1) Tango61

You’re probably past (have newer and better than) my practical experience, and you raise a GREAT point about poisons and toxins, but my last (10 year old training) had:

D = deformities (broken bones, etc)
E = extrication

I don't think it really makes a difference - just a way to organize information and prioritize injuries.

2) OregonMouse/JimShaw – thank you – I wasn’t sure if I’d just skirted the boundaries of what is acceptable here.

I don’t know how military practice is going to transition over to the civilian world. Most of what I am hearing about tourniquets is self or buddy aid, immediate action type stuff – where the victim will bleed out if the bleeding is not stopped in the next minutes. I, too, was taught to go for pressure points, and back that up with a tourniquet only if I can’t control the bleeding. But even my conversations with my paramedic peers a decade or more ago sometimes involved quotes like “well, I can pump him full of fluid, but if he doesn’t have enough red blood cells to move oxygen around it won’t matter what the volume is in his circulatory system…”. I agree with OregonMouse that the most likely case for tourniquet use in a backpacking setting is a hunting “accident”.

However, I don’t think that anyone should walk away from this conversation thinking that a gun shot wound to the extremity means the right response is a tourniquet. The Army is still trying to figure out what constitutes a good tourniquet (some work better than others – the improvised kind that you and I might come up with probably won’t work really well, based on what I’m reading).

3) Darwin, if I were you I’d go pick up a 14 day kit at REI, Campmor, or some other dealer and take a class. That is a great place to start.

Steadman