EDC Meets Bug Out Bag
Are You Ready For Life’s Daily Emergencies?
We’re not talking end of the world stuff here, just those mostly annoying pitfalls we stumble into going to work, taking the trash out or when the “On/Off” switch doesn’t happen to work for a few hours. Herewith are a small handful of handy widgets we’ve come to rely on. I’ll bet you could add to the pile easily — and you should. Circle what you want and leave it in a conspicuous spot so Santa knows, eh?
FireSteel
Fire? Yup, it gets cold and hungry fast without it. Here’s a small collection of ferrocerium “fire starting” rods to solve that problem. (L-R) From Michigan Wildfire custom, HRK Machining, LT Write Knives and www.firesteel.com. Add a scraper and presto — hot sparks!
SOG knives
The SEAL Strike from SOG Knives weighs 5.6 oz., featuring an AUS-8 stainless steel 4.9″ blade. The full tang construction allows a handy hammering pommel. The overall length is 9.6″, carrying easily in the hard-molded nylon sheath. That sheath features a steel belt clip, built-in cord cutter system, a single-stage sharpener, fire-starter strip and ambidextrous carry. MSRP is $134.
Pepper spray
Kimber’s Pepper Blaster II is the latest generation of this handy two-shooter. Firing pepper irritant, it shoots a sort of “glob” of OC goo up to about 13′. It gives you two fast “shots” of the glob using small pyrotechnic charges and costs around $40 or so. An upper chest or face hit should give you time to get out of Dodge!
Day Pack
First Tactical Specialist’s 1-Day Backpack ($99.99), is 2,200 cubic inches (36 liters) of “carry-it” with YKK zippers, Duraflex hardware and 1000D water-resistant nylon construction. Lots of pockets and stash spots. The big thing is to just take the time to do it!
https://www.firsttactical.com/products/specialist-1-day-backpack
Fenix
Gotta’ light? The Fenix TK20R is 10 to 1,000 lumens of night-into-day. It will run for 160 hours on 10 lumens and up to two hours at retina-searing 1,000 lumens. USB rechargeable (maybe from a solar kit?) and tough as nails. Around $99 in lots of places.
Combat Application Tourniquet
If help is far off, stopping serious bleeding is your number one chore if it hits the fan. North American Rescue’s new Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT) features a single-routing buckle ensuring faster application with fewer turns of the windless rod. In this case, trust me from my street cop days — simple is always best.
outdoor edge
The Outdoor Edge Slide Winder is a convenient EDC “knife” using boxcutter blades. Brilliant. It also has two screwdrivers, a pocket clip and a bottle opener. Their ChowPal rocks a can and bottle opener, wrench, fork, spoon, folding knife and flathead screwdriver — with a storage pouch. You gotta be able to cut and eat those lifeboat rations!
