Every now and then I surprise myself when it turns out I am lacking in having something on hand that could rightly be considered a ‘must have’. As it turns out, I don’t have near enough paracord.

Military guys can attest that paracord (or 550 cord) is some pretty handy stuff. Unfortunately, like many bits of cool gear, there are always inferior knockoffs out there that will try to catch the poor fool whose only consideration is price.

Real paracord is, usually, seven strands, each strand comprised of three smaller, within a sheath of olive material. Knockoffs are often a couple strands or even just some thin poly twine. Amazon has no shortage of suppliers of paracord in various colors, so read carefully. I went with this.

I usually just wind my paracord up like a ball of yarn, throw a ‘ranger rubber band”* around it to keep it together, and leave it in my Bag O’ Tricks ™. You never know when a hank of the stuff is going to come in handy. For knocking around in the boonies, you definitely want a bunch of this stuff with you for making shelters, repairing gear, replacing shoelaces, etc. The craftier among us will use their grunts-n-crafts skills to make slings, belts, bracelets, handle covers, and anything else that gives them a convenient way to keep a good bit of paracord handy. Go Google ‘paracord project’ and see the amazing things people can do with an unlimited amount of paracord and time.

It’s a little silly to list all the suggested use for paracord because they are pretty much infinite and situation-dependent. Its accurate to say that your imagination and creativity is about the only limit to the use of the stuff. BUT….you gotta have it to begin with. So, if you’re not already roaming the realm with some of this stuff in your gear, its definitely a worthy addition.

* = Ranger rubber bands are cross sections cut from innertubes to make incredibly tough and cheap rubber bands.

About a zillion years ago I used to teach hunter safety. It made sense that if there were going to be 12-year-olds wandering the woods with 7mm Remington Magnums perhaps I’d have a little self-interest in making sure they knew what not to shoot at since I’d be out there as well.

One part of the course was about helping them put together their little survival kits in case they got lost or had to spend the night out there. Of course, one of the big things was that they needed to have a way to start a fire. Now, these are twelve-year-olds…they’ve never heard of Occams Razor. Invariably, the majority of them would show up with a flint/steel or some other type of striker firestarter. And I would reach into my pocket and pull out a Bic lighter and a book of matches and ask why no one brought those.

Why make things harder than they have to be?

When I go out in the sticks, I carry one of those little scrape-the-rod firestarters and tinder with me. But I also carry at least two or three match safes, and a cigarette lighter. Yes, I know that cigarette lighters don’t always work in the numbing cold, at high altitudes, or when wet. Thats why I carry other methods of creating fire. But when its time to ignite something, I start with the lighter and work my way down the list.

One of the problems with a lighter like the ubiquitous Bic (uBicuitous?) is that if you don’t pack it right the thumb switch can be depressed and you lose all your fuel. Or the sparker gets wet  and the whole thing is useless. Which is where this comes in:

EXOTAC – fireSLEEVE Waterproof Lighter Holder Case. It’s a protective cover for your Bic. Keeps it dry and protects from inadvertently hitting the red button. A clever idea and one that sits in my Bag O’ Tricks ™. Also sits in my hunting pack and any other bag that I take with me into the woods.

In addition to protecting the lighter and keeping it dry, you also have a lanyard attachment point which is always nice when you want to keep a piece of critical gear from walking away.

Also, the lip of the case doubles as a strap to hold down the gas button on the lighter so you can keep it lit without having to use your finger to hold down the switch.

Nice to have? Absolutely. But, as I said, I don’t like to keep all my eggs in one basket. The lighter is the handiest and easiest thing to use in terms of having instant fire at your fingertips. But it’s also the most delicate and sensitive….this is why I never, ever rely on just carrying a lighter. I also carry math safes full of lifeboat matches and a couple other fire starting methods.

I know someone is going to chime in about their Zippo. Yeah, the Zippo is a fine lighter. It’s got a protective cover, which is nice, and runs on liquid fuel which makes it a better choice at altitudes. It also costs more, doesn’t have a lanyard attachment point, leaks in your pocket, and is heavy. Not saying it doesn’t work for you, just saying I see a lighter, cheaper, equally useful alternative that works for me.

And as I said, the lighter is the most convenient, handy, and lazy way to ignite something…but I always have a few others as well. Suspenders and a belt, m’friends.

If you look at most newer ‘evil black rifles’ you’ll see that they often have a small hole at various points on them to accommodate quick detach (QD) rifle slings. These slings are actually, in my experience, pretty hand since they tend to have features that make them quite handy for even non-tactical rifles. Some older gun designs predate the current QD methods and therefore are not usable with something like a Magpul QD sling. Thats where Samson Manufacturing comes in.

I have a Ruger Mini-14 that I fitted with a Samson copy of the original Ruger folding stock:

Because the rifle was not originally kitted out with the folder stock, it’s sling is mounted on the bottom of the forend rather than on the side as it was mounted on original GB models. As it turned out, Samson also makes a replacement gas block to accommodate a side mounted sling, making the gun a more faithful repro.

Here’s the thing, the original GB had just regular normal sling swivel mounts. You can’t use the modern QD sling attachment points. Or can you? Check these out:

It’s a very nice, well-made adapter that lets you use modern QD sling attachments on guns that have just a simple swivel stud. While your typical Uncle Mikes QD swivels are fine for most hunting rifle applications, I like being able to just swap slings and have them fit all the attachment points on all my guns.

By the way, one nice feature of the Magpul sling is that you can switch it from a 2-point to a single-point if youre in a situation where the gun just hanging by your side is a handy thing.

ETA article about El Paso Saddlery BBQ rigs.

Kydex is a great material for holsters and I have zero reservations about it (except I think sometimes it’s a bit hard on a guns finish). But, for some reason, I still like leather holsters for some applications. My usual go-to guys for gunleather are, first, DeSantis and then Bianchi. Between those two I can usually find the holster I want. There are, of course, some exceptions. For my BBQ gun I want something with a lot of style and eye-catchiness. For that, I wound up going to El Paso Saddlery. While I was there, I also picked up something I have always had a fondness for – a classic leather flap holster. You know, just like Indian Jones and every other adventurer. Since my running around in the woods gun is either a .44 revolver or a 10mm auto, I need a flap holster for those. The flap for the 10mm arrived today.

I must say, new gunleather has a pretty distinctive smell to it.

Nice, eh? Might take it to a saddlemaker in town and get my initials stamped in there or something.I also, by the way, have a tanker holster from these guys as well.

In case anyone was wondering:

And T3 was having a sale on plate carriers so I got one of each – this and this.

I already have a couple sets of soft armour, which I believe everyone should have, and I have a carrier and plates next to my AR in the bedroom ‘just in case’. But, I wanted an extra set…perhaps for offsite storage…and I also wanted a low-profile set to keep in the truck. And, lets be real, the prices aren’t going to go down and at some point getting this stuff will no longer be as simple as a webform and a credit card.

And as tempting as it is to buy a set of plates and sock them away, don’t. You need to actually wear them and get used to how they feel and,  most importantly, how they affect your ability to function and move while wearing them. I promise you, bringing up a rifle and shouldering it will be a completely different game when youre wearing this stuff. And it isn’t lighweight. The smart survivalist will buy a dirt cheap plate carrier, a set of weighted replica plates,  duct tape the crap out of the corners and stress points, and use them for training purposes. Crom forbid, but when Der Tag arrives you really don’t have margin for a learning curve. So, yes, feel like a dork as you’re LARPing around your house in armour….thats part of the familiarization process. Your carrier needs to fit you, and it needs to do it in such a manner that donning it is as familiar and easy as slipping into worn shoes. Wear it…go the range, go for a hike, do a workout, but wear it and move with it and adjust as necessary.

And, finally, remember that these things will stop bullets (most of the time) but there’s no free lunch in physics so that energy has to go somewhere and that somewhere is going to be you. Don’t think you’ll have a round of 7.62 bounce off your chest and your gonna keep moving forward like the Terminator. Hollywood makes bullet resistance look like fun and game but it really looks more like cracked/broken ribs/sternum and bruises that make you queasy just looking at them.

BUT….it beats a sucking chest wound any day of the week.

Filson, the Seattle-based maker of durable, high-end outdoor wear, is preparing to cut most of its already shrunken Seattle-area manufacturing operations.

The 126-year-old company plans to outsource up to two-thirds of its remaining Seattle-area production to an outside vendor near Los Angeles, but has no immediate plans to end all production here, company officials said Monday.

I have a lot of Filson wool clothing. Every piece is made in Seattle. Filson also makes some non-wool stuff I want but every time I go look at the specs on their website, its manufacture is listed as ‘Imported’. While I love the Filson brand, Im not paying Filson prices for something made in Thailand, Bangladesh or anywhere else in Asia.

I suspect its only a matter of time before Filson moves the production of the magnificent wool coats to somewhere more economical…and probably offshore. Or maybe they’ll just move to California and really make the stuff there rather than ‘making it’ at the Port of San Diego.

I suggest that if ‘Made in America’ matters to you, and you want the genuine Filson product, buying it sooner rather than later might be wise.

On the bright side, if you do buy the genuine Filson the rather high price is borne out over the rather long lifespan these things have. I often meet people wearing a Filson and it used to belong to their dad or grandfather. And a couple times a winter I’ll be out and about and someone will interrupt me and say “Excuse me, is that a Filson?” Great product those wool coats.