Survive!

[The Reaper]

Just a quick comment here.

Every guy posting with Quiet Professional under his name has been through a survival course of several days in a remote area with very few resources, like a knife, a book of paper matches, a few feet of 550 cord, a chicken or rabbit (to keep students from trapping and consuming domestic animals) and his canteen with cup, or in a real world situation with a lot more drama.

Asking questions is fine.

I would be very hesitant to dispense advice without comparable experience, which I only see in a few cases here. Anyone who is a SERE Instructor or survival expert who is not a QP, send me your creds.

As far as the slingshot goes, that would be fine, if it is small, lightweight, and if you are accurate with it.

I would consider a few feet of tubing for drinking from ground sources without disturbing it, or from a solar still without taking it apart, so if you could just carry the surgical tubing and make your own slingshot in the woods.

For firestarting, I have used a lot of techniques. Just as a control measure, I turned my kids, 9 and 12 years old, loose on a pile of pine needle tinder yesterday with one of the Firesteel manmade flint strikers. They caught on to the striking technique very quickly, making big showers of sparks, and I let them try to light the tinder. I had to add some shreded paper napkin to the mix before the youngest could get it started, total time, about four minutes and a couple of dozen strikes. Curiously enough, I also had to add some hand sanitizer before the older one could get one started. She took well over ten minutes and a hundred strikes. I actually stopped her twice and struck fires myself just to make sure that everything was okay. It took me a half dozen strikes or so. When I gave them a butane lighter, both could produce significant blazes almost immediately, with their first attempts.

Yes the flint or firesteel technique will work eventually, when it is cold or wet, if your hands know what they are doing. An actual flame beats a spark, even a good one, almost every time. I believe that for the weight of a flint, striker, and magnesium block, you could carry several lighters, which if kept in a pocket or on a necklace, will be much easier to use, as well as cheaper and requiring less training.

Next time you think about it, take your flint, steel, and magnesium out, and try to light a fire with it using just one hand. Now try it with your weak hand alone. How will you do it if one hand is injured? With a lighter, it is still simple.

Remember KISS.

TR