I have some astigmatism and wear progressive lense glasses. For shooting and such I got a pair of OAKLEY SI with my progressive prescription as well as transition lenses (wow, my eye pro sounds liberal) in them.

I've got a few Oakley SI glasses and goggles, and ESS and Wiley X.  They are all good.  I'm trying to update my Oakley SI account but I'm having trouble...I hate id.me, what a clusterfuck of a website.

Our water is pretty good, but I’ve found that for planned trips, I’ll wet-out the filter and test it before packing up. I store them dry but soak them and test them before heading out. For an emergency kit, this is why it’s good to have some starting water as it will take time to soak or wet-out your filter and if you need to back-flush, you have clean water to start with.  This is another reason I’ve kind of gone back to the larger Squeeze over the Mini; it seems to wet out much faster.

Another reason to have a backup means of water purification is to backflush with a more concentrated water solution of chlorine dioxide, especially for longer trips where your water filter pretty much remains wetted out.


@Lungbuster



I’ll have to check the brand when I get home, but there’s a Montbell Titanium 600 cup that will fit the smaller Grayl.


I think for me a ballistic or bump helmet are situational specific items. Ballistic is if I’m defending the home against an active threat, heading to fight in fantasy land, or Mad Max kicks off and I’m trying to drive home. A simple bike or bump helmet (I prefer the less tactical looking versions as I do ride a mountain bike) isn’t a bad thing to have if navigating an urban area after a crisis; falling debris, protruding rebar, sharp concrete, etc.

I would fully agree that I wouldn’t want to do close proximity combatives while wearing one…



I always have sun glasses with me, but in my truck and any travel bag or pack, I’ll have a pair of clear goggles. Most of my range training is done with Wiley X SG1 goggles, but there are cheaper options such as motorcycle riding or safety glasses or goggles. Carhartt has some very inexpensive safety glasses (about $15 on Amazon); I plan to pick up a few to stash around.

I’ve done my share of nighttime patrolling off-trail in heavy foliage and it doesn’t take much to poke your eye out. Basic PPE and surviving with one-eye is harder than two eyes and your shooting eye is doubly important. Any movement at night, you should consider (and practice) wearing clear eye-pro. Again, any crisis around an urban area is likely to end up with debris, dust, and smoke in the air; eye protection is pretty damn important if you're planning to self-rescue or navigating through that type of environment.

ROCK6  

Thanks Rock, I'll check them out.

I wear glasses so that’s taken care of. That said, what about reflections?

I got killflash on all my goggles. You don't?  Your funeral, pal.

OK, I laughed.

@protus I bought and wear Magpul sunglasses all the time when I'm out and about. Ballistic protection to a decent level, and don't look super operator. No idea about clear though, I should investigate more.


@viralinsurgency I dropped all my patches (and I had cool ones!) after the summer of love pictures started circulating. I was able to ID guys based on their morale patches in multiple photos saying "hey wasn't that the same guy as that other picture...." And it was advised here that you don't do anything too crazy to stand out from similarly dressed dudes should you be in a situation where you may not want to be individually identified. Made sense to me.



Also, what's the consensus on watches and boots? I would think it's important to tell time but smart watches have similar tracking ability as phones so that seems out, and my normal watches seem like they would either glow in the dark too much under NODs or be too attention grabbing. Thoughts?

Also I need boot suggestions. I'm hiking every day now and wearing out my sneakers too quickly.

On morale patches making you identifiable, yes, absolutely.  I bought one anyhow.    Love me my morale patches. Sorry you got rid of yours- did you sell em off? If or when shit goes sideways, tits-up or otherwise in a bad way, I will sterilize my gear of morale patches.  Fun in the meanwhile.

As for goggles and eye pro, aside from sunglasses, I have a couple pairs of these Bolle ballistic goggles, in tan and black.  $20 shipped from Botach.  https://botach.com/bolle-x1000-tactical-goggles-anti-fog-anti-scratch-ballistic-lens/  They have a great semi-hard shell case, much better than the ESS canvas style carry bag.

If anyone is looking for a sweet deal on a lightweight 2person tent, Kelty 2019 model is $120, weighs 4.5 lbs.
Kelty free standing 3 season tent, alum poles, $120

For boots, my go to is Rocky S2V's.  Love em.  Have a pair of 6" from another company that are super comfy that are a close second.

Garmin Foretrex 601.

Salomon Quest 4's.

Would you keep wearing GPS watches if things fell apart?  I wear a Fenix by Garmin now, and love all the features to track progress, fitness and terrain data, but I never upload it anywhere, other than syncing the Garmin app.  

I read somewhere that the watches were compromising current military folks wearing them, but unsure if that was as a result of social network posting or directly through Garmin.  Anyone have input?

@Rock6

A friend and I were talking about a cup for the Grayl and he sent me this:



He shows the cup at the 17 min mark.


Dave Canterbury (yeah, I know) is making a cup specifically for it. Looks pretty good and looks like it shouldn't rattle.

If things fell apart where there was no GPS I'd just wear my citizen ecodrive.

IIRC that was people who had a step counter app on their phones.

I'll have to watch outside of work, but I have a few that fit and for those that are slightly too big, I've found the versatile addition of a "pre-filter" bag is very handy to save the lifespan of your filter.

Grayl Pre-Filter

ROCK6

Thanks, @bcauz3y

Not sure if this uses 401 or 601 and a web search didn't elucidate.

I doubt anyone has an interest in tracking little ole me, but the final sentence hits on the meat of the matter.  The Fenix and others have GLONASS and GPS, and while I figure in a failure in civility the satellites will still be up and GPS working, I wouldn't wanna wear my watch for data and nav if 3 letter agencies could just select an area and "see" all the Garmins in that area.  Or if a decent hacker could do the same via Garmin or the satellites.  Don't wanna be a target for minding my own business.

So, do we ditch the GPS watches or are we safe to continue wearing them?

The 401 and 601 are specific garmin units. Small wearable or mountable ones that can give you a track, navigate to a way point, or give you firing data if it has applied ballistics like the higher end versions.

The newer versions have "smart notifications", not something I personally want on a GPS.


https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/572639

I’m part of the IC and work on a three-letter agency campus for the Army. They were pretty direct about encouraging employees NOT to use TikTok. All phones, iWatches, FitBits, or any transponding devices are prohibited. There’s a reason they won’t allow them at their own workplace…

ROCK6  

If you’re trying to be sneaky, you shouldn’t have your phone on you in the first place.

Correct, my point was that the newer models have the ability to connect to another device, obviously wirelessly since you wear it on your wrist.  It says you can cut the notifications off but does that mean you completely shut it off or is still pinging or receptive for active signals in the background?  I don't know, I've only briefly looked into them since I rarely use the GPS I have (an older 60CSx that I need to replace since the SD card holder broke).


I only carry my phone with me about half the time and I have a basic Mission Darkness farady bag I can toss it in.

Thanks for the info.  I'm familiar with how the inReach, etc work but wasn't sure about the 601/701.  From the manual, Garmin states that it pairs with your phone (Garmin app required) or other fitness devices via Bluetooth, which must be switched on.  Looks like there is no need to find a NiB or factory refurbished 401.  

Owner's manual for reference.
https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/foretrex601-701/EN-US/GUID-E58FDEFA-AAB7-447D-84AA-30D452E486E1-homepage.html

That's what I figured.  So the Garmin Fenix gets retired down the way, and replaced by an old school Luminox and a compass.  Just one more device to charge, anyway.

I'll continue to use it to track runs & workouts for now.

From a brief readover, it looks like it bluetooths to your phone and your phone is what actually sends out/receives information.

Turn off the bluetooth and you're gtg.  Even if it is on, bluetooth only has a spitting-distance range.

I get the concern but in this case its nothing-burger.

American Pioneer Corps also does free land nav exercises.

I don't know if you (or anyone) can answer this question, but I've always wondered about this.

If the .gov shuts down GPS for civvies, will glonast still work?  I figure it would since the US doesn't have a ton of sway with Russia, but who knows.

Seems like a good reason to get a receiver that can receive both tho.

For maps, I love these books:

Cool, thanks.

That's what I figured but...I was wrong once before.  

I've kept one in all of my vehicles for as long as I've been driving.  I write notes on the pages that are relevant to me, ex. some of the streams are seasonal, forestry service roads that are locked, locations of areas I may want to avoid in troubled times, possible hazmat choke points (ex. chemical spill at a paper mill, general wind direction and nearby roads that are likely to be closed), etc.  I want to be able to visualize a larger area than the average GPS or even tablet shows and figure out multiple routes.  Just part of an area study, which everyone should do.  

I can scan (or take a picture of) individual pages if needed and I have USGS topo maps for areas I frequent.  I'm one of the few people I know who still keeps maps in the door pocket of his truck; all wrapped inside a large Zip-loc.

The Gazateers are very useful. Full of a lot of info and detailed enough to use on a very local basis. Not quite a 1:24k topo, but good for what they are.

On the phone thing: I know some guys who know about this stuff as part of their job. They won't talk about anything they wouldn't want the world to know, while in vicinity of a phone. Much less carry one to anyplace sensitive. I've not discussed GPS with them because I don't really use one. But I will next time I see them.

Yeah, I keep one behind my rear seats in my truck.

If you go to the USGS website you can download topo maps for free.  I've got the local ones saved on a device and they're fairly helpful.  But you can't write on them and using a compass with them can be tricky.

In this video he also shows what appears to be a Sawyer Mini attached to a MSR Dromedary bag. I looked it up, and sure enough, the newer style Dromedary bag caps have a 28mm thread for the smaller cap.

You can buy the cap by itself for about $7.50:
https://www.rei.com/product/114974/msr-3-in-1-hydration-cap

I’m a goner!

For maps and such I thought this was an interesting video. I like the open street mapping app.

I know, a Trex video on a Garand Thumb thread.

Mapping Tools

That stainless cup looks nice, I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

I wear a Casio pathfinder. It's ~12 years old and on it's third band but it's still working perfectly. It's solar and set by the atomic clock via satellite. I'd trust any solar G-Shock watch also.

Pic of everything I'm taking to warfighter.

Deets to follow when I have time to type.

Are you gonna ride the rocking horse to get there???!

Cars are loud and gas will be limited in the event of societal breakdown.

Of course I'm gonna ride the horse.  

Do they turn them off or just turn on Selective Availability?  If DOD turns them off then DOD can't use them.  You can't stop the signal if it's on.

That surprises me that they would delete that feature.

4.5lb is way heavy for a modern tent, take a look at the lanshan 1 or 2 tents & make your own poles from a surplus TCOP pole off ebay. I prefer the lanshan 1 original since you can use just the inner as a bug net, together with the fly or tarp depending on circumstances.

It's a two person, so you would split the body and poles between you and your wife, let's say.  Easily manageable.  It isn't an ultralight tent for hiking the AT, but something for casual camping or backpacking, and it was offered in that regard for consideration since it is a great deal.  I remember buying north face and Sierra design tents like this for $250, so $119 is a steal, especially for quality.

As previously discussed in the thread, for bugging out or a 3-4 day recon, a tent isn't even going to be used.  Just a tarp or fly for wind/rain and your gortex shell or maybe a bivvy sack or poncho liner.