Thread: Minimum pack contents

Ha ha, I read Tahr and BarrytheHunter's posts fully aware I carry too much and feeling utterly ashamed, so instantly resolved to cull a lot of shit... but then read Ranger888's post - especially the live alone bit, and the "oh yeah but what if's" started rolling back in... I will be forever haunted by @57jl's tale of woe recently (thank you for sharing that mate, you're my bloody hero! I hope you are recovering well!).

I used to carry a lot less when I was younger, fitter, and stupider, but I'm still relearning after 15 years off, and don't get out often enough to yet have the confidence to leave shit behind. Kit has got smaller and lighter - carrying it isn't a burden, so why not. Lastly, I know I'm brainless enough that if I take stuff out for one trip, I am guaranteed to forget to put it back in when I need it.

I massively admire the seasoned minimalists, but I guess we each carry what we're confident in carrying. If I fuck myself up, I'll either be relatively comfy, or won't need any of it.

Still bloody interesting to see what others carry, keep it coming!

Well I've been at the minimalist end of the scale for about 50 years (tiny survival kit of bike rubber, WP matches, triangular bandage, panadol and plasters plus a couple of other things I don't recall) but following my accident at Easter wallaby hunting (the final diagnosis was a lisfranc fracture) despite walking off the hill unaided it could have easily been worse/different etc and I going to seriously upgrade!

Originally Posted by Tentman

Well I've been at the minimalist end of the scale for about 50 years (tiny survival kit of bike rubber, WP matches, triangular bandage, panadol and plasters plus a couple of other things I don't recall) but following my accident at Easter wallaby hunting (the final diagnosis was a lisfranc fracture) despite walking off the hill unaided it could have easily been worse/different etc and I going to seriously upgrade!

Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it I reckon. The energy cost of carrying a decent emergency kit is relatively small compared to the possible consequences of not having what you need in a dire situation.

Interesting reading. I have to say I'm with Barry the Hunter and Micky Duck. I was shown over 40 years ago by an ex culler, what I actually needed. He's a member with the patience of a saint. On my belt I have a knife, a PLB and a small canvas pouch. The pouch contains two of the half size bic lighters, a small piece of tyre inner tube, several recycled shoe laces, sufficient dunny paper in a dog poo pick up bag ( often replaced ), remnants of a roll of insulation tape, an old Silva compass and about 3 rounds of ammo. I used to carry a pull through but tape my barrel or suppressor now, so don't bother. In my pants pocket is a Victorianox Climber pocket knife. If I'm out in the evening I'll have a small headlight stuffed in the pouch as well. That's it. I've been caught out 4 times unintentionally overnight. 3 times I knew exactly where I was, the 1st time, up from Sids Camp, I had a rough idea. Trying to use a torch would have stuffed me completely. Mick Duck's comment is spot on. Sort your shit out before dark. Oh, and each time a fire improved the situation 1000%.

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

I was a Mountain Safety Instructor for over 30 years and would never have pulled that stunt on anyone - I would have told him to get fucked and walked back inside

It was actually a very good teaching technique..the course participants were instructors who taught their "clients" about survival kits, but had never actually used one...how much credibility would they have? The fact that most of them decided they needed to change the contents of their survival kit when they got home proves the message was conveyed to them.
I managed an instructor group for 22 years, and recruited people who had done the hard yards, had done dumb things in the bush and learned from them. I wanted course participants to be able learn from the instructor's experience. I had a favourite mantra: Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from poor judgement. One of my instructors, a former Urewera culler, had developed hypothermia as a 20 year old and nearly died, 30 metres from a hut. He would tell the clients on a course the story of his near miss, sitting in the bush, leaning back against a tree, and have the whole group spellbound by the saga. So here was a man who had mana, that you knew you should listen to. Compare him to a bushcraft instructor I saw who took a session on hypothermia by reading aloud the contents of a pamphlet on the subject. Who had the most credibility?
Barry the hunter: if you had stormed off and gone back to the camp...the doors were locked! The course organiser had covered that! He was the legendary Bob Badland, MSC Firearms Programme Manager for ages, and one of the best hunters I ever came across.

I'll repost my bigger kit. As I said, fits in a small belt pouch. I can justify why everything is in the kit. It looks a lot on paper, but a couple of tablets of each kind are no volume or weight. Aspirin may keep you alive long enough during a heart attack to get help. Two small pills seem like a small price to pay. Having has a couple of near misses with leg injuries (not hunting), I can confirm that codeine and all the others make your life better for a while. I could see myself removing the spare knife, not much use to me in a survival situation for me personally. Same for the matches/firelighter/tinder. Even with this stuff, getting a fire going in the wettest place on earth, Northland is a challenge!

What would you old timers take off the list? I'm all ears.

- PLB

- Opioid
- Aspirin
- Ibuprofen
- Paracetamol
- Dextrose tablets
- Aquatabs (spare)

- Celox
- Gauze
- Betadine
- Elastoplast
- Dermabond
- Medical tape

- Knife (spare)
- Foil sleeping bag
- Compass (spare)
- Torch/battery (spare)
- Matches/firelighter/tinder

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

It was actually a very good teaching technique..the course participants were instructors who taught their "clients" about survival kits, but had never actually used one...how much credibility would they have? The fact that most of them decided they needed to change the contents of their survival kit when they got home proves the message was conveyed to them.
I managed an instructor group for 22 years, and recruited people who had done the hard yards, had done dumb things in the bush and learned from them. I wanted course participants to be able learn from the instructor's experience. I had a favourite mantra: Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from poor judgement. One of my instructors, a former Urewera culler, had developed hypothermia as a 20 year old and nearly died, 30 metres from a hut. He would tell the clients on a course the story of his near miss, sitting in the bush, leaning back against a tree, and have the whole group spellbound by the saga. So here was a man who had mana, that you knew you should listen to. Compare him to a bushcraft instructor I saw who took a session on hypothermia by reading aloud the contents of a pamphlet on the subject. Who had the most credibility?
Barry the hunter: if you had stormed off and gone back to the camp...the doors were locked! The course organiser had covered that! He was the legendary Bob Badland, MSC Firearms Programme Manager for ages, and one of the best hunters I ever came across.

Bob Badland now theres a blast from the past - had quite a bit to do with him - but still would not have expected people to camp out overnight on any course I ever ran - just me - to much could go wrong and quickly - but then so many of the groups I took were school age - bit young to chuck in deep end - I used to spend a lot of time getting them to get a fire going and what would burn and what would not

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

Bob Badland now theres a blast from the past - had quite a bit to do with him - but still would not have expected people to camp out overnight on any course I ever ran - just me - to much could go wrong and quickly - but then so many of the groups I took were school age - bit young to chuck in deep end - I used to spend a lot of time getting them to get a fire going and what would burn and what would not

We used to run a series of 3 weekend courses, spread out over several months: Basic Bushcraft, which involved the "classroom" content, e.g. first aid, food and cooking, pack contents, tents and bivvies, firelighting, navigation, etc, but with plenty of outdoor teaching around the residential camp we used (the best place to teach outdoor skills is outdoors); Intermediate Bushcraft, which was a 2 night 2 day expedition and involved camping out, putting all the first course learnings into practice; then a survival course, also 2 nights 2 days, teaching how to cope if you had not put the other stuff into practice properly. That course started with a night tramp off track into a hut (which did not exist(!), we would simulate a disagreement between instructors on how to reach the hut in thick bush, which resulted in the lead instructor departing in a tantrum, with the remaining group needing to set up bivvies for the night with the polythene sheet they were issued with. This resulted in members feeling disoriented, frustrated and uneasy. The idea was to lower their morale on the first night (just how you would feel when you have had an injury accident or are lost) and then build it up, along with their confidence, over the next 2 days by teaching them that you CAN build a rainproof bivvy, and that you will not die by not eating for 2 days. Each member was given a sealed ration pack the first night, but could not use it without the permission of the instructors. They learned that if you have a hot brew when you feel hungry, it will satisfy your food cravings (we didn't move around much, so energy levels were maintained, and teaching was done at the same spot. They were encouraged to spend a lot of time alone in their bivvies, because loneliness is an issue in a survival situation. Those courses produced well trained, confident trampers and hunters, able to cope with anything the outdoors could throw at them.

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

We used to run a series of 3 weekend courses, spread out over several months: Basic Bushcraft, which involved the "classroom" content, e.g. first aid, food and cooking, pack contents, tents and bivvies, firelighting, navigation, etc, but with plenty of outdoor teaching around the residential camp we used (the best place to teach outdoor skills is outdoors); Intermediate Bushcraft, which was a 2 night 2 day expedition and involved camping out, putting all the first course learnings into practice; then a survival course, also 2 nights 2 days, teaching how to cope if you had not put the other stuff into practice properly. That course started with a night tramp off track into a hut (which did not exist(!), we would simulate a disagreement between instructors on how to reach the hut in thick bush, which resulted in the lead instructor departing in a tantrum, with the remaining group needing to set up bivvies for the night with the polythene sheet they were issued with. This resulted in members feeling disoriented, frustrated and uneasy. The idea was to lower their morale on the first night (just how you would feel when you have had an injury accident or are lost) and then build it up, along with their confidence, over the next 2 days by teaching them that you CAN build a rainproof bivvy, and that you will not die by not eating for 2 days. Each member was given a sealed ration pack the first night, but could not use it without the permission of the instructors. They learned that if you have a hot brew when you feel hungry, it will satisfy your food cravings (we didn't move around much, so energy levels were maintained, and teaching was done at the same spot. They were encouraged to spend a lot of time alone in their bivvies, because loneliness is an issue in a survival situation. Those courses produced well trained, confident trampers and hunters, able to cope with anything the outdoors could throw at them.

Bob Badland - is he still with us - remember him fondly - he got me thru as a Firearm's instructor so many years ago - when I was at Kaitaia he got me to go around a lot of the local Maraes and do safety talks - lot of fun- had many shady types sidle up after the talk hey I have this at home and yup something in the firearm line they were not supposed to have

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

Bob Badland - is he still with us - remember him fondly - he got me thru as a Firearm's instructor so many years ago - when I was at Kaitaia he got me to go around a lot of the local Maraes and do safety talks - lot of fun- had many shady types sidle up after the talk hey I have this at home and yup something in the firearm line they were not supposed to have

Not sure if he is....yeah, he had a lot of knowledge for sure.

ran into him back in my MSC days too..along with Chaz F great guys with huge wealth of knowledge
I BELIEVE it was Bob who told story of being at border in ???mexico??? and sucurity guard/border guard got his details..then went back into hut..came back out and asked him how he got on with his such n such revolver....the guard had same revolver on his hip in holster.... simple passport check had allowed him into acess ALL his details including what firearms were registered to his name THAT WAS 30ish years ago and its stuck in my mind ever since....especially now with register coming up.