the most mind boggling question ever

Cliff,

All good points - particularily that a native is just living his life, while the majority of us in the same situation - may be trying to survive. (all typical caveats apply, location, timing, skill set, etc....)

On a more specific note, what is it about Stroud's shows that gets you so passionate? I see them for what I believe them to be - simple entertainment.

Regarding Mear's, I guess I have to get a DVD to see what he's really all about. Again - perspective is everything. For some folks on BF, seeing him whittle a canoe paddle appears to be "very impressive", yet for me - it's just mundane. I will say though that I do like to watch his shows as they are well edited and generally capture my attention for an hour. Something that's harder and harder to find on TV these days.

Cheers
D
 
Thomas Linton said:
Building a fire inside a small brush shelter seems ill-advised.
Click to expand...

Thomas, my apologies for my previous post. For the life of me, your words, "small brush shelter" did not compute. Ah, the joys of the advancing years! :o

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
... Ah, the joys of the advancing years! :o

Doc
Click to expand...

DOc, the very fact that you have made it this far means that, like myself, you are a SURVIVOR!!

Codger :thumbup:
 
Diligence said:
I see them for what I believe them to be - simple entertainment.
Click to expand...

Stroud notes a times he is a survival instructor who has taught the methods he illustrates and lectures directly to the camera on "rules of survival". The show is strongly promoted as instructional by him and OLN. At one point he mentions that he has taught for a long time a certain survival technique (a tri-signal fire) and then after he implements it on the show he comments it is much harder than he thought and in the future he will not teach it. Thus as an instructor he was teaching something he had never actually done.

For some folks on BF, seeing him whittle a canoe paddle appears to be "very impressive", yet for me - it's just mundane.
Click to expand...

It doesn't impress me that he makes the paddle, it is the ease at which he handles the tools and that he treats it as if he just tied his shoes because to him they are basically the same thing and that is what is impressive. Mears is at home outdoors and has even brought primitive skills back to natives who have forgotton them.

-Cliff
 
Most of us have noticed, but this is the "Wilderness and Survival Skills Forum." Discussion of survival skills outside of a "wilderness" context is entirely appropriate here.

The mental or psychological approach to 'wilderness survival" -- however formulated (I like "accept, adapt, improvise, overcome" but to each his own.) seems quite adaptable to non-wilderness situations, and visa-versa.
 
Well, Momma always told me that growing old wasn't for sissys. She was right. Not long ago my daughter asked me "Doesn't that hurt?" as she watched me stitch my knuckle back on. "Well, ...sure it hurts. But pain is a fact of life like joy. Without one you can't have the other!! Life, Dear, is neither good nor bad. It just...is. Simple as that." I suppose pain tolerance is one of the things we learn as we get older, along with a real good concept of the fact that we really are mortal, NOT ten feet tall and bulletproof. I learned that grain of truth while on my "Senior trip" and not much older than her.

Codger
 
Cliff,

Ah - I see your point now. Apparent bumbling, expert versus the smooth, oiled machine.

I hadn't thought of it like that before, but you are right. What I have seen of Mear's does certainly com across as very confident and second nature.

Cheers
D
 
Yes, note Mears doesn't edit out all mistakes he makes as others have implied, and he does at times try things he hasn't done before and sometimes they work well and some times they don't, like when he tried to pry off limpits with a piece of deer antler and they go flying. However it also also very clear there is a core set of bushcraft techniques then some experimental things he tries from time to time and then just recreation or exploring such as when he tries to recreate a native way of painting. As I said in the above though, I don't think Stroud is actually Survivorman, he is very different in other less commercial and more documentary shows.

-Cliff
 
perhaps all of us on bladeforums could get together and combine all our knowledge and skills for bushcraft and wilderness survival and....... write a book!!!!

an online book going over everything from emergency preparation.. bug out bags... catching food in the wild... and survival scenarios

just a thought :D
 
Sorry to come in so late here....

That surprises you? He has also slept inside caves which are known to be insanely unstable and dangerous due to possibly getting crushed with falling rock/ice. If you have to have a fire inside your shelter for warmth it is much safer to use a fire bed than an actual open fire.

-Cliff
Click to expand...

Uh, Cliff, he was in a rocky canyon that he had spent most of his day getting down into to find water. He's in a dry desert.

How would he have made a deep pit firebed? The ground is mostly rock.

Please explain? Thanks!

Clint Hollingworth
The Wandering Ones webcomic
http://www.wanderingones.com
 
One can simply build a fire on the ground, sweep away the coals, and sleep on the warmed ground.

One can warm rocks (suitable rocks) in a fire and use them to warm your "bed."

One can build a shelter with thick walls that fits your body closely = sleeping bag substitute.

You can build an open-front shelter so a fire can heat you by radiation, with the shelter reflecting some of that radiation against your body.

The alternative of building an open fire inside a small, flamable shelter seems a tad risky. You might catch your shelter on fire - at best wasting lots of effort (= water/calories). Hey! He did just that.

Your choice. :D
 
Yes, generally fires inside shelters are small controlled ones like wax/fat. If the shelter is fairly wind resistant then you don't need a huge fire because it will quickly heat up the dead air. It takes a fair amount of vegetation in a debris shelter to achieve this though, unless you are using really thick media like sods.

-Cliff
 
This thread is shaping up to be fun.

I actually haven't seen either one that I can be sure of.....I may have caught a bit of Stroud a while ago when I was visiting a friend. Seemed though the guy was nuts. Honest to God, the first thing I thought whe watching the guy was: "If we got lost in the woods together, the first thing I'd do is lose him.....or eat'em"

Not an instructor.....not a teacher.
Downeast Maine-iac all the way!

My father always told me: "If ya walk sout'east long nuff, ya bound to hit wadah!" (The Atlanic)
 
I love both the Mears and the Stroud tv series. But its not totally fair to compare the two series or call one better than the other. They have two different premises. The premise of Strouds show is that you are accidentally stranded alone in the wilderness via planecrash, shipwreck... whatever. No warning you are forced to used whats on hand and simply survive. However with Mears show he knows he is going into the wilderness and enters the woods with proper supplies and bush tools.
Also i think Strouds series is geared towards, or, at least designed to be more palatable to, a more mainstream neophyte non-hunting/fishing/shooting audience. Yes occassionally hes goofy but he comes across as more human (fallible) and less godlike than Mr. Mears.
I guess its the difference between mere survival and living. Most "sheeple" just want to survive the wilderness and get back to civilization. With Mears show you learn more how to LIVE in the wilderness.
In a nutshell
Stroud=wilderness survival
Mears=wilderness living
 
And has anyone here ever seen the documentary/ book "Survivathon"?
Two guys living in northern Quebec without ANY tools for over a month?
I saw a documentary on discovery about this a few years back, unfortunately i haven't seen the book or video for sale anywhere.
Also the Austrailian series "Bushtucker Man" is excellent. CLT in Canada used to run it occassionally.
 
tholiver, i agree i enjoy both ,les is survival a-b Ray is bushcraft in harmony with nature.If i was stuck out in the wild i would definately go with Mears.I feel with regards to editing etc the people on this and other survival forums (myself included) want every detail. As we know things may not happen/work well or at all sometimes. But to reel in the widest audience they cater to the lets see you eating bugs and the more unusual aspects to the viewers who would not consider bushcraft/survival as a past time(i dare to say an obsession for some). Here in the u.k Ray has put bushcraft/survival what you want to call it into the limelight.I find this a good thing as when i mention if asked about hobbies i don't get so much of a your a nutter look.:D (even though i am).
 
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