10 Things You Should Have In Your Survival Kit
What is a survival kit?
Before we talk about the 10 Things You Should Have In Your Survival Kit, we should define the context that we’re talking about.
A survival kit could be any kit that you have put together for an emergency situation. For instance, it could be a kit that’s meant to provide you with food, water, and basic first aid supplies to hold out for a few days at home during the aftermath of a hurricane or other storm(here’s a good list from the Red Cross).
Or it could be a small kit that you take with you when you’re hiking, hunting, camping, or just in the wilderness to provide you with the basic necessities to stay alive and be found. It’s this later iteration of a survival kit that we’ll be laying out here.
10 Things You Should Have In Your Survival Kit
- A firestarter. This could be matches, a lighter, or a ceramic and ferro rod firestarter. Having a dependable firestarter allows you to provide heat and purify water-both survival requirements. Adding some tinder options such as our Survival Tinder Balls are a great addition as well.
- A knife or multi-tool. A good knife or multi-tool should be part of every survival kit, no matter the context. For a credit-card style multi tool, check these out from MichiganFishingForever.com.
- A compass. Depending on the severity of the situation, having a reliable navigation tool (and knowing how to use it) can be life saving.
- Emergency bivvy. An emergency bivvy can be a life saver. It can quickly function as both a sleeping bag or emergency shelter in inclement weather.
- Water filtration. Having clean, drinkable water is a survival necessity. While we don’t sell them here at Graft Outdoors, a Sawyer Mini makes a great survival kit water purification tool.
- Whistle. When you’re lost in the wilderness, it’s important to be able to establish a signal that doesn’t appear natural. This is where a survival whistle can help you.
- Signal mirror. You can usually find a good compass/signal mirror combo. This is great as it helps remove single-purpose items from your kit.
- Basic first aid kit. At the very least, some medical tape, gauze pads, antiseptic swabs, bandages, and some ibuprofen would be a great first aid kit. However, take into account where you’ll be possibly stranded, AND your personal medical needs when putting together your survival first aid kit.
- Paracord survival bracelet or other length of paracord. 550 Type 3 paracord is made with 7 strands of nylon placed in an exterior shell. So 10’ of paracord can give you up to 70 feet of high-tensile thread that you can use for things such as fishing line or thread.
- A Flashlight or headlamp. Having easily accessible light makes navigating in wilderness much easier and safer.
While not an exhaustive list of survival tools, this list does include the basic tools you’ll need in most survival situations where you’re stranded or lost for an undetermined amount of time. With the tools on this list, you’ll be able to secure the four basic elements of survival: shelter, water, fire, and food.
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