Makes plenty of sense to me, and I couldn't agree more with ya. Not to mention, it's a lot of cheap fun that teaches a lot about personal capabilities, gear likes/dislikes, and just what ya really want/need "out and about".

All true, you see, but I would still contend that all can be accomplished sufficiently in the backyard, at least in mine anyways. We got bugs a plenty, we got irrigation water you wouldn't want to swim in, we got heat, we got rain (vis a vis the aforementioned sprinkler system), we got critters (well, maybe I can't count the lab as a bona fide varmint, but definitely a nuisance when camping out back, especially dealing with his doggie-bombs). Now, a little proofing of that sort goes a long ways towards telling me what I need to take on an overnight yote hunt, or deer hunt, and believe me, going to the hilltop in January to find out why the repeater went down, again is as good a cold weather test as you'd ever want, and under reasonably controlled conditions to boot. Granted mine is a rather rare circumstance not shared by the masses, but it does help to prepare me for the far away elk hunts when I am 30+ miles from nowhere and it's 5 degrees outside and snow blowing sideways.

So yes, if I can use the backyard as a decent controlled test arena, then I would have to agree that an ocassional outing into the bush appropriately equipped with both the "necessary items" and the knowledge of how to use them effectively.

Agreed! The test isn't a test unless you limit yourself to the set of gear you are testing. If you are testing skills / gear that are minimalist (PSK only, EDC only etc) then you will want to do somethings to make your experiment a little safer than a true survival situation would be. There are situations that could creep up on you and make you "too stupid to survive". Hypothermia and dehydration come immediately to mind. To mke yourself a little safer you should make this experiment with a partner and watch each other. Don't help each other but watch each other. Make sure that you each have agreed to allow the other to judge your safety. A few cheap monitors of the basics would be good too. Get one of those stick-on thermometers at the drugstore and use clear adhesive tape to tape it to your chest or belly . Check it now and again. If it gets below 95 then your are objectively in trouble! Every now and then try to spit. If you can't spit you are objectively in trouble. These simple tests and others that we could think of may help you to decide when you have reached the limit of your gear / skills and must fall back on your safety net.

Starting the experiment with a long, exhausting run would also be a good thing to help simulate the stress of getting into a survival situation.

Starting at night would also be a good thing since you don't know when this will happen.

If you plan to test your trapping, fishing, hunting skills either go truely remote or get the lisences required.

Don't cheat but do know when to quit. Training to survive doesn't help if you don't survive the training.

I have considered driving out to a (reasonably remote) campsite, taking all my survival gear out of the car, locking the car (with my tent, sleeping bag, battery-powered combo TV/VCR, etc. inside) and then sealing the car key in an envelope. If you can complete the weekend without having to rip open the envelope, then you're probably doing okay.

I suppose the only caution would be if it's extremely cold - you might get so cold that you can no longer unlock the car door. (When my brother spent his first winter in Grande Prairie, Alberta, he discovered the hard way how quickly this can happen - he went out to start the car one morning wearing only a shirt (and dress pants and shoes). By the time he got to the car, his hands were so cold that he couldn't turn the key in the lock; by the time he got back to the house, he could no longer open the door, and had to kick at it until his wife opened it. I daresay in a real desperate situation, he would have been able to open one or the other, but he learned there is a world of difference between 40 below and what we grew up with in Nova Scotia.

My son and I just did a little "practice session" this past weekend (he's 4 almost 5)

Just me, him, and a small backpack to spend the whole day in the woods. No, it's not overnight, and no it was not far from home (in fact, it's in on our property, we have lots of woods), but we DID gather food together (Hickory & Walnuts, some Onion Grass, which he likes, and for a treat some Sassafrass Bark), we DID purify pond water, and we DID build a simple improvised shelter and he helped me build a small fire. I was going to catch and eat one of our loose Guinea Hens, which we raise for food, but my wife called us in for dinner, and Pizza on the table is easier than a bird to be dressed!

We had a great deal of fun, it's a great father & son thing to do, and since we're only practicing, we can find flaws in our kits. For example, I didn't really have enough rope in my bag to turn a tarp into a tent AND to secure it properly. I need much more than 50', it turns out. Also, it would have been nice to have something better than my lousy home depot tarp as a shelter, so since then I've gotten some ripstop polyester material at a fabric store that was going out of business and I'm going to make my own tarp-thing from it to meet my needs.