Review: VSSL Outdoor Utility cache

First seen on Breach Bang & Clear

I had missed the release of this particular product when it ran through its Kickstarter campaign, mostly for financial reasons, but my dear friend and Kickstarter aficionado Gareth Hodges had one and wanted to pass it on, so I snapped it up at a generous discount (thanks man!), so I have had one in my hot little hands, and pack for a while now.


This is the "utility" model of the VSSL which is to say, one of five models they offer, and this one is filled with s variety of useful and needful survival items.
The main body of the canister is a machined aluminium tube, with end caps that screw in to give a gasketed airtight seal. Each VSSL unit is 23cm (9") long by 5cm (2") diameter made from seamless extruded mil-spec anodized aluminium, and this model weighs 510g (18 oz). 

The unit is very sturdy, the two end caps are knurled, and the body has engraved details on it, as well as some knurling as well, giving a solid grip to open either end.


The real utility of the unit however is in its contents. As well as the two end caps, one of which has a dual mode (static high/low and SOS) LED ‘flood’ beam lantern light, illuminates a large area ( which runs on 3x N type or Energizer E90 batteries), and the tail cap holds a 4 hour burning pure Canadian beeswax candle and has an oil filled compass on its surface.

The seven little aluminium pill-boxes each with a small collection of survival needfulls, some in pairs, others singly. 


The contents are thus:

Razor blade

6 Aquatabs® water purification tablets

Wire saw (high tensile, 60lb working strength with handle straps)

Aluminium beadless emergency whistle

Waterproof matches

Tinder Quik® fire starters

Fishing Gear

Signalling Mirror

Marine grade rope (250lb breaking strength)

Reflective trail markers

P38 military GI Type can opener

First aid supplies 

VSSL priorities of survival and instructions

There's a good spread of items, and here they are itemized:The pill-boxes aren't hermetically sealed, but they don't really need to be, as they all live in the VSSL tube. The contents aren't meant to be for long term sustainment, rather to help out in the event of a short term emergency, or even to fill a gap in your EDC when out adventuring. It's solid construction and precision machining makes it a very well put together survival cache. 

The weight is a bit of a concern considering the overall size and scope of the contents, however, they are well packaged, so would be safe and ready to use when you need it, whether it's been sitting in your pack, in the back of your car or buried in your safe-drop spot. 

VSSL also produce several other versions of the flask: a Fist-Aid canister (full of boo-boo repair items), a Shelter canister (with a tarp, line and the like), an empty canister (build your own), a Flask (300mL of capacity and two collapsing shot cups) and their Zombie Spike version (for brain stabby goodness). 

Review: ITS ETA (Med kit (basic)

As first seen (well, apart from a teaser) on Breach, Bang & Clear .... 

I was so excited to see this tucked away in the corner of my Propper package, because I've had a lot of trouble trying to get one sent to me, due to the specific rules surrounding selling the Z-Medica QuickClot Combat Gauze  as an export.

This is the ETA Trauma Kits in Fatboy which is designed to fit into the ITS Fatboy Trauma Kit Pouches, but can also be either sealed or broken down for easy access to the individual components, or stowed as is, in its heavy duty vacuum sealed ziplock bag. They’re also well suited for cargo pockets if you’re not going to be keeping it in a pouch for storage.


The ITS team who put their expertise together to develop the kits select every item in the ETA Kit carefully to complement the others and serve multiple purposes. They make several different versions. The Basic, Standard and the MIL/LE ONLY version, as well as new International version, with concessions to Z-Medica's export policy.

Here's what is in the kit that I received, the Basic, with a stock photo from ITS, as I didn't want to pop the seal on mine (bad reviewer, I know).

Basic Contents

• QuikClot Combat Gauze LE (1)
• HALO Chest Seal (2)
• Pressure Dressing (1 — 4″)
• Elastic Bandage (1 — 4″)
• Z-Fold Dressing (1)
• Combat Casualty Card (1)
• Nitrile Gloves (1 Pair)
• Pencil (1)
• Contents List w/ TCCC Care Under Fire Instructions (on reverse) (1)

 The kit is sterile when sealed (which is why I didn't want to bust mine open), and ITS also stock an "inert" training version, for those who want to train how they fight, and fight how they train.

The slightly more substantial "Standard" kit also features

• MojoDart Decompression Needle (1)
• Nasopharyngeal Airway (NPA) Adj. 28fr (1)

Which are a couple of things you'd really be wanting some medical training before using, thats not just patching boo-boo's and plugging holes.

The MIL/LE ONLY replaces the Basic/Standard QuikClot Z-Fold Combat Gauze LE with the more specialised Z-Fold Combat Gauze (w/ X-Ray Detectable Strip — Green Package). The International Kits feature an international version of QuikClot Gauze.
The FatBoy med kits hit very snugly into a two-magazine Platatac FUP pouch which is my gold-standard for pouches, but has an easy-access fit in their slightly larger WUP pouches.

I will be packing the ETA FatBoy with me on all adventures from now on, and it's a good reminder for me to chase up refreshing my FirstAid certification too. This is a great kit, dense, well thought out and packaged and appointed. Lets hope I never need to stop a sucking-chest wound, but if I do, having a kit like this might well make all the difference.

ITS also stock all the same contents in their "TallBoy"kit but stacked long, rather than wide, because it's not always about girth. If you really just need a pocket-sized pal, the EDC Trauma Kit might be more your style.

If you don't feel you'll often be responding to trauma, but rather more minor injuries, you might consider the ITS Boo-Boo kit, or, if you're like me and have multiple kids, and occasionally stab yourself in the leg with a sword, the slightly larger Boo-BooPLUS kit might suit your needs. 

Review: Z-Medica QuickClot Sport bandage

You may recall a while back I tried to get my hands on QuickClot kit by Z-Medica as a part of the ITS Trauma kit but ran in to all kinds of export-issues, where the military grade kits were not for distribution outside of the USA.

I never gave up looking though, and found an alternative supplier, Urban Conquest who, whilst they didn't supply the military-grade versions of the impregnated bandages, with the variety of formats and including x-ray tracking strips and the like, still offered the basic properties of a blood-clotting treatment in a vacuum packed and irradiated sterile package. It looks as though they may no longer stock them however. However, Survival Supplies Australia stock similar (and more advanced) products.

The active ingredient in these products is a kind of clay or clay-stone, albeit in a very high-tech version of it, kaolin or zeolite to rapidly clod bleeding, with out any harmful side effects.

The fibers of otherwise standard medical gauze are impregnated with this material and apparently on application, it rapidly promoted clotting. Some products (in the military and EMT lines, are set up to be deposited deep within penetrating wound cavities such as gunshot and shrapnel wounds, and are reported as being able to stop arterial bleeding. How Kaolin works.

Given the chemistry involved, it should be noted that when working the clotting agent can heat up, something for both patient and responder to be aware of.

I got hold of two different sizes of kit, two of the 25g pouch (3.5" x 3") or 50g pouch (4.75" x 4.75") . I have one of each in my EDC pack, and whilst have not cracked on out to use it (thankfully, no heavy bleeding has presented itself for me to treat any time recently) I like having them there. The 25g pouch is small enough that it can slip into a pants front-pocket and pretty much vanish.

The compact nature of the kits very much lend themselves to having some on hand for any outdoor adventure, where you don't want to be left bleeding through bandages until you can get more serious medical assistance. For those of us who either live adventurous lives, have adventurous families or both, these might be well worth adding to your EDC as well. You never know when you might be called on to plug a hole.

Wish-Lust: QuikClot kits

I wanted to talk briefly about the plight of the overseas prepper when it comes to first aid and trauma kits. There are a lot of products out there which are spot on the money when it comes to either EDC kits or more specifically, trauma kits for those who are anticipating being around grievous bodily harm. The problem comes that We see all kinds of cool kits available which contain haemostaticly treated bandages, that is to say, bandages that are impregnated with clotting agents, such as those produced by Z-Medica in their QuikClot products. The problem being is that these products, like the industry leading QuikClot z-folded bandages, are restricted exports from the US.


This means that the extremely desirable trauma kits put out by ITS Tactical or the comparable trauma kits put out by AMP-3  are unavailable to those of us who would want to have them on-hand for our own preparedness planning. There was a recent report posted by ITS-Tactical outlining how a kit if this nature was put into place by a first-responder chance passer-by and it nails home the kind of reason that I would want to have one of these kits myself.  I'm sure there are reasons not to export these items, be they copyright, international security or customs in nature, but it is very disappointing when I can see these great products out there, potentially life-saving, or at the very least, injury mitigating products, that are out of my reach, "just because".


That said, there are cut-down, alternative kits that I could purchase. There are kits put out by both those vendors like the  ITS Tactical EDC Trauma Kit and the AMP-3 Comprehensive First Aid Kit but the point of these kits, or at least what makes them special, would be the inclusion of the haemostatic bandages. The ITS Tactical one DOES include them, so is out, as far as exporting to Australia is concerned.  I have first aid kits, I've reported on and reviewed them in the past  I even have a fairly well stocked Australian Defense Force range first-aid kit comparable to the AMP-3 Range kit but neither my first aid kit, nor the range-medic kit have the QuikClot bandages.  

My wearable options are, to build a better first aid kit in a pouch (like the Platatac MOAP), or to fork out for an "inert" kit from ITS-Tactical which is basically a training kit, with expired contents and a non-treated version of the Z-Medica z-folded bandages, and get an empty one of their cool trauma-kit pouches to stuff it all in, which is an expensive prop for roleplaying, or a similarly cut-down product by AMP-3 like their iFAK.







What I'd dearly love is to be able to find a similar product, with a reputation for success, eith in, or exportable to Australia.