Has anyone actually been in a real life "survival" situation? If so what knife did you have and how did it work?

The only times I needed to survive in my life, I used my boxing and grappling. And, as others have stated, I have utilized serious healthcare when things out of my control get bad. I don't live in a forest fighting bears, nor do I ever expect to. If I buy a big knife, it's to make me feel cool when I chop down that annoying bush in the back yard.
 
Triton said:
Wow. So I've always wondered, did you just float the whole time, tread water or what? How exhausted were you.
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No, I swam my butt off to no avail most of the time. During noontime or so, I just dogpaddled because I didn't know which way to swim. After the sun moved enough, then I knew to swim east. I finally saw some seals that were quite puzzled seeing me out there. I started swimming NE like they were swimming and finally reached the shore around Huntington Beach somewhere, after dark.
I was exhausted! I was so exhausted that it was all that I could do just to crawl onto the sand with my hips and shoulders. I could not even lift up an arm or leg. Then I passed out for a few hours. When I awoke, I was able to get up and walk and I washed the salt off of me at a shower on the beach and drank a bunch of water from a water fountain. It was the most exhausted and hungriest that I have ever been. Luckily my friends were still waiting on me at Laguna Beach - they thought that I hooked up with a hot little momma.
I ate 2 double Jumbo Jack's with cheese, 2 large order of fries, and 2 large cokes - and I was still hungry!
Years later my wife would find me sitting in the living room in the dark in the middle of the night. Because when I thought about it, the adrenaline would keep me up all night.
At the time, I was a Marine that could run 5 miles and barely break a sweat. A regular guy would never be able to survive that.
 
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Boombats said:
Whoa... Laguna was my beach in the 80s too, and while I was never out that long I definitely got towed out a couple of times as a kid!
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I was just a country boy from Texas. I didn't know what was going on until I was swimming for nothing. It took me out fast.
 
The pattern that I see is that survival/emergency situations are unplanned or unexpected.
I don’t know of anyone who starts off their day or schedule with a good ole survival experience.
That’s why always being prepared to a minimum and having a mindset of expecting the unexpected is a good practice. You can’t always have what you need with you but making the best of what you have can be better if you keep with you some good items that don’t take up much room and are more capable for a variety of uses.
 
Lesknife said:
The pattern that I see is that survival/emergency situations are unplanned or unexpected.
I don’t know of anyone who starts off their day or schedule with a good ole survival experience.
That’s why always being prepared to a minimum and having a mindset of expecting the unexpected is a good practice. You can’t always have what you need with you but making the best of what you have can be better if you keep with you some good items that don’t take up much room and are more capable for a variety of uses.
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Yep! I never leave the house without a handgun, knives, compass, firestarter, flashlight, and multitool.
And I have 3 rules:
(1) Never go swimming if nobody else is in the water.
(2) Never go into the woods without a compass.
(3) Never go into bear country without bear spray.
 
It's all about mindset. Equipment is secondary, imho. (But equipment sure can be a great help.)

This is based upon years of mountaineering, backpacking, backcountry x-c skiing, and canoeing from the east to west coasts and Alaska...and 20+ years in law enforcement.

One never knows what they may encounter on any given day, having a can-do mindset is more than half the battle...again, imho.

None of us is the biggest, strongest, smartest, toughest, most capable against every sort of opponent or event we may face. Keeping a cool head and making good decisions...will usually win the day.
 
J85909266 said:
The only times I needed to survive in my life, I used my boxing and grappling.
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While on duty and in uniform I've had my share of encounters that have gone the same way, with a few going worse. Guys armed with knives are an incredibly serious threat, and dealt with accordingly and as needed. There is much less aggravation and paperwork when you can use "healing hands" on bad people, and a lifetime of martial arts, grappling, and a father who is a black belt in judo (among other things) usually means I can end things quickly.

On a side note, I talked with some cops who were instructors in LE and MIL knife stuff. They all commented that they had never fought someone in real life or training who was able to pull and open a folding knife once a fight started. That was a comment that stuck with me as these guys were legit.
 
Bastler said:
That's good, I'm glad to hear it. With the passing of time, I've grown to regret some of the resentments that I had towards my mother-in-law.
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There were things that I didn't like, but I learned at a young age that you just have to accept people the way they are sometimes.
 
I can think of a situation where a knife came in handy in a survival situation.

I was climbing with three others on Temple or East Temple Peak in the Wind River Range in WY.

Bad weather moved in, (this was July or August), and we got caught in a whiteout and lightning storm while ascending a rock face...most of the way toward the summit.

We had to retreat so we set up a belay point and rappel line. I went down first to a ledge and then called for others to follow. While this was going on, rockfall was coming down from where lightning may have hit the mountain and caused some good size pieces to come down our way.

Apparently the rockfall / and possibly friction on the ropes, (goldline at the time), caused a couple of the strands to be cut and so I ended up having to cut and splice the rope to enable my teammates to follow down.

It was a harrowing day, but no one was hurt...though there were a couple of significant close calls due to the rockfall and nearby lightning.
 
Triton said:
Details man, details...
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February, 1987. Delamar Valley, Nevada. Two weeks, on my own, with what I had on my back and in my pockets. A large Special Operations exercise. Used the butt of my knife to chip ice out of hollows in the rocks every morning, so I could melt the ice for my daily drinking water. Also used it to gather dry wood for my fire. Huntsman SAK was used for all the smaller utility needs during my stay. Dropped off by Huey at the beginning, and picked up by Huey at the finish. Delamar ghost town is luxurious after living in a cleft in the rocks in the side of a mesa for a week.
Ron
 
Stickgunner said:
While on duty and in uniform I've had my share of encounters that have gone the same way, with a few going worse. Guys armed with knives are an incredibly serious threat, and dealt with accordingly and as needed. There is much less aggravation and paperwork when you can use "healing hands" on bad people, and a lifetime of martial arts, grappling, and a father who is a black belt in judo (among other things) usually means I can end things quickly.

On a side note, I talked with some cops who were instructors in LE and MIL knife stuff. They all commented that they had never fought someone in real life or training who was able to pull and open a folding knife once a fight started. That was a comment that stuck with me as these guys were legit.
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Honestly, any time I have been confronted and attacked physically, and I'm just a civilian that trained martial arts a bit, so I see far less action, it never even occurred to me to pull out my knife. My mind immediately went to my boxing fundamentals and easy chokes like the rear naked or guillotine. But I'm also not trained in knife combat. I also wouldn't ever want to cut a person unless I thought me or someone else might be hurt or killed.
 
Mikel_24 said:
I have been in two situations I could consider survival situations. Both while climbing and well above treeline. In the first one the weather report was not accurate, we were carryng too heavy backpacks (and therefore moving slower than desired) and we ended up digging a snow cave at 4000m (Mont Blanc range). Not too bad as we even got some sleep. The second one was similar in the way that we got stranded in a crest (rock climbing this time) with the bare minimum... temps dropped and I ended up hugging and rubbing with my climbing partner way harder than with some girls I have slept with LOL. We made it out ok, albeit a tad hipothermic (both of us).

In the first situation, digging implements were much more critical than any knife (we used a proper aluminum shovel AND the cooking pot). In the second one I would have traded half of my knives for a sleeping bag or a biby bag or a couple of robust space blankets. I must say we did have a space blanket... but it was the flimsy kind... and the strong wind ripped it appart in no time. I have bought the heavier stronger ones since then.

So sorry, no knife involvement at all for me.

Mikel
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I've tried sleeping using heavy-duty space blankets in caves and was disappointed with how ineffective they seemed to be at trapping any heat. If i want something with more warmth but don't want to carry a full blown sleeping bag, I carry a down blanket (such as one from REI) which is lighter and packs down more compactly than a sleeping bag. Or just a down hood, down booties and Feathered Friends down vest.
 
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000Robert said:
No, I swam my butt off to no avail most of the time. During noontime or so, I just dogpaddled because I didn't know which way to swim. After the sun moved enough, then I knew to swim east. I finally saw some seals that were quite puzzled seeing me out there. I started swimming NE like they were swimming and finally reached the shore around Huntington Beach somewhere, after dark.
I was exhausted! I was so exhausted that it was all that I could do just to crawl onto the sand with my hips and shoulders. I could not even lift up an arm or leg. Then I passed out for a few hours. When I awoke, I was able to get up and walk and I washed the salt off of me at a shower on the beach and drank a bunch of water from a water fountain. It was the most exhausted and hungriest that I have ever been. Luckily my friends were still waiting on me at Laguna Beach - they thought that I hooked up with a hot little momma.
I ate 2 double Jumbo Jack's with cheese, 2 large order of fries, and 2 large cokes - and I was still hungry!
Years later my wife would find me sitting in the living room in the dark in the middle of the night. Because when I thought about it, the adrenaline would keep me up all night.
At the time, I was a Marine that could run 5 miles and barely break a sweat. A regular guy would never be able to survive that.
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Wow again. I consider myself to be in decent shape. I run a 10k at least once a week lift some weights etc. but swimming is exhausting (I am really bad at it). I would have been dead in 30 minutes. Much respect.
 
Ron53 said:
February, 1987. Delamar Valley, Nevada. Two weeks, on my own, with what I had on my back and in my pockets. A large Special Operations exercise. Used the butt of my knife to chip ice out of hollows in the rocks every morning, so I could melt the ice for my daily drinking water. Also used it to gather dry wood for my fire. Huntsman SAK was used for all the smaller utility needs during my stay. Dropped off by Huey at the beginning, and picked up by Huey at the finish. Delamar ghost town is luxurious after living in a cleft in the rocks in the side of a mesa for a week.
Ron
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Very impressed, thanks for sharing.
 
Triton said:
Wow again. I consider myself to be in decent shape. I run a 10k at least once a week lift some weights etc. but swimming is exhausting (I am really bad at it). I would have been dead in 30 minutes. Much respect.
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If you were in good shape, you would've made it. You'll be surprised what you can do if your life depends on it. My left leg cramped up two times and my right leg once during the ordeal. I almost drowned each time. If both legs would've cramped up at the same time, I would have drowned for sure.
 
Jungle environment survival training in the Philippines.. Learned how to use bamboo to cook and make traps. Bolo aka machete was used to cut down bamboo for huts and start fires. Also took out a snake or two for supper and protection. Iguanas and rock lizards provided survival food also


 
This is a really fun forum idea!! Thabks to the O.P.

I have had quite a few little survival experiences... but this was the first memory that sparked by reading everyone's great posts:

As a college student, I was on a ride along with an Idaho fish and game officer in Island Park/Henry's Fork. We got a call that an aggressive grizzly had been breaking into cabins, and we responded.

On scene, there was very apparent bear-sign, a solid wood door completely torn off the hinges, a forced and thrashed vehicle, and a thoroughly mangled aluminum garage door. This was a big bear.

We hopped out of the truck and I was handed this dented, tiny, and dinky old can of bear spray... the officer then grabbed his pump 12ga and proceeded to swap out the 00buck for slugs. "I will go around this side, why don't you go around that side and we will meet at the back - if you see the bear, let him have the whole can! ... uh, yeah... It should still work - I just refilled that thing and it has never let me down".
I gave it a quick tap-test and knew that it was going to let this grizzly get FAR closer than I ever wanted.

Feeling very under-armed, I checked my pockets and, to my dismay, found that I was only "strapped" with my little yellow cv sodbuster Jr. (that went everywhere with me at the time). Sure that this bear would choose the skinny kid reeking of fear over the seasoned officer, I prepared for battle with my rattle-can and crept through the wooded yard.

We met at the rendezvous and then continued to check the full premises - me nervously adding more dents to that can and scuffing the back of the Officer's boots every time he stopped walking.

Lucky for us, the bear had other engagements he needed to attend to, but man was I sure that I was gonna get it that day!!
I bet I had enough leftover (mostly flight) adrenaline mixed in my system for at least 2 weeks!
 
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