Survival

[Europe]

I ask Cheyenne about survival methods, techniques, and training for those who hunt in extreme weather conditions and was surprised at what I found out. Those who hunt in the far north, have very in depth survival schools and programs. They also take more with them when they venture into the mountains or out onto the ice than we ever did when we hunted in the mountains.

I was curious about the amount of formal survival training each of you have had or did you just learn it along the way as I did. From my parents, reading on my own, past mistakes, etc.

If you plan on being gone, away from camp, like say a spike camp, do you take more supplies then you will need for an over night spike camp scenario? If your going to be gone one day, do you take one, two, three days of rations ? Do you take a string and fish hook just in case, medical supplies, extra food, etc---or not!

 

[DrMike]

I never received formal training, though I would no doubt have benefitted from such training. On one or two occasions, I've found it necessary to draw on reserves I didn't know I had. I've never been lost in the wilderness, though I've been turned around for a couple of days at a time on occasion in earlier days during my misspent youth. I did carry emergency gear during those times, so I believed I could survive if necessary. In more recent years, I find that I don't venture as far afield , so I've become somewhat more casual than is wise at times. When trekking in the mountains or through the forest glades in an earlier time, I did carry more than was necessary for the immediate venture--just in case. I do maintain a fair amount of emergency gear in my kit today, but it usually stays in my truck while I pack only what is immediately required.

 

[baltz526]

The older I get the more consious I am of Survival gear in my pack. One item I started to pack is a small LED lantern. It has a few light settings, full on, dim, strobe. On dim it will last for a week during night time hours on one set of batteries. I figure I will set it as high as possible and turn it on strobe if I ever need rescue

 

[truck driver]

I don't know if training to survive in a combat situation would qualify what your talking about here April but the training I received while in the military has served me well over the years and basically the only things I carry while in the field are extra matches,rope and water and a knife which is a constant companion no matter where I am except airports where it's in my luggage.

 

[Guy Miner]

Some training in the military, but really got a bit of a start on it as a youngster, in Boy Scouts. Some of the things they teach are really quite remarkable:

Solar stills, shelter, building a fire, snares, tracking, first aid... We went over all that in Scouts, then again later in the Marines. Just bigger Scouts with more guns... :wink:

These days I use that training to make sure I'm okay on my hiking/backpacking trips, on hunting & fishing trips, and on my long motorcycle and Jeep trips into remote areas.

I think most of us who have spent some time afield, hunting or not, have picked up some great survival skills. This is a good thing, when I think about all the people who didn't quite make it...

Guy

 

[Guy Miner]

How much I bring, and what I bring, depends a lot on where I'm going, how long I'm planning to be afield, and how I'm traveling. I'll keep a severe limit on it if I'm traveling by foot in rough country because I don't want to carry a lot of weight or bulk.

In the Jeep, I can easily carry several days worth of food, water, shelter, etc...

Guy

 

[Anonymous]

Wilderness survival has been something of an area of interest since I was a kid in the Boy Scouts. I've had some formal training and a bit more experiential learning. If anything, it's made me more cautious when in the outdoors. I probably carry a little more gear on day hunts than most folks, but then again, I've spent the night on the open tundra. Not really lost (I knew exactly where I was), I just didn't know how to navigate back through a pass to camp. The gear I had along made it an inconvenient adventure rather than a true emergency.

I'm also a big fan of EPIRBs.... those things have a proven track record of saving folks in perilous circumstances. A good friend of mine was picked off a mountain with a shattered leg- well worth the cost of the unit.

 

[hunternyny]

living in New York sometimes limits your excursion into the wild to 300 hundred yards from a road. The first time my wife and I hunted Wyoming on horseback, we were hooked and try to go back each year. We have not hunted alone and always with a guide in Wyoming and Montana. When we went on a trip down the MacKenzie river in the Northwest Territories we were also with guides, but we were very impressed with what they took along on the trip.

While in the Northwest Territories we watched a couple survival videos and those who live in the north are tougher than I am. I was impressed that they can build an igloo in thirty minutes when a storm blows in.

To answer the question more directly, what I know is what I have learned from the boy scouts and from watching the guides in Wyoming, Montana and the Northwest Territories in Canada

 

[salmonchaser]

As Guy mentioned, weight in rough country is an important consideration. My pack always goes with me, even for a short hunt.
1. 100 oz of water and a life straw.
2. Fire starter kit; one for that day, one for emergency.
3. Space blanket.
4. Small First aid kit.
5. Head lamp
6. Extra batteries for head lamp,
7. Small flashlight so I can put the batteries in my head lamp.
8. compass and map
9. Garmin
10. Knit hat and gloves.
11. Power bars
12. Rope
13. Rain gear.

In 49 years I've only not got to camp twice. Once when I was 12, when I got bewildered. Then again about 20 years later. I made a conscious decision to go after a bull deep in hells canyon. I knew at 1500 hours I was spending the night. Elk tenderloin made the night better.

Most of the training came from Boy Scouts and my dad.
I routinely look for places to shelter up while I'm hunting.
I practice building my fire every year, several times during the season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Europe]

interesting, educational and enjoyable responses, thank you.

I am probably to old now, but I always wanted to spend more time in the far north. We made three trips into Canada to hunt, one in the east and two in the west, but never lived like an inuit and their life style always fascinated me. I would like to do two things. 1. a Canoe trip that lasted a least a month in the fall in the N.W Territories 2. spending the month of February in the far north, in any of the three territories would be o.k..

The one time we were there in the winter and saw the dogs wearing moccasins to protect their feet and those same dogs pulling a Travois or dog sled was something that intrigued me. I am positive that I don't want to live there full time, but to experience every aspect of that life for a month would be of interest too me.

The extent that dogs and canoe's were used surprised me.

Most of my experience came from my parents and trial and error with my husband, and we made some mistakes along the way. We had a tendency toward the end to take too much and we never used everything we took, but we use to joke, hey if necessary we could stay out here, wherever here was, for at least a month (-;

Salmonchaser good list probably the only thing we took in addition to your list was fishing stuff--a string, hook, maybe even some bait, so we could catch dinner some nights along the way

Hodgeman, Dr Mike, Guy, Rodger, I was not in the military or girl scouts, but that had to be excellent experience for you.

Actually that probably did not come out right as none of you were in the girl scouts, but my point was, neither was I (-: But your experience in the BOY scouts had to be beneficial to you in later life

 

[Guy Miner]

:grin:

 

[Guy Miner]

For a few years when my youngest son was a youngster, we hunted on a big wheat farm belonging to a good friend. I'd been a mountain hunter for many years.

Hunting the wheat farm was pretty simple & easy. We were seldom more than a quarter mile, or half mile, from the truck. I'd range out considerably farther when hunting alone.

My buddy asked me once "What the heck do you carry in that pack?" Because he never had a pack! I was so used to being a mountain hunter, and facing the possibility of an unplanned stay, or an injury while someplace remote, that I'd taken to carrying a fair bit of "stuff" like Salmon Chaser. "Stuff" that makes surviving a night realistic, and not even very unpleasant.

We both got an education with that conversation.

Guy

 

[c. schutte]

April,

I was in the scouts for a long time and spent some time backpacking the mountains, rafting/canoe trips, desert backpacking and some winter camps. Our motto is "always be prepared".

Stay dry
stay warm
keep your feet healthy
enough water or means to make it potable.

Now that I am much older yet not much wiser I add one more thing to that list.............

scotch & auxiliary scotch :>)

 

[Europe]

salmonchaser after reading Charles post, let me revise my post above, your list plus fishing equipment AND scotch

Guy, We had the same experience when we hunted Neb one year and a little different experience when we hunted Africa. The camps they set up in Africa were better than some motels we had stayed in, in the U.S.

 

[Guy Miner]

Isn't it it interesting how many of us, even us gray-hairs, referenced our Boy Scout training?

Guy

 

[Guy Miner]

salmonchaser after reading Charles post, let me revise my post above, your list plus fishing equipment AND scotch

Guy, We had the same experience when we hunted Neb one year and a little different experience when we hunted Africa. The camps they set up in Africa were better than some motels we had stayed in, in the U.S.

I'll bet they are!

It's so funny when I try to talk "deer hunting" with someone from another part of the country. It's like two completely different languages, two completely different backgrounds & experiences.

Guy

 

[truck driver]

I would like to add that though I was a cub scout I never found time to be a boy scout. I was allowed to roam freely over the country side where we lived and discover nature freely and unabated. The neighbors use to call me that wild Indian boy since mother is 1/2 Cherokee. I knew where every spring was and was never afraid to drink from it if it was clean since we didn't have the pollution of ground water like we do now. I would even clean the springs and line them with stones too make a well, something I learned to do from see springs that people used for water in their houses, Yep there was a lot of people who didn't have running water or a well and had to carry water from a spring.
I doubt seriously if half the people in this country could survive with out modern conveniences like we did back then.

 

[Europe]

Dr Mike, Hodegeman, I bet you dont have to drive very far to be out of town and in the wilderness and I know Guy loves to explore the wilderness, whether hunting or just exploring. The following was pointed out to me yesterday and I had just never thought about it in these terms.

Cheyenne spends a lot of her time in Nunavut Canada.

Alaska has 670,000 sq miles and 750,000 people and it is fairly easy to get away from it all

Nunavut has 670,000 sq miles and 35000 people

Rodger, that was an interesting reflection on your youth, thank you, it sound like you could also survive in Nunavut.

I mentioned taking a fishing line with us on my posts, but no one else has. Do you not fish when backpacking in to hunt with the intent on staying a week or so. you either hunt or fish but never together?

 

[DrMike]

April,

I can be hunting within five kilometers of my house. My usual haunts are around forty to fifty kilometers from home. However, there is a lot of country I have never explored. Actually, if I used pointy sticks, I suppose I could hunt in my front yard. We have had moose bed on the lawn, and mule deer, moose and lynx routinely come to the church to peer in the windows at parishioners. I consider them lapsed Baptists since they always decline the invitation to join us. Nevertheless, they do provide entertainment for those joining in Sunday worship.

 

[Anonymous]

Dr Mike, Hodegeman, I bet you dont have to drive very far to be out of town and in the wilderness Alaska has 670,000 sq miles and 750,000 people and it is fairly easy to get away from it all

Nunavut has 670,000 sq miles and 35000 people

I mentioned taking a fishing line with us on my posts, but no one else has. Do you not fish when backpacking in to hunt with the intent on staying a week or so. you either hunt or fish but never together?

One thing to remember about Alaska- 750,000 people but 5/6ths of them live in just three towns. The remaining 99.9% of the state can feel pretty empty. I can hunt small game from the porch and big game is usually a 10mi drive to start walking. It doesn't take long to get into true wilderness, essentially just get off the road a few hundred yards and that'll do it.

I usually don't fish and hunt simultaneously unless it's just trout or grayling for camp meat. I don't carry fishing gear on backpack type hunts or day hunts from a base camp but on float trips or trips supported by machinery I will take a rod along. Busting a few grayling in the hot part of the day when the critters are napping is a nice way to pass the afternoon.