Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Surviving a cold wet night

thanks for this topic, i'm a new member here and am going hunting in an unfamiliar area. i had'nt given much thought to what i carried in my pack other than the normal hunting gear only because i usualy hunt familiar areas where i'm never to far from saftey.
this time around will be different where ill be with a group where we'll each be dropped in a seperate area.
so after reading all these great posts and looking at what other people are equiped with ill be better prepared for the "what if's" so thanks again.

You're welcome.
And, welcome aboard.
And, good luck on your together but separate hunt. With the info here you shouldn't break when you get dropped.

thanks, those guys hut there every year and graciously invited me this time, we'll be connected via vhf so im not worried but it never hurts to be prepared

...all I can say is HOLY CRAP!!!!!!

Bob

All I can say is "Fire Paste"... Carry a small tube of this stuff and if you can make a flame to get it lit, you will have fire. I was on a guided hunt in Oregon and the guide turned me on to it. He would light an old dead tree on fire and it would burn so hot and for so long that you had to stay back 30 feet, seriously... Not suggesting such a huge fire, but it certainly beats being found dead in the spring... Buy a tube and check it out sometime.

Burgerman

What stores carry it?

REI, most sports/outdoors - Sportsmans and Whole Sports, cabelas, etc.

I bought mine at JAX, in Colorado. You can find it on-line... It's inexpensive, about 8 bucks for a lifetime supply (depending on your use). Have fun!

Fire past.. Gonna have to check it out.

This is the stuff I have used (there may be others).



Cost is $5.25 bucks per tube at REI

John

Dat's IT!

Use it and you got a fire right now! Not as light as dryer lint though.

The whole field of bushcraft/wilderness survival has really changed over the last thirty years. Back then, my sources were two books: Larry Dean Olsen's Outdoor Survival Skills, and Richard Graves' Bushcraft. Olsen was more into living like a caveman, and assumed you didn't even have a knife with you. Graves took an approach more similar to modern bushcraft trends, and assumes you have a knife. The modern trend is more geared towards bringing a bunch of essentials, like 550 paracord for example, and focuses more on the specifics of your knife, and various knife skills, than back then. People have more recently become very opinionated about exactly what kind of knife (what steel, blade length, thickness, weight, what shape of blade and other blade characteristics, handle materials, type of grind, etc.) is best for bushcraft/survival, and for the most part I agree with the modern thoughts on the subject. Back then a knife was usually a pocket knife of no particular description.

I've only been lost in the woods once, during a solo deer hunt. I was prepared to spend the night, and had some basic survival stuff, but didn't fare too well, and was glad when the local police finally came out to get me in the middle of the night. One thing I did learn was not to rely on those compact (pocket sized) folding "sleeping bags." Forget about it. Much better off packing a good compact folded tarp. That sleeping bag fell apart on me, and it was pouring down raining. Couldn't light a fire either, since everything was wet. That would have been a miserable night.

WoodsWalker, I love that poncho tent and stove heat system.

Rat trap is an amazing idea. Beats wire snares and dead fall traps.

This is really a great post! I spend my falls hunting in the Northern Maine wilderness areas where the scenario of getting lost and spending the night in the woods is a distinct possibility. Hasn't happened to me yet but it's a great piece of mind to be prepared.
I got a lot of good information from this string of posts.
There are a few items I will be changing out of my pack and adding to as well.
Thanks for taking the time to post this.

You're welcome.
That's why we're here. (Not that I added anything worthwhile to the thread. )

My Brother got lost and spent a night in the Maine woods. He said it was Not Fun. He couldn't wait for morning. He fired a shot, and the guys looking for him fired back until he found his way back. He tells me about it over and over again.

I don't go in the woods without a pack, and I have a zip lock with a container of safety matches, a lighter, fire starter cubes, and a space blanket. Regardless of whatever else goes in the bag, that stays in.

I have heard the rule of three's.

3 hours to die from exposure (kind of hard to figure how they came up with that), 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. I've heard other versions but I know the weather can get me first. My first opportunity, I'm getting a fire going and curling up in a space blanket.

I was hunting in North Carolina during an ice storm, and I was going to be picked up at noon. About 8am, I was freezing and I got down and lit a little fire. You could fit it in a a #10 can, but it made me feel so much better to get down in the brush and lean over a little fire.

Re; Fire paste, please keep the tube in a sealed plastic bag. It can develop a leak and you can find flammable goo all over your "contingency" gear. Ask me how I know this.

"3 hours without shelter and or fire" in an exposed environment, "cold and wet" you can die from hypothermia. Many variables; clothing, general condition, have you eaten, are you hydrated, wind chill, etc. 3 hours, not engraved in stone, it can happen much quicker, or take longer. It comes on insidiously, the first thing to change is your mentation, then your dexterity. You will shiver until you run out of calories (use up your glycogen), and as your core temperature drops, you get sleepy. "If I could just take a nap...
Kills more people then any other cause. In fact if you ever talk to SAR folks, they will tell you that whenever they find someone, what ever their other problems might be, they are always cold, dehydrated and hypocaloric (freeking hungry)

Regards, Jim

Alligator, you nailed it. I did SAR for a few years and boy did that change the way I looked at WHAT I needed to survive. The primary thing a person needs to survive is shelter, not food, not water, not a snare, not a fish line and hook, not even fire (although that is #2). Shelter can take the form of a bivy sack, a poncho, a tarp...whatever. But what ever it is it must be readily deploy-able in bad conditions. Usually, by the time you realize you're in trouble, you are half way to hypothermia and still sitting in the wet cold wind maybe with a broken leg.
I carry a homemade Silnylon tarp (4 oz) that I can make into a windproof waterproof shelter in about 30 seconds. I carry homemade matches (you ever try to use a flint or lighter with immobile fingers?) and a homemade fire starter (candle w/saw dust-10 minute burn time) that will give me heat in about another 30 seconds. I also have powerbars that are never used as a routine meal. I also carry a SPOT. The key is to survive for 48 hours, until rescue finds you.

Can you tell us more about the homemade matches and the candles with saw dust? Sound interesting

How big is the syl tarp you carry?

Thanks, Randy