Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Good first aid kit for hiking, hunting

Who makes a good commercial first aid kit for backpacking and hunting, or backcountry trucking, where there is a possibility of a bad wound.

IMO, your best bet is to buy a small commercial one and then add to it. I use the adventure medical kits ".5", which is light enough that I actually bring it. https://www.adventuremedicalkits.com/ultralight-watertight-5.html

I add a bunch of ibuprofen, Benadryl, iodine wipes, and wound seal/quick clot (although a "combat gauze" might be a better choice, as has been discussed here).

For my hunting vehicle, I carry a larger kit from the same company, again with a few additions. https://www.adventuremedicalkits.com/medical-kits/sportsman/sportsman-200.html

I carry that kit in my truck normally and just move it to the hunting rig as we load up.

Tourniquet is a personal call, I don't carry one in my backpack kit, but I do have one in my larger kit.

Generally I work backward from the expected wound & prepare accordingly. I’ve got an ifak from First Aid Only that I’ve added what I thought was necessary. I’ve got a larger kit from them in the truck. Tourniquet and the training on its application is an important addition imo.

Piecing one together is the best option IMO.

I generally carry a snakebite kit and a few extras. Snakebite kit has two compression bandages with rectangles printed on that become squares with correct tension. Also includes plastic splits to immobilise limb.

I really need to carry a few torniquets I feel.

Judging by the pics I'm seeing on various websites, a lot of these kits don't have tourniquets. I'm not expecting someone in my party to accidentally shoot himself, or me, but it just seems like there ought to be one handy.

^^^ This is good advice^^^

The commercial first aid kits are just a bunch of bandaids. If you buy one big enough that it actually has useful stuff in it, then it's too heavy.

One day I sat down and listed the first aid experiences that I have actually encountered during sixty years of backpacking, camping, fishing, climbing and hunting. I built a first aid kit based on that. Here's the list.

8 ea Bandaids 1" x 3" fabric - Minor Cuts
4 ea Bandaid 1 1/2" x 4" fabric - Abrasions and Cuts
1 pad Moleskin 3" x 4" - Blisters
4 ea Moleskin Donuts - Blisters
1 tube Neosporin Ointment - Triple Actibacteria Ointment
1 roll Gauze, sterile - Wound Treatment
2 ea Gauze Pad - Wound Treatment
2 paks Quick Clot - Stop Bleeding
1 ea Battle Dressing - Major Wound
1 tube Aquaphor Ointment - Burn Treatment
1 roll Ace Bandage - Sprains
1 roll Vet Wrap - Sprains & Wound Treatment
1 ea Needle - Splinters & Ticks
1 ea Tweezers - Splinters & Ticks
1 tube Chap Stick - Chapped Lips
4 pills Antacid Tablets, chewable - Indigestion

I put everything in a small stuff sack.

I use to carry a Sawyer Extractor to use for snake bite, when I lived in Arizona and hiked in the desert. But I don't carry one in the mountains.

I've never needed a tourniquet, so I don't carry one. I figure I could make one with my belt or a rope and a stick.

I also carry a big first aid kit in the truck/trailer. But I leave it there. I don't carry it in my backpack.

A buddy of mine opined one day that when he was in the army doing stupid stuff like we were doing in the middle of nowhere, they had folks that could render first aid if needed. Neither one of us had anything to deal with a serious cut or gunshot.

After gathering a few things and sitting through a stop the bleed class, I made sure I had a tourniquet in my bags. “Fighting the war for 20 years has shown us that tourniquet’s save lives”. That was the line that convinced me.

Well said TWR!!!

KC,
I believe your kit is incomplete without a manufactured tourniquet. Death is likely to occur within 4 minutes after a major vessel is ruptured. You'll not likely be conscious for half that long. A tq is like a gun, when you need one nothing else will suffice.

I taught at a US Army Medical Simualtion Training Center for the past year, following a 20 year career as a combat medic.

Improvised tourniquets are no longer taught in our Combat Lifesaver Course (first responder) due to improper use and the time lost fabricating one.

We try extremely hard to have an effective tq placed under 1 minute from wounding.

PM me your address and I'll send you a CAT tq.

Dinny:

Thanks for your comments. I'm aware of the current fad for use of commercial tourniquets among emergency responder types. I hope you are around when I'm unconscious and need one. Until then, I will continue to rely on what I was trained to do 55 years ago in Viet Nam. I can deploy a belt in about 15 seconds.

P.S. Thanks for the offer to send me one but, I already have a couple of commercial tourniquets in my big first aid kit. I might actually install one after I have stopped the bleeding with my belt.

The Vietnam WIA and KIA stats are taught in lesson 2 of our Combat Lifesaver Course to show what NOT to do. We have improved alot since then. Tourniquets are not, nor will they ever be a fad.