Military Surplus Mess Kit Comparison

military surplus mess kits there's a ton of different designs out there used by different armies different philosophies of use and just styles and so we have a number of different cans here that we're gonna take a look at and many of them are from European country some of them are traditional some are different now one of the things about a military surplus canteen is that it's proven I mean most of these have been used in military battle conditions and out in the field used by soldiers so first is they're tested and they're usually very tough I mean they're durably made and so that's a big plus the second thing that I like is the price is usually right none of these kits are over 20 bucks in fact many of them are half that so this is just a great way to get a good solid kit that you can depend on for a reasonable price now one of the downsides is they are surplus so sometimes they have some damage typically they do have certain smells or odors from storage if you're willing to deal with it these are great items to have not only for camping hiking but also in a survival situation and all these military surplus kits came from the sportsmen guide many of you know we have a top 40 sensible prepper page on the Sportsman's guide you just go and put in suits or sensible prepper in the search and you'll come up with the top 40 items that we either recommend or that we're currently testing and so this is just one of those that we're gonna put together and show you guys some different things from around the world now we're looking at five different mess kits one from the US we have one from Germany one from Poland from Italy and also from Serbia but Yugoslavia also uses these and the first one we're gonna check out is the US mess kit this has been around for a long time has a handle that comes across there's a little bit of a tension spring right here that just kind of holds that into place this doubles as your handle and so it makes it a really easy way to get over a fire and then we have a little tray and this is a cover but it's also a two compartment tray and so that way you can separate you know your meal especially if you have you know different things that kind of blend together but this is a really cool little kit these have been around for a long time and not currently issued to the US military but something that is definitely still very usable here we have this little very thin little pan this is great for frying cooking for sauces and things like that now one of the things that comes with their canteen which is not included with this is one of your canteen cups and this can be used for boiling water can be used for you know a lot of some making soup and a lot of other things and this is just a great little item in itself the canteen actually fits inside this and it goes into the cover and so it's just a complete unit so all these kind of can fit together but for this purpose here we're only looking at the mess kit itself and so this is it's all aluminum there are markings for the US military right here and 1966 is marked on this one but you know they have them and these are in use conditions so an issued condition so these you can tell these have been used a couple of little dings and dents but nothing that would keep you from being able to use this in the field and man if you're gonna cook some bacon or some eggs this would be perfect and this kit on the sportsmen guide website is $17.99 and they also have a buying club that you can get things even at a deeper discount but that's a great price for a US military vintage official kit now the next kit we're going to look at is the Italian kit this is an older Italian kid there there are some others that are still surplus that are a little bit more like your German design but this is one of the old vintage kits and it's all aluminum of course it does have you know your catches here and these are steel has a little handle with a crook in it and that way you can put this over a fire it's held down by these little handles that go over a little knob and it's on either side and then it just comes apart then you have a smart cup you have your larger canteen or this kid Bowl I guess you would call it and then we're gonna pull this sometimes this aluminum can kind of gall a little bit to get these separated I'm gonna show everything because I want you guys to see how they work and then here is the other Cup so you have two cups and then you have your larger bowl or cup to make soups boil your water whatever you want to do and then you can eat out of these two now one of the things about these is there is some corrosion right here on these little handles that can be easily cleaned up and if you wanted to even painted or if you just like that as part of the mystique of a surplus kit one of the things though guys is you're going to need to clean these kits once you get them because you know they've been in storage for a long time and they definitely carry some odors whether it's just you know cleaning materials or just being again just stored but this is a cool little kit really good condition overall except for these handles which can be just cleaned up but it doesn't take away from the usability and then when you get ready to store it away you just go ahead him everything kind of fits together in this kidney shape so it kind of nest let me bring it down bring it up and we close it up so cool vintage kit very usable these are the Italian and they are 1699 on the Sportsman's got a website and this is definitely a cool piece of history next is the German mess kit this design has been around since around World War one and definitely World War two there's a lot of pictures of soldiers carrying these I'm a big World War two history buff and just remember these in fact there's a strap a leather strap that goes through and there are eyelets here that can accommodate that strap and of course you could put a nylon strap or whatever but to go through this to hold this together and that way can attach to your belt and I believe the Germans originally use a lever this is the West German from what I understand they do make an East German that's almost exactly like it and then they make the West term of police it's a little bit different and you'll see a number of these styles from a number of different countries so this same cost but a little bit different in just certain aspects of the kit this one in particular has never been issued I mean it is in mint condition and it's in this green color does have the handle with the crook here so you can place this over your fire and then we have our handle which just pops si attention right here just pops open and then we can lift off our cup now the cup has the handle which is part of the keeping all this together and that way you can cook this over your fire then it has another cup that's fairly deep but would be great for soup and then you can hook it right here onto your handle and then you have two pieces so you can carry it your meal this way to whatever you want to go and sit down and then of course you have your larger cup here to boil water and to do all the things that you need to do soups stews things like that you can make in this cup and so this all just kind of fits together and then when you get finished you're just Nestle's all together and the shape is only one way kidney shaped snap that into place and you're good to go but these are really nice kids and the price on the German kid runs 1499 next is the Polish kit this looks very similar to the German kit we're going to bring it over as you can see it's a little bit smaller than the German little not as quite as deep but still the same pretty much design it does have the little crook right here where you can kind of set that over your fire on some kind of stick or rod and then of course we have our carry handle and one of the things about this one is it was a little tight which a lot of times that aluminum does go a little bit and it makes it a little tight fit but one of the things about this kit and I'll show you is that you also get two in this kit it's two for $19.99 and I think one of the reasons why is because the second one was damaged a lot more than the first one note them are definitely issued this has some dents and scrapes and dings on it this one is still usable and we'll take another look at that in just a second but kind of how this one functions you have your little carry Heil here which doubles of course is your closure and you can put different things in here I think this one's a little bit deeper than the German and then this one is a little bit more narrow but again soups and stews and water and things like that and then you can put your meal right here which makes it really nice this is a lot more simpler but definitely a neat design and then of course it only goes together one way like that and then it snaps down just like that so just a cool little kit and then of course the second one I actually had to tighten this one up to get it to close when it came in it was a little bit bent but it still works very well there is a loop right here so you could put something around this to be able to attach it and then again just open this up and same thing inside but you know you can still use this for whatever you want to even though it does have some damage to the top so you get two kits for 1995 I think that's up or $19.99 it's still a great little price and especially if you need to that's just $10 a piece so you know finding something that's tried and tested in military use of these things you know we're durable pretend 99 that's a great price now last but certainly not least is the serbian mess kit this is also the exact same kit that yugoslavia uses or has used i'm fairly sure these are probably still used because this is a really cool kit you got your canvas outer bag you've got one of the old-style military US military little caches here this brass and then we open it up and definitely different than the others a little bit more modern we have a top cover and this is actually plastic and then we have our handle right here that holds that on the on the place so lift that up again that can be used as a cup a larger cup and then we can remove our canteen which is pretty cool and so is a smaller cup here on you and then you've got a softer plastic here how like the US military kind of a little bit of softer than the hard rigid cups here and so has a tether on the handle and again guys you're gonna have to clean these up because they do have that surplus smell to it which is not bad some of them are a little bit more than others but uh tightens down makes it nice with the ridges in here it makes it easy to be able to pull in and out of this container and then you have your aluminum cup for cooking and of course with the handle and so that makes it really cool to be able to to cook be able to pull this off and then if you have another dish you can slip it over the handle like this and you can carry your meal wherever you want to so that's a really cool design I think this is a whole bunch my favorite just because of the lot more features especially with a campaign and so we just put it back in take our cup pop it over just like Russian nesting dolls it all fits together pops this into place really cool and then again just slide this into the canvas cover on the back here we have some belt loops as well now one thing about the Serbian kit is that these run 1099 so this is a great Buy I mean 1099 for this kid doesn't quite have the mystique from some of the others and the old styling which for a collector this may be more appealing I know I love old surplus military stuff this just trips my trigger it's just a really cool little way to carry good quality stuff at a reasonable price so coming up we're gonna take each one of these and we're gonna take it out and we're gonna test it cook a meal in it check out all the features and I just get a little bit of a better fit flavor for what these are all about and originally I planned on doing that with one comparison video but I just think it's going to take way too long now guys whether you're looking for these for a buddy out situation for just hiking camping hunting or maybe you just like to collect old military Plus items this is a great way to do it they're fairly inexpensive they've been field tested and tried and just a really unique piece of history and again I want to thank sportsmen guide for sending these for this comparison we are coming up and we're gonna do a review on each one taking them out using them and just seeing how they perform you know in real-life conditions and we'll probably eat a little bit to also check out the top 40 sensible prepper items on the sportsmen guide website this is 40 different items for survival and preparedness and they are either items I recommend or items that we are going to be testing right here on video so go to search put in suit zero zero or sensible prepper and it should take you right to the page be strong be of good courage god bless america long live the Republic [Music] this kit on survival and this kit on survival and this kit on the in this kit and also check out the sportsman sky top-40 and also check out the top-40 sooc items and also check out the top 40 sensible prepper items on the sensible and these are items that I either recommend or eat it and these are either items that are recommend or items that we're going to get ready and these are [Music]

Channel: SensiblePrepper

Views: 351,787

Rating: 4.8735676 out of 5

Keywords: Sootch00, Sootch, Survival, SHTF, Emergency, Prepper, Military Surplus, Surplus, Mess Kit, Comparison, German Mess Kit, Italian Mess Kit, Polish Mess Kit, Serbian Mess Kit, Yugoslavian, U.S. Surplus Mess Kit, Cooking, Bugout, Camping, Hiking, Hunting, Sportsmans Guide

Id: otftM2WsqTo

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 26 2018