What Survival is and isn’t.

First let me say I did not come to ATS for the survival section. Truth to be told my interests lay elsewhere… But I do have skill and training in this field… I have taught others to do the same with the Marines… for a time I worked as part of a Mountain rescue team… I grew up on a 150,000 acre ranch… was riding fence-lines when I was 12… as a child I often ran barefoot through the canyons and high mesa country of northern New Mexico… I was born wild

On last night’s radio show Semper brought up a valid point… Survival is not about going all Rambo on someone… Ask any one of the thousands of Vets here on ATS, they’ll set you straight… Combat is one thing…Survival is an entirely different subject … Skills for wilderness survival, like those for administering first aid… they are skills every outdoorsman/ solder hopes he will never have to use. But when they are needed, they are indispensable. At the risk of sounding dramatic, they may spell the difference between life and death…

If you ask me if I am a survivalist my answer is no… I am an outdoorsman, a country boy, a regular old Red Skin… simply put… I grew up in an environment where things like power and running water were luxuries… surely not necessary for daily life… it may surprise many of you to learn a large segment of the global human race lives quite happy, long, healthy, productive lives without ever seeing an electric light bulb, a TV, refrigerator or a car…

I’m one of those people…In my family when the lights go out… it is not a crises, it is an annoyance… Paying for water is also an annoyance when I can just as easily drive my own well... No food at home… means I probably have to shoot a couple of rabbits or squirrels on the way home from work… Maybe I have to butcher one of my hens…Picking some fresh veggies in the garden… that to me is not survival… to me that is every bit as normal as you picking up your cell phone, to text in a pizza order… Gaining these so called…”Survival Skills” is simply learning to do what humans have been doing for thousands of years… Live in the field for several months and you will know what a truly decadent pleasure a hot shower is… but you can live just fine without…

Survival has nothing to do with Combat… It is a fool who seeks out a firefight… especially if you’re dragging your own family along… Combat is about fear filth and utter madness… people doing their best to kill you… you struggling against your own demons and fears… responding on instinct and training… praying you get them before they get you… It’s the smell of combat I hate most of all… blood and bile… sharp and pungent… the screams when someone is hit, yours theirs it doesn’t matter… Real combat is not a movie or video game…nothing happens in slow motion… that comes later as you replay the horror in your mind again and again and again…. no sane man would seek it out on his own… and it has nothing to do with wilderness survival…

Where I come from we have a saying… a good hunter can feed his family for a year with only a handful of shells… but in a real firefight even 10,000 rounds might not be enough… When you can… it is far better to quietly slip away and live to fight another day…

Survival and outdoorsmenship is fun, communing with nature living as our ancestors did…honing your skill… that is not a hardship…

Real combat in not a game nothing to romanticize…

I now step off my soap box... lecture over... So get out there and have fun in the wild...I know I will

Very well put and a distinction that needs to be made. People need to understand that what we have taken for granted isn't really necessary for our survival. We have a greater chance at surviving if communities stick together rather than the survival of the fittest crap that people like to throw out there. Obviously different situations for different locations (city vs country), but for the most part people need to welcome a "new" way of living one that is more in balance with nature, and one that involves cooperation with their fellow man.

reply to post by DaddyBare


Great thread once again DaddyBare!!


For me survival is about staying warm,staying fed,staying healthy and having shelter from the elements.
My emphasis is always on having knowledge instead of relying on alot of gear.
While gear is great to have,when it is gone then all you have left is yourself and what you know,and what you don't know,could kill you in some cases.

I am fascinated by how cavemen and their clans use to live and also how some remote tribes live.......now THATS old school!!

Also wanted to add....after a weekend in the bush in the cold....I never take my heat or showers for granted.

It needed to be said, DaddyBare. Thanks for making the distinction. Some so-called survivalists are more worrisome to me than the sleeping or unprepared. When I see the blow-hard Rambos (or Rambo wannabes) doing nothing more than stocking up on guns and ammo.....I see a potential threat.

Someone who has the mindset of blasting through any and all problems is a danger to me. Especially when they get hungry and see that I have food.

Someone who doesn't know how to problem solve and thinks that the answer to all lifes difficulties lies in the amount of ammo they have stockpiled is more worrisome to me than the hungry beggars I may encounter.

Someone who refuses to learn any skills that might be useful in a crisis and instead expects to shoot their way through it is someone I don't want to be anywhere around in a crisis.

If your survival depends on quickly driving (or running) through an area that's on fire then you can't just shoot your way out. You never know what skill you might need. I suggest people learn as many skills as they can and stay in shape as much as possible.

Thanks for pointing this out as way too many people do not chose to understand the difference. Like you I grew up out of doors, and am proud to say I have maintained the skills I learned as a child, either from dad, mom, others folks, or the hard way by making my own mistakes. I have learned to survive all over the world, and the best teachers as the ones who will tell you leave the arsenal at home. I am trying to pass on all the knowledge to my boys, at least when I am at home.

However I do take exception to your comment, "a regular old Red Skin". There ain't nothing regular about you. Exceptional yes, regular no. Just ask your grand kids, they will agree with me.

Important topic. Far too many people feel they need to be prepared for combat and other such things. Thats not it at all. You are to give up anything you can't hold and slip away into the shadows. Then use the skills you have learned to begin again from nothing, if thats what you have left. Its about putting distance between you and threats to your life, and shifting mindsets in real time.

reply to post by DaddyBare


Spoken like a real Man.
If I was wearing a hat, I would take it off.
If only more people thought this way....

Survival in my mind generally means staying alive and maintaining a kind of society that carries forward the same values that you hold dear now. So that means not turning into a bunch of cannibals or road warriors. It means holding on to the ideals of treating people fairly, as you would have them treat you, and working toward rebuilding a place where people can enjoy what life has to offer, and live and raise families without constantly being in fear.

Although, I suppose if there was really no hope, then I guess I'd rather be a cannibal than dinner.

thanks daddybare for putting a sense of the real out there...

alot of this survivalism remindsme of the romaticism of war during the begining of WW1..just finished watching a documentary 'the last voices of WW1' not the same subject but i believe the same type of romanticism...for most westerners, survilaism seems to be about 'fighting the man' not the realities of living in a time of nothing. most people would be totaly lost with electricity...how would you contact your friends or go look up the info you saved on how to skin a rabbit or build a lean-to or how to navigate across the land?...cause all that info is on your computer..do you own a book on this subject? have you practiced this in real life? when was the last time you had to poop outside ...when it was 10 below zero..ouch

the learning curve is steeeeeeep.......a motto of skill....you will only be half as good as your best day of training when the SHTF..... practice practice practice...

thanks again daddybare

reply to post by clearmind

have you practiced this in real life? when was the last time you had to poop outside ...when it was 10 below zero..ouch

We used to have this compressed styrofoam toilet seat in the outhouse... and as odd as it sounds... it wasnt that bad to use... no frost bite, no shiver up the spine... no tongue on the flag pole effects...best of all was no complaints form the ladies.... now thats about as good as it gets...

reply to post by DaddyBare


There are combat survival skills and then there are survival skills.

A man should know both.

Great post as always.

Man, I gotta get out to visit and hunt.

reply to post by DaddyBare


Excellent points. Even in a SHTF scenario, combat is what a smart person would want to AVOID...not seek. Actual tools and supplies would be more plentiful in my stockpile, vs. weapons....and even my weapons would be more geared towards obtaining game than human protection.

Originally posted by macman
reply to post by DaddyBare

 

There are combat survival skills and then there are survival skills.

A man should know both.

Great post as always.

Man, I gotta get out to visit and hunt.

Guess what wandered into my yard this morning...
Big ole gobbler and I swear this Tom had to have a 19 inch beard...
Gonna have to put out some corn so he sticks around... long enough to make Thanksgiving dinner

reply to post by DaddyBare


Damn it man. Gotta make it out.
I gotta skip my first Elk hunt this year with a good friend due to work.
But, next year it is on.

Originally posted by DaddyBare

Originally posted by macman
reply to post by DaddyBare

 

There are combat survival skills and then there are survival skills.

A man should know both.

Great post as always.

Man, I gotta get out to visit and hunt.

Guess what wandered into my yard this morning...
Big ole gobbler and I swear this Tom had to have a 19 inch beard...
Gonna have to put out some corn so he sticks around... long enough to make Thanksgiving dinner

I had one land just behind the house not too long ago. I was thinking "lunch" myself..

reply to post by DaddyBare

This is a very good point! We, the girlfriend and I, are set for a short time survival. Food and water stored for about a month. I too grew up hunting and fishing, when I got in from school, I was off to the woods with my old 28ga single shot Stevens. During the summer, I would cut about 50 cane poles to use as bank poles along the river to hook catfish or whatever the Licking river would send my way. In a long term SHTF, I feel that nature could not surpport the masses of humans trying to feed themselfs without the skills we have. I could see myself out with one of my little 410 after that small game only to duck for cover as some rambo tries to bring down a flock of geese with his AR-15.
I am not a true survivalist, but I do want to be somewhat ready for what may come to pass. I am a gun collector, many are pre WWII. I feel you have the right to own a firearm, but you also need to know not only how to use one but also to maintain it has well. Time for me to get off the soap box as well..

So true on so many levels.

reply to post by DaddyBare


Nicely done, Daddybare.

What survival is:
Being able to walk the woods and live in your surroundings for an unknown amount of time.
Taking the skills you know and using them to live off whatever comes your way.
Getting back to your roots, and becoming a part of nature again.
Never leaving a trace.

What survival isn't:
Storing food and supplies in your house and never knowing how to start a fire. (without a lighter)
Stocking up on guns and ammo without knowing how to hunt.
Buying the best knife or the best gun without even having experience in the outdoors.
Basically, spending more money than time, without having the proper skillsets.


I too, am an avid outdoorsman.
All the skills I know were passed to me through my family. (and trial and error... )
Just being in a family that strongly believes in living off the land helped tremendously.
Hunting, fishing and camping lessons were learned and crafted with time and age.
As a child, I was never allowed to have a knife or gun, so I made due with what the Earth gave me.
Which in turn became a passion, for creating things with bare hands.
No modern conveniences.

I fear that as generations pass, more and more apathy will reign over consideration.
And children will lose valuable skillsets that should've been taught to them decades ago.
Too much television, convenient foods and games will destroy their natural abilities.
Things that should come first in education of children, in my humble opinion.

Then again, I'm just your average hilljack.

Knowing when the power goes out I am ready, even in the winter, is more than comforting...


Great topic.

*S&F*

First good thread, and OP well said. I respect folk like yourself, you're a dying breed in the sense that you are not as insulated from nature as most are. There still are roots firmly planted in the old ways.

Having said that. I really can't stand that divide and conquer BS that you see. Really lame and pathetic.

True survival is more a mind set than "tacticool" gear and head bands. First and foremost it is a slowing down of your mind and breathing. Nature resonates at a much lower frequency than the city. A release from all the static white noise, tension, stress and all the mental baggage. It's a deeper almost meditative sense of awareness of your surroundings, your available resources, the pending weather, amount of remaining daylight. It is addressing the basics of shelter fire water and food. And finally survival is being truly patient, calm, and smart. Being able to conserve your energy and not panicking.

All these things are survival to me.

Even the word survival denotes a form of hardship like just barely getting by. It could aptly be named Prospering depending on your mindset.

Originally posted by DaddyBare



First let me say I did not come to ATS for the survival section. Truth to be told my interests lay elsewhere… But I do have skill and training in this field… I have taught others to do the same with the Marines… for a time I worked as part of a Mountain rescue team… I grew up on a 150,000 acre ranch… was riding fence-lines when I was 12… as a child I often ran barefoot through the canyons and high mesa country of northern New Mexico… I was born wild

On last night’s radio show Semper brought up a valid point… Survival is not about going all Rambo on someone… Ask any one of the thousands of Vets here on ATS, they’ll set you straight… Combat is one thing…Survival is an entirely different subject … Skills for wilderness survival, like those for administering first aid… they are skills every outdoorsman/ solder hopes he will never have to use. But when they are needed, they are indispensable. At the risk of sounding dramatic, they may spell the difference between life and death…

If you ask me if I am a survivalist my answer is no… I am an outdoorsman, a country boy, a regular old Red Skin… simply put… I grew up in an environment where things like power and running water were luxuries… surely not necessary for daily life… it may surprise many of you to learn a large segment of the global human race lives quite happy, long, healthy, productive lives without ever seeing an electric light bulb, a TV, refrigerator or a car…

I’m one of those people…In my family when the lights go out… it is not a crises, it is an annoyance… Paying for water is also an annoyance when I can just as easily drive my own well... No food at home… means I probably have to shoot a couple of rabbits or squirrels on the way home from work… Maybe I have to butcher one of my hens…Picking some fresh veggies in the garden… that to me is not survival… to me that is every bit as normal as you picking up your cell phone, to text in a pizza order… Gaining these so called…”Survival Skills” is simply learning to do what humans have been doing for thousands of years… Live in the field for several months and you will know what a truly decadent pleasure a hot shower is… but you can live just fine without…

Survival has nothing to do with Combat… It is a fool who seeks out a firefight… especially if you’re dragging your own family along… Combat is about fear filth and utter madness… people doing their best to kill you… you struggling against your own demons and fears… responding on instinct and training… praying you get them before they get you… It’s the smell of combat I hate most of all… blood and bile… sharp and pungent… the screams when someone is hit, yours theirs it doesn’t matter… Real combat is not a movie or video game…nothing happens in slow motion… that comes later as you replay the horror in your mind again and again and again…. no sane man would seek it out on his own… and it has nothing to do with wilderness survival…

Where I come from we have a saying… a good hunter can feed his family for a year with only a handful of shells… but in a real firefight even 10,000 rounds might not be enough… When you can… it is far better to quietly slip away and live to fight another day…

Survival and outdoorsmenship is fun, communing with nature living as our ancestors did…honing your skill… that is not a hardship…

Real combat in not a game nothing to romanticize…

I now step off my soap box... lecture over... So get out there and have fun in the wild...I know I will

HOW... Greetings sir...I hope to profile U right... But not my fault if I didn't because of your Digi-Self avatar

Maybe you can help SOS me with a poderance I have had about the Anasazi "ancient Ones"... Any thing that has to do with a predator from another world???

Mr X-ULTRA/FRIENDLY... Just looking for quantum clues to our allegedly polar shift about to happen...or star steep evaluation thing