Bushcraft, Survival Skills, Hiking, Camping, Primitive Skills

Here’s some notes that I took in my earlier outdoor living skills classes and wilderness survival classes. I feel that I should type these up because I was told “pass these skills on or they will die” by a man who taught me much. So, what better place to help out than with people interested in this stuff? I think I will make some drawings of my pictures in here later and edit this. I have more things on food consumption and the rate of calories burned, but I don’t know if they’re in this set of notes.
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Always remember the “7 P’s” before and during all field activity.
-Prior Proper Planning Prevents P*** Poor Performance

The Rules of Three (before you’re dead)
3 minutes without air
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
3 weeks without food
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SHELTER/LEANTO WIKIUP
The sacred order of things is shelter, water, fire, food. Building a shelter will hopefully keep you warm enough to prolong fire building. Once the shelter is made, one is in good shape.

Prop up ridge poles about as high as your crotch, otherwise it will be too big and heating will be difficult.
(enter pic later)
Place sticks across ridge pole to make a mesh over the ridge pole sides. Cover mesh with leaves heaped on to the length of your forearm to about 3 feet.
(enter pic later)
Then place more sticks over the leaf covering to hold them down. Next fill the inside with leaves to create dead airspace and insulation. Have enough leaves in front of the “door” so you can crawl in feet first and close off entrance with leaves
(enter pic later)
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WATER

How we lose water per 24 hours
————-minimum—-hot——-heavy exercise
skin———350ml——350ml——-350ml
sweating—-100ml——14000ml—–5000ml
respiration—350ml——350ml——-650ml
urination—–1400ml—–1200ml——500ml
Defecation—100ml——100ml——–100ml
——Total–2,300ml—–3300ml——6600ml
————-2.3L——-3.3L———6.6L

SIGNS OF DEHYDRATION
Headache, irritability. Dark yellow urine. Thirst, fatigue. Dry or sticky mouth. Low or no urine output. Not producing tears, sunken eyes, lethargic or comatose, vomiting, diarrhea, or a feeling you can’t keep anything down which may cause dehydration itself. You may notice people becoming confused and doing just stupid things they normally wouldn’t do, combative even. This is a good time to make them drink some water as that’s one of the reasons they may be doing this, also they may be low in blood sugar (carrying an “emergency” coca cola product isn’t too bad of an idea for these instances of low blood sugar, but that’s not enough by itself)

3% dehydration you are thirsty
5% dehydration you are parched (only 50% grip strength)
7% dehydration you are unconscious

HOW TO FIND WATER
-Water flows down hill
-Grooms the surface of the Earth
-Encourages Vegetation
-Animal trails converge towards water
-Natural caches
-Plants, dew collection, snow, evaporation
-Transpiration

(enter pic of solar still later)

Hardwoods – bore a quarter to 1/2 inch hole and insert hollow reed, then collect sap on bark or cup. Works in early spring (walnut, maple, birch, hickory) (careful, this is usually pretty sugary and may cause diarrhea if you drink too much and are not used to it)

Sycamore tree- same as hardwood but anytime of the year and contains no sugars (score!). Not in winter.

Transpiration collection (pic later with explanation)

STERILIZATION
Boiling, Chem treatment, filtration

2-4 drops of bleach to a liter of water; 2-4 drops/bottle

8 drops per gallon. 16 for dirty water
NO SCENTED BLEACH! POISONOUS!

Don’t drink more than 8oz every 15 minutes so your body and absorb the maximum amount (8oz:15min)

HOW TO CONSERVE WATER
-Siesta during the day
-Don’t eat if no water is available
-Cover pot when boiling
-Drink limit when possible
-Body can absorb 8oz every 15 minutes
-Breathe through your nose
-Never pee in water
-Drink all kitchen water (i.e. pasta water)
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FIRE
(pic of triangle)
Purpose of fire: heat, light, tools, cooking, survival, and protection

Place fire by a reflector and build another one to maximize heat

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”

Fire should only be used when
-Ample supply of fuel
-Fuel will easily replenish naturally
-safe location for fire
-(obviously to save your life from hypothermia etc)

THE FIRE SITE
Site selection is key. Weather wind direction, safety issues, impact, coverage, distance from trails, water source, etc.Collect ALL materials first, excavate and protect fire site.

TRIPLE what you think in enough fuel.

Select brown woods “dead and down but not on the ground”

Learn to ID trees, etc (evergreens, deciduous then the willows in that order)

WOOD TYPES
soft woods- easy to light, burn fast; pop, spark, coals OK

Hardwoods- hard to light, burn slow, has good coals
(other triangle) Friction Fire Success Triangle

BOW DRILL
Bow: should allow for full swing of the arm. Rotation/friction factor must be taken into consideration only slight curve in bow.

Spindle: Upper end should be pointed to created the smallest friction surface. Tip should be fairly flat. Hollowed center to eliminate dead zone (the end that’s going to touch the fire board, not the pointy end). Keep lubricated on top. Drill should be straight as possible.

Fire Board: Hole should burn in far enough from edge of board to keep drill from breaking out. Board can’t be too thin or thick otherwise no ignition will occur. Have more tahn one hole prepared for back up.

Hand Hold : type of material wood should be hard and polish easily (hickory, osage, orange, serviceberry, and oak) Should fit properly and comfortably. Bone and antler also work well. Hole should be deep enough to keep drill from popping out.
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CAMP STOVE
#2 most dangerous aspect of camping after driving to the site.

Base line: check, always fill first, non pressurized
pump/pressurize: pump less rather than more, 25 pumps +/- adjust to true blue flame
Turn off: let cool 15 minutes. Back of hand check.
Be 200 ft. from you and any water source

Camp———->kitchen/food bag————–>water source
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FOOD
Need approx. 4000 calories a day in the woods
6,000 a day in the winter

Nutritional requirements = average of 2500 calories/day
Carbohydrates= 4 cal/gram 60%(200-400 grams/day = 1200-1600 cal/day)
Fat= 9cal/gram 10% (20-60 grams/day=180-540 cal/day)
Protein= 4/cal/gram 30% (30-35 grams/day=120-220 cal/day)

# of calories required varies with activity
-Normal daily activity: 2000-2500 cal/day
-Winter outdoor sports: 3000-4000 cal/day
-High altitude mountaineering: 4000-6000cal/day