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British Army 24 hour ration packs or USA MREs?


torN-

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Ok im off to the Ground Zero weekender soon and woundering if i should get the 24 hour brit army ration pack (3 of them) or the US army MREs. Ive had the british ration pakcs before and they aint bad. Im looking at buying them from Flecktarn.co.uk but the only menu option they have is F and thats Rice Pudding :fear2:

 

 

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My opinion, having tried both.

Buy both. Throw away most of the US MREs, keep the heaters. Then use them to heat the Brit meals.

Otherwise, just buy the Brit rat packs and a hexy burner ( although they're not great, they still work)

 

Brit rat pack pros: Brit 24hours is the same size as a single US MRE

Tastes a hella better.

Has nice little extras, chewing gum, tea ( not bad actually), hot chocolate ( AWESOME), Yorkie etc. All the stuff you'd eat/drink at home.

Cons: Heating them sucks, as the hexy blocks are wank.

 

US MRE pros: Heater is ace. Very very very simple operation

Cons: It all tastes like *suitcase*. ALL OF IT. There is nothing worth eating in an MRE. They are also massively overpackaged. You will end up filling a whole bin bag before you manage to get to your actual meal. Overall size is massive...

 

 

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I hear "Meals Refusing to Exit" more often, that's a good one though 'Meals Rejected by Ethiopians', never heard it before.

 

MREs are you love it or hate it type of thing, some people put up with the taste and eat them anyway, I tried one before, ain't that bad.

 

Anyone know where I could get Brit rat packs in the US? I wanna try them.

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MREs are ok.. Personally, I'd go with the Brit 24hr packs.

 

Plus the brit rats are more compact if you have to carry all your kit..

 

And the cost.. 3 24 packs £30, 9 MREs £50

 

There's nowt wrong with rice pudding.. Stick the coca powder in it.. Yum :P

 

 

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Never had a real problem with the MRE's. Usually i break them down whenever i actually use them to shove them in my pack, If they are just being stored then they stay in original packaging. Overall they are pretty large things but the things have macho calories in them, and breaking them down solves the size problem. I havent eaten one in 3 years(we were given several cases for Katrina), only other peice of advice is that some of the entrees i completely stayed away from(i remember veggie ones..ugh).

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MREs are ok.. Personally, I'd go with the Brit 24hr packs.

 

Plus the brit rats are more compact if you have to carry all your kit..

 

And the cost.. 3 24 packs £30, 9 MREs £50

 

There's nowt wrong with rice pudding.. Stick the coca powder in it.. Yum :P

Ahh but unless you are a real fat boy you can get away with only eating two a day. I've had these quite a bit when working with the yanks and even their big special forces types only eat two meals a day. Additionally you don't have to clear your mess tins! My real complaint is the amount of gash they generate, even we have started issuing some MRE components as supplement warm weather rations to other troops.

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Additionally you don't have to clear your mess tins!

 

You dont with 24 hr Operational Rat Pack either, eat it strait from the foil bag.

 

Anyway, my oppinion is that 24 hr Op Rat Pack are ace, and if heating them up is really that much of a ball ache with your mess tins, use a crusader cooker, eat it cold, or use some Yank MRE Heaters, SOF sell a dozzen for about £6. But you will need to put two elements (One either side) in to cook a brit meal.

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"Meals Rejected by Ethiopians" - :D that's a good one! :D

 

I have to admit, I haven't eaten an MRE since 1986 - which is probably a good thing - so its interesting to hear how they've "improved" since then. Back then they used to glue the main meal pouch into a little cardboard box and the only way to heat the meal was to boil the bag in a canteen cup of water - but as the glue was toxic, you had to dump out the water and wipe your cup clean afterwards. Who was the faarkin genius who dreamt that up???

 

But at least the MREs were a lot lighter and less cumbersome than C-rats...

 

I haven't tried a Brit Army 24-hr pack - but they look and sound good, and a lot less bulky. Presumably you could also eat the meals cold if you had to?

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Can i just ask, why do we need to heat the food up? It's ready to eat isn't it? Back when I was in service I used to eat my combat rations cold in the field, never understood why people wanted to heat them up.

 

Because most of us are pansy airsofters?? :P Plus if your using them as a way to save the amount you have to transport down somewhere, ie GroundZero, they are pretty handy if your just going to use them to replace normal meals that you'd be able to eat warm had you brought a hefty gas cooker thing and normal food.

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You dont with 24 hr Operational Rat Pack either, eat it strait from the foil bag.

 

Its heating the mess tin full of water that does it though. The hexi sticks to the bottom forming a layer of grime that'll stop bullets. Anyone whos done more than one weekend event will have a shiny mess tin from brillo'ing the bottom of the mess tin to death :P Gas stoves are the way forwards.

 

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Its heating the mess tin full of water that does it though. The hexi sticks to the bottom forming a layer of grime that'll stop bullets. Anyone whos done more than one weekend event will have a shiny mess tin from brillo'ing the bottom of the mess tin to death :P Gas stoves are the way forwards.

 

Use the new Crusader burner.. Nice n compact, uses gel fuel that doesn't muck up your cooking kit. Can use hexi if you must though

 

Can i just ask, why do we need to heat the food up? It's ready to eat isn't it? Back when I was in service I used to eat my combat rations cold in the field, never understood why people wanted to heat them up.

 

Why eat cold food when you can eat hot food? When you wake up freezing cold at stupid o clock am, it's just nice to have a hot breakfast and a brew

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