Question: Anyone actually have any caches?

Survivalist types like us often talk about caches (pronounced like cash, not cashay). There's plenty of information out there on how to build various kinds of caches. Some pretty good YouTube videos on various sizes of caches. And, I'm 100% support of them as a great survival tactic--we talk a lot about diversification as a guiding principle, and that's really what caching is all about. We're not the only ones who cache stuff, either--special ops guys cache stuff, intelligence agencies cache stuff--it works.

For the neophyte, a cache is a concealed supply of resources to help aid in survival. We often hear about caching guns and ammo, but that's limited scope in thinking--lots more could be totally reasonable. Typically, caches are concealed by burial, ala buried treasure, but that doesn't always have to be the case. Jason Bourne's anonymous safe deposit box, loaded with currency, fake IDs and a pistol was most certainly a cache.

Anyways, I was curious to get a pulse check and see, for all the talking in the community at large, how many in the T-Blog tribe have caches or have experimented with caching gear? Not even necessarily the bury it in the ground kind.


I get the general vibe that, while we talk about 'em a lot, few have actually put one together. Limited funds and resources probably to blame - putting a few hundred bucks worth of gear into the ground for a low probability event can be a tough pill to swallow.

So, keeping opsec in mind, anyone actually gone down this path? Have any good caches out there?

DIY Paracord donut

While not the quickest to make, a paracord donut is a handy way to carry a large amount of paracord in a compact package. Nothing to get tangled, so these ride pretty well in a bag. If you need to use the paracord, just pull the end to undo the braid.

The pictured donut has about 40 feet worth of cordage in it. Took about an hour to weave, but it was my first time makin' one.

Making the paracord donut is fairly simple, once you get the basic braid down. Just repeat over and over again. Step-by-step after the jump, or do a YouTube search for a slew of how-to's.

Interesting "Stealth" Storage

Actually came across an interesting Google Ad today, for a product called PlainSights (although if you see it over in my page's AdSense ads, click that instead). Anyways, it's basically a fake pair of jeans with a hidden pocket for concealing whatever. They're marketing towards firearms, it'll hide whatever in there.
It's an interesting idea. Not entirely brilliant, but interesting. Looks like a plastic hanger is permanently attached to the fake pants, and I assume it seals shut with a velcro/zipper.

Now, if you were halfway crafty, you could easily save yourself $30 and sew together something similar with an old pair of jeans. Or get your grandma to do it. Or, just find an old jacket and stow your weapon inside. I've heard of people doing this before.

It's not particularly secure or safe, and if someone were to sort through your clothes, I imagine the weight/bulk of a gun would be pretty obvious. Despite what some may think, kids do often like to explore closets and mess with their parents clothes…and the fake pants with hidden gun would be quite the find. Also, burglars often search through bedroom closets, looking for hiding spots and safes.
These keep the weapon hidden from sight and somewhat quickly accessible, but not secured. You can find quick access safes for affordable prices, and a small safe at bedside or in the nightstand would be just as fast, or much faster than running to your closet, shuffling through mountains of old clothes and finding the secret jeans. A safe is secure, and a small, handgun sized one should be relatively easy to conceal.

If you did not have kids to worry about, a hiding place like this could be good to stash a firearm in the laundry room…but I'm not sure how many people are worried about finding a hiding place in a laundry room…
What else could you stash in false clothes? Cash and semi-important documents could be an ok idea. They're not exactly safe, but without the weight and bulk of a gun, could go unnoticed if someone was searching through a closet. They would not be secure, but could go beyond the notice of a thief. You could go as far as planting an attractive looking dummy safe to distract his attention. But, there are lots of low-profile ways to store cash/small valuables--book safes, fake peanut butter jars and pop cans, etc.

Not exactly the most brilliant idea, the fake pair of jeans, but not completely without uses...