Secret Desire

dartanyon

dartanyon

Joined
May 10, 2002
Messages
705
I have this dream of going bush dressed appropriately with just my best PSK, two of my choice blades, my take down bow and surviving for three days.
Any of you want to try it?
 
My brother and I have discussed going up in the mountains for a week with an M6 Scout Carbine and a couple of vintage Smith & Wesson .22 Kit Guns and fishing gear and some more primitive exotica with a modern twist like wristrockets and doing just that for a few days.

Unfortunately, when I can find the M6 Scout, it's too expensive for me. So are the vintage S&W Kit Guns!
 
Last fall we spent a week deep in the NC mountains during archery season for deer with full backpacks and our bows. During the week I take pride in the fact that we used nothing but a basic survival kit to provide for our needs despite the cold weather. I hardly opened the section of my pack that contains rations, camp stove, ect. Instead we erected a survival shelter and built our fire pit and camp furniture from the woods around us. We burned lighter wood torches and fished for trout using hand lines and native bait. I also built some traps and caught some crayfish. About half way thru the week I did kill a doe and we ate good for the rest of the trip. The cured skin still graces the wall of our reloading shop.

Do it..........memories to last a lifetime.
 
dartanyon said:
I have this dream of going bush dressed appropriately with just my best PSK, two of my choice blades, my take down bow and surviving for three days.
Any of you want to try it?
Click to expand...

I've been considering a "scenario" practice, i.e. sleeping in the woods for at least one winter night with only the equipment I have on me on a day hike. There's a one problem though; in a real emergency I would have more rights than while just practicing. For example, I could cut down live trees etc for shelter.

Btw, this might be obvious, but if/when you do this, remember safety! It would be pretty embarrassing to find yourself in a real survival situation with inadequate gear while training to survive that exact situation :)
 
Sounds similar to the pre-Xmas PSK challenge/comp.

My friend and I want to do 2 nights in the woods with only our PSKs, 2 knives each and whatever we normally have in our pockets when out for a walk. So a pack of chewing gum, a lighter, a 500ml bottle of water and a flapjack or two would be normal.

Think most people will have a 'challenge' like this they want to tackle, it's probably hard wired into our genes to want to test ourselves from time to time.
 
Well, it's just as I feared, were all freaks! lol.

Sounds like it would be really fun, I've never really bothered to do it though, but have thought about it.

In all honesty however, the only decent woods is some distance from me (nothing but highways and farmland here) so going to the woods is a well thought out afair and it's all about practicallity, which means a fast, lightweight shelter (tarp/bivy), nights are made more comfortable with a sleeping bag, food needs to be cooked (coffee can), and a slingshot can be worth its weight many times over in food, etc. But I try to keep it as minimal as possible that will allow for maximum fun, comfort, safety and down-time.

Something generically like this will do me for a comfortable night or a couple weeks;

Mod. Mora #1
Firesteel, Fire Paste, PCBs, Matches, Ligter
Tarp
Wool Blanket, or a sleeping bag and bivy (bivy's are fantastic for cold weather and bugs)
Rope (50ft.)
Coffee Can
Water Bottle
Food & Some Extra Food
Fishkit in film canister
Slingshot (maybe)
Spoon
Bandana
Bandaids, Antiseptics, other basic first-aid
Fiskars axe
Temperature Appropriate Clothes (most important thing on list)
Bug Spray (mosquitoes are a downer)
Firewood Cord
TP, Conacts & Glasses, Toothcare
Watch
Compass & Map
Flashlight
Notepad & Pencil
Twine
Whistle

It would be very easy to do without most of these things, but with this my nights out are effortless, fast and comfortable.
 
Yeah, I kinda have the same desire.
I would, however give your PSK a run with some sort of safety net available to make sure you won't manufacture an emergency, then go on your adventure.
 
I've *thought* about it over the years - could I survive a few days with only ______? but haven't done it. Thing is, I always go with enough stuff, even on a day hike, so that were the situation to arise, I'd be "surviving" in reasonable comfort unless I was seriously injured.
 
attej said:
There's a one problem though; in a real emergency I would have more rights than while just practicing. For example, I could cut down live trees etc for shelter.
Click to expand...

Ya that's the problem I have. Same reason why a lot of people chose traps in the "weakest link" thread. Some survival skills are illegal to practice.

Perhaps you could find a naturally downed tree and stash it for your survival trip. You don't get the experience of trying to down a tree when you're tired/cold/hungry/etc... but at least you get the experience of starting from a downed tree and ending at a shelter.
 
I'm planning one of these trips in early spring. My cousin and I are going to go to a known backpacking park, and try to do a survival-like overnighter. The park allows chopping downed wood and open fires (which is rare, and AWESOME). The park is a loop around a central station, so though you're hiking 14 miles round-trip, you're never more than about 3 miles from the station and your car. Perfect test-run area. Nice safety net. Reasonable freedom to do what we want. Should be good times.
 
Noshtero said:
I'm planning one of these trips in early spring. My cousin and I are going to go to a known backpacking park, and try to do a survival-like overnighter. The park allows chopping downed wood and open fires (which is rare, and AWESOME). The park is a loop around a central station, so though you're hiking 14 miles round-trip, you're never more than about 3 miles from the station and your car. Perfect test-run area. Nice safety net. Reasonable freedom to do what we want. Should be good times.
Click to expand...

That park sounds like the perfect bushcraft practice ground.
 
I might try something like this once things warm up a little bit. My grand parents have 80 acres in northern michigan, most of it woods, and my uncle has about 400 acres that his hunting camp is on. I could go out, do pretty much whatever I wanted as it's private property and know that my grandparents house/ uncle's hunting camp is not that far should something go terribly wrong. This could be alot of fun.
 
langston302 said:
A week long Trade Era river trip trapping beavers...in period clothing and with period equipment.
Click to expand...
Wowwww ... cool :thumbup:

Yep the meat and bush food is definately a problem if only practising. Round here I'd have to live on indian minah birds and rabbits (although theres a few possums that keep trying to get into my roof that should be on the menu).
As for chopping down a shelter, that gets a bit hard to do also.

Mmmm ... create a real survival emergency I dont want to do :cool:

I even tried to chop aluminium arrows in half and modify them with screw inserts to make them portable with my take-down bow (dont really know if that qualifies them to be part of my PSK) but too scary to use.
Is that sort of like a folding axe :D
 
I saw a guy catch a Cross ink pen on his bow string, rip it out of his pocket and stab into his wrist. I now know just how dangerous a bow string can be. I want no part of take down arrows.
 
I did a solo overnighter in the Jersey Pinelands with an Ontario Pilots survival knife, sleeping bag, metal cup, flint and 1 liter of water last March. About 12 miles in, and 12 miles out.

No food, no tent, no phone.

I decided the lighter and less complicated I made it, the easier it would be, and I was right.

I planned on doing the whole Batona Trail (54 miles), but was unable due to work restraints. Maybe this year. At a minimum, I will do 2 nights.

It really isn't as big a deal as you might think. Go for it.
 
Please don't cut down live trees for practice, most area's have structural frames in decent area's that can be used. In a real survival situation, would you really want to burn up all the energy to cut down a tree, without being able to replenish the nutrients?
 
I dont know about you guys but here in SO CALI its not if i can or cant do it. Its more of a problem where can i do it. As you guys know i already done the PSK challange. Im planning on taking a pack and go out with what ever i want that would fit in it. The all thing cant be more then 15lb complete with the pack. But i dont want to stay in one place. I want to set my self a starting point and end point. The only place i can think of doing it is the hight sierra. Unless i can find a place where i could hunt something or trap it.

Sasha
 
My friend has a small cabin out in the bluffs that I'm really thinking about camping in by myself for a few days. Plenty of smaller game around there to feed a guy for a few days, small creek for water, and with the cabin it would be a good starter course. I would like to hone my skills a bit before jumping into a higher risk situation.
 
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