Affordable Quality Gear, Making Your Own Kit, & More

Second in my attempt to organize the articles we’ve published on this blog by topic (prepper stockpiles being first) is the subject of survival gear.

In case you couldn’t tell by browsing this site, we’re huge gear junkies on this site – but that neither means we spend a fortune on gear, nor that we constantly attempt to go for the cheapest option so that we can have more gear, albeit lower quality. We like testing out gear to make sure it’s worth its value, bang for buck, but usually always settle on mid-range items that do the job, but without breaking the bank. After all, if you go too pricey, you’re using money on one item that you could be using on a variety that would really help out your quest to be as well-prepared as you can.

When we’re talking about survival gear, we usually mean both bushcraft and wilderness survival gear as well as preparedness and household self-sufficiency related gear, with a concentration on the prior though never truly excluding the latter. We do this because in any attempt to survive, we acknowledge that short term survival is not the ultimate goal – unless you’re just trying to get rescued from a stuck-in-the-wilderness kind of survival situation, of course. But these kinds of situations aren’t all that this site is about, which is why unless we’re talking about bushcraft plain and simple, we’ll usually take survival to mean both a short and long term survival – which to us absolutely always includes high levels of preparedness and self-sufficiency.

With that explanation out of the way, let’s get into the articles we’ve published on survival gear on this site.

Core Survival Gear Guides

The Ultimate Survival Gear List: Add to Your Survival Kit!

Before you click through, be ready for a massive list that will take you some time to go through and properly assess. If you’re looking for a streamlined, minimalist approach to survival and only want advice in that respect, this article isn’t for you. There are many things on this list you likely will not want or care to invest in – but this article is there in case you’ve already got a stockpile up and pretty near completed and just want to make sure there isn’t anything out there that you’d forgotten to add to your stockpile or survival kit. If you’re in that boat, check this mega-list out.

Winter Emergency Supplies: Get ‘Em While It’s Still Warm!

After going through a 4-5 day period with absolutely no power in a sub-zero Canadian winter back when we were living in Toronto, I decided that Thomas and I definitely weren’t as prepared for a winter emergency as we needed to be. In order to try to rectify that situation, I took the time to write up a list of items that would’ve really helped us out if we’d had them when the power went out, so that I of course could then go out and use this list to get everything we needed in case a winter storm like that happened again. That’s what this list of emergency supplies is.

Cheap & Budget Survival Gear

Cheap Survival Gear: Best You Can Buy for Under $25

Thomas and I have not tried all the items on this list, but they’re all items we would never hesitate to test out. It’s easy to overlook the cheaper items and go for branded items that are more pricey but you feel you can trust more. And if you’re the kind of person who just wants to buy a few good things that will last forever and will break the bank a little at first to do it – that’s not a problem. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying cheaper items that may turn out to be even more valuable to you in the long run than the more expensive, branded options. The savings from one item could help you buff up your survival gear stockpile a great deal quicker on a budget than buying pricier items ever could. The only caveat: make sure you test the cheaper items to make sure they’re quality enough for you to trust your life to when the time comes.

Knife & Outdoor Gear Stores: Best Sale, Deal, & Clearance Pages to Watch

If you’re game for buying your survival gear from online stores besides Amazon, bookmark this page so you can keep checking back on the deals that other online retailers like Cabela’s and REI have on their pages. Basically just a massive list article linking to all the sales and clearance pages I could find that might be helpful for those stocking up on survival and outdoor gear. Certainly worth a gander every month or two.

Wilderness Survival Gear: 5 Budget Bundles Under $150

Being pretty sick of hearing people complain about wilderness survival gear being expensive and not having the money to have a really good wilderness survival kit put together, I threw this article onto the net. I’m sure many of the items on this list won’t come as a surprise to have been included (yes, there are in fact Moras thrown into the bundles here), but for beginners who think bushcraft and wildness survival gear takes a huge investment, I really hope this article proves otherwise to them. You can have everything you need for not all that much money (lets be real, chances are your smart phone cost you a great deal more than that $150), and once you’ve invested in these items, they’ll always be there for you to use if/when you need them.

Survival Gear Instructibles

The Complete Guide to Paracord

There’s quite a lot to be confused about when it comes to paracord, so Thomas took the time to put together a massive article about everything he could possibly think anyone would want to know about paracord. As far as complete guides go – I daresay this is the best on the internet when it comes to explaining paracord. In it, Thomas covers what paracord is, what makes it such a great survival tool, what kinds of things you can use it for, what types of paracord exist, which you should be buying, how to test the quality of the paracord you have, and how to store paracord as well as when it expires. If you can think of anything else that belongs in that article, by all means let us know, but I think it gives a very good overview for those who really don’t know much about this well-loved tool of the industry.

93 Paracord Uses: How Many More Can You Think Of?

In case you had a little trouble imaging what you could do with paracord besides using it to put together a shelter, I took the time to write up an enormous list of many of the ways you can use paracord, both in the wilderness and around the house. If you can think of any more paracord uses, please let me know in the comments section of this article – I’m no stranger to the edit button, and helping people imagine the types of things they could do with paracord could really help if they’re in a tight spot. Recalling a good idea read online is a lot easier to do than imagining new solutions when a problem presents itself.

Crosman Phantom .177 Caliber Break Barrel Air Rifle – Amazon

Survival Kit Advice

DIY: How to Build Your Own Altoids Tin Survival Kit

We received a reader question asking us for advice when it came to making an Altoids tin survival kit and this article was the result. Nowhere near original as an idea, but it’s interesting to see how different people use the tiny amount of space and what kinds of items would be helpful to add to a survival kit that size that we wouldn’t and vice versa. If you’ve got one of these or plan on having one, this is an interesting read to see how your stacks up. Maybe there’s a few things you’ve got in yours that we should be adding to ours: if so, let us know in the comments of the article!

Can You Make Me a Student Survival Kit?

Yet again, another question from a reader asking for help making a survival kit, this time in particular from a student which means he’d quite obviously be on a budget. Thomas gives two options for ideal kit to buy, either for just $30 or just $50, that would really help in a survival situation, concentrating on a good knife and good shelter, as these are the most important “expensive” parts of a survival kit (firesteels don’t exactly break the bank).

Buying a Survival Kit? Why It’s Always Better to Make It Yourself

A lesson many of you already know: you should be making your survival kits yourself. Don’t underestimate your ability to create the best survival kit for you. Taking some time to make one for yourself is much more effective, both in terms of cost and actual use, than buying a pre-made emergency survival kit.

Survival Gift Guides

25 Survival Gear Christmas Stocking Stuffers Under $15!

Quite a popular article on our site, even when it’s not Christmas, likely because these pieces of kit are actually very useful even though they’re sub $15. Said it before and I’ll say it again, there are good survival gear items for cheap prices, you just have to test to make sure they’re reliable and trustworthy (though you should be doing that with more expensive gear anyway, because you never know and because you’ll want to know how to use the items in a SHTF or survival situation!).

For Outdoorsmen Dads: Outdoor Father’s Day Gift Ideas

Plenty of dads out there would rather have a practical gift than a giftcard to Starbucks or a new tie when they’ve already got a zillion. Wrote up this article if you’ve got one of these kinds of dads as a father, especially for those who are not so outdoors-inclined, but would like to find something their father would like. Leave a comment on this post if you’re one of these dads or have an idea of something they’d like that’s not on the list – always helps to have more ideas when you’re stuck for presents to buy.

Misc Survival Gear Guides

That Exists? Coolest Survival, Outdoor, & Camp Gear We’ve Seen

Interesting survival, outdoor, and camping gear we’ve seen here and there on the net deserved its own place on our blog. There’s not usually a lot of innovation in the general outdoor product world because we have pretty darn good outdoor gear already, but every once in a while some new concepts come out that are most certainly noteworthy. Check out this article if you’re into new gadgets and fascinating new takes on common products (like paracord! So many cool new takes on paracord that we’ve discovered!).

Please let us know if there’s anything we haven’t covered in the realm of survival gear that you’d like us to cover. You can do so either by contacting us or by leaving a comment down below. We love answering reader questions, and delving deeper into topics that are less than clear to most (such as our article breaking down what there is to know about paracord), so don’t hesitate to share your questions with us.

To take a look through other topics you might be interested in, click here.