Your over night bag

B

bluealtered

New member
I'm going to throw this out here because it's 4:00am, and i'm bored. Feel free to add anything that you take with you.

I hunt alone most of the time, and do so in country that they won't find you for a long time if you get hurt. As such i always have an over nightbag in my pack, even if it's just a couple hours hunt, all of this is rapped up in heavy plastic, and bunged together.

tarp, big enough to use for shelter
space blanket
25' nylon rope,1/4"
two boxs of matches, three lighters, pitch stump kindling, three 20 minute road flares to start a snag on fire to stay warm.(i live where it Gets cold at nite)
flashlite with switch taped off.
reloads,rifle,pistol
pruning saw, this is one of the most important things there is. you can make a shelter in a few minutes with this, or a crutch to walk out on, or your bed to lay on etc. Never sleep or sit on snow if you can help it. you can get a pruning saw at wally for under ten bucks.
Stick on spot mirrior to signal with, this works well when your in your blind and want see whats sneaking up on you as well.
I didn't add compas/gps, because i feel it's more important to pay attention to where the [beeep] you are. Yes they work, but a lot of people get a false feeling of secuity with them and get lost, happens here every single year, ask your local s/r person.

This is just the basics, and will change with the seasons, of course take your food, water as well. I have a forest service map taped to the wall at home with a pin stuck on where i think i will go, this will get s/r within 50 miles of you any way.

This will change with each part of our country, so jump in with what works for your area, and maybe we can help each other get home after a problem. blue
 
my day pack is a little less survival, but would get me through if i had to stay a few days (no much longer)

-Nikon spotting scope that attaches to my camera and a carbon tripod (can be used for shelter support)
-lighter
-magnifying glass that has sat at the bottom of a pocket in there for years
-exacto knife with blades (if you skin animals this is the ONLY way to go knifes are just to dull
-550 cord few feet
-normal knife
-spare pair of socks
-rangefinder

pack weighs about 20lbs loaded up
i carry 20rds of 223 and thats about it.
 
I've got much the same, but I have 2 LED flashlights (one a headlamp), 2 light sticks and some hand sanitizer.
A dozen paper towel sheets and some TP in a zip-lock bag.
A Bic lighter and fire-starter squares.
A Wyoming folding saw with bone and wood blades instead of a pruning saw.
A folding hunting knife.
A one-use emergency sleeping bag and an aluminum/mylar emergency blanket.
50' of para-cord and 25' of 5/8 braided nylon rope.
Instead of a tarp, I have an Army poncho and liner, modified with a hood cutout so the liner can be used under the poncho or by itself, in a space bag to keep it compressed and dry.
A collapsible cup, a 1 qt. Army canteen and a couple of big zip-lock bags.
Extra compass, a pen and a small paper pad.
Stainless pruning shears on my pack strap, I use those a lot. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I keep a lighter in every pack I have, and in a pocket of all my coats. I have a 1 gal ziplock that has matches, a candle,couple sheets of newspaper, toilet paper, string.Most places I hunt are near civilization, so a big fire will get me found if hurt. Most important is tell where you'll be and when you'll be back!! I had the misfortune to spend the night out in northern maine in nov.once,the fire kept me warm, and the wardens plane found the smoke the next morning. My friends were more worried & colder than me. We all now carry radios, and even after 15 yrs I sometimes find balls of string tied to my belt the first morning, and they save me all the breadcrumbs. Having the experience I feel more confident.
 
Get a book called "Build the Perfect Survival Kit" by John McCann, its a really good book with lots of ideas. I always have a small survival kit in my pack that I built myself out of a little tin, and then I always have a small knife sharpener, lighter, first aid/trauma kit, flashlight, multi-tool, and I keep an emergency blanket in my pack during the winter. And I always have a knife and cell phone on my person (although a lot of places the cell phone doesn't get service). I got a lot of my materials for my survival kit from www.bestglide.com and www.bepreparedtosurvive.com, they're both really good sites and have just about anything you would want in a survival kit. Take a look at those sites and buy that book if you want to learn more about survival kits, I've learned a lot from that book and found a lot of good equipment from those sites.
 
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I carry a very basic, minimal survival kit in my back or hunting/ fishing vest and ad other items as needed. It goes with me all the time because it is so small. An emergency space blanket in a vacuum packed pouch, tougher than a zip lock bag, 30-40 feet of bright yellow masons line, very strong and 0 stretch, 15 feet of 550 cord, match case with a peice of sand paper as a sticker, magnesium fire starter, a few bandaids, and several peices of cardboard milk carton, burns very well, and a spare compass. all pack into a zippered pouch 4x5x1 and can go into the game pouch of your hunting vest, in a cargo pocket on your pants or with a small carribiner on a belt loop. I stuff it in my calling bag also as it takes up no room. I also carry 1-2 folding saws in a pants pocket. The big one is about 12 inches long I picked up at Home depot, and will cut down a 5-6 inch tree with out a problem. The other 2 are put out by Gerber one has an extending blade and the last is like a large folding knife. All are great in the woods. I like having the folding saw on board because my survival strategy is to build a fire big enough to screw up the Hubble telescope and cook a moose in about 4 minutes. In the winter i will add extra gloves and a hat and the summer sun screen, bug repelant and bennedryl, because 10 miles off the beaten path is no place to find out if you are allergic to the 6 winged africinized beetle/bee/dragonfly hi-breed your girl friend told you to kill because it looked at her funny but bite/stung/ made love to you instead. But the ultimate goal is to sleep in my own bed each night as I have not slept on the ground since i left the infantry in 1995, sleeping while deer hunting under a tree in the warm sunshine doesn't count. the other items that take up no room in the pack are the drak rope, zip lock bag with paper towels ( stronger than TP) and a small utility knife from home depot, the kind you break off as it gets dull to get a fresh edge.
 
I really think that having a compas or gps (if you know how to use them) is really important. Knowing what you are doing is 1st but in the right conditions and the right terrain it can really be easy to be going the wrong dirrection and not know it. Just looking at the tool and seeing that it contradicts you can cause some thought to take place that might be worthwhile.
Last summer a couple people were lost near here thinking that they were headed south (going down stream) but they were going north.
 
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