You all make some good points. In my particular situation, the only reason I would find myself in a position to survive long periods of time in the wilderness is either by choice or if world war III comes to my area. In either of these situations, the decisions to bug out will be voluntary. I have such a large bag simply to get me where I am going and, once there, to get me established. Also in either of these situations, my main goal is to get as far from civilization as possible. I already have several places ready to go, and there will be people there to assist who, like me, have honed their skills over many years and should have a camp already established by the time I get there. Believe it or not, they have more gear than me. As for injuries, I am prepared to handle almost any injury except the most severe and my companions are in the same shape. I try to be ready for anything at all, including the loss of all of my gear. Primiive methods may be slow and inefficient but sometimes they are all you have. I have actually been in that situation and while breaking out the gear is a good motivator, so is cutting timber for an improvised shelter, starting fire without benifit of maches or a lighter, and whittling out a figure four deadfall. In favt, I have a snare set up at work to get rid of some pesky raccoons, but they seems to prefer a live trap to a snare as I've probably caught and relocated half a dozen in the last few weeks (the snare is a recent addition and I can tell we are thinning out the population cause nohing has messed with either one in over a week.) I actually have been in situations where I was injured and required to survive and believe me it isn't easy. There have been times when I only had the use of one hand or one leg and I would rather lose a hand than a leg. At least mobility is still an option that way and if you can move, you are not defeated yet. I can still work one handed although I've never tried to work a fire bow one handed (In fact, I carry oher methods of fire production so that has never been a problem.) At any rate, survival is not contingent on any one thing. It's all based on what you can do with what you have. I try to have all my bases covered. If and when the time comes to test my skills, the people most likely to make it are the ones that are prepared, and I am going to be one of those.