Blog - Tactical & Military Surplus Gear

Snow Blindness, Dust, and Debris: Eye Protection, Emergency Eyewear Fixes, and Field Treatment for Corneal Irritation

Snow blindness (photokeratitis): the UV injury you don’t feel until it’s too late What’s happening to your cornea on snow, water, and high rock Snow blindness is basically a sunburn on the surface of your eye. UV light reflects off snow and water and hits the cornea and conjunctiva hard,

Hand-and-Arm Signals for Silent Team Movement: Command Sets, Lost-Contact Procedures, and Night Variations

Why silent movement fails without a signal plan Noise discipline is only half the problem Most people think “silent movement” just means you stop talking. In real terrain, silence is about staying coordinated without creating a verbal signature that travels farther than you think. Wind can carry a shout across

Pace Count and Dead Reckoning: Building a Personal Navigation System When Visibility and Landmarks Fail

When GPS Dies and the World Turns Blank: Why Pace Count and Dead Reckoning Still Work If you’ve only navigated with a phone line on a screen, low visibility can feel like someone turned the map off. Fog deletes ridgelines. Snow erases trails. Night reduces everything beyond your headlamp to

Trekking Pole Techniques for Steep and Unstable Ground: Planting Angles, Bracing Moves, and Self-Belay Methods to Prevent Falls

Why trekking poles prevent falls on steep and unstable ground Steep terrain exposes one simple truth: your balance margin gets thin. On flat trail, a small stumble is a shrug. On scree, wet roots, or hardpan above exposure, that same stumble can turn into a slide or a bounce. Related

When Water Treatment Fails: What to Do If Your Filter Freezes, Clogs, or Can’t Handle Viruses (Field Workarounds Included)

Why Filters Fail in Real Terrain (And Why It’s Usually Your Workflow) Water treatment fails at the worst possible time: when you’re tired, cold, behind schedule, and already rationing calories. In training and in the backcountry, the pattern is the same. People don’t get sick because they “didn’t know water

Bear-Proof Camp Food Storage: Hang Systems, Canister Strategy, and Scent-Control Workflow to Prevent Night Encounters

Bears Aren’t “Curious” About Your Tent-They’re Tracking Calories A bear that wanders into camp at night isn’t looking for conversation. It’s doing what it’s built to do: find dense calories with minimal risk. Related Articles: Night Camp Control Procedures: Challenge/Password, Sectors of Fire, Noise Discipline, and Preventing Blue-on-Blue Incidents Backcountry

Altitude Sickness for Hikers: Acclimatization Plans, Red-Flag Symptoms, and Field Treatment When Descent Isn’t Immediate

Altitude sickness is a planning problem, not bad luck Altitude illness usually shows up like a minor nuisance: a dull headache, a little nausea, a hiker who’s suddenly quiet. In the mountains, small problems don’t stay small if you keep climbing. From a military perspective, this is a preventable casualty

Heat Illness in the Field: Preventing, Recognizing, and Cooling Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke When You’re Miles from Help

Heat Illness Is a Performance Failure First, a Medical Emergency Second Heat illness usually starts as a small drop in output: slower pace, more breaks, and sloppy decisions. In the military, we treated that as a warning light, not laziness. If you ignore it, you don’t just risk discomfort. You

Snow Shelters That Don’t Collapse: Quinzhee, Snow Trench, and Snow Cave Construction with Ventilation and Entry Design

Snow as a Building Material: Strength, Sintering, and Load Paths Why snow shelters fail in the real world Snow shelters usually fail for boring reasons, not dramatic ones. The roof gets too thin, the shape is wrong, or someone keeps “touching up” the ceiling until it turns into a weak

Night Camp Control Procedures: Challenge/Password, Sectors of Fire, Noise Discipline, and Preventing Blue-on-Blue Incidents

Night camp control starts before darkness and before stress A controlled night camp isn’t about turning your campsite into a fortress. It’s about reducing ambiguity when everyone’s senses are degraded. Darkness, fatigue, cold, and unfamiliar terrain all combine to make simple mistakes more likely. Related Articles: Bear-Proof Camp Food Storage: