5 Best Survival Tools, According to Preppers

At Survivopedia we focus on giving back to the community, thus, we have provided you with valuable content written by experienced preppers.

Ranging from helping you becoming self-sufficient, to putting food on the table or keeping your family safe, our writers addressed, in over 1700 articles, both experienced preppers and the new entrants to the community.

People felt that their peace of mind was regained as wisdom has been passed to the others within the community. As many of you are already developing their survival skills, sharing with us their experiences, DIY projects and pieces of advice, we thought of tailoring this article to entirely meet your needs.

A lot of preppers from our community have sent us e-mails asking for advice on what is the best survival gear they can acquire, and we considered the topic to be of major importance for everyone! At the same time, many of you recommended several items that made their prepping faster and more accurate. Therefore, we at Survivopedia thought of sharing some of the recommendations with you.

We are not saying they are the best, but they give you the opportunity to read reviews from other preppers, so you can have a rough idea on the item you intend to have. In addition, each and every survival gear fulfills the basic needs both an experienced prepper and a beginner have, such as sleep, warmth and thirst.

So, today, we are introducing our partner, Survival Frog, the preferred online store for tens of thousands of preppers and outdoor camping enthusiasts. The idea was born in 2009 when Founder and CEO Byron Walker started selling info-product books online. What started as Peak 10 Publishing grew, and had nearly 1 million customers of its books, CDs and DVDs, now it evolved into the industry leader in preparedness products and survival gear sold online.

It amazes me how many people cut off their sleeping hours in order to get closer to the end of the never-ending daily tasks one might have. They might think that they will recover the sleepless hours, but sleep depravation has a major impact on our health. From only one missed night, your ability to focus is diminished, the decision-making process is slower, not to mention your survival skills that are considerably reduced.

That leads us to our main point. When you are caught in a SHTF situation, such as being lost in the woods, you will need to preserve as much energy as you can. Not being able to get a proper rest in a life-or-death experience might be the crucial factor in your survival.

One of the recommendations we received from our readers was a light sleeping bag, with multiple uses and advantages. From its light weight to its 4” dimension when packed, the sleeping bag is suitable for any outdoors experience. The bright green and orange colors will help rescuers identify you with ease and the material being able to reflect 90% of your body’s heat back to you will keep you warm.

If, hypothetically, you are still not warm enough, and we all know how harsh a winter can be, there are also other additional means to keep your body temperature up.

The first thing that clearly pops into my mind is starting a fire by your sleeping spot. Keeping a gas lighter in your bag seems like a good and cheap idea, but not always the safest.

A rechargeable lighter might be more useful as it is the simplest fire starter you’ll ever touch. The powerful lighter creates two electric arcs that easily act as a fire starter when touched to anything remotely flammable. Plus, this USB lighter is rechargeable, allowing you to enjoy a full week (300 sparks) of use before plugging it in again.

The weather might not always be suitable for starting a fire and, as Leon C. Megginson said, “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change”, solutions have to be found.

Therefore, an alternative to keeping your body temperature high enough to survive is a rechargeable hand warmer that can run continuously for 4 – 10 hours depending on your heat settings.

If there’s another cold winter like the one in Cincinnati in 1978, 4 hours of battery is definitely not enough, but the run time on a full charge can be extended with the use of its USB charger.

Whether you have your own source of energy such as a portable generator or are using this type of pocket solar lantern with built-in charger, you would decrease the factors that endanger your ability to maximize your prepper skills.

Thirst is also among the deadliest enemies in a survival situation. The average amount of days a human can live without water is 3 to 4 days, with a week being the most optimistic forecast. I would not advise you to wait until the fifth or sixth day to find and drink potable water. The sooner, the better.

There are many ways to obtain potable water out there in the wilderness. From obtaining water from plants to turning the salt water into drinking water, depending on the location you find yourself in, urge of the need and ability to remember each step of the above processes, possibilities are at one’s hand.

Nevertheless, there are countless occasions in which you might not simply find those sources of water. Or you already found a water source but are not sure whether or not to drink it.

Purifying water from an unknown source before drinking it is essential and vital. There are three types of disease-causing pathogens in water, such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoan cysts that can cause you illness and even death at a later stage.

A simple portable water filter is lightweight and compact enough to save you a lot of space in your bug out bag, and can turn muddy water into potable water in seconds. Having solved the water drinking problem, you avoid getting dehydrated and can get back on track.

One of our writers, a prepper with over 40 years of experience, said that prepping is 90% mentality and skills you develop, so we thought that this article would fulfil that 10% that can sometimes save your life.

We encourage you to suggest some gear you might have tested, acquired and that made a difference in your life.

Written by

Growing encyclopedia of survival, your source of uncommon wisdom for dangerous times.

Latest comments
  • The most glaring omission is a backpack! How will you carry your survival gear?

  • One HUGE piece of “equipment” that everybody forgets, but you carry with you everyday, and sits square on your shoulders….Your Mind. The rest of the equipment doesn’t mean a bag of beans if you can’t figure things out or how to use something.

  • High tech is convenient, but old-fashioned manual is still best. A magnesium fire starting tool doesn’t need recharging and a couple of (not too) hot rock make good hand warmers. Coffee filters and boiling water is another low-tech way to get safe drinking water. If it gets too cold for comfort with the light sleeping bag, use the old way explorers and trappers used under their blankets – dig an elongated hole about torso length where you plan to bed down, deep enough to spread out some hot coals from your campfire and cover them with about 3 or 4 inches of packed down dirt, back up to ground level You’re not going to be pit roasting a pig, so you don’t need a lot of coals to work.

    • The old ways are oftentimes better. Fewer moving parts, and less waste than the “modern conveniences”. If it comes from nature, it can go back to nature without a big deal of it going to waste. Nature provides it, and Nature takes it away, too.

      • You are exacty right.

  • Please name publicLY the jerk(s) who authorized this article, and in the name of “according to Preppers”? Preppers are smarter than fhe Frog. Alll Preppers, seven years old and older, know that even a family of one will go away hungry after cooking what a frog has to offer. Apparently this Frog has a lot of dirt on whoever authorized this article; or maybe not, maybe whoever has authorized this article is sleeping with someone in Frog-land.; or maybe Frog convinced a SP relative into “Marriage for money” with this Frog advertisement the Frog? I recommend that any still sane person employed by SurvivaPedia to fire whomever in that organization authorized this advertisement in the name of “according to Preppers. The Frog sells mostly junk to novices who are not really qualified yet to be called Preppers. Real Preppers avoid junk. They avoid stuff that will tear apart on Day 1, or 2 or 3 (becaue real Preppers know that you cannot know how long difficulty is going to last, and what sense does it make to buy a battery operated green laser, when an opponent merely has to shut his eyes or wear Frog glasses to defeat it? And who can carry an additional 20+ pounds of Frog junk in their backpack? I am shocked and amazed that SurvivaPedia, who has access to experts that no one else has access to, would stoop to find the Junkiest “in the name of preppers” online organization to promote.. Whoever authorized this article embarrassed all your experts, and me, and plenty of others. Whoever authorized artcle needs to resign, or kick him or her who promoted it, into a swamp where s/he can become familiar with real frogs.. Because the only worse than dirt is a smelly Frog Swamp.

    • Such negativity!! If you don’t like the article, maybe you will grace us with a well written one of your own and tell us what you think is important equipment to have. Personally, I would take using my brains to avoid having so much equipment over having to carry the equipment. But that’s just me, and I’m a beginning “prepper”. I’m also not bugging out unless I absolutely have to and it’s mandatory.
      I’ve seen most of the equipment sold on Survival Frog sold elsewhere….Blain’s Farm and Fleet, Amazon, and several other online survival “shops”….and quite frankly, some of the online survival shops CAN be MORE EXPENSIVE for the SAME BRAND NAME equipment. Also I’ve visited some online survival shops that are just outrageously expensive for the items they offer. Price does NOT denote “quality”, it sometimes sends the message that you have more money than you have sense. Prices are “relative” to whether it is a “regular” online store like Blain’s Farm and Fleet or Amazon, or whether they are just geared to “preppers/survivalists”. The same equipment at Blain’s Farm and Fleet may be much better than the overpriced stuff sold at “exclusive” prepper shops online. It is all about supply and demand, as well as who is willing to pay the sometimes outrageous prices for something you THINK you need.
      End of sermon.

      • Well said Trish, Ranger Rick

    • DID YOU REALLY HAVE TO GO SO OVERBOARD WITH YOUR PAGE LONG COMMENT. WOW

  • Agreed with other posts – any survival tool that needs plug-in recharging is a real weak link and not good advice…

  • I have nothing against any particular dealer, vendor or online store, but if you wan to run an article on things sold there, then just do so. This was not a general article and while I myself do have electronic items, I also have non-electric or energy based gear. Sometimes you need a ferro rod and a knife, sometimes you can use a clean and efficient Tesla lighter and have a flashlight and other times you might have to rely on a box of matches and an oil lamp.

    A lot of the “high tech” items are actually good choices for black outs or power outages. They eliminate or at least greatly reduce the possibility of starting a fire or setting off gas, solid or liquid fuels. We have oil lamps in my house and they last a long time and provide good light, but for careless people, families with kids that might run around, etc., they can pose a hazard. We have used them, but battery powered or solar rechargeable flashlights are easier and safer. And people can move them around or carry them to different rooms.

    So maybe this should have been 5 cool things from Survival Frog or cool electronic items with exception to the bivy sack. and the water filter of course. If you just make it clear then people won’t get upset….. you know what I mean? 🙂

  • Very useful post on the 5 best survival tools you should have. Really good website too.

  • These newer rechargeable lighters are very good. Down side is the need to recharge them, but recharging ability is now quite compact and would be good for other items like your phone lights, etc. Also, be aware, butane lighters in extreme cold will freeze and not work. I experienced that while out ice fishing and could not light my little heater in my ice shanty. My Zippo worked as well as wooden scratch anywhere matches I carried.

  • My 5 would be:
    knife
    Fire starter
    water filter
    bivy bag
    flashlight

    Bob

  • My list needed to survive :
    1.Knowledge
    2..Shelter
    3. Fire
    4..Water
    5.Food
    6.Tools /bought or made

    I will add ,my SAR Team just went out to a survival training on an island with the backpack gear you would normally carry on a mission. I did take a dollar Frog emergency tent.
    It lasted nicely thru the night, I wish I have brought duct tape to close one end, but Pine branches worked nicely. I kept it and will use it for an emergency panel being orange. For a dollar I could fit 3 of the tents in a cargo pocket. It protected me from the 5 periods of rain/high winds we had. The wind change that now blew into my tent. That tent kept me and my gear dry. It was cheap ,but it provided me shelter with very little weight to carry.

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