Survival Situation

[walkinghorse]

The AR 7 thread got me to wondering, Has anybody ever been in a survival situation where having firearm, emergency food supply, fire starter, space blanket, etc. Was required to survive?
Worst I have ever been in was missing a trail connection while horseback riding. Let the horse have his head and he figured out where his hay bag was and went there! Got back to camp closer to dark than intended, but not a survival situation.

 

[Fishinfool]

Not really survival situations per say, but twice I have spent unplanned nights in the woods while hunting up in Maine.

I carry a simple "survival" kit in my hunting day pack that allows me to start a fire, purify water, a tin foil space blanket, some high energy snack bars, and some other odds and ends that all fit in a gallon zip lock bag.

Makes an uncomfortable night bearable, and could be a life saver if the weather turns, or you are injured.

I learned a long time ago that a short walk in the woods doesn't always work out that way.

Larry

 

[llowry61]

Fortunately, no ! But then again, it is a bit hard to get too turned around in Ohio. You really couldn't walk more that a mile in any direction without hitting a road or house in most cases.

 

[Jon651]

During my lifetime, all of my survival situations have come from either firefighting, scuba diving, motorcycle riding or dealing with my chronic health issues. In none of those instances would any of the items on your list been of any value.

 

[Faulkner]

I don't really consider myself a prepper, but I do keep a fully loaded back pack in my car anytime I leave the county I live in. I use the assumption that I might have to walk back.

This is a pretty good reference book to start with if you ever thought about keeping a go bag handy.

 

[BB57]

I grew up in western SD and no one with a lick of sense drives around in the wide open spaces there in the winter without a survival kit of some kind in the vehicle. I reactivated my survival kit when I moved to MN to direct a program there a few years ago as it involved traveling around the state to 56 offices as far north as international falls.

That kit has air force surplus winter survival boots, heavy gloves and mittens, hand and foot warmers, a sleeping bag, a couple paint can (alcohol and toilet paper) stoves, an MSR feather light stove and fuel bottle, fire starting equipment, space blankets, a week's worth of MREs, a signal mirror, dye markers, a collapsible snow shovel, an aviation handheld radio and a roll of duct tape.

When appropriate I add a portable saw, 550 cord, a back packing tent, snow shoes, a water proof mil surplus flare case with about 500 rounds of .22 LR in it, a survival rifle - either an M6 or more likely a 9422 in a take down case - and the duffle gets swapped out for a soft frame backpack.

——

That same kit goes in the back of my Citabria or Pacer if I am flying anywhere where I couldn't walk to the nearest habitation in a very short time and or where a crash or forced landing migh not be noticed.

I also have a full trauma kit in each aircraft plus another in my truck.

——

The closest I've come to needing a survival kit was on a back country cross country ski trip where we were 11 miles from the nearest habitation or shelter in about 4 ft of powder with deteriorating weather when my wife broke one of her ski bindings.

We swapped skis and I used duct tape to keep the broken binding ski on my boot and we skied out. Option two would have been using the back up snow shoes to walk out. However that would have also involved staying out over night in the worsening weather.

 

[SAFireman]

Yes, I had to stay at a Motel 6 once




Seriously, no.....but some close calls when I was younger.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I'm covered:

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I started country living in 4th grade, my parents demanded we have a winter survival kit in the car, year round! If it gets you through a winter night, it will get you through any night! I have added a Savage 24C 22/20 O/U, with 40 assorted 20 gauge and 200 CCI Mini-Mags & accessories to the kit. There is a roll of quarters in every kit in the family. It is above all $10, it works a pay phone (If you can find one!) it works vending machines. There is also an assortment of batteries; AA, AAA, CR 123, & CR 3032, as well as a flashlight or 2, and a weather radio.

Did I ever NEED any of this? Not really! Did I ever use any of this? Usually 2 or 3 times a warm season. Resupply ASAP after usage!

Ivan

 

[30-30remchester]

There has been so many many times I needed every "tool" I owned and a few more just to get me out of the "pickle" I was in at the time. On many occasions there were days with multiple "pickles". Many of the situations were life endangering or in risk of major injury. The profession I was in had a 10 times more likely to die incidents than being a police officer and a hundred times more likely to get badly injured. Just the way it was. So often went to work a 12 hour shift and didn't return for a day or two. Once it was 3 days before I got to go to bed. It that survival? I had to swim for my life twice, both times my wife was nearly a widow. A runaway Peterbuilt took me down a mountain pass in speeds that made me get religion. I am not sure if the steering wheel had finger groves when I started down the pass but it sure had them when I got to the bottom. I had to pull my gun on 2 occasions when dealing with other 2 legged predators and on several occasions when dealing with 4 legged critters. I am always prepared so when a situation arises it is not that big of a deal. Just another adventure.

 

[MRB1]

I've carried some sort of survival kit in my cars or truck since the Cuban Missile crisis. Nothing fancy, and easily refurbished. Thankfully, there hasn't ever been a need for it, but it's there just in case.

 

[vonn]

Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Add 10 more "Likes"

Ivan

 

[30-30remchester]

Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

What VONN quoted is at the heart of this tread as I see it. A true example just happened to a friend. He and his wife are older and in horrible shape. While visiting a very remote cabin, the lost their only set of truck keys. After several days they had no option but to walk the 45 miles back home. Fortunately they were seen and given a ride home by an off road rider. I myself have 3 sets of extra keys in every vehicle. Two hidden outside and one set inside. So when that happens to me, the lost keys, in less than 1 minute there is no survival situation as my friends had. So many people never own or load their guns till a burglars is inside their bedroom with them. So many never put gas in their cars till it is empty or have ready cash at hand till the need is upon them. Watch how many people look for plywood, water, batteries and food only after the hurricane is upon them. As politically incorrect it is to call people names, I have a word for such people. I call them by the name their inaction has bestowed upon them. I call them "victims". I am always prepared for anything so I stay out of these situations. When I get into pickles, often it is work in dangerous jobs but often I enter into survival situations by my own hubris and non thinking. From crawling into a bear den with a wounded bear, to falling through ice while fishing, to going over a cliff on a snow machine. I have ran for my life from bears and moose and been knocked cold on 4 occasions. Good times.

 

[squidsix]

I teach survival for a living.
The young guys love to spend money on fancy gear. The older dudes know the difference between the "best" gear and the "right" gear.
I have gone to the proper wilderness, and had mishaps that would surely have ended my life if it were not for a few pieces of specific kit.
I am no gear guy, but I am never without a few specific things. They have saved my bacon.

 

[Rustyt1953]

We live in the middle of 2.4 million people so help is never far away. We do keep a backpack in the car with two vacuum packed blankets (in case we break down in winter), a first aid kit and two flashlights.

Dad used to keep two army blankets, a flashlight, a Popeil Pocket Fisherman, a hatchet, sealed matches and a bag of Fritos (they make excellent fire starters) in his trunk.

 

[us2]

We did several escape and evasion training in the military 73 hr. Did one 5 day survival training in the Uhwarrie Forest, good stuff!!

 

[mtgianni]

I have spent two nights in the woods with out gear. I lost a few pounds but lived through it. My brother used to lead Boy Scouts into the woods for 2 days with only what they had carried in their pockets for two weeks. He wasn't above driving to their house and having them pull out what they were packing either.
I have camped for a few days with out any food just foraging. Again, I did OK, my wife would not do so. I did pack a 357 and had a 22 lr in the truck. I ate a whole lot better with the fishing pole than the pistol though I did kill the grouse I shot. [Legal in MT at the time and now].

 

[snuffy51]

Don't leave your gun in the truck or break a leg when you go to the woods or downtown Memphis.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I have attended 3 Survival Schools.
Basic, Water, and Jungle.
Liked Jungle the best.
That was over in the Philippines and the locals, the Negritos chased us around.

 

[Llance]

Yes but it was not a pleasant experience that I'd rathe not share as the memories are not something which makes pleasant writing or reading.

 

[Step N. Mud]

I wasn't lost, but a little confused about 20 years ago while visiting the boss's deer camp out side of Eagle Pass, Tx.
Took off on a morning hike with a canteen full of water and a 45 Colt single action. Walking towards the mountains in Mexico some 30 miles away and not aware of the ground gently going into a depression with small mesquite trees all around. After an hour of hiking, I found that I was not exactly sure of where the off grid camp cabin was and could not see it's location due to the lower elevation. Had the distant mountains for a reference point and back tracked my self a far as I could, but then everything started looking the same. Small mesquite trees where about the only vegetation and now about 12:00 and the sun directly overhead. I knew I couldn't be more that a mile or two from the cabin, but just could not pin point it. After another hour, I finally found my way back to the cabin and the boss was working around the camp and saw me and asked 'doing a little walk around?' I replied yeah but longer than what I had first intended.

 

[Onomea]

I teach survival for a living.
The young guys love to spend money on fancy gear. The older dudes know the difference between the "best" gear and the "right" gear.
I have gone to the proper wilderness, and had mishaps that would surely have ended my life if it were not for a few pieces of specific kit.
I am no gear guy, but I am never without a few specific things. They have saved my bacon.

What are the few specific things, Squidsix?

 

[squidsix]

It seems so silly, calling out specific items. But here it is:
Mora fixed blade knife
Pocket Boy folding saw.
Strike Force fire starter
Heavy duty space blanket
Sawyer life straw
550 cord
Small assortment of fish hooks

 

[peyton]

Four of us went on a hunting canoe trip in Alaska. We planned well, packed canoes and off we go. A half mile down stream there is a submerged damn and one canoe goes over dumping my two friends and there stuff into the river.
I was in the second canoe an my buddy and I managed to stop before going the damn as well.
You got to know where this is going, our two friends that are sopping wet were to big for our clothes!!
We were preparing about fire starting and food.
Anyway we survived but learned valuable lesson in making sure to spread out and secure cargo better. Oh, there is a beautiful Husqvarna rifle downstream still.
As bad as it was we were lucky that both canoes didn't get sunk.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I was standing on the Rim looking down at the Beautiful Colorado Horseshoe.
I Dude walks up and says, there's an expensive Canon Lens down there.
Really!
Yes, I dropped it when I was here last year.
He came all the way from Belgium to drop a $1,500 Lens into the Colorado.
There's lots of expensive stuff dropped all over, apparently.

 

[Chief Wiggums]

Fortunately, no ! But then again, it is a bit hard to get too turned around in Ohio. You really couldn't walk more that a mile in any direction without hitting a road or house in most cases.

fellow Central Ohio resident here.....

if you get lost in the woods simply yell out.....

"O H " you will get a reply

 

[Bajadoc]

All of the usual survival stuff is good to have but the most important survival tool is communications. Where ever you go, what ever you do, prioritize communications. If you have communications you have a good shot at survival in almost any case. This used to be a big deal. Now it is much simpler with cell phones. I have the simplest flip phone you can get. But, when we are camping and hiking in the woods, my wife has her fancy cell phone with all of the bells and whistles. Cell and GPS coverage is amazing, don't leave home without it. I still like to have my trusty Model 13 though.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

In my environment, one needs more patience than anything else.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Made the mistake of taking a day-long mid-summer hike around the "Devils Kitchen" of Canyonlands National Park, underestimating the insane mid-day radiant heat off the red rock.
Only mad dogs and Englishmen ....
Had 1.5 gallons of water each, and it almost wasn't enough once the afternoon sun kicked in and heated up the red rock.