Complete Walmart Kit for Overnighters

hey everybody this is Josh here the great bearded green beret wanted to do a quick video that's kind of born out of necessity flying back and forth from where we're at right now in Northern California and the Adirondacks where I'm actually teaching physical classes and an Ohio as well come spring so you know most of the gear that I use for my videos is the same gear that I use for physical classes same gear I use in the field but let's face it baggage fees are a real thing so flying back and forth with that just wasn't something that was convenient so my main gear is in storage up near the Adirondacks waiting for our next class at the end of next month so I've still got to go to the field here so what do you do well what I thought I'd do is do a video going down to the local Walmart source everything from my kit from there and see kind of how that compares really the question is you know I really don't like the term better than nothing because I don't think we should set the bar at nothing I think we should set the bar at adequate so the question is can i duplicate the gear that I usually have locally sourced a little less expensive probably a little less durable as well and - is that gear going to be adequate for use in the field so I'm going to do a quick video kind of an overview of all the stuff that I picked up show you kind of how I put my kits together no matter what brand or product I'm putting in there the needs that I'm trying to provide for and I'll kind of go into some more specifics on the on the individual kits in future videos and then I'm going to take this and use this in the field I'm going to take it and do some overnights up in the mountains here and find out if this gear is adequate and give you kind of some pros and some cons of each piece of kit and keep in mind all this was sourced from the local Walmart every good kit starts with some sort of backpack to put it in and the backpack choices I got to say they were they were pretty limited as far as what I think of as a durable backpack and I'll admit this one is is definitely a cheap model the one that I chose is a lightweight hiking backpack from Ozark Trail Ozark Trail believe is Walmart's brand but this seemed to be the one that would be big enough to sustain me in the winter in the mountains in north Northern California so I went with this one it's got a little bit of orange trim so that kind of blends into my my signal kit but that's the choice I went with Ozark Trail lightweight hiking backpack then every kit of mine starts the same way you know I want to provide for certain needs and I build everything in kits there's a fire kit a shelter kit a water kit a food kit first aid kit navigation kit signal kit and then lastly some tools that help me facilitate all of my needs while I'm out in the field and within those you know essential kits you'll also find the ten sea so there's some overlap right there I just when I think of kits I think of them as individual kits put together all those kids contain the 10 C's at a minimum so first kit is the fire kit for my fire kits I like to have four different ignition sources so I have some redundancy I also like to have some emergency tender even though I'm going to use natural tender most of the time sometimes I want to have that emergency tender and I want to have something to actually gather that natural tinder when I'm out in the field so what I was able to find is of course some trusty bic lighters you can't go wrong with those for matches I was able to get the Yuko storm-proof match kit which if you know these were my favorite matches anyway these are definitely an outstanding choice so I was really happy to find those then for the ferrocerium rod I got a couple of different options because I'm not really familiar with this one this is the UST Strikeforce fire starter and apparently it has some tinder in the handle as well but you know as far as a half inch diameter this is all I could get and I'm probably only have you know two inches of working surface so you know it's not what I would normally carry but I just want to know is this adequate can I get a fire with it yes or no no so that's what I got for a Ferro rod in addition when we talk about my knife choice I got this just a magnesium bar this is also from UST mag bar fire starter it's got a large magnesium bar and a small ferrocerium rod on it so it is redundant with this but that magnesium is a good emergency tender and the particular knife I chose is specifically designed for use with that so I kind of want to highlight that in a video so that's really the only reason I have this extra ferrocerium rod then for solar solar was a little challenging to source there I couldn't find any fernell lenses I couldn't find any small magnifying lenses so I've got this big three and a quarter inch dude then I got this big three and a quarter inch magnifying lens that I found them a sewing section actually but it is a for power so and it has a little case in it so probably what I'll do is I'll take this ridiculous handle off of it and just use the lens and I'll put it inside that protective case that it comes with so that's what I've got for solar and of course I like to use solar anytime I can as far as emergency tender and went with the UST wet fire I am familiar these these are very much like the track setting fuel tablets the fuel tabs were used in the military they work well even when they're wet so this is a suitable emergency tender that I already have experience with that's what I could find that's what I chose most of the time I'm going to use natural tinder so I chose this just a simple dry bag from outdoor products and I'm not sure about that brand never used them before outdoor recreation group but it seemed to fit the bill it's a dry bag to put tinder in and I think this is about a 0.5 liters so about a half liter dry bag no it says 5 liter capacity ok so I'm gonna get a lot of natural tinder in that so I could probably put my entire fire kit in there plus fill it with tender and be good to go right so that's my fire kit every good shelter kid has something to sleep under something to sleep on something sleep in and some cordage and stakes to hold it all together this one's no different so what I did for something to sleep under is I went with the UST again survival blanket 2.0 I have used these in the past I got to say they have some shortcomings with the grommets but this is in line with the 5 minute shelter system that I teach in use so this is at least something that I'm familiar with for something to sleep under far as something to sleep in no wool blankets or anything like that so what I got was a Ozark Trail again that's Walmart's brand it's a cool weather mummy sleeping bag the comfort rating is 30 degrees hopefully that'll be adequate in the the mountains of northern California we shall find out as far as something to sleep on there were a lot of choices there were yoga mats there were Fitness mats and there were camping mats and the camping mats were actually more expensive and they weren't quite as thick so I would actually went with a Fitness mat because I liked how thick it was and I felt like it was pretty comfortable just a closed cell foam Fitness mat and it was actually the the lesser it was actually one of the least expensive options to use so although I'm not going out there you know working on my fitness or anything I think it'll make a fine sleeping pad we'll find out and then as far as cordage and stakes to hold together you know I got just some regular ABS plastic tent stakes that I think would be fine for the type of soil I've been encountering here I've got six of those I've got six of those and a hundred foot Hank of 550 cord from UST I haven't opened these up to see how many inner strands it has but you know it's calling itself 550 cord so we'll see it's going to be plenty enough for shelter applications that I'm going to be using it for so 100 feet of paracord couldn't find any bank line but them's the breaks sometimes okay so as far as a water kit you know I like to have some sort of container some sort of pre-filter like a cotton bandana and I like to have some sort of way to thermally purify it in addition I don't mind having some sort of water filters so that I can quickly make that water safe to drink while I'm on the move and I expect to be doing some hiking up into the mountains I won't always have time to stop and boil water so this is where some of the challenges came in into play with with the limited products that that were available and normally I would take a single walled stainless steel water bottle and I would just use that as both the container and the vessel that I thermally disinfect water in but they really didn't have any single-walled options they had double walled vacuum insulated thermos style water bottles that were plenty large enough but they were just not something that I could thermally disinfect in so I had to buy a kind of a cook set this is a cook set from stanley it's got a bunch of different things in it a bunch of different containers spatula and all that that I don't need I just need the stainless steel cook pot so that I can boil water and because I'm using that I actually picked up just a couple of cheap plastic water bottles so that I can actually once it's so that once it's disinfected I can put it in these containers after it's cooled off and actually carry the water and that but you know I don't really like the plastic bottles because I can't disinfect the nose and I have to carry extra gear to thermally disinfect and then put it back over rather than the stainless steel bottles that I typically use better single walled I can just place right in the fire boil the water in there set it aside to cool once it's cool put the cap on and I can move on but that wasn't an option here so I'm carrying a water bottle and I'm carrying water bottles with a cook pot so that I can take care of what I normally take care of with one piece of gear then in addition you know kind of something that I'm also very familiar with is to saw your mini they had saw your minis there they're about 20 bucks he's got a 0.1 micron filtration level so I can get water on the go I can drink directly from the stream if you've seen my water resupply video you've seen me use this and talk about this a little more in detail but I'm not going to completely rely on this because it is winter time and it is a possibility that this could freeze and if it freezes and the filtration system cracks on the inside I would never know but it would have you know obviously holds larger than 0.1 microns and it would allow pathogens to get through which can make me sick so as long as I'm positive to this hasn't frozen I kept it in my pack or I kept it you kept it insulated in my pack or I kept close to my body and I was sure that the integrity of the was intact then I've got no problem using this but just in case you know I want to be able to thermally disinfect back a camp and I also picked up just some Coleman water purification tablets so if that one goes down I still have the ability to chemically disinfect on the move so that's a little different than my norm but that's kind of what I went with and kind of why I chose that then lastly of course a couple of cotton bandanas these can be used as a pre-filter for my water they can also be charred which I don't normally make char cloth in the field I which are natural tender but it is available for that and this also becomes part of my first-aid kit right here so anyway a couple of bandanas as far as food I'll probably prep some pemmican back here probably prep some hardtack and I'll probably take some supplies in to where I can make Vanek in the field but there may be opportunities for me to do some fishing while I'm up in the mountains so I'm just going to be prepared for at least that as far as procuring food from the wild so I've got some simple braided fishing line this is 65 pound strength and all of them cost the same no matter what the tensile strength was I've got a couple of packs of Snell hooks and some barrel swivels size six in size four that'll give me a couple of different options for the type of fish that I expect to be landing and I've also got some tin removable split shot sinkers so that's what I've got just really simple fishing tackle along with my traditional foods and that's what I'll probably sustain myself on then the next kit that I like to carry with me especially when I'm carrying sharp objects and using them in the dark and in the field is you know anytime I grab a knife or an ax or anything like that I also grab my first-aid kit and that's to have it you should probably get into as well was looking at the first-aid kits there and there wasn't a lot of choices that I was really happy with I'm not looking to get some sort of first-aid kit for Ally's I don't want a 100 piece kit with 99 band-aids and an alcohol wipe because neither of those are going to do anything to take care of anything that was going to kill me anyway I'm more interested in trauma but there is a possibility that you can get cut and you could get cut far away from help and you're going to need to take care of yourself I wasn't real happy with all the selections there so I just got 5 rolls of rolled gauze that I can use for an extremity laceration or some sort of puncture and I'll be able to take care of that and hopefully stop the bleeding long enough for me to get back and get some real help not really happy with with just having this but this is is definitely better than band-aids and alcohol wipes and blister kits just my opinion I like to be able to take care of things that were actually going to kill me to begin with so five rolls of roll gauze the tape I like a wider role of tape these are 1-inch cloth tapes but I need some sort of tape this is what they had I don't really think those were wide enough so I went ahead and got a couple rolls of also not white enough self-adhering elastic bandage you know which is also one inch but at least this sticks a little bit better especially when you're sweating it sticks to itself so that's what I got if I have to I can improvise the tourniquet or improvised wound coverings with the bandanna so that's another reason to always have these in your kit so that is the first-aid kit as far as navigation I didn't really have all the options I'm used to having so what I got was a ust waypoint compass and what I can say about this is to thinks it does point north and it has a 2-year limited warranty so that way if you get lost using this if they find your body within that two-year period you can reclaim it and get your money back but definitely a cheap compass definitely not what I would recommend to anyone trying to do this to take one of our courses but it does point north and that coupled with you know a couple of decades of experience should make this adequate for me we'll find out as far as pace cords I'll have to make my own and I will be using a USGS forestry service map for any area that I'm going in so I've got that and protractor wise these do have scales on the outside then I can improvise a protractor easy enough so that's what I've for a navigation kit just the UST Waypoint compass points north 2-year warranty what else could you ask for signal I've got of course orange on my backpack I've got orange on this blanket I've got some high visibility paracord other than that I'm kind of down to this whistle and this whistle is from UST it's the ice whistle in case of emergency so it's a compartment safety whistle that has a waterproof compartment on it you twist it apart so in case of emergency I can whistle and try to get help and if I don't get any help then when somebody finds my body again they can unscrew that and it'll have my next akin information on there and they can call the long red braid and let them know that they found me frozen somewhere like Otzi then of course I like to have a headlamp that has a strobe function so that I can use it as a signal at night but for working around campus is fine I chose the energizer 315 lumens because it has that it was the highest lumens and the brightest headlamp that they had available that's water-resistant not proof so we'll see we'll see how it does we'll see how long the battery life lasts we'll see how durable it is see how it holds up to the weather and of course I've got some extra batteries so that's ok so the last two kits are tools and gear repair and of course I don't have my normal selections but I went with what I thought would be great to test in the field that was available there I like to have a belt knife and a folding saw at a minimum I like Baco and silky saws i got fists scars right because that's what they had available in the pruning section you know for lawn care and yard work it's got a seven inch blade razor sharp non-slip grip for comfort and control this is a folding pruning saw we'll see how well it works I'm sure it'll be fine for the amount of wood that I need to put down just curious as far as how durable it is just because they don't have any experience with this particular brand so I've got a fist scar saw then I chose this particular knife it's outside of my norm but this is the 499 mods survival knife from an Ontario Knife Company and this is kind of a traditional military Air Force survival knife so and it says right on here survival so it can't be wrong may in the USA leather handle it's got a stick tang but this is actually specifically designed not only this this you know the they're kind of they call it a saw blade but it's not really a saws for ripping through the skin of the aircraft and it's also perfectly suited for scraping magnesium off of these bars so now you know why I got this but anyway this is kind of a traditional Air Force survival knife so out of all the choices there this is the one I thought I would go with just because I don't have one and I was curious about how it would perform in the field for the tasks that I needed to perform and I'm sure it'll be fine it's it's a sharp edge that's what I need but some of the specs on that overall length nine and a half inches blade length is five inches which is fine high carbon steel which I believe because it's painted or coated to keep it from corroding 55 to 57 on the rockwell hardness scale that's a that's a little soft so it should sharpen well but I bet it doesn't hold an edge very long handle material again it's leather it comes with a sheath and it looks like it comes with a little sharpening stone we'll see how well it does for me out in the field so those are my tools minotaurs gear repair typically carry Gorilla Tape I got Gorilla Tape so this is a large role I'm not going to carry all this I'm just gonna take off what I think I'll need I'll use it for a couple of different things so I have it but I'm not going to carry this whole role but Gorilla Tape is outstanding for gear repair it's also the adhesive in this is extremely flammable so it makes a really cool bird's nest tinder bundle in an emergency which I hope to show you in future videos and a sail needle this is a bunch of home craft needles and one of these happens to be a sail needle there's also additional needles for leather canvas upholstery etc so I really just want that sail needle out of there and that's what I'll use and I'll be back in the game as far as what I'm traditional what I'm traditionally carrying I just had to buy the entire pack to get that one sale needle so that is tools and gear repair maintenance is included in those tools because this has a small whetstone in the sheath okay so there you have it that is my 100% local Walmart sourced kit and I'm looking forward to using some of this stuff in the field using it on some overnighters doing some videos with that I'll show you some more in-depth things more in-depth videos on the individual kits and kind of how I'm making those work for what I need them to do so as always thanks for watching thanks for liking the videos thanks for commenting on the videos and above all else I appreciate you guys sharing this out that helps grow the channel and until next time I hope to see you in the woods thanks for watching

Channel: The Gray Bearded Green Beret

Views: 238,714

Rating: 4.9190459 out of 5

Keywords: walmart camping gear, budget camping gear, cheap camping gear, walmart camping, camping on a budget, camping essentials, budget backpacking gear, camping gear, camping essentials 2019, walmart survival kit day 1, walmart survival kit, camping gear 2019, green beret

Id: g7_bJECaDlA

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 01 2019