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Basic survival suggestions
Well the name is self explanatory if you have a question post a thread, no question is stupid if you don't know the answer so fire away. This area should include basic strategies to secure food and water and a place to sleep when in a non combat situation such as lost in the woods or separated from your group in the desert, I know a good bit about the woods. I do not know any thing about the desert or anything like that which require special techniques.
In actuality surviving in the wilds on your own could be a relatively easy task as long as one knows what to expect and what they are walking into. There are basic things that one should know about it like: the importance of preparedness, how to create simple and quick shelter, how to obtain basic nutrients, and how to avoid danger.First off preparedness, I know sounds easy right...wrong. You will have to adjust your level of preparedness based on the number of people in your group, this increases weight of supplies and amount of supplies dramatically. Sometimes this is very bad for your party as it is only as strong as your weakest member. The best way to stay prepared is to have water, and plenty of it. A couple gallons per person per day is a very good idea, this is where the weight factor comes in...for example enough water for 5 people on a 5 day march to the next "safe area" (like an apocalypse) 10 gallons....that's alot of water. Water is a life saver literally, you must have it for drinking, cooking, first aid, washing up, and a variety of things I'm failing to mention so always be on the look out for water sources. Just remember to purify any water you have found along the way.
Having a supply of food for you or your party will also be essential. The carrying of food is a little different than water, in that you can live longer without it. You should be well aware of what it takes to feed you for a day. That being said the hungriest member of your team should always be in charge of goods! any food you plan to take with you should be non perishable: canned goods, trail mix, nutrition bars, mre's, emergency meals (crappy mre's) are all really good ideas. These can get heavy though...
The best thing about being human and needing food is that it is every where. Trapping small game like rabbits and squirrels is a great idea but before you go on a survival expedition thinking this is easy, make sure you know and have used the type of snare and bait (if applicable) before you have to survive on it. Also make sure you know how to prepare any thing you have caught. This includes skinning it...may want to stick to nuts an berries huh? On the nuts and berries note make sure you know what is okay to eat
Simple shelter is just that, simple. It can be any thing from a lean to made from trees and their shrubbery to a cave in the side of a hill. I have a favorite form of simple shelter that I learned really young but haven't had to use for a while. It was pointed out to me that my measurements were terribly off in the drawing though. a 4 by 8ft tent covering would be almost to small for most. I cant remember hisSN, but you'll run into him if you visit the ZSD wiki. He wrote that you would need at least a 6 by 8ft covering if not larger. I did some thinking and math is your savior figure 3 feet of space per person (gear has to fit) then take that distance and add 4ft. And viola you should have enough room under your pup tent for every one
How to make a basic pup tent
Coming up with food when you have none can be daunting, but if you think about it we all know how in one way or another. Some of us fish, some of us hunt, but if we don't we know some one that has. Getting food is all about being intuitive and insightful about the area you are in. Look for trails set into the grass, some times the smaller the better. Use your basic survival tools you packed to your advantage. Most importantly stay on the look out and opportunity will arise. Here are some basic snares, set up as many as you can. Every trap you set is another trap that might have dinner.
BEWARE TRAPPING WHERE YOU LIVE MAY BE ILLEGAL, ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO.
Avoiding danger in the woods should be easy for every one to do. Just remember that its not the big stuff you watch for, its the small things.
Creating Your Survival Kit
Pictured aboveis a store bought kit some people call them BOB'S or Bug Out Bag. I have always just called it a Kit. The one pictured was around $90.00 US. The thing about a Kit is that it is a totally personal choice whether you build your own or you buy one. If you go store bought then you will be adding to it or you will be going with out. The one thing I cant stress enough about your Kit is that you should know every part of every piece of every thing that it contains and you should know how to use it all, cause if you pull it out, yer gonna need it.
First we will go over the basic building blocks of a kit. First of you need to choose a bag to put it in. Unless you want your cloths your food and all your survival equipment ruined you should know that it is water proof or know that you have water proofed your supplies. A good kit bag is going to hold all the things you have packed plus room for all the goodies you might find along the way. I have a particular brand of bag I like because it is cheap and supports a Camel Back System for water. My bag has webbing for attaching extra things that can attach to any standard web belt or alice suspender system. Things like canteens, holsters, sheaths, and a limitless number of other things, this comes in handy if you are worried about the last great fight of humanity. Really though like I said its all about you! there are many great packs out there, and here are some examples.
Knowing what to put in a good bag is key to having one. I would start with water, since this is an emergency kit to get you by pack a little light. Most people reccomend a gallon of water a day just (<important) for drinking but like I said in the basics part a couple gallons a day makes cooking and cleaning easy. Figure on putting 7 gallons in your bag, or water purification tablets or the like to make your own fresh water. There are a lot of survival water bottles that filter any water for a short time. This will make your 3 days of running away, or waiting for rescue, alot easier to do.
Next of course is the food. Make sure you pack only non perishable foods like canned goods trail bars and things of that nature. On a note Most people use mre's for their emergency kit but what they dont realize is that mre's are bang packed with calories and under medium travel 1 mre will suffice for a whole day (If I remeber correctly they have about 4,000 callories total). You should keep this in account when packing your food, and more importantly when eating it. When in an emergency or survival situation make sure you are not eating to fill yourself up, you just want to replace what you loose doing what you do. Whether that is sitting and waiting for the helicopter to show up or running from evil radiated mutant zombie infected spider monkey freaks.
Next is first aid. THIS IS ESSENTIAL TOO. The need for first aid can arise in any situation emergency or not. Being red cross certified I like to think I have a leg up in this. Your first aid kit should have at least the essentials in it, those being: Gauze pads, medical tape, electrical tape, duct tape *small roll*, pure water, antiseptic spray and ointment, at least 8 oz of alcohol and peroxide. With these basic supplies and some other items from your BOB kit you can make splints take out bullets cover sucking chest wounds *do not attempt without training* and much more. After that you can put in it what you like. Please remember that what is listed is the most basic of first aid kits and that it probably would serve you well to have much more than that. Pictured is a kit listed for $600 usd
If you are going to be out in the woods, hidding or hanging, you'll need shelter obviously. A 15X15ft grey tarp will make a dandy big pup tent for you and your supplies. These tarps are use full also because they can be cut up and the smaller pieces used for other things like createing a bag to hang your food in *more on that in the advanced section*, to stay out of the rain, and much more. I would go small however since this is an emergency and every one in your group should be as prepared as you are, so 8X8 sounds average. I'm really short so my tent would only need to be 6 ft long and my shoulders are 2 1/2 ft wide so I would need about 4ft across so 8X8 with a posible 2X6 strip for other things...go figure. Make sure you have erected your tent before you acctually need to have done so, this way you know exactly how much tent you will have. (see the basics section on the construction of the tent if you need help, and remeber however high your tent is is however narrow its going to be)
Packing some extra clothing in a plastic bag is a good idea to. Something like: 3 pairs of socks, 2 pair of heavy material pants (carhill, bdu, and acu's are all good), a shirt or two of your chooseing, and last but not least underwear!
Other miscellaneous items will come in handier than you think. Things like a trenching tool, multitool, camp hatchet, extra packs of cigs if you smoke, a rain poncho, dog food if you have one, 550 para cord is good for every thing in the woods, 200 pound test fishing line for making snares sewing cloths, and many many other things. The number one rule about your BOB kit is that it is yours, If you don't have what you need. Guess who's fault.
Preservingfood
This is something that has been done throughout recorded history, from sailors salting cured ham to our generation enjoying beef jerky. Curing or preserving food seems to be a relatively easy task which can be accomplished in a variety of ways.
Reference and in depth instructions
Canning, a how too
Canning Peaches (or just about anything)
SYRUP:
2 c. sugar - up to 4 cups for thick syrup
4 c. water
To remove skins (I do not)- Hold peaches in boiling water for about 1 minute or until the skins slip easily. Plunge at once into cold water for a few seconds. Remove skins.
Cut peaches in halves and discard pits. Pack at once into Ball/mason jars with two teaspoons lemon juice. Fill containers with boiling syrup to 0.5 inch from the top. Tap to remove bubbles. Clean top of jar and and screw on lids (not tightly.) Process.
Different fruits and vegetables require different processing methods. Acidic fruits like peaches and tomatoes can be processed with a boiling water bath for 20-30 minutes. Low acidity foods like pumpkin or meat need to be pressure canned.
After processing, cool jars. During cooling jars should become vacuum sealed. If they do not, start over or refrigerate and use quickly. Once cooled and vacuum sealed, tighten lids and dip top of jars into wax bath.
:) Credit: EostreRites
When doing something like this it's best to do it with some one that knows how first!
This is the Ronco food dehydrator
Other methods of curing vegetables are dehydrating, air drying, oven drying, and roasting then vacuum sealing. In all these processes but roasting it is important that you either dip the fruit or veggi in boiling water or you steam it for several minutes (again this is called blanching) to kill the enzymes that are naturally contained within. Personally if you plan on doing this frequently I would recommend you buy a home produce dehydrator. They have become inexpensive and very useful to have compared to only a short while ago, just make sure you follow the directions that come with it.Smoking meat
okay, from what I understand, to smoke meat you simply built a smoke house and hung the meat within to dry. The USDA reccomends that all meats be heated to a certain tempurature to kill the bacteria within.
- Steaks & Roasts - 145 °F
- Fish - 145 °F
- Pork - 160 °F
- Ground Beef - 160 °F
- Egg Dishes - 160 °F
- Chicken Breasts - 165 °F
- Whole Poultry - 165 °F\
Water Collection
The collection of Non-potable water is easy, just find a place with some gutters and put some large containers under the downspouts and there you have it. There are some other ways to collect water like, sinking 4 posts and setting a tarp to them and weighting down the center then cutting a hole in the tarp and putting a barrel under it, you can also buy a premade water collector like this one
If you want to catch rain just create something like this and wait for the rain
More likely Than not you'll be running across an existing water source like a stream or a river, in which case you will have to purify water that you find in your travels but never forget that you can set up a dew catcher and have a glass in the morning.
If you want to catch rain just create something like this and wait for the rain
More likely Than not you'll be running across an existing water source like a stream or a river, in which case you will have to purify water that you find in your travels but never forget that you can set up a dew catcher and have a glass in the morning.
Purify your water
There are many ways to purify water, from boiling to chlorine tablets. Boiling is not a guaranteed way to purify your water and neither are chems, so I would suggest both. Make sure you follow the directions on all chems you plan on using as it may cause you to become very uncomfortable.
FEMA says to purify water with household chlorine bleach add 1 drop per 1liter of water (make sure the water your using isn't already TREATED!!!!!) and to sanitize a 2 liter bottle add 2 tablespoons of bleach to about 4 OZ. water and swish it around the bottle then wash it out
FEMA says to purify water with household chlorine bleach add 1 drop per 1liter of water (make sure the water your using isn't already TREATED!!!!!) and to sanitize a 2 liter bottle add 2 tablespoons of bleach to about 4 OZ. water and swish it around the bottle then wash it out
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, Jun 19 2011, 1:47 PM EDT
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