Survival Tin, or Mini BC kit?

[3bears]

I've seen countless versions of these around, some costing form a fiver, to over 100 quid ...

does anyone (apart from me) actually carry these? I was lucky to pick up an AMK kit for a tenner in a closing down sale at a local(ish) outdoors shop, I've added a few bits of my own, though if I'm honest I cant ever see any of this stuff being more useful than a spare £20 note here in the UK- I cant think that you're ever going to be more 25 miles from a road, and roads mean people ( cant speak about the highlands though lol)

they all seem to contain basically the same stuff (though I think you'd have better luck fishing for birds than fishing for fish!)

it's much less a 'last ditch kit' than a 'bugger I'm not carrying my BC bag, but look at all of the handy kit I've got in my jacket...'

I keep it to be used, and replace bits as I need, anyone else like this or am I an alone madman

the tin contains...

Magnifying Lens
Signal Mirror
Note paper & Pencil
Opinel 4
Solar powered LED light
Duct tape
Whistle
Thread
Tool card (small hex head wrench, can opener, screwdriver, small saw blade ect...)
String
Hair bobble (tie hair back, if you have long hair you know how much of a nice to have item this is lol)
Super glue
'kwick tinder'
Wire Saw
Silva 28
Wire
Sparkie thing
Scalpel blade x2
about 20 feet of Paracord woven around the tin
a few fishing hooks, splits, swivels and a big needle

no real 'life or death' kit, more like a mirco BC kit...

thoughts ladies and gents?

 

[ashes1627]

Looks like a good kit, I have something similar to this as well.

 

[Rabbitsmacker]

looks like a good kit, i have 2 q's, you haven't included a flint striker fire lighter thingy, is this by design? and i don't get the solar led torch, sorry for sounding thick, i've never come across one before. if it's in the tin, how does it get charged for when you need it?

but the kit looks good and made me think it's time to update mine!

 

[3bears]

the bright orange thing is like the striker on a lighter, it came form the AMK kit with the kwick tinder. The solar LED torch is errr *cough cough* because it was only a pound lol, I'll be throwing in a Photon II microlight to replace it when I've got some spare pennies for a heinnie order

 

[Rabbitsmacker]

oh yeah i see it now! lol.

the torch sounded like a candid camera thing!

 

[R.Lewis]

Good setup. I carry something similar in the sleeve pocket of my bushie coat (an SAS smock). Mine is one of those yellow kidney shaped plastic first aid kit boxes I've had for over twenty years! Works great as fits pocket comfortably and is waterproof when taped and obviously strong to have survived all these years!

 

[3bears]

I carry something similar in the sleeve pocket of my bushie coat (an SAS smock). QUOTE]

lol the exact same place I carry mine! though I just have a Helikon Parka

 

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

nice kit i like it, but i never seem to need to use mine

 

[3bears]

nice kit i like it, but i never seem to need to use mine

like I said, I keep mine more as a mini bushcraft kit rather as a survival kit, its just handy nicknaks if I'm out for a bimble. Over here in the UK I don't think I'd ever really need more than a space blanket and a £20 note! I find here in Wales it's very populated, and even when you think you're in the middle of nowhere, somebody will pop up and walk past ....

 

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

haha to true, over here in aussie near my camping spot never see any one, too hot in summer or below zero winter

 

[Xunil]

I have a similar kit in my main jacket pocket - it has never been used but, like all such items, it is reassuring to know it is there if required.

One thing that always bugs me is when you hear folks going on about being able to boil water in one of these tins. Anyone recommending this has clearly never tried it.

Even if you can boil water in it successfully and manage to remove the tin (and water it contains) from your heat source without spillage, it's such a piddling amount I can't see the point. You'd be on all day if that was your main method of sterilising water.

I keep a folded ZipLock bag in my tin with a Puritab (still in its blister pack) inside. I can always use articles of clothing for simple filtering and then the puritab does its thing to a good litre or so of water in one fell swoop. It's reusable along with the other puritabs in the tin and I'd rather put up with emergency water tasting slightly of chemicals than faff around trying to boil enough for my needs (or even for a decent hot drink) in such an awkward container.

Boiling water in a tobacco tin - pah !

 

[Dark Horse Dave]

One thing that always bugs me is when you hear folks going on about being able to boil water in one of these tins. Anyone recommending this has clearly never tried it.

Even if you can boil water in it successfully and manage to remove the tin (and water it contains) from your heat source without spillage, it's such a piddling amount I can't see the point. You'd be on all day if that was your main method of sterilising water.

Boiling water in a tobacco tin - pah !

Yep, I've tried it and would say that you'd have to be pretty blimmin' desperate!

Anyone remember the old Survival Aids tins from the 80s that contained a little handle for the purpose?

Boiling water in a tobacco tin - pah !

 

[sandbender]

"...like I said, I keep mine more as a mini bushcraft kit rather as a survival kit, its just handy nicknaks if I'm out for a bimble..."

I use a tobacco tin to store a small first aid kit, any survival related nicknacks usually hang of my belt.

 

[shaggystu]

...One thing that always bugs me is when you hear folks going on about being able to boil water in one of these tins. Anyone recommending this has clearly never tried it.

Even if you can boil water in it successfully and manage to remove the tin (and water it contains) from your heat source without spillage, it's such a piddling amount I can't see the point. You'd be on all day if that was your main method of sterilising water.......

i think that if i was ever to find myself in a situation so desperate that i was having to resort to a tobacco tin kit to keep me alive then i'd probably be glad of all the help i could get, even if that help came in the form of not-very-suitable tin for boiling water in. it has a lid, why would you spill it? as you quite correctly pointed out, trying to provide all you drinking water by boiling it in a baccy tin would take up a lot of your time, this might not be such a bad thing. time and time again we hear "survival experts" telling us how much psychology plays a part in survival, the people who make it out of "situations" invariably do so because they have the will to live. simply having something to do, something tangible that makes you feel as though you are in some little way the master of your own destiny, must help to foster that all important positive mental attitude. when people have nothing to do they have a horrible tendancy to just give in. maybe it would take all day to provide the drinking water that you need by boiling it in a baccy tin but the knock on effect from that must be enormous - it gives you a reason to collect fuel, the fire that you're using to boil your water will keep you warm, it'll give you a reason to stay put (generally accepted to be a good idea), you won't be struggling to light your signal fire at the critical moment because you'll be sitting at the side of it boiling water etc.
i'm not suggesting for one second that a baccy tin is the ideal choice of cooking pot, it does have all sorts of limitations, but there are some positives.
all that said i've never carried a baccy tin kit and doubt that i ever will.

just my thoughts on the subject.

BTW nice looking little kit 3bears, i'd think about adding some sewing things, a few needles and a bit of thread would do.

cheers

stuart

 

[3bears]

BTW nice looking little kit 3bears, i'd think about adding some sewing things, a few needles and a bit of thread would do.

cheers

stuart

I keep a big needle with my fishing hooks, (you can just about make it out in the pic) and a spool of heavy black nylon thread in the tin with me, though the supreglue if found can fix pretty much anything in a pinch lol I've never had cause to use it for anything but its good to know ifs there if i had ripped my pants the Micro BC kit, handy nicknacs for the outdoors person!

 

[shaggystu]

I keep a big needle with my fishing hooks, (you can just about make it out in the pic) and a spool of heavy black nylon thread in the tin with me, though the supreglue if found can fix pretty much anything in a pinch lol I've never had cause to use it for anything but its good to know ifs there if i had ripped my pants the Micro BC kit, handy nicknacs for the outdoors person!

now you've pointed it out mate i can see it quite clearly, things are ever so easy to find when you know where you're looking!
touch of genius with the hair bobble BTW, i've got them stashed all over the place, i quite often keep one around my knife sheath, there's nothing worse than hair in your face when you're trying to do something.

stuart

 

[FGYT]

remember the loony country we live in
but needles the scalpel blades and the credit card tool are all Sharply pointed and or bladed article that's need a specific reason to carry in a publicly accessed area ( just in case I need it isnt a reason ie i cant carry a locking blade just in case i need to cut string )

so for a sewing kit you need to be proceeding to a ripped trouser indecent

ATB

Duncan

survival fishing kit could be seen as going equiped to poach etc

 

[3bears]

remember the loony country we live in
but needles the scalpel blades and the credit card tool are all Sharply pointed and or bladed article that's need a specific reason to carry in a publicly accessed area ( just in case I need it isnt a reason ie i cant carry a locking blade just in case i need to cut string )

so for a sewing kit you need to be proceeding to a ripped trouser indecent



ATB

Duncan

survival fishing kit could be seen as going equiped to poach etc

lol it is a pretty loonly place we live in but i'm blessed by living on a small(ish) island where the police are far more concerned with catching someone doing 32mph in a 30 zone than stopping and searching a guy with a baccy tin full of random bits

I've never had any problems - the Opinel 4, is a non locker- it doesn't have the slide ring, and the scalpel blades believe it or not I keep for wood whittling, as for the fishing kit, well - I live on a island lol, there's nothing wrong with a bit of rock pool fishing I'm never more than a few miles from the coast! the toolcard is a bit grey, but again i just tend to use it for small wood work- no harm

 

[ged]

...there's nothing worse than hair in your face when you're trying to do something.

Ooooh, I know!

 

[shaggystu]

Ooooh, I know!

now now ged, just because some of us are still young enough to grow hair there's no need to let your jealousy get the better of you

stuart