That's a little unfair - it's better than nothing.


You are stuck overnight on a hill or you come across a casualty who can't be moved until help arrives and it's raining.
What do you most need?
A fishing kit?
A sighting compass with declination adjust?
A BFO knife?
A shotgun?

Or would a space blanket be a useful use of a $ ?

At that point, I'd gladly pay $100 for a couple garbage bags.


:-)

These are very common in the UK, they are thicker than a garbage bag and cost < $5 - but a bit big for a pocket kit.

Space blankets are good in the desert or on the beach as sunshields but the bags, or even a disposable poncho, is much better in the cold and wet.

That bag looks interesting! I'm almost tempted to toss a $20 your way and get a couple

Regards the survival blanket issue:
People are missing the point discussing quality at all. I think Dougs kit is better quality too. And it's no criticism of Doug's american made and sold kit, to say it's not the best one for a place it's not intended for.
You'd be better off with a bag than that blanket and the mega tough survival bags we use would be even better.
But even a poor quality item is bound to be better, than one that is simply not there!
In the UK where the most common hillwalking survival situation is surviving exposure; a bag is the thing to have if you could chose one item from either kit.
Since rucksacs aren't usually waterproof I simply tie off the bottom and use my bag as a sac liner. then you always have it with you.
The Sock

Hello Doug,

I don't know where to post this.
Since it's related to survival kits and copying, I will post it here. I tried to PM you, but is seems to be impossible.

It seems that some-one found your kit lists great and did some copy-pasting. I Haven't read the complete page. Maybe there is a reference to you or to ets, but I didn't see it at first glance.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Survival_kits/?ALLSTEPS

Since you asked us to respect copyrights on the forums more than once by not copying complete web-pages, I thought it to be appropriate to signal this.

You can react as you think suitable.

Keep up the great work! Thanks for your site and forum.

Greetings,
Tranx

This is a point that's overlooked IMHO. All of the items selected in Doug's kits are field tested and ocumented here on this site. Similar products have been evaluated and discarded for justifiable reasons. Whenever I recomend Doug's kit to our scouts, or anyone else for that matter, I always direct them to the website as a necessary step to learn why the items are selected and how they may be used. It's not just a pouch to throw in you bag and hope for the best in a true emergency. Be prepared!