If you don't have a FAK in your vehicle, or if you don't have one for quick use at the range you might want to consider putting one together.
Check out Doc's blog at http://averageguyreviews.wordpress.com/
(This post was actually the second of a 2 part post on the subject, so be sure to check his blog for the first article as well as the rest of his great articles.)
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Gear Bags Part II, The FAK (First Aid Kit)
by Docwatmo
First of all, do you have a FAK in your car? Do you have one at home? Do you have one with you when you’re out and about? FAK’s are one of those critical pieces of gear that should be around us whenever we need it. From the simple Band-Aid to ease a young child’s mind (More so than to protect the minor scratch usually) to the pressure dressing for a major laceration, or eyewash to clean the eyes of chemicals, a FAK really is a piece of GO TO gear. As with any gear or bag system, there are dozens, hundreds or even thousands of options available. No one “Bag” or “Case” works for everyone in all situations. And the contents of your FAK’s will be just as personally different as your situations and locations.
I’m not going to discuss much on the contents outside of a few items that I like to keep in our kits. Everyone should decide for themselves what items they need. There are plenty of resources available online to give you good ideas for what contents you may want in your own kits. One of my personal favorites is a forum I’m lucky enough to be a moderator on. www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum. There are some wonderful threads with list of kit for different situations. Give them a look, you won’t be disappointed with the amazing level of information on the forum. But back to FAK’s, you could have a giant kit with everything under the sun, but it’s going to be heavy and “Left at home” or “Left in the car” when you need it the most. Personally, I work from a system of kits and I’ll display them below. I am really just hoping to give some ideas that might make it easier or more functional to keep “Right Sized” kits available when you need them.
My personal preference as you’ll see by the pictures are soft side tackle boxes. They have a few advantages to the standard soft pouch kits. They do tend to be slightly larger than a pouch to contain the same equipment so if weight/size is a major issue (Normally just on the personal FAK’s) then pouches tend to work better. (See my personal kit below).
I call my FAK kit’s an FAK System. Because they are not necessarily individual items and sometimes they are interchangeable and overlap. It’s broken down into 4 major components.
Personal Kits (Carried by each individual when out and about).
Vehicle kits (Carried in each vehicle)
Basecamp or “Home” kit. (Readily accessible mobile kit at home).
Stock yard. (In my case a filing cabinet with the extra items)
I’ll start at the Stock Yard and work back. The stock yard is where I keep the bulk of replacement items, stuff to refill the other kits with. This can also be considered a Non-Mobile home kit. This can suffice as a home kit, but as you see the format of my system, I think you’ll appreciate the need for both base and mobile home kits.
The second kit is the Base-camp or Mobile Home kit. This is a medium to large sized soft side tackle box. The reason I have this as a mobile kit is for stuff that happens close to home or even inside the home. Rather than keep running back and forth to the cabinet to get first aid stuff during an emergency, I can grab the kit and bring it to the area of my home, or outside in the yard or nearby. We live in a small community and know all of our neighbors and our vantage point on the upper edge of a hill gives us a great view of our surrounding neighborhood and all the kids that run around (And wreck their bikes on the street) or the neighbor down the way who is always working on his cars out front etc. So having the kit be mobile just makes sense. Now I use the soft side tackle boxes for this type of kit for a couple of reasons.
Base Camp Kit Contents
Portability: They are lighter than hard cases and easier to carry with a shoulder strap or handle. You aren’t going to need first aid yourself from running down the street carrying one like you would with a hard case (I know this from experience, put a nice cut in my hand carrying an old hard case tackle box first aid kit running to my neighbor’s yard when he cut his leg). Just easier to carry.
Both soft storage and hard storage: The plastic inserts meant to hold lures are perfect for separating and organizing smaller first aid supplies and also protecting them. One of the problems we run into with soft pouch style FAK’s is the crushing that happens to some of the kit inside, (Break open a tube of first aid cream and watch it soak into all your gauze and band aids for example). The tubes and single use antiseptic wipes and other items are protected inside the plastic cases. Other items like tape, bindings, rubber gloves etc can be stored in the soft pouches on the bag.
Lots of size options. You can find a bag that is JUST the right size for the kit you want in whatever location you need the kit.
The 3rd kit is the Car kit or transfer kit. This is a kit that primarily stays in the vehicle, but also comes out and goes to the campsite or the soccer game or anyplace else you want the supplies available, but don’t want to drag the bigger kit around. We also keep 1 weeks’ worth of any maintenance medications and some extras like several pain killer/fever reducers in this kit. When we go on vacation or have a surprise overnight at a relative’s house or in case we get stranded somewhere. We always have what we need without having to go back home and pack medications.
I’m also a big fan of keeping a separate trauma kit in the vehicle (I do not have one currently) for helping out in case of accidents that are normally above and beyond the items in most FAk’s. I also keep a towel and some heavy duty maxi pads (Great for pressure dressings) and some scarfs (For bindings) in a separate emergency kit in the vehicle along with a radio, some tools and other useful items. Just good stuff to have in case it’s needed.
Here is a similar model to this Walmart special that I use.
The last kit I will discuss is the personal kit. This one is going to be one of the most varied items between individuals. In fact I have 2 different personal kits that I use depending on where I am and what I’m doing. The first is my “Field” kit. This is the kit that I have attached to my shoulder strap knife harness and it goes over my shoulder whenever I’m in the field. This guy looks promising as well.
This kit is small and I hardly even notice it, (About double the size of the old Pressure dressing kits we used to use in the army). I don’t normally throw this over my shoulder when I’m going to work or traveling or any other time I’m not headed out into the field. My other personal kit is a little different. I am an IT Manager for an electric cooperative. I carry a small tablet computer everywhere I go for remote access. (Yes, you can call it a murse, don’t bother me at all LOL). This bag has some pockets that I include many first aid items in. That way I always have some basic first aid kit with me pretty much anywhere I go. We also have first aid kits at work, but again they are not portable (Wall mount units) so running back and forth to them to grab gear could be a pain.
I hope this post was interesting and maybe you could pick up some ideas that might help you keep the gear you need accessible.
Stay safe my friends.
Doc
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You can read more of Doc's work over at his website:
http://averageguyreviews.wordpress.com/
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