Survival kits

Survival kits are called a lot of things such as:

BOB - bug out bag. This is a kit you would grab on your way out the door if you had to leave home due to some emergency that popped up such as a fire or nearby chemical spill. You don't have time to go around looking for things you need because the chemical cloud or fire is bearing down on you. Grab your bag, your wife and kids (if applicable) and your dog, hop in your vehicle and take off for some place safer. Some people insist that a "real" BOB is one where you plan to never return home.

GHB - get home bag. A kit designed to get you home from where you happen to be.

PSK - personal survival kit. A pocket sized kit that you are supposed to have on your person at all times, just in case. Altoids tins are popular containers as are small pocket sized pouches. Realistically you can't put all that much in such a kit. There are a number of such kits available commercially.

MSK - mini survival kit. Another name for PSK.

USK - urban survival kit. A kit designed to help you survive an urban disaster such as 9/11.

Wilderness survival kit. A kit designed to help you survive in the wilderness, if for some reason you end up stuck out in the woods.

Car kit. The stuff in your car to help you deal with common travel emergencies such as flat tires and other minor mechanical issues, or for staying warm if you break down in some remote location in subzero weather.

EDC. Everyday carry. not really a survival kit, but the stuff you put in your pockets when you get dressed. Pocket knives and cell phones are very common as EDC.

72 hour bag. I see this as a variation of the BOB. Grab it and go if you have to leave quickly.

What made me decide to make a post on this subject when there are so many already? Well, a few weeks ago, I realized that my car kit was starting to take over my car. What was once neat and orderly in a few containers has grown to the point where there is just a ton of stuff in the Jeep with no organization and no real thought as to how things ended up there. That got me thinking on just what I want to have and how it should be organized.

Regardless of what you call it, a survival kit is designed to help you deal with some kind of emergency. People have different ideas about what should be in a survival kit, and will even argue on end about the difference between a BOB and a GHB. To me, they are all variations on a theme. There are a lot of posts on the Internet about various kinds of survival kits, and a lot of videos on Youtube and other places where people show the content of their kits. While the content of the kit is nice, I am more interested in why specific items might be in a particular kit as opposed to just an inventory.

There are a lot of commericially available survival kits of various flavors that you can spend your money on, or you can put together your own. My suggestion is to look at the contents of various commercial kits, and some home built kits (google is your friend in this), and make your own. Not only will you be able to control the cost, but you can put together a kit that makes sense for you. Its also a good idea to work with the items in the kit to make sure when you might need them, you have at least some experience with them.

A lot of wilderness type survival kits can be found all over the Internet, and some are pretty well thought out. But, a fair number of BOB inventories on the Internet seem to start out with 40 pounds of guns, ammo, and knives, and seem oriented toward walking off into the woods and "living off the land" while engaging in weeklong fire fights. If you total up a lot of them, its not unusual for the BOB contents to be in the 100 pound range. For most of us that is far more weight than is realistic, and having to "live off the land" for any length of time is even more so. I don't know about other people, but where I live there is no place within walking distance that would be practical for me to go "live off the land", even if I had the skills and desire to do so. And when I say walking distance, I am thinking 50 miles or more. So for me at least, I think more along the lines of a cloud of chemicals is headed my way and I need to get the heck out, and plan to do so by vehicle.

A lot of people seem to think that if they have to evacuate they will be doing so into the woods, based on their BOB contents. I think it is far more likely that you will be evacuting to a motel or refugee camp down the road (think about the aftermath of Katrina). I can't prepare for the end of the world, but I can prepare for more likely occurrences, and that is where I will put my focus.

Some pretty rational stuff about survival kits for various scenarios can be found at http://www.equipped.org/.

Don't get crazy about it though. A few people have given the word "survival" a negative connotation, as they seem to almost revel in the remote possibilities that could result in TEOTWAWKI. Its very rational to prepare for potential emergencies. Thats why we have spare tires in our vehicles, first aid kits, and fire extinguishers.

BTW, if you happen to look at many of the equipment lists for BOBs and other survival kits you may notice they look a lot like an equipment list for a short camping or backpacking excursion. That's not surprising given that the intent of the kit is to give you something to live off for a short time, and the camping or hiking kit is for the same purpose.

Note: I do not claim any special knowledge or experience in survival kits of any kind, or of survival skills.