The Reality of Survival, Part I

Alright guys, prepared to wander back out in the woods today and we're going to be talking

about survival kits and the reality of survival and actually testing out some of this gear

that we carry in our kits. Now when I first started this channel I did a video on a survival kit that I carried and

looking back on that video it's very amateurish and not as well thought out as I thought it

was at the time. And that's the great thing about this process of filming yourself doing things is that you

learn a lot and you expand your knowledge and so getting out here to actually train

is important. And today is a crappy day, it has been raining this week, the woods are very wet, it's chilly

there's a good breeze going, so it's a perfect time to talk about personal survival kits

and things that you carry. So what I brought with me today is a kit that's been evolving for a while now

I've changed it a lot of different times, I've shown it in a lot of different ways

pieces and parts of it, but this is kind of where I've landed currently with what I know

The pouch is not important, that's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about the container

What we're going to talk about is really how you use this thing and what it means to the

average person. So when we go out in the woods for a hike or hunting, and like today I'm going to do

a little scouting for hunting season that's coming up, you should have some basic needs

with you. And I think we all have seen these news stories out there with people who have went hiking

with nothing more than flip flops and a bottle of water and that's it, and maybe their cell phone

That's really indicative I think of what's happening today. The population's growing, more and more people, especially younger people, are wanting to

go out and see the natural world, go out to national parks and state parks and hiking

trails and just get out of the cities and enjoy themselves. Many of them don't have the knowledge or maybe never grew up with it, they didn't have someone

who taught them how to go out in the woods properly. Guys in the Midwest and the South, I think, have a little bit of an advantage because

we grew up probably in smaller towns, a lot of us grew up hunting and fishing with our

fathers and uncles, and we had that great mentorship and knowledge was passed on and

that's really important. And so many people don't have that these days. There's a lot of young people who don't have fathers, who don't have parents who are interested

in them, and who are willing to spend some time and take them out and show them some

stuff and just spend time with them out in the woods. So when they become adults and they want to go out and venture out onto the trail, they're

ill prepared, they don't have the right stuff. So what I want to talk about is the reality of survival and the reality of the stuff that

we carry with us. Survival has become a huge industry. It is a moneymaker and all kinds of ridiculous TV shows coming out with survival situations

Everybody and their brother seems like they're selling some type of survival gadget or kit

And it's a little dangerous, I guess, because it doesn't seem like there's a lot of knowledge

behind any of the stuff that's going on. So I am by no means an expert, but I have spent years volunteering as a search and rescue

volunteer with a local team. And during that time, I spent a lot of time training and studying the nature of what happens

when someone gets lost. There's a lot of statistics, a lot of facts behind all that information

And when you start digging into it, it's really shocking how ill prepared people really

are and they really don't know what they're doing. And even in a small wooded area like this, which is surrounded by civilization and roads

and a lake and streams and a railroad track, someone can get out here and get lost

Or they can get out here and get themselves in a situation they can't get themselves out of

And that's probably more the reality of the situation. We go out here hiking and something happens

We twist our ankle, we break our ankle, go into a gopher hole, whatever

Now that injury prevents us from getting back to our vehicle. We don't have adequate communications

The cell phones don't always work. So now what do you do

You're stuck. You may have to spend a prolonged amount of time in the woods

And if you are not properly dressed and you don't have the proper equipment with you

it could be a long, horrible night. And there have been people who have died in state parks because the weather turned really

bad in the middle of the night when they had to spend a night in the woods

And we're going to talk about that too. So first thing, let's get into looking at this survival kit and some of the items I

have in it. And then we're going to actually use some of this stuff and see how it works

Does it really do what it's supposed to do? And hopefully we'll all learn something here

So stay tuned. All right, like I said, the pouch is not important

That's not what we're going to focus on. Let's focus on what we carry

So the scenario is that I am a hiker and I'm out for the day with my family or maybe I'm

by myself exploring an area and I just have a very lightweight, cheap backpack and I have

a bottle of water and I have this kit with me and that's really all I have

And maybe some camera equipment. That's very typical of what a lot of people would do with the exception of a kit

So when we add this kit, what kind of things are going to help us make the night more comfortable

So let's talk about priorities. We can pull out all this gear and look at it and play with it and say how awesome it is

But unless you understand the reasoning behind it, why do you need these certain things

what are your priorities when you get yourself into a situation, then none of this stuff

really means anything. So a big thing that I learned while in search and rescue is that taking care of your body

temperature, maintaining body temperature is really important. And you need to have several ways of doing that with you because what can happen is you

get wet, you're overheated from hiking, and now the temperature is starting to drop because

it's nighttime and now you're going to have a situation where you're going to become hypothermic

and your body will deteriorate very quickly. And if you're dehydrated or hungry, it's even worse

It goes quicker. So things that I carry to avoid that. First thing is a space blanket

Now space blankets are cheap. They're everywhere. They come in all kinds of kits and they have a very limited use

Once you open these things and you play with them, they're pretty much trash. So you really have to kind of, it's advisable to maybe get a few of these and go set them

up and play with them and see how would you use them. One way of course is wrapping your body in it

Another way is making a reflective tarp or a wall that faces a fire so it reflects heat back

So we'll look at that. Next item is some type of shelter

Keeping the rain off of you and keeping the wind off of you is going to go a long way

in keeping you warm and feeling better through the night. So this is a 60 by 38 high density polyethylene bag

There's two of these. And these can be used, improvised as a raincoat, as an emergency shelter, or make water in

via transpiration. So never, I've had these in a kit for a very long time

I've never used one. So I've never set these up. I should

I need to do that. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to try this and see how this works as making a would-be shelter

So right now, those are two things that don't weigh very much, are very small, and could

possibly make my night in the woods a little bit more comfortable

There's two of these bags in this kit, supposedly

So there's a seam right here. There's one

Now you could do this too with a contractor garbage bag. Those can be split open, and you can make a makeshift tarp with those, a makeshift shelter

So we're going to save this one, this one in the pocket

What this is, is just a bag. So this plastic sheeting's not very big

It's small. There's only two of these. Cut one open. I'm going to adjust that if I had to hunker down for the night

I could lay right down here and take these, this plastic sheeting, and make myself a little shelter

So what I've done is, I just made a toggle of a stick and wrapped the sheeting around

it, and then did a slip knot and a couple of grannies on top of that just to hold it

And then brought this around this log. This log's really not going anywhere

It created a little bit of a tension right there, so that's going to hold that corner down

So I definitely consider these bags a bit of a fail for shelter making

They're just too gathered at the end, and it makes it really hard to get a flat piece

of material to work with. If this was a flat piece of plastic, it would have been a lot easier to tie this up to the

log and make a little bit of a lean-to. And they're also pretty small

So definitely another reason why I like to carry a real tarp if I can

I think a contractor bag would have been a lot better in this situation than this thing

Now I could definitely get underneath this and then curl up with my space blanket and

have a little bit of dry area to wait it out if it was raining

But man, I would not want to spend too much time in this thing. It's small, and as breezy as it is, the wind's going to come in and you're going to get rain

on the sides. It's just not an ideal piece of equipment. So test what you have in your kits, and this is a reason why, because this is not something

I would depend on. As a poncho, this might be a better option

Let's try that. Alright

I take my hood out. If I'm wearing a hooded coat, I can now hunker down with this thing over me and tuck up my

knees inside this bag while I'm sitting and wait out the rain

I have a little bit of an air hole, so I'm comfortable

So in this situation, this works pretty well. I like this. Alright, next item on the list, Mylar Emergency Survival Blanket

Up to 90% reflection of body heat. 56 by 84. Let's see what we can do with this

Alright, so there's the egg corn. I'm just going to make a little pocket, put that in there

I'm going to take my paracord, go around that

Overhand knot. Another overhand knot. It doesn't have to be anything fancy

That will hold just fine. So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to take this and tie it around this post over here

That's one of my first tie-offs. There it is. It's the back of the shelter

What I can do is just use this log to tie off to

That way, I can adjust the tension on the tarp and the angle of this stick

It's not going anywhere. If I really wanted to get fancy, I could probably stake this out

Drive a couple stakes in there to hold it so it doesn't roll

Let's go to the other side and take a look. Alright, so this is a lot better of a shelter

I can tuck up underneath this and go to the back of it and keep some rain off me

If I had two of these, I could do another one on the other side of this log and have a little bit of a pup tent going

That would be ideal. With this plastic sheeting I brought, I'm laying on that

That's my ground cover for now. The idea is that this mylar reflective material is going to reflect back my body heat towards me

Then I'm going to build a fire out here. That's going to radiate towards me, reflect off of this, and hopefully keep this space in here toasty warm

Also, these mylar blankets are a great attractant. Someone is going to see this walking in the woods

I think there's definitely a purpose for these things if you know how to set them up

Carry a couple of them and some cordage and you're good to go

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