January | 2018 | Azweaponcraftprepper

rsdl A beginning Prepper will start out focusing on the basics: Beans/Bullets/Band Aids. And hopefully the training that goes with them. As time goes on and experience increases, he hopefully becomes more adept at identifying those threats that have the potential to cause him harm, and to start mitigating them. And expanding his equipment and supplies.

At some point you have to decide if a chemical/biological/nuclear threat scenario is something you need to concern yourself with. And that you need to equip for. Some preppers will, some wont. I covered protective masks some time back.

Emergent BioSolutions makes a product they call Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion. It has been used by the United States Government as well as other agencies. They sent me one of their packets, but I have decided not to open the packet. I will rely on published data instead. The purpose of these kits is to decontaminate your hands, arms, face, neck, and inside your protective mask in the event you are contaminated with a biological warfare agent. The agents that it will effectively neutralize are:

Tabun
Sarin
Soman
Cyclohexyl Sarin
VX
HD (Mustard)
T2 Toxin

The kits come with two packets, one blue, one green. The blue one is a training packet o 71eettDhP0L__SL1500_ nly. The green packet is the real deal.

Steps1 Steps2 Steps3 Steps4

The kit comes in a cardboard box with instructions.

So, do you need to invest in this product? Only you can answer that. I think that the threat of a localized terrorist biological attack is a legitimate concern. These packets are extremely light weight, small, fit easily in a shirt pocket, and by all accounts, effective. The negative side is that they are expensive at $50.00 a kit.

You can see a good You Tube video and learn more about this product here.

You can by the kits on Amazon

81ySwXPWKyL__SL1500_ It is a common prepper mantra that redundancy is critical. Try not to ever rely on only one method to accomplish the critical. Fire making is a critical survival skill, and you should always have at least three methods on hand to start a fire.

A ferro rod should be in your survival kit along with other options such as lighters or matches. There are a lot of them out there. Sometimes you get them free as part of another item or set. Sometimes they are individually free-standing. But they are everywhere in various sizes and grades of efficiency. When Survival Hax asked if I would like to review theirs, I said sure. They import a number of reasonably priced but quality made survival item, and I have reviewed a number of their items before, all with good results. But I was wondering what could make a ferro rod fire starter worth $20.00. When the package arrived and I opened it, I found out.

This thing is BIG! The ferro rod is six inches long. In seriously cold weather, with most ferro rod fire starters you would need to take your gloves off to properly manipulate them because of their size. Not this rod. It is big enough that you should be able to manipulate it in extremely cold weather with mittens on. THAT is what makes a ferro rod fire starter worth $20.00.

In addition to the large size of the rod, it comes with an excellently designed striker, which has a serrated half-moon striking surface. It is long enough to get good leverage and create a good shower of sparks. It also functions as a bottle opener and hex wrench.

Attached to it is a small waterproof capsule with cotton tinder inside. Although a bit small, it suffices for the intended job. Especially with the amount of sparks you can generate on the large rod. Personally, I keep cotton ball impregnated with Vaseline in old medicine plastic cases for my tender. Holding the whole set together is a large roll of 550 cord, which has a small whistle on the end.

This is an outstanding fire starter. The size allows you to use it effectively even with thick gloves on, and it is of high quality. If you are only going to have one ferro rod fire starter, this one should be it!

Available at Survival Hax or Amazon