My Survival Practice Plan

I have decided that the only way to really keep ones self up to date on survival tactics is to actually practice it.

To do this, I have created a long-term plan.

In two summers, I plan on taking a trip up to my family's land in North Carolina. This land is in the south western edge of the state, which is right in Mountain country. The land is approximately 17 acres (I have no clue about the size of the land versus living sustainability). I am told that there are three streams on our land (yah! fresh water!).

I plan to pack everything needed into a good pack, a waterproof foot locker, and a couple of boxes, and travel up via Greyhound. I live all the way down in South Texas, so driving would be too expensive! When I get there, I'm going to rent a car for two days to transport all of my gear to my land and get settled, then I'm going to return the car, hike back to the land, and live there for at least two months.

There is absolutely nothing on this land. I plan on scouting the entire property, finding the best place to build a shelter. I then will start off with a cruddy survival shelter, but over the length of the stay constantly improve it. Hopefully this can turn into a Bug Out Cabin eventually.

Before two summers, I am going to practice food dehydration, as I'll be packing in all the food for two months. I also will be practicing all of my techniques during random camping trips to local areas like the beach.

It might be the pyromaniac boy scout still inside me, but I can't wait to start purchasing gear, and getting ready to head outdoors. My blood is boiling in anticipation. On top of that, I can't wait to eat the great food!!!

I realize some of the most important items to have will be tools. While at Academy yesterday, I took a look at their knives, hatchets and machetes. There was an awesome looking Gerber Machette that was only 18 bucks. Not only was it completely blacked out and wicked, but it had large saw teeth on the back of it. This seems like it would be an ultimate tool to take, as it seems it would be an efficient saw.

Also, I'm debating on hatchets. Whether I should get the full sized one, or slightly smaller. Either one will be Gerber from Academy, which is made by Fiskers, which is the one of the best I've heard.

I'm psyched! I can't wait....

Is it true that you can use "Pool Shock" for water purification? If this is the same chemical as water puri tabs, then its a great way to save a ton of cash, because I can buy it in large sacks from the pool supply store.

Good post.

Maybe I'm wrong and someone else might know better, but I'd feel uneasy about using pool chlorine - to me it might be hard to measure out, I'd hate to be stuck drinking pool water.

'Katadyn Micropur Forte' are the more expensive brand of purification tablets. They can also be used to stabilize water for storage, but puritabs/aquatabs would be good also.

But if you plan to go by car, just fill it with as much water as you can - even if you don't have to use it and plan to find water, it'd be a good contingency.

reply to post by mattguy404


It was one thing that I wanted to check, if they were the same chemicals (which is entirely possible, just marketed two different ways).

I'm not going to be going by car, its too long of a drive, and too expensive for gas. I'm going to buying a Greyhound bus ticket, and busing up there. Then I'll rent a car for a day or two to make sure I can get to the land and everything is fine. After that, I'm on my own on foot.

You sound young, but that is great. I love enthusiastic learners. Go pick up the Air Force Survival Training (Search and Rescue) at a used book store. As in Braveheart, you must learn how to use your brain before you use the blade...

But while on the topic, S.O.G.'s fusion tomahawk is the best hatchet available in my opinion. I also own a gerber hatchet that has backpacked almost the whole lower 48, parts of canada, mexico, and rests in alaska now. It is nice, but when I pulled out my fusion for the first time and let it fly it sank into the block in my backyard like a javelin.

www.youtube.com...

Mine has an unbreakable handle...

For a large campaxe, such as for chopping wood, look at the big ass Eastwings by the hammers in Home Depot. For about 40 bucks you can get a one-piece, solid steel 3 footer...

It will chop wood for your grandchildren if you use it right.

I like you kid.

If you live in a major city or near one. Your best bet is a good pair of tennis shoes, a daypack, water filter, and bottle. You don't want much weight when you flee. 98% of people don't need to eat when they begin running and hiding for a few days. You will get thirsty and tired. Good shoes. Run at night and sleep by day under natural shelter. Resources will come along your way, they are everywhere. Just take the leap when the time is right...

Here is the information that I have found about using "pool shock" for water purification.

It turns out many municipalities use Granular Calcium Hypochlorite (pool shock) for treatment of their water.

Get the plain variety, with no algaecides or fungicides.

Dry chlorine, also called calcium hypochlorite has the added benefit of extended shelf life. Providing it is kept dry, cool and in an airtight container, it may be stored up to 10 years with minimal degradation. If you want to keep chlorine in larger quantities, this is the item to store (according to Bingo1). It must be ONLY 65% calcium hypochlorite, no additional anti-fungals or clarifiers. In an EXTREMELY well ventilated area, (Hint: OUTSIDE!) add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately 1/4 ounce) for each two gallons of water. Five pounds of dry pool bleach costs about $10-15, which will make about 92 gallons of bleach, which will sterilize 706,560 gallons of clear water, or 353,280 gallons of cloudy water."

From www.epa.gov... -
"Granular Calcium Hypochlorite. Add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately 1/4 ounce) for each two gallons of water. The mixture will produce a stock chlorine solution of approximately 500 mg/L, since the calcium hypochlorite has an available chlorine equal to 70 percent of its weight. To disinfect water, add the chlorine solution in the ratio of one part of chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water to be treated. This is roughly equal to adding 1 pint (16 oz.) of stock chlorine to each 12.5 gallons of water to be disinfected. To remove any objectionable chlorine odor, aerate the water as described below.
The treated water should be mixed thoroughly and allowed to stand, preferably covered, for 30 minutes. The water should have a slight
chlorine odor; if not, repeat the dosage and allow the water to stand for an additional 15 minutes. If the treated water has too strong a chlorine taste, it can be made more pleasing by allowing the water to stand exposed to the air for a few hours or by pouring it from one clean container to another several times"

"Okay, a lot of people don't have a 12.5 gallon container laying around, so let's break it down. To make two gallons of the bleach, one heaping teaspoon of the calcium hypochlorite goes into 2 gallons of water. To make drinkable water, 2.5 tablespoons of the bleach goes into 1 gallon of water. Let stand covered 30 minutes, aerate to taste"

For 10-15 bucks purifying 700 thousand gallons seems like a good deal to me. I'm also assuming that some of the puri tabs are made out of this same chemical (its just granular bleach).

I figure a bucket of this can stay up at my land for years and still be a valid purification method. I think the shelf life said 10 years!

reply to post by ThreeDeuce


Calcium hypochlorite in the pool chlorine is fine for water purification. Actually humans and most mammals can tolerate high levels of chlorine in water. Amphibians, fish, plants, bacteria/parasites/fungi usually die at concentrations above 250 ppm (250 mg/L or 1g/gallon)

In the stomach the chloride combines with available hydrogen ion to form HCl (hydrochloric acid), stomach acid.

If you can tolerate the smell/taste of the chlorinated water (up to 500-700 ppm) you can safely drink it. If it "burns" your mouth it's a danger.

streakr
medical biochemist

Good plan, always good to see the land you plan on running to if needed. Hope we all have 2 summers left. Since you are thinking about a bug out cabin, I strongly suggest you bring along a bow saw. Will make bucking and falling logs much easier than with a hatchet. Fairly lightweight and reasonably priced. I carry a small hatchet as well as a woodsmans pal in lieu of the machette, but thats on account of the trees in my area. Buy and use what you think will be best suited for your enviroment.

Sounds like an awsome plan. Long-term stuff like this is gold-worth in prepearing if you have the time. I usually only get to go camping in remote areas a limited number of times a year, and only once or twice to the real extreme areas. I have had some organized 24 hour survival trips with no food or water and only 5 - 7 items brought. Those trips are extremly effectice. I bring a bug-out bag that I think is perfected and by the time I get home I will know exactly what I want to get for my BoB next, or what what I need to remove for a better alternative. If you get some good hikes in you also realize what type of load you can justify carrying in a real situation.

I would love to do a more long-term thing like you are planning though. I can imagine you will be well educated and experienced after self-substained living like that even with minimal prior experience.

Originally posted by ThreeDeuce
I realize some of the most important items to have will be tools. While at Academy yesterday, I took a look at their knives, hatchets and machetes. There was an awesome looking Gerber Machette that was only 18 bucks. Not only was it completely blacked out and wicked, but it had large saw teeth on the back of it. This seems like it would be an ultimate tool to take, as it seems it would be an efficient saw.

Also, I'm debating on hatchets. Whether I should get the full sized one, or slightly smaller. Either one will be Gerber from Academy, which is made by Fiskers, which is the one of the best I've heard.

Tools are very important. Should never let yourself become to reliant on them, but some are just invaluable for a survival situation.

Gerber makes very good gear. A machette is a fine tool for chopping mostly. I would prefer a totally fine edged one though. And I prefer the small gerber axes to a machette. My fixed blade (now my newly purchased Fallkniven A1) takes care of the lesser chopping work and all general tasks while my partly serrated gerber folder does the rope cutting and fine tasks. I always have either the fine edged SOG Visionary II or my Gerber Hinderer partly serrated with me at all times. Minimal gear for me in a survival situation or just camping is my Fallkniven and one of my folders. Usually I bring my Fallkniven, my Axe and a folder.

For sawing I always have a NATO styled Wire Saw with me (very effective if not on large trees, and ultra-compact). So my advice for you in your situation would be to defiantly get a good axe for chopping, and get either a dedicated saw or a Saw Wire for sawing. I will not reccomend getting serrated knives for sawing. Serrated knives should be a purely special tool used for a limited amount of tasks. Use fine edged knives, something to saw with and something to chop with. An axe, a machette and a Kukri are all very good chopping tools. Between the three my experience is that it's all about preferance. And between the full sized axes and the small gerber for a survival situation, I would always go with the small gerber. I have never had to fell something the small gerber could not handle in a decent amount of time. I think you can get one of the new small Gerber or Fiskars axes with a small knife in the handle as well, which is awsome.


[edit on 29-7-2008 by me_ofef_seraph]

"I think you can get one of the new small Gerber or Fiskars axes with a small knife in the handle as well, which is awsome."

I was looking at these hatchets in the store today. There were three that I was looking at. I thought that a hatchet would be a "must-have" on my trip. Especially since I plan to take along a bunch of nails, so I can use it as an impromptu hammer.

But, I was unsure of which ones to get. There were two different sizes. One was full sized, and the other was about 2 or 3 inches smaller. Also like you said, one of the smaller ones had a knife in the handle.

I didn't like how I couldn't test the knife for how it fits in the handle. I'm worried that it would slip out, or if the knife wasn't set in there, that the handle would not be strong enough. I also wondered if I'd lose alot of power with a 2 or 3 inch smaller hatchet (size and weight will make all the difference on my trip).

Other than hatchets and knives, I definitely plan on bringing a saw. I like the one that Dan had posted about, it looked like a good quality saw (and it packs up TINY!). I don't think I can beat the 16 dollar price either. The machete would just be an additional tool (I might have to clear grass in an area for a fire pit, or shelter).

One thing I'm curious about is using the Pool Shock chemicals for water purification. Maybe I should start an additional thread about this? Considering it is crystallized bleach, Has anyone used bleach for purification needs?