Thursday, April 29, 2021

Emergency Equipment First aid - Shock and bleeding

Bleeding is loss of blood from the circulatory system. Causes can include minor bleeding from small cuts and abrasions, nosebleeds, severe external bleeding, or internal bleeding. Shock is a serious, life-threatening condition where insufficient blood flow reaches the body tissues. Shock may accompany any injury/illness to some degree. The first aid fanny hip bag is constructed with the outstanding quality of 3 water-resistant zipper pockets and tear-resistant nylon material with a heavy-duty adjustable waist strap. The waist fanny pack is made with bright red color with white cross guard printed on the front pocket for easy visibility and access in the time of an emergency even in a wet environment. This essential waist fanny pack for men and women ensures you bring all of your emergency medical supplies for camping, hunting, outdoor hiking, survival, home, and car, or workplace Features:- Durable tear-resistant nylon construction Heavy-duty adjustable waist strap Three water-resistant zipper pockets The waist strap is adjustable for a secure fit Fanny Pack Only (First aid supplies sold separately)

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Is the Axe the Best Survival Tool?

1st aid

It's just another data point for you guys but the short answer is no. But Nutnfancy's is not really anti-axe. There are situations for which an axe is well-suited. But I am realistic about how it rarely fits well into SURVIVAL AND BACKPACKING systems.  

- buy link - Survival Folding Shovel with Camping Axe Multi-Tool - Folding Shovel Survival Kit with Blade, Saw, Hatchet attachments - Survival Tools for Camping, Hiking, Outdoor, Emergency, Backpacking, Military  

Some armchair critics and car campers, sometimes inexperienced in backpacking, will tout the axe as a much better wood chopping and splitting tool than the survival knives I review and show in use. True, an axe is a capable tool as I show in this video. When wielded with skill it can chop effectively and it pairs of limbs with ease. But you'll need a long handled version like this $30-$45 Gerber Splitting Axe, #GB-42763, to minimize your work. 

Even then the axe is bulkier, heavier (4 lbs!), potentially more dangerous than a large survival blade, lacks the finesse to produce fine kindling, and its an inefficient use of your limited energy in a survival situation. Also its pretty much guaranteed that you wont have a large handled axe like this with you when you get stranded and/or youre miles into the backcountry. I have backpacked many hundreds of miles into various terrains and I see few backpackers, miles into the backcountry, porting around an axe of any kind. Theyre just too heavy and bulky (of course the Hot Shots use their Pulaski axes with good effect for trail-building, brush clearance, and fire suppression techniques but thats wilderness fire fighting). However, as I proven myself many times, a medium to large knife coupled with a Sawvivor backpack saw indeed are packable commodities. And that pair will do everything an axe can, more efficiently and safely and with less energy expenditure. 

Also an axe will experience more damage and wear on its edge, frequently requiring the carry of a large file for re-sharpening as well so add another 10 oz to the load out. Finally even when your axe is sharp, cutting a full size dense tree, like this one, takes A LOT of effort. Youll save NO work of any kind with an axe as I prove in this video and this was just ONE cut. In a survival or even backpacking situation this is bad as youll have to replace those calories somehow. At the cabin or while car camping, who caresits probably a good thing. The full sized axe is a good camping or cabin woods tool but rarely will it make a good backcountry woods tool. As Nutnfancys proven in real world, wilderness videos, theres just better, more efficient systems to use. Nutnfancys Likeability Scale of Gerber Splitting Axe: 5 out of 10 

***Also for those armchair warriors would criticize my technique, choice of axe, stance, location and other "mistakes" like that: please get out of your easy chair and go make your own videos showing your skills and philosophies in high mountain areas after backpacking your axe in like I did and on a similar sized tree. Talk is cheap. Note: At end of the video I show some edge damage to this Gerber Axe after just this one cross cut!