Survival kit.......group design

[islandpiper]

I'd like to start a thread to "group design" a good survival kit.

Made for 1-2 persons......first aid, fire, food, tools, shelter, well, it is up to you all. There are a million designs for kits that fit in an Alltoids tin. That's a nice idea, but may not be the best idea.

There are some great minds and lots of REAL LIFE experience in this forum so I expect lots of input before this thread croaks.

Looking forward to hearing from you all. Thanks in advance for your good ideas!!

piper

 

[oldyaker]

Where will it might be needed? Shot down over Bosnia in winter? Down in the Sahara? Lost in the North Woods? The Jungle? Or is this just a General Purpose Survival Kit?

I will start it by wanting to have my UV pen sized water purifier and cup or small canteen.

Than next I want my K-Bar knife. I can cut small branches with it or smash a coconut open.

My flint spark bar.

Some medicines might be good for pain or maybe a few Imodium.

Snaring wire and some thin rope. Military survival school surprised me you can actually catch small animals in a snare!.The rabbit we caught was better than survival bar they supplied in the survival kit! YUCK!

 

[islandpiper]

Chuck, good point. Look, WTSHTF , no matter where you are you need some "stuff". And, that might be different in Michigan than it would be in Florida, but there will be a certain group of parallel needs. Whether winter or summer, North or South, some things would be good.

I'd like to aim for a package that would fit in a coat pocket, not a pants pocket. Even two coat pockets if needed.

Strange times comin' down the pike. Be Prepared.

piper

 

[oldyaker]

About 50' of six pound test mono fishing line would not take up any room at all, couple of hooks and maybe two small flies.


AND! BTW! I'm Jimmy...the great looking Eye-Tal-Yun......Chuckie is the one who is a Floridy Cracker......Chuckie, show him your saltine ID card! :wink:

 

[bearridge]

Quick Clot? http://www.z-medica.com/quikclot/index.asp

 

[jdupre']

Survival experts say you need shelter first. You can live for three days without water or a week or more without food, but you can die within hours without a proper shelter. I would lump fire and shelter together. First things for me would be 2 space blankets-- one for shelter and one to wrap around you for warmth if in Michigan or extra rain protection in Florida.

A flint spark bar and a knife (with sharpener) would go into the kit next.

That water purifier pen and cup is a great idea. Maybe the cup could be the container for the whole kit ??

Wire and thin rope is also essential. Takes up almost no space, so pack plenty.

For medical purposes, band aids, gauze, tape, painkillers, and antiseptic and that Imodium is a good idea.

One essential component that takes up no room is training. Study survival techniques and actually practice them. In a dangerous situation, you perform to the level of your training.

Joey

 

[a Bald Cypress]

k

There are as many things to put in a survival kit as there are people who make one up. We all have an idea of what should be important and what would be "nice to have".

As previously stated, shelter is one of the the most important, after that there may be differences in the order of importance but, there are a couple of things that cannot be questioned.

FOR ME

1. ability to bind wounds
2. shelter
3. water
4. water
5. water
6. a way to relieve pain. [pain causes a distraction which can be deadly]

7. - whatever. food , signaling device and after that it is a matter of comfort rather than survival.

The big difference will be in what each person decides is needed to supply the above items.

YMMV

 

[tx river rat]

I figure since this is a boat forum you going to be around water.
So heres my list
1 and the most important A COOL CALM FRAME OF MIND
2 Knife , and not a pocket knife it needs to be at least as big as the knife built for Jack, I carry two , a fixed blade attached to my pfd and a machete are a bowie knife. Large knife gives you the ability to build a shelter ,traps , build weapons to take game, also the knife on my pfd lets me cut a trout line loose if I get hung up in it.
3 way to build a fire
4 Medicain for several days Some times depending on the problems we all have this is the most important one
Then you start building a personal list , but the above one works, I hate to say it but I can testify to this personally.
Ron

 

[islandpiper]

i have one of those can openers that leaves the rim intact and lets you put the lid back on the can. Real neat tool. So, I'm thinking that a soup can could be good. Wrap carefully with duct tape so it could be unwound. seal with one wrap of tape so you can peel 1/2" or so off to open, and then move the tape up to re-seal. A coil of wire, perhaps several kinds in the bottom, several guitar strings with the bead on the ends for snares or garrots. Yes......space blanket, garbage bag, zip lock sandwich bags, OTC pain tablets of several kinds, 3-in-1 ointment, band aids, single-use alchohol wipes for first aid and fire starting, fish line will be easier to use if wrapped on the outside of the can and taped. The can could be a cookpot or drinking cup. Fishing stuff for your area. Bullion cubes, instant coffee or tea bags, sugar packs SEALED in foil. Extra foil. One of this cheap little LED lights from the Dollar Store. Flint/steel tool. Candle, or two. Small multi-tool, they are available most anywhere. New boot lace, wrapped and taped to the outside, to let you hang this on your belt. How about one of those little tiny mercury cell/headphone radios from the Dollar Store. There are some that are about the size of a 50-cent piece, with earbuds. A bottle of iodine tabs or some other water purification chemical. Some cash, small bills.......after a Hurricane nothing works as well as cash.

Maybe we just bumped up to the Bushes Baked Bean size can.

Off to start collecting materials.

piper

 

[oldyaker]

Flight Crew of B-52 looking at Survivial Kit in the movie "Failsafe....Major Kong reading off contents to his crew...as they fly over Russian Wilderness on way to target....


Kong:

Survival Kit contents check. In them you will find: one 45 caliber automatic, two boxes of ammunition, four days concentrated emergency rations, one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills, one miniature combination Rooshan phrase book and Bible, one hundred dollars in rubles, one hundred dollars in gold, nine packs of chewing gum, one issue of prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pair of nylon stockings -- shoot, a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff....

 

[Kayak Jack]

One, maybe two items. First is a PLB, a Personal Locator Beacon
http://www.acrelectronics.com/product3.aspx either a MicroFix or a TerrFix WITH GPS included.

Other item? Maybe a Hershey bar to eat while I wait for the chopper to come pick me up.

No joke here, guys. If you are serious about being saved, join the 20th and 21st centuries and leave behind the 16the and 17th.

 

[oldsparkey]

A can of Vienna's , a snack pack of Ritz Crackers and a Visa Card would cover everything. Optional item.....A small knife is handy for opening the snack pack of Ritz's. ***
If you don't have the above items..... then shelter , water , fire and last ... something to eat will let you survive. Just figure out what you need for the minimum of each and you have it covered.

*** I carry the top three items since I have the PLB with me on the water or in the woods.

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

*** I carry the top three items since I have the PLB with me on the water or in the woods.

Good on ya, Chuck. I hope the gritz don't clog up the signal, or you're likely to get a Saint Bernard with gree-itz in that little barrel under his chin come chugging in to take you home.

 

[rhutchinson]

In the medical portion I would put a small tube of super glue. It can be used as a waterproof liquid bandage to keep dirt out and nasty water out of a wound, it can be used as suctures, or minor equipment/shelter repairs.

Richard

 

[tx river rat]

I got a little tale to give yall
On 9 11 I was on the way to the mountains in Colo for a bow hunt, well we were closer to them than home and figured that would be as good a place to be till we waited out and saw how far reaching the attack was.
We were set up with all the supplies and gear for two weeks.
Now the main part of this little tale , the area we hunt Is pretty well known to me ,have hunted there for several years, well the big surprise was the gps went nutts all the reading were off and changing every few hours, this went on for several days then straigthened back up, We had three gps in camp and they were all like that.
Jack toys work and are great , in some situiations, but they are batteriy powered goverment controled electronics,now any of those systems can fail, so I want my list first, electronics second.
Ron
The failure of the gps seem to match the grounding of all flights.

 

[jdupre']

One, maybe two items. First is a PLB, a Personal Locator Beacon
http://www.acrelectronics.com/product3.aspx either a MicroFix or a TerrFix WITH GPS included.

Other item? Maybe a Hershey bar to eat while I wait for the chopper to come pick me up.

No joke here, guys. If you are serious about being saved, join the 20th and 21st centuries and leave behind the 16the and 17th.

Jack, while I agree with you 100% on principle, guys still like to think they can get out of any situation by their own wits. Still a little bit of caveman in us, I guess.

But, think about this. An accident that would cause you to call for help could also damage the beacon ( plane crash, fall from a cliff, banging off of rocks after falling in the river).

I guess the best set-up would be the beacon AND a back-up survival kit. Kind of a "belt and suspenders" type of thing as Justin Wilson used to say.

 

[oldyaker]

Joey wrote: "Jack, while I agree with you 100% on principle, guys still like to think they can get out of any situation by their own wits. Still a little bit of caveman in us, I guess."

Ron Wrote: "toys work and are great , in some situiations, but they are batteriy powered goverment controled electronics,now any of those systems can fail, so I want my list first, electronics second.
Ron
The failure of the gps seem to match the grounding of all flights."

Right on Joey and Ron!

I think these PLB's are a fantastic tool......Having said that.....The Titanic didn't have enough life boats because it was "UNSINKABLE". No one believed the Radar on Oahu Dec 7th, 1941, and Las Vegas bookies were offering 100-1 odds on the Mets winning the '69 World Series.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Youse guys play rough. OK.

2-3 space blankets
Water filter
Mutli tool
Magnesium bar w/ striker plate
Compass
6ea steel leaders w/ swivel & clip on both ends - game snares or trot line
Dozen small fish hooks
Pack of duct tape (about 1/4-1/3 roll on flat piece of plastic milk jug)
Small .22 rifle
Haver sack to carry it in
Semi-automatic 12 ga w/ 500 rounds of bird & buck
PLB & Hershey bar

 

[bearridge]

There are some great minds and lots of REAL LIFE experience in this forum

Anybody on here ever ended up alone 'er with one 'er two others (mebbe lost), cut off frum the civil life, short on food/water 'n had ta survive with jest a kit........without a pickup?

 

[oldyaker]

I think a major point being missed here is weather is to bad to go out and find your a$$, a 100 PLB's ain't gonna help you survive. I have been reading alot of true survival stories and a major problem was weather. Remember just a year ago when some mountain hikers got lost and in bad weather, the rescuers were able to find the cave with the bodies from a fix they got off one of the hikers cell phones. It took 10 days for the weather to clear enough to send out rescue people and helos.

It's nice to know know they can find you......but when???