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Revisiting this classic piece of gear! The Finn Gas Mask Bag.
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0:00
Today we're going to visit an old friend. This is the Finn gas mask bag, the best
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$10 haversack you could ever find. Stick around. So I was out at a military show a few weeks back and of course there's all
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kinds of military surplus for sale and there's a big bin of these Finn gas mask
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bags. Now when I saw these it really brought me back to when I first started
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getting into this whole bushcraft kind of thing. This was like 13-14 years ago. I
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joined a forum called Bushcraft USA and you know back then guys were always
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posting pictures of their gear and showing you things that worked for them, recommendations that they liked, and the Finn gas mask bag was very popular
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because it was readily available, it had a very retro look to it, heavy canvas, OD
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green. It just was a coolness factor to it and it was super cheap even back then
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And that was the bag I started with really. I carried that Finn gas mask bag
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all over the place, did videos on it. It was my dedicated haversack and then more
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and more brands started coming out, getting better and better. Hidden Woodsman, Tough Possum, Raging River, all these guys were making really cool
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customized haversacks and of course you know being on YouTube and wanting to
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show different stuff I was trying all these things and buying them and showing them and I kind of lost sight of the old Finn gas mask bag. So this thing
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was brand spanking new. It still had the instructions on the inside along with
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some packaging with the gas mask filters and things like that. So these are
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readily available still on the military surplus market. You can find them all
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over the place on the web, eBay, different military surplus stores, and of course
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flea markets, gun shows, military shows. Guys are selling them as surplus items
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still readily available. But you do need to kind of pick through them because like
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said this one was new and I like this one particular because it was the
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heavier duty model. Some of them are a lighter material. This is a very heavy
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canvas so it's very stiff. So I want to show you why this is such a great pick
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for someone who is just getting started buying bushcraft gear and wanting
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something that's inexpensive. It's not gonna break the bank but a super good
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quality and will last you for years and years and will also carry your stuff in
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a very organized manner. So let's take a look. Okay we got a nice rotten log to
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sit on today to show you this gas mask bag. So first thing first thing to note
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is that this little emblem does not come with these. That was a piece of military
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surplus I've had for years. I thought it looked pretty cool in this bag so put it on there. But the thin gas mask bag is exactly what it's called. It is a gas
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mask bag used by the Finnish Army. I don't believe they're being used anymore
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It is made of a very heavy-duty canvas material. It has two nice press studs
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which actually work really well. They keep the bag closed. They do not come
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open on their own. You have to kind of put your finger behind it and then press
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it to get it to open and then also do the same thing to close it. There's a tab
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under there that you can actually get your finger underneath so it's a two-finger process so it's very secure. And then the back of the bag we have the
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shoulder strap which is two sewn in tabs and one removable metal wire gate buckle
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there. And this is adjustable so you can make it longer or shorter. And then the
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other nice feature is that it actually has this waist strap and that can come
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into play if you're hiking and you want to keep this thing secure not moving
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around on you. So we'll show you how that works and looks. It does a good job and
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it's actually a pretty decent feature so I leave it on mine. Well as you can see
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it does a very good job of keeping the bag where it's supposed to be and if I
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made this even tighter I could bring that bag up a little bit higher on my
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waist and now that keeps it from swinging around while I'm out hiking. So
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what makes this bag so great other than just being what makes this bag so great
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other than being just so cool looking and being made from canvas and being military surplus? It really it comes down to a couple of factors and one is how
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this thing opens up and stays open and stays sitting up. You know a lot of the
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newer Haversacks are tall and narrow and you know that they're great for
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fitting now jeans but they tend to tip over quite a bit and they're harder to
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get to the bottom. This is long and wide and it has a very wide opening and a
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very square bottom so when you load it it sits perfectly on a surface you're
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working from so you can actually open this thing up see what's inside get into
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the contents very quickly very easily and see what's going on. So that's the
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first thing that I love about this gas mask bag as a Haversack. The second
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feature and this is the hidden gem of it so you load this with all your gear
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but on the face of it there is this flap if you can see that there are two
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buttons down there all right open this up pull that flap open and that exposes
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a panel of sewn slot pockets that for whatever reason are just the perfect
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size for all the items that I don't have pouches for. It is a fantastic way of
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organizing some items and I'm not getting to all the time and that flap
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since it secures keeps everything secure if the bag does fall over things aren't
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flopping out rolling around getting jumbled up inside the bag and it just
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makes it so much easier getting to the contents and figuring out what you need
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so there's a larger slot pocket here and this actually fits my Atwood paracord
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spool tool that's about that's probably a little over 50 feet of paracord on
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there and there's a lighter on the inside that fits very nicely in there so
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I can I can have my cordage and of course it's got the cutter on it so I
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can get to that this slot I've got my work sharp field sharpener a fantastic
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tool to have in camp with you touch up your knives axes and you can even do
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fishing hooks with this thing so fantastic little tool and then I like to
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carry a little bit bigger of a ferro rod so there's my ferro rod on a nice
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chunky handle that goes down next to that there's a small short pocket back
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here and in here this is the hanging kit or hardware that goes to my titanium
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canteen kit and I'll show you that here in a minute so you got these little arms
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and what you do is they just slide into these wire little holes right here on
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the side of the cup and you clip them in then you're gonna do the same thing on
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the other side it's almost like a binder clip you just kind of you squeeze
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it and then release it and then that grabs the wire and then my spork gotta
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have that that fits right there and then in this pocket is my open L saw now the
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only modification I did is on this particular pocket there was a line of
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thread sewn across the middle of the pocket that made it shorter I just ripped
8:56
that out with my knife and that made that pocket longer and now I can fit my
9:00
my open L saw in there so that's that's the entire contents of the organizer
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pocket and then as you can see tons of room in here now I have my gritter
9:14
titanium canteen and cup so now I've got a means of boiling water making coffee
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hydrating really a great item works well on a fire as well as a stove speaking of
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stoves I've got my Vargo titanium hex stove nice little wood stove got my
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first aid kit basic stuff boo-boos lip balm tweezers for pulling ticks tape some
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nice eye drops different medications and some deep woods off towelettes since it's
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summer now got to have some of that stuff with you as you're hiking this
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pouch is my possibles pouch or my fire kit primarily I've got my match safe
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that has a built-in compass it's brass and then I put a small whistle on the
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end of that there I have some wax impregnated cotton pads and these are
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homemade but then I also have these from black-and-white fire starter these
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have some other stuff into it to some resin type material really great fire
10:46
starters that all seals in this nice little tin keeps it nice and clean you
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can get the black-and-white fire starter on Etsy I'll have a link down below for that good people and then in here I have my flint and steel kit steel
11:05
not really a necessity but I love to mess with it so I've got flint I got a
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little mini steel I've got this I just picked up I haven't tried this yet but
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I'm really looking forward to this little guy so that should be really
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great for getting fires going in my stove then last two items in here of
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course is the big lighter and then a fire bellows always a lifesaver every
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time I go camping my buddies make fun of me for this thing they think it's the stupidest thing but every single time we have trouble getting the fire going
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because the woods wet and guess what this guy saves the day every day so
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always have one of those on me and then last but not least I just have this
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little wildo nest kit just makes for a nice way of eating your lunch having a
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little bowl and plate keeps everything organized and in here I've got some
12:03
coffee some soup and then there's the lid to my canteen cup and then my
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folding cup I got from Ozark Trail all fits in there very nicely that's it so
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you can tell there's tons of room in here for more stuff and you certainly
12:27
don't need to add more stuff because you don't want to make it too heavy but
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for you know a lightweight hiking kit for summer into fall this Habersack has
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enough space to carry all your gear ground is super spongy and wet it's kind
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of hard to see on film but trust me it is but what's great about these little
12:59
wood stoves in particular the titanium ones is that they're lightweight they're
13:08
very safe to use if you want to control you know not have a big raging campfire
13:15
because you're worried about burning down the woods especially in a fire ban
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situation these may be a good alternative for you and I don't need a
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big campfire on a hot day but I do need a means heating up some water got my
13:41
good old Rough Rider Camp King I've got one of these pads already started using
13:49
it so I'm just gonna cut off a hunk I really don't think I'll need the whole thing
15:11
so I know someone's gonna point this out yes that's poison ivy I'm fully aware
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of it poison ivy doesn't bother me it doesn't I don't have a reaction to it I
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think some people are just immune to it I've never had an issue with it I've
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never had a breakout I'm always looking for it and I'm making sure I'm not like
15:57
rolling around in it but if it's next to me I don't freak out a lot of people do
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so thank you for your concern that's great about that that feed door is now
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you can just add bigger and bigger stuff if you need to and we got boilage
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pretty quick three or four minutes probably four minutes maybe five the
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most it's gonna let that burn out you
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all right I hope you found this video useful remember you don't have to spend
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tons of money to get outside you just need to get outside because it is beautiful out here and there's so many cool things to see if you like this
17:02
content please consider subscribing liking and sharing that it really helps the channel leave a comment down below and tell me like what your haversack is
17:12
what your go-to and if you like haversacks maybe you don't and also
17:17
please check out the affiliate links there's stuff for Amazon store I'll have
17:20
some of this gear in there if you're interested in the in the Vargo stove or
17:24
the gritter canteen set I'll try to find a good link for a thin gas mask bag I
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haven't shopped for one online for a while but there should be something out
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there I'll find one for you and try to put a link down below to that and check
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out Facebook we have a Facebook group yes the prepared wanderer Facebook group
17:43
27,000 members it's huge it's growing all the time well great resource for
17:48
information a lot of people sharing cool stuff and as always thank you so much
17:52
for watching my videos and we'll see you next time on the prepared wanderer
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