Military surplus items are often found amongst the bits of gear that many preppers acquire over the years.
Military equipment is often durable and designed for rough and tumble use, which is ideal for the types of situations and scenarios that preppers and survivalists are preparing for.
Chances are that you have several military items in the various kits in your preps.
However, there may be some gear you are missing from your kit that you might want to consider adding.
Why Choose Military Gear?
Military gear is cheap and readily available online and through your local army surplus stores.
It is true that not all military gear is high quality (it was built by the lowest bidder), but you can find pieces of kit that are durable and will last for many years.
Related: 100 Foods That Last 10 Years
There are often civilian alternatives, but these are usually much more expensive and less durable.
Can Opener P-38 or P-51
The US military used to issue small sheet metal can openers with their K rations.
Once they switched to issuing the troops’ MREs, the P-38 and P-51 can openers became obsolete. These simple devices are exceptionally effective and take up little to no space among your gear.
For many years I used a P-38 as my go-to method for opening cans, even at home in the kitchen. They are getting harder to find, but you can often find them at the local surplus store for less than a buck.
Backup Sight
If you have an AR platform firearm, chances are you are using the same rails the military does for attaching accessories. Most preppers will install optics on their rifles, but what happens if those optics fail or break?
You can often find small backup iron sights for your rifle at an army surplus store. These sights are typically low profile and lightweight making them a great addition to your prepping gear. Make sure that if you purchase a backup sight, take it to the range and dial it in before you need it during SHTF.
Poncho And Poncho Liners
Ponchos are decent rain gear, but they also have more utility beyond that. A poncho can be set up as a shelter in many configurations, used as a ground sheet, or paired with a poncho liner to make a field expedient sleeping bag.
Related: 13 Shelters That You Can Build With A Military Poncho
It is often easy to forget about pieces of kit like this when we have so many other options for rain gear and shelter, but a poncho can make a fantastic addition to a get-home bag, bug-out bag, or vehicle kit.
Tripwire
If setting up perimeter alarms is part of your preparedness plans, picking up several rolls of military trip wire is a good idea. Even if you don’t see the need to set up trip wires, a few rolls of this wire is good to have in your kit.
You can use military tripwire to make snares, repair gear, lash sticks together, or anything else you can imagine.
You can find tripwire rolls online or at your local surplus store; they are small, lightweight, and incredibly useful.
E-tools
Anyone who has dug a trench using an entrenching tool, also known as an e-tool, knows they are not the best tools.
I have many bad memories of digging in hard dirt with one of these folding shovels. I would not suggest putting one of these tools in any kit that you must carry because of their weight.
That being said, they are worth having in a vehicle kit in case you must dig yourself out of being stuck.
Wool Blankets
Wool blankets are fantastic to have in your prepping kit. The military blankets are often only 70% wool, but they are cheaper than the 100% wool options bushcrafters like to use, such as the Hudson’s Bay blankets.
These blankets are also good for vehicle kits, to include in a cache, or for your bug-out location. You can even make clothing from these blankets if you are handy with a needle and thread.
Cheap military wool blankets are good to have on hand as a part of your first aid supplies for treating patients who are or may be in danger of going into shock.
Mess Kits
Every military has a version of the mess kit which they issue to the troops. These are meant to be highly portable and are often a collection of metal containers and utensils you can eat out of or cook in.
Related: No-Electricity Cooking Techniques To Use During A Power Outage
Since most militaries have switched to rations such as the MRE, these kits are not in wide use anymore, but you can find a lot of assorted styles at your local surplus store.
These are great for cooking food over a fire or camp stove and can definitely find a place in your bug-out bag. A few other places you could use mess kits are vehicle kits or get-home bags.
If you use military canteens, it is also worth looking for a metal canteen cup and stove. Like mess kits, you can use a canteen cup to eat out of or to cook in.
Trioxane Fuel Tablets
The smell of a burning fuel tablet brings back fond memories of rainy nights in the patrol hide trying to brew a cup of coffee to stay awake and warm.
Trioxane fuel tabs are not in much use anymore since most modern militaries issue flameless ration heaters. However, trioxane tabs are great when used with a canteen cup and stove to boil water.
The flame is relatively low profile, and they don’t make a lot of smoke, so if you dig a little Dakota fire hole to conceal them, these fuel tabs are good for any situations where you are trying to not be seen.
Military gear has always been a part of prepping gear for good reason. Even though some gear has much better civilian alternatives, including military surplus in your preps is often a good idea, especially if you are on a budget.
The examples I have listed above are all good options for gear that you may not have thought about but should take a look at.
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Are the surplus clothing items up to real military standards?
It is good to use military surplus items, they are usually constructed to standards.
But take a look at the label to see where it is made. Who the contractor was. Have seen China made products or fake China made products at the civilian sections of the surplus stores.
You wonder if these are real genuine quality material made items.
Have seen some infiltrated into the base uniform shops. When I get invited by a friend in the US military to shop on base.
If these foreign made clothing say from China, could these be laced with chemicals or have trackers sewn into them.
How much of the real authentic military combat clothing and equipment. For our troops are actually made in the USA?
Hate to break it to you, but even the USA made military cloths are not the best. A lot are made by a company called Unicor, which is a cooperation that uses inmate labor. Haven’t met many inmates that give a c**p.
Have seen the latest camo clothing, that be alright to wear in the outdoors? Officially can that become a problem in a SHTF situation. Some local thinks your a military personnel that takes a shot at you, thinking we’re on active duty. Just saying the fog of war stuff as people are scared may shoot first, ask questions later.
Otherwise the cold weather clothing is very workable then spending hundreds on civilian made similar items of quality.
Hey what do you expect in Biden’s economy we working stiff’s have to stretch our spending dollars.
I am buying some military stuff as it is readily available locally. Why does the military have more of it’s sensitive equipment made say from China? If we go to war with them for Taiwan’s freedom they know our equipment and can counter our troops on the battlefield.
What a mistake it was Biden to leave Afghanistan with billions in the latest American weapons in the hands of 8th century religion terrorist. M-16’s to helicopters. Probably sold to China to make copies against us. Like Obama’s drone incident landing in Iran. That technology is being used in the Russian drones flying over Ukraine today.
On top of that-
Who gave military secrets to China? We see articles on blogs, like these:
*Flashback: Bill Clinton gave China Missile Technology
*Congressman: Obama is letting China steal U.S. military secrets
Report: Biden admin gave secret intel to China to try to stop Russian invasion of Ukraine
The fact checker sites are bought and paid for like the liberal main stream broadcast news media. There are very few factual news and website sources who give correct information. Since woke has invaded our nation. It’s the European Marxist complex here.
We got ongoing railroad derails polluting our country with toxic chemicals. Including chemical warfare by China. Fentanyl, diseased Chinese Nationals crossing the open border. Chinese secret weapons labs, found one illegal lab in California.
Yes buy what you can of military grade surplus not made in China.
Our USA Border Patrol could use that taxpayer paid, military equipment on the border to protect us Americans. What was Biden’s deal to give away new and surplus military equipment to Afghan terrorist? Alzheimer’s disease?
I’m ashamed our incompetent Biden administration ran out of Afghanistan. He left billions in military assets, Americans and Afghans working for us all behind. When will liberals learn?
Not to forget taxpayer’s paid for the biggest secured overseas AIRBASE next to China. China profited from Biden’s appeasement.
What happened to the military contractor’s dogs left behind there?
Those radical terrorist hate dogs.
Hey!, aren’t we forgetting the Border Wall surplus material stored in the desert?
The USA taxpayer’s can contract with civilian contractors, the National Guard and Reserve units to put up the rest of the Border Wall.
We can order those units to do their annual training, building the wall.
Do people know the old now dilapidated border wall was constructed by military units doing their annual training?
Now that is worth spending dollars on than going to Ukraine to defend their borders. Taxpayers should contact their politicians and congress. Start a grassroots campaign, how about that?
Yes I heard of NG and Reserve units building the original Southern Border Wall back in the 1990’s. It was backed by Congress too.
Yeah we paid for that wall material, time to build back better border wall.
The liberal politicians say border walls don’t work. Butt look at their private homes they have private walls for them.
Haven’t you heard? BIDEN is selling off all the materials stockpiled for the wall…FACT.
Hey WMD, Biden’s selling it to his friends China and Ukraine maybe the Mexican drug cartels too. The Chinese owned American farms need protecting, so do the Mexican drug lords drug compounds.
We might see some of the fence around is Delaware home.
But seriously the American taxpayers must contact their representatives in Congress to start building the wall with already paid for materials. I have contacted my congressman, did any of you do the same?
Who says we can’t build the wall? This is our country.
What are these China terror cells up to? For several years the Chinese have smuggled small arms into America. They own several farm acres next to US military bases, coincidence not. Military age males illegally in this country. Are we ready for another 911?
Hii Joel – Perhaps they bought the cheapest land they could find, not that many people want land next door to a military base due to contaminated water and air.If these folks want to start a farm and work their butts off then why not? I know of quite a few Asian farmers and they seem pretty good at it and I don’t think they are that interested in attacking the U.S. in some 911 style terror attack. If China wanted to attack the U.S. they have fare more efficient ways of doing it, if they wanted to they could nuke us off the face of this Earth and we could do the same to them. I suspect a greater threat to the U.S. from China would be changing the world currency to the Yen instead of the U.S. Dollar. Plus China is well aware that behind every blade of grass in the U.S. is a redneck with his or her rifle, plus a pistol, and an arsenal of other weapons and a ton of ammo hidden away. Another reason not too many countries really want to have a conventional type of war on our soil, yeah sure it’s possible someday they might invade us but as long as we have the 2nd Amendment behind us then I doubt it.
That was a Trump deal. Biden is not smart enough to broker that deal.
Whatever you get – Test it out – Form and Function – Before you need it to depend your life on it.
Especially weather gear. Food, fire, water, weapons, etc
Know and keep in mind : The Survival Priority “Rule of 3’s” :
3 Days w/o Food, 3 Hrs to Freeze to Death, 3 Minutes w/o Air.
3 seconds to pray to God, there’s no atheist in a foxhole on the battlefield, except for the enemy.
Amen brother.
3 days without water
Yup, thanks, forgot/mixed up that one. 3 days w/o Water. 3 “Weeks” w/o food ?
It’s 3 days w/out water and 3 weeks w/out food. However someone can drown in about 18 seconds, all of these numbers are approximations. Some people who are overweight can go much further than 3 weeks w/out food. I totally agree with the rest of what you’re saying about testing out your gear and don’t forget to work on your skills. A sharp or dull knife in the wrong hands is just an accident waiting to happen, let alone someone who doesn’t know gun safety is likely to accidentally shoot themselves or someone else. It’s like people who think they are expert foragers till they eat the wrong mushroom (or plant).
The E-tool is great and portable. The secret is to have many hands when digging. Fortunately when I used one I had an Ammo Bearer and Assistant Gunner to share the load.
Remember doing a hasty position, we had nothing but rocks and clay soil to dig in. Rough going, ha, ha.
Oh do I remember! There were a couple of times that after 4 hours and only down 8 to 10 inches that we just piled as much dirt an rock as we could on the side the enemy should have come from and laid down position, hoping for the best. Those were the days, huh.
CB
Instead of the E-tool I suggest the Walking stick with the shovel attachment. Has many items like a saw knife and other accessories stored inside plus has a tee handle that can be used as a crutch. For the price I find it better because it unscrews at each section and you can carry it in the pouch. I have 2 of equal length one with the shovel head 1 without. The shovel head is also a weapon knife edge on one side and axe on the other the tip is partially shaped like a pick. Just look up Walking Stick online.
Checked it out on Amazon.
Yeah made in China, is yours made in the USA?
What is the link for the walking stick?
Sales Person: “You can’t go wrong if you buy this, IT’S MILITARY GRADE!”
Civilian Response: “Oh wow, that’s wonderful!”
Veteran Response: “Oh HELLS NO!!”
Only the finest…
Remember
Keep quite
Keep your head on in crisis
Dont give away position
keep only neccessasary item s for survival
Refine your list as you get better educated on reality
alway keep close eyes, ears on surroundings
Trust NO One , Everyone is susceptable to fault, self , wrong motives
keep a tight reign on your pack and items in it
remember everything you buy with a card can be tallied up as record s and list for the thiefs to take later
This is why they want to eliminate cash and the underground economy ( Total Control )
Food , water is all you need , clothing is optional to enviornment
4 basic areas , desert, jungle, mountainous , frost
Remember YOU are the food to the wild who will look to eat you in this time of trouble
Pray, Use Common sense, take nothing for granite as need s outway everything else
Are you one of those Armchair Commandos, tons of advice but real outdoor skills or experience?
What if……
Always keep Murphy’s Law in the back of your brain bucket. Some of it sounds crazy, but it is all true. Of course you can’t cover all the ‘what ifs’, but if you can recognize where your problems ‘might’ occur, you’ll be somewhat ahead of the curve.Most of this comes from experience, too.
Items that you prepped with for small electronics and accessories if you need to dump them try to cache them. Even if they are broken. If you mark the area you can salvage stuff for parts solar panels on small solar devices can be reused at a later point plus if you know how to do it you can reclaim the silver if the panels are completely broken. Electronics just remember to remove the batteries otherwise you will come back to a corrosive mess take the rechargeable batteries with you for wet wood fire starting. The carbon in alkaline batteries can be used to spot weld and the paste is acid if you need to destroy something or set up a trap for 2 legged animals.
Yes war is hell. Mantraps hell no!
Traps, mines, IED’s and man-traps, are a cowards way to fight. In previous war areas, there are still active traps and bombs still dangerous.
Many countries have units going out risking their lives deactivating those ordnance left behind to maim or kill. Germany still has areas of dangerous chemical weapon areas they can’t walk in. Vietnam has mines blowing up farmers still today.
Think twice before making those tools of war. You might forget where you devices are an kill yourself by accident.
Then there are radioactive restricted areas around the world. No access for decades to centuries. Pacific, Chernobyl, Fukushima, USA Desert areas.
Do we need to add with more misery?
If we had up close and personal military or civilian hand to hand fighting in the raw. There would be less wars. A lot of politicians would not be quick to start wars. If we sent them on the battlefields to do their own bidding. Most people family or strangers don’t really want to stick a knife into a person.
Sure we got mentally delusional people who would, those need to be put down permanently.
I too have seen military surplus tagged with Made In China. Are these items as good as the genuine military USA made surplus? Has anyone compared these two to determine the quality?
There are some NATO military surplus items do these also compare in quality? Who sets the standards of what is military grade or subpar of quality made items? Thanks.
M81 woodland camo is readily available and a good choice as it’s pretty much not used by any government these days.
some other camo I like is most of the hunting camo. Krytptek Mandrake but it’s hard to find quality patterns that are not made in China. I’m also a big fan of A-TACS FG and other offerings by them. The problem with these, again, is finding high quality American made gear in some of these patterns.
I’ve got some of the 9 yr old Marpat camo. Still like the old Army woodland pattern seems to blend well. Some hard to find, except for the China made versions.
Most of the stuff I’ve seen in surplus stores isn’t surplus. It’s retail knock offs, mostly made in China for the last 20+ years.
Exactly. Rothco and Chinese made crap is all it is. Military style imitation stuff. And real Mil-surp mess kits aren’t really around anymore. Fakes, sure. Swedish mess kits with burner or USGI SS mess kits? Good luck. You can still find Italian or Serbian mess kits if you look around, they’re pretty good. The heyday of 1980’s military surplus stores is over.
They forgot a couple items. Like 550 paracord. The real stuff, not the cheap ChiCom garbage you get at Walmart for $4.95 for 50′.
And a M65 Field jacket with a liner. I have roughed it in sub zero temps with that!
Unfortunately, the wool blankets you get from surplus stores are totally unusable, unless you LOVE the smell of mothballs. I bought a couple and put one in my jeep for an emergency item. THEN, I drove 250 miles to my daughter and my tranny went out. I had to spend the night in a motel. Because motels and yes, even HOTELS are so very bad what with bedbugs, and other things including all manor of bodily fluids, I never sleep in the bed. I use a wool or silk ‘sleeping bag’ over a sheet I bring from home. Then a blanket on top if needed. The heat in the room didn’t work, so I brought out the wool surplus blanket. MY bad for not airing it out when I got it, as it was SO mothbally smelling!!!
I couldn’t even use it. Ever since, it has been on my porch airing out. That was almost a year ago, and it STILL smells of mothballs, which, BTW, are VERY toxic!
So, just be aware!
I actually bought one off Amazon, which was military as well, and it did smell, but the smell came out after a few weeks on the porch……
So now, I only buy new wool blankets, usually from Pendelton, even though they are made elsewhere from USA grown wool….and SPENDY. I space my purchases apart and now have a few.
But, there are MANY great things to buy at military surplus stores. I have frequented them on a semi-regular basis and always find great stuff!
Use cedar balls to keep moths away. Bonus it smells awesome.
SURVIVAL – SHOOTING & ARMED DEFENSE I KEEP ABOUT: 5K RDS 9MM, 5K RDS 223/556, 5K RDS 22LR. MINE ARE CONSTANTLY “TURNED OVER” SINCE I SHOOT COMBAT COMPETITIONS EVERY WEEK END FOR LAST 10YR – MOSTLY CQB STAGES. PISTOL 9MM, RIFLE 556. SAY – 500 RDS/MONTH. ALREADY TRAINED SNIPER – REM 700. BINOS. MY “GO TO WAR BOXES” :
WEATHER GEAR – SURPLUS RAIN COATS AND PANTS – 2 SETS. COMBAT BOOTS. ALSO HAVE – HELMET, BODY ARMOR – CLASS IV(RIFLE RATED)(THE “REAL THING”), SNIPER NETS, FACE PAINT, ETC. CAMO CLOTHES – WOODLAND AND URBAN – FOR “HERE” – THE “REAL THING”.
PARACORD ABOUT 300FT. BOOTS, GLOVES, WATER BLADDER W/TUBE. COMBAT SHOVEL, + WHAT AM I FORGETTING ?
if you are planning on buying “military surplus”, buy the newer stuff. The new sleep system is 6 pounds lighter than the older three bag system, the bivi bag is better and has a screened window with an aluminum stay so that you can breath without causing condensation and getting eaten alive by bugs.
The new issued ruck was a good idea, but isn’t great if you; a. aren’t young anymore, b. have a bad back/knees/hips/ankles or c. can’t properly pack a heavy pack. They wanted it to be awesome, it sounded like it was going to be awesome, and it was an absolute failure. Stick with the ILBE and older. If you know how to reduce weight in packs, you can get an ILBE sub 4 pounds…. you will have to do a lot of careful cutting though…
After 22 years in the infantry, there are only a handful of items I thought would be worth holding on to that wouldn’t get me jail time… Of course, my woobie. They don’t even ask for that back if you’re retiring, they just know they aren’t getting it back. Most of my cold weather gear. minus the Gortex jacket and pants. All the new silk weight base layers, waffle or grid fleece – it’s all light and tough. I kept my tarp. It replaced the poncho a few years ago, it’s heavy as hell, but it makes a great shelter. My Canteen Cup.. Not that it’s some great bit of kit, it was a personal thing – I acquired it in 94′ at SOI and always had it on my gear – thousands of cups of coffee has gone through that thing.. Sealine water proofing bags. These are probably the most expensive thing I conveniently forgot when turning my gear in for the last time. They replaced the old green bags and come in a set, one large main bag, one smaller bag that most used for socks and cold weather gear. They are beefy – and I use ultra lite stuff sacks for regular hiking, but my bug out bag has the Sealine bags.