TR is so right,Bear is frighting......:rolleyes: Be careful on anything he comes up with....... :eek: For your own safety .........;)

Big Teddy :munchin

Who's the Guy on Surviver Man? The one that got busted for not being alone. You could see a reflection of other people in the water when he was suppose to be out on his own. I yet to see him actually catch an Animal in one of his traps.

Sound advice. I saw a couple weeks ago when he was in a swamp trying to gain a better vantage point by tying his boot laces together (with boots still worn) and using them to scurry up a tree like a climbing stand sort of. I pondered the idea to test it, but an unnecessary risk if the strings wear through. Maybe some 550 cord would do the trick. However, busting my fourth point of contact (at best) after gaining velocity is not my idea of fine holiday fun :D.

I have seen a lot of posts on here about 550 paracord and everyone wants some in their kit, how about a thread dedicated to the 1,001 uses for 550 paracord?

*I browsed all the other threads under Field Craft and nothing really seems to cover this

Prettty much what Teddy said. Hel, we might as well get slammed together.

So, if I understand this right. It is what I can stuff in my pockets? NO guns for me. thank you..

So since I am a civilian, and knowning me at that time of yr. I would most likely be weating my favorite pants, nylon, boys pants. regular front and back pockets and then those side pockets on the leg. long sleeve undershirt, flannel shirt, northface jacket, long sleeves, one of my 8 foot long 2 ft wide scarves.

knife, magnifying glass, flint and striker, safety pins. box of dental floss, compass. wristrocket and marbles. cup to heat water and cook in. That was pretty much what I carried in my pockets as a kid. The cup was one of those fold down models.. or I scrounged, a dead tin can at times to heat stuff in. Multitool, would aslo be great, one with a saw blade on it. Few meters of thin wire might be good too..

priority: Shelter, fire, water, food. Lots of food in the woods, starving is not an option. Yeah, same here Teddy. I drank and still drink whatever local water there is. mmm, a plastic bag or two to make a simple catchment system for rainwater or dew might not be bad to add to the list.

safety pins make fish hooks. you can make a trot line with green vines or a fish trap. Wrist rocket will bring down small game and some larger young game.
Shelters are easy to make. NC? red clay.. ewwww.. oh joy..

So are was stuck and have to wait it out for 60 days OR can we just use our compass or the sky and walk ourselves out of this wilderness back to civilization and indoor plumbing?

A Silva Ranger would be on my list. The old ones had a magnifying glass that will start a fire (many will not), a signal mirror, the compass naturally. I carried one the whole time I was in...great tool.

In fact, if the thread was "What 3 things would you choose" I would still choose a Silva Ranger as one of my items. The other 2 would be a knife, and a big ball of 550 cord. There isn't much you can't do/make with those 3 things.

Chlorine for your gene pool…. TR thats F'nin Brilliant..... LMFAO

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...d--hotels.html

Channel 4 last night began an investigation into the claims, which follow a number of embarrassing incidents in which programmes screened by the station were found to have misled the public.

Grylls's show attracted 1.4million viewers when it was shown in March and April, with audiences enthralled as he demonstrated gruesome survival tips that included sucking the fluid from fish eyeballs and squeezing water from animal dung.

But an adviser to Born Survivor yesterday claimed that many of his other escapades were not exactly as they seemed on TV.

In one episode filmed in California's Sierra Nevada mountains he was shown biting off the head of a snake for breakfast and boasting that he was living on 'just a water bottle, a cup and a flint for making fire'.

Viewers were not told that he was actually spending some nights in the Pines Resort hotel at Bass Lake, where the rooms have Internet access and is advertised as 'a cosy getaway for families' complete with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

In another episode when Grylls declared he was a 'real life Robinson Crusoe' stuck on a desert island, he was actually on an outlying part of the Hawaiian archipelago and retired to a motel at nightfall.

Mark Weinert, a survival consultant brought in for the programme, said one show also wrongly gave the impression that the adventurer built a Polynesian- style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo and palm leaves for a sail.

Mr Weinert had in fact led a team that built the raft, which was then dismantled so that Grylls could be shown constructing it on camera.

In another episode, Grylls was filmed attempting to lasso 'wild' mustang in the Sierra Nevada, when the horses were actually tame and had been brought in by trailer from a nearby trekking station.

'If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive,' Mr Weinert told the Sunday Times


These survivor/field craft threads are VERY educational. Thanks for the wisdom

The Little Dude and I were watching Bear, today.
He rappelled a long way down down a cliff (long as in almost a rope length). Next, he is walking off with the rope packed.
"How did he get his rope off the top of the cliff, Dad":confused:
"The caterer probably dropped it to him.":p

I had some interest in this little trick of his so I looked it up.

http://www.douglasbsa.com/knots/sheep.html

Cutting the line in the middle of the sheep shank will allow someone to give the rope a little flip and it will come down. Bear said in the episode to keep tension on the line after making the cut or it will come undone. Also it shouldn't be done with newer synthetic ropes as they slip.

Speaking of ropes. Has anyone heard of or used 'toggle ropes'? I suppose several have and wonder about uses other than climbing, make-shift stretcher, tying up people or using in a shelter that one might have for these.

Sheep shank?
 

You can't rappel over a Sheep shake. Does he unhook and rehook under the knot? One would be willing to die desperate to try that. One could do a one rope rappel with a Meunter hitch, but you'd loose a snaplink on the top. Just be careful.

Any Hitch will hold the weight and release when pressure is off of it. A hitch (clove or girth) tied around a post will work, but awfully risky.

Survive
 

There are 2 styles of brush cutters/machetes I have solid success with:
Woodsman's Pal (been around since WWII and was GI issue)http://www.woodmanspal.com/ It has excellent steel. It can fell a tree, split wood (baton), gut game, dig and is a formidible edged weapon.

The Gerber brush cutter is also a bill hooked short machete. The blade is thinner and overall weight is lighter. Good quality.http://www.gerbergear.com/

If I remember correctly he simply body rappelled.

I E&E'd from MP's on Fort Benning off Eddy bridge via a rappel and recovered my rope via the sheep shank with cut center.. My thinking at that point in time, was that I might not have been able to feed 150m of rope easily around the anchor point for a double line, and if the knot failed for whatever reason, I was just falling in "the hooch". The anchor point was a bowline around a square concrete pillar with a piece of carpet to protect the rope from abrasion when we first set out on the rappelling. The intent was to have fun for a day then head back home... not to have some passer-by do-gooder call the MP's on us.

We saw the cruiser come around the far corner, untied, moved closer to the center of the bridge, anchored, my buddy went down, then I tied the hitch once I was clipped in and cut the rope when I had tension on the line... a couple flips got it undone once I was in the water.

Still surprised I got away on that one, my vehicle wasn't THAT far in the wood-line. Not something I'd recommend over terrain that impact would be frowned upon, though.

One thing that I'll also add to the mix that won't work:

You most likely won't be able to start a fire using a pistol cartridge that you pulled the bullet from. I was curious, and tried it with .45 ACP out of my USP tactical... nice pile of tinder shaved from a stick with a good paper cup for the powder out of a reciept I had in my pocket. Used my multi-tool to pull the bullet in a rather ugly fashion, loaded the empty brass w/ primer in the pistol.. placed all of my fire materials in my woodstove, and hammer-fall promptly just blew everything everywhere.

Bored, curious to see if it'd work.. There's obviously better methods, but I was just seeing if an unconventional approach might work in unconventional circumstances. At least with my implementation, it won't.

You have a gun, bullets, multi tool and stove why don't you have a bic?:D

Good thread.

Bear is a twonk, we think so in the UK too. He has a nice life making TV programmes with lots and lots of back up, support and in the field help and assistance. As I recall even the BBC were not too impressed when it came out he was, for want of a better description, pulling cons in the field. He is best watched with the same regard as watching any other light entertainment show and he is definately no substitute for training followed with experience.

I made my first PSK over 30 years ago and even though I am now a civilian I still have one which is updated and modified regularly.

Back to the origianl question of what would I need for 60 days in the ulu: My old survival instructor would give me a clip on the back of my head and tell me anything more than a knife is classified as camping.

What I would want most is knowledge. You can never know enough.

A decent blade would be good: 4 inch drop point full tang blade with black micarta handles. Bushcraft style, plain, simple, reliable.

My PSK, containing:
fish hooks
fish line
micro leatherman, the scissor style version
micro LED torch
needles with large eye and small eyes (this allows use of thread or paracord inner cord)
potassium permanganate powder
6 ibuprofen tablets
full size space blanket (in a small ziploc and kept compact with about a yard of electricians tape)
half a dozen or so cotton wool balls for tinder (smeared with vaseline and zip-loced)
one inch length of swedish firesteel (needs to be cut under water)
10 * strike anywhere matches
2 * sachets of sugar
2 * sachets of salt
pack of scalpel blades
4 inch length of hacksaw blade
craft knife blade
12 inches 100mph tape
pencil (borrowed from IKEA, this has the 100mph tape wrapped around it)
handcuff key ;)
tiny magnetic multi colored flashing light (for parties and attracting SAR)

This is all squeezed into one of the old decontamination kit containers, you know the plastic pot thing a bit like a tupperware container. It is kept closed with 6 elastic bands and then double bagged with ziploc bags that are intended as water carriers. I used to have a folded aluminium foil food container kept under the elastic bands but used it a while back and did not replace it (down and give me 10). I was taught to make a reduced photocopy map of the area I would be in and stash that in my PSK also, just in case. I know some guys who stash a sachet of sports drink powder with their PSK and then put the PSK into a clean pair of socks and then double bag it ....... go juice and clean socks.

My boot laces are all 550 cord, the cords in jackets have all been replaced with 550 cord and I carry around a 5 foot length of 5mm kernmantle to use for making bow drills ......... IMHO paracord/550 is kack for bow drills.

Direction finding: Shadow stick; sun rise & sunset; stars. The watch method has been shown to be unreliable by academic gentlemen using far greater knowledge than my own so I defer to them.

Fire lighting: Bow drill; hand drill (painful, but I have managed it); Swedish steel; flint and steel using charcloth or dried fungus as the tinder; if you have a carbon blade knife you can use the back of the blade against a flint to produce sparks; spectacles if you wear them to ignite tinder. My survival instructor told me to always carry about six Bics dotted around various smock and trouser pockets, I added a twist to this taught me by a USAF Vietnam vet. He said that in Vietnam a lot of the guys used to put an elastic band around their zippos to make them slip-proof so they would not fall out of their pockets ... so I added an elastic to my Zippo and my Bics.

Eating: Running after antelope or wilderbeast and dropping them with a pithy little spear works for Abo's and bushmen. Personally, I have problems snaring rabbits so I try to learn about edible plants to make sure I will not starve.

Shelter: My tarp and hammock would be nice but if not then I would find high ground and make a nice thermal 'A' frame with a well placed fire and reflector.

Water: Boiling at the very least, preferably filtering followed by boiling which is better. It is not too difficult to improv a decent filter using tree bark, moss and charcol from the campfire. A pot to boil in is the big problem, not many of those in a PSK as they are generally only intended for short time frames. Still, if it was all there it would be camping and not survival.

Les Stroud did this with a rifle, and it took somewhere around 7 rounds to light a fire. Did you try using the powder with a spark based fire starter? I'd be curious if that were doable.

If your trying to survive why exactly would you use a bullet for anything other then shooting something that you can eat or that is trying to kill you?????

Go back and read the OP's situation. There are times when fire is whats gonna save you. That being said, having a gun is cheating anyway.

ETA; Clarification.

Sten, I was basically curious if it was a viable technique, and if it was, if it was reliable.

My equipment has 3 different methods for starting fire, and 2 different tinders that will light from what I carry. I was curious to see if I could accomplish the task via another method that I always have on my person, specifically from my pistol.


If it could save my life in a bad situation, it's a round well spent in my eyes.

Unfortunately, as zpo mentioned, it took 7 rounds from the supply for a rifle to accomplish the task. That's getting expensive.

Anyway, enough sidetrack from the point of the exercise.

Les Stroud AKA "Survivor man" lit a fire with a rifle, but it took him several tries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzwKn...eature=related

google "Les stroud katrina" and there is some really great stuff on youtube

The barrel of most rifles is long enough to ensure a complete burn of the powder before the bullet clears the muzzle.

Carbines are an exception.:D

I have not tried this, but I expect that a handgun with the powder charge still in the case and a wad (cloth, wax, etc. on top would probably ignite suitable tinder, especially if it contained another load of powder.

In any event, I find a small ferrocerium rod in the accessory side pocket of my Leatherman case much more convenient and reliable.

TR

Good read on this thread
 

Appreciated all the info I read in this thread. One firestarter I didn't see was using a standard 9 volt battery, which taking 2 in a small kit, and a nice wad of Steel wool, will produce many fires. Just takes a pinch of steel wool, which you swipe the contacts of the battery across, to produce a fast flame....thoughts? Note though, pack the battery seperate from the steel wool Grasshopper, or your emergency kit will catch fire...lol

Buck

You can't be sure that the 9v will be alive when you need it. Even a dead Bic will spark. I cut the sparker off of a Bic and stuffed several petroleum-jelly infused cotton balls wrapped in foil in the base and plugged with duct tape. It's all smaller than a 9v batt.

Pat

Weight and cube.
If it doesn't have at least one other use, it doesn't make this packing list. What else can I use steel wool for?

Polishing metal for a signal mirror.

I still prefer a butane lighter, or ten.

TR

Or, combining the two. Ferro rods and gunpowder has got to be fun.

What someone else said about the battery being dead. I bought a magnesium firestarter at a Rendevous many yrs back. Never looked back. Have several now. I bought one of these last summer for the car kit.
magnesium firestarter

would a few multi-vitamins be worth the extra space, if your eating nothin' but plants and small animals for two months?

No starter
 

For what they provide with so little weight, it a "No starter"....BarBarian

I would not consider it essential. If you reread the initial post, it is supposed to be the minimum to survive. Lack of vitamins should not kill you in less than 60 days.

TR

Thank you for answering my question, sirs.

I would take a good fixed blade, at least 5" (though 8-10" would make splitting firewood easier.) A bic lighter, and some 550 cordage.

My skill with snares is lacking, though I believe I could make due with bugs and snakes. Bugs taste like crap, but will keep ya going. Snakes don't taste too bad though.

Tabasco Miniatures ;)

Pat

Good minimalist answer.

If the area were not likely to have manmade waste lying about, like cans, a container to hold/boil water and cook in would be a huge boon. Heavy duty foil, if nothing else.

If I were going to add pills, while vitamins would be good, antibiotics could actually save your life.

Also, as we mentioned earlier, you can live sixty days without salt, but having some will sure make your life better.

Finally, I would go for a big knife you could chop with, but it sure would be nice to have a multi-tool for the smaller tasks.

Agree on the BIC and the 550 cord.

There are some great tips here. Thanks for revisiting it.

TR

Thank you sirs for the privelege.

I second this one...

Depends on the snake. I used to live under a bridge when I was younger, moccasins taste like swamp water, as do copper heads but not as bad (IMHO). The turtles reminded me of underdone chicken, but I usually would palm some stuff from a grocery to help with the flavor, either that or hit a McDonalds for slat packets... That is another story though...

Crap just realised that was a double post, sorry about that. Oral surgery today, not thinking real clear..

TR, I saw this picture and thought of you re: earlier in this thread