As far as medical stuff... In Texas, wouldn't you want a snake bite kit, too? Or did I miss that?

Rena
Survivalgene.com

Oh, nobody will believe this, but here I go anyway. Maybe I'll post pictures to prove it.

1 Full Set Firefighting turnout Gear (pants, jacket, boots, hood, helmet gloves)
1 ANSI Class 3 Rain Coat, Lime Green
6 Highway Traffic Cones
1 20 LB ABC Fire Extingisher
1 4x6 Wool Blanket
1 Large First Aid Kit with Splints and so forth
1 8x10 Tarp
250' 10mm Rescue Rope
6 Carabiners
2 Figure 8 Decenders
2 4" Pulleys
8 4' Lengths of tubular webbing
1 Full Change of Clothes & 1 Spare Pair of Shoes
12 30 Minute Road Flares
1 Air Compressor
2 1000 lb Ratchet Straps
1 hand Tool Kit (misc tools, some supplies)
Assortment Bunji Cords
1 Car Jumper Battery Box
Nylon Vehicle Recovery Strap
1 Life Jacket equipped with strobe and gerber fixed blade knife (for Marine Rescue work)

Also in the car is a fully packed North Face Recon Pack, which I use on SAR jobs and so forth. It's a combination 3-day kit with some additional navigation items in it and some specialty gear that I need for the fire department. I can't remember the full set of what's in it right now, some highlights are:

2 Liters of Water
4 MRE Main Meals (Just the meal pack, not all the extra stuff)
Silva Compass
Magellan Meridian Color GPS
Topo Maps of the state parks and State Game Lands in this area (waterproofed by soaking in Thompson's Water seal and hung to dry)
A Blaze Orange Vest (for when we have to search game lands)
250' of Orange Para Cord
1 Space All Weather Blanket
1 AMP First Aid Kit, re-packed into a small Pelican Case, som additional items
1 Pair Motorola GMRS Walkie Talkies
16 Lithium AA Cells
Sweetwater Filter/Bottle
Light Duty Polar Fleece Sleeping Bag
2 Large Contractor Garbage Bags
1 Air Horn
3 Small Flares
Firemaking Stuff (matches, tinder, sparkers and such)
Eclipse Attitude LED Light
Pens and Pencils
Waterproof writing pad

There's more stuff in there, mostly small stuff. Flashlights and whistle I have OMP all the time, so that's not needed to be packed.

Addtional radio gear sometimes comes along for the ride - mostly fire department HT's.

Not to start another firearms debate here, it' s just that I saw firearm on another list....I'd carry a firearm of some sort if it weren't for the fact that I'm directly on the border between the United States and The People's Republic of New Jersey and cross over the border all the time, mostly to shop and such, but fairly often on mutual aid fire/rescue calls. Even thinking about firearms in your car in New Jersey is a crime, much less actually doing it. I used to carry an unloaded, dissasembled M6 Scout in the truck, advice from a NJ state trooper told me not to do it any more, because the ammo stored in the stock makes that a "loaded weapon" (as does a magazine, detached from the gun, but loaded with ammo, make a "loaded weapon").

I'm in Utah actually. We have some big diamondbacks in the desert but they generally won't bother you unless you step on them. I read somewhere--probably on this site--that the best snakebite kit is your own car keys. That's so you can drive yourself to get professional medical care.

Regards, Vince

Good catch. I do have a mini fox 40 that somehow got left off the list. I am also going to put a modified NRA kit in the glovebox in case I can't get to my gear in the truck bed for some reason (wreck or whatever.)

Regards, Vince

Here in TX we have a very nice, wide variety of snakes but they don't mess with you unless you mess with them first. The only exception (that I know of) being water moccasins which can sometimes be a little territorial but they can only bite above water so if you're paying attention to your surroundings when swimming, wading, etc, you should be able to avoid them in most situations. I own a Sawyer Extractor but it always seems to sit at home. I guess having grown up "playing" in the woods in TX since age four I just don't worry about snakes any more than I do poisonous spiders, scorpions, mountain lion, bobcat, cyotes, javelina, aligators, mosquitos, rabid butterflies or any other wildlife we encounter out here with the potential to be dangerous or even fatal. I have encountered all of the above wildlife on numerous occasions (except the mtn lion which has only happened once and from a good distance of about 50-75 yards) and I find that the best way to deal with such wildlife is to avoid them and if you can't avoid them then try to respect them (i.e don't p#ss them off) and if that doesn't work then (regretfully) kill them if possible.

Back to the subject of snake bites... they are actually a lot more rare than you might think. I am a perfect example. I have been very close to litterally hundereds of snakes and never been bitten (knocking on wood) by a poisonous snake. I chalk that up to avoiding them when I can and not p#ssing them off when I cant. I have only ever actually had to kill one snake and that was because someone else was involved and in a major panic to the point that they could not avoid or keep from p#ssing off the snake. Had that person kept their wits about them and remained calm, that snake probably would have been able to die of old age instead of decapitation by shovel. I have been bitten by nonpoisonous snakes (mostly peoples' pets) a good number of times but that certainly could have been avoided if I hadt been handling them more carefully or not handling them at all.

I have done quite a bit of research on snakebite kits and I personally wouldn't recommend any snakebite kit other than the Extractor. I think somewhere on ATS I read either Doug or Chris saying basically the same thing. The other kits are worhtlless and can do more damage than good. Even the Extractor probably wouldnt help much but it also won't hurt so even if it only removes 5%-35% of the poison I suppose thats better than none. Realistically I probably should carry my Extractor more often even if for no other reason than to deal better with non-snake poisons like bees, wasps, spiders etc. The Extractor does take of a little more space then I would like but it doesn't weigh much at all.

P.S. Beware of the rabid butterflies. They are the reason all the city slickers carry 44 magnums and big rambo knives when they travel out in to the wilds. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I think I will toss the Extractor in my car kit. No sense in having it sit on the shelf at home collecting dust. Thanks Gene. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Not too sure if anybody mentioned a spare pair of sunglasses? don't go with inferior quality though - I had a cheap pair which i discarded as the lenses were so bad that they were actually a hazard to drive with!

Thats a very good point.
It does raise the question of how you define a "good" pair of sunglasses. I remember reading sometime back, the protection from UV rays was as good from some of the cheaper pairs, if not better than, the Raybans of this world. Similar sort of senario to sun lotion - price doesn't always mean quality. Caveat Emptor.

Hmmm...

Bing in Rattlesnake country here on occation(Baraboo area is full of them in the spring), I keep an eye out for things that will bite. I haddn't thought of the Rabid Butterflies, though. We have Flying Weasles around here that you have to avoid...

Rena <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

"Barking spiders" around here.