Good,cheap Survival Gear?

I personally like the S**t Out of Luck survival tool. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004R1J482/?
Aside from being compact and stylish (or at least for me), it comes with handy features such as a compass, knife, a fire starter, and even has a Rescue Flash signal to let others know where you are in case that you're lost. I think this tool is God sent! What cheap survival gears do you guys like?

 

I'm a firm believer that survival gear is just a tool to help you survive. What matters most is your knowledge, skill and attitude towards survival.

 

Frog toggs rain gear. It's awesome !

 

The cheapest survival gear I would recommend are the DIY ones. They are very cheap and sometimes it doesn't even cost you a cent. You'll just have to be creative and look for something that you can use and come up with a good one. Although there are a lot of survivals kits that are purchasable but I guess it depends on what kind of survivalist you are.

 

I suppose something like this would be ok, personally, I like to save up the money and buy quality gear, takes a little longer yes, but imo, worth it.

 

Military Surplus is usually high quality and pretty cheap.

 

I'm cheap and I'll buy old tools if they still function as real tools.

Look at the crate opening tool at the top far left and number 475 bottom center, a tad larger crate opening tool. I bought one of these and have gotten all manner of use out of it, especially using it to pull nails and to tap in small nails. Makes a great tiny pry bar / chisel. Takes up little space in tool box. I paid something like five or seven dollars for it, had to have it (marked 1909).

I use my father's tool box. Wooden with leather covering, held together with steel fittings. It's 70 years old at least. Still works fine. Over half my firearms are over 50 yr old; a couple are 100. They shoot fine. I've got a Stevens 520 (John Browning design) take-down pump shotgun in 20 ga. -- feels great, shoots fine.

I've had camouflage Swiss rain parkas last me decades. I can't begin to list all of the military surplus items I've used to good purpose.

 

I get some of my best treasures at garage sales and flea markets. I always especially keep my eyes open for older slightly rusty knives and old tools. Garage sales can be like finding the lost gold mines of legend every once in a while. I imagine when I am gone and my wife is gone my kids will have a garage sale like this. They have little concept of the value of many of my knives, weapons and tools much less my survival gear or craft tools.

I love the Old Hickory butcher knives. I clean them up and then use them for all sorts of things besides having a fully set of butcher tools. They are fairly heavy and make better hunting knives than stainless steel knives costing 10 times as much. Old hatchet heads are cheap and their quality is top shelf. With a little work and patience you can lighten them up and have a very nice bearded hatchet that works like a hawk.

 

I have an regularly use tools that are nearing a hundred years old. They used to make things to last almost forever if you would take care of them. I have fishing reels over a hundred years old that I still occasionally fish with and one that I fish with every week that I got for my 15th birthday 50 years ago.

What people nowadays don't comprehend is that as we made things so they required no maintenance we also limited their useful life. The old fans had oil cups and if you kept them oiled they lasted basically forever. Now they all have sealed permanently lubricated bearings that last a while and then die. This computerization of everything is asinine. Appliances used to last for decades. Now they are computerized, cost three times as much and last for 5 or 6 years.

When I am buying these old tools and things I'm not doing it because I can't afford new. I'm doing it because they were designed to last and are made even in the little parts that you don't see out of good material. I'm sorry but plastic over time gets brittle where metal is rigid and sturdy for decades. I still have and use my Dad's old all metal circular saw and hand drill. The only part that I've had to change is the cord.

Even when the parts that you can see are metal when you get inside you find plastic and pot metals that don't last. The old stuff didn't have any plastic because there wasn't any such thing when it was made.

 

Arachno, not sure if you are still around... but that kit is disposable. Honestly, why would you or I need that kit? There is nothing, not one single thing, in that SOL kit that I don't already have a better, more permanent version of. And you should to.

My thinking on kits like that.

As a car kit: I'm broken down on the road, with nothing but that kit. My map (I still carry a road Atlas) shows a town 20 miles north. Am I going to use the compass to strike out overland? The knife to cut campfire wood? Catch some fish along the way? No to all those things. You and I would both, I am willing to bet, walk two miles east to the nearest road running north to the town, and probably gratefully accept a ride if a kind soul happens by.

As a wilderness kit: What have I done? How did I get into this wilderness with only this kit? A pocket knife, 5 hooks, some tinder? The compass, eh, maybe, but I have a nice plate compass that was super cheap that I've had for years and years. What I am saying is, if I am heading off into the wilderness, or even looking to drive through an area where a breakdown is going to truly suck, I am taking my stuff. Then I have 2 down sleeping bags, a cook set, 3 ways to make fire, a sleeping pad, a tent, an actual useable saw, a machete, a camp knife, silverware... I'm probably going to be excited I broke down! Hell yeah, let's set up camp, I got coffee and baileys in here! All in one bag. Not a small bag, but it goes in any trunk, backseat, wherever. Totally doable.

The price difference between my stuff, and that kit: Absolutely no contest, I have hundreds of dollars worth of stuff in my bag. I chose to look for quality where I could. But my life is worth a few hundred. Hell my comfort and peace of mind are worth more than what I paid. It wasn't anywhere near thousands! 500, maybe? Over the course of a year, excepting a few small items.

I wish I could start some sort of movement, where survival suppliers and outdoor gear places stopped selling these kits, and taking advantage of people. I get that it is business, and they sell.

All of us here probably spend a fair amount of time out in the boonies. Or going places where a breakdown would really be a bad day. Anyone here ever pulled out one of these kits? Thank God I got this kit! And then you lived?

 

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Thank you sooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, can't get this smile off my face!!!!!!

As a kid worked a summer for the Forestry Service, Dept. of Agriculture. In one incident we had to rescue some idiot, his jeep, and equally-stupid girlfriend. Your post instantly reminded me of that >4-decades-old memory. Reminded me of the forest ranger's over-the-top anger at having to deal with that fool. Ha ha ha! ####-for-brains had taken his jeep down a foot path / ancient logging path, wet grass, slide-slide, a tree, one tree, saved their sorry lives by keeping his jeep (no roll bar) from doing a dozen roll-overs unto death (2/3 way up a 6000ft mountain in the Cherokee National Forest) -- 100 to 200 yards of very steep embankment. We had to wench them out of the predicament.

 

Military gear is great, you can purchase used, its works as new

 

Clothing and footwear appropriate to your environment, the ability to make fire, purify water, treat injuries, gather food and sleep comfortably. If your kit covers these basics you'll do alright.
It doesn't really matter if your knife cost you $5 or $500 if you can't keep it sharp so in my opinion we should also be gathering knowledge and practicing skills. The more skills you have the less kit you'll need.

 

I agree, because quality is always better, especially since nowadays cheap things break so easily.

 

All to often what you THINK is quality is actually just massively overpriced crap. I love knives for example and make them and have bought hundreds of them. The true fact is that a 300 dollar knife is only worth that much as a piece of art or a status symbol. You can get a knife that is at least as good a tool for much less than a hundred dollars.

I like to make a lot of my stuff. If you make it then if you ever have to replace it you know how to do it. I have made leather and canvas pouches, sheathes, holsters and knives from files, saw blades, mower blades and truck springs. I make hammocks and have even made a ultralight tarp from nylon that I sprays with a sealer. As much as I like my many multi tools I will tell you that a small 4" pair of vice grips with a little adjustment can be made into a tool that will match or exceed the best multitools. Grind a slot running front to back in the jaws with a dremel. With that you can clamp a knife blade in it, or all kinds of saw blades that you would use in a reciprocating saw and a bit holder for different driver bits. Where it exceeds most multi tools is that it also works well as a wrench on bolts up to a little over 1/2"/13mm.

I have a bunch of weapons that I've made. A circular saw blade fitted on the end of a heavy handle is a wickedly intimidating weapon. I put a flat on one side and it makes a serviceable chopper. I call it a brush saw. Pick up a bunch of cheap knives at a garage sale and then use the blades to make arrowheads, harpoon tips and spears. Carbon steel Old Hickory type knives are great hunting knives. I usually make them into a sort of drop point bowie with a little grinding and have even added a guard on to them. I made them out of brass by filing a notch that was a tight fit on the blade. I flattened out the front part of the handles so the brass guard would lay flat against the handle and the with 5 minute epoxy and a couple of small wood screws I attached it.

I use my seal a meal to make my own ultra light camping food by taking boxed meals and adding some more spice and such then sealing them up in plastic in a vacuum. So far I can say that they have lasted for a year with no problem and they cost a couple of dollars for a meal for two. Ramon soups when I add some more dehydrated vegetables to it and a couple of bouillon cubes to it is a great just had hot water 500 calorie meal that weighs almost nothing.

A big camp style coffee pot makes a great light pot for boiling water and making soups and stews. I find them all the time at garage sales for a couple of dollars in almost or actually unused condition.

I get my daughter to crochet me some potholders out of paracord so I have something to handle a hot pot with and a bunch of extra paracord if I need it.

For fire I order a bunch of ferrocerium rods and make handles for them and add a striker to it. The smaller ones that are about a 1/4" X 4" cost me a dollar or two this way and even my big camp strikers that are 1/2" X6" only cost about 5 dollars. I also take kitchen strike anywhere matches and seal them up in a plastic straw with a little piece of sandpaper three matches to a tube. I make a shorter version with regular sized strike anywhere matches 6 to a tube. I also pack a few tubes with jute or vaseline coated cotton. I also make char cloth and car rope for use with an old school flint and steel. I store it in altoid cans that is also what I use to make it. In the woods you can char a lot of things to make them more easily catch and feed a spark.

A fishing kit is a must if you live near water. In my kit I have the regular hooks lines and sinkers but then there are also little brass eye bolts and small safety pins. With these I can make a rod that will allow me to cast out into the deeper waters and more effectively fight a bigger fish. the eye bolts and the ends of the safety pins make the eyes for the rod. I also have a couple of yoyo reals for night time set lines. Given a little time I can make and attach a functional spinning type reel onto the rod out of wood.

I have the money to buy good stuff and do but I also take great pleasure in then figuring out how to make something comparable for a little of nothing except time.

 

It's also a good idea to plan your proposed routes and work out in advance what kind of equipment is needed for/suited to the environments that you intend to travel through. That way you can minimise the amount of weight that you're lugging about.
Can you cashe heavy goods, bulk foods, replacement tools or bulky winter clothes, if so you may want to consider duplicating some kit and storing it at your planned destination or a waypoint on your route. If you decide to do this heavy plastic food grade barrels are available with tight fitting screw lids.

 

a hook, a rope and a knife, that is all i am worried for, rest i can survive without.

 

Some SOL stuff is not bad, but you could spend half as much money and get twice as much gear as you would with that kit, most of which is pretty useless. I think that holds true for most " Survival Kits " on the market.

 

The only problem that I have with the ready made survival kits is that they give you the idea that you are prepared. When you make your own kit you really should try our different tools and make SURE of their quality and even more important that you know how to use them.

I have too often watched someone trying to make a fire with matches or even a lighter and not having any luck. They piled up wood and tried to set it on fire...no tinder no twigs for kindling, just logs and sticks as big around as my thumb in a pile. I've watched people that I thought would know better trying to strike a fire with a ferro rods into a pile of leaves that were not bone dry. Ferro rods throw hotter sparks than an old school flint and steel but you still need a nest of something to catch and nourish that spark.

When I was a kid in Boy Scouts we always prided ourselves on never having to use more than one match to start afire. Buying a ready made kit and throwing it in the closet or trunk of your car is almost worse than having nothing. At least if you have nothing you KNOW what your situation is and can plan accordingly.