What is a Survival Kit? It is basically a kit that can help you around in times of trouble. To many of us felt that this kit is not necessary as they hardly venture into the wilderness. My thoughts about survival kit was back in 1986 when I owned the SAS Survival Book. Inside this book, it gave me a certain view how one should actually have it prepared rather than there is none when you need it. My Survival Kit is with me all the time, everywhere I go from travelling abroad, mountain biking or hiking etc. To be honest, I never really have the chance to use all the items.
I was in a foreign city, the compass did come in handy. In India we had a blackout, the candle and headlamp was useful.
The basic of a Survival Kit must contain items for these uses as mentioned below. The first 4 on the lists are the most important to survival. However I do feel that if one should have good understanding about survival and have a good knife is all you need. But if you are not then the lists below can come in handy.
Here are the 8 most important points you have to equipped in the survival kit.
1. Fire
2. Shelter / Protection
3. Water
4. Food
5. Navigation
6. Signal
7. First Aid
8. Repair Kit
Survival Kit Lists
You can buy survival kit off the shelf or you can make one for yourself by getting ideas from YouTube but the fundamentalist is that you must have the items for the above points mentioned.
Over the years, I have kept upgrading my kit. It is not necessary to have the same items as I have but just to give you an idea. My survival kit is not just for wilderness use but for urban usage as well.
Recently I have modified my kit, my current kit is about 5" x 4" using a mini Deuter first aid pouch. I could make a bigger kit but my idea is to have it small but not too small that I have to sacrifice some items. It is small enough to place it in any of my backpack or have it around my waist belt. My whole kit weighs around 570g, major weight comes from the Leatherman Juice which I will use from time to time. I will explain the usage of each item.FIRE
- Matches & striker - This will be my last option to use, otherwise I will use it during blackout in a hotel room to light my candle. That is why I only carry 10 sticks of matches.
- Fire starter - Magnesium fire starting tool, a recent item I added. It weighs less than 40g and has a high fire output. Here is a video to give you an idea
- Candle - not really a fire starting tool but it comes in handy during dark hours.
- Emergency (space) Blanket - 220 x 140cm in size sufficient enough to protect against cold, rain, heat and wind. You can use it to build a temporary tent if you need too. A must have item even you think you have cloth enough for the weather.
WATER
- Coffee filters - 2nos filters to get rid of dirt and any particles in the water
- Zip loc bags - 2nos bag to hold water during water filtration or food
- Condom - you can carry at least 3lts of water with it
- Water purification tablets - to kill bacterial and germs in the water. Not recommended to use but only in real bad situation when you can't boil the water.
- Aluminium foils - 2 nos Aluminium foils to make container to boil water or cook your food otherwise you can use it to for Solar water filteration.
FOOD
- Fishing kit - few different hooks and weight
- Snare wire - about 2mtrs of stainless steel wire for making traps to catch small game animals or for other repair and tying work
You notice this a waterproof container that is used to store matches. I have made a few modification and was able to store at least 10 different items in it; sewing kit, safety pin, compass, fire flint, fishing line, 6 fishing hooks, 2 weighs, 10 matches & striker, 2mtrs snare wire and duct tape.
NAVIGATION
- Compass - to give a a general direction you are heading, never rely just on your GPS because it will run of batt or simply just break down.
- Paper and Pencil - to note down landmark or leave a note for your love ones
- Survival Instruction - not all you read and learn about survival is in your head. This is a backup memory from star grazing, water collection, river trekking, SOS signals etc.
SIGNAL
- Signal mirror - to signal SOS to passing by planes or others
- Mini headlamp - Petzel elite headlamp. The manufacture gave warranty that the battery will not drain if you leave it in your lamp for 10yrs. Able to give 6 different mode of light including flashing red light. Personally I feel it is a great lamp except it run on 2nos CR2032 batt. which is expensive.
- Whistle - it will gives a louder sound than your voice.
*there are proper methods in signaling which I will cover in another post.
FIRST AID
- Band aid - good for small cuts and wounds
- Alcohol Swab - to clean up wounds and to sterilize knives
- Iodine swab - comes like a cotton bud, break the tip and you have iodine to apply to the wounds
- Cotton bud - to clean dedicated area
- Surgical blade - if you need to get some foreign object under your skin, you need a sterilized blade. You can double it as a cutting tool for survival
- Needles and tread - for your clothes or other things that you need to sew
- Safety pins - can be use as a fishing hook or just to hold items together
- Rope - 5mts in length for making tents, or tying things together
- Multi tools - good to have a multi tools for different job (do not forget CAN OPENER if you multi tools doesn't have it)
- Flexible saw - if there is log to saw for making shelter, raft etc otherwise you can double it as a snare wire for trap.
- Knife sharpener - a good knife is essential in survival so you like it to stay sharp at all times
- Duct tape - great for repairs or use it to close up wounds
The survival Kit lists is up to your choice, you can add more items for the first aid or some hot choclate mix. It is all up to your needs but you still have to fullfill the 8 points that was mentioned earlier.
All the items here are not just thrown in for the purpose of having it, in due time I will still modify the contents. The most important thing is that you need to practise and understand the usage of each item. Without the knowledge, all these items will be useless to you.
