At some point in your life you may find yourself in a situation where you may need an emergency tool kit or survival pack. It’s a good idea to keep one in your vehicle, but I highly recommend having one with you during any outdoor adventure such as a camping, fishing, or a hunting trip. You can put a kit together yourself easily and it doesn’t have to be that big. For the car I recommend a little larger kit because you don’t have to worry about lugging it around with you and there is usually ample room in your vehicle to store one. Before I get into the actual kit, I’m going to give you a little scenario that could happen to you at some point in your life. The kit you build may mean the difference between life and death.
Lets say that you and your family decide to go on a weekend camping trip. The weather forecast looks good and you head out into the hills. On the second day into the trip your moving to your next campsite when you slip on some loose gravel and fall over a small hill. Your wearing shorts and your right leg is cut up pretty bad. To top it all off, when you fell your pack strap broke loose and it rolled down the hill into a sharp rock which tore a hole in the side of your pack. Your 10 miles away from anywhere you could get help and your only option is to walk back out. Would you have what you need to clean and dress your wounds? Would you be able to repair your pack and make it usable again? What if your pack ripped open and you lost all of your food? Would you be prepared to survive until you found help or could make it out?
Not a likely turn of events you might say…I would be willing to bet that stories like this do happen more often then we think and if it did happen to me, I would want to be prepared for it.
I have listed some items below that are good to have around when things like this happen. Most of them have multiple uses, which is good when space becomes an issue. I recommend using some sort of water resistant bag to store your kit in, like a men’s shower/travel bag or at least put the sensitive stuff in a plastic zip lock bag. I will list a few brief uses for each item along with the description below:
Duct tape – Endless uses…repair tent holes, blisters, band-aids; the list goes on and on.
Multi tool – A good one will have a knife, pliers, file, screwdriver (flat and Philips head), wire cutters, and scissors. (Tip: spend the money on a good one!)
Lighter – A good wind-proof lighter is worth its weight in gold when you need a fire.
Needle & thread – You never know when you may need to fix a button or worst case, close and open wound.
Super glue – Another tool with many uses; if the thought of sewing up a wound with needle and thread didn’t sit well, you can use super glue to close wounds too. It is also good for blisters and is very flammable if you’re having trouble getting a fire started.
Band-aids – Carry a wide variety in your kit, they are small and compact.
Painkillers – Aspirin of some kind is good to have for aches and pains and it’s not a bad idea to carry some Imodium in there as well.
Power Bars – Put two bars in your kit, you never know, they are a good source of energy and fill you up. A power bar could last you a few days in the worst circumstances.
Water purification tablets – You can survive without food for a while, but not water!
Space blanket - They are good for signaling and staying warm when you have nothing else. They are very light and compact.
Small crescent wrench – Here is another good item to have in case you need to make some small repairs on your equipment. Sometimes your pliers just won’t do the job alone.
Baby wipes – A small container of baby wipes has a ton of uses, from cleaning up wounds to cleaning yourself, you just never know.
String – A nice ball of string can be handy in many cases, building shelter, or catching game, even shoe strings break when you least expect it.
Use common sense when you’re building your kit, if you live in an area where one thing may apply more than another, like maybe a snake bite kit, put it in there too. If you build from this list and customize it as needed, you could help yourself out of an otherwise bad situation by being prepared.
