Gerber Bear Grylls Basic Survival Kit Review & My Additions

Guys, when it comes to survival, there are two major elements. Number one is you've got to have the mindset. You need to have the will to survive. You need to be able to improvise. You need to have the confidence to keep going on. But number two is really close behind it, and that's tools. Having the right tools to get you through, because some of these things, there's no substitute in nature. Or if there are, they're so primitive that most of us don't know. But honestly, if I'm in a survival situation, I want my bug out bag. I want to have all the things I need. I want to have my get-home bag. I want to be close to my vehicle. But most of the time, that is just not feasible, and it's not the case. I'm out hiking. I'm hunting, and I get turned around. You know, I find myself even in my vehicle, and I get trapped because of inclement weather. So today, we're going to take a look at the Bear Grills and Gerber Basic Survival Kit. This is an eight-piece kit. Actually, there's a little more than that. But these are some basic items that can get you through a tough situation. Is this adequate? In certain situations, yes, and others, no. So what we're going to do is go through the kit. We're going to go through the contents. We're going to check out how they work, and then we're going to add a number of items that would make this actually just more complete. But then again, even a small kit like this, I'd rather have my bug out bag. But this is a great start to slip in my pocket just for those personal SHTFs, which happen to people all the time. And guys, as a disclaimer, I just bought this off eBay. I think it was $25, and I just wanted to check it out because there are people out there that are looking for things like this, and maybe I can give you a heads up. Is it worth it? Well, guys, check out Soochgear.com. We have just revamped our website, including monthly giveaways. We also have a weekly newsletter. There's a lot of deals. Also, we have contraband videos, and we have a lot of merch, including some Richardson ball caps that are for the Sooch Nation. Also, we do t-shirts as well in all sizes. We also have patches, which we have a number of different designs, and we do stickers. So check out Soochgear.com. Well, first off, it comes in this little blister pack. These are a pain to get into. It's an eight-piece kit. There is a mini paraframe knife in here from Gerber that's actually not bad to have an extra knife. I mean, if you're like me, I carry one in my pocket, but this just is redundant, and it gives me something else. Again, basic kit, and they do have lifetime warranties. Also, here on the back, it shows you a schematic of all the different items that are in this kit. I will say that there are two different basic survival kits. One has a sewing kit. One has lifeboat matches or waterproof matches. To be honest, I would rather have the lifeboat matches or the survival matches, but this is a great element, especially if something happens and you need to repair something. I went ahead and took it out of the packaging. First, you get a small little bag. This is ripstop material. That's going to be great. Actually, a fairly decent little bag. It has a zipper on it that is sealed, but it doesn't go all the way to the end, so this is not waterproof, and neither do they say that it's waterproof. I've watched a couple of reviews on these, and everybody's saying, this is your waterproof bag that's not waterproof. This is your waterproof bag, and it's a sealed bag, and it has all the contents in it. I would keep this in this pouch, but the pouch itself, again, I mean, you have a little bit of cordage here if you happen to need it, and so it's just a very simple little bag. I like the Blaze Orange because it gives you, in case you drop it, you're going to be able to see it. When it comes to the kit itself, this bag, again, is your waterproof bag, and this could actually be used as a water container, or you could put other things in here and slip the items in just this part. This gives you a little extra, but definitely, this is the waterproof part. One thing, though, up front, and this is probably worth it pretty close, is the pocket guide, and this gets into a lot of details. This opens up pretty nicely. We have the knots. We have shelter, different ways to create shelter, and we have bow drill, fire saw, and car battery, and these are all detailed out, and then here on the back, more things about navigation, and then we have collections, water collection. I mean, it gives you a lot of ideas. While these are not all being able to perform with the tools you have, it definitely gives you something to at least have hold of, and you may find those items, but one thing I failed to mention is here on the back, there are some emergency signaling, and this is going to give you a lot of information here as well in case you get lost. All right, now here we have everything pulled out. I think one thing that everybody's going to gravitate to first is the mini paraframe, and this is just a knife from Gerber. It's small. I mean, it's a tiny little knife, but it is a blade. It is half serrated, has a drop point. It's all stainless steel, and it's just a little Gerber knife, and so just that in itself is going to be above a lot of just the really cheap knockoffs that you're going to find, and guys, honestly, it's a blade, and even if you dull it quickly, I mean, you're still going to have a knife, and this is one of the first things that man needs in a survival situation, and really has been with us pretty close to the beginning. When it comes to the knife, we're going to go ahead and do the standard test just to make sure it's sharp. We do have that edge, but we do have it partially serrated, so I've heard reports of both. It's not super sharp, but it will cut. Even the serrations are actually pretty sharp. Wow, serrations are sharper than the edge. Again, a very inexpensive knife. It's not going to be the best. I would probably sharpen this up if I was going to use this in a kit. Next is your fire starter. This is a ferro rod, and you have a striker, and there's a large lanyard because you won't lose the striker from the ferro rod or the fire steel. This is going to be important, but you can use this cordage, but I would recommend trying to stay away from that. It's not really all that great. It's more like boot laces, but it's definitely something that you can use. Your striker, you do have a bottle opener, so that gives you an extra tool. There are some serrations here to be able to strike this, but honestly, the edge on here is a much better option. One thing about a fire steel is that you've got to remove this coating, and so we're going to try this in a minute, but you just need to remove that coating, and we're going to see how this works, but this is just one of those things that gives you a ton of strikes and much better than matches or a lighter as far as longevity, but it's a little more difficult to start a fire. You also have just a cotton ball. Now this will make tender, and you might want to split this up, but it's going to burn pretty quickly. Here we have our cotton ball, and we're just going to first, again, we're going to get rid of some of that coating. Again, this is not good. This little catch here might be able to be used for something different, but that edge on that striker is going to be what you want. So as we strike it, let's go ahead and just check the spark. Yeah, it puts out some decent sparks. There we go, and we've got our cotton ball going. Now this is only going to last for just a few seconds, so you really have to have your tender ready to go around it to be able to get that thing started, but honestly, not too bad. Add Vaseline to that, and it will burn even longer and faster, but again, I'm actually impressed with that cotton ball. You could actually use dryer lint as well, and then we have a small piece of wire. Now it says snare wire, but it's probably about a foot. It's not really that much, and it's going to be very difficult to make an adequate snare, but it can be used for repairing things or lashing something to your pack or your belt. So there is some use for this, and then we have a whistle, and this is just a little basic survival whistle. I'm going to blow it so we know how it sounds. Oh yeah, that's pretty loud. Then we have some dental floss, and there's a lot of things you can actually do with dental floss. One is to start a fire with. That wax will light, and you can use this for fire tender, especially when this is gone, but you can also use this to repair things. You could actually make a small fishing line if you had hooks. So this just gives you a number of different options, and it is cordage even though it's small, and it's fairly strong for this size. Then we have just some nylon cordage. Now this is not very useful. I mean, you can use it for a number of things, and it's actually 12 feet. So this is really a pretty decent amount, but it's not going to be super strong, but you can use this. It's going to get you by on certain situations, and then we have just a sewing kit. Now again, in place of the lifeboat matches or the waterproof matches, they included the survival kit. It does have a safety pin, a couple of buttons, has a needle, and it has a number of colors of thread. So this is something that actually is pretty decent. So really we have one, two, three, four, the bottle opener, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten items, and we have the pouch and a waterproof little bag. So more than eight, and this is not a bad start. All right, some additions that I would add. First is a space blanket. Now these are Mylar. They'll rip quickly, but this is something very small that can keep you from going into hypothermia. This is a big thing, and again, in the rule of threes, you only have three hours in harsh conditions. Now you may be dressed for the elements, but this gives you an extra protection. Also, bank line. Bank line's really strong. It's actually much better than this nylon, and this is going to give you a lot of options. As far as building shelter, there's 25 feet here, and you can use that however you want to, but this is just not going to hold up like good bank line, and of course paracord would be great, but it's thicker, it's bigger, and it's not going to fit in this kit. Also the Aquamira AquaTabs. This is for water treatment, and this is going to be in vital because, guys, you only can live three days without water. You need water. You need to stay hydrated. This is not going to remove the sediment. It's not going to remove the taste, but it's definitely going to make it drinkable, and that's really what we're looking for. You probably will have to find some kind of container to be able to use this, but this will definitely get you started with a little bit of water, but this is going to be an overkill for this little pouch, and then, of course, the lifeboat matches or the waterproof matches, and these things are just awesome, and they'll burn for a long time. In fact, 25 seconds. I have a striker in here. It's very small, and in fact, again, in one of the basic kits, this is included, and we have some tender tabs. Fire is great, and you really want to get it down to your small tender to be able to light it, but having tender tabs or something that's a fire accelerant, this is going to be huge, and you should always have these in your fire kit or some sort of Vaseline and cotton balls, things like that that just have that extra oomph to get that fire started, and when it comes to your waterproof matches or what I like to call lifeboat matches, they're coated with this material. Again, these will burn for 25 seconds. I do have a striker in here, but I'm going to use the standard box, so we're going to light it. There it goes. This will burn again for 25 seconds. This is going to give you a lot more capability, and you can see it got that started. Watch this, and then it comes right back. I mean, these are worth their weight in gold. I did wait for a while for this to happen, but these are great. Now, let's use a tender tab, and we're going to see how this works because this is something, again, that I'm going to add into my kit over that little cotton ball, and one thing that is good to do is just to spread this out to make it just catch easier. This is usually impregnated by something, so an accelerant. Now, I find that using the full edge, the flat part of the edge, is actually better. There we go. We got the tender tab going. Again, this should burn a little bit longer than the cotton ball, but honestly, I was impressed with that cotton ball, and you can split these up if you want, but again, tender, having it ready to go is going to be important, so not a bad little fire starter, and the striker, again, you want to go straight on the edge to get a really good edge on it or get a good spark on it. Also, we have a small little button compass, especially if you're lost. This will give you at least some direction, and then I have a pencil sharpener. This is great to be able to make fire tender. This will make very small pieces, just like you use a pencil. You can take a standard stick, turn it in there, and you can use this to get that bundle going to complement your tender tabs, and when it comes to the pencil sharpener, this is great for fire tender. We take a stick that's about the same size as a standard pencil, and then we just start turning it, and it's just like when you sharpen a pencil. You're getting these really fine shavings. This makes excellent fire starting material, and you can make a large nest of this, and of course, sticks are everywhere, so that one cotton ball, while it's gone, this is going to be more difficult to light as far as with just your ferro rod, but it definitely gives you something to get a fire started, and you have a sharp stick at the end. This is one of the secrets of fire starting to me that's just great because it's so small and easy, yet it's a very effective tool to be able to get fire started. Now put everything in here that might be damaged by the elements, and I wanted to seal that up. That includes the tender tabs, the matches, even the dental floss, definitely the little manual, and your sewing kit. So this is the first thing. It's the largest, so we're going to go ahead and put it in first. We're just going to see if we can get all this in here. I think we have a little extra room. Next, we have our space blanket. That's going to take up some room. Of course, our knife, fire steel. We're going to see if we can get our bank line in there. Now it's going to be a little puffed out, but that's okay. Fits a lot of different items in here, and then we're going to put the rest in here. We can press this down, and it actually is a decent sized little package. This would be perfect to go in a cargo pocket, in your back pants pocket. You could just set this in your front pocket for that matter, or maybe a little pack that you have. Just tuck this away. Those extra items are really going to give you a little bit of an advantage over the original basic. And really, the only thing I left out was the nylon cord. Because I had the bank line, I mean, this is still usable. Still, we could do things with it, but the bank line to me is going to be far superior to this. So guys, when it comes to the Gerber Bear Grills Basic Kit for survival, this is going to give you some tools that could really help you in a survival situation. Again, it's not complete, and if I was going to go complete, I'd have my whole bug out bag. But this is definitely something that could see you through a tough situation. With the additions that we've added, and again, they fit in this small kit, it's just going to give you more advantages. Again, just having even the basic kit is going to give you an advantage. Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic. One is mindset. You've got to have the will to survive. You can't talk, but you've got to survive. If I want survival, I'm going to show you a little trick with these. So we light it. That's great. But that may not be feasible. It just may not be feasible. Or they know a lot, but some of the primitive skills might escape them. It's kind of the same diameter as a pistol. It's about the same diameter as a regular pistol. Pistol, dang it. But regardless, having at least a fuel tool, fuel tool, fuel tool, the mindset to just push on, to be determined, to be something, to be innovative and something. It's definitely, but it's definitely... I'm finding that using just the entire flat and not the edge actually creates... Whoops. Guys, when it comes to survival...