Green Beret's Ultralight Bug Out Bag with Gear Recommendations

Hello everyone, my name is Joshua Enyart, the

green

beret

with the gray beard, and I'm here to show you exactly what's in my 18-pound duffle bag. In any type of escape scenario, when your main objective is to put distance between yourself and whatever incident you are fleeing from, the key is to be light and fast while still being able to cover all bases. your immediate needs: maintaining core body temperature, consuming water to stay hydrated, and consuming calories for energy... and being able to cover ground quickly without exhausting yourself. Additionally, you must be able to take care of any life-threatening injuries you sustained during the incident or since leaving the incident. and you need to be able to navigate effectively and efficiently from point A to point B.

With this in mind, it's important that you really optimize your equipment and only carry what is absolutely necessary, as well as allowing for some redundancy for some of the most important things. , to allow for contingencies you didn't see coming. While it may be tempting to pack as many modern conveniences as possible to make your life easier, the simple fact is that the heavier this backpack is, the slower it will move and the more water it will need. Consume to stay hydrated and the more calories you will burn and therefore the more calories you will need to consume to keep your energy levels up.

All three things go against your main goal, which is to put distance between you and the incident as quickly as possible. You should never plan to carry a bag that weighs more than 20% of your actual body weight. A better goal would be to have a bag that weighs 10% of your body weight, and it will make you much faster and more efficient, as long as you can meet all your basic needs. My bag weighs only 18 pounds, that's a little less than 9% of my total body weight. This allows me to move extremely fast and cover longer distances without getting tired and still meets all my needs.

The bag starts with a good, durable backpack, and like my choice of clothing, I prefer natural colors that work well in a woodland environment, but I don't want a true camouflage pattern that stands out in an urban environment. I also try to avoid clothing and equipment that are too tactical looking. This is another thing that allows me to blend in a little more no matter where I am. I may plan to get out into the wild, but I may have to start my trip from an urban location, I may have to go through an urban location, or I may have to return to an urban location to resupply at some point. , so I don't want anything that makes me stand out.

Let's take a look inside: Now, as for my immediate needs, I need to maintain my body's core temperature and especially during the first 24 hours or so at the beginning of an exit scenario, when I'm not sure I know if it will be a permissive environment. or not permissive, I'm going to be very careful, so fire is not going to be something I'm going to do if I don't have to, so the main function of thermoregulation of my body, which maintains the core temperature of my body, falls on me shelter team. Every good shelter kit consists of something to sleep under, something to sleep on, something to sleep on, and some rope to hold it all together.

For sleeping underneath I prefer a military poncho, it replaces both a rain jacket and a tarp so it is multifunctional and when I move I can use it instead of a rain jacket. It's big enough to protect me from the rain and also cover the back of my

gear

and keep it dry. It also has these eyelets that I can use to tie ponchos for simple and effective shelters when I'm standing; and as far as this being camouflaged, I don't necessarily care if my shelter system is camouflaged because most of the time it will be packed in my bag and won't be seen.

One of the benefits of having this camo pattern is that when I stop and put up cover, this camo pattern offers me a little bit of concealment. When it comes to something to sleep in, it's hard to beat a military poncho for something that's lightweight and extremely packable. It also saves me time when I go packing because I don't have to worry about a bag of stuff or straps or anything like that. It can be put into all the spaces of the backpack quite quickly. Most of our body heat is lost through conduction when our body is in direct contact with the ground.

In my opinion, heated mattresses are too bulky and get caught on too many things. Many times they stick out from the sides of the backpack, they get caught on many things in the forest and for that reason I like to carry a simple bivouac sack. This bivy bag can be filled with leaves and debris to make what's called a sleeping pad and it's also waterproof and windproof, so if I don't feel like putting up a poncho shelter, I can crawl in here with my liner. of poncho. and use it as a self-contained shelter and be fairly protected from the elements as far as the rigging goes.

I prefer TITAN SurvivorCord for several reasons. This is a high quality true milspec paracord that has the outer sheath and the seven inner strands that it has. three additional lines one is a copper wire one is a monofilament fishing line the other is a waxed jute line that I can fluff up and use as emergency tinder, this saves me from having to carry an extra spool of wire to use in traps and It also prevents me from carrying an extra spool of fishing line to buy food, as well as giving me an extra source of emergency tinder to start a fire.

True milspec paracord has a breaking strength of 550 pounds on this Titan survival cord, which is true milspec plus three strands. It has a break strength of 660 pounds, so it will hold up to whatever you need it to. Lastly, I carry six lightweight aluminum tent stakes, this is something that is most convenient when I finally get ready to spend the night and set up the shelter I want. climb as fast as possible although I can do them in the field this is one more time and energy consuming thing that I can eliminate without adding a lot of weight to my backpack in most cases I am trying not to be found as one of the most The quickest way I can pinpoint my location is to have a roaring fire, the flames and smoke can be seen day or night and can be smelled from far away, it's not something I'm likely to need at first and it's not something I want, but unless absolutely necessary, so I've built the rest of my kit to make sure it's not an immediate need.

However, you may need it for thermal regulation. You may need it to boil water. You may need it to cook food etc, so I need to be able to do it as quickly as possible in all types of weather. Fire is an extremely critical skill, so it deserves some redundancy. A lighter is the easiest method as it is flame safe and keep in mind that it is not the same. Of course, I'll usually keep the lighter in my pocket, so if I become separated from my backpack for some reason, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, I still have a chance to have an ignition source.

The main problems with the lighter are that they are quite difficult to use in the wind in the rain and this is probably when you will need it the most. The other problem is that the fuel can leak if you press the button on your bag or if it's in your pocket or in your kit and if they get wet you have to dry them before using them, plus they have a lot of small moving parts that can break so usually I carry my lighter in an Exotac fireSLEEVE to avoid all of this. In an effort to conserve the few resources I have, I like to have a couple more durable, long-lasting redundancies for them.

I choose a Fresnel lens and a ferrocerium rod. If the sun comes out. I can quickly start a fire with little effort using solar techniques. that doesn't take anything away from my equipment if that's not possible I will usually choose to use the ferrocerium rod. A ferro rod is a larger version of the same sparking device found inside a lighter. I can expect this particular one and a half inch by six ferro rod to start thousands and thousands of fires and last several years before wearing out, while these lighters can only provide hundreds of fires and about a year and that's something I It is important to consider when you cannot restock.

I can usually get it dry. Natural tender in any weather conditions to use to start a fire, but it is worth carrying some man-made emergency tinder to use when dry material is scarce and it is not convenient to fetch. I like these fire tabs, ten of them take up very little space and weigh almost nothing. I can separate each tab to make three fires each. They also work great with a lighter that is out of fuel and work great with the larger Ferro rod as well as on top of emergency tinder. I generally like to carry at least three beeswax candles, these are UCO candles and as well as being a good handy tool for lighting a fire, especially in humid climates, I can also use them as a sort of discreet light source around me. campfire that doesn't put out so much light that I'm less likely to give myself away in case I'm using this and if I had to I could boil water with this it would just take a little time but each of these candles burn for 12 hours, So we have 36 hours of light in each three-pack.

The next challenge in an absence scenario will be to stay hydrated normally. A person needs half a gallon, approximately 64 ounces per day. The need is much greater when it is hot if the area where you live. When you are working it is especially dry or if there is a lot of physical exertion as you will when carrying a backpack over long distances across difficult terrain under stress and possibly injury. Water is heavy, weighing about eight pounds per gallon. I discussed that carrying extra weight will require more water consumption, so I'd rather rely on resupplying at every opportunity than trying to carry a full day's worth of water or a few days' worth of water, which could be several gallons.

I should also mention that I'm nowhere near the desert. I'm not planning on going anywhere near the desert, so if you want to do that, you might want to bring more water containers from the start for one container. I prefer a 32 ounce single wall stainless steel water bottle. walled off so I can boil water to disinfect if necessary 32 ounces for a couple of reasons, one is half my normal daily water requirement and is about a liter which is what my water purification tablets are intended for, the nest cup allows me to have a secondary container and also allows me to char material for the fire if necessary again if you are in a desert or in an extremely hot or dry climate environment or in fresh water sources or a little less and further away in your area than where they are where I.

I'm planning to be. I highly recommend bringing at least two containers of water instead of just one. An additional 32 ounces would only add two pounds to the total weight of your backpack. A cotton shemagh is useful for several reasons, but it's part of my water. kit to act as a pre-filter for my water bottle to prevent debris from entering when I fill it. I can also wet it and wrap it around the bottle and take advantage of the evaporative cooling if the water is too hot to drink, this would also keep your water and you cool down in a warmer environment if necessary because I don't want to start a fire unless be necessary.

I carry a small, lightweight water filter. I prefer the Sawyer Mini, it filters down to a 0.1 micron level and is Rated for one hundred thousand gallons if I drank two gallons a day, which is well above my needs. I could expect this filter to last me almost 137 years. I can also use it in a few different ways, which we'll talk about later. It also comes with a couple more accessories, one of which is a large syringe that you can use to rinse periodically and that also doubles as a wound irrigation syringe, so this is also part of my first aid kit.

I also carry twenty water purifiers. tablets, while my primary means would be to use the water filter and, when possible, boil it to save resources, there could be situations where I could drop one of these tablets into 32 ounces of contaminated water and let them do the job for As I continue to move an example that comes to mind is crossing a stream during movement, I don't have time for this situation, it doesn't allow me to stop to take the time to filter it, I get it, fill the bottle as I cross and keep moving. These tablets alone will give me about 10 days of my normal water requirement.

Food is not necessarily an immediate need, however, it is a metabolic need and you are going to burn calories at an extremely high rate that you cannot afford to fully allow. tank mentally or physically and you probably won't have time to catch fish or hunt right away. I carry emergency rations in my bag to make sure I have some calories to bring and I don't have to work so my goal is to create distance as quickly as possible and thatrequires energy. I prefer the SOS emergency rations because they are individually wrapped once you open the main package and they taste pretty good.

Each package has nine individually wrapped bars containing about four hundred calories each for a total of 3,600 calories, so that's 3,600 calories that I don't have to work for, don't take any time, can eat on the go and never stop one. As they run out and, as opportunities present themselves, I want to be equipped with at least some basic supplies to procure food that does not add much weight and takes up very little space. We have already talked about the monofilament fishing line and utility wire that are found On the Survival Wire I also carry a ReadyMan Wilderness Survival Card and this has hooks, arrowheads, a makeshift fish frog spearhead and some trap locks as well as a couple of small tools, so along With the monofilament fishing line and utility wire, I can double it up and use a trip wire on the inside. the survival cable gives me a nice little kit to be able to fish or trap when the opportunity presents itself, it would certainly be a very dangerous event that would push you out and well, not everything would involve gunshots or sharp metals or explosions or whatever .

Are there some that we might all like to think about that might, if you're injured at the beginning of an incident or somewhere along the way, you should be able to take care of you to the best of your ability? I would like to carry a kit that can handle injuries sustained from things like gunshot wounds or lacerations to the torso or head extremities. I like the Black Scout Survival Individual First Aid Kit, the BSS IFAK as a base and then I add a couple of things to that based Based on my experience at my level of proficiency, this allows me to address serious bleeding, sucking, chest wounds , tension pneumothorax, managing the airway, whatever has some type of trauma and that could be for me or for the people who are with me and of course I like it.

Save it somewhere you can access it quickly. You must have the ability to navigate from where you are to where you are going as efficiently as possible. You have very limited resources at your disposal, so hopefully you need to buy time quickly. It is moving to a much safer and well-supplied place. That said, you may not be able to take the route you originally planned to take and you need to be able to adapt on the fly depending on the circumstances. I would like to have a map of the entire area I hope to pass through along with waterproof paper and some mechanical pencils to write down information and plan routes as for compasses I prefer the Suunto MC2 compass because it has a viewing mirror that I can also use to point and It also has a small magnifying glass that I can use as a backup method of lighting the fire.

It also has built-in scales that I can use instead of a protractor or coordinate scale. I also carry pace beads so I can easily keep track. of distances traveled, this is extremely important in case I have to change routes on the fly, knowing how far I had moved to the last known point before changing direction allows me to better identify where I could do it, but there are some tools that I think they are absolutely essential for every travel bag, so the first is a headlamp with extra batteries, the second is a good fixed blade knife and the third is a multi-tool.

I prefer headlights that you can put a physical filter on like a red lens filter over a light that has it as a button option if I'm trying to sneak in as hidden as possible without compromising my position the last thing I want to do is hit the button wrong and turn on a white light. carry three or four sets of extra batteries which should be more than enough to get me where I'm going, especially if I try not to use light at all when traveling or when working at camp at night and I prefer lithium batteries in my opinion. longer lasting for this option and experience that the best fixed blade knife for its price is the Mora Carbon Garberg.

Its full tang maintains a nice sharp edge. It has a good 90 degree spine. It has a Scandi edge. easy to sharpen in the field and this thing can take a beating, this thing will do everything you need to do in the field and then some and lastly my choice for multi tool would be a Leatherman as far as the model I am. I'm just looking for one that has pliers, wire cutters, has a punch for sewing and repair, has a good saw and on top of all that I want it to have a good blade to have a back of course depending on your situation and your experience level and what you have planned, you may want to add some tactical

gear

and personal safety items as needed, it will increase the overall weight of your backpack and slow you down, but it will also greatly improve your safety in an uncertain time. situation, but that's a conversation for another day.

This particular travel bag has been developed to take care of all your immediate needs and at only 18 pounds it won't weigh you down until next time, stay safe, keep preparing.