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Fieldcraft Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities


DR. Don,
I'd love to join to survival deal in Zambezi Valley! helping out, as a student or some of both. Keep me posted!
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

Lots of discussion on primitive survival skills on Ron Hood's website/forum at survival.com. Hood's Woods forum especially the old one which may be archived had tons of discussion.

Ron sells a large selection of DVD instructional videos. He was Special Forces and last I knew lived in Idaho. Great guy and great stuff at his site.
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

Tres,

Thank you for taking the time to put up these invaluable posts. The amount of knowledge owned by those that gravitate to these pages is vast and I am thrilled at the chance to tap into some of it.
This may be a touch off of the original topic of priorities but something that I have been doing over the years to help hone and maintain my skills with plant and animal ID is to take a field guide with me whenever I venture into the woods. I collect Peterson's Field Guides and to a lesser extent, the Audubon Field Guide series. Which book and from which series I take into the woods often changes but I like to be able to pull one out to test my knowledge or add to it while I peruse nature's bounty. Peterson's has excellent guides on Edible Wild Plants, Medicinal Plants, Animal Tracks, Weather, and many others. I agree that one should know what is in the region where one lives, travels, or may end up in the event of a travel mishap. The books are a tool that has helped keep me better prepared with the soft-skills and I try to make time to practice shelter building, fire making, etc while I am out.

Thanks again for your contributions, I can't wait to read more.
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

Regardless of what your pride says about the following statement, estimates as high as 20% of you “seasoned” outdoorsmen have panicked to the point of throwing away your pack and or weapon and ran wildy & blindly in fear, frequently to the point of significant injury, if not off a bluff in the pitch black darkness.

Rubbish!
 
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Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Country</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Regardless of what your pride says about the following statement, estimates as high as 20% of you “seasoned” outdoorsmen have panicked to the point of throwing away your pack and or weapon and ran wildy & blindly in fear, frequently to the point of significant injury, if not off a bluff in the pitch black darkness.

Rubbish! </div></div>

You're right, 20% is way low.
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: smokshwn</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Country</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Regardless of what your pride says about the following statement, estimates as high as 20% of you “seasoned” outdoorsmen have panicked to the point of throwing away your pack and or weapon and ran wildy & blindly in fear, frequently to the point of significant injury, if not off a bluff in the pitch black darkness.

Rubbish! </div></div>

You're right, 20% is way low. </div></div>
More Rubbish !
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

I was a Search-and-Rescue specialist in Michigan and in Texas for several years. The training that I received when I went through the wilderness survival course was as follows:

The Rules of 3's:

- 3 minutes without air-you're dead (braindead)
- 3 hours without shelter (in a hostile environment)-you're dead
- 3 days without water-you're dead
- 3 weeks without food-you're dead

This is a VERY BASIC, oversimplification of the process, but for the most part, it works.
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: smokshwn</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Country</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Regardless of what your pride says about the following statement, estimates as high as 20% of you “seasoned” outdoorsmen have panicked to the point of throwing away your pack and or weapon and ran wildy & blindly in fear, frequently to the point of significant injury, if not off a bluff in the pitch black darkness.

Rubbish! </div></div>

You're right, 20% is way low. </div></div>

Not to totally disagree with you cause I know there are some real brain dead people out there, but how can someone panic to the point of disregarding all hope of survival by throwing their stuff away? It seems things go in super slow motion for me when pressed with a life threatening decision. Maybe cause of the way I was raised ...to think.

I believe we are breeding some of the most worthless kids in history these days.
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mr300</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I was a Search-and-Rescue specialist in Michigan and in Texas for several years. The training that I received when I went through the wilderness survival course was as follows:

The Rules of 3's:

- 3 minutes without air-you're dead (braindead)
- 3 hours without shelter (in a hostile environment)-you're dead
- 3 days without water-you're dead
- 3 weeks without food-you're dead

This is a VERY BASIC, oversimplification of the process, but for the most part, it works. </div></div>


+1 good priority list
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities


Thanks for the input everyone. I'm trying to get the next series of this chapter finished and up. In the past I had used this and a few other websites to post up my articles on the web, but alas they will have a final home on my own website which is currently live but far from finished or perfected. It was launched but a week ago. Also I'm hopefully only a couple months away from restarting my wilderness training classes I used to offer.

WildernessMeans.com
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

Awesome, Thanks alot for sharing, everyone
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness(PRACTICE)

If you have a well-stocked survival kit you need to <span style="font-style: italic">practice </span>over and over with every piece of gear in that kit. This gives you the confidence you need when survival is the only option.

First, do you have the "Ten Esentials" for your climatic region?

Got a nice Firesteel sparker? Got tinder? Then practice using it in the cold, rain, snow, etc.

Got a signalling mirror? Then practice using it against a nearby cliff face or at a distant friend who will call/radio you whether he or she sees it.

Got survival fishing gear. Practice (legally) using it. Same goes for using your snare wire. At the least set up traps and test their senstitivity.

Read about shelters? Then practice building them. Learn lashing and basic knot tying skills. (This will explain why you need that 50 ft. of 1/8 in. Spectra core cord in your kit.

Do you <span style="font-weight: bold">really</span> have good map-and=compass skills? Practice using them constantly. Know what "aiming of" is as well as declination, triangulation, etc. Coat your paper maps with Thompson's Water Seal to preserve them.

IF the time ever comes when you need these skills they should not be non-existant or rusty.
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness(PRACTICE)

Thompson's water seal: good stuff, and I used to use it until I put a couple of pages together that weren't quite dry. My fault completely.
Nowadays I use clear sticky shelf paper for my maps. I take an original topo (usually printed out from the net) and enlarge it in the area I am using, then mark it with any important data I think I need, print out either the next area north south east or west depending on which way I am headed, and put it on the back, then seal it in the contact paper (not paper actually, plastic). I have NEVER once had a map de-laminate.
That way, I have a library of new condition maps, to make copies of, and smaller handy sized maps for whatever particular area I am hunting or wandering around in.
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

puting a little objective brain power to a situation can be comforting! Thanks for these writeups! The books I've read are are great for stiring curiositybut lack essential detail. The detail you all have put fourth is better by far!
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

Thanks for the info. I too practice and teach primitive skills as well a shoot long range. Everyone needs to know these basic skills and you have given a very good description of them.
 
Re: Naked into the Wilderness 1: Priorities

I have arrested two guys that was water Intoxacated, they drink so much water their sodium and patassium was so low it made them carzy, one was a 65 male about 135 lb and it took 4 of us to hold him down, Crazy Man
 
You do not have to be in the wilderness to run out of water. Just brake down on the road at night between Salt Lake City and Reno. Just hope someone in this day will stop and help. JesseB
 
My (learned) rule of thumb
One can survive:
3 hours without shelter (in the harshest environment)
3 days without water
30 days without food

Which aligns with OP’s stance.

Neat.