Survival And Emergency Kits

Survival and Emergency kits

I tend to break down my survival things into smaller kits each covering a very specific area of need. They vary in size according to what they will be used for. The smallest needs to fit in a coat pocket and the largest is what I want at my bug out location (BOL). I have put a lot of thought into each one and try to make it as complete as possible depending on the size that I am trying to allow.

These kits then are put together forming, as near as possible, a master kit that will cover as many of the necessities as possible. The areas of interest in no special order, are Shelter, Fire, Water, Food, Food gathering, Tools, Protection, Medical, Sewing, Signaling, Cooking, Storage and Carrying, Clothing,

I am a compulsive list maker and over the years and have fine tuned a lot of these lists to near perfection for ME and my talents and skill levels. When you do this you have to be realistic about what you need and what you can do. A lot of that has to do with your personal comfort levels in the areas that you live or plan to bug out to. I am blessed in that I live in a very forgiving environment with basically no snow and very few nights with hard freezes. I am also the top of the food chain here and don’t have to worry about big cats, or bears. About the only predator here that might ever bother a human here is an occasional gator and I’m extremely comfortable with them having been raised in heavy gator country.

What this all means is that my only worry is from people, hunger or thirst. I also have some comfort requirements so want a little shelter. I’m extremely comfortable in the woods and have always spent a lot of time alone in the woods and swamps both at night and during the daytime. Being “lost” in the woods is something that I used to do for fun. I don’t stay lost long.

Basically, I have two kinds of kits. One is in my pocket or a small fanny pack anything I go in the woods. It is intended for say an unexpected over night or two stay in the woods. I also carry one of these in my boat. You never know when something might happen to you and you need to stay in the woods. Boats break down and I often am 15 miles or so from civilization in my boat. You can get hurt and need to wait for rescue or get lost in a storm and just want to give it up and hunker down until the storm passes.

The other sort is always a lot bigger and more intricate. These are survival bug out kits and may be all that I have for the foreseeable future. Once again though you need to make some serious decisions about where, what and how you plan to survive and how many people you will have with you.

The needs if you are going Daniel Boone and heading for the deep woods your needs will be a lot different from a plan that involves some scavenging in less rural areas. Lock picks, bump keys and such are useless in the woods but awful handy for opening warehouse doors.

I for example will be in a rural but not deep forest area. I will want snares, fishing gear and traps but also will want the lock persuaders and pry-bars. Most people think of stores when they want to loot food. I know that the warehouses that supply the stores and restaurants are a much better place to look. There you will find food in quantities that stores don’t sell. 100lb bags of rice and beans, 50lb bags of flour, cornmeal and mixes. Cases of canned goods in mountain sized piles. Warehouses don’t have big glass windows they have heavy steel doors and pad locks. In a truck kit I will have bolt cutter. You could usually break the lock with a big hammer or even try to shoot it of but why make noise if you can avoid it.

For a lot of knowledge about what you will need if you are headed for the woods you should look towards the late 1700s and early 1800s American history and the things that people carried then as they scouted the west in the US. They were dealing with a situation a lot like we are talking about. They had to provide their own food, water and shelter while at the same time being careful about contact with other humans. Most of the Native American tribes were good people and more or less treated you as you treated them but some were territorial as hell and some had already had some bad experiences with the white man and were NOT friendly. This will be a lot like what you may face for a while after things fall until it settles down again.

We are fortunate here to have Keith who is an expert on that basic period and what they used. While I’m not comfortable with going all the way down that path as he has, I don’t have his skills, I still can see the advantages of a simple, if somewhat more modern, kit.

Another consideration when putting together is less talked about. MONEY! If you have plenty of it that is nice but you can put together a totally functional kit for very little money. The most important part of any kit is free as far as dollars and weighs nothing…Knowledge. Knowledge allows you to carry a fully functional rod and reel, Bow and Arrows, and animal traps in and on a large pill bottle. A piece od flint and steel or in my case a big ferrocerium rod that will light thousands of fires is a lot smaller and more permanent than any matches or lighters. An intricate and in-depth knowledge of your local flora and fauna turns the world into you own personal grocery store. There is plenty to eat out there. Animals do quite well. You can to if you just know what to eat and what NOT to mess with. The less gadget oriented you are the safer you will be.

Primitive people traveled all over the world with little more than a flint knife and a tomahawk Their survival kit was the knowledge they had been taught. As much as possible make yours that way too. Books are not as good as elders but they can start you off and allow you to find your way. That will also help you find your own elders. Like draws like and when you get out of your house and into the woods you will meet people. Many will gladly help you on your path.

 

I started picking locks when I was a kid but didn't spend much time doing it until I started doing repairs. A lot of the places that I went were rent properties. I would meet the landlord there and find out that the tenant had changed the locks without giving the landlord a key. I got tired of sitting around waiting on a locksmith to come pop the lock and so started doing it as part of my service. House locks are so simple that they really are only to keep honest people out because it doesn't take much to learn to open them. I have a full set of picks and keys and shims. It has become sort of a hobby. I have always liked puzzles and used to even do a Rubic's cube in well under a minute. here is nothing nefarious in my lock picking. I'm an honest person BUT I like to KNOW things. I have never hurt anyone past a little blood, bruises and maybe a little fractured bones but I KNOW how to do a lot more than that. I know how to make bombs and sincerely hope that is one of several skills that I will never have to use...but I wanted to KNOW how. I am an information junkie.

 

The busted knuckles is a young guy learning experience. The open hand, elbows, knees and my hard head all work better than a closed fist. You will heal faster from a bloody nose than a broken knuckle. That is winning a battle then losing the war if two days later you are hurting more than the guy that lost the fight. Heads are HARD!!!

 

A woman demonstrated one of the most devastating nonlethal blows that I have ever seen. The male who was less than a gentleman made an ill advised advance on a lady. She came around and slapped him into next week. At first everyone laughed then realized that what she had done was hit him of the side of his chin with the heal of her hand and SHATTERED his jaw. His mouth was hanging wide open and wouldn't close; he was helpless and screaming bloody murder when she kicked him in the nuts and put him on the floor! That was one expensive pinch on the butt for him.

I learned two things that night...maybe three. One is don't pinch a lady on the butt unless you know her really well. Two, Don't laugh when you make someone mad. If your mouth is open when the chin is hit BAD things happen. just because a women is a lady doesn't mean that she isn't BAD to the bone.

 

i remember sparring with a woman once. i popped her in the breasts and thats all i remember after that....whew