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minimalist kit, do you have one?

Do you have a minimalist kit, or a small survival kit?

How big or small is it?

What do you have in it? why?

Pics and descriptions..

I have a few of them, in various sizes. the recent discusion on waking up in the woods with only a knife brought up items one could fashion in the field, but it would be better to wake up with your kit strapped to your body.

So give it a go, whatcha got in your bag o' tricks?

Tags: bug, edc, kit, mini, minimalist, out, survival

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by james a c smith on July 4, 2015 at 11:56

oh yeah, the list for the orange bag, bic lighter, p52 can opener, gerber artifact tool, roll of fat wood, magnesium/ferocium rod w/ striker, fox 40 whistle, 1 time use superglue, and roll of 18" square heavy guage plastic. zipper pen pouch with pull loop. fits in any bag or cargo pocket, vest etc.

Permalink Reply by James Cole on July 4, 2015 at 17:03

I LIKE IT!

james a c smith said:

Okay so here is my small EDC kit that goes in my day bag(man purse if you must), which is a Redrock outdoors, sling pack, kinda cute...very versital. pics of that too. and what i keep in there.

so there you have a minimalist type kit inside of a "overprepared boyscouts" little back pack, that he totes everywhere, and my CZ75-p07 9mm fits right in the middle if I cant carry it on the hip. so I don't know if this qualifies as minimal, maybe to some, but not to others. next post...pockets!

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 5, 2015 at 12:36

Well ya'll have inspired me, I am going to build a minimalist kit for my truck this week. Stay tuned!

Permalink Reply by james a c smith on July 5, 2015 at 13:04

cool, I wanna see this.

Jan Carter said:

Well ya'll have inspired me, I am going to build a minimalist kit for my truck this week. Stay tuned!

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on July 5, 2015 at 13:21

Good choice of whistles, John

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on July 6, 2015 at 15:58

Pictured is my fishing vest which is a ACU FLC tactical vest that was given to me. The large pouch in front was for an E-Tool. I use it full carrying a tackle box. I'm not sure what the smaller pouch was for. I use it hold needle nose pliers. I bought a canteen w/ MOLLE pouch to replace my 30 year old canteen with the old style canteen cover.

While I use it for fishing I've been adding items for emergency situations and it will be part of my modular bug out bag.

A couple items that are not shown are spare socks, a compass, a "write in the rain " memo pad, strike anywhere matches an dinsect repellent. Yes I know we've had discussions about predatory attacks but even in an emergency I'm more worried out mosquitoes and ticks than Bears and Cougars

The kit is still evolving. While an ultralight fishing pole and an even smaller Ice fishing rod and reel are part of my bug out gear (and what the vest is set up for, I also have spare line in the vest in the event I need to improvise and hand fish or make my own pole.

Below are the contents unpacked (it is still evolving as I determine what works and doesn't work) It is only with use that you learn what belongs and doesn't belong in your gear. It is best to find out in a non-emergency situation!

Victorinox Outrider 111mm pocket knife, small two sided tackle box, 1 quart canteen, LED flashlight,

Fishing gloves, fishing line, Carabiner and velcro tie downs, hand sanitizer, fishing license, Buck Clearwater Bait Knife, Glow in the dark Hook Remover. Needle nose pliers.wire cutters, small aid kit, w/ Tylenol, bandages and antiseptic wipes. ( I plan to add two days worth of my prescription medications to the kit) Whistle (with thermometer, magnifying glass and small compass)

Side one of the tackle box, small float, artificial bait, Swiss Army Classic and Nail clippers, Lighter, chapstick, Victorinox Explorer.

Side two has a few more artificial lures, more floats, hooks, lead weight, hooks, and swivels, and snap swivels.

The premise of the kit is to make it tolerable for 1-3 days in the wilderness if need be. One of the givens is that I was smart enough to be wearing climate appropriate clothing. As general rule I tend to bring spare socks with me when I go camping or fishing. There are spare wool sucks tucked on the inside of the vest but I forgot to pull them out when I took the picture!

(oh yeah, as for the whistle - this thing is cheap. The thermometer is accurate enough, the compass is so-so, the magnifying glass is low power but helps me tie knots. [the one the my old Explorer is better]. On the bright side the whistle is pretty loud. An all weather storm whistle would be a much better option

Permalink Reply by james a c smith on July 7, 2015 at 0:49

nice setup there, I love the FLC, I have one also in coyote, but.....it's kinda my more exreme measures kit, worst case scenario, could do a thread on that one too...but anyway, you can get all kinds of pouches for the FLC, and cheap. Ebay! just search for "molle II" "FLC" and add tags like pouch or ACU, or whatever camo pattern you like, woodland is cool, and abundant right now. you could easily load one out with a veriaty of pouches and completely substitute a pack....yeah, cool gear...

Tobias Gibson said:

Pictured is my fishing vest which is a ACU FLC tactical vest that was given to me. The large pouch in front was for an E-Tool. I use it full carrying a tackle box. I'm not sure what the smaller pouch was for. I use it hold needle nose pliers. I bought a canteen w/ MOLLE pouch to replace my 30 year old canteen with the old style canteen cover.

While I use it for fishing I've been adding items for emergency situations and it will be part of my modular bug out bag.

A couple items that are not shown are spare socks, a compass, a "write in the rain " memo pad, strike anywhere matches an dinsect repellent. Yes I know we've had discussions about predatory attacks but even in an emergency I'm more worried out mosquitoes and ticks than Bears and Cougars

The kit is still evolving. While an ultralight fishing pole and an even smaller Ice fishing rod and reel are part of my bug out gear (and what the vest is set up for, I also have spare line in the vest in the event I need to improvise and hand fish or make my own pole.

Below are the contents unpacked (it is still evolving as I determine what works and doesn't work) It is only with use that you learn what belongs and doesn't belong in your gear. It is best to find out in a non-emergency situation!

Victorinox Outrider 111mm pocket knife, small two sided tackle box, 1 quart canteen, LED flashlight,

Fishing gloves, fishing line, Carabiner and velcro tie downs, hand sanitizer, fishing license, Buck Clearwater Bait Knife, Glow in the dark Hook Remover. Needle nose pliers.wire cutters, small aid kit, w/ Tylenol, bandages and antiseptic wipes. ( I plan to add two days worth of my prescription medications to the kit) Whistle (with thermometer, magnifying glass and small compass)

Side one of the tackle box, small float, artificial bait, Swiss Army Classic and Nail clippers, Lighter, chapstick, Victorinox Explorer.

Side two has a few more artificial lures, more floats, hooks, lead weight, hooks, and swivels, and snap swivels.

The premise of the kit is to make it tolerable for 1-3 days in the wilderness if need be. One of the givens is that I was smart enough to be wearing climate appropriate clothing. As general rule I tend to bring spare socks with me when I go camping or fishing. There are spare wool sucks tucked on the inside of the vest but I forgot to pull them out when I took the picture!

(oh yeah, as for the whistle - this thing is cheap. The thermometer is accurate enough, the compass is so-so, the magnifying glass is low power but helps me tie knots. [the one the my old Explorer is better]. On the bright side the whistle is pretty loud. An all weather storm whistle would be a much better option

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on July 7, 2015 at 5:50

James, for the record, ACU isn't really a camo pattern I like. As i said the vest was given to me. As a camo pattern, UCP/ ACU pretty much sucks! In most situations it sticks out like a sore thumb. It was one of the worst patterns the Army evey adopted. When it comes to modern military patterns, The older non digital Tiger Stripe and Woodland are much better than UCP. The new Multicam is major improvement over UCP UCP stood for Universal Camouflage Pattern but it should be called Usless Camo Pattern. About the only place it will work is in a grey dusty gravel pit or similar environment

That said, the MOLLE concerpt is excellent and the vest is comfortable. I would have preferred a vest in woodland or olive but its hard to argue with free!

Permalink Reply by james a c smith on July 7, 2015 at 6:35

So very true..and even multi cam now comes in 2 varients just to be effective in more places, but still some of the best was the old style woodland and tiger, the best of the new digitized paterns, is MARPAT, and it actualy has reserch and history behind it, thank Canada, it was borrowed from them, with minor changes. I just don,t get the UPC colors, I can see leaving out the black, but why the blueish grey-green. but the stuff is in abundance, which is cool for gear collecting,

As far a free...well i take free, free is cool...unless it's pink, then, one of my daughters gets it...for free....right?

Tobias Gibson said:

James, for the record, ACU isn't really a camo pattern I like. As i said the vest was given to me. As a camo pattern, UCP/ ACU pretty much sucks! In most situations it sticks out like a sore thumb. It was one of the worst patterns the Army evey adopted. When it comes to modern military patterns, The older non digital Tiger Stripe and Woodland are much better than UCP. The new Multicam is major improvement over UCP UCP stood for Universal Camouflage Pattern but it should be called Usless Camo Pattern. About the only place it will work is in a grey dusty gravel pit or similar environment

That said, the MOLLE concerpt is excellent and the vest is comfortable. I would have preferred a vest in woodland or olive but its hard to argue with free!

Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on July 7, 2015 at 10:38

I've said it before and I'll say it again, pink is an excellent color for desert camouflage The British Special Ops types have been using pink for desert camouflage since World War I. The SAS dubbed their desert Land Rovers Gun Trucks "Pink Panthers" Eventually they started referring to the their Gun Trucks ans "Pinkies" regardless of the color. They learned desert camouflage techniques from the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) of World War II fame who used quite a bit of pink in the camo schemes. The LRDG basically learned to use pink from the Light Car Patrols from World War I. Pink allows the vehicles to blend in with the desert horizon at the two most critical times of the day, sunrise and sunset.

Pink was also a popular color with the disruptive dazzle camouflage used in the British and American Navies in both World Wars. It was said to blend with the horizon at sunrise and sunset and be virtually invisible through a periscope under a full moon making it very difficult for a U-Boat to get a range on the ship.

Permalink Reply by James Cole on July 7, 2015 at 13:02

Hello, My name is James and I'm a (said with a small sob) prepper. I have been sober for nearly three days. In that time I have not purchased one piece of survival gear. Sadly I must confess that I did go to Amazon, and Countycomm, and well maybe a few more sites, but it was only to look. Really! Honest!

I know there is something wrong with me and my inability to stop buying all of those gadgets and tools, but I can't stop and when I can't get hold of my sponsor I just buy and buy. It used to be that I could just hold and look at what I already had, but then the excitement of that wore off and I just had to have more. Is it wrong to have 15 fire steels, 27 flashlights, 405 knives, 250 lighters, and 8 years of food? I ask you, is it? Is it?

Although I'm not really that guy, I just emptied out my overflow/extras bin and here is what it contains.

1 pkg containing: 10/P38 & 10/P52 can openers

1 pkg of 6 survival candles

1 SAS Survival Guide

1 Eton photo cell/hand crank radio

1 hand crank radio/flashlight

1 aluminum water bottle

1 credit card knife

1 large nail clipper

3 not expensive LED flashlights

1 pkg(6) LR44 batteries for StreamLites

3 StreamLite Keychain flashlights

1 Bic lighter

1 emergency Bivvy bag

1 emergency blanket

1 pill bottle of matches and striker

1 Snapon mini tool

1 Tactical pen

1 portable USB battery/flashlight

1 China made NRA promo knife

Permalink Reply by james a c smith on July 7, 2015 at 13:34

Ebay it, so you can get money to but the newer gear you "realy" need...or maybe,..another knife, just got though looking at my latest "cheaperthandirt" magazine...got some desires building up, shock cord and starflash survival mirrors...

James Cole said:

Hello, My name is James and I'm a (said with a small sob) prepper. I have been sober for nearly three days. In that time I have not purchased one piece of survival gear. Sadly I must confess that I did go to Amazon, and Countycomm, and well maybe a few more sites, but it was only to look. Really! Honest!

I know there is something wrong with me and my inability to stop buying all of those gadgets and tools, but I can't stop and when I can't get hold of my sponsor I just buy and buy. It used to be that I could just hold and look at what I already had, but then the excitement of that wore off and I just had to have more. Is it wrong to have 15 fire steels, 27 flashlights, 405 knives, 250 lighters, and 8 years of food? I ask you, is it? Is it?

Although I'm not really that guy, I just emptied out my overflow/extras bin and here is what it contains.

1 pkg containing: 10/P38 & 10/P52 can openers

1 pkg of 6 survival candles

1 SAS Survival Guide

1 Eton photo cell/hand crank radio

1 hand crank radio/flashlight

1 aluminum water bottle

1 credit card knife

1 large nail clipper

3 not expensive LED flashlights

1 pkg(6) LR44 batteries for StreamLites

3 StreamLite Keychain flashlights

1 Bic lighter

1 emergency Bivvy bag

1 emergency blanket

1 pill bottle of matches and striker

1 Snapon mini tool

1 Tactical pen

1 portable USB battery/flashlight

1 China made NRA promo knife