Bear Grylls Survival Kit – Is it really the ultimate?

For many readers, the name Bear Grylls may sound somewhat familiar. If you watched a fair amount of outdoors featured television programs, you may have come across the show Man versus Wild. Man versus Wild ran from mid-2006 until late-2011 and starred Edward Michael “Bear” Grylls who demonstrated various survival techniques and theoretical situations and various methods of resolving those problems. Gerber Legendary Knives has collaborated with Bear Grylls in launching a survival series of products which are purportedly for aiding outdoorsmen during their foray’s into the wilderness. In today’s installment of TPF, The Ultimate Kit of the Gerber/Bear Grylls survival series is reviewed.

According to Gerber and Bear Grylls, this small bag contains the essentials for an EDC emergency survival kit.

The first thing you will note is the bag the kit comes in itself. manufactured from a lightweight black nylon material which has additional heavy reinforcement threads, a.k.a. Ripstop weaving, to help resist tearing and ripping, and prevent the expansion of small tears which may occur. The zipper closure is classed as being waterproof, but there is a very small gap in the teeth obvious when the zipper is fully closed, which visually seems to void this claim. The author did not however actually test the waterproof claim so it MAY be true.

The two most identifiable and visible items that are seen is the lanyard whistle attached to the zipper and the Land-to-Air rescue instructions which are located on the backside of the bag. With All the various components still packed inside, the bag measures roughly 170mm x 120mm x 40mm (6.7″ x 5.5″ x 1.6″) and masses roughly 280 grams (9.0 oz). From the Gerber factory, all the components are contained inside a waterproof zip-loc transparent bag, which is manufactured from extra thick materials. The author was quite impressed with the sheer volume of items contained, but TPF will allow the readers to judge the individual components as being worthwhile for inclusion in the Ultimate Kit.

Inside the waterproof bag is where all the survival necessities are located

TPF will go through the list of items contained in the Ultimate Kit for the Survivor Series line.

1. Waterproof Ziplock Bag – The container that all inner tools come packaged inside.
2. Miniature Light – A key chain mountable LED light
3. Hand Saw – A metallic cable saw with pull rings on both ends
4. Emergency Whistle – Larger than the lanyard whistle, more range and louder
5. Signaling Mirror – A small mirror for reflecting signals and instructions on use
6. Survival Blanket – A space blanket made of mylar and used for reduced heat loss
7. Fire Starter – With a steel striker connected to a ferrocerium rod on a short lanyard
8. Waterproof Matches – Quantity of eight (8), with an abrasive ignition strip
9. Cotton Ball – Tinder for starting fires
10. Snare Wire – Approximately 305mm (12″) of brass wire
11. Emergency Cord – Roughly 2.4M (8′) of white braided nylon cord
12. Waxed Thread – A small spool of heavy thread, unknown length
13. Fishing Kit – A small quantity of fishing line with four sets of hooks, split sinkers, and swivel clevises
14. Sewing Kit – Black, white, red, and gray threads, needle, and a black and white button
15. Pocket Guide – Priorities of Survival, basic information book on survival
16. Multi-tool – Gerber Clutch
    • Needle nose pliers, wire cutter, small knife blade, nail-file, trio of small screwdrivers, bottle opener, tweezers, lanyard ring

The contents spread out for display. The Ultimate Kit does have a whole slew of useful survival gear

For this review, none of the items were removed from their packaging and approximations were made about lengths, but it is impressive to see just how much one is able fit into the small bag. There are some very nice and well thought out items in this package such as the cotton ball tinder and the brass snare wire, but at the same token, why is there so little of them? You could easily hold two to three times the quantity of snare wire, cotton balls, fishing line, etc.. without worrying about internal space constraints or cost extras. Readers should be aware that this kit is not intended to be a long-term survival kit, which would be much larger and include greater quantities of items as well as items such as a water purification system, first aid kits, etc… The Ultimate Kit is literally for a small EDC style carry for those who are not stereotypical “Survivalists” and in this it succeeds remarkably well.

The Bear Grylls Survivor Series Ultimate Kit is offered by Gerber Gear at an MSRP of $52 USD, and can be found at numerous stores across Canada such as Cabela’s in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As always, it is up to the reader to have their own say on if the Ultimate kit as reviewed is Tactical, Practical, or Fantastical?