likely to attract unwanted attention, and can fade over the years. Carving a set of fictitious initials on a tree, however, will help you confirm you are in the correct location without giving away the store.
To test your ability to find your cache, return to the site two years after burying it and try to locate your loot. You don't need to dig it up, just dig enough to confirm you are in the correct spot.
