The push reel mower: Fun for the whole family!

I recently became a homeowner and along with my first house came another first: my very own little piece of land to tend. And since Kate and I had been living in apartments for all our married life, I needed to buy a mower to take care of our lawn. Like most Americans, I grew up using and being surrounded by gas-powered mowers. The sound of two-stroke engines firing up around the neighborhood was the unofficial soundtrack of my boyhood summers.

But despite my immersion in the cult of Lawn Boy,  I’ve always been intrigued by old-fashioned manual/push reel mowers. Maybe my curiosity about them came from flipping through old magazines depicting a happy 1950s suburban dad mowing his small patch of green heaven. Or maybe it was from watching groundskeepers use giant reel mowers to mow the infield at baseball stadiums.

Whatever the reason for my lifelong pull towards the manual reel mower, when I was in the market for my own mower, I decided to look into whether the old-fashioned push reel mower was a viable option for my lawn mowing needs. To my great surprise, I discovered that the reel mower isn’t just a viable option, but is in some instances superior to its gas-powered cousins.

How a Push Reel Mower Works

Your typical power rotary mower has a spinning blade that chops off the top of the grass as it rotates like a helicopter, resulting in torn and shredded turf. Instead of tearing and chopping your grass, a reel mower cuts your grass just like a pair of scissors. It’s easier to understand how this works when you can see the mower, rather than just describing it, so check out the video below for a full explanation:

Oh, and it goes without saying, but unlike a power mower that requires gas or electricity to work, you provide the power to your manual reel mower.

Choosing a Push Reel Mower

Mowing with my Fiskars Push Reel

The basic construction of a reel mower is pretty much the same across brands. They mainly vary in characteristics like:

• Weight. How heavy will it be when you’re pushing it?
• Cutting width. The longer and bigger the mower is, the heavier it will be, but the less passes you’ll have to make back and forth on your lawn, and thus the faster you’ll get the job done.
• Cutting heights. What’s the range of heights you can adjust the blades up and down?
• Direction of grass spray. Does the grass spray behind the mower or out in front? Obviously the latter has an advantage in not covering your feet with clippings.

When I was looking for a reel mower, I did a lot of research and finally brought home the Fiskars Staysharp Max Push Reel Lawn Mower. This thing isn’t your grandpa’s heavy old contraption. The folks at Fiskars have taken the old manual reel mower design and updated it for the 21st century: it’s 60% easier to push than other manual mowers, boasts twice the cutting power of competitors, sprays the grass out in front of you, and the blades only need sharpening every 5-10 years (that’s the “StaySharp” bit). It’s fast, powerful, and maneuverable. Not to mention kind of fun to use. After mowing with my Fiskars for nearly two months, I can confidently say that it’s given me the best mowing experience I’ve ever had. Kate and I even fight over who gets to mow the lawn now (the compromise: I mow the front; she mows the back). I can’t sing the mower’s praises highly enough (and I don’t have any affiliation with the company whatsoever, by the way–just a very happy customer).

Look at that beautiful cascade of grass.

If your only experience with a push reel mower was using a heavy clunker in your youth, I highly recommend giving the Fiskars a try. It will change your mind about manual mowers.

The Benefits of a Push Reel Mower

Push reel mowers are better for your grass’ health. This was my biggest motivating factor for purchasing a push reel mower as opposed to a power rotary mower. As mentioned above, power rotary mowers cut the grass by chopping and tearing your grass, while reel mowers cut the grass by snipping it cleanly like a pair of scissors. Torn and shredded grass leaves your lawn vulnerable to disease and insect attacks; grass that is cleanly cut with a reel mower heals faster and is less vulnerable to those maladies.

Push reel mowers make your lawn look nicer.  Not only are reel mowers better for your grass’ health, they leave your lawn looking professionally manicured. Again, it all goes back to the scissor-like way the reel mower cuts the grass. Clean and even cuts make for a clean and even-looking lawn. The reel mower’s superior cut is the reason why groundskeepers at professional baseball stadiums and golf courses use large reel mowers pulled by tractors. The reel cut makes the grass look purty.

Push reel mowers are quiet. One of the things I hated the most about the old gas-powered Lawn Boy of my youth was the noise. First, it’s just grating to have to listen to a loud and obnoxious two-stroke engine for extended periods of time. Second, because the thing was so stinking loud, I couldn’t mow the grass too early or too late in the evening, lest I disturb the neighbors. That’s not a problem if you live in, say, Vermont, where summer days are pleasantly warm and idyllic (if it’s not raining). When you live in hot and humid Oklahoma, however, mowing your yard during the day with the sun beating down on you is downright miserable.

The push reel mower solves both of those noise-related problems. The only sound it makes is a satisfyingly quiet “snip-snip-snip” as the mower cuts the grass. I love hearing that sound. It’s actually rather soothing. And because my manual reel mower is so darn quiet, I can mow my lawn early in the morning without waking up the neighbors. Goodbye 107-degrees-with-a-heat-index-of-a-115 lawn mowing sessions!

Push reel mowers don’t emit pollution. Don’t let the smallness of your power lawn mower engine deceive you. That sucker spits out a crap load of air pollution. If you let a typical gas-powered lawn mower run for an hour, it will produce as much air pollution as a sedan running for two hundred miles. Jeez-um!

The amount of pollution a push reel mower produces? Zilch. Unless of course you count the relaxing farts you rip as you cut the grass.

If you’re an environmentally-conscious guy, the choice is clear between power and manual. You gotta go manual.

Push reel mowers are hassle-free. Push reel mowers are simple machines. You push it and blades spin around and cut your grass. That’s it. No pulling starter cords or priming the engine before you can mow. Just start walking and–bam!–you’re cutting the grass. Also, you’ll never have to buy gas, oil, or spark plugs ever again. About the only maintenance you’ll have with your manual reel mower is blade sharpening, and some folks think that’s more of an enjoyable, mind-settling task than a chore. And again, with the Fiskars, you’ll only have to sharpen the blades every half decade or so.

Push reel mowers are cheaper. Even a “top-of-the-line” reel mower like the Fiskars costs less than most power mowers. And if you get one of the smaller, classic models, they can run you less than $100. Plus, there are no maintenance costs. With gas prices as high as they are, why waste a single drop tooling around your backyard?

Push reel mowers exercise your body. There’s no autodrive on a push reel mower. These bad boys are man-powered. The Fiskars is particularly heavy for a reel mower (52 lbs), but is designed in a way that makes it easier to push, and it gives me a nice bout of exercise; hard enough to work up a satisfying sweat, but not so hard it leaves me feeling exhausted. It’s kind of like pushing a Prowler Sled around your yard, except for that when you’re done, you’re in better shape and your lawn has been mowed.

Push reel mowers are safer than power mowers. In a careless moment a power mower can turn into a rolling death trap, or at least an appendage mauler. More than 75,000 Americans, 10,000 of which are children, are injured in lawn mowing accidents annually, and, get this, 75 people die from lawn mowing accidents every year. Mowing over a grass-hidden rock can turn it into a projectile capable of traveling 200 mph and taking out someone’s eye, and the power mower’s fast-whirling blades have eaten up children’s toes and hands. And even if your power mower isn’t running, you’re still at risk for an accident. I burnt my hand on a hot lawn mower engine as a boy and still have the scar to prove it.

While some dangers still exist when using a reel mower, they’re much, much safer than power mowers.  Unless I ran the thing right over someone Tom and Jerry-style, there’s little risk of it chewing up a limb. If you run over a rock, instead of shooting it out like a bullet, your mower just jams. Also, no hot engines to burn yourself on.

Push reel mowers make mowing a pleasure. As a young man, I saw lawn mowing as a chore that you had to do every week. I didn’t look forward to it. I just did it because I had to. Since I’ve started mowing with my Fiskars push reel mower, mowing the grass has turned from a chore into a pleasure. I actually look forward to lawn mowing day. Really!  I love pushing it in the cool of the early morning as birds chirp at the day’s start. I love listening to the quiet “snip-snip-snip” of grass cutting. I love the physicality of it–how it feels a little like pushing a plow. I love watching tiny blades of cut grass spit out in front of my mower in a green cascade. Most of all, I love the satisfying feeling I get as I look over my cleanly cut lawn.

Is a Push Reel Mower Right For You?

In Gran Torino, Korean War vet Walt Kowalski calms his mind before confronting a violent gang by mowing his yard with a manual reel mower. Manly.

Now before you head to the home improvement store to pick up a push reel mower, you need to know that it’s not for everybody. Sometimes power or riding mowers are actually better, depending on a variety of factors. Below I highlight a few of these factors you should consider before switching to a push reel mower.

Your yard is a half-acre or smaller. Manual reel mowers are suited for small to medium-sized yards. Most experts agree that if you have to mow more than 8,000 square feet, you’re better off using a power push or riding mower. Although I will say that my yard is on the large end of a medium-sized yard, and it only takes me 45 minutes to mow with my manual mower. And if your yard is the size of most yards in suburban developments, there really isn’t any reason you shouldn’t use a push reel mower.

You can’t bag clippings. If you’re one of those folks who prefer to bag your clippings, then a push reel mower probably isn’t for you. While some push reel mowers have a basket that will catch your clippings, they don’t work very well, and many don’t offer any clipping catcher at all.

However, if you’re a devoted-bagger, you might reconsider your stance. Most lawn care experts agree that you shouldn’t bag your clippings and should just leave them in your grass. Grass clippings are fertilizer for your lawn. They provide the same beneficial nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium nutrients that are in commercial fertilizers, except they’re free.

Not great for excessively bumpy and overgrown yards. I’ve noticed that on areas of my lawn that have a lot of bumps, the reel mower doesn’t do a good job of cutting, mainly because the wheels can’t get good traction to move the blade. I’ll usually have to come back and trim that with my weed-wacker. It’s not a problem because there’s only one part in my lawn that gives me trouble.

Also, push reel mowers work best on yards that are already well-maintained. They don’t cut really long grass too well, so if you always let your grass get pretty long before you cut it, you’re better off using a power mower.

What sort of grass do you have? Manual reel mowers work better on some types of grass than others. Most reel mowers have a hard time handling extra thick grasses like Zoysia, St. Augustine, and Bermuda. Never fear. If you have a lawn that’s made completely of one of these grasses, you’re not necessarily relegated to just gas-powered mowers. Heavier, more powerful manual reel mowers like the Fiskars don’t have a problem with these types of grasses. Adjusting the height of the reel mower’s blades can also prevent the mower from getting bogged down in thick grass.

Shave Like Your Grandpa, Mow Like Your Grandpa

After a couple of months of using my push reel mower, I really don’t know why the manual mower isn’t more popular or why most folks get the gas-powered variety.  It seems quite analogous to shaving. There are a few things where the classic turns out to do just as good a job (sometimes an even better one), and provides a more enjoyable and satisfying experience to boot. The safety razor is one of those things. And so is the push reel mower. Give it a try!

Any other push reel mower users out there? Share your experience with us in the comments!

No related posts.

Imagine the idealized rough and tumble boy depicted in literature, movies, and TV shows. Go ahead. Do it. Done?  Whether you imagined Tom Sawyer, Dennis the Menace, or Bart Simpson, chances are you pictured him with a handmade slingshot dangling from his back pants pocket.

The humble slingshot has been a fixture among boys across cultures and across generations.  The first modern-type slingshots probably didn’t make an appearance until vulcanized rubber was invented in 1839. 19th century boys used old rubber tire inner tubes as the bands to catapult their rocks and pellets at cans and unsuspecting cats.

The slingshot was the first product WHAM-O made, and it gave the company its memorable name. "WHAM-O" was the sound the slingshot's projectile made when it hit its target.

The popularity of the slingshot really took off though after WWII and commercially-made slingshots became widely available. While we typically associate slingshots with bucktoothed, freckled-faced boys, placed in the hands of a skilled user, a slingshot can become an efficient hunting tool and even a guerrilla warrior weapon, and 80% of slingshot sales in the post-war period were to adult men, who used the slingshot for hunting and also took part in emerging slingshot clubs and competitions.

Manufactured slingshots are still available today, but, because they require very few materials and tools to make, slingshots were and are the perfect toy/weapon to make yourself. There are hundreds of variations and tweaks you can try when crafting your own slingshot, but today we’re going to show you how to make the old classic natural fork variety. Whether you’re making it for yourself or for your kid, this is a great weekend project that takes only about 60 minutes to complete and will provide hours upon hours of entertainment for you and your family.

Materials & Tools Needed

Materials

• A Y-shaped tree branch with at least a 30 degree fork
• 1/4″ latex surgical tubing (available at Home Depot)
• Leather strips
• Dental floss

Tools

• Saw
• Knife
• Awl (optional)

Step 1: Find Your Fork

The first step in making a natural fork slingshot is finding a Y-shaped tree branch with an adequate natural fork. Look for hardwoods like oak, ash, dogwood, hickory, and (hard) maple. Buckthorn bush, an invasive plant, creates some good solid Y-shaped branches too, and the wood is pretty strong.

Don’t worry if you can’t find the perfect Y-shaped frame. Chances are, you’re not going to find it. As long as the fork forms at least a 30 degree angle, you’re good to go.

Sometimes you can find branches lying on the ground, but if there’s a dearth of grounded tree limbs, you’ll need to cut one off a tree. I’ve got a bunch of oak trees in my front and backyards, so I strolled around with my saw in tow looking at the low-hanging branches for my fork. I chanced upon this beauty below:

Jackpot!

I used my handy dandy bow saw to cut down the limb. Cut your handle longer than you think you'll need. You can always shorten it later; lengthening it won't be an option.

Time to trim some branches off until I am left with an unadorned "Y" shape.

Leave more of the fork than you think you'll need. Again, you can always shorten later.

Basic slingshot frame.

Step 2: Dry Your Wood

Branches that have just been cut from trees will have a lot of moisture in them which gives them a bit of flexibility. That’s not good for a slingshot frame. We want something that won’t bend while you’re pulling back on the bands. So we need to suck all that moisture out of the wood.

The natural way would be to just set the branch somewhere and let it dry out for a year. Since we want to finish this project in a weekend, that’s a not a good option. A faster natural drying method would be to start a campfire and set your branch near the flames. As soon as you hear your fork stop hissing, you’ll know the water is all out of it. While certainly faster, this method will still take hours or even a day before the fork is completely dry.

To keep your slingshot project under an hour, we’re going to utilize a bit of space age technology: your kitchen microwave.

Place your fork on top of a rag.

Wrap it up like a babe in swaddling clothes. This will protect your microwave.

Unlike what you should do with a babe in swaddling clothes, place the wrapped fork in the microwave.

You need to take it slow with drying your fork. Don't just set the microwave on high for 10 minutes while you go swing some Indian clubs. Your wood will catch fire (this happened to my first slingshot). Rather, microwave it on high in 30 second bursts and let it rest for about a minute in-between each shot. Keep repeating until your wood stops hissing. Mine took six, thirty second zaps to completely dry.

Step 3: Carve Notches in Your Fork

With your wood dry, we can now carve the notches where our bands will go. Create one notch on each of your fork's "prongs" at roughly the same height.

Finished notches.

I had a lot of extra wood on top of my notch, so I sawed them down a bit using my table saw. Make sure to leave a bit of wood above your notch or else your band will slip off your frame when you fire it.

Step 4: Cut Your Tubing

Eyeball how long you want your tubing to be. Remember, the shorter it is, the more oomph you'll have in your shots. If the bands are too short, though, you won't be able to pull them back. Once you have your length, double the band and cut it in half into two equal length pieces like so.

Step 5: Attach Tubing to Fork

Wrap one end of the tubing around your notch so that it doubles back on itself like in the photo. Tie the end of the tube to the rest of the tube with some dental floss. Wrap the dental floss as tight as you can, tie it off, and cut off any long ends. Repeat on the other side.

Step 6: Create Pouch

I bought a strip of leather at Hobby Lobby for $2. Cut a rectangle that's about four inches wide and two inches high.

Create a long octagon shape by cutting off the corners on your rectangular leather strip.

Create two holes at each of the longest ends of your leather strip. Your tubing will attach here. I just used my knife, but you can use an awl or some other puncturing tool.

Step 7: Attach Pouch to Tubing

Slide tube ends through holes, like so.

Similar to how you attached the tube to the frame, fold the end of the tube back on itself and tie it off tightly with some dental floss.

Have Fun!

Have fun with your homemade natural fork slingshot. This bad boy shoots pretty dang accurate and far. I was able to plink a tree trunk with a stone from about 30 yards.

You may have to adjust the length of your bands so that you get the right amount of force. The latex bands will degrade after extended use. Replace them as soon as you see any wear and tear. The last thing you want is a band to snap and smack you in the eye.

It goes without saying, but be smart and safe when you or your kid play with a slingshot. At the end of the day, a slingshot is a small weapon that hurls projectiles at fast speeds.

Before you try your hand at hunting squirrels or other small varmints with your slingshot, check your local hunting laws to see if hunting with slingshots is permissible and if it requires a license.

Tin cans don't stand a chance against my trusty handmade slingshot.

Further Reading

In researching this post I was surprised to discover that there’s a vibrant and extremely helpful community of slingshot enthusiasts out there. If you’re interested in learning more advanced slingshot making techniques, I highly recommend you check the following websites:

Slingshot Forum. This place is amazing. Lots of useful guides and friendly folks to answer all your slingshot questions.

The Slingshots Page. Don’t let the rough and simple web design of this site fool you. It’s packed with some fantastic advice on making your own slingshot. The most useful sections are on how to attach your bands to the fork and how to attach your pouch to the bands.

Related posts:

1. Weekend DIY Project: How to Make a Wooden Sword for Your Kid
2. Weekend DIY Project: How to Make a Leather Wallet
3. How to Make an All-Purpose Work Bench
4. How to Build a Quick and Easy Sawhorse
5. How to Make a DIY Prowler Sled

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Creek Stewart, Senior Instructor at the Willow Haven Outdoor School for Survival, Preparedness & Bushcraft. 

Just over one year ago I wrote a post about how to build a 72-hour disaster survival kit called a Bug Out Bag.  Much of my time between then and now has been spent writing a book on the same subject–a more detailed and thorough version of that post.  The title of that book is Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit (to win a copy, see the giveaway section below).

If you liked the post about how to build a Bug Out Bag, then you are going to like this post as well.  Your Get Home Bag is just as important as your Bug Out Bag.  Look at it as your Bug Out Bag’s little brother.  They are similar in concept and design, but the end goal is altogether different.

I’d like to open this post with an excerpt from my book–actually the first opening paragraph:

You can hear the sirens in the distance. Your electricity is out, and your home phone has no dial tone. When you try to use your cell phone, you get the same message over and over: “All circuits are busy.”  You know a disaster is quickly approaching. And you know that waiting this one out is not an option. In the breath-taking stillness, you can hear the clock on the wall. Tick-tock, tick-tock. The eleventh hour is here.

Now, imagine this… YOU ARE AT WORK!  As you reach under your desk to grab your Get Home Bag (GHB), thoughts of your wife and children rush through your mind.  Then, you quietly say to yourself, “This isn’t going to be my typical commute home today.”

As a whole, we spend surprisingly little time at home.  Between our time in a vehicle, at work, in school, running errands, visiting friends, attending meetings and making appointments, some of us spend more time AWAY from home than AT home.  Many of you are nodding in agreement.  These countless hours away from home must be considered when developing your disaster preparedness plan.

What Is a Get Home Bag?

The name says it all.  It is a survival kit designed to get you home in the event that a catastrophic disaster occurs while you are away.  I sometimes call this bag my 24-hour bag, and you’ll rarely find me away from home without it.  A Bug Out Bag is a much more substantial supply kit (typically 72 hours) and stays at home.  It’s not practical to tote your BOB back and forth to work every day.  Your Get Home Bag bridges that preparedness gap.  Depending on the situation, just getting home can be a survival journey in and of itself.

A GHB can take a variety of forms depending on your personal preference.

My GHB is a small backpack and that is what I recommend.  However, I have friends who use duffel bags, fanny packs, web-gear, sling packs and even spare briefcases.  Ultimately that is your decision, but I prefer the hands-free utility of a backpack.

Is a Get Home Bag Even Necessary?

There is an infinite list of events that could warrant the use of a Get Home Bag.  Many are regular occurrences.  A GHB doesn’t have to save you from TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) to be a worthy investment.  Even if never put to that grave test, a GHB can provide for you in countless other less catastrophic scenarios.  Below is a short list of events from the news headlines in the past few years that could possibly interfere with your immediate and uninterrupted commute home.  I’m certain several people reading this article can account for some of these from personal experience.

• Severe weather
• Power grid failure (black-outs)
• Vehicle Break-Down
• Terrorist Attack
• Acts of war
• Bridge collapse
• Tornadoes
• Tsunamis
• Flooding
• Winter storms
• Zombie apocalypse!!!

Certainly, some disasters are more devastating than others.  Millions of people have found themselves in need of a Get Home Bag at some point in their lives.  For some, not having one has cost them their future.

I was watching a documentary the other day which interviewed survivors of the 9-11 terrorist attacks years later.  I was surprised at the severe lung problems people have developed from inhaling the dust, fumes, smoke, and pulverized building material while escaping from in and around Ground Zero.  It was an after effect I had never considered.  An N95 face mask (mentioned later) in a Get Home Bag could have eliminated these ailments.

Assembling a GHB is not a daunting task and can easily be done in one afternoon.  For the investment of time, money, and energy, I know of very few other things in life that can have such a dramatic and lasting effect on your future than a Get Home Bag–should you ever need to use it.

Your Get Home Bag Packing List

Below is my list of recommended GHB supplies.  I fully expect for you to make your own additions and subtractions from this list.  After all, it is YOUR kit.  Different lifestyles, careers, and environments are all factors that will dictate the items in your kit.  These kits are very personal.

1 Liter of Water in a Metal Container.  I suggest a metal container because it gives you the option to boil water and/or cook in if necessary.  I also carry a metal cup that fits snugly on the bottom of my metal Nalgene.

Food + Water

3-6 Energy Bars.  Don’t over pack with elaborate meals.  High calorie bars are simple and sufficient meal substitutes.  They require no heating or preparation–now that’s my kind of meal!

Rain Poncho + Tarp

Rain Poncho.  I personally use a military version with grommets in the corners which can be used as an improvised shelter if necessary.  Being wet is not only miserable, it’s deadly.  Hypothermia is the # 1 outdoor killer, and your vulnerability skyrockets when you are wet–even in temperatures as high as 50 degrees.

Lightweight Tarp.  I pack this to use as a shelter canopy.  It can also be used as a ground cover and many things in between.

Boots + Change of Clothes

Walking Shoes / Hiking Boots. Especially for people who wear dress shoes to work, this is a really important addition.  Pack a comfortable pair of tennis shoes at the very least.  A good pair of wool hiking socks isn’t a bad idea either.

A change of clothes and a pair of leather gloves allows you to change out of your suit and into something that offers more protection and maneuverability.

A Change of Weather Appropriate Clothing.  Trade out your 3-piece suit for a more practical survival outfit.  This should include a durable pair of leather gloves and a hat.

Lighters + Fire Starting Tinder

Fire Starting Tools and Prepared Fire Tinder.  Pick up a couple of bic cigarette lighters.  They are inexpensive and dependable.  Also pack some fire starting tinder.  I prefer the WetFire brand but a quick do-it-yourself substitute is cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly.  If you need to start a fire, these 2 items will get you 98% of the way there.

A quality mulit-tool is an essential.

Quality Multi-Tool.  This tool should have a solid knife blade, a saw blade, pliers, flat head and cross point drivers, and wire cutters.  When you need one of these tools, no substitute will quite do the trick.  Many will add a fixed blade knife as well. (Machete is optional.)

Pack a headlamp along with an extra battery.

Headlamp.  Pack a good quality, hands-free, water-resistant headlamp flashlight.  Toss in an extra battery while you’re at it.

First Aid Kit.  This kit should include basic first aid supplies such as bandages, gauze pads, medical tape, splint, tweezers, lip balm, moleskin, insect repellant, sunscreen, small mirror, and a variety of basic medications–Tylenol, aspirin, antacids, Dramamine, etc.  If you wear contacts, be sure to include a back-up pair of glasses as well.

Hygiene + First Aid Kit

Hygiene Kit.  This kit should include items such as a small towel, toothbrush and paste, bandana (multiple uses), toilet paper, and soap.  A pack of disinfecting wet napkins are perfect for quick “spit-baths.”  Hand sanitizer is always a winner.

Emergency Blanket

Emergency Blanket.  Emergency mylar blankets are cheap, lightweight, and compact.  Not only can they save your life in a cold weather environment, but they can also double as a quickie shelter, waterproof gear cover, and rain poncho.  I prefer the Heatsheet brand from Adventure Medical Kits.

Face Mask

N95 Face Mask.  Whether from debris, dust, or sickness, protect your lungs with a N95 face mask.  Your t-shirt is not sufficient.

Pepper Spray + Pistol

Self-Defense Items.  Disasters are a breeding ground for frustration, desperation, and confrontation.  Violent crimes skyrocket in the wake and aftermath of any large scale disaster.  Ideally, your self-defense items should keep some distance between you and an attacker.  Avoid hand-to-hand combat at all costs.  I pack some pepper spray (attached with Velcro to the shoulder strap of my pack) and a compact Kel-Tec P-32 Pistol with 4 extra clips (28 rounds) in my Get Home Bag.

Paper Map and Compass.  Having a paper map of your surrounding area can be invaluable–especially in large cities.  If you are trying to get home–so is everyone else.  Expect and plan for detours.  Ideally, you will have marked several alternative routes home from your place of work.  Do not rely on your cell phone or GPS system.  Your brain is more impressive anyway.

Map, compass, cash, pencil, and paper

Cash Money.  Cash doesn’t need to communicate with the power grid and it speaks everyone’s language.  Pack small denominations in a variety of places.  Never reveal all of your duckets at once.

Paper & Pencil.  Perfect for recording information or leaving notes.  I use the Rite-in-the-Rain brand.

Paracord and Emergency Radio

100 Feet of Paracord.  1000’s of uses, only a few ounces.  Trust me on this one–just pack it.

USB cell phone charger for radio

Emergency Radio.  Pick up a small Dynamo hand-crank emergency radio.  Make sure it receives NOAA All Hazard Weather Alerts. I picked mine up at Radio Shack for $40.  This could be your only source of disaster-related information in an emergency.  Get a model that has an integrated USB cell phone charger–very cool feature and highly recommended.

Rescue Signal Items. Small signal mirror (mentioned in First Aid) and a whistle.

The weight of my GHB is only 14 lbs.  The items could easily be packed into a smaller bag, but I like the flexibility of more space–especially in cold months when I toss in a heavy fleece, gloves, hat, and shell.

Conclusion

I’d like to close with another excerpt from my book which discusses the importance of preparation:

Clearly, there is more to consider than just a [Bug Out Bag]. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, terrorists, wild fires, plagues and foreign invaders will show you no mercy. None of these disasters will pause while you argue about where to go or whether or not to take Freckles the Ferret with you. Survival is not about guarantees—there is always a gamble and the disaster typically has the house advantage. The only way to increase your odds of living is to plan and prepare in advance.

HOME not only represents safety and security but many of us also have families who depend on our safe and timely return.   When getting home becomes your first priority, reach for your Get Home Bag.  What’s in your GHB?

Remember, it’s not IF but WHEN,

Creek

Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit Giveaway

Creek’s new book, Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-hour Disaster Survival Kit, is out now and available on Amazon.com. This awesome 200 page book includes 350 photos and goes much more in-depth about building and using your Bug Out Bag. The book covers:

• A complete Bug Out Bag checklist that tells you exactly what to pack based on your survival skill level
• Photos and explanations of every item you need in your bag
• Resource lists to help you find and purchase gear
• Practice exercises that teach you how to use almost everything in your bag
• Demonstrations for multi-use items that save pack space and weight
• Specific gear recommendations for common disasters

The book also includes sections on special considerations for bugging out with children, the elderly, the physically disabled, and even pets.

Creek is giving away 3 copies of his book to three lucky Art of Manliness readers. To win a copy of Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-hour Disaster Survival Kit, just leave a comment telling us one thing you consider essential for packing in a Bug Out or Get Home bag.

Three comments will be randomly drawn as the winners. Giveaway ends May 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm CST.

***Update***

The giveaway is closed. The three winners are:

Colin S. from Dallas, TX.
Michael H. from Oakland, CA
Scott S. from Islip Terrace, NY

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