Why You Need a Cache

This past weekend, I was teaching a Spy Escape & Evasion course in the Washington, DC area. We got to the topic of caching (storing items in another place besides your home) and one fellow couldn’t understand why in the world anyone would need to do this if they were a law-abiding citizen.

Well… first, let me go a little more into the definition of caching. When I recommend that someone store a gun and ammo, food and other materials it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go dig a hole in the woods and bury a large container. A “cache” could also be a small rented storage unit or storing some items at a relative’s house or in a cabin in the woods.

My point is, when a lot of people think of caching they think of the extremist dressed in camouflage that’s caching ammo cans all around his property. I believe caching is for the prudent person who doesn’t want to keep all their eggs in one basket.

In other words…

Yes, there is a chance the government could try and confiscate our guns one day. But right now, there’s a more likely chance that one of our houses will burn down. And if you happen to come home from dinner one evening and your house is going up in flames you don’t want all of your guns and ammo to go up in flames too… you want to be able to go to another location and secure a gun and other needed items in the meantime.

To make this point even clearer, look at caching the way you look at the stock market. We’re always told to diversify and to never invest our money in only one stock because if that stock crashes (Enron) then we’ve lost all our money.  Caching is simply diversifying your life-saving gear to multiple locations, in addition to your house.

If you do decide to cache…

I believe it’s a good idea to spread things out. For example, you might have a storage unit for a few items, you might bury a PVC tube on your property or other land, and then you might fill an ammo can or two and bury that elsewhere.

Also, when it comes to caching make sure and bury items that work. In other words, I know of people who’ve purchased cheap guns for caching purposes. The guns are pieces of junk but these folks couldn’t see themselves burying a quality gun because they see it as a waste of a good gun and money. Personally, I think this is crazy because if you ever need your cache, you obviously want a gun that you can depend on.

So don’t be cheap when you’re assembling your cache. If you ever have to rely on your cache it means that something very bad has happened, and at that moment in time you’ll wish you cached the best guns, ammo and other gear that money can buy.

One last thing for today. To this article, I’ve attached directions for building a PVC pipe cache, plus a few of the items you may want to put in your cache.