Woodlife

Courtesy of the American Bushman, at the end of last year I received a NRA survival kit and Bark River PSK sample. Over these few months I’ve been looking closely at the contents and have already done a review of the BlastMatch. I will do a more detailed review of the PSK later, but now is the time to look at the kit all together.

First of all, I consider survival kits as an absolute necessity if you spend anytime in the outdoors. A survival kit must at the very least contain something to make a fire, start a shelter and attract attention. Any subsequent content will then depend on the area and conditions e.g. in dry areas or conditions you would need to gather water. After this, I believe it’s all a matter of personal choice. Do you take twine or a basic first aid kit. Do you make room for fish hooks, or wire for a snare? How big should the kit be? Rucksack size? Pocket size? Vehicle size? Perhaps now you can understand how difficult this can be.

So let’s have a look at the NRA kit starting at the container. This is what’s described as an OtterBox which is quite expensive in itself. The box is 6in x 3.5 in. and I would describe this as rucksack size, being slightly too large for regularly carrying in a pocket. This is probably the first minus point for me. I would prefer a basic survival container to be pocket size to fit in a belt pouch or jacket pocket. No chance of it being unavailable in an emergency situation. ‘Otter’ equals ‘water animal’ equals ‘waterproof’. Time for some extreme testing.

I left the container and contents buried in a muddy pond last week and extracted it today. I also buried my bare hands in the same pond for a painful 5 minutes to simulate a possible survival scenario of a dunking whilst crossing a river. I was pleased to notice that the box floated which would be a distinct advantage if faced with the afore mentioned scenario. The two front opening clasps were easy to open even with numb hands. The contents were 100% dry. What a great start. Would it stand up to a bit of rough handling though? A tentative kick around produced no adverse effect. I lobbed the whole thing at a tree, not with a huge amount of force it has to be said and…ooops! The whole container burst open and spread the contents around the muddy ground. On inspection I immediately found the problem. The hinge protrudes at the rear obviously to ensure a waterproof seal around the box and being made of plastic it’s particularly vulnerable (pic). The lob might have been the equivalent to dropping the container about 10-15 feet on to a hard surface. It was probably unlucky to have landed directly on the hinge, but nevertheless, not too impressive if the survival kit container can’t survive.

Still with numb fingers, I tried out the WetFire tinder and what looked like a mini hexamine block. I soaked the WetFire tinder and applied the BlastMatch spark after preparing a minimum amount of kindling with the PSK. One push down on the BlastMatch and..bingo! The tinder caught first time. I fed the Hexamine on to it followed by the kindling. Objective achieved.

I was certainly impressed with the WetFire, no doubt about that. There was only one downfall though. If you don’t get it right first time, there’s not much of a second chance. The WetFire and Hexamine doesn’t last that long. On a whim I lit a sachet of Greenheat fuel gel and it lasted almost 4 times as long, which was enough to get the dampest of kindling going. As with the WetFire, the Green heat also ignites easily with a firesteel. The Greenheat also has the benefit of being not so bulky. The conclusion I drew here was, yes, the WetFire was effective, but there might be easier and more efficient alternatives.

I’ve already looked at the BlastMatch, but I should reiterate that this is an excellent piece of kit. The main advantage is that it can be used one handed (great if you have a hand or arm injury). It does have a design fault but the main draw back is it’s size. To be incuded in a pocket/rucksack sized survival kit is, to say the least, a bit of an overkill. This thing is heavy, and takes up a third of the Otterbox (RIP). I would prefer to replace it with the Scout sized firesteel that American Bushman also kindly supplied.

The other contents of the kit are a JetSream whistle and a signalling mirror. The JetScream is brilliant. Extremely loud and and high pitched enough to be heard over a howling wind. I must say that I haven’t tried it’s range, therefore I cannot give a particularly informed opinion. I can say that it certainly works when it’s muddy and wet (doesn’t taste so good though!) Again, the signaling mirror hasn’t been tested at all. The principle of a sighting hole is sound, but the proof will be in how long it lasts. I’ve had a BCB mirror hanging outside of my house for 15 years, and it’s only just getting tarnished. I would like to see something else on the NRA supplied mirror. The BCB mirror has a thermometer and a chart of wind-chill factors included.

In conclusion then: the fire making equipment is excellent if not a bit of an overkill and there might be more space saving and efficient alternatives. The container, although completely waterproof, turned out not robust enough to do the job. The whole thing for me just wasn’t portable or small enough. I must say though, if I had been carrying the kit in an emergency situation, barring all but the most extreme conditions, the kit, despite the comments above, would have saved my life. I’ll try to post a review of the PSK very soon.

I’d like to thank American Bushman for including me on this project. Bri, please send me the bill for the OtterBox. I mean it!

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo