Ifaks?

[Love2shoot]

What are you guys carrying for IFAKs? Did you buy them? Build them? And a curiosity question, are you trained in what you carry or do you just carry it to have on hand and because you think you should?

 

[Jeppo]

I always wanna be prepared (must be the Boy Scout in me) so I carry one of these.

 

[fieldgrade]

I keep one in the truck, and one in the car. Otherwise I use target pasters at matches to band aid my boo boos.

 

[NCMedic]

What are you guys carrying for IFAKs? Did you buy them? Build them? And a curiosity question, are you trained in what you carry or do you just carry it to have on hand and because you think you should?

First you have to differentiate between a IFAK vs a first aid kit.
A IFAK if you don't have it on you and need it, your likelyhood of dying is high.
A first aid kit, I can keep in the car or somewhere else and get in a relatively short time period, your not going die if you have to walk to your bag, pack, or car to get a Snoopy bandaid.
If you have a arterial wound and need a Tourniquet, you need it in seconds.

I'm partial to the Imminent Threat Solutions IFAKs as well as the TacMed Solutions IFAKs
The ITS boo boo kits and Adventure Medical first aid kits are pretty decent prepared solutions.

This website has a list of what is in the different military branches IFAKs and gives you a good reference if you decide to build your own.
https://www.primalsurvivor.net/ifak-contents/

Regardless of what you buy or carry, get some training on how to use it.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

 

[Sneakymedic]

Im with NCMedic. ITS and TMS has really good stuff. You can source a lot of that stuff yourself and not pay for the name, etc. You can get the Tk's online for $25-$35 bucks and a lot of the bigger gun shows have the TMS blast and OLAES bandages that you can source. I also know @thrillhill has stuff at his shop, and Im sure he would ship you out stuff if you bought several items. Its funny, most of the time your first aid needs are gonna be a TK or a bandaid, not much in between.

And as far as training, the Tac Med Solutions website had instructional vids on almost all of their products, which is a good primer of "how to". Enough to get you where you needed to be. I shooting the PHA match and was talking to a guy (non medical) and he said: I have a nice IFAK on my shooters cart, I just hope someone here knows how to use it.

 

[Love2shoot]

I shooting the PHA match and was talking to a guy (non medical) and he said: I have a nice IFAK on my shooters cart, I just hope someone here knows how to use it.

That is exactly why I asked....increasingly I see and talk to more people who carry them and say the same thing that they carry it for someone ELSE to use.

 

[Sneakymedic]

http://www.tacmedsolutions.com/training-resources/

 

[NCMedic]

That is exactly why I asked....increasingly I see and talk to more people who carry them and say the same thing that they carry it for someone ELSE to use.

So that's partly true, the concept that if you were engaged in combat, you would use that person's IFAK to render aid to them, keeping your kit for you.

However having a IFAK or blow out kit for self aid is more realistic or the situation someone doesn't have one.
Having one hoping someone else knows how to use it isn't a viable strategy.
Kinda like having a gun but hoping someone can shoot it for you...

 

[Radar]

Agree with all that has been said above. The big thing is knowing how to use the items you have but MOST importantly to have them on you.

So to answer your question I usually EDC a few things on my person and have a first aid kit near me. I am s career medic thou so my skill set is different from the average lay person.

I carry a CAT Tourniquet on my person almost all times. I carry a pair of medical gloves in an old 35mm for canister (old habits die hard ) an Israeli battle dressing and a chest seal. I some times carry a 14g decompression needle in my blow out kit but again I am trained in decompression most are not so I wouldn't recommend that otherwise. Aside from that I have a bag in the truck wit. More crap than I really need but it has quick clot, traian dressings, 4x4, 2x2, and bls airways, bvm and various other crap.

 

[Chuckman]

I can't really add much to the above. Like @Sneakymedic and @NCMedic, I have been in the game a while, so I echo what they said.

If I am lazy and just have dough to blow, I'd buy a stocked kit. Otherwise, I would roll my own, and I am partial to Chinook Med for supplies:

http://www.chinookmed.com/

You can save big money if you buy the empty kit on eBay and stock it yourself.

 

[Radar]

Buying it and stocking it yourself is the best option in MY opinion because you can put what YOu want in it. Yes, it may be more time consuming and may even cost a bit more but your familiar with what you want in it.