http://www.survivaloutdoorskills.com/new.htm

When I first came to the ETS site, I checked out all the different personal survival kits Doug Ritter reviewed. After I saw the Ranger Rick necklace kit, I checked out the site (Survival Outdoor Skills), and found he had other kits based on the necklace. Anyone have experiance with any of these kits?

He has an idea for a survival kit, the shoulder/belt/neck kit seems to be pretty good, if the picture of Mykel Hawke didn't sell it. I kinda thought the roman candle was a interesting choice, would it be real that useful for night-time signaling. You would only have a few shots at being seen. Same with the toy punching ballon, another interesing choice. The compass, whistle, mag firesteel and BCB wiresaw look top quality. Any thought on it?

I like where it says - survival whistle, "any type will do"

No Ranger Rick, Any type won't do.

A toy punching balloon ? Yeah............

Don't really know what to say that won't come across as being a smart*ss. I can think of many things that the space would be better used to fill in a survival kit.

A roman candle ?

Broken or wet in ten minutes flat. If you are going to put flares in your kit they may as well be good ones. The plus side is that this comes with three !!! (yes, 3) whole matches. Now you don't ever need to worry about your matches running out. (they are not water/wind proof matches either)

Small Compass - General direction type.

Why, is there another type of compass out there ? Here I was assuming they all gave directions. Wouldn't be much use otherwise. I would rather a compass that gives actual directions over "general" ones.

"Yeah, North is somewhere over that way."

..."And if necessary, you can remove it in a survival situation to make yourself a “fire bow” or a “hunting bow.” Smart, huh?"

I challenge anyone here to make a hunting bow using paracord and actually make it work. Personally I think this dude is a complete and utter idiot. Save your money and make your own kit. "smart, Huh?"

Some of the items do have questionable usefulness, but generally it looks good. The whistle is the ACME Tornado, IIRC.

Don't bother.
The whistle ok.
The knife is complete pant's.
You don't want to know about the compass.

At the risk of sounding like I am sucking up to Doug:

Buy yourself the RSK, add a disposable poncho, a butane lighter, a few puri-tabs, a couple of freezer bags, some cordage and a Swiss Army knife (with saw). If you want to go for around the neck/body carry, buy yourself one of these neck wallets they sell to tourist's. Works just as well.


Addendium: He has been barred from this site. For good reason's that have nothing to do with him selling survival products.

Make Doug's kit your first one.

Then you can get one of Rick's, if you want to, for comparison.

I came into possession of his lanyard kit, and while the items aren't bad, Doug's are far superior.

I put the whistle and the light into my EDC for casual use, and the rest went into a drawer.

Underwhelmed by that. I think Ranger Rick has some good ideas, but not impressed by the execution, not some of the posts I've seen him put up on t'internet.

Dougs kit plus knife, light and space blanket = great base kit that will drop in a pocket, and you can rely on the components. Use it as a start and then build your own kit - great way to think about the scenarios you'll face.

I cannot add much to what has been said. I will point out I think some of the silliness (like the toy balloon) is as much about marketing as anything else.

I wrote an essay for my blog (such as it is) not long ago regarding personal survival kits. I am not a huge fan of such things simply because of the extreme limitations they have. But, if it comes down to something versus nothing, something is usually better.

This particular personal kit is more gimmicky than most, making it even more suspect in my mind.

I've had a couple of online interactions with him, and he was polite in all of them. In face, a few years back he sent me his one-hand firestarder (the shortened lighter) and the mini mag-bar to try out. I did so, and wrote a brief review here on ETS (as was the condition to try them).

I can't recall buying his stuff, but like others have said, he does have some good ideas. As well as some very strong opinions.

And, yes, he was banned from ETS.

His store website includes an extended rant against survival forums, especially moderators and others who post to excess, in his view.

Weird, especially considering that survival forums should be the prime referral of business for his products.

His is one website I certainly won't be bookmarking.

http://www.survivaloutdoorskills.com/survival_forums.htm


What Do I Think of Survival Forums?

Wow, what a knob...