Before you start packing your survival kit you need to know some basic fact about the survival of a person. A person can survive up to 3 weeks without food and only 3 days without water. An average person can survive 3 hours outside their core body temperature.
Knowing these basic facts will help you to understand what you need to pack inside your survival kit while survival planning. It is very critical to have all the basic things otherwise it will be difficult for you to survive.
Here are the must-have items in your survival kit.
1. Fire Starter
Starting a fire can be challenging if you don’t have a good item for starting the fire. It is very important to survive the cold and fight off hungry predators. The obvious use of fire is cooking yourself a meal. So, understanding these basic uses you need to have a reliable fire starter.
2. Survival Knife
You need a sharp and high-quality survival knife to survive in a true survival situation. You need to choose multi-functional knife as you might need a lot of cutting and other functions like skin your hunt, cut strings, and sharpen sticks among other uses. Your survival knife must be strong and razor-sharp to cut through the toughest materials
3. Map & Compass
When you are in a survival situation, you might not have access to the internet and regular GPS. You need to have a map and a compass to navigate to your destination with ease. It is better to have both a road map and a topography map on you just in case.
4. First Aid Kit
If you think that you may face tough survival situations then it is good to have a complete first aid kit in your survival pack with all necessary items. Also, try to keep a dedicated first aid kit for your vehicle.
5. A Bow Saw
A bow saw can helo you cut firewood. It will help you to cut big branches of the tree to prepare a shelter for yourself. So, if you are exposed to extreme weather conditions, a bow saw can be a great help for you.
6. Proper Clothing
When you are heading into a survival situation into the wild then you need to have proper clothing as many people die due to the hyperthermia. Always remember to wear loose and layer your clothes. Make wool clothing as your under layer.
7. Emergency Survival Whistle
You need to keep a plastic whistle around your neck just in case you get lost. Your voice has a limited reach voice might not reach far when lost, but whistle can easily reach the target. You should carry a plastic whistle as it is very lightweight.
8. Signal/Hygiene Mirror
You might have heard the stories where search helicopters have passed over the lost people because people couldn’t signal. So you need to carry a signal mirror or heliograph in the case you face such a situation.
9. Water / Water Filteration
As mentioned earlier in the article that a person can not survive without water, so you need to add that in your plan. You can not take too much water as it is heavy to carry. You can carry a survival water filter just in case you find water in the wild.