Anyone use them ??

I bought one of each today, a MSR Whisperlite International "Multi-Fuel" and a MSR Mini-Works EX water filter.

Reason being the Whisper light can burn White Gas, regular automobile Gasoline, Kerosene, and even diesel.

And the Mini-Works allows you to clean it and keep it working when your out in the bush, its field maintainable.

Dimitri

Mate, here in Ozzie, at Australian Geographic store there are something called the "eco billy"

Basically its a water cooker that have a funnel built in the body of the kettle.
you stuff leaves and twigs inside the funnel, light it up and within 2 - 4 minutes, you got boiled water.

Nice and easy.. no need to carry fuel.

I have a military surplus multi-fuel stove (single burner) that will burn any liquid that will burn. It sounds like a jet engine when it fires up but will boil water in less time than anything else I have ever used. As for water - we carry a small bottle of bleach. 2 drops per quart and wait twenty minutes will purify any water for drinking. If you don't like the taste you can boil it to remove the bleach. We also carry a portable water still for emergency use. If it is alive or green you can get drinking water out of it. Four easy to use pieces: 3x3' black plastic tarp, 3x3' clear plastic tarp, white plastic cup, and 1/2" steel ball. One of these kits per person and even in the desert you can get enough drinking water to keep you alive. (as ong as there is plant life to stuff it with)

Gelan,

You Australians love your Billies. Looks neat though.

Paul,

Sounds like the MSR XGK. Will burn everything that will burn and sounds like a jet engine, thought about it but decided on the Whisperlite instead as its abit quieter.

Dimitri

I have a small stove that fits in my pack but can't remember the brand, it works really well. I have a Katahdin water filtration pump also, both are small and lightweight and great to have in the backcountry.

www.oppositelock.com.a...ixkey=7148

eco-billy.. thats how it looks like

And yeh.. we all loves our billy.. not the goat kind tho

Yer right 'Mitri...we aussies do love our billy. They have been around since the first time someone saw an opportunity to recycle, and make use of, an old large tin can. Easy to carry, easy to use, and nice and cheap too.

I've never actually seen the Eco Billy, but although I'm sure that they are ok, I doubt that I'd ever get one.

I have a small GAZ stove and carry an Army "cups canteen" on the outside of my water bottle for boiling water...also have an old Millbank Water Filter....a cloth bag that is used to filter water. Doesn't remove leptospirosis or other such bugs, but it does clean up the water. For the microbe beasties I have water purification tabs in a small easy to carry bottle. Puts a slight iodine taste into the water, but that disappears with a little time and/or boiling. I also have a quantity of Hexamine and a couple of hexamine stoves from when I was in the Army...very efficient.

At the end of the day, if you need to boil water for any reason, and you don't have a stove or source of fire with you it isn't all that hard to get a small fire going. There are a number of products out there that are small and easy to carry in a survival style kit that you can use. Rubbing two sticks together does work...but its a pain in the butt.

Paul's idea of the "water still" is also a good one...you can also use a plastic bag in another way...wrap it around as much greenery on a tree as you can, seal it up at the top as best you can, then leave it. The sun does the rest...well not quite as simple as that, but that is the principle.

Anyone who has done any sort of survival training will have covered both of these subjects..fire and water collection...in some detail. It isn't difficult, but unless you understand it, it can be.

These days I am happy to have a two burner gas stove back in the camp, along with a couple of 20 litre water jerries. I carry a Camelbak and if I think I'm gonna be out for a while and will want a hot brew I take a Thermos of coffee with me.

Looks like a great idea, but pretty large, isnt it? At least to carry around in a pack.

I want to get a Sterno Canned Heat Stove for my brothers and I and our cousin's annual campout . I could also get a mil-surp stove

Yes there are water stills, I had a couple of HUGE ziplock bags just for this purpose "just in case" in my bag but they got damaged. And I never did end up trying the still method out.

On the topic of "survival" in the woods check this out -> www.mediafire.com/?e0nmxmy3ti3

Dimitri

As you guys know I do a lot of backpacking on a horse (I'm a saddlebagger). This is what I have in my saddle bags for meal preperation on those 6 to 10 days in the mountains.

So if you have all that stuff in your saddle bags what are the keys for? Or does your horse have an ignition and power locks?


Oh........ I use a Coleman propane camp stove for cooking and a wood stove to heat my tent when I go hunting and bring enough water so I don't use water filters.

Well I suppose I could have put you next the the stove and things to indicate just how small my stove is, but that might completely dwarf the stove and accessories to the point where you couldn't see them for you...

Yup...Have a coleman stove too for hunting camp...I normally camp where there is a good water supply or, like 2095ss take plenty of water to suffice...

Don't need any water filters where I go D.
I drink the water right out of the lake. No problems.

For stoves, I have an old Coleman two burner stove for easy trips, a Coleman two burner propane stove for hunting trips, and a Small Peak One stove that I used to use on long canoe trips when my leg was healthy.

Eric

I've always been a campfire person. I like cooking over an open wood flame.

When I was younger, I used to store camping equipment at a couple of select camping sites. This was mostly cooking equipment. All of these sites were just good camping places. Two had a small camp houses. This got me closer to my deer stand. The camp houses were used when hunting or working cattle. One place was 3,000 acres of hill country, west of San Antonio, the other was part of the family estate, about a thousand acres in the brush country south of Tilden, Texas.

Now that I'm older, I find myself making day excursions into the woods, only to return to the house at night. This requires no bed role. All I carry is a canteen, a bologna sandwich (or a can of sardines or Vienna sausage, etc.), my weapon, a knife, and a walking staff (or as I call my Little John Staff) (this is the type of staff that Little John battled Robin Hood over the use of a walk bridge).

Cary