The Best Gifts for Survival Enthusiasts and Preppers

Hank Robertson

When it comes to survival prepping, there are a ton of supplies that any prepper is going to need. Some items are disposable and will need to be bought in bulk, while others can just be bought once if they’re of high quality.

If you know someone who’s just getting started learning how to prep, there are plenty of basic items you can get them as gifts to help them along, even if they don’t know where to start themselves.

There are a variety of gifts across multiple price points that you can choose from, so whether you’re shopping on a budget or willing to really shell out some money, you can be sure to get them something useful and important.

Survival gifts are perfect for any occasion – birthdays, Christmas or just because and they’re useful products to have on hand that can contribute to a man or woman’s comfort and safety in any survival event.

Crank Radio

In the event of a survival situation in which power is cut off, you would need some way to stay current on information from home without access to the Internet. Fortunately, radios can work well to keep you updated.

A crank radio is a great gift option for anyone looking to have an uninterrupted source of electricity whenever they need it. These radios can be mostly powered by batteries, but also feature a crank to generate electricity if the batteries die.

These radios can also be used to charge phones and some even have built in flashlights. Predominantly, though, you’ll be using the radio function to stay updated on the state of the emergency at hand.

For example, if a severe storm was coming through your area and you lost power, you’d want to take shelter and start using the radio. This could keep you updated on whether or not there were any tornados forming, which could be crucial information.

Regardless of what the emergency is, chances are radio stations will still be operational, even if they’re just playing a repeating warning message or something like that to give you instructions on what to do to stay safe.

The crank that comes with the radio guarantees that no matter what, you’ll have access to electricity. You have to spin the crank quite a bit to generate the electricity needed to recharge the batteries fully, but it’s possible, eliminating the need to stockpile batteries.

You’ll want to get an AM/FM crank radio to give as a gift, if possible. This is because if you’re stuck without power for a long period of time, you’re going to want more than just the AM news stations, but rather you might want some entertainment from FM stations, too.

These radios can be fairly inexpensive, given that they’re simple to produce – so they make perfect gifts if you’re on a budget. They’re also small enough that someone could keep them anywhere in the house, from a closet to a drawer if need be.

Fire Starter

There are a wide variety of fire starter tools, also known as “Ferro Rods,” available at many different price points. For the most part, though, these are fairly inexpensive gifts that are absolute essentials for any survival prepper.

Having access to a way to make fire in a survival situation is imperative. In the outdoors, fire gives you warmth, light at night, a way to cook, and even wards off potential predators and bugs.

Even if you’re not out in the great outdoors, you can still find uses for a fire starter at home. If your house loses power and you need to cook something using heat, you can use this rod to start up a small fire pit in the backyard or a charcoal grill.

Part of the benefit of using these fire starters is that they’re incredibly compact. Most of these rods are only a few inches long, allowing you to store them just about anywhere, even a purse if you wanted to.

Most of these fire starters also come with the metal strikers attached, though if you get one without it, a knife can also work just fine. These strikers are used to create the spark using the rod, allowing you to ignite some tinder and start a fire.

One of the benefits of this type of fire starter is that they are entirely waterproof. While you might still need to dry out the tinder of your choice, no amount of wind or water can damage or otherwise impair the ability of these sticks to start fires.

Some of these fire starters even come attached to a block of magnesium. The idea is that you use the striker to shave off a little pile of magnesium, which can burn very hot, and then use the striker with the starter to light the pile.

From there you have a brief fire that burns extremely hot, which can help you light a difficult tinder pile. Often times these fire starters will also include burnable paracord or rope to further help get a fire started.

There are a ton of different sizes and types of fire starters available, but all of them will suit your needs to help get a fire going in an emergency. No matter what price point you’re shopping for, you’re bound to find a suitable fire starter.

Any survival prepper knows just how useful these can be, so if you’re buying for a beginner prepper, this would be a great essential to get their first kit all put together, especially since they don’t take up much room.

Water Filter Straws

Being able to get clean drinking water anywhere you go would be incredibly useful and necessary in a survival situation, since a great deal of natural water sources are often polluted or contain harmful microbes.

Water filter straws allow you to drink from any water source and still get clean, pure water out of it. They can be used directly from the source or as a filter when pouring water from one vessel into another.

These straws are produced by a variety of brands and are usually fairly cheap, especially if you’re only buying one or two. However, some sellers will include bundles of multiple for a lower price per each straw.

It would be wise to get multiple filter straws for a few reasons. For starters, they don’t really take up any room, so it’s not something that you’ll have a problem keeping in storage. They can be tossed in any drawer and be fine.

You’ll want multiple in case of a survival situation because each straw can only filter so much water. Granted, the amount varies from brand to brand, but on average it’s around 1,000 gallons of water before the filter can’t be used safely.

While 1,000 gallons is a ton of water, you still want to have those backup straws in case the survival situation lasts long enough that you really do have to replace it. You may also find it useful to have one for each family member.

If you’re prepping for your whole family, you don’t want everyone having to pass around the same straw to drink out of, especially given that this could increase the chances of sharing illnesses.

It’s also not out of the question for you to lose a straw while you’re using it in a survival situation. One might slip out of your hand while you’re using it in a river, and when it washes away, you’re going to want to have backups.

You can also have one extra filter straw being used in a stationary filter setup. Many of the straws allow you to connect hose lines to the dirty water end, allowing you to use the straw as a sort of in-line filter, having clean water come out the other end.

These on-the-go filters are much more convenient than using purification tablets, especially since you won’t have to carry the extra weight of a water supply if you’re on the move.

Water filter straws would be a great essential gift (or stocking stuffer) for any survival prepper, and you really can’t have enough of them. They provide one of the most important resources you can have in survival, so don’t hesitate to get a few of them.

Survival Guide Books

No amount of supplies can help you as a prepper if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing with all of it. With there being so much crucial information to learn regarding survival, books can be a great resource to use now and to keep for preppers.

There’s a wide variety of survival books available currently, with many trusted authors including US Armed Forces manuals, wilderness survival experts, and many more. You’ll want someone credible so you know the information will be correct.

Typically, these books won’t run up a high bill for you because they’re shorter paperbacks, so they’re perfect gifts if you’re shopping on a bit of a budget. Some books are very specific in topic, while others are more general.

If you’re only getting one book, you’ll probably want to get one that’s more general and all-encompassing. It might not go into as great of detail on certain topics, but for your money, that’s going to be the best bet.

The more specific books are great, too. For example, there are books all about survival medicine, which talk about how to administer first aid and what to use when you don’t have access to first aid kits. This is incredibly important information.

There are also books teaching you how to build shelter in the event that you’re out in the wild, or books teaching you how to deal with extreme situations, like nuclear fallout. There’s even wild foraging guides so you can find non-dangerous plants to eat.

Books giving you survival tips are important for two reasons. First, you ought to read them long before a survival situation occurs so that you can be ready, but also you should keep them on hand so that you’re not panicking if a survival situation occurs.

Just having the mental security that you have a guide on what to do and won’t do anything incorrectly can help you so much when a time like that arises. After all, the worst thing you can do in a survival situation is panic.

Survival guides are a great thing to keep both in a preppers stockpile and in a bugout bag since they tend to be lightweight and don’t take up much space. There’s really no reason not to keep a few of them on hand.

Having access to the information provided by experts in a survival situation can be crucial. It’s unlikely that you’ll have access to the internet in an emergency situation, so you need some physical source of information instead.

If you can collect plenty of guide books covering a wide range of topics, you’ll be prepared to tackle any survival situation with confidence knowing that you have the information you need to succeed.

Start by giving your gift recipient a basic survival book, and then give them more specific books – or give them a collection right off the bat so they can learn and practice what they need to know!

First Aid Kit

Even if your gift recipient is not into survival prepping, a good first aid kit is something that everyone should have both at home and in their car. There are a few things you definitely want to consider in a first aid kit, and a wide variety of sizes with different items at different price ranges.

In a typical first aid kit, there’s a few essentials you want to have. Firstly, you need bandages. Anything from scrapes to cuts needs to be bandaged up, whether it be with an adhesive bandage or a wrapped one, in order to mitigate the chance of infection.

It’s good to get a kit with a ton of different bandages that can be used for different sized cuts. You don’t want to be wasting large bandages on little cuts, and you don’t want to have to cover a large scrape with tiny bandages.

For similar reasons, you’ll also want some disinfectants and antibiotic creams. Usually in first aid kits they have some alcohol or iodine wipes in order to be used as disinfectants, and sometimes small bottles of antibiotic ointment.

These items, when combined with the bandages, will drastically decrease your chances of developing an infection from an open wound. This can help avoid an otherwise dangerous medical situation, especially when you don’t have any hospitals open.

Some first aid kits come with a few tools that can be helpful in all kinds of situations. For example, there are tweezers and scissors in many kits. The tweezers can be used to help remove splinters, and the scissors are for bandages or clothes in an emergency.

If you get more complex kits, you’ll start to find that they include items for a wider variety of emergencies. This is preferable for a prepper, because you never know what the nature of the survival situation is going to be.

For example, more in depth kits may include items like gel for burns, thermal blankets, splints, tourniquets, and Israeli bandages. These have all kinds of uses and some of them can be essential in treating life-threatening injuries.

A tourniquet and an Israeli bandage, for example, are used to treat very similar injuries. Typically these are used on your limbs to stop trauma induced bleeding by applying constant pressure, helping prevent the amount of blood lost.

Burn treatments can be incredibly useful to both reduce the effects of the burn and to relieve the pain. Typically a combination of a cold compress and burn gels can be used effectively to help solve these problems.

Thermal blankets can help a ton in weather based emergencies when you’re in extreme cold, as well as certain situations such as illness when someone is running a fever. They help reduce the amount of body heat lost, making them very important.

You can buy first aid kits on any type of budget for your gift – from small ones to large ones that include far more products. Or, you can buy a first aid kit, a book to go with it, and some extra products to add to it.

Fixed-Blade Knife or Hatchet

A high-quality survival fixed-blade knife or hatchet can be a great gift for even intermediate and advanced preppers. There are many uses for both with a great deal of overlap, though there are situations where one might be better than the other.

Generally speaking you’ll be using both of these most often in the outdoors when you need to do some bush crafting, collect wood for a fire, and so on. There are indoor uses for each as well, but they’re much less common.

When you’re looking at knives for survival purposes, you typically don’t want to get a switchblade because they tend to be more fragile. A high quality fixed-blade knife is practically indestructible compared to a pocket knife.

One factor you want to look for in any fixed blade knife is whether or not it’s a full tang knife. The tang is the metal part that the handle covers up, and a full tang knife means it’s entirely one piece, which means it’s much sturdier.

If a fixed blade knife doesn’t have a full tang, it’s usually cheaply made. The lack of that durability that comes from having a full tang means it’s likely to break in one way or another when you really need it.

Size wise, you should be looking for a fixed blade knife with a total length of 12 inches or less. More than that tends to be too bulky to carry in all situations. However, don’t get one that’s too small and can’t handle more demanding tasks.

When it comes to buying hatchets, you want to look for something similar. Hatchets that are all forged out of one piece are far more secure than ones that are bolted or welded together after the fact.

Hatchets tend to excel over knives when you live in a wooded area in which you’ll be gathering lots of wood. The extra weight on the head of a hatchet helps chop branches down with ease.

Knives, on the other hand, are much more practical in a variety of situations including hunting and bush craft. You can be a bit more precise with a knife, and usually they can be sharped to be razor sharp if you need them to be.

Overall, both are worth having, but one or the other can suffice in just about any situation if you’re in a pinch. You might keep a hatchet at home but a knife in your bug-out bag in order to cover your bases.

With both knives and hatchets, you want to shop for one that comes with a good fitting sheath. If you’re going to be carrying these around in a bag or on your waist, you don’t want an exposed blade bumping into things.

You can even take the knife you’re buying as a gift, and have it engraved with a lovely message if you want to personalize it as a gift for someone. Some vendors allow you to order the knife with a personalized engraving already on it when it arrives.

Tents and Sleeping Bags

There are three things that preppers need no matter what in a survival situation: food, water, and shelter. Often times, shelter is a forgotten part of those three, but without proper shelter from the elements, you can have a rough time in the outdoors.

A good tent and sleeping bag will be essential particularly in rainy or cold environments in order for you to stay dry and warm when you’re outdoors. Even in deserts, it can get cold at night, so you’ll want some quality shelter to sleep in.

Typically, tents are sold in different sizes depending on the amount of people that were meant to be able to fit in it. The smallest one you’ll typically find is a two person tent, but they do make large tents that fit 8-10 people as well.

Since you will have packs full of supplies, you might halve the number of people per tent space since so much space will get taken up by packs. For example, a 2 person tent can fit one person with supplies, or an 8 person can fit 4 with supplies.

Be sure to get a tent that includes all the necessary supplies, such as stakes, rain tarps, and a mallet for getting the stakes nailed down. Practice putting up the tent at home from time to time so that you get used to the process.

Sleeping bags are also greatly important for survival. They are usually well insulated to keep your body heat in at night, which can help prevent you from freezing and developing hypothermia in cold areas.

When shopping for a sleeping bag, you should consider the size and height of the people intended to use it. Some sleeping bags are a bit short, and can leave taller people cramped, so you want to get just the right size.

There are also sleeping bags intended to be used by two or more people, which can help add more body heat. A well-insulated sleeping bag can keep your body heat in despite the coldest of temperatures.

Along with your sleeping bag, it’s recommended that you get a sleeping pad for comfort. You might notice that without one, once your tent and sleeping bag are set up, the hard ground can be pretty uncomfortable to sleep on.

A sleeping pad is a durable, inflatable cushion that you put under your sleeping bag to give you a more comfortable spot to sleep. Since most of these are inflatable, they’re very lightweight and can be rolled up to a very small size.

It is not entirely necessary for survival, but small amenities like this can help improve your mood and reduce stress when you’re at your wits end dealing with a survival situation. You’ll love having it when the option is there.

For your gift recipient, think about your budget when making a decision on what to buy, as well as what size family they need to fit in the tents, and add on the sleeping bags and pads as an additional gift if you want to.

Outdoor Clothes

Something that many people don’t consider when prepping for survival is that a lot of their own clothes won’t be good enough to deal with the weather conditions and won’t be very durable or practical in a survival situation.

You have to consider that you’ll be enduring the elements in many survival situations, which means having to deal with the cold, the hot sun, the rain, or even bugs like mosquitos depending on the time of year and your location.

Generally you want clothes that are lightweight and easily compacted. Bulky items like hoodies can’t be easily stored and will take up tons of space in a pack. Thinner thermal clothes will keep you warm while not taking up much space when you don’t need them.

High quality lighter weight clothes to tend to be more expensive, but it’s certainly worth the cost. When dealing with tough weather conditions outdoors, you’re going to want nothing but the best.

If you want a go-to outfit that will work in almost any outdoor situation, go for a lightweight pair of pants along with a loose-fitting long sleeve, one that’s lightweight and also lightly colored.

This outfit is ideal for keeping the harsh sun off of you when dealing with warmer areas, but also works fine as a base for slightly colder or rainy areas. You can add on a rain coat or thermal layers as needed for other weather conditions.

Your clothes aren’t the only important thing you need to wear in survival situations, though. Shoes, hats, and socks are also important, and having the right ones is crucial for outdoors survival across extended periods of time.

Multiple pairs of thick socks are important. If you get your socks wet at any point, they need to be changed immediately into dry ones, or else you’ll get blisters on your feet. A variety of wool socks is a great start.

Having a wide brimmed hat will help keep the sun off of you in the same way that the long sleeve shirts will. Keeping UV rays off your skin directly helps keep you cooler than you would be wearing short sleeved clothes.

You need to have the right kind of shoes if you expect to spend a considerable amount of time hiking in the outdoors. Typically, your normal shoes are not going to be sufficiently durable or comfortable in outdoor conditions.

When looking for outdoor shoes, you need to find ones that have plenty of grip and are durable in any conditions. Once you have these shoes, you’ll also want to break them in so that they’re comfortable to wear when you need them.

Shopping for survival clothing for someone else can be difficult if you don’t know their sizes, but you can always find out ahead of time – or even get them a gift certificate to purchase the clothing that’s best for their needs.

Emergency Food Supplies

There are many brands today that sell large buckets full of freeze-dried foods with long shelf lives for the purposes of survival rations and these make wonderful gifts for survival preppers.

These are especially useful for those planning to survive at home rather than out in the wild. The primary downside to these supply bins is that they tend to be a bit pricey, but for the amount of servings and the quality of the food, it’s actually fairly reasonable.

Since the food is freeze dried, it retains a lot of flavor when it’s reconstituted. When you’re shopping for these kits, you’ll find that they’re divided up by how long it’s supposed to last for a certain amount of people.

Often times, it’s just meant for one person, but some kits are made for multiple people. For example, you might find kits that are supposed to last 30 days for one person. If you had a family of three people, this kit would only last for 10 days total.

If you wanted that kit to last the full month, you’d need one for each family member. Many of these bins are similarly sized to one another, making them very easy to stack up in the back of a closet or in a basement.

This makes for convenient storage for the amount of food you’ll have. One major advantage of freeze dried foods like these is that they last a very long time. Most companies advertise shelf lives up to 25 years, meaning you won’t be having to replace them if you don’t use them any time soon.

Additionally, freeze dried food retains a great deal of nutrients, flavor, and texture compared to any other food preservation method. It’s the closest you’ll be able to find to fresh food in the event of an emergency.

Similarly to these food bins, MREs can be a great supply of shelf-stable nutrients in the event of an emergency. These aren’t going to be much cheaper than the bins full of freeze dried foods, but they’ll accomplish the same goal.

Something you should consider when shopping for meal kits like these is the variety you’ll get out of the kit. Some kits only have one or two types of meals, and after a month of eating the same thing, you’re going to be sick of it.

A kit that contains a wide variety of meals and flavors will keep you much happier than one that’s all the same. Many kits even have specific breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals that are all very different.

Don’t forget to consider any dietary restrictions that the family you’re buying the survival food gift for might have. Certain packs avoid meat for vegetarians, or don’t contain things like nuts or shellfish for those with allergies.

Large Rucksack

Something many people don’t consider when stocking all their survival supplies is where they’re going to keep it all or how they’re going to carry it with them if they need to evacuate the area.

A large rucksack is just the right item for someone who plans on keeping all their survival gear with them on the go. Rucksacks are much larger than backpacks, and are meant for you to take tons of supplies in them.

Often times rucksacks will have hard plastic frames built into them to help them keep shape, and to make it a bit easier on you to carry them long distances. They also have things like belts along with the shoulder straps to make it a little easier to carry.

You need to remember that you’re going to be carrying at least a suitcase sized amount of supplies with you in a survival situation. This includes all your clothes, any food or water you might have, tools, and more.

These rucksacks usually have spaces on the back for you to attach your sleeping back and sleeping mats to as well, so that you can really carry everything you’d ever need on your back.

One thing you need to be sure of is that your rucksack is waterproof. Naturally, they can never be fully waterproof, but you want to be sure that they’re not going to let all of your supplies get soaked if you have to hike in the rain.

If your pack isn’t at least rain proof, then if you ever have to keep hiking through rain, every single article of clothing you have is going to be soaking wet, leading to you becoming extremely cold at night if you have to wear them.

It’s important that the pack itself be as lightweight as possible, as well. The lighter you go without sacrificing durability, the more expensive the pack will probably be, but it’s going to be so worth it if you’re having to carry it for dozens and dozens of miles.

Many people have opted to keep all of their survival supplies in their rucksacks so that, at a moment’s notice, they can simply take the pack and run, using it as a bug-out bag. This prevents you from having to run around the house gathering supplies.

You may be interested in getting the packs that support the MOLLE system, which is a modular system that allows you to swap and move around the different outer packs on the rucksack.

This allows you to get all the exact pocket sizes right in the exact positions you want them to be. Many military-style rucksacks support the MOLLE system, allowing for expanded and varied storage.

If you do buy a rucksack for a survival prepper as a gift, you can purchase one that fits their needs and then add on some additional MOLLE clips and other gear that attaches to the MOLLE clips.

This might include gifts like tactical attachment pouches or sets, water bottle pouches, a first aid kit, and other items that can survive exposure to the elements if they’re packaged correctly.

If you’re buying the rucksack as a larger Christmas gift, you can put some of the additional accessories and straps as well as clips and D-rings together as an additional gift or stocking stuffer.

Survival gear is often something many people want, but don’t want to spend money on because they may feel selfish or silly, even though planning for events is a smart thing to do.

If you have a chance to give them peace of mind, paired with the products that will keep them safe and comfortable in any type of circumstances, it will be one of the best presents they could ever ask for.

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