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Field Jacket Survival Kit | First Line Gear for the Outdoors
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Feb 3, 2024
In this video I show a survival kit that is stored in my field jacket. #bushcraft Victorinox Farmer: https://bit.ly/3LbBSXI NRG5 bars and other Survival Supplies can be found here: http://www.5col.com/?rfsn=504688.49256 Check out the New Website! https://preparedwanderer.com Amazon Store: https://bit.ly/3Jjs1iO Prepared Wanderer FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1835005976546722 Prepared Wanderer INSTAGRAM: prepared_wanderer
View Video Transcript
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You know, if you're an outdoorsman, hunter, bushcrafter, prepper, survivalist, whatever
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you do or what you call yourself when you're out doing activities out in the woods, your
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gear is really important. And one of the prime items that you have in your kit is your jacket and your clothing
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and the things that you carry on you. So in today's video, we're going to look at building a survival kit for your field jacket
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and your hunting jacket. So it's going to be a good video
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Stick around. So this concept of building a survival kit within your field jacket is not a new thing
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It's been around for quite a while and I feel like, in my opinion, the Europeans, particularly
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military, really kind of developed this and made it into something that is worthwhile
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looking at. Now, a term that comes up a lot is different lines of gear
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So in the military, there's first line, second line, and third line
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And I believe, if I'm correct, that military people will consider their first line the
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items that they carry on themselves. So what I've done is I've put together some items and built them into my jacket, my field jacket
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In Europe, the type of jacket I'm wearing is called a smock
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And I really think that the Europeans, particularly the British, really have developed the field
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jacket and the smock into something that's just really awesome. It goes way beyond traditional military American field jacket
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Now the M65, which a lot of guys used and wore when they were issued to and still wear
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today, is a fantastic jacket. I wore an M65 for many years
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When I was younger, it was a good economical jacket to wear
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It was tough. I wore it hunting, camping, hiking around. It was a great jacket
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I loved it. But lately, I've been really fascinated with these smocks
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And I have owned several, have owned many different ones. Now currently, I've been utilizing this jacket, which is from a company called Sarma
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It's sold by Veristolika. And it is the Finnish camo. And it's currently their smock, or jacket, that they're using
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And it's a fantastic piece of kit. It is amazing how many different pockets are on this thing and the features that's built
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into it. So what we're going to do today is I'm going to lay out the things that I put into this
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jacket and kind of talk about why I chose them and how I can use them
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And then hopefully, what you can do is you can take your jacket, maybe it's just a hunting
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coat, or it's your M65, or it's even a ski parka or something, whatever you use when
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you're out in the woods, and how you can layer in different items that will help you if something
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happens and you have to rely on those. So all right, so the first thing I want to do is just take a look, a brief overview of
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this coat. It's very basic in its material. It's a cotton nylon blend
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Nothing fancy. It's not a waterproof material, but it does have a good wind cutting capability, which
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makes it great because I can layer up and that helps keep me warm
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But the great thing about these European military issue smocks is that they have a lot of pockets
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built into them. They have a system built into them, and that is specifically supposed to be used for first
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line gear, survival equipment that you're going to carry on your person
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So two big pockets on the chest, lower pockets down here, hand warmer pockets
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Of course we've got zippered chest pockets, pockets on the sleeves. And then what's really interesting about this particular coat is on the back there is what
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they call the poacher's pocket. And this is a back pocket to carry larger items, and it really, it starts acting more
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like a small lumbar pack or backpack that you can carry bigger, bulkier items
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One thing I got used to with these European jackets is that they put the zippers on the
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other side as opposed to what they do in the States. So it's a little hard getting used to that sometimes, but it's doable
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So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to open up this poacher's pocket, the
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back pocket, and I'm going to show you an item that I carry back here that has many uses
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It is an item that a lot of people carry in their gear
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And what we're going to use for today is going to be our ground cloth
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So this is the contractor's liner bag, garbage bag, heavy duty
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I think this is four or five mil, I can't remember exactly, but it's pretty heavy
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What I want to do is I'm going to use this as my ground cloth today and lay out the contents
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of the jacket on this bag. Now the great thing about this bag is it can be used as a modified sleeping bag
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If you have a couple of them, you can tape them together, be turned into a tarp, cut
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a hole in it, it can be a poncho, so it is a multi-use item
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You can collect debris in it if you're making a debris shelter or a bed
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You can collect water in it. There's a lot of different uses, so definitely worth having
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Before we get into the contents of the jacket, there are things I'm carrying on myself that
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I think are important as well, and that's part of the system. The first thing that you'll notice is I'm carrying a neck knife
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It's the Mora Companion. It's a very basic Mora, but what I like about it is it's carbon steel, it has a very comfortable
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grip, it's just a fantastic little knife. It's very easy to sharpen
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You can sharpen up the spine if you want to. And then what I did is I went out and got a custom Kydex sheath for it
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So on the sheath here, what I've done is I've put a couple of bicycle inner tubes cut down
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to create bands, and I have a mini Bic lighter, so I always have access to that
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I can pull that out and use that. But what I've done is I've used one of these little photon lights that you get, keychain
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lights, and I've put that underneath the band and I have it facing down
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So then if I want to use the light without taking it off the sheath, I can use this as
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a task light to read a map, look for gear in my pack, whatever
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So it just gives me some options, but I really like having a little light on the sheath like that
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These are very easy to put together, and the Kydex sheaths are easy to find
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There's a lot of people on eBay and Etsy who are selling Kydex for Mora's
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I created an adjustable knot that allows me to lengthen or shorten the cord around my neck
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So if I'm wearing a lot of layers, I can get it on and off pretty easily
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But this is part of the system. Also part of the system is a bandana
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I always carry a bandana in my thigh pocket on my BDUs
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You all know how useful a bandana is. And then the other item that I always carry is a pocket knife
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And for this particular scenario, and for when I'm out in the woods bushcrafting, camping
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hiking, I really like a Swiss Army knife or some type of camper style knife
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This one in particular is a Victorinox. This is the Farmer, and what's great about the Farmer is besides all the normal things
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that come on a Swiss Army knife, you've got a blade, you've got your bottle and can openers
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and different screwdrivers, but you have an awl, which I will show you what that's great
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for besides just working with wood and punching through leather. And the awl has other purposes as well
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But the Farmer also has a very nice saw. And for doing small camp crafts, that is a perfect thing
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In an emergency, you can definitely take down some small branches if you have to start a fire
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Now, the other thing that I do, anytime I'm carrying a knife like this on me, I put it
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on a lanyard. This is a two strand twist of paracord with whipping on the ends
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And that creates a very strong connection that is not going to break, that is not going
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to come apart in any way. I've had this for many years
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And then I put it on a locking carabiner onto my belt
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So that's tethered to me and I can't lose that. So here's the jacket
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Don't have anything in the arm pockets, but these are a great place to put things like that you want to grab quickly, especially if you're wearing a backpack or other layers
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is putting things like maps and notebooks. They're easily accessible here. What I've done is on this right chest pocket, I've sewn in a loop of gutted 550 cord into
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the hem of this pocket. And then in here, I've got two items
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I've got a ferroceram rod and I've got a Bic lighter and an Exotac sleeve
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So this is my main ways of making fire. And what I wanted to show real quickly is why I like the Farmer and why I like that awl
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What's nice about the awl on this knife is that it's on the right, it's on the correct side
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And since you're putting pressure downward, it locks this way. So it's not, you don't, you don't have to worry about this thing coming open or folding
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down on you. And of course, an awl is a very handy item when punching through leather, even wood
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You can drill some very nice holes through wood with this awl. It's very sharp and it's very easy to work with
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I've done the same thing. I've sewn in a loop into the pocket and I've got my whistle
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That's an ACR whistle. And then I have this little light. This is another light
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This one has a very specific purpose. This is a Streamlight Pocket Mate
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It has a clip built into it. It is rechargeable. It charges on a mini USB
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But what's nice about this is it has a clip that allows you to clip this to the bill of
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your baseball cap and turn that into a nice little headlamp
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So I don't have to carry a big heavy headlamp. I don't have to carry a big heavy flashlight. I can use this
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It has actually different settings. There's a low and a bright
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Weighs nothing, but it gives me the capability of actually having a headlamp
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Now, of course, in the back pocket we looked at the Garbage Bag Liner
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The other item I carry is this pack that I put together
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This has a few essentials. So we have some Steri-Strips and Band-Aids for treating wounds
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We have a hunk of 50 Cord. We have one liter Whirl Bags for disinfecting water
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We have the Katadyn Micro-Pure water treatment tabs. We have man-made tinder cubes
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These are from Black and White Fire Starter. Really fantastic little cotton balls that are soaked in a resin
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Break those apart, fluff them up, hit them with your Faro-Rod or your lighter, and you'll
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have a fire going pretty quickly. A small Mylar Space Blanket just to help retain heat
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And then a really important item is a compass. One thing with mini-compasses, you'll see these little mini, you know, compasses that
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come in all these survival kits. Most of those are junk. You really have to be careful with those because they will form bubbles, they're not very accurate
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They don't have a very long, they're not very durable, I guess, is what I want to say
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This is a Sunto wrist compass, and why I like this in particular, besides this being
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it's very lightweight, it doesn't take up much room in my kit, and now the compass is
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on me, I'm not going to lose it. I can check my direction as I'm hiking
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It is accurate. It does a good job as long as I keep it away from anything metal, so I don't want it to
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be close to my knife or my car keys. But as I'm moving, it has very clear markings on it
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I can read the numbers easily, and that's going to help me keep my course that I'm walking on
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So now in this pocket, I carry a couple of packs of the NRG5 emergency ration bars
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Now if you're not familiar with these, these have a very interesting kind of purpose to them
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It's an emergency ration bar. They are not fantastic tasting, but there is enough calories in one of these to keep
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you going. I get mine from 5 Call Survival Supply. I'll have a link down below
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It looks like, it doesn't look like much of anything, it looks like a piece of concrete
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or something. Mmm. Very dry. You better have some water when you're eating these
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The flavor is fine. It's kind of a little bit of a sweetness to it
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Almost tastes like the crust off of a Pop-Tart, but not as good
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But very, very dry. Alright, so the last thing I carry in my pockets on this jacket is a lightweight pair of gloves
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These are just mechanic wear gloves. Nothing super fancy, but they will keep your hands warm
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And they are great for protecting your hands when you're working in the woods, cutting
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wood, building shelters, things like that. You definitely want something like that
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It doesn't work. Now, when I was doing, getting ready for this video, I built this coat several times, added
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things to it, and the first time I did it, I failed miserably because it was so heavy
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I had so much stuff in it. And then I really realized that you can't take everything
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And I know everybody's going to leave comments down below, add this, add that
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And yes, you can always add more, but at what limit? When do you stop
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I can't carry everything in this jacket because it's going to be so heavy and bulky that it
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defeats the purpose. I might as well just take a backpack. These are backups
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These are items that will be there just in case. They don't weigh a lot of weight
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They don't take up a lot of space. Even if I'm out with the day pack or a canteen kit or whatever, if I have my field jacket
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on, it has these things in it and these are backups and they could help me
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So, all right, guys, hope this video helped you out a little bit
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If it did, please consider subscribing and hitting that bell icon notification down below
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Leave a comment. Please tell me what you would add to your jacket or maybe what you have in yours, what
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kind of coat you're using. Like, subscribe, and of course, share. Share that with other people that you know and other groups, and hopefully that'll help
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someone else. And then also check out the affiliate links down below
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A lot of good information on there if you're on Facebook. Instagram, of course, got all kinds of extra photos and videos on there as well
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And then preparedwanderer.com, that's the new website. A lot of articles on there that I'm adding for myself and other people, as well as links
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to videos and links to the store where you can purchase Prepared Wanderer patches and stickers
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So, all this helps the channel, and I appreciate you watching my channel so much
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So thank you, and we will see you next time on the Prepared Wanderer
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