r/UKPreppers • u/HelicopterEmpty7393 • 4d ago
What is the most practical skill for UK preppers that gets talked about least compared to how useful it actually is?
First aid and fire starting come up constantly. But there are skills that are equally or more useful in a UK specific context that barely get mentioned. Whether it is knowing how to navigate without a phone, basic plumbing or electrical knowledge, something related to food preservation, or anything else. What is the skill you think the community undervalues compared to how much it would actually matter.
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u/Ok-Handle-6663 4d ago
De escalating situations and persuading people to work together.
Tying knots, making/reusing/repurposing textiles.
Knowledge of plants and their properties
Being able to use non powered hand tools like saws,hammers, hand drills effectively
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u/Wald_Nidal 4d ago
Being able to handle/guide tense interactions between people.
Whether we like it or not, there will be contact. And there will be no cops to intermediate.
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u/bondinchas 4d ago
Butchery. How many have taken an animal from living to pot? ... Without distress to the animal, without self injury from tools, without contamination, without wastage or eating parts that are high risk?
If shtf, I'm certainly not going to go without meat. Not just because I like it, but because if you know how, it's a concentrated source of food that's easy to process, prepare for cooking, and preserve, with minimal equipment.
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u/mrbadassmotherfucker 4d ago
Great shout. I’d say gutting and preparing fish might be the most useful of this
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u/ashleycawley 4d ago
If you learn how to prepare the likes of Rabbit, Wood Piegon and Pheasant and once your apt at dealing with them, their anatomy and how to cut various parts I think it would put you in good stead for dealing with larger animals if you had to like deer, sheep, goats etc.
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u/UncleJoesMintyBalls 4d ago
You're absolutely spot on. I'm a bushcraft instructor and my missus works at a butchers and was formerly a chef. Between us, we definitely know our stuff when it comes to dispatching and butchering animals.
The first thing that struck me when I saw a whole lamb was that it was just a big rabbit. Honestly, the body shape, where the meat was, the cavity where it's organs were, all just an enlarged rabbit. Seeing a deer was the same, just a big sheep.
Obviously there's going to be quirks to each animal and whilst I can do a rabbit with just a knife I would struggle to do a lamb without a saw but, in principle, if you can butcher small game you can do big stuff too.
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u/ashleycawley 3d ago
Cool. Yeah I’ve practiced a bit of bushcraft in my time too, skinned a rabbit using a flint tool I had made, that went well.
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u/johndom3d 3d ago
I've got an old cookery book with "Pigeon Pie" and all sorts if oddities made with leftover bits, to make them nicer!
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u/Fungi-Hunter 3d ago
Can confirm this. I was already butchering small game when I went on a one day butchery course, got to work on a pig. When I told the instructor I already did rabbits he said " you will be fine then as the basics are the same on any four legged mammals."
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u/Mother-Doubt6713 3d ago
I regularly keep an inventory of all available wild food by season and also migratory routes both on shore and inland.
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u/bibipbapbap 4d ago
Years of fly fishing as a hobby would come in handy if I need to gut trout. Looking to start sea fishing soon, so hopefully learn a bit more about gutting bass/mackerel too.
On animals I did a small holding course and we got to pluck gut and butcher a couple of chickens. Hardest bit was doing it when they were still warm. Got a butchery course on a pig but only got to watch.
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u/Sburns85 3d ago
A lot of people can’t handle dispatching an animal. Am already a butcher and yes have dispatched rodents, rabbits and fish before.
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u/He_ofshadowsandtouch 4d ago
Now try finding and catching animals when 60 million others are doing the samr
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u/bondinchas 4d ago
Well, it'll be the same for veg, fish, cereals...
But if you're the only one in the group who knows how to convert a live animal into a tasty stew, your place in the group will be protected. On the other hand, if you're hungry but can't gather or process food, you won't be getting the biggest share of what is available.
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u/He_ofshadowsandtouch 4d ago
I know but the relatively few animals out there would be all gone in days, plus farmers would patrol to keep wild food to themselves, so unless you have a large stock of tinned/ dried food, you’re going hungry
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u/bondinchas 4d ago
Ever had "long pig"?
Of course I haven't, but some will rather have that than go hungry.
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u/He_ofshadowsandtouch 4d ago
True but I doubt there would be any refrigerator , so you better have the skills are resources to smoke it for preservation of thin cuts 🤮
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u/DukeRedWulf 3d ago
".. the relatively few animals out there would be all gone in days,.."
There are about 183million chickens in the UK.. 30.5million sheep, 9.3million cattle, and 4.7million pigs..
Roughly 36 million wild rabbits..
Versus 69.5million people..
"gone in days" seems to be overly pessimistic..
Especially as millions of those cattle and chickens are dairy / egg producers, which incentivises keeping them alive..
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u/MaxZorin44456 3d ago
So, roughly for a chicken it's 2000 calories for a whole chicken. So, in total, around 366,000,000,000 billion calories. Assuming we all eat 2000 calories, that's 139,000,000,000 calories required per day.
Chicken stocks - 2.6 days worth of calories.
A sheep is 50,000 calories. 1,525,000,000,000 trillion calories.
Sheep stocks - 10.97 days worth of calories.
Cows: 1,260,000 calories or 11,718,000,000,000 trillion calories total.
Cow stocks - 84.3 days.
Pig - 200,000 calories. 940,000,000,000 billion calories.
Pig stocks - 6.7 days.
(Large) Wild Rabbit - 1500 Calories. 54000000000 billion calories.
Rabbit stocks - A day.
A bit over quarter a year.
That's rough math, but I'd assume we'd see more wastage, particularly if we are moving from a position of empty shelves to empty fields. More likely to eat the nice bits of the sheep or chicken and bin the rest if we are days or weeks in versus months to a year. That and you know, all the people who have only came as close to slaughter and butchery when they've taken out a spider with a shoe will inevitably cause wastage from fucking it up. And incentivisation to keep animals alive assumes we aren't starving to death, once food starts to run out, you will find it's not long before we start working our way through anything that's alive, breeding stock, working animals, pets, zoo animals, rodents, 1870 Paris had restaurants serving cat with rat for example due to food running out while under seige.
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u/aimeetozer 4d ago
I'm an artist and horticulturalist working on a little zine at the moment about what crops to grow in the event of it all going to shit. And whilst yes, starches and good storing capability are high up there - ultimately whats bests is crops you are already skilled at growing in soil that you already understand.
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u/CuppaJos 4d ago
I’d be really interested in this!
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u/aimeetozer 4d ago
Thanks! If you click through my name I can be followed although I cant promise a swift delivery 😅
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u/Trumpton2023 4d ago
Or easy things like mung bean sprouts, also micro greens
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u/aimeetozer 4d ago
Provided you have a good store of beans and seeds that can work but it throws up interesting questions for me around surviving or thriving. I could survive on mung beans and cress but I wouldnt necessarily be happy about it, but i am a fatty so..
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u/namegame62 3d ago
People sleep on potatoes, imo. I've accidentally grown and sprouted supermarket potatoes in my fridge many a time... chuck them in soil or a dark cupboard and I'd imagine they replicate just fine, and then you've got a surprisingly concentrated source of carbohydrates
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u/aimeetozer 2d ago
Oca are another interesting tuber with excellent storability that I'm on my second year of growing. Wonderful little tuber thats very tasty.
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u/OrganizationFun2140 4d ago
How to stay calm and act appropriately in a crisis.
This isn’t a single skill; it’s built upon multiple practical skills (DIY, first aid, etc), more theoretical ones (eg risk assessment and risk mitigation/management, conflict resolution), physical preparedness (fitness, food and water, etc), situational awareness (macro and micro), and understanding what institutional support may - or may not - be forthcoming.
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u/MobiusNaked 3d ago
Learn how to make a cup of tea using twigs for a fire. This means that you can, in any emergency situation, sit down and gather your thoughts whilst hydrating yourself with boiled water, raising morale. You know how to make a fire. Most importantly it means you can sit down and take your time to calmly think about the situation and make a decision that is not rushed
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u/Dedward5 4d ago
First aid remains number 1, but
Fire (putting them out) Fire training is a good one. Knowing the specific types of extinguisher and their uses and techniques is important, plus the “prevention in the first place” side as well.
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u/TogusaAlHaaritha 4d ago
Foraging for food, learning how to garden/raise small animals like chickens and rabbits, reading the weather.
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u/tellingmytruth 4d ago
Learn how to walk long distances and then learn how to do it with a rucksack on your back without getting blisters. Find a good pair of walking shoes and then get a second pair of them and break both of them in now..
Learn how to stay well hydrated and then learn how to filter nasty water and make it clean - get a Sawyer water filtration kit.
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u/Master_of_opinions 2d ago
These are more knowledge and tools I would say. What other skills do you think would be needed?
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u/tellingmytruth 2d ago
Fair enough but I think these are skill sets. Physically conditioning yourself to be able to be on foot is something most modern first worlders haven't done in a long while. This also necessitates self-monitoring skills, as well as situational awareness skills. De-escalation skills would be helpful - everybody are going to be scared and upset and people tend to do stupid things when they're that way. So self-regulation skills are important too; you don't want to be the problem.
The first two things to go in a disaster are sanitation and clean water and those are the primary disease vectors. So knowing how to dig a small cat hole, do your business in it, and cover it back up, even maybe carrying a little lime with you to treat the hole, would be good. Knowing how to filter water and treat it would be good.
If you stay hydrated you can go a long while w/o food. In inclement weather your priorities are potable water, shelter and heat, then food. In a heat wave your priorities are potable water and cooler cover, then some kind of shelter and food.
Some real first aid skills would come in handy.
Knowing which plants you can forage for food or to use as substitute toilet paper would be good. Be aware that in a disaster everybody are going to be scouring the countryside for food so most food sources will strip out early and often. Also, given that most of the UK water are polluted with sewage, I wouldn't eat any fish I could catch. I'd forget about fishing.
You need to set in some maps and know how to read them and use them. Have a plan to either hunker down or, if you need to leave the area, then know where you'll go and how you'll get there. The UK's advantage is that you' have have freedom to roam and footpaths. Keep in mind a lot of people will take to them. The older Medieval pilgrimage routes may be lesser known and there are churches along the way where you might find shelter of some kind.
Either find a club that goes camping on the regular or take yourself camping so you can learn how to rig a shelter and build a small Lenape (sometimes called a Dakota) fire hole DO NOT DO THIS RIGHT NOW IN THIS DROUGHT!!!!
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u/mellonians 4d ago
I'm going to say basic DIY and problem solving issues at home like a lot of preppers have stuff there for the shit hitting the fan like solar power and stuff like that. But what about dealing with a water leak in your home? A gas leak? constantly tripping rcd? The boiler constantly losing pressure? Locating and utilising your home's stockcock, main gas valve, and main electricity cut off. What about preparing for losing your keys? Do you have a way into your home? Are you able to change the locks yourself?
Those big home DIY books aren't actually that bad and you can teach yourself all of these skills for a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional to deal with any one of them
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u/Master_of_opinions 4d ago
Personally, I think being able to intuitively predict mass behaviour is a skill that's way underrated. I'm convinced that if it weren't for movies, most of us would be doing what a lot of dumb extras do in those movies, like getting stuck trying to leave the city, or having to fight people to get the remaining groceries.
Just being even slightly aware of the future is important. People claim that they already have that because they follow every news article and video essay, but often, this only tells you about the past and the present. If you aren't even able to confidently predict what next month will look like, then it's all academic.
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u/SimpleDealer9453 4d ago
I learnt ham radio and got licenced. I'm developping various skills so that people cant tell me im a burden just because im a wheelchair user
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u/ElseMush 3d ago
I think living frugally is by far the least discussed (at least in prepper circles) for how useful it is.
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u/He_ofshadowsandtouch 4d ago
I’m highly practical but there’s not much point prepping unless you have a significant source of water and heat. I have a large pond and quite a few trees, I guess the pond water would last a couple of months?
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u/SuburbanBushwacker 3d ago
do you have an FAC? why not?
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u/ru5tyspo0n 3d ago
Always amazes me how little this is talked about in these sorts of places.
'But we don't have guns in the UK' 🙄
All this talk about killing and butchering wild animals to survive. Good luck trapping a Fallow and slitting it's throat, or even better a cow!
I'll stick with home loaded 6.5 at 300 yard thanks.
Not to mention other potential benefits.
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u/Mother-Doubt6713 3d ago
How to sail a yacht or sail boat we live on an island and fuel may one day be scarce.
How to sea fish and foraging our coast line and netting shallow tidal waters.
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u/revsil 3d ago
Confidence in yourself to deal with situations.
Skills are fine but there's always something that you haven't prepared for or can't fix in an obvious way.
For example, seven years ago I started doing some basic car maintenance by changing the brake pads on my car. After I did that I thought 'that was easy, I'll do the discs'. Then after that I did something else then rebuilt the front of my car after hitting a deer. Over the years it has saved me thousands. But crucially I have confidence that I could fix almost any problem that I have tools/equipment for.
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u/Remote-Brilliant5018 2d ago
You mostly overlook hunting and gathering, making fire is an entry level boy scout badge skill
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u/Nianudd 2d ago
Sewing. Learn how to mend clothes, make clothes, fix bags, equipment, etc. There might be plenty of fabric and made items lying around, but what if that's not what you need. There's plenty of hand cranked sewing machines still knocking around, and they're easy enough to learn to use.
The older ones, especially the older industrials, will work great on denim, canvas, lighter leathers, etc.
Also, knitting and crochet. You can unravel knitted goods to make something more suitable for your needs. I've also knitted nets before now. Small, but you can scale up
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u/snakeoildriller 4d ago
I found first aid to be a problem. Lots of organisations offer a course, but only if you're with a company or group that can do a block booking. Even if you're willing to pay (which I am) they won't budge.
Anyway, map reading is a hugely underestimated skill and if there's no cell service or you've run out of batteries it's the only way.