Survival/camping tricks

wanted to kick off this new forum with a kind of "game". you give a little trick you learned or would like to know about, and someone else who knows about the trick can explain it and can show you how to properly do it.

ill start it off with the "remaining time in the day" trick. they say you can find out how many hours are in the day by the distance of the sun to the horizon by your hand. what you do is put your hand under the sun, and how many hands to the peak of the horizon is how many hours you have left in the day (EX. at 3:00PM it should be about 2-3 hands till the horizon giving you 2-3 hours left of daylight)

You should never go anywhere without at least three ways to start a fire.

You can go days without water and weeks without food. In some situations you could be dead in a matter of five minutes without fire.

My fire making kits is a small waterproof plastic box. You can get these at any place that sells canoeing, kayaking, or rafting stuff. Waterproof is the important part!

Inside this waterproof box is the following:

1 x Credit card sized Fresnel lens - A powerful magnifying lens that will burn things QUICKLY on a moderately sunny day.

2 x Disposable Bic Lighters - this is self explanatory.

1 x Stormproof survival matches - matches that will light and stay lit in windy and rainy conditions. These are a must.

1 x Swedish fire steel - a small metal fire starter.

1 x Magnesium fire starter - a magnesium bar with a flint striker. It burns SO HOT that it will catch the most stubborn tinder on fire.

1 x Esbit solid fuel tablets.

1 x small jar filled with vaseline covered cotton balls. This is one of the BEST tinder materials around!

Keep in mind that all of this fits into a container the size of a pencil box. You should NEVER EVER go anywhere without this.

Id personally replace the bics with a storm proof butane lighter. More reliable and most have something else built in as well (like an LED, mirror etc)

Originally Posted by Utta

Id personally replace the bics with a storm proof butane lighter. More reliable and most have something else built in as well (like an LED, mirror etc)

You can do that if you want to. I try to keep all of the components of my supplies as inexpensive as possible, however if you have the disposable income a storm proof lighter is a nice touch.

Originally Posted by ratkingrodents

You should never go anywhere without at least three ways to start a fire.

You can go days without water and weeks without food. In some situations you could be dead in a matter of five minutes without fire.

My fire making kits is a small waterproof plastic box. You can get these at any place that sells canoeing, kayaking, or rafting stuff. Waterproof is the important part!

Inside this waterproof box is the following:

1 x Credit card sized Fresnel lens - A powerful magnifying lens that will burn things QUICKLY on a moderately sunny day.

2 x Disposable Bic Lighters - this is self explanatory.

1 x Stormproof survival matches - matches that will light and stay lit in windy and rainy conditions. These are a must.

1 x Swedish fire steel - a small metal fire starter.

1 x Magnesium fire starter - a magnesium bar with a flint striker. It burns SO HOT that it will catch the most stubborn tinder on fire.

1 x Esbit solid fuel tablets.

1 x small jar filled with vaseline covered cotton balls. This is one of the BEST tinder materials around!

Keep in mind that all of this fits into a container the size of a pencil box. You should NEVER EVER go anywhere without this.

and with the bolded, some are so extreme, that once lit, you can fully submerse them under water and they wont go out for a little while. (i know for a fact that the ones from REI will last fully submerged for at LEAST 10 seconds, maybe longer.)

um.. not sure if this is real.. but I think it is a good idea to know poo.. LOL

example..

a few years ago my hubby and I went for a nice hike.. near a camp ground.. we came across a fresh steaming pile of poo.. he walked around it, thinking nothing of it.. when I stopped and said I thought it was bear poo..

we looked at it.. we agreed that it was bear poo.. .. it was.. still fresh.. but we kept walking..

got up around the next corner.. and we found bear cubs... not 30 feet ahead of us.. looking at us.. but no mom..

we backed away slowly, and all was fine..

but you never know *shrugs*

in North America (or I should say northern latitudes), moss tends to grow most abundantly on the north side of trees and rocks, a handy tip if you are lost and trying to get your directions on a cloudy day.

(something remembered from girl scouts)

Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

in North America (or I should say northern latitudes), moss tends to grow most abundantly on the north side of trees and rocks, a handy tip if you are lost and trying to get your directions on a cloudy day.

(something remembered from girl scouts)

Sad to say, that's only true some of the time. Better way to get your bearings is to use a small piece of wire, a cup shaped leaf and a small poctet of water. You can statically charge the wire, place the leaf in the water before hand/during and after a few min of you charging the wire, gently drop it in the leaf.

You now know magnetic north and south. This combined with where the sun rises, or any other directional que will help guide you better.

if you're running low on saliva and don't have water/want to preserve the water, you can use a small round peddle. simply place it on your tongue and roll it around like a tic tac. (don't swallow lol) it'll give you a nice amount of saliva and once you spit all the dirt out it wont taste half bad either

Originally Posted by Miss Tuniwha

um.. not sure if this is real.. but I think it is a good idea to know poo.. LOL

example..

a few years ago my hubby and I went for a nice hike.. near a camp ground.. we came across a fresh steaming pile of poo.. he walked around it, thinking nothing of it.. when I stopped and said I thought it was bear poo..

we looked at it.. we agreed that it was bear poo.. .. it was.. still fresh.. but we kept walking..

got up around the next corner.. and we found bear cubs... not 30 feet ahead of us.. looking at us.. but no mom..

we backed away slowly, and all was fine..

but you never know *shrugs*

knowing scat is just as important as knowing tracks.

ive been looking for a good scat/track field book, anyone have any suggestions?