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The Stupendous Crisis Survival Thread


calfoxwc

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so, for anybody a bit interested in survival, whether or not it's more practical, like a

car breakdown in the back country, a fishing trip gone wild when a storm blows you way off course,

lost in the wilderness while hiking....

or some hurricane, national crisis like the grid goes completely down, a radiation flow

from a bomb off our shores...whatever...

  the politics of our country, and around the world, seem to lean toward something bad happening.

Even a tornado could leave thousands fleeing for somewhere to go. To a campsite, on the road out

of state...a landslide strands you on a lakeside, well away from the main road in Canada, say...and

nobody knows you are there......

    Just to share knowing the outdoors, survival tricks is a very good thing. Because you never know.

Like, I figure Steve may go on Naked and Afraid, he'll be reading this thread for pointers.

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If you watch the survival shows, most know how to make a basic shelter in good weather. Making a shelter that is water resistant in a heavy, cold rain is a different deal. Finding/making shelter could  save your life if you got lost in the wilderness, especially in the storm blown boat scenario. If it gets chilly overnight, could you build a fire? make a shelter, find insulation to help keep you warm? Would you know  how to purify the water? Pills kills contaminant bacteria, etc. But pills don't kill Giardia - a very bad parasite.

You have to boil water, or have a water filter kit that will filter out organisms.  and you got wet in the storm...no fire can you build.... how do you stay clear of getting hypothermia? Maybe you went to the far shore of a wilderness lake, and your outboard completely quits on you? You are stranded. Nobody knows where - it's a huge lake, you got lost...maybe ran out of gas frantically trying to figure out how to get back..

    There have been times when a family takes a wrong turn in winter, gets stuck in a storm. How do youprotect your family from the cold?Maybe a few days in the car before you are found?   So, there is a lot of information out there... this is about "what if you had to know how to..." survival thread. Feel free to chime in, and share ideas. And, hope that Steve gets to go on that show, with a beautiful rock singer galfriend as a companion.

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Like keeping a first aid kit on a boat, in the barn, at home, on vacation... you probably aren't going to have to use it. But you might have to. Who knows? You could be snowmobiling with a friend, and you both get lost,and then you get more lost, and then it's dark. WTF are you going to do ? You probably aren't going to get found very quickly. The immediate elements of surviving the night at all, depends on your clothes, your condition,and may very well depend on shelter, safe drinking water, and a fire to keep warm. And if you are on a wooded trailway, way out from your cabin...well, it's too long a walk to make very soon. SO. Shelter for the night. What do you have on you that will help you make a shelter? if nothing, what can you use in your wooded surroundings to make one?

   There are all sorts of ways to make a good shelter, some basic rules for figuring the safe, best locations. Even for only one night, you have to build one.

http://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2013/05/survival-shelters-15-best-designs-wilderness-shelters

http://www.skilledsurvival.com/survival-shelters/

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/survival/shelter/2006/10/seven-primitive-survival-shelters-could-save-your-life

http://www.wildernesscollege.com/wilderness-survival-shelters.html

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If you ever do find yourself stranded away from civilization - boat motor in Canada, broken down camperoff the main roads..you went exploring, then you find out you aren't going anywhere, etc....  I posted about shelters you can make. You have a camper, but you still need water. Or you got lost in the woods in a national forest, something like that. Any stream, any creek, pond, can have Giardia in it. That's a parasite. You have to either have a super quality filter that will take those out of your found water, or you have to boil it. Those pills and chlorine drops don't faze the Giardia parasite. Starting fire isn't just to keep you warm, hopefully ward off big animals, etc... it's to clean your wilderness water so you can safely drink it.

The problems with getting infected with bad water can eventually kill you over the days you might not get rescued. If it's rained, it can be tough to start a fire - there can be more to it than just having a match. Backpacking, etc...best to have more than onemethod of starting a fire that can save your life in several ways. Sometimes finding water doesn't happen soon. The problems of dehydrationcan be serious after days of not finding water. A fast rolling boil of clean mountain water doesn't have to boil long. Nasty, funky looking water - longer. This is a good link on the subject. NOTE: if a creek gets runoff from an old mining camp, or some old factory, etc.... your water is likely to be chemically contaminated. That is also bad - boiling doesn't help that. You need a filter that will do the job.  And in winter, do NOT eat snow. That will work to lower your body temp and assist you in getting hypothermia. that is very bad...very dangerous.

  The time we camped in central Ontario, way, way, way of the grid in the wilderness, the Ranger we talked to said the particular

lake we would be camping on... had outstanding water, They tested it all the time. Safer to go out in the middle, well away from shore.That was the best tasting water - it was amazing. We drank it unboiled a lot. But... another lake, you could get parasites, bacteria...e-coli.......Stay safe. Remember, learn stuff now, because out in the wilderness, your cell phone won't have  a cell tower nearby. You and your friends/family would be very much alone for a while. Even days.

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One of the things I've always loved to do in Colorado is go "off trail" just using my compass and a very good contour map of the area. Sometimes makes for difficult going, but I always take a "survival" backpack prepared for all kinds of weather and duration "just in case" something goes wrong. If all else fails you just follow the streams downhill and eventually you'll get out. Fortunately sense of direction has been an innate ability all my life and it adapted well to Army map navigation training.

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On 8/29/2017 at 0:45 AM, calfoxwc said:

16196009_704135639745831_597104339755003

OK Cal not seeing the answers so I would take the tarp, fixed blade knife and the fishing hooks and line. Tarp can be used to collect rain water and other uses long term while the extra rations once they are gone they are gone. The fixed blade more practical as all the handy dandy gadgets of a multi blade knife not needed such as phillips screwdrivers, bottle openers etc...and the fishing hooks and line will help keep a supply of food going long term. 

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8 hours ago, OldBrownsFan said:

OK Cal not seeing the answers so I would take the tarp, fixed blade knife and the fishing hooks and line. Tarp can be used to collect rain water and other uses long term while the extra rations once they are gone they are gone. The fixed blade more practical as all the handy dandy gadgets of a multi blade knife not needed such as phillips screwdrivers, bottle openers etc...and the fishing hooks and line will help keep a supply of food going long term. 

I haven't seen the answers, either. I agree with your choices ! the multi-purpose tool is not going to be strong enough to do stuff that the fixed blade knife can. The rations wouldn't help you avoid being drenched and hypothermia, and collecting rainwater is a huge plus. However, I personally get caught up with the rope/fishing line and hooks. On one hand, the fishing line and hooks would help you catch fish, and fishing line can be used to make snares, although I don't put much stock in snares as a dependable way of obtaining food. I have made fishhooks out of crabapple and hawthorne barbs,

and used braided tall grass as line. Ok, the line broke a few times...but maybe the rope would help with building a shelter, and traversing down a smaller cliff, etc. Probably depends on the lb test of the line, and how long the rope !

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Here is a problem- you don't know when you are going to get lost/stranded. It can happen, and there you are.There are plenty of articles about people who disappear in national forests - one wrong turn can send some hikersdeep into nowhere. One quick storm can beach a rowboat or canoe, one motor completely stops starting....

and you are stuck away from camp. Your family takes a visitor's hike to an overlook, and you encounter a bear on the way back, staring you down. You go the other way. What do you do then? I remember a story about a family on vacation that were camping at a park, and drove to a parking lot in the afternoon, and walked down a trail,

downwards in the mountains, to see a waterfall. Well marked trail. But, by the time they got down there, a wind came up and it rained a downpour. They couldn't get back up the trail - it was too steep - for being a slick, sloppy mess.  They were very lucky - cold and badly shivering, a park ranger happened by and they heard him calling to them. Rescue crew with ropes got them out. I never forgot that back then, as a kid, when I read that.  Hike a long trail, and one of your fellow hikers badly tears up a knee, or gets appendicitis, who knows. They can't go back - how do they stay ok overnight while you try to get to civilization and help before nightfall? Do you leave them alone? Depends on the circumstances....

anyways, here's a very good article about it:

https://www.fs.fed.us/visit/know-before-you-go/if-you-get-lost

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That Lifestraw looks kind of neat. May have to add it to my backpack though I've never had any problems drinking water straight from Rocky Mountain streams that have a good cleansing run over the rocks. Best during the spring and early summer snowmelt. Aeration does wonders. But a little insurance can't hurt any and should not affect that great mountain water taste any. if it does I'll go back to drinking it straight again. I'm so toxic from running behind mosquito smogging machines as a kid that I think I kill of the bad stuff naturally.:P

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that is some good stuff ! I am researching the Lifestraw for my bugout bag and camping stuff.

It's the real deal...

http://postapocalypticmedia.com/every-bug-bag-lifestraw/

http://tacticalintelligence.net/blog/lifestraw-personal-water-filter-review.htm

However, the lifestraw will NOT FILTER out radiation. If there was a problem with radiation in the water you find...you want

to find a filter that also filters that out. But the Lifestraw is the real deal, I haven't gotten around to buying a couple....

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1 minute ago, calfoxwc said:

that is some good stuff ! I am researching the Lifestraw for my bugout bag and camping stuff.

It's the real deal...

http://postapocalypticmedia.com/every-bug-bag-lifestraw/

http://tacticalintelligence.net/blog/lifestraw-personal-water-filter-review.htm

However, the lifestraw will NOT FILTER out radiation. If there was a problem with radiation in the water you find...you want

to find a filter that also filters that out. But the Lifestraw is the real deal, I haven't gotten around to buying a couple....

If I have to filter out radiation too then fuck it. I'll sip on my .357.:P I hate cold and if we are filtering radiation then nuclear winter is here to stay.:lol:

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no, no, no. think fuskishima whatever....3 mile island... some....minor dirty bomb kind of terrorist act. Just minor

drifting of radiation. It's not like trying to drink water 5 miles from a nuke blast.... geez.

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2 hours ago, calfoxwc said:

no, no, no. think fuskishima whatever....3 mile island... some....minor dirty bomb kind of terrorist act. Just minor

drifting of radiation. It's not like trying to drink water 5 miles from a nuke blast.... geez.

LOL! I'm living in the age of Trump/Jong Un, so I think worst case scenario with these two in charge. Get with the new age cal.:D

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5 minutes ago, Westside Steve said:

Am I the only one here who doesn't spend any time whatsoever worrying about survival tactics and such, weather from natural disasters or insurgent terrorism?

WSS

My daughter always told friends in California that when the Apocalypse came, she knew I'd find a way to save her and if they were smart they'd stick with her. Her standard answer was, "He survived Vietnam so the Apocalypse would be a piece of cake for him. He knows stuff no one else knows."  LOL!:lol:

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1 hour ago, Westside Steve said:

Am I the only one here who doesn't spend any time whatsoever worrying about survival tactics and such, whether from natural disasters or insurgent terrorism?

WSS

Nope, my idea of roughing it is parking the RV at an angle causing me to fall out of bed.

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Back in the day, on our Alaskan cruise, we went and listened to a bear expert talk about em.

Seems that a grizzly is territorial, and protective - a grizzly can run up to 35 mph. seriously. in the short run,

a grizzly can outrun a racehorse. Can out run an olympic sprinter. Your only change is your gun, at least one canister

of bear spray, or, just curling up on the ground, protecting your head and neck, and playing dead for a half hr.

     He said a black bear is different - if a black bear comes after you, he wants you for dinner, and your only hope

is your gun, bear spray, or...fight like hell until the bear gives up.

    A grizzly is so big and powerful, it can toss aside a log too big for a couple of men to move.

Best bet - sing, talk, be loud in bear country. and don't smell like dinner.

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so, I was wondering. hundreds of thousands stranded in cars on the expressway trying to get out of

Florida. or anywhere. gas runs out, no water, you find a field or campsite, no food, no shelter outside of your car.

God help you if it's winter. A lot of folks travel in winter with sleeping bags. Hopefully, with a case of bottled water, etc.

     Seems dumb to worry about some calamity happening. Most of us don't. But some of us wonder how we would cope

if it happened. I need a few of those lifestraws for our BOB, CGBHB. (as in, "can't get back home bag".

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7 hours ago, calfoxwc said:

Back in the day, on our Alaskan cruise, we went and listened to a bear expert talk about em.

Seems that a grizzly is territorial, and protective - a grizzly can run up to 35 mph. seriously. in the short run,

a grizzly can outrun a racehorse. Can out run an olympic sprinter. Your only change is your gun, at least one canister

of bear spray, or, just curling up on the ground, protecting your head and neck, and playing dead for a half hr.

     He said a black bear is different - if a black bear comes after you, he wants you for dinner, and your only hope

is your gun, bear spray, or...fight like hell until the bear gives up.

    A grizzly is so big and powerful, it can toss aside a log too big for a couple of men to move.

Best bet - sing, talk, be loud in bear country. and don't smell like dinner.

I have a T-shirt I bought in Colorado this summer that says, "Never hike alone in bear country! Always hike with someone you can trip and outrun.":lol:

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True story - on that cruise, I went up after the bear expert briefing, and asked him if I had bear spray hiking up

a creek to try to pan for gold, if it would be risky. He said if I had bear spray, 50 yards, a loaded .45... it would

still be stupid, no offense. I grizzley can close a distance of 50 yards in about 3 seconds I think it was.

  and moose are also very dangerous at times.

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this is an interesting story of a bear spray failure...food for thought.

the pics are graphic. not good. I wonder about how effective or not my

9 mm would be. der. I think I'd buy a .45 for grizzly country...like Yellowstone National Park...etc.

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