Category: Traditional Skills/Fieldcraft

God’s Natural Provision- Part 1, by Dr. Z

I am a chiropractor and former Recon Marine 3rd Recon Battalion, writing this article as a little ray of hope to help those who at some point find they have been thrust into TEOTWAWKI and have either lost access to the stores or didn’t prep well or maybe did everything right but when the SHTF they lost all of their prep work or access to it because of some unforeseen circumstance. “Never give up” should be one of your mottos. This comes with a little bit of knowledge and experience. I have been in survival situations as a Recon Marine, …


Letter Re: Dogs Tracking Someone

JWR, HJL, SurvivalBlog Readers: I have a few thoughts about tracking dogs. My wife does canine search and rescue for the local CERT team in our rural county. There are two main types of search dogs– area and trailing. A trailing dog will follow a scent from weakest to strongest along a track. They may cut, circle back trails, and follow the strongest scent trail. Area dogs look for the strongest scent, not worrying too much about a specific trail but concentrating on an area. Over many years (doing training) the dogs have always found me. The team dogs have …


Letter: Dogs Tracking Someone

Hello, I l liked your books. Recently a wanted felon in our small town eluded a canine unit whereas many others have not. God forbid it should happen under the wrong circumstances to anyone not deserving to be hunted down. I did wonder though how the one that got away might have done that. I went to the Internet and found a few answers, but when I searched your site I could find nothing about it. I wondered if any of the readers out there have any practical solutions on the topic. It seems like the knowledge might be of …


Range Brass to Finished Cartridge, Tips For The Ubiquitous .223 Cartridge, by R.W. – Part 3

On full charge cartridges, you need to watch for defects, so: Look for any swelling, cracks, splits, or thinning of the brass. Check for fouling, debris, or dirt jammed into the cavity of the shell case. It may be generally noted that discoloring around the top of the case at the neck radius is common with most military surplus brass and will often be polished off in the cleaning of the shell cases. Watch for any heavy corrosion or pitting, as this should be a warning that the bullet has lost some ductility and integrity due to the oxidization process, …


Letter Re: Mushrooms

Hey Hugh. I would like to add some personal information to the interesting article on mushrooms. A few years ago my wife was diagnosed with asthma. We quickly learned that the standard medical treatment was not going to work for her. Our friend at a natural foods store suggested she try a commercially available product called “Breathe”. The capsules contain a combination of mushrooms that apparently help to better or more completely utilize the available oxygen. What sold me was that high altitude climbers use these mushrooms when training for their climb in the thin air. My wife began to …


“Wild” Gifts For Children’s Survival, by Linda Runyon

Childhood these days is a lot different experience than when I was that young. I have photographs of me, as a baby, sitting on a blanket outside our home and looking at the weeds and grass around me. Even then I was fascinated with wild growing plants, and that was the foundation of my lifelong affinity for wild food survival. These days it seems that childhood is an ongoing assault on the senses, from TV to constant, loud music to vaccination needles that contain mercury, and on into school, where there’s the confusion of ill-advised curricula that discourages actual learning. …


The Importance of Bushcraft and Survival During TEOTWAWKI, by M.R.

You’ve all seen it. Hollywood makes films of a plane crash or shipwreck that cause only one or a few survivors to end up on a deserted island. He or she– the main character– frantically panics at first, maybe even screaming. Then a few months go by, the camera cuts back to him or her, and now this person is an advanced survivalist with a wide variety of skills and gear. They seamlessly kill and eat animals and make impractical but cool looking shelters. Then, he, for the sake of drama, is faced with some dire problem and has to …


Letter Re: The Care and Feeding of a Woodstove

Hugh – I enjoyed Jim’s article “The Care and Feeding of a Woodstove“. We have a Blaze King Sirocco free-standing wood stove that, so far, we are very well pleased with, and, no, there is no financial interest involved. As the good ‘ol (sarc on) EPA has proposed new, tougher rules on emissions, this one was the best we could find with the lowest emissions. Like Jim, we heat a lot with wood, with propane back-up, our home is approximately 2500 square feet, and seems to be well insulated. We use mostly pine and fir; our kindling is split from …


Letter Re: How To Obtain Protein From Alternative Sources Without A Firearm

Just a note about small animals: Don’t count on them for the bulk of your diet. Take for example crayfish: The calories for your effort may be very small. There are approximately 3.5 calories in a crayfish tail. (There’s more if you eat the head but not much more.) I’ve seen traps bring in around 50 crayfish on a good day. Therefore, for enough crayfish for a 350 calorie snack, you’ll need at least two traps, and that’s on a good day. Double that for average days. If you want 1/4th of your calories of a family of four to …


Two Letters Re: How To Obtain Protein From Alternative Sources Without A Firearm

Dear HJL, Here’s a low-cost alternative to metal traps-– build a trapping pit. Trapping pits have been used since the Stone Age to put meat on the table. A deer trail or other evidence of animal activity is located, then a deep pit is dug and lined with stone or wood planks to prevent escape. Spikes or sharp sticks are mounted on the bottom of the pit to kill or injure the prey, and the hole is covered with a tarp or branches to disguise it. My family has stored up a dozen or so 4’ re-bars and a couple …


Letter Re: How To Obtain Protein From Alternative Sources Without A Firearm

JWR/Hugh, I loved this article about alternative means for obtaining food. Much of the information was repeat for me, as I do a lot if those things already. I would add as a point for anyone trying to get into trapping that unless you are in a very target rich environment, trapping has a low rate of return. Typically, traps will catch something 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10 times. Either the animal misses it, or a non-target animal trips the trap. I would recommend having multiple traps (like 6 or 12) and some snare wire around …


Letter Re: Rope Making

Hugh, The recent article on making rope by using plastic bags falls into the whole rope making category. A while back, when I still had animals, I made rope every day, a foot or two at a time, while feeding them their grain. I used the twine from the hay bales and made 8 or 10 strand flat braids. I regularly made 50 and 100 foot long ropes that I still use. They are as strong as a similar manila rope; I have pulled a car on the road with one. Learning how to braid flat braids is a skill …


How to Make a Rope Out of Plastic Bags, by Zac T.

Here’s a little about me. I am a graduate student striving towards my Master’s in Public Health, which means I spend most of my time studying infectious diseases, what food people need during emergencies, and how to fight bioterrorism. When I am not pondering these problems, I enjoy backpacking, lifting weights, and growing bell peppers. You wander from aisle to aisle, flashlight in hand, down what used to be your local tool supply store. When the first case showed up over the mountain about three months ago, most of the stores in town were looted pretty heavily. This place is …


Letter Re: Blacksmithing

HJL, If you want to be an effective survival blacksmith, it is essential you practice as much as possible now, when supplies are plentiful so that you will have the skills to actually produce something useful. If you start later, you will waste resources that are scarce and time which will be precious during TEOTWAWKI. Denis A, a new blacksmith already in training.


Meat Prices Soar While Deer Populations Explode, by KAW

This headline could sum up a multitude of news reports over the last few years. Droughts and severe winters have left the United States beef herd size at a 63-year low. In response, beef prices have increased steadily with hamburger topping $4 a pound this year. Pork prices have jumped due to porcine epidemic diarrhea that has killed millions of baby pigs. Inflation, a growing human population, and a higher demand for meat in emerging economies also contribute to ever-increasing meat prices. Ironically, America’s deer herd has exploded in the last 30 years. The deer population in North America when the Europeans …