I EDC (on my person + in my car) both a Surefire (either a 6P or a G2, same sturdiness, a bit cheaper) and a LED light (not a Surefire but SF do have LED lights) :
- with the SF I have a small handheld projector, giving a very high intensity beam, useful in some conditions (long distance or in smoke, fog ....) ; a set of two CR123 batteries will be enough for 1 hour (with the P61 lamp assy = 65 lumens) ; I have a spare set along. And a spare bulb.
- with the LED flashlight, I have a less intense light for several hours (depends on the light I carry).

If you don't need the prefocused, hi-powered, plain and perfectly regular beam of a SF, a Streamlight Scorpion could be the answer : a powerful beam, but adjustable (by enlarging the beam, you "decrease" somewhat its intensity and you can use it to light an area near you without blinking). The Scorpion also include a spare bulb. About 1 hour on a set of two CR123 batteries.

The only problem I ever had with my SFs lights :
- bulbs are fragile (one died after using it for 10minutes and dropping the 6P from about 4 cm (less than 2 inches) !
- the rechargable batteries used in some models are not great and do not hold their supposed capacity. Anyway, rechargable models are OK only if you really use your light very often. If not, the battery will always be discharged when you will need it. For intermittent use, lithium batteries are best, IMHO.

And I guess you could choose a SF bulb model (for hi-intensity jobs) and add a LED conversion head (for long duration jobs)....

Unless used as a defensive weapon or a short duration flood light I do not consider SF lights to be anywhere near a survival light.

Batteries don't last and are of an odd size and hard to get.

Think common easily obtainable batteries and bulbs.

Flip

Agreed. SF are great for a gun-mounted light or a light for a complete pacifist to use as a means of completely non-violent defense, however for EDC and/or survival purposes I much prefer a longer lasting light and having common, easily obtainable batteries is an added bonus.

So true. As much as people rag on them I keep a few plain old mag lites in my truck and a a half dozen spare batteries. Those lights may not be the best but they work. They aren't the cheapest imported stuff that fail out of the package but they aren't overly priced to where I can't afford to have one in my pocket, one in the glove box and a couple in the BOB. The one in the glove box even matches the color of my truck <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Yes, surefires have advantages and disadvantages. It's a tradeoff like everything else. Personally, I like having the power of a D cell maglight in a package that fits in my pocket- 90 minutes is plenty. Batteries aren't hard to find and they're not expensive (a little over a dollar each, comparable to D cells), and for the same space and weight of a D cell flashlight with spares, I can have a surefire and a waterproof spares container with 6 batteries and an extra lamp. On top of that, I can have it WITH me at all times, not just in the vehicle. A surefire in the pocket beats a big maglight that you left in the car, just like a .22 in the pocket beats a .45 at home. (except in this case, a more accurate descrption would be "a low cap .45 in the pocket beats a high cap .45 at home")

Kept in the car for roadside emergencies is fine, I'm not dogging the maglight. I'm just saying, with the tremendous amount of gear you got there that a smaller, lighter flashlight that throws a comparable amount of light would be advantageous when it comes to weight and packing. Granted, weight isn't so much a concern when it's stored in the car, and obviously packing isn't since it's already packed, it was just a suggestion for a lighter alternative. To be honest, this is the first time where I've heard almost unanimous votes against surefires and it's pretty surprising to me.

As for "survival" I do carry other lights. I'm picking up an AA keychain LED, and have a couple of smaller LED's like photons that I'll carry on my person as well. They will sustain me for when I need a little light with a lot of duration.

As for defense, I wouldn't use my surefire as a defensive weapon unless I had nothing else. They market it as such, but only one version comes with an impact bezel, and the whole "stun them with the light!" sounds like a marketing scheme to me. Any bright light will do the same, it doesn't have to be a surefire.

In fact, the maglight D cell would make a better defensive weapon. it's like a freakin iron pipe <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> You bean someone over the head with that bad boy and they'll feel it when they wake up!

It may or may not be your slice of pie, and that's cool. Whatever works for you-

(yes, I carry a zippo too. "But burn, it's useless in the long term because it needs fuel!".... well, I do carry bics and other firestarters on my person and PSK too, so it's not like I'll have nothing once it runs out of gas. While it works though, I perfer it to the others.)

Currently the most useful torch I own is a small LED head torch made by petzl called the Zipka Plus:

http://www.altrec.com/shop/detail/15935/0

http://www.backcountrystore.com/store/PTZ0053/Petzl-Zipka-Plus-Headlamp.html

Its incredably small so you can take it with you anywhere you like (the first time I saw one was actually when a friend of mine pulled one out of her purse) and its incredably versatile with its self retracting strap. You can hold it as normal or you can strap it onto your wrist or head (with zero things to adjust) for hands free use. The batteries last a hell of a long time on it (80 hours on max brightness and 150 hours on low brightness, and low brightness is perfectly fine for doing most stuff when your camping and the like), absolutely brilliant for anykind of up close work on the car if you get in a fix. The only downside to it is that while it gives good brightness close up, the beam doesn't travel a great distance so its not as good as some torches if you want to project the beam a long way. But as something for use when camping or when stuck by the roadside its great. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

"The main reason I stick to the small doses of Ibuprofen is just adabtability as it just gives you a few more potions for dealing with small children. But your right the bigger dose are often a lot more conveniant (and its often annoying having to swallow a virtual pile of pills rather than just one)."

Good point on the childrens dose, I would just break the tablet in two but thats not always possible (I carry caplets not round tablets for this reason - each manufacturer of generic drugs tends to use their own shape so I choose based on the shape I want). Another answer would be to consider carrying some of each dose - I assume from the numbers of doses you carry that you are just adding the whole box to your kit. Consider adding one blister pack of each dose size rather than 2 the same. Gives more flexibility.

"Never considered the possible treatment of animals. Good point. I don't have much experience with dealing with that sort of thing so good tip with the spray, I'll have to get me one of those."

I noticed you have a spray can of powder to help clotting. This is also a good way to go on fur as adhesion of dressings can be a problem.

Which reminds me that you should consider adding either mastisol or tincture of benzoin as an adhesive to help site dressings on wet skin. Plus some cotton buds to apply.

You also put down lots of safety pins. Very useful. If you havent already though add some nappy pins (no idea what they would be called in the USA before anyone asks) very useful to have a guard over the point when you have a safety pin in an awkward dressing espicially when very cold and you dont feel the jab.

I think nappy pins ARE safety pins in the US. What are "safety pins" over there?

That's where my only real problem with the surfire lies is right there. For me, 90 minutes is not enough, even just for roadside emergencies. For roadside emergencies I DO actually use a D-Cell Maglite <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />



I couldn't agree more, which is why I said it would only be useful for the complete pacifist. My most devout buddhist aquaintences come to mind. These are people that would rather die than risk the possibility of harming someone else, even in self defense. This is the type of person I think of when I refer to a SF being the best defensive option for a complete pacifist. Trust me you won't find me (or my wife) defending myself with a light unless it is a D-cell maglite. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Now having said all of that let me clarify that I am not knocking the SF in general, but rather just for certain uses (as I have explained). I will readily admit that I had a SureFire light mounted to a Wilson 1911 for several years and it was the best light on the market (at least at that time) for that purpose and it served me very very well even with the very frequent battery changes that were required. I actually trained with this system regularly, otherwise I'm sure I would have gotten more out of my batteries.

Ah, two cultures seperated by a common language. This could be difficult to explain without pics but here goes. A safety pin is just a bent length of metal wire with a loop at one end to act as a spring and a catch at the other with a fixed end and a sharpened end which can be released. Same both sides of the Atlantic. What I was refering to as a nappy pin tends to be larger and has a white (at least any I've seen are white) plastic sleve which can be moved over the catch (a sort of press fit ) to stop the catch being released. The pin cannot be opened without moving the white catch out of the way. Used for nappies so that when the baby is crawling about on the floor the catch will not disengage and stick the baby with the pin.

Hope that made sense without pics. I have seen the term blanket pin used on a forum (not sure if it was this one) with someone from the US saying they had safety pins and a couple of blanket pins in their PSK. Is this the same thing?