8995 MEN Guide to Bushcrafting

Table of Contents 76

4 Basic Survival Skills

& Orienting

Advice on keeping your bearings in unfamiliar settings.

10 Survival Personality:

Develop Your Intuition

Intuition is a powerful ally, especially in dangerous situations.

14 Tips for Building a

Wilderness Shelter

How to build a warm, secure, and dry shelter in an emergency.

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20 More Tips for Building

a Winter Shelter

Learn how to survive blizzard conditions by crafting a winter shelter out of snow, space blankets, fallen branches, cave openings, and more.

26 Make Cold Weather

Camping Gear from Wool Blankets

For economical, dependable insulation, it’s hard to beat wool.

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28 Build Your Own

Utility Knife

To customize your own knife, order blade blanks online, and round up some spare wood for the handle.

31 Cut to the Quick

A love for making knives.

32 Finding Water in

the Wilderness

Several techniques for finding water if and when you’re lost in the wilderness.

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES / FREDRIK TELLEUS

What to do if you ever find yourself face-to-face with a bear.

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38 Fire it Up!

62 Hunting and

Fail-safe methods for starting a fire, no matter the scenario.

42 Improvised Fire-

Starting Techniques

What to do if you can’t find natural materials for tinder.

46 Foraging Edible Plants

A guide to abundantly edible wild plants that can be foraged in most regions of the country.

52 Survival Cooking

Techniques that require no ready-made tools or other manufactured gear.

56 11 Edible Insects

and How to Eat Them

The ins and outs of gathering bugs for food.

60 Trapped by a

Passion for the Wild

Trapping provides a throwback to pioneer days and also serves as an important part of wildlife management.

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Trapping Animals

How to set up a snare, a figure-4 deadfall, and a Paiute deadfall.

68 Fishing Freshwater

and Farm Ponds

Local angling holes provide a valuable food source as well as hours of fun and fulfillment.

72 Nature’s Hidden Language Watching for signs of wildlife leads to amazing finds in the animal kingdom.

75 How to Make

Soap From Ashes

Soap making in the woods can be almost automatic.

76 Avoiding Animal Attacks

What to do if you’re face-to-face with a bear.

80 Wilderness First Aid Basics When an emergency strikes out in the wilderness, your quick response could mean the difference between life and death.

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60 84 The 10 Most Useful Knots,

Hitches, and Bends

Whether it’s a simple overhand knot or the more complicated sheepshank knot, this knot know-how is sure to come in handy.

86 Making Cordage From

Natural Materials

When you’re caught in a bind — or at the end of your rope — making cordage is a skill that could come in handy.

90 The Bushcraft Guide

to Guns for Hunting

Learn to love the shotgun for hunting in the wild.

95 Keep Clean Without

Running Water

A pioneer in the Alaskan wilderness tells us how to take a sponge bath.

96 Earth Words

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Survival Personality Develop Your Intuition Intuition is a powerful ally, especially in dangerous situations.

By Matthew Stein

Walking downstairs, he came upon his secretary as she was being interrogated. He asked her what all the excitement was about. Her heart pounding, she managed to maintain an outward appearance of calm, and replied that the “gentlemen” were looking for Mr. Parizot. “Parizot?” he exclaimed, “But I just saw him a few minutes ago on the fourth floor!” The Gestapos rushed upstairs, giving Muller the break he needed to proceed toward his next obstacle, the guards at the front door. In the main lobby, the concierge informed Muller that there was another exit, and guided Muller to the garage, where he stole a bicycle and rode to safety.

— Robert Muller, Most of All, They Taught Me Happiness

Thememorable books and movies. Psychologist Al Siebert’s personal fascination with survivors began

struggle for survival is a fascinating and inspiring subject, forming the basis for many of the most

when he received his military training from a group of veteran paratroopers:

His teachers were legendary members of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment. They had lost nine out of 10 members in combat in the Korean War. Siebert found that these “survivors” were not the crusty, yelling drill sergeants that he had anticipated. They were tough, yet showed patience. They had a good sense of humor and were likely to laugh at mistakes. They were positive, yet also looked at the downside of things. They didn’t act mean or tough, even though they could be as mean and tough as anyone. Siebert noticed that each of these men had a type of personal radar that was always on “scan.” He realized it was not dumb luck that had brought these men through their ordeals, but a synergistic combination of qualities that tilted the odds in their favor. Siebert believes that we can all benefit in our daily lives by nurturing and developing these positive character traits within our own personalities.

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In 1943 Robert Muller was a member of the French Resistance. Using the name Parizot, he had infiltrated an agency of the Vichy government, where he gathered information on German troop movements. Tipped off that the Nazis had just driven up to arrest him, he fled to the attic of his office building. Word came that half a dozen Gestapo men, knowing he was there, were methodically searching the premises. Having been impressed when a friend used Dr. Emile Coué’s program of autosuggestion and positive thinking to cure himself of advanced tuberculosis, Muller quickly calmed himself and took control over his thoughts. He repeated to himself that the situation could be seen as a thrilling adventure, and switched his perspective to a calm, confident, positive state of mind. Muller told himself that nothing was hopeless and that he must find the one-in-a-thousand chance of escape.

Suddenly he realized that the one thing the Nazis would not expect him to do was to walk downstairs to meet them. By taking off his glasses, slicking down his hair with water, grabbing a file folder from a vacant desk and lighting a cigarette, Parizot managed to change his appearance somewhat.

Typical Survivor Personality Traits

GETTY IMAGES / EVERSTE

The best survivors spend almost no time, especially in emergencies, getting upset about what has been lost, or feeling distressed about things going badly ... Life’s best survivors can be both positive and negative, both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time.

— Al Siebert, Ph.D., The Survivor Personality

Flexibility: The No. 1 trait to which many survivors attribute their success is the ability to adapt to the situation.

Commitment to survive: When conditions are extremely difficult, it takes a strong will and commitment to survive. Jewish Holocaust and Bataan Death March survivors tell tales of watching their friends lose the will to survive. Under these harsh conditions, after the drive to survive was lost, they usually lasted a short while, ranging from a few hours to a few days.

Staying cool: Survivors have the ability to stay calm or regain calmness so they can think clearly and intuitively “feel” their way to a correct choice, without being hampered by emotions that have run amok.

Playful curiosity: Survivors usually like to know how things work. They show a playful curiosity that helps them adapt to changing circumstances.

Sense of humor: The ability to laugh helps people manage under the worst conditions. My father in-law, Joseph Jussen, a Dutch resistance fighter and World War II hero, was captured and tortured by the Nazis for months before he was freed in a daring escape. Later, as a Dutch marine in the Indonesian revolution, he survived while most of his company was killed. Throughout his life, he maintained a great sense of humor and loved nothing more than to make people laugh. His favorite saying was, “Make you happy!”

A mixture of opposites: The typical survivor is not always either hot or cold. Survivors have the ability to blend optimism with pessimism, so they can see the faults in a plan, but are not paralyzed by negativity. They combine humor with seriousness, self-confidence with a critical eye, and so on.

Intuition: At some point in our lives, we have all had demonstrations of the power of intuition.

The rational mind makes decisions based on the available information, which is always imperfect at best. Intuition appears to give us the ability to move beyond the limits of time and space, to “see around corners” that the rational mind can’t breach.

“Get over it”: Most survivors don’t waste a lot of time lamenting mistakes and losses. They move on and deal with the situation, unhampered by paralyzing regrets and disappointments.

“Bad patients”: Bernie Siegal, founder of Exceptional Cancer Patients, observed that survivors who beat the odds against cancer and other

The rational mind makes decisions based on the available information, which is always imperfect at best.

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Tips for Building a Wilderness Shelter How to build a warm, secure, and dry shelter in an emergency.

By Tom Brown Jr.

Whening for wild edibles, or plowing your

GETTY IMAGES / SHAUNWILKINSON

you’re out collecting firewood, forag-

fields, you can never be sure that you won’t suddenly be faced with a situation in which your survival depends upon your ability to make a shelter, find food and water, and build a fire. In fact, even if you’re “safely” ensconced in the security of a cabin, a farmhouse, or a city apartment, any number of natural or man-made disasters can force you to keep yourself alive by using only what is available in nature.

However, any person who knows how to provide his or her necessities, without having to depend on manufactured commodities, can endure even if a calamity severs all ties with the rest of society. And wilderness living abilities are particularly important assets for the alternative lifestylist, camper, sportsperson, or other nature enthusiast who enjoys spending time away from the trappings of civilization.

But good survival skills include more than the ability to live through a disaster. They can also approach a pure art form, and help men and women enter into a deeper kinship with all of creation. Consider how rewarding it would be to be able to build a wilderness shelter from natural materials ... to make your own fire ... to gather, prepare, and preserve wild edible plants for their nutritive and medicinal value ... to find water where there seems to be none ... to stalk, hunt, and kill game with a bow and arrow made by

your own hands from the materials around you, then to use every part of that animal, from the hoofs and hide to the bones and meat ... in short, to be able to eliminate your dependence upon civilization and purchased goods and do without even such basic items as matches, candles, and rope!

Unfortunately, a lot of people avoid learning these skills because most survival schools in this country teach that staying alive in the wilds is a desperate struggle, that the survivalist must always strive to overcome the threats posed by nature. Indeed, the whole wilderness survival concept has acquired a macho image!

I believe — and teach — just the opposite. A person trying to live in the out-of-doors should experience no need to fight, feel no pain, and endure no hard work. Indeed, whenever humans try to conquer the pure and natural, they are always defeated ... and sometimes killed.

I have a friend who once, as part of a “learning experience,” marched across plains and mountains — equipped with little more than a blanket, a knife, and a bag of flour averaging 20 to 30 miles a day and pushing himself almost beyond the limits of his personal endurance. The man suffered plenty of cramps and blisters in the course of doing so, yet he gained almost no real survival skills.

After spending a week at my school, though, this same individual discovered that he had WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM

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problems. In addition to having diarrhea and an upset stomach for four days, he became dehydrated, weak, and feverish, and his health didn’t improve until he was treated by a doctor.

If he had been in a real survival situation, that sickness could have meant his death.

In this article I’ll cover four techniques for obtaining water in the wild, ranging from the one I recommend least heartily to my favorite method. If you practice and follow the courses of action described here — always working toward becoming part of the natural world — you’ll never find yourself without this most precious resource.

Natural Catches

Finding Water in the WILDERNESS

By Tom Brown Jr.

Manythe Earth Mother’s blood. And the purpose of the

early Native American people believed that water was

sacred substance — in the minds of such individuals — was to give life to all the world’s beings. Therefore, men and women were expected to be careful to avoid dirtying it in any way. Unfortunately, in these “modern” times, our feet have become far removed from the earth, and much of humankind has lost its respect for

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water. Hence, more and more pollutants are being dumped into our aquatic reserves. It’s hard nowadays to find a stream, lake, or river — anywhere in this country — that hasn’t been contaminated.

In today’s world, then, a survivalist who needs water faces a twofold task: finding water and rendering it potable. In spite of having to take purification precautions, though, obtaining good water is — with practice — perhaps the easiest survival skill to master. Yet the simplicity of learning the needed techniques does not take away from their importance, and —

GETTY IMAGES / SAZ1977

Several techniques for finding water if and when you’re lost in the wilderness.

although people have survived for days without drinking — I sincerely recommend that you not go more than 24 hours without water.

Always remember, however, not to take chances on questionable drinking sources. (Even streams in remote areas may be polluted if, say, a timber company has sprayed the forest to get rid of insects or broadleaved plants.) The possibilities of physical harm, dehydration, and the draining of vital energy resulting from contamination just aren’t worth the risk.

A group of students at my school learned this lesson well when one of their instructors drank some questionable water.

Within four hours he was struck by severe gastrointestinal

Any landscape feature that holds or channels water is considered a natural catch. Finding such a source is usually the easiest way to obtain water. Yet by and large I don’t recommend this technique to my survival students.

It’s difficult, you see, to locate natural catches that haven’t been tainted by chemical sprays. Furthermore, many of our waterways — even those in national parks — are also infected with carriers of amoebic dysentery, heartworm, salmonellosis, and hepatitis.

Still, provided you take proper precautionary and purification measures, some natural catches can be viable drinking sources. Here’s a list of the most common of these, with information on how to use them safely.

Water channels and holders: This category includes rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams. The safest catches, by far, of the four — and the only ones I advise using — are streams. Any drinking water drawn from such a source should — of course — be clear and running. (Generally speaking, the higher up a stream you go, and the faster it’s running, the safer the water will be for drinking.) Examine the small water channel before you sip, though. You should see no signs of man’s presence but, instead, plenty of aquatic vegetation, fish, small insect life, and — along the banks — animal tracks. Remember, however, that such prints don’t necessarily mean the water is safe for humans. Wild creatures frequently drink from very polluted water sources — and even eat deadly poisonous plants — with no apparent ill effects.

Furthermore, I don’t advise drinking directly from a stream because by doing so you may stir up the bottom and ingest some debris. However, you can easily improvise a container — a rock basin or a hollowed log — to collect the fluid. To make a rock cup, simply chip a depression out of a very soft stone with a smaller, harder rock. (You’ll lessen your chance of cracking the cup if you use soft glancing blows.)

You can turn a log or stump into a container by using hot coals to burn a hole in the wood. (Blow on the embers to expedite the process.) After the coals have burned down, it should be easy to scrape the charred wood out with a knife or sharp rock. A 16-ounce cup can be made from a soft wood (such as pine) in less than an hour by this method, and a larger one-gallon container can be burned out just as quickly if you use a lot of coals. (Be careful, of course, not to make your container from part of a poisonous tree — such as a yew or some WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM

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wire. It was literally do or die — and I lived to tell my tale.

Today, we have an array of tools and gadgets that can help us outdoors. They are useful tools, but they are only tools. We do ourselves a disservice if we become so reliant on mechanical means that we are ignorant of fire-making basics with limited technology. So, here’s a tutorial on fire-making: from the very simple — some might say primitive — to the more complex. Let’s start from square one and go from there.

Essentials of Fire Making

bay, cooked diverse and tasty foods, shaped tools and weapons, and thus we progressed. Our very lives have been shaped and transformed by fire and its myriad uses, even to the present day.

Whenever outdoors, fire-making is a crucial skill to have. I personally learned that making a fire on my first attempt kept me alive when things really went hay-

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/ FROZENMOST

humans first learned to create fire, that moment forever changed us:

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: LONDIE

By Gordie Soaring Hawk

WhenWe rose above mere survival. We kept cold weather and predators at

ISTOCK.COM

Fail-safe methods for starting a fire, no matter the scenario.

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As elementary as it seems, a fire must have three components working together: (1) heat, (2) fuel, and (3) oxygen. Take away any of these, and you won’t have a fire. By working in harmony, they provide warmth, comfort, illumination, and may in fact be lifesaving. Let’s examine some basics, and then look at some very simple, yet effective fire-making methods.

Make certain everything is ready before the fire is attempted. Take the time to do it right rather than do it again; you might not get a second chance.

Reliable tinder is the first step. It is any flammable, finely divided material that holds a spark or flame long enough to ignite larger materials.

Fire Making

Some examples of tinder are: cattail down; dried As elementary as it seems, a fire must have grasses; dry inner bark three components working together: from standing dead trees; 1. HEAT, 2. FUEL, & 3. OXYGEN. and the bark from certain Take away any of these, and you won’t have a fire. trees such as sagebrush, juniper, and birch.

No matter whether the fire is made from hightech or primitive means, my experience has taught me that a tinder nest helps catch a spark or flame. As one might guess, a tinder nest is made from tinder and formed into the shape of a bird’s nest. The nest should be as large as your cupped hands. It helps to have your back to the wind, and then it is either cupped in your hands and gently blown to life, or placed under the kindling and gently nurtured into fire.

When kindling is considered, visualize dry material such as twigs ranging from the thickness of a pencil’s lead on up to the thickness of your little finger. Now, gather enough kindling of graduated sizes so that you have about four handfuls. Having this material should help to start a fire under almost any condition.

Once gathered, arrange the kindling into some sort of structure, such as a beehive dome, or tepee, starting from smaller kindling to larger. Make certain it has enough open space for ignition, yet is closed off enough for heat concentration. Once it catches, fuel is gradually added as needed.

Flint and Steel

The standard method of pioneers, frontiersmen, and the mountain man was flint and steel. Though easily learned, it takes practice, and requires good materials for the tinder. This kit comprises a flint, a piece of steel, and good tinder.

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Foraging

Miner’s lettuce is available during much of the year, and these typically small, low-growing residents of damp places make a good cooked vegetable. The new, small leaves have the best flavor.

unhealthy, or one that he or she can’t identify beyond the shadow of a doubt. Whenever my survival school students collect wild edibles, I ask them whether they’d stake their lives on their ability to identify the species at hand. That, in fact, is just what they’ll be doing when they eat it. So use a good held manual on the subject — preferably one that contains both sketches and photographs showing leaf, root, flower and stalk structure, and — when possible — get some training from a wild-plants expert in your area (both the common names of and, surprisingly, the appearance of some plants will change from one locale to another).

Edible Plants A guide to abundantly edible wild plants that can be foraged in most regions of the country.

very difficult to write a survival article on wild foods that will be relevant to readers in a broad range of areas and terrains.

Therefore, I’ve tried to include a variety of widely distributed plants that can be easily identified and are — for the most part — to be found throughout the year.

Remember, though, that when a person sets out to gather wild edibles, he or she must do so with a great deal of caution.

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Getty Images (2) /eskaylim, ANGHI

It’s

Some people, for example, might have allergic reactions to otherwise “safe” plants, and a number of factors — including the time of collection and method of preparation — can make a big difference in both the safety and the palatability of many free foods. You should never, of course, pick plants close to roadways, polluted waterways, croplands or any other place where chemical sprays or fumes could have contaminated them.

Furthermore, the forager should never eat a plant that looks

l-r:

By Tom Brown Jr.

General Tips for Identifying Edible Plants

A person in a survival situation will likely find that roots and tubers are most easily gathered with a “digging stick” (a sturdy branch pointed at one end). When working in rocky soil, it’s a good idea to fire-harden the point by heating — but not burning — it over glowing coals. The digger is then pushed into the ground next to the plant, and the root is levered out.

To collect seeds, tie a shirt in the form of a bag (wrapping the sleeves around the neck hole to close it), place the seed heads in the sack and shake the kernels loose. Or, you might want to make a willow hoop out of a flexible sapling and place the shirt over it to form a shallow tray into which seeds can be knocked off.

Finally, keep in mind that plants are living entities and — many people believe — have their own spirits. Whenever I pick one, I thank it for giving its life to keep me alive. And, of course, we must all be very careful not to wipe out a species in any one area.

Four Abundant, Edible Plants

These food sources are both familiar to most folks and — across much of North America — abundant!

• OAKS. All acorns (Quercus species) are edible, though some are a good bit sweeter than others. However, if you simply shell one of the seeds and take a bite, it’s likely that you’ll immediately be turned off by the very astringent, burning quality typical of most oak nuts. Fortunately, you can leach out the tannic acid that makes them bitter, and the easiest way to do so is to shell the acorns, smash them (you’ll want to break them up but not pulverize them), wrap the pieces in a cloth, and place them in a stream for about half a day (or longer if they haven’t lost their unpleasant taste by that time). Another method is to boil the nuts, changing the water frequently, until the flavor appeals to you. Once they’re leached, the acorns can be eaten raw, toasted, added to stews, or pounded fine and mixed with wild-grain flours to make www.MotherEarthNews.com

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