FAK advice - pouch with decent organisation needed

C

Corso

Joined
Aug 16, 2007
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Well I received my first rat bite this week - foolishness on my part of course :rolleyes:

As I was patching myself up I realised that although my FAK is well stocked I had to spend far too much time rummaging around trying to find various items while dripping blood everywhere, so I thought I’d ask if anyone could recommend a belt pouch with internal divisions/pockets that could store my immediate aid stuff.
 
Maxpedition makes a number of pouches that would serve that purpose admirably. Or, if ou want something cheaper, go to your local big box store and look at the belt mounted camera pouches. You can typically get nice ones from Lowe Alpine and the like for $5-15.
 
I have looked at maxp before but few can belt mount without MOLLE clips and i dont trust them not on a belt atleast
 
I keep a bandanna in my pocket to stop the blood the pull out the FAK or just ducttape/electric tape...my dads a nurse and when he sees me with ducttape on fingers he just shakes his head
 
TAD or tactical taylor, both are much higher quality than maxped or the other chinese companies, I believe they are made here in the USA. I have a TAD gear organization pouch in my pack, it's real handy, worth the 30 bucks.
PS the price differences are pretty negligible, it's worth it for the USA made stuff.
 
PayetteRucker said:
TAD or tactical taylor, both are much higher quality than maxped or the other chinese companies, I believe they are made here in the USA. I have a TAD gear organization pouch in my pack, it's real handy, worth the 30 bucks.
PS the price differences are pretty negligible, it's worth it for the USA made stuff.
Click to expand...

I'm a big fan of us made gear, but maxpedition is pretty bulletproof, and a few have belt loops in addition to molle rigs
 
I mentioned before I have an East German handgrenade pouch as my first aid kit pouch.
3 equally sized compartments (blanket, gloves, bandaids, resuscitation guard | bandages | triangle bandage and meds) and you can just shove in EMT-shears behind all three compartments ...
 
all very helpful

realy liking the look of the tacticaltailor stuff particularly the Escape and evasion pouches - wouldnt be too hard to rig up belt loops for them

but this icetactical pouch also looks spot on too - realy like the tear-away option might be a little larger than i had in mind for a small belt kit but it gives me an idea on rigging up my own
 
Corso said:
I have looked at maxp before but few can belt mount without MOLLE clips and i dont trust them not on a belt atleast
Click to expand...

It is hard to tell from the pics but every product that they sell as a "waistpack" has a belt loop behind the molle webbing so you won't need MALICE clips to mount on your belt. The Rolly Polly series also have belt loops and there may be others.
 
I personally use ziplocs to sort my first aid stuff. It helps to be waterproof too. Dropped my FAK in a stream once :D
 
It is always difficult to self administer first aid even under the best conditions. As indicated earlier, for a cut, the first order of business is to stop the majority of the bleeding.

Usually everybody is all in a hurry to slap a bandage on there as quick as possible, but doing this too soon only leads to blood saturating the bandage. I like the suggest about an easily accessible bandanna, triangle bandage or clean hankerchief. Get that around the cut first and if possible raise the wound above the heart and apply pressure until the bleeding slows.

As for a FAK, I have found that pouches do not do well for me. I have a tendancy to overstuff them. I start off with good intensions and then additional pieces of kit keep finding their way in there until the whole thing is overstuffed and nothing is easily accessed. I understand the problem with my psychosis in this aspect yet it still always happens.

So what I went to instead is a plastic lock'n'lock container. These cheap little tupperware like containers fit wonderfully in the 2nd compartment of my maxpedition falcon II. They have a silicon o-ring under the lid making them waterproof and the lid locks down with a locking tab/clip on each side of the lid. Why I like them so much is that with one hand you can easily unclip the tabs. Then the entire lid comes off and you can rummage through your kit. You can even place items on the inside facing lid next to the kit so as not to dirty your contents.

I find this system works very for first aid. The issue from your perspective might be that the kit nests inside the pack and not outside. Again, I don't see this as much of an issue because your first goal is to stabilize. After that you treat it and you should always have more time to treat a stabilized wound.
 
That jcetactical first aid pouch looks like a copy of the Maxpedition F.I.G.H.T. pouch. The maxped is larger though.
 
Some good info here. I myself am looking to downsize my fak into something that will fit in a Maxped Janus pouch that I have for my Maxped Jumbo.

Suggestion?

Also, mostly state park areas hiked with my 9 yr old son. Suggestions on how far to downsize?

Thanks in advance!
 
I keep a decent sized commercial kit in the truck (not a trauma pack, but good for 5-6 person jobsite), a smaller (6"x6"x1.5") one in the pack, and a tin holding a couple of bandaids & antiseptic swipes for quick access/really minor stuff - that way I don't have to do much searching for "just" a bandaid.
 
PayetteRucker said:
TAD or tactical taylor, both are much higher quality than maxped or the other chinese companies, I believe they are made here in the USA. I have a TAD gear organization pouch in my pack, it's real handy, worth the 30 bucks.

PS the price differences are pretty negligible, it's worth it for the USA made stuff.
Click to expand...

It's funny, innit? I mean, the selling point of going to China and shutting all of us up was that we were going to get more affordable stuff. Now that they are established, in many cases, everything is just as expensive as if it came from here anyway.

I don't know where TAD's stuff is made...but, well, it's from TAD.

Tactical Tailor is excellent stuff, at least what I have and have examined. I have the vertical and horizontal E&E pouches. Both of which would make a good pouch for a small IFAK/FAK.

I don't know if Tactical Tailor's construction is better than Maxpedition or not. It's just too close for me to call with what I have and what I have seen. I mean, when you buy any of this stuff, you're going to use the better part of a mini-Bic burning all of the frays in the stuff, that's for sure. Other than that...to me...they're just about equal. Sometimes I like the Maxped design, sometimes I like the SpecOps stuff and sometimes TT.
 
Corso said:
Well I received my first rat bite this week - foolishness on my part of course :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Ya gotta watch out, sometimes them rats aren't as tame as you think. The other day I managed a nice cut into the tip of my pinky finger from my Opinel #9 - the little bugger bit quite deep. Of course I should have been more careful, now I have a little reminder. Being a very smooth clean cut (because the Opinel is crazy sharp) it didn't clot very fast - it bled for quite a few minutes. Luckily I was at home and had plenty of tissues, rags, etc for absorbing the blood. It didn't hurt that much but I was really pissed off at myself for being careless.
 
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