#LastMan Paracord #Survival Kit Braclet #Review

     I know I've talked a lot about camping and you are all probably sick of it by now.  But we still haven't taken our trip yet, so I'm still all amped up on camping tips and ideas.  Tips like the "luggable loo", it's seriously just a bucket, a bag, and kitty litter.  Who knew!?  And things like how to make coffee from a pot of water, how to pack food to stay cold all weekend, lots of fun stuff.  We've started collecting gear, like sleeping bags, travel games, flashlights and food pouches.  I can't wait til we go.

     One thing we're packing is for the hike we're going to go on in the woods, because we don't want to get lost.  And if we do get lost, we want everything we could need to stay safe and get home.  We're taking the Last Man survival kit bracelet.  It's an entire kit!  In one bracelet!

     This bracelet is amazing.  It's your typical survival bracelet from 12 feet of nylon paracord, except that it also includes a compass, 2 1 3/4" safety pins, 1" alcohol prep pad, a dried grass tinder bundle, a 2" diameter serrated fire striker and 2 1/4" ferrocerium fire starter rod, two 3/8" egg sinkers, two 1/2" foam bobbers, 30' of 10lb test fishing line, two 1 1/8" line swivels, a snelled #2 offset kale hook with 20" leader line and a snelled 3/0 offset kale hook with 20" leader line.  That's a LOT of survival stuff in one small package!

     So of course we tested the bracelet out and I hope that you will forgive me, but I didn't rip it apart and test all the individual items.  After all, putting the bracelet back together would be a highly unlikely event unless you know weaving, which I don't.  I'm half debating giving it as a Christmas gift to a survival enthusiast in the family (providing we don't have to teat into it while camping).  But we didn't have to get into it to check all the important testables.

      First, we tried the fire starter aspect of it.  We held the fire rod just as instructed in the user manual and scraped the serrated edge if the fire striker onto it quickly.  It took a few times to scratch the coating of the fire starter rod off, but the instructions said that it would.  It gave a really nice spark and I know it would start a fire with no problem.

     The serrated edge is nice and sharp and would cut anything necessary, such as small twigs, rope, fishing line, etc.  I thought that using the fire striker and fire starter rod as the bracelet's clasp was a really neat idea.  It did cause a small problem when some of the fishing line from in the bracelet caught on the serrated edge when one of the kids turned the ring around.  I was not impressed, I had been being careful not to let it snag.  Now I keep it turned 90 degrees.  Hopefully your kids don't get into EVERYTHING like mine, but if they do, just be warned that some fishing line may come out.  We fixed it with a small crochet hook and it looks fine now.

     As far as the rest of the stuff, it was very easy to find that it was all included, I just curved the bracelet backwards and you can see each item through the inside between the paracord.  It's all wrapped neatly inside a plastic baggie that can be just pulled out.

     To take the stuff out, you are supposed to untuck the melted ends of the cord and ease the bag of contents out.  However, I really think (though didn't test the theory) that if you bend one end of the bracelet and fiddle with pulling the rest of the bracelet away from that end, that the bag will come out without unweaving the bracelet.  I can't stress it enough, taking the bracelet apart is pretty undoable.  But you can still use the bracelet without the inside contents if you ease it out another way.

     Some features worth some extra mention: The paracord that it is made of can be taken apart and there are seven strands of cord inside, so this is actually potentially 84' of usable cord for anything you might need.  If you can manage to do it without ruining the casing, you could use the casing for things that don't require heavy too much strength, like drying socks or something.  Another one is the compass.  I haven't really mentioned that much, but it's definitely accurate.  I learned where North-East really was from my house and it points me that way every single time.  Turns out that my internal compass isn't as awesome as I thought.  It isn't terrible, but it isn't great.  I thought North was closer to where North-East actually is.
     Our thoughts about this bracelet are that it's awesome!  It;s the best survival bracelet I've ever seen (no offense to the wonderful Parkers who made us some pretty great ones).  It really has everything you would need to survive outside except a couple survival blankets and a pot.  We're impressed!
     What would you want in a survival bracelet?  Anything not listed?


Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.