Survivalist Answers Survival Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED
I'm Donnie dust survivalist and primitive skills expert I'm here today to answer your questions from the internet this is survivalist [Music] support question number one CDN Pooh Bear why do survivalist say to drink your urine If lost in the wild no thanks you're absolutely right no thanks do not drink your urine it is a waste output it is the waste from your body the last thing you want to do is drink your your urine it is a bad idea to do next question is from a survivalists how do you navigate without a compass or GPS there are a number of ways that you can apply some natural navigation anytime we see a crescent moon just like the tattoo on my hand is a crescent when you're in the Northern Hemisphere and you see a crescent moon in the sky if you follow tip to tip all the way down to the Horizon that is a cardinal direction of South when you see puddles puddles will typically dry from a southern Edge to a northern Edge because the sun moves through the sky in a certain direction if you see snow on certain Mountain edges well snow likes to be protected typically snow will last longer on a northern side compared to a southern side we've all heard this saying about moss only grows on the north side of a tree well Moss will grow 360° around a tree but dry moss will typically die out first compared to a wet moss and the dry moss is Dyer because it's getting hit by the sun even looking at trees all trees tree branches will have a natural Bend towards the Sun that can be a cardinal direction so if you take multiple natural signs and indicators of a direction compile them together that can give you a cardinal direction when you don't have a map or a GPS from at life math and money what does it mean to die by exposure when you die from exposure it means simply that the elements are going to kill you that could be sun that could be cold weather that could be rain it could be anything that's out in that natural environment in the form of weather when you don't have a shelter or the proper clothing you are essentially exposed to it whether it's your bare skin or improper Footwear or even maybe a beanie not covering your head exposure will kill you fast question from Reddit is it possible to make a knife out of wilderness materials you can definitely make a knife out of wilderness material the easiest way to make a knife out of wilderness material is a process called Flint napping or lithic reduction what it requires is a piece of stone that is high in silicate and when it breaks it breaks similar to Glass it has a waxy glassy smooth and featuress sort of interior not all stones are the same this right here is a granite Cobble this here is a piece of chir it has a high silicate rate and when I strike it with the Cobble it's going to create essentially a razor blade flake that I can use to process all manner of game cut fibers cut notches and fireboard I'm going to support my stone underneath few little taps and that right there is your knife this Edge is razor sharp it can cut just about anything so even cutting a piece of bar tan leather it's razor sharp when you hear it it's got a little Ting the reason why this works so well is that it breaks in a conqual fracture so if you ever shot in a BB at a windshield it creates a perfect 90° cone with every strike I can impact and more importantly create the blade that I want if I hit it harder I get a bigger flake if I hit it softer I get a smaller flake I can then take this small flake turn it into a projectile point to hunt game I can take this bigger flake and turn it into a stone knife that I can use for any number of tasks when I'm out in the bush next question Sherry C how does one keep good dental hygiene as a survivalist or primitive survivalist what I do when I'm out in the bush is I use something called Willow Willow is a plant that typically grows near water you can take any section of Willow at any diameter and what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to peel the bark off don't throw away this bark because this can also be used as aspirin in case you get a headache or you're not feeling so hot peel the bark off like a banana pop it in your mouth and you're going chew it with your mullers you're twisting you're rotating and ultimately you'll create a little paintbrush of fibers take those fibers start scrubbing your teeth I never bring a toothbrush with me when I know I have willow naratic cavity this question is from on the gorge can you start a campfire without matches or a lighter how do you do it one of the more scientific or what I like to call High-Tech ways is something called a ferum rod a ferum rod is a synthetic made Rod it's man-made you can't find it naturally in the environment they can reach an excess of around 5,500 de and most fires like a Tinder bundle or even a small little Ember is between 6 and 800° another option is through friction that's my personal favorite you can use something like a bow drill or a hand drill and that is where you are using the friction between two different types of wood to create enough heat more importantly enough dust that has been drilled out from one of the spindles to create a small little Ember that you drop into a Tinder bundle blow it into flame and you got a fire so I'm going to use this is a little platform and I have some juniper bark let me use as a Tinder and I'm going to rub it between my hands this is a fibrous bark what I want to do is I want to create a little bird's nest I want to try and open these fibers up as much as possible to give them a little bit more surface area so I wash it over my rock can kind of see the bark just gently breaking up going to put that right on top of my rock like this Ferro rod and the striker on my Striker I have a little lip and it's going to allow me to throw Sparks into my Tinder bundle I'm going to take my Ferro Rod place it into my Tinder bundle and I'm going to create my fire let it eat the fuel let it eat the Tinder this is where I would add all my wood and I've got a fire so the last form of fire is fire by friction specifically a bow drill this is a bow with a piece of cordage a spindle and a hearth board and last I'm going to have a bearing block which is a rock with a small little divot to give me downward pressure I'm going to combine all of these elements together by taking my spindle putting it in between my cordage and putting my bearing block right on the top start bowing until I get enough heat rotation and black dust to create a small take this coal drop it in your Tinder bundle blow it into flame and you've got a fire this is from Ray kleene you know beaver fever is a real thing my dad beaver fever is definitely a real thing but beaver fever is kind of a slang term or kind of a code term for you getting infected by some sort of waterborne pathogen gerardia cryptosporidium and even hepatitis can be found in some sort of natural Waters this is from Joe Patrick 85 what should you do if a grizzly bear attacks if you do find yourself being attacked the best thing to do is curl up in a ball protect the back of your head and your neck cuz that is the kill spot for a grizzly bear that's where it's going to try and take out its prey by snapping that neck suffocating it just doing all sorts of damage to whatever portion of your body is exposed however it's more about the prevention of a grizzly bear attacking understand what's going on in that natural environment is it a cing season are the fish running is it the time right before these bear are getting ready to Dent up and they're they're very hungry and they're they're kind of aggressive understand that environment and the factors that could attribute to a grizzly bear attack and ultimately you can reduce it if there is a chance that a bear is running at you and he's coming full steam ahead most bear attacks are something called Bluff charges they're looking to scare you off or looking to scare you out of an area it doesn't mean they're going to come full force and start taking you down and tearing you to pieces they're just bluffing but that bluff can be very very close the best thing that you can do to let those those animals know you're in the environment is to be loud to be kind of in their Vision if you will and their first vision is really smell so if they can smell you coming they can hear you coming they're ultimately going to kind of flee that area bear spray is an option carrying some Bells around your dog's neck or even around your own wrists or ankles will give just enough sound to let those Predators know that you're in the area and you really don't want to be messed with next question why are there so many types of knots there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of knots but I will say this there's only really kind of in my mind four categories of knots it's an end of the rope knot a middle of the rope knot an anchor knot and then a knot that would join two ropes together an end of the rope knot can also serve as an anchor knot something like a bow line allows me to take a piece of material the rope and create a knot at the end that can be used for any number of things whether I got to hook some sort of Carabiner on here throw this over a tree and then lower a bag of food to protect myself from bears but this right here is a knot that goes at the end of my rope more importantly this is something I could use to repel out of a Hilo or repel off the side of a cliff a middle of the rope knot is where I need to put a knot in the middle of the Rope even doing something like a butterfly or an Alpine hitch allows me to take my knot and put it in the middle I could have somebody tied off to this side somebody clipped in here and somebody trailing off to this side the last knot when I want to connect two pieces of cordage together something like a square knot allows me to take two ends and know that I can secure those two ends together and take a shortened length of rope and extend it out by connecting two ends together next question is from vinvin what's the most nutritious insect the most nutritious insect is the one that catches a fish if you are finding a insects that can ultimately catch a fish or catch something else that's going to lead to a bigger better meal more calories more fat I would go there but if I have to eat some insects and if you do have to eat some insects I do think you suck at your job that's just my personal opinion but I would definitely go with either grasshoppers or crickets because they are relatively easy to catch they're pretty good to eat they're not the worst thing skewer it up squeeze the guts out roast it over fire ensure you kill all the parasites whatever could be growing on that inside pop it in your mouth and it tastes like popcorn covered insects next question is from unstable employee does anyone know the best way to sharpen a machete there's a lot of different ways you can sharpen a machete and it's very similar to sharpening a knife my time in the jungles in Central America and in the Amazon my favorite thing to use was a rotten log with a handful of sand and I'd run that machete right back and forth across it creating a new Edge allowing me to chop next question is from Brett Patrick what are your top four essential survivalist tools and or weapons my core four things that I always bring out with me are what I call the core four that is a blade of some sort a barrier a bottle and an aspect of a burn or a fire making tool when we think of a blade that can come in the form of a a stone blade it can come in the form of a steel blade or it can even come in the form of an axe some sort of tool that allows you to process allows you to cut it allows you to take large material and break it down when I think of a barrier that could be a tarp it could be a blanket it could be a sleeping bag something that gives you a barrier from the natural environment something that's just going to enable you to stay warmer or stay shaded if necessary a bottle now it sounds kind of crazy but I'm talking about a single walled steel water bottle something that allows me to boil water in it more importantly carry water cuz water is not going to be everywhere so when I find a spot with water I want to boil it out and I want to be able to bring it with me if I have to leave a place and then fire your burn that is ultimately something that's going to give you an advantage when it comes to making a fire that could be the form of a ferah rod or a good Tinder bundle a lighter a tin full of matches but something that's going to allow you to make fire cuz fire if you're not experienced with making fire in the bush can be very difficult so give yourself that Advantage have a tool to make that fire and you'll be good with those core four this is from question answers is the water in a Wilderness Lake drinkable or not yes all water in Lakes streams rivers and ponds are drinkable however you need to purify that water and I'm not talking about filtering there's a difference between fil filtering water and purifying water when you filter water you're going to remove the particulates the grasses the leaves a little bit of dirt and debris when you purify the water you're ultimately killing all of the bacteria any of the little nasty things that could be living in that water the easiest way to do this is boiling water if you don't have the means of boiling water a filter is a great option A filter that is a commercial grade filter that will remove not only the particulates but the gerardia the cryptosporidium the beaver fever if you will it's going to remove all of those pathogens from the water making it safe to drink next question from Dutch Touch 9 how would you guys go about washing SL cleaning your clothes in the wild anytime I catch fish or process any game I always wash my clothes I don't want that smell I don't want that oil I don't want that fat on my clothes it's going to track Bears all sorts of little Vermin you want to avoid that strip yourself down find a stream grab a handful of sand or a coarse Rock and work it in into that clothing fiber you're looking to exfoliate all of that kind of saturated stuff that's on the clothing scrub it out wash rinse repeat do that two or three times air dry them out you'll definitely be good to go but if you do want something that has a little bit more of like antibacterial fighting or something that's more soapy there are plants something like a yucka or something like a sage that you can incorporate into that wash and get them a little bit cleaner smelling a little bit fresher take that yucka root smash it up it's going have a lot of saponin in it and it's going to be kind of a sudsy material Sage stick it in your pockets wash it with that sand that coarse rock in a stream and you're going to make your clothes a little bit fresher next question is from quora how do you treat common injuries or illness in the wild mostly weeds all the stuff you pick out of your yards those are some of the most beneficial for you even something like stinging nettle stinging nettle will sting you and what do you do with stinging nettle to get rid of that sting you take that same leaf that stung you roll it up in your fingers spit in your hand make a little spit pus and scrub those little needles out of your hand and you'll ease that pain something as simple as dandelion root something as simple as Yaro all those things can kill infections can kill bacteria inside of you so the medicinal plants it takes years of knowledge and a lot of experience to really get to know them but once you do know them there's endless opportunities most of the medicines that we have today typically derive from some sort of plant-based medicine hot update one does anyone know how to catch a rabbit how do I make a trap how do I bait it what to bait it with it's very very important to note primitive trapping in the United States is 100% illegal typically if you're going to be doing any sort of trapping you have to be in a no survival situation like food is a must and you're going through all those means to try to get some food if that is the case the best options are snares snares work in a variety of ways but the most simplest of snare is a wire snare or a small piece of cordage snare and what that is is really where you identify the path that an animal travels a path to its den a path to water a path to food and what you would do is create a small snare in that path why cuz that's the process and the route that that animal is traveling and a snare is essentially a small little noose that's hung off of a stick or tree that when the animal walks through its head is going to fit through but its shoulders are going to be be a little bit too wide and that noose is going to shrink down onto its head as it starts to move through or as it starts to run creating a super tight little noose around its head and ultimately it expires but here's the catch if you are in a survival situation and you do have to employ some sort of snare you have to be the first one to that animal once it's caught cuz an animal in distress a coyote a fox any sort of scavenger or Predator is going to key in on that sound and try and get to that animal before you do this is from apocalypse outdoor do life straws actually work I picked one up at the store today and I'm a little skeptical about using it though life straws are a great option essentially life straw is a giant straw that allows you to put the straw directly into the water and start drinking that straw has all the filtering mechanisms and purification mechanisms inside for you to suck up dirty water and ultimately consume safe clean drinkable water this is from serasoft how do you make a primitive fish trap primitive fish traps are a very popular way to catch fish the reason why it is a passive means of acquiring food a passive means like a fish trap allows you to be doing something else while it's working for you now there's a variety of fish traps from basket traps to fish wears to even spring pole snares that will trigger when a fish takes the bait the key difference is understanding what is required to set those up fish wears can come from logs and stones and that just allows the fish in a stream to kind of move into a trap and get stuck there you come over there later spear them throw them out on the bank with your hands and you've got a meal a basket trap is more like a funnel going with the stream it's going to swim into that basket trap ultimately getting trapped think about the traps and how many fish that they can catch a basket trap maybe two three or four a giant fishwear 20 or 30 and a spring Poole snare designed for catching fish maybe we'll get you one this is from Anon do you know how to survive falling through the ice most people quickly drown and the reason why is your body goes into what's called a cold water shock response as soon as your flesh touches that water you instantly want to breathe in you want to take a deep breath and when you do that you ultimately inhale water and quickly drown also people have a tendency even if they get their feet or even close to their knees wet they start to hyperventilate and it causes them to breathe erratically and in a higher elevation it can definitely lead to quickly passing out into that icy water and drowning if you do find yourself in water hold your breath come back up grab onto that edge create as much space as you can spread your body weight out and crawl across that ice until you can get to a piece of Solid Ground strip all your clothes off and try to create a fire take anything that's dry maybe somebody else has some clothing but you need to start rewarming yourself if you have none of those things exercise running in place jumping jacks push-ups whatever you can do to keep your body core temperature at a much higher level next question is from Tyler Arbuckle if an igloo is made of ice how does it keep you warm an igloo isn't technically made out of ice it's made out of snow and it's made out of kind of a specific type of snow a highly compacted snow more importantly snow is mostly air if you really think about it so essentially that snow is a great thermal layer being that it's mostly air once you create that IG shape and you crawl inside of it your body heat will ultimately heat up that entire Igloo a lot of the igloos you see on YouTube and different survival shows aren't really the 100% authentic igloos most Inu most n ofit or Eskimo igloos you would come across were typically lined with animal skins seal skins and Caribou skins to be exact and they were typically heated by something called a kudlick which is a small oil lamp essentially seal oil or seal fat that small kli heating the inside of the igloo along with the animal skins creates a pretty warm shelter next question is from Nicole aelion shelter is key to survival in the wilderness if you're in a pinch an old Cedar stump can make a great Shelter From the elements what are some other possible natural shelters you may find in the wilderness a free shelter is always the best shelter caves Rock overhangs large Boulder Fields where you have fixed immovable Boulders all of those can create a barrier from the wind or any of the elements more importantly it doesn't require you to make anything or to craft anything or cut anything down if it's there and it's safe to be in there that's a great shelter next question is from Willie Wonka the fearful when backpacking alone how do you combat loneliness loneliness is definitely a factor and I believe there's been some studies proving that about 3 months completely isolated and alone can lead to all sorts of mental issues we are primates and we typically like to stay together in small groups and small little bands but to combat loneliness you have to stay active you have to stay busy you always have to think about how can I improve upon my current situation if I have a shelter I have a fire I have a sustainable source of food how can I make that better keeping your mind occupied will ultimately help you battle out some of that loneliness next question is from Tony mahovich TV show vegetarian survivalists 10 vegetarians SL vegans are dropped into the Wilderness who will be the last plant-based eater to survive who will SU come to hunger for the flesh that's an interesting TV show to be honest with you but here's a fun fact I was a vegan for a year and a half based on a dare a buddy of mine dared me to only eat plant-based sort of materials for about 90 days I said sure why not but the one thing it taught me was the plants I could eat in the bush and let me tell you there's tons of them plants berries Roots you name it there's a variety of food options out there are they as calorically high compared to eating a squirrel or a possum or some sort of deer absolutely not but it will keep you alive it will keep you fed next question is from brilliant ratio 2412 what are the best animals to eat that are safest to consume in the wild with no parasites that you'd get not all animals have parasites um it's kind of a a myth there are certain animals that are scavengers or eat dead things are more likely to have parasites and have different sort of bacteria on their flesh in their flesh or on their fur you want to avoid those but squirrels rabbits possum elk deer moose all those sort of things are very safe to eat this is from history TV Canada if you were a contestant on a loan and you can only bring one item with you what item would you bring well ironically enough I was a contestant on alone up in the Canadian Arctic and I was afforded to bring 10 items but if I could only bring one item I would definitely bring an axe but an axe a big chopping tool to fell trees to build a shelter to cut firewood to make Spears all of that right there is essential with an axe this is from Reddit ask if you got lost hiking what's your best survival advice if you're ever lost when you're hiking you hear a lot of people say you should stay in place and I agree to that to a certain point what if you're on the side of a cliff or you're hanging on the edge of a flood plane the most important thing when you are lost is get to a safe location where you can find some form of shelter and then stay put once you're in that stay put situation you you need to start thinking about how I can signal for help and how you signal for help is anything that's going to give you contrasting colors movement and anything that's extremely loud so a whistle maybe waving a jacket High over your head the movement the color and the sound will ultimately allow a search and rescue a rescue plane any other additional hikers find you when you're lost in the bush that's all the questions I have received from the internet I hope you learn something and uh I'll see you in the bush
2024-04-25 05:08
