# The ethics of being a "Prepper" or "Stockpiling" supplies **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 1, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654 "2025-09-01T15:00:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/21 "2025-09-01T21:57:00Z")
Personally I wouldn’t wanna survive off the land. Well, I wouldn’t survive long, anyway. I think my kids could feed themselves awhile hunting and foraging. Barring nuclear fall out, monsters or natural disasters making it worse. It matters where you live, for sure. If everyone heads to Central Park to hunt the choices will be limiting. Squirrels are hard to pick off. Birds even more-so. They won’t last long tho’. I guess zoo animals would be next to go. It won’t be easy in a city environment. If you never hunted bigger game, say deer or feral hog you’re in for a surprise. It’s not so easy. Water will be the biggest thing you need. Hoard that, if it looks like it’s gonna get bad. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/22 "2025-09-01T22:41:23Z")
IMO one of the best things to stockpile is ammo, even if you don’t own a gun. In a SHTF type of situation, ammo could become very valuable and highly sought-after, and you could use it like currancy to trade for other things. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/23 "2025-09-01T22:53:32Z")
Speaking to the first world in general and the USA in specific… 150 years ago 95% of the population worked in agriculture and famine was still common. Now 1% work in agriculture and famine is absent. If modern society ends, 94% of us will starve in a month or so. But rest assured we won’t go quietly. Sleep tight; the Grim Reaper awaits impatiently. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/24 "2025-09-01T22:59:29Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > If you never hunted bigger game, say deer or feral hog you’re in for a surprise. It’s not so easy. > > Water will be the biggest thing you need. Hoard that, if it looks like it’s gonna get bad. What’s so hard about hunting deer? Out at our country house (about 90 minutes from NYC) there are so many deer every day looks like that movie [Leave the World Behind (and just as creepy).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPh1rEcZA_M) I could lean out the window with a rifle and just blast one at my leisure. I mean I have no idea what to do to prep it after I kill it. So there’s that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/25 "2025-09-01T23:04:19Z")
IANA big time hunter but did live sorta-rural in deer country for awhile. IME w neighbors the easy pickin’ nibbling on your posies lasts a weekish. Bambi’s family is _not_ smart. But they’re not _that_ dumb either. You’ll get a coupla free kills and then you’ll be mystified where they all disappeared to. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/26 "2025-09-01T23:04:37Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > What’s so hard about hunting deer? I’ve lived in places where the bucks are skittish but the does will walk right up and (I assume) let you crack their head open with a rock. I wonder how long it will take for them to learn not to do that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/27 "2025-09-01T23:06:42Z")
The brunettes? 2 weeks. The blondes? 6 months. 😁 Blonde deer are rare. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/28 "2025-09-01T23:19:57Z")
When every weekend warrior is out shooting deer on the side of the road, how long til they’re all gone?Either dead or hiding. Then the shooter wouldn’t know how to field dress it, butcher it. Possibly preserve some for another day. If you shot it properly and not ruined the meat. Deer hunting is difficult with very experienced hunters. If you’ve not done it, well…good luck. Those pets that come eat your posies will be the first eaten. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/29 "2025-09-01T23:21:05Z")
Yea, deer are everywhere here, too. But we also have strict hunting regulations. In a SHTF situation, there would be no such regulations, and it would be open season 365 days a year, with no bag limit. Deer will quickly disappear as a result. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/30 "2025-09-01T23:26:22Z")
They were hunted to near extinction not that long ago. We’ll do it again. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/31 "2025-09-01T23:28:18Z")
They don’t even need to learn, per se. Some deer are bold around humans. You see those all the time. Some deer are skittish of humans. Those are the ones you don’t see. If all of the bold ones get shot, the skittish ones will still be out there in the woods, but they’ll be a lot harder to find. And if that skittishness is heritable (either by genetics, or by mothers teaching their young to be skittish), the next generation will be hard to find, too. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/32 "2025-09-01T23:29:06Z")
We’re not really good at preventing near extinction without regulation. Humans are just made that way. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/33 "2025-09-01T23:29:54Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > I couldn’t help wondering what her husband thought of his wife announcing to a couple dozen women that “Hey! We have all sorts of food piled up!” Not that we were exactly the stereotypical marauders, or that many of us actually knew her full address, but lots of us were mothers of families that might be starving in those evil times and we all knew at least which town she lived in and phone books used to be common things…. I once heard a joke that the cheapest survival set-up you can get is a gun, some bullets, and a mailing list of preppers in your home town. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/34 "2025-09-01T23:32:57Z")
This argument over deer demonstrates part of the problem; most people don’t actually know how to survive off the land. Actual hunter-gatherers (who do know how to do that) _don’t get_ most of their meat from large animals like deer in the first place; those are more for showing off, male bonding, and impressing women with gifts of the best cuts of meat. Most meat comes from catching _small_ animals. Whales are the exception, but you won’t find many whales in the woods. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/35 "2025-09-01T23:51:00Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > When every weekend warrior is out shooting deer on the side of the road, how long til they’re all gone?Either dead or hiding. The weekend warriors or the deer? Because for darn sure there are going to be a LOT of accidents with a bunch of first-timers shooting at things in the woods and fields. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/36 "2025-09-02T00:10:00Z")
Well, in early COVID, we helped our neighbors. I expect we’d do the same in a similar situation. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/37 "2025-09-02T02:01:50Z")
If it’s truly survival of you or theirs you might not be so accommodating. I don’t think we’ll see this in most of our lifetimes, a eat or be eat world. I think society falls apart when usual outlets for food or resources start disappearing. We’re not there yet. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/38 "2025-09-02T02:32:14Z")
Yeah. I started a post about the OP 6 hours ago, but it got eaten. This is my second try … This bit is nonsense: > [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Will you still be able to live with yourself if they come begging to your door and you turn them away? > > What if you turn out to be two months into the crisis, and have eight more months of whatever packed in the garage? If you don’t share, and then the crisis goes away after four more months – and there you are with tons of whatever still on hand and people you know severely suffered or even died? The USA doesn’t turn into prepper Mad Max heaven for 6 months then recover. We’ll either have COVID redux with silly shortages of TP or we’ll have true societal collapse without recovery. The intermediate scenarios get increasingly unlikely as they get more severe. If there aren’t groceries in the stores all hell breaks loose. Big cities, suburbs, or small towns doesn’t matter. Even the resourceful country folks such as @Beckdawrek aren’t used to sourcing _everything_ from the land. Normalcy doesn’t return after that degree of widespread breakdown. e.g. Shit got bad in New Orleans after Katrina. But the entire rest of the intact functional USA was there to help, albeit incompetently at first. New Orleans didn’t recover on its own; it got (poorly) rescued by the rest of us. If the whole US is failing, there is no functioning “us” to go rescue beleaguered “them”. No other country has the capacity to deal with the scale of our problems, even if they had the goodwill to try. The devastated region along the Gulf Coast after Katrina was a larger landmass than all of the UK. Folks aren’t going to be agonizing over whether they did or didn’t help their neighbor when most of their own kids are dead and their spouse is dying of a disease that used to be readily treatable. It sucked to live through 1944-1945 in Germany or the fall of the Communist Soviet Union & Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. Pensions that weren’t paid or were inflated down to pocket change per month, the collapse of public health and public services, the random violence of a failing society. A hefty fraction died. The survivors mostly adopted the philosophies of necessity: Keep you head down, your eyes closed to the bigger picture, and take care of #1 yourself; and #2 your immediate family. Meanwhile ignore everything and everyone else who’s doing the same for them and theirs. That is the future of a USA where commerce gets destroyed. Looks a lot like current Venezuela. Commerce can survive if politics gets Fascist-ized. Not _will_, but _can_. Türkiye and Poland and Hungary and Brazil and … prove that. IMO that’s our future. We’ll be a much poorer country, but not one reduced to roving bands of starving pseudo-zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/39 "2025-09-02T02:45:24Z")
I have a tornado shelter. Get loads of spider traffic in off season. Altho’ we do put the babies and pets in it during bad outbreaks. I’ve been in it once. Finding out how claustrophobic I really am. Nope nope nope. I takes my chances up top. In a real crisis of no supplies I’m good for about 2 weeks. My family could fare a bit longer on just what we have preserved and can hunt. As far as food. But there will be much more lacking. I’m afraid. One bad flu outbreak, no meds, no doctors. A certain amount of people will die. Presumably the strong/healthy that survived initially. Plus it’s contagious, so you’ll be shunned if there’s any community left. Yeah, it won’t be purty! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654/40 "2025-09-02T05:00:26Z")
And I’m assuming you were not Mormon? (Your username is a bit ironic in this thread.) They believe in storing food for 6 to 12 months, BUT they also believe in using and rotating their stock. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ethics-of-being-a-prepper-or-stockpiling-supplies/1022654.md?page=3)