Please review my list of survival supplies

I'm big on signaling/detection and first aid. For signaling, you have some good stuff, but I would also suggest:

1. smoke flare for the day
2. hand-held launching flare for the night (I'm actually trying to find some good ones now)
3. simple orange construction marking ribbon "tape" for tying around branches or what not so that rescuers can follow where you went
4. reflective tape for the night for the same purpose
5. perhaps a small strobe light

For first aid, I have never really seen a good commercial first aid kit to be honest. I like to have a mini pharmacy, with everything from triple antibiotic cream to anti-histamine pills. Anti diarrheal is very important.

I am also big on stuff that can treat life threatening traumatic injuries. A hemo-static like Celox is great if someone has a bad gash and you need to buy some time for the pros to get there. I need to get some more of that actually. I even have a Bolin chest patch, which would be good for a deep puncture wound in the chest, like a gunshot. Military style trauma dressing and moldable splints are good.

With first aid, it seems that this stuff is fairly expensive (but if you are gushing blood, I think the $15 Celox is a good deal) and the people putting together the kits are not willing to spend the money to put this sort of stuff in there.

Also, rubber gloves in case you need to help someone else out.

Apart from signaling and first aid, some things that come to mind:

--A straw
--Some salts or electrolyte tablets that can get the essentials back into your system
--Glow sticks
--I throw a few of the very small tea candles or whatever they are called (the size of a few stacked quarters)
--The P-51??? military can opener
--coffee filters for filtering water
--Water purification pills
 
I like the credit card sized diamond sharpener from DMT or Eze-lap.
We used to carry a few sanitary napkins in our first aid kits. They are easy to get and work on medium lacerations. Also, get advanced first aid training if you haven't already. Wilderness first aid training is even better.
Map?
If you have the $$ a ceramic water filter.

Luck.
 
As far as flashlights Surefires are good but just too expensive for me. I use a Fenix LD20 in a fenix headband and it works well for me during SAR operations. One advantage I can think of in using a AA flashlight is that if you get found the searchers will likely have spare AA batteries for you to use if your flashlight was dead.

I also might suggest at least one nalgene type bottle as I have seen people have their bladders bust on them at the worst possible time.
 
#25 I would say you can get a very good deals on the Garmin 60CSx its an older model thats been replaced by the 62s. You can find them fairly cheap on Amazon and they are rock solid. I've had mine for many years now without issue, its been dropped, kicked, and soaked and still keeps going...
 
WOW!!!!!!!!!


That Duct on a credit card is a great idea!!!

My 1 inch roll of duct tape was always kind of bulky. I just took your idea and wrapped it around an old drivers license and it is now only about 1/8 of an inch thick.


Brilliant!!
 
dd61999 said:
WOW!!!!!!!!!


That Duct on a credit card is a great idea!!!

My 1 inch roll of duct tape was always kind of bulky. I just took your idea and wrapped it around an old drivers license and it is now only about 1/8 of an inch thick.


Brilliant!!
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Good for starting fires.
 
drmmr84 said:
I also might suggest at least one nalgene type bottle as I have seen people have their bladders bust on them at the worst possible time.
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It must of been a cheap bladder. Camelbak bladders are pretty tough. Matter of fact they probably absorbed some damage when I fell of my mountain bike a few times preventing worse injuries. I can only imagine how much worse I would have been with a nalgene bottle in my pack.
 
This list is pretty big..but liked ur list..I got few survival kits as gift from my cousin..then i was looking into it.searched for few things.you might like this kit. 550 Cord
 
fighterrabir said:
This list is pretty big..but liked ur list..I got few survival kits as gift from my cousin..then i was looking into it.searched for few things.you might like this kit. 550 Cord
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It's funny, I saw the same link to this sight from a new member, oh
ten minutes ago. Coincidence?
 
I would definitely add a good headlamp to your kit - a hands free light makes a huge difference.
 
I am not really sure I understand the idea behind AA over 123 batteries. Whichever you use, plan on not being able to resupply. Carry a reasonable amount of spares with you. Durring the two snowstorms we had in Dec and Jan, there was not a battery to be found in the local stores. Or a light like the Jetbeam RRT-0 can use both. Surefire has released an AA model as the E2l AA. The prices are high now but will drop after the initial rush finishes. As for SFs cost, my 6P is 23 years old, beat to hell, and still works perfectly. You get what you pay for.
 
jw2n said:
I am not really sure I understand the idea behind AA over 123 batteries. Whichever you use, plan on not being able to resupply. Carry a reasonable amount of spares with you. Durring the two snowstorms we had in Dec and Jan, there was not a battery to be found in the local stores. Or a light like the Jetbeam RRT-0 can use both. Surefire has released an AA model as the E2l AA. The prices are high now but will drop after the initial rush finishes. As for SFs cost, my 6P is 23 years old, beat to hell, and still works perfectly. You get what you pay for.
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Pardon. I don't speak" SureFire. Is it an LED?
 
jw2n said:
I am not really sure I understand the idea behind AA over 123 batteries. ........
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123 can be hard to find when traveling especially outside the U.S. or in remote area's. I just like the ease of finding a common use battery. Plus my ARC AAA is just as tough or probably more so than a surefire
 
- a sewing kit...
- magnifier loupe (Belomo) or similar for first aid or fire starting
- tweezers (first aid)
- utensils; spork or similar
- burn gel (first aid)
- hat (protection against rain or sun)
- Alta Ind. Knee pads
- Fisher space pen and waterproof paper...
- an extra twist-on/off flashlight, in case the main flashlight has a clicky switch and fail :(
- U-dig-It "pocket" shovel or similar with toiletpaper in a waterproof bag...
 
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dd61999 said:
123 can be hard to find when traveling especially outside the U.S. or in remote area's. I just like the ease of finding a common use battery. Plus my ARC AAA is just as tough or probably more so than a surefire
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The whole point in having an emergency/survival back is to have everything you might need on you. There aren't spare batteries in the woods and in a SHTF situation everybody is going to loot for common AA batteries and supplies. I'd rather have a few CR123s on me. (they have a 10-year shelf-life, work in all temperatures and they never leak). I trekk and climb mountains all year round and not a single time in my life I had to look for batteries, on the contrary, I always come back home with plenty of batteries left.

Yeah, I agree about the Arc Light, it is as tough as it gets. However, I'd NEVER take a Fenix over a SureFire, Arc, HDS/RA or any other quality U.S made light.
 
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