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Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Buy Quality Survival Gear

 

    There is a lot of survival gear and tactical gear out there ranging from the cheap (in both quality and price) to the very expensive, with a lot in between. Unfortunately, for most of us, budgets do not allow us to purchase everything we want let alone the highest cost versions of what we want. 

    On the other hand, we don't want to buy junk. "Buy once, cry once" is a well known saying for a reason. 

    As the video above points out, if you have something--a tool or weapon--for survival, if you use it you will be abusing it. Cheap items will break; quality items will not (or at least there is a far less chance of it). And, as also pointed out in the video, even if you can make do with the lower quality item, things will be easier with a quality bit of gear (as experience with hand and power tools has probably already taught most of us). The term used in the video that I really liked was the admonition that you purchase tools and kit that is "usable" in a survival situation.

    "Usable" cuts both ways. A cheaply made item may not be usable because it breaks or doesn't function correctly when you attempt to use it. But an expensive item may not be "usable"--even if well made and fully capable of effective use--because the owner is reluctant to use the item lest it be lost or damaged. For instance, the host related an anecdote from a Navy SEAL friend who, when his unit was deployed to South America for some drug interdiction work, the team members left behind their most awesome and expensive knives (several thousand dollars each according to the host) and took the more standard Ka-Bars and such rather than risk damaging or losing their expensive knives. 

    In a similar vein, a recent article at The Truth About Guns advocated "Carry a Nice Gun, You’re Worth It" as the author attacked the commonly heard admonition to carry a gun that is cheap enough that you won't be afraid of losing it (e.g., to a police confiscation should you be involved in a lethal force incident). He instead suggests that you "[c]arry the most reliable pistol that you shoot the best, can conceal comfortably enough that you’ll carry it regularly, and can afford." 

    In short, you don't need a $500+ custom knife, a Staccato semi-auto pistol or Korth revolver, or the multitude of expensive optics, lights, and so on out there. So, for instance, the host and guest in the video above note that a Glock knife will serve as well or better than many custom knives in the survival role; and the host likes Olight products and believe they will serve most people as well as more expensive options from Surelight or Streamlight. And using my firearm examples, a Glock, Walther or HK polymer framed striker fired handgun will probably serve you as well as a Staccato; a S&W or Colt revolver will probably do everything most of you will need a revolver to do. Because otherwise you are paying significant amounts of money for very small incremental increases in performance.

    I've seen many articles that discuss the same with optics: that once you get to a certain price point (it depends on the brands being tested, but appears to be the $700 to $1000 range), the increase of performance with more expensive models is marginal. 

    And you also should be realistic about what you are going to be doing with the gear. I have been looking at battle belt/war belt setups over the last several months and there are some really nice rigs out there, but the difference between the mid-tier products and the more expensive high-tier products is often whether the belts have been certified for helicopter operations or rappelling. Realistically, though, how many of us--even if everything were to go full Mad Max--would ever find ourselves dangling from the side of a helicopter or fast roping down to the roof of a building? For most preppers, it would literally be a waste of money to buy the highest tier battle belts. I suspect that much the same can be said in general about load carrying equipment and plate carriers. 

    Now some things you aren't going to be able to save much on. One example commonly given is night vision. The reality is that Russian surplus night vision sucks and digital night vision just isn't quite there. I'm still without night vision equipment for this reason: I haven't scraped together the funds for a good night vision system and am unwilling to waste money on the cheap systems. 

    Similarly, for another example, in looking at hand cranked grain mills, it looks like you have a choice of cheap plastic or something that costs a few hundred dollars or more. And while there are videos that show you how to make your own Berkey style filter, Berkey filter systems are pretty much the standard in their class. Chain saws, power tools, and most hand tools are the same. This is really where "buy once, cry once" applies. 

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