UPDATED! Green Beret's Ultralight Bug Out Bag with Gear Recommendations

uh so this particular pack from mystery ranch is the one that i'm running these days it still looks like a civilian pack it just happens to be gray that's not because i'm going gray man and it's very streamlined everything's kind of contained inside it doesn't really stick out that much in a crowd it looks very unassuming so this is the urban assault 24 and this is plenty big enough for my 19 pound bug out bag extremely durable extremely well made and very very comfortable so that i can carry it over an extended period for long distances and i'm not going to get uncomfortable which is kind of a key concept to getting from point a to point b so it starts with the urban assault 24 which is a great pack that i highly recommend but again it doesn't have to be this one you can use whatever one you're comfortable with this is the one that i choose to use so that's what it starts with is the pack from the pack i break that down into the priorities into the needs that i'm trying to provide for core temperature control is obviously the first thing that i'm trying to provide for so in a survival situation you know starting a fire is not that not that big of a deal from a prepper's perspective from a preparedness perspective you may be in a situation where you don't want to start a fire so there is a such thing as a permissive and a non-permissive environment and you need to understand kind of the the situation that you're in uh permissive environment means it doesn't really matter if you're seen if you're found if it doesn't matter you're just providing for your needs like everyone else out there whereas a non-permissive is the opposite of that a non-permissive means that you're you're kind of using a little more stealth you're trying not to be seen you're trying not to be found for a non-permissive environment fire is probably not your best idea it's probably not a good idea right unless you're in an extremely cold weather environment and you need the fire you probably should not rely on that non-permissive environment you're going to rely very heavily on your shelter system so we'll look at the fire kit first and i like to have three different methods of ignition all right the first one and the primary one should be just a normal bic lighter okay that's the easiest way to get a flame that doesn't mean you get a fire you need to be able to put all this together into a fire lay using tinder resources etc but you know the easiest is the bic lighter you should not be relying on primitive methods in this type of emergency don't make it harder than it needs to be these are not exactly the most durable thing in the world i can't count on making one of these for you know years they're not going to last for years but something that will last for a very long time is a ferrocerium rod a big three three eighths to a half inch diameter by five to six inch ferro rod is the best way to go this is a really easy way if you know how to use one to make a fire an extremely durable there's no moving parts it doesn't matter if it gets wet this is a simple wallet fresnel lens and if you know how to use these and the sun is shining this is a really effective way of starting a fire if you have the ability to use this you're taking nothing from your kit you're not taking anything from your resources as long as the sun's out you can continue to use this without depleting any other resource if it is an actual emergency you want something that you can get a fire going right now really quick i like to use you know some sort of man-made tender that's ready to go so i can get a fire going really easily and what i've been carrying for probably the past year or so are called mini infernos these are basically a cotton round that is soaked in an accelerant and then that entire thing is dipped into a paraffin wax which solidifies around it seals that accelerant in there whenever it's time to use one of these you just break those open expose some of those fibers and it'll take obviously it'll take open flame and it'll take a spark so that is an awesome resource to have in your kit to use in an emergency to get a fire going quickly there's several in here and that comes with a reusable tin when these start going low i can char natural material in this and i can use that a lot of different things you can use with a tin another thing i like to use kind of as a secondary light source for doing things in the evening if i'm not so worried about drawing a lot of attention to myself that also makes a valuable fire resource is a simple beeswax candle now these are four hour nano candle tins from exotec each one of these little tins will burn for four hours and it just gives me a small light source or a method of drying out natural tinder to get it going and i can also use the candle as a lighter extender for my shelter kit every shelter kit starts with basically has the same things you have something to sleep under you have something to sleep on you have something to sleep in and then you have some cordage to kind of put all that together a lot of what i carry is not applicable to someone that lives in the southeastern united states or lives out in the desert it's not applicable however something to sleep under something sleep on something to sleep in and some cordage is applicable everywhere it's just you may need different components to provide for those needs in your particular kit but a good baseline kit something to sleep under i like to use the military style ponchos this particular one is from helicon tex it's been one of the best ponchos that i've had outside of the military and the reason i like the poncho is because it's actually two pieces of kit in one okay if i'm on the move on the go and it's wet weather this poncho will keep me dry and i can drape it over my backpack to keep the contents of my backpack dry and if i'm stationary then i can actually produce my shelters with this so that's something to sleep under to protect me from the elements a lot of days a lot of nights a lot of weekends a lot of time in the military that i had was spent in nothing more than wrapped up in a poncho liner with a poncho around me just in what we call a ranger burrito even in a in a quick nap and i don't have time to set anything up or maybe i found a natural shelter i can wrap up in both of those and sleep fairly comfortably in a lot of different places obviously not in the winter in the adirondacks i'm not going to do that but it's a good baseline so something to sleep under something to sleep in something to sleep on i still go with the snug pack sf bivvy it's very small it's lightweight and this is basically a gore-tex cover if you will that's kind of like a mummy it's kind of like a mummy liner kind of thing that you can put around the whole kit and caboodle but the other thing about this that i like is that something to sleep on i can stuff this with brows like leaves or any other sort of kind of soft debris to kind of contain that and i can make a browse mattress lay on top of that that's going to prevent conduction with the ground and it's a real small package i can also add this to the ranger burrito wrap the entire thing up in that and it's going to protect me even that much more against the elements so i think the versatility of a small baby sack is a good thing and that's why i continue to choose to put that in my baseline kit that's my sleep under sleep in sleep on system then i like to have cordage to kind of put it all together one of the main components of my shelter system i call the rapid ridgeline all right this is a ridgeline system that is easy to deploy easy to take down and it's pre-cut pre-kind of hang so that it comes out quickly and i can do you know three different shelter configurations depending on the weather conditions off of this really quickly this is just about 25 to 30 feet of paracord and some number 36 bank line all right so that's my main ridge line that i use for a number of different shelters and the rest of my cordage i'm just using number 36 bank line and i'm choosing bank line over more paracord because paracord tends to have a more slick outer sheath so it doesn't hold knots as well this is mariner's line bank line this has kind of a sticky tar on it so it holds knots really well it's a thinner diameter so it's not quite as strong this is normally 550 pound test number 36 is normally around 300 to 350 pound test but when i'm establishing a shelter you know just because paracord is stronger does not mean that this isn't strong enough 350 pound test is plenty strong enough for a lot of the applications that i'm using it for so those are my cordage my cordages of choice just a ridgeline a dedicated ridgeline the rest i do with number 36 bank line and this actually is made up of three individual strands so if i needed smaller stuff for gear repair or for fishing or for trap components i can break this apart into three smaller strands that still have a tensile strength of about 100 pounds each and then kind of i guess the difference between like a a survival situation bushcraft type of thing is i can make tent stakes while i'm out there it's very simple they take just a few minutes but that's one more thing that i have to worry about and for me personally i just don't think it's worth not carrying these because they they just don't take up enough space or cost me enough weight to justify leaving these back and then carving stakes out in the field these are titanium these are msr groundhogs having lightweight tent stakes is a time saver it's a convenience thing will you die without them of course not can you make them in the field of course you can me personally i don't think the juice is worth the squeeze on that so i'll carry six of these and all of my shelters can be made with those six with our core temperature under control with our fire and shelter kit the next kit and the next priority that we need to talk about is hydration you have to stay hydrated especially when you're moving long distances the water kit that i choose to carry these days is one you need a method of procuring it you need a method of storing it but you also need a way to disinfect it so that it's safe to drink i'm going to be filtering water from these water sources because this is something i need to do quick i don't want to rely on having to make a fire and boil every time i need to drink so carrying a dedicated filter is a good idea the filter that i've been using for probably the last year is the grail geopress what i like about this is not only does it filter but it's also its own container so it gives me additional capacity to carry more water than i used to carry when i only carried just the 32 ounce stainless steel water bottle so that is an outstanding piece of gear and what i can do is when i get up to a water source i can filter once the filtered water or once the water is filtered i can fill up my 32 ounce container and then i can leave this full and i've got two containers of water so that's primarily what i'm going to be doing if i had to i could also boil water because my other container is a single walled stainless steel container this is the pathfinder stainless steel 32 ounce and that comes with a nesting cup with a lid all right so that's all part of the same water system but i could also use this to cook in i can make medicinals in this if i want to go down that road i can make charred material in this i can make charred material with these two so this entire system works together really well but it starts with being able to filter water to make it safe to drink and store enough of it to move from point a to point b another thing that i kind of include in that kit even though it's more versatile than just for water is a cotton chimag right this is a three foot by three foot piece of cotton material that can be used for a number of things it can be used you know in the capacity of the fire kit you can actually use this to make char cloth if you don't have any natural material that you can char that makes all your subsequent fires that much easier if i don't want to filter this i could use this to place over water in a stream and pre-filter that which is really you know a redundancy considering i have this but if i don't want to clog this filter and i want to pre-filter the water before i put it into the container i can do that it's just really handy to have for that and then of course we haven't talked about the first aid yet but this is cotton material is very valuable for bandaging for an improvised tourniquet number of reasons so with your hydration taken care of then we can talk a little bit about consuming calories because we talked about needing to have energy to get from point a to point b you're going to burn a lot of calories you're exposed to the elements you're under stress you're moving from point a to point b so you need to be able to consume calories what you don't want to do is have to hunt for food you don't want to have to stop and trap you don't want to have to stop and actively fish and then if you do catch something you would have to actually start a fire to cook it or preserve it so they can move on those skills are valuable to have but they should not be your primary means of consuming calories that's why i like to carry some sort of pre-made ration that doesn't require any cooking and i still like to go with the sos emergency food rations these are very small they're very small packages they're very simple you just break out the bars and you eat them and it gives you some calories you can do that while you're on the go you don't have to stop to prepare anything so these are valuable this is a 3600 calorie bar um so this can get you this can get you a couple days up the road before you need to replenish speaking of point a to point b you want to get there as efficiently as possible so that is where your navigation kit comes in and the ability to navigate comes in for navigating you know obviously you want to have a map of your area or be extremely familiar with your area at a minimum you would need a compass i recommend the suntow mc2 compass because it has a lot of other functions it has a magnifying lens that i can use as part of my fire kit to start a fire using charred natural material or charred cloth it also has a mirror that i could use for signaling and i can also use it for first aid applications for things like if i get something in my eye or on my face that i can't see i can use that in the kind of a first aid application so aside from that you know it's obviously used to walk a straight line get from point a to point b as efficiently as possible so i love the suntow mc2 compass i also use these pace beads all right these paste cords if you're not familiar with those sometimes people call them ranger beats but rangers don't call them ranger beats we just call them face speeds but that gives you the ability to keep track of distance traveled as you're counting that with your pace count you know you're basically counting steps from point a to point b so every one of these is a hundred meters and then every one of these is a thousand meters and you just kind of reset so i do recommend having a map i get all of my maps from my topo usa but that's where i get all my maps from so if you need a map of your particular area that's where you can get them you can get them in mgrs that grid reference system you can get them in utm you can get them in lat long whatever you want so recommend you have those if your compass does not have the ability and it doesn't have scales and you can't use that as a protractor to determine coordinates and translate that map coordinate then you may need to carry a protractor if your compass does have that you don't necessarily need this if you know how to do that but that is part of a nav kit the other thing i'd recommend is a couple of mechanical pencils and some waterproof paper a waterproof notebook right this allows you to record things this allows you to make updates to your map take notes keep track of a lot of different things and yes you could use a regular pencil and that regular pencil could be used and because you can resharpen and all that in the military we use nothing but mechanical pencils not so much that they're more durable but because the point is a lot finer and when you're talking about navigation you want precision from point a to point b so when i'm plotting coordinates i want as fine a point as possible i don't want a big fat point because it's going to make it less efficient so i always carry mechanical pencils as part of my navigation kit north american rescue is a company i trusted i used them in iraq and afghanistan for you know 11 12 years however many years it was so i trust them and i'm really happy to be partnered with them to make my very own ifac and even with my own ifak i still supplement with a couple of other things and everything that it has in it i'll talk to you about it real quick it has a fort march massive hemorrhage we're using a tourniquet we've got some combat cause which is a hemostatic that you can pack inside a wound uh be it an extremity or a junctional injury it also has some s-roll gods that you would chase that with to really pack that wound cavity and then you have a four inch flat pack emergency trauma dressing all right you can use that for pressure dressings you can use that for pressure on junctional areas where you can't get a tourniquet so that's all with the massive hemorrhage in mind and then we get onto airway it also has a an npa a nasopharyngeal airway with some lube so that it's easy to insert into the nostril and then for sucking chest wounds which if you're not familiar with this again anything in this kit if you're not familiar with it you need to get training on triple c or tecc that's tactical combat casualty care or tactical emergency combat casualty care minus the combat tecc is basically the civilian version of t triple c which is for the military but i think you can still get those classes just look for some in your area and get the training highly recommend it but if you don't have that training if you're carrying this maybe somebody that happens upon you good samaritan has the training knows how to use it they just maybe don't carry it so you should always carry the things that you need to sustain your own life where somebody else can sustain yours with it so mpa is for your airway for your uh for your sucking chest wounds any wound basically from from nose down to naval you need to start thinking about a sucking chest wound and the chest seal is used to seal that up and this is a hyphen vented chest seal so it's already vented you just slap it on it comes in a two pack because wherever you have an entrance wound you probably also have an exit wound you could have multiple entrance wounds with no exit and you know you don't know what you're going to run into so at a minimum though you have two chest seals in there and that's for your respirations and i also added which is not really common in a lot of eye packs that i see i also added some two inch flat surgical tape it's really convenient to carry that over the roll and then that what that allows you to do is not only have some surgical tape for minor injuries or whatever but you also have that tape so that you can use any of the wrappers from anything in this kit you can improvise a chest seal with that an additional chest seal if you have multiple gunshot wounds and you don't have enough dedicated chest seals you can use the wrapper from the chest seals the wrapper from the pack you can use all these wrappers because they're they're they're going to be able to be improvised in a seal as long as you have some tape to make that stick so that's been added in there and of course for personal protection you've got some black talon nitrile gloves non-latex for people that have allergies but that's what's inside the kit and i put the tourniquet i put one cat tourniquet inside the kit but i want you if you've ever taken a class with me medically then you know that two is one and one is none when it comes to dedicated tourniquets if the first tourniquet doesn't stop the bleeding effectively the very first step the next step i should say is to apply a second tourniquet and a lot of people are only carrying one tourniquet so there's the one that's inside sealed inside the pack in the eye fact think of that as your second tourniquet and i carry an additional cat tourniquet that's the one that's in your pocket you can reach it with both hands this is your primary tourniquet but this is a supplement to the one that's in the ifak if this one fails to stop the bleed you've got another one to go to and you don't have to go to improvising a tourniquet and i don't recommend improvising life-threatening measures when you have the ability to actually have adequate equipment for it right improvising is something you do when you're not prepared carry a pair of trauma shears so you can rapidly open up and expose that wound take the clothes strip them down so that you can see what you're actually working with because again in a life-threatening bleed or a gunshot wound you don't know what you're you're dealing with you need to open up look at it so you know what to use as far as resources to stop that and hopefully protect life with it a lot of times you know for hypothermia prevention which also plays into shock prevention that can be the function of your your clothing as your primary shelter and your shelter kit you know that that also prevents but this is this is kind of a rapid way to do it and for the space and the weight it just makes sense to just throw a quick mylar blanket in there and kind of think of that as part of this could i also in cold weather use this inside of a shelter to reflect heat off the fire if that's the situation yes you absolutely could but you know i prefer to think of these as as kind of a supplement to both the ifak and the shelter kit to kind of help with that core temperature control so that is the gb2 branded ifak from north american rescue with the recommended supplements i keep all those inside my go bag this is the gray bearded green beret the gb2 puko that i made i designed that's available on the market it's made by pathfinder forge and tool this knife has a full tang but it also has with the puko style that continuous curve it has kind of a delicate tip it's used for fine carving if you're inexperienced with a knife there is a chance that you could shear the tip of the knife off if you're trying to bang this thing through hardwood or through a knot or something like that that you shouldn't be batoning the knife through anyway most woodsmen would know not to do that but a lot of folks in the general population that really don't have a lot of experience with it this may not be the knife for you as much as i hate to say it because i designed it it's it's the truth while this is a great knife in the experience hands it may not be the knife for everyone it may not be the best choice for your bug out bag but i'll let you be the judge of that even though this is my design and the one that i carry i still stand by the mora garberg as the knife for everyone uh it's again it's a full tang as well it's also a scandi but it's not a scandi to zero it has a secondary micro bevel on it so rather than the angles coming together it has an additional very small angle at the bottom that gives that edge strength it'll keep you from chipping it and the design of this is a little bit thicker at the tip so the chance of busting that tip off is a lot more slim so i'll leave that up to you these i recommend both of these knives but i recommend them for different reasons in addition to that i recommend some sort of a multi-tool in my bug out bag my go bag i typically keep a leatherman and there's a lot of models out there a lot of different models and you can maybe you prefer gerber maybe prefer a different brand the brand's not important again it's the what you're using it for the function that's what's important but when you're looking at a multi-tool the three most important tools on a multi-tool for me is a secondary blade that's a backup blade to this some sort of a saw which you know going from point a to point b the need for sawing is not that great but it's nice to have a saw just in case you need it this is obviously if i i was expecting to use a saw a lot i would want a dedicated saw but if i'm not expecting it's just not worth the weight so having this as a saw that you can call on if you need one is a great thing so those two tools plus the third tool that i think is most important especially for gear repair is an awl uh which this one may not actually have one there's the all remaining exactly where the 30 seconds is right you can you can gray that out and put it in there can't you yeah oh yeah there's the awl right there really the only thing i found that i need pliers for in the wilderness if i start using snare wire now there's not a lot of other things i don't need screwdrivers in the forest i don't really need pliers or wire cutters in the forest unless i'm using traps so that's another reason that's really the only reason i use these primarily i carry this swiss army knife and of course it has the three things that i look for in any multi-tool it's got a backup blade that's a good size it's got a really good saw that i can use and it also has an awl that i can use to bore holes in material i can use this to sew and repair gear but those are the three most important tools that i think you can have on a multi-tool what type you carry whether it's a swiss army style or a leatherman style that's up to you what brand that's up to you lastly you could kind of in in an emergency kit or a survival kit you may consider this you know kind of a signal thing uh but i kind of put it into the tools because in my context of my go bag you know i'm not really trying to signal anyone [Music] at the most i might be trying to signal someone at my community at the alternate bugging location that i'm heading to i found this princeton tech vis and what i like about this one is is the default is red on this one so it doesn't matter you hit the button it's going to default to red and you actually have to hold the button down to change it to white it also has a green a blue which is really useful for blood at night and it also has an infrared if you're somebody that has has developed your preparedness so far into the weeds that that you've got night vision you can see that only with night vision i just like that it's a default to red that solves that problem and this has been a really good headlamp that's worked really well and the battery life on here is pretty good but you don't know how much you're going to be relying on this [Music] so it's always good to have some extra batteries and if you're going to carry extra batteries i recommend you carry the lithiums because they're going to last a little bit longer so that's kind of the tool kit that i recommend don't focus on the brands don't focus on the specific things that i choose to provide for those needs the focus is the needs that i'm using this stuff to provide for and then you tailor that to your situation your experience your skill level your environment and you know again the brands aren't what matters it's it's what tools am i packing for what needs what needs are you providing for with that back the audio good or no audio is good real nice clark real nice where were we you

Channel: The Gray Bearded Green Beret

Views: 850,868

Rating: 4.9530673 out of 5

Keywords: bug out, go bag essentials, ultralight bug out bag, green beret bug out bag, best bug out bag, bug out bags, survival bug out bag essentials, bug out bag essentials, bug out bag basics, bugout bag, go bag, gray bearded green beret, grey bearded green beret, bug out bag, bug out bag contents, bug out bag essentials 2020, bug out bag 2020, prepper, prepping, survival kit

Id: t4GYjhwfvwU

Length: 27min 2sec (1622 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/PabstyLoudmouth]

Pretty good. The only thing I really did not see was extra socks and undies, and especially there is no wipes or TP. Maybe he is good at wiping his ass with twigs and leaves, but most people are not and you are not going very far with no ass wipes.

[u/Skanah]

I really can't recommend his videos enough, especially for people just getting into bug out or wilderness survival.

[u/FartzLoudAF]

Awesome video! Former 18C myself and I have to say the poncho is totally underrated. Two pieces of kit for me to never leave is my poncho and wooby as well! No matter what the weather or trail those always come along! Bring the wooby because you wooby cold without it!

One thing I think we can help this crowd with is caching items and creating clandestine reports.

Great video!

[u/Girafferage]

The Grayl filter is amazing, but it gets clogged VERY fast. After 1 weekend of using it as a sole water purifier, it takes extreme pressure to filter the water through. It does filter our bacteria AND viruses, but that's not needed in North America, and a sawyer filter will work much much longer.

[u/Joshua_Enyart]

Thanks for posting this here! I actually wanted to do it earlier and it fell off my radar. Just for everyones awareness, this is a shorter excerpt from a larger film that is releasing next month and this chapter, which is one of many, is cut down (at least in half) for YouTube. In the full film, I actually do cover recommended items that I feel are personal choices and nice-to-haves, for example a small hygiene kit, a couple pairs of wool socks, and an extra t-shirt. I also cover how this fits into my larger system. PACE plans, caches, and how to use all the items in the kit for fire, shelter, water...land nav tips for expedited travel, staying hoe or go decisions, that sort of thing. This video is really just a small snapshot of the larger film, and the larger film is only the first of a series of three films that are planned covering Bugging In, Bugging Out by vehicle, on foot, establishing Alternate Bug In Locations...basically my entire personal preparedness system. My system is based on my experience in the military. I read a comment from a former 18-series on here that will know very well where the core of what I teach comes from. Thanks again for posting! I'm not on here often but I will continue to check back in from time to time.

[u/exgiexpcv]

Wow, the man knows his kit. Not only excellent choices, but a sound methodology to explain why he chose each piece of gear. I already have a lot of this, but I was unaware of those mini inferno starters. Very cool stuff.

I spent months with nothing but my woobie in a poncho, which was fortunate for me as the local climate allowed for it, but not having to carry that sleeping bag made a huge difference on extended patrols, as it allowed me to carry other things I really did need.

[u/grm3]

Streamlined. I like it

[u/shmuffbub707]

Wow this guy is incredibly knowledgeable, super honest and incredibly practical.

The way he explains the underlying concepts and how to provide for them is so much more valuable than straight up gear recommendations.

Easy subscription. Brb watching all of his videos

[u/pseudodit]

I agree the awl is important ... my Leatherman doesn't have an awl and it really annoying.

I have to keep digging out my old Swiss Army knife.