The Supply Cache

What do you do in a survival situation when you had to bug out of home, and your supplies have run thin? You don't want to risk looting or robbing someone else's supplies, or run any risk for that matter unless it is neccesary. With a premade supply cache you eliminate that risk. Firstly, for those of you who don't know what a supply cache is. Think of a bug out bag or something in that nature, in that it has supplies to help you survive. But you have it hidden away so it's not on your person. You run out of supplies or you've been robbed, or you just had to evacuate without any supplies. A well hidden supply cache could be the difference of life and death.


A supply cache could have anything from food, liquid, fire starting materials, or anything else that you can fit inside of your cache container. If you know the location of a cache of supplies that no one else does, you eliminate the possibility of it being looted. Plus you have extra supplies.

In this insturctable, I will show you how to find a proper container, fill it, and hide it for your own future use. The supply cache I will show you was burried at a hidden spot near a river close to home. Your own supply cache, if you decide to use the information from this instructable, can have whatever you like. This cache does not have the necessities to survive, but what it does have is a few simple supplies that could prove useful in a survival situation, and help raise my morale if I don't have many supplies, or if I just haven't had much luck during the situation that calls for the retrieval of my survival caches. Again, I want to stress that this cache is NOT a good cache to save your life but will help your survival situation. Be creative in what you put in your caches. It can be a survival kit even, just not one that you would be carrying around. Below you will see a picture of the things i put in one of my caches.

You will find,
Fishing hooks
Frijole beans
1 glowstick
1 pair of work gloves
1 flashlight
50 feet of paracord
1 bandana
1 bottle of peroxide
1 pair of collapsible binoculars
1 container of flint
1 multitool
2 bic lighters
1 black sharpie
and 1 ace bandage.

Choosing the appropriate container for your supply cache is essential. Say you want to put food in your cache like for instance a bit of beef jerky, and your container isn't air tight. That will bring you a lot of problems. You can never go wrong with an air tight container. It will keep out the elements, insects, what have you. Another detail to consider is the ammount of supplies you plan on using. If you want to put the ammount of supplies you would normally keep in your 72 hour survival kit, in your supply cache. You better plan on having a large container.

What you actually plan on putting in the cache can help you decide on the right container. If you are putting in very slim things in, you can fit a lot into a small cylindar container.

You can fit a lot of items into a container if you pack it right, so don't be discouraged if you can't find a large tin like the one I am using. Think of the instructables you have seen with survival kits packed into tiny little altoids tins. You can fit a lot into a small or medium container. It can be like a survival kit you don't carry around with you.

Next you will want to decide what all you will be putting in your cache. I have previously listed what I put inside my supply cache, you can view the picture below to review. A supply cache can have many different uses. Storage for food, for energy like batteries, firestarting tools etc.

Organization is nice but it is not neccisary. You can put items that have the same basic use, such as firestarting, inside a ziplock bag or even a seal-a-meal bag. I completely suggest when storing food such as jerky, to put it inside of a bag inside of the cache.

There are several things that you want to keep in mind with choosing a location for your supply cache.

1) Accessibility: How easy is it for you to get to the location you want to hide your supply cache? Is it near home? Work? Do you need to take a freeway to get to it? There are several things to keep in mind when hiding it. You could hide it in your own backyard. It may seem counter productive, putting supplies somewhere still on your property that you have to work for to retrieve. But then again, if you house is looted, at least you have that. However I suggest somewhere with a lot of nature, if there is any near where you live. Such as at a river, lake, nature center, or even a park. However if you plan on burying somewhere public, or owned by the city, county, or state.... I must reccomend you to look up laws that may dicate digging there.

2) Laws: As I previously stated, make sure you are being lawful with the burying of your supply cache. Are you aloud to disturb the soil in the location you've chosen? If not, maybe you should consider camouflaging your cache somewhere where it will be hard to see. Again, be sure to read local laws that may dictate this. This may be considered littering in your area, and you can be given a heavy fine. Be responsible.

3) Population: How many people visit the area that you have chosen? Is your location somewhere not many people know about? Can someone accidently find your cache? You want to be sure that no one else will know where you are hiding supplies.

4) Visibility: Is your cache buried? Is the filled up hole well hidden? If it's not buried is it behind or inside something? Is it camouflaged? You do NOT want anyone to be able to see or figure out where your cache is hidden.

Remember, you need to remember where you put your cache. If you don't it's a complete waste of supplies. Put it somewhere not only do you know how to get to without directions, but when you choose your location you should jot down the GPS location. If you have the longitude and latitude of your supply cache, and a way to determind your GPS location, you can always find your supply cache. However if you decide to write down the longitude and latitude, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT write what is at this location. Have a piece of paper that just has the numbers. Someone may be able to figure out what is there if they get a hold of your numbers, but theres a smaller chance of them figuring it out if you don't write on the paper that it's a supply cache or what's inside it.

Hiding your supply cache can be easy and simple, or it can be difficult and intricate. You can choose to just burry your supply cache in a hole, and then camouflage the filled hole. Or you could spray paint the container to blend with the foliage or trees. You could hide it inside a hollowed out tree, behind vines, whatever floats your boat.

In this instructable I burried the cache, then spread out the disrupted soil and leaves to make the area look untouched.