Flick on the TV these days and there’s a good chance you’ll see some “expert” who has been dropped into some unenviable scenario with nothing but the shirt on his back and maybe a pocketknife, forced to live off the land and improvise his way back to safety. In the real world, though, survival situations aren’t preceded by production meetings and script revisions. They happen when you least expect them, and sometimes where you least expect them, so it’s important to always be prepared. No matter what type of outing you’re planning—from a morning at the local fishing hole to a backcountry hunting excursion—a survival kit is a necessity. 

But commercial kits are often overpriced and under-geared, so we’ve assembled the best kits for a range of different emergency scenarios. Whether the situation is a tumble from your treestand or the end of the world as we know it, we’ll show you what you need, what to pack it in, and how to use it.