Bushcraft Basics Ep07: Water Containers

Description

In this video we have a look at water containers. A simple item but ideally a versatile one which should act as a vessel to sterilise and hold our water. Plastic bottles are often favored but lack versatility and are better served as secondary containers.

Become a Patron:

https://www.patreon.com/MCQBushcraft

Bushcraft Basics Blog - http://www.mcqbushcraft.co.uk/bushcraft-basics/

Amazon Store:

UK Store - http://astore.amazon.co.uk/mcqbushcraft-21

US Store - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20

Merchandise:

T-Shirts - http://mcqbushcraft.spreadshirt.co.uk/

Connect On My Website - http://www.MCQBushcraft.co.uk

Connect On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MCQBushcraft

Connect On Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/mcqbushcraft1

Connect On Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/MCQBushcraft

Product Links for this Video:

UK:

Swedish Cook Set - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/German-Swedish-Meths-alchol-military-Trangia-burner-and-mess-tins-/161721110037?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a7544e15

GSI Glacier Mug: - http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/gsi-glacier-stainless-steel-canteen-mug---fits-perfectly-on-a-nalgene-type-bottle-14228-p.asp

Snow Peak Trek 700 Mug: - http://astore.amazon.co.uk/mcqbushcraft-21/detail/B000AR2N7Q

Vargo Ti-Lite camping: - http://astore.amazon.co.uk/mcqbushcraft-21/detail/B0009V5TS8

Klean Kanteen: - http://astore.amazon.co.uk/mcqbushcraft-21/detail/B00K11LMG4

GSI Stainless Steel Bottle: - http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/gsi-glacier-dukjug---stainless-steel-water-bottle---1ltr-4653-p.asp

The Pathfinder School/Canteen Set: - http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/the-pathfinder-schoolcanteen-shop-stainless-steel-canteen-kit-13875-p.asp

Pathfinder Bottle & Nesting Cup Set: - http://www.heinnie.com/pathfinder-bottle-nesting-cup-set

Nalgene Wide Mouth Standard Stainless Bottle: - http://www.alloutdoor.co.uk/hydration-filters/nalgene/nalgene-wide-mouth-standard-stainless-steel-loop-top.htm

USA:

GSI Glacier Stainless Cup: - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20/detail/B003LDKNZ0

Snow Peak Trek 700 Mug: - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20/detail/B000AR2N7Q

Snow Peak Mini Solo Titanium Cookset: - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20/detail/B005M78BYI

Vargo Titanium TI-Lite 750mL Mug: - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20/detail/B007GF9NVO

Guyot Designs Backpacker 32-Ounce: - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20/detail/B001L8N5H0

Nalgene Stainless Bottle 38 oz: - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20/detail/B004ASI9II

Klean Kanteen Wide Mouth Bottle: - http://astore.amazon.com/mcq-20/detail/B00E60VPYU

Tags: woodland,forest,mountains,river,lake,tinder,Survival,Bushcraft,survivor,knife,knives,valley,axe,camping,tent,footwear,hunting,fishing,backpack,clothing,boots,primitive,nature,shelter,shooting,shotgun,rifle,rucksack,flashlight,torch,craft,plants,trees,education,wilderness,family,hobbies,fun,animals,game

Video Transcription

hi there guys it's Mike for MC give us craft here and welcome to episode 7 of bushcraft basics in last week's episode we have a look at backpacks and it was really just to provide the beginning stages of looking into backpacks for people who are really beginning bushcraft and what they can get for that budget there's a whole range of pack site there and last week's episode is really just the tip of the iceberg something we will come back to later down the line as we start to put equipment in our pack and look at different systems out there that can work with different packs that are available to us but in this week's episode episode 7 we're going to be having a look at water bottles and a facility to carry water with you out in the woods or out in the wilderness and to be able to have a multifunctional item that you can sterilize water in as well which is a very important system that you want to carry and behind me here I have a whole range of water bottles some pretty well-known and their accompanying nesting cups as well that we'll have a look at which can create quite a nice system for you I've got two containers here in front of me this one is branded by Maxpedition that manufactured by Nalgene and this one here is a Guyot designs 38 ounce stainless steel bottle branded by Nalgene and these two bottles will contain the same amount of water one liter or 38 ounces there are some huge pros and cons really to each bottle for me a water container has to do a number of different things it has to contain water for me to carry when I'm out in the field a minimum of one liter for my environment which is a temperate northern zone not particularly hots not particularly cold the majority of the time of the year so carrying about one liter minimum for me works fine and I don't really need to carry any more but being stainless steel I've now got the ability to

go to a local water source or a water source that I find along the trail which are many of in this kind of environment lots of little rivers and streams it's a very damp environment it rains probably for about 60% of the year on average so my ability to find water is um it's quite plentiful and I can collect water with this bottle take the plastic lid off hang it over the fire and sterilize water and when it's cooled down which is very easy to do you just then place the bottle in a river for a while stand it up in a small stream it cools down very very fast and you put the lid back on it goes back in your pack and you've got some sterilized water not filtered that's something different but you have sterilized water to be able to put in your pack and then carry on the trail or operate ran a camp area I've recently been to the Mediterranean I went to Northern Cyprus on the west side and I spent about a week there and while I was there I did a lot of exploration into the mountainous regions that are around that area and I also travel to the northeast side and did some some exploration there really just to have a look at the environment and I've looked at some of the wildlife there some of the snakes some of the lizards there are a lot of interesting wildlife out in that kind of environment and it's very very beautiful but when exploring the mountains is can be it's very hard work it's very physical and you're pretty much going uphill all day and you get through a lot of water because it's between about 35 and 40 degrees right there at the moment which isn't even that hot compared to later on now I've left is probably going to gut 250 that now which is incredibly warm so I often traveled on days where there was a breeze I wore a hat I carried a lot of water I traveled in the evenings I stuck to the shade and I was very sensible about it but I got through a hell of a lot of water just going up some of the mountainous regions that and carrying your water in a bottle like this one liter is nowhere near enough and because there wasn't a lot of water sources out there to take from and it was very dangerous to make a fire in an environment like that bearing in mind the legalities as well it wasn't really an option for me so this is where our secondary water source comes into play this may be your primary one and it carries a lot of versatility and even though it's got a bit of weight to it being stainless steel it makes up for that in the field being able to be a permanent container you can sterilize and drink from but a secondary water source like this one was a godsend as in the Mediterranean where the temperatures are incredibly hot this is a Camelback military issue one water bladders like this are fantastic additional water systems and if you're exploring terrain you're not sure about all your going up into the mountains and you're doing a lot of hiking you're in a country or not familiar with and you're expending a lot of water all the time which I was when I was in Northern Cyprus was getting through liters and liters of the stuff just getting up TV into the mountains even just getting to the base of the mountain through the the Tang's was a was a bit of a maze and I got through quite a lot of water just getting there so I hope that's helped just a little bit on the psychology on my take on it everybody has their own systems and it's really whatever works for you and through your experience you'll develop systems that you're happy with but the way I operate is I have a primary water system that is always in my pack it comes with me almost everywhere I can sterilize water in it I can use a dry bag from my kit that's empty if I set up a camp area to act as a water well so I can take water from a water source hang it around a tree at a camp take water from it and sterilize so I'm not going back and forth and you you're sort of extending the capacity of your primary water source that way because one litre isn't really enough sometimes but if you're exploring hot countries you live in a hot climate it's hot in England sometimes when you get up into the mountains people have died going up in to the mountains from heat exposure the secondary water sources is really important and the great thing about these bladders is that if you just find the bladder part and incorporate it into your pack if it's empty it's nice and flat it takes up no snow space and it's very light and it's land when you need it and you can almost use it like a water well a bit like your dry bag around camp and these things are very accessible as well so you can drink from them regularly and you don't get dehydrated because one of the biggest issues can be forgetting to drink or not feeling thirsty and when you're out in the woods I've seen it so many times on courses especially when I've been out for a week or longer people have rotten headaches they feel sloppy they make mistakes keeping hydrated is really important but let's have a look at some products specifically so this is the stainless steel bottle that I use my primary container which I've talked about and it's part of my cook kit and this is a Nalgene or branded by Nalgene it's actually a Guyot designs 38 ounce water bottle in surgical stainless steel bpa-free quite thick steel as well I've dropped this quite a few times it's only been one occasion where it's fallen and hit the corner of a rock or it's dented quite badly but even then it's not really a problem at all it's a very strong bottle and they generally don't pick up too much soot really depends on the kind of wood you use but very easy to clean you can scrub them or use the ash from a fire to actually get the soot off that I don't really bother I just put it straight in a stuff sack because it gets used so much but I'm forever scrubbing stuff off it and I actually get sick of doing that when I'm out in the field but you can see it comes with a plastic lid and the lid is on a lanyard and this is removable you can take the lid off and you can see it has a rubber seal and the lid is plastic and the water comes into contact with that plastic face there in the lid some stainless steel bottles are all stainless steel so the water does not come into contact with plastic at all which have some benefits but the lanyard comes off like this and the lid is then removable and obviously this can now be placed in a fire the lid won't burn you can see I've made some changes to it which probably doesn't surprise to many people but I have a pot hanger just here and it's just really made with a piece of wire and some electrical connectors that allow me now to connect this to a piece of wood or a pot hanging device to put over a fire and then I can keep my water there and sterilize it even though it's got a nice flat part there on the base and it will stand in the embers when you put pots in the fire on ember you will effectively cool those embers down rapidly and smother them and you really want a gap between your container and the actual fire itself I usually sterilize water on flame because it's done very quickly and I cook on ember and it's done very slowly but these are very good bottles they have a wide mouth they're pretty easy to clean as well because of that wide mouth so they can be serviced if need be and they have a lip there which means this sort of bail can be put on very very easily design bottles come in all shapes and sizes you can see I've got the 38 ounce which is my one there and we've got me 21 X just here very very tapered not very useful out in the woods simply because it doesn't stand up very well and uneven surfaces are really the norm out here and spilling water isn't a particularly pleasant thing when you've just spent ages sterilizing it over a fire and then you may have to go and get more it's not something you really want to risk it's the little things that irritate you and your outside there's best to keep systems as easy in his user-friendly as possible and you'll have a smooth ride when you're out doing these kind of things no matter how you or how experienced you are but I ran with the backpacker model for many years back for years just slightly tapered compared to this one here still quite large 34 ounces say just under a litre of water and it was very useful I put a pot hanger on it as well so I could hang it over a fire and ran with it for a long time then I spotted this one online a friend of mine told me about it website that you can find it and I just thought it was the done thing because it contains a little bit more water and it sits in my nesting cup very nicely I've got a nesting Cup just here this is a Vargo titanium mug and there's my cook system their lid goes on the bottom just like that and it all goes into a stuff sack and it can just be put in my pack so it's a very good thing to buy one of these stainless steel bottles because it's the beginning stages of putting together a very useful system we've had a look at the Guyot designs range there and partly Nalgene as well with some respects and they can be quite pricey especially over here in the UK and they can range up to about 40 pounds which is extortionate for a stainless steel bottle there are cheaper alternatives out there and I think if you're new to bushcraft if you don't have a lot of money or on a budget then there are a lot of options for you clean canteens can be picked up in the UK for around about 11 to 15 pounds and you can get a stainless steel one which looks pretty much just like this Pathfinder bottle here for about 11 pounds or famine and it'll be of an excellent quality food grade stainless steel and very safe to drink from so you don't always have to spend a huge amount of money there are options out there for you and they're just as good so what we have here is a cook set designed by Dave Canterbury the Pathfinder school quite a popular one and you see a lot of people using them today is it's a complete set that you don't have to build yourself and has pretty much everything you need to get by when you're out in the woods or out in the wilderness it comes with a stainless steel water bottle you can see just a got the Pathfinder logo on the top on the side it's pretty strong it's not quite as strong as the guy at bottles a bit thinner but still very strong and it should put up with most abuse that you give it and you just need to look after it as well like anything that it's got a wide mouth as well so it should be relatively easy to clean and it comes with a fish mouth spreader which clips in you can hang it on the fire obviously take it off the fire and leave it on the ground without burning yourself so it minimizes any risks of being burnt you've got quite a substantial lid with a good rubber seal that's not going to wear down on you so a good bottle to act as a primary water container to help sterilized water and carry it you've also got a stainless steel mug or a nesting mug the bottle fits in it very nicely and that's quite a good set I like things that fit together like that saves weight and space also saves clutter inside your pack keep systems organized this is a really good quality very strong stainless steel mug and you could do quite a few meals in this things like rice and oats and various other things like polenta decent carbohydrates and energy levels while you're out you can also do little stews and soups and things like this as well or even drink tea if you you want to drink tea and coffee when you're out in the woods camping out say you could do quite a lot of meals and things like this and it comes with a lid as well you can see the lid has notches on it you match those notches up with the holes that are on the side of the actual pot and this fish bladder can go in there as well and you can hang this on a fire and keep it away from smothering embers if you're just warming food or on the flame if you're sterilizing water so again very useful we do also have a windshield for a transia or specifically not for that but for any kind of fuel burning stove or even some wood underneath there for having a very very small controlled fire maybe like a covert fire for example you don't want to create too much smoke or have it too big and your pots can go on top of that so you could use that to sterilize water as well or you can just cook your food or warm up a meal the good advantage of a system like this is it all fits together really well so you can have something like this patch here this is a Maxpedition pouch you can get other varieties as well and it really goes together in a respect that you want to be putting these in on the top actually like that then putting the lid on you can have your your fish spreader just in there and it goes together quite nicely so we've had a look at a range of systems and we've still got a few more things to look at before the end of this video which are different types of nesting cup that are available I'm going to show you a couple of types of nesting cup we've obviously had a look at the path for nesting cup which is a stainless steel one that accompanies the water bottle in there cook it and I think this is a good product and I think if you've got the money and you're looking for something just to buy straight out of the box that's ready to roll then a set like this you won't go too far wrong with it at all and it's a very versatile at here you know collecting water sterilizing it nesting cups to cook and drink from as well so very useful pretty much identical to what I've got just mine is comprised of different products I've got a guide bottle as you've seen on a Vargo tealight 750 milliliter mug and this is probably in my opinion the best titanium mug you can get because it's of the thickest grade titanium a lot of titanium mugs like this snow-peak one a very fragile and if you left that on a fire without anything in it it will start to walk quite badly which I've had experiences before in the past but this one here I've had for a long time there and I really do like it and it's got a good lip on it as well so you can add a pot hanger if you wish to so there are a number of different systems really you can look at I mean going through a range of bottles I wouldn't recommend this one here because of its shape I probably wouldn't bother with the Nalgene bottles they just don't carry enough versatility arguably people say you can boil water in them if you need to of course you can you can do that with a you know bottle any bottle plastic bottle if you you're in dire straits and you really need to but this isn't really about that it's about putting together systems for going out and enjoying some time in nature and having good systems to you to use that you can rely on and these bottles just for me just ain't really tick all the boxes therefore they just ain't qualified to go in the kit I'd much rather have a bladder there's an additional water source source water container to a primary water container that does the majority of my work on a mount here but let's have a look at some of the nesting cups that it can accompany these things this is the Snow Peak 700 milliliter cooking pot or mug and this is titanium as well I've used this one for a long time you can see it's still got some remnants in it there and these are pretty good as well they're much thinner you can see I mean I could crush that with my hand if I wanted to quite easily and and that's one reason why I've abandoned this one and I stick with the Varg a much tougher you can actually just accidentally sit on these you know by your by mistake of course and you could just completely crush it'll stand on it something could fall on it it's not too good so in a way stainless steel or a thicker titanium is the way to go but these are still pretty good but I just think for the money this Fargo one here you can get for around about 40 pounds this here retails in the reams of 60's as part as part of the mini cook set you can also pick these up for a little bit less but I think it's good to spend the extra money or just go with as cheap of steel want to be quite honest but whatever mug you buy or whatever bottle you buy sorry they generally fit very well so the clean canteens the Nalgene bottles the guide design bottles even the Pathfinder set will all fit into these kseniya mug so on a later day if you wanted to upgrade the Pathfinder set to titanium mug there's not really no need to but you could do it would fit in fine and it gives you quite a nice system then it goes on the bottom of the pack for example so the mug that I use is the Vargo titanium 750 milliliter mug as I say I think it's probably the best one because of the thickness and the grade and the actual titanium it's really strong

you can put quite a lot of bump on it and you won't you won't bend it too easily you won't break it it doesn't have a thin bump like some them do at the base to be really thin and they start to warp a and they pop in a night and it can be pretty annoying actually seen some of them pop out like that one on the fire because of heat and always sit like this and they're very thin staining mugs they they do make it to a very thin grade sometimes and best to check a product if you can before you buy it in all circumstances but I like this one got a good lip used to have a pot hanger on it but now I generally just sit it on the embers because I cook very slowly on embers when I'm 8 you can elevate it with a couple of sticks with a bit of heat but it's like if love on the skype bottle and the lid goes at the base basically this stuff sack is all the way to the top around their lid can still be unscrewed you can still drink from it even with the stuff sack on so it's a good system oddly enough I have part of a jet boil set that somebody was throwing out and they kindly gave it to me and these are actually quite interesting this is titanium as well and it cooks food brilliantly on a fire so if you have access to one of these maybe part you have a jet ball set already and you're thinking ah now I need a separate mug just take the part of your Jetboil set because this will keep it elevated from the embers and it actually cooks better because it doesn't flatten those embers out and smother them at all doesn't stop oxygen getting to them because of this at the base actually allows it to cook a lot better but this is about 700 milliliters as well right to the top comes with a rubber lid so not quite as useful but you could obviously get a lid for it or make a lid somehow but again this fits any manner of bottle just fine as well but you have the shroud at the bottom which could be arguably more inefficient in some respects for packing but there are lots of different mugs out there and this is just an example of one of them but this probably isn't the most versatile actually around the camp farm and I wouldn't really use this if you do have a jet boil and you're looking for a bottle to go in it and for it to function as part of a cook set you could not spend the money and just use this and use that for cooking your

we've had a look at a range of systems and we've also discussed a bit about the kind of functionality in the psychology behind what you're looking for my take on it obviously as I've always said your experiences will dictate the way you move forward with your equipment and your skills and the further we go into this series that the more kind of paths will open up across the main routes and you can take whichever one you wish and start formulating your own opinions and your own systems when you're out in the field and that's really where the series ends and and at the end of it you start to go off and do all these sorts of things quite competently and you know what works and what doesn't and it only really grows from there these are just my experiences and for a lot of people out there this system might not be functional at all because it just doesn't match their diet one thing that's quite important with these cook systems your notice is the pots quite small and some people fry a lot of food when they're out there I don't I don't really anything fried at all if I catch fish or I catch something like a squirrel or shoot a rabbit or some game when I'm out in the field it's cooked over the fire in a very simple way and I keep things simple because then I'm then I do them things are complex you're less likely to accomplish the task correctly and it can be more frustrating for you and you're out there because you've got to keep things really simple when you're out in the field and that way you actually do them and you actually do them well and they work for you so my advice really would be depending on what your budget is have a look at the links in the description below you'll see a whole range of things in the description things that haven't even been mentioned in this video because there's such a range of products out there obviously I can't cover them all there are so be you know walking around the woods with a trolley in front of me full of pots and all sorts of things which is really what the series is about but this is the psychology aspect of it and the perspective of what you're looking for is really the most important part of this training series obviously I show products and I talk about them I talk about their features but the the most important bit is is understanding why this works and what you're going to do with it rather than just having a product and putting it in a cupboard and then they're using it every so often it is this about it's about understanding why you use it more than me showing you these products obviously I show the products in this training series because that's what connects the dots but it's more about the the understanding of why you've got these things so I hope this videos helped out and thanks for watching please see the links in the description below I'll try and answer any questions and I'm sure many of you will be able to answer questions for other people if you're more experienced in the comments section and I'll see very soon in next week's episode of bushcraft basics take care guys and thanks again