Need advise on gear

T

Trekker

Joined
Apr 30, 2003
Messages
53
I just bought a canvas haversack, it is 12" x 12". I 'am looking to make a wilderness travel bag to carry outdoor essentials. What basic gear should I include. I would like to only get the really proven stuff. I am also tring to stay with a old timey theme.

I already have:

Single wide bevel Scandinavian Knife
A Swiss Army FireSteel and pitch wood tinder
Old style pocket compass
 
things you might consider......
a good space blanket, contractor grade trash bags, a police whistle, parachute cord, a miltary poncho and liner, small flashlite or headlamp, small swiss army knife (rucksack or hunter), nalgene water bottles or military canteens, bandanas
all of the above are multi-purpose. hope it helps.....
 
If you live in an area with waterways, you might give serious consideration to putting together a small fishing kit made up of several sized hooks from trout to bass, throw in a few flies, swivels, a bobbin of 12+# fishing line like spiderwire or similar, some safety pins in various sizes, a few sizes of sewing needles and maybe a couple of small spools of thread, but normally I'd just carry more fishing line. Add some small weights, paper clips, a couple of feet of HD foil folded small and put it all in an altoids tin or similar. Throw a couple of ranger bands (cut from old bike tire tube) around it for fire tender. Cordage like twine or 550 paracord or both would be a good addition. Add more fire stuff like a disposable lighter in your pocket and maybe a firestarting kit like Spark-lite which includes the ignition source and special tender. Some sort of flashlight like an LED or minimag.

More to come I'm sure.
 
Hello
Some questions come on my mind.
How much time are you gonna spend out? Alone? Wich season? Will you have the possibility to meet people? Can you hunt or make snare? What kind of clothes will you wear (pockets or not).
At the first sight,I will add a small FAK, some snare wire, a small arkansas stone,a candle, a drinking straw, some jerky and pemmicam,
a small axe can be quiet useful, all this add to what Tallquietman and Trekker have wrote .
 
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Originally posted by Trekker
...wilderness travel bag to carry outdoor essentials. What basic gear should I include. I would like to only get the really proven stuff. I am also tring to stay with a old timey theme.
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Howdy Trekker! A bit of refining info will help narrow the search on what to stick in your kit bag.

Here's some quick questions that came to my mind on your kit & priorities in stocking it:

-- Since your profile gives no indication of your location, what sort of wilderness will you be entering (deciduous or coniferous forest, desert, urban concrete jungle, prairie, arctic, mountains, etc) and what resources will that place already afford you?

-- As PaintedHorse asked, how long does the kit need to sustain you? Peripherally, what is the purpose of the kit? Is it for short-term stay-in-place emergency "keep me alive until the posse finds me" scenarios? or longer-term "I'm on my own out here hiking/roughing it with what I have on my back" scenarios? or maybe something totally different from that?

-- Which is most important: that the kit components be old-timey? or that they be the smallest & lightest possible? (which would be plausible for a 12"x12" bag) or that they simply be the absolute "best of class" for their particular job? or that they simply do a good job while being very affordable?

To stick with the old timey theme, you could see if there are local mountain man rendezvous or Civil War reenactment groups or suppliers in your area (assuming you are in the USA) that you could contact to see what materials and items were used in those timeframes.

You could stick with kit components made with natural materials to help carry the old timey theme: woolen & cotton clothes & cloth items, wooden- or antler-handled knives & tools, cotton/sisal/hemp cordage, charcloth instead of vaseline soaked cotton balls as tinder, wooden & tin containers & pots instead of aluminum or plastic, etc.
 
I am surprised noone has mentioned a small cash of medicines like analgaetics, painkillers, band aida etcetc. there are many places on the web that have many many listings. Try www.equipped.org for example
 
one of my favorite books is Woodcraft and Camping by Nessmuk. Here is his list of wilderness gear that he kept in his hunting bag.

Buckskin bullet pouch with sheath sewed on the backside of it.
2 oz vial of fly medicine, vial of "pain killers", 2or 3 gangs of hooks on brass wire snells, water-proof matchsafe, strings, compass, bits of linen and scarlet flannel (for frogging), copper tacks.

"Ditty-bag" sack of chamois leather about 4" wide by 6" in length.
A dozen hooks, 4 lines of 6 yards ( up to 10 lbs. Fish), sinkers, very fine file for sharpening hooks, 3 darning needles & common sewing needles, dozen buttons, sewing silk, thread, small ball of strong yarn, sticking salve, bit of shoemaker's wax, beeswax.

Here is his entire Camp-Kit List


Nessmuk's Camp-Kit

Clothing
Soft thick woolen shirt
Pair of fine, but substantial, woolen drawer
Pair woolen socks
Fine woolen cassimere medium thickness coat

Blanket – Bag
Soft, warm, open at the ends, just long enough to cover the sleeper.

Shelter – Cloth
Simple lean-to. sheet of strong cotton cloth 6x8 feet, soaked in lime and alum-water.

Knapsack (oil-cloth)

Rod with reel, lines, flies, hooks, and fishing gear

Pocket-axe "double-barreled"

Strong double-bladed pocket knife

Sheath Knife
Thin blade, handy for skinning, cutting meat, or eating with.

Tinware
One dish six inches on bottom, 6 3/4" on top, side 2" high. The 2nd dish to be made the same, but small enough to nest in the first, also to fit into it when inverted as a cover

Buckskin bullet pouch with sheath sewed on the backside of it.
2 oz vial of fly medicine, vial of "pain killers", 2or 3 gangs of hooks on brass wire snells, water-proof matchsafe, strings, compass, bits of linen and scarlet flannel (for frogging), copper tacks.

"Ditty-bag" sack of chamois leather about 4" wide by 6" in length.
A dozen hooks, 4 lines of 6 yards ( up to 10 lbs. Fish), sinkers, very fine file for sharpening hooks, 3 darning needles & common sewing needles, dozen buttons, sewing silk, thread, small ball of strong yarn, sticking salve, bit of shoemaker's wax, beeswax.

Two days of rations
 
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