Sop's...standard Operating Procedures

Discussion in 'Other Advanced Survival Skills' started by Dalewick, Nov 4, 2019.

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  1. Dalewick

    Dalewick Legendary Survivalist
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    With a number of threads on MSF dealing with things like," how would you...", "Do you have...", "what are your..." , it has made me wonder, how many here have Standard Operating Procedures or SOP's? All of us that have been in the military are very familiar with the term SOP as the military has SOP's for everything. That insures that military personnel are all on the same page when dealing with everything. Another thread here ask people about there ROE's (Rules of Engagement) and those of us that have served understand the need for complex rules of engagement that can at least cover "most" of the situations you might experience and how you are to react to them.

    As preppers, especially preppers that have a group or even just your family. You NEED SOP's. Some will say, "I'll be there to tell them what to do" or the popular, "They'll catch on". What happens if you die? Or get injured so your in a coma or just can't communicate? Then all those things you think are little things (like how much bleach for filtered water or what to put in the compost bin) might cause a lot of problems for the ones you love.

    SOP's are best when written down and EVERYONE can read and comprehend what they are. Consider them part of your plan and write one to cover all of the contingencies that you (and your group) can think of. I figure everyone here is familiar with Murphy's law of whatever can go wrong, will. Best to be prepared. Murphy hates that. LOL!

    Dale
     
  2. Caribou

    Caribou Master Survivalist
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    There are only the two of us. My wife will neither read nor follow SOP's so it is a waste of time for me to write them down.
     
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    1. Dalewick
      Even SOP's that she helped write? Would she want to help, or be helped by others if something happens to you? Just asking.
       
      Dalewick, Nov 4, 2019
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  3. varuna

    varuna Tree killer & a cat person
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    I've notice that most people failed to understand that a SOP is a procedural flow rather than a checklist, although some checklist is typically included in any SOP.
     
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  4. Morgan101

    Morgan101 Legendary Survivalist
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    I don't have SOP's, but I do have checklists. Actually most of the checklists in one three ring binder, so they are all together. This is good fuel for thought. I should review everything to make sure the lists are still complete and up to date. I should also write a Security procedure. I know in my head what I want/need to do should SHTF and things get dicey. It should be detailed so others could follow it if I wasn't around.
     
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  5. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    Standard operating procedure for when S.H.T.F. around here is basically the same thing we do routinely now . Go shoot something to eat , catch a fish , look for wild mushrooms or grow some food . We will no doubt have to pick up our food gathering considerable though because we have become lazy and go get most of our food from a store . I hope it doesn't become standard operating procedure to shoot folks that didn't prepare and think they can simply steal someone else's stuff . If it is that bad we will have armed guards around the clock patrolling the grounds outside the houses . Being cornered inside a house and having to defend it is not the plan . A gun battle with both parties involved will likely be behind trees rocks and such . Anyone thinking we would cower inside a structure and endure an assault would be making a deadly mistake .
     
  6. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    This is why you need to prepare your area and make it into a killing field. Offer your attackers wonderful places to hide from your fire...and then booby trap those places. Have ditches and foxholes and then line them with punji sticks. Behind the trees and rocks, you bury remotely detonated claymore type mines. Direct their initial movements in response to your first fire to these places with patches of thorny plants.

    Nearly all modern homes are almost useless as far as sheltering you from gunfire. The TV shows that show people hiding beside and under windows and shooting through those windows is STUPID. Even a brick veneer home is easily penetrated by 30 caliber fire. A wood-frame home might as well be like hiding behind paper. That is why you also, along with your killing field preparations need to make hardened firing positions in, around and under your home.

    About the worst thing that I can imagine is being trapped in my house under siege. Eventually, they will either starve or burn you out. That is why you need to make the advance preparations to make any attacks a short and deadly situation and try to kill them ALL even to the point of hunting down and finishing them when they try to pull back.

    Along this line, you can prepare fall back positions for them that are secondary traps. As much as possible you want to make your preparations as unnotable as possible. If you build and obvious fortress this will be like a sign advertising that you have lots of things worth taking. If you can look like a place that has little worth fighting for then you can hopefully avoid attack. In the end, any fight avoided is better than any fight won.
     
    1. Dalewick
      It always amazes me the number of people that believe bullets won't come through walls. LOL! I've had people want to argue that they couldn't. Had one guy bet me $100 that my 308 Win couldn't go all the way through a house. I had scrap materials and built 5 walls (2 with exterior siding) and took them to the gun range. One round (168 gr BTHP) at 100 yards and of course, through them all and kept going. That included 2 layers of vinyl siding, 2 layers of 3/4" plywood, 8 layers of drywall, 5 layers of insulation and went through 2 of the 2x4's long ways. I did it again with 3 more rounds and he finally handed me the $100 when I did it with a 5.56mm Nato out of my AR15. Some only learn the hard way. LOL!
       
      Dalewick, Nov 5, 2019
  7. Pragmatist

    Pragmatist Master Survivalist
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    Good evening all,

    I have both.

    Eg a SOP: In case we're separated, no contact to be made for over 24 hours. Rationale is not to add to worries until in safe area to address situation.

    Eg a check list: if enough notice prior to an evac, batteries in some of the things needing batteries.

    A rule from the EM community: - Minimize Detail - Be careful of "information overload" during times of stress.
     
  8. LastOutlaw

    LastOutlaw Legendary Survivalist
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    We have an SOP for fire here at home and a SOP for being separated.
     
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  9. Caribou

    Caribou Master Survivalist
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    My wife wrote SOP's for juvenile corrections. She expected those to be followed. The last thing I'd suggest is that she write SOP's for home as I'd be too worried that they'd resemble the last ones she wrote.
     
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    1. Dalewick
      Loud and clear!
       
      Dalewick, Nov 5, 2019
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  10. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    SOP/s sound too military for my liking, its only the wife and myself and we both know what to do without writing it down.
     
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  11. varuna

    varuna Tree killer & a cat person
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    I'm a single person (although my GF sometimes sleep over at my place), and yet having a workable SOP is critical necessity because during high stress situation we all going to make mistake or worse screw up badly. Even those of us who were trained for specific tasking still made mistake one way or another. Having a workable SOP will relieve you from the burden of "thinking" during that high stress & time critical situation, thus bringing some measure of orders into the already chaotic situation.
     
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  12. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    I guess that we have always had SOPs even though I never thought of it that way. My daughter had a code word that she had to hear before she would go anywhere with anyone. This started as soon as she started going to preschool. When she was older there were rehearsed actions for responses to all sorts of scenarios. if we had a fire we might all go out different exits but we all knew where to go to be together immediately. When she got her own gun there were rules and plans for her using it if we were not home and there was an intruder. When she started to drive we set up plans for her if she broke down. this was before cell phones. Before she left the house for the first time she had to rotate the tires on the car. She wasn't going to sit on the side of the road waiting for some pervert to show up to "help" her.

    I don't look at this as a big deal. I've always known that life occasionally jumps up and smacks you in the face and if you don't have a plan ahead of time you may not handle it real well. My Dad taught me this so I never thought of it as anything other than just a normal way. Me, my wife, my kids and now my Grandbaby all have plans to deal with problems.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2019
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    1. Dalewick
      Exactly!
       
      Dalewick, Nov 6, 2019
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  13. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    if your on your own, what is the point of having SOP's? you know what has to be done and you wont be giving anyone orders as your the only one there.
     
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  14. varuna

    varuna Tree killer & a cat person
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    Because as I had stated, a SOP is a procedural flow and NOT a checklist, although some checklist is always included in any SOP. And it relieve the burden of having to "think" during high stress & time critical situation
     
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  15. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    I would have thought "thinking" is the one thing we should all be doing during bad times.
    not thinking what we are doing could cause a lot of problems if not even failure on our part.
     
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  16. Pragmatist

    Pragmatist Master Survivalist
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    Good morning Lone Wolf,

    They also act as "reminder" lists.

    Thinking during stress events inhibits quality thinking.

    The Ray Ban / aviator crowd knows much about the check-off lists.
     
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  17. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    depends on what one means by SOP, i'm not military so i'm not really familiar with the term as such.
    I know what I have to do when SHTF without writing it down, I also think "not thinking" is probably what the masses will do and that will lead to panic so i'm not sure that is something preppers should be doing/not doing.
    I do think some times that preppers tend to make some things super complicated.
     
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  18. GateCrasher

    GateCrasher Expert Member
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    I wrote some for use at our prior residence, how to switch over to generator power or from municipal water to our private well, and how to switch back mostly. Some parts were potentially hazardous (to life or property) if done incorrectly so I wrote them out to ensure they were done in the right sequence. I was traveling alot on business then too, so the wife might have been home alone when disaster struck and she wasn't as familiar with the steps. Also some general "do's" and "don'ts" for different scenarios.

    Currently the only thing that would qualify as a SOP now would be our radio comm plan. Laminated 3x5 index cards, one in each vehicle and another near our base radio, with instructions on which channels to listen/attempt to make contact on (and when) if we were separated and the telecommunication systems were down. It's very loosely based on the plan described here, but personalized for our private use and for the specifics of our area. Mainly it's for reuniting with each other more quickly, but also added some radio-related reference info like a short list of our brevity codes, repeater phone patch instructions for a couple local amateur radio repeaters, and some FCC call sign pairs we could use in different bands to mimic the normal radio traffic expected there while concealing our real identity.
     
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  19. Morgan101

    Morgan101 Legendary Survivalist
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    Old Chinese Proverb: The weakest ink is stronger than the strongest memory. Do you think that in a highly stressful situation you might overlook something? I will stick with my checklists.
     
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  20. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    what stressful situation? we as preppers prepare, its the sheeple who will be stressed out.
    I'll just be glad when the event occurs so I can get on with doing what I have to, instead of chattering about it with you lot!!!:p:rolleyes:
     
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  21. Dalewick

    Dalewick Legendary Survivalist
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    Lonewolf, you can think of a SOP like this. In the American military, SOP's are written so that they will be practiced repeatedly (many times) as what is to be done, in that situation. All of that practice develops muscle memory in your body. Muscle memory allows you to do things the same way even in stressful times. If you have developed muscle memory for a task your body will alert you if you start to do something wrong.

    An example: To this day, if I have a jam/stoppage on a AR15 at the gun range I still use the same procedures I learned over 30 years ago to clear the jam/stoppage and get it cleared in seconds. I have observed others on the gun range have that same problem and it takes them several minutes to clear the jam and continue shooting. While several minutes on a gun range, doesn't amount to anything. In a fire fight, it's an eternity.

    A SOP is just a plan. Plans can be repeated. Repeated training leads to muscle memory. Muscle memory leads to speed. The right thing done at the right time correctly, might save your life.

    Muscle memory allows you to open your door lock, without looking at it. Tie your shoes. Get dressed. etc.

    Dale
     
    1. varuna
      About muscle memory. These days many defense products seem to forget to take into account the need for their products to be operated by muscle memory (example, using touch screen display rather than button & switch) A real life threatening hazard during real life combat if you ask me.
       
      varuna, Nov 7, 2019
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  22. varuna

    varuna Tree killer & a cat person
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    There are different kind of "not thinking". The first one is, the "zombie like" which basically not knowing what to do, while the second is "muscle memory" which basically is what Dale there had stated, and all you need to do is executing it and your body and mind will be in autopilot like state.
     
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  23. TMT Tactical

    TMT Tactical The Great Lizard ! Staff Member
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    For the non-military think of SOP as instruction ---Gas valve shot off = 1) Go to garage and get wrench X. 2) go to right hand side of drive way and locate concrete lid, with finger slot. 3) insert handle of wrench X and lift off concrete lid. 4) Use wrench X to turn protruding bar on the valve, clockwise, until bar is pointed across the valve body. That would be a SOP for emergency gas shut down. A check list may also be included into an SOP for emergency gas shut down, such as turn off hot water heater, boiler or any other items associated to a gas line shut down. Even with only two people, what you know and can do, the other person my not know about or have practice doing. I do think that if people are prone to panic, then a SOP will not save them. Need to be cool headed enough to stop and read /follow the procedures.
     
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  24. randyt

    randyt Master Survivalist
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    SOP is nothing more than a streamline operations manual. It takes out the "I didn't know" equation. If practiced it becomes a reflex.
     
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  25. varuna

    varuna Tree killer & a cat person
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    Sadly even most prepper believe "they know", which is true under normal circumstances. However when the real SHTF hit, things will go wrong in so many ways
     
  26. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    I live in a rural area so a lot of the stuff will be different to some one in an urban setting.
    nothing much will change until the mains power goes off, up to then most people can manage and life will still go on as normal, there may be some shortages in the shops and queues in some filling stations but life will go on, once the power goes off is when it will all change.
    hunker down and be ready for anything out of the normal would be my SOP!!
     
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  27. Dalewick

    Dalewick Legendary Survivalist
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    Will it get bad there that fast after the power goes off? How long are you thinking? Where I live (West Virginia, USA) people are used to the loss of electricity and usually just take it in stride. I have been without electricity (from the power lines) for 3 weeks before and the neighbors never got flustered. We are used to at least 2 or 4 times a year, the electricity being out for a week or more. That's our normal. Most people here have backup generators, as do I.
     
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  28. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    I was brought up in an era of power cuts as have many of the older people here, its the young families with kids that probably have not.
    when there was a power cut last winter in the South East of England (commuting area to London) they were panicking, one guy was interviewed by local TV and said " its like the middle ages" power had only been off a couple of hours! sort of gives one the idea how some will be.
    I am prepping for long term ( permanent) power loss.
     
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    1. Dalewick
      Thank you for the info. I guess young people in and around all major cities are similar. Sad. Thanks again.
      Dale
       
      Dalewick, Nov 8, 2019
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