GEAR GUIDE: Metal Pots

We often get asked, "If you only had one survival item, what would it be?"

The answer is always some sort of metal container. Fire can be rubbed out, food can be dug up, shelter can be slapped together, but clean water without the eventual runs is very hard to acquire. Boiling is the easiest and most sustainable way to turn pond scum into sterile H2O. Chlorine tablets run out and filters break, so metal pots are the way to go.

I've spent a lot of time around fires with both hardcore survivalists and Gucci campers to know what gear holds the most water. But you need to try this shit out for yourself. What works for The Soldier may be useless to The Hunter. Things to consider are it's volume, durability, weight, practical function, and performance and if you are you bugging-in or bugging-out with it.

First up, the Military Canteen Cup. Holds about 1/2 Litre (most of the military-style canteens hold a standard volume of 1L). Super light and durable. The best feature is that your actual canteen fits perfectly inside the cup and the handles fold down, making it super compact and efficient for bug-out bags. The wide mouth makes it great for coffee, soup or chipmunk stews although if you don't have a lid for it, you'll get lots of ash with your tea. On the negative side they fail at stability; unless you have a metal grill or flat stove top, these cups hate standing up. If a conveniently packed cup falls in a fire, and everyone has died of thirst, does it make a metaphor?

Kettles are often heavy, bulky, and really only meant to boil water for immediate coffee/tea brewing. Yeah you could cook inside it but you'll clog the spout. Volume is variable depending on model. Good stable bottom and the lid will keep the ash out. It's really more of a luxury item. Hard to pack, hard to clean, definitely not my cup of tea.

Giant pots or cast-iron cauldrons are double the toil and trouble if you're planning to bug-out with these. They have large volumes, are virtually indestructible and are easy to clean, but they extremely loud and awkward to carry. However, these are perfect if you're setting up a camp with several survivors. Think of it more like a piece of "section-level kit". One carries the giant shovel, one carries all the rope, one carries the group pot. Such a large volume will take longer to boil/cook, but it's extremely stable. I'd geo-cache one of these somewhere further along your bug-out route so at least you wont have to fight zombies while banging and clanging this through the city like a dinner bell.

Metal water bottles are my prime choice for boiling and brewing. Super light weight, easily stored in a bug-out bag, easily cleaned, but MAKE SURE IT'S STEEL...NOT ALUMINIUM! I once bought an aluminum water bottle in the camping section of a Wall-mart and threw it full of water into the fire only to see it turn to ash like a beer can.

Now when I say throw in the fire, I don't mean like a hot potato. The cap is often plastic, so remove it before adding it to flame. You'd think it'd be unstable in or near a fire, but the long thin body makes it very easy to set it on hot coals and brace it against burning logs. The tall neck makes it easy to grab with a glove when it starts to boil. I've seen some guys attach wire to the neck for easy extraction. Way more stable than a wide mouth cup because you can set it into fires on weird angles and still keep water inside it. I like to keep all my water containers in 1 Litre volumes, so my steel water bottle also doubles as a big coffee thermos for those late night LP (listening post) shifts.

You can also get yourself a pot that uses a built-in thermo-electric generator to charge your phone or you can get back to basics: fashion a cup out of birch bark and throw some hot rocks in.