$100 budget for outdoor "survival" gear...

[Pritch]

Interesting. Redscorpion is the only one to list a lighter. A one dollar lighter would be a must have for me.

Yup! I had to make a postal run in the middle of putting my reply together. As I was driving back it ocurred to me to make sure to include a Mini Bic, but by the time I got back to the office I . . . Hey! What was I talking about?

-- FLIX

 

[mr.trooper]

paracord $6
Firesteel $8
Peanut lighter $10
Victorinox OHT $33
Wetterlings wildlife axe $25
27 oz Kleen Kanteen $18

That comes to $100, and covers all your bases : fire, water, shealter, cordage, and basic cutting tools.

In order of importance:
#1) OHT - so many usefull tools for outdoor endevors
#2) firesteel - useable when wet, and it needs no fuel
#3) peanut lighter - its easy to use, and fire is vital
#4) Kleen Kanteen - holds enough waer for most hikes, and its liner free so you can boil water and cook food in it.
#5) Wetterlings hatchet - Vital for dressing large game, and procuring the large amounts of firewood needed for extended wildernes visits.
#6) paracord- its very usefull, but you seldom need it for anything other than an emergency item unless you need to string things in trees, or your boot strings break.

 

[Pritch]

Flix,

Great post. That is some first class enabling. I was using the prices I paid for the stuff. My goal is to have all my gear standardized by the time I come back to Brazil and have enough to outfit a total of six guys. I have two guys interested in becoming assistant instructors, but they will have to get their own kit. Mac

Thanks Mac,

If you're going to be buying certain items stateside to take back, you may want to look at ways to get dealer/wholesale pricing. For a group outfitting, I would make some substitutions. For instance, you can buy generic firesteels and spy capsules in bulk packs on eBay.

-- FLIX

 

[ratfrog186]

Hi David, hi guys,

Here's a budget kit I built a couple years ago...
I'm a mod on a european survival outdoor forum and guys over there were focused on gear...
I did it to show you don't need to sell your car to have fun outdoor...

Packed (Nylon sport backpack: 2 euros on a flea market):

Unpacked:

Tools:
Hatchet (head 1 euro on a flea market, bought the handle 4 euros)
Opinel #8 (6 euros)
Cheap leather gloves (2.5 euros)
Paracord 50 ft (3 euros)
Orange duct tape (4.5 euros)
Steel wire and strong polyester thread, heavy duty needle (free, ask your family ones...)

Shelter:
Cap (1 euro at a flea market)
Fleece blanket (3.99 euros at IKEA - european megastore)
Strong survival blanket (2.50 sportstore)
Foam sleeping pad (free, found that one in a deserted camping area)
Poncho (Bundeswehr, 12 euros)

Subsistance:
Strong plastic orange juice bottle (water container, free)
Stainless steel can with a alu lid (free, found the stuff in a trash can...)
Coffee filters and alu foil piece (free, ask your family ones...)
Ziploc of various nuts (5 euros in bulk)
Ziploc of Quinoa with cubs (4 euros in bulk)

Hygiene/first aid:
Natural soap in a box (2 euros)
Mirror glued inside the box lid (free, got it in a empty ladies beauty stuff)
Two bandanas (2 euros)
Paper tissues (free, ask...)

Fire:
Whistle (2 euros), mini-Bic (1 euro) and fatwood around the neck.
Candles (free, ask...), fatwood, pencil sharpener (free, take your boss one...)
Back up Bic (1 euro), homemade firestarters (free)

All that stuff has multiple uses (i.e. mirror for hygiene and signal, orange tape for repair, building, signal panels, path markers...)

In a good fit and avoiding winter season, a skilled guy can live on the land with that kit, at least a couple weeks...

Total cost is around 60 euros... Around 90 bucks...

Not a reason to leave your brain at home...

Stay sharp and safe,

Manu the ugly frog.

 

[SpookyPistolero]

That's a well done list, ratfrog. I'd give ya rep points for it if we had them on this forum. I might add, however, another type of firestarter, like a mag bar or firesteel- something that will function after banged, submerged, non-fuel dependant..

 

[ratfrog186]

Good point Spooky, I didn't add a ferro or such because they are not that easy to find in local stores...
Two bics will let me practice my bow drill skills before I should really count on it...

Manu.

 

[koyote]

knife: personally i'd make it, but....

Just for fun I'm going to toss in a cold steel "long hunter" at $20. It'll do *fine* and give you a large blade.
Pair that with a Victorinox Explorer Plus at $32

Now what? Well, saw or axe. For general utility, it has to be the saw, pretty much hands down. If I'm on a job site, whether a deck, landscaping, or general remodel job, there's that foldign corona by me all the time. Maybe someday I'll get a silkey.

BUT, this is a survival kit. Axes are a bit more versatile when it comes to building - whether it be boats, houses, or furniture- out of raw timber.

Now, this requires a minor digression, because choosing either of these or even none depends highly on what you think of as a survival kit- what IS a survival situation, here?

If you define a survival situation as a subset of adventure (something you get out of as quickly as possible so you can tell about it while people buy you beer) then barring Special Circumstances, I don't need either. there isn't anywhere around here, nor anywhere I commonly travel, where I can possibly GET more than 11 hours slow hiking from a sizable road or place of commerce. and 3 hours is a lot more common as a maximum.

Now, there's that phrase, Special Circumstances. TEOTWAWKI, Steve Striling's Change, John Ringo gets his wet dream and the US gets nuked by the president, ebola-of-the-month-club, Montana, or something equally odd and unlikely.

Special Circumstances is why I'm going to drop the $20 on an axe. call it a Cold Steel trail hawk, or a good mid sized axe from ace hardware. I don't care. I'm going to just go with something like the trail hawk that i'd be comfortable notching logs and pounding pegs with. With the axe, I kin bilt mah a town.

now gots a basic knife (CS long hunter) at $20
yer folder (Victorinox Explorer Plus) at $32
and a decent chopper (CS Trail Hawk) at $20

Nessmuk woulda creamd his jeans.

I'm *tempted* to add a spearhead, or another hawk or something and leave $5 for the rest of the kit just to prove a point- I've built a kit with a decent folder and a mini SAK that cost a TOTAL of $4.50 because all the rest from container on up was scrounged.

But I'll spare yall the whys and hows of using discarded restaurant tealights to waterproof free matches and so on and so forth.

So we've spent $72 and have the 3 core elements of a nessmuk style modern kit.

$1 4 pack of lighters.
$4 small bottle of iodine
$1 pack of maxipads
$1 roll of duct tape
$2 2 50' lengths of 1/4 inch 110 pound poly rope
$1 3 pack of toothbrushes
$1 tube of toothpaste
$1 2 rolls of electrical tape
$2 small pair of el cheapo vise grips
$1 used small camping pot with lid
$1 thrift store used nalgene bottle
$1 5 large garbage bags
$1 115 yard spool of dental floss (could get free form dentists and display samples)
$2 sewing supplies
free hotel soap
free towels (2, hand towel size)
free backpack
free salt, pepper,sugar, crackers, emergen-C, ketchup, hot cocoa, tea bags, coffee bags, peanuts, etc.
free medicine bottles (used with electrical tape for pretty waterproof containers
free matches
free random lengths of 12 and 14 guage copper wire, a dozen odd 12 penny nails.

Field sharpening on a convex ground blade is - if you do it often enough, easy to maintain with rouge and a strop, and a piece of cloth backed shop roll 240 grit is handy, too (1x36 inches). I'll put a cost of a dollar on that, but it's functionally free using a discarded belt and stuff laying around. You can feel free to just get a cheap double sides coarse/fine stone or something. we're under budget, so blow a couple bucks. I'd add a file, if I had the budget.

now we're up to $92. We've got tools - axe and knife and the endless uses of the SAK. The mini vise grips are just a handheld project vise for doing things like varving toggles and other small projects. Also very helpful for sewing leather and such.

First aid is mostly covered by pads, duct tape, iodine, and dental floss. Think through it and it's pretty handy set up for serious low cost minimalism. I've used pads for heavy bleeding cuts and they sure work better than gauze pads. And i use duct tape instead of medical tape most of the time just because it STAYS when I'm in the shop working hard. Iodine is dual purpose as it purifies water. If you need antihistamines or hydrocortisone (I do, but it's on me anyhow and comes from uncle sugar in compensation for some work i did back in the day) add some in.

I've picked up, in the past year, 5 wool sweaters (one a new REI winter one), one pair of fitting wool pants, 2 wool blankets, any number of knit caps, gloves, backpacks, shoulder bags, even 2 decent tents for free watching after moving sales and trashpicking. On a budget? do it. the reason your wilderness is going away is that people throw so MUCH perfectly usable shit away.

I can use a bow drill for fire starting, so the lighters are a cheap cheat, but also useful for melting ends of things like poly rope.

If you want a stove, you can go alcohol or twig for free. or you can just build fires.

This isn't complete, but I actually went out to a dollar store (hard to find, oddly) and bought some of this stuff, and am working on it as an example set up.

 

[slipfirep40]

Bladeware:

Cold steel kukri: $15
mora: $10

total: $25


Firestarting:

walmart magnesium firstarter: $6
Bic: $1
petroleum cotton balls: $1

total: $8

Shelter:

USGI casualty Blanket: $12

Space blanket: $2

Total: $14


Water:

Usgi canteen with cup: $15

katadyn micropur tablets: $10

Total- $25

Other:

Leather work gloves: $5

Fishing line and hooks: $4

3 emergency candles: $3

energizer 4-led headlamp from walmart: $10

100 ft paracord: $6

Total: $28



GRAND TOTAL: $100

 

[attej]

Great thread! I'll have to convert the currency to Euros, don't know how much stuff costs there in the US.

Ok, Im gonna leave the obvious free items off, so Im not gonna list spare clothes, socks, snacks, tinder etc. And also, I'm thinking specifically about finnish environment here.

- A mora, 6 euros
- Raincoat, 10 euros
- enough matches in zip locks, in different pockets, 2 euros
- a lighter, 1 euro
- a couple of orange trash bags, 1 euro
- an emergency space blanket, 4 euros
- quality flashlight (maglite, UK kinetics) and spare batteries, 25 euros
- a compass, 10 euros
- a map of the area printed out from the net, 0 euros
- a mess kit with some fuel, 6 euros
- an emergency whistle, 2 euros
- a self-assembled first aid kit, 20 euros
(throw in a couple of water purification tablets)
- Telling someone where you are going, and how long you are gonna be there: Priceless.

That would leave 13 euros...

So, I'd emphasize the need for navigation, shelter, signaling and first aid. If you have means to navigate, you wont be lost. If you are totally lost, you might need to make a shelter, and wait for help (-> signaling). And, there isn't a situation so bad, that it can't get any worse (-> first aid). The mess kit is uselfull for purifying water, but also for making some tee-ish drink out of leaves or spruce twigs for fighting hypotermia and lifting ones spirit.

It's unlikely that your gonna die out of starvation, as long as you have told someone where you might be, and when you should be expected back. Of course, basic fishing kit doesn't cost nor weight that much, so why not (2 euros). Soo... that leaves 11 euros. Maybe a ferro rod, or an extra mora.

Edit: on secont thought, let's spend the remaining 11 euros on some paracord, duct tape, and orange / red plastic tape.

 

[dipbait]

20 dollar: cold steel bushman
10 dollar: fire starter
1 dollar: lighter
10 dollar: tarp
59 dollars" rod reel and fishing tackle.

If theres water around. Ill catch fish.

 

[David E]

Great ideas, folks !

THIS is what I'm talking about !!

.