It could save your life.

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SerenityNetworks

New member
Grubbylabs, I just saw you are from Pocatello. I lived there when I was a kid. The wilderness there is drop-dead beautiful. Your survival kit will certainly need to be quite a bit more robust than mine - especially in winter. Also, I'd have no idea how to prepare for bears. For the most part, all I need to worry about are snakes and my .40 with a shot shell takes care of that threat pretty handily.

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NRA Life Member
There are some ideas so preposterous that only an intellectual will believe them. - Malcolm Muggeridge
 
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grubbylabs

New member
depending on where you are at bears might not be a problem. I have seen one bear around the Pocatello area but there are definitely other areas where it is a bigger problem. For the most part it is avoidance. If you are in bear country while they are awake it is easy for the most part to recognize bear sign and steer clear of them. Unless I had a good hunting rifle or my archery set up, I would not consider one survival food. That's what the tree rats are for.

But any way I just moved out past Burley a few weeks ago so I have to update my info.
 
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BlueTrain

New member
I may have been exaggerating slightly when I say "there is no place," for there probably is. Still, the East is what my father would have called "thickly settled," at least in most places. But get a little further than my completely arbitrary 100 mile radius and there are places where you could easily get lost (or stay hid) for longer than you'd want (or for as long as you want). But the dangers are also easily exaggerated, though hardly non-existant. Personal carelessness is probably the greatest danger, from falls and whatnot. If you are thinking of a place where you're likely not to run into another soul, then the danger from other people would have to be close to zero. Animal dangers vary widely of course but I always suspect claims about packs of wild dogs.

There are places where private planes have gone down and not been found for a few days but unless you're flying, you probably wouldn't be there either.

By the way, I consider twenty miles to be a nice day hike for about a ten hour day if there's no snow on the ground. If you had a busted knee or a turned ankle, it would no longer be a nice day.
 
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SerenityNetworks

New member
With the advent of leased land, I was priced out of hunting on farmland. My option is to hunt on public lands. My greatest risk, outside a fall, is probably getting shot by someone not aware of what's behind their intended target. I've never heard the zip of a bullet going by, but I've been peppered by shot more than once. I do my best to be visible to hunters, but...

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NRA Life Member
There are some ideas so preposterous that only an intellectual will believe them. - Malcolm Muggeridge
 
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ZeroJunk

New member
I can't think of any place within a hundred miles of here where a twenty-mile walk wouldn't bring me to a general store or 7-Eleven
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LOL. If I get on top of the ridge that runs through my lease where it has been cut over I can see the top of the hospital.
 
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ZeroJunk

New member
I've never heard the zip of a bullet going by
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I had some ding bat girl firing shots over my head cause she thought I was hunting on her land. I called the sheriff and she denied doing it.

Anyhow, glad I was never in combat. Sort of made my butt pucker up.
 
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sc928porsche

New member
A small dome tent will attach to your backpack without adding much weight. They come complete and inside a carrying cover. Set up time is very quick.
 
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Kreyzhorse

New member
Dryer lint stored in an old medication bottle makes a great tinder. I'd also pack a flint and steel to spark it with if I were serious about a survival pack.
 
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kraigwy

New member
I've never heard the zip of a bullet going by
Click to expand...

You don't have to go into combat to hear the zip. Just go to a high power or F-Class match and pull targets.

You get the zip and after a bit you'll learn what "zip" is going through your target and which one is on the target next to you.

Not the same as seeing little green tracers flying over your head but you'll know what a super sonic bullet sounds like.

It just means the bullet is going faster then the speed of sound. Meaning it will get you before you can hear it.
 
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Buzzcook

New member
I have a hand crank flashlight that doesn't need batteries. It also has attachments for charging cell phones.

A Sat-phone would make being lost in the wilderness a little less distressing.
http://www.satellitephonestore.com/

And they can be rented.

Which brings us to EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons).
http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/bro...acon-resqlink-406-gps-plb-740739/4,47765.html

Pretty sure you can rent these as well.

Oh and make sure you tell someone where you're going and when to expect you back and what to do if you don't show up.
 
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SerenityNetworks

New member
For signaling, I have also considered obtaining a BaoFeng UV-5R or BaoFeng UV-3R. The 3R is tiny and would be very packable, even in a small belt kit. An EPIRB/PLB is out of my price range right now.

Update: Both are available from sources on Amazon and elsewhere. Also, I have read that you want to be sure and get the brand name USB programming cable (about another $10). You can download Open-Source 3rd-Party programming software from various sources. I need to read more, but I believe the 3R also has a low-power switch that drops the power so it is legal for an unlicensed user to transmit (but I'm not 100% sure on the matter).
 
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kraigwy

New member
Makes you wonder how people got by without all this fancy electronic crap.

There was a report in the Wall Street Journal a while back saying that the average soldier in Afgahn carried 7 lbs of batteries for a 72 hour operation.

I'm no different, I was checking my pack yesterday in preperation for the up coming hunting season.

I have to get extra batteries for my GPS, LRF, Wind Meter, Heck I'm getting as battery crazy as everyone else.

I think I'll toss all that crap and go back to doing things the old fashion way.
 
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1tfl

New member
Be realistic about your potential emergency and then prepare for it.
I have a BOB in each of my cars and they are no larger than a ladies purse and the item that takes up the most space is 3 bottles of water. In my area there is no place where I can go that I can't crawl (not walk but crawl) out of in one day to get help... usually a road.

If you are truly in an emergency situation who's going to worry about wiping your ass?!?!?! Why pack a GPS plus spare batteries when you can pack a small compass for much less space and weight while serving same purpose? Why carry a tent, rain gear and poncho when a large pancho can be used for all three purpose?

More than anything else you need knowledge and common sense... which is not so common these days.

Most people will never be in a place where it takes days to walk out to a road for help.
 
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BlueTrain

New member
I was taking a walk yesterday afternoon, just going out my back door and into the woods. Even though I live in the suburbs, I can go for about a mile and stay mostly in the woods, which by the way is exactly what the deer do around here. The places along the streams or runs are called "flood plains" and are not developed. So they make good places for walking. One thing that makes it interesting is that I've seen every variety of wildlife that I've ever seen except bears, from deer to foxes. There are beaver ponds but to actually see a live beaver is exceptional.

Anyway, it occured to me that the chance of something happening to me on these short excursions into the woods behind the house is pretty much the same as if I were in George Washington National Forest a hundred miles from home. So, in theory, I should carry the same stuff with me and mostly I do, more so just to keep in shape than anything else. Of course, I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have been injured in any way, however slight, in the last 40 years, so the risk factor is small, at least in my case.

But the risk factor isn't the same everywhere I go. There are no cliffs to fall off, though there are some steep trails in places. There is deep and sometimes fast water in some places, none at all in others. There are trees down everywhere, but the risk is low if you're not out in a storm, though I have been. I still haven't run into packs of wild dogs yet.
 
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sc928porsche

New member
The Sierras, Rockies, Wasatch, and others can be awfully desolate. Seems as though someone gets lost in them every year and not all are successful in getting out because they were not prepared.
 
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