A poncho. You need a poncho.
There are people who live out of a backpack for months.
But, you forgo a lot of conveniences, and are usually near a store to buy relief and refills.
To survive you really need a house to sleep in and a garden to grow food in and an area to store food for the whole year. You can only do without these things for a short period of time.
Which comes to, which gear do you need?
Well, what is the mission?
Is the mission to survive for 3 days? For 3 weeks? or for 3 years?
Three days, you need a bug out bag with food and water. You will need something to keep you warm and something to keep you dry. Everything else... well, you can just tough it out.
Three weeks means a pile of food and water in a place that is defensible. Well, defensible enough.
Having a generator or a pile of fire wood is great. Light sources that are not AC powered. And some way of processing waste (which can literally be a 5 gallon bucket and plastic bags and sawdust)
Three years means a good garden. Ways to can things. A comfortable house.
And some of the most important things are grow lights and automatic watering system.
Guns are weird.
Have the size of rifle to hunt what is normally in your area.
This could range from something that can kill a bear
to a .25 high powered air rifle to scare off coyotes and rabbit dinners.
The other thing to hunt is man.
And here .... any weapon is enough. The experience of using it and moving with it is what is important.
More important than a weapon will be a group of people who will have your back.
Sooooo, the expensive Gucci Guns are usually the least important thing in any kit.
As long as it goes bang when you pull the trigger and is reasonably accurate, what else do you really need out of a firearm? There some really trash guns out there, but still on the low end of the price spectrum you can get some dead reliable and accurate weapons that will probably outlast your grandchildren if properly cared for. I never understood the Gucci guns.
First a caveat, a nice gun is a nice gun.
You are correct, that anything sold these days is decent gun. (especially compared to a century ago)
Most guns shoot better than the holder, and so they really do not need anything better
Well, if you are @galenkp and you can hit a target a mile off, the extra priced kit is worth it.
A quality firearm belongs in every emergency kit IMHO, although legal hurdles may exist. For example, a Hi-Point carbine isn't elegant, but it works.
Yes, I have ponchos. Little is more miserable than being cold and wet. It can also kill you.
And yes, there is a huge difference between a 3-day bug-out bag, a 3-week stockpile, and what effectively amounts to an abandonment of society as we know it kit. If you think that last one is a possible need, pre-positioning caches
may bewill be necessary. Practice gardening now, too, because it is not easy. But hunter/gatherers have also existed across the planet, so a more nomadic existence may figure into your schemes. Beasts of burden help, as might boats, solar-powered electric vehicles (maybe), and bicycles (definitely).Starting the garden, our here in the desert, is the harder thing for me. Turning dirt into soil.
Then you have to learn the bugs in your area and what to do about them.
I wish i was in a permanent place so i could really build my garden permanently.
I really wish ponchos had become dress attire. So versatile.
I used to be so into "bug out" prep... but my current thoughts are, bug out where?
When you need to bug out, will also be the time when rural people become highly suspicious of everyone else. A real conundrum.
So, we should all be bugging out now... but where?
We aren't even to the point where the battle lines are being drawn.
But when the war does go hot, it will seem as a blink of the eye.
I know Washington is going to break away... but will that be all of Washington state? Or just the west half, because the east half decided to join Idaho?