Complete budget kit.

[Rhapsody]

If you were to assemble a new kit for the lowest price possible, what items would you be sticking in your (cheap) rucksack? I figured this might be both a fun thing to think about and a useful resource for thoe of us with light wallets!

Here would be (and practically is ) mine:

Knife - Frosts Mora - £10 approx. I don't expect there to be a lot of deviation from this one, but other ideas would be welcome.

Chopping - Small army Golok - I got mine for £15. Good and cheap. 'nuff said.

Sleeping Bag - Surplus '58 Pattern bag - £40 seems average.

Rucksack - I'm no expert, but a Web-Tex PLCE is what I use and seems to have been the best thing for the money - £80 <harsh>. This probably isn't the best budget option, but it's certainly a good price for what it is.

Shelter - Cheapest Basha you can find - £10 seems to be the lowest for these. It's a basha, what more do you need?

Cooking - Swedish army Trangia mess set - £10 to £20. A meths stove, a frying pan and a billy can all in one convenient (and cheap) package.

Fire - Scout model Firesteel - £6 or £7. Smaller than the regular sort, but does the job just as well. More useful than if you spent it's price on matches or a zippo, so the firesteel stays even in the budget kit.

Water - Coke bottles! - Free (practically)! It's a little-known fact, but bottles from other drinks work just as well.

Eating utensils - Carve a spoon! - Will cost you a small tin of elbow grease. It's what you bought your knife for, anyway!


Anyway, what would your budget kit be? Feel free to add/remove categories as you wish.

 

[alick]

If we're looking for the best budget buys that are good enough that you won't throw away once you get a little more dosh:

The zebra billy's from stockpots are astounding value but tough enough to last years, steel rather than alloy (more durable, easier to keep clean) - £10 -12 for two.

Make a photon type meths burner from two drinks cans or buy a £2 stainless steel cutley drainer from Ikea to use as a small charcoal brazier.

Another knife option is to buy a budget scandi blade from www.brisa.fi and fit your own handle. Plenty of good production knife blades to choose from.

 

[tenbears10]

Check out maddave's review of a very good priced rucksack. It's only 33 litres but if you pack light that can be enough and they make bigger ones.

http://www.bushcraftuk.net/community/showthread.php?t=3815&highlight=forces

Clothing: anything surplus. you can get a whole outfit (trs, shirt and field jacket) for £20 here ok so you might look like a wannabe soldier but it is cheap and hardwearing.

Bill

 

[RovingArcher]

Items like the ruck, drum liners, poncho and liner and bottle of bleach that weren't paid for, but I listed them like they were. I also listed items like tinder, stove, fuel and sleep pad that I probably wouldn't have with me on an average outing, but might during colder weather.

$4.00 East German combat ruck
$8.00 Frost Mora SwAK
$2.50 7 strand parachute shroud line 25'
$0.50 2 each, industrial 55gal. drum liners
$9.00 USGI issue canteen, cover and canteen cup
$5.00 German issue Esbit stove w/fuel
$9.00 German issue utility knife w/saw
$9.00 Ridge Rest 3/4 sleep pad
$15.00 USGI poncho w/liner
$2.50 Boy Scouts Hotspark ferro rod
$2.00 Spark-lite tinder
$1.00 Plastic squeeze dripper bottle of bleach
$2.00 bandana
$2.50 pocket/keychain LED light
$3.00 small starflash mirror
$0.00 hiking staff
$1.50 fish spear head
$2.00 fishing/traping/sewing kit
$5.00 first aid kit w/meds
$2.00 tea/condiments/spices
$0.50 TP
_____________

 

[arctic hobo]

Check out maddave's review of a very good priced rucksack. It's only 33 litres but if you pack light that can be enough and they make bigger ones.

http://www.bushcraftuk.net/community/showthread.php?t=3815&highlight=forces

Clothing: anything surplus. you can get a whole outfit (trs, shirt and field jacket) for £20 here ok so you might look like a wannabe soldier but it is cheap and hardwearing.

Bill

That outfit is good value, I have all them but between them they were 45 quid
Those BCB survival tins have almost everything you could need, and are 15 quid. You get a rubbish knife, but it has strictly speaking everything. I love mine, boy-scouty though it be.

 

[Bob Hurley]

Please bear in mind that I am in the Appalachian Mountains in America, and can have a campfire as long as it's properly tended.

Knife - Model 301 Buck large Stockman, save the heavy cutting for the tomahawk. I don't like to use a baton on knives anyway. $30 (you can save some money here by chosing a Mora or Opinel, my choice is just personal taste - I always carry a strong sharp pocketknife anyway)

Chopping - Small forged tomahawk and a 6" fine-cut file to keep it sharp. Be sure to get a small, light one with a decently long handle. A tomahawk works on "head speed" just like a golf club, it doesn't need to be as heavy as a belt axe. $25

Sleeping Bag - Surplus 100% wool blankets (2), I normally just carry one. You can lay beside the fire without worrying about catching yourself alight if they're pure wool. $20 for two

Rucksack - I normally just roll up my kit in my blanket and use a tumpline to carry it. Buy a wide belt of real leather at a thrift shop, and use paracord or something similar for the ties. $2

Shelter - Military poncho, also gives you decent rainwear. I pitch mine like a Whelen tent in front of the fire. $15

Cooking - Clean up a couple of "tin" cans (not the ones with plastic lining) and use coathanger wire to make a bail for them, you can punch the two holes for the bail with a common nail. Choose sizes carefully and you can make a nesting set. Free

Fire - Get a couple of the piezoelectric BIC lighters, getting wet doesn't seem to bother them. Add a small firesteel or pack of good waterproof matches as backup. Keep a ziplock baggie full of good dry small tinder and one of the BICs in your pack, you'll be glad you did. $5

Water - PET plastic soft drink bottles work great, come in a variety of sizes, and can be recycled. Free

Food - I can usually scare up plenty from home. Boil beef until done but still tough, remove from water quickly and let dry thoroughly, it keeps a couple of days easily and tastes a lot better than it sounds. Cheese, some kind of heavy bread, and maybe a few sweets. If you really want to cook take rice, lentils, steel-cut oats, and similar foods, add a boullion cube for more salt and flavour. If I'm planning on cooking I take salt pork in some form - bacon, dry-cure ham, etc.
Not free, but no special purchases of expensive trail food needed.

Eating utensils - Pick up a couple of heavy plastic spoons at one of the fast food places (some of them here have good ones) until you have time to carve a wooden one you like. I stir with a stick, eat with the plastic spoon, so there isn't a melting problem. Free

Total of $97 if you don't already have some of the kit. I think that's about 50 pounds Sterling.

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

For those who are unfamiliar with a Tumpline, it is a broad strap attached to 2 bearing lines connected to your backpack or any load. The strap fits on your forehead. It is a worldwide system and very effective. This thread has appeared in several forums as a hypothetical buying and scrounging exercise if you lose everything and have a limited budget.It's always helpfull for people just starting out and overwhelmed by equippment lists and high end items. We seem caught between the extremes of ultralight superscouts with a knife and people looking like walking swiss army knives with umbilical paracord locking us to a pack like a astronaut's spacesuit. ack:

 

[Gary]

Surely a budget kit for bushcraft would be

Knife, whatever was available
Blanket or two
Billy can - made of any suitable can.

I cant help but find this thread as proof of the fact we seem to be loosing site of the idea that bushcraft is (in theory) carry less by knowing more. Of course a light camping kit or backpacking kit is a different story.

 

[jamesdevine]

I was reading through this tread and started to thinking the same way as Gary above.

But then there are always exceptions. Here fires would be a no no in most locations so a Swedish army mess kit is my answer with a Mora and some matchs would the perfect starter kit for a new bushcrafter.

But if you are you are just intending on bushcrafting and you have a wood were fires are allowed (and you have cracked fire by friction) then a knife a pot and your cloths should be all you need.

Just my thoughts

James

 

[Great Pebble]

Possibly the most realistic way of looking at it, depending your viewpoint of course, is that to start off you need :- Knife, tent, sleeping bag, stove, kip mat, cuddly toy, rucksack and all the other gubbins. Then you can gradually work your way down to the knife, pot and clothes.

If your first experience of the outdoors is with the "minimal" kit listed the affair with the woods is likely to be short lived IMO.

 

[CLEM]

That makes sence to me Great Pebble,reading the posts on budget kit non seems to have a really excessive amount of gear.Iam still building mine slowly due to a lack of funds but it looks something like Rhapsodys.

 

[jakunen]

If your first experience of the outdoors is with the "minimal" kit listed the affair with the woods is likely to be short lived IMO.

I'm not sure I really agree. If it was summer and you took the very basics - knife, a waterproof (just in case), some basic food and drink and a billy/stove and say a US poncho, you could have a very pleasant experience that would then lead you to buying all the other bits. When I worked at the shop it was generally those peole who came in a baught everything in one go that ended up hating it. Those that just got the very basics forst tiem round tended to be the ones that got hooked and then eventually moaned they need a landie before goign back to the basics.

 

[Paganwolf]

I've spent a few days recently with Bob Cooper an Australian Bushcraft/survival expert, all the kit you need for his courses fits in a container the size of a soap dish- the aborigines think thats luxury! when i read the first couple of answers in this thread i thought Knife,mabey small axe or lekku, blanket, billycan and the clothes i stand in, after all bush craft is not about how much spanky new kit you can carry its about the knowledge you carry in your head, im as guilty as all with the kit fetishes and its all lovely to have but if you have the knowledge to build a good shelter no matter which terrain your in and the knowledge to light a fire and something to cook and make your water safe in, and hunting/gathering knowledge ( possible in some parts of the world still! ) then what more do you need :?: its like sleeping in a bunk in a youth hostel or sleeping in a plush bed in Claridges- neccesity, comfort or luxury are the questions asked when looking at kit.The laws have chainged bushcraft to minimalistic camping i fear as few places allow hunting/fishing and even lighting a camp fire and most woodlands in the uk are private property/ park land, and wooded campsites are few and far between. Any way any one know of a good space age micro techno tent with titanium poles going cheap :?: :rolmao:

 

[bambodoggy]

I'm not sure I really agree. If it was summer and you took the very basics - knife, a waterproof (just in case), some basic food and drink and a billy/stove and say a US poncho, you could have a very pleasant experience that would then lead you to buying all the other bits. When I worked at the shop it was generally those peole who came in a baught everything in one go that ended up hating it. Those that just got the very basics forst tiem round tended to be the ones that got hooked and then eventually moaned they need a landie before goign back to the basics.

I think this is due to the fact that anyone willing to "give it a go" with the minimum of cheap kits has to really want to do it anyway and so will be more likely to enjoy it, then as they get better they collect kit along the way....the only small worry is they will forget how they used to cope before they had this kit but I don't think this is a major issue.
Those that can afford to "buy the lot" aren't generally that bothered about the costs and so if they don't like it...."tough"...."so what?". Also for the first group, as they get more kit so they are more comfortable and enjoy it more and each trip re-affirms their love of it all. The "buy the lot" brigade have nowhere to move to once they haven't enjoyed their first few nights out....can't buy better kit to enjoy it as they have the best already....
World of difference in having the kit and knowing how to use it....a £200 arctic sleeping bag won't be much good if you lay it in a ditch that's 4" deep in water by morning....etc.

I tend to also agree with Great Pebble....if they have bad kit they may not enjoy the wilds so much unless they have good training and/or supervision the first few times....after that they should be right ):

I suppose the holy grail is to just go out with your knife and live well for as long as you wish....or even without your knife maybe...but as JP says, the current laws more or less stop you from doing this in the UK.

 

[jakunen]

I agree with you mate, just think it does depend on the circumstances. And on that extremely rare but oft mentioned creature 'common sense'.

Must organise a hunting party one day to see if we can actually track the beasty down and preserve it for prosperity...

 

[Gary]

Interest note there Bambam, Last year I was camping with my son and his mate over a local site near Epping forest, we had the usual set up and this guy turned up and pitched next to us. The guy looked like Van Diesel with a survival vest and timberlands, out the back of his shiny jeep cheroke he pulled a tent which he opened u, read the instructions (once or twice) and then pitched.

Sitting by my campfire I lended back against a tree stump and pretneded to read as I watched him and his lad unload one shiny new thing after another. It was like watching Millets take a delivery.

Anyway eventually he strolled over and said hello asked a few questions about my tripod and kettle and then wandered off to prepare a couple of pot noodles while asnwering several calls on him mobile.

Dusk decended on the site and while me and the boys settled down to cooking a few suasages on a stick I noticed matey load his jeep with sun and disappear into the sunset.

I thought no more of it until next morning they repaired packed their gear back in the Jeep and prepared to leave. Before he leaft the guy came over and asked me how we slept there?

I told him just fine - he shook his head mumbled something about us being mad and that he had had to go to a B+B both wandering off and leaving.

My son watched them go and said (as kids do) 'I reckon he's a part time dad, still with all the new gear you've have thought he'd be happy!'

And he was right and this echo's some of what has been said above - the guy thought it a good idea to take his son camping (a noble jesture) so he had gone out and bought all he thought he would need but he lacked the one thing which is most important,

A love of the outdoors and the ability to adapt to a different comfort level! All the best kit in the world will never be good enough if its not your thing!

 

[jakunen]

All the best kit in the world will never be good enough if its not your thing!

100% spot on Gary. ANd applies to anything - bushcraft, fishing, dresssmaking, anything.

 

[Adi007]

All the best kit in the world will never be good enough if its not your thing!

That's right - but you can spot those unco,fortable with the outdoors because they try to recreate indoors out - big tents, grills, TV, electric light ... :roll:

A while back I remember these two blokes dressed in fatigues trying to light a disposable BBQ with a firesteel ... they were there for what must have been 20 mins before they gave up. In that time my kids had come up with several suggestions as to ow it could have been done.

 

[jakunen]

:rolmao: :rolmao: :rolmao: Priceless Adi! Absolutley priceless!

Womble told me about a similar thing about a guy who would only go camping with his huge self erecting tent, gas bbq, satelite TV, sun lounger, etc. Makes you wonder what the point was?

 

[tomtom]

what... you mean my satellite tv isn't strictly bushcraft kit?? :smiley-fa