Urban Survival Tools – Review of Gerber eFECT Weapons Maintenance Tool

It is not often that someone comes up with a really great accessory item, even for firearms. The Gerber eFECT (Field Expedient Cleaning Tool) Weapons Maintenance Tool, manufactured by Gerber Legendary Blades is one of those rare instances where innovation meets functionality. This is a convenient multi-function tool, with six separate tools, to help perform disassembly and critical cleaning functions on the AR-15/M-16/M-4 family of weapons.

The eFECT includes the following tools:

Flat Blade Screwdriver. General screwdriver for flat head screws.

Pin Punch. For use to push out tight receiver pins.

Nylon Bristle Brush. Used to clean away sand or dust from your weapon.

Angled Pick. This is a curved pick tool to use for cleaning those hard to reach areas that the M-16 family is famous for. The pick can be removed and replaced with OTIS cleaning accessory components with the 8-32 tpi female thread found in the excellent OTIS cleaning kits.

Bolt Carrier Carbon Scrapper. This is an excellent scrapper tool for removing carbon deposits in the receiver or inside the bolt carrier firing pin housing.

Sight Adjustment Tool, for both A1 and A2 front sights. This tool is reversible, being held on by a magnetic post which in and of itself is useful to pick small parts up with or to hold metal parts in place or so they won’t get lost.

The eFECT utilizes a dual Wedge Lock that holds the tools in the open position, and they cannot be released until the wedge is pulled back. The eFECT comes with a MOLLE- compatible belt sheath or can be stored in the internal compartment of an A2 buttstock.

Available from Brownells, click here, as item number 100-004-875 with a retail cost of $76.99

Urban Survival Skills - Bug Out Bag Questions

We received a message on Face Book (see Urban Man on Face Book) from Paul, who is married and the father of two girls, 10 and 14 years old.

Paul have viewed the first four segments of After Armageddon and was introduced to the Survival Bug Out Bag concept that was commented on in After Armageddon Chapter 4. He lives in the city and is now starting to make plans in case of a collapse (economic or pandemic are his two main fears).

Paul also viewed the previous posts on UrbanSurvivalSkills.com relating to Survival Bug Out Bags and other posts on Survival Gear and Equipment. His primary questions were: 1 – should each person (including his girls) have separate items in their bag, in other words spreading out the items, such as one girl carrying water and fire starting items and the other girl carrying food and the first aid kit? What type of bags and the maximum weight would I suggest that the girls carry?

As far as splitting up Survival Gear and Equipment I think Paul needs to ensure each Survival Bug Out stands alone. Consider the people in your Survival Group being separated. Each Bug Out Bag needs to fully support each survivor. Food, water, Survival tools and clothing in each bag. Each person carrys their own important paper documentation and better yet multiple copies which can be crossed loaded.

As far as weight to be carried or limited to,......depending upon the type of bag they are using and the girls’ physical condition. I would think a very maximum of 40 lbs, maybe less for the younger girl. A lot of this will be water, which will be consumed and therefore lightening the load as you go. Same as food as it will also be consumed. Your foot movement will be slow, as it should be to ensure security. You would be taking multiple breaks or temporary halts during movement to rest, do navigation/map checks, adjust loads, looking and listening for others approaching and generally ensuring you are not being followed, especially by two legged predators.

Many great bags out there. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com is partial to bags made by CamelBak, Eagle and new bag we have been testing from Mystery Ranch. All good kit – sometimes it boils down to personal preference.

Paul mentioned he has an older Jeep Cherokee in good shape and he has two full up spare tires for it and two five gallon fuel cans that he would also take. That’s a good start. You would be leaving the urban area during a collapse, first in your vehicle, and possibly later on foot if and when that became necessary. The Survival Bug Out Bags need to be within arms reach and the contents never used while you still have a vehicle to transport you. Drink and eat out of stocks in the vehicle. The Bug Out Bags need to fully stocked if you have to immediately run from the vehicle and don’t have time to be screwing around cross loading other Survival Gear or Equipment.

I would consider a firearms for each girl based on their firearms training and capabilities. Worst case, .22LR rifles for each with a minimum of 100 rounds of spare ammunition.

Paul, the bottom line is that the Survival Bug Out Bag equipment list won’t change much per bag or per person carrying it. Consider everything in the Survival Bug Out Bag as individual kit. Thanks for your excellent question and hope this helps.

Survival Gear & Equipment - Army Equipment Initiatives

Lets look towards the U.S. Army and their Rapid Fielding Initiative of equipment for lessons learned that can be considered for the kit of Survival Gear and Equipment for the Urban Survivalist.

Certain units of the U.S. Army have been the first to benefit from Asymmetric Warfare Group and Rapid Equipment Force's projection of the newest and best equipment.

No where is this more evident than the replacement of the Mountain Combat Boot in favor of the Merrill Chameleon light hiking boot which has been best described as a tennis shoe on steroids. The soldiers equipped with the Merrill Chameleon love them for their lightness and traction. At 2 lbs compared to 4 lbs for the issued Mountain Combat Boot, the reason is evident.





The Army Modular Sleeping System Patrol Bag (shown below) at 2.3 lbs was replaced by the Mountain Hardware Phantom 45 sleeping bag which weighs 1 lb.

The Modular Sleeping System Bivy, an outside gore-tex cover for the Modular Sleeping System Patrol Bag, weighing 2.2 lbs was replaced by the Memo GoGo LE Tent which weighs 1.9 lbs, not a lot of weight savings here, but every ounce helps and the Soldier's reported comfortable sleeping on exposed mountain tops.


UrbanSurvivalSkills.com will be reporting on more innovations in Army gear in the future as the Army lessons learned from hard living and harder fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan certainly provide good data on the quality and ruggedness of the equipment that Urban Survivalist's may be be considering for their Survival kit.

Urban Survival Gear and Equipment - Product Review - Gerber Onyx 50 flashlight

Great little flashlight, small enough to put in any pocket and runs on our favorite battery a "AA" that we can recharge as opposed tot the expensive, but excellent and high lumen Surefire flashlights that run on a DL123 or CR123 type battery (not rechargeable).

We think one or two Surefire in medium lumen (60 or so) and high Lumen output (120+) are great and essential Survival Equipment to have, especially when combined with a firearm and used when lighting up a search area, but in a collapse you will rapidly run out of batteries unless you stockpile a butt load of them and even then the batteries can degrade. We have based on light, both flashlights and lanterns around AAA or AA batteries since they can easiy and quickly recharged through a 12 volt system.

The Gerber Oynx is small (see the scale photograph against a dollar bill); put outs acceptable light for most tasks (30 lumens); has a LED instead of a bulb which is breakable; in-expensive at around $20; works on one (1) AA battery; and, has a push button on/off tail cap.

The Gerber Onyx is well made in an aluminum housing and the housing barrel is flattened for a better grip Great piece of Survival Kit and well priced.

Survival Chronicles of Jim - Chapter 12

It's been awhile since I wrote last about my Urban Survival Preparations and Survival Gear and Equipment procurement plan. Just as well as I needed the time to order some of the essential Survival Gear I was missing.

I finally bought some Silver bullion in the form of 1 ounce Silver Rounds from Northwest Territorial Mint. I bought ten (10) of them and it costs me a total of $194.10

Bought two of the Suisee Sport Alpine Adult Mummy (Sleeping) bags from the Survival Store (link to the right). This purchase cost a total of approximately $100.00 (can't remember exactly). When they arrived I realized I made a good buy on this item of Survival Gear. The Suisse Sport Alpine Mummy bags are green and sage in color, have a lot of room, are good for comfort to zero degrees and compress into a small package in the compression-stuff sack.

My Urban Survival Preparation in the Survival Foods area was weak, not counting some Mainstay Food Bars I have in my Survival Bug Out Bag and in my initial cache near my Safe Location, so I bought a case of dehydrated food, from EarthWaveLiving. This case consisted of six #10 cans (large coffee cans) so I bought one can each of powdered eggs, hash brown potatoes, carrots, peas, blueberries and peaches. Oh by the way, this case of food cost approximately $110.00, not too bad for what I figure would be around 30 days of food for two people if rationed correctly. I'm going to have to talk to Neomi about buying, storing and caching food.

I also went to the grocery store and bought three 50 pound bags of dog food and will replace each one as I use it to ensure that when I do bug out I have at least 100 pounds of dog food to take with me to the safe location. I will probably cache some more near the cabin but have to figure out how to package it.

My next task is to buy and store some rice and beans and prepare a cache of rice and beans near the safe location as well. And I'm going to see about buying another gun so my son can use it. Being new and clueless to guns I'll talk to the boys (the Survival Cadre who write this blog) and see what they think.
You all be safe and get prepared.

Urban Survival Tools - Flashlights

Flashlights are indispensable tools, so much in fact that you should have several different types for the different survival applications. Artificial light provided by low powered flashlights are necessary for working and reading in low light conditions and the higher powered flashlights, with light intensity measured in lumens, can be great tools to use against attackers. In fact, the assault light concept was pioneered from high lumen producing flashlights. For instance, shining a 60 lumen light into someone’s eyes from 15 feet away will certainly make a subject look away or shield his eyes.

Flashlights using 123A Lithium type batteries produce much more light: 60 to 300 lumens in handheld flashlights, while the AA or AAA battery models produce substantially less lumens. Flashlights can be purchased in the bulb or LED model. We highly recommend the LED model as they are much less prone to breaking and won’t burn out. The problem with the high lumen output flashlights is the batteries. We are not aware of any rechargeable 123A type Lithium batteries, therefore requiring a stockpile of batteries with the resulting storage problem and these batteries have a much shorter run time.

There are numerous makers of flashlights that use bulbs or LED’s and AA or AAA batteries. Although the lumen output is considerable less, these flashlights would be of more use in most survival tasks. And very importantly, rechargeable batteries can be purchased with 110/15 v wall charger and 12v car chargers, which we highly recommended.

A couple of the flashlights we recommend are:

Urban Survival Gear and Equipment – The Basics

Some of the mistakes survivalists make is rather than ensure they have a minimal amount of survival gear and equipment across all priorities, some will focus on fulfilling one category of equipment, such as firearms ie. purchasing many makes and calibers, before starting to build their supply of food, clothing, boots, flashlights, batteries, etc.

The immediate priorities for someone just beginning to get prepared should be gear that can be carried by one person on his/her body, usually in a pack – sometimes this pack is called the “survival bug-out bag”. If you survival plan is to re-locate you and your family to a safer location, perhaps with relatives or friends in a rural area, then the following list would be a starting point for your personalized survival bug out bag built to support your plan to enable your movement to their location:

Firearm. Rifle or shotgun preferably, handgun is good backup firearms; rifle is nothing else.

Ammunition. Several boxes, consider 100 rounds or shot shells a starting point.

Gun cleaning kit. There are several small complete kits on the market.

Canteens or Camel-Baks. Better yet, a combination day pack – Camel Bak.

Clothing. Durable clothing and does not and quite probably SHOULD NOT have to be camouflage. Earth colors such as light green or brown, maybe tan will work. Camouflage may attract unwanted attention during a movement in a developed area before things got really bad.

Gloves. Probably need three sets: work, cold weather and a pair that you can operate (shoot) your firearm with.

Boots. Good pair of lace up hunting or military style boots; broken in to YOUR feet.

Sleeping Bag. Lightweight – and able to fit into, or strapped to, your combo day pack Camel- Bak type rucksack.

Gerber or Leatherman combination tool. Many uses and not just for McGyver type situations.

Water Purification device. This is usually a pump action filter. Several lightweight ones on the market.

Survival Manual. The SAS or U.S. Army Survival Field Manual, both good references.

Good large folding knife or fixed blade, with sharpening stone.

Flashlight. Even better have two or three of them. Get LED’s rather than bulbs, at least one with a red lens or red LED feature.

Spare batteries. Consider buying rechargeable batteries and a solar/12v recharger.

Lantern. There are several small LED type lanterns that run a long time on common small batteries.

Poncho or Ground Cloth. Water resistant, can be used as a rain poncho or to make a lean to tent for shelter.

Long life food items. Canned foods generally last a long time but are heavy if you have to carry them. Army style MRE’s are a lightweight, but expensive alternative.

Quick Snack Foods. For eating on the move without preparation. These would include nutrition bars, trail mix packs, beef jerky packets, etc.

Roll of Duct Tape. Buy the green stuff and not the silver tape.

Butane Lighters. Buy a three pack of these at the checkout of a local store.

Rope or heavy duty twine. Military suspension line is ideal.

AM/FM/Shortwave Radio. Hand cranked, capable of using batteries, ensure you have the weather and emergency warning frequencies on it.

Medical Kit. All necessary prescription meds - buy and rotate stocks what you really need to take. Consider heavy trauma and routine medical needs.

Vitamins and Supplements. Buy high quality products and rotate to ensure highest extended expiration date as with your prescription meds.

Matches and candles. Cheap and still effective way to provide light and heat in small places. Matches should be the wooden type. You can coat the ends in wax or even chapstick to protect the sulfur and igniter.

If you plan is to use a vehicle, you can pre-load additional items in your vehicle, primarily water, food and clothing. At the last minute you can add all the extra food and water you can load. Ensure your vehicle has a minimal tool kit as well as at least one full-size up spare tire.

Summary:

• The above gear list becomes your last ditch “personal survival bug out” bag, designed to throw into a vehicle and “bug out”. If you have to exit your car and travel on foot, then you are much better prepared to survive and get where you are going.
• Everyone in the family needs their own survival bug out bag. Ensure you cross load so that each individual has the capability to survive if separated from the main group.