Best Glide ASE - Military Scout Pocket Survival Kit 

Buttons can also be used to attach cord to any cloth, or cloth to cloth (by making a hole), they are not just for repairing a shirt.

Suck on em to promote salivation too.

Thank you for this! I'm not too proud to admit that I'm at best a "mall-ninja" level survivalist, so the practical, hands-on, real-world information from people who have been in real survival situations is always welcome and quite eye-opening! I would also be inclined to take those buttons for granted, and see them in a very different light now - I don't think I've ever tossed them out of a survival kit, but I can't fairly say the thought never occurred to me, and now I'll treat them with a little more respect.

Right on

A good idea, thanks.

Rob Babcock thanks for the info

I'll guess that's probably the explanation why a lot of these kits do not include this sort of thing: when shelf-life might be a long time, the risk of the contents expiring by the time the kit is in the customer's hands is a problem! much the same thing goes for the medications that might be included in these kits, and so on....

That’s good math there buddy. However determining half of the powder and then saving the other half in a tiny open packet seems problematic. Potable Aqua tabs are measured at 16 oz per tab. One should be carrying a liter bottle anyway though.

A point Tony Nester makes in some of his books and videos, thank you.

Not a bad point at all, and if your local water is reasonably safe to drink and you need to sacrifice some room in your kit, it's fair enough to consider voting the water treatment off your island. As a counterpoint from the World Health Organization: "Diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old. It is both preventable and treatable. Each year diarrhoea kills around 525 000 children under five. A significant proportion of diarrhoeal disease can be prevented through safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation and hygiene." If you live in a subtropical or tropical location, bad water is no joke, and you'll really want to think twice before drinking that swamp water! Especially if there's any likelihood that your survival situation will demand trying to keep a young child or elderly adult hydrated. Everyone's most likely survival situations will be different, and it's impossible to make a one-size-fits-all survival kit, especially a pocket-sized one!

I can't really imagine one of these reviews without a whistle being blown, a ferro-rod being struck in slow motion, or a one-liner about bottle-openers :D

Thanks!

Seems like the fishing kits are a common, but perhaps silly survival kit item to use-as is... apparently it's a good way to pass some time doing something constructive in a survival situation, so that you're not moving and thus easier for a search-and-rescue team to find, rather than getting bored and anxious and panicked and doing something stupid that will make the situation worse, but when you can't fish, you can't fish! Still, wherever you've got the room to do so, I think it's probably not a bad idea to include some fishing kit items, and I usually pack them with sewing kit items like needles: share the mono-filament with the sewing kit for clothing/backpack/tent repairs or sutures... a pair of small hooks takes up almost no room or weight, fishing kit items can be used to build things like snares, and even where fishing is forbidden, in a life-or-death situation where you gotta eat, I think you can probably get away with fishing, and apologizing later in the spirit of "it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6" (referring to the number of people on a court jury, vs. the number of people who traditionally carry a coffin to the grave....)

There are some really good wire saws out there, but the ones in these kits are usually lesser quality and only meant for limited use.

I've more recently seen government-issued wire saws that look like serious business, but the only (low-end) survival kit wire saws I've ever seen in person absolutely looked and felt very flimsy, and the "torture-tests" I've seen for the low-end sort of saw left me inclined to just regard them as pretty much dead weight, to be chucked into the same box as the knock-off Army Knives and "survival card multi-tools" as stuff that can and should be upgraded... I guess the cheap wire saws could be used as snares with better results, but based on what I've seen, I would never want my life to depend on sawing anything substantial with a cheap wire-saw!

Yeah, really any of the best glide kits are good. They made a boy scouts edition that I'll be reviewing soon. Maybe that might be a good choice.

@@KitbashedSurvival thanks for the quick reply. Watching more of your videos now.

The safety pins are at the very least nice to have for quick-and-dirty emergency repairs to clothing. You can use them to pin stuff together - such as attaching light gear to your jacket or whatever. Build stuff with them: I expect you can probably pin a t-shirt into a bowl- or funnel-shaped pre-filter to get the leaves and other large sediments and gunk out of water before purifying. Theoretically, you can use small safety pins as fishing hooks, but that's some real Tom Sawyer type stuff there, I've never tried it and don't know how well it works in the real world, but safety-pin fishing-hooks are enough of a trope in cartoons and so on, I have to think it has probably worked before! And you're REALLY gonna need those safety pins to survive a punk rock concert....

Some educated guesses: - as you mention, fuel loss is not a problem with the ferro-rod - a ferro-rod is a pretty simple, sturdy item with no small parts to break or lose: like a fixed-blade knife, fewer failure points makes for a more reliable and robust survival tool - a ferro-rod isn't that hard to figure out and use; I worked it out pretty quickly in seconds of handling my first one - a ferro-rod isn't very heavy, and a small one can even take up less room than a small Bic - a ferro-rod isn't going to run out of fuel: for practical purposes, if you don't abuse it, your ferro-rod will have no practical limit on the number of times you can use it in the field before it stops working - a ferro-rod is wind-proof and rain-proof... a Bic can get kinda fiddly in rough weather - I haven't watched this video yet to see if this ferro-rod includes a magnesium backing, but when combined with a magnesium backing, a ferro-rod will include water-proof fuel right there in a simple, sturdy, dry rod: just scrape/shave a small number of flakes off the magnesium side, then draw your knife along the striker to ignite the magnesium, which readily burns even when damp That said, there's nothing wrong with a good old Bic: the typical approach to "kit-bashing" a personalized survival kit - and typically for building an off-the-shelf survival kit! - is to include redundant fire-starters if possible, so I'll bet that any survival kit the video's producer can fit both a ferro-rod and a Bic into, will end up with both! (If there's only room to choose one, then I'm betting the decision between the two won't be TOO easy, and the backup will probably be some simple matches of some sort: storm matches aren't a bad backup fire-starter for any survival kit, and it's possible to strip down even a generic matchbook to compact size if nothing else will fit....) For my part, I'd be happy to pull any of the three items out of a survival kit in an emergency: a working Bic or other lighter (such as a plasma lighter), a ferro-rod, or matches (especially storm matches)... and any two of these is even better than just one option. But, I've checked old survival kits one too many times, only to find that the Bic-type lighters I'd stored in them lost fuel, broke, or just otherwise don't work (don't strike anymore, etc.), and that old Jack London story from literature class back in the '80s, "To Start a Fire", put the fear of matches into me (spoiler: the doomed Great White North winter survivalist's handful of matches would not light, would not stay lit, broke or got wet or dropped and lost, or were hard to hold effectively in numb and shaking fingers!), so my first choice of fire-starter tool these days would probably be a ferro-rod!

it’s a mistake. 😀

@@KitbashedSurvival thought it might be an American way of saying it, please keep up with the awesome content really inspiring me to play with my own systems. Have you considered doing a video where you build a survival kit from the ground up with the best possible elements?

One great piece of info that I read in one survival book said that a survival kit needs to be small enough to be able to throw in your pocket otherwise if it's too big or rattly then you're not likely to take it. These tins are often too big and cumbersome for the average person's pocket. I think what you're saying about having a few items spread across multiple pockets seems a more practical idea. I mean apart from taking up less bulk individually, who's going to keep stopping to crack open a tin and have to rummage around through fiddly items just for something they only want to use for a second?

I was in the Army also and never was issued anything like this either. However some of the items in this tin are NATO approved, like the storm matches. This would be better than nothing if one became separated from the unit. Sadly grunts are of little value to the military compared to pilots. A good knife and a surefire way to start a fire is half the battle. I think SERE training would have been useful when in the military. my CO was a airborne ranger and asked me if I wanted to go thru the training. I declined, but that was long ago.

@@ChaplainBobWalkerBTh I was in the 3/75th, and did attend SERE. it was a phenomenal course. and even with my very good instruction from my father on woods survival, I learned a lot. in the course, we had to build a survival kit, that could be secreted on our body. even after being out for 27 years, I still carry a knife, fire steel, and a small E&E kit on my person every time I leave the house, and have a 72 hour kit built into my wheelchair.

@@OtherThanIntendedPurpose thanks for your service even though to the politicians we are nothing but pawns for armed diplomacy. I was in the 101 ord bn in Germany.

@@tenchraven as I said above, I was in the U.S. ARMY, and was a paratrooper. I attended S.E.R.E. as well as Ranger school, and several other courses. we were taught how to make several small, easily carried components, but it was a matter of assembling them ourselves. it very well may have changed after I got out, and I know that prior to my being in some things were used that were no longer given to us. ( I was in 1985-1994) My unit was not vehicle borne, after we jumped out of a plane, we were on the ground using our boots as our primary transportation. it's true, that there were items that were "equipment inspection" only, but when it came to functional survival gear, we never left the barracks with a basic E&E. and even though I have been out 27 years, I still have a partial E&E on my body when ever I leave the house. and there is a molle panel on the back of my wheelchair with a full 72 hour kit, that I have field tested to make sure it was complete. even that is not in a single pack,. but several pouches on the panel.

Rob Babcock well, yeah, the more stuff you have the better. This is definitely not an Arctic survival kit. I carry a full “get home” bag in trunk that has everything I’d need, but I’ve always thought these kits are fascinating and fun to check out. It’s fun to see how much stuff you can cram into a little tin.

@@Ericstrains Indeed these kits have become more akin to novelty items and a competiton between companies to see how many items they can cram into a tin. Their practicality for most people who probably buy them is minimal.

I enjoy the reviews too, and making these little kits is fun: the inventiveness and imagination that goes into them are a combined thing of beauty. But yeah: I would never take one seriously as a one-size-fits-all emergency kit for any situation, there's simply not enough room in one of these things for any serious shelter, for example, and there's no way you'll fit a serious hatchet or knife into one of these tins. I think that the sort of place where these things really shines is "urban survival kits", especially for temperate, civilized areas - in which case, your priorities for building one would be very, very different from a wilderness survival kit! That is, your best use, I say, for a pocket-sized "EDC survival" kit-in-a-tin would be to start with a pocket-sized tin, and then fill it with some combination of light-duty "boo-boo" first aid items (band-aids, single-use travel med packets, alcohol pad sanitizer wipes, water purification tablets), light-duty repair items (razor blade, sewing needles, dental floss, buttons, zip ties, paperclips, safety-pins, mini-wacky-gloo-tube, duct tape, electrical tape, toothpicks, whatever), a small-sized LED light of some sort, a little cash or pre-paid debit card, and maybe a couple small tools of some sort (screw drivers or glasses repair kit, folding scissors, whatever) or perhaps a matchbook or mini pen/pencil and paper: the tiny items needed for "every-day survival" on a commute or in the office or whatever, to handle small scrapes and bumps, headaches or intestinal distress, sticky fingers and smudged cheeks, torn shirt buttons, broken glasses, or other small problems that can make your day turn into a little nightmare quickly! At the most extreme, this sort of kit can help you prepare some drinking water should the water main break, or you want to light a cigarette or birthday candle quickly, or you need to buy some snacks at a corner store or pay for a cab ride home or something without your wallet (maybe a pickpocket or mugger took your wallet or purse, but you still have that survival tin in your other pocket?) If you can somehow fit it in, you might be able to justify a disposable poncho to spare you from a rainy walk to the subway station.... In other words, it will probably be a bit hard to justify things like a compass, fishing kit, ferro-rod or lighter, or survival blanket in a pocket-tin survival kit, especially if you carry a pocket knife and Bic lighter in your pocket as well, or a mini-multitool on your key-ring, or whatever! A pocket-tin-kit is probably not going to be a good option for surviving a trek through an arctic wilderness or the Amazon forest, or replacing your car's toolkit for rebuilding a stalled vehicle on the side of the road, or anything like that....

Yeah I goofed on that

Its a morale booster, it helps you as a coping method, it also allows you to jot down notes and to do lists for yourself to keep your mind on track.

It's a fair question! Jotting notes or a survival journal is the big one: drawing maps, keeping track of directions, making calculations, organizing lists, leaving notes for someone else (such as search-and-rescue if you're lost in the woods: "SOS - traveling to mountain to north!" It'll make it a lot easier to find you and get you out of the woods if you're leaving a paper trail....) Write a message in a bottle, if you're everyday carry finds you stranded on a desert island! (Mostly kidding....) In spite of making a point to try to keep a pen and paper in my car's toolbox or glove-box, and in my laptop case or office desk, I never seem to have a working pen/pencil and paper around for writing down phone numbers, license plate numbers, or insurance information when there's a fender-bender. A pencil and paper might not save my life in everyday "survival", but I've sure missed them on the several occasions I could have used them in a practical pocket survival kit! (And I'll admit, most pocket survival kits are not really very practical, but still: a pencil and paper have been things I wished I had in my pocket far more often than fishing kits or fire starters....) Also, in a city or on an interrupted commute, that pencil can come in handy for filling forms, writing police reports, signing receipts, writing down directions or addresses.... In the woods, if you also keep a small pencil sharpener in a survival kit, you can use pencil shavings as tinder for your fire-starting doodads. The pencil sharpener can also sharpen sticks (darts, spears, arrows, snares and traps), or shave tinder off of sticks for fire-starting. Your note paper can also be burned for tinder, or even your pencil can be burned if nothing else. I'd never thought of @middknightdream1577's suggestion of morale booster and coping method, but that's not a bad one either: boredom, anxiety, fear, and panic are killers in a survival situation... for example, if you're lost in the woods, then conventional wisdom says you're better off staying in one place and waiting for help, than wandering around trying to find your way out, as you're more likely to miss a search party by moving around... and if you are trying to move around at night in bad weather, there's a bigger chance you'll get hurt by walking off a cliff, slipping on a wet stone, stepping into a hole, or whatever! (I say these little pocket-tin-kits are best used for "urban survival", and even in an unfamiliar city, it's better to sit in a safe, well-lit place like your motel room, doodling on a piece of paper while waiting for your bus or appointment or whatever, than to get bored and anxious and go out wandering at night and getting in trouble.) Keeping busy and keeping your morale up under these circumstances can help keep you out of trouble. Of course, a pencil does take up a little room in a tiny kit like a pocket tin, and it might be fair to vote it off your island. But, it's not a bad idea to replace it with something more compact, if you can. There are compact mini pens that are designed to fit into pocket-sized tins: I bought a little "write-anywhere" ink-pen made from titanium that shipped in a pocket-sized tin of its own - that pen is very narrow in diameter and would take up far less room than the pencil-stub I've been seeing in these compact survival kits! I've also seen very skinny miniature pencils around... I used to have one that was folded up in an envelope as a gimmick for some junk mail like a credit card application or something, but lost it, which would have been perfect for this sort of kit! You can also buy the refill cartridges for ink pens, or disassemble an ordinary, cheap retractable or Bic-style ink-pen and take the cartridge out, and just put the cartridge in the case: it'll write without the rest of the pen like a miniature pen in its own right, and those cheap ink-pens are pretty ubiquitous anyway, being given out by the fists-full with company logos and numbers on them as promotional gimmicks, and are available in packages of maybe a dozen for a couple bucks at S-Mart in the office/school supply aisle, so you probably have (or can quickly and cheaply buy) a bunch of pens to disassemble into something a little more compact laying around the house, though these cheap pens never really seem to write when I need them to....

Agreed. I often say in my videos that if you find yourself stuck in the middle of nowhere and a tiny survival kit is all you have, shame on you for not being more prepared. I like to look at these kits as backup equipment in case my primary equipment fails, breaks, is lost or stolen etc.

I see these pocket tins as the "survival" kit equivalent of a pocket-pack of band-aids compared to a proper full-scale medical kit: these pocket tins are not so much for actual wilderness survival, as they are for patching up common every-day "boo-boos". So, to me, the more practical pocket/travel kits of this sort would be the sort of thing you'd carry in your pocket or purse in the city or on a commute or whatever to get you out of small every-day jams, by containing some band-aids and single-dose OTC meds, a little pencil/pen and paper to jot down phone numbers or directions or fender-bender insurance company info, and making light-duty repairs to clothing or office equipment with a little duct tape, mini-tube wacky-gloo, zip-ties or twist-ties, safety-pins, duct tape, a travel sewing kit, a razor blade or two for cutting small items, a little dental floss for sewing or light-duty cordage, maybe a little screwdriver or glasses repair kit, match book, or other small tools, a key-ring sized mini-LED-light of some sort, and perhaps a pre-paid debit card or a couple bills of paper money to pay for a cab ride home or whatever when needed.... Possibly some water purification tablets to save you in the even that the city water main breaks or and you can't get any fresh water, or one of those little birthday candles for a little temporary light or something in an extended power outage, at the fringe of what these kits are likely to be best at. I think that once you need to pull a fishing kit, fire striker, hunting knife, tent, power tools, a few rounds of ammo, a spare pair of hiking boots, or other Serious Business out of your pocket-sized survival tin, you've probably already gotten further in over your head than a pocket-sized kit is going to help you out of!

Uh, surely you jest?!

I like cohlagans but t is much worse