Be Prepared

AlexDaGator

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How about a thread about being prepared? Questions, answers, and tips about anything from basic hurricane prep to a zombie apocalypse.

One tip I hadn't heard before was a survival Kindle. I know, electronics, right? But it actually makes sense. A Kindle paperwhite is lightweight, affordable, durable (in a good case), and has crazy long battery life (billed as having 8 weeks of battery life and capable of holding a thousand books). You can download hundreds of books with valuable survival information (many of them free). I'm thinking I may put a Kindle on my Christmas list.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/...-digital-survival-library-at-your-fingertips/




Alex.
 

AlexDaGator

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Another off the wall tip...it's a good idea to have a stock of medicine like antibiotics but you need a prescription for those and they only give you a few.

Apparently, we use the exact same antibiotics to treat goldfish tanks. I'm not even making this up. You can buy stuff like Amoxicillin or Erythromycin online for your uh...goldfish. You know, for when it has a runny nose or whatnot.

From Wal Mart, you can get a bottle of a 100 Amoxicillin pills (500mg each) for $21.22. A bottle of 100 Cephalexin/Keflex pills (500mg each) is $34.88.


Alex.
 

AlexDaGator

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And a question (if anybody is listening).

I'm in the market for a good, general purpose fixed blade knife. I refuse to buy anything with Bear Grylls name on it (on principle). Any recommendations on a good brand or where to get a good deal?

Alex.
 

Detroitgator

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Another off the wall tip...it's a good idea to have a stock of medicine like antibiotics but you need a prescription for those and they only give you a few.

Apparently, we use the exact same antibiotics to treat goldfish tanks. I'm not even making this up. You can buy stuff like Amoxicillin or Erythromycin online for your uh...goldfish. You know, for when it has a runny nose or whatnot.

From Wal Mart, you can get a bottle of a 100 Amoxicillin pills (500mg each) for $21.22. A bottle of 100 Cephalexin/Keflex pills (500mg each) is $34.88.


Alex.
Yes, you can just about everything you need with animal drugs, just need to understand dosage differences.
 

Detroitgator

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And a question (if anybody is listening).

I'm in the market for a good, general purpose fixed blade knife. I refuse to buy anything with Bear Grylls name on it (on principle). Any recommendations on a good brand or where to get a good deal?

Alex.
For what? Just a good quality GP knife?
 

AlexDaGator

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For what? Just a good quality GP knife?

Something you would throw into a bug out bag. Useful for gutting a fish, sharpening a stake, or as a last resort defense weapon.

Alex.
 

Detroitgator

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Something you would throw into a bug out bag. Useful for gutting a fish, sharpening a stake, or as a last resort defense weapon.

Alex.
You'll get a million different responses to your question, but here is one that works and will not break. He's a friend of mine and my every day carry is one of his and I have a dpx heft chop as well.

Bottom line, go for quality and then utility. If you don't, it'll break, at the worst time.

https://www.dpxgear.com/shop/knives/dpx-heft-6-woodsman-serrated.html
 

Detroitgator

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How about a thread about being prepared? Questions, answers, and tips about anything from basic hurricane prep to a zombie apocalypse.

One tip I hadn't heard before was a survival Kindle. I know, electronics, right? But it actually makes sense. A Kindle paperwhite is lightweight, affordable, durable (in a good case), and has crazy long battery life (billed as having 8 weeks of battery life and capable of holding a thousand books). You can download hundreds of books with valuable survival information (many of them free). I'm thinking I may put a Kindle on my Christmas list.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/...-digital-survival-library-at-your-fingertips/




Alex.
Yup... you can put zillions of useful PDFs on one and you can charge from a little solar panel (which should be in your bag too)
 

AlexDaGator

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Water purification. I've been told the Katadyn Pocket water filter is a good product. It's also $370.

aa035a48-0882-4f34-a4de-d1aaecff07f3.jpg._CB317853467__SL300__.jpg


Any thoughts or experience? Is something like this worth it?

Following Hurricane Irma we were on boil water for a long damn time. Something like this would have been handy.


Alex.
 

Detroitgator

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Water purification. I've been told the Katadyn Pocket water filter is a good product. It's also $370.

aa035a48-0882-4f34-a4de-d1aaecff07f3.jpg._CB317853467__SL300__.jpg


Any thoughts or experience? Is something like this worth it?

Following Hurricane Irma we were on boil water for a long damn time. Something like this would have been handy.


Alex.
Katadyn's are good to have in a bag and for short term emergencies like Irma when you might still have bottled water for awhile as well. For a Puerto Rico type situation, I'd want a Big Berkey... I have one at Squirrel Ranch as a backup to the well.
 

Swamp Donkey

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And a question (if anybody is listening).

I'm in the market for a good, general purpose fixed blade knife. I refuse to buy anything with Bear Grylls name on it (on principle). Any recommendations on a good brand or where to get a good deal?

Alex.
Dont laugh, basically any Mora, perhaps a 511, 711, any Companions or Allarounds. Some like the Heavy Duty Companion, I prefer the standard because I think it cuts better.

I suggest here https://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html#companion
or here (cool leather sheaths there, the Mora sheath isn't very nice) https://www.bensbackwoods.com/sheaths-2/

I prefer carbon steel because it can be sharpened easily to be razor sharp. Use a touch of liquid blue (to touch up gun blue, like $5) and it will last a long time without corrosion. For $9-15 it's a better knife than most knives that cost $100-400. Buy many, throw one in your cars, backpacks, stocking stuffers, whatever. The Scandinavians know knives.

If you demand something slightly more curb appeal, maybe a Rat3. I will tell you however, there are few things a little mora can't do that a big knife can, and many everyday tasks (cleaning a fish or carving) that those big knives can't.
 
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Zambo

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My wife and I both have an 18,000mha lithium ion battery brick in our cars. They are powerful enough to jump start a v8 engine and can charge your cellphone or tablet all week. Also has a built in flashlight.
 

g8tr72

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A computer's UPS was perfect for charging our cell phones for those 8 days we were without power.
 

AlexDaGator

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Given the tragedy in Las Vegas, I have been told that a tampon can be used to stop the bleeding from a bullet wound.

But I don't think that's the best idea.

Real compression bandages are better choices, fairly cheap, and pretty portable (they are vacuum packed to reduce bulk).

"The Israeli" is highly regarded. They can be had online for $7. Easy to apply and effective. Also useful for car accident trauma, etc.

The other common version is OLAES, also available online for about the same price. Better for handling entry and exit wound with one bandage.

You can create your own trauma kit by adding stuff like a tourniquet, or you can buy a pre-made kit. You just need to consider how you'll use it (stored at home, in your glove compartment, or something to throw into the wife's purse when you go to the movies or to a concert or game).

Dark Angel Medical has a $45 "pocket" mini trauma kit that fits easily in the palm of you hand. Full size kits are a lot more.


Alex.
 

bradgator2

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I really, really bright (1000 lumen +) zoomable flashlight. They are surprisingly inexpensive. You can easily zoom in on something a quarter mile away or you can flood/zoom it to light the entire inside of a house.

This was the 1st one that popped on an Amazon:
Amazon product

And a nice headmount light too when you need keep your hands free. Also like $20 an amazon. I've got a ridiculous looking one like this:
61JQmITfr7L._SL1001_.jpg


The real limitation on all these is the LED. The chinese will claim 8000 lumens, or even 20,000 lumens for all these... but these LEDs are really only spitting out 1000 lumens. (which is still DAMN bright)
 

Swamp Donkey

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Given the tragedy in Las Vegas, I have been told that a tampon can be used to stop the bleeding from a bullet wound.

But I don't think that's the best idea.
Mehhhh... tampons work great for stopping bleeding holes. They are very cheap and have tons of cotton stuffed in a small package. Great fire starter also.

Duct tape works great for the limited time you will need it.

Tourniquets? If you have training. You going to have them on your belt during a concert? I'm not.

All that other stuff? I've carried it in high risk environments, have some still sitting around, but not in my personal car.

To each his own. I carry a caveman tourniquet and caveman chest seal (my right palm) almost everywhere I go. And duct tape.
 
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Detroitgator

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Given the tragedy in Las Vegas, I have been told that a tampon can be used to stop the bleeding from a bullet wound.

But I don't think that's the best idea.

Real compression bandages are better choices, fairly cheap, and pretty portable (they are vacuum packed to reduce bulk).

"The Israeli" is highly regarded. They can be had online for $7. Easy to apply and effective. Also useful for car accident trauma, etc.

The other common version is OLAES, also available online for about the same price. Better for handling entry and exit wound with one bandage.

You can create your own trauma kit by adding stuff like a tourniquet, or you can buy a pre-made kit. You just need to consider how you'll use it (stored at home, in your glove compartment, or something to throw into the wife's purse when you go to the movies or to a concert or game).

Dark Angel Medical has a $45 "pocket" mini trauma kit that fits easily in the palm of you hand. Full size kits are a lot more.


Alex.
Tampons and maxipads were good 20+ years ago for build your own and before the internet.

Everyone (and I do mean everyone) should have a basic trauma kit (and know how to use it) like the Dark Angel or ITS (and ITS has cool stickers!). IMG_5032.JPG Every car in my family (5 now) has one, I've used them twice at accident scenes... I have a "curse" going back to 15 years old of always being the first on scene of bad things.

This is the kind of thing where Boy Scouts not being cool anymore has hurt us... practically no one knows any basic first aid anymore.
 

Swamp Donkey

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I really, really bright (1000 lumen +) zoomable flashlight.
Well, I have usually gone the other direction. IMO unless you really need to blind someone--kicking in doors and clearing houses--the super high candlepower flashlights are a poor choice. A much better choice IMO is a tasklight (or headlamp-- but a 1 AAA tasklight fits in any unobtrusively in any pocket) that runs for a considerable amount of time. Some of the AAA flashlights will last days on a low setting. That's much more useful.

I also find it makes more sense to you carry a light that runs off one battery, perhaps a flashlight that runs of a single AA battery and have one battery spare versus having one flashlight that runs off two batteries. There's no real way to check the gas tank on those things and inevitably you run out of gas at the wrong time.

the final tip with regard to batteries is do everything you can to select gear that runs off the same battery. Sometimes you won't have an option with certain equipment for instance if you have night vision/ a handheld GPS/ whatever proessional equipment you might have that run off say AA batteries then your entire kit should run off AA batteries. That way your spares working everything and you have additional spares in the other equipment that you may not need at that time.

It really sucks for your gps to go dead and find that the only spare batteries you have left are AAA's or 134s which don't fit what you need.
 
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Detroitgator

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Well, I have usually gone the other direction. IMO unless you really need to blind someone--kicking in doors and clearing houses--the super high candlepower flashlights are a poor choice. A much better choice IMO is a tasklight (or headlamp-- but a 1 AAA tasklight fits in any unobtrusively in any pocket) that runs for a considerable amount of time. Some of the AAA flashlights will last days on a low setting. That's much more useful.

I also find it makes more sense to you carry a light that runs off one battery, perhaps a flashlight that runs of a single AA battery and have one battery spare versus having one flashlight that runs off two batteries. There's no real way to check the gas tank on those things and inevitably you run out of gas at the wrong time.

the final tip with regard to batteries is do everything you can to select gear that runs off the same battery. Sometimes you won't have an option with certain equipment for instance if you have night vision/ a handheld GPS/ whatever proessional equipment you might have that run off say AA batteries then your entire kit should run off AA batteries. That way your spares working everything and you have additional spares in the other equipment that you may not need at that time.

It really sucks for your gps to go dead and find that the only spare batteries you have left are AAA's or 134s which don't fit what you need.
All of this.
 

Swamp Donkey

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This guy taught survival to Canadian mil and US special ops for decades. Love this guy's philosophies. If you read his stuff, you will see where Cody Lundin learned most of his mindset.


 

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