Survival Weekend

[Electric Mango]

et Up:  Survival Weekend

Duration:  3 Days, 2 Nights

Location:  3000 acres of land near Missouri River (U.S)

The Rule:  You are only allowed to bring what you can carry in a back pack and fit in your pockets.

IDate:  Probably late summer or early fall.


So I'm looking for ideas on what to bring.  I know I'll bring a knife, fishing line, and a bottle of something, although I'm not sure what.  I also want to build my own shelter instead of packing a small tent.  Anyone have suggestions?

[Arsenal 10]

Gameboy pocket and pokemon silver.

[Gangs]

See if you can fit the man vs wild dude in your pants.

[Croix]

what exactly do you do on this weekend?

[Buck Turgidson]

See if you can fit the man vs wild dude in your pants.

LOL

I would bring the following:

Fishing line
Fishing hooks
Blanket/sleeping bag
Flashlight
Lighter (Zippo)
Lighter fluid
Water bottle
Hat
Spare socks
Pullover
Beef Jerky (which sucks, but is eminently practical)
First Aid kit with alcohol
Alcohol (for drinking)
A small bag of weed
Knife with can opener
A few cans of beans so you can re-enact the scene from Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles --Farting Cowboys- Greatest Fart Scene of All Time

[Jenne]

You should be able to fit a hooker in your pocket.  Since they have no soul, they should fold up nicely. 

[Buck Turgidson]

Oh yeah, also bring some rubbers.

[Fake from State Jarm]

bear mace (Flask)

bare minimum, make sure you have enough water (prob at least 3-4 Liters, more if it's hot) and something to start fires for warmth/cooking.

if you're going to build a shelter, maybe take a machete or a hatchet. if not you may need a big knife with some teeth.

if the backpack is a hiking type backpack you should be able to easily carry everything you need to go camping.

you should try and practice the shelter building if you haven't done it before, so you don't totally get pissed and frustrated doing it the first time while you're out there, and end up staying up all night making it. also, maybe take a tarp and pancho just in case it rains or there are bugs in your building materials. you should also practice making fires if you've never done that before, it can be challenging especially if there's bad weather/bad burning materials/you're using weird archaic fire starting things.

as for food, pretty much any kind of trail mix is a good fallback. nuts/dried fruits/granolas that kind of stuff. we have a store here with a huge row of dried goods in dispensers so you can make your own, but you can always find packaged kinds everywhere. but if you eat that and don't drink enough water you will get constipated lol. if you want to cook, try picking up some seasoned rice and bean mixes or couscous, pretty much anything that is an instant meal you can cook just by boiling. don't take anything perishable, obviously. any food should either be dry or canned. don't forget a pot, a bowl, and some silverware. if you do this, you should bring at least another 2 Liters of water to boil with and clean the dishes with. having a gallon or two of water may be kind of heavy but it's important not to skimp on water. Someone else might run out of water also, if you are going with a group. of course you could use river water but it may taste bad and you may need to purify it, so for a short trip probably easier to take your own water. don't want to get dehydrated and have to call some park rangers to drive you to the hospital or something. probably a bad idea to do it alone if you don't do this often.

don't forget toilet paper.

also, f bear grylls, watch survivorman or dual survival.

[Erwin Schrödinger]

Ignore toilet paper, use random leaves you find on vines by or on trees.

For srs, take dry kindling (or not, if you know for fact everything is dry).

[Buck Turgidson]

Don't wipe your ass with poison ivy.

[Pterrydactyl]

Well, I did similar training in the Army (basically, they gave us 3 hours to grab gear, and dropped us off in the middle of the woods alone for a week in the middle of the woods).  Heres a list of stuff you'll find useful:

Military Canteen (Comes with 1qt canteen, and canteen cup)
4 MREs (These will contain all the food you would need for the entire time, + 1 day extra)
Para/550 cord (Trust me, you can't get enough of this stuff in a survival situtation, we used to wear "Paracord bracelets" which had a bunch of paracord woven into a bracelet for use)
Mo Tool Axe  (Definatly worth it)
Cigarette Lighter (with spare fuel)
Pocket Mirror
Extra shirt/pants (and, you should try to get ACU, Advanced Combat Uniform, from a surplus store if you can.  It will help you retain bodyheat and has more pockets than your body has room for.  The ACU is an upgrade from the old Us Army BDU).
Poncho
Tri-Fold Shovel
2 boxes of babywipes (YOU WILL THANK ME FOR THIS LATER, both for cleaning up after doing your business, and cleaning yourself in the morning)
First-Aid Kid

You should have plenty of spare room, even with all that equipment for whatever else you might want to bring.

This is optional:
Military Compass (one which lets you shoot an azimuth)
Map of the area
Waterproof pencil
small notepad with waterproof paper

Note:  If you don't know how to navigate, don't bother.  And I mean, unless you went to a class and actually learned how to triangulate your position from shooting azimuths with a compass, and have done a step calculation ignore this stuff, because it won't help you.  And if you do know how to navigate, REMEMBER TO COUNT.

[Jenne]

Ignore toilet paper, use random burritos you find

sometimes I love our filters.

[Fake from State Jarm]

Ignore toilet paper, use random burritos you find

sometimes I love our filters.

fixt

[Gangs]

BROMANCE!

[Buck Turgidson]

Incidentally, I asked a Spanish colleague of mine if they eat burritos in Spain, and he said hell no, we do not eat little donkeys.  He didn't know what a burrito was.

Can we create a filter using the word "chimichanga"?  Perhaps in place of the word "fuck"?  It is high time we clean this place up.

[Rorick]

An identification guide on wild edibles in the area, you never know when you could use more food, especially in a survival situation. Make sure it includes a physical description, a full color picture, and a suggested thing is other uses for it. I would also recommend a similar guide on camp medicine, just in case.

If you can, an emergency flair/signal/radio might be useful, but it's not required.

I'd also recommend having the map and compass, even if you haven't had a class on navigation. It's better to have it and have a rough idea where you and everything around is, rather than not.

I'm surprised I didn't see this one: water purification tablets or liquid iodine. In your situation, these are a must, no exceptions. Those things can literally save your life if you don't have a source of pre-purified water on hand. If you get it from a stream, pond, etc., use them. I would also recommend using them in tandem with a hand held water pump, it's not needed though. Slow, but gets silt and dirt out of the water before you put it in your holder.

[Pterrydactyl]

MRE's usually contain purification tablets (or at least, they did when I was in the Army).  But yes, Purification tablets and Iodine are a must.

But if you haven't done any land navigation ever, a map will be probably be useless, same with a compass.  It's like if you have a tool, but don't know how to use it.  It doesn't do you any good.

Really, I'd suggest you try to take a land-navigation class before your survival weekend (There are places that offer them as weekend classes).  Otherwise the map will do you no good (that is, unless you know where you are starting, but then it's not really survival is it?).

[Jenne]

I'm surprised I didn't see this one: water purification tablets or liquid iodine. In your situation, these are a must, no exceptions. Those things can literally save your life if you don't have a source of pre-purified water on hand. If you get it from a stream, pond, etc., use them. I would also recommend using them in tandem with a hand held water pump, it's not needed though. Slow, but gets silt and dirt out of the water before you put it in your holder.

What, you don't like drinking raccoon piss?

[Electric Mango]

Good tips on everything so far, you guys have come up with some things that I would have not thought about.  I will probably buy a large Alice pack off of Ebay.  I've seen some for around $35 that come complete with the frame.  I'm also thinking about ordering a case of MRE's and bringing some of those with me just in case but I would much prefer to catch my own fish or snare my own game, and even eat edible plant life.  There's 5-7 of us that are going, some still haven't worked up the courage to ask their wives. 

I know alcohol dehydrates the body but I'm taking some anyway.  Nothing better then sitting around a camp fire at night sipping on something.  I haven't figured out what I'm going to pack for that.  It would have to be something that tastes good warm, like wine, but I prefer something around 80 proof.  Problem is, what kind of alcohol tastes good warm.  Looking for some suggestions here as well.

[Pterrydactyl]

So... This isn't so much a survival weekend, but a camping trip then?

From the sound of it, your looking for something more for fun than actual survival.  I said to bring 3 MREs because I assume you have little-to-no experience in a survival situation and don't want you to die.  Trapping your own game/fish is an option, but you'd need a rod or net for fishing (or experience with a hook and line), and experience actually trapping game (it's not as easy as it sounds), as well as cooking/gutting the game (unless you've done this before).


Noone trying to survive would be retarded enough to drink any amount of alcohol, especially if your making a fire out in the woods.  Thats literally a recipe for disaster.  Alcohol is used for 2 things in a survival situation, sterilization and as a way to make it easier to start a fire.  Fighting dehydration is one thing, but drinking exasperates it, and screws with your body temperature.  You might feel that it is warmer than it actually is, and as a result suffer from exposure.

BTW, MRE's are about $84 a case and come with 12.  I recommend the Cheese Tortollini, and Ravioli if you can get them.  The BBQ chicken isn't bad.  DO NOT CONSUME THE PEANUTBUTTER from anything though.  And DO NOT EAT THE CHEESE OMLETTE.  Your intestines will thank me.