Rip My Kit Apart!

[Janne]

I am sorry if I upset you guys. But remember, most people my generation, and the previous ones in Scandinavia, were brought up much closer to nature that people today. For us doing weekend trips was something we did basically every weekend. Picking berries, mushrooms, fishing the lakes, rivers and streams. Sleeping rough, under a tent or in a hunting hut. We took home the produce. In the fall and winter most men used to go out hunting and bringing the meat home.
My family did not need to do this, as my dad was a MD in the Army and my mom a midwife, but it was the tradition passed on. Same with most Swedes living outside the large cities. Tradition.
I started fishing age 5 or so. Hunting around age 14.
Of course, in UK, there is not the wild, untouched nature we have, so you are physically not able to do the same.

You guys here have other skills not many like me have. Making cordage, using steel and flint for fire and so on. The hardcore, traditional stuff.

I have the bonus that I spent close to three years in a unit in the north, a unit that in case of war would be working behind enemy lines without any supplies brought to us. What we carried and had with us in our bandvagnar was what we had. Those years took me to another level. All tought by the Same officer colleagues and normal soldiers.
Fortunately (!) I had two accidents that together ended my military career, which gave me the opportunity to end up where I am today.

Yes, I will start a thread. But it will be a very boring one, as I can not embed any pictures so I will verbally describe only.

I would also like Joe T to do the same, as I would love to learn more!

 

[Leshy]

Yes, I will start a thread. But it will be a very boring one, as I can not embed any pictures so I will verbally describe only.

I would also like Joe T to do the same, as I would love to learn more!

I look fwd to these threads too...

 

[Man of Tanith]

Everyone loves a good kit list thread....
Be interested in both Joe T and Janne posting kit lists as neither of you are UK based so will have a different enviroment to pack for

 

[Leshy]

Yup, I don't know about Janne's kit list, as it's pretty cold up there, resulting in more comprehensive list...
but I bet Joe's list will be less than 10 items...

He'l be like:

horse , clothes , blanket , knife , flint/obsidian and bow and arrows....
Putting us all to shame...
Hahahah 😃

Most native peoples seem to just naturally source all their food and medicine from their environment, due to generation upon generation of knowledge passed down .

Let's take Australia's case for instance...
many Australians would struggle to survive in the outback with just their clothes on their back, yet the Aboriginal peoples do...

Really hope these two threads come to be, and that I can learn more from both Joe and Janne's lists and resulting comments!

Peace

 

[sunndog]

Education leads to taking more kit too i find.

When i was a boy i'd go out over the weekends and schools holidays on 'hunting trips' on my parents property
Shelter was a small builders tarp tied to trees, which i thought was real gucci gear because i'd found a green one with only a couple of holes in it in the back of the shed
In the summer time you got a few mozzie bites and the odd spider or slug but that was just the way it was.....so no tent/hammock/poles/pegs/bug nets/bivvy bags

Sleep was a ccf mat, army blanket, extra coat in winter, and the fire

The stream 'looked' clean so i drank from it....so no filter stuff beyond a big hankerchief

Air rifle, so almost no food carried as that was cheating in my young head.....i ate what i shot, if it was one rabbit or one pidgeon then that was my food for the day. These were plentiful so i always had something. If it meant staying up to lamp rabbits or getting up at 3.30 for a dawn pidgeon in the summer then that was that, simples

Knife, axe, box of matches.....couldn't go anywhere without an axe, my love affair with all thing choppy started early, didn't have a decent packable saw for years

water bottle

Other than the clothes i stood up in, a few bits and bobs in my pockets, and maybe and extra coat when it was cold i think thats about all i had......i bet that little lot weighed much more than my lightweight gear does now, even though i probably carry three times as many items

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

J

I was answering the first post. I don't think I was criticising what you took. Please do not criticise my comments which were meant for someone else. In our society it is not polite to answer for someone else because you may not represent his views unless you are hunting partners. However I appreciate this is not the way in other places.

I would not suggest you look and find out if you didn't know where ashmashwashampan is for example. I don't need a leatherman. I've not seen one and like i've said, these are just too small to be much use and many of the things on it I can see no real use for like a saw. Try cutting timber with it!!±!±. I now know what a spork is now. But I sure won't bother replace the good knives and maybe forks we already have. How do you cut meat off to eat with one of those anyway when you've a steak on your plate?

Some of the other points I made have also been made by other folk who've lived in the bush or spent time hunting in it.

We aint focused on details of kit. We have our own choice but nearly always the same. If I asked a Cree or Ojib how he carried his water, he'd think I was asking a silly question. We just carry it in containers if we need. No matter what make, model, style or version of container. That makes little real difference to your life in the woods. knowing how to live in the forest is more important. Much more important than worrying about what model; of camel back you take or what knife you take, or how heavy your spoon is fella.

As for some your claims?? We always wash in river or lake. You don't need soap. Soap makes you smell. We never carry it. Animals don't like the smell. Water cleans the body just as good.

You also say it is better not to take wood from the forest floor? Really? I have spent over sixty years in the northern forests. I don't ever think I've had to cut much timber down for wood and mostly gather it off the ground where nature has already given it to us. But you may need a little skill perhaps you don't have to recognise dry or wet wood. When I was in Yorkshire I did just the same with no problem.

Of course it gets dark here. Maybe less than UK in summer but we go to sleep when its dark. Sleeping doesn't need head torch or light. When you wake up in night your eyesight is already adjusted to the dark. Torch simply destroys it and you become dependent on torch. Like I said you learn to rely on your kit but we learn to rely on our senses. The night is rarely ever too dark to see.

You also say that where you live there is rain the same as Israel but you worry about getting wet? Getting wet isn't go to kill you in summer and you have your tarp......... I don't understand. Maybe you from town? Too used to comfort of home fella?

No amount of kit detail or make of knife, jacket, trousers or cooking stuff is going to make life different if you don't know how to live in a forest with nothing. I f we need rope or string we don't worry too much who made it or what its made for. We use spruce roots if we don't have any or anything else if don't have spruce. I've even made rope from a dead dogs and also from a canvas tarp. I(ve just found out what dyneema is. Your really think that is going to be better than thin rope? Give me an example perhaps? Maybe you use it for crazy stuff in forest.

Go out into the forest and spend one night sitting still and listen to what you hear and see. You'll learn plenty then maybe.

Carry less kit. Know how to live without fancy gear. No Cree or other northern hunter relies on fancy gear. All our gear is either made or bought from ordinary stores.

I've spoke too much Ive dogs to sort out.

 

[Janne]

Joe, a question:

Are you 1:s Nation guys immune to the mosquito toxin?

The first week when I enlisted, we were made to undress and lie in marshland for a couple of hours, and were not allowed to move.

It was called a "mind over body' exercise. But later when I went through the first step in the officers training, it got explained that they not only tested our will power ( any movement = kicked out from the unit) but also made our bodies immune to the toxin.

Even today in the Caribbean, with a couple of Mosquito species, I do not get any itchiness or bumps after a mozzie bite.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

Janne

Maybe your instructors were cruel or just enjoyed watching you guys suffer?

None of our folk have problems with mosquitos and I'd not know any 1st nation people who live up here who get an itch after bite.

It seems to be that the longer you are exposed to mosquito bites the less problem it becomes as your body learns to tolerate the bite effects and so no itching. But this can take months I think and not just one day!! I know plenty of white canadians who have lived up here a long time and being bitten doesn't seem to cause them itching afterwards.
But when we get guys from cities or towns - Canadian or European they generally suffer more problems sometimes badly reacting to the bite with big red marks and itching.

I am not sure how long or how many times you have to be bitten before you stop having itch but it appears to me that those that come up here for maybe a visit for a few weeks still suffer even at the end of their stay.

Enju

 

[Drain Bamaged]

Everybody's body will react differently to bites.....the itch is actually caused by the body's reaction to the Mosquito's saliva that she's left on the skin after biting, the body sends out histamine to combat the itch.....you can build up a tolerance but it takes time and a lot of bites, a bit like taking meds or injections for allergies. It can actually be of benefit to be able to feel the itch/bite, at least that way you know you've been bitten and may need to take action if other symptoms begin to develop.

D.B.

 

[Lord Lucan]

Any photos of fully packed kit?

Most I do is a couple of nights out these days due to age and knees, but still enjoy it.
Wish I had had a son.... 4 daughters not interested ��

 

[andyluffs]

Flares in Colchester seem to be a bit of a waste of time, IMHO if you set a flare off anywhere in the UK, the most that will happen if somebody sees is it is to say "oooh, fireworks" and go back to whatever they were doing (national parks etc, where people are generally tuned in to that sort of thing excepted).