From a very young age, preparedness was drilled into my head. I started out spending lots of time hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking in the wilderness as a kid. I got into Boy Scouts early and was an Eagle Scout by 14. This emphasized a culture of preparedness. However, I cannot tell you how many times I was on a scouting trip and an adult did not have everything they needed. They forgot the matches, the tent stakes, or the water jugs typically.
Unfortunately, in survival scenarios you cannot just have one item to cover each of your needs. You need to have several. I will never forget a survival challenge I completed a few years ago with two of my nephews. Jay and Dre were 10 and 11 and wanted to learn more about wilderness survival. I assured my sister I would take good care of them.
For water purification, I brought a couple of filter bottles and a straw filter. We had a pond near our shelter, so there was plenty of water. About two hours into the challenge, all of the filters were clogged. I tried to blow backwards through the filter to flush out debris, but it was not working. If I was on my own, I would have considered drinking the tainted water to get through a few days in the woods. However, I could not risk this with my nephews. I dug through my pack and found iodine tablets to purify the water. We were thankfully able to use these to keep hydrated during the challenge, and we finished just fine.
The point is that you never know when your primary tools will not be available. It is vital for survival that your bug-out bag, get-home bag, and everyday carry kit all have redundancy. In this article, we will cover the most important ways to create redundancy in your survival gear.
Implementing Redundancy
If you really want to be prepared, the first step is to accept that redundancy is needed in your gear. This is counterintuitive for some of us. We prefer to pack light, so we would like to think that bringing one tool for each of our needs is enough. Unfortunately, survival is unpredictable. You never know when your primary tools will fail.
In order to effectively implement redundancy, you must focus on the most important tools in your arsenal. There is no way you have space in your pack to carry two of everything. You need to stick to the tools that are absolutely vital. Each tool in your arsenal has pros and cons. You need to not only limit your redundancy to necessary tools, but you should remember that several different tools can accomplish the same goal. For example, I have half a dozen different tools that can all help me start a fire in different ways. This is a more effective way of creating redundancy than just packing several ferro rods.
To get more specific, having a lighter, a ferro rod, and a fire lens in your pack is better than just having three lighters. Different tools will work better in different situations. If your lighter gets waterlogged, you can always use your ferro rod. If the sun is out, you can use a fire lens even if the fuel in your lighter runs out.
In addition to having this variety of tools at your disposal, you also need to strategize how to pack these items. You want to have these items stored in various different places, so you always have one of them close by. For example, if I am bringing a ferro rod, a fire lens, and a zippo with me I would put one in my pocket, one around my neck on a lanyard, and one in my pack. This way I have an option even if I lose my pack or drop something out of my pocket.
Food
When packing a bug-out bag or other kits, you likely will have some kind of preserved food. This might be energy bars or a bag of dried rice, but these foods are never enough for you to be really prepared. The start of your food redundancy is having ways to procure food once your rations are gone. Packing food adds weight to your pack and takes up space, so you should keep it to a minimum.
By bringing tools to get food in the wild, you are creating redundancy. You also create redundancy by having several ways to get different types of food. One of the most efficient ways to get protein in the wilderness is fishing. You can start by bringing cordage and hooks to make trotlines or fish traps. Then you can create redundancy by bringing a fishing kit, a gill net, or a folding fishing rod. I like to have the ability to actively fish while I am passively fishing with other rigs I set up.
Trapping is another way to bring in protein. You can bring cordage or wire to rig up snare traps, and a knife to fashion deadfall traps. Hunting is always an option, but I would stick to modern weapons. You can bring a firearm, bow, or crossbow. However, remember that there are downsides to bringing these weapons. They are heavy and bulky, so they will slow you down. Also, firearms eventually run out of ammo and make lots of noise. There is something to be said for going primitive. Of course, knowing about wild edibles will always give you that option as another easy food source. If you do not have experience with wild edibles, you can pack a field guild to identify plants.
Water
Redundancy with water purification is a top priority for survival as you can only survive about three days without water. You may bring some drinking water in your pack, but water is heavy. You should focus more on tools to purify water from the forest. I may have a bottle or two of water, but I always have a filter bottle with me. This eliminates 99.999% of all harmful pathogens from the water, and it allows me to carry water with me.
I create more redundancy by bringing a straw-style filter and iodine tablets. The straw-style filter works just as well but is less bulky. It is common for me to get my filters clogged on a survival challenge. If I am lucky, I can blow backwards through the filter to unclog it. Sometimes this just doesn’t work. For these times, I have used iodine tablets to purify the water. Just drop a couple in a bottle of water, shake it up, and let it sit for about 30 minutes. I can also boil water over a fire if needed.
Fire
The rule of threes states that you can only survive about three hours in the cold without warmth from fire or shelter. Because shelters can take hours or days to build, fire may be the only way to get warm quickly. It can also cook food, boil water, light your camp, scare predators, keep bugs away, and help complete lots of other tasks.
To create redundancy with fire, you should first focus on fire starters. Lighters are always my first fire starter to pack. I like having a zippo-style lighter as they are windproof and can be refueled with any flammable liquid. I also pack a couple of bic lighters as they are cheap and fairly reliable. I create more redundancy by bringing my most reliable firestarter, my ferro rod. These are windproof, waterproof, require no fuel, and shoot sparks at over 3000F. I like to bring a couple of these.
My next point of focus is redundancy with tinder. I will always have natural materials available for a tinder bundle, but in wet conditions that will not help much. I generally like to bring Wetfire cubes that allow me to shave off a little of its waxy powder and get a windproof and waterproof flame with just a spark. I also bring Firestix to create redundancy. These require a flame to get started but will stay lit for over 20 minutes in the rain and wind.
You can also bring tinder from home to build redundancy. Charcloth is a cotton fabric that has been charred in a fire to leave behind only carbon. This will take a spark and help you light a tinder bundle if needed. Cotton balls rubbed in petroleum jelly, dryer lint, and pencil shavings are also good options.
When I have room, I even like to bring a pocket butane stove. This thing is small enough that the stove and the gas tank both fit in my pocket. If I am in a hurry to boil water or get a fire started, I can always use this.
Of course, it is not all about just starting the fire. You should have several ways to process firewood. I generally have a few good survival knives and a folding saw with me. I also sometimes carry a hatchet or a pocket chainsaw. It is vital that you stock up on firewood long before it gets dark.
Shelter
You should always have several options for shelter in a wilderness survival scenario. At a minimum, I pack 550 paracord and a tarp-style emergency blanket. Let’s start with the most basic options. I have a knife and saw, so I can build a shelter strictly from natural materials. By bringing the cordage and space blanket, I give myself the option of building a quick lean-to that is waterproof, windproof, and will reflect 90% of my body heat back to me. If I do not have the time or energy to put up the shelter, I can wrap up in the blanket to stay warm and dry.
I create further redundancy by bringing a tiny backpacking tent, an inflatable sleeping mat, and a bivy sack. These tools can help me in extreme conditions when staying warm is especially difficult. I do not always pack them, but I am thankful when I do.
Other Types of Redundancy
There are a few other important categories in survival that should have redundancy. For land navigation, I always have a map and compass. However, I have several other tools with compasses built in so I am never without one.
I have several sources of light in my gear including a tactical flashlight, a headlamp, glow sticks, and LED lights built into other tools. To signal for help I have the ability to start signal fires, but I also have a signal mirror and several of my survival tools have emergency whistles built-in. For self-defense, I have my knives, but I also carry non-lethal weapons like a tactical pen and a taser. I often carry a firearm or crossbow in the wilderness, and I always have hand-to-hand combat as a last resort. All of this creates more redundancy.
It all just comes back down to being prepared in its most basic sense. What would be more at the core of preparedness than having a backup plan? That is all we are really talking about. Through my survival challenges, I have personally seen the importance of redundancy. Between my nephews getting purified water to drink and me losing my ferro rod on every other challenge, it has become ingrained in my survival process. I can assure you, when you are trying to survive and reach into your pack, you will be glad you worked redundancy into your plans.