Outdated Survival Techniques

saturnine138

saturnine138

Joined
Dec 15, 2005
Messages
241
I recently picked up the army survival field guid FM-21-76, just to see if it had anything useful that I hadnt learned in boy scouts, and to possibly use as a reference. I got the old military version printed durring vietnam, so I was expecting some of the stuff to be a bit outdated. Most of it's pretty good, though brief and lacking details, probably not great for a beginner. It was mostly the first aid section where I encountered things I have been told didnt work. Such as sucking the poison from a snake bite, I was under the impression that the suction required to do that was more than you could generate by sucking on it. I had also been told not to use a tourniquet, though I suspect thats due to the number of people using them incorrectly and cutting off blood flow entirely. I'm not even going to touch upon the nuclear fallout section, though I guess it's an improvement from the Duck and Cover theory they used to have. Any one else have any outdated survival techniques, or common misconceptions and things that just dont work?
 
Basic techniques don't change much. Technology may make a few things easier and some things work better in theory than in real life. Two quick ones that come to mind:
1) Solar still. The science is sound and it does work, just not a lot of output.
2) Figure 4 trap triggers. I have never gotten these to work for me but it may simply be I'm not very good at it.
 
For snake bites I carry a Sawyer Extractor, it really sucks.

There is a wide disparity on water boil times in older survival literature. I have seen times of up to a half hour, which is absurd. A rolling boil is sufficient, letting it go a minute to make sure. At higher elevations you may want to go a little longer to be sure. Mac
 
here is one that will never be outdated .

WHEN IN DOUBT , KNOCK EM OUT . )

One that might be outdated is " Only use unleaded gas in your camp stove "
seriously I have a camp stove that has that printed right on it . As long as it is unleaded they were perfectly fine with using gasoline to heat your food .
 
saturnine138 said:
Such as sucking the poison from a snake bite, I was under the impression that the suction required to do that was more than you could generate by sucking on it.
Click to expand...

I know people who have done that, the other guy lived. One of the main issues is that the sucker fills their mouth with the same poison.

I had also been told not to use a tourniquet, though I suspect thats due to the number of people using them incorrectly and cutting off blood flow entirely
Click to expand...

I think that is the goal. The problem then is you stop bleeding but can cause severe trauma to the part which is tied off. This is why most will advocate direct pressure + pressure points. However there are obviously some severe injuries for which these don't work and more extreme approaches are required. The problem is though in such situations you likely have exceeded what can be addressed without significant medical experience / equipment.

What is interesting is how some of the advice is cyclic. Use of leechs and maggots for example is getting current application.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
What is interesting is how some of the advice is cyclic. Use of leechs and maggots for example is getting current application.

-Cliff
Click to expand...

Cliff don,t try it . They taste terrible . The maggots were O:K: toasted . The leeches shriveled up to nothing and tasted worse than a McDonalds hamburger . L:O:L
 
Kevin the grey said:
One that might be outdated is " Only use unleaded gas in your camp stove "
seriously I have a camp stove that has that printed right on it . As long as it is unleaded they were perfectly fine with using gasoline to heat your food .
Click to expand...

I think most of the camping stoves on the market now can use gasoline to run. I have a coleman stove thats only a few years old which lists gas as one of the possible fuels. Most probably don't list it even if it can be used, to avoid the lawsuits from people who would accidentally blow themselves up.
 
I found a maggot in a McDonald's burger once. They apologized and were very sorry for contaminating the burger with an actual source of protein.

-Cliff
 
Just as some of the book's info has become outdated; so has using a Sawyer Extractor on snake bites. Perhaps it will still work on insect stings but the wilderness medical experts (MD's) no longer consider this method to be effective treatment.
 
saturnine138 said:
II had also been told not to use a tourniquet, though I suspect thats due to the number of people using them incorrectly and cutting off blood flow entirely.
Click to expand...

Currently, the red cross does not teach the use of tourniquets in their first aid courses. This is, as you assumed, because people tended to apply them when they were not necessary and do more harm than good. There are situations where a tourniquet is the only option. This would be when there is severe bleeding that cannot be stopped with direct pressure, elevation and/or pressure points. The only time this usually happens is with a severed or nearly severed limb.
 
I have used unleaded gas in my camp stoves for years. it works fine and I also put a little injector cleaner in it ever so often. I have not replaced a generator in 20 years.
 
As with the solar still, another tricky-to-do-in-real-life is trapping (heads up, Eyegor--you said it first).

Pict, about two years ago I'd guess, posted a riveting series of posts on the realities of survival (Pict can either summarize, or we can use the search function), and mentioned how time consuming trapping can really be. You could easily starve waiting and waiting for your traps to catch anything.

Nicely eye-opening for me.
 
CaptRon010 said:
I have used unleaded gas in my camp stoves for years. it works fine and I also put a little injector cleaner in it ever so often. I have not replaced a generator in 20 years.
Click to expand...
I'm not surprised.

IIRC, Coleman "white gas" isn't much different from highly-purified gasoline. Back when I was a kid, my grandfather would occasionally run his lanterns on plain ol' gas when Coleman fuel wasn't available, but always warned me that it would gunk things up if used long-term.

Today, with all the emissions regs the oil companies have to meet, average unleaded probably has a lot less impurities than it used to back then.
 
Gents I am relying upon your experience here . Isn,t burning gasoline linked to the release of carcinogens into the air ? Perhaps coleman fuel is of a higher grade simply due to the fact that it is used to cook food .

Heck I have a camp fuel stove . I also use a propane one . Just because something doesn,t harm you today doesn,t mean it is not bad for you .

Correct me if I am wrong . Gasoline is a bit cheaper than coleman fuel .
 
Kevin,
I would not be worried about the coleman fuel contaminating the food. I also do not think that you will receive anything worse from using gas over coleman fuel. For everythinng you do, someone will say it will kill you or give you cancer.
 
Watchful said:
As with the solar still, another tricky-to-do-in-real-life is trapping (heads up, Eyegor--you said it first).

Pict, about two years ago I'd guess, posted a riveting series of posts on the realities of survival (Pict can either summarize, or we can use the search function), and mentioned how time consuming trapping can really be. You could easily starve waiting and waiting for your traps to catch anything.

Nicely eye-opening for me.
Click to expand...


Could you link me to the trapping thread, I searched and could not find it. From what you said about trapping I heartily disagree, I trap, right this instant I have a big fat possum in one of my traps. I set my traps then check them before I go to work in the morning and when I get home in the afternoon, 15 minutes a day, tops! 15 minutes a day is not much time to spend for even one animal a week in a survival situation, and I will take all I can get if I am hustling for grub to stay alive. My snares, gaff and conibears will stay in my kit thank you. Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top