Medical in range bag.

AJC1 said:

That tourniquet looks sealed still. Have you ever played with one. I recommend to take it out and have it prerigged and ready to go.

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I have played with one, but never had to use one in real life

Mark_Mark said:

I have played with one, but never had to use one in real life

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Tourniquets can be quite dangerous -- a person can lose a limb if a tourniquet is too tight or left on too long.

"Tourniquets have a bad rap in the field of emergency first aid. Complications of tourniquet use have led to severe tissue damage. However, tourniquets can arrest bleeding quite well and are useful in cases of severe bleeding that cannot be stopped in any other way."

Use with caution.

Vern Humphrey said:

Tourniquets can be quite dangerous -- a person can lose a limb if a tourniquet is too tight or left on too long.

"Tourniquets have a bad rap in the field of emergency first aid. Complications of tourniquet use have led to severe tissue damage. However, tourniquets can arrest bleeding quite well and are useful in cases of severe bleeding that cannot be stopped in any other way."

Use with caution.

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U’m going to take a “Stop the Bleed” class!

we don’t know what we do know

Check your local Red Cross for FAST and/or Stop the Bleed courses. These are typically one-day classes (course itself is 135 minutes)
https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/first-aid/first-aid-training/first-aid-classes/fast-training

In person is better than online as there is a "feel" to a properly-set tourniquet (and it hurts a lot, healthy or injured). It's something worth practicing and learning about before the need. It's very much the difference between getting the jack out of your ride in your own driveway versus next to a ditch in the rain.

Like a couple others, above, Uncle spent considerable time ensuring I was educated in the various arcane medical arts.
So, all of my bags have at least an IFAK, with some enhancements to the stock contents.



There is an aspect worth noting for our discussion here.
That "golden hour" can matter in how you treat a casualty, which affects what gear you want with you.

AJC1 said:

I'm not sucking out poison. I'll pop a double dose of benadryl and go to the hospital.

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Hospital emergency rooms are very crowded. The vast majority of doctors have never treated a snake bite.

My post from another website:

Snake bite treatment then and now:

In days long gone by the first concern was removal of the venom. In about 1967 a member of our fishing party was bitten on the leg by a large timber rattler. Someone had a snake bite kit. A tourniquet was placed above the bite, the suction pump was placed over the bite holes and the venom sucked out; it was visible in the clear pump. The snake bite victim walked four miles to the vehicles and was taken to the hospital. He was released the next day.

Few years ago i met a snake handler who had one fang bite between the thumb and forefinger. Snake was a western diamondback rattlesnake.

Man was taken to the emergency room of an Oklahoma City hospital where he languished for over four hours before seeing a doctor. Man was given numerous rounds of antivenom. His arm was cut open to above the elbow. The hospital bill was $220,000.

I have a tourniquet in mine and wear a belt

AJC1 said:

Do any of you carry medical supplies with you at the range?

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Ooooo yeah! See below...

Hartkopf said:

Big zip ties are a good idea but somebody better have cutters of some sort to get it off. And it could be tough to get a cutter between the skin and zip tie but better than bleeding to death.

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If it's been mentioned I missed it, med scissors? The ones that are bottom edge-blunt tipped. Designed to guide under/around stuff...

Mark_Mark said:

my around the town kit. You would not believe the amount of bandages I go through. here my most common used:

Bandage
Neosporean
Gloves
bottle water for washing
clean wet wipes

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OK NOW WERE GETTN somewhere!

My pack in memory-specific no order...
Its a smallish soft side red cooler. Tourney in case, mounted to cooler cloth handle (outside)
Inside, top down... gloves^, mask both im small ziplock, clean wet wipes (already mentioned ^ ) in individual packs... various regular band aids...steri-strips...betadine wipes... neo ointment ^ tube...med scissors...bug bite pen...Quik Clot gauze and powder...SMALL 4-serving sized pill container; my meds, antiacids, OTC pain meds (NOTE: I tape each compartment shut, write rotation date on each), tampons (I'm replacing with pack gauze thnx to this thread)...ankle wrap, soft splint, adding (thnx to the thread) saran wrap/some type of compression wrap for larger wound, ** FLASHLIGHT**, permanent marker, **SMALL KNIFE** small waterbottle i.e. 4oz. sweet tarts. If you've ever run into someone with a sugar drop, you'll appreciate sweet tarts

I've used all the minor regular items but none of the major stuff, thank goodness. There's a few things I can't remember, this pack follows me from vehicle to vehicle or on the boat , and, GETS SET OUT on the shooting bench right beside loadout, muffs etc.

Archie said:

I have been first on scene for automobile crashes TWICE and not working either time.

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Yeah, BTDT and I didn't have my goodies, 3 vehicle collision, we were at out cook out 1/4 mile or so away saw it, BOOM scrape... BOOM, dust & sparkly cloud from dust & pulverized debris. Gave aid as I could and pointed out to ambulance/fire staff who was #1, 2, 3, 4, toddler etc. Everyone made it , 1 guy was shallow breathing & missing chunks I mean reminded me of shrapnel wounds (he was #1).

Archie said:

The Shooting Club to which I belong does have a more substantial 'kit' and is more concentrated on serious wounds. And, I know exactly where it awaits.

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All should know where it is and have it out and accessible and everyone should also know that it has the address/GPS coordinates clearly written on it, so the next level of help can locate you quickly.

I carry a basic first aid kit in my truck, but not with gunshot wounds in mind. I just think it's smart to carry one.

My range has first aid stations mounted to a post under every covered bench/shooting station on the range, equipped with items geared towards gunshot wounds.
It's a great idea and I've not went to another range that had it available.
During our orientation upon joining, they said they've only been used once for an actual accidental gunshot wound.

Something to write with to record times. JIC you pass out.

.38 Special said:

The last time I saw a significant injury at the range, everyone ran to their trucks and returned with an array of first aid kits that would have kept a trauma center in business for a week. So I'm not sure that one more kit would have been especially helpful. Just judging by that particular event, though, a bit more training would have come in handy...

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Isn’t that kinda the same logic as not needing a gun because someone else will have it if needed?

AJC1 said:

I'm adding two packs to each kit.View attachment 1099731

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So maybe one of our medics can respond to this post and correct me as needed…

I was told by a military medic several years ago that they really preferred the clot bandages over the powder because they could better deal with the patient at the treatment facility.

I’m not in any way saying don’t carry the powder. Just that it may be good to have both on hand. The clotting agent bandage does serve a dual purpose.

Buzznrose said:

Isn’t that kinda the same logic as not needing a gun because someone else will have it if needed?

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Kinda. But then, so is saying that you don't need to bring your own pack of band-aids to the ER.

If you bring you're own Tylenol it might save you $40 per pill.

jmorris said:

All should know where it is and have it out and accessible and everyone should also know that it has the address/GPS coordinates clearly written on it, so the next level of help can locate you quickly.

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Everyone (members) knows the location. We do have an address, but (being out of city, in county) GPS coordinates might be better. I'll see to it and then tell the members. Thank you.

It wasn’t at the “range,” but the victim had a gun in his pocket. Just last Friday, my wife and I attended a multi-year (1960-1966) class reunion/picnic in the small-town park in western Idaho where I grew up. The graduating classes were never very large there, and now that our numbers are starting to dwindle, multi-year class reunions make more sense.
At any rate, it was a lot of fun. As they say though, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.” One of the guys from the class of ’61 got hit by a car as he was trying to get into his own car, which was parked alongside the street in front of the park.
I think the guy’s going to be okay. He obviously had a wound on the left side of his head because there was quite a bit of blood on the bag of clothes the woman who got there first tucked under his head in an obvious attempt to stem the bleeding. The guy was coherent though, and the woman (who said she was a professional caregiver) was talking with him - keeping him calm and awake.
The guy had some scrapes and bruises on his arms too, and he might have had a broken leg going by the way he was yelling about it when the ambulance guys (who arrived within 10 or 12 minutes) were trying to roll him onto the thing to put him in the back of the ambulance.
One of the ambulance guys discovered a gun (a Ruger LCP) in the guy’s pocket, and just laid it aside. Nobody made a big deal about it, not even the town cop that arrived on the scene. The cop just picked the gun up and told the guy, “Sir, I’m going to take your gun for safekeeping.” Then he put it in a plastic zipper bag.
Getting back to the subject though, I have a pretty well stocked first aid kit in my truck. And not to boast, but I was Search and Rescue in Navy choppers many years ago. I’ve seen my share of wounds, and I’ve had a lot of CPR training - both in the Navy and as an industrial electrician (one day of CPR training every two years until I retired).
None of that did anyone any good last Friday though. By the time I got over there, the professional caregiver lady had the situation well in hand, and an ambulance arrived a few minutes later.
BTW, it was a danged hit and run on top of everything else! That was a really dumb move by the driver though - there was about a hundred old people in that park, and we all had cell phones. One old guy got a picture of the back of the car, including the license plate.
As morbid as this sounds, my wife and I kind of laughed about the incident later. We figured most everyone driving by that park after the hit and run saw about a hundred old people and an ambulance, and they probably just assumed somebody had had a heart attack.

ExtremeSquared said:

Those snakebite kits are contentious.
The sawyer one can almost draw a vacuum and it doesn't pull any significant amount of venom out.
The one shown above is even more questionable.

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No doubt. But in the event of a snake bite, a sucking kit on hand gives you busy body work to focus on. First thing first should always be call for an ambulance. The kit would give you something to focus and stay conscious. That alone is worth the minimal cost and space it takes up in a range bag.

AJC1 said:

I've never seen or been trained by any qualified medical or vet anything other than benadryl. Is there anyone of real repute pushing a snake bite kit.

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Snake bit kits were first recommended to me by Doc Rich Strous. And that is enough repute for me. I also take Benadryl to the range. Because poison ivy/oak/sumac are just as prevalent at outdoor southern ranges as snakes.

I was at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, some years back, assisting a National Guard unit in training. Suddenly there was a lot of yelling, "Snakebite!" I ran over and it was a classic -- fang marks and tiny teeth marks. The snake got away, but no doubt this was serious. I called for a medivac chopper.

Then the platoon sergeant came up and tried to apply a Cutter Snake Bite kit -- those things don't work, or at least this one didn't. The cups wouldn't stay in place and kept falling off. The medic came up and said, "Give it up. It's too late, anyway."

The kid's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell backward. I grabbed him by the stackin' swivel and gave him a couple of slaps -- "Wake up! He means the helicopter is coming!"

I have a molle backpack with one large compartment that has small to large gauze, 2 large rolls of ace bandage, normal bandaids, butterfly strips, neosporain, medic scissors, alcohol wipes, thought about quick clot but I sliced my hand open years ago and a co worker used quick clot. The ER doc said they don’t like it being used because they have to clean it all out before they can take care of the wound. I will be getting a tourniquet soon. Lots of gauze is good for packing a large wound. I also have a Velcro tag on that pouch that says first aid kit so people don’t have to search pockets for it.

hso said:

More important than anything is training.

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^^^This bears repeating ^^^