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How To Dye Military Surplus FLC Vest - Cheap & Easy!
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Feb 1, 2025
I will show you how I dye military surplus like the FLC vest a nice OD green. Easy and cheap! #survival Prepared Wanderer AMAZON STORE: https://bit.ly/3Jjs1iO Prepared Wanderer Patches and Stickers: https://thepreparedwanderer.bigcartel.com Prepared Wanderer WEBSITE: https://preparedwanderer.com Prepared Wanderer FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1835005976546722 Prepared Wanderer INSTAGRAM: prepared_wanderer Blog https://wanderingoutdoors.com
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0:01
so this vest I picked up on eBay for 12
0:06
bucks shipped pretty
0:14
cheap hey guys welcome back to the
0:17
channel uh today's video is going to be
0:20
a little bit different I'm going to be
0:21
showing you how I dieye Military Surplus
0:25
Gear and how I turn that ugly gray f
0:30
color that ACU camo that is so readily
0:33
available today and turn it into a
0:35
decent OD Green um and then I'm also
0:39
going to show you how to set up um an
0:42
FLC vest which is uh one of the cheapest
0:45
options for chest rigs that you have out
0:48
there and I'm going to show you some
0:49
pouch options that I like and we're
0:51
going to set this thing up and walk you
0:53
through it through it now if you follow
0:56
this Channel and if you're familiar with
0:58
it and you subscribe to me
1:00
you probably have noticed that I've not
1:02
been doing as many videos as I would
1:04
like and I have not been outside doing
1:06
stuff I've been doing a lot of videos
1:07
from from indoors and there's a reason
1:10
behind that I'm having some health
1:12
issues that I'm trying to get addressed
1:13
right now um it's nothing
1:15
lifethreatening but it's uh definitely
1:18
impacting my mobility and that's not all
1:19
I'm going to say about it it's really
1:21
not that big of a deal it's just uh it
1:23
doesn't allow me to get out in the field
1:26
out in the woods and carry packs and
1:29
gear and all that stuff and I haven't
1:31
been able to get out camping yet um so
1:33
once I get this addressed and I get
1:35
things fixed up the way I want them to
1:37
um hopefully my Mobility will get back
1:39
to normal and I can get outside and
1:41
start shooting more video for you guys
1:43
because it's starting to warm up Spring
1:45
is right around the corner and I got to
1:46
get ready and get outside but until that
1:50
happens let me walk you through how to
1:53
die military
1:55
surplus so this vest I picked up on eBay
1:59
for 12 bucks shipped pretty cheap as you
2:03
can
2:04
tell it is very well worn um it's been
2:09
used quite a bit it's got the Soldier's
2:11
name written on it but it's still very
2:14
serviceable it just needs to have a good
2:17
die job done to it to make it
2:19
usable because I've got some really nice
2:22
OD Green pouches that I want to attach
2:24
to this and I don't want this horrible
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digital camo or gray material
2:30
but I will say that these used vests
2:35
that
2:35
are really
2:37
worn I think they do better taking the
2:40
Dy
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because um the the coating that are on
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the
2:47
new pieces of
2:49
material will actually repel the dye but
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once these things have been really well
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worn and used they soak up the Dy better
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and then what I do is before I I dye it
3:00
I always wash these in hot
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water that helps the dye get into the
3:07
material better as well as you can see
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actually the the webbing is
3:12
faded so this should be a great
3:15
candidate for a die
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job now here's some other
3:21
components that came with
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it it came with two mag
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shingles they're pretty worn too but a
3:30
little bit better condition I wash those
3:33
as well got some threads I need to trim
3:36
this is the belt that goes inside the
3:41
vest pretty dirty and
3:44
worn but I washed this one as well and
3:48
then what I use for dye I like RIT dark
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brown
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liquid and then this is the RIT apple
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green um apple green
4:00
I have found is the best green D for
4:04
military surplus these two together
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should give me a pretty decent OD Green
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base so let's see how it
4:15
goes so stainless steel sink in the
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kitchen this is what I used to do my
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dying in um stainless steel works really
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well because it doesn't stain obviously
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um
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and then what I do is I put in some
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really hot
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water so what I like to do is I like to
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get some really good hot water I'm
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actually going to bring this pot to a
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boil and I'm going to pour that in the
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sink along with super hot sink
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water cuz I really want to get the
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temperature up as high as
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possible cuz I think the hotter the
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water the better the material except the
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dye you're going to need some distilled
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white
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vinegar and then some
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salt that also
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helps now the mixture I don't I don't
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really do any kind of measurement on
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this this is all a guessing game for me
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um I don't know maybe I'm just lazy but
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I will use the entire bottle of apple
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green and then I'll probably use maybe a
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quar to a half of the bottle of the dark
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brown to get that OD Green Mix um I
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don't know how much water I'm going to
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soak this thing in because you want
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enough water to cover the
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material and you may even have to weigh
5:57
down the the objects that you're trying
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to dye or the items you're trying to Dy
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so um I just gauge how much water I need
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by you know how many items I'm dying at
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once and I try not to do too many at
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once because that can cause problems as
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well I want to make sure that
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dye gets in everything
6:35
okay here's the dark
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brown kind of doing it by
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feel I don't want it too Brown I want it
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more green but I want the brown to
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darken that green a little bit and give
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it more of an Earth Tone and make it not
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so
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bright then goes the boiling water
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make sure I have enough water covering
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this some of this stuff might try to
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float especially that belt because
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there's a little bit of foam padding to
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it can also weight everything down
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sometimes I'll take a large rock or a
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brick or something else like a barbell
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or dumbell dumbbell you can weigh
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this and push everything down to the
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bottom so it soaks and I'm going to let
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this soak
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for probably a couple
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hours until that water starts cooling
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off a little bit more
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all right there it is all finished
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up I pulled it out of the dye and uh
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patted it down with a towel just to get
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the excess moisture out and then threw
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it in the dryer with an old
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towel and it's um still just a little
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bit damp in some of the padded areas but
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for the most part it's all the webbing
9:00
and everything is dry and I think it
9:03
turned
9:04
out really really well I'm satisfied
9:07
with
9:13
it you can
9:15
see that there are some spots where the
9:19
die is
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lighter and that's the only
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unpredictable thing about dying this old
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military surplus
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you just never know what exactly you're
9:32
going to get it's always kind of a
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gamble but I've had great success with
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the apple green from RIT D with a little
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bit of brown mixed
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in always turns out to be a pretty
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decent color and uh now we're going to
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see how this matches with my OD Green
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pouches that I already have all right so
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there's the vest that's the OD Green
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that I came up with using my Dy
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process and the pouch we're going to
10:01
look at today this is from Condor this
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is uh their double mag
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pouch so you've got the ability to carry
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four mags this does fit P mags as well
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as traditional um aluminum
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mags so how do we do with the
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green not
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bad looks pretty decent
10:34
and then I have this pouch this is from
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Blackhawk this is a Blackhawk strike
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utility pouch uh got this off of eBay
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brand new it is their OD
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Green Let's see how it
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looks on the
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vest not too bad
11:03
so these Condor pouches can be a pretty
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good value um I think you know at one
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time Condor probably wasn't really
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considered great gear it's pretty much
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considered just Airsoft crap um but I
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think they've really stepped up their
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game
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recently them um all over the place I
11:20
get a lot of my stuff from eBay from
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dealers on eBay um and it's always been
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pretty decent quality stitching looks
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good uh they they tend to hold up pretty
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well haven't really had too many issues
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with their
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pouches um and if you're looking for
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something very
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specific uh the Condor stuff can be a
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great option because
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finding uh military surplus pouches that
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fit your needs sometimes is not
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easy but they seem to have a really
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large variety of pouches and they work
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great and then the Blackhawk stuff of
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course I think is has always been good
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quality I've never had any issues with
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any of the Blackhawk items so let's put
12:04
them on the vest and see how this thing
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looks so here is the pouches mounted
12:09
up got the Condor got the Blackhawk got
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a condor radio pouch right
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here got enough room on this side I can
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probably throw in a tourniquet pouch or
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multi-tool
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pouch but I think the color
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looks pretty
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good and what's so nice about the
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FLC is that you don't have to have it
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all zipped up so if you're a bigger guy
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like me I have it um set on a more wider
12:45
profile so now it's acting more as a
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split chest rig so it's very comfortable
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I get air
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circulation but I can still access the
12:57
magazine pouches how I want
13:02
to so $12 vest and then a handful of
13:05
pouches however you want to set it up I
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mean you can definitely get a decent
13:10
chest rig
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built um probably for under
13:17
$75 all right so that's all I wanted to
13:19
show you today is just how to dye this
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uh old military surplus and how you can
13:24
utilize it for your setup so if you're
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looking to build an inexpensive chest
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rig um you know either for your your
13:33
prepping um and you want to have
13:36
something that's
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inexpensive and maybe just want to try
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it out because honestly who wants to
13:41
spend tons of money on all this gear and
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then realize this isn't for me I don't
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like how I don't like the setup I don't
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like carrying all this stuff um then you
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don't have a lot of money invested in it
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and then also these FLC vests uh it
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doesn't have to be a
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tactical um application you don't have
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to carry rifle mags you can turn this
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easily into more of a survival vest or a
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Bushcraft type vest so you know adding
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cantens
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paracord you know first aid kit fire
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starting kit all that kind of stuff you
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would normally
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carry could go in the on a vest and then
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you can carry a smaller backpack that's
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just going to be for hydration and maybe
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some food so a lot of different opt
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options not have to always spend tons of
14:32
money to get into something sometimes
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it's best to start off a little
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cheaper and see how you like it and I
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just I like playing with old gear I like
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experimenting with things I like setting
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stuff up um I love modifying things to
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uh meet my needs and the ACU Digital
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Camo uh Military Surplus Gear is very
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available very very cheap eBay is one of
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the best places to find it actually you
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can find all kinds of stuff pouches and
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backpacks and vests and then with a
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couple bottles of dye and a little bit
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of thy you can make a really decent
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looking piece of gear that you can go
15:16
out in the woods and um be pretty
15:20
effective I think with the
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color so hopefully I'll get out in the
15:24
woods real soon and show you how this
15:26
thing works and how I got it loaded up
15:28
um in the meantime please check out my
15:30
older videos uh do me a favor if you
15:33
like this kind of content give me a
15:34
thumbs up and consider subscribing I
15:37
would really appreciate that check out
15:38
all the affiliate links down below
15:40
including my Facebook group huge lots of
15:43
people on there a lot of great
15:44
information and as always thank you so
15:46
much for watching my channel and we'll
15:47
see you next time on the prepared
15:57
Wanderer
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