Beckerhead #89. I accept this challenge
FIRST SEQUENCE:
The Fisherman's Friend Survival Crutch!
As you might have noticed, I split my knee with an axe on Sunday which means I will only move with the help of crutches for the next 7 weeks. Also, Altoid's isn't available in Germany. I had an old Fisherman's Friend tin which may father gave me as a toy when I was about 5 years old, so I decided to use it for this contest.
Without further ado, here are the contents.
A small package of Zitronensaft that I got at the hospital. Lemon juice, can be used to flavor water or tea. Super refreshing.
Big bandaid.
Mini flashlight, the batteries could be used to make fire if you had some very thin wire.
2 safety pins. Can be bent into fishing hooks. Also double as safety pins
Little piece of gluestick
15 ft of trout twine - very strong synthetic twine. Can be split and used as fishing line, thread for sewing.
little zip-loc bag containing 6 matches sealed with wax, striker and 2ft of thin copper wire.
firestraw with tiny fuzzes of birch bark, will ignite at the tiniest spark.
sewing needle, 1ft of clear tape wrapped around it.
Waxed paper and waxed canvas. Pieces of an old torch. Will burn bright and hot, even when wet.
Tin that contains all the little goodies.
BK14 in kydex sheath with selfmade iwb loop.
Nitrile glove for water collection container or cup. Or as a glove (Nitrile is resistant to most chemical substances, even paint stripper and epoxy.)
I forgot to put the sq ft of aluminum foil into this picture. Still a little bit dizzy from all the meds I have to take.
Everything packed up and sealed. Wrapped with 5ft of Alligator Tape (great electrical tape stuff) and 15 ft of trout twine.
You can even see the Fisherman. Or is it the Fisherman's Friend? We'll never know, this tin is from 1988.
Fixed to the crutch with two thin ranger bands.
Same for the BK14. Thin rubber band. Yes, it is pink. Pink is punk!
SECOND SEQUENCE:
The Swiss Army First Aid Survival Kit (SAFASK)
The only bag that I had at home that had the correct size was this one, an old leather bag that the swiss army used in the 60's and 70's as a quick access pouch for their combat medics. I got it from a adventure playground where I worked a year ago.
Here's the list of contents:
My hand writing is shitty, so I'll write it out for you here:
ER blanket - shelter, water collection, signaling (taking it and crumpling it into a ball makes for a extremely effective radar reflector.)
HDD Disk - extremely hard and very reflective. Signaling, for use as a mirror, you could probably lure birds with it. I'm not much into hunting.
2 garbage bags- water collection, shelter
8" of inner tube - making ranger bands, as tinder, snorkel or straw (to drink out of small puddles or cracks in rocks or mountains)
Firesteel - do i really have to explain that one?
2 lighters, mini bic and a jet flame stormproof one. Mini bic can strike sparks and ignite tinder even when empty.
Multitool and BK14 - self-explanatory
0,5l bottle - that amount of water will get you pretty far this time of the year in my area. Probably one day, or 1.5
Flashlight - Fenix LD10. 4 different brightnesses, up to 170 hrs of runtime. SOS and strobe mode
2 white chem lights. Marking stuff in the dark, illuminating your shelter. bright light up to 14 hrs.
20ft of paracord - cordage, fishing line, sewing thread, whatever.
Zip-ties - different sizes, extremely useful for high-stress points on you shelter. or for snares. or whatever.
Tinder - birch bark in film canister, ziploc bag with waxed canvas and thin fabric with a wax/tar/oil mix. Burns like hell, even when wet.
Sharpe marker - writing. Alcohol-based ink could be used to start fires.
Saw Blade - notching wood for traps or shelter.
5 safety pins - see above (Fisherman's Friend Survival Crutch)
FAK - my EDC first aid kit. contains enough to start a few fires and for first aid for 2 big and many small wounds. (big means nothing bigger than what i did to my knee.)
Fisher Space Pen/Moleskin notebook - writing. Book can be used for fire making.
9ft of duct tape - 1001 uses. Duct Tape is like the Force in Star Wars. It had a bright and a dark side and it holds the universe together.
Nail file - sharpening knives, filing nails.
whistle - whistling. for help, as a signal, to chase small game into traps.
The contents laid out:
And the finished kit:
The unique thing about this bag is how it opens. This crappy picture shows it. The body of the bag folds down and away from you, so you have quick access to whatever you might need. Hard to explain, but a picture says a thousand words. (YAY for girlfriend in tight t-shirt and skirt holding the pouch!)
If you put the BK14 and Multitool on your belt and the flashlight and firesteel in your pocket, everything will fit neatly into this Condor 7x5x2 MOLLE pouch. Plus I like to carry essential items on my body, not in some pouch. If I have to run or get away in a hurry, I might decide to leave some bags behind. I'm highly unlikely to ditch my pants.
This pouch also contains a few extra items, a little bit of paracord, about 5 ft of International Orange and Coyote Brown, and some cheap bamboo chopsticks which can be used for eating or as kindling, bamboo curls that are scraped off with the spine of the knife are great for catching tiny flames.
THIRD SEQUENCE:
Helikon Assault Day Pack
This is the whole thing ready to go. I use this backpack as my EDC pack to carry my intermediate kit in the MOLLE pouch, leaving enough space for water bottle, jacket, groceries or anything else. I am very satisfied with this pack, it has held up very good to my hard everyday use, at one third of the price of a Maxped Falcon II.
Strapped to the pack are the following items:
Bow and bucksaw packed up
Fiskars X10
45ft of 8mm hemp rope. I've used rope like this for more than half of my life and would not hesitate to trust my life to this particular one.
Strap and some paracord to fasten everything to the pack. No weight slopping around, it will throw you off balance while running, and without my leg injury and my crutches, I'd be able to run full blast with this backpack.
The contents of the purple and black bag:
A 3-piece takedown longbow, 40lbs pull. Unfortunately, she string broke 2 days ago and I couldn't get a new one yet. Paracord should do the trick in a pinch. I had this bow since I was 12, my father gave it to me.
3 aluminum arrows with artificial fletching and field tips. Broadheads are illegal in Germany.
1ft piece of carbon dowel from a kite. Could be used for traps, arrowheads, whatever.
Bucksaw specifically made for this contest. 21 inch blade, some wood I had laying around, paracord, screws. Simple tool, low drag, light.
Here is everything that's inside the backpack:
Top left to bottom right (as you would read a book)
- 1.5l Water bottle
- 600 ml tin can. Cooking, boiling water, as a container or cup.
- Helikon Cap with GITD smilie rubber patch, protection from sun, rain, as camo, and the patch to mark things (or me) in the dark
- wool gloves, bandana.
- 9x9ft tarp and ultralight hammock.
- Intermediate kit in Condor 7x5x2 pouch. TacLink, GrimLock and WebDominator.
- Pair of socks. Nothing like slipping into a nice warm dry pair of socks before going to sleep.
- 1l ZipLoc, AKG mic pouch and tin can with a few little goodies.
- sharpening stone from my Gatco set, BK14.
- Zip-Ties fashioned as handcuffs. Just happen to carry these in the bag just in case. Might have some outdoor use.
- velcro strap, for bundling stuff together. Like a ziptie, but reusable.
- card deck
- moleskin notebook, contents and instructions inside. With Fisher Space Pen.
- Victorinox Swiss Tool
- Opinel No. 7 and SAK
- Fenix LD10, firesteel with new birch handle and mini bic.
A little look into those goodie pouches:
On top the tarp, with all the cordage in the bag. 4x 12ft of orange reflective cord, 20ft of paracord.
AKG pouch first:
- Ziploc with some eucalyptus mints
- Battery case with 3 AA and 1 AAA
- Ziploc with 3 tea bags (MATE!), 2 safety pins and a piece of grease chalk (waterproof. like sharpie, only better)
- Sterile little knife that doctors use to cut the twine after they stitch you up. Incredibly sharp.
- Lock pics, screw drivers, some hot glue and a set of allen keys (metric)
ZipLoc bag:
- Dust mask, nitrile gloves
- Burn dressing and wound dressing (as addition to my standard FAK in the Intermediate kit)
- (2) 12x16" ZipLoc bags. Can hold up to 4 liters of water each. (A ziploc in a ziploc, reminds me of that freaky movie I saw a few months ago)
Let's have a look at that tin.
The picture on the tin is by german cartoonist Uli Stein. A little penguin comes to his penguin parents with a fish tucked under his wing. He's sayin "But we're in love!" The parents look very grumpy and say "Bullshit! You don't fall in love with staple foods!" I found it funny when I was studying for my Abitur (final exams in school before you go to University) and my father gave me this tin stuffed with gummy bears.
It contains the following items:
- Piece of cloth soaked in a leather care stuff which contains beeswax, can be used to buff your leather gear or just as tinder.
- Fatwood. May not be crazy rich in resin but I found it in my backyard.
- Screws for attaching the sawblade to the handles. A small stick should do it in a pinch.
- Sewing kit.
- 2 chinese made micro flashlights. Weigh next to nothing, and are bright enough to find your way in a forest at night.
- 25ft of hemp twine. Shelter, tinder, you name it.
- 3 tampons. Break the seal, fluff it up, one spark, flame. Perfect tinder.
That's it. The contest has really helped me a lot. I never was a guy who carefully put survival kits together, but I see that it might be helpful now and then after making some content for the contest. I figured I really should get some more gear. A camelbak or other water bladder would be a nice thing to have in the sustained pack.
You might want to ask "No means of water purification?". Germans are very careful about what goes into their water, so most lakes in my area are drinkable if you boil the water. I would have loved to put a fishing kit in all three of my kits, but I don't have any fishing gear at all at the moment, and no one I could get to had anything I could have borrowed for the kits. Toilet paper would have been nice, but I forgot about that. We have big leaves here.
Please bear in mind that I put all those kits together while being mostly unable to move. I am on crutches and can't just drive across town to go shopping for some extra items, I have to go with what I have in the house or what I can get from friends.
I want to thank Ethan, Moose and Ka-Bar for making this contest possible and for your time and generosity, and everyone else on here for being such a nice pile of madmen. Thank you all.
--
maethor
