just you & your knife

[vizsla]

for along time(since i watched rambo as a kid) iv wanted to see how id do in a survival situation, situation being just me my knife and a days food to give me enough time to set snares sus out the area, and make it enjoyable.
one day i will do it hopefully i just think id need more knolledge on wild foods but without having a book in my pocket.
i realise it sounds a bit childish but it was this that triggered my interest of bushcraft and survival as a kid. the thought of being able to survive off the land.
i was inerested to hear from anyone who may of done something like this and how they got on with things like lack of food etc

right now u can take the p*ss

 

[Xunil]

I think anyone interested in bushcraft should do an exercise like this at least once, with the proper safety precautions in place.

The knife is optional - a more realistic approach could be a folder in your jacket pocket and some odds and bobs that you might have when, say, taking the family pooch for a walk.

You should take a look at Thomas J. Elpel's various videos:

"Three Days at the River with nothing but our bare hands"

"Mountain Meadows - camping with almost nothing but the dog"

"Mountain Lakes - a survival fishing trip"

"Canoe Camping - on a song and a paddle"

Check out this "The Art of Nothing" publisher page for more details and sample video clips - truly entertaining, very educational, and it demonstrates 'proper bushcraft' which is (IMHO) knowledge and skills rather than the particular knife, stove, pack, jacket, boots, etc philosophy we tend to see.

I've always argued that, if you took away their firesteel, a rather depressing number of bushcrafters would be cold and fireless by the end of the day.

It can be very humbling and it's a great reality check to go out with next to nothing - suddenly an awful lot of things are put well and truly into perspective - the hard part is keeping that in the fore since people have a natural tendency to rapidly forget just how good the good things are and how horribly bad the bad things are. Lessons learned are often quickly forgotten, so try to hold onto it if you go out and try it.

A great way to experiment is if two or three of you go out to the same area for a long weekend and one or two try the lightweight approach while the other(s) are kitted out as normal and available as safety fallback in the event of the sky falling in

Having that layer of backup is very reassuring and, on the one hand, it removes a lot of the pressure you might otherwise feel while, on the other, it often spurs you on to greater success when you know you might have a critical audience watching your movements

Either way you should always take a safe approach and that will mean different things to different people. Try a coastal exercise first, because as long as the weather is reasonable you have to be the world's worst bushcrafter to go cold and hungry along most stretches of coastline in the British Isles. Once you get a couple of them under your belt you can start to alter the trips to more challenging environments.

Just my thoughts - good luck with whatever you decide to do

 

[TeeDee]

I think its a great Idea.

Joe from WSS is trying to get people to challenge themselves with a more 'basic' course structure.

See here:- http://www.wilderness-survival.co.uk/the-hunter-gatherer/

Note the equipment you are allowed.

 

[vizsla]

xunil
that is a cracking reply mate thanks for all the info il take a look at them. iv always felt that all the bushcraft type things i do on a regular basis in my opinion are all designed for one thing,being able to survive,so if you never but yourself in that position you will never no if its all been worth while and that you can actualy cope.
i agree with the pocket knife idea as i always carry one.
the one thing that would make it difficult would be the food aspect without a bow or form of weapon to catch prey, as your not going to stay happy for long eating pignuts and cattails unless like you say its coastal which im not very familiar with.
thanks for the reply ash

 

[Squidders]

I have done a weekend of me, my knife and a billy can... I have also done an 1800's weekend with no technology allowed after 1800... both were LOADS of work but not too difficult.

The most time we spent was making water drinkable through the day.

 

[vizsla]

teedee that looks great propper hard core the only problem is i dont think id want to ever go home.

 

[vizsla]

squidders
how did you get on for food di you take any? what did you find yourself eating and was there enough

 

[sandbender]

squidders
how did you get on for food di you take any? what did you find yourself eating and was there enough

The food will be the least of your worries (but uppermost in your mind), water is the thing!

I try to get a week away each year, clothes on my back, a knife and a cooking pot. Presuming you choose a nice time of year you will have a great time. Do you know someone who will give you access to some land? it doesn't have to be so far off the beaten track, there are lots of places that will feel like the wilderness but are only an hours walk from a main road or village.

Perthshire can be nice in September to October, lots of hedgerow fruits to nibble on.

Edited to add:

The cooking pot is really important, sorting your water will take up a great deal of your time. The pot can be also used for collecting food, digging holes or keeping midges at bay!

 

[Xunil]

Well, my own take is that coastal exercises like this are usually so much easier due to the widespread and readily available food and fuel sources. That said, they have a downside in that fresh water is usually your greatest challenge in coastal survival.

You get two changes of debris per day due to tidal activity and there is always a ton of useful stuff to scavenge - plastic bottles are a favourite of mine since you have an immediate water carrier/gatherer/storage system. Other handy items on every beach in the UK will include string and rope in various thicknesses and lengths, tin cans, fishing line (sometimes with the weight and hood still attached ) pallet wood, driftwood, plastic boxes (the ones used on trawlers for iced fish) etc, etc.

The coast is easy pickings compared to more challenging environments in the UK - almost every seaweed is edible, rockpools can offer easily gathered small shellfish, larger rockpools and gullies can sometimes offer fish or decent sized crabs and, typically, there are several common plant edibles growing just in from most beaches. Obviously you need to be careful of shellfish from certain high-risk areas or during high summer where there is a greater risk attached to eating them.

I like to get a fire going straight away regardless of the time of year and stack wet driftwood up over it, next to it, or positioned between the fire and some sort of reflector, which helps dry it out. This makes for a very useful wood stack come nightfall, which is easily accessible and ready to burn.

River and lake areas are other great starting points - moorlands are tough by comparison.

I would think about starting with an achievable goal within your comfort zone and then work onward and upward in more progressive and challenging trips.

If you don't know coastal stuff don't go to the coast (yet) but do consider my suggestion for two or three of you to go somehwere for a long weekend. You can take turns going solo on a 24 hour basis at first and then build up over successive trips to longer stints - the best part (other than the safety aspect) is in comparing and pooling your skills in preparation for and then after the trip itself. Often it is startling to observe how two people can solve the same problem in entirely different ways...

This can be a ton of fun and I often do it as part of a general camping trip where for one or two nights and days the tent and gear is left behind. Last year I did this three times just 40 miles up the coast from where I live - I foraged on the beach for two days not a mile and a half away from the campsite where my tent and gear were. Great to know that I can be showered and in clean clothes then down the pub for a hot meal in short order if I want or need to. The temptation to do just that is sometimes your greatest enemy in these pseudo survival trips

 

[Tengu]

I think id do it on the coast too...if for nothing other than I am bone idle.

 

[Xunil]

I should have added that to slowly ease yourself into this and to build a sound skillset and knowledge base you should wander around your local area with a willing accomplice or two and set some simple rules and stick to them:

Three of you wander for the day - your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to forage a meal for all three during the course of the day. This is a great way to swap knowledge and banter with a friend or two and then compare notes on the forage itself when it comes to supper time.

One or two of these trips really put you into the mindset for something bigger - they also bring home the realities of the whole concept of starting out with (next to) nothing. It is also directly comparable to the ancients in some ways, since all tribes and/or family groups would have had some who were better than others at fishing, or hunting, or foraging etc.

You get to learn from each other and build up a stronger foundation for something a little more challenging later on.

Check out the wonderful book "Food for free" by Richard Mabey - I was given it when I was very young and it is an absolute treasure trove and wholly applicable to the British Isles.

 

[SMARTY]

It looks to me that you are planning a long term survival situation. Survival is about being rescued as quickly as possible, to get you out of a life threatening situation. Are you planning on testing your out door living skills with minimum equipment? If so good luck.

Survival is about priorities, food is the least of them.

Just my thoughts, be safe and enjoy your trip.

 

[spiritwalker]

suprised nobody has really mentioned fire yet which is possibly where i would struggle. If all you where to have was a knife then using a striker you do not have would mean you would have to resort to fire by friction. Be it a bow drill or hand drill (providing you could do either) would mean finding the components from scratch and also having them dry (many people can do fire by friction but tend to use prepared components which you would not have) so i would say due to its importance heat, cooking, boiling water yet alone moral. The main skill i would try to acquire before doing this is being able to identify the right woods on location to make either a bow drill (using a bootlace or natural cordage) or a hand drill and getting a fire going. With a fire everything else could fall into place, collection of water using a birch bark cup or found bottle or similar. Snares could be made from natural cordage traps etc all achievable with a knife, personally i would do this scenario with a knife, water bottle, pot/cup and striker until i can master fire by friction to the extent where i felt confident of being able to walk into a wood grab the right components and go for it.

 

[vizsla]

thanks for all the great replies
iv done at some point most things needed to survive but never done them all on a outing. the main problem with just having a knife is how long simple tasks suddenly take,i once made a water container from a cut log then kept placing hot ashes on top to hollow it out and a piece of wood to chisel chunks out, it worked but took ages,my idea was to place red hot rocks inside to boil the water,i never got round to trying it because of time but it did hold about a litre of water. so things can be acheived its just how long it takes because other than regular collection of water and food all other things need to be done on the first day like fire lighting making containers,whittling spoons,carving cups,building shelter etc. and that wont leave much time for collecting food on the first day thats why i thouught to take a days worth of food
so i think the key is to have a plan.
cheers ash
cheers

 

[Squidders]

squidders
how did you get on for food di you take any? what did you find yourself eating and was there enough

Unfortunately the area we were in wasn't really intended for our use so we took the basics... some uprepared fish and *cough* Kronenbourg 1664.

As Sandbender says, water is the massive pain in the rear... A few of us went and it was the summer... we took a pot, knife and canvas tarp... we had a dirty pot for getting water from the stream (canal) which we poured into a second pot through one of our socks to filter debris... we then boiled this and decanted it into another pot to cool. Being summer it took forever to cool and was not in the least refreshing.

Also, we needed to keep the fire going which took a lot of energy which made us thirsty and so on.

It got remarkably cold during the night and we all made the mistake of gathering too little insulation and had a cold first night. I have some photos I'll upload, it was a great weekend.

 

[Squidders]

The endless boiling of water...

Careful site selection...

We all pitched in and worked hard to make just a single shelter... to make more would have strip-mined the resources available and taken more time than we had in the weekend.

Nothing nylon, nothing plastic, nothing modern... the only thing we weren't willing to do was make boots without vibram soles

I highly recommend giving it a good go to anyone.

 

[_mark_]

How long did it take to build the time machine?

 

[Squidders]

-200 years

 

[vizsla]

great picks mate looks like you had a good time
thanks for sharing ash

 

[forestwalker]

I've done a few of these, with slightly varying equipment (down to "just clothes"). A few people in the Swedish Survival Guild sometimes run a "Bar to Bush" event. First they spend the evening in a "bar", dressed as appropriate (no bush clothes, no knives, no wellies), then around closing time they take the bus to a suitable area and spend the rest of the weekend out there. I've never taken part, but I've heard stories claiming an "Armani Tie Bowdrill Fire".

Food is not really important until you've been out for a week or two. Shelter, fire and water are the important ones. Having a bootlace that works for bowdrills, or a piece of cord in your pocket, is good, as is practicing the bowdrill under nasty conditions (under your tarp while it is pouring down?), and also giving *preserving* fire a thought. I usually carry it by wrapping a Fomes fomentarius in some damp moss and birch bark, but many other methods work (including a big cookpot filled with hot coals).

A good thing is learning to boil water in things other than a Zebra. Scrap piece of plastic tarp? A 2 L PET bottle? Old beer cans? In a real life extremely unlikely situation that my be all that you have to work with.

Also try leaving your knife behind. Build a shelter, start a fire and cook your food. We are often quite dependent on our "Bushcraft Teddy Bears" (I'm as guilty of this as the next guy), so trying to do without is a good thing.