How To Build An Upside Down Fire

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upside down fire

This past weekend The Bug Out Bag Guide Family hosted a barbecue for some close friends. One of the highlights of this was testing out an alternative fire building method in our back patio firepit. Instead of building a standard teepee or log cabin we decided to try building what is called an “upside down fire”. We got some great, hassle-free results from this that we wanted to share with you. As I always say, it is always good to add new techniques to your survival skills. At the end of this article you will know how to build an upside down fire on your own!

Why build an upside down fire?

Over many years of camping I have built hundreds of fires. These were mostly of the teepee and log cabin variety, with some lean-to fires mixed in as the situation required. These fire building methods have served me well and I have enjoyed many a meal and evening sitting around their warm glow.

I was excited to learn about a new method of fire building and try it out for myself. What I learned from my test run, is that there are several advantages that an upside down fire brings to the table.

An upside down fire is self feeding

An upside down fire is built in a layered fashion starting with tinder at the top and increasing in size all the way to large logs at its base. One of the biggest advantages of using this fire building method is that as a layer burns it progressively ignites the larger layer below it. The tinder lights the kindling, which ignites the fuel wood, which in turn lights the logs. In other words, once an upside down fire is lit it will burn by itself for hours. There is no need to baby sit it and keep adding wood over time! You can light your upside down fire and then focus on other tasks like setting up camp, preparing food, or just relaxing with your fellow campers.

While traditional fires (teepee and log cabin) do progressively ignite successive layers (if properly built!) they tend to do this over a shorter period of time and require that a fire tender monitors the burn rate and add more fuel and eventually place logs onto the fire. The genius of an upside down fire is that it frees you from this chore!

Being self feeding makes an upside down fire an excellent choice if you want to keep a heat source burning through a long, cold night. As it is self feeding you will be able to build it before bed, light it, and then keep warm without having to climb out of your sleeping bag or shelter.

An upsidedown fire generates lots of coals

As an upside down fire burns it creates a large supply of coals from the logs integrated into the base of the design. These logs are lit as the flame consumes the fuel wood and transfers heat down to this base layer. These coals are excellent for most cooking purposes. With a good bed of coal you can:

cook foil packets
heat up a dutch oven
barbecue meat, fish, or vegetables
and much, much more…

With a traditional fire you would need to set up your teepee or log cabin and as they got burning need to continually feed it larger and larger logs to get a nice bed of coals going. The upside down fire does this automatically with the same amount of wood but far less active management. Set it up, go get your food ready and then come back to a nice bed of cooking coals!

Where can I use an upside down fire?

An upside down fire can be used pretty much anywhere you would build a traditional fire. It can be a great option for many applications:

Survival cooking
Camping
Bonfire
Barbecue
Wood Stove
In home fireplace
Rubbish disposal

Can I build an upside down fire in a fireplace?

Yes! People often build them in fireplaces or woodstoves for the same reasons why they are used outdoors. Wood stove enthusiasts actually favor the upside down fire building method as it tends to heat up the chimney pipe faster than a traditional fire and by doing so increases the stove’s efficiency.

How to make an upside down fire

Here is a step by step guide for building your own upside down fire. Follow the written instructions and refer to the pictures if you run into any trouble.

Step 1: Clear your fire pit

You are going to lay your base layer of logs down in the next step so you will want your pit clear of debris and as level as possible so the fire you build will not topple over as you build it up.

How to build an upside down fire — Clear your fire pit out

Step 2: Lay down the base logs

You are going to build your base layer first. This means use the largest logs you intend to burn and lay them down parallel to each other. Have the logs all touching each other so there are no gaps between them and it is best if the tops of them are relatively level with each other so you will have a nice sturdy base to build the rest of your fire upon.

Step 3: Thicker Fuel Layer

You are going to use large fuel wood for this layer, larger than your thumb. Remember, this layer has to be large enough to generate enough coals and heat to ignite the logs below it. Lay this wood in the opposite direction to the logs below it and allow space between each piece for air to flow. Feel free to build 1-3 layers of this sized wood if you have enough and if you have organized your wood build each layer upwards out of slightly smaller thickness pieces. Each layer should be laid down crosswise (perpendicular) on top of the layer below, similar to the method used when building a log cabin.

Step 4: Smaller Fuel Layer

You are going to repeat the process used in step 3 here but using smaller fuel wood, preferably smaller than your thumb in thickness. Once again build 1-3 layers of small fuel wood up with each being perpendicular to the last layer and slightly smaller thickness. You should have a small tower of wood now with the thickness of pieces used getting gradually smaller as you get nearer to the top.

Step 5: Kindling

Now you are going to start adding on the smaller wood that you have, kindling that is thinner than your pinky. Add 3-5 layers of this if you have enough to do so. By the time you get to the top layer the wood should be of the smallest thickness you have, no bigger than a twig. Stick to the same method of laying each layer down crosswise across the layer below it to allow proper air flow.

Step 6: Tinder

Choosing and adding your tinder is a crucial last step. You need something that is small enough to be ignited with your match, lighter, or firestarter but that will burn long and hot enough to get your kindling to start burning. Place this tinder on top of your kindling. Here are some suggestions for kindling that have worked well for me in the past:

Dryer lint
Birch bark
Paper
Cardboard
Commercially available firestarters
Cotton balls soaked in vaseline
Bird’s nests
Dry Grass
Coconut husks
Pine needles
Punk wood
Cattail fluff

Step 7: Light And Enjoy!

Shelter your match and tinder from any wind (If you are lighting your fire with an EverStryke Match, you don’t need to worry about this) and get that fire started. Depending on what tinder you chose you may need to blow gently to get the tinder going. As the fire burns each layer that you built should ignite the next one down all the way to your base layer of logs. In my testing an upside down fire built as I have described should burn for well over an hour and result in a large layer of coals all ready to cook your meal. Enjoy!

Your Turn!

So, now you know how you build your own upside down fire. I encourage you to give it a try next time you are camping or setting up a backyard bonfire. It is a great tool to add to any fire building arsenal and I think you will be impressed with the results.

Your Thoughts?

Have you built an upside down fire before? Did you give our step-by-step instructions a try? Please let us know in the Comments Section below what you thought about this fire building method or if you have any tips or tricks to getting it to work better! Thanks!

Learn These Map Reading Skills To Never Get Lost Again

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If you’re navigating through unfamiliar terrain, a map is as valuable as gold dust. You may have planned your routes by them and will be relying on them throughout the course of your expedition or bug out. However, a map is next to worthless if you don’t know how to decipher it. Map reading and land navigation is are vital skills that can be applied to many survival situations. This article will outline the basics to help you sharpen up your map reading skills.

Map Reading Skills: Using A Map’s Scale

First, your map should be at a scale which is useful. For instance, having a small-scale, detailed map will be of no use to you if you simply plan to drive through an area. In the same way, if you are on foot, then having a less detailed map can be next to useless. It is also important to understand the scale bar. This bar will show the size at which a kilometer or mile is shown on the map and is usually expressed as a ratio. For instance, 1:50,000 means that each measure on the map is 50,000 times smaller than the true distance. This will allow you to use the map to determine distances for land navigation.

Map Reading Skills

Map Reading Skills: Reading Contour Lines

A thorough understanding of reading contour lines is an extremely useful tool to add to your arsenal of map reading skills. Because a map is 2D, different heights of terrain must be indicated using contour lines. These show the altitudes of the land and are recorded at regular intervals – usually 50ft (15m). Each point on a contour line’s ring is hypothetically at the same height, which is indicated with a number (in feet or meters). This tells you how high above sea level the terrain is. In general, contour lines which are closer together indicate a steeper gradient. However, it’s important to bear in mind the scale of your map so that you don’t over or underestimate the gradient.

Map Reading Skills

Map Reading Skills: Reading A Map’s Key

The key will explain what the symbols used on the map refer to. These will represent a range of manmade and natural structures, types of land (woodland, swaps or beaches, for example), rivers and water. There are some features which are not depicted to scale. For instance, roads, paths and waterways will often have a standard width which may not represent their exact measurements.

Map Reading Skills

Map Reading Skills: Understanding Map Grids

Maps will have horizontal and vertical grid lines which divide the map into squares. This division is either based on longitude and latitude or may be individual to the particular mapping authority. Grids will allow you to more quickly determine distances, since they are usually at a comprehensive scale (for example, the distance from left to right is often 1 kilometer). These grids will also allow you to explain to other exactly.

Map Reading Skills: Orientating Your Map

Important to remember is that the grids on a map do not necessarily indicate north and south, though they may provide a rough indication of this. You will need to also be aware that your compass does not point to true north, but to magnetic north. Most maps will also indicate magnetic north. The deviations between these can help you map-read your way across a landscape, as can taking note of your surroundings in relation to features on the map.

Map Reading Skills: Conclusion

Hopefully our crash course has helped you sharpen up your map reading skills. If you ever have to execute your bug out plan or evacuate unexpectedly knowing how to use a map and compass will greatly increase your chances to make it to your rally point or bug out location. As with any basic survival skill it is important to practice using your map reading and land navigation skills to find your way. Master these and you will never be lost.

Author Bio

Roman is a former EMT living in NYC and co-founder of Ready To Go Survival. When he’s not working on the next big thing for preppers; he likes to go camping, shoot stuff at the range, archery, and ride his bicycle excruciating distances.

Cold Weather Survival Tips and Skills

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Surviving when you are cut off from the support net of society is extremely difficult under even optimal conditions. Cold weather survival situations add significant additional challenges which must be trained and planned for. These challenges can be overcome by gaining cold weather survival knowledge and experience as well as tailoring your bug out bag as we mentioned in our recent article covering cold weather survival gear. In this article we will review the most essential cold weather survival tips to practice and employ when beating the cold.

Keeping Warm During Cold Weather Survival

A key to cold weather survival is keeping your core temperature warm. A combination of shorter days (less sunlight), wind chill, lower temperatures, and ice and snow will conspire to steal body heat and energy away from you. Your body will have to work harder and consume more calories to keep you warm. In order to stay warm practice the following cold weather survival tips:

Dress in layers

This is the best way to regulate your body temperature while surviving in the cold. Multiple layers are better than one thick layer because they trap air between them. This air is then warmed by your body and acts as an insulator against the cold. Start off with a light wicking layer to keep perspiration away from your skin and build up from there. Three to five layers are good for most adults. The outer layer should always be wind and waterproof to minimize heat exchange and keep water out. Layers are additionally excellent at regulating temperature because you can add or remove them if you find yourself to be cold or hot. If you are travelling with children a good rule of thumb is to dress them in one more layer than you have on to keep them warm.

Keep active

Keeping yourself active will keep your heart rate up and maintain a good flow of warm blood to your extremities. It is important to not overexert yourself however. If you become drenched in sweat this moisture will sap heat away from you. Keep a moderate pace for your activities whether hiking or building a shelter. Maintain your temperature by removing clothing layers to keep warm but not hot. Slow down or stop to rest periodically to avoid burning yourself out.

Keep fuel in the tank

As you will be burning a lot of energy keeping active and keeping your temperature up you will need to consume extra calories and drink extra liquids to keep your body going. It is important to pack extra high calorie/low weight rations in your bug out bag. This may include nuts, granola bars, energy gels, or powerbar type foods. To keep hydrated pack gatorade powder, which can be mixed with water or melted snow. This will keep you hydrated far better than water alone.

Cover Your Head

Up to 90% of the heat you lose will be through your head if you do not keep it covered. Keeping a hood up or hat on will keep this heat in as well as keep your head dry if you are working in snow. Also this is the easiest layer to remove if you find yourself getting hot. Keep your head covered to keep that precious heat in!

Cold Weather Survival Tips

Surviving in cold weather requires the same basic survival skills as in any other environment. It is necessary however to add to your skill set as some tasks become more difficult under cold weather survival conditions.

Cold Weather Shelter Building

Building a survival shelter should be a top priority during cold weather survival. A good shelter will keep out the wind and damp as well as keep heat in. Cold weather survival provides some additional challenges as well as benefits to survival shelter building.

A basic A-frame or Lean-to shelter works well using branches and piling snow on top. Snow is an excellent insulator and makes a great outer layer of a shelter. If you have chosen to include an emergency blanket, poncho, or tarp in your bug out bag essentials, any of these items can be used to form the roof of your shelter if laid upon the frame of branches. Using one of the items as a ground cloth will additionally insulate a shelter against cold and damp. An important thing to consider when building a cold weather survival shelter is that if you are going to build a fire in a shelter be sure it is ventilated with a chimney to avoid suffocation. Check out the below videos for instructions on building a winter survival shelter.

Fire

Fire is essential in a cold weather survival scenario for two reasons:

Keeping Warm – this is obvious but its importance cannot be overstated. Having a fire will raise your morale and keep the spectre of freezing related medical problems out of your mind.
Melting Snow – This will give you a nearly limitless water supply while surviving. Boil the water from melted snow to ensure any pathogens are killed.

When gathering wood in a winter survival situation be it is preferable to collect branches that are not lying in the snow as the moisture from snowbound wood will make it harder to burn. Look for dead branches in the lower parts of trees in the area. For more tips on fire building check out our article on Basic Survival Skills.

Cold Weather First Aid

The two biggest medical problems found in cold weather survival are hypothermia and frostbite. Both of these are very dangerous and need to be watched out for at all times. Familiarize yourself with the symptoms and treatments for these two conditions:

Hypothermia

A condition where one’s body temperature drops below the ability to self-regulate. This typically begins when the core temperature goes below 95F degrees. It can happen easily if someone falls into a cold stream or frozen lake and must be addressed quickly to increase a person’s chances for survival.

Symptoms

Shivering
Loss of coordination
Weak pulse
Drowsiness
Slow speech
Confusion or memory loss

Treatment

If possible seek emergency medical attention
Remove any wet clothes and replace them with dry ones or a dry blanket/sleeping bag, etc
Protection from wind or anything else that may cause further heat loss
Seek shelter
Warm the person up by putting them in a shelter, bringing them near a fire or using your own body heat
Drinking warm liquids can also be used to bring a person’s temperature back up

Frostbite

This occurs when a body part (usually an extremity or an exposed ear or nose) becomes so cold that ice crystals begin to form in the tissues. It should be treated immediately and can lead to the loss of the frostbitten body part!

Symptoms

Numbness in the affected area
White patches on skin, these will turn black in severe frostbite
Hardening of the affected area

Treatment

Seek emergency medical attention if possible
The affected area should be gradually warmed up by moving to a warmer area such as a shelter or near a fire and covering it from the elements
Warm water can also be used
Care needs to be take to not place anything hot on the affected area as this can cause burns that are not felt due to numbness
Try not to walk on frostbitten toes or feet as this can cause additional damage
You should NEVER rub the affected area to warm it up

Conclusion

Cold weather survival can be a brutal and trying circumstance. However with some planning and the addition of some carefully chosen cold weather survival gear you can greatly increase your chances of success. There is no replacement however for experience and knowledge. If you live in a cold weather area try going out in the woods for a weekend with your bug out bag and cold weather survival gear to practice making a shelter and fire with the contents you have with you. This will test your abilities and show you where you need to expand your knowledge or if your gear (including your cold weather clothing) is up to the task. Remember, chance favors the well prepared.

Your Thoughts?

Do you have any cold weather survival tips that you want to share? Have you had to survive in freezing conditions yourself? Please let us know in the Comments Section below.

Every Day Carry List – Assessing Threats and Choosing Your EDC Items

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Hopefully, by now, you’ve devised your bug out plan and have packed your bug out bag using our bug out bag list.

Awesome, you are now better prepared than the overwhelming majority of the populace. But what survival tools should you have in your every day carry kit?

Here we will look at what a survival minded person could have on their every day carry list that would help prepare them to deal with dynamic situations that may arise in everyday life.

What is an Every Day Carry List?

An every day carry list is a set of items that you have with you under most scenarios (at all times if possible) that helps you be prepared at a moment’s notice to deal both daily situations as well as be ready to survive in emergency situations. These items may be designed to aid your survival on their own, or they may be there to help you get to a safe location or back home. It can be made up of a wide variety of items and should be tailored to your lifestyle, locality, and probable threats.

Ideally, the items on an every day carry list will be small both in number and size and will be possible to carry on your person without an extra bag or container to lug around. There are some people however that do choose to carry the items on their every day carry list in a specific EDC bag and others who prefer to consolidate this kit into fewer, more flexible items such as those covered in our 10 Best Multi-Purpose Survival Tools post.

What should be on YOUR Every Day Carry List?

1. Things You Carry With You Already

This is important to review for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they probably reveal some of your basic day-to-day needs which give us insight into what your greater every day carry (EDC) needs may be. Secondly, if you are already carrying an item with you, you would not need to replicate its uses or functions elsewhere. Or perhaps you can modify one of these items to make it a better EDC tool without adding another piece into your EDC kit. Keeping an every day carry list simple and light is key.

Wallet – I need my ID and cash daily. I can’t leave home without this.
Keys – Can’t leave home without these unless I want to climb through the window to get back in! I am going to add a “Grenade” Survival Kit Key Fob to my keyring, which comes with more paracord and a fire starting kit.
Phone – I always have my phone on me to contact loved ones or the authorities in the event of an emergency. To improve this, I am going to load PDFs onto it with critical documents and a map of my local area in case I need to access these while the phone network is unavailable. I am also going to slip a razor blade and a laminated hard copy of that same map in the space between the case and the back of the phone as backups. If you do this, don’t forget to remove the blade before going through a security checkpoint at an airport!
Watch – A friend once told me “Never trust someone who doesn’t have a watch.” It is an item that many of us carry every day. Some ways we can supercharge this into an EDC survival tool is to add a compass or use a paracord woven watch band. If you do not want to add a compass, you can learn to use your watch as a navigation tool.

2. Things That Would Help With Frequently Encountered Problems

Do you have problems that you face repeatedly? Is there a potential problem that has a high probability of occurring in your normal day or commute? Is there something that you frequently use that has the potential to break? Having an EDC item that could assist in these situations would make your life easier generally and be of great help when the high potential risks become a reality.

Folding Knife – I have to frequently cut cardboard and plastic at work, but this would also be good if I was in a more office based role where I would be dealing with staples or opening letters. You cannot go wrong with the Kershaw Blur Folding Knife with a Partial Serrated Blade that I have been carrying with me for years and it still is razor sharp and can be easily opened with one hand. A small yet powerful addition to an every day carry list. Check out our in-depth article on How To Pick The Best EDC Knife.
Flashlight – I am in a dark parking lot daily that this will help out with that. It will also be useful in case of a blackout or a fire. A good LED flashlight (check out our article here on picking the best EDC flashlight) is also powerful enough to signal for help and small enough to fit in a pocket and can also double as a self-defense tool. We love the Fenix PD35.
Multitool – A multitool is the jack-of-all-trades of the tools that you can carry with you every day. You can get a full-fledged multitool such as the Leatherman Skeletool or opt for a lower profile tool that has less functionality by carrying a credit card multitool that fits in your wallet.

3. Things That Would Help With Rare and High Consequence Problems

This is a category of items that needs to be risk assessed versus threats in your area. They are meant to cover potential problems that are low probability to occur but if they did, would have a severe consequence. We will go over performing a risk assessment below, but a brief example would be if you ride in a vehicle to work every day. For this activity, there is a very low probability of needing to escape the train, bus, or car but if there was a crash and you needed to exit quickly, there would be severe consequences of not being able to do so. In this case having a glass breaking Tactical Pen or a seatbelt cutter would make a huge difference towards improving your chances of survival. Tools of this nature are what make up this category.

Tactical Pen – A Tactical Pen is a high-grade metal pen that can double as a self-defense tool and glass breaking aid. I constantly need a pen at work so carrying this with me will not be adding an unnecessary item that I will rarely use. This is more of an upgrade to meet a daily need with the capability to address the rare but high consequence situation of defending yourself in the event of a personal attack. The Gerber Impromptu is an excellent choice for this although we cover several great options in our Tactical Pen buying guide.
Pry tool – This will help me open doors and containers in the event of a car accident or a problem in my workplace or home. There are many options out there for this, the best one I found is the Boker Minibar Blade which excels in function, having both a pry tip and lever tool, but is a bit rough on the wallet. A cheaper option would be the Key Chain Pry Tool by Schrade.
Paracord – Paracord is awesome as it is light, strong, and will not rot. It has nearly as many uses as duct tape. I would not be looking to carry around enough to make a rope ladder or anything as complicated as that but having some at my disposal if I need to splint a broken bone or tie an emergency shelter down would be handy. There are a lot of options for paracord bracelets and other wearable items, such as The Friendly Swede Paracord Bracelet as it comes with a metal clasp that doubles as an emergency fire starter.

Our Favorite Every Day Carry Gear

Folding Knife: Kershaw Blur Folding Knife with a Partial Serrated Blade
Flashlight: Fenix PD35 Flashlight
Multitool: Leatherman Skeletool
Tactical Pen: Gerber Impromptu
Pry Tool: Boker Minibar Blade
Paracord Wearable: The Friendly Swede Paracord Bracelet

For some more ideas, be sure to check our 10 Best Multi Purpose Survival Tools post for some other versatile EDC items.

How To Assess Risk

Rating the relative risks of threats in your locality is a good way to judge whether an item is worth including in you every day carry list or even your bug out bag contents.

The basic process for this is to judge each threat on two criteria:

Probability – What are the chances of the threat occurring? Is it something that is highly probable (like slipping and falling on ice), which you see once a week or several times per month? Is it low probability (like an earthquake), which you would expect to see maybe once per year or every several years? Is it somewhere in between such as a car accident? Rate the probability of threats occurring realistically from your own experience and what has occurred historically in your locality.
Potential Impact – What would the impact be if the threat actually happened? Would it be mild and easy to overcome? Would it send people to the hospital? Does it have the potential to be deadly?

We have created this Threat Assessment Matrix to help you visualize this concept:

This chart is a great tool for determining whether or not to add an item to your every day carry list. Keep it in mind and refer to it when building yours.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are some easy steps you can take to assess your every day carry needs and determine what is appropriate to be put on your every day carry list. Stick to the principles of addressing realistic, probable threats and keeping your items multi purpose and small to be most effective.

Remember when planning your every day carry list, chance favors the well prepared.

If you still haven’t packed your bug out bag, make sure to review our Bug Out Bag List to help you get started ASAP. Your EDC kit and your BOB are key to being prepared for anything and everything!

Want Even MORE Info On Building Your EDC Kit?

If you are looking for even more information on how to build your ultimate EDC kit you can check out my book, The Every Day Carry Guide. It is a comprehensive manual that will teach you:

How to be prepared at all times – no matter where you are
How to build your first EDC kit from scratch
How to refine an existing kit to make it more effective
How to pick the best gear to realistically make you more prepared
How to assess threats and risks in your every day life

Your Thoughts

If you thought this post was helpful, please Like, +1, or Share it using the social media buttons at the top of the page! Do you have some every day carry items that you would like to share? Do you have any questions about making an every day carry list? Please let us know in the Comments Section below, thanks!

The Best Premade Bug Out Bags

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A premade bug out bag can be a good option for someone who wants to prepare for the unforeseen but does not have the time or knowledge to piece one together item by item.

Premade bug out bags can also be used as a foundation to build upon by replacing or adding items that suit your local geography, climate, and personal needs.

In this guide, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of premade bug out bags.

We’ll also take a look at some of the best premade bug out bags that are currently available for sale on the market.

If you’d like to build a custom bug out bag from the ground up, refer to our bug out bag list for a comprehensive look at what to pack.

Things to Consider when Choosing a Premade Bug Out Bag

Does it include all the bug out bag essentials?
How many additional items will I need to tailor it for urban survival or wilderness survival?
Am I paying for items that I do not need?
Is this for my home or to be stored in my car?
Will it be easy to carry over long distances?
Do the quality of the bag itself and the included gear meet my expectations?
Is the bug out bag designed to cover the number of people I require?

Here are the pros and cons of going for a premade bug out bag:

The Pros of a Premade Bug Out Bag

Convenience – Premade bug out bags are an “off the shelf” solution that requires minimal time or effort.
Expertise – The creators of these bags have usually put some serious thought into what survival tools and supplies they decide to include.
Basic needs covered – Most premade bug out bags are at least adequate for basic survival, making them a good starting point.

The Cons of a Premade Bug Out Bag

One Size Fits All – Buying a premade bug out bag is a one size fits all solution that isn’t a good choice if you are the type of person that wants to build their bag from the ground up.
Unnecessary items – Depending on what is included in the premade bug out bag, you may be paying for some survival supplies that you don’t need or want.

The Best All-Around Premade Bug Out Bag

After reviewing dozens of premade bug out bags, our favorite is the Emergency Zone Bug Out Bag Emergency Disaster Kit for Two.

This premade bug out bag is packed with all the essentials survival items that you would need in an emergency. The quality of both the bag itself and its contents are among the best we have seen while remaining very reasonably priced. The black, discrete backpack is meant to look like an ordinary backpack to help you blend. Inside the kit, you will find supplies that will help you meet the basic needs of 2 people for up to 72 hours or 1 person for 144 hours.

The backpack has plenty of extra room for adding personal items such as extra clothing and for customizing the kit further by packing additional survival items.

Also included is a 50-page Emergency Preparedness Guidebook that will help you prepare for any disaster.

This kit was obviously designed by true survivalists. It is an effective ready-to-go option to ensure that you are prepared for an emergency evacuation.

If you are looking for a bug out bag to keep in your home, your car, or at work for bugging out in an emergency, this bug out bag is the kit for you!

Our Pick: The Emergency Zone Bug Out Bag Emergency Disaster Kit for Two

The Best High-End Premade Survival Bug Out Bag

HINT: we created one!

We co-developed, along with the guys at Ready To Go Survival, a bug out bag that is geared specifically for urban survival.

We call it The Ultimate Urban Survival Kit (TUUSK).

We tested dozens of items to see what would be best suited to help us survive an urban disaster. We tested all the gear in real-world conditions in the heart of New York City and are confident that the final TUUSK loadout is ideal for surviving in an urban emergency scenario.

If you live in a city, with the TUUSK, you’ll never get caught unprepared: Learn more about the TUUSK

NEW: Personalized Survival Kit Service

Don’t want to build your bug out bag yourself?

No problem.

Have a team of Preparedness Specialists outline all the essentials you and your family will need given your group size, age, location, survival concerns, and other key factors. We’ve teamed up with the incredible team at Ready To Go Survival to offer you their personalized survival kit service.

Ready To Go Survival has been in business since 2013 crafting high-end comprehensive premade survival kits. They have been featured in the New York Times, Fox News, The Daily Beast, Drudge Report, and the HBO series High Maintenance for the unique service they provide.

By filling out their 3-minute survival assessment questionnaire, they will get back to you with a custom survival package outline tailored to your specific needs. They have a team of Preparedness Specialists standing by to outline all the essentials you and your family will need given your group size, age, location, survival concerns, and other key factors.

Click HERE to learn more about the Ready To Go Survival Personalized Survival Kit Service.