Basic Survival.

As you all know Basic Survival requires many skills.

How many people out there or even on this board love the idea of being a survivalist but know very limited survival skills.

You should spend your time wisely, check and amending kit and learning new skills.

But what skills should you learn first ?

There are survival schools out there that teach you how to live in the woods and off the land. Thats great, get yourself on one and learn new skills that the skilled people will pass on.

Learn First aid, some work places will send you on first aid courses.
If you get the chance go, First aid could be a major survival factor should a major SITX happen.

Lets use this thread to discuss new skills that we have learned and new skills we wish to learn.

I also think learning morse code could be a good piece of knowledge to have.

What do you guys think.

colec

Personally, morse code isn't that great for living in a wilderness -.-
But I'd like to learn It anyways,

Survival, hmm a very let me say limited thing for most humans to do now a days. Because of all the tech crap.

I think learning how to ride a horse, basic commands none of the derby crap- would be important.
Along with the Art of Killing, for if you feel sadend to kill a rabbit if it is a last resort to food- then get out of the forests/wilderness etc..

Also learning how to make a fire, for cooking.
And making your own clothes might be something, eh?

Pearsonally I think the skills for making paper or parchment as well as ink and pens would be good if you wish to make a record of your time in the wilderness would be good.

Water, food, shelter, defense. That's all it takes to survive, and basically, in that order.

Unless you have these four elements covered, and covered well, anything else is a threat to your survival.

Well let's get realistic, unless you crawl out of a bunker 10 years after some nuclear exchange, then, the old methods of survival while good to know won't be all that applicable. If there's a SitX there will still be all kinds of buildings, supplies,food for some time. There will be fuel stored, do you know where to look in any given area? there will be usable water wells, natural gas wells,electrical generators ect. ect. Ok so you can live like a caveman in the woods! but that's not all you need to know, can you get a vehicle running from several defunct ones? can you plant crops once everything settles down? Do you have a skill that will be an asset to a group? Just my thoughts for what it might be worth, think about it.

Very good topic.

The ways in which we learn survival must depend on the environment and dangers you would be surrounded by. Such as in an urban environment you would need to learn a different set of skills than if you were in a suburban environment or out in the woods.

One must also consider humans are social and tend to hang out in groups. In a situation where people are grouping for survival one would have to learn how to fit into a survival group and help the needs of the group with skills.

Some groups of surviving people may also be hostile. One would have to learn how to evade hostility or defend ones self in the event of group mentality. With no police around their will be plenty of hungry angry crazy people to watch out for.

When defending ones self in a survival state one must remember that any weapon you attempt to use toward another person could be taken away from you and used against yourself. It would be wise to only use weapons that require much skill that only a few know . If your enemy can not use the weapon if he or she gets there hands on it that is one step closer to surviving.

Trade will be very important. Sure their will be compassion and charity at times, but when it is either them or their family they will choose their family. Trading will allow both parties to mutually help each other out while still surviving.

Keeping secrets might also be a smart thing. If you have a cache of food-supplies-ect, somewhere it would be wise to hide it in the best place possible and keep it a secret to all. The less you appear to have the less likely they are to rob you.

Now is the time to research survival while the internet is still available. A simple google search will bring thousands of articles and stories on the subject. If you have a printer you could print hundreds of pages now and keep them in a safe place for future reference.

Electronic communication will also be worth looking into. Your cell phone most likely will have no service so your only hope would be a walkie talkie type or cb radio device that can run off of battery or solar power. If you are in a family or larger group if you go out to find food it would be a good thing to be able to call for help if needed.

This could be an endless topic and I'm sure it is almost limitless in ideas. I am looking forward to other peoples advice and ideas as well.

When defending ones self in a survival state one must remember that any weapon you attempt to use toward another person could be taken away from you and used against yourself. It would be wise to only use weapons that require much skill that only a few know . If your enemy can not use the weapon if he or she gets there hands on it that is one step closer to surviving.

I'm really trying but I'm drawing a blank, what kind of weapon could be taken from me (obviously at close quarters) that another survivalist would have no clue how to use? death ray? light sabre? kidding aside, I'm curious.

I had the same questions myself. How would I manage if SitX happens? All that I have ever done is car camp and only rarely at that. So I decided to sign up for a basic wilderness course that is sponsered by the Sierra Club. It starts this week and runs for 10 weeks with several weekend outings designed to give newbies like me some experience and some basic skills and knowledge. I'm pretty excited about it myself.
It was from reading this forum that I decided to start improving my skills and setup a BOB. I stumbled across this class as a result of searching on the web for resources in my area.
I say do whatever you can to improve your odds and never stop trying to improve what you know.

so personal skill wise I have:

bi-lingual speak english and spanish
self defense teacher
helpdesk/telephone/IT/computer repair background -although not an expert
Sales and leadership books/seminars/courses and experience.
health excellent. could run 5 miles easy if I needed to.

Originally posted by racegunz

When defending ones self in a survival state one must remember that any weapon you attempt to use toward another person could be taken away from you and used against yourself. It would be wise to only use weapons that require much skill that only a few know . If your enemy can not use the weapon if he or she gets there hands on it that is one step closer to surviving.

I'm really trying but I'm drawing a blank, what kind of weapon could be taken from me (obviously at close quarters) that another survivalist would have no clue how to use? death ray? light sabre? kidding aside, I'm curious.

A martial arts weapon like a nunchaka, jutta etc etc.
Some batons are tricky for a newbie to wield properly.
A Taser with custom trigger?
My lasertron I can use to blind and dazzle might take an attacker a good minute to figure out the controls, maybe.
In the old days they used to say an automatic pistol was harder for a criminal to use (back in the days of revolvers).

My lasertron I can use to blind and dazzle might take an attacker a good minute to figure out the controls, maybe.

Well death ray gun wasn't so far off after all! I suppose a custom weapon with a strange trigger lock or something like that might fit your bill, but reality in a SitX there's not going to be the hesitation that enables the perp to grab the weapon, at least the hesitant ones will be weeded out quickly I think. Know your weapon be familiar with as many as you can, good advice for any day.

I think that one of the biggest that everyone should know is how to build a fire. What I do is when we camp, I work on my fire making skills. I always try to light it first with a sparking tool that I always have in my pocket.

One of my goals for this year is to get various other firestarting tools and practice with them. So far I've only used the magnesium bar type of starter and a ferocium rod type of tool. I want a fire piston, but can't bring myself to pay $60 or more for one. Any plans on how to build them out there?

You already mentioned it, but first aid is a great skill to know.

Maybe how to make cord from natural items. Cord tends to be on everyone's list of items to have in a BOB, why not learn to make it?

Originally posted by nymph
Personally, morse code isn't that great for living in a wilderness -.-
But I'd like to learn It anyways,

Morse code I feel can be very useful, You might be able to obtain information via the air waves or it could be used for communication via flash lights.

I feel it is still a very good way to communicate when other comms are down.

Morse code is definately worth learning, as is British Army hand signals (they differ to the yanks). Just incase you are part of a group and want to communicate silently.
If your bug out plans include meeting up with others etc then your own set of codes and SOPs would be useful. IE if marking up a road sign/dead letter drop etc with RV details then list the time and date but add 24hrs. So if "we" were meeting on 27/2/09 at 1800hrs the displayed data would be 28/2/09 1800hrs at grid blah blah. That way if your instructions have been compromised then the baddies would turn up 24hrs too late......

Rgds

I used to laughing call "Jericho" the government's covert guide to us for survival. I watched every week just to pick up some scenarios that could happen that I had not thought of and how to handle some of the crisis events that are sure to occur. I was a bit dismayed when I realized that we don't have a clue of what to expect or worse what to do if we survive a nuclear strike. Jericho is fiction but so many things happened in such a small amount of time that in a real world scenario it would send everyone over the brink. The only reason they were able to hold it together is because Jericho was a small town and everyone knew each other. Imagine this you in your neighborhood or community. I fear that we would not stand a chance. All it would take is one strike and the invading country could just sit back and wait for us to finish the job. Their take over would be sweet and effortless.

I,m willing to help some people learn what they will need to know. I,m 50 years old, law enforcement in the military, air force. I,ve been hunting and fishing all my life, I,ve lived in six states. All I,ll ask is you pay cost for gas and food.I live in Indianapolis IN.I belive my e-mail is in my profile if not I,ll post it.

I'll be ready with the rechargeable battery supply running off of solar panels.
This has been a very interesting and cheap exercise, learning about solar, inverters, deep cycle batteries, etc.
To get into it, one of those $280 dollar solar kits with the LED lights, 3 or 4 panels, and a control box was a good start. Then a $70 deep cycle battery was next, and a $50 175W inverter to get an AC plug for the battery chargers.
I've noticed so far that I didn't like how the standard control box charged the battery, it never seemed to top it off so it hit 12.6V...so that got changed out. I'm also learning that I might need one more solar panel to give the controller a better chance at feeding the battery faster juice in the initial charge phase, before trickle charging in the last bit.
It's been good to get a feel for what a battery needs to be able to discharge all night and then fill up again the next day reliably. If things get bad, all of our radios and lights will like a supply of AA and AAA batteries.
This is one of my skills I wanted to practice, all of my devices in my home get batteries from this solar station...and I'm liking the Hybrid type of battery best, BTW.

reply to post by Bigfoot209th


Bigfoot209th, Have you looked into some of the battery chargers that run on DC voltage? While an inverter works fine, there is a drop involved with converting DC to AC. The chargers that run off of 12v wouldn't have this extra drop.

I haven't done enough research into these chargers to recommend on, though. And thanks for the thoughts about getting a small scale solar system set up. Good idea.

Yes, I've looked around some, but the thing that kept me in a simple AC setup was all of my rechargeable devices where the batteries are internal and you plug in a wall wart to charge them.

I also tested the amps on my Dad's night time breathing machine when he was here last week, and I think my little setup could even run his machine all night...I love that.

Good thought and you're right on wasting some energy in the conversion.

Thanks.

reply to post by Bigfoot209th


I am looking into getting a solar panel with lights battery and charger for my shed. I am sure that with a little knowledge that you would be able to throw something together that charges other bits and pieces.

Does anybody have any decent links on what they use at all ???