No-Nonsense Bug Out™ Series — Module 04

How to Build a Bug Out Resupply Cache: Containers, Contents, and Long-Term Storage

A former Green Beret breaks down how to build a resupply cache — container selection, long-term storage prep, and the consumables that keep your one-bag system light.

By Joshua Enyart · Founder & Head Instructor, Gray Bearded Green Beret

Creator of YouTube's most-watched bug out bag series — 7 million+ views

By Joshua Enyart | Gray Bearded Green Beret

The one-bag system stays light because of what it does not carry. A system of pre-staged caches carries everything else — positioned along your route and at your alternate locations, waiting. The bag covers what you need for the current leg. The cache provides what you need for the next.

The principle is that simple: you do not carry everything from Point A to Point B. You carry enough to reach the next cache. That is how a properly outfitted nineteen-pound bag can cover two hundred miles — not because the bag holds that much, but because it never has to.

This is the same logistics concept used in special operations: supplies forward-staged to where the operator will need them, not carried on his back for the entirety of the mission. The result is a lighter operator who moves faster and lasts longer.

This module covers the practical mechanics of building that system: container selection, content preparation for long-term storage, what goes in a basic resupply cache, and how to build a dedicated hunting-fishing-trapping cache for food procurement once you are stationary.

Cache Container Options

Container selection determines how long the contents stay functional. Three options with different tradeoffs:

Pelican-Style Hard Cases

Polymer construction — no rust. O-ring seal — reliable waterproof barrier. Impact and compression resistant. This is the premium option for above-ground staging where you need certainty about container integrity over time. The tradeoff is cost and a recognizable appearance that makes it obvious something valuable is inside.

Military Surplus Ammo Cans

Widely available, inexpensive, and waterproof when the gasket is intact. The limitation is painted steel — any damage to the coating exposes bare metal to moisture over years of staging. Inspect the gasket and paint condition on every annual service. Appropriate for situations where cost matters more than longevity or for indoor staging where moisture exposure is lower.

Custom PVC Tubes

Four-inch Charlotte Pipe PVC with threaded drain cleanouts on both ends is my preferred format for buried caches. All-polymer construction eliminates rust. Threaded ends seal water-tight. The system scales to whatever diameter the contents require.

The dual-end cleanout design has a specific maintenance advantage: to service the oxygen absorbers, you unscrew both ends, replace the absorbers, and reseal — without unpacking the entire cache. If you are maintaining multiple buried caches, this saves significant time.

Carry a universal plastic drain wrench in your primary bag for PVC tube caches. A cache you cannot open under adverse conditions — cold hands, exhaustion, darkness — is not actually a cache.

DirtyMan Safe

For buried caches specifically, the purpose-built option I use and recommend is the DirtyMan Safe. UV-stable plastic, threaded watertight cap, and multiple sizes to match the volume you are staging. Mine have been in the ground across multiple seasons and come up dry. The case for a burial-specific container is simple: most containers on the market were not actually designed to survive being underground for a year. DirtyMan was.

Things I would not bury: consumer five-gallon buckets with pressure lids, cardboard-lined ammo cans, anything that was not designed to go in the ground. They fail quietly — you pull the cache up a year later and find ruined gear.

Cache Spacing: The Two-Day Rule

Stage resupply caches at approximately two-day intervals of planned travel. Not every day — that creates too many caches to maintain. Not every three to four days — that risks running out before you arrive. Two days gives you a buffer for the contingencies that always arise.

This maps directly to your PACE plan. Place caches along every route variant — primary, alternate, contingency, emergency — at the transition points that make sense for your distance, terrain, and pace. A cache that is one day too far off the route is the same as no cache at all.

Preparing Contents for Long-Term Storage

The container is necessary but not sufficient. How you prepare what goes inside determines whether it actually functions when you reach it, potentially years after you staged it.

Apply this protocol to every cache before sealing: vacuum seal everything that can be vacuum sealed. Apply corrosion inhibitor or oil to every metal item. Place oxygen absorbers or desiccant packets inside the container — for PVC tubes with dual cleanouts, one packet at each end.

Servicing Your Caches

A cache is not a set-and-forget system. Service every cache at least once a year. Open the container, inspect the contents, replace oxygen absorbers and desiccant, check expiration dates on rations and medical supplies, and verify that vacuum seals are intact.

If you are burying caches, check for water intrusion. If you are using ammo cans, check for rust. If you are using PVC, check the thread sealant. The cache that fails when you need it is worse than no cache at all — because you planned around it being there.

Build servicing into your annual routine. Treat it like a maintenance schedule, not a chore you get to when you remember.

The Basic Resupply Cache — Consumables by Category

The resupply cache is built directly from your baseline kit packing list. Separate every item into durable (survives the trip without replacement) and consumable (will be used up and needs replenishment). The cache holds replacements for the consumables.

Fire

A replacement Bic lighter in case the primary runs out of fuel, additional beeswax candles or prepared tinder tabs, and emergency fire-starting material (Mini Inferno or equivalent). The ferrocerium rod and fresnel lens stay in the bag — they are durable. The cache puts you back to where you started on what is not.

Shelter

The durable shelter items — poncho, poncho liner, ridgeline — are not going to fail in a few days of field use. The consumable is cordage. Bank line and paracord used for lashing, rigging, and improvised repairs get used and do not come back. Stage additional cordage at every resupply cache.

Water

A replacement Grayl GeoPress filter — or the equivalent for your filtration system — plus water purification tablets as a backup. Filter life is finite. A replacement filter in the cache means you are never more than two days from a functional filtration system. Check tablet expiration dates on every service cycle.

Food

Emergency rations, staged at two-day intervals. During the movement phase, you are not stopping to hunt, fish, or trap. That takes time, and time on route is exposure. Emergency rations and a staged resupply system are how you cover food without stopping.

First Aid

A complete replacement GB2 IFAK in every resupply cache. If you use your tourniquet, if you pack a wound, if you go through your supplies stabilizing an injury, you need to replenish within two days. That is what the cached IFAK provides.

Navigation

Stage the next topo map sheet at the cache that transitions you off your current map. Carry only the map you need for the current leg, pick up the next one when you arrive. Also stage additional pencil leads, pencils, and a waterproof notebook — low weight, easy to forget, worth having.

Batteries, Ammunition, Hygiene, and Gear Repair

Replacement batteries for headlamp and GPS. Ammunition for contact replenishment. Hygiene items (staged two to four days out, near a water source when possible — the first day or two you are focused on distance, not comfort). A more capable gear repair kit than what you carry in the primary bag: additional duct tape, heavy sail needle, bank line for structural repairs.

The Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping Cache

Hunting, fishing, and trapping are not part of the primary movement plan. They are part of the sustained-position plan — once you reach the alternate location or establish a stationary position for an extended period. Stage this cache where it will actually be used: at the alternate location, near a water source on route, or at the planned transition point from movement to stationary operation.

Active Hunting — M6 Takedown Rifle (TPS Arms)

The M6 Takedown Series is a breakdown survival rifle with a dual-barrel design: .22 LR over .410 shotgun. The breakdown pin allows rapid field assembly. The .22 for small game at distance, the .410 for close-range dispatch of trapped animals. Built-in ammo storage. The choke tool doubles as a driver bit adapter. This is a food procurement tool, not a defensive weapon. Stage it where food procurement is the priority.

Passive Land Trapping

Steel rat traps nailed directly to trees using galvanized roofing nails, baited with peanut butter or nut butter. Thompson Survival Snare Kits (carry three) for snares across multiple target sizes. Additional snare wire from Wazoo Survival Gear in 15-foot tube format extends your count.

The operational standard is ten or more trap sets simultaneously. One or two snares is not a food procurement strategy. Ten is. Stage enough components to run a proper line.

Passive Water Trapping and Fishing

Fishing yoyos are self-tensioning passive fish traps — rig with tackle, set in series along a bank or waterway, check periodically. Deploy six or more for meaningful yield. A trotline or bank line setup using #36 bank line (100 ft) and #12 bank line (50 ft), with large hooks and swivels, targets catfish on any viable waterway. Swivels prevent line twist when fish are fighting the rig.

For smaller fish, yoyos rigged with snail hooks, small swivels, and split shot sinkers. A 25-pound test spool for hand-reel use, braided line in compact tubes, and a variety of lures for when live bait is unavailable.

Frog and Fish Spear

A hardened steel gigging tip with an offset bend, lashed to an on-site pole. The water's edge is where land animals come to drink and aquatic animals surface to feed — the most productive active hunting location in any environment. Include the gigging tip in every hunting-fishing-trapping cache.

The System in Practice

A system of caches is what makes the one-bag philosophy functional over time and distance. The bag is light because everything it will eventually need is already ahead of it. Build the resupply caches from your consumable list. Stage them at two-day intervals. Service them annually. Build the hunting-fishing-trapping cache at the location where you plan to use it.

The bag is the first leg. The caches are every leg after that.

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