Blog - Tactical & Military Surplus Gear

Route Planning and Risk Assessment with Topo Maps: Terrain Traps, Handrails, Bailout Routes, and Turnaround Rules

Reading Topo Maps Like a Planner, Not a Tourist Before you ever pick a route line, commit to this mindset: most backcountry problems aren’t pure navigation mistakes. They’re judgment mistakes under pressure-fading daylight, weather rolling in, fatigue, and that quiet urge to push a little farther. In the military, we

Lightning Safety in the Wilderness: Terrain Choices, Group Spacing, Shelter Myths, and What to Do After a Strike

How Lightning Really Injures People Outdoors Lightning safety in the wilderness is mostly about decisions you make before the first rumble. Once a storm is overhead, you’re reacting with limited options, limited time, and often limited communication. The good news is that lightning risk isn’t random. It concentrates around terrain

Wilderness Water Storage and Transport: Keeping Water Clean, Preventing Freezing, and Avoiding Container Contamination

Why Wilderness Water Storage and Transport Fails in Real Life Water problems in the backcountry usually do not come from a lack of gear. They come from small process mistakes that compound over hours and days. You can do a perfect filter or chemical treatment at the creek and still

Primitive Trapping Systems for Survival: Deadfalls, Snares, and Placement Strategy (With Safety and Ethical Guidelines)

When Traps Become a Survival Liability (And How to Prevent It) The real problem: wasted energy and false confidence Primitive trapping is often taught like a shortcut to food. In practice, it can become a time sink that drains calories faster than it provides them. If you build complicated sets

Backcountry Cooking Without Cookware: Stone Boiling, Spit Roasting, and Earth-Oven Methods

When Cooking Without Cookware Actually Makes Sense Cooking without cookware is less about proving you can and more about solving a real backcountry problem. Maybe your pot got crushed, you forgot stove fuel, or you’re trying to cut weight and still want hot food. The key is understanding that “no

Food Preservation Without Modern Gear: Smoking, Drying, and Rendering Fat for Multi-Day Survival

Start With the Real Goal: Slow Spoilage, Protect Calories, Avoid Illness Multi-day survival food preservation isn’t about making gourmet jerky. It’s about buying time by removing what microbes need most: moisture, warmth, and easy access to nutrients. Smoking and drying reduce available water, while rendering turns perishable fatty tissue into

Building an Improvised Raft or Flotation Aid: Safe Construction and Ferry Techniques for River Crossings

Deciding Whether a Raft Crossing Is the Right Call Reading the River Before You Touch the Water Before you start gathering materials, decide if you should be crossing at all. Moving water is deceptive: a river that looks “knee deep” can still knock you down if the bottom is slick

Thermal and Night-Discipline Fundamentals: Reducing Light Spill, IR Signature, and Camp Noise

How Thermal, IR, and Visible Detection Actually Work You don’t need to be doing anything “tactical” to benefit from night-discipline fundamentals. If you’ve ever felt exposed at a campsite, watched your headlamp light up a whole tree line, or noticed how a warm body pops on a thermal image, you

Casualty Movement in Remote Terrain: Drags, Carries, and Improvised Litters That Actually Work

When You Should (and Shouldn’t) Move a Casualty You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Don’t move them-you’ll make it worse.” In remote terrain, that advice is only half true. Sometimes staying put is safest. Other times, not moving is what actually kills people (think rockfall exposure, an avalanche path, rising water,

Wildlife Encounter Protocols: De-escalation and Defense for Bears, Mountain Lions, and Moose

Core Principles of Wildlife Encounter Protocols Safety starts before “fight or flight” kicks in When people talk about wildlife defense, they often jump straight to tools-spray, firearms, noise makers. A better approach is a protocol: a repeatable sequence you can run under stress. In most encounters, your goal is to