Bushcraft Equipment: My Gear & How To Use It.

Description

In this video I break down my bushcraft gear and camping gear and equipment showing you what I carry and how I use it. Knives, axes, saws, fire lighting, shelter, clothing, cooking gear and hygiene. If your looking for some guidance on simple systems to carry when out camping or practicing bushcraft then hopefully this video can help.

The clothing I use - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDGmMhqn-4s

My Tarp & Hammock - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc6jprsKYmQ

My backpack - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_fjUKl4B3U

My tarp setup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THckcO7A9ng

The knots I use - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajl5F6iUZ_s

MCQBushcraft:

If your interested in Bushcraft & Survival skills, fishing, hunting, fire lighting, plants & mushrooms, camp cooking, shelter building, self reliance, wilderness & primitive living skills, weaving plant fibers, knives, axes, saws and maintaining these tools in the field and much much more then check out my channel page below for playlists and more videos.

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Video Transcription

either guys it's Mike from mcq bushcraft here and welcome to another video in this video I'm gonna do a kit update and I'll show you what I generally carry now when I go at wild camping all I'm doing bushcraft skills day to day maybe I'm going away doing a bit of shooting or fishing or I'm teaching a course and I'm go to sleep over in the woods in between courses cuz they're back to back this is the kind of kit that I carry with me very very basic very lightweight and just quite simple but first things first I'm going to show you some of the tools that I carry axe knife fire lighting equipment because I've got to get a fire going there's a lot of midges flying everywhere which are little tiny flies that we have here in the British Isles and because it's been raining for the last few weeks and suddenly the Sun is decided to come out again it's creating a lot of humidity and the Flies are getting crazy and they're all coming up all over the place so this will be a good chance for me to show you some of the tools that I carry and how I make fires when I'm out practicing these skills or just on wild camping I've cut myself a piece of ash here this is some dead standing what I mean by dad standing is it's dead wood that's off the ground so it hasn't absorbed moisture so this will make a fantastic fire feather and you can ignite this quite easily with a ferrocerium rod which is what I intend to do so I'm going to gather some small twigs just to put on top make a little raft and I'll show you some of the tools I carry and how I make a fire when I make there's plenty of this spruce all over the place and it's all it's all dead you can see it's been off the ground from where these trees have fallen over and these are the kinds of twigs that I want really to start my fire this is what I look for basically when I get wild camping off I'm out doing any kind of thing I need to make a fire I look for dead twigs like this that are off the ground and any kind of conifers fantastic because it has a resin content which means it burns quite violently anyway so you've got a bit of an added bonus with that ground here's pretty clear I don't have any pine needles or thick beds of needles built up anywhere it's not really that kind of woodland it's a spruce woodland and this is a muddy area anyway very very damp the ground is just absolutely saturated as it normally is and I've just got some dead wood here just cut some old bits of dead timber that are lying around just to make a raft on the ground just like this and I'm going to put one just on the back here just as a brace just to give some elevation between the materials I'm working with so I don't smother it on the back of my pack here I keep my axe which is one of my main tools I probably use this more than my knife very very versatile tool this is a whole surface classic hunter with a two-pound head and a 21 inch handle and I keep it behind the frame of this elk a 35 which is my my backpack here does keep it away from my body it doesn't actually touch my back and there's just a strap here securing it in you just loosen that and you pull it tight and by keeping it close to my back there just here but right by the base of my back it actually distributes the weight very very easily and I barely notice the weight of the axe when it's just the axe on my pack and nothing else for a small workstation I normally cut myself a thick piece of wood like that thicker would be better but it just gives me something hard to work on with the axe and to split this piece of ash it's really really simple if I just look at the angry it's quite central really searched split

really easily it's got a nice straight grain so very easy to work with I do get on with this axe very well I've had it for about two years now it's a lovely axe good steel good wood and a nice heavy hair to two pounds and a good length handle so it's versatile it can be carried it's compact and it can do a lot of work that heavy head can really split down big logs which I do use it for it also be used for fine work as well if you really choose to do that and you might not want to use your knife so a very very good axe for an affordable price and I get on with it quite well

another tool that's always on me is my knife my primary tool they use this quite a lot this is my own knife the field master that I designed with Lee from I'll be custom knives are WL 34 which is quite a high performance stainless steel my Carter and as someone who spends a lot of time in damp environments and on coastal environments something that's stainless and that's very good for game prep also very good for wood prep and just has a versatile full flat grind with a secondary convex Pavel it's an excellent tool I use pretty much on everything I do another item that I carry on my person is my ferrocerium rod I carry a five inch by half inch just on my belt here in a leather sheath with a locking toggle so it can't come off and drop out anywhere and this is a kit I make myself I've carried this for quite a long time the reason I use such a large ferrocerium rod is because you can use it tens and tens of thousands of times and provided you've got good technique that last you a very long time it can get wet it can be freezing cold it's still compatible with a wide range of Tinder's and it's a very useful versatile tool that I always carry on me even though I use bow drill and I practice other methods using them in a wet environment on the day practically can be very difficult so having something like this still keeps you in the loop with all those natural materials forces you to use your other tools to keep your skills honed but it also keeps you a bit closer to the natural materials you're using as you scrape the ferrocerium rod with the back of my knife it's got a good 90 degree spine on it as well as some jimping that could be used also and if you pick the feather with the finest curls it will require a bit of persistence but you can get them going with this quite easily once that's lit shield it from the wind and hold it upright you can lay the other one over like that and then the third one move your tools out the way or your twigs on top you should have a pretty good fire fire is quite and down a bit now all other spruces burnt away and I've processed enough hard wood with the axe so I don't need to use it anymore for my duration here in the woods doesn't take much really as it burns quite slowly if you pick the right wood but in my pocket here have some other things I have a torch you might call it a flashlight if you're from the states in the British Isles we generally call them torches this is an LD 22 I've had this for about five years now maybe six very useful torch has adjustable brightness so you can make it last for a long duration takes doublea's and it really hasn't changed I also have a gun adapter on it so it could clip under the bottom of a shotgun for when I was lamping rabbits I also had a head strap for it so it could go on the top of my head like this but that head strap wore out so I do intend to buy another one so always carry a torch in my pocket and that just goes in my cargo pocket just here another thing that I carry is a pair of gloves and these are mechanic gloves I quite like these gloves are actually very durable I used to use the 511 flight gloves and I do like those as well but I got through a couple of pairs of them I just decided it was time to try something new I heard these were dual so I always carry a pair of gloves on my faul raven trousers in my cargo pouch as well I do have something else I have a spider code double-stuff sharpening stone and this is in a strop pouch that I've made for it it's just a pouch that keeps the stain clean and safe but it also has a dedicated strop along the top and I have done videos on this but the stain can be pulled out and used to hone a knife and axe or a blade of any kind and then you have a strop on top with some being compound on it some Smurfs / or stocky blue as I generally use and that's really really good for just keeping the edge on the knife sharp and the axe as well other things I carry on me string got some string just here loosely in my pocket got some 550 cord and also some jute twine always carry that just loosely in my pocket and another tool I always carry on me when I used to process pieces of wood down carry a backhoe Laplander on me but there are better saws out there I'm seeing to upgrade I think I might go from one of the silkies or put together some kind of base or but I like things that are compact and foldable that can just be on my person like this it's far easier than having to assemble a buck saw for example out of your pack that's great for a base camp but sometimes you just want to head to an area and just have all that kit on your person for it to just be lightweight and quite compact for you to use when you need it but that goes in the cargo pan of my far even trousers here and I've got a little lanyard that just comes up and clips to a securing fastener just here on my belt so you've seen most of the items that I carry on me all the central tools I've got a way of making fire a cutting tool do you have a container and a patch that goes on my back so sometimes I can carry a stainless steel water bottle on me full of water or empty so I can fill it up and then make a fire and actually boil some water sterilize it so I can drink it sometimes they carry some snacks on me too in my cargo pockets it really does vary but the basic tools you're seeing in this video are things that I always carry on me one thing is a whistle I do always carry a whistle on me I think it's quite an essential bit of kit such a good way of signaling out to people that are a long distance away and I've used it many a time in a variety of places really just to call out to people especially when the weather's really bad and you just need to get that noise across to someone to get them to turn around so you can flag them down but it's getting a bit later on in the day I'm getting quite hungry so I think I'll show you my cook set and then get some food going on the fire behind me and I'll show you some of the food that I use as well when I'm out on trails like this or camping out on the outside of the pack here I've stitched on this webbing pouch and it's just big enough for my cook set the reason I keep the cook set on the outside is easy to access water that way if I'm moving and I want to take my pack off have a drink something like that also is full of water so if I don't put the lid on properly and I put it into my main compartment which is full of all my clothing and potential sleep kit stuff that's really important insulation basically from the elements then that will just absorb all the water so if you pull this tab here you can see that my cook set is inside I've got a lid it goes on the top of my mug and if I just pull the sight should really all come out as one because this bottle fits quite tightly into here you can see the night actually designed to go with each other this is new because I left the original Cup for this in the Lake District when I was on a call so I forgot it but it can come out pretty easily and you've got a stainless steel water bottle with a removable lid that goes straight in the fire or a mug that can go in the fire as well that's made of stainless steel too and inside here is a spork so that's basically my cook kit really basic kit but very versatile and obviously you were you can tailor your meals around the cooking vessel to make it easier to work with I've got a food bag just here and this is what I carry all my food in not this tiny little bag it opens up very large and it's not a dry bag it's actually breathable which I want it to be and it's always kept inside the pack anyway but this can carry quite a few days worth of food I've done about four to five days out of it carrying things like rice pasta oats a little bit of dried meat things like crackers another bits of carbohydrate you can carry like nuts and trail mix that's something I always carry on me always have a bag of trail mix it's the way forward it settles the stomach it gets rid of that hunger for you just keep it in your pocket and you eat a few nuts and berries every now and then nice bit of energy and this keeps you going through the day and it stops you suddenly getting really hungry and losing energy

you need to get fire going and you haven't done it already but one thing I take for lunches is a porridge oats just have porridge oats I mean whether it comes a little satchel like that whether I just fill the bank without it just depends what I get really I was given a huge box of porridge oats recently this brand here so I'm just using them but this is with golden syrup flavoring makes it easy to eat it's nice and sugary gives you a bit of energy I usually have two satchels this one's not enough and that's a good lunch very slow release energy that keeps you going just starting to rain again so I'm done with this so just give it a rinse pop it back in on the other side of the pack in the other pouch is exactly the same pouch as the other side just stitched on around the edge I have my med kit with a patch to indicate that if we pop that open the first thing you can see it's an Israeli compression bandage just there just in case something goes wrong on a knee to access it's straight away it's the first thing there because it sort of indicates the most severe of the injuries but if you pop that out I've got a little clamshell med kit there this is just a personal med kit and it unzips like a clamshell just like that variety of items in there I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail because I've done this on other videos we have some tape I've got some doublea's which I use for my torch I've got some tissue here which often uses loo roll just for the beginnings of the trip a needle and thread for repairing equipment a toothbrush just like that so this is part of my hygiene kit as well as my tooth brushing I've got some oil oil is for cooking and but it's also for medical staff this is just a walnut oil a food grade walnut oil I use it for lots of different things it can be put on chapped lips it can be put on dry hands but it's also very good for cooking even maintaining tools as well I don't use it a huge amount so I don't carry loads of it but useful stuff to have I also have a mirror as well good for signaling also nice if you have an injury you want to have a look at your face for example maybe you've got something in your eye or you've scratched your face quite badly and it's bleeding you want to check it out so the mirror is pretty useful for that but that's really what I've got on that side there

on the other side I have a range of things I've got some dressing here as a compression bandage just there and another small bandage just here and that's for a smaller wounds basically quite useful pair of scissors got a guard on it as well just a bit of rubber are useful for things like fingernails toenails cutting things out but do you carry a pair of tweezers as well but it's actually in my camera kit at the moment as I just been using it to do something with a with a memory card believe it or not but have some pills here - you got some aspirin and I've got some anti-inflammatories in case of injuries and things like that and some water purification tablets if I really did need them but this sort of stuff rarely ever gets used some antiseptic cream quite useful and an array of dressing really as I say I've covered this in detail in another video so I won't go into too much detail about it but it's just a basic personal first-aid kit with some hygiene items in there too that just really allow me to look after myself while I'm out and about because there are a lot of natural remedies around but when things go go wrong really use nice to have some preparations and it's stupid not to I just took a bit of an intermission went over there to the edge of the woodland way it's very grassy and the trees starting to get very small and then it goes up again into large conifers but there's kind of like an intermittent patch of grassland and I find this guy a snake this is a grass snake one of the few snakes we have over here in the British Isles a really lovely one my size and unfortunately it was dead when I found it it was just on the ground but it hasn't been dead for very long and it looks like somebody's either bludgeoned it with something stamped on it or I'll hit it with something almost looks like it's been run over to be honest although they weren't signs of vehicle tracks or any kind of quad bikes or anything like that but yeah a nice one to find and a shame really they're very secretive creatures you don't often see them unless they're injured they can't hide themselves or are there dead like this one over here so you generally don't get to see them too often unless you're actively looking for them a nice one a good-sized you've seen most of the essential items that I've got on me and obviously that exists on the outer of the pack one thing I haven't touched on is clothing that's going to be a separate video because clothing really is a video in itself and it's your first line of defense it's really important it's pretty changeable obviously you can pack less or more take different types of clothing depending on what the weather is going to bring how long you're going to be out the same applies for my sleep system as well I'm gonna do another video on that after this one because sometimes I'm in a hammock sometimes I'm on the ground at the moment this is really a ground setup and what you see here is pretty standardized but I prefer being on the ground I'm generally warmer I can be more flexible with the environments I'm in I can use natural materials to pad the ground and be much warmer things like mosses and also leaf litter on the ground you can almost completely get rid of a roll mat all together and just go out in a bivy bag with a sleeping bag and if you're familiar with the kind of terrain you're in you know there's going to be good leaf litter and things around you can use you can really pound the ground out and have a very warm night but I'm going to show you what's in the pack now so we're going to open this up get the bag off get it open and I'll show you what's inside once we get this bag off we gain access to the actual pack itself you can see there's not a lot in the inside what I do have though on the outside is some foam here lining the actual actor of the pack and that keeps its shape and also what we have is a drawstring sack on the inside that actually keeps everything dry the pack is waterproof and really heavy rain I've left it out hung on trees outside my hammock and shelter just to test it out first item I'll take out is my tarpaulin this is a DD 3x3 I've done a full video on this and it's in a dry bag so if it gets wet it can be stuffed in put back in the pack I don't have to worry about it contaminating all my clothing and getting that wet this is a quick deployment setup so it can be strung up in just a few minutes and it can be configured for a diamond or a square or any other setup you may need for a hammock or on the ground I've touched on the food bag the food bag really does change in terms of what's in it it can be very full or it can be quite empty like it is next I'm obviously not out for a great duration but I usually put quite a lot of different types of food in there and again food will be reserved for another video because it really is an entire discussion in itself but other items we have inside I've got some clothing this is my clothing bag it's a mesh bag and usually I carry a number of different things in there these items can often come out this is a wool hat and I often have a wool hat on me all year round it's very useful to use at night things do cool down and putting a hat on retains a lot of body heat I've got a shemagh just there or a scarf as you could call it and that's part of my hygiene kit as well this is basically my towel these things make amazing towels and you can use them for all sorts of different things keeping warm for making a pillow out of if you're on the ground or making a pillow a little bit more comfortable so I always carry one of those on me for insulation and for washing but inside here carry inside the bag again just drop down this is a spare pair of thin hundred percent wool socks always carry spare clothing with me the amount of clothing I carry really changes depending on how long I'm out so normally I take one set of replacement clothing and I just rotate it so I have wicker layer that's what I generally wear wicker layer clothing I don't like cotton when I'm out especially when I'm working hard and you're sweating if you're wearing cotton it just gets saturated and it really doesn't retain a lot of thermal value whether there's this stuff dries very fast and it does retain the degree of thermal value so this wick allaire stuff is brilliant and I have Underpants a t-shirt a pair of wool socks and they dry really fast around the fire which is the great thing about them so you can keep those sorts of things clean but the way I usually do it if I'm away for a long time and I need to take more the dirty stuff goes to the back I always rotate in a circle like that so I know what's clean and what isn't and it can be washed and then hung out the last item I have in the pack is a pity bag and this is the bivi bag I use this is a british army grade one bivi bag and grade one means it's been used but it's of a very high it's in good condition and this one is have used it quite a few times really useful it's basically just a big gore-tex sack that your sleeping bag and your sleep mat go into and it keeps the damp from the ground from getting in to all of your kit it also blocks out the wind and rain - very comfortable adds about a season on to a bag roughly if you're cutting out wind and thinking about it that way it does quite a lot for you but if you look at the size of it this is roughly how big my hammock setup is as well so there's really nothing else that changes in this pack when I use a hammock I still use the same foam sleep mat a hammock same bag unless I take my larger arctic bag in the winter and they use the same tarpaulin so this kit really does remain quite similar and if you're interested in my hammock setup I'll put a link in the description for you because I've just done a full video on setup for that so the bivi bag is the last piece of gear that comes out of this sack and you can see that there's not an awful lot in there very much reserved for clothing for extra food all the sorts of things that really provide you with insulation to fend off the elements and give you a comfortable night but I'll show you how the lining of the pack works and that's pretty useful because as I said it doesn't doubles up as a washbasin and the actual lining of this pack here comes out like that it keeps a pack it gives it a shape freely and it stops things damaging from the inside of I put a lot of stuff in there and specialized that sharp things but this just rolls up like that and because this stuff is so lightweight I carry quite a bit of it really this is my pillow when I'm camping out while I'm in the hammock or when I'm on the ground this is basically my pillow and I can use this scarf if it's not wet I haven't used it to wash pretty thoroughly would to actually make it a bit more comfortable because these things are really nice on your skin they've really soft and very comfortable to sleep on so this has a use as well it's not just in there just to keep the pack steady it's actually part of the sleep system too but if we get this out here

this is a big waterproof sack and I'll show you how this works as a washbasin I've taken some logs that I've cut and just made a pretty basic square you can use much bigger logs than this which will give you a deeper basin but this has a few uses really at being a large sack it's completely waterproof and you can fill the whole thing up with water and actually carry water with the backpack which I've done once before and it's been very very useful for that but if you put this inside like that it just creates a wash basin for you you can fill that now with warm water from the fire obviously not boiling water that will damage the sack and your skin but warm water can go in there if you don't have a clean water source and you can use the rag and clean yourself have a nice wash and maintain hygiene and it's amazing what clean water will actually do for you soaps and suds and all these sorts of things you see in the modern world they're not really needed to actually clean your skin fresh water can do a lot for you and you have to remember that a lot of the reason you get dirty is because we wear clothing if you didn't wear clothing you wouldn't be so unhygenic but this clothing we wear trapping moisture trapping dirt and all the oils against our body creates a nice environment for bacteria to breed him another thing as well is the pillow I mentioned to you can become a changing mat but sometimes it becomes changing mat for me if you're having a real good wash you're taking your boots off your trousers off and you really need to wash quite thoroughly then it's nice to be on something that isn't going to stick to you all the dirt on the ground can bond to you quite a lot when you're damp so that can be pretty annoying if you don't bring anything with you like that to change on but hygiene can be real simple if you don't have a water source that you can access this is a great way of facilitating it by the campfire with clean water this backpack i'm using this lk 35 it's a swedish backpack i've done a video all about it and i put it in the description for anyone who's interested it can look really uncomfortable it can literally look like it's made of scaffold and seat belts as somebody said to me a little while ago but it's actually one of the most comfortable packs i've ever used and that's amazingly comfortable that's because of the frame design now when you buy the pack originally it'll just have these shoulder straps and it's pretty comfortable like that but what you'll find is all of the weight although it's flat to your back it'll be pulling on your shoulders very slightly and that's why I put this waist belt on it because this changes it completely we put this on it's it's very very comfortably on your hips and suddenly these shoulder straps if I loosen them I'll show you they become null and void really they don't do anything they're not bearing the load anymore it's all just on my hips they're all on my lower body which is fantastic and that's exactly where you want all the weight to be just to be on your hips and you want your lower body so all these straps do you know is they just keep it flush to my back to align with my center of gravity and the way I pack this bag is all of the heavy stuff goes at the top and close to my back so it's about halfway up and really close to my back all the heavy stuff and all the lighter stuff like the foam roll mat and other things like clothing go at the bottom of the pack and that's a really good way to pack your bag you may often see people say pack all the heavy stuff at the bottom well if you do that you'll be feeling like this all the time and it will be pulling down on you if you pack it close to your back and a bit higher up it will align with your center of gravity and you'll be able to carry really heavy loads for long distances and that's really where frame packs come into their own great pack really good system and I've got on with this really well it's a really nice even though I can carry heavy weights with it you can see Mike it's not the lightest but with this pack it becomes very light so showing you my system almost in its entirety all the tools that I carry med kit cooking kit hygiene kit a med kit as well and all of that really stays the same

it hasn't changed for a long time and my systems are quite refined quite comfortable with it they don't feel like I need anything extra they'll always be improvements on kit the more you use it the more you improve things and that's just a natural development of going out and practicing and using things and getting comfortable with other things experiencing new environments and new conditions and it just kind of all has its effect on your get your clothing your boots your gear your sleep systems and things just develop with time the things that are variable though a food obviously I pack more of it when I make for longer durations maybe I'm taking my gun on my fishing gear which I haven't shown you in this kit but sometimes I take my gun on my fishing kit and you know I've got the ability to catch game or catch food and in that context I don't need to take as much food with me but it really depends on where I'm going on what I'm doing sleep systems and clothing as well two very variable things sometimes I take a big a sleeping bag and that's really all that changes with my sleep system I just take thicker sleeping bag if I'm going to really cold conditions or I'm out at a time of year that's pretty cold sometimes I take thermal layer like this this is called an Iceman and it is just a big onesie basically but very very warm it's called the Iceman goes on really good system to put on and that can put an extra season on your bag as well as a bivvy bag to makes an incredibly warm setup you can see that when I'm in a hammock as well not much changes either obviously I take away the bivi bag I put a hammock there instead and I still use the same roll foam map thing that I have at the bottom there for my hammock I just don't use the hammock at the colder times of year I'm not one of these all year round hammock campers because I actually prefer to be on the ground I much prefer going out to an environment seeing what resources I have using leaf litter to build a nice bed making a natural shelter and actually sleeping out in that kind of context and what I usually go out on my own and do those sorts of things that's usually what I do is a lot of the time seller camping is a is what I enjoy I really enjoy selling camping at work they obviously take a tarp all in because I just don't have time to be building shelters and making leaf beds on the ground and debris bats and sleeping on them so things are very variable but a lot of the tools stay the same but if you're interested in my sleep system and you're interested in my clothing OBT separate videos on that clothing will be one video and boots and then the sleep system the other and I'll show you how my sleep systems work with various setups and you know the kind of things I like to do basically but I do have another kit

on the front of this does have some hunting gear in so I will include that in another video too but I hope this videos helped that I hope you found it useful and I'll see you very soon in another one take care guys thanks again