SURVIVING IN ARGENTINA

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People, I finally set up the Modern Survivalist Amazon Store. Most of the stuff shown in the video (and often mentioned in posts) is available there. Just click on the EDC menu and you'll see the gear or compatible alternatives for the stuff that has been discontinued.

-FerFAL

Check out my new Book “Street Survival Skills” . Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Links to some of the stuff shown in the video:
ThruNite MCC-4S Universal Charger
Zebralight H53w AA
Klarus Mini One 130 Lumens
NITECORE 14500 Built-in Micro-USB Rechargeable

Streamlight is a company that produces some interesting high value flashlights. They are often found in use by military, police, EMT and firefighters, people that put their gear through some hard, honest use.

This isn’t some generic Made in China flashlight manufacturer. Streamlight products are well tested and they are durable, offering a ton of flashlight for the money. This is a flashlight that would do well as EDC, kept in kits for emergencies or for use in your line of work where a reliable flashlight is required.

 The most interesting feature this flashlight has is that in can run on a single cell of CR123A or AA. Officially speaking it’s a “Dual Fuel” flashlight. Unofficially speaking though, this flashlight can also run on AAA batteries as well. You just place them in there, carefully screw the cap and it does work. The ability to run on the most common batteries available out there is a huge capability for a survival oriented flashlight.



The Streamlight 88061 ProTac 1L-1AA feels solid in the hand. It is made of anodized aluminium and has a tail cap clicky button which is capable of momentary on when pressing without clicking. One click turns the light on in high (350 lumens for the CR123A or 150 lumens for AA), tapping the tail button twice activates the strobe mode. This can be used for defensive use, along with the flashlight itself given that is has a strike bezel to use as an impact weapon. Tapping on the tail 3 times engages the low mode which is 40 lumens on either battery. This is the pre-set program the flashlight comes in. You can access two other settings by tapping on the button 10 times. There’s another setting that works just on High, and another that has both High-Low. This works well for people that want a simple light that just turns on an off when they click it and nothing else or for folks that want to do without the strobe mode. I do feel that a Low or even Moonlight mode is missing in this flashlight. That would have made it just about perfect in my opinion, if at least one of the three programs offered such an option.

I do like the Streamlight 88061 ProTac 1L-1AA . I think it offers a lot of flashlight for the money and I think the “Triple Fuel” capability makes it an ideal choice for any Modern Survivalist. As of right now at 36 bucks it’s a bargain. Get yourself a couple and put them in your kits. You’ll be glad you did.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

So one of those once in a lifetime mess-ups left us without power for almost a week. One guy messed up and didn’t present the paperwork he was supposed to, the power company did its thing, then fixing it all with a weekend in between was even more time. At the end of the day we were left without power until the mess was sorted out.

I’ve been without power for a few days before. In fact in Argentina power would go down almost every day for a few hours some years ago, especially during summer. I’ve been a day or two without power more times than I can remember and even longer too. Can’t remember if I ever did six full days though.

Anyway, not the end of the world but it is an experience in which you get to see what works, what doesn’t, learn a thing or two or just refresh or remember some of them, so here it goes:

1)Not having power sucks. I gets boring after a day or two. I like watching a movie with the wife after the kids go to sleep. We missed that, of course no internet, tablets and wifi for the phones. Not having rooms as well illuminated is pretty depressing too, especially after a few days. At first the kids run around with flashlights having fun, after the 3^rd day they cant stop asking when is the power coming back. We have board games, card games but we didn’t get to use them because we were still pretty busy. It’s a good idea to have them and put them to use though.
Tip: Try finding other things to do, and most of all, if you can, get of the house as much as you can. It really helps fight the gloomy blackout feeling.

2)Preparedness helps. It makes a very big difference if you know what to do. If the blackout lasts for a few hours then just waiting it out with a flashlight will do, but for several days you actually need a game plan, a strategy to get by. How are you going to heat your home, how are you going to heat water, cook food, illuminate the house, keep the fridge going, get work done. All of these need to be addressed and if you haven’t prepared ahead of time and know what to do then everything gets a lot more complicated.

3)Flashlights. Lots of flashlights. I have a ton of them. I buy them, I get them for free to review. They all came in handy. A small Fenix that my oldest son keeps was his personal light to get around when going to bed. My wife kept the Lumintop Copper Prince (best looking flashlight we own!) she keeps as her own. I made good use of the Thrunite TN12s that I have.
Those 1000 lumen lights come in very handy. Using them in candle mode, standing on the tail and pointing towards the ceiling, in their medium modes of 300 or so they would run for a few hours illuminating the room quite well, especially for showering and preparing dinner they were extremely handy.

4)Headlamps. Oh how I love those things. The ability to have both hands available for use while directing light with your head is priceless. If I could only have a light, it would be a headlamp. During those days I picked the head band of my Zebralight H52W and kept it in my pocket as my EDC, using the head strap when getting things done inside the house. Get yourself a good headlamp. The cheapo ones are ok but a nicer one is a valuable asset during extended blackouts.

5)Cat 32 stoves. You remember that post some time ago about making stoves with small tuna and cat food cans? The first day without power I used one to boil some water for breakfast. It worked beautifully.
After that I went for the butane camping stove and left that in the kitchen. If you don’t have one of these yet, just go and buy one. Not the mini  backpacking one but the cheap, large one used of camping. Its far more stable and convenient for blackouts. The one I have is just like this one, the Coleman Butane Stove. Bottles of gas are 2 bucks although its not hard to find them for one dollar when on sale. Stock up. I used a canister every two or three days. This was cooking lunch and dinner, heating water throughout the day for coffee, tea and mate. Stock up and keep a couple weeks worth of gas. It’s cheap enough, extremely handy for these kind of situations and can be used safely in any kind of house or apartment.

6)If you have a car you already have a generator that can run most appliances in your home, one or two at a time. All you need is an inverter. My 500W inverter allowed me to turn on the wifi, use my laptop and charge the cell phones. Careful not to abuse it, you don’t want to end up with burned cables or a dead car battery. These days even fuel efficient refrigerators can be run with a 500W inverter. I would run it for couple hours at a time, get some things done with the laptop before going for running errands and recharging the battery. If you’re going to use the inverter for something more than running a laptop for an hour or two you want to keep the car running so as to avoid draining the battery.
Tip: The advertised power of these car inverters is usually exaggerated a bit. For charging a small laptop and little else a 300W inverter is fine, connected to the 12V lighter. Anything more than that and you’ll probably start blowing fuses in the car. Better yet, get a 500W to 1000W inverter that connects directly to the car’s battery. The bigger the car and the battery the better. Still, Check the wattage and try sticking to half of the max. wattage of your inverter.



7)Ice bottles. Put a few bottles of water in your freezer and use it as an ice box for a couple days, maybe 3 or 4 days in winter. Cover everything with a plastic tarp in there for extra insulation. Don’t expect any miracles, but using this technique it will give you enough time to eat any perishables you may have in there before they go bad.

8)Rice, pasta, canned tuna, canned vegetables, lentils, the more shelf stable food you have the easier it is. We are used to eating these things already during “normal” times, so its already easy for us to stop using the fridge and stick to these shelf stable foods. Sure you miss a cold drink in summer, but you get by none the less.
Tip: For rice and especially lentils, pre soaking saves a lot of fuel when cooking. Don’t forget the lid too!

9)Gravity fed city water saved us. If you’re on a well and need to pump water, prepare accordingly. Basically you want to look at your situation and have plan B or even plan C for everything. Cooking? I use electricity. If that goes down I have the butane stove. If that doesn’t work I have the Cat32 alcohol stove which also works. I also have LPG gas bottles used for the water heater, which ca be used for cooking with the right burner. If you have a well, you maybe want a manual pump in case the electric one fails.  Having a plan B, and even plan C for the more critical systems saves the day when SHTF.

10)Living next to town made many things easier. Sometimes you picked fresh food and cooked it right away, buying things you needed, dropping by laundry. Even simple things like having a pizza delivered (even if I usually make my own) it just means you have more resources available and more at hand. Even my neighbour offered several times to hook me up to his grid if I needed it. I don’t like asking for favours or even accepting them when offered, but it was nice knowing that it had been offered.

11)Location, location, location. Living in an area with tropical climate means that when these things happen chances are you’ll get by more easily. In colder climates staying warm is a top priority, especially in winter and a blackout complicates this a lot. The backup systems are crucial in this case. In more benign climates though you just don’t worry about that sort of thing. In sunny places, even lighting gets easier, with daylight up to 9PM in some cases.

12) Batteries, chargers and cables. You need several of these, just like you do with flashlights. You need batteries for your flashlights of course, both primaries and rechargables. Li-ion ones are especially useful for those larger Lumen LED lights. They are brighter and run for longer periods of time. Battery banks and solar panels are also useful. The Waka Waka Power battery bank plus charger worked great yet again. Highly recommended. Keep a lighter plug for the car that has two USB outputs. This means you can charge two phones at a time when running. When there’s a blackout, this is very convenient. A good working solar panel is worth purchasing. I’m considering the one by Goal Zero Nomad 20W  given the positive reviews it has.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Titanium Casio Pathfinder Triple-Sensor in Amazon on sale for $139
Casio Men's PRW-2500T-7CR Pro Trek Tough Solar Digital (similar to mine) $227.99

Yesterday during an interview with Jim Paris I was asked about survival gear. It’s a massive topic and it can be overwhelming for the uninitiated.  It’s safe to recommend stocking up food and at least two weeks worth of bottled water. The same goes for essential emergency supplies, but people want specifics and these lists can be massive, overwhelming.
For those new to modern survival I recommend starting with the core items behind such philosophy: The items you are most likely to use during an emergency, meaning the ones you will have on your person. This is what we call EDC, everyday carry items. Now here too it can get a bit intense but I do have a tip for you.
Just start with your keychain.
Everyone carries one. It’s an item you will have with you no matter what and a few carefully selected items can keep the total volume and weight down while making sure critical tools are always available. I’ve had this setup for years and ended up with it after years of trial and error. I guarantee you will be using all of these more often than you’d think.
These are the items I recommend you have in your keychain.
1)Flashlight.

Few other items are as indispensable during emergencies. Today LED lights are surprisingly bright. Surprisingly durable as well and can run for long periods of time.
I currently keep a Thrunite Ti in my keychain, but if you want to spend a bit more and buy premium quality look for the Surefire Titan.
2)Knife/Multitool.


Pretty basic right? You gotta have a knife. Better yet have a knife and a bunch of small tools. After years of use I recommend either a Leatherman Squirt PS4 or a Victorinox Minichamp, the Minichamp being my personal favourite although the PS4 is objectively as good, maybe better for certain applications.
3)USB Flash drive.

Keep one with your important work files, copies of documents and other important papers and family photos and videos. The Sandisk is a good way to go given that their encryption software is pretty good and allows for the creation of password protected vaults, meaning you can safely use the Flash drive for everyday use too.
4)Lighter

Fire being a quintessential survival tool I believe you should have a lighter or at the very least fire starting tools. A ferrocerium rod is suitable for repeated outdoors use, but a lighter provides a quicker flame when needed. This is the one I have, a titanium peanut lighter. Pretty great and totaly worth it.
5)Mini Prybar


Its small, light and compact. A small prybar can spare the relatively fragile blade in your keychain tool. For years I had the Vox bar from Boker. Currently I’m using a tiny Pico bar. Either one will serve you well.

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

These have been around for many years now. Cheap, simple, reliable and tough as nails. For three bucks or so for the pack of ten they are a great deal. In my experience they last well over ten hours. They do start to dim down but a day later you still may have some light left.


For $0.33 a pop you can’t beat these for budget EDC or keeping in different kits, keychains and bags.

FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

The Zebralight H52W has been around for a few years. The LED has been upgrading over time, currently it’s a Cree XM-L2, in either cool or neutral white, but the excellent concept, design and execution have remained. In spite of this I did not buy one until now. It seemed I always had something else that I liked well enough or was very happy with. Boy I wish I had bought one of these before.

The Best Survivalist flashlight?

I use the question mark because I still believe that the Streamlight Sidewinder Compact II is the ultimate survival flashlight, the one I would have if I could have only one to deal with SHTF for extended periods of time. Having said that, the Zebralight is an extremely strong contender for the #1 place in the list. Both of these are angle head lights, making them very versatile. What I like about the Sidewinder Compact II the most is the military grade toughness and the ability to indistinctively use AA, AAA and CR123 format batteries. This trait is crucial for such a survivalist flashlight. On the other hand the H52W is almost half the size, making it better for pocket EDC, and with the right battery can put almost five times as much lumens downrange with its 500 lumen high mode.
The Zebralight H52W makes very good use of its angle head and clip. Like the old Fulton MX991/U military flashlight, they can be clipped to webbing, straps or belts, keeping the reflector pointed forward. I used it recently attaching it to the neck of my t-shirt (the H52W is small and light enough to allow this) I can also clip it to my belt or front jeans pocket. The Zebralight H52W is actually intended to be headlamp so it includes a headstrap which is compact yet comfortable, turning it into a pretty good headlamp. The H52W uses a single AA battery. This is an important factor given that AA are one of the easiest batteries to come across. It can also run on lithium and li-ion batteries, considerably increasing its capabilities with the use of 3.7V14500 rechargable batteries. Many AA lights expressively forbid the use of 3.7V batteries and the few that do allow it often end up losing functions such as the lower lumen modes. Not the case here. The light includes yet another feature that is important for anyone carrying and using the light frequently as their EDC, a battery voltage indicator. Clicking it four times the LED blinks 1 to 4 times letting you know how much battery is left. Clicking three times you get the beacon and strobe mode, which you can select by double clicking. With 14500 it has a maximum output of 500 lumens. This runs for only one minute before dropping to 270 lumens to avoid overheating. The moonlight mode can be programed as low as 0,01 lumens which can supposedly run for 3 months.

The user interface of the H52W sounds tricky at first to say the least, but once you do get used to it, it becomes almost intuitive and fast to use. The light has low medium and high mode, and there’s a second sublevel mode for each which can be programed into two output modes or three in the case of the second low mode.
A short click turns the light on in high, either one of the high modes used last time. A double click turns the light on in medium mode (again, either one of the two used last) and one long click turns it on low. In any case pressing and holding cycles through low, medium and high and double clicking engages the sub level of each of those. After a few days, it was simple enough to double click so as to get an either brighter or dimmer light if either of the low medium or high mode wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. Again, sounds messy but you soon get the hang of it.
As much as I liked the H52W I couldn’t get over the fact that it simply wasn’t a multi battery flashlight like the Sidewinder Compact II… or was it? Out of pure curiosity I dropped a AAA in there and clicked the light. Surprisingly, it came to life. The light is clearly not intended to be used with AAA but the spring on the cap happens to be long enough to make contact. It is not very reliable. The small AAA moves out of contact easily but the point is it does work and using a bit of paper rolled around it to keep it centered in place would greatly improve the reliability.
The Zebralight H52W is now my EDC light. I know something better will eventually come along to replace it. Looking forward to that though, because if it does replace my Zebralight I know it will be one hell of an amazing flashlight.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

SureFire is known as one of the most highly regarded brands in the tactical flashlight world. They are expensive but quality is outstanding. As good as their products are, many of Surefire products aren’t as exciting for flashlights fanatics, also known as flashaholics. There are several brands out there that are more affordable, offer good value and update their products more frequently to satisfy the demands of their lumen thirsty clients.
Surefire recently presented two new EDC lights that depart from their more classic line. Both are keychain lights, which is a category I’m always interested in. I firmly believe that what you have in your keychain is likely to be there when needed most, so I pay particular attention to that.

The Surefire Titan Plus is the one that really caught my attention. I droll all over a powerful AAA keychain light and this one is currently the brightest at 300 lumens for high (300 lumens / 1 hour), medium (75lumens / 2 hours) and low (15 lumens / 7 hours). Like the Sidekick, it has a proprietary faceted reflector (MaxVision Beam™) which creates a broad, smooth beam.

Surefire Sidekick $78.99


The second one is a small keychain light called Surefire Sidekick. It has the form factor of a small square polymer remote control, multiple intensity outputs, Low (5 lumens / 45 hours), medium (60 lumens / 4 hours) and high (300 lumens / 1.25 hours). The nice thing about this light, besides its peculiar shape which departs from the traditional tubular form factors, is that that it uses a fixed battery rechargeable through a micro USB port. I favour replaceable batteries but I do like the micro USB recharging feature. Given how common these are I can see how someone would easily integrate this to their routine, recharging his EDC light just like they recharge their phone with no problem.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

"Oh but FerFAL, I can't carry any EDC because I fly all the time..." Nonsense.
First, your mind and body. Those are you main, most important tools and TSA won’t take those away from you... yet. Take care of them and they’ll be by far your greatest asset when you need them.
Besides, all hope is not lost and although knives are a clear no go there are small tools you can have that can be extremely useful. I actually ended up using all three in my latest trip, one way ticket to Spain (more on that later).
Left to right:
VERY old keychain tool. I think it’s the first one I bought a long time ago. How old? Man, probably 20 years old, way before this was all more mainstream and way before the acronym EDC even existed. I think the brand was called Microtech, leave a comment below if you know the brand for sure. The model has now been copied by cheapo manufacturers but if you want something similar there’s the Swiss Tech Mtcss Micro Tech 6 In 1 Keyring Tool, or the more complete Swiss+Tech ST53100 Micro-Max 19-in-1 Key Ring Multi-Function Pocket Tool.

Swiss+Tech ST53100 Micro-Max 19-in-1 Key Ring Multi-Function Pocket Tool. $8.54
Classic Bullet Space Pen by Fisher. This one is a true classic, so much that the Bullet Pen has been exhibited for years in the New York Museum of Modern Art. Its tough, slick, very compact, the cartridge writes on nearly all surfaces, writes upside down, its even supposed to work in space. Besides that, once deployed it’s a damn solid piece of metal. “Tactical” pens have more of a karma or are downright considered concealed weapons depending on your luck at airport security. If its considered a concealed kubotan you may end up behind bars, at least for some time, and yes people have gotten in trouble because of them in U.S. so keep that in mind when traveling. The Bullet pen on the other hand has no such problem. I have used t for surprisingly hard poking and even prying without breaking it so yes, if you have to jam a pen into a terrorist’s face this is not a bad way to go. Just don’t remove and lose the clip like I did because it will roll all over the place.

DQG SPY CREE XP-G2 R5 4C Neutral White Tiny Titanium LED Flashlight
There’s something pretty cool about carrying the smallest flashlight in the world and having it with a titanium body. Maybe not your first option, but then again its surprisingly bright, its rechargeable, and again the wow factor/conversation piece thing is definitely there. I don’t carry it all the time but that day I did I ended up using it and it worked very well in putting a lot of light where I needed it.

Folks, take care and be prepared.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Thrunite TH10 (NW) 750 Lumen CREE XM-L2 U2 $39.95
A few weeks ago there was a debate in a survivalist forum regarding what kind of flashlight was most useful for survival. One member argued that for all practical uses a low lumen output light was more than enough during blackouts and for utility/general purpose use. Another member quickly countered saying that in his own experience during disasters low lumen lights were very much useless and that you need a powerful flashlight, brighter than anything you can get out of AA and AAA batteries.
Turns out both are right. Depending on the nature of the disaster or emergency you are dealing with, you may need as much brightness and as much throw as you can get (tactical use, security, guarding a perimeter, search and rescue during disasters) or you may need a light that puts out a modest amount of light for very long periods of time running on commonly available batteries (long term SHTF, long term power outages).
I have often explained that a headlamp is the best kind of light you can have for survival and emergencies given that it allows the use of both hands while quickly placing the light exactly where it’s needed. I’ve literally spent days using little AAA headlamps from Energizer and Petzl. The problem is that these headlamps, while great for their intended use, aren’t very bright (very bright these days being +500 lumens or so) and they usually don’t have great throw. This is where the Thrunite TH10 comes in handy.
The Thrunite TH10 is the kind of light you would love to have for those high brightness, good throw applications. I asked Thunite to send their neutral white version which I believe renders colors better than cool white. It is also a bit cheaper for some reason. Like all other Thrunite products it is well made, with a nicely finished aluminum construction. It has CREE XM-L2 LED with a maximum brightness of 750 lumens on turbo mode lasting 118 minutes. It also includes low, medium and high as well as strobe, all reasonably fast to access thank to it simple user interface which Thrunite typically uses. Clicking the light turns it on and off. Keeping the switch pressed cycles through Low(11 lumens, 107hours), Medium(172 lumens, 9 hours ), High(490 lumens, 178 minutes), with a memory function remembering which one of these you used last. A long press starts the light on Firefly mode (0.2 lumens, 65 days). A double click starts the light on Turbo while a second double click activates the SOS (750 lumens, 270 minutes).

The TH10 uses a 18650 li-ion rechargeable battery, 2xCR123 or 2xRCR123A . While more commonly available batteries are of course easier to come by, the lumen output would of course be much less. While the aluminum construction light feels a bit heavy at times when moving, the headband, overhead strap and rubber mount keeps everything in place.
There’s not many headlamp throwers out there and the more technical ones can be pretty expensive. For 39.95 the Thrunite TH10(NW) fills that niche well.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

It wasn’t that long that a good friend of mine sent me a Surefire G2 flashlight from USA to Argentina. OK, maybe it was almost ten years ago, but I do remember how amazed I was by it. This “tactical” flashlight used two CR123A batteries, it had a hi-tech Xenon light bulb and it produced… 100 lumens! It was incredible. It put to shame the large Maglite I had back then that used 3 large C type batteries and yet it was so small that the G2 fit in your pocket.
Today, the flashlight world is a completely different universe. My keychain LED light produces 162 lumens. The Thrunite TN36 that I’m reviewing in this article? The turbo mode produces 6510 lumens. Yes six thousand.

The Thrunite TN36
Let me explain what its like to handle a 6000 lumen flashlight. The Thrunite TN36 bright. As in, really bright. As in, it doesn’t matter so much that it doesn’t have a lot of throw, with 6000 lumens everything in front of you just lights up as if the sun just came out. 6000 lumens is so bright that it will burn your hand if left in front of the reflector. It’s so bright that the reflection on white or pastel colored walls hurts your eyes, and direct expose with dilated pupils will cause permanent eye damage. How’s that for “tactical” applications?
If you want to put out a wall of light in front of you that will turn night into day this is it. 6000 lumens will get the job done and even though it’s a flood light, being so bright objects a couple hundred yards away are still illuminated.

So as to achieve this, the TN36 packs some serious hardware under the hood: You’ve got three Cree MK-R LEDs powered by 4x 18650 3400MHA Li-ion batteries. The flashlight is well machined out of aluminum, displaying a quality high end finish all around. The user interface is classic Thrunite, which I’ve learned to appreciate due to its simplicity and quick access of modes. If you just want a bit of light, a long press turns it on in moonlight mode (1.6 lumens for 33days) while double clicking turns it on in turbo mode (6510 lumens for 119 minutes). Double clicking again goes to strobe, also 6510 lumens but for 137 minutes. A 6000 lumen strobe will definitely be highly disruptive for anyone glancing your way. A simple click will turn it on in either low (116 lumens for 54 hours), medium (785 lumens for 587 minutes) or high (2280 lumens for 194 minutes)depending on which one was last used thanks to the memory mode. To cycle through these three simply keep the side switch pressed. The maximum beam distance is 299 meters and the TN36 is also waterproof to IPX-8 standards and drop tested to 1.5 meters.

At 390gr. the TN36 isn’t exactly light, it feels more like a can of coke. Thankfully, the holster (included) makes it easy to carry around. Other accessories include spare 0rings, a lanyard and spare switch cap.

The Thrunite TN36 is simply a monster of a light capable of blinding anyone in front of it. The different modes allow you to use it for extended periods of time if needed but this flashlight is clearly intended for those looking for maximum brightness in a still relatively compact form factor.
At $199.95, the TN36 presents a great value, including a 24 month free repair warranty and lifetime limited warranty.
http://thrunite.com/
Thrunite TN36 in Amazon
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

For many years I used a 1XCR123A light of some kind or another as my EDC light. 4Sevens, Fenix, lately Eagletac D25C. I like how bright they are but I don’t like how those batteries aren’t nearly as common as AA or AAA. From a survivalist perspective, commonality and availability is an important factor. You never know when you’ll need to improvise or make do with whatever you come across… and you’re far more likely to come across AA and AAA than R123As. Still, given the different modes flashlights have these days and that they can go for days at a time on moonlight mode I was still ok with that. Keep an eye on the batteries, replace when needed and don’t wait until they are completely dead.
The thing is, with LED technology getting better every year, I started carrying around 1xAA EDC lights, lately the Thrunite T10T, which is a nice, sleek titanium light. At 169 lumens its bright enough but I found myself missing the extra power of the Lithium batteries. After a bit of reading around in candlepowerforum and checking that the T10T could take it, I went ahead and got a couple 14500 lithium ion batteries (basically the same form factor as AA, but in li-ion).
Man! Those are nice. You visible get more lumens out of it (about 250 lumens), its rechargable so you dont waste money on batteries and if needed you can go ahead and use common AA found everywhere.
This works great for EDC since you can give a quick charge every few weeks to keep your 14500 in good shape. Maximum brightness, no more dead batteries all of a sudden, making it an ideal solution for having both brightness and battery commonality. Best of both worlds kind of situation.

Here you have a comparion of two 1xAA lights, Sunwayman Dolphin C15A on the left with a AA Duracel Primary, and the Thrunite T10T with a 14500 TrustFire on the right. When using Duracel AA, both are about the same brightness, so here you can clearly see the difference.




FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

With so many great options available, choosing the best everyday carry flashlight is not an easy task. For the flashlight collectors or “flashaholics”, things have never been better. There’s hundreds of great lights out there, but which one should you carry? The flashlight industry is constantly evolving along with LED technology. Every year lights are brighter and use less battery power. A +100 lumen single AAA keychain light was unthinkable just a few years ago but today a 162 lumen 1xAAA light lives in my keychain (Thrunite Ti).
A survival-minded approach will help us narrow down our options considerably in spite of how overwhelming the offer out there can be. We want dependable, reliable flashlights. We want a brand that we can trust, enough lumen output for whenever we need it but also low modes for saving power when going without electricity for an extended period of time. Ideally, the light will take readily available AA and AAA batteries although CR123A are becoming more common and they do provide the most power for tactical lights. Strobe for disorienting attackers, beacon and SOS modes for signaling, these may be literal life savers during emergencies.
For the modern survivalist, the EDC flashlight (and most gear in general) is chosen keeping in mind a two-tier application: On one level the item, in this case the flashlight, must be useful and viable on a general purpose, every day use level. You’ll use it for looking into boxes, checking for things dropped under furniture, walking across a garage without turning the lights on, or walking across the parking lot at night without stepping on mud and getting your feet dirty. On another level, the flashlight should perform on a worst case emergency scenario. It should allow you to find people when someone gets lost while hiking along a trail. It should allow you to signal for traffic to stop if there’s an accident. It should run for several hours, maybe even days if power goes down after a disaster. It should be capable of temporary disorienting an attacker. It should take common batteries you may be able to scrounge. It should be capable of signaling for help when wounded, lost or otherwise stranded off the beaten track.
As you can see, we are asking a lot from this flashlight. Although there’s no one flashlight that is perfect in every way, these are some of the ones that fill all these niche applications the best:
Zebralight H52w AA

The H52W is one of the most powerful 1XAA lights in the market today with an output of 280 lumens on high. It can also take 14500 li-ion batteries, which brings the maximum lumen output up to 500 lumens on high for one minute before dropping back to 280 lumens. The H52W has programmable brightness levels as well as beacon and strobe modes, making it easy to suit personal preferences. The H52W is a 90 angle light which combined with the strap turns the Zebralight into a headlamp, freeing one hand for use compared to normal hand-held lights. It also has a Low battery alert function. With great construction and design the Zebralight is as of right now one of the most capable flashlights in the market. For those that like these functions but prefer a normal straight reflector configuration, there’s the Zebralight SC52.
Streamlight Sidewinder Compact II

If you could only have one flashlight for the end of the world the Streamlight Sidewinder II would be it. It can be used as a headlamp or hand-held light. It’s a true mil-spec torch, tough as nails. It has various output modes and LEDs to choose from, including red, IR and blue (green in some versions). The included head strap turns it into a useful headlamp. Maybe its most impressive capability, the Sidewinder Compact II can digest most small batteries you come across: CR123A, AA, AAA, 14500, 10440, 16340. The downside is that the high mode is not as bright as in other models and the shape makes it less comfortable to carry than smaller, cylindrical tube format lights. Other than that, the Sidewinder Compact II is THE survivalist’s flashlight.
Eagletac D25C

The Eagletac D25C is a simple, no-nonsense 1XCR123A flashlight. In spite of the compact size, which is one of its strengths, it has a lot to offer: Tough and well made. Cree XM-L2 U2 LED. Maximum output is 453 Lumens (with 16340 li-ion) . You won’t bash anyone’s head in with this light but tightening the head it goes into “tactical” mode, high and strobe, while loosening the head allows you to access the different brightness levels, moonlight, beacon, strobe and SOS for general purpose and emergency signaling use. The D25C is one of the most compact CR123A clickly flashlights in the market. The Tintanium D25C looks fantastic.
Fenix PD22 Ultimate Edition

Featuring a Cree XP-L LED, the latest edition of the PD22UE uses a CR123A battery for a maximum output of 400 Lumens but also officially supports the use of 16340 batteries for an output of 510 Lumens which will run for 45 minutes. Modes include turbo, high, medium, low, strobe and SOS which can be accessed using the side switch.
The P22 is a classic EDC torch made by a reputable manufacturer. It is clearly intended as a tactical/utility light and should serve you well on both roles. The P22UE is also one of the few lights that officially approves the use of 16340 li-ion batteries.
SureFire E1D Defender

The E1D is as close as it gets to a pure breed tactical light in an EDC pocket format. This is a light flashlight collectors have wanted for some time, often modifying the larger E2D so as to make it a shorter single battery light. At 300 lumens the E1D may not sound very impressive but Surefire tends to underestimate its own lumen output. Surefire quality is legendary, its built like a tank and the strike Bezel makes for a nice compact defensive tool. There’s not a lot of output modes to choose from, its either the 300 lumen high or 5 lumen low. 5 lumen is a good amount of light for low battery drain yet enough light for most close range utility tasks. A strobe mode would have been a nice addition, although 300 lumens should be enough to disorient an attacker when dark.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.