Outdoor Survival Info

Archive for the ‘Equipment’ Category

I’ve been adding more and more products to my bug out gear supply shop. And I’m going to add more and more. So go check it out and buy some gear. If you don’t see anything you want or need right now, sign up as a customer so you will receive the BDR Gear newsletter, which will be filled with product and site updates.

It’s important to stay warm when out and about during the winter, and with winter coming right around the corner, I thought I would tell you guys about a new category at my gear shop. The new category is Cold Weather Gear, and it contains only two items right now. But those two items are important to keeping you warm. And who knows? By the time you read this, I might have more products in that category.

Check out my cold weather gear and buy some to stay warm.

I hold the personal belief that the knife is the single most useful thing ever invented by man. I also am of the mind that one should have a particular knife for a particular job. Now, sure, there are some great “utility” knives out there, suitable for a wide variety of purposes. That’s how I look at my CRKT pocket folder. It’s tough and it’s handy.

But it’s not really going to cut it (pun shamelessly intended) when I gut a deer. So I bought a new knife today. I bought a Gerber fixed blade hunting knife with gut hook. It’s nothing fancy, and wasn’t expensive. But it’s something I needed, and I’ve already taken it out in the field. Of course, it didn’t get any use, but it will.

I’ll give a full review with pictures after I have the chance to use it. Well, I might just snap some photos of it tomorrow and post them so you can see what it looks like. Preview: Full tang construction with a grip-friendly hard-rubber…grip. The blade is 4 inches long and coated with titanium. It’s sharp enough, it seems, and the gut hook is a nice feature that doesn’t stick out too much. The knife also came with a basic nylon sheath. It’s a nice knife, especially considering how much I paid for it ($22 at Wal-Mart). I’ll see how it holds up to some real use and abuse — I demand serious performace from my gear, which my wife says is just being too hard on it all.

There I was, getting ready to practice with my bow when the unthinkable happened. I pulled back, released my arrow, and heard a loud and very strange twang. I looked at my used Browning Ballistic Mirage compound bow and noticed one of the cables dangling. This may be a repairable issue, but I just don’t trust it any more.

I guess I’m going to just have to buy something different. The trick will be to get it either A) without my wife knowing until it’s all said and done, or B) something my wife agrees to. My wife worries about money, and so do I. But this is just about a necessity. I’ll figure out a way to make it work, but if I could avoid a woman’s scorn, I will.

I might try to get something used, just to get through this season, but I’ll just have to see what’s out there. I’m going to try to make some extra money, but I need to get whatever I’m getting really soon. Archery of any kind takes practice! And if I get a longbow or recurve, I’ll need a lot of practice.

While camping this weekend, I learned a valuable lesson. It’s good to have a padded sleeping mat when camping. I learned this the hard way, quite literally, by sleeping on the hard, rocky ground. Not only will one of these pads make sleeping all nice and comfy, but it can be a vital part of your bug out gear, too.

When you are bugging out, there’s an emergency going on somewhere in your region. During times like this, rest is critical. With yourself better rested, you’ll have more energy and be able to make more sound decisions. Both of which are vital to survival during a disaster. Not only are they good for you, but if you have to care for an injured person, putting them on your padded mat can help facilitate a quicker recovery. No, it won’t actually help heal a broken leg or take a fever down to safe levels. What it will do is make your charge more comfortable. And comfort aids in healing.

The pads are light, and they don’t take up much space on a pack. If you don’t have one, I suggest you get one. I’m going to.

A little trick I learned from my Marine OSO Captain was to pack plenty of zipper-locked sandwich and freezer bags with your gear. Books, maps, and electronics don’t like water very much. No matter how water-resistant your pack is, the rain will penetrate eventually. Not to mention streams and lakes you might fall into while hiking.

Keep zipper bags and baggies in your gear and put your water-sensitive items in them. You will be thankful that you did. This also protect against sweat. If you are keeping a little navigation notebook, journal, or paper map in your pocket while hiking, there’s a pretty good chance that it will get soaked with your sweat. Keep in the the plastic bag and it will be fine.

Don’t forget about any ammo you’re carrying, either. Put that in a bag so it stays as dry as possible.

While browsing various AR parts dealers online, I see that I have a lot to choose from. Not only are there several configuration variations for the AR platform (A2, M4, A3, etc.), but there are a wide variety of calibers available.

The first thing I have to do is decide on what kind of rifle I want to build. Do I want a general defensive rifle, that will take the very easy to find 5.56mm/.223 cartridge, or do I want a heavier-hitting .308? Likewise, I could opt for a 9mm carbine or the slow but heavy .450 Hornady.

Money doesn’t grow on trees in my yard, so it would probably make sense to get something that could be considered all-purpose. The .223 AR is a leading candidate for that. The problem with that round is that I hunt deer. While a .223 can kill a 150 – 200 pound animal, there’s little room for error. A more powerful cartridge would be better.

If I go up to a .308 or larger, the ammo starts to get more expensive. So practice with the rifle would be pricey. However, the .308 is a great all-around cartridge, suitable for a wide array of uses.

If I move up to the 6.8 SPC, I’ll get plenty of deer-hunting power, and have a rifle chambered in a round that is picking up popularity fast. So what do I do? 5.56mm, 6.8 SPC, .308, or one of the other chamberings? I could always buy a complete rifle and then buy different uppers and magazines, each one suitable to a particular purpose. But I don’t know if that’s what I really want to do.

The question is whether I want a rifle I can use for anything, or if I want to purchase rifles that were designed for a particular task. Should I build a 5.56/.223 AR for a defensive weapon and buy a rifle designed for hunting, or should I get one weapon for all seasons?

I need to decide that before I decide exactly what I want to build. I do plan on buying hunting-specific rifles, but having something all-purpose really appeals to me.

When you need to get out of town to avoid getting caught up in some disaster, you’ll need supplies. Bug Out Bags are not really meant to be a replacement to your life, but rather to get you through the first tough couple of days of a disaster. Once the initial shock is done, emergency services and supplies may start to trickle in.

Whether you are bugging in (staying put and waiting out the storm) or you you are bugging out, you’ll need some basic supplies. I found a good online resource for getting some bug out kits ready made. These 72-Hour kits are meant to get you through the initial stage of the disaster. You may have to travel to another state, or walk 100 miles. Or maybe you’re just snowed in for a couple of days. Take a look at this site:

Not only do they have ready-made 72-Hour kits to get you through a hurricane, earthquake, or some other disaster (massive riots, for example), but they also have supplies you can use to create your own. The kits range in price from $20 to $180, and they seem to cover the basic areas of food, water, and emergency gear.

Take a look at them and see what they have to offer. Having an emergency kit is like wearing your seatbelt. Sure, you don’t need it every day, but if you get in a car accident, you’ll be glad you were wearing it. Likewise, if there’s a disaster in your area, you’ll be glad you have some emergency supplies in a grab-and-go bag. Click on the banner, see what they have to offer, and buy your emergency supplies today.

Guns are expensive. That’s the plain and simple truth. A quality firearm will cost you anywhere from $500 to $3000. Not exactly pocket change, I know. A lot of people I know don’t own any guns at all because they feel that they just don’t have the money to afford one.

Whether you are looking for a hunting tool, a defensive weapon, or just something that will give you hours of fun at the range, you don’t have to save paycheck after paycheck to get it. What you can do is buy the Maverick Model 88 Field. I bought one almost two years ago, and it’s a great little shotgun. Maverick is an offshoot of Mossberg, and the 88 is basically a bare bones version of the Mossberg 500. Barrels and chokes are interchangeable. Brand new, after taxes, I spent less that $160 on mine.

I know what you’re thinking… “What a cheap gun!” Well, cheap as far as money is concerned. Sure, there aren’t any bells or whistles on this shotgun, but thing works. It’s simple, and it works. I took a 200 lbs. buck with it last season, so I know it’s effective. This hunting season, I’ll be using it on squirrel, dove, deer, and duck. Based on its past performance, I am confident that it will get the job done.

The Maverick 88 is a 12 gauge shotgun, with a smooth-bore barrel that comes with a modified choke Accu-Choke installed. It is chambered to take 2 ¾” or 3” shells. The stock is black synthetic, which feels nice and keeps the gun light. I’ve taken a few pictures so you can see what it looks like. Now, I don’t have a proper photography studio setup, so the pics are kind of amateurish. I’ll get better with time. Anyway…

Here is the shotgun (most of it, anyway).

The barrel has standard ribbing to which you can attach clip-on sighting systems.

The integral recoil pad makes this a breeze to shoot. That pad will come in handy on a long day of shooting squirrels or doves.

If you don’t have much money to spend on a firearm, take a serious look at a Maverick Model 88 Field. It’s inexpensive, durable, and gets the job done. Head to your local gun shop and take a look at one.

I read an article today that made a pretty decent case for the .270 as an ideal deer hunting cartridge. The article was in the current issue of Peterson’s Hunting (August 2007). Technically, the piece was written from the angle of getting rid of (well, not hunting with) some too-weak, too-strong, or generally ill-suited-for-deer cartridges.

Once the “herd was culled,” as the writer put it, there were a few good old chamberings left. The writer touted the .270 as the best all-around deer cartridge. Apparently, it’s versatile enough to be effective against a wide variety of deer, and in a wide variety of locales.

I still haven’t bought my rifle for this next deer season, and this article was persuasive enough that my mind may be swaying. We’ll see how it turns out. And, of course, you’ll get some pictures when I get my rifle.