scafool wrote:
"It might be worth trying as a tow rope though"

climbers won't trust their ropes after it's being used for towing so don't trust paracord either. non vital uses only. (which would suggest it's not suitable for a survival kit).

QJS

100 feet minimum plus 100 feet 2.5mm cord

Seems that I am not alone in my quantity of choice!

Since I'm not carrying a tent when I'm on a day hike, the 100' would definitely get used in shelter construction, esp. if I am making something robust. Lots of different lashing that you can do and with the inner core, you can extend the amount of lashing material if needed. I also carry some zipties to expedite any shelter building.

Even when I'm camping with a tent, the 100' comes with me. Useful, as many have pointed out, for hanging bear bags. Also for emergency repairs on whatever may have failed. Additional fishing line. Etc... Really limited by your imagination.

I keep about 30' in my pack, a bracelet made of about 10' or so of it, and a necklace with a few must keep on me items with about another 10'.
One thing I learned over the years; its much easier to carry cordage than it is to make it.

+100 *nuff said*

I tried carrying 100' and 50' lengths of paracord, but hated having to unravel it each time I wanted to use it. My father used to carry 15' lengths of cord with him when camping, so I started doing that. Its a VERY handy length for all sorts of camp needs, plus I can alway tie two lengths together when needed.

Now I buy two 100' hanks of the wonderful orange paracord from countycom.com. I cut each of two of those hanks into 6 equal lengths, which works out to about 16+' per length.

That produces twelve 16+' lengths that are each wrapped around my palm and cinched down into nice easy to manage bundles. I usually carry eight of them in my daypack, which is 133' total.

I also try to carry 50'-100' of heavier (3/8") braided nylon rope in my larger camping gear bag - wether a duffel or backpack. The larger rope does better for clothes lines and such.

I carry a little over 70’ of paracord on my pack in the backcountry.
This is actually four separate sections that I knot together with simple square knots in to one long line, or separate when needed for application.

Over the years, I have narrowed it down to this amount as I have found this is sufficient for me to complete my necessary bear-bagging (with two carabiners), guylines for my solo tent, and some extra for emergency repairs I have ran across so far.
It gets a lot of use, as I always hang my food, and spend a great deal of time in the back country for work, and play.

I hear you about weight. I often have to carry at least 20lbs of extra weight in research gear, so try to keep all of my gear to light weight brands/styles and to the necessities. I have just found that it is the most useful cordage for the price/weight.

In addition to the endless things I have used it for myself, I have also used it to repair the gear of others I have bumped into in the backcountry, including one hikers boot gaiters, a snowshoer’s bindings, a cross-country skiers bindings and of course the most common is tying people’s gear onto their packs because they brought more than they can fit in the pack.

I actually should think about replacing my current line, as I have been using this newest piece for about 7 yrs now. It tends to get stretched a bit and gets smaller in diameter, but just takes forever to wear out. Eventually it gets too many pitch patches on it and little frayed spots. I usually retire it to tie-line around the homestead, and still get many more years from it.

I also carry 12’ of tubular blue webbing which I have used for a variety of uses when I needed more strength, including a lead line once for a 2 yr old paint gelding I found 10 miles into the Three Sisters Wilderness.

In my day pack I carry 50’ of less used paracord and keep 100’ hanks of paracord in each of my vehicle emergency preparedness packs.

I will only use the mil spec type paracord which I used to get from my local military surplus store, but now purchase from County Comm, since I can get more color variety for visibility, etc.

IronRaven, is the 450# cord built just like mil-spec 550#? I have some projects where I could use the thinner 450# type if it is made like mil-spec. And it is 4 core lines, not 5? Mil-spec Type II cord is 5 core lines. Thanks in advance.

The thing with cordage is that tasks like shelter building and lashing use up a lot of it. So you need a fair amount.



10-4 on that. One option is to stack (not coil) the cord in a 1 quart or 1 gallon ZipLock bag. When you need some just pull out what you need and cut it off. No tangles, no hassles, and it packs flat. Pre-cut lengths of a useful size, like you mentioned, are a good move too.

OK - I'm convinced. Off to buy 250' of the mil-spec stuff.

TRO