• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

What I dont like about Man vs. Wild - shelters

A

andrew7978

Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
664
Ok now that I criticized Man vs. Wild and have everyone's attention, I have a question about this show and a possible criticism. When he builds a shelter, he always finds fresh moss to sleep on and tons of dry grass to put on his shelter to keep in the heat. Well looking in the woods around my house I dont have any of that and dont know how to go about building a shelter. The 5 pictures below are from the woods in my yard. What can I use to sleep on and put on the shelter? The dead grass in picture two is from the lawn mower so that doesnt count. Thanks guys.
<BR>
<img src=http://home.comcast.net/~a.rosenbush/1.jpg>
<BR>
<img src=http://home.comcast.net/~a.rosenbush/2.jpg>
<BR>
<img src=http://home.comcast.net/~a.rosenbush/3.jpg>
<BR>
<img src=http://home.comcast.net/~a.rosenbush/4.jpg>
<BR>
<img src=http://home.comcast.net/~a.rosenbush/5.jpg>
 
those are html, not vBulletin code

1.jpg


2.jpg


3.jpg


4.jpg


5.jpg
 
Leaves??? dry or fresh. Anything softer than dirt, rocks or sticks.

I advise against using sticker bushes as your bedding.

Oh crap, now i see the pics, you could use the evergreen boughs, especially the ends, which should be fairly soft.
But, don't EFF up the trees necessarily, just for an experiment, only if you really need to build a shelter.

And, of course, leaves and pine needles. Great insualtors, would help on the sides and roof as well.
 
You have some of the best bedding in the world, those hemlock or spruce limbs, I can't tell which from the pics, although I wouldn't cut it unless I needed or had to. Chris
 
Hey Chris, I'm thinking it's Hemlock , just don't make tea out of it. :barf:

And something else to keep in mind, if you plan on having a campfire near you, don't build your shelter out of FatWood. :eek:
 
Note well that hemlock the TREE is different from hemlock the deadly-poisonous herb (the latter, in the carrot family, comes in two kinds: genus Conium, and genus Cicuta--both extremely, extremely dangerous.) I'm not sure about the toxicity, if any, of the tree, but the tree isn't what Socrates drank.

And, yeah, is that poison ivy on the ground in your picture? That can make for interesting camping. My dad once got sidelined for quite a while after a fellow Boy Scout found some leafless poison-ivy twigs during the winter, and threw them on a fire upwind of my dad.
 
Proceed with tea making....just don't use the poison ivy! :barf:

Yeah, burning poison ivy is no joke, not only can it get into your lungs and be life threatening, it can get in your eyes and possibly affect your vision!!

Nasty stuff.
 
A good buddy of mine was cutting firewood with a chainsaw with no gloves on, evidently the trees had a lot of poison ivey vines on it. He had to take a pee and didn't wash his hands, long story short he was very uncomfortable for quite a while, he missed about a week of work, the rash actually spread up inside. :eek: Chris
 
Yeah, I've noticed that most of Bear's shelters don't really hold up when the weather changes drastically....most of his shelters are lean-tos or A-frames.
 
If thats in your yard, why do you need to build a shelter there? If I were you, I would just go back inside your house:thumbup:
 
;) pratice in someone elses yard or field not ruin good limbs and trees around your house,looks kinda funny chopping limbs and brush for practice,to lie in a ditch covered by your on trees that are bare now & wifey going WTF :mad: ? no more knife allowance for you !:D
 
runningboar said:
A good buddy of mine was cutting firewood with a chainsaw with no gloves on, evidently the trees had a lot of poison ivey vines on it. He had to take a pee and didn't wash his hands, long story short he was very uncomfortable for quite a while, he missed about a week of work, the rash actually spread up inside. :eek: Chris
Click to expand...

Oh man! That makes me itch, inside!! :eek:

I always inspect first, and always wear gloves....but, most importantly, if I know there is some PI around, I'll wait until dead of winter, freezing, when a lot of the oils have gone back into the root system, then do my cutting.
Also, in winter, you are wearing a lot more cover.

And, if you haven't used it TecNu, TecNu, TecNu! It's no miracle cure, but it'll cut the rash down under the normal severity and it will heal faster.

Fact: Archeologists found some fossilized Poison Ivy in Eqypt. It was at least a couple thousand years old, It actually gave them a rash.
 
hotrodKelley said:
Maybe. But if the threat isnt real, you wont try to do all you can to "survive"
Click to expand...

By your rational you should never practice anything because you won't try nearly as hard because it is just practice not the real thing. I totally disagree, I practice firebuilding in the grill, setting up tarp shelters in the backyard, friction fire in the garage with a bic in my pocket, shooting at the range, kayaking in a pond.....well anyway, the list is endless. If you don't practice in the backyard you probably won't succeed when you really need to. Chris
 
runningboar said:
By your rational you should never practice anything because you won't try nearly as hard because it is just practice not the real thing. I totally disagree, I practice firebuilding in the grill, setting up tarp shelters in the backyard, friction fire in the garage with a bic in my pocket, shooting at the range, kayaking in a pond.....well anyway, the list is endless. If you don't practice in the backyard you probably won't succeed when you really need to. Chris
Click to expand...

My buddy practices scuba diving in his swimming pool.
He says when he is proficient he'll fill it with water. :D

Man, I couldn't resist. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top