Weekly survival skill class

ScumLord

How about a weekly survival skills class?

We can make suggestions for easy to learn survival skills something along the lines of knitting or sewing.

If one of the posters has a basic skill that they can mentor that would be great, or if there's something you've always wanted to be able to do but never got around to learning, suggest it here and we can all mentor each other to get the skill down in preparation for the inevitable.

It has to be a basic and useful skill that anyone can achieve without needing specialised equipment and that can be carried out without modern conveniences.

daz801

Fire making, real important one. Sure you might think it's as easy a rubbing two sticks together but if you actually tried it is actually quite difficult.
Shelter making,
Knot making.

Basically the type of things you'd learn in the scouts, really handy if you need to rough it in the wild for a few days. S.A.S survival guide teaches most of these things and is something most people should keep in there z-day survival bag.:D

Cork24

You need to learn how to make traps

For your food,

And death traps for the z people

ScumLord

Making a fire sounds like a good basic skill to learn.

adser53

Great Idea for a thread! I'll be watcing closely.

My brother and I actually went on a survival training day in the Wicklow Mountains a few months back and the 3 main topics covered where fire starting, navigation & Shelter building.

I think shelter building is pretty much common sense but we did learn some good tips on the day. The only complaint I had was that the fire starting was reliant on you having equipment (apart from matches) with you. For example, method 1 was putting vaseline on cotton wool and using a flint strike to get a flame going. Now in your typical Z-Day environment, I reckon I'd get my hands on a lighter quicker than I would a flint striker but I suppose the premise is the same and it was good to see it in action.

My survival bag certainly has ample stock of vaseline and cotton wool now though because it really holds the flame well. Any hand sanitizer that has alcohol in it also holds a flame brilliantly so it makes getting the fire going much easier!

I'd recommend you guys watch "Survivorman". Long story short, this lad goes out in the wild for a week with little or no supplies and films the experience on his own. He has some amazing ways of starting fire with whatever he has to hand. Rubbing 2 sticks wasn't very successful for him so I won't be counting on it working for me!

ScumLord

We could look at the basic survival fire we need to build as being a temporary measure that can use some modern conveniences. If you've survived a few months you should be well up on fire building by then (or dead). Using what nature provides is the advanced class.

So Vaseline is flammable? I can imagine the looks you'd get whenever anyone sees a bag full of Vaseline, "It's for zombie survival! It is, I swear!"

adser53

ScumLord wrote: »

So Vaseline is flammable? I can imagine the looks you'd get whenever anyone sees a bag full of Vaseline, "It's for zombie survival! It is, I swear!"

My thoughts exactly...the instructor on the day got a few funny looks for this very reason!

But yeah petroleum jelly is flammable. Not petrol or napalm flammable but it does catch and it burns slowly so it gives you a flame long enough for your kindling to catch fire.

The more you know!
This lad uses a lighter to light the cotton wool/vaseline but a flint strike works perfectly too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FXX41w95aI

degrassinoel

Basic first aid.

Has anyone completed a course on this?
I think this should be one of the more crucial components of any survival skills class.

ScumLord

I would think basic first aid may be difficult to do easily. Doing it wrong could result in injuries. It may be beyond what can be achieved easily on a day or two.

degrassinoel

pretty sure there used to be oneday first aid courses in dublin somewhere, translating it from black and white text to actual practice could be difficult though yeah

yep, here ye go, basic one is 8 hours long, there's a bunch of them though
http://www.redcross.ie/first-aid-training/irish-first-aid-courses/

RiderOnTheStorm

great idae for a thread ....

good ideas so far:
=fire lighting
=first aid
=repair / make clothes (prob not needed until your own wardrobe starts to fall apart)

I would add:
+basic radio usage (vhf type - for communication) - this could be very technical, but if you could learn the basics , ie what parts go with what unit and how to change channels / pick frequencies, then that would be great.
+how to drive any car. Ok, this might be slightly dodgy, as what I think would be good is how to hotwire a car, so that you can drive any one you find when yours breaks down. This might be avoided if you just go for the ones that have the keys in them....or in the Z's pocket!
+detect a liar . This is 'out of the box', but it might be usefull to be able to tell which of the survivors you meet are trustworthy. Maybe read up on how to detect peoples 'tells', eye dilation, cold-reading, etc . Anyone know any good books?

Tzar Chasm

Firebows are fairly easy to do, granted it takes a fair whack of effort to make fire but the process itself is simple its just a matter of picking the right sticks.
After fire, basic water collection and purification should be next on the list then maybe forraging.

Alternately we could get to work on finding the names and addresses of the main contributors on the survivalism forum:D

ScumLord

Tzar Chasm wrote: »

After fire, basic water collection and purification should be next on the list then maybe forraging.

Foraging would be a good one, there's a lot of food to be had around the country but plenty that can make you sick or dead at the same time.


Ok so, we can start with fire. I'll start a new thread for each topic rather than digging through one super thread.

Tzar Chasm

Good thinking, when we get round to the forraging thread I'll do a bit of a post about the easiest shellfish to find and a few decent recipes

Kash

Great thread idea!

A few things I would love to know how to do if the zombies come would be:
Hotwire a car
Pick a lock
Tie a decent knot
Purify water
Skin and prepare caught meat
Preserve food (smoking/drying etc)

Looking forward to future posts!

RiderOnTheStorm

Kash wrote: »

...
Pick a lock
...

yup, this would be a great skill. I bought a lock-pick set off the internet recently (about €20) and watched a few videos on youtube .... then tried it evening after evening on a few padlocks while watching the tv ... got the hang of the principal, but cant say i am any good at it. Still, a great skill to have, and not overtly illegal as there are many reasons to need to be able to do this.

PS the lock pick kit includes a broken-key-extractor tool ! Very handy when a key gets brokne while inside the lock!

Tzar Chasm

Lockpick kit, pshaw, I have size12 boots, all the lockpicking I need.

Hotwiring a car is handy to know tho

Kash

But kicking down that door could alert all the nearby Zs to the fact that you and your size 12s are good eating, and you'll be in a room with a broken door

Besides, I'm a size 5, so I have to go with brains over brawn :P

Grizzly 45

Proably the most important one,maybe even bfore fire.Without clean water you will be pretty sick or dead,even before the Z's decide to lunch on you.

Tzar Chasm

Well I live in rural ireland so I don't expect there to be too long a wait for some rain

RiderOnTheStorm

While the access to water is prob the highest priority, I would still rate fire-starting its pratical equal, as with fire you can boil the water to remove germs / pathogens / bacteria etc. So ability to start fire should come first.

Proper filtration / cleaning of water could be done as the next survival class? How effective is UV cleaning? Can I make my own chemical cleaning solutions? How long will water be ok in sealed bottles from shops etc?