Mallak's Place wrote:I agree with Dead Boy. But Huntsman armor in Non-enviromental so you might need to have a fire in Colder climates, but I would probbaly just try to make a insulated nest of leaves and grasses.. Fire can attract animals.
I believe in the "
5 C's of Survival". With these, you can survive almost anywhere... almost.
Cutting Tool: Needed for a variety of reasons. Of them all, this is the hardest to improvise unless you go caveman style and chip away at a rock for a one-million BC era hand axe. This is why I chose, and still choose the vibro survival knife; because the rest I can improvise or scavenge off the land.
Combustion Device: Fire is imperative! You need some means of making it. If you have a lighter or fiint & steel, awesome! If not, you can make do using the old ways. A better way then the Bow Drill I mentioned above is a variation on the Hand Drill method. Take a plank of dry wood and place it on the ground. Then take a straight, 1-inch stick, cut it down to about a foot to 18 inches in length. Caveman style was to then rub it between your hands while pressing down on the wood plank, rotating it back and forth. The problem is, by necessity, your hands slip down the shaft quickly and you get blisters; it also take forever. The improved way is to cut a notch on the top of the drill stick; using a length of thin rope, string, or twine tie thumb-loops on each end and then place the cordage in the notch. This allows you to maintain pressure on the plank, sustain the friction while drilling for a faster fire, and significantly reduces blistering. Once you get the setup working, KEEP IT!!! That's your new fire-starting kit!
(And for the record, I disagree with Mallak's Place's though about fire attracting animals. Fire has proven time and time again to be one of the best deterrents of animal attack in the night. They naturally fear it and keep back as long as they see a flame.)
Container: I don't care if it's small pot, a rusty tin can, an empty coconut shell, a styrofoam cup, or an MDC prophylactic. You need something to carry and boil water in. Contrary to my erroneous comment above if you find water, unless you're high in the mountains, it's contaminated and unsafe for drinking. Put it in your container and boil it (even a non-boiling heating over time will kill lots of microbial ick). Better still, boil lots so you can carry extra water with you as you travel.
Covering: This can be a traditional tent, to a plastic tarp, to the bows of a pine tree. Once the sun starts to set, you need a camp site and a dry place to sleep. Covering, even if impromptu, can do that job and help keep you warmer. Ideally it would be nice to have something you can take with you (maybe even wrap other items on for easier carry) but if need be it can be on a site to site basis.
Cordage: Rope, twine, string, yarn, bungee cord, duct tape, belts, shoulder straps, strips of twisted fabric, plastic handcuffs, an electrical extension cord, metal wiring of any kind, shoelaces, vines, bark strips off the right kind of tree, a wire coat-hanger, strips of leather cut from the backs of a hundred rats and tied together... anything you can use to tie things together. This is extremely useful for shelter making, holding your traveling gear together, first-aid bandages or tourniquets, make-shift repairs, and so on.