3-Day Emergency Survival Kit

[LawDog76]

Has anyone ever tried one of these kits. If it really will sustain a person for 3 days, it doesn't seem like a bad deal.

Walmart.com: Life Gear Life Essentials 3-Day Emergency Survival Kit: Camping

 

[timeforchili]

thats a block of flavored crisco, a 2 dollar thermal blanket and water. You'd be better off with a jar of peanut butter and some capri suns...go ahead and splurge for the blanket in the camping isle.

 

[LawDog76]

Wasn't sure if the food contents was similar to that of an MRE. The details they give about the food is very limited. If it truly is a bar of fat I think I'll pass.

 

[timeforchili]

it's a mainstay bar... i think it's a multivitamin with substance. look it up on amazon and it gives you all the details. it's nothing like an mre

 

[E5RANGER375]

those mainstay bars taste GOOD!

 

[96firephoenix]

better off making your own. Imported prolly means china, and I don't really trust processed food from china...

 

[WETSU]

A waste of money.

That Mainstay 3600 is 3600 calories. Its good survival food. Very complete. It is also about $7. Buy yourself a Mainstay 3600 (also made in 2400 and 1200 cal sizes). Pick up a couple bottles of water. Buy a $2 space blanket or better yet, get some heavy dudty contractor bags and stick one of those in there. Stick it in a used backpack or even a cheap lunch cooler type bag. With the leftover $ you can toss in a couple lighters, a ziplock baggie of tinder (dryer lint, wax paper, dry wood), a cheap knife or multitool, an LED light and a ziplock of bandaids and a couple 4x4 gauze pads. Total will be about $25.

 

[Woodsman]

Those supposedly 3-day kits are BS. Think about what they are offering; (1) 3600 calorie bar for 3 days. That's only 1200 calories a day. If you weigh 60 pounds and sit on your butt all day that might be enough caloric intake. Otherwise, if you're average sized adult with any activity level you will burn through more than 1200 calories in a single day. Looking at the typical metabolic rate for an average adult male 3,600 calories might get you through one day of active movement (in temperate conditions). In the winter this goes up!

Those little water packets are OK, but they're small. Only about 4-5 ounces of water.

Plan accordingly.

There are 3 different food bars I'm familiar with:

1. Mainstay - vanilla flavor, IIRC.
2. Datrex - coconut flavor
3. MayDay - apple cinnamon flavor

They are all OK tasting, but heavy.

edit: all of the three items above are US manufactured, not foreign.

 

[timeforchili]

i've only tried datrex, it was not bad but if you ate it for a couple days you probably wouldn't crap for a month. the packaged bottled water from the grocery store doesn't go bad for years so i think thats a much better alternative...plus you can reuse the bottle.

 

[E5RANGER375]

the mainstays are a lemmon flavor, or the last ones i had were. i dont have any that are close dated or id open one and try it.

yeah like wetsu said the kit is a waste of money. do it yourself. but the mainstays are good to go. but likes woodsman said, if you plan to be active you will need to eat double the serving at least.
I use the mainstays mainly for cache locations where if i had to leave my bag behind or it gets stolen from me or I need to keep a low profile, I will still be able to resupply at various points on my journey.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

I will take issue with one thing WETSU said: don't buy a cheap knife for your survival kit! This doesn't mean you have to invest $250 in your 3-day kit, but there are plenty of decent blades for $50 or less that may be purchased at Dicks, or Gander Mountain, or even ACE Hardware stores. Gerber, Kershaw, and Buck make great knives at decent prices. Neither would I purchase a no-name pocket tool; stick with Gerber, Leatherman, or even SOG - all of them make a decent, long-lasting pocket tool which will be much more versatile and much less likely to break than what you might find in a "typical" $20 survival kit or in the bargain bin at your local dollar store.

 

[Icarry2]

IMHO everything is a trade off, you might buy the best knife, pack, stove, sleeping bag, first aid supplies, etc but if your have no training it's worthless junk. Learn how to use what you carry. Carry what you know how to use..

 

[btgarner0]

I personalty have not tried these, but I have been doing some reading up on them.
Can anyone shed some information??U.S. Coast Guard Approved 3600 calorie Food BarManufactured for Homefront Emergency the Maday 3600 calorie bars are approved by the U.S. Coast Guard as well as the Canadian Transport Department and have a five year shelf life. The 3600 calorie food r

 

[E5RANGER375]

I personalty have not tried these, but I have been doing some reading up on them.
Can anyone shed some information??U.S. Coast Guard Approved 3600 calorie Food BarManufactured for Homefront Emergency the Maday 3600 calorie bars are approved by the U.S. Coast Guard as well as the Canadian Transport Department and have a five year shelf life. The 3600 calorie food r

i like the mainstays! i give them my stamp of approval for what its worth

 

[Blackhawk2001]

I've got a bag of granola-type bars that I bought at COSTCO awhile back. They seem to last a long time without needing too much care to preserve them. Haven't tried surviving on them, but they are filling. Our individual survival kits used to be stocked with a lifeboat ration. It looked like compressed sawdust and didn't taste quite as bad as sawdust. I did live on one of those for a couple days in an E & E course we took at Ft. Lewis. Not much fun to eat, but they had a long shelf life and no one wanted to pilfer them...

 

[Woodsman]

I personalty have not tried these, but I have been doing some reading up on them.
Can anyone shed some information??U.S. Coast Guard Approved 3600 calorie Food BarManufactured for Homefront Emergency the Maday 3600 calorie bars are approved by the U.S. Coast Guard as well as the Canadian Transport Department and have a five year shelf life. The 3600 calorie food r

The MayDay bars are GTG. Last year I sampled the ones listed in my previous post and all of them tasted decent. I was looking for some variety to break-up the monotony of eating the same thing. The MayDay and Mainstay bars are both solid bricks with some score marks on them to separate into the 400 calorie snack sizes. The Datrex version has smaller, multiple individually wrapped pieces (thickness like an Oreo cookie) within the outer wrapper.

The Datrex bars crumble fairly easy. In fact they break up trying to get them unwrapped. It's almost childproof!

The other two versions are like cracking walnuts!

 

[Blackhawk2001]

IMHO everything is a trade off, you might buy the best knife, pack, stove, sleeping bag, first aid supplies, etc but if your have no training it's worthless junk. Learn how to use what you carry. Carry what you know how to use..

While it's true everything is a tradeoff, a good knife is probably your single most important tool. Buying cheap (the $5 - $10 dollar specials come to mind) may leave you with a broken knife just when you need it. I was a big fan of the Swiss Army Knife and carried one for years - until I twisted the screwdriver right off the knife trying to make a repair. A good quality knife need not be very expensive, but it should be sturdy and easily sharpened.

 

[Johnson]

While it's true everything is a tradeoff, a good knife is probably your single most important tool. Buying cheap (the $5 - $10 dollar specials come to mind) may leave you with a broken knife just when you need it. I was a big fan of the Swiss Army Knife and carried one for years - until I twisted the screwdriver right off the knife trying to make a repair. A good quality knife need not be very expensive, but it should be sturdy and easily sharpened.

Any recommendations for a sturdy, easily sharpened knife that is not very expensive?

I also add that the emergency "kits" are sometimes good to get ideas from, but are rarely a good value. Look at a kit you like and buy the same items individually, paying attention to quality and value. Better yet, simulate the situation(s) you are preparing for and see what you would actually need and how it would be used.

 

[mutt]

Look at mora blades

Cheap, sturdy and commonly available

 

[DadOfFour]

You could always make your own plumpy nut. High caloric value, good shelf life (got a buddy that just opened one he'd made 3 years ago, ate the thing no ill effects) small package, everything I want in a BOB