TRIGGER WARNING: The following may contain graphic descriptions and unspoilered bad language.
First and foremost, this is a work-in-progress. It will be periodically updated. If you have anything to contribute, please let me know and I will add it to the list with a citation of both you and your source.
Hey Bay, I am an amateur camper, survivalist, (boy) scout and hunter and I thought I'd share a few tips with you in case you ever need to escape to the wilds for any reason. I understand that it is possible that this guide could be used for illicit purposes and will not be liable for the use of my guide. I am not responsible for any injury to yourself or others which come from this guide.
I have gathered these tips from Scouts, experience in hunting and trapping, and camping. I have "bugged out" in the past and I picked up many tips while I was alone in the Australian bush.
Where to start? The human body needs three things (actually four, but one of these cannot be helped if you need to bug out) in order to survive.
1: Food. Without food, you starve. This should be a given. You can survive about a month without food. [Bear Grylls]
2: Water. Without water, you become dehydrated and die (more on this later). You can survive roughly 3 days without water. [Bear Grylls]
3: Shelter. Without shelter, you will die from either the climate or the wildlife. You can freeze to death in most climates, and others will burn you. [Bear Grylls]
4. Interaction. Human beings are social creatures. If you need to get away from somewhere, you won't have this necessity. Within a month of no interaction, you will start to lose your mind. More on this later [Citation needed]
Now, if you need to "bug out", it pays TREMENDOUSLY to be prepared. Especially with regards to the small things which aren't obvious, such as a pencil sharpener (more on this later). An 'essential' survival kit should be something that can be easily stored and retrieved, such as a backpack. You can buy pre-packaged survival kits from various sites, but nothing beats something you assemble yourself. Commercial products often overlook the small things which can turn out to save your life. If you live in an urban area, it's best to have this be something which doesn't draw attention to you escaping.
Belts can store a surprising amount of stuff. The legality of storing certain things on one is questionable depending on where you live, but that’s a moot point. On my belt, I carry a Leatherman or Bahco multitool at all times. For those not in the know, a Leatherman is the ‘industrial-strength’ Swiss Army Knife. If I have the excuse of ‘going hunting’ ready (More on this later) then I will also have two or three more knives on my belt, clearly visible (it’s illegal to conceal a blade in Australia, but no mention of unconcealed blades). Total knives:
- Leatherman
- Skinning
- Hunting knife. Bowie knives are bae for this.
- Kitchen knife. Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but it’s certainly better than using the Bowie, Skinning knife or Leatherman for cooking purposes.
I have a backpack. Lots of people wear backpacks. Backpacks are ideal. In my survival backpack, I have a small, rectangular survival tin (I have a feeling a tree hierarchy diagram is coming) in the front pocket of the backpack.
The tin itself is about 8cm wide by 15cm long by 2cm high. Inside, I have a swiss army knife on the left. Swiss army knives (henceforth SAK) are wonderful things for reasons that should be obvious. I got a high-end model for my 18th birthday. Sitting next to the SAK is a box of matches (waterproofing nor required, but it wouldn’t hurt) and a box of needle & thread. A handkerchief is there, too, to prevent rudimentary smoke inhalation. The head of a fair-sized magnifying glass to use when studying a fire. A compass is also present. There is still space in there for other stuff such as fish-hooks or arrowheads or a second SAK (seriously, I cannot stress how useful those things are, even with my Leatherman on me at all times). I put a pencil sharpener in there not too long ago.
- SAK x2: Duh. Get a good model.
- Matches: Duh. In this case, less is certainly not more. More is more. Try and conserve these.
- Needle & thread:It is worth investing some money into good quality for this. Absolutely worth it. Strong thread is paramount for a good repair job.
- Handkerchief: Not much to say about these. I’ve never once used them for their intended purpose of blowing my nose. I have used them as a rudimentary smoke / gas filter. It sounds gross, but it does a decent job of filtering gasses when urinated on. Don’t ask.
- Magnifying glass: I cut the handle off mine for better storage. Any kindergarten kid knows how to start a fire with one. So should you.
- Fish-hooks: If you have some fishing line* in your kit somewhere (not in the tin cause that can take up space)
- Fishing line: Mentioning it here even though it’s not in the tin. As the name implies, use it with your fish hooks to fish. Catch worms for bait.
- Arrowheads: If you plan to use a bow to hunt, it pays to have some spare sharp heads. I also keep a spare nock with the heads.
- Pencil sharpener: I bet you were wondering what this was about. For the love of whatever deity(-y +ies) you believe in, get a quality metal one. I don’t halfass what I buy and got a solid steel case with a titanium-alloy blade. Why do you need a pencil sharpener? Get a stick, sharpen stick. Rudimentary spear or trap component. Wood shavings start fires really well, as it happens.
Anyway. We have our belt, out bag and our tin. You should have at least a SAK, and I strongly recommend buying a hunting knife and a kitchen knife. What else do we need? So far, we’ve got a few ways to start a fire. More equipment not in the tin because of size concerns include pantyhose to strain water, a THIN tarp (if a tarp is not extremely thin it will take up a lot of space), some lengths of twine (8 lengths of baling twine for me), [more to come].
Warm clothes are also important. My bug out bag sits on top of a great big thick jacket which can double as a blanket.
We still need solid shelter, a water source and reliable food influx (if you can’t fish, that is).
Let’s start with the most immediate concern. Water. Yes, not having shelter will kill you faster than not having water, but setting up camp a few kilometers away from the closest drinkable water is equally devastating. Rivers are good for this. If you set up by a river, you have access to (hopefully) clean water (boil it anyway) and fish. Rivers are not the be-all and end-all of spots though, there are plenty of ways to extract water from plants, such as tying a plastic bag around a clump of leaves and letting the leaves sweat.
Your next concern should be shelter. Yes, your stomach may be growling, but it has to wait. This next bit is lewd, but if you ever get distracted by food while you get to work on your shelter, think about sex. Same with needing to pee; think about sex and it’ll become less of a problem. How to build a shelter will vary greatly with where you live. Palm fronds make great shelter; you can interweave the leaves and overlap the fans like roof tiles to waterproof a large area quickly. An almost universal shelter can be made by digging a hole and resting branches in a teepee (I found 6-8 branches suffice) around it, then meshing sticks and leaves and whatever you can find so that any water will go out rather than in.
If you brought a tarp, you can secure one edge of the tarp to the ground with rocks and prop the opposite edge up with sticks or tie the corners to trees to make a basic tent. You can even fold the bottom edge of the tarp inwards for something to sleep on.
NOW you have the issue of food. Food is an extremely complex aspect of survival.
There are three main ways to get food. Hunting and trapping and fishing. I will be brief with this part as there are other extensive guides out there.
Have a weapon available for when you bug out. I have multiple bows and live in a rural area, so no-one’s going to turn their head if they see me (bows are completely legal and commonplace where I live). I hate firearms as a survival tool; not only are they loud (and scare away everything except what you hit), but they’re limited, they’re clunky and expensive and you have to keep a track of ammo. Yes, they are EXCEPTIONALLY good at hunting, but once you run out of ammo what are you going to do?
Whatever weapon you take, make sure you make the kill as clean and humane as possible. There are laws on animal cruelty which apply even in a survival situation, and there is no reason to prolong an animal’s suffering. That said, in a survival situation, your life comes before that of a coote fwuffy wabbit; don’t feel bad if you kill them or if you need to cut its throat because the first shot didn’t kill it.
And now, ironically after the spiel on animal cruelty, comes a spiel on trapping. I love trapping, personally. There are four kinds of traps - Mangle, Tangle, Dangle and Strangle. A mangle trap will cause grievous bodily harm to the target, killing it. A tangle trap will catch an animal passing through for you (or another trap) to kill. A dangle trap will suspend the animal high in the air away from scavengers. A strangle trap is self-explanatory. These traps are best used in a combination. You may want to tangle a rabbit so that a deadfall doesn’t miss. A dangle trap may hoist the animal into the air while it chokes from a strangle trap. Again, animal cruelty is a thing. A strangle trap may get the leg rather than the neck of a rabbit. This is somewhat unavoidable. I never use tangle traps without a way for them to then be culled humanely. I have once got a fox which died over six hours from blood loss after a spike got its leg. I have had to snap the necks of rabbits who had been trapped under a deadfall for four hours. At the end of the day, your life means more than their suffering. Learn from failed traps. If an animal gets out of a trap wounded, follow the blood trail and euthanise it.
Unless you’re somewhere with bears, your traps are not going to need to bring down human-sized targets. Size your traps appropriately.
COMING SOON: Fires
EDIT 1: Added trigger warning
EDIT 2: Fixed whitespace
Author
Topic: "Bugging out" / survival guide (Read 1436 times)