How To Survive For Three Days In The Wilderness
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 10 months ago
Even seasoned outdoorsmen are not immune to woods shock-the fear that accompanies spatial disorientation. You have to control the urge to panic and maintain some sense of inner peace. People who are lost progress from confusion to denial. They bend their mental map of where they think they are until it conforms to visible landmarks or their compass needle, and then they carry forward until they finally wake up to what their senses are trying to tell them that they’re lost. This is when panic hits. If you can recognize the sequence, you and a better chance of resisting the impulse to take those next potentially fatal steps.
Stop walking and establish a home base. If daylight permits, you can make forays to try to find a vantage, but mark a trail for your return. If you can’t regain your bearings after short walks in several directions, return to your home base and make camp, preferably in a lee with an overhead canopy.
I think this is the most important advice. The other parts (about waiting for rescue) are debatable.
In fact, I wouldn’t even begin forays from home base. If you’re lost and you know it, stop. Set up camp.
Build a debris hut, lean to, or some sort of survival shelter, and begin collecting deadfall for firewood.
Better yet, it may end up being a wet night and you may die from exposure. I’ve always recommended at least the following (even on a day hike): rubberized poncho, 550 cordage, flashlight, fire starter, large knife (or hatchet), pistol, parka, energy bars and potable water.
Water and food keep you alive and give you energy. The poncho and paracord give you shelter from the rain. The parka keeps you warm, the knife or hatchet gives you the ability to cut wood, and the fire starter prevents you from having to make fire by primitive means (or fail to do that because of dampness). The pistol is for predators.
With these simple preparations, your chances of survival go up exponentially. If you really want to be prepared, a cup for boiling water would be the final step in your preparations.
On January 11, 2021 at 5:49 am, Ron said:
Minimum survival gear pack includes:
a nalogen shaped like a military canteen
canteen cup
Canteen cup stove
trioxin fuel tablets
water purification tablets
this all fits in a military canteen cover.
A Sawyer mini filter and a bottle of water (to use first to drink, then because scooping water in those silly mylar bags Sawyer gives you is next impossible, you fill the bottle with dirty water, screw the filter on top of it and you can squeeze it and refill your canteen with clean water).
The canteen cup on the canteen stove lets you heat water for either rehydrating food or bathing your sore feet or making coffee.
Now add the big knife / hatchet, poncho, emergency blanket, 550 cord, matches, magnesium fire starter, some kind of energy bars or compact food and you can make it in relative comfort.
You can be dry, you can have a reflective shelter to throw heat back on you from the fire that you can build, you’re not wandering around making it harder for someone to find you.
And at least a handgun.
Only an idiot wanders around without some means of protecting himself.
If you’re in country where there are sizable predators to worry about, carry a carbine, or a large enough bore pistol that you can defend yourself.
Of course this includes two-legged predators.
My personal favorite is my little charter arms Pitbull in 44 special.
Two rounds of CCI number four varmint shot, 3 210gr semi wide cutter solids.
I’m good for Mr No-Legs, Mr Two-Legs or Mr Four-Legs.
The weight is minimal, it rides high on my belt on a bianchi thumb break holster and I hardly know it’s there
Except for the piece of mind.
On January 11, 2021 at 5:51 am, Ron said:
And I’m going to add that I apologize for any poor grammar or typos in that previous post, I just got off a 12-hour night shift and I’m a little blurry and I’m voice texting this in my phone.
On January 11, 2021 at 10:20 am, JB said:
Ron just proved that even in the best conditions one can become foggey brained and blurry eyed after a long night of work in the best conditions. Now consider becomming lost and undergoing sleepless nights in the cold wet wilderness with strange noises keeping you up throughout the night.
On January 11, 2021 at 11:43 am, Fred said:
AF rule of 3’s.
On January 11, 2021 at 8:08 pm, Phil McCracken said:
FWIW- I fasted this weekend. It’s not easy to deny yourself food for 3 days. It sucks. But I think it’s a healthy thing to do occasionally and it’s a useful lesson for yourself. Westerners aren’t used to not eating.
I keep a LBE kit with Fox Outdoors large buttpack in the truck at all times for the unexpected. It’s the same one I take hiking and camping. It’s got everything for a couple days in it. Water filter, 2 steel bottles +folding cup, some power bars and jerky, med kit, esbit stove, spare socks, space blanket, whistle and compass, 9mm, knife, light, etc. It’s handy without being too bulky and I can add a 3 day backpack if necessary. It’s proven its value many times.
On January 11, 2021 at 9:07 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Phil,
Ah. I left out Mylar blanket and med kit. Wrote too quickly.
On January 12, 2021 at 6:09 am, anonymous said:
For my kit, a hammock to sleep above the ground is a requirement if not for just peace of mind. Many biting insects and poisonous snakes about, sleeping above is much easier.
My water kit does not include a filter – instead, tranporation bags to gain water from branches are used instead. Very very few ground water sources here unless recent rains occurred so a water filter is hardly needed.
A high visibility handkerchief is also recommended. Can be tied to long branch and extended above the tree canopy for distance visibility.
And lastly – one of the UV Paqlite glow in dark products. Charged by ANY light source (including flashlight) for constant soft light that does not destroy night vision.
On January 12, 2021 at 8:31 am, Phil McCracken said:
Walmart sells a little steel cup with folding handles I like. It mates perfectly with a steel Ozark Trail water bottle they sell. And both those will fit in a no-name molle water bottle pouch you can find on ebay and amazon for about $8. The pouch has a little pocket on the side you can fit some odds and ends in, such as purifier pills, mini-power bar, etc.
On January 12, 2021 at 6:25 pm, BoyDownTheLane said:
Consider keeping these items in your vehicle too; you could break down on a desolate highway traveling through a very rural area. Suggested reading on the topic: “Deep Survival” by Gonzalez.
On January 13, 2021 at 10:31 am, Levi Garrett said:
@BoyDownTheLane,
That’s where the idea of a “Get-Home-Bag” comes into play. Good reminder.