A personal survival Kit (PSK) is something everyone should carry in their pack, but what should your survival kit contain?
Many commercially made kits out there are either full of useless items or very few items of poor quality, so many like myself build their own kits which is something i recommend.
Most people assemble these in an Altoids or tobacco tin, I recommend using a tobacco tin, these come in two sizes according to your needs, and have an internal rubber seal and can be taped shut for extra waterproofing.
Altoids tins are hinged and are a little more tricky to waterproof.
You may feel that buying a commercial kit will make it easy for you to get the bare essentials along with a good container that you can add or subtract to, and Im not going to say this is a bad idea.
There are 3 important categories of survival items EVERY kit should contain, and im going to explain them in detail.
They are:
Firestarting
Navigation/location
First Aid/hygiene
I will also go into detail some of the more miscellaneous items that are ideal to have, but not essential.
Some of these items will also depend on your geographical location, for example you might be in a hot country, so a fire is not essential to keep you warm, but it could be used for smoke signals to attract attention.
The most important item your kit should contain is something to start a fire, I recommend to keep more than one ignition source as a backup.
I recommend some stormproof matches and striker, the best ones are NATO lifeboat matches, supplied by many companies such as Coghlans or BCB international. Other brands such as UCO are very good also, but i recommend you test any matches for their performance before including in your kit. I have come across some very poor quality chinese matches that dont ignite properly, so do your research and test your products.
A firesteel / Ferrocerium rod is also a good backup that can be struck many times with a piece of a hacksaw blade that gives off very hot sparks, keep in mind you need very dry tinder to use these, so I recommend you include some tinder quik fire tabs, again these are another military issued item. Maya dust is another suitable alternative that is basically wood shavings made from a type of pine high in resin.
A mini BIC ligher is also a good backup source although these wont work if wet.
Something that very few people think of keeping in their kits is a piece of a inner tyre tube. This will burn extremely hot and will ignite damp twigs very easily. In countries such as here in New Zealand, its often hard to find nice dry tinder to get a fire started, so this is a must in my kits.
Moving on to the second category are the essential items to help you navigate if lost and to help you be found by rescuers.
A small credit card plastic mirror is essential for attracting aircraft, drill a hole in the centre so you can sight through and direct towards aircraft.
If you have an old 2.5 inch laptop hard drive, the platters inside work perfectly for this job also.
Some kits also contain aluminium foil for this purpose, which also doubles as a makeshift cup for eating from or cooking with, this is something i feel is not really necessary, but since it takes virtually no room, there is no harm with adding it if you so wish.
Perhaps the best aircraft signalling aid is your foil survival blanket which is an essential accessory to your personal survival kit. These are a large sheet that will reflect much more light than your mirror. There have been stories where people have attracted aircraft with these, while at the same time the hologram on a Visa card has also done the same job.
A compass is something that every hiker / tramper should carry, however on short day trips this can be something overlooked, so a small button compass is essential as a backup. I dont recommend the small 12mm ones, they are too small, hard to hold and easily dropped, go for the larger 20mm ones, they still take up virtually no room in your Tobacco tin.
Lastly, the most important item in this category is a whistle. If you are needing to attract rescuers attention you need to be heard. Whistles can be heard over more distance than your voice and use less energy.
I recommend the Fox40 classic whistle, this may be one of the largest items in your kit, so if space is an issue, check out the Fox40 Micro, still a loud whistle that is only about 5dB lower. Any pealess whistle that has no moving parts will work, but if you cant find a Fox40, you could go for a Jetscream, again I go on Ebay, you will find what you are after.
The loudest whistle is the Storm whistle, but these are very bulky for the sake of an extra 5dB, its not really worth it.
The whistle is something that many commercial kits fall back on, and most have poor quality whistles that have very low output, so choosing your whistle is very important.
We now come to first aid, this is another important category.
I recommend you fit what you can into your kit with these items, according to your needs
I recommend a Few band Aids of medium size, or whatever fits, steri strips also take virtually no space in your kit.
I was able to fit a small gauze bandage in one of my kits along with a small wound dressing, I dont necessarily recommend you do this unless you have the room to spare. You should always carry a first aid kit in principal, but this is when it comes down to how you personally want to customize your kit.
I keep a dual purpose survival/first aid kit in my small day pack, but on longer overnight trips i will have a dedicated first aid kit and can get away with a smaller tobacco tin (which I will elaborate more further down), so no real need to double up on much in my survival kit in my larger backpack.
I also include painkillers of my choice, paracetamol is fine, but if you can get Codeine or tablets that contain it, this is even better than plain paracetamol.
A few Aquatabs also are essential for water treatment, I recommend you put at least four 1 litre tablets in your kit.
I also include some antiseptic alcohol and iodine wipes in my kit, the alcohol wipes also double as a firestarter.
I keep a little salt if needed for dehydration, this prevents muscle cramps if you have been sweating heavily.
You can also get electrolyte restorer sachets from most pharmacies, I keep one sachet of electral in my kit.
I will now touch on the miscellaneous items that are useful, but not always essential.
Scalpel blades - these are good for minor surgery, e.g removing large splinters etc or shaving small sticks to make tinder. I keep two in my kits, as they take up no space.
Pocket knife - as a rule, i always have a decent knife on me, but on day trips i typically dont, so in my daypack kit i will have a small pocketknife, (this is another reason why I can have a smaller kit in my large overnight backpack, because I always have more equipment on hand)
Wire saw - I include this in all my kits, always useful to cut small branches to make a shelter.
Cable Zip Ties - these are useful for many repairs, they take virtually no room and i usually leave a few at the bottom of my pack also.
Safety pins - these come in useful for repairs or securing bandages etc.
Sewing items - a needle and thread is always useful, along with spare buttons. Again I keep a small sewing kit in my main pack, so I only include such items in my larger kit in my daypack.
Paracord - if you can fit this in your kit, by all means put as much as you want, others wrap it around their tins to save space. This stuff is strong and has multiple uses for building shelters, replacing bootlaces etc.
A good alternative is braided kevlar thread, I keep a small bobbin in my kit. You can get this in different thickness's/strengths.
Candle - by all means include one if you wish, these burn for a while and provide light if needed, mainly useful for starting a fire.
Wire - useful for making repairs or assembling shelter, but forget using it as a snare to catch animals unless you have trained yourself in this area.
OXO cubes - a couple of these wont go a miss if you have the space. Contain no real nutritional value, but can make a morale boosting hot drink/soup. A two ounce tobacco tin can make a small makeshift pot that holds about a small cup of water if you want to heat water over the fire, you can use your wire and or kevlar thread to hang it over the fire.
Barley sugars - I usually have space for two of these, basically a morale booster, but can restore your blood sugar levels if they are low.
Pencil / notepaper - this can be useful for taking notes, drawing maps or even making calculations. You can get waterproof paper that is suitable for this job.
What I don't put in my kits:
Condoms - while military often use these in their kits, I feel that their suggested use for water storage is over-rated.
They are fragile and can easily burst, i always have my water bottle with me, so no real need for extra water storage.
I recommend a snaplock bag that can also double as water storage or dry storage for your items when in use and/or collecting tinder to keep dry.
Fishing equipment - seriously useless if you dont have fresh bait, again this does depend on your geographical area and your level of skill, but here in New Zealand your chances are slim at getting an eel or trout even if you could find some worms.
Duct Tape - nothing wrong with this at all, but personally I dont really see a big need for this in my expeditions.
Again, your personal survival kit is something that you should build to suit your skill level and experience, along with your geographical location.
Train yourself with the items you include in your kit, practising firestarting is always beneficial as is building shelters.
Alot of items is not always better, sometimes less is more.
I hope this guide is useful to those reading, Ive tried to be as brief as possible and there are many more possible used for the items ive mentioned.
You may think of other items to include that ive not mentioned, and im not saying im right here, this is just my personal opinion.
Do your research and build a kit to suit your needs, and you should be all set in the unfortunate event should you ever need to use it :)