[The Reaper]

cobra:

jatx has some good points.

Checklists are fine, but I wouldn't get too wrapped around them. You have to remain flexible, and prioritize according to METT-T. The priorities in Alaska in February are going to be vastly different from Panama in July.

Review the basics: air, shelter (including fire for warmth), water, food. In a benign environment, shelter may fall to last place. In a harsh or extreme environment, it will likely be near the top.

As far as your list goes, you need a container to boil water or cook in. A canteen cup (or one of the Titanium version, if you are an ultralight guy) is a good, compact solution.

I would take salt over salt tabs. If you have a MIOX water purifier, it takes salt and a battery to work, but you can use the salt on your food as well. A bouillion cube or two can be great, or if you must be very compact, the seasoning packet out of a 15 cent pack of ramen is good. A tea bag or intstant coffee packet might be nice.

You need a compact light source, unless it never gets dark where you are. The Photons are the best small lighting solution, and are among the most flexible.

Have you actually lit a fire with your flint before? If not, you might want to try it in a non-survival situation. An actual flame is a vastly superior fire starter than a shower of tiny, weak sparks, unless you have gasoline, or powder.

I would carry more than 20' of 550 cord. I use it for boot laces as well. If you need small cordage, you can gut it and still lace up your boots with the sheath. BTW, for those who have never used 550 cord before, the internal strands are slippery and do not hold knots well. A quick pass with the BIC or over a hot coal is a good way to lock them permanently.

I would want a ZipLoc, condom, or trash bag for waterproofing and water storage. Nothing worse than having to spend 30 minutes and hundreds of calories every time your 1 qt. canteen runs dry, and it tends to dehydrate you as well, as you opt to drink less to avoid the trek. The trash bag is quickly a good rain poncho, ground cloth, improvised sleeping bag, or can be split open to improve the watertightness of your shelter. If you have food, and no place to secure it, it will spoil faster and will quickly be bug infested. Condoms need to be the plain variety.

If I were taking any tape, it would be 100 mph tape. It will work longer holding a bandage, and has a lot of other uses as well. You can wrap things in it and peel it off as needed. A couple of wraps around a canteen is a few feet of good cheap insurance.

You will need wire for snares and repairs, and hooks for fishing. A tiny bottle of hooks and some monofilament line (also good for lashings), wrapped in snare wire is an excellent way to secure a steady food source in the wild. Trust me, making traps, snares, and hooks is no way as easy, or effective, as making a noose snare out of wire or just tying a hook onto a few feet of mono line.

People who have never lived in the woods much seem to think that there a a plentiful supply of large stupid herbivores which are as easy to take with a spear or a knife as a centerfire rifle.

The truth is:

- Large game is much rarer in the wild than small game.
- Large game is more cautious and aware, or they would not have grown up to that size. Think Darwin.
- It takes longer and more resources to grow, so you can quickly exhaust an area of its big game. One middle-aged buck may have several square miles of territory.
- Large game will be harder to kill, and even more difficult to stop. Even if you can hit one with a homemade arrow from a homemade bow, he will likely run far away, and will likely not be killed by it.
- A wounded large animal, even a herbivore, can hurt badly you trying to escape.
- It will be difficult to hang, gut, and skin large game in a survival situation. So many people take their kill to processing plants that I think most are unaware of just how difficult it is to prepare. It looks much easier on TV.
- Without cooling, salt, or other preservation means, in the summer, you may have 24 hours or less to consume the game before it goes bad. How will you consume 200 lbs. of venison in 24 hours? Hard to smoke that much meat, that quickly in the wild.
- Large carnivores and scavengers can sense a large kill for many miles and you may attract unwanted visitors. What do you do with the 100 pounds of guts, bones, and hide near your camp site? Bears will come after game that others have killed, they can smell much better than a bloodhound. Unless you are ready for that, think about it. You may not want the constant stream of buzzards over your kill site either.

- Small game, like squirrels, rabbits, fish, etc., on the other hand are plentiful and are near the bottom of the food chain. They exist primarily for other animals to eat. For that reason, they reproduce, well, like rabbits and are hard to eliminate completely, as farmers can attest.
- They are not too smart and are easy to catch with a variety of traps and snares.
- You can run a trap line and unless you are a serious eater or in a poor environment, not depopulate the area.
- They are easy to kill if trapped.
- They are well, meal sized. Much less waste. And the small amount of waste can be easily disposed of, or used as bait for other, larger creatures.
- They are portable. You can easily tie or cage a live rabbit for dining later. You can build a fish corral. Deer and other large animals do not like that.
- They are easy to prepare, I can gut and skin a rabbit in a couple of minutes.
- If you catch two that you do not need, you can quickly become a rancher. Deer and other large game don't work that way.

Best of luck, hope this helps.

Wolverines!!