Category Archives: survival

Oct 29

purificup field test

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After a couple trips being postponed I was finally able to get out and try the Purificup outside, with some water you should not be drinking with out sanitizing it.

After use shot showing its pack size versus a Nalgene.

A quick fishing trip to Patagonia Lake in Southern Arizona brought us to a shady little cove with a narrow opening in the reeds to cast our lines. After a few hours of no luck, I decided I would give the Purificup a try.

As you may have seen in my overview video, using the Purificup is an easy process. Unscrew the white caps on either side, unscrew the filter from the fill cup and remove the filter assembly and drinking cup from within the fill cup (which is also the outer shell when all packed up, as seen in the photo above.)

The filter assembly then sits on top of the drinking cup, Nalgene or similar bottle or even can be screwed onto the opening of a soda bottle. Once the filter is in place you can then put water in the fill cup and install it on top of the filter assembly which then starts the filtering process.

In the video mentioned above the timer went past three minutes to filter the full 10 ounces of water. I have discovered since that video that it actually works much faster than that, and the slowness was due to my error. When putting it all together, give the filter a few good shakes with an emphasis on the downward stroke, trying to set the contents of the filter itself to the bottom spout where the water exits. This helps the water flow through much smoother and you can filter 10 ounces of water in about 45 to 50 seconds!

It was getting close to supper time and I had purposefully only brought enough water for cooking, I was going to be drinking from the lake. I set up the Purificup on a rock and filled the fill cup and let it work. The lake water itself before being filtered was pretty clear, with a tiny bit of floating debris. After having filtered it, it was crystal clear with no odors of any kind.

Then I hesitated. In the past I’ve been a boiler, and on rare occasion I have used a purification tablet, but never have used a filter like this. It was a bit of a mental hurdle for me to accept that this little device could possibly make drinkable water so quickly. Once I got past that, I put the cup to my lips and took a sip.

The water was cool, refreshing, and had absolutely no taste other than the taste of water – if you can consider that a taste. I am happy to report that I am still alive and healthy two days after drinking lake water. I think this thing works!

Aside from making undrinkable water drinkable, one of the best advantages of this filter system is that it does not take up a whole lot of room in your pack. As you can see in the photo above its overall size when packed up is less than a Nalgene style bottle. Coming in at a bit under 11 ounces and being something that could quite possibly save your life, it is something that I will be carrying in my pack constantly. After having done this field test I can easily recommend this product to people look for a lightweight, easy to use filter. At $60 retail, it is a must for any hiker, hunter, outdoors-person or prepper. To pick one up for yourself head over to the Purificup Partners page to find an internet or local retailer!

Unfortunately I was unable to take any video during this trip, but I will be doing a follow up on our next outing.

FTC Disclaimer: This product was sent to me by Purificup for the purpose of using and reviewing. 

 

Sep 20

purificup overview and use

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Jul 26

purify your water

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Boil it, filter it, add purification tablets… whatever your preferred method, you should always clean any water found out in the wild.

Shamelessly stolen from a post on BCUSA. Click to biggify.

Jul 12

survival kit & knife combo

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Somewhere along the way, I got the notion that attaching a pouch to the sheath of a belt knife was a good way to carry your survival kit. Now I am putting it to the test. I just picked up a Maxpedition M5 Waistpack and lashed my ESEE-5 sheath to it. We’ll see if it’s really an ideal, or at least decent way to do it.

The pack is going to take some slight modifications to make it exactly what I want, but it shouldn’t be too much. The sheath slips down into a pocket on the back of the Maxped and then I used the supplied paracord and cord lock that came with the ESEE-5 to quickly lash it to the MOLLE loops on the back of the pack. With the belt clip on the knife sticking out above it I just have to clip the sheath to my belt and the pouch will ride along.

I may end up opening the bottom of the pocket the sheath sits in so it can drop down further and be lashed from both sides, or I may leave it be. There are some dividers inside the main compartment that I am certain I will be removing at some point. I’m going to fill it with my survival tin, a small sharpening stone and some other gear and see how it works as-is first. I also think this will be a much better way to store car keys/wallet/cell phone etc when in camp or next to the lake. For whatever reason I am always worried about leaving that stuff in the car or backpack, but don’t necessarily want it in my pockets either.

Jul 11

e2e contest – hobo/survival kit fishing

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Equip2Endure has a contest going where you must take video of you doing some sort of bushcrafting skill.  I had a short camping/fishing trip planned and decided to use it as an opportunity to try using my survival kit to catch a fish.

We didn’t catch anything at all but I had fun trying to figure out how to cast the hobo rod I made, and below is the video. Parts of it are pretty dull, but I am not very good at editing up video to cut out all the long uneeded parts. Feel free to skip around.



Jun 16

making charcloth

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I wanted to put my new tomahawk and knife to the test, so I went out into my backyard with some old lumber I had, the knife, hawk, firestick and my hat to build a fire.

First thing I did was use the knife to cut up a few patches of denim out of some old pants. Once I had enough pieces of a size I liked and put them in an altoids tin and set aside. Then I set to splitting the lumber. What a task for two little tools. I have two pieces of 3′ long 4×4 post. I’m not exactly sure what it was but it smelled kind of like cedar, not as strong though. The wood was very dry and rock hard.

I finally got it broken down into the sizes of kindling I wanted and then started on trying to see how the knife would do making a feather stick out of one of the pieces of split wood. I got a few good curls and a lot of nice shavings but no feather stick. I felt like the knife could do it but I think it was mostly the wood not cooperating. Or maybe it was me. I don’t know.

My backyard is full of dry leaves and needles from a mesquite tree, and it makes an excellent natural tinder bundle. The first time I tried it, it caught flame on the first spark from my ferro rod. I thought I’d get the camcorder out and take some video of it. Three more tries and could not get it on the first spark. DOH! Oh well, it still works pretty well.

I moved all my materials over to my propane grill and built a fire in one of the water pots for my smoker, it’s really dry in Arizona right now and wanted to be as safe as possible. I started the fire and put the tin of denim in the flames.

This is the first time I’ve made charcloth and really didn’t know how long I should let it sit in there, so I used the guesstimation method. The end result:

Looks good to me! I set the tip of my fire stick down on a piece and hit a spark, it started smouldering right away. I guess it worked! This charcloth will help me with a number of the Bushclass courses.

May 29

personal survival kit

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I bought this starter PSK from a member of the BushcraftUSA.com forums.

It came with all the goodies in the pictures minus the antler handled fire stick.

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It is a Tactical Tailor E&E pouch with a maglight, a couple water purification tabs, a signaling mirror, survival multi tool, a Legacy Knives PSK knife, button compass and more.

Some of the stuff will be moved into other kits, but at $45 this was a great deal on the start of my PSK.

May 19

firearms in your survival kit

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Linoge at Walls of the City brings up a great point: there has been a lot of mainstreaming of the survival/prepping mindset, but it always seems to lack in one aspect; the use of firearms as a survival tool.

What firearms do you have, or are considering for your survival kit?

Right now, for me it’s an AR-15 rifle and a 1911. Thinking about that same-chambering idea Linoge brings up in his post. It’s a good excuse to buy more guns, anyway.