Water filtration and first aid

[Tadmdad]

Not sure if this is correct place to post this

But I'm updating some equipment and would like to hear what everyone uses for water filtration and 1st aid kits on there remote hunts. Backpack hunting weight is always a consideration. Thoughts? Advice?

[Uncle Lou]

water filtration would really cut down on weight, I have never bought one. I do carry a standard first aid kit in the truck and a smaller one in the backpack when out west.

Sorry I didnt have much to add but I think this is a great topic.

Also, I had a geology professor in college that was doing some mapping in the mountains and drank from a stream. He got poisoned, I think it was from and he was laid out in the mountains for a day or so. Good thing it was summer.

[Tadmdad]

Thanks for the reply Uncle Lou. Starting to plan out west trips for this fall now that the applications are all in, wallets feeling lighter to.

I lived in Seattle back in the early 80's and did alot of backpacking and some hunting in the mountains, and water filtration and a first aid kit was a necessity, but my stuff was new back then, so it's time to update.

I know some of the people on the forum do a fair amount of remote hunting and thought there may be some good thoughts.

[Arrowbender]

While hunting remote ares of CO I have filtered water from little "seeps" using his Pur system years ago and the last time out he had a new one that was smaller. We drank from these a lot and never got sick. I think if you get one from a reputable mfg'r you will be ok. The main thing to keep in mind is flow vs size. You can get some pretty light and small ones but it takes forever to fill a bladder. I think you need to replace the filters more often on the little guys as well

[Tadmdad]

Thanks AB....One of my buddies that lives in CO uses one of the small ones and it took forever just to fill a quart bottle, valuable hunting time, so the point is well taken. Also, see a few of the ones out there use filtration pumps they advertise that take out 99.9% of the bacteria, but they use a iodine or chlorine solution to kill viruses, both can make you really sick. But I'm thinking that those solutions would make the water taste like chit, not sure.

Any thoughts on what should be in a first aid kit?

[dan]

Any thoughts on what should be in a first aid kit?

Tad,
Check out this post:

viewtopic.php?f=162&t=1500

[Tadmdad]

Dan thanks for posting the link....many things that I've not thought of, very useful information, and probably to many of us don't prepare for.

Last year while elk hunting in CO, one of my buddies got high alitude sickness, which was something I'd read about but never experienced. And considering we were quite aways back in, I felt very unprepared for, everything worked out in the long run. But realized how unprepared we really were, and it can't be discounted to be prepared for something that we hope will never happen, because it can become life threatening very quckly.

[DEERSLAYER]

... Also, see a few of the ones out there use filtration pumps they advertise that take out 99.9% of the bacteria, but they use a iodine or chlorine solution to kill viruses, both can make you really sick. But I'm thinking that those solutions would make the water taste like chit, not sure...

The iodine and chlorine are in safe doses. In fact, city water has chlorine in it. I don't like the idea of iodine tablets because they go bad to easy. Check the lable on the bottle and you will see what I mean.


I haven't checked into them for a while so I don't want to recommend a specific one, but to me the most important thing is to have a water filter that both filters and purifies. Then I would look at the volume it could produce.

Oh, and I would probably get one that has a charcoal filter to remove the chlorine or iodine because I don't like chitty tasting water either.