Category: EPrep

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EDC – Priorities

EDC (Everyday Carry, that which is always at hand) can vary a bit depending on circumstances and carry options.

General categories:

  • Personal items
  • FAKs
  • Tools & equipment
  • Self-defense
  • Communication
  • Water/food

There are other elements, and some of the above elements may not be included in some EDC configurations. (For example: EDC included only in clothing worn is going to be more limited than an EDC bag/backpack.)

For this post, I want to deal briefly with one essential element: First Aid Kits.

There are three basic levels of EDC FAKs:

Bare “stop the bleed” kits focused on THE one most likely life-threatening need for first aid: bleeding. Tourniquet, gauze impregnated with blood clotting agent, bandages, etc. VERY small pack. Specialized, so it’s limited, by design. In a pocket in worn clothing, so ALWAYS available.

General, basic FAK with anti-biotic cream, pain relievers, “Israeli Bandage and more tourniquets, etc. – just more general first aid materials and equipment (scissors a good add, for example). This, much larger kit clipped to (or Molle—attached to) a medium-sized backpack with full EDC loadout. I usually keep one in each of our vehicles along with a separate roadside emergency kit.

Mini trauma kit: Expanded FAK including splints for skeletal injuries, sprains, etc., more med supplies (mainly for pain), pre-made (temporary!)sutures of various kinds for open wounds, and much more. Not a full EMT loadout, but not all that far off. One in each vehicle.

Key: what can I get to most quickly and easily in an unexpected situation. If a gunshot or stab wound is involved, I’d want one of the car kits immediately. If just a quickly dealt with arterial wound on an extremity, what’s in my pocket with almost certainly stop the bleeding quickly in most cases.

Other injuries? Need the full FAK or mini trauma kit.

Now, suppose you injure yourself while alone. Have you practiced bleed stop (or other procedures) one-handed? With your non-dominant hand? You MUST practice! And practice at though you are on your own and injured.

Note: what you carry in your FAKs should be influenced by your circumstances. Do you have meds you might need in an emergency? Pack those (and replace them pretty regularly). What kinds of environments will you be in and how do environmental factors affect what you should carry (applies to all EDC contents). What are your daily expected activities? What are some abnormal circumstances you can reasonably imagine?

Think about what you might need, the space you expect to use, and there sources you can afford. Max those as much as you can.

And practice, practice, practice.

 

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Condition Yellow

Waiting room, self-seat restaurant, etc.: where do you sit?

Walking from car to store/P.O./wherever: head on a swivel? (For that matter, survey of parking lot before parking?)

Puttering in your own yard: have you cleared your six. . . in the last few seconds? (Let alone been on the lookout for “snakes in the grass”?)

In home: one ear cocked for exterior sounds?

What’s that in your pocket(s)/”holstered” by your easy chair?

Etc.

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General Preparedness

Murphy is our (under-) shepherd; we shall not want for trials and tribulations, and ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night.

*heh*

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Better Practice

Practice does not make perfect. it does end to make permanent, though. So, whatever you practice, do it with as proper a form and content as possible.

Still, practicing some things can be dangerous. Practicing knife fighting skills pretty much requires a skilled sparring partner, but knives are inherently dangerous tools/weapons. So: rubber knives with the same form, weight, and balance as one’s primary edged weapon can make for Good Practice.

Similarly, dry fire exercises with firearms can help hone one’s grip, aim, and trigger skills, but dry firing revolvers is generally disrecommended. So. . . dummy rounds. But dummy rounds can make other firearms practices safer, as well. For example, practicing reloading revolvers using speedloaders. It’s just that wee tad safer.

I was glad to find some dummy loads for a wee lil revolver that were S&W “longs” instead of the more easily-found ACP dummies, since they more accurately replicate reloading the preferred round for that lil revolver (it accepts and safely fires either the ACP—”short”—rounds or the “long” though it was built for and functions better with the “longs”).

Sadly, the only company I could locate (only 40 miles away!EIGHTEEN DAYS for USPS to lose/find/lose/find/HOLD/lose/find and finally deliver it.

*smh* That is why I send packages via UPS. It’s just. . . Good Practice. *heh*

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Sometimes, Specializing Is the Way to Go, Ya Know?

Onychorrhexis can be caused by many different factors, but it seems to be a generational thing in my case (maternal great grandmother, grandfather, mother, to some degree, older sister [confirmed] and me, AFAIK, in sibs). as a result, even after factoring in best nutrition, etc., the shorter I can keep my fingernails (and to a lesser degree, even toenails) the better. And that’s the primary reason my Swiss Army Knife has had nail care as its main function for quite some time. Since I also carry a multitool, its other functions are pretty much superfluous. So, replacing it with a specialty Swiss Army tool was the route I’ve taken. Like it.

Victorinox Folding Pocket Knife/Nail Clip

Still has tweezers, toothpick, scissors, and one small knife blade, so essentials for a SAK are covered. N.B. I did change out the dinky lil split ring for a larger, more substantial flat one so it’d be easier to attach and remove from my “belt loop” keychains. . . that I hang from belt clips for “pocket carry.”

Meanwhile, my daily carry Swiss Army Knife (I have others, of course) goes in my EDC bag. Just in case. 🙂

Continue reading “Sometimes, Specializing Is the Way to Go, Ya Know?”

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Eprep Funzies

Back before The Great TP Panic of 2020, I purchased a pack of Chinese TP – 36 very, very tightly wound rolls of very high quality. double-sheet TP with no cardboard tubes in the middle. I have since used part of one roll, just to evaluate it. The individual sheets separate along perforations with quite some difficulty compared to ordinary Charmin, etc. The individual sheets are also about 25% larger in size than usual grocery store fare. And I did imply that they are strong, didn’t I? Very, compared to usual TP strength.

Nice texture (very smooth), strong, larger sheets: a superior product that is simply not quite as handy to use because of the lack of a cardboard tube in the middle. So. . . Still useful.

Shrink wrapped in smaller packs, now. Five as individual packs for EDCs, BOBs, etc.

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Neighborhood Watch

[N.B. Sorta-kinda-halfway tongue in cheek?]

Home Made Mortars?

No neighborhood watch should be without one. Or five.

(For when the Felonious Barony of Iniquity parks 1/4 mile away before launching yet ANOTHER illegitimate assault on a citizen’s inalienable rights? Maaaaaybe. . . 😉 )

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What’s in YOUR EDC bag?

Soup. Save the ketchup packages from fast food meals and include them (along with jerky, and other long-term foods) in your EDC bag. Ketchup + (real) cream powder + lil bit of water + jerky; boil (in your EDC cup over EDC camp stove made from tuna tins, if you wish): nice lil soup. Pre-soak some dried corn or wasabi peas to add. Get creative. (More fun than just cracking open an MRE, for sure.)

And – of course! – your combo knife-fork-spoon (I like my Coleman version) is already in one of 16 or so pockets in your ADC (All Day Carry) vest, along with your Emergency Sandwich and your Backup Emergency Sandwich. . . *heh*

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It Ain’t Prep If You Ain’t Got Fire

Sure, I carry at least two means of making fire (well, three once I don my ADC vest) in my ADC (all day carry) load on my person, but just a means of making a flame isn’t enough, so in my Zippo belt pouch, I also carry a bit of tinder, ‘cos why not? 😉

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ADC

Hmmm, wondering whether I need to expand or cut back on my “ADC” (All Day – “pocket/belt” – Carry). It’s now at a little over six pounds. (Of course, I’ve cut my weight pack – almost all day “exercise” to increase my load-bearing capacity – back to thirty-five pounds, so. . . ). If I can locate the right multitool, one that replicates the tools in both a mini-multitool and my Swiss Army Knife, I might be able to at least cut the bulk a little. Looser-fitting pants have meant easier access to pockets and room for an ITWB bellyband, but the *cough* items *cough* carried there add only a little over a pound, more or less.

It’s a work in progress, and part of that progress is having different belt-carried “keychains” with configurations for different days’ expected needs, along with just general EPrep. As soon as a new pouch comes in, I’ll have a small of the back carried (using Velcro™ attachments) IFAK, slanted toward a Stop the Bleed IFAK (CAT, blood clotting agents, bandages, etc.). My mini-trauma kits are here in the house and with my EDC Car Kit. (Already used the FAK in the car kit for a person who fell in a parking lot.)

Well, lefthand front pocket “ADC keyfob/chain” hanging from belt hook now has

  • micro flashlight
  • Swiss Army Knife
  • Mini-multitool
  • Lansky Pocket Medic (blade sharpening tool)

Added 16-pocket vest. Is handy when I get hungry, too. Was out and about around Noon the other day and appreciated having a loaded “Sandwich Pocket.” Yum. (The Backup Sandwich Pocket wasn’t loaded, but that was OK, since the loaded Sandwich Pocket was sufficient.) Also, small IFAK loads nicely in inside upper righthand pocket, so waistband carry is unnecessary.

Lansky Pocket Medic moved to its own “keyring/fob” flipped to D-ring on vest and zipped into pocket. Taking its place in left pants pocket is Zippo lighter fluid canister (neat lil thingy). Other vest contents:

Cell phone (inside upper left pocket)
Kershaw assisted opening pocket knife, “tanto” blade (lower inside left pocket)
3×5 notebook and 2 pens (outside upper left pocket)
Snack food (3rd pocket down, outside left)
Lansky Pocket Medic (4th pocket down, outside left)
Cash/ID, etc. (bottom pocket, outside left)

Pocket NT and pack of gum (upper right pocket)
“Keychain,” Mini-flashlight (second pocket down, outside right)
Small IFAK (in repurposed “backup sandwich” pocket)
Small “tactical” LED flashlight (4th pocket down, outside right)
Day’s purchase receipts (bottom right outside pocket)