I had some interest in this little trick of his so I looked it up.

http://www.douglasbsa.com/knots/sheep.html

Cutting the line in the middle of the sheep shank will allow someone to give the rope a little flip and it will come down. Bear said in the episode to keep tension on the line after making the cut or it will come undone. Also it shouldn't be done with newer synthetic ropes as they slip.

Speaking of ropes. Has anyone heard of or used 'toggle ropes'? I suppose several have and wonder about uses other than climbing, make-shift stretcher, tying up people or using in a shelter that one might have for these.

Sheep shank?
 

You can't rappel over a Sheep shake. Does he unhook and rehook under the knot? One would be willing to die desperate to try that. One could do a one rope rappel with a Meunter hitch, but you'd loose a snaplink on the top. Just be careful.

Any Hitch will hold the weight and release when pressure is off of it. A hitch (clove or girth) tied around a post will work, but awfully risky.

Survive
 

There are 2 styles of brush cutters/machetes I have solid success with:
Woodsman's Pal (been around since WWII and was GI issue)http://www.woodmanspal.com/ It has excellent steel. It can fell a tree, split wood (baton), gut game, dig and is a formidible edged weapon.

The Gerber brush cutter is also a bill hooked short machete. The blade is thinner and overall weight is lighter. Good quality.http://www.gerbergear.com/

If I remember correctly he simply body rappelled.

I E&E'd from MP's on Fort Benning off Eddy bridge via a rappel and recovered my rope via the sheep shank with cut center.. My thinking at that point in time, was that I might not have been able to feed 150m of rope easily around the anchor point for a double line, and if the knot failed for whatever reason, I was just falling in "the hooch". The anchor point was a bowline around a square concrete pillar with a piece of carpet to protect the rope from abrasion when we first set out on the rappelling. The intent was to have fun for a day then head back home... not to have some passer-by do-gooder call the MP's on us.

We saw the cruiser come around the far corner, untied, moved closer to the center of the bridge, anchored, my buddy went down, then I tied the hitch once I was clipped in and cut the rope when I had tension on the line... a couple flips got it undone once I was in the water.

Still surprised I got away on that one, my vehicle wasn't THAT far in the wood-line. Not something I'd recommend over terrain that impact would be frowned upon, though.

One thing that I'll also add to the mix that won't work:

You most likely won't be able to start a fire using a pistol cartridge that you pulled the bullet from. I was curious, and tried it with .45 ACP out of my USP tactical... nice pile of tinder shaved from a stick with a good paper cup for the powder out of a reciept I had in my pocket. Used my multi-tool to pull the bullet in a rather ugly fashion, loaded the empty brass w/ primer in the pistol.. placed all of my fire materials in my woodstove, and hammer-fall promptly just blew everything everywhere.

Bored, curious to see if it'd work.. There's obviously better methods, but I was just seeing if an unconventional approach might work in unconventional circumstances. At least with my implementation, it won't.

You have a gun, bullets, multi tool and stove why don't you have a bic?:D

Good thread.

Bear is a twonk, we think so in the UK too. He has a nice life making TV programmes with lots and lots of back up, support and in the field help and assistance. As I recall even the BBC were not too impressed when it came out he was, for want of a better description, pulling cons in the field. He is best watched with the same regard as watching any other light entertainment show and he is definately no substitute for training followed with experience.

I made my first PSK over 30 years ago and even though I am now a civilian I still have one which is updated and modified regularly.

Back to the origianl question of what would I need for 60 days in the ulu: My old survival instructor would give me a clip on the back of my head and tell me anything more than a knife is classified as camping.

What I would want most is knowledge. You can never know enough.

A decent blade would be good: 4 inch drop point full tang blade with black micarta handles. Bushcraft style, plain, simple, reliable.

My PSK, containing:
fish hooks
fish line
micro leatherman, the scissor style version
micro LED torch
needles with large eye and small eyes (this allows use of thread or paracord inner cord)
potassium permanganate powder
6 ibuprofen tablets
full size space blanket (in a small ziploc and kept compact with about a yard of electricians tape)
half a dozen or so cotton wool balls for tinder (smeared with vaseline and zip-loced)
one inch length of swedish firesteel (needs to be cut under water)
10 * strike anywhere matches
2 * sachets of sugar
2 * sachets of salt
pack of scalpel blades
4 inch length of hacksaw blade
craft knife blade
12 inches 100mph tape
pencil (borrowed from IKEA, this has the 100mph tape wrapped around it)
handcuff key ;)
tiny magnetic multi colored flashing light (for parties and attracting SAR)

This is all squeezed into one of the old decontamination kit containers, you know the plastic pot thing a bit like a tupperware container. It is kept closed with 6 elastic bands and then double bagged with ziploc bags that are intended as water carriers. I used to have a folded aluminium foil food container kept under the elastic bands but used it a while back and did not replace it (down and give me 10). I was taught to make a reduced photocopy map of the area I would be in and stash that in my PSK also, just in case. I know some guys who stash a sachet of sports drink powder with their PSK and then put the PSK into a clean pair of socks and then double bag it ....... go juice and clean socks.

My boot laces are all 550 cord, the cords in jackets have all been replaced with 550 cord and I carry around a 5 foot length of 5mm kernmantle to use for making bow drills ......... IMHO paracord/550 is kack for bow drills.

Direction finding: Shadow stick; sun rise & sunset; stars. The watch method has been shown to be unreliable by academic gentlemen using far greater knowledge than my own so I defer to them.

Fire lighting: Bow drill; hand drill (painful, but I have managed it); Swedish steel; flint and steel using charcloth or dried fungus as the tinder; if you have a carbon blade knife you can use the back of the blade against a flint to produce sparks; spectacles if you wear them to ignite tinder. My survival instructor told me to always carry about six Bics dotted around various smock and trouser pockets, I added a twist to this taught me by a USAF Vietnam vet. He said that in Vietnam a lot of the guys used to put an elastic band around their zippos to make them slip-proof so they would not fall out of their pockets ... so I added an elastic to my Zippo and my Bics.

Eating: Running after antelope or wilderbeast and dropping them with a pithy little spear works for Abo's and bushmen. Personally, I have problems snaring rabbits so I try to learn about edible plants to make sure I will not starve.

Shelter: My tarp and hammock would be nice but if not then I would find high ground and make a nice thermal 'A' frame with a well placed fire and reflector.

Water: Boiling at the very least, preferably filtering followed by boiling which is better. It is not too difficult to improv a decent filter using tree bark, moss and charcol from the campfire. A pot to boil in is the big problem, not many of those in a PSK as they are generally only intended for short time frames. Still, if it was all there it would be camping and not survival.

Les Stroud did this with a rifle, and it took somewhere around 7 rounds to light a fire. Did you try using the powder with a spark based fire starter? I'd be curious if that were doable.

If your trying to survive why exactly would you use a bullet for anything other then shooting something that you can eat or that is trying to kill you?????

Go back and read the OP's situation. There are times when fire is whats gonna save you. That being said, having a gun is cheating anyway.

ETA; Clarification.

Sten, I was basically curious if it was a viable technique, and if it was, if it was reliable.

My equipment has 3 different methods for starting fire, and 2 different tinders that will light from what I carry. I was curious to see if I could accomplish the task via another method that I always have on my person, specifically from my pistol.


If it could save my life in a bad situation, it's a round well spent in my eyes.

Unfortunately, as zpo mentioned, it took 7 rounds from the supply for a rifle to accomplish the task. That's getting expensive.

Anyway, enough sidetrack from the point of the exercise.

Les Stroud AKA "Survivor man" lit a fire with a rifle, but it took him several tries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzwKn...eature=related

google "Les stroud katrina" and there is some really great stuff on youtube

The barrel of most rifles is long enough to ensure a complete burn of the powder before the bullet clears the muzzle.

Carbines are an exception.:D

I have not tried this, but I expect that a handgun with the powder charge still in the case and a wad (cloth, wax, etc. on top would probably ignite suitable tinder, especially if it contained another load of powder.

In any event, I find a small ferrocerium rod in the accessory side pocket of my Leatherman case much more convenient and reliable.

TR

Good read on this thread
 

Appreciated all the info I read in this thread. One firestarter I didn't see was using a standard 9 volt battery, which taking 2 in a small kit, and a nice wad of Steel wool, will produce many fires. Just takes a pinch of steel wool, which you swipe the contacts of the battery across, to produce a fast flame....thoughts? Note though, pack the battery seperate from the steel wool Grasshopper, or your emergency kit will catch fire...lol

Buck