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Improvised Bushcraft Camp Chair Using a Tarp
21K views
Feb 4, 2024
Using my MEST™ Tarp from Bushcraft Outfitters I improvise a chair as well as a few other handy items. Check it out! http://bushcraftoutfitters.com My Big Cartel Site for stickers and patches: http://thepreparedwanderer.bigcartel.com -~-~~-~~~-~~-~- Please watch: "The Best Survival Food Kit For Your Bug Out Bag | Nutrient Survival" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un4WZfvyjW8 -~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
View Video Transcript
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Music
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Well it's a cloudy day today so I think I'm gonna do a makeshift pack cover on
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my backpack today. I don't have a dedicated pack cover that I carry with
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me but I like to do is I like to carry gear that's multi-purpose so you guys
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saw me do a video on this mess tarp that I use for emergency purposes. Well I
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don't carry a tarp just to carry a tarp I mean why carry something that's only
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gonna do one thing so you know a small tarp can do a lot of different things
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for you in the field and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna rig up a quick pack
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cover with this tarp using that and some paracord. So I laid the pack on top of
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the tarp and I pulled it up tight around the base. What I'm gonna do is pull this
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and take a piece of cordage and wrap it around there
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If I wanted to I could probably
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take another piece of cordage and run it through these tabs right here like this
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Hopefully that's that should be that should be flat enough that it's not
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gonna be too hard on my back I don't think it's gonna affect it at all
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There we go rain cover quick and easy. All right put the knife on I'm gonna hit
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the woods hopefully it won't rain on us today. If it does I'm prepared. All right
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see you in the woods. So the tarp it worked great on the pack it didn't affect my comfort level at all
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it didn't dig into my back hiking in it stayed on the the pack really securely
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and it's because it's a nice lightweight tarp. You can use any kind of tarp for
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this application. I mean this is what I have I have the Bushcraft Outfitters
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5x7 that's what I like. You could certainly use a poly tarp from Walmart
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or something like that. They're a lot heavier, they're noisier, they're not as
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durable, but they're cheap so if you're on a budget that's great you could do
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that. But these lightweight nylon tarps work really well as a multi-purpose item
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because they're so flexible and you can do so much with them so that's what I
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use. But by all means you know figure out what works out best for you. So I'm gonna
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get my bag here and get some bug juice on me because I did not spray myself
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down before I came out and I'm regretting it because the Skeeters are out. I'm gonna try these little off towelettes. I usually keep a few of these in my
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pack for backup in case I do forget my bug spray because I always seem to
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forget it. It's like one of the last things I'm always thinking about when I'm heading out and I don't like to carry a big can in my pack. Another thing
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these tarps are good for is picking up leaf litter off the ground and making
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yourself kind of a makeshift bed. So it's summer right now and there's not much
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leaf litter on the ground, there's some, but all this could be collected and put
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into your tarp and made into a quick bed if you need be. So in the fall it's
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really gonna be an ideal time to do that because you're gonna have all kinds of stuff. But if you really wanted to you take your tarp
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and open it up and start collecting this debris
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You don't want sticks in there but start collecting the debris then you fold it
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over and straighten it out and now you've got a place that you can actually
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lay down. So it's a different another option. Another thing I want to try today is and see if I can do this or not because I
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haven't done this yet. I've never done this before. I want to create a bush
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chair by making a tripod and then using the the tarp as the seat, the sling. So I
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need to find some appropriate wood that I can cut down and make into a nice
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tripod. So let's see what we can find. Number 36 bank line from 5 Calls to Rival Supply
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Here's my poles. I'm going to cut down this end piece right here. It's just a
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little too long and it's not needed. Okay. Sawing is done. Now it's been a while since I've done this
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I'll start off with just a big generous loop
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Thread that through. I don't know how much I'm going to need so I don't want
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to cut it yet off of the main hank. So what I need to do is I need to start
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weaving this under, over
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should be plenty now. I'm gonna go one more wrap around and then I'm going to come back and we're
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going to go the other way. I'll show you what I mean
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Go under. One little trick I learned from my Iowa woodsman, if you want to pull the cordage
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tight you don't want to hurt your hands, wrap it around a stick. That way you get
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a nice tight wrap. I can spread these out just a little bit if I want to
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All right
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I'm gonna go down this one
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I'm just folding this in half
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There's the cross piece. All right so I've wrapped it three times with paracord. I'm going to use the paracord
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because I feel it has greater strength than the tarred bank line and since this
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is really going to be hanging my weight on this tarp I want to make sure that this thing's not going to break because I definitely don't want to be on the
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ground. I'm gonna wrap that a couple times. All right let me show you what I got going
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So here is, this is how I actually finished it off. This is my extra
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cordage. I just ran that around the back side of this three or four times and
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then through here and then tied that off with this simple slipknot. Nothing
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complex but as you can see, very tight. When you open this thing up the looseness
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all goes away and this thing just tightens up on itself and creates a
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nice hinge. That's why you wrap it in the middle. It creates that hinge. Now for
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the 550 cord, wrap this several times around the neck of this gathered
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material. Wrapped around here a couple times so I got two or three strands
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Looks like two strands protecting me and then the extra I just tied up in a hank
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so I don't have to cut my cordage. And then with this chair what you can do is
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you can adjust it either out further to make it lower and recline back more or
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you can raise it up and you set up more upright. I'm not gonna make lunch today it's just too hot outside but a buddy of mine
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sent me these. These honey stinger gluten-free organic cinnamon waffles. They're like a quick energy snack, kind of an alternative to the
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Clif Bar. They come in all kinds of flavors. I've never had these before
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So Jay Dean who is a really great guy and he's going through some stuff right
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now in the hospital before he left for his trip to the hospital actually sent
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me these. Pretty nice of him. So you can't really take a big folding chair
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when you go backpacking or going on a long hike so it's nice that
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this little piece of gear that weighs hardly nothing and I already have my
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pack I can actually use it to set up a chair, make a pack cover, collect debris
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from the forest floor or make a shelter with it. So multiple items and it can be
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a poncho too in a pinch so there's no sense in not having it with me everywhere
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I go and all my packs. Just picking that thing up throwing it in there and when I
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get to camp I can set up a nice chair not have to worry about toting something
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in. And you know if you do this right and you pick the right wood, the right
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logs for this thing it should support your weight just fine. Now I'm I'm a
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hefty dude, I'm a big guy and it's definitely a concern when I'm picking
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this stuff out to make sure I'm getting the right the right stuff but this is all deadfall. It's really well seasoned wood. It's been out here for a while and
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just picking a good sized diameter this is probably about three inches in
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diameter and then making sure I have really good wraps on with the cordage at
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the top that's nice and secure and then you shouldn't have any issues. So the
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good thing is I can leave this out here this tripod out here and I think what
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I'll do is I'll fold it back up and stash it somewhere so the other knuckleheads
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that use this woods don't find it and destroy it because they will. And that
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way next time I come back and I'm shooting film I can set this up again
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and I have no chair now I'm not sitting on the ground I'm not sitting on a wet log I don't have to have a pad and get my butt up off the ground which is
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awesome. If you had to you could probably sleep in this thing overnight. Probably
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wouldn't be the most comfortable thing in the world but it'd be better than laying on the ground. If you had enough insulation you know warmth around you
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cover yourself up be alright. Alright guys I hope you found this useful and as
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always please like subscribe and share and also check me out on Instagram
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preparedwanderer, prepared hyphen wanderer or something like that I don't remember. Go there, go to Instagram and follow me there because that's where I
18:52
post all my photos. I'm not doing the blog anymore the blog site just no one
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was really visiting it but everybody uses Instagram and I have a lot of
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followers on there I'm a little happy about that and all my photos from my
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trips and just day-to-day stuff go on there so check me out on Instagram. Also
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check me out on Big Cartel if you're interested in prepared wanderer stickers
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or prepared wanderer patches. I've got a Big Cartel site out there and they're
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not too expensive and I get those shipped out pretty quickly so. Alright
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guys thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time on the prepared wanderer
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