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I have carried a basic Life-Straw in my hunting pack since they first became available for retail in Australia more than ten years ago. Bought a 6-pack on ebay for ~$120 or thereabouts.
Used one in anger in 2020 on a long back-country hunt a few months after major surgery. I had over-estimated my recovery status and had gone through all my water by mid-afternoon a long way from camp! It was stinking hot. Bloody glad I had one with me that day.

Haven't yet mustered the courage to do a Life-Straw only Northern Territory hunt with no water in the pack, but keep thinking what a pleasure that would be! Like a day chasing sambar, where your 600ml water bottle is still half full at day's end!

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Thanks for the reply of your use.

Good to have when one runs out of water. How would one fare if one had no water for long kms, high heat and humidity and considerable time? One could drink unfiltered water but take a risk of major stomach problems. Not good. Depending on how clean and running a stream might be or dirty and still a pool is. Something dead in the river upriver?

A lifestraw only hunt? Wow. What is the motivation? Not carrying kgs of water? Certainly say 4 L of water weighs a lot in a day pack and camelback.

I drink a lot so really appreciate a good sized camelback, to be able to sip water regularly as I feel I need it. But I worry about running out, how much is actually left in the camelback for the walk back? So like to carry a reserve litre.

If ground water is available a life straw device allows water from non carried sources to be potentially additional.

Where I hunt and have hunted, natural water can be rare, if including bore water at stock troughs and tanks, one might have to walk many kms anyway to get to them. If one knows where they are. I remember a hunt to a new place decades ago. On the map a bore was shown at a spot. We planned to replace used water there. I usually trust bore water direct from an outlet. It can be somewhat saline. We got to the spot in the Flinders Ranges, and all we found was a capped pipe. The bore and stock water was long gone. By the time I got back to camp, parched!

On the 264 thread boots are discussed. In the rocky countryside and hills of the Northern Flinders Ranges, that trip I wore out the soles of my farm Rossi/Blundstone boots. Had to resort to gym shoes at the end. Now any hunt, hiking trip, safari etc, I try to take my Scarpas as my main boots. They don't wear out soles. But like to take Rossis/Blundstones as my "casual" boots/shoes as my reserve hunting boots if reserves are needed. They are my everyday wear anyway.

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John aka NitroX

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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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