Tom brown taught me something today!

S

SkunkWerX

Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
1,730
I was leaving for work and my wife had the morning news on TV.

There is Tom Brown, with a reporter, talkig about being stranded in your car.
he whipped out his Tracker knife (surprise) and cut the car seat open, to show how valuable the insulation could be.

He advised like we have always heard, Stay With The Vehicle!

Now, I have never said to out-and-out LEAVE your vehicle, but, i do know you can freeze inside your car, once your fuel and heat runs out, so, it's always a bit of a dilemma.

What I learned: Tom's solution is to turn your car into a debris shelter.
Pack it with leaves, pine boughs, whatever you can, like a metal-exterior mouse nest. The leaves will help you retain body heat, and the car's shell protects from wind and rain.
 
:thumbup: very cool....:thumbup:

i've read most of his books... but just can't bring my self to pay that much $$$ for one of his courses..... the vast majority of the guys that i shoot and bowhunt with have all taken at least one of his courses... they loved them...
 
Les Stroud did a tv show last year showing how he cut up the seats, rugs, dash etc to gain insulation.
 
mtnfolk mike said:
:thumbup: very cool....:thumbup:

i've read most of his books... but just can't bring my self to pay that much $$$ for one of his courses..... the vast majority of the guys that i shoot and bowhunt with have all taken at least one of his courses... they loved them...
Click to expand...

They did?

I have never read any of his stuff but my wife has really enjoyed his books.

I have always contemplated sending her to one of his classes as a present because she has expressed interest in it. You could drive there from here in one long day so it's not like air fare would be involved.
 
I attended Tom's Standard class in the Pine Barrens last summer right after I turned 18 and was old enough to apply. If anyone is interested in survival, Tom's school is by far the best in the nation. The money is nothing compared to the knowledge you will gain from the class. I've learned to track mice across gravel and survive in literally any wilderness situation. If you are at all interested in survival, flint knapping, tracking or medicinal plants I highly recommend Tom Brown Jr.. Just thought I would put in my 2 cents.
 
lancedup29 said:
I've learned to track mice across gravel...
Click to expand...

Oh yeah? How's that work, exactly? Forgive me if I seem a bit incredulous.

I'm not knocking Mr. Brown, because I haven't read his books. His reputation is generally very good, don't get me wrong. But I've heard that mouse-tracking line before, and it strikes me as absolute bullshit.
 
Before you judge anything Tom teaches you should really take the time to read any of his many books (in this case The Science and Art of Tracking). Anyway, no matter how large or small an animal is or what environment it happens to be walking on it must displace something. The mouse, for example, can be tracked by looking for dust and grit compressions on the gravel that the mouse travels across. By slanting your head at an angle, the tracks will appear faintly dull on the surface of the rocks. Next time your cat walks across your kitchen floor put your head down so that the light source is between you and the path of the tracks. If the floor looks dull then the tracks will appear bright, if the floor looks bright then the tracks will appear dull. At any rate they will be clearly visible, and with a little practice that same concept can be applied to gravel or rocks or essentially any surface. So many people dismiss Tom's talent without ever considering the Native American tradition of Tom's background and the tracking ability of the Lakota Apache he was trained by.
 
I've got to learn more about the Lakota Apache. Can you reccomend a book on this tribe?

Codger
 
I don't want to go over old ground with this and I do believe that Tom Brown is very good at what he does,however if anyone has read his books they would know that Tom has obviously eaten too many magic fungi judging by some of his stories!!!
The Apache was about 90 yrs old and could jump to the top of trees,outrun two fit young boys, swim like a dolphin and still be back in camp cooking dinner before the boys got there!!!!!C'mon now?
 
Hey Guys...

I said that from the beginning..

Not only can you turn it into a debris shelter,, these people that were recently lost,,were stuck in snow..

Pack the outside of the car with snow,,and turn it into a big igloo...
I think I could survive for 9 days under similar circumstances...

A car igloo sounds like it would be a comfy little hold out for that time....

Alot better than walking around outside!!!

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
lancedup29 said:
The mouse, for example, can be tracked by looking for dust and grit compressions on the gravel that the mouse travels across.
Click to expand...

Uh-huh, like I said... bullshit. Do you honestly mean to tell me you're going to crawl around in the dirt looking for mouse tracks?

That's a fine theory, and yes, I'm aware that animals displace dirt when they walk. Have you actually tracked a mouse? And if so, why?

This is the kind of thing that makes us all look like nutballs. Sells a lot of books though, I'm sure. To people other than me. He probably does know what he's talking about, and I admit I'm kind of curious to read his stuff. But that kind of hype really turns me off. Plus, the knife he designed is just ugly, lol.
 
A Metal snow igloo? Sounds like a refridgerator to me.
Sorry, I know they say stay with the car, but car's get damm cold.
easily as cold as outside, I've done it.

Perhaps with a good sturdy knife in my trunk I'd cover the car with pine boughs for insulation. Then maybe snow on top of that?
of course, if i had a good sturdy knife, I'd probably have some space blankets too.

Also, when Tom cut open the seat with his Tracker, it didn't seem to cut as far as he stroked. He was cutting down the back of the seat top to bottom, it cut about the first 6 to 8 inches, then rode on top of the fabric the rest of the way down.

I thought that Tom needed to do a quick sharpen job on his Tracker knife before showing it off on TV. It wasn't a very impressive display of a knife that has been touted so.
 
Lakota Apache???
I have a buddy who is something of an expert on such things...I'll have to ask for his assistance in Identifying this tribe.
 
Hey Skunk....

In Any case,, putting pine boughs on a car to add insulation, is nothing but a waste of calories...

In snow conditions, where you'd have to stay with a car for more than a couple of days,, snow is absolutely your Best insulator.

In fact it works the opposite of a refrigerator.

If for instance,, the item inside this "refrigerator" is cold,, then yes,, it works the same way..However if the item inside this "refrigerator" is warm,, then the warmth,heats up the trapped air inside,, now the snow acts as an insulator and keeps the trapped warm air inside..
It doesn't take much heat to warm this air..
Ever build a snow fort when you were a kid??
Remember sweating your ass off inside??

Same idea...

In a properly built snow shelter a mere candle will in most cases make it warm enough that you could take your jacket off.

The car itself is air tight, the snow is the insulator. with a candle, or a small twig fire in the ashtray, it wouyld become quite comfortable inside.. Remember to crack a few windows for cross ventilation.

In fact the body heat from several people inside a car like this I would suspect would create enough body heat to warm the occupants, enough that they wouldn't freeze to death...

It would take a forest of pine boughs to equal the insulation properties of only a few feet of snow.

As far as Tom Brown and his Tracker go...

Either of them impress me much.

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
I am part Cherokee, does that count? Sounds like someone should get him a good knife. lol

Interesting take on the shelter. I think he should come out with a DVD series on Survival In Extreme Situations.
Would probably Quadruple his following and reach more folks than can afford to attend his actual training. It may even bring more people to his classes by spreading and proving his credentials.
The News stories series are a good move but seems small for such a legend. Plus the income stream would be fantastic. I would buy it.
Just my 2 cents

RS6-BLADES
 
Normark said:
Hey Skunk....

In Any case,, putting pine boughs on a car to add insulation, is nothing but a waste of calories...

In snow conditions, where you'd have to stay with a car for more than a couple of days,, snow is absolutely your Best insulator.

In fact it works the opposite of a refrigerator.

If for instance,, the item inside this "refrigerator" is cold,, then yes,, it works the same way..However if the item inside this "refrigerator" is warm,, then the warmth,heats up the trapped air inside,, now the snow acts as an insulator and keeps the trapped warm air inside..
It doesn't take much heat to warm this air..
Ever build a snow fort when you were a kid??
Remember sweating your ass off inside??

Same idea...

In a properly built snow shelter a mere candle will in most cases make it warm enough that you could take your jacket off.

The car itself is air tight, the snow is the insulator. with a candle, or a small twig fire in the ashtray, it wouyld become quite comfortable inside.. Remember to crack a few windows for cross ventilation.

In fact the body heat from several people inside a car like this I would suspect would create enough body heat to warm the occupants, enough that they wouldn't freeze to death...

It would take a forest of pine boughs to equal the insulation properties of only a few feet of snow.

As far as Tom Brown and his Tracker go...

Either of them impress me much.

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
Click to expand...

Good points. If the goal is to retain body heat (not freeze to death), you'd also think that at a minimum a car shelter would keep one out of the wind(chill) also. I take windchill very seriously as I've suffered from it more than once. A definite killer. The reason why those guys on Mt. Hood? in Oregon may well still be alive despite 100 mph winds is that they may be in an ice cave. I hope they make it.:(
 
SkunkWerX said:
Sorry, I know they say stay with the car, but car's get damm cold.
easily as cold as outside, I've done it.
.
Click to expand...

As have I. Even if it is cold inside a car, at least there is no wind or rain to deal with, and your body is up off the ground..
 
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