Survive in the Wilderness with our Top 10 Wilderness Survival Gear Checklist

The Bushcraft team at The Survival Experts has put together the Top 10 most crucial items to include in your wilderness survival pack. Having these ten items with you in the wild could prove to be the difference between living and thriving or crying and dying.

1. Bring a good knife

Knives are among the most important survival tools in the wilderness. They can be used for anything from hunting and preparing food to setting up shelter and signaling. The type of knife that you carry to a wilderness expedition can either make your experience a walk in the park or an absolute nightmare. Check out our article on Bushcraft knives for under $100 that reviews your best options for a wilderness survival blade. The most important features of expedition knives are the blade length, sharpness and safety features. A good knife will have all these three making it not only easy and efficient to use but also safe to handle.

2. Fire is your friend

Fire is important for three main reasons in the wilderness. The first is that it serves as a source of heat during the long cold nights. The second is its usefulness in food preparation. Finally, it helps keep you safe from wild animals wandering around your set-up. It is therefore absolutely important to ensure that you have a source of fire including matches and gasoline. It is also important to know how to use natural resources like wood and rocks in the event that the matches and gas are not available.

3. Water, water and more water

This might be hard to believe but in the wilderness, water is more important than food. This is because of the risk of dehydration due to constant physical activity and exposure to harsh elements like wind and direct sunlight. This makes it absolutely important to have a lot of water. However, carrying too much water may weigh you down and leave you more tired than you need to be. As a result, the best solution is to invest in a portable water purification system. You can also improvise using a clean cloth for filtering and fire to boil.

4. Carry signaling equipment

These include reflectors, mirrors, whistles and flare guns. These come in very handy, especially where the expedition might take you deep into uninhabited territory with the risk of danger. It is also important in addition to having these things to know how to use them in the case of emergencies in the wilderness.

5. Learn how to use maps and compasses

Not having a map and compass or not knowing how to use them is like going into the wilderness with a blindfold on. You will never know where you are, where you need to go or where you are coming from. This is a major risk to take as you might suffer if you venture too far off and run out of supplies. This makes the skill of map and compass reading an absolute must-have for anyone interested braving the wilderness.

6. Bring along a fully stocked first aid kit

These are available all over the place at very reasonable prices. A good first aid kit is bound to come in handy during your adventure. This is because in the wild there are risks of physical injury left, right and center. These include cuts, sunburns, fire burns, abrasions, and bruises. In addition to having the first aid kit, it is important to have basic first aid skills to ensure that you know exactly how to use what you have.

7. Stock up on warm clothing



Whether you are camping on a snowy hillside or in the middle of a desert there is no escaping the bone-chilling cold of the night. You need clothes to cover everything from head to toe. To be on the safe side, ensure that you have a head cap, a scarf, earmuffs, a heavy jacket, gloves, long trousers, thick socks and closed shoes. These are the basics and should keep you from freezing which could lead to hypothermia and gangrene which is not what you want from your trip.

8. Ditch unnecessary luxuries

Things like electronics, excess food, extra changes of clothes and personal accessories are absolutely unnecessary in the wilderness. All these and many other luxuries are things that you can survive without. Leaving them behind ensures that no extra energy is lost carrying around things you do not really need.

9. Learn how to hunt and gather

This is another one of the most important skills for survival in the wilderness. Hunting small animals like wild rabbits and birds could mean survival for you in case you run out of food during your expedition. It is also important to acquire gathering skills for things like wild berries and other edible vegetation in the wilderness to complement your food stock.

10. Stock up on survival food

This applies mainly when the expedition might take a long time and is likely to take you far away from civilization. Survival food is meant to keep you alive, not to excite your taste buds. It usually comes in convenient, long-lasting and easy to carry packages to make your life a whole lot easier than carrying your own food ingredients and condiments.

TheSurvivalExperts.com