but the clothes on your back?  And for how long? Many people who consider themselves to be "survivalist" depend on water filters, fire starters, tarps, tents, sleeping bags, freeze dried foods, etc.

I'm talking about bootstrapping your own survival.  Building a bow and arrow from natural cordage, flint, and osage orange/hickory type wood, or putting together a hefty spear and using it to take game for skins and meat.  Fishing using all natural bone or thorn hooks and natural cordage.

Making a knife blade from flint-napping some stone and attaching a wooden or antler handle to it.

Building fire using a bow-drill with sapling bark, yucca, or palmetto cordage.

I have played around with twisting yucca fibers and it is amazingly strong...it would make good snare material.
Do you know how to build figure 4 deadfalls or snares?  Can you navigate by the stars?

Our ancestors did it.  I think it would be an interesting experiment to try it in a controlled environment. It is not practical in today's world as civilization is usually not to far away and people's trash is everywhere and available for substitution for natural materials.

I have no idea how to filter water naturally, or to build a bark container to boil it in for safety.  

In the part of Louisiana where I live, there is lots of everything but flint and stone.  Mosquitoes would drive me insane and I have no idea how the American Indians dealt with them.

Not I.  I've tried flint knapping, and it's hard as fuck to get any kind of usable blade.  I'm pretty good at turning big rocks into little rocks and causing injury to my hands and cussing though.

with nothing?  Probably not, definately not very well.

Nothing?  Probably not.  Now give me a credit card...

probably not and most people wouldnt...hell it took cave men a long time to figure it out, and most of the military SF, at least have some sort of gear when they go out...a knife and fire are HUGE

I doubt it...I seriously doubt it.....I couldn't

No, no they didn't.  Every primitive group ever documented has their people with a handful of stuff (a "kit") of daily needed tools, along with a whole extended family sharing information and generations of information passed down verbally, and habits that are suited for where they grew up.

People that get stuck somewhere without anything with no background knowledge specific to the locale die.  Skills are good, but bootstrapping all the tools and knowledge that are needed is not what people did, and it's not really a requirement for SHTF-man either.

A knife would make things a lot easier.

You could make fire, you can't get so remote that you can't find something to boil water in at least no place I have found has been devoid of trash.

Learn to build traps and snares and you could eat.

Yes. m4whore

Yes, and if I was single I would stay there!

without a decent knife, probably not. i can trap but there is no guarantee on taking game. no flint around here to make tools with. the flint tools that are found here are made of flint that must have been traded for. we really dont have any large rocks other than the rail road rocks. with a knife i would say maybe. water wouldnt be an issue. i know where there are several fresh water sources that are artesian(sp) wells and save to drink from without treatment. we have plenty of seafood such as crabs, clams, oysters, and fish so food shouldnt be that big of an issue. im no les or bear but in my area there is a good chance i would make it.

depends on how bare-bones you want to go.  for example, my book bag goes EVERYWHERE with me, and in it i have a small survival kit with a lot of the tems that you name––flashlight, folder, multitool, iodine, 2 different firestarters, FA, etc.



but i think you're asking about survival based upon mindset and skillset rather than gear, and this is a valid question––it is very easy to fall into the mindset of "preparedness means having good gear".



so with what i have in my pockets right now, could i move from immediate survival to self-sustainment?  well, i have my wallet, a knife, 2 bic lighters, and chapstick.  so the most important question is "where am i?".



if i'm in a city, i'm going to be OK in the short term due to the abundance of resources like shelter, firewood, and available food.  so survival is possible, but sustainment is more difficult because i have a lot of competition.



if my car had broken down in the middle of wyoming, however, i'm in trouble from a survival standpoint.  But if i can get past that first week, i'm in better shape for sustainment because i have far less competition.



my woodcraft is not great––i've spent waaaaay too long in the city, and my skillset has atrophied.  but i can still make natural rope, can still build fish traps and deadfalls, can still navigate, can still find and make shelter, and can still improvise reasonably effective weapons.  add this to the firemaking and knife i have in my pocket, and if i can get off the prairie and into the woods, i believe that i could sustain myself.  but most importantly, if i find myself in that situation...



i will proceed as though i can survive, because the alternative is to lay down and die.

Would be extremely rough. I think a lot depends on WHERE and what time of year. Actually, it pretty much all depends on that! It's all about resources.

Speaking of flint, arrows, etc.....I had an anthropology class in which I made my own arrowheads and spear heads from obsidian, provided by a geology professor. AMAZING how sharp it got. I could literally cup an entire newspaper in half with a glide of it. I have yet to ever do that with a knife!

I could, with a good book...

Not very long; less this time of year.  

Pretty hard to go from my comfy recliner to a flint tipped arrow without anything that would help; no knives, pots to heat/disinfect water, shelter....

To be honest I'd be screwed.

LOL +1 But a Ramo survival knife with sutures would be a plus...

That's the quote I wanted!!!!!!!

I'm a type One diabetic, I'm doomed from the start.

I'd be of the first to be killed off and eaten by my fellow man

I've done a bit of flint knapping and had some success. It takes a lot of practice to make good points. It takes years of practice to make good points quickly and efficiently. Fortunately, you don't need to make arrowheads and other projectile points from stone. Research shows that the difference in the wound between a sharpened wood arrow shaft and one with a stone point is not that great.



Also, VERY sharp and effective cutting edges can be produced without having to shape the stone into a knapped flint knife, just break off any old sliver and use it as is. Obsidian flakes are so sharp the edge can actually be only one atom thick.



I've also made a fire using a bow drill. It was not easy, and took a couple hours of trying before I got it to work the first time, but it can be done. With the proper materials and practiced skills it can be done in a few minutes or less.



Being a Louisiana native myself, I'm familiar with the alluvial nature of the soil and it's relative lack of useful lithic material for making stone tools.



As far as being able to survive with only the clothes on my back, I doubt I could realistically do it unless it happened in late spring and I had the whole year to build a warm shelter and figure out how to store food.



In my area, the Fremont indians (prehistoric native americans) managed to live in small communities, but they had a whole method of maize cultivation and other primitive technologies that allow them to live in this environment. The maize they cultivated is extinct today. It undoubtedly took generations to develop a food crop that works for the local climate conditions. They also had their own methods of processing, storing, preparing and cooking the food they consumed.



Very little is actually known about them because they did not have a written language.  Their existence proves that man could live in this environment with only primitive technology. But the loss of things like the particular strain of maize, and their oral history and knowledge (plus the fact that they lived in small groups, not alone) means that a lone modern man without their experience would be far less likely to survive, particularly where food collection and storage is concerned.



Now, you start adding modern technology that can save a man time and energy, and his chances of survival are far better.



Something to make a fire easily when you're exhausted, like a fire steel.

Something to kill game from far away, like a rifle.

Clothes and shoes that are lightweight and comfortable and don't require foraging for materials to construct far less effective makeshift footwear.

Cooking pots and utensils that don't have to be made from fired clay. (First you have to make a kiln, then find the clay and tempering material.)

Small, portable grain mills instead of a stone mano and metate.

The list goes on and on.



I think there are probably a few people who, if put into the right environment, might be able to survive alone indefinitely.

I also think that surviving in small groups increases your chances. While some people are out setting snares, others can be back building shelters. Makes better use of time.



Having taken an archaeology lab, I got exposed to quite a bit of primitive technology, and it's not as simple or easy as it seems. These people typically lived to about 35 years old. It was a hard, unforgiving life. Those of us who are already in our thirties probably simply wouldn't hack it.

Maybe. It'd be a race between a lot of things trying to kill me, and my ability to get ahead of those curves.

You can save time early on drinking water right out of a clear running creek. Makeshift filtration takes time and does not purify the water, eventually you'd have to deal with the bugs and either beat them like all the animals do, or else die from them. Tests on backpackers in the Sierra show that crypto and giuardia aren't near the problem that staff and fecal bacteria on your hands are.

Fire would be a pain until you really get your bowset dialed in, that'll take more time yet.

Shelter isn't that tough, but again, it'll take time to dial in and get right.

All this time you're spending getting these critical log trains dialed in, the clock is ticking, your caloric intake is less than your energy expenditures, you are sapping food and energy reserves that you cannot replace until you either master hunting and trapping and food storage, or until your crops come in, and even if you beat that time curve, one lousy harvest, drought, or shortage of game puts you back at risk.

Maybe. It'd be an interesting race in any event.

Depends , time of year and location .

Southern va in mid spring ..... I feel like I have a fair chance ...  today ... most likely not ..

Hello compadre. Premise is a bit of a misnomer. In days of yore, the people went out into the world with at least some rudimentary tools, supplies, etc. I spent alot of my youth in Fla. with a pretty amazing Scoutmaster. Trained in spec ops etc. our weekend 'advancement' campouts were pretty rigorous. Minimal supplies for two/three days at a time in the piney woods, along the coast etc. The SINGLE most important lesson was that we were always in possession of a bugbag with several basic items. In our day and time, there is no reason not to have several of these 'bags' placed where we are likely to need them. I dare say that in the case of total surprise, go with what i have on me or in my car, I'm comfortable that my family would last a long time. You have to think beyond the 7-11, or the nearest grocery store. There are SO MANY BOOKS out there that will show/teach you and yours how to live on nothing. Prudence dictates a little/lot of time reading, practicing. Just like you do with your firearms. Make it a family affair, make it fun, and take a little pride in the feeling of self-reliance it offers. 44-40pro

Yep, done it short term before. Two weeks, eastern oregon high desert, sweatshirt, jeans, belt, and i did have a small pocket knife, but i've been flintknapping for years and could easily make a blade from our abundant obsidian. Fire by friction is no trick once you learn the basic problems and how to deal with them. Knowledge of local edible plants is important, because that will probably your main food source for a while. Luckily for me i have dozens of books and i worked for the USDA- ag research service as a range tech for four years in high school, so i know my plants. Not an enjoyable experience for most people, but if you can find water and don't mind going without food for a while, its not as horrible as many may think.

Knife would be the bare minimum.  Have tried making flint knives, and ended up with some good cutting tips but nothing that resembled a knife.  I also ended up with bashed and bruised fingers.  After 20+ years, I'm not even sure if I could recognize the right kind of rock.

I can weave twine or rope from several different products, and with that make snares and traps.  I can make fish traps with a knife and some sticks.  Fire and shelter can both be made with sticks and twine made in the field (bow friction method for the fire).

All of this I have done at one time or another, but nothing more recent than twenty years or so.  Learned a lot of it from my gramps who was an avid hunter, hobo, aviator, and all around interesting guy.  He survived the great depression and the war in New Guinea using many of these types of skills.

Time of year would also be key.  Would not last long at present conditions, but would have a chance in late spring.  Would not like to have to find out.

stasiman

I am going to say Yes because mindset is key in a survival situation.

I can make fire.  I'll figger a way out for the other stuff.  Flint knapping isn't easy but I'll make something sharp.

If I didn't survive, it wont be because I gave up.  

Flame on.

I would be fine for weeks May be a day or two

Grew up in the boy scouts.  I dont think I've gone anywhere (except on a plane) wthout fire and blade since I was 8.  :-)  

I'm OK most places.  My main weakness is I'm a fat-ass.  I really REALLY need a job that doesn't keep me in front of a friggin keyboard  all day.

Then again, it'd take a damned long time for me to starve to death, and I'm well insulated...  

When I get home I think I'm gonna have to go walkabout for a while.  

I doubt I'd last a day ... but working on changing that.

Perhaps it's just my relative ignorance on the subject, but I find this statement very interesting ... as to my knowledge, I have never taken penicillin in any guise ... perhaps a derivative or drug whose creation was made possible by penicillin, but I'm curious as to why you rank actual penicillin as such an important thing for survival.  

Unless, of course, you are just using penicillin as an example of a basic antibiotic ... in which case I would agree, living in the wild without any antibiotic would probably suck.

It's -20 here with  the windchill today.  I would be frozen to a stump.

Whoops!  Double post.  

Not for very long.  On your own, no tools, nope you just wouldn't have a chance.  Or at least not a very good chance.  I know Tom Brown grads who couldn't do it either.  



Are you including evading other humans?  That makes it even more difficult.  



The trick is to not get yourself into a situation like that.  

I think I could do it...maybe.

But It would take every ounce of my skill and more importantly just plain simple luck. You would have to have time to store food stocks and come up with shelter and exposure protection for the winter. So if you started in the fall things would be pretty grim. It would be a race to develop the items humans need to survive beyond just the clothes on our back.

Plus there are so many oh shit factors...Get sick, you die. Break a leg, you die. Miss that rabbit one too many times, you die. Like I said a lot of luck.

So odds are that once you burn off your bodies reserves, you become carrion.

Nope.

Weather/Injury permitting, I could definitely survive until somebody came looking for me, 4-5 days probably.

In AZ, if you are caught in the desert in the summer, you're gonna have a tough time. If you are caught above 6000ft elevation during the winter, you're gonna have a chilly time. Cold and Hot enough to completely wreck your abilities and "skills" for anything more than what your body can sustain.

For anyone with more than a passing interest in this type of nothing-but-nature survival, take a survival course with Tom Brown's school.  I took the Standard (1 week course) and it was damn good stuff.  Knife making, fire, trapping, cooking, clothing, tracking, shelter, etc.  But even Tom uses a water filter.

http://trackerschool.com/

Yeah, no kidding.  Time of year and AO make a big difference.

Just having a big knife or my double bit ax would greatly increase the odds.  Add a firesteel and I think I could go for quite a while.... except in the middle of winter.  You can only spend so much time gathering wood by yourself....  you would need to gather food and fit in some sleep time also and when its that cold gathering wood is a full time job for one person.

Primitives had small kits that they travelled with...  they just couldnt get by with themselves and their cloths.  By our standards they where unprepared, but they managed to keep the human race going altho I bet it didnt take much to wipe out a tribe or individual periodically.

I believe the Primitives created these kits themselves as there was no Walmart back then.  Could you create your own survival kit? That's what this thread is about.

It goes to show how pathetic we are as physical creatures for survival.  Without our superior brains and communication skills for passing knowledge along from one person to the next and teamwork, we wouldn't have survived.

Tinfoil hat?  You lost me there.

Survival: so simple, even a cave man could do it.

Right, I agree.  What I was saying tho is that the primatives probably were not just thrown out in the wild and had to make these kits up over night.  They evolved over time.  As one thing breaks or wears out they are replaced.  But they did not have to make a knife, fire, shelter, and food all before they died from the elements.  Hunting from a cave and you break your spear you go back to the cave and fire and make a new spear and eat some old jerky or nuts....  You break or loose your bow drill you make another and make do with jerky and water until you get your new drill made.  I think many of us could make a bow drill at home, make a reasonable spear, or a fish trap, and we know how to build some sort of lean to type shelter... all the while eating foods from the store.  But actually doing all that while trying to keep yourself warm, dry, fed, and get sleep is gonna be a lot tougher.  Team up with a group of people, AKA tribe, and your chances improve hugely.

Depends on the time of year. I'd probably end up being food for something though.

No and I wouldn't want to. But if forced I might try.

For anyone interested, this instructor is a total douche. Don’t go to his fake ass school, he is just going brain wash you with his hippy/Indian/Hollywood survivalist "tracking" crap and then charge you $1000. Any real tracker can see his douche sign from a mile away. m4whore

I know I could, for a bit.  

This, of course depends on time of year.  Fortunately I have a bunch of spare calories saved up......survival belly!!!

Biggest thing is covering the 3s.

G

I have to say that I'm skeptical of anybody that answers yes.

I don't think I could do it.

Like many others have said, a knife is an absolute necessity, especially if you can knap flint, or don't have similar rocks in your area. At least give me something to start with.

i don't think he's mocking––we all have a bit of tinfoil, at least in comparison to the general population.

I agree. I've spent enough mornings freezing my ass off hunting for deer/elk/javelina to know that hunting isn't going to be a dependable food source, and THAT is with modern hunting equipment.

The amount of walking your ass off to find natural plant "green" calories would end up killing most people.
Building and using a bow or other hunting tools is a refined skill.. A showlace on a sapling or a pointy stick isn't going to put down enough of the animals you need to survive.

The ONLY source of food I personally would consistently be able to get via "natural" means would be fish in a creek or small game via deadfall traps, and THAT would be pushing it.

As far as survival goes for myself:
Short term (Less than 1 month), Probably.
Long term (2+ months), not a chance.

I think I could probably last for a at least a week or so. I'm hoping to spend more time in the woods this year to improve on this.

With nothing, I wouldn't do well. With some very basic things like a knife, I would last awhile.

Right now in Iowa, I  would last a few days max, if I am lucky.

Depending on the area and time of the year  I could hack it for a few weeks. I can get a fire going, water would be my biggest concern...