It is not going to work.

It has been tried before. It is called subsistence living. Living off the land. Not viable. Basically, you live in such terrible misery and poverty that eventually you quit and return to the civilization. You don't make ends meet. You go back 10,000 years to the stone age. Everyone who has ever tried it eventually found it unsustainable and returned. It is not an original idea. If you are serious, your first step might be finding out what what others have tried before and why it didn't work or what worked instead of repeating all the mistakes.

Examples:

Medical care. Without qualified personell, you are royally screwed if you break a bone, which you will sooner or later. Or get some disease or food poisoning, which you will (eventually). Dental issues. Or a thousand and one other issues, which are always unexpected.

Transportation. Eventually you will run out of gas or have your supplies go bad. So you have to go back to civilization for resupplies. Not easy.

Break the firing pin in your rifle, and you are screwed even with 10,000 rounds, again. That means no dinner. Every little thing which happens is a major crisis.

Clothing. Food. Etcetera. Your truck has a zillion parts which according to Murhphy's laws will break at the worst moment. Whatever you have, it will break, wear out or lost and require replacement. But you won't have the funds or the ability to return to the civilization and resupply. If you have to depend on society for these essentials, why leave at all? For privacy? It is not a true exodus. I don't understand the objectives involved.

Subsistence living means you spend every minute of your day fighting for survival. That will leave you no time for anything else at all. It may work for very rare individuals such as Ted Kazinski but for mostly everyone, it doesn't work. People who do this end up completely destitute, looking for food in dumpsters.

See, the reason you have a high standard of living now is because people specialize in our society. Specialization is an aspect of a highly developed society. On the other hand, generalization, where you do everything from cooking to fixing things to hunting to growing things to patching clothing and and much more will mean that you will be mediocre and inefficient at these tasks.

A step away from specialization is a step backwards into the stone age and your standard of living will greatly decline -- hundreds of years. Things you take for granted now will be downright impossible. How do you move furniture or plywood or whatnot without an internal combustion engine? Do you know how much 1,000 rounds of 30-06 hunting ammo weight? Or how to make ammo - meaning even if you figure out how to make bullets and brass and powder (unlikely), you will be unable to make primers which are a high-tech matter beyond the scope of individuals. So, back to blackpowder guns for hunting/survival, low-tech. Yet even blackpowder will wear out, get lost or break. You will have to make one. Can you do that? How long would it take you? See, before jumping into something like this, you might really underestimate the scope and the depth of the difficulties involved and find out about them only when you encounter them, which is too late.

Furthermore,

This "the **** will hit the fan" mentality is a mythological belief system. Interestingly enough, it is quite common in the "Christian" circles. TEOTWAWKI or "The end of the World as we know it". TSHTF and TEOTWAWKI are myths, plain and simple, for a number of reasons. Those who adhere to these myths are neutralized.

 

Hmmmmn, interesting points carpe_diem. I will probably be on the internet as the end draws near. Loading up a few more rounds of .223 and .45. When the power goes out I will fire up the generator.

When the phone line goes dead, I will turn on the ham radio. CQ CQ, anyone out there? Make a few contacts and sit with the AR at the ready. At least I will have the last communication device to work when all else fails, short wave radio with world wide capability. Cell phones will be the first to fail.

 

My cell phone barely works now. It's no wonder our whole world is getting so tense, it's those darn cell phones. Do the math, the number of people that use them times the number of times a day that stupid thing annoys you. We're all goin nuts.
Ten years ago I was living in a 375 sq. ft. cabin with electricity but no phone. I hauled my water and had an outhouse. Everything was paid for and I had only my electric and taxes. I could easily live on way less than $1000 a month. Life was simple, I wish I could go back. Except I would miss FTE.

 

That is true, I used to live on $400 a month. I would miss FTE.

 

I think i could make it for a while in the woods alone.
Ive stayed about a month before with out power, phone, or anything of that sort
If your going to go off and "live on your own" you can't just go off and take nothing
You'd have to plan...Plant a crop, scout where you want to live, etc
Im sure it can't be done if you just walk into the woods and say "Ok, I'm not going back"
But Im sure if you took enough things to start a crop and get a good shelter built, you could do it
But... then again, I may be wrong

 

Andy, you are, well aroud here you are not wrong, back home, I kwo of lpaces whre we can walk into and live of the land....have doneit before, man I love Lousiana. we have a few places set up. no need for a gun except self defense either I suggest learning how to trap, make and shoot a bow., make a pirough.....We have one place taht is naught but 1/2 a mile from a major shipping channel. And the best part about it. If you DO NOT know ehre you are going, how to go there, and WHAT you are doing. you will never make it. (It is a 45 mile boat ride with a power boat, 2 days without power.....yeah that 2 days sucks BTW.....but no shortage of food, meat or fruits and veggies. fish, bear deer, coon, possom, gator....mmm..mmmm only predator you really have to worry about, especially on the trip if you have no boat, is the gators, as if you have no boat there are three channels you have to cross.....only one of which have you to worry about a current, not so much an undertoe....and one of the other ones , (where there is no undertoe but a STRONG current at times of the year) there is an abbundancy of gators, but they are typically smaller in size (2-5 ft) and of no true concern. You do not need to really worry about gators until the 6ft range.

 

Carpe, that is true. Total permanent survival away from siciety is not easy. Planning for that makes it easier.

The problems I am expecting have nothing to do with the end of time.. or the invasion of whatever. I expect the Politically Correct Idiocy of now, to make life impossible in the near future. There will be civil disturbance where people go crazy getting angry with each other, and the death toll will be high. During that time, I have no intention of being in the middle, I will retreat to the hills, and stay there until it is all over. I could not expect to live away from society for the rest of my life, I am too old, and will eventually need something doctor shaped. I very much doubt that I can avoid them forever - I have been to a doctor for 6 things, since I was a teen. I have accepted treatment from a doctor ONCE... and that didn't work too well.

Theo

 

I used to dream of getting away from it all and living with nature, would take family on camping trips for 10 days without stores or refridge in real woods and not campgrounds.

Then I figured out that nature is one bad mother.

Leeches, snakes, ticks up the wazoo- it just started to wear on my till I'm content to live in a real house and hold a regular job.

At least I'm better prepared now to do the nature thing should the need arise.

The day i get air conditioning is the day I totally sell out>

 

living off the land even if possible is hardly total freedom.

total freedom is being stinkin' rich.

Waste your time preparing for your escape if you like, I think it's childish. I'd bet hiding in the cities would work better.

Just for the record, Idaho would be your best bet, between the ranges.