Chopweiler Mega Kit

elof_alv said:
If I were to carry that much stuff as a set, I'd go a different way about it. I'd use the big pouch as the belt attachment and drop the sheath lower (with a leg strap) and maybe a smaller pouch on the sheath. Along the lines of this set up

Borrowed Andy's pic, but the idea was mine. It woul be fairly easily done, even a leather pouch with a loop for spec-ops sheath.
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Right on brother. I totally agree. It's a lot of weight, however, this is a personal preference in the fact that I hand carry my gear as opposed to a belt or structured pack outfit. The average persons "kit" would more than likely be better spread out than what I have shown.
 
Snakebreaker said:
Right on brother. I totally agree. It's a lot of weight, however, this is a personal preference in the fact that I hand carry my gear as opposed to a belt or structured pack outfit. The average persons "kit" would more than likely be better spread out than what I have shown.
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Yes and no... ;)
Actually there was recently a thread in the 'Sheaths & Such' subforum about the 'monster' sheaths. worth having a look.

Yes, most people would have spread the load.
No, because it's about your preference. If that's the way you like to play than nobody should try to stop you IMO. In one of the posts in that thread a guy tells a story of how his canoe (or kayak) flipped and when he got out of the water all he had was his knife with kit in the sheath and bits and pieces in his pockets. He lived to tell the tale because he had that kit on him.

I merely suggested that it might be a good idea to lower the sheath's weight and profile by shifting the bulk up to the belt. That's how I would do it, but again, I'm not going to go into your sandpit and tell you how to play. :D
 
Total respect brother. I appreciate the comments and point of view. I'm a minimalist and don't carry a backpack or any other accessories. For the most part, these are hand carry units for me to use on the fly. I can drop when I need to lose weight and stay in the vicinity or stay connected. Again......this is just my personal preference, but I do appreciate the insight.
 
Nice work Snake!! Looks like it would make a great get away setup!

And Elof that setup looks awesome as well brother. I love the separate pouch!!



Now my OPINION on survival kits...

The most important thing about any survival kit is that its matched to the person who would need to use it and that person has practiced with each and every item in the kit. Its important to set your kits up the way most convenient to YOU, as you will be the one who needs to rely on it. I set my survival sheath up with the idea and intention that i would take ONLY the survival sheath setup and the clothes on my back and be able to survive/thrive for 3 days. Then i did just that (had full gear in car just in case) and that taught me more about my survival kit than anything on the web could ever teach... There is no substitute for getting out and roughing it when it comes to being prepared to thrive away from home and conveniences.

I have been through a few different survival courses/groups and one thing you see way too often is these people who buy the ready to go kits and have no idea how to maximize the usefulness of the items in their kits. I have no problems with well thought out kits being sold..I have bought a couple.... As long as the people who buy them know that just owning the gear wont save them in a real situation... Without understanding how to use the items it becomes just another weight on your belt slowing you down and burning extra energy....

To sum it all up... Build your kits the way you prefer... But then practice with them and replace items immediately after use... Once you start actually using the kit it will evolve and eventually you will have exactly what you need and know how use, and wont have any extra stuff taking up space and adding weight.
 
worldwood said:
Now my OPINION on survival kits...

The most important thing about any survival kit is that its matched to the person who would need to use it and that person has practiced with each and every item in the kit. Its important to set your kits up the way most convenient to YOU, as you will be the one who needs to rely on it. I set my survival sheath up with the idea and intention that i would take ONLY the survival sheath setup and the clothes on my back and be able to survive/thrive for 3 days. Then i did just that (had full gear in car just in case) and that taught me more about my survival kit than anything on the web could ever teach... There is no substitute for getting out and roughing it when it comes to being prepared to thrive away from home and conveniences.

I have been through a few different survival courses/groups and one thing you see way too often is these people who buy the ready to go kits and have no idea how to maximize the usefulness of the items in their kits. I have no problems with well thought out kits being sold..I have bought a couple.... As long as the people who buy them know that just owning the gear wont save them in a real situation... Without understanding how to use the items it becomes just another weight on your belt slowing you down and burning extra energy....

To sum it all up... Build your kits the way you prefer... But then practice with them and replace items immediately after use... Once you start actually using the kit it will evolve and eventually you will have exactly what you need and know how use, and wont have any extra stuff taking up space and adding weight.
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Right on the money WW!
I'll just add that the biggest problem with ready to buy kits is the very generic approach to what's needed. For example majority of kits easily available in Au are assembled in UK. There are parts of Au where water will be first priority 95% of the time (well sometimes protecting yourself from it ;) ). In UK water is only a problem when you want to stay dry...
I have 1 kit that I bought years ago, in a sealed sardines tin, that I often add to what I assembled for myself, but it would never be my only kit.
 
I can only give insight to my home state of Texas and the current state I live in of Ohio. If I was building a kit for Texas it would be 100% built around obtaining and purifying water while Ohio would be more geared toward fire and food. Also neither one of them would have a knife the size of a Chopweiler as its simply not needed in these areas they would have something like the RMD. I would never stake my life on a premade kit that's for darn sure!!
 
The two kits I have shown here are set up for my week long trip in Michigans Upper Penninsula this year. What I will be doing is taking this kit set up and the clothes on my back and nothing else. Three of the knives/kits I've been debating to take with me has been the BK2, Junglas or Chopweiler.

Based on the geography and length of stay in the woods......I believe the Chopweiler will be most practical. There will be lots of chopping and batoning wood as well as finer work to do. The Chopweiler cover both bases quite well. Because the knife will be heavily used, it's ability to hold an edge extremely well is a deciding factor as well.

Like I mentioned......the total weight is around 35 to 40 ounces, so because this is the only item I will be taking with me, the weight is no issue. Even if I opt for the noticeably heavier Junglas set up.....weight won't be a huge deal. Once Im deep enough into the woods, I won't be hiking any more than to gather food or water.

Ideally, I will be able to locate a fairly close water source. I haven't decided on an exact location as I want this to be as close to being dropped off in unfamiliar territory as possible and figuring things out myself.

The kits are geared towards this as I'm heavy ended in para cord, large zip ties, fire making supplies and fishing lures and line. All good for making the best out of a "home base location" once I find it. I'm light in water purification tabs but will be adding more before the trip. Hopefully I will find my spot to stay the week within 2 days of being dropped off. From there on out I will be pretty much just navigating within the general area, passing time and just staying alive, lol!

I don't have a date set yet but as not to totally torture myself......it will be when the weather is a mild mannered and consistent 70 ish degrees. Weather changes very quickly here in Michigan, so I will have to strike either relatively soon or wait until the fall. I don't mind it being on the cooler side but I don't want to freeze and I absolutely dread the heat.......so going mid summer is definitely not going to happen and it's still a little on the cold side to go now or too deep into fall.

A full week by myself in unfamiliar territory, with relatively no supplies will be demanding enough......I don't need the weather jacking me around too!

It will be fun, exciting and a little scary as well......but it will be a great learning experience. As prepared as I think I will be, it will be interesting to watch all the events unfold that I never would have thought of or planned for. One of the great things about these kinds of endeavors is that no matter how experienced you are.......every trip or outing shows you how much you really don't know.
 
Trips like that is how you learn what you NEED in your kits and not what the internet tells you that you need. Have a good time buddy you will learn more on that trip than you will in 6 months of being on the internet.
 
PatrickKnight said:
Trips like that is how you learn what you NEED in your kits and not what the internet tells you that you need. Have a good time buddy you will learn more on that trip than you will in 6 months of being on the internet.
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You got that right dogg! Every time I hit the deep woods for any sort of stay........the more I realize how much more I need to learn. I love it! Thank you all for the comments.
 
worldwood said:
Nice work Snake!! Looks like it would make a great get away setup!

And Elof that setup looks awesome as well brother. I love the separate pouch!!



Now my OPINION on survival kits...

The most important thing about any survival kit is that its matched to the person who would need to use it and that person has practiced with each and every item in the kit. Its important to set your kits up the way most convenient to YOU, as you will be the one who needs to rely on it. I set my survival sheath up with the idea and intention that i would take ONLY the survival sheath setup and the clothes on my back and be able to survive/thrive for 3 days. Then i did just that (had full gear in car just in case) and that taught me more about my survival kit than anything on the web could ever teach... There is no substitute for getting out and roughing it when it comes to being prepared to thrive away from home and conveniences.

I have been through a few different survival courses/groups and one thing you see way too often is these people who buy the ready to go kits and have no idea how to maximize the usefulness of the items in their kits. I have no problems with well thought out kits being sold..I have bought a couple.... As long as the people who buy them know that just owning the gear wont save them in a real situation... Without understanding how to use the items it becomes just another weight on your belt slowing you down and burning extra energy....

To sum it all up... Build your kits the way you prefer... But then practice with them and replace items immediately after use... Once you start actually using the kit it will evolve and eventually you will have exactly what you need and know how use, and wont have any extra stuff taking up space and adding weight.
Click to expand...

I'm curious to how the outing went and if you needed to change your gear or not.

I wholeheartedly agree about having kits that you don't know how to use just becoming dead weight. When someone asks me about what gear they should carry I try and sus out what they know. For instance, IMO, the vast majority of hikers should not carry a compass or a knife. Sacrilege I know.:D The simple fact is that most people don't know how to use either and it's just dead weight. And at worse, a false sense of security. They're better off carrying a SPOT or something. That said, if I find they have an interest in actually learning to use gear, I'll then recommend the compass and knife and a few odds and ends.
 
Snakebreaker said:
The two kits I have shown here are set up for my week long trip in Michigans Upper Penninsula this year. What I will be doing is taking this kit set up and the clothes on my back and nothing else...
Click to expand...

That's cool. I'll be sure to check back on this thread from time to time to see how it went. Are you carrying a water bottle or pot in addition to your kit or are you just going to scoop the water up with your hands? Or dunk your whole head in like Mick Dodge? :D
 
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Thanks Shotgun. No water bottle. I will likely carve a bowl or mug from wood or improvise if I'm able to find something to hold water. Again......I want this to be with as little pleasantries as possible so I will have to rely on my own skill (or lack there of). I will have plenty of purification tabs in the kit when I leave. Its a little light on those currently.

Worse case senerio.....I can use the actual container that houses my supplies to hold water if I had to.
 
I was going to say I'd find a Sawyer mini water filter very handy on such an outing.........It might be tough to fit in this kit, though. And a good headlamp. That's just me, though, and I've got a ton of respect for you for even attempting it. A week's going to be a bit rough, brother.
 
Sawyer mini filter can fit on the side of the esee pouches. Likely/maybe on the side of the pouch Snakebreaker uses too.

Love my Sawyer mini filter!! Its one thing i think everyone should own. I use mine when camping and fishing... But even if you just put it away in case of emergency its a great item to have and the cost makes it a no brainer.

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Thanks Hard Knocks and Worldwood.

My kit contains a Streamlight Micro Stream.....which Im in LOVE WITH! Its the C4 version, so it has the headlamp clip for a ball cap.

The water container would indeed fit in the elastic band on my kit. Great idea and it looks extremely practical. In this particular situation, its more about forcing myself to improvise. Other than that........that water container may be on my kit list!! Thanks again guys!
 
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