Comments on: The Bug Out Bag

By: James Cannon

James Cannon — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:44:43 +0000

I dropped a Gerber “survival” knife when I was 20 feet up in a tree. The knife hit a rock and the blade snapped off at the hilt. Gerber steel is to hard! Stay with K-Bar,Rat or Cold Steel knives for servival, their blades will bend before they break.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:43:40 +0000

Some things to remember about MRE’s are: their calorie count is down around 1,000 cals; when they first came out, they were around 2,000 cals per meal. now they are not; bulky unless you strip them from the additional packaging; very expensive, close to the $10 per meal price range.

I will still continue to make my “home-made mre’s” as it is alot less money then today’s military meals. Don’t get me wrong. I love my MRE’s seeing I had my first one during Basic Training in June of 85, but they are getting mega expensive for me.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 30 May 2010 15:20:52 +0000

Also when outfitting the bob, if you have a vacuum sealer, use this for things that moisture or insects could get in and ruin. It might be rainy when you bug out.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:20:28 +0000

MREs have a very short shelflife if stored at temps above 70 degrees, not good for storing in your car.

By: Dustin

Dustin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:26:16 +0000

Military MREs are, IMHO, preferable to dehydrated rations in a high-risk bug out.

In the event that you cannot source more water immediately, or have the risk of only having the water you can carry for 72 hours, they are already hydrated. They weigh more, as a result, of course. If you have limited water supply, using some to soak your dehydrated backpacking meal may not be the best choice.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:32:09 +0000

I prefer to carry a variety of dehydrated foods to save on the weight of MRE’s. A backpackers sampler can be found that contains a large variety of foods to use for cooking interesting meals if you include a small bottle of olive oil and seasonings. In my home survival gear, I included large gallon sized and smaller pint sized containers of the same foods. To keep everything fresh we rotate one or two meals a week from the survival gear. And of course we backpack a lot to stay in practice. For longer term survival we include sprouting seeds to provide fresh foods because living foods are always better for you.

Other items in the home larder include dehydrated powders of soy milk, milk, egg, peanut butter, cheese, and bouillon. We also keep a large stock of brown rice, beans, quinoa, chia seed, and other more traditional foods in the spring house. Once again, the trick to making all this work is to eat survival meals a couple of times a week to rotate your stock and find out what works best.

By: MRE Meals

MRE Meals — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:16:16 +0000

the thing about MRE meals though is that there’s a variety of types of items (sweet, salty, carbs, etc) in each pack which will help you feel fuller and generally more satisfied than a single food item.

and you could use the self-heating element that many of them have for other uses too.