The Basics 4 Survival

A Wilderness Survival Topic

By

Paul Andrulis

Copyright

Copyright ©2013 by Paul Andrulis

Legal Disclaimer

This book is self-published by the author. Therefore the author shall be known as the author/publisher of this work and no distinction shall be made between the two.

Although the author/publisher has made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author/publisher does not assume and hereby does disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, injury, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause, except where prohibited by law.

The information in this book is meant to supplement, not replace, proper wilderness survival training. Wilderness survival poses guaranteed inherent risk. Survival inherently implies life or death. The practice of wilderness survival like other extreme sports may cause serious medical problems, injury, or even death. Therefore use the information contained in this book at your own risk. The author/publisher advises readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits, skills, experience, and capabilities. Before practicing the skills described in this book, be sure that your equipment is well maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, knowledge, applicable skills, aptitude, training, and comfort level.

This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of licensed physicians. The reader should consult a physician in all matters relating to his/her health and particularly with respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.

Table of Contents

The Basics 4 Survival

Copyright

Legal Disclaimer

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction

About the series

About this book

2. Getting Started

Understanding priorities

Survival attitude

Survival mindset

Determination

Stubbornness

Positive Attitude

Ingenuity

Willingness to learn

Prayer

3. Basic Beginner Concepts

The rules of survival

Air

Heat

Water

Food

4. Advanced Beginner Concepts

Air

Heat

1. Convection

Too Cold

Too Hot

2. Conduction

Too Cold

Too Hot

3. Transpiration

Too Cold

Too Hot

4. Radiation

Too Cold

Too Hot

5. Insulation

Too Cold

Too Hot

6. Exertion

Too Cold

Too Hot

7. Fire

8. Shelter

Water

Boiling

Chemicals

Filtration

U.V. Light

Food

Meat

Hunting:

Active Tools

Passive Tools

Camouflage, Wind, and Scent

Motion

Sound

Fishing:

Basic Equipment

Active Tools

Passive Tools

Vegetables/Plants

Fruits

Tubers and Roots

Tree Nuts/Seeds

Tree Nuts

Tree Seeds

Preservation

Dehydrating

Smoking/Jerking

Salting

Pemmican

Cooking

Roasting

Frying

Baking

Steaming

Boiling

Pit Cooking

5. Minimum Gear 4 Survival

Minimum Gear 4 Expert

Minimum Gear 4 Experienced

Minimum Gear 4 Inexperienced

6. Required Skills List

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my beautiful wife Melissa for her patience with me during the long hours and trials which come with professional writing.

Without her support and encouragement this work would not have been possible.

I would like to thank my three adorable children Joe, Tiffany, and Annabelle that light up my day and bring a smile to my face when I need it.

I would like to thank my fans for their encouragement and kind words.

Above all I would like to thank God and his Son for granting me life, salvation, and the ability to write.

To all, thank you.

1. Introduction

About the series

I welcome you to the first book in my open ended, e-book only series concerning wilderness survival. I use the term ‘open ended’ as this series does not follow the standard marketing model which places a host of different topics together under one volume. The finished book is then fixed in content and is generally quite expensive.

I have designed a nonstandard model to impart this information to my readers, which allows flexibility and choice. My model is designed to be a system where the reader has a choice and can then read about only the subjects they are interested in or need without the necessity of paying for information they do not desire. Each e-book will be small, and inexpensive with the cost reflective of both the length and complexity of the work.  The goal is to provide targeted information and value.

About this book

The topic of wilderness survival is quickly gaining a huge interest in today’s society. More people than ever before are becoming both aware of and concerned due to real or potential world events, weather, and natural phenomena. This awareness has led to a boom in survivalism, prepping, bushcraft, and interest in wilderness survival.

This book “The Basics 4 Wilderness Survival, Volume 2” will provide an overview of the basics of wilderness survival including the concepts, attitudes, mindset, and gear necessary for the beginning prospective wilderness survivalist. My goal is to provide a rock solid basis of understanding of wilderness survival basics to the reader, providing a stable knowledge platform allowing for further focused research.

2. Getting Started

Understanding priorities

Wilderness survival is all about knowledge and skill applied to a specific list of priorities. Priorities are a linear list of small goals which must logically be accomplished in a specific order so that the ultimate goal of survival may be reached.  Logically it works this way.

Goal 1 > Goal 2 > Goal 3 > You live

Unlike other areas of life where a person can get away with disorganization, survival is inherently a life and death situation where the priorities have to be followed as closely as possible. Not following the priorities increases your chances of not surviving. Break the rules one time too many and the outcome is assured. The following statement is real with no melodrama attached.

You die.

The survival priorities which I shall cover in detail later in the chapter concerning basic concepts are often referred to as the ‘rule of threes’.

Survival attitude

A positive overall attitude is a must for wilderness survival; however this is one of the most difficult things to achieve.

Negative attitudes have to be forcibly rejected. Little besides carelessness can kill you faster than to fall into depression in a survival situation.  Depression will cause you to put off things which have to be accomplished in a short time span. Depression in such a situation is amplified by the situation itself and can progress to a feeling of hopelessness, panic, or even to the extreme of suicide.

Hopelessness is horrible. Depression can make you put off goals, but hopelessness can make you quit caring. When you quit caring, you refuse to even try. At this point you may be walking, but you are already dead unless you can snap out of it quickly.

To panic in a survival situation is similar in visible effects as hopelessness as far as survival is concerned, though the reasons behind the effects are different. With hopelessness you quit trying, and with panic you will forget what you have to do. With panic, you are guaranteed to do the worst possible things for survival. You fear will kill you.

Maintaining a positive attitude is part of the survival mindset.

Survival mindset

The survival mindset is composed of six things. (The first five if you are not religious.)

The five things are:

Determination

Determination keeps you focused. It also is the tool used to kick negative attitudes to the curb. It also makes you try to accomplish things you would ordinarily not even attempt.

Stubbornness

Stubbornness makes you try to succeed when you feel the situation is beyond help. You refuse to give up.

Positive Attitude

A positive attitude helps with all of the attributes. When you think something is achievable or possible, then you can often make it happen. If you believe that something cannot happen, then you will not try and therefore are guaranteed to fail. A positive outlook can grant success when coupled with ingenuity.

For instance, a set of snares fails to catch any food where a person expects them to work:

A person with a negative outlook declares it is a waste of time, pulls the snares and puts them in the pack. These snares cannot catch any food and the person will probably go hungry. The snares have zero chance of catching anything if they are not in use.

A person with a positive outlook says that they may have set them incorrectly or has placed them in a bad spot. The person then re-sets the snares correctly or moves the snares to a new location. The snares may, or may not catch food. Catching food with a snare is iffy anyway. The point is that the snares actually can still catch food, and the person might catch a meal.

In a survival situation, self-defeatism is potentially deadly.

Ingenuity

“Necessity is the mother of invention”, and old axiom which holds true.

However ingenuity is the father of invention. Creativity and problem solving logically applied to a necessity yields invention. No situation encountered in wilderness survival is ever exactly duplicated. Due to slight dissimilarities of various situations, a person has to use ingenuity to invent a way to overcome problems. Another aspect of this is called tinkering.

For instance, a trap is constructed, and then a trigger is built to engage the trap. It is quickly discovered that the trigger is not sensitive enough as the bait for the trap is being stolen without the trap being set triggered. The person then tinkers with the trigger, or even entirely redesigns it to be more sensitive.

Willingness to learn

It doesn’t matter how much you know, or how good you think you are. Many situation can arise that you will not know how to handle so be willing to learn new things. Any true expert will back me on the statement that you do not know everything concerning wilderness survival. There is too much to learn. They will freely admit that they do not either. In the thirty plus years I have been learning I have learned one thing for sure, and that is that I do not know everything there is to know about the subject.

Find your weaknesses and concentrate upon them.

Prayer

If you are not religious then just skip this part.

Prayer has been shown to calm, relieve stress, and reassure a person. It also makes a person feel as if they are not completely alone. All of these things lead to negative attitudes and from there to depression, so if you are religious then by all means pray as it will help you to survive.

3. Basic Beginner Concepts

The rules of survival

To survive means simply to be or remain alive despite circumstances. To survive in any environment specific knowledge is necessary. You have to know what can kill you, how it will kill you, and the symptoms which indicate you are dying, so that you can do something about it before you die. The concept is plain logic.

With the basic concepts I will explain the rule of 3’s. I will explain what can kill you, why it can kill you, and how it will affect you as you die. With the advanced concepts I will explain what you can do about it. Let’s get started.

Survival is dependent upon a set of rules. These rules are logically based upon what is required to sustain human life, but put forth as time limitations before you die if you are deprived of them. The set of rules I will teach you are based upon an old, and somewhat exaggerated, ‘Rule of 3’s’. I will list them below, and then expound upon them further afterwards.

The rule of 3’s states that you can live:

- 3 minutes without air

- 3 hours without heat

- 3 days without water

- 3 weeks without food

You should note that the times are exaggerated somewhat by whoever originated the rule. It is very old, and I am not sure who first coined it. It is not exact, but it gives a definitive list of priorities which must be addressed in order for survival to be achieved. Survival priorities always break down to a game of time. Basically, how long can you do without something until you die tells you what you need to do or accomplish first.

Let’s break them down individually, and explain each better.

Air

The first priority in any wilderness survival situation is to make sure you have air. You have an extremely short span of time that you can survive before you will die without oxygen in your lungs. This process is called asphyxiation.

There are numerous accidents which can deprive you of this essential substance. You can be trapped inside an airtight shelter by a large falling branch. You can be submerged under water. You can be covered by snow in an avalanche. You can fall through a layer of ice. Someone’s voice box can be crushed in a fall. These are just to name a few.

If a situation arises where a person’s air supply is cut off, then they have approximately three minutes to get air or they die, by the rule of threes. Therefore all other priorities are temporarily shoved to the side until this priority is met.

Three minutes may not be accurate towards anyone reading this. Some can hold their breath for a minute, and others may easily accomplish five. Pearl divers have been known to hold their breath for as long as fifteen minutes or more. However, the norm is between two and five minutes.

Heat

Heat is an interesting subject as it applies both directly and indirectly, as well as from both ends of the spectrum. You can either be too cold or too hot. You may need shelter for warmth or for shade. You may need to wear more clothing or less. You get the point. The situation is based upon the weather, the season, and the environment. Remember that the normal body temperature for the average human being is ninety-eight point six degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of 98.6 is the survival bulls-eye.

The biggest killer is cold, so we will address it first.

Too Cold

If the human body loses too much body heat, it enters into a state of hypothermia. The temperature for which this starts is ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit.

The rule of 3’s is greatly exaggerated here, as it states three hours. I say this is exaggerated as the time is highly climate, circumstance, and environmentally modified.

If you fall into a river in the middle of winter, you have ninety seconds before hypothermia sets in.  In the fall or late spring you may have minutes or even tens of minutes. In the dead heat of summer in the right climate you can swim for hours and not catch hypothermia.

You can work up a sweat in twenty degree weather and have to remove layers of clothing, but quickly freeze at the same temperature if there is a twenty mile an hour wind.

You can become hypothermic in a thunderstorm in July. Cold water carries away heat faster than cold water.

As should be evident, temperature alone is not the sole factor contributing to dangerous conditions.

Too Hot

When the core temperature of the body gets too hot, it enters a state called hyperthermia. Hyperthermia is as bad as hypothermia in its own right, and can set on just as fast. Again, it is dependent upon environment, but even more so then hypothermia.  A person has to exert a huge amount of effort, and not have the proper intake of water to become hypothermic in cool or cold weather, or have some form of illness.

Water

The next list item on the rule of 3’s is water. The rule states that you can last three days without water, but can in fact you can die in only one day of extreme exercise on a hot muggy day with no water intake. It can also take as long as two to three weeks. This rule is greatly exaggerated. What is worse, even concerning a long term case you will be a dead person walking long before you die of dehydration. You will quickly become so weak that you cannot get water even if it is available. Nonetheless it still takes

Dehydration is made worse by heavy sweating, lack of plentiful water intake, and diarrhea among other things.

Food

Food is the last concern as the human body can go quite a long time without it. The rule of 3’s claims three weeks, but in actuality it requires around eight to twelve weeks for a healthy adult to starve to death. However, it really does not matter. After about two weeks without food you are far too weak to survive any longer in a wilderness survival situation, so you are dead anyway. Still it takes a long time to die of starvation, so this is in its proper place on the rule of 3’s.

4. Advanced Beginner Concepts

As a refresher, remember that the rule of 3’s lists in order air, heat, water, and lastly food. Now that we are in the advanced section I will expand upon what you learned in the basic section.

Air

The first priority in all situations is to make sure you have air.

If you have fallen into the water, get to the surface. If you do not know where the surface is, then open your eyes and blow out a little air. The bubbles will automatically rise.

If you have fallen through the ice and have been carried underneath, then punch a hole using your fist or a knife through the ice if possible, and pull your mouth to the hole to get air. If you cannot locate the hole you fell into, or the ice is too thick to punch through, then you are in deep trouble. You only have around ninety seconds to get out of freezing water before hypothermia sets in, whether you get air or not.

If you are caught in an avalanche, try to swim downstream and to the side. The snow flows fastest in the center, and carries the greatest snow volume there. Once the snow slows take a deep breath and keep swimming. Hopefully you can keep yourself close to the surface. Once the snow almost stops, jerk your upper body up and down to create a cavity so that you can breathe. If you are covered in less than a foot of snow, you may be able to dig your way out. If not, then you are in serious trouble. Someone will have to dig you out.

If your voice box is crushed, then an emergency tracheotomy may be necessary. Research this yourself, as I will not make myself legally liable by instructing why, when, where, or how. I am not a physician.

Heat

The heat issue is not complete without understanding the mechanisms by which heat may be created, lost, trapped, or transferred. Heat always transfers from areas which are warmer to those which are colder in the environment. Cold is not a thing, it is the absence of heat. Heat is the vibration of molecules within a substance. In nature, energy sources such as heat try to equalize out. Therefore a hot object becomes colder as it warms a cold object.

Hot and cold are relative terms. A hot rock may be much hotter than your body, and to touch it you must remember that you are the cold in the equation and it will give up its heat to you.

You can get too cold by the mechanisms of convection, conduction transpiration, radiation, lack of exertion, or lack of insulation.

You can become too hot by the mechanisms of convection, conduction, exertion, absorbed heat radiation, and insulation.

1. Convection

Convection is the transfer of heat through the movement of air. Air is a poor conductor of heat, but when it is moving a lot of air touches your body and transfers heat away from it.

Too Cold

Find shelter immediately. A quick natural shelter can be found such as a large tree trunk, a downed tree, a brush pile, etc. Make a fire to warm up, and then build a more permanent shelter until the wind dies down.

Insulate. See Insulation: Too Cold

If you have to travel, take advantage of natural shelter occasionally as you go. Stop well before dark and build a better impromptu shelter.

Too Hot

Remove layers of clothing and pour water over your head and shoulders. Sit in the shade, but stay out of confined spaces. The breeze blowing over you will evaporate the water and cool you. Once cool, the breeze will help keep you cool.

2. Conduction

Conduction is the transfer of heat through physical contact. Snow, rain, water, ice, rocks, logs, all will conduct heat either to or away from your body. Something may be an insulator when dry, but becomes a conductor when wet.

Too Cold

Do not lie on the ground to sleep without a thick layer of leafy boughs or grass as insulation below you. Do not sit on wet logs or rocks. Stay dry. If you get wet then change clothes. Keep your hands and feet dry and warm. Sleep in a shelter at night to keep rain and snow off of you while you doze.

Too Hot

Go swimming if possible. If not, then pour water which has been kept in the shade over your head and shoulders.

3. Transpiration

Transpiration in the sense of heat transfer is the loss of body heat through breathing. The air in your lungs is warm. The air coming from your lungs also contains a high percentage of water vapor which is at body temperature. Every time you inhale cool dry air is sucked in to your lungs and upon exhalation hot wet air is expelled. This robs quite a bit of heat from your body.

Too Cold

Wear a scarf or piece of loose weave material loosely covering your nose and mouth. Be careful, as a trip or fall can hang you if the material becomes tangled.

Too Hot

There is little that can be done for transpiration when it is too hot.

4. Radiation

Radiation is the mechanism whereby your body absorbs or loses heat through infrared radiation and other forms of light.

Too Cold

Insulation helps block radiated body heat, therefore you need insulation. The heat from a campfire is light radiation (infrared) by nature, so light a fire to warm yourself.

Too Hot

Only light fires in close proximity to your camp the morning or evening. Do not make a fire unless you absolutely need it during the heat of the day. Your natural radiated body heat may be diminished by removing layers of clothing. See also Insulation: Too Hot

5. Insulation

Insulation is a mechanical mechanism that traps heat or slows heat loss. Insulation can be clothing, hats, shelter, or material with air gaps. Insulation works by enclosed air gaps in the material. By itself, still air is a poor conductor of heat. Thick material has more enclosed air gaps than thinner material.

Too Cold

Cold can be countered by insulating oneself. For the necessary air gaps you can use dry leaves, pine needles, or grasses packed inside your clothing between two layers. Be careful not to overdo it. The last thing you want is to get too warm and sweat, as it will then make you colder. Another way to insulate is you have it available is to put on another layer of clothing.

Too Hot

If the weather is hot, wear loose fitting breathable clothes, and a make a wide brimmed hat to shield your head. Thicker material with a tighter fit prevents your body from dissipating heat through sweat.

6. Exertion

Exertion, more commonly known as exercise, creates internal heat.

Too Cold

When you start shivering, do exercises such as pushups, sit-ups, or running in place. It is a quick way to build body heat.

Too Hot

Refrain from working in the heat of the day. Restrict these actions to the morning and late evening if possible or at night if you have no choice. Working at night is dangerous, as many predators come out to hunt at night. Even barring animal related dangers, accidents are common due to low light conditions.

7. Fire

When too much body heat has been lost, the principle means of regaining body heat is fire. Do not wait until you are either uncontrollably shivering or until your hand go numb to build a fire. At this point you may find it next to impossible to control your body enough to build one.

The indian technique provided a large percentage of heat for the body, yet little wasted effort or resource. They would sit on the ground with their knees bent. Next they would light a tiny fire between their legs and feed it with twigs and very small branches. A furry animal hide over their shoulders helped trap the heat, which can be a tarp in modern practice. If you try this technique remember that you may end up roasting some nuts inadvertantly if you make the fire too large. By a tiny fire, I mean tiny.

8. Shelter

Shelter is definable as any structure, either natural or man-made, which blocks the wind, rain, snow and/or sun when needed.

Primitive yet protective shelters which can be made, and should be researched include the debris hut, lean-to, tarp shelters, the quintze hut or snow shelter, the wickiup, a-frame, tree wickiup, dugouts or pacific shelters, and the wigwam.

Water

Loosely quoted, the CDC has said that there is not surface water in the U.S. which is potable without purification. This statement is made due to the facts that all surface water has potentially harmful bacteria, diatoms, and other biological organisms, and that much of the surface water is polluted by chemicals. We can only do something about the biological organisms, as many of the chemicals can be removed only by reverse osmosis filtration units. Such a unit would clog quickly in a survival environment, therefore would be impractical to carry. There are four main ways to sterilize water to kill off harmful biological organisms.

They are:

- Boiling

- Chemical sterilizers

- Filtration units

- UV Light.

Boiling

Boiling is the most practical, foolproof, and economical means of water sterilization. Hoever there are myths concerning the boil times required for sterilization. The CDC states that only one minute of boiling time is required for safe drinking water, and not five or ten. The maximum would be only five at high altitude. If you let it roll at a boil for two or three minutes you are more than good to go.

Chemicals

Chemical disinfectants such as iodine or bleach might kill all of the organisms, but it can take hours for them to do so. Also, neither chemical is safe for the human body despite the myths. Whatever can kill a bacteria cell will also kill human cells as well. It is something to think about.

Filtration

Most of those fancy .1 to .4 micron filter units have one problem. They will not filter out viruses. To a virus, a bacterium is the size of a planet. Bacteria are large enough to be seen with a standard light focusing microscope, yet viruses are so tiny that they can only be viewed through an electron microscope at high magnifications. They are not thousands of times smaller, but are tens of thousands of times smaller.

There are only two filtration systems which will remove viruses. The newest ‘hollow fiber’ technology, and reverse osmosis systems.

U.V. Light

There are two methods for using UV light, but both require that the water is already crystal clear. With cloudy or dirty water neither is effective. Only one is really practical, and its use would be limited at best unless in the mountains due to water clarity issues.

Portable UV water sterilizers will sterilize only small amounts of clear water.

The natural UV from strong sunlight can be used to sterilize clear water if a clear plastic or glass container is used. The water is placed in a container, and then set on a highly reflective surface such as aluminum foil or reflective silver Mylar.

Food

Meat is a source of protein, fats, amino acids and fatty acids among other things which a growing body needs. However, unlike many myths promote nowadays it is not the sole source of any of these things. Just ask any vegetarian who has eaten only vegetables and vegetable products for years.

Plants (vegetables) are great, and contain tons of essential nutrients which the body needs to stay healthy, unless you like eating a large percentage of your meat raw. The problem with veggies is that most of the wild ones look almost like another plant which is poisonous. To top that off, they are seasonal, and are available in an edible stage for a very short part of the year.

Tubers, a certain type of root, are where it is at in the survival world. Edible tubers tend to contain a huge amount of starches. Starches, like protein, are a long chain complex carbohydrate. They produce a lot of energy in a small space. Best of all, they are generally not seasonal in that they may well get tough and fibrous, but they still retain a good chunk of the starch and generally are still edible in late season. By generally edible I mean barely edible, as the flavor tends to go downhill as winter progresses.

Fruits such as berries are great, when you can find them. Also, the majority of berries found in the wilderness are poisonous as well. Numerous safety myths abound concerning berries. ‘If the birds can eat them then they are safe’ is just one among many. Many mammals can process food that is toxic to humans. Just because an animal can eat something has no bearing upon whether humans can. Again, they come from a plant and are seasonal. However they have the shortest season of all as they are the product of the reproduction cycle of the plant.

Nuts are a commonly overlooked source of protein, fats, amino acids, and omega fatty acids.

If you follow the mainline survival wisdom, food is a calorie game. Basically the wisdom states that the game is maintaining the number of calories in your daily diet to stay active without starving. If this wisdom is true by how they rate food calories then every vegetarian alive today starved to death a long time ago. They will also tell you that it is impossible to survive long term on a diet of pure wilderness table fare.

Yet humans still exist on this planet. What we call wilderness survival was called everyday life at one point in human history, for all humans. All humans had to survive off of survival table fare. Yet we exist.

I don’t buy into the notion, but that is my own personal opinion on the matter.

I agree with our ancient ancestors as well as modern dieticians and think a healthy diet is a mixture of proteins, vegetables, berries, tubers, and nuts. I think that our bodies need a mixture of everything we were designed to eat, to stay healthy.

I would research the subject thoroughly and make up your own mind concerning which school of thought you prefer.

Meat

To acquire meat sources requires capturing an animal of some description. There are numerous means of doing this. A person can hunt animals, insects, or birds. A person can also catch fish. Sounds rather simple doesn’t it?

Many people have issues with this, but this book of wilderness survival basics would not be complete unless we discussed the various options.

Hunting:

Survival hunting is the active or passive attempt to catch or kill an animal using a somewhat primitive tool, which was crafted wholly or at least partially from natural materials. Each general type has its benefits and shortcomings.

Active hunting is called a high percentage technique, as it has a higher chance of getting food for the skilled hunter on any given day than the passive techniques. It involves the actual physical hunter using some form of weapon such as a bow or sling to find and kill an animal.

Passive hunting involves hunting methods which work without you physically being present to capture or kill an animal. It involves various traps and snares. Passive hunting is a low percentage technique in that numerous traps or snares and often a large amount of time are necessary to procure a single animal. Over time, passive techniques are more reliable for a skilled hunter than active techniques.

There are numerous tools both active and passive which one can fashion themselves for emergency hunting gear.

Active Tools

They include the ancient weapons of the crossbow, standard bow and arrow, the bundle bow, blowgun, sling, atlatl, rabbit stick, apache throwing star, bolo, and the boomerang to name a few.  Ancient humans were quite innovative concerning new, more efficient, and highly interesting forms of hunting equipment.  This inventive list can even include such relatively modern inventions such as the slingshot and the slingbow.

Passive Tools

The passive tools are all geared traps or snares. Both have designs available for killing or merely capturing an animal. Both general passive types can also be either baited or plain.

Killing traps and snares include the deadfall trap, power deadfall trap, spear trap, pit trap, bow trap, bird line, neck snare, and the powered neck snare. Each of these traps and snares has numerous possible configurations.

Live capture traps and snares include the Ojibwa bird pole, leg snare, power leg snare, leg pit, box trap, cage trap, and the venerable basket trap.

Camouflage, Wind, and Scent

If you are hunting, then you should remember that you are out where the animals live. You are a large omnivore and if the game animals see or smell you first they will stay a safe distance away from you.  As a matter of fact they will avoid anything that even smells like you.

This raises the concept of camouflage which will drastically increase both active and passive hunting success.

Most people can think of trying to camouflage their personal appearance, which is fine and good, but is only effective when already close to an animal. You need to first camouflage your human smell or you probably will not get close enough to be effective. This camouflage is effectively accomplished using wood smoke. Wood smoke is something animals are already accustomed to, and does not send them running for the hills unless it is fresh smoke.  Smoke is a very strong scent which also covers over human scent quite effectively. To camouflage your scent if you have bathed simply take a small smoke bath. If you smell quite rank and cannot bathe, take a long smoke bath.

Wind will carry your scent quite a distance, and most animals have a truly amazing sense of smell. Make sure to stay downwind from the area you intend to hunt. You leave scent with every step you take, and smoke will only cover your scent to a degree. If you hunt downwind of your position, hang it up. Under those circumstances you will never get within range of anything but a carnivore, and then it is probably hunting you. Another problem arises as well; your scent will linger for days, emanating from every footstep you left on the ground. If the wind switches direction while you are hunting, you may have to switch hunting spots.

Camouflaging the human outline is simple. Mud or clay smeared in random streaks and splotches across clothing, face, and arms breaks up the visual pattern of the human body. Avoid patterns in the process, as they can actually stand out. Use a light colored or grass flecked substance for field environments, a neutral clay color for rocky or mountainous areas, and a darker color for hunting in the woods. Having local materials such as grass, gravel, or leaves mixed in can make the camouflage even more effective depending upon your hunting environment.

Motion

Many game mammals are quite sensitive to visible motion. It is one of the senses they use to avoid predators. If you are close and they see you move quickly, they will dash off. If you make large hand or arm motions they will see it from a distance. Try to move slowly yet methodically until you are in range.

You can spot motion quite well too, so use it to your advantage. Sometimes the only means you will have of spotting a hidden animal will be the twitch of a nose or the flick of an ear or tail. Sometimes it helps to intentionally unfocus your eyes and stare straight ahead. You will be amazed at what you see happening in the distance, or in your peripheral vision to the sides.

Sound

Sound, like scent, is a very powerful natural indication of possible danger to a game animal. You have to be as quiet as humanly possible while hunting. Try not to step on dry branches which will crack and break underfoot. Train yourself to feel the ground and objects with your feet through your shoes or boots. I will be blunt when I say it will take a while to learn.

Here is a technique of silent walking, which works well in grass, weeds, and rock. First, step down on the ball of your foot. Next, roll your foot on the outside edge leaving a small gap between the inner edge of your shoe sole and the ground. Lastly, put the full weight down on your foot after the toes have touched the ground and you have felt no objects underneath such as sticks. Do not use this technique on a steep slope of any kind, as a slip may break your ankle.

Fishing:

Fishing can reliably provide much more meat on average than hunting for the skilled fisherman, contrary to popular belief.  For most individuals, fishing is a somewhat hit or miss thing. As in hunting, knowing your quarry, its diet, and its habits are all essential for reliable and repeatable results.

For survival purposes keep in mind that small fish are a survivor’s best friend. By small fish I am not talking tiny fish like minnows and fry, but instead small fish like sunfish, bluegills, crappie, perch, and other easy to catch species. Minnows are an option only when certain passive techniques such as traps or nets are involved.

The same active or passive concepts as discussed earlier apply towards fishing as well. You can actively try to capture the fish yourself, or you can be passive and allow a device to capture the fish.

Basic Equipment

Universal basic equipment includes cane or wooden poles, hooks, thin fishing line, and larger cordage.

Active Tools

Active fishing tools include the fishing pole, cast net, seine, fishing spear or gig, bow and arrow, or even your bare hands in certain circumstances.

Passive Tools

Passive devices include the trot line, bank line, powered bank line, the Native American weir trap, a woven basket trap, crawdad or crab trap, harpoon, and the funnel trap.

Vegetables/Plants

When I talk of vegetables I refer to wild edible plants. They are no different in conception to the numerous plants we already consume, but most of the edible plants on this planet are not found in any supermarket. In fact, they are often referred to as weeds. Plants contain the lion’s share of vitamins and minerals, and fiber needed for the human body. However, the greens will have low sugar and starch content. Remember that survival is about more than just energy.

This is a subject I will only touch on, and send you to a source who is far more of an expert on this subject than I am.

I have a principle which works most anywhere in the USA, and will explain it now.

There exist a huge number of edible wild plants in the United States, quite simply far too many plants to learn all of them. Do not bother trying to learn all of them, but instead learn about eight or nine common plants. Specifically learn the local edibles for those areas where you are liable to find yourself in a survival situation. If you look in your own refrigerator and pantry, you will probably find only a small handful of different vegetable types. The same can hold true for a survival situation. It is better to know a few plants thoroughly, than have researched numerous plants and make an accidental misidentification.

With every change in climate or environment comes a corresponding change in local plant life, and that is the main reason I cannot tell you explicitly what plants to research. I know several common but edible plants of the areas I frequent.

In an e-book, please remember that I am not allowed to print actual links due to store policies. For more information on the internet, visit the website eattheweeds.com. You can expect to either print off or download a ton of edible plant information posted by an expert named Green Deane. You will find information on edible fruits, nuts, plants, flowers, grasses, grains or grain substitutes, and tubers.

I am not connected to him or his website in any way, and as far as I know he is not into wilderness survival. I know him only by reputation and reading the information from his site. I recommend his site solely because I was flabbergasted by the sheer volume and quality of information I discovered.

Before anyone feels the need to point this out, I do realize his name sounds like a pun.

Fruits

Fruits are a natural source of numerous vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and sugars. However, they are very seasonal in that most fruits produce only for a short time during the year. Wild edible fruits can be found on trees bushes, plants, and vines. There is a huge list of edible wild fruits, but keep in mind there is also a huge list of poisonous fruits as well.

Whether birds or other mammals can digest the fruits is not truly a good indicator of whether a human can, so be sure of the plants taxonomy before ingesting. If you misidentify a plant, you may not get a second chance. Certain plants that produce fruits, such as nightshade or poison ivy, will probably kill you even in small amounts in a survival situation.

A few of the more common wild North American fruits are blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, wolfberries,  dewberries, rose hips, wild strawberry, papaya, blueberries, currants, grapes (muscadine and concord), elderberry, American plum, cranberries, and persimmon. The list of edible wild fruit is quite huge, and I have listed only a few. For long term survival, a good technique is to gather a large amount of this bounty and then dehydrate the essential edibles for the majority of the months when fruit is not available.

A good idea is to avoid vining fruits, excepting only grapes and dewberries. Vines bearing fruit are generally poisonous and often lethal. Most vine fruits that are edible often have poisonous look-alikes.

Tubers and Roots

Tubers are the nutrient storage containers for certain plant varieties, and as such the edible varieties are high nutrient and energy sources for humans as well. Think quality calories in the form of starches. Tubers and roots such as potatoes and turnips have historically been the mainstay energy source for many humans for a very long time. Failures of these food sources often led to starvation, such as in the famous potato famine in Ireland. Thankfully, these food sources are available commonly in the wild.

Some wild edible tubers include cattail, common daylily - specifically hemerocallis fulva, as the other lilies are highly toxic, groundnut, Jerusalem artichoke, Indian bread, and wild leek. This list is by no stretch of the imagination considerable as complete.

Tree Nuts/Seeds

Nuts are a valuable source of fats, protein, rare omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. They are a good all-around supplemental food which are not easily perishable in the manner of vegetables and fruits, and have a long shelf life. Also, they are highly compact and transportable, do not require special containers for either storage or transport, and generally do not require cooking or other special preparation before eating. The only exception might be leeching, as some nuts such as acorns have a high tannin content which must be removed.

Many survival sources teach that nuts are a net energy negative, in that it allegedly requires more energy to shell and eat the nuts, then can be harvested from the nutmeats inside the hard shells. The common advice is to hunt rather than harvest nuts. I have never found this to be true, neither in application nor logically. Hunting or fishing uses as much energy as shelling nuts, without the guarantee of a meal afterward. To put things into perspective:

- 1 oz. acorns = 2 grams protein

- 1 oz. pecans = 2.6 grams protein

- 1 oz. hickory nuts = 3.6 grams protein

- 1 oz. cooked chicken = 8.75 grams protein

- 1 oz. cooked fish = 6.28 grams protein

- 1 oz. cooked beef = 7 grams protein

What you notice first from this list is that the meat is cooked.

Meat loses water weight when cooked, so a larger amount of raw meat is needed for these figures, generally between 20-35% greater for beef as an example. This figure is just water loss. A portion of the fat content is also lost during cooking as well.

Some survival sources discount fats or starches in favor of protein as an energy source. If this were true, then there would be no such thing as ‘rabbit starvation’. Rabbit flesh contains very little fat, yet is high protein. A person subsisting off of pure rabbit flesh alone will starve to death. The lion’s share of usable calories in meat actually comes from the fats. Nuts, however, are much greater in fat ratio per ounce than wild meat, which is usually very lean to begin with.

Therefore, from either the calorie or the protein standpoint, nuts as a survival food are indeed worth the effort. That is probably why the American Indians relied heavily upon them as a food source. The one drawback is that they are not available all year round, but like any other vegetable based food source, are seasonal.

However, seasonal does not mean insubstantial. Baskets of nuts can often be harvested from a single tree. This equals a concentrated and therefore huge staple food source.

Tree Nuts

Some good and common edible nuts are pine nuts, acorns (preferably white oak), chestnuts, hickory nuts, pecans, black walnut, beechnuts, and butternuts. Bitter seeds contain tannin and need to be leeched. Leeching is the process of soaking or boiling then rinsing in fresh clean water.

Tree Seeds

Tree seeds can be edible as well, and are more easily collected than nuts.  Elm, maple, ash, and mesquite seeds are edible. Elm seeds can even be ground into flour. Maple seed are best eaten when green, but can be leeched when dry.

Preservation

Food preservation knowledge is a necessity in a wilderness survival situation. A single catch of a fish, or a larger game bird or mammal will go to waste without this knowledge. This extra food which would ordinarily go to waste can be preserved fairly quickly and easily, so it makes survival sense to learn the process. Preservation techniques can also greatly extend the shelf-life of other perishables such as veggies, tubers, or fruit.

Dehydrating

Dehydration as a food preservation technique is the process of removing water from an organic substance. When the water is removed from food, the growth of microscopic organisms is greatly reduced of even halted completely. It even slows down natural enzymatic reactions which would ordinarily break down the cells which make up the food.

It is the easiest, and oldest, of all the food preservation techniques. It works with any organic matter, including meats, fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Most natural forms of dehydration involve the heat of the sun and natural air flow to remove moisture. Thin sliced meat or vegetable matter is laid in the sun to dry. However, methods such as smoking or screens of material are used to keep flies at bay for both fruits and meats.

Dehydrated food is awesome in a wilderness survival scenario. It provides as much calories as the original hydrated substance. It is drastically lighter in both size and weight and does not require refrigeration. Dehydrated food lasts for a very long time with commonsense storage.

Dehydrated food is, in essence, the perfect survival food.

Smoking/Jerking

Smoking is a great way to preserve meat, and is a form of dehydration. In the process, no heat is desired from the fire, just as much smoke as possible. Cooked meat will spoil and turn rancid even if smoked. A small bed of coals with wet or green wood placed on top will produce the necessary smoke. A good drying frame such as a teepee shaped wooden frame standing over the smudge fire, with horizontal cross sticks on the inside of the teepee. Thin cross-grain cut strips of meat are hung over the cross bars to complete the system. The meat should be lean with as little fat as possible, as the fat will go rancid before the meat, and shorten the shelf-life.

The smoke accomplishes three goals:

1. The oils in the smoke are an active preservative in their own right, which contribute to a long shelf life.

2. The smoke drives off flies which will otherwise lay eggs on the meat. The fly eggs hatch and become maggots that burrow into, and then ruin the meat.

3. The smoke allows the meat to dry naturally, which is the third and final step.

When the meat is dry and leathery, then the process is complete. So long as the meat is kept dry, it will last for six month or more.

Salting

Salting meat is another modified form of dehydration. Salt is also antimicrobial, and is also a substance which will suck the moisture from food, partially dehydrating it. However, salt is extremely hard to find in its pure state in the wilderness, unless you are next to the ocean or a natural salt mine. It is also too heavy to carry in quantity. Most animal salt licks are in fact salt bearing dirt, and are not suitable for seasoning or food preservation.

Pemmican

Pemmican is a unique Native American Indian concoction. It is a mixture of rendered animal fat, dried and crushed berries, and dried and ground meat. Approximately fifty percent fat to meat ratio is adequate. The mixture is an acquired taste, though it is almost a super-food. Pemmican in combination with nothing other than water will keep you alive indefinitely. Maybe not happy, but it will keep you alive. Salt and nuts can also be added to help improve the taste.

Cooking

Cooking in the wilderness is an interesting concept, which is much simpler than many people expect.  The same methods used at home are available without metal tools in the wild.

Roasting

Roasting meat, nuts, or tubers is an easy process in the wild. Meat can be impaled on a stick and roasted over the coals. Tubers and nuts can be roasted whole buried in the coals. A slab of meat roasted directly in the coals is good tasting, and carries the colloquial term of ‘cave man steak’. Numerous forms of spits can be devised to roast anything imaginable, including fish and poultry.

Frying

What are you to do when you wish to fry a dish, but do not have a metal pan?

The answer is rock cooking. A flat rock is found which is suitable, and is placed in the fire. Coals are placed on top of the rock as well. When the rock is hot, the coals are wiped off with a stick or dumped off by tipping the rock. The stone will remain suitably hot long enough to even fry a thick steak.

Make sure the stone is not fibrous, as many of these turn out to be asbestos bearing rock. Also make sure that the stone was not taken from a river, pond, or lake shore. These stones contain water, and when heated the water will turn to steam. Since the steam is locked inside the stone and cannot escape, the heated rock will explode violently. Making this particular mistake will significantly shorten your life expectancy.

Baking

Baking can be accomplished using a hole in the dirt for an oven or by building an aboveground oven. Both are simple in concept and have been used by mankind for millennia.

The earthen-hole type oven is simply a deep rectangular hole in which a fire is built at one end. The item to be baked is placed at the other end and covered over in order with sticks, green boughs, green grass or moss, and finally with a layer of dirt. Usually the pit is lined completely with flat stones, or just on the baking end. Radiant heat from the fire is concentrated in the baking area, and the covering helps trap it. The area close to the fire is left uncovered.

An above ground oven can be fabricated from sod or clay. The oven is basically a dome shape with a chimney built into the ceiling at the back, to allow smoke to escape. A fire is kindled inside which dries out the oven, slowly heating the oven up to working temperature. This is especially important with a clay oven, as you may otherwise suffer a catastrophic failure. The item to be baked is placed close to the front, away from the bed of coals at the back. A crude door of green boughs or moss is placed in front of the hole.

Another above ground design requires two six to eight inch thick logs, and a large flat rock. The logs are placed upon dry ground twelve inches apart, and firewood and kindling is placed in between them. The large flat rock is set on top of the logs, and the fire is lit. After the fire burns down to almost ash, the remaining coals are pushed out the other end using a forked stick. The item to be baked is shoved between the logs where the fire was previously, underneath the flat rock. The rock will also be hot enough to fry food on. The combination of hot ground below and hot rock above will bake the item.

Steaming

Steaming is a good way to cook shellfish such as clams, and crawdads. A hole is dug, the hole is lined with rocks on the bottom and a decent fire is built within. A large bundle of non-poisonous plants such as seaweed, grass, or lambs-quarters are soaked in a water source. After the hole is heated and a large bed of coals are present across the bottom, a layer of the wet plant material is placed on top of the coals, covering them completely. The shellfish to be cooked are placed on top, and then these are covered completely with another layer of wet green plant material. If smoke is seen coming from the hole instead of steam, then a little water is doused upon the plant material. Tubers such as daylily roots or cattail roots can be cooked alongside the shellfish along with edible greens.

Boiling

Boiling a good stew without even a pot to put on a fire seems somewhat impossible, but it is not. You can actually boil your food without a metal pot, if you know how. This requires time, effort, and patience. One of two things must be acquired or built. Either you have to manufacture a wooden bowl or you must kill and animal and carefully remove its hide without punching or nicking any holes in the center.

Either way, you are making a heat resistant and waterproof bowl. The hide bowl is not so obvious in its construction. The hide is cleaned and carefully scraped of all flesh and fat, but the fur can be left on the outside of the pelt. Using the hide in this manner will destroy it for further use anyway. A small hole is dug in which the hide is laid, fur side down. The size of the hole should match the hide, making a hole as deep as the hide will allow. For a rabbit or squirrel hide, a very small hole is needed, where a deer hide can fill far too large of a hole and therefore must be cut.

The bowl is filled to within an inch or two from the top with water, tubers, greens, fruits, and meat. A fire is made and several small, inch and a half to two inch rocks are heated in the fire, placed directly into the red hot coals. Two green sticks are used as tongs to lift one extremely hot stone from the fire after it has been heating for a while, and the stone is then set in the bowl. The hot stone rapidly boils the water. After the water quits boiling the stone is removed and returned to the fire. Another hot stone is removed from the fire and added to the bowl, returning the water in the boil to a rolling boil.

Using the hide method can be one way to quickly make a stew or soup after a successful hunt. However, with a small hide such as comes from a rabbit, several batches have to be made to make a full meal. It is impossible to do in quantity with a small squirrel hide.

Pit Cooking

Pit cooking has to be my all-time favorite way to cook meat or tubers. Food cooked this way is tender, juicy, and full of flavor.

A deep hole is dug, at least one and one-half feet deep, and a fire is kindled within. Decent sized pieces of wood are added until a deep two inch thick bed of red hot coals is accumulated. A couple of handfuls of fresh dirt are spread over the coals, and this thin layer of dirt is covered with a thick layer of grass. Next, meat and/or tubers are placed upon the grass, and then covered with another thick layer of grass. A layer of branches is placed over the hole, and then the branches are covered with grass, and finally dirt. Any visible signs of smoke indicate a hole in the covering, and that spot is covered with another handful of dirt.

After a couple of hours the food is done, and the covering carefully removed. The grass is removed from the top, and the hot cooked meat below is ready to eat. Be prepared for a real treat.

5. Minimum Gear 4 Survival

The gear list required for survival is ultimately a combination of the knowledge and experience of the person in question.

Where I might require little or no gear to survive, someone else might require a full backpack.

However, even a nut does not willingly wish to go into the bush with nothing at all. Intentionally doing without drastically decreases a person’s chances of surviving, and I do not advise it at all.

The goal is to learn your wilderness skills thoroughly enough that items become just a nice addition, but essentially unnecessary to your over-all survival. Afterwards, when the gear is available your ability to use it is amplified, and you will not die if it becomes lost, used up, or broken.

Minimum Gear 4 Expert

- OSK (Use only in emergency)

- Ferrocerium Rod - Ferro Rod (Do not use unless necessary)

- Knife (any)

Minimum Gear 4 Experienced

- OSK (Use only when needed)

- Ferrocerium Rod - Ferro Rod (I suggest one from usaknifemaker dot com, 3/8” to 1/2” in diameter)

- Flint/Steel with charcloth

- Lighter (Do not use unless necessary)

- Knife (any)

- 20 feet paracord

- Emergency blanket

- Billy Can

- Compact book on edible plants

Minimum Gear 4 Inexperienced

- OSK (or other extensive but small survival type kit which fits securely on belt)

- Backpack

- Cooking kit

- 1 pound of dry rice, beans, or oatmeal (Do not use unless necessary)

- Water container (plastic liter bottle or canteen)

- Ferrocerium Rod - Ferro Rod

- Flint/Steel with Charcloth

- 2 Good quality lighters (1 in zip-loc bag in pack, other in pocket. Use only when necessary.)

- Knife (2 - Belt knife with 4" to 6" blade and a multi-tool)

- 100 feet paracord

- Emergency Blanket

- Billy Can

- Small 8X10 Tarp

- Compact Survival book (I advise the tiny SAS handbook by Wiseman)

- Compact Book on local edible plants

6.  Required Skills List

The skills listed below are representative of this section and should be both researched and practiced. Hands-on experience works hand in hand with knowledge to form a usable skill. Knowledge by itself is better than nothing, but will often prove itself to be not quite adequate. Hands-on experience without knowledge is a waste of your time. Most people learn ‘what, when, where, and how’ concerning a subject, and then skip the most important knowledge of why.

Do not make this mistake.

You will need knowledge and experience on:

1. Basic Hunting Knowledge and Experience

2. Basic Fishing  Knowledge and Experience

3. Stalking

4. Tracking

5. Edible Plant Knowledge and Identification Skills (Remember, limit it to about eight or ten or you will be swamped, and liable to make disastrous mistakes.)

6. Basic Flint Napping Skills (Just enough to make a usable knife or arrowhead. Nothing fancy.)

7. Primitive Tool Construction Skills

8. Woodcarving skills

9. Primitive Active Hunting Tool Knowledge (Start with the basic bundle bow and rabbit stick, and then progress from there.)

10. Primitive Passive Hunting Tool Knowledge (Learn at least three trap types and both a powered and unpowered snare type)

11. Primitive Fishing Tool Knowledge

12. Primitive Food Preservation Knowledge (Canning is not applicable here. Learn more about smoking, jerking, dehydrating,

13. Basic Cordage Fabrication Technique Knowledge (Learn the basic twist technique for string or rope, and then progress to the Flemish twist for bowstrings. Learn at least three local sources of strong natural fibers. Learn how to harvest, process, and use animal sinew, rawhide, and gut for fast and really strong cordage.)

14. Basic Camping Skills

15. Primitive Food Preparation Knowledge

16. Primitive Shelter Construction Knowledge

About the Author

A devoted and loving husband and father, Paul Andrulis has a long standing love of the outdoors combined with almost thirty years of outdoor experience in camping, hunting, fishing, and wilderness survival.

With a desire to share the knowledge accumulated through many years of practice, he has written numerous amateur how-to articles and stories, and is now bringing his outdoor knowledge and skill set to the general public.

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“Survival revolves around a number. 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. Everything about wilderness survival is aimed at that bulls-eye,” - Paul Andrulis

“Wilderness living is fun and rewarding. Wilderness survival sucks, as it is pure hardship and semi-starvation. The longer you are engaged in survival at any one time the greater the chances you will not actually survive. The goal in any emergency is to get from survival to living as fast as humanly possible. However, if you do not know how to survive in an emergency you won't have to worry about living anyway,” - Paul Andrulis