<span style="color: #FF0000"><span style="font-weight: bold">SURVIVAL</span></span>
I had started a thread on some basics of what I carry on a Off-Roading Forum; I thought I would re-post it here on the HIDE for members that have little to no knowledge on the subject. I know most of you Operators have been through some type of Survival training and still may find a couple of items I metion of use to you in the following.
Now, what do I mean SURVIVAL? There’s allot of different scenarios. It could be you just broke down away from any city. It could be you were in an accident while off-road, the vehicle no longer is drivable, etc. It could be you may be in a 3rd world country and a civil war or unrest breaks out. It could be even in this country, which I myself think it could happen, the way things are going, but that is for an Off Topic discussion.
My idea of Survival is planning for the LONG HAUL, I’m not talking about your on a dirt or gravel road 25 miles from the nearest town. You can get by with a few items to make you comfortable for a 24-36 hour wait until someone gets to you. Like in a snowstorm, etc. I’m talking about having to survive for an indefinite amount of time, we don’t know how long before we get help or help finds us.
There are two different mindsets when it comes to survival. The old saying is stay right where you are. This is what you should do in most cases, like the above scenarios I mentioned about being stuck for 24-36 yours before someone finds you. In this type of situation, absolutely stay put; use the vehicle as shelter, etc. You can carry enough food and medical supplies in your vehicle to take care of this type of survival situation. Before going anywhere, it is very important to let someone know where you are going and when you plan on arriving at your destination. This helps when you don’t arrive they can start thinking about a breakdown etc.
This thread is for surviving the long term having to abandoned your vehicle either due to it was disabled and your in a hostile environment in an unstable country or the vehicle is no longer operable or repairable and your over 100’s miles from any other human with a very low chance of someone stumbling upon you.
I’m going to go into some detail on the following topics related to SURVIVAL. This is not an in-depth “How to” on every aspect; it would take me hundreds of pages to write something like that up. This is made as a guide to help you “Start Thinking” about ways to protect yourself and survive in an emergency like I outline above. I have supplied links to web sites and publications for those of you that want to know more about the subject at the end of this post.
<span style="font-weight: bold">1. Survival Mindset
2. Survival Skills
3. Geographic Regions
4. Observation Skills
5. Safety
6. Communication
7. Navigation
8. Water
9. Fire
10. Food
11. Shelter
12. Clothing
13. Medical
14. Hygiene
15. Basic Survival Tools
16. Gadgets
17. Back Packs
18. Survival Packs
19. Survival Links
20. Survival Resources (Publications) </span>
Before we get started, I would like to give some background on myself as to where this information comes from. I didn’t go through some weekend course on survival, and get some merit badge. I’ve been “Practicing” survival skills for over 25 years and have lived without electricity or running water for two years straight. I did this because I wanted to live this way, not because I had no choice. There is some really good survival information on the net and in books; at the end of this thread I’ve posted some survival links along with publications that I have used over the years that supply some good information and tools.
You don’t have to go through a survival school to be good at survival skills. You can read and study about all of these skills and then practice them yourself. I do suggest taking a basic First Aid class in your town and learn CPR and basic first aid. This will help give you the confidence of working in an emergency situation when one arises, as opposed to not knowing what to do.
Like I stated in the first thread, I think every human being should be able to build a fire to keep themselves warm, gather food to eat, make a shelter to keep the weather out, find and gather water to keep from dehydrating and dying. Sadly; most people don’t know how to do most these, it’s ashame. We have become very lazy in a world where we only have to flip a switch and we have light, or turn a handle and we have hot water. We have become overly complacent in our modern world on others and devices to make our lives better. Most people from rural farming areas would fair better in a survival situation than someone from a large metropolitan a city. We have lost some the basics of what humans need to survive.
<span style="font-weight: bold">1.Survival Mindset</span>
….1a. Human Psychology - It’s very important to have the correct mind set. First off, let’s face it, if your having to practice the following, you have had a very traumatic or life threatening experience. It’s VERY IMPORTANT to remain calm. Relax, make yourself relax, take some deep breaths if you need to. The very BEST Survival tool is your BRAIN. You need to take action, like triage. Is the vehicle burning, get equipment away and personal, medical problems, blood loss, etc. You must assess the damage and the total situation of what you are dealing with. Get a plan of attack together for your survival situation, if you have to abandon the vehicle, what’s in the vehicle and part of the vehicle that you can salvage for use in your survival situation.
Its very easy to fall prey and “procrastinate” and do nothing. Or some go into shock and a stay focused on what you should have done leading up to the event, in essence doing nothing but sitting there wishing you did this or that. Forget about why it happened and stay focused on what you need to do NOW!. Shelter, Food, Water, etc. Be determined to SURVIVE at ALL COST. You have to be strong and focus on what your good at, NOT the bad. Don’t use words like can’t, tell yourself you CAN do it. Talk your self through your tasks, etc. Remain calm, SURVIVAL IS A MINDSET PERIOD!
<span style="font-weight: bold">2. Suvival Skills</span>
….2a. It’s very important to actually practice survival skills BEFORE you have a survival situation. When you’re under stress is not the time to try to learn how to use a specific item. You need to get proficient at your skill craft. There are survival courses that you can go through. Some are better than others. Do some research before you jump right in. again at the end of this post I will have some links of places that I recommend for teaching survival skills. You can down load lots of great information and teach your self. You will find that there are some items that are sold as Survival tools, which are garbage, they may look cool, but they don’t work in the real world. By practicing using your tools, and skills it will be come second nature when you need to call upon them.
<span style="font-weight: bold">3.Geographic Regions</span>
There is no ONE way or ONE Kit for survival. It all depended on the geographic region that you are in will dictate what to carry and how you prepare your survival kit. You need to learn and study about that type of survival in your area, since this is the most likely type of area it will be needed in. There is no sense studying Arctic Survival methods if you never are in Arctic regions of the World.
….3a. Arctic
Arctic Survival is very dangerous due to the sub zero temperatures. This type of survival requires the most gear, thought out preparation and specialized survival skills for surviving in this type of hostile environment. Death can occur within minutes if not properly trained and or having the correct types of equipment for this area. If you live in this type of region you should spend some time and research what it would take to survive in an emergency situation.
….1. Special Tools - Depending on what the geographic region of where this might be; also has indigenous wildlife concerns that have to be taken in account also. If per say we are talking Alaska, you would want to carry a large caliber handgun at a minimum for protection of Grizzly Bears, etc. This would be part of my “Basic” survival gear if in this type of area. Living in more temperate climates does not make carrying a large caliber weapon necessary, except for the two-legged kind. But that’s for an off-topic debate
Staying warm is the number one priority in this type of environment, Fire, clothing, shelter, then food is last. Maintaining body heat is very important, but over excursion can also be fatal due to sweating. You need to be very careful not to sweat when working in extreme freezing temperatures. Make sure to keep all flesh covered from exposure. Make sure to keep your self-hydrated also in this type of environment.
Do not eat snow for your water intake requirements, the amount of energy the body has to produce to melt it is a lot. It’s best to melt any Ice or snow by boiling it, this will help you maintain any heat loss.
….3b. Desert
The Desert has it’s own set of survival requirements, water being the number one killer in this type of environment. It best again to study what it takes to survive in this type of region. Learn how to make an underground shelter to keep the heat off you, look for low lying areas where water may congregate. Food is also going to be very scarce in the this type of region. I know from experience that Rattle Snakes are a very good food source, but you must you extreme caution when trying to approaches one for a food source, getting bit would only compound your situation in to an even worse one.
….3c. Tropical
The tropical environments have their own set of circumstance that you have to deal with. This may be very hot and humid or monsoon type rains at certain times of the year. You need to watch our for biting insects and other types of indigenous specious such as mosquitoes that carry malaria. Tropic type environments are usually very damp areas, this means trying to stay dry is normally your number one task. Soaking feet can lead to not only blisters but trench rot, etc. Wounds that become infected in this type of region can become gangrene infected in know time without proper care and treatment. Plants, water sources and small game are usually plentiful in this type of region which makes gathering food fairly easy compared to other regions I have mentioned above.
<span style="font-weight: bold">4. Observation Skills</span>
I believe Observation skills are very important when it comes to a survival situation. The need to be able to assess your situation and surroundings to make intelligent informed decisions is very important. Assess the region that you are in, is it a ravine, if so you may have bad weather coming in and need to move to higher ground for flash flooding, etc. Is there a hilltop close buy, that you may be able to great distances, and maybe a near by town, etc. Pay attention to the ground; are you close to a water source like a stream, creek or river? If so, you may be close to a game trail, you don’t want to setup camp along a game trail especially if your area is known for bear activity.
<span style="font-weight: bold">5. Safety</span>
Let’s face it, your in a bad situation already, lets not make it worse by doing stupid things. What do I mean by this. It could be you don’t have much experience using an axe or a knife. If this is the case, this is not the time to “Learn How”. You more than likely we end up cutting or worse to yourself. If your trying to make fire wood, look for old dry branches that are already small enough for a fire as opposed to having to cut them.
Stay away from climbing up rock faces and ledges, if your not used to doing this, you take a very strong chance of falling and injuring yourself worse or even killing your self. If you need to get up to higher ground, walk along the bottom edge for a more gradual slope that is much easer to traverse. Just like in Off-Roading, Never “PUSH” a “Bad Line”.
Don’t drink directly form a water source no matter how clean it looks, it more than likely is contaminated. Boil your water no matter how thirsty you are.
<span style="font-weight: bold">6. Communication</span>
I want to cover Survival Communications. I’m going to list the best to worst in sequence with a brief explanation of the pros and cons of each.
…6a. SAT Phone – The best choice due to being able to actually talk with someone and give medical information, etc. As long as you have a clear view of the sky, this will work anywhere in the world. The down side is it’s an expensive piece of equipment and the service is also a little steep too. But, it is the BEST insurance on a remote Expedition.
….6b. GPS Signal Devices – GPS Signal devices are the next inline depending on the type and model. The Technology is coming along, I would say in the next five years you will see some amazing equipment come our way. Down fall is coverage, not supported around the globe yet.
….6c. Ham Radios – The HAM radio is a good choice if you stay in the US, Canada, Europe, Mexico. Other than that it, it’s pretty useless. It’s again best to be able to talk with someone about the details of your situation as opposed to just a signal.
….6d. Signal Mirror – A signal mirror can be seen for over 25 miles or more. Highflying Aircraft can spot this type of device. They are very cheep, they take very little room, fit in your pocket. The down side is, you have to be able to “See” an Aircraft or some type of human movement for this type of device to be effective.
….6e. Signal Flare – The Signal flare doesn’t have the range of the Signal Mirror, but does have the same characteristics. Also when someone sees a flare they know it’s a call for help.
….6f. Signal Fire – This is the next best option for signaling. You have your fuel and wood ready to be lit at a moments notice. When you hear an approaching aircraft, etc. Then light the fire, through some “Green” branches on the flames, which will produce very dense smoke. The down sides are high winds will keep the smoke patterns close to the ground not reaching high enough in the atmosphere.
….6g. Cell Phones – Cell phones are only good when traveling fairly close to civilized populated areas, other than that, they are pretty useless.
….6h. CB’s – CB’s are about the same as cell phones but with a lot less range.
….6i. FRS Radios – FRS handheld radios are pretty useless in a survival situation. You could use the battery to start a fire, but other than that for comm.’s it’s not an option IMHO.
….6j. Whistle – A whistle is only good if your able to “See” or “hear” human movement, it takes the place of yelling for help.
….6k. Windup SSB Short Wave Radio – These come in all sizes, they allow you to monitor communications that may pertain to your situation, you may hear they are searching x & y areas for you, but your in z area, this would allow you maybe move to those areas, etc or give you piece of mind that someone is looking for you.
<span style="font-weight: bold">7. Navigation</span>
….7a. When it comes to navigation, I prefer to take the conservative approach. What I mean by this is, I don’t rely “Totally” on an electronic device, I don’t care how accurate it is. Things break, get damaged, batteries die, etc. I’m of the mind set, that anyone that decides to venture off into the woods or the outdoors, should have at the minimum a GOOD WORKING Knowledge of how to read a topographic map and know how to use a hand held compass using dead reckoning skills etc.
….7b. Compass Use – It’s import to learn the basics of using a compass. The compass is a very easy device to learn how to use. There are many different companies that manufacture them. I kind of lean towards the Swiss mad, the Burtons, Silva, etc. These are great well made compasses. The tiny button compasses are pretty cheep that are on the market, but if you look around you can find a good one made by some of the above mfg’s I mentioned. I carry a full size Military Compass with Tritium for traveling at night If I have to. This way there is no use of a flashlight destroying my night vision.
….7c. Field Expedient Navigation – What do I mean by Field Expedient Navigation? It means if your ever stuck without a compass, you learn to read the terrain your in to be able to navigate in the proper direction you want to go. If the sun is out, it’s no problem on figuring which way to go. But if it’s a cloudy day and you need to travel west, how would you know which way to travel? By looking at trees or rocks you can see either mosses or fungus grow usually on just one side more than another. This is due to that particular side does not receive enough sunlight, so growth will appear on that side due to a constant amount of moisture being present. The side of growth is on the Northern side of rocks or trees. The western, eastern and southern exposure to sunlight normally keeps this type of growth off.
So just stand behind the rock or tree that has the growth in front of it facing away from you. This will align you to North. To your right will be east, to your left will be west and behind you is south. Then figure out which way you need to travel, pick something far off in the distance in the direction you want to travel and walk that course, then you may need to realign yourself from time to time.
Use your watch. Point the hour hand at the sun. South will be halfway between the hour hand and 12:00 in the NORTHERN hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, point 12:00 at the sun. North will be halfway between the hour hand and 12.
….7d. Topographic Map Reading – What’s the difference between a standard map and a Topographic map? The standard map shows a one-dimensional plane with only basic features of the earth such as lakes, forest, highways, cities, railroad tracks and rivers and streams. A topographic map shows a 3 dimensional plane. It shows the earth’s contours which will be marked with curving lines then showing a number in a break in the lines, these will be graduated in height intervals. This will help you better understand the terrain and “Read” the terrain better with practice.
By seeing the actual hills, and valleys on the map, will help you orientate yourself of your exact position. Thus being able to pick the best possible route you want to take. This is why the best maps are topographical maps, they are usually a little more expensive. Depending on what State you live in, you can go to any Wal-Mart or Hunting store and find a “Book” that is made by DeLorme which has a complete Topographic maps of your State. You can also go online and order other States also. They also have GPS cords on them now too.
….7e. GPS Overview – A GPS is a great positioning device, it takes the place of a compass. When Clinton was in office he removed the safety devices from the GPS signals that civilian’s used. The Military’s GPS are very accurate, up until that time only the Military had accurate GPS signals, we the public had a filtered positioning of up to 300 yards. Now it’s like 3 meters. This is leaps and bounds greater accuracy then we use to have. It now shows your position on the Earth with more detailed accuracy.
The GPS works by a signal that is transmitted back and forth to a min of (3) satellites in orbit; this allows them to triangulate your position on the face of the Earth. The technology is growing by leaps and bounds everyday. There are device that are coming to market all the time, some are better than others. You need to research on them and don’t just rush out to buy the latest gadget so to speak, make sure it’s is going to be able to do exactly what you want to accomplish.
<span style="font-weight: bold">8. Water</span>
All humans need water, our bodies are made up of primarily water. You will die without water in three days. The rule of thumb is Drink 50-75% of your body weight in ounces.
Sedentary people: 50%
Active people: 75%
Here’s an example: Let’s use a nominal figure of body weight of 200 lbs. I know this is a high number due to most weigh less than this, some are smaller in stature and some may be larger. By using the higher water intake requirement will help keep a safety margin in our survival water intake requirements.
Pounds of body weight: 200
Water requirement from above (75% of bodyweight) = 150 oz.
Add for dryness of climate + 16 oz
Add for strenuous exercise + 16 oz
Total per day: 182 oz
….8a. How to Locate – Water can be found natural in the lowest points on the Earth, especially where there is a more clay based soils. It tends to pool in these areas. Always look at the terrain for which has the greenest color; this will be your best area of finding a source for water in these areas.
There are many types of plants that “collect” rain water, there are vines that grow naturally in nature that have an abundance of water inside them, most found in more temperate climates. These are referred to as water vines; we have them here were I live. Using a machete, you can cut the vine close to the ground away from the tree where it is growing, then lift it up and clean pure water will flow into your mouth.
….8b. How to Gather – There are ways to gather water also, you can make a solar still. This is done buy using a clear piece of plastic. Dig a hole; place a container in the middle of the hole to collect the water. Then find a bunch of “Green” leafy branches, placing them in the hole around your container. Then using your poncho or other clear plastic, place over top of the hole, securing it with rocks around all the edges. Then place one small rock in the middle of your poncho on top. This will allow the poncho to sag in the middle over your container. You want to make it some what air tight, then allow nature to take it’s course, it will evaporate the moisture from the plants making condensation on the poncho, gathering there slowly dripping into your container. Be warned, it makes very little to drink, but does help. Saran wrap is a great asset for the solar still also
Another way to gather water is walking around in the morning dew with your socks, collecting the moisture then wringing your socks out into a container, you can actually gather quite a bit. I just hope your socks don’t smell like mine. These are just a few ways of gathering water, there are many more, but I just wanted to give you some basic ideas.
Tin Foil - Using a ready made tin foil cup also is a good way of collecting water from a source then making a small fire and boiling it to make it safe to drink. I prefer to use tin foil myself; it has multiple purposes
Prophylactic - There are some to say that you can use a prophylactic for water collection, it takes up very little room in your kit, but “REAL” experience has taught me, that they are NOT dependable and are very hard to carry around when full, they are very easy to get damaged because of the thin skin it is made up of. I myself don’t like them or use them.
….8.c. How to Prepare – Depending on the source of the water you gathered, you more than likely would want to ensure it’s safe to drink without any parasites. The best way to prepare it, is by boiling it, this will kill any bacteria it may have in it. I have seen many fast flowing streams in Montana, CO, Tenn, etc that “look” like they are perfect for drinking the water straight from them, DON”T. Take Montana for example, most all streams are polluted from the mining days, they used Arsenic in the retrieval of gold. The rivers and creeks are filled with it. Be very careful. Plus the fact you have wildlife feces that end up in these streams and creeks also. I live in a very unique place, I’m sounded by Natural Artesian springs, they flow right out of the ground, this is very safe to drink from, because it’s coming from the “Source”. Some of the springs flow 1,000’s of gals a minute in my area.
….8d. How to Recognize Good or Bad sources of Water – The rule of thumb is stay away from sitting pools of water, they become stagnate and are filled with all kinds of parasites. It’s normally best to find a moving water source as opposed to a standing one.
….8a. All of these following items can be used for the same purposes. Some prefer one to the other, but they all are used for the same purposes. I do prefer a Poncho to the trash bag myself, because of one reason, here is why. You can make a so called poncho with the trash bag, buy cutting a hole if the middle, the only problem, it if it’s raining real hard, the water will run down your exposed head and still get you soaking wet. With a poncho, it already has a head covering eliminating water soaking you.
In a survival situation, you want to try to remain dry; this will help keeping your feet free of blister and fungus due to constant rubbing and wetness. Anyone that has ever served in the Military knows what it’s like having to hike 25 miles in soaking feet in your boots; it will turn your feet in to raw hamburger. The idea is not to compound and already dangerous situation by making new medical problems.
Poncho – Can be used as a shelter, a Solar Still, to carry water, or to keep you dry as a poncho.
Heavy Duty Garbage Bag – Can be used as a shelter, a Solar Still, to carry water, or to keep you “semi” dry as a poncho.
Painters Drop Cloth (Plastic) – Same use as a garbage bag.
<span style="font-weight: bold">9. Fire </span>
The uses of a fire can be numerous as in the following.
1. Psychological value – A fire is very soothing and relaxing.
2. Food Prep – It helps when in the preparation of foods, making the food taste better and removing any types of bacteria that it may contain.
3. Warmth – A fire provides warmth when temperatures begin to fall during the evening hours.
4. Hygiene – A fire will also help with hygiene. By boiling water in the winter time allowing you to take a cloth or other piece of material to clean your body.
5. Safety – A fire will help keep wild animals away from your campsite at night.
6. Signaling – A fire can be used for signaling low flying aircraft off in the distance.
7. Medical Treatment – A fire can be used to sterilize needles and other instruments that are used for wound treatment.
8. Lighting – Fire provides natural lighting at night.
Fire Making
….9a. Tinder - Is used for igniting your materials to make a fire. This should be material that will catch a spark very Easley even in wet conditions. I prefer to make my own tinder. I know some like to use lint from the dryer, this will only work if you run ONLY 100% Cotton Materials through the dryer. Other wise your tinder will melt. I use cotton balls with Vaseline. This makes great tinder; it catches a spark very fast and burns even in the rain.
….9b. Expedient Field Tinder – Rotten tree bark, moss, the inside of an old dead tree bark even when the outside is wet you can scrape some of the material off inside the bark and use it as tinder. You can use anything that will ignite quickly.
….9c. Kindling – Is used with the tinder to get a small fire started for your larger fuel to catch and burn. Most kindling for starting fires is small little branches, leaves and other small debris gathered up made in the shape of a bird’s nest or other configurations. The tinder is placed inside the middle of the nest or kindling, striking a spark ignites the tinder and then catches the kindling on fire, allowing a slightly larger fire to grow, thus giving a larger flame, which will help ignite your larger firewood.
….9d. Fuel – This consists of large pieces of dead dry wood, old branches, etc. The fuel for the fire should be arranged in a way to let the fire ‘Breathe” but not be blown out with the wind.
Note: Always use rocks or a pit when arranging your fire to keep it from spreading out of control.
….9e. Building a Fire - There are many types of fuel arrangements consisting from the pyramid type, which you slowly make smaller patterns as the wood is staked higher. You can make a fire that will burn all night without having to touch it, this is done by stacking the wood close together five rows or more high, then building your fire “On Top” of the stack, this allows the wood to burn underneath. Thus the coals will continue to drop down on the next layer keeping the fire burning for many hours through the night. There are many other ways of setting your fuel up, but these two are the ones I prefer myself.
….9f. Fire Starters – There are many fire starters on the market, everything from small flint, strikers such as in a butane lighter to the high tech Blast Match that I prefer. I will discus the most common and explain the pros and cons of each.
1. Std Matches –Very Poor, easily dampen and become useless.
2. Magnifying lens – can start a fire but only good on sunny days. Not an option in my book.
3. Survival Matches – Burn intense longer than standard matches, but only good for one fire. The amount of space it takes up in a survival kit to say 20 matches takes up, I could use a fire starter and some tinder and make 1,000’s of fires with the same amount of space. I prefer not to use these myself.
4. Butane Lighter – Not dependable, if wet wont make a flame. If you loose the striker flint, (I have had this happen a few times) makes the lighter useless.
5. Magnesium Fire Starter – This is basically your tinder and striker all in one. A block of Magnesium with a glued on striker along the side of the block. Magnesium burns at over 5,400 degrees. This is probably one of the most difficult to learn to use properly of all the fire starters. You need to use your pocket knife and scrape off tiny slivers of magnesium into a small little pile, then use a piece of metal (your knife) to strike a spark into the little pile to ignite it. Trying to accomplish this in ideal weather conditions takes allot of patients and skill. Not to mention trying to keep all the little slivers of magnesium together. I have gotten pretty good at using this type of fire starter over the years, but it takes a LOT of Practice. I don’t recommend this type of fire starter for most people.
6. Fire Steel – This is a rod with a plastic thumb grip with a small metal striker plate attached to a cord. When striking it, showers sparks that burn at 5,500 degrees. It takes two hands to use this device, but you can get up to 12,000 strikes with it. That is a lot of fires.
7. Blast Match – The blast match is basically the same as the Fire Steel, but because of the unique housing, it allows you to use just one hand when starting a fire. This can be a great help if you’re injured. All the other types of devices require you to use two hands. This is why, I prefer the blast match. I do also carry the Fire Steel in my small belt pouch since it takes up less space then the blast match.
<span style="font-weight: bold">10. Food</span>
This is an area to be quite honest I am lacking in, as to which is best or worst for you. I guess this is due to me being “More” self reliant in acquiring indigenous game and natural vegetation in my area. Again I carry a few items but I’m sure some with more knowledge about this can better post up on this topic.
….10a. Ready Made –
1. Survival tabs – This is an item I prefer to most others. Here are my thoughts on this as to the reasoning of why I carry this. First, one of the most time consuming tasks in a survival situation is water and food collection. First off, when an emergency has happened, you’re under an enormous amount of stress, by have something that will provide the necessary diet requirements is a HUGE help. This gives me a 15-day food supply, which takes up very little room in my pack. It “frees’ me up to engage in shelter building, water gathering and other tasks. It allows me acclimate to a stressful situation and gives me some time to relax and think about what I need to do and how I’m going to do it. This reduces the amount of mistakes I may make when in a stressful situation.
2. Bouillon Cubes – These take up very little space and by themselves allow you to make some soup, or added with some game, you can make a stew. I love them; they come in Beef or Chicken flavored.
3. Freeze Dried Foods – Mountain House – These are mostly used by back packer, etc. You just add water and have a complete meal.
4. Instant Tea – Coffee – Used for a pick me up when needed or just to add some flavoring to your water intake.
5. Energy Bars – These take up very little room and provide some much needed energy.
6. MRE’s, wow talk about binding you up, they will give you the right amount of calories that a human needs, but be careful about relying strictly on MRE’s to eat. You will need to take some type of laxative if eating MRE’s.
7. Spices – I carry salt, Tabasco and some other spices for seasoning wild game.
….10c. Indigenous Game – I prefer myself to hunt and trap my food requirements in a survival situation; this is because of the geographic region I live in. Small game is plentiful where I live and easy to obtain. There are many ways of gathering game, if you have a body of water, you can fish. You can make snares for small game or birds.
….10d. Plant Gathering – Again depending on your geographic region, there are normally indigenous plants and grasses that can be consumed. WARNING, if you don’t know what it is, DON’T EAT IT! You could get deathly sick and die, especially when it comes to mushrooms. There are a lot of species that look similar. There are good guides of vegetation that is found in your areas that can be used as a guide to familiarize yourself. One of the worst things that can happen to you in a survival situation is to eat something and get diarrhea. You would get dehydrated very quickly without medical attention and could die. Be very careful when picking plants or other vegetation; ONLY pick plants that you KNOW!
….10e. Food Preparation – I prefer to cook or boil any wild plants or animals that I gather, this is a precautionary step I like to take. This helps insure, I don’t get sick from ingesting any parasites in anything. Take the time to prepare your food, stay away from eating it raw, don’t take a chance of getting sick. Some insects will contain chemicals/proteins/body parts that can swell your throat and cause respiratory distress upon contact with mucous membranes. COOK them to break down that which can harm you.
<span style="font-weight: bold">11. Shelter</span>
There are times when we need to get out of the weather, whether it be from a monsoon type down pour, or a snow storm that is blowing in, it’s nice to be able to have a place to get out of the weather. I’m going to touch base on a few different types of shelters in three different types of conditions and regions.
….11a. Arctic – Building a shelter in the artic makes it very difficult working conditions. You need to make sure not to over heat yourself, sweating can be very dangerous. By making a snow cave to lay down in using any braches form pines or other types of trees that you can find to help keeping a barrier between you and the ice helps insulate your from the cold.
You may be able to find a large tree and by digging close to the tree trunk down till you hit solid earth, you can make a temporary shelter by using braches etc.
….11b. Desert – In the desert the heat can get well over 120 degrees, it’s best to limit your activity in the hottest part of the day time and do any labor closer to dusk and evenings. This will help you conserve your energy.
Look for rock outcropping’s that give some type of shade, if you have none of these available in your area. Digging down in the Earth and making an underground shelter is best if you can. This entails removing 3-4 feet of earth, making the sidewalls slope so that it doesn’t cave in on you, then using your poncho or plastic garbage bag covering the top of the shelter. The earth a few feet down is very cool; it will help make you more comfortable during the hottest part of the day.
….11c. Tropical – Again in the tropics we are normally trying to stay dry. This means you may need to fashion a bed up off the ground to keep standing water and other ground type insects away from you while you sleep. Using large tree roots as shelters leans two’s, etc. This is where your poncho may come in handy by helping keeping your dry.
<span style="font-weight: bold">12. Clothing</span>
You normal want clothing that fits loosely not binding, you want it to be very durable also. Again, depending on your geographic area you need to get what is going to best suet your needs. I prefer clothes with lots of pockets, military style.
….12a. I carry an extra pair of Socks in my gear. This allows me to be able to change out one pair and allow the other to be cleaned. Your feet can become infected very quickly if your having to do allot of walking.
….12c. Boots – I always carry a Good pair of hiking boots in my vehicle in the unlikely event of a survival situation arises. Try to pick a pair that is the most conducive to your environment that you live in, another words, I live in Arkansas, The Summer time it gets very hot, in the Winter, it’s snows, and gets cold, below freezing. I pick my boots for the “Worst” conditions I may encounter, which would be winter time. The ones I use are good for summer and winter conditions. They are Very Comfortable to wear for long periods of time.
Make sure you BREAK IN your boots before a survival situation; don’t just buy a pair then throw them in the vehicle in case you need them. Most boots during the break-in period will give you blisters; this is not what you want if you have to hike many miles in an emergency.
….12d. Jackets & Parkas – Depending on your specific region, make sure to keep a good quality parka or jacket in the vehicle. I keep even a lightweight foul weather jacket made by REI in my vehicle. In the winter time, this gets changed out to a heavy duty parka for sub freezing temperatures.
….12e. Headwear – You need to have some type of head gear no matter what region you live in. In the artic you would want a watchman’s cap or something very insulated to help keep and maintain any loss of body heat since most is lost through the human head. In the desert type regions a hat will provide shelter from the direct rays of the sun. In the tropics a hat will provide help keeping your clothes dry if wearing a poncho in a tropical downpour. It also allows better visibility when walking in the rain.
….12f. Gloves & Mittens – This is an item that is mostly overlooked, keeping some gloves or mittens in the winter time will keep your fingers from freezing. When the human body is cold, the blood tends to move to the torso to keep the vital organs going, this means your feet and fingers are the first to get frost bit in extreme cold conditions.
<span style="font-weight: bold">13. Medical</span>
This normally becomes a very heated topic when it comes to survival situations, some feel that that you should stay with the basic’s. What these people need to realize that some people are more capable then others and have more training also. Everyone’s Med Kit will be different, they will carry items that they know how to use and can take care of most minor wound treatment. This is fine, but some of us need more than minor wound treatment, this is where educating yourself by practicing certain types of procedures comes in place. Let’s face it, it would be great to have with us in a survival situation a trained MD, but this is not going to be the case.
I’ve decided to list certain items that ALL Med Kits should have in them. If you have more great if you don’t have some of the items that I have listed you should make a note to yourself to get it for your kit.
Basic Med Kit:
1. Band-Aids with Neosporin added – These are fairly new on the market, it already has an ointment added to the band-aid.
2. Ace Bandage – Used to reduce the amount of movement of an injured limb or apply pressure to an wound area.
8. Sterri Strips- This is used for small open wounds that need to be closed off from infection. These take the place of butterfly bandages.
9. Neosporin – Antibiotic for wounds.
10. Benadryl
11. Imodium – Reduces Diarrhea (Dehydration)
12. Betadine – Wound cleaning agent for topical infection
13. 4"x4" 12 ply Sterile Sponges
14. 3"x3" 12 ply Sterile Sponges
15. Large Wound Dressing
16. Surgical Tape
17. Heavy Absorbent Trauma Pads – For wounds that have heavy fluid loss.
18. Aspirin – Pain Medication
19. Assorted Antiseptic Cleansing Wipes
20. Finger splint
21. Ammonia Inhalant
22. Triple antibiotic
23. Ibuprofen
24. Burn Cream
25. Off - Deep Woods Towelettes
26. Cold Pack
27. Heat Pack
28. Sewing Needles
29. Sutures – Can also be used for fishing and clothing repair.
30. Tea Lite Candle – For making needles etc. sterile
31. Tin Foil – Used for water gathering.
32. Bandana – Used for filtering water source to remove particulates before boiling.
33. Small Clear Tubing – Used for gathering water from shallow sources.
34. Aquamira “Frontier” Emergency Water Filter System. This is a very compact drinking straw that will remove 99.9% of Giardia, Cryptosporidium & Bacteria from a water source. It will filter up to 20 gal. of water.
35. Small Syringe – (Lance) – Wound Irrigation
Dental – One of the worst things that can happen is maybe you lost a tooth in an accident, which lead up to this event. Having an exposed nerve can be enormously painful. There is a little item that can be bought over the counter at any Walgreen’s etc. I think it is now being sold as a Red Cross item. Look for a little brown bottle of Clove Oil, this is a natural topical pain reducer. Be careful when applying it, it burns exposed skin but does reduce the felt pain and makes the affected are numb. There is also ‘Dental Kits” that you can buy which will make a temporary cap if you loose one. Orajel works ok, but I have often used myself the clove oil over the years. It is getting harder and harder to find it.
….13j. Extreme Survival Medical Medicines – <span style="font-weight: bold">*WARNING* I thought I would “touch base” on a topic that those of us in the survival community have been using for years. This is for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY! (That is my disclaimer)</span>
Now, if heading off into an expedition in a 3rd world country and you don’t have a Doctor with you or know one that will prescribe some medicine’s that you may need in a remote part of the world. There is an alternative. Most people don’t realize that “Vets” carry and treat animals with the same types of medicines that humans use for the same symptoms. These medications ARE NOT FDA Approved for human consumption. You can go to your local “Farm & Feed” stores and find just about anything that you may need, even “Tractor Supply” carries these items too. Often the same medication, but without the enteric coating that prevents gastritis and upset stomach. Use with caution as those side affects can be worse than the process that you are treating. I have to warn you, the doses that are on the containers and packages are for Animals, NOT HUMANS. There are plenty of dose conversions charts out there on some of the survival web sites. I will not post it on this thread. DO NOT ASK ME. This is for Extreme Survival we are talking about here, please remember this, I’m not advocating Medical Advice. This is for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!
<span style="font-weight: bold">14. Hygiene</span>
Hygiene is very important even in a survival situation, if not more. You will be wearing the same clothes day after day. If you don’t have a ready water source where you can hand wash them in a stream, river or lake, you can always “Air Dry” your clothes. It’s not the greatest but it does help reduce the amount of infections that are caused by the constant rubbing against your body. This allows the fabric to dry out and shake out any debris that you may have accumulated inside the your clothes.
<span style="font-weight: bold">15. Basic Survival Tools</span>
I have been doing this for many years like I stated at the beginning of this post, I’m always switching items in my survival gear around, making things lighter or more complete. I decided to take my small little kit and make it a little bigger and more complete for it’s size, thus making it a good BASIC kit for anyone to carry.
As you have read through this thread, one thing becomes apparent; items can be used for multiple tasks in the field, thus reducing the amount of items to be carried. The following is a list of what I feel would make a good Basic kit for anyone.
I decided to put together a little bigger but small enough survival kit that can be carried everyday by you on your belt. Those of you that carry cell phones; this kit is about the same size maybe a little bigger. You can add too or take away from it, but I think it’s a pretty good example of a small belt worn emergency kit.
1. Field Compass
2. Clear Tubing – Water Gathering
3. Tree Saw – Shelter making
4. (5) Small Band-Aids
5. (2) Large Band-Aids
6. Sterri Strips Wound Closure
7. Heavy Duty Tin Foil – Boiling water, water gathering, signaling, food prep, etc.
8. 100’ of Strong Cordage for Shelter Building, field repairs, etc
9. Tinder – Cotton Balls soaked in Vaseline
10. Surefire Mini LED Flashlight
11. Fishing Kit
12. Mini S.S. Multi Tool
13. Saw Finger Rings
14. (1) Benadryl
15. (2) Imodium – Diarrhea
16. Anti Septic Wipes
17. Diamond Sharpener
18. Pocket Knife - I carry this every day, it makes a good addition to the survival kit.
19. Frontier Drinking Straw – Water Purifier, will purify up to 20 gal.
20. Fire Steel Striker
21. (2) Neosporin
22. Clear Poncho
23. Survival Kit Pouch - I found this one at Bass Pro, it was made for a GPS, it fits just right and is pretty water proof.
….15a. Survival Knife - – I don’t want this thread to get into a knife debate; I want to keep this on a basic level of what you will need and the differences of the types of knives that are out there. First off, there are a lot of “so called” Survival Knives on the market. You have the Rambo types that have a hollow handle that is used for storage of matches, fishing kit, etc. These are garbage, stay away from them. A real survival knife has a “Full Tang” this means the blade is one solid piece that goes all the way to the end of the handle.
A survival knife needs to be able to take a lot of abuse, such as chopping, prying, and lots of cutting. Hollow handles are very dangerous. They will not hold up to the type of abuse that a real survival situation would call for. They look cool, but are not made to take the abuse.
There are many good survival knives on the market, some are cheaper than others, but most will hold up to any abuse that you put it through, such as a military K-bar series of knives. These are good quality strong knives that can be picked up just about anywhere. I use an old Gerber Survival knife that was made years ago and is considered to be one of the best knives that they ever made. You can still find them occasionally on e-bay, but they fetch a hefty price. It’s not about cost it’s about quality; you want a tool that you can depend on in a life-threatening situation. The RAT Knife is also another great survival knife. I think Smokey Mountain Knife Works is now selling them along with the K-bars.
I want to give just a little background history of serrated edges on knives. I know this question will come up. Most people don’t even realize that the serrations on all most 95% of the knives on the market including pocketknives are on the wrong side of the blade. The largest part of the human population is “right” handed. The serrations are made for left handed people, know your asking yourself, why would they do this?
The answer is not what you would expect, they put the serrations on the wrong side so when they advertise the knife taking pictures, they don’t have an ugly clip, on them and they can all be turned and photographed laying the same way.
There are only a few companies that actually make their knives for real use and not to look pretty in picture. Most of these are custom hand made knives such as Mission Knives, which make knives for the US Navy SEAL’s. Anyways, whichever knife you choose, be sure it will take the kind of abuse that is needed in a survival situation.
15b. Weapons - Again, I don’t want this thread to turn into another gun debate. A weapon is nice in a real survival situation but is not a Major part of the gear. It too is just a tool; some may not feel comfortable totting a weapon in their vehicle, that’s fine, for those that do. I tend to stay away from the hand gun for survival and prefer to use a rifle instead. By using a rifle gives me more range and accuracy with my shot placement. This means I conserve ammunition also.
A great little survival weapon is a Rugar 10/22, they are fairly cheep and are very well made. They are very accurate also. They don’t take up much room nor does the ammunition. I do carry a large sidearm in my vehicle as most of you that know me know. The 10/22 is a great little weapon for gathering small game on the trail. I have added a S.S. Folding stock to mine to make it more compact for storage. I also stay away from blued weapons for survival and only use Stainless Steel. This helps to keep the weapon from corrosion especially if you live close to the ocean. I have also included a armored 3x9x40 scope with dual scope mounts to maintain accuracy from rough handling and abuse. Another good little Survival 22 is the AR7, the barrel fits inside the stock.
22LR ammo - I have used every mfg ammo on the market for a 22LR. The absolute best I found is Wolf ammo, it’s NOT the standard Russian Wolf ammo, their 22LR is made in Germany. It is hands down the most accurate 22LR ammo I have ever shot. Very clean burning too. Most competition shooters use the Wolf 22LR, the next in line I would have to say is CCI Stingers.
The worst I have used is Remington, their “Gold” 22LR ammo, is crap IMHO. It’s very dirty to shoot. It also has the crappiest tolerances I have ever seen in ammo, the lead just about falls out in some of the bullets, not to say it also has the worst shot patterns, it’s all over the place.
<span style="font-weight: bold">16. Gadgets</span>
….16a. Survival Knives (So Called) – The Rambo type knives that have a hollow handle that is used for storage of matches, fishing kit, etc. These are garbage, stay away from them, they will not take prying, chopping and heavy cutting that a REAL survival knife needs to do.
….16b. Survival Kits – Sorry, but I have seen may so called survival “Kits” for sale, it seams everybody is trying to make a buck. A large majority IMHO are garbage, they are cheep little packets put together to sell. I myself look at survival as my Life Insurance policy, I’m not going to use cheep junk in an emergency to bet my life on. I prefer to make my own kits from the highest quality materials I can get. It also needs to be more “Customized” to your geographic region.
<span style="font-weight: bold">17. Back Packs</span>
….17a. Military Alice Packs – You can find these just about everywhere; they are VERY durable, but VERY uncomfortable to wear. Ask anyone that has been in the Military, I had to hump one myself for a few years. For a few more dollars of what one of these costs, you buy a better more comfortable backpack. And that is just about as durable.
….17b. Large Backpacks – I try to stay away from the large back packs myself, I do own a VERY good one made for extreme Expeditions that I bought many years ago. It’s probably one of the largest on the market. The problem is, it you have the space you WILL FILL IT. Then your lugging around a 100lbs of gear in the vehicle. If you do decide to go this route, look for an internal frame with metal back support that is shaped to “Your” spine, this allow the weight to be distributed to your hips and waist not your shoulders. These are VERY COMFORTABLE to hike in for long distances. The price of good backpacks have came down over the years since I bought mine. I think I paid around $875.00 for mine about 10 years ago, they are allot cheaper now. They don’t even make the one I have any more, it was made by “DANA by Design” out of Montana, it has a lifetime warranty. I also have a DANA 4 season Expedition tent too. Sorry, I’m getting off topic on my own thread….Ok
….17c.. Day Packs – I personally use a daypack for all my survival gear, it’s easy and comfortable to wear and doesn’t take up much room in the vehicle. If you look around most of the day packs now a days come with a Hydration bladder built in. I got a good deal on mine at Bass Pro a few years back, it was a promotional deal that Gerber had going on at the time, it was a day pack with Hydration system, an Gerber camp Axe, Camp Saw with Bone Blade and a Gerber Folding Knife. I think I got the whole thing for like $40.00 bucks at the time, I couldn’t pass it up. It worked perfect for my survival vehicle pack.
<span style="font-weight: bold">18. Survival Packs</span>
Building your own Survival pack can be fun, take your time and think about what NEED’s to go in it, not redundant items. As you have learned from the above information, most items in a survival pack have multiple uses. I do sometimes pack two of the same item, like two ponchos; one to wear and another to use as a shelter. I will also have a backup compass too in case one gets damaged or lost.
<span style="font-weight: bold">19. Survival Links</span>
….a. RANDALL'S ADVENTURE & TRAINING Randle’s Web Site, He also has some Great Survival Knives on the market.
….b. HOODS WOODS Ron Hood’s Web Site
….c. The Survival Center Books Survival store and Books.
….d. A. Canton & Co Military & Humanitarian Goods and Services
....e. Major Surplus
....f. Nitro-Pak.com The World Leader in Innovative & Affordable Preparedness Gear
....g. Alpha Disaster Contingencies
....h. Survival Equipment, Survival Kits, Survival Gear - Best Glide Aviation Survival Equipment
....i. Outdoor Survival Gear, Backpacking, Wilderness Survival, Mountaineering, Travel Security, Climbing, World Travel, Outfitter | The North Face Jackets, Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, Marmot, Arc'teryx, Black Diamond, MSR - BASEGEAR.com Outdoors
....j. Smoky Mountain Knife Works - home of the World's largest knife showplace
....k. BladeForums.com
....l. Welcome to the PLANTS Database | USDA PLANTS
<span style="font-weight: bold">20. Survival Reference (Books) </span>
….a. Where There Is No Doctor – Great Book for those venturing out of the county in remote areas around the World.
….b. SAS Survival Handbook
....c. The US ARMY Survival Manual 1992 Edition - This is a great resource of information. In a survival situation it's sometimes hard to think clearly due to stress. Having a good resource helps eliminate some of the stress of having to try to remember everything about survival, shelters, first aid, wild plants, game catching, etc. This book has everything you need to know about survival and then some. There are colored pictures of edible and non-edible plants, along with different shelter making in the desert, woods, or snow. It’s a great resource to have on hand.
....d. Nature Bound Pocket Field Guide - by Ron Dawson
I know others can post up other recommendations of good reading too. Just wanted to give back to the HIDE in my own way. Thanks again for all the great members here and the wealth of Knowledge.
Mike
I had started a thread on some basics of what I carry on a Off-Roading Forum; I thought I would re-post it here on the HIDE for members that have little to no knowledge on the subject. I know most of you Operators have been through some type of Survival training and still may find a couple of items I metion of use to you in the following.
Now, what do I mean SURVIVAL? There’s allot of different scenarios. It could be you just broke down away from any city. It could be you were in an accident while off-road, the vehicle no longer is drivable, etc. It could be you may be in a 3rd world country and a civil war or unrest breaks out. It could be even in this country, which I myself think it could happen, the way things are going, but that is for an Off Topic discussion.
My idea of Survival is planning for the LONG HAUL, I’m not talking about your on a dirt or gravel road 25 miles from the nearest town. You can get by with a few items to make you comfortable for a 24-36 hour wait until someone gets to you. Like in a snowstorm, etc. I’m talking about having to survive for an indefinite amount of time, we don’t know how long before we get help or help finds us.
There are two different mindsets when it comes to survival. The old saying is stay right where you are. This is what you should do in most cases, like the above scenarios I mentioned about being stuck for 24-36 yours before someone finds you. In this type of situation, absolutely stay put; use the vehicle as shelter, etc. You can carry enough food and medical supplies in your vehicle to take care of this type of survival situation. Before going anywhere, it is very important to let someone know where you are going and when you plan on arriving at your destination. This helps when you don’t arrive they can start thinking about a breakdown etc.
This thread is for surviving the long term having to abandoned your vehicle either due to it was disabled and your in a hostile environment in an unstable country or the vehicle is no longer operable or repairable and your over 100’s miles from any other human with a very low chance of someone stumbling upon you.
I’m going to go into some detail on the following topics related to SURVIVAL. This is not an in-depth “How to” on every aspect; it would take me hundreds of pages to write something like that up. This is made as a guide to help you “Start Thinking” about ways to protect yourself and survive in an emergency like I outline above. I have supplied links to web sites and publications for those of you that want to know more about the subject at the end of this post.
<span style="font-weight: bold">1. Survival Mindset
2. Survival Skills
3. Geographic Regions
4. Observation Skills
5. Safety
6. Communication
7. Navigation
8. Water
9. Fire
10. Food
11. Shelter
12. Clothing
13. Medical
14. Hygiene
15. Basic Survival Tools
16. Gadgets
17. Back Packs
18. Survival Packs
19. Survival Links
20. Survival Resources (Publications) </span>
Before we get started, I would like to give some background on myself as to where this information comes from. I didn’t go through some weekend course on survival, and get some merit badge. I’ve been “Practicing” survival skills for over 25 years and have lived without electricity or running water for two years straight. I did this because I wanted to live this way, not because I had no choice. There is some really good survival information on the net and in books; at the end of this thread I’ve posted some survival links along with publications that I have used over the years that supply some good information and tools.
You don’t have to go through a survival school to be good at survival skills. You can read and study about all of these skills and then practice them yourself. I do suggest taking a basic First Aid class in your town and learn CPR and basic first aid. This will help give you the confidence of working in an emergency situation when one arises, as opposed to not knowing what to do.
Like I stated in the first thread, I think every human being should be able to build a fire to keep themselves warm, gather food to eat, make a shelter to keep the weather out, find and gather water to keep from dehydrating and dying. Sadly; most people don’t know how to do most these, it’s ashame. We have become very lazy in a world where we only have to flip a switch and we have light, or turn a handle and we have hot water. We have become overly complacent in our modern world on others and devices to make our lives better. Most people from rural farming areas would fair better in a survival situation than someone from a large metropolitan a city. We have lost some the basics of what humans need to survive.
<span style="font-weight: bold">1.Survival Mindset</span>
….1a. Human Psychology - It’s very important to have the correct mind set. First off, let’s face it, if your having to practice the following, you have had a very traumatic or life threatening experience. It’s VERY IMPORTANT to remain calm. Relax, make yourself relax, take some deep breaths if you need to. The very BEST Survival tool is your BRAIN. You need to take action, like triage. Is the vehicle burning, get equipment away and personal, medical problems, blood loss, etc. You must assess the damage and the total situation of what you are dealing with. Get a plan of attack together for your survival situation, if you have to abandon the vehicle, what’s in the vehicle and part of the vehicle that you can salvage for use in your survival situation.
Its very easy to fall prey and “procrastinate” and do nothing. Or some go into shock and a stay focused on what you should have done leading up to the event, in essence doing nothing but sitting there wishing you did this or that. Forget about why it happened and stay focused on what you need to do NOW!. Shelter, Food, Water, etc. Be determined to SURVIVE at ALL COST. You have to be strong and focus on what your good at, NOT the bad. Don’t use words like can’t, tell yourself you CAN do it. Talk your self through your tasks, etc. Remain calm, SURVIVAL IS A MINDSET PERIOD!
<span style="font-weight: bold">2. Suvival Skills</span>
….2a. It’s very important to actually practice survival skills BEFORE you have a survival situation. When you’re under stress is not the time to try to learn how to use a specific item. You need to get proficient at your skill craft. There are survival courses that you can go through. Some are better than others. Do some research before you jump right in. again at the end of this post I will have some links of places that I recommend for teaching survival skills. You can down load lots of great information and teach your self. You will find that there are some items that are sold as Survival tools, which are garbage, they may look cool, but they don’t work in the real world. By practicing using your tools, and skills it will be come second nature when you need to call upon them.
<span style="font-weight: bold">3.Geographic Regions</span>
There is no ONE way or ONE Kit for survival. It all depended on the geographic region that you are in will dictate what to carry and how you prepare your survival kit. You need to learn and study about that type of survival in your area, since this is the most likely type of area it will be needed in. There is no sense studying Arctic Survival methods if you never are in Arctic regions of the World.
….3a. Arctic
Arctic Survival is very dangerous due to the sub zero temperatures. This type of survival requires the most gear, thought out preparation and specialized survival skills for surviving in this type of hostile environment. Death can occur within minutes if not properly trained and or having the correct types of equipment for this area. If you live in this type of region you should spend some time and research what it would take to survive in an emergency situation.
….1. Special Tools - Depending on what the geographic region of where this might be; also has indigenous wildlife concerns that have to be taken in account also. If per say we are talking Alaska, you would want to carry a large caliber handgun at a minimum for protection of Grizzly Bears, etc. This would be part of my “Basic” survival gear if in this type of area. Living in more temperate climates does not make carrying a large caliber weapon necessary, except for the two-legged kind. But that’s for an off-topic debate
Staying warm is the number one priority in this type of environment, Fire, clothing, shelter, then food is last. Maintaining body heat is very important, but over excursion can also be fatal due to sweating. You need to be very careful not to sweat when working in extreme freezing temperatures. Make sure to keep all flesh covered from exposure. Make sure to keep your self-hydrated also in this type of environment.
Do not eat snow for your water intake requirements, the amount of energy the body has to produce to melt it is a lot. It’s best to melt any Ice or snow by boiling it, this will help you maintain any heat loss.
….3b. Desert
The Desert has it’s own set of survival requirements, water being the number one killer in this type of environment. It best again to study what it takes to survive in this type of region. Learn how to make an underground shelter to keep the heat off you, look for low lying areas where water may congregate. Food is also going to be very scarce in the this type of region. I know from experience that Rattle Snakes are a very good food source, but you must you extreme caution when trying to approaches one for a food source, getting bit would only compound your situation in to an even worse one.
….3c. Tropical
The tropical environments have their own set of circumstance that you have to deal with. This may be very hot and humid or monsoon type rains at certain times of the year. You need to watch our for biting insects and other types of indigenous specious such as mosquitoes that carry malaria. Tropic type environments are usually very damp areas, this means trying to stay dry is normally your number one task. Soaking feet can lead to not only blisters but trench rot, etc. Wounds that become infected in this type of region can become gangrene infected in know time without proper care and treatment. Plants, water sources and small game are usually plentiful in this type of region which makes gathering food fairly easy compared to other regions I have mentioned above.
<span style="font-weight: bold">4. Observation Skills</span>
I believe Observation skills are very important when it comes to a survival situation. The need to be able to assess your situation and surroundings to make intelligent informed decisions is very important. Assess the region that you are in, is it a ravine, if so you may have bad weather coming in and need to move to higher ground for flash flooding, etc. Is there a hilltop close buy, that you may be able to great distances, and maybe a near by town, etc. Pay attention to the ground; are you close to a water source like a stream, creek or river? If so, you may be close to a game trail, you don’t want to setup camp along a game trail especially if your area is known for bear activity.
<span style="font-weight: bold">5. Safety</span>
Let’s face it, your in a bad situation already, lets not make it worse by doing stupid things. What do I mean by this. It could be you don’t have much experience using an axe or a knife. If this is the case, this is not the time to “Learn How”. You more than likely we end up cutting or worse to yourself. If your trying to make fire wood, look for old dry branches that are already small enough for a fire as opposed to having to cut them.
Stay away from climbing up rock faces and ledges, if your not used to doing this, you take a very strong chance of falling and injuring yourself worse or even killing your self. If you need to get up to higher ground, walk along the bottom edge for a more gradual slope that is much easer to traverse. Just like in Off-Roading, Never “PUSH” a “Bad Line”.
Don’t drink directly form a water source no matter how clean it looks, it more than likely is contaminated. Boil your water no matter how thirsty you are.
<span style="font-weight: bold">6. Communication</span>
I want to cover Survival Communications. I’m going to list the best to worst in sequence with a brief explanation of the pros and cons of each.
…6a. SAT Phone – The best choice due to being able to actually talk with someone and give medical information, etc. As long as you have a clear view of the sky, this will work anywhere in the world. The down side is it’s an expensive piece of equipment and the service is also a little steep too. But, it is the BEST insurance on a remote Expedition.
….6b. GPS Signal Devices – GPS Signal devices are the next inline depending on the type and model. The Technology is coming along, I would say in the next five years you will see some amazing equipment come our way. Down fall is coverage, not supported around the globe yet.
….6c. Ham Radios – The HAM radio is a good choice if you stay in the US, Canada, Europe, Mexico. Other than that it, it’s pretty useless. It’s again best to be able to talk with someone about the details of your situation as opposed to just a signal.
….6d. Signal Mirror – A signal mirror can be seen for over 25 miles or more. Highflying Aircraft can spot this type of device. They are very cheep, they take very little room, fit in your pocket. The down side is, you have to be able to “See” an Aircraft or some type of human movement for this type of device to be effective.
….6e. Signal Flare – The Signal flare doesn’t have the range of the Signal Mirror, but does have the same characteristics. Also when someone sees a flare they know it’s a call for help.
….6f. Signal Fire – This is the next best option for signaling. You have your fuel and wood ready to be lit at a moments notice. When you hear an approaching aircraft, etc. Then light the fire, through some “Green” branches on the flames, which will produce very dense smoke. The down sides are high winds will keep the smoke patterns close to the ground not reaching high enough in the atmosphere.
….6g. Cell Phones – Cell phones are only good when traveling fairly close to civilized populated areas, other than that, they are pretty useless.
….6h. CB’s – CB’s are about the same as cell phones but with a lot less range.
….6i. FRS Radios – FRS handheld radios are pretty useless in a survival situation. You could use the battery to start a fire, but other than that for comm.’s it’s not an option IMHO.
….6j. Whistle – A whistle is only good if your able to “See” or “hear” human movement, it takes the place of yelling for help.
….6k. Windup SSB Short Wave Radio – These come in all sizes, they allow you to monitor communications that may pertain to your situation, you may hear they are searching x & y areas for you, but your in z area, this would allow you maybe move to those areas, etc or give you piece of mind that someone is looking for you.
<span style="font-weight: bold">7. Navigation</span>
….7a. When it comes to navigation, I prefer to take the conservative approach. What I mean by this is, I don’t rely “Totally” on an electronic device, I don’t care how accurate it is. Things break, get damaged, batteries die, etc. I’m of the mind set, that anyone that decides to venture off into the woods or the outdoors, should have at the minimum a GOOD WORKING Knowledge of how to read a topographic map and know how to use a hand held compass using dead reckoning skills etc.
….7b. Compass Use – It’s import to learn the basics of using a compass. The compass is a very easy device to learn how to use. There are many different companies that manufacture them. I kind of lean towards the Swiss mad, the Burtons, Silva, etc. These are great well made compasses. The tiny button compasses are pretty cheep that are on the market, but if you look around you can find a good one made by some of the above mfg’s I mentioned. I carry a full size Military Compass with Tritium for traveling at night If I have to. This way there is no use of a flashlight destroying my night vision.
….7c. Field Expedient Navigation – What do I mean by Field Expedient Navigation? It means if your ever stuck without a compass, you learn to read the terrain your in to be able to navigate in the proper direction you want to go. If the sun is out, it’s no problem on figuring which way to go. But if it’s a cloudy day and you need to travel west, how would you know which way to travel? By looking at trees or rocks you can see either mosses or fungus grow usually on just one side more than another. This is due to that particular side does not receive enough sunlight, so growth will appear on that side due to a constant amount of moisture being present. The side of growth is on the Northern side of rocks or trees. The western, eastern and southern exposure to sunlight normally keeps this type of growth off.
So just stand behind the rock or tree that has the growth in front of it facing away from you. This will align you to North. To your right will be east, to your left will be west and behind you is south. Then figure out which way you need to travel, pick something far off in the distance in the direction you want to travel and walk that course, then you may need to realign yourself from time to time.
Use your watch. Point the hour hand at the sun. South will be halfway between the hour hand and 12:00 in the NORTHERN hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, point 12:00 at the sun. North will be halfway between the hour hand and 12.
….7d. Topographic Map Reading – What’s the difference between a standard map and a Topographic map? The standard map shows a one-dimensional plane with only basic features of the earth such as lakes, forest, highways, cities, railroad tracks and rivers and streams. A topographic map shows a 3 dimensional plane. It shows the earth’s contours which will be marked with curving lines then showing a number in a break in the lines, these will be graduated in height intervals. This will help you better understand the terrain and “Read” the terrain better with practice.
By seeing the actual hills, and valleys on the map, will help you orientate yourself of your exact position. Thus being able to pick the best possible route you want to take. This is why the best maps are topographical maps, they are usually a little more expensive. Depending on what State you live in, you can go to any Wal-Mart or Hunting store and find a “Book” that is made by DeLorme which has a complete Topographic maps of your State. You can also go online and order other States also. They also have GPS cords on them now too.
….7e. GPS Overview – A GPS is a great positioning device, it takes the place of a compass. When Clinton was in office he removed the safety devices from the GPS signals that civilian’s used. The Military’s GPS are very accurate, up until that time only the Military had accurate GPS signals, we the public had a filtered positioning of up to 300 yards. Now it’s like 3 meters. This is leaps and bounds greater accuracy then we use to have. It now shows your position on the Earth with more detailed accuracy.
The GPS works by a signal that is transmitted back and forth to a min of (3) satellites in orbit; this allows them to triangulate your position on the face of the Earth. The technology is growing by leaps and bounds everyday. There are device that are coming to market all the time, some are better than others. You need to research on them and don’t just rush out to buy the latest gadget so to speak, make sure it’s is going to be able to do exactly what you want to accomplish.
<span style="font-weight: bold">8. Water</span>
All humans need water, our bodies are made up of primarily water. You will die without water in three days. The rule of thumb is Drink 50-75% of your body weight in ounces.
Sedentary people: 50%
Active people: 75%
Here’s an example: Let’s use a nominal figure of body weight of 200 lbs. I know this is a high number due to most weigh less than this, some are smaller in stature and some may be larger. By using the higher water intake requirement will help keep a safety margin in our survival water intake requirements.
Pounds of body weight: 200
Water requirement from above (75% of bodyweight) = 150 oz.
Add for dryness of climate + 16 oz
Add for strenuous exercise + 16 oz
Total per day: 182 oz
….8a. How to Locate – Water can be found natural in the lowest points on the Earth, especially where there is a more clay based soils. It tends to pool in these areas. Always look at the terrain for which has the greenest color; this will be your best area of finding a source for water in these areas.
There are many types of plants that “collect” rain water, there are vines that grow naturally in nature that have an abundance of water inside them, most found in more temperate climates. These are referred to as water vines; we have them here were I live. Using a machete, you can cut the vine close to the ground away from the tree where it is growing, then lift it up and clean pure water will flow into your mouth.
….8b. How to Gather – There are ways to gather water also, you can make a solar still. This is done buy using a clear piece of plastic. Dig a hole; place a container in the middle of the hole to collect the water. Then find a bunch of “Green” leafy branches, placing them in the hole around your container. Then using your poncho or other clear plastic, place over top of the hole, securing it with rocks around all the edges. Then place one small rock in the middle of your poncho on top. This will allow the poncho to sag in the middle over your container. You want to make it some what air tight, then allow nature to take it’s course, it will evaporate the moisture from the plants making condensation on the poncho, gathering there slowly dripping into your container. Be warned, it makes very little to drink, but does help. Saran wrap is a great asset for the solar still also
Another way to gather water is walking around in the morning dew with your socks, collecting the moisture then wringing your socks out into a container, you can actually gather quite a bit. I just hope your socks don’t smell like mine. These are just a few ways of gathering water, there are many more, but I just wanted to give you some basic ideas.
Tin Foil - Using a ready made tin foil cup also is a good way of collecting water from a source then making a small fire and boiling it to make it safe to drink. I prefer to use tin foil myself; it has multiple purposes
Prophylactic - There are some to say that you can use a prophylactic for water collection, it takes up very little room in your kit, but “REAL” experience has taught me, that they are NOT dependable and are very hard to carry around when full, they are very easy to get damaged because of the thin skin it is made up of. I myself don’t like them or use them.
….8.c. How to Prepare – Depending on the source of the water you gathered, you more than likely would want to ensure it’s safe to drink without any parasites. The best way to prepare it, is by boiling it, this will kill any bacteria it may have in it. I have seen many fast flowing streams in Montana, CO, Tenn, etc that “look” like they are perfect for drinking the water straight from them, DON”T. Take Montana for example, most all streams are polluted from the mining days, they used Arsenic in the retrieval of gold. The rivers and creeks are filled with it. Be very careful. Plus the fact you have wildlife feces that end up in these streams and creeks also. I live in a very unique place, I’m sounded by Natural Artesian springs, they flow right out of the ground, this is very safe to drink from, because it’s coming from the “Source”. Some of the springs flow 1,000’s of gals a minute in my area.
….8d. How to Recognize Good or Bad sources of Water – The rule of thumb is stay away from sitting pools of water, they become stagnate and are filled with all kinds of parasites. It’s normally best to find a moving water source as opposed to a standing one.
….8a. All of these following items can be used for the same purposes. Some prefer one to the other, but they all are used for the same purposes. I do prefer a Poncho to the trash bag myself, because of one reason, here is why. You can make a so called poncho with the trash bag, buy cutting a hole if the middle, the only problem, it if it’s raining real hard, the water will run down your exposed head and still get you soaking wet. With a poncho, it already has a head covering eliminating water soaking you.
In a survival situation, you want to try to remain dry; this will help keeping your feet free of blister and fungus due to constant rubbing and wetness. Anyone that has ever served in the Military knows what it’s like having to hike 25 miles in soaking feet in your boots; it will turn your feet in to raw hamburger. The idea is not to compound and already dangerous situation by making new medical problems.
Poncho – Can be used as a shelter, a Solar Still, to carry water, or to keep you dry as a poncho.
Heavy Duty Garbage Bag – Can be used as a shelter, a Solar Still, to carry water, or to keep you “semi” dry as a poncho.
Painters Drop Cloth (Plastic) – Same use as a garbage bag.
<span style="font-weight: bold">9. Fire </span>
The uses of a fire can be numerous as in the following.
1. Psychological value – A fire is very soothing and relaxing.
2. Food Prep – It helps when in the preparation of foods, making the food taste better and removing any types of bacteria that it may contain.
3. Warmth – A fire provides warmth when temperatures begin to fall during the evening hours.
4. Hygiene – A fire will also help with hygiene. By boiling water in the winter time allowing you to take a cloth or other piece of material to clean your body.
5. Safety – A fire will help keep wild animals away from your campsite at night.
6. Signaling – A fire can be used for signaling low flying aircraft off in the distance.
7. Medical Treatment – A fire can be used to sterilize needles and other instruments that are used for wound treatment.
8. Lighting – Fire provides natural lighting at night.
Fire Making
….9a. Tinder - Is used for igniting your materials to make a fire. This should be material that will catch a spark very Easley even in wet conditions. I prefer to make my own tinder. I know some like to use lint from the dryer, this will only work if you run ONLY 100% Cotton Materials through the dryer. Other wise your tinder will melt. I use cotton balls with Vaseline. This makes great tinder; it catches a spark very fast and burns even in the rain.
….9b. Expedient Field Tinder – Rotten tree bark, moss, the inside of an old dead tree bark even when the outside is wet you can scrape some of the material off inside the bark and use it as tinder. You can use anything that will ignite quickly.
….9c. Kindling – Is used with the tinder to get a small fire started for your larger fuel to catch and burn. Most kindling for starting fires is small little branches, leaves and other small debris gathered up made in the shape of a bird’s nest or other configurations. The tinder is placed inside the middle of the nest or kindling, striking a spark ignites the tinder and then catches the kindling on fire, allowing a slightly larger fire to grow, thus giving a larger flame, which will help ignite your larger firewood.
….9d. Fuel – This consists of large pieces of dead dry wood, old branches, etc. The fuel for the fire should be arranged in a way to let the fire ‘Breathe” but not be blown out with the wind.
Note: Always use rocks or a pit when arranging your fire to keep it from spreading out of control.
….9e. Building a Fire - There are many types of fuel arrangements consisting from the pyramid type, which you slowly make smaller patterns as the wood is staked higher. You can make a fire that will burn all night without having to touch it, this is done by stacking the wood close together five rows or more high, then building your fire “On Top” of the stack, this allows the wood to burn underneath. Thus the coals will continue to drop down on the next layer keeping the fire burning for many hours through the night. There are many other ways of setting your fuel up, but these two are the ones I prefer myself.
….9f. Fire Starters – There are many fire starters on the market, everything from small flint, strikers such as in a butane lighter to the high tech Blast Match that I prefer. I will discus the most common and explain the pros and cons of each.
1. Std Matches –Very Poor, easily dampen and become useless.
2. Magnifying lens – can start a fire but only good on sunny days. Not an option in my book.
3. Survival Matches – Burn intense longer than standard matches, but only good for one fire. The amount of space it takes up in a survival kit to say 20 matches takes up, I could use a fire starter and some tinder and make 1,000’s of fires with the same amount of space. I prefer not to use these myself.
4. Butane Lighter – Not dependable, if wet wont make a flame. If you loose the striker flint, (I have had this happen a few times) makes the lighter useless.
5. Magnesium Fire Starter – This is basically your tinder and striker all in one. A block of Magnesium with a glued on striker along the side of the block. Magnesium burns at over 5,400 degrees. This is probably one of the most difficult to learn to use properly of all the fire starters. You need to use your pocket knife and scrape off tiny slivers of magnesium into a small little pile, then use a piece of metal (your knife) to strike a spark into the little pile to ignite it. Trying to accomplish this in ideal weather conditions takes allot of patients and skill. Not to mention trying to keep all the little slivers of magnesium together. I have gotten pretty good at using this type of fire starter over the years, but it takes a LOT of Practice. I don’t recommend this type of fire starter for most people.
6. Fire Steel – This is a rod with a plastic thumb grip with a small metal striker plate attached to a cord. When striking it, showers sparks that burn at 5,500 degrees. It takes two hands to use this device, but you can get up to 12,000 strikes with it. That is a lot of fires.
7. Blast Match – The blast match is basically the same as the Fire Steel, but because of the unique housing, it allows you to use just one hand when starting a fire. This can be a great help if you’re injured. All the other types of devices require you to use two hands. This is why, I prefer the blast match. I do also carry the Fire Steel in my small belt pouch since it takes up less space then the blast match.
<span style="font-weight: bold">10. Food</span>
This is an area to be quite honest I am lacking in, as to which is best or worst for you. I guess this is due to me being “More” self reliant in acquiring indigenous game and natural vegetation in my area. Again I carry a few items but I’m sure some with more knowledge about this can better post up on this topic.
….10a. Ready Made –
1. Survival tabs – This is an item I prefer to most others. Here are my thoughts on this as to the reasoning of why I carry this. First, one of the most time consuming tasks in a survival situation is water and food collection. First off, when an emergency has happened, you’re under an enormous amount of stress, by have something that will provide the necessary diet requirements is a HUGE help. This gives me a 15-day food supply, which takes up very little room in my pack. It “frees’ me up to engage in shelter building, water gathering and other tasks. It allows me acclimate to a stressful situation and gives me some time to relax and think about what I need to do and how I’m going to do it. This reduces the amount of mistakes I may make when in a stressful situation.
2. Bouillon Cubes – These take up very little space and by themselves allow you to make some soup, or added with some game, you can make a stew. I love them; they come in Beef or Chicken flavored.
3. Freeze Dried Foods – Mountain House – These are mostly used by back packer, etc. You just add water and have a complete meal.
4. Instant Tea – Coffee – Used for a pick me up when needed or just to add some flavoring to your water intake.
5. Energy Bars – These take up very little room and provide some much needed energy.
6. MRE’s, wow talk about binding you up, they will give you the right amount of calories that a human needs, but be careful about relying strictly on MRE’s to eat. You will need to take some type of laxative if eating MRE’s.
7. Spices – I carry salt, Tabasco and some other spices for seasoning wild game.
….10c. Indigenous Game – I prefer myself to hunt and trap my food requirements in a survival situation; this is because of the geographic region I live in. Small game is plentiful where I live and easy to obtain. There are many ways of gathering game, if you have a body of water, you can fish. You can make snares for small game or birds.
….10d. Plant Gathering – Again depending on your geographic region, there are normally indigenous plants and grasses that can be consumed. WARNING, if you don’t know what it is, DON’T EAT IT! You could get deathly sick and die, especially when it comes to mushrooms. There are a lot of species that look similar. There are good guides of vegetation that is found in your areas that can be used as a guide to familiarize yourself. One of the worst things that can happen to you in a survival situation is to eat something and get diarrhea. You would get dehydrated very quickly without medical attention and could die. Be very careful when picking plants or other vegetation; ONLY pick plants that you KNOW!
….10e. Food Preparation – I prefer to cook or boil any wild plants or animals that I gather, this is a precautionary step I like to take. This helps insure, I don’t get sick from ingesting any parasites in anything. Take the time to prepare your food, stay away from eating it raw, don’t take a chance of getting sick. Some insects will contain chemicals/proteins/body parts that can swell your throat and cause respiratory distress upon contact with mucous membranes. COOK them to break down that which can harm you.
<span style="font-weight: bold">11. Shelter</span>
There are times when we need to get out of the weather, whether it be from a monsoon type down pour, or a snow storm that is blowing in, it’s nice to be able to have a place to get out of the weather. I’m going to touch base on a few different types of shelters in three different types of conditions and regions.
….11a. Arctic – Building a shelter in the artic makes it very difficult working conditions. You need to make sure not to over heat yourself, sweating can be very dangerous. By making a snow cave to lay down in using any braches form pines or other types of trees that you can find to help keeping a barrier between you and the ice helps insulate your from the cold.
You may be able to find a large tree and by digging close to the tree trunk down till you hit solid earth, you can make a temporary shelter by using braches etc.
….11b. Desert – In the desert the heat can get well over 120 degrees, it’s best to limit your activity in the hottest part of the day time and do any labor closer to dusk and evenings. This will help you conserve your energy.
Look for rock outcropping’s that give some type of shade, if you have none of these available in your area. Digging down in the Earth and making an underground shelter is best if you can. This entails removing 3-4 feet of earth, making the sidewalls slope so that it doesn’t cave in on you, then using your poncho or plastic garbage bag covering the top of the shelter. The earth a few feet down is very cool; it will help make you more comfortable during the hottest part of the day.
….11c. Tropical – Again in the tropics we are normally trying to stay dry. This means you may need to fashion a bed up off the ground to keep standing water and other ground type insects away from you while you sleep. Using large tree roots as shelters leans two’s, etc. This is where your poncho may come in handy by helping keeping your dry.
<span style="font-weight: bold">12. Clothing</span>
You normal want clothing that fits loosely not binding, you want it to be very durable also. Again, depending on your geographic area you need to get what is going to best suet your needs. I prefer clothes with lots of pockets, military style.
….12a. I carry an extra pair of Socks in my gear. This allows me to be able to change out one pair and allow the other to be cleaned. Your feet can become infected very quickly if your having to do allot of walking.
….12c. Boots – I always carry a Good pair of hiking boots in my vehicle in the unlikely event of a survival situation arises. Try to pick a pair that is the most conducive to your environment that you live in, another words, I live in Arkansas, The Summer time it gets very hot, in the Winter, it’s snows, and gets cold, below freezing. I pick my boots for the “Worst” conditions I may encounter, which would be winter time. The ones I use are good for summer and winter conditions. They are Very Comfortable to wear for long periods of time.
Make sure you BREAK IN your boots before a survival situation; don’t just buy a pair then throw them in the vehicle in case you need them. Most boots during the break-in period will give you blisters; this is not what you want if you have to hike many miles in an emergency.
….12d. Jackets & Parkas – Depending on your specific region, make sure to keep a good quality parka or jacket in the vehicle. I keep even a lightweight foul weather jacket made by REI in my vehicle. In the winter time, this gets changed out to a heavy duty parka for sub freezing temperatures.
….12e. Headwear – You need to have some type of head gear no matter what region you live in. In the artic you would want a watchman’s cap or something very insulated to help keep and maintain any loss of body heat since most is lost through the human head. In the desert type regions a hat will provide shelter from the direct rays of the sun. In the tropics a hat will provide help keeping your clothes dry if wearing a poncho in a tropical downpour. It also allows better visibility when walking in the rain.
….12f. Gloves & Mittens – This is an item that is mostly overlooked, keeping some gloves or mittens in the winter time will keep your fingers from freezing. When the human body is cold, the blood tends to move to the torso to keep the vital organs going, this means your feet and fingers are the first to get frost bit in extreme cold conditions.
<span style="font-weight: bold">13. Medical</span>
This normally becomes a very heated topic when it comes to survival situations, some feel that that you should stay with the basic’s. What these people need to realize that some people are more capable then others and have more training also. Everyone’s Med Kit will be different, they will carry items that they know how to use and can take care of most minor wound treatment. This is fine, but some of us need more than minor wound treatment, this is where educating yourself by practicing certain types of procedures comes in place. Let’s face it, it would be great to have with us in a survival situation a trained MD, but this is not going to be the case.
I’ve decided to list certain items that ALL Med Kits should have in them. If you have more great if you don’t have some of the items that I have listed you should make a note to yourself to get it for your kit.
Basic Med Kit:
1. Band-Aids with Neosporin added – These are fairly new on the market, it already has an ointment added to the band-aid.
2. Ace Bandage – Used to reduce the amount of movement of an injured limb or apply pressure to an wound area.
8. Sterri Strips- This is used for small open wounds that need to be closed off from infection. These take the place of butterfly bandages.
9. Neosporin – Antibiotic for wounds.
10. Benadryl
11. Imodium – Reduces Diarrhea (Dehydration)
12. Betadine – Wound cleaning agent for topical infection
13. 4"x4" 12 ply Sterile Sponges
14. 3"x3" 12 ply Sterile Sponges
15. Large Wound Dressing
16. Surgical Tape
17. Heavy Absorbent Trauma Pads – For wounds that have heavy fluid loss.
18. Aspirin – Pain Medication
19. Assorted Antiseptic Cleansing Wipes
20. Finger splint
21. Ammonia Inhalant
22. Triple antibiotic
23. Ibuprofen
24. Burn Cream
25. Off - Deep Woods Towelettes
26. Cold Pack
27. Heat Pack
28. Sewing Needles
29. Sutures – Can also be used for fishing and clothing repair.
30. Tea Lite Candle – For making needles etc. sterile
31. Tin Foil – Used for water gathering.
32. Bandana – Used for filtering water source to remove particulates before boiling.
33. Small Clear Tubing – Used for gathering water from shallow sources.
34. Aquamira “Frontier” Emergency Water Filter System. This is a very compact drinking straw that will remove 99.9% of Giardia, Cryptosporidium & Bacteria from a water source. It will filter up to 20 gal. of water.
35. Small Syringe – (Lance) – Wound Irrigation
Dental – One of the worst things that can happen is maybe you lost a tooth in an accident, which lead up to this event. Having an exposed nerve can be enormously painful. There is a little item that can be bought over the counter at any Walgreen’s etc. I think it is now being sold as a Red Cross item. Look for a little brown bottle of Clove Oil, this is a natural topical pain reducer. Be careful when applying it, it burns exposed skin but does reduce the felt pain and makes the affected are numb. There is also ‘Dental Kits” that you can buy which will make a temporary cap if you loose one. Orajel works ok, but I have often used myself the clove oil over the years. It is getting harder and harder to find it.
….13j. Extreme Survival Medical Medicines – <span style="font-weight: bold">*WARNING* I thought I would “touch base” on a topic that those of us in the survival community have been using for years. This is for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY! (That is my disclaimer)</span>
Now, if heading off into an expedition in a 3rd world country and you don’t have a Doctor with you or know one that will prescribe some medicine’s that you may need in a remote part of the world. There is an alternative. Most people don’t realize that “Vets” carry and treat animals with the same types of medicines that humans use for the same symptoms. These medications ARE NOT FDA Approved for human consumption. You can go to your local “Farm & Feed” stores and find just about anything that you may need, even “Tractor Supply” carries these items too. Often the same medication, but without the enteric coating that prevents gastritis and upset stomach. Use with caution as those side affects can be worse than the process that you are treating. I have to warn you, the doses that are on the containers and packages are for Animals, NOT HUMANS. There are plenty of dose conversions charts out there on some of the survival web sites. I will not post it on this thread. DO NOT ASK ME. This is for Extreme Survival we are talking about here, please remember this, I’m not advocating Medical Advice. This is for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!
<span style="font-weight: bold">14. Hygiene</span>
Hygiene is very important even in a survival situation, if not more. You will be wearing the same clothes day after day. If you don’t have a ready water source where you can hand wash them in a stream, river or lake, you can always “Air Dry” your clothes. It’s not the greatest but it does help reduce the amount of infections that are caused by the constant rubbing against your body. This allows the fabric to dry out and shake out any debris that you may have accumulated inside the your clothes.
<span style="font-weight: bold">15. Basic Survival Tools</span>
I have been doing this for many years like I stated at the beginning of this post, I’m always switching items in my survival gear around, making things lighter or more complete. I decided to take my small little kit and make it a little bigger and more complete for it’s size, thus making it a good BASIC kit for anyone to carry.
As you have read through this thread, one thing becomes apparent; items can be used for multiple tasks in the field, thus reducing the amount of items to be carried. The following is a list of what I feel would make a good Basic kit for anyone.
I decided to put together a little bigger but small enough survival kit that can be carried everyday by you on your belt. Those of you that carry cell phones; this kit is about the same size maybe a little bigger. You can add too or take away from it, but I think it’s a pretty good example of a small belt worn emergency kit.
1. Field Compass
2. Clear Tubing – Water Gathering
3. Tree Saw – Shelter making
4. (5) Small Band-Aids
5. (2) Large Band-Aids
6. Sterri Strips Wound Closure
7. Heavy Duty Tin Foil – Boiling water, water gathering, signaling, food prep, etc.
8. 100’ of Strong Cordage for Shelter Building, field repairs, etc
9. Tinder – Cotton Balls soaked in Vaseline
10. Surefire Mini LED Flashlight
11. Fishing Kit
12. Mini S.S. Multi Tool
13. Saw Finger Rings
14. (1) Benadryl
15. (2) Imodium – Diarrhea
16. Anti Septic Wipes
17. Diamond Sharpener
18. Pocket Knife - I carry this every day, it makes a good addition to the survival kit.
19. Frontier Drinking Straw – Water Purifier, will purify up to 20 gal.
20. Fire Steel Striker
21. (2) Neosporin
22. Clear Poncho
23. Survival Kit Pouch - I found this one at Bass Pro, it was made for a GPS, it fits just right and is pretty water proof.
….15a. Survival Knife - – I don’t want this thread to get into a knife debate; I want to keep this on a basic level of what you will need and the differences of the types of knives that are out there. First off, there are a lot of “so called” Survival Knives on the market. You have the Rambo types that have a hollow handle that is used for storage of matches, fishing kit, etc. These are garbage, stay away from them. A real survival knife has a “Full Tang” this means the blade is one solid piece that goes all the way to the end of the handle.
A survival knife needs to be able to take a lot of abuse, such as chopping, prying, and lots of cutting. Hollow handles are very dangerous. They will not hold up to the type of abuse that a real survival situation would call for. They look cool, but are not made to take the abuse.
There are many good survival knives on the market, some are cheaper than others, but most will hold up to any abuse that you put it through, such as a military K-bar series of knives. These are good quality strong knives that can be picked up just about anywhere. I use an old Gerber Survival knife that was made years ago and is considered to be one of the best knives that they ever made. You can still find them occasionally on e-bay, but they fetch a hefty price. It’s not about cost it’s about quality; you want a tool that you can depend on in a life-threatening situation. The RAT Knife is also another great survival knife. I think Smokey Mountain Knife Works is now selling them along with the K-bars.
I want to give just a little background history of serrated edges on knives. I know this question will come up. Most people don’t even realize that the serrations on all most 95% of the knives on the market including pocketknives are on the wrong side of the blade. The largest part of the human population is “right” handed. The serrations are made for left handed people, know your asking yourself, why would they do this?
The answer is not what you would expect, they put the serrations on the wrong side so when they advertise the knife taking pictures, they don’t have an ugly clip, on them and they can all be turned and photographed laying the same way.
There are only a few companies that actually make their knives for real use and not to look pretty in picture. Most of these are custom hand made knives such as Mission Knives, which make knives for the US Navy SEAL’s. Anyways, whichever knife you choose, be sure it will take the kind of abuse that is needed in a survival situation.
15b. Weapons - Again, I don’t want this thread to turn into another gun debate. A weapon is nice in a real survival situation but is not a Major part of the gear. It too is just a tool; some may not feel comfortable totting a weapon in their vehicle, that’s fine, for those that do. I tend to stay away from the hand gun for survival and prefer to use a rifle instead. By using a rifle gives me more range and accuracy with my shot placement. This means I conserve ammunition also.
A great little survival weapon is a Rugar 10/22, they are fairly cheep and are very well made. They are very accurate also. They don’t take up much room nor does the ammunition. I do carry a large sidearm in my vehicle as most of you that know me know. The 10/22 is a great little weapon for gathering small game on the trail. I have added a S.S. Folding stock to mine to make it more compact for storage. I also stay away from blued weapons for survival and only use Stainless Steel. This helps to keep the weapon from corrosion especially if you live close to the ocean. I have also included a armored 3x9x40 scope with dual scope mounts to maintain accuracy from rough handling and abuse. Another good little Survival 22 is the AR7, the barrel fits inside the stock.
22LR ammo - I have used every mfg ammo on the market for a 22LR. The absolute best I found is Wolf ammo, it’s NOT the standard Russian Wolf ammo, their 22LR is made in Germany. It is hands down the most accurate 22LR ammo I have ever shot. Very clean burning too. Most competition shooters use the Wolf 22LR, the next in line I would have to say is CCI Stingers.
The worst I have used is Remington, their “Gold” 22LR ammo, is crap IMHO. It’s very dirty to shoot. It also has the crappiest tolerances I have ever seen in ammo, the lead just about falls out in some of the bullets, not to say it also has the worst shot patterns, it’s all over the place.
<span style="font-weight: bold">16. Gadgets</span>
….16a. Survival Knives (So Called) – The Rambo type knives that have a hollow handle that is used for storage of matches, fishing kit, etc. These are garbage, stay away from them, they will not take prying, chopping and heavy cutting that a REAL survival knife needs to do.
….16b. Survival Kits – Sorry, but I have seen may so called survival “Kits” for sale, it seams everybody is trying to make a buck. A large majority IMHO are garbage, they are cheep little packets put together to sell. I myself look at survival as my Life Insurance policy, I’m not going to use cheep junk in an emergency to bet my life on. I prefer to make my own kits from the highest quality materials I can get. It also needs to be more “Customized” to your geographic region.
<span style="font-weight: bold">17. Back Packs</span>
….17a. Military Alice Packs – You can find these just about everywhere; they are VERY durable, but VERY uncomfortable to wear. Ask anyone that has been in the Military, I had to hump one myself for a few years. For a few more dollars of what one of these costs, you buy a better more comfortable backpack. And that is just about as durable.
….17b. Large Backpacks – I try to stay away from the large back packs myself, I do own a VERY good one made for extreme Expeditions that I bought many years ago. It’s probably one of the largest on the market. The problem is, it you have the space you WILL FILL IT. Then your lugging around a 100lbs of gear in the vehicle. If you do decide to go this route, look for an internal frame with metal back support that is shaped to “Your” spine, this allow the weight to be distributed to your hips and waist not your shoulders. These are VERY COMFORTABLE to hike in for long distances. The price of good backpacks have came down over the years since I bought mine. I think I paid around $875.00 for mine about 10 years ago, they are allot cheaper now. They don’t even make the one I have any more, it was made by “DANA by Design” out of Montana, it has a lifetime warranty. I also have a DANA 4 season Expedition tent too. Sorry, I’m getting off topic on my own thread….Ok
….17c.. Day Packs – I personally use a daypack for all my survival gear, it’s easy and comfortable to wear and doesn’t take up much room in the vehicle. If you look around most of the day packs now a days come with a Hydration bladder built in. I got a good deal on mine at Bass Pro a few years back, it was a promotional deal that Gerber had going on at the time, it was a day pack with Hydration system, an Gerber camp Axe, Camp Saw with Bone Blade and a Gerber Folding Knife. I think I got the whole thing for like $40.00 bucks at the time, I couldn’t pass it up. It worked perfect for my survival vehicle pack.
<span style="font-weight: bold">18. Survival Packs</span>
Building your own Survival pack can be fun, take your time and think about what NEED’s to go in it, not redundant items. As you have learned from the above information, most items in a survival pack have multiple uses. I do sometimes pack two of the same item, like two ponchos; one to wear and another to use as a shelter. I will also have a backup compass too in case one gets damaged or lost.
<span style="font-weight: bold">19. Survival Links</span>
….a. RANDALL'S ADVENTURE & TRAINING Randle’s Web Site, He also has some Great Survival Knives on the market.
….b. HOODS WOODS Ron Hood’s Web Site
….c. The Survival Center Books Survival store and Books.
….d. A. Canton & Co Military & Humanitarian Goods and Services
....e. Major Surplus
....f. Nitro-Pak.com The World Leader in Innovative & Affordable Preparedness Gear
....g. Alpha Disaster Contingencies
....h. Survival Equipment, Survival Kits, Survival Gear - Best Glide Aviation Survival Equipment
....i. Outdoor Survival Gear, Backpacking, Wilderness Survival, Mountaineering, Travel Security, Climbing, World Travel, Outfitter | The North Face Jackets, Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, Marmot, Arc'teryx, Black Diamond, MSR - BASEGEAR.com Outdoors
....j. Smoky Mountain Knife Works - home of the World's largest knife showplace
....k. BladeForums.com
....l. Welcome to the PLANTS Database | USDA PLANTS
<span style="font-weight: bold">20. Survival Reference (Books) </span>
….a. Where There Is No Doctor – Great Book for those venturing out of the county in remote areas around the World.
….b. SAS Survival Handbook
....c. The US ARMY Survival Manual 1992 Edition - This is a great resource of information. In a survival situation it's sometimes hard to think clearly due to stress. Having a good resource helps eliminate some of the stress of having to try to remember everything about survival, shelters, first aid, wild plants, game catching, etc. This book has everything you need to know about survival and then some. There are colored pictures of edible and non-edible plants, along with different shelter making in the desert, woods, or snow. It’s a great resource to have on hand.
....d. Nature Bound Pocket Field Guide - by Ron Dawson
I know others can post up other recommendations of good reading too. Just wanted to give back to the HIDE in my own way. Thanks again for all the great members here and the wealth of Knowledge.
Mike
