Hi Guys!! I was updating my kits and I thought I would take some pictures for the forum. Enjoy and feel free to make comments!!

My EDC:

-Benchmade Mini Ruckus
-MotoRazer
-Keyring with Photon 2 and 4Gb. Sandisk flash drive and Leatherman Squirt P4
-Surefire L1 Lumamax
-Leatherman Wave
-Wallet
-PSK (detailed pic below)

And at the top of pic is my EDC plate


The guts of the EDC small kit(primarily a DR Pocket Survival Pak) :



Below is my larger kit that lives in my backpack that usually goes everywhere with me. (Some gear in this kit is again from a DR Pocket Survival Pak). Included is an Atwater Carey FAK and extra Surefire batteries in a holder.




And the guts of the Big Kit:



I feel like i'm using up some valuable space with the big SAK, ARC LED AA, and full vile of Windproof matches.

I am missing some kind of water container and probably some other things. Any ideas????

Water Container - Condoms. Tiny.

TINY?!

Condoms suck for this. Breast milk bags are better. A bladder or a turkey bag is are probably the best two, depending on you durability vs compactness curve.

Condoms may be tiny, but I bet you could squeeze a few Gerber baby bottle liners into that Pelican case. I bought some for my kit a while back and loved them. Mine held almost exactly 16oz, which is perfect for the water purification tablets i carry. I did a test run with one on a day hike and it did pretty well. I filled the bag at home, tossed it into my cargo pocket, and carried it around like that for a day. It held up very well, and there were no leaks at all from the ziplock seal.

You can't buy much with only a couple of dollar bills these days, you might want to scrimp and save enough to put at least a twenty in there. A couple of fiftys would be better...

I didn't think he had near the room for a bladder of any sort... thus the condom suggestion.

The TINY was in terms of storage... I'd get the biggest non-lubed you can find.

I don't really have much room for a bladder like you said, I think I'll go for a condom. I will put some additional cash in the kits as well.

As far as the matches go...I have an entire bottle of waterproof matches in there. I think it wastes alot of space. What is the best way to store these matches outside of there containr in a kit??

With a striker?


Should I ditch the huge (and relatively heavy) ARC AA for a Photon 3?? That and the SAK seem to steal alot of valuable space??


PS: I am building a BOB out of a MOLLE backpack... I will post pics soon!!!

I'll trade you an Arc AAA for the Arc AA

On your big kit, a 1ltr water bottle (full!) to keep them company would be a good idea. A rolled up water bladder like a Platypus would be worth considering.


And a poncho!!!!

In my big kit (in the MOLLE backpack) I have a big water bladder and a Nalgene Bottle for water. I hope to have pictures up of my large kit soon...

I agree -- carry 1 l water in a bottle in your car/ backpack/briefcase.

I already have an ARC AAA, Sorry.

I'd scrap the matches and get a fire steel or additional Spark Lite fire starter. You will save space, and get many more fires from either of the above than you would the lifeboat matches in the bottle. Better yet, get one of each, You stick tinder such as Tinder Quick or the Coglans(sp?) tinder in any open space within the kit. Doug's AMK PSP uses a Spark Lite and 5 Tinder Quick.

I would try to add some shelter items to your big-kit, such as a heatsheet, emergency poncho,etc.

I'm not sure I'd go with big bills myself. I would not expect to be able to get change readily in situations where honest merchants are selling goods at their regular prices but can't operate a register and don't have access to the bank for a lot of ones.

Ah,no. Sorry. Matches do have their uses. Some people love them, some hate them. I have them because they make a reliable one handed storable fire starter. In some respects they are, from a storability point of view, better than a lighter. No leaking gas issues etc. In a small kit, like your otter box, put them in a small ziplock baggy. With a striker board from a match box. Better yet, split them between two baggies.

As a point, at any given moment (outside the house) I have at least two lighters, match safe and a couple of ferro rods stashed around me somewhere. Plus something like eight plus TinderQuick tabs. A lot of the time it's closer to twenty plus.

+1 on that. The biggest I stash for emergencies is 20s. Most ones and fives.

The bottle of matches are going to stay until I can find a better way to store a smaller amount or purchase another sparklite.

I think i might ditch the rubber gloves in favor of a water bladder ...

It this a fairly well rounded kit for the most part??? I have some extra room for some things...any ideas on what else I can put in???

IMHO, its a good kit. Most of the suggestions I've read in this thread are matters of personal preference, and I think we all have a tendency to tinker with these kits.

As far as adding anything, I think I would focus on the most likely emergencies I might encounter in my life (for example, being stranded in my car in severe winter weather), and put in some small piece of light gear that would be helpful for that.

Or a candy bar.

There are many good ideas here. I would also add at least 50 feet of para cord

I noticed that the size of the vial of matches was a concern for you. Have you considered REI Stormproof matches? The matches are windproof and waterproof and have twice the incendiary material of the NATO Lifeboat Matches (I think that is what is in your vial). As a result they are a bit bigger, but you could ditch the vial since they are already waterproof and the incendiary material is orange so you should be able to spot them easily. Each box also includes two separate striker strips (in addition to the striker strip on the box). The striker strips can be cut down to size to fit your kit.

Jeez, you would think I invented these things the way I am gushing, but they really are top notch.

You are exactly right. The vial it proportionally HUGE in the kit and takes up alot of very valuable space. Let alone the quality/size of the matches IN the vial. I will be purchasing some REI matches very soon to deal with this problem.

While on the topic of item size in my kit, I was thinking about also trading out the SAK and ARC AA for a smaller knife and a ARC AA or Photon II. The SAK and ARC AA are great but they take up too much space in my kit.

The larger kit (ABOVE) has turned out being the CORE of my BOB and I might need to reevaluate its contents...

Rusty,

There are some pretty good suggestions for a small knife here:

Add a kinfe to DR/AMK PSK?

Hard to tell from the photo which SAK you have in your kit. Are you pretty set on something with multifunctions or are you just looking for nice small blade? I couldn't decide myself so in one PSK I have a Benchmade Benchmite that I crammed in there (fairly thin, lanyard hole, nice locking blade for a small knife, about $23.00). In another kit I have a SAK Classic with sterling silver scales (a gift) that seems thinner than its red counterpart.

The knife in the kit is a SAK "SuperTinker". The one with the pliers. I just threw it in there because I already had it around.

The spares carrier was included in the purchase of the Surefire flashlight for FREE!!! It was a Gunstore going out of business sale, I got the L1 and the Spares carrier for around $100!!! As far as the carrier's quality goes, it seems pretty good in that I don't have to worry about the batteries getting wet or banged up in some sore of "makeshift" carrier. It serves a simple purpose well IMHO.

bmo, thanks for the link... that a good discussion over PSK knives.

I'd add some quarters as well.

They may be worth the weight.

I put several breast milk baggies as well. They can double for storage/carrying containers and aren't as flimsey as condoms.

Quarters are going in right now!!! And the breast milk bags will have to wait until the next time to the store!!!

As seen in the above pics, I have an electrolyte replacement pack. I found this in a store-bought FAK. I would like to find some more of these but I just don't know where to find them in such a "personal" size. This electrolyte replacement is an area that I need to work on in all my kits...

Try the REI matches out before you decide that you will put them in. I personally am not impressed. They burn like crazy for 10 seconds, then go out, no matter what. I prefer regular strike anywhere matches.

I've thought about using the seal-a-meal to bag up some individual servings of gatorade.

Haven't actually sat down to do it yet but putting them is small ziplock baggies has work pretty good in the past, but I don't how long they'll last like that before turning into little "gatorade bricks".

I have one of the Surefire battery/bulb carrier,its really nice, keeps everything together and no rattles.

Rusty,
Consider the North 49 enviro sac as a general purpose water carrier for a small kit. It is a very tough plastic and has a secure "pop bottle" style lid. It holds 1L of water and is ideal for using water purification tablets, as you can shake or even drop the bag without harm. It can be quickly repaired with duct tape(if you ever manage to puncture it), and cost me a whole 2 dollars. It even comes with a mesh carrier. It is a bit on the bulky side, but very durable. (May make it a worthwhile tradeoff over size) A good old freezer grade Ziploc bag is very hard to beat as well. They are easy to repair and can be rolled very small to fit almost anywhere if size and weight are a concern. I will never try to argue against anyone's opinion on this forum, as everyone has most likely had different experiences than mine. I have tried using a condom to transport water once and it was a pure nightmare. It was nearly impossible to hold and fill in all but the deepest pool of water, more impossible to walk anywhere with, and the slightest prick was enough to break it open and send me back trying to find another means of collecting water. Thank God it was only a training exercise. Just food for thought.

Hey soldier welcome to the forum, do you have a site where we can look at those enviro sac's, I did a quick search for them and came up with nothing.

Ha!
Poor choice of words I suppose.

Thanks for the welcome !
I don't have my own webpage so I can't upload pictures. I tried to find it on a website as well but to no avail. Perhaps they are a discontinued item. I do have a good pic and will send it to you via normal email if you want.

Canadian_Soldier: Try using imageshack or photobucket or Flickr to host your pictures.

I think they are free to use. I've never used em because I have a web server of my own

Good Luck!!!

Flickr is free. I use it with great success. I pay for the premium service so I can upload unlimited photo's each month.

Hey, awesome. Thanks for the info.
I will give it a shot.

[url=[URL=http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=north49af2.jpg][/url]]http://my.imageshack.us[/url]

For all who asked, this is the pic of the north 49 pouch I was bragging up earlier. Thanks on the info once again on how to upload pictures.