Lol, my luck would be forgetting exactly where I left such.... Never thought about the frozen you have to deal with up there.
@Sighlass Funny about losing it... We figure different up here in the mountains. Hardly never by azimuth and direction... Everything is by landmark with guard rails and backstops. You literally cannot 'head due west' here... At least not for very long. So my brain runs on landmarks. Etched hard in my mind. And I could tell any ol hillbilly how to get to those caches, because they are wired that way too... I have said before that I would be totally lost in minutes out on the plains or in hardwood forest. I need them landmarks. That's why they are so etched in my head, every one of them. I could no more forget them than where I put my toes.
But yeah. Cold is a thing here. And if I were in trouble, that cave is probably the handiest thing there anyway... Caves are great in the winter, once the bugs wake up, crawl out and die from the smoke, and stop raining from the ceiling. I have been laid up twice in caves, once actually in one of my cache caves, and believe me, it was welcome.
Some folks will build a log pillbox on the ground and camo it - I have run into the like a few times. And one of mine is in a buddy's cabin crawlspace... That one will be moving though, as that's the guy next to me up in the holler. So it will go deeper in the woods off the back of the property about a hard day off - in case I ever have to drop everything and skedaddle.
I found a nice old FR article on the subject I was looking for finally...
Repost: (+) THE ART OF THE (WEAPONS) CACHE (+)
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1735279/posts
That's alright, but I think it needs more cowbell. It ain't really going to be about the guns, even if it is war. Guns don't do shit to fill your belly. Especially if you need to be quiet.
Mine really ain't about the guns all that much. I mean, they're handy and all, but the most important things in there are the replacement gobag and belt and the winter gear... With the food next, and then somewhere after that the guns. It is designed for me draggin my sorry ass in and having enough to save me. So I am probably not telling you what you need.
And remember, all that was set up long ago, when you could find a chunk of casing in somebody's number one pile and walk off with it near for free. Steel was CHEAP. There may be other ways, and I am sure there are. But the kerosene is needful too - so why not use it? And the only way to do that is in steel... Kerosene is kind to steel, but will likely eat plastic given enough time. So that was my thinking.
As for the soft goods, all that is in wooden ammo-style boxes I made myself - All sealed and gasketed on the lid, and painted with foundation tar too. Critters don't like the tar, so they leave all that alone.
One thing I might mention in soft goods - Don't use down. Down will die in a short time left all balled up tight in storage. A lot of folks don't understand that down needs to be unpacked as soon as you are done with it and stored loose.
And good tarps - Learn tarps. you can do so dang much more with tarps than you can with a tent. And you can easy make a tent with tarps. Add cheap bug netting down by you. And always, always wool army blankets. I hate the dang things for actual blanket because they ain't really all wool... but they are cheap and you can cut em up for gaiters, or a warm poncho, or stitch up some socks. I swear by having them around for the cloth. Folks don;t think much about how important cloth can be, and how hard it is to get from the woods.
Wrap ammo in wax paper, or better yet nowadays, in a zippy bag or vac seal it.
All my food is Mountain House. 9/10ths of my long term 25 year storage is up in them caches. If I ever have to beat feet I could probably live on mountain house for years. All that is in 5gal buckets -I tend to buy MH when there are screaming deals, and I buy em by the bucket. Then I combine em, packed in, so them buckets are chunked full. And it wasn't so bad - I visited my caches once a year for maintenance purposes, and I always hauled in a bucket of MH to each cache every year. Don't sound like much, till 5 years go by...
All of that stuff came up on a polk in the winter, or came up in 2 five gallon buckets tied to a pack frame, which is kinda my trapping rig anyhow. A little at a time, and next thing you know, you have a good bit stashed away. Now if SHTF, I am sitting pretty.
But you would have to think hard about what. It is more than guns, I guarantee.
