I have been guilty of thinking about a bug out as just like a backpacking trip on short notice. More thought inspired my dog attack questions in another thread on this forum. Still more thought leads me to pose the following:

If my optimal bug out route is unavailable and I have to go "cross-country" I am going to encounter a lot of barbed wire fences, chain link fences, and locked farm gates. Climbing them would be time-consuming and perhaps dangerous.

I'm thinking my BOB may need to get heavier by including some kind of cutting tool to go through fences, chains, etc. My Leatherman tool can cope with some of these, but should I consider something like a cam-type leveraging bolt cutter? What are your thoughts?

Thanks.

If it were my property you were destroying and cutting up, it would not go over well and I would not be all that friendly to a person doing this if I happened upon them while in the act. How would you feel if you found someone tearing your property apart costing you a lot of time and money to fix? My guess, not too over thrilled.


Just because we feel the need to move from one place to another, it doesn’t give us the right to destroy things along the way. This country is pretty much covered by roads all across it, no need to hack through a fence. I read someplace that it averages out to a road every 9.5 miles in the USA. Yea out west it’s going to be farther and in the east that could be every ¼ mile. But the point is to do some extra traveling to find a road rather then act like a tornado.

BobS, I am trying to stretch my mind around what would be required in survival situations. I suspect I remain naive about much of it, but I am trying to get there with a little help from my friends.

Normally I would not consider trespassing or destroying someone's private property. And I would like to know if there is a way to reduce damage, etc. if I have to get through a fence or gate.

But if I am bugging out it is an emergency survival situation and if roads, which are my planned bug out routes, are out of the question for some reason, what then?

Thanks.

Along with the private property rights mentioned by others, a good bolt cutter weighs a hell of a lot. I think you'd be better served by other, more useful gear.

-Blast

If the choice was to cut a fence or die, then that fence is going down.
If the choice was to cut a fence or be mildly annoyed, I guess I'd be walking out of my way.
Most fences you should usually be able to climb anyway.

The scenario I am trying to think through is, if I am forced to bug out on foot and the world is going to heck, roads and intersections are going to be choke points and possibly kill/capture zones that I may want to avoid at all costs. Around here going cross-country means going over, under, around, or through wire fences and locked gates.

Is this such a remote possibility that I should just let it go?

Just short of a total collapse of society or a direct immediate threat to our lives I don’t see it as any right of ours to destroy what others have worked hard to buy and also worked hard to install.

What direct immediate threat to your life would you see as a need to chop up a fence rather then to climb over it or go around?


Katrina is a good example of the need to relocate, but I don’t think it was a need to destroy things along the way.


After you got out of the trouble you were in, and the emergency is passed (and it will pass), will you go back and pay for and also do the work to repair every fence you hacked through and pay for any animals (cows horses and the like) that may have gotten out because of your action? Most people would not!

I’m not really trying to argue or give you a hard time, I just think other peoples property should be respected and I also feel it’s easy to go over, walk, ride or drive around a fence without destroying it.


Bolt cutters are a very specific use item, they cut locks, fences and chains. All of these items are generally purchased and used by people that own things or property that they don’t want others on or to have access to or to contain animals, this is well within their legal and moral rights. I respect that and would walk around.

I am not advocating your cutting up of other peoples property, but if I were thinking along your lines, I would take along a pair of fencing pilers (I just grabbed this link from google, you can find them in just about any hardware store). With them you can cut bob waar, cyclone fences, etc, pull staples, drive staples/nails/tent pegs, etc, and they don't weigh a ton. Bolt cutters, even little ones, weigh a lot...

Maybe my imagination is running too wild. The scenarios I have thought about so far include:

1. The gang controlling the must-pass intersection behind the barricade of burned out cars, with evidence that the fate of passersby is none too pretty.

2. The government blockade to enforce no-travel restrictions that would force me to remain in an untenable urban environment with exhausted resources and constantly increasing threat of attack.

3. The dog pack, human predators, rising flood waters, or increasing flames on my heels when I encounter the unclimable chain link fence topped by razor wire at the end of a dead end alley, or otherwise preventing my escape.

4.The unclimable chain link fence topped by razor wire that would force me to travel beyond my likely resources to avoid encountering any of the above.

If I were detained by authorities one of the most suspicious things I think I could carry are bolt cutters.

I wouldn't tread on private property unless you needed to. I've been chased from a farmers field at the end of a barrel because I was walking where he'd just freshly seeded. Had I been riding my dirt bike I think I could have gotten a warning shot to the chest.