Knowing your kit

[tsitenha]

I was just wondering if most realistically know how to use what is their kit.
I hear (read) There more I know the less I need.... to what lengths really.
I carry a comfortable kit in size and weight that covers what I would need for a day, multiple days, a week or so in the bush depending on the food I would use as an immediate limiting factor, I always venture with 3 days ration and the Creator has endowed me with my own personal built in stores cleverly disguised as a paunch.
Now are you in the habit of always carrying your pack or just when you are specifically out and about and what do you carry in it?

 

[Squidders]

I think it boils down to how well you can cope without something, not that you should not be carrying that thing.

If my pack washed away in a fast moving river, could I make it with what I have on me with the knowledge in my head and tools on my belt? No idea to be honest. I have got by ok with my knife and a billy can before but that was planned and I was not soaked through or damaged after a fall.

I always carry what I fancy having at the time and I change my kit a lot, from old-school canvas and leather mountain man theme to military kit and my current light weight tow in the water.

I think I did a little winter weekend kit list a while ago but it's pretty simple stuff... weather barrier, ground insulation, air insulation, cooking pot, a few knives, a stove, a spoon and fork, some food, some water, a few plasters and antiseptic, a small wash kit and the clothes on my back. I just add to that with things I want to play with... so if I want to bodge a table or stool, I might take an auger bit and saw, if doing a little bow saw practice, I might take some extra cord.

In the winter, I carry all the same stuff but it's heavier, bulkier and warmer versions. A member here, in the USA I think, did a nice article about taking it too far and how some people will sacrifice time, comfort and a good time in the name of carrying less... it's worth finding.

Actually, found it here: http://woodtrekker.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/stupid-simple-simplification-of-gear-as.html

 

[Ecoman]

I carry a basic kit with me on every walk I do. I know I don't have to but years of office jobs, great cooking and being a stay at home dad has taken its toll on my figure (to be honest I'm a fat bar steward! ). I carry the kit to make my lardy backside work harder but I know I could do the walks with half of the kit. I generally take:

Basha and cordage.
Firebox stove (if in the woods) or Small gas stove (if heading for the hills or fishing)
Billy can and mug
Small box containing tea bags, sugar and fruit leathers.
Laplander saw
Knife
Fire starting kit and tinder bag.
Bottle of water
FAK inc, antiseptic face wipes, tick removers, sun cream, bug oil and emergency blanket
Lunch (if out all day)
Fruit (on every trip)
Map, compass and something to read
Small binoculars
Midge head net
Change of clothes in a dry bag
Head torch with extra batteries
Glow stick

If I'm going out for a night or more then I will pack it all in a bigger bag and either opt to take a small tent or simply just add a mosquito net. Obviously there is also the addition of a bivvi bag and sleeping bag. Deciding what extras I'm going to take will depend on what I'm doing and where I'm going.

 

[Man of Tanith]

I usually only carry pack when out and about.
in it I have a standard load out for every trip
blanket.
sleeping bag.
roll mat.
tarp.
Bivi bag.
cook pots
mug
brew kit
water
Food
axe
knife
saw
spare clothes
then I have extras that get packed depending what I have planned so candles, spoon and or crook knife
frying pan etc etc.
most things tend to be cleaned and packed again so I know where they are

 

[sandbender]

I was just wondering if most realistically know how to use what is their kit.
I hear (read) There more I know the less I need.... to what lengths really.
I carry a comfortable kit in size and weight that covers what I would need for a day, multiple days, a week or so in the bush depending on the food I would use as an immediate limiting factor, I always venture with 3 days ration and the Creator has endowed me with my own personal built in stores cleverly disguised as a paunch.
Now are you in the habit of always carrying your pack or just when you are specifically out and about and what do you carry in it?

Re. the 'more you know less you will need' thing.

I have lived under tarps and ponchos since I was child, however the British military indirectly influenced my choice cordage, specifically I always used bungee cords. In later life I spent a few weeks abroad with Ray Mears on one of his courses, "you don't need bungee cords" he said "just some rope and a few knots". "Nah" I replied "Bungees are so much easier to set up". There followed an hour of instruction, Ray then took my bungees away and left me with some cords instead.

These days I only ever use cords to set up my shelter and unlike bungees, cord has multiple uses.

Less can be more.

 

[Will_]

I found it was the opposite for me - the more I know, the more I carry!
Over many years of hiking & camping I whittled my kit away to very little.
Then I discovered bushcraft, particularly this website :bluThinki and learned how useful a folding saw is... how to use an axe... how useful it is to have several different knives with me instead of just one... how a stainless steel billy can is more versatile than my old mess tin...
I got by without any of that just fine before, but now I find myself packing it all! :aargh4:

 

[Clouston98]

I usually only carry pack when out and about.
in it I have a standard load out for every trip
blanket.
sleeping bag.
roll mat.
tarp.
Bivi bag.
cook pots
mug
brew kit
water
Food
axe
knife
saw
spare clothes
then I have extras that get packed depending what I have planned so candles, spoon and or crook knife
frying pan etc etc.
most things tend to be cleaned and packed again so I know where they are

Same as me mate! Your package will be in the post soon,(has been a it of flooding where we are staying) .

 

[John Fenna]

I know my kit well - I made a fair bit of it, altered more and probably reviewed the rest!
I am at the stage where I only take what I know will be used (plus a FAK of course) but it still weighs a ton!

 

[tiger stacker]

Re. the 'more you know less you will need' thing.

I have lived under tarps and ponchos since I was child, however the British military indirectly influenced my choice cordage, specifically I always used bungee cords. In later life I spent a few weeks abroad with Ray Mears on one of his courses, "you don't need bungee cords" he said "just some rope and a few knots". "Nah" I replied "Bungees are so much easier to set up". There followed an hour of instruction, Ray then took my bungees away and left me with some cords instead.

These days I only ever use cords to set up my shelter and unlike bungees, cord has multiple uses.

Less can be more.

Cordage Vs bungees
Always comes down to, someone showing the knot loop trick, then realising you can do without bungees.

 

[Midnitehound]

I am at the stage where I only take what I know will be used (plus a FAK - Fat Ar*ed Kake of course) but it still weighs a ton!

That will be all the food then!

It is the Passion Kake that makes it all go pear-shaped John.

 

[John Fenna]

That will be all the food then!

It is the Passion Kake that makes it all go pear-shaped John.

No - its all the Rat Packs you sold me that weigh so heavy!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE - the cheek of some people!
You will only be forgiven if you contribute on the "Mystery Parcels" thread!

 

[Uilleachan]

When I was a boy scout the "survival kit" was all the rage, basically if the kit contents didn't fit in a 2 oz tobacco tin it was deemed too big. At scout camp we'd build a shelter and survive out of the contents of our tin overnight, oxo cube Mmmm, our mates nearby tucked up in the tent, so just the kit one stood in and the hallowed tin. It was all quite daunting at the time, until I discovered the finer points of boy scout baccy tin survival, midnight trips up to the farm to scrump a few strawberries or the early risers nipping into town to "acquire" some double cream, a couple of pints of milk and a few baps. Aye, twas a hard old station.

These days, and brought into sharp relief on this site , there's a fair bit of gear freakery around, in every hobby pursuit or aspect of western life. In the past things were simpler, less choice meant there was more time to focus on the actual pursuit rather than gear, which for some has become an end in it's own.

When I was first into climbing, for example, cagoules came in different weights of proofed nylon, 4oz 6oz or heavy weight mountain 8oz, then there was the colour red/orange, blue; light or navy and green and that was it, it was the same with gortex for the first few generations of the material. Almost no cross over with skiing and mass marketing etc at that time, but things have fair changed these days, any new kit selection now involves hours of research into this or that property etc.

When I was a little older and checking out different places carousing etc I'd often go to inverness on a saturday morning to buy a single from the old record shop up the steps and head home by a different route, 150 mile round trip and all done on the thumb usually. Sometimes, if I had nothing on, I wouldn't get back until the following wednesday or so and that often involved a night or two in a hay stack or if I was lucky, a luxury bus shelter, being a country lad I was always dressed for it.

These days I'm often happy, weather and midgies permitting, to sleep out on the hill when up there fishing, if the fishings' good, in just the same kit as I stomped up there in, tucking the jumper in to ones breeks and donning the waterproofs is an old trick that served me well in the past and continues to do so these days. I always have a satisfactory sleep too

A few days out in the open neck shirt, as we'd say, would do many a gear freak bushcrafter the power of good, in my opinion.

 

[oldtimer]

I have three layers.
1 Pockets with EDC: SAK, minitorch, matchsafe, whistle, small compass
2 Pouch for daywalks in areas I know well. This has brew kit, navigation essentials, FAK, water bottle, puri tabs, bivvy bag, Mora etc. This goes into or straps on to...
3 Pack for overnights: Sleeping bag and mat, tent or tarp, cookset and stove, spare clothes, water filter. The only variable is...
4 Food bag, this is usually home packed ratpacks ziplocks with one days food in x number of days I expect to be out.

I don't go along the "take what I'm going to need and nothing else route". Apart from food and spare clothing all the kit is a constant that I have spent years refining. I sometimes feel my pack is too heavy at around 12kg, especially at the end of the day, but I have been benighted in blizzards, and caught without water, and when I experiment by changing things, I always seem to come back to the same system. I'm still here so I guess my kit is what suits me and the way I travel.
I've posted before about what I see as one of life's mysteries that despite all the technological advances in kit, my pack still weighs about the same as it did 50 years ago.

 

[oldtimer]

I have three layers.
1 Pockets with EDC: SAK, minitorch, matchsafe, whistle, small compass
2 Pouch for daywalks in areas I know well. This has brew kit, navigation essentials, FAK, water bottle, puri tabs, bivvy bag, Mora etc. This goes into or straps on to...
3 Pack for overnights: Sleeping bag and mat, tent or tarp, cookset and stove, spare clothes, water filter. The only variable is...
4 Food bag, this is usually home packed ratpacks ziplocks with one days food in x number of days I expect to be out.

I don't go along the "take what I'm going to need and nothing else route". Apart from food and spare clothing all the kit is a constant that I have spent years refining. I sometimes feel my pack is too heavy at around 12kg, especially at the end of the day, but I have been benighted in blizzards, and caught without water, and when I experiment by changing things, I always seem to come back to the same system. I'm still here so I guess my kit is what suits me and the way I travel.
I've posted before about what I see as one of life's mysteries that despite all the technological advances in kit, my pack still weighs about the same as it did 50 years ago.

 

[MikeLA]

Re. the 'more you know less you will need' thing.

I have lived under tarps and ponchos since I was child, however the British military indirectly influenced my choice cordage, specifically I always used bungee cords. In later life I spent a few weeks abroad with Ray Mears on one of his courses, "you don't need bungee cords" he said "just some rope and a few knots". "Nah" I replied "Bungees are so much easier to set up". There followed an hour of instruction, Ray then took my bungees away and left me with some cords instead.

These days I only ever use cords to set up my shelter and unlike bungees, cord has multiple uses.

Less can be more.

To be honest he should not have done that bungees have there uses and are far easier in bad weather. Go back to them and carry a minimum of cord for a while and see if you will like them again. ( I do)

 

[sandbender]

To be honest he should not have done that bungees have there uses and are far easier in bad weather. Go back to them and carry a minimum of cord for a while and see if you will like them again. ( I do)

I'm not convinced, the more I use cords and have picked up new knots the more I have been able to do around camp with them (the incident detailed above was more than ten years ago). I have been out on a few stormy nights both at home in Scotland and elsewhere in the world, no probs with cords for me but I appreciate that bungees will make for a faster setup.

I'm also a little worried about the whole getting whacked in the eye thing.

 

[TinkyPete]

When I go for my solo wanders I take what I need and normally fit it into a small bag.

At meets I always have to much kit, some to show, some to try some just to bring along.

At present my normal bag is packed good to go, but my day trip bag went for a barney down a hill and broke a bit, so I am looking into a new style and trying out a few ideas with various type bags some have lasted a couple of trips, others do not suit what I have been bringing along so i have been trying out new bits of kit.

So my kit does vary, but I have a load of different stuff and use most of it, the stuff I am no longer using may find new homes I never know