Rat packs

[CLEM]

Gonna try a couple of these this weekend and so Ive a couple of questions for those who have use these.The American versions are these like the British rat packs in that they are intended to provide enough snap for 24 hours??? Where are the sell buy/eat buy dates on the packs and which meals do you recomend most???

 

[Surrey Yeoman]

Hi Clem,

The US rat pack or "MRE" (meals rejected by everyone) are not the same as the Brit 24hr packs as they are just one meal per pack. You'd need (at least) 3 of them for a 24hr period. The Brit packs are a complete 24hr set of breakfast, main meal with a pudding and a snack type lunch meal of biscuits and pate. They also contain a brew kit (including the best hot chocolate in the world), a cold drink orange or lemon powder and some bog paper/tissues, matches and other odds & ends.

The MRE is always a main meal, usually accompanied by some dry crackers, with some jam or peanut butter and some coffee. There’s usually a tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce to zing things up a bit. There's no breakfast / lunch / evening meal as such, just pot luck as to what you get - spicy chicken & rice for breakfast - Yum Yum! They also come with an add water self heating pack, whereas the Brit packs need a stove to warm them through, although both Brit & US can be eaten cold if needs be. You get a free spoon with the MRE!

The MREs are a nice change, but I think the Brit ratpacks are better value.

As for dates, the Brit ones should have a "packed by" date on them and I think they're supposed to be used within 5 years. That said, I'm eating stuff that’s 12 years old and it's fine! Don't know about dates for the MREs, but someone out there should. I've eaten MREs that were 6 years old and they seemed ok with no ill effects.

 

[leemann]

Clem
Try mreinfo dot com for mre info.

Lee

 

[CLEM]

Thanks Yeoman and Leemann

 

[Toadflax]

Having eaten the old compo on many occasions, and recent UK rat packs and US MREs a couple of times I would definitely favour the UK 24 hour packs - primarily because they provide good wholesome food and because you get everything you are going to need. I'm not arguing the merits of rat packs over food that you prepare yourself, simply the convenience of a rat pack if you don't want to go to the trouble of gathering 24 hours worth of food.

Having said that, I would be tempted to try and build up my own ration pack for future use, though if you can get the UK packs for about £5 you are going to be hard put to make up your own for the same price if you buy the same sort of components (e.g. boil in the bag meals).

The problem with rat packs (if you can't get them locally) is the postage costs. I have used Farside Marketing rat packs (nominally the same spec as UK 24 hour packs) but sold on the civilian market but they tend to cost more than surplus rat packs.


Geoff

 

[sandbag47]

how much more

 

[pothunter]

Rat packs, do you take one per day and break them down for easier distribution around other kit or leave them in the box to have easy access to the whole thing when required?

My preference was for distribution, snack stuff, sweeties and bog paper in pockets grub in sack, what do other people do?

Just curious.

 

[Toadflax]

Farside packs were £10 each - I bought a couple recently and paid I think less than £5 postage, which was next day delivery, for the two packs. They were good, but I'm sure I could build them up a bit cheaper if I bought boil in the bag meals from the local camping shop (though with these at about £3.50 each then cost of a breakfast, dinner and pudding adds up to close to the cost of the pack).

Surplus rat packs at £5 each seem better value, but some of the places I looked at were charging quite a lot for postage. The other factor, which may or may not concern people, is that the Farside Packs were brand new and haven't been stored for a few years.

If there was a local surplus store where I could buy packs without paying postage, I'd probably be happy with surplus UK 24 hour packs.


Geoff

PS: I've no connection with them, but they sell online here: http://www.farsm.com

 

[FGYT]

they seem to make them up themselves and do custom pack maybe they would sell the component parts

that said i can get a resonable amount of rat free for my own use


I do miss the tinned Bacon Burger though the Civi stuff just dosn't taste the same

Lidel do 2 (coffee and milk) and 3 (coffee and milk and Suger )in one Coffee sachets 10 for 99p
super markets only seem to do posh coffe in sachets Double Skinny ChoccaMochaFoccaCockaLatte

yeh i know pour some from the Jar into a bag or pot

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

A good source of US mre's in the Uk ? Online ?

Ta

Nick

 

[Corso]

always found the French stuff a lot more palatable myself

 

[sandbag47]

i had the french stuff back in 1991 in kuwait ....and i must say it wasn't that bad

 

[McShug]

spotted these on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BCB-Food-Rati...ryZ16036QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

looks like a good deal

{no connection to seller}

 

[Toadflax]

Strikeforce Supplies (http://www.strikeforcesupplies.co.uk) were selling MREs at the Wilderness Gathering, and UK 24 hour packs. I'm neither recommending or not recommending them but I was happy with the packs that I bought. Then again, I didn't have to pay postage. I think that they would do a 10 man pack at a bit of a discount and if you rang Jasper and told him what menus you wanted, he'd try and make up the 10-pack with those menus.


Geoff

 

[scottishwolf]

spotted these on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BCB-Food-Rati...ryZ16036QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

looks like a good deal

{no connection to seller}

WOW, that's an amzing deal...just got some myself to put in the ever growing mountain of camping/longlife food i keep stored. Cheers for the link :You_Rock_

 

[bikething]

WOW, that's an amzing deal...just got some myself to put in the ever growing mountain of camping/longlife food i keep stored. Cheers for the link :You_Rock_

Me too....
just take note of the following snippet from the item description :

"The Shelf Life on these meals are guaranteed for at least 4 months"

- best get camping then

 

[scottishwolf]

Me too....
just take note of the following snippet from the item description :

"The Shelf Life on these meals are guaranteed for at least 4 months"

- best get camping then

As always lol

 

[SimonM]

I have used British Rat packs for years and have a good local surplus shop who does the for £4 each - BARGAIN! Every now and then he gets a few MRE's and they are good for novelty value with good extras like the tabasco sauce bottle (Go on I dare you - down in one!) The little heater with MRE's is great and because of this there is always one at the bottom of my bergan as emergency rations.

But you can make up your own version from supermarkets quite cheaply.

• Breakfast - Oat so Simple ( Golden syrup / original / apple & blue berry flavours)
• Main meal - Try the ethnic aisle for pouched ready meals, the options are amazing OR be traditional, Dolmio microwave pasta (cooks in 2 tablespoons of water in 3 minutes in a pan) and the stir in sauce needs no cooking!
• Desert
  • - instant custard, mini apple pie / jam roll / choc roll
    
    etc etc etc

 

[Spacemonkey]

I like my 24hr Rats

Difference between the two:

Typical Rat pack contents:

Typical MRE contents:

I carry bits from both myself and reject half of both.. I absolutely love the peanut butter and crackers in the MRE! So bloody filling for such a small pack..

Would recommend Strikeforce as a supplier of both as that's where I get mine.

 

[spamel]

Duncans chocolate? That's a bit of an old pack. You get Yorkies now, a proper mans' chocolate! Grrrr!