What Do You Need To Survive. Wilderness Living.
If you do not have a retreat to go to, then when you leave the city you
will have to go to the most remote part of the bush you can find. No matter if
you are travelling by water or by car, you do not want to take with you any
more gear than you can carry on your back. It is doubtful that you will be able
to go all the way by vehicle, and if you have to ditch the vehicle at any time,
then there is no point in leaving equipment behind.
What will you need to survive? You will need to survive the wilderness;
it is not a home away from home. Living will not be easy. You do not need
modern gadgets and “Rambo” survival knives. You need to carry practicle tools
designed to perform the tasks of wilderness living. Yes you may need to use
these tools for self defence, but their main purpose will be to serve you in
the performance of living skills. You need a good butcher knife to skin and
dress game. This knife is designed to perform this function, a “Rambo” knife is
not. You will need more than one knife, and you will need a tomahawk, because
no one tool can perform all duties easily and efficiently.
When you are packing your “bug-out” bag for the trail, there must be
some compromise made between maximum self-reliance, and minimum weight. You may
love your solar torch, but at the end of the day, would you rather have one
more round left for your gun, or would you rather have that torch?
No matter how much you like the thought of being able to carry your
modern breach-loading firearm, the reality is that it is going to cost you a
lot of weight in ammunition, regardless of whether or not you intend to reload
your own ammo, there are other important items you need to carry with you. A
self-bow or a muzzle-loading gun is a far better choice for long term
wilderness survival. If you have enough people going with you, then by all
means have someone carry a modern firearm. But they can not afford to be laden
down carrying a lot of ammo. You are just as dead if you are hit by a .22 as
you are if you are hit with a .308, so if you are carrying a firearm for self
defence, then go for a .22 with light ammo, or a 12 gauge and carry less ammo.
The muzzle-loading gun has many advantages over the breach-loader for
hunting, the main one being that you can easily retrieve the spent lead from
shot game and remould it. This means that you can afford to carry more weight
in gunpowder than in lead, and your ammo will last longer.
Tents and hammocks are restrictive when you are survival camping. They
restrict your movement, and it means that you have to carry extra bedding or a
sleeping bag to stay warm on cold nights as you can not gain any warmth from a
fire. If your camp is raided in the night, you will be at a disadvantage. So I
recommend that you choose a simple canvas or oil cloth lean-to shelter. You can
see more and hear more, you can gain heat from a reflector fire if it is safe
to make a fire. You do not need poles or rods to hold this shelter up. In
actual fact you are better off in dry weather sleeping without any shelter or
fire at all.
Cooking utensils are many, but all you need is a kettle/billy. Do not
add more weight or bulk by carrying anything else, it is just not needed. Don’t
carry a camp stove and fuel, it is not needed. Instead make sure you are
carrying trail foods that do not require cooking.
Fire lighting tools need to be as basic as you can make them. Fire
lighting must be sustainable, this means learning some fire lighting skills
beyond the use of matches, lighter or ferrocerium rod. The ferrocerium rod
relies on everything being right, and if this rod is dropped and breaks, you
are stuffed. Learn to use a flint, steel & tinderbox, and learn how to make
and use the fire-bow. You can’t keep up a steady supply of Vaseline cotton
balls or “charcloth” in the wilderness, so learn how it is really done and you
will never be without fire.
The author's blades.
Tomahawk. Making trap and shelter stakes, hammering in stakes, pounding plant materials, shelter construction, throwing for recreation, throwing for hunting, butchering game, self-defence, trap making, making pegs, hammering in pegs, dispatching game, debarking timber.
Hunting Knife. Skinning and butchering game, hunting, self-defence, eating.
Clasp Knife. Camp chores, making trap triggers, cutting cordage, harvesting plants, making fire-bow parts, back-up for other tasks.
Legging Knife. Self-defence, back-up for skinning and dressing game.
Benefits of the flintlock over the modern firearm. Copyright Keith H.
Burgess.
- Spent lead can be retrieved from shot game & easily remoulded into
swan shot or round ball by using a simple ball mould & a light lead ladle.
This means you can carry less weight in lead, & more weight in gunpowder,
which means your ammo will last longer.
- You are not carrying the extra weight of brass shells & do not have
to worry about moisture damage to primers. You are not carrying heavy reloading
gear.
- Flintlocks are easy to repair, especially if you are carrying a few
spare springs. Flintlocks rarely break, but if the lock did break, & you
had no spare parts, you can easily turn it into a matchlock or a tinderlock
& continue using it.
- A flintlock smoothbore can digest round ball, swan shot, or light bird
shot, or any combination of two of these in one load. IF you were eventually to
run out of lead, there are other projectiles that can be used.
- The lock on a flintlock can be used to make fire without the use of
gunpowder.
- A .32 caliber flintlock rifle will take any game a .22 will. It will
also take larger game. It uses only about 14 grains of black powder so ammo is light
& it lasts a very long time. With another mould, you can also use minnies
(conical) which are heavier & have even more killing power. They are very
accurate.
- Paper cartridges are easy to make for the smoothbore, & makes for
much faster reloading.
- The fact that you are carrying black powder, means that you can use it
to make fire even if you have no prepared tinder.
- You can carry a flintlock pistol in a matching caliber For instance, a
20 gauge fusil & pistol. The pistol can digest exactly the same ammunition,
swan shot (buckshot) & ball is devastating.
- Ignition is supplied be a piece
of hard sharp rock. You can of course carry spare flints, but should you run
out, you can find suitable rocks in the bush.
- You can if you are careful, make your own gunpowder. I have read that
you can make suitable gunpowder by using just charcoal & Potassium Nitrate,
but I have not tried this yet. Both of these elements can be made in the bush.
- Anything hit with a large caliber ball from a flintlock will not get away, regardless of where it is hit.
.JPG)
