Essential First Aid for Shooting Range

[wacki]

I keep a first aid kit in my shooting bag. Right now I use a standard military dress kit + the QuikClot packages.

If I was going to make a first aid kit from scratch, what components are a must have?

 

[Hk Dan]

Well, ditch the quick clot. ER docs hate it (it makes their job harder later on). I carry a military UnitOne bag. It has everything from a suture kit, tournaquette, and collapsed lung kit to aspirin and band aids.

I bought it for use at matches but it stays with me now.

 

[rodinal220]

Tampons and Sanitary type napkins are good for plugging wounds.Cheap and effective.A sharpie pen so you can write on the injured person how many(size/type) gauze pads,rolls,etc you put in said wound.

 

[Ky Larry]

I keep a first aid kit in my car. The kit was given to by my bro-in-law who works for a railroad company. I've had to use it twice on people who tried to shoot rifles with heavy recoil and didn't understand eye relief.All I've needed out of it so far is gauze, tape, saline solution, and antibiotic ointment.

 

[22-rimfire]

I also keep a first aid kit in my vehicle and have taken first aid classes. I could do basic first aid. I make a point of knowing where the closest medical facility is relative to places I might spend any amount of time. I usually know if there is cellular service also. All part of crisis management and decision making.

 

[Ramone]

I build my kits with a 3 tier approach:

Annoyance: Sunblock, chapstick, bottled water, bandaids, Neosporin, sunburn oitment, Benedryl, etc.

Injury: FA tape, Gauze, Ace Bandage, tweezers, etc.

Trauma- Sanitary Napkins (good for Annoyance, too), ductape, crazy glue, chest tube, trach tube, Crazy Glue, etc.

Obviously, there's a lot of crossover...

 

[M-Cameron]

Well, ditch the quick clot. ER docs hate it (it makes their job harder later on). I carry a military UnitOne bag. It has everything from a suture kit, tournaquette, and collapsed lung kit to aspirin and band aids.

with all due respect.....ide rather make the ER docs job harder than the morticians job easier.

you dont use quick clot unless you have sever uncontrolled bleeding, its not meant to be a first resort. if it makes someones job harder, thats a good thing, because it means the person is alive long enough to make it to the hospital.


as for what to keep in a range first aid kit, you really have 2 main injuries to deal with, you have to deal with minor scrapes and bruises...and then to have to deal with potential gun shot wounds.

the first one is easy to deal with:

• some assorted baindaids
  
• tylenol and ibuprophen
  
• antibacterial cream
  
• gause pads/ gause roll
  
• medical tape
  
• and i like to carry a few tubes of super glue for those cuts in odd areas (tips of fingers/ knuckles/ ect.)

as for a gun shot wound, your main interest is to stop the bleeding, your best friend in this situation is going to be a cell phone to dial 911 ASAP, and lots and lots of gause and pressure on the wound. there are a lot of people who will recommend tampons to stick in the wound,i honestly dont know that that actually holds any merit.

the best thing you can do is get some good first aid training, hell even a basic EMT course if you can swing it. all the medical supplies in the world are useless unless you know how to use them and how to properly respond to an emergency.

 

[W.E.G.]

Tape.

I have never seen a first aid kit that had one-tenth the amount of tape that ought to be in there.

I rode as an EMT-B for a couple years, and I really learned my lesson about tape.
We used lots of lots of it.
If you're not buying it buy the 12-roll pack, you aren't even close.

4x4 dressings are heavily-used too.
If you need a smaller dressing you just fold it over (or cut it if you're not in a hurry) until its the right size.

By the time you are using Quik-Clot, the patient is probably going to die anyway.
I'm sure there is a place for it, but that place is highly limited.
For those who swear by it, don't let me rain on your parade.
Carry on.

An "Israeli pressure bandage" will do just about anything on extremities that Quik-Clot will do, and without the controversy.
I never treated a wound bad enough to need either.

Bottled water.
Lots of it.
Does most of what "saline solution" does, but you can drink it too.
On the Ambo we used saline solution to clean dirty wounds.
Bottled water would have done the same thing.
Bottled water can be used to wash out eyes too.
You need VOLUME of fluid to wash out eyes.
Forget about those "eyewash kits." What useless crap.

That's about it for my contribution.
Those are the things that nobody ever has nearly enough of when treating common injuries.
Simple and boring.
Not nearly as interesting as talking about the "snake bite" kit, and what you would do if somebody was bitten on their...

 

[brboyer]

A better choice would be QuickClot's Combat Gauze, 2x2's or 4x4's or any of their other current Gen 3 product line. The granular product was discontinued in 2008 do to technological improvements.

 

[Redlg155]

Steri strips can keep you going if you are tough or are out on a hunting trip and don't want to cut it short.

A good pair of scissors can be invaluable as you may have to cut clothing or other items. A knife can work, but scissors are safer when you get the "jitters" or have a squirming patient. The ones in a typical kit are worthless. And don't even think about stealing the pinking shears from your wife's sewing kit. You want efficiency, not a fashion statement.

Throw a couple sets of extra foam ear plugs.

To be truthful, the average person doesn't need much more than roll type gauze, 4x4 gauze, tape , scissors, plastic or other occlusive dressing and ace bandages to stabalize the majority of injuries until advanced medical attention arrives.

 

[HorseSoldier]

For emergency GSW care, my minimum going to the range stuff is tourniquets, hemostatic agents, Israeli bandages and kerlix or s-rolled gauze. This is all stuff I have training on and have laying around from .mil stuff (I'm still finding CAT tourniquest from my last deployment I'd forgotten about like some demented squirrel prepping for a mass casualty event). With most of those items, you can get the same tool set using alternative items as people have described. The skills to use whatever you carry (or can improvise on scene) is at least as important as any specific item of gear.

Something you should consider is what the relationship is between the range you're visiting and emergency medicine (as well as the nearest hospital), which will dictate minimum medical requirements. Shooting on a well known public range ten minutes down a major highway from a fire station or other EMT assets is a different environment than your buddy's property in the middle of nowhere at the end of an hour drive on a confusing series of country roads. You should always at least have a plan on what happens when things do go pear shaped, and with medical stuff that obviously needs to include how to hand off a casualty to higher levels of care.

 

[heron]

Something you should consider is what the relationship is between the range you're visiting and emergency medicine (as well as the nearest hospital), which will dictate minimum medical requirements. Shooting on a well known public range ten minutes down a major highway from a fire station or other EMT assets is a different environment than your buddy's property in the middle of nowhere at the end of an hour drive on a confusing series of country roads. You should always at least have a plan on what happens when things do go pear shaped, and with medical stuff that obviously needs to include how to hand off a casualty to higher levels of care.

Very important point. I took a Wilderness Medicine course once, and it assumes that the victim is more than an hour from a trailhead. Typical Red Cross first aid training assumes that EMT are only minutes away.

If you're going to be in the boonies, get the training you need. The supplies you carry will be the toolset; many can be improvised on site. Mindset first, then skillset.

Check this:

http://www.nols.edu/wmi/courses/

 

[Ehtereon11B]

As someone who has used Quickclot on GSW, use it. If the ER doc still wants to cuss you out he can after they do their job. Most docs I know love the stuff. On my last tour we weren't issued any so about 95% spent our own money to stock our IFAKs with it. They also have Quickclot gauze. I haven't used it but supposedly it is as good as the powder with less mess. Keep an eye on the expiration date, most packets are good for a couple years.

Carry at least one ripcord tourniquet in case you need to apply one to yourself with one hand. CATs or Combat Application Tourniquets are a great option for cheap. Carry at least 2 and in places you can reach with either hand. Size them to your thigh to save as much time as you can. Use a marker or something you can write on their body for the next doc of the time you put it on so they can try to save the limb.

Bandages will take care of 95% of the wounds you will likely encounter at the range. Standard bandaids that you can get at Wal-Mart are a good start. Israeli bandages and old pressure bandages with the long green wrappings are good too. Unwrap one to practice on different body parts and keep the rest sterile.

Your PRIMARY job administering first aid is to STOP THE BLEEDING. Don't try any fancy ER drama stuff of decompressing a tension pneumo thorax or inserting a nasal pharyngeal.

 

[beatledog7]

Your PRIMARY job administering first aid is to STOP THE BLEEDING.

No, it is not. Basic first aid hasn't changed in decades: A-B-C

A=Airway. A person who can't get air into his lungs can't breathe, and will die if it's not corrected.
B=Breathing. Even if the airway is open, the victim still might not be breathing. If he doesn't start again soon, he will die.
C=Circulation. If the victim has no heartbeat, there is little chance of a rapid bleed-out.

The kinds of injuries that require first aid at a range may well be focused on bleeding rather than these priorities, but please remember that stopping the bleeding of a person who's not breathing or has no heartbeat is pointless.

 

[Ehtereon11B]

Yes A-B-C are the basics for assessing a casualty and need to be maintained in order to continue life. But for this discussion focusing on gunshot wounds I stuck to the point.

 

[beatledog7]

The most common range injuries are not gunshot wounds; they are scope cuts, other lacerations, pinches, burns, and the like. Any of these could and have produced shock, which in turn can cause A-B-C issues.

I did note that A-B-C assessment is probably not going to be commonly needed at the range. Still, it pays to remember lack of O2 to the brain is ultimately a greater danger than bleeding. That's why I brought it into the discussion.

 

[Tim the student]

What do you know how to use? I bet the average person that has Quick Clot is not well trained with it.

I'll bet you need training more than you need stuff in your aid bag. You can do a hell of a lot with Kerlix, 4" ACE wraps, 2" cloth tape, petroleum gauze, and a GOOD tourniquet. But you need to know how to use all that stuff too.

 

[wacki]

I'll bet you need training more than you need stuff in your aid bag. You can do a hell of a lot with Kerlix, 4" ACE wraps, 2" cloth tape, petroleum gauze, and a GOOD tourniquet. But you need to know how to use all that stuff too.

I'm all for training. Hopefully someone can recommend DVDs or youtube videos. First aid training should not be limited to those that pay expensive tuition.

 

[wgaynor]

Wow... how easily this thread can confuse people. A,B,C's are pertinent for EVERY medical situation.

If you haven't been through emergency medical training, First-Aid, or something similar, please get some training. Having all these gadgets (chest tube, Tourniquet's, sutures, ...) can and will cause more harm than good if they are not used with training.

If you want a basic kit, go get one at the store and add some duct-tape to it (or medical tape, but it's more expensive). Do not work outside your skill set. In Emergency Medicine, I'd rather the person working on me be good and not lucky.

Speaking from experience as a former Army 91w healthcare specialist (medic).

and for those that want to learn it on youtube... Are you freaking serious. Have you seen the idiots that are on there? Good grief!

 

[beatledog7]

When all is said and done, the most useful items in a shooting range first aid kit will be lots of gauze and tape. And as wgaynor said, get training. With no purpose-built kit at all, properly applied training can save a life or a limb.

 

[hso]

Tampons and Sanitary type napkins are good for plugging wounds.

This dreadful piece of advice keeps being regurgitated. It is a bad idea to "plan to improvise" when you're talking about an injury as catastrophic as a gunshot wound. Doubly so when good equipment is readily available from so many sources.

You can purchase Quick Clot gauze and simple 4X4 dressings and a pressure dressing to deal with the, typically, single gunshot wound (you're not in combat so you don't need a full medic kit).

Keep in mind that TRAINING is as important as any gear you might carry and without training you can't do much more than holding on for dear life while blood leaks between your fingers and praying that someone has called 911.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Hey HSO, it worked in Vietnam

course
medicine has come a LONG way since then

 

[wgaynor]

Tampons and such should not be used. That's like using a butter knife as a screw driver.

Each tool has a purpose and the same goes for sanitary napkins.

Once again, when your bleeding, you don't want someone who watched a youtube video. The number one killer on the battlefield is shock, and yet, nobody has even mentioned it. Please, get trained and don't take shortcuts.

If you're not convinced, think of this; would you want someone untrained, but watched youtube videos to try these things on your wife or child?

 

[Redlg155]

Don't use tampons....even worse, you could get "toxic shock" syndrome.

I forgot to add, a good quality pen light can be helpful as well.

 

[beatledog7]

The number one killer on the battlefield is shock, and yet, nobody has even mentioned it.

Yes, somebody has. See Post #16.