My HomeMade Survival Kit

My Home-Made Survival Kit

My Homemade Survival Pack
Before 3 Day Trip

   A homemade survival kit should have all the basic supplies to survival for at least three days and possibly a lot longer. When designing your survival pack you should all ways think about supplies that can provide food so you don't have to worry about carrying three days worth because that can get heavy fast. My favorite item to carry is a piece of 1/16 aircraft cable that can be found at most hardware store's. With a simple piece of cable or copper wire you can catch all kinds of small game and even some bigger game. The key to this is understanding how and where to set the snare. If you're a trapper, the first thing you would say is what about the snare lock and that's a good question.

Theirs a knot you should learn called a Hoffman Knot that works great for holding most animals. A Hoffman Knot is a simple hand tied circular knot that's capable of catching just about any animal that puts his head through the snare as long as you're on 'location".


   I use a Manco Outdoors survival backpack as my main pack when out in the woods. It is a simple fanny-pack style pack that also has a set of backpack straps. I like this pack because it has a lot of pockets and it can be used to carry a lot or just a little depending on the trip. I've had this pack for over a year now and the only thing I have to complain about is the zipper because it brook off, but I use safety pins to hold the pockets closed.

I made a few modifications to my survival pack but in the long run I'm glad I did this. On my most recent survival trip I packed a little too much and my shoulders where filling every bit of it, so I cut a strip off my blanket and used it as extra padding also using safety pin's to hold the pads in place.

My homemade survival kit is simple with many of the items used more multiple purposes. It has just what I need to sustain myself for at least three days and longer if necessary. In the picture below you can see that I have a pistol and a few shot gun shells, I always carry the pistol and sometimes the shotgun for safety reasons when I'm in bear country by myself.

Listed below is everything inside my Survival Pack 

1. Two six foot pieces of 1/16 and one six foot piece of  3/32 aircraft cable.
2. Small medical emergency survival kit
3. One Freeze Dried food pack, a pack of tuna and two small packs of oatmeal 
4. Survival knife and a multi-tool
5. Fold down fishing pole and basic fishing supplies
6. Knife sharpener 
7. Metal cooking cup
8. Head Lamp with spare batteries
9. Gloves
10. Para-Cord at least fifty feet
11. 9v battery and steel-wool for starting a fire in not so ideal situations
12. Flint and Steel (Magnesium Fire-starter)
13. Emergency Blanket 
14. Magnifying glass and Signal mirror
15. Copa Di Vino Container used for a cup, matches, tinder and other things I can't afford to get wet.
16. Duct Tape and Electric Tape
17. Water Purification Tablets

These are just some of the basics that I have in my homemade survival kit as I add and remove items to fit each survival trip. This picture was taken before my last trip on a 3 day/ 2 night outing which I mostly caught and ate a lot of fish. I also ran into a total of 4 bears and I'm very happy I had a shotgun with a few slug loads. Fortunately they never got close enough to see if they wanted me for dinner, but one big bear scarred the heck out of me and I'm glad I had it with me just in case.

 Remember that survival skills is an art and takes lots of practice and research to understand every aspect of  what it takes to survive. You can prepare all you want, but until you actually get out in the woods and put your survival skills to the test, you will never know how you will react under extreme conditions.