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Post by Sasquatch on Jan 17, 2013 17:28:35 GMT -5
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Post by Russ Koon on Jan 18, 2013 13:20:38 GMT -5
Hard to believe....even the most basic gear would have likely resulted in survival. To leave on a lengthy hike with two young kids in iffy weather and not even carry a couple of trash bags for emergency rain protection, a small penlight, and a basic GPS like the cheap "backtrack" type....I could understand it if the guy was a city slicker with no outdoor experience.
Guess familiarity breeds contempt, or overconfidence.
Thinking back, though, I guess I was about this guys age when my son, 14 at the time, spent a very uncomfortable night in the HNF, somewhere near the middle of the biggest unbroken chunk of forest in the state, due to a similar lack of preparation.
We were hunting the shotgun deer season, and when we went into the woods for the afternoon hunt, the plan was that we weren't going far, and would meet back at the car at dark. He'd been hunting with me for about five years for squirrels and was good at finding his way in unfamiliar territory, so I wasn't concerned until he hadn't shown up after twenty minutes or so after dark. We were dressed just enough for comfort for the short planned hunt and were without even the most basic survival or pathfinding equipment, too.
He walked out the next morning as soon as there was light enough to see to walk, and we cancelled the major search and rescue effort that was gathering after not finding him the that night.
That good scare taught us something more about preparedness than reading about others being in such a fix. We didn't venture into the woods afterwards without our small emergency kits on our belts, with a couple trash bags, some fire starters, mini Maglights and spare batteries, compass, a police whistle, and some energy bars. All that fit neatly into a couple of belt packs from an army surplus store (I think they were British army mess kit covers). Hardly any weight or bulk, and it pretty easily became habit for us to slip the belt through them even when we were "sure" they wouldn't be needed. We'd been "sure" that night, too, that we'd need no such stuff for the short hunt planned.
As you said Sas, always leave prepared.
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Post by Sasquatch on Jan 18, 2013 18:17:08 GMT -5
Russ, one thing I always have in my hunting pack is a fire starting kit. One of those "Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it" situations.
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Post by oldhoyt on Jan 21, 2013 11:37:58 GMT -5
The barest minimum is a relaible way to make fire and a light. You don't really need water or food to survive the accidental night in the woods, but a fire helps in many ways. It gives off heat obvioulsy and that can be very important, but it also makes smoke for searchers to home in on, and it gives the lost person focus on something rather than panicing.
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Post by jamesaritchie on Jan 21, 2013 14:04:11 GMT -5
I never go anywhere withut suvival supplies, and all of them fit in one back pocket. I don't use a GPS, though. If a GPS crashes and burns, and they often do, most who rely on them are likely to die.
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Post by single_shooter on Jan 22, 2013 9:51:38 GMT -5
I used to live in Arizona and every year, especially in the Fall, we would watch the evening news play out the saga of lost people from "back east" who couldn't find their way back to their car.
While in Utah one year deer hunting we went to town one evening to meet some friends for supper. The evening news came on and they actually had an out of state hunter count....they would say how many were dead/wounded/missing...up to date every evening...lol People in the mountain states laugh at us flatlanders every hunting season when we head out west and do stupid things like wander off and get lost in the mountains.
It happens way more often than people would think.
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Post by kevin1 on Jan 22, 2013 10:50:00 GMT -5
I have a small belt pouch kit containing a multiblade/tool knife, space blanket, fire starting gear, loud whistle, compass, fishing tackle, and some other small items that I pack in when I hunt strange large woods. It's not much larger than my palm, but it has the minimum I would need to get by until help came.
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Post by single_shooter on Jan 22, 2013 12:39:37 GMT -5
When I hit a large forest (not a woods) I carry all my gear in a small daypack which includes a wool blanket (2 if it's 20 or below at night), a small tarp (8x10), fire making tools including a fire starter block which will burn when wet, a hatchet, a folding e-tool, paracord, paracord bracelet, extra socks, extra gloves and a small military mess kit and spare water and some energy bars. It may seem like a lot, but it weighs nothing when carried in a small pack and if I am not completely incapacitated and can get more water I am in great shape.
This is in addition to the skinning knife, rifle, ammo, spare ammo and my regular gear I carry when hunting. Even if on a day hike I will carry a survival pack for us in case the worst happens.
If I am deer hunting in such a remote location I like to take along a 5 inch 22 Contender Pistol packed away in a soft case in the bottom of the survival pack to shoot squirrels if the need arises. I figure if I am injured enough that I cannot get myself out of the woods I can hopefully at least be functional enough to kill, clean, cook and eat small game.
I remember a story about a guy who took one of those survival 22 rifles that packs into the stock on his hunting trip to Canada. The plane crashed on it's way back out. The plane was on the wrong side of some mountains to avoid a storm. He survived for 3 months shooting ground squirrels and other rodents for food...but it took them 5 months to find him. It didn't work out for him...but I see it as 3 months is much better odds than 3 days. I prepare for what I can.
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