Shelter Supplies Shelter is of paramount importance to your survival. Staying out of the weather preserves your body's resources for producing heat. Rain, wind, snow can all deplete you of your body heat. Emergency blankets have been around for years. A poncho provides its own shelter and keeps the rain off of you. Homemade MREs For quite a while now, I've wanted to make up my own "MREs" for my Get Home Bag (GHB). I was recently out scouting some properties, and realized that my GHB only had some packs of tuna and some candy in them. I had broken my own Cardinal Rule - If you use it, replace it immediately. So, I went about making up some MRE packages. I assembled my "ingredients" based on "Best By" date, calories and protein content. The idea was to put long-life food together and vacuum seal it in a FoodSaver bag. For my first MRE, here's what I included - It includes: One individual serving of Beef-a-roni, 2 ounces (by weight - about 1/2 cup) of dry roasted peanuts, one pack of Land-o-Lakes French Vanilla cappuccio, one Promax energy bar, 4 pieces of Jolly Rancher hard candy, and utensiles (plastic spoon, knife and 2 napkins). Since the peanuts were loose, I wanted to separate them in the pouch. I then filled that with the peanuts and sealed it. Here are the stats - Here's the result - Times have changed!
3 Steps to Building a Fire There is no doubt about the greatest advance since mankind started hunting with spears, clubs and wearing animal skins… is the ability to harness the power of fire. In a survival situation, being able to get a fire going can mean the difference between life and death. It can be extremely difficult to get a fire to ignite and burn. 1. Fires must have fuel or “tinder” which helps start the fire. 2. Keeping your fire lit can be a challenge of its own. following items on hand: plenty of small twigs, bark, or any other type of flammable material you can procure. First, it keeps the fire contained. Second, the barrier becomes heated by the fire and retains this heat for a significant duration of time depending on what materials you are using. Third, it protects the fire from being snuffed out by a gust of wind. 3. After taking the above steps and procuring all the needed materials, place the tinder in the center of the ring and place the twigs and small amounts of fuel on the tinder.
How to Put Together the Ultimate Survival Kit | Tactical Intelligence Would you be willing to stake your life on your survival kit? I would. There are so many debates when it comes to the perfect survival kit. In my opinion, the items you choose to be in a survival kit can be very different based on the situation you see yourself in (maritime vs. desert survival) as well as your level of skill. My entire kit is based off of three tiers — one that I carry with me, one that I keep in my car (and sometimes on me), and one that is in my home ready to go in a moments notice if I had to bug out. The Three-Tiered Survival Kit First Tier: This ‘kit’ includes those items that you have with you at all times. Folding Knife: If you’ve ever been in a survival situation (planned or not) you know how essential a knife is. While I would at the least recommend the Essential 3, there are a few other items you may want to consider carrying as part of your EDC (Every Day Carry) Gear or first Tier. Second Tier: Fixed Knife: In other words, non-folding. Third Tier: Conclusion
Survival Fire Starters – Do You Have 5 Ways to Make Fire? I would put the ability to make fire right behind water, shelter, and food in the list of most important things in a survival situation, and before food and shelter in some cases. Since being able to start a fire is so important, are you really going to rely on only one or two ways to do it? I think you should have at least 5 fire starters in your Bug Out Bag or in any survival preps for that matter. Be sure to notice that I am not talking about different types of tinder, like cedar shavings, fire log, paper etc. 1. No surprises here. 1.They need to be waterproof. 2. 2. Notice lighters is plural. If you are going to buy a nice lighter like that one, you should carry some Butane refill fluid and it will last you 5 times as long as any of the throw away lighters. 3. A firesteel and scraper, or what used to be a flint, is a tubed piece of metal, usually steel or magnesium, that creates sparks when you run the metal scraper down the tube. Cool ones that we have tested include: 1. 5. Be Safe
Kits & Bags 5 Ideas for Fire Tinder A while ago I asked readers Do You Have 5 Ways to Make Fire? The article concentrated on fire starters; steel and flight, lighters, and a few less common systems. However, most of those will be useless for building a fire if you don’t have some tinder to put the flame to. 1. Everybody can collect it for free, and even get it from the bottom of your pockets in a pinch. 2. Collect the stringy shavings from the bark of a cedar tree for the best (in my opinion) natural fire tinder. 3. This might be the oldest survivalist trick in the book. 4. Obviously these won’t be available in all areas, but when you can find them the light feathery material inside cattails is like burning paper or cotton. 5. Like cedar, just shave some bark off of a birch tree. Two great products to keep in your Bug Out Bag are “WetFire” and “Fire Paste“. What do you use? I know these are just the tip of the iceberg for survival fire tender. Visit our new Survival Gear Store – Forge Survival Supply
The 7 Best First Aid Kits For Any Situation DIY Kit Price varies An easy way to think about the necessary contents of a first-aid kit is to break it up into two categories: it should have bandages and it should have medicine. For a bare-bones kit, Wedmore recommends plenty of gauze, including at least one roll of Kerlix bandages and some non-adhesive gauze. Pocket-Size First Aid Coghlan's Pack I First Aid Kit | $4 Coghlan's Pack I kit contains all the materials needed to take care of minor skin wounds and is small enough to fit in a pocket, making it ideal for afternoon hikes and bike rides. Off-the-Shelf and Disaster-Ready Respond Systems' Four-Person Disaster Kit | $126 This disaster kit is built to sustain four people for three days; it includes 9600 calories' worth of food and 96 ounces of water. Backpacking Kit Adventure Medical Kits' Ultralight & Watertight .9 | $35 "If a kit is too big, you're going to be less inclined to take it with you," Hawke says. Automobile Kit Lifeline's Warrior Road Assistance Kit | $100 Boating First Aid