The article was written by Keith McCafferty. He has written a few articles in F&S on survival, but this is the best because he actually went out and tried it.
He wanted to spend the first night without fire, so he wrapped himself in plastic and shivered inside a spruce tree. Plus he peed on himself when he was too cold & tired to unwrap enough. (Been there done that, only not my pee - old ground for anyone that's had an infant! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> )
The next day he made a traditional lean-to and fire reflector camp. He set a bunch of snares that caught nothing, but he took a grouse with his elk rifle. (He didn't specify how much of the bird remained) He said he probably expended more energy than he recovered from the grouse, but it was a great morale boost.
He unsuccessfully tried a few ways to make a fire, including using up almost all his ammo. He learned to get all his fire materials together before starting the fire., and finally put a spark to steel wool and was able to cook his grouse. He slept well enough that night, except that he had to stoke his fire once an hour.
He wished he'd had a metal cup, more ammo, food, sunglasses, and a novel because "your mind goes places I don't recommend"
For as short as the article is, it is informative. I think it was a pretty cool test of his skills, maybe I'll do the same this weekend?
Previous Topic
Index
