Survivalist Answers Survival Questions From Twitter | Tech Support

I'm Donny Dust, survivalist and primitive skills expert.

I'm here today to answer your questions from the internet.

This is Survivalist Support.

[rhythmic music]

Question number one, CdnPoohBear.

Why do survivalists say

to drink your urine if lost in the wild?

No thanks.

You're absolutely right, no thanks.

Do not drink your urine.

It is a waste output.

It is the waste from your body.

The last thing you wanna do is drink your urine.

It is a bad idea to do.

Next question is from ASurvivalists.

How do you navigate without a compass or GPS?

There are a number of ways

that you can apply some natural navigation.

Anytime we see a crescent moon,

just like the tattoo on my hand, is a crescent,

when you're in the northern hemisphere

and you see a crescent moon in the sky,

if you follow tip to tip all the way down to the horizon,

that is a cardinal direction of south.

When you see puddles,

puddles will typically dry from a southern edge

to a northern edge,

because the sun moves through the sky

in a certain direction.

If you see snow on certain mountain edges,

well, snow likes to be protected.

Typically, snow will last longer on the northern side

compared to a southern side.

We've all heard the saying about moss

only grows on the north side of a tree.

Well, moss will grow 360 degrees around a tree,

but dry moss will typically die out first

compared to a wet moss.

And the dry moss is dry because it's getting hit by the sun.

Even looking at trees,

all tree branches will have a natural bend towards the sun.

That can be a cardinal direction.

So if you take multiple natural signs and indicators

of a direction, compile them together,

that can give you a cardinal direction

when you don't have a map or a GPS.

From @LifeMathandMoney.

What does it mean to die by exposure?

When you die from exposure,

it means simply that the elements are gonna kill you.

That could be sun, that could be cold weather,

that could be rain, it could be anything

that's out in that natural environment

in the form of weather.

When you don't have a shelter or the proper clothing,

you are essentially exposed to it,

whether it's your bare skin or improper footwear,

or even maybe a beanie not covering your head.

Exposure will kill you fast.

Question from Reddit.

Is it possible to make a knife

out of wilderness materials?

You can definitely make a knife outta wilderness material.

The easiest way to make a knife outta wilderness material

is a process called flint knapping or lithic reduction.

What it requires is a piece of stone

that is high in silicate, and when it breaks,

it breaks similar to glass.

It has a waxy, glassy, smooth,

and featureless sort of interior.

Not all stones are the same.

This right here is a granite cobble.

This here is a piece of chert.

It has a high silicate rate,

and when I strike it with the cobble,

it's gonna create essentially a razor blade flake

that I can use to process all manner of game, cut fibers,

cut notches in fire boards.

I'm gonna support my stone underneath.

[stone tapping] A few little taps.

[rocks cracking]

And that right there is your knife.

This edge is razor sharp.

It can cut just about anything.

So even cutting a piece of bark-tanned leather,

it's razor sharp.

When you hear it... [tapping]

It's got a little ting.

The reason why this works so well

is that it breaks in a conchoidal fracture.

So if you're ever shotten a BB at a windshield,

it creates a perfect 90 degree cone.

And with every strike...

[rocks cracking]

I can impact, and more importantly,

create the blade that I want.

If I hit it harder, I get a bigger flake.

If I hit it softer, I get a smaller flake.

I can then take this small flake,

turn it into a projectile point to hunt game.

I can take this bigger flake

and turn it into a stone knife that I can use

for any number of tasks when I'm out in the bush.

Next question, Sherhyse,

How does one keep good dental hygiene

as a survivalist or primitive survivalist?

What I do when I'm out in the bush

is I use something called willow.

Willow is a plant that typically grows near water.

You can take any section of willow at any diameter,

and what you're gonna wanna do

is you're gonna wanna peel the bark off.

Don't throw away this bark,

because this can also be used

as aspirin in case you get a headache

or you're not feelin' so hot.

Peel the bark off like a banana, pop it in your mouth,

and you're gonna chew it with your molars.

You're twisting.

You're rotating.

And ultimately you'll create

a little paint brush of fibers.

Take those fibers, start scrubbin' your teeth.

I never bring a toothbrush with me

when I know I have willow.

Never had a cavity.

This question is from OnTheGorge.

Can you start a campfire without matches or a lighter?

How do you do it?

One of the more scientific,

or what I like to call high-tech ways,

is something called a ferrocerium rod.

A ferrocerium rod is a synthetic-made rod.

It's manmade.

You can't find it naturally in the environment.

They can reach in excess of around 5,500 degrees.

And most fires, like a tinder bundle,

or even a small little ember,

is between six and 800 degrees.

Another option is through friction.

That's my personal favorite.

You can use something like a bow drill or a hand drill,

and that is where you are using the friction

between two different types of wood to create enough heat,

more importantly enough dust,

that has been drilled out from one of the spindles

to create a small little ember

that you drop into a tender bundle,

blow it into flame, and you got a fire.

So I'm gonna use this rock as a little platform.

And I have some juniper bark.

Let me use as a tinder

and I'm gonna rub it between my hands.

This is a fibrous bark.

And what I want to do is I wanna

create a little bird's nest.

I wanna try and open these fibers up as much as possible

to give them a little bit more surface area.

So I wash it over my rock.

Can kinda see the bark just gently breaking up.

I'm gonna put that right on top of my rock like this.

Ferro rod and the striker.

On my striker I have a little lip,

and it's gonna allow me to throw sparks

into my tinder bundle.

I'm gonna take my ferro rod, place it into my tinder bundle,

and I'm going to create my fire.

Let it eat the fuel, let it eat the tinder.

This is where I would add all my wood, and I've got a fire.

So the last form of fire is a fire by friction,

specifically a bow drill.

This is a bow with a piece of cordage,

a spindle, and a hearth board.

And last, I'm gonna have a bearing block, which is a rock

with a small little divot to give me downward pressure.

I'm gonna combine all of these elements together

by taking my spindle, putting it in between my cordage

and putting my bearing block right on the top.

Start bowing until

I get enough heat, rotation,

and black dust to create a small ember.

Take this coal, drop it in your tinder bundle,

blow into flame, and you've got a fire.

This is from RheaCline.

'You know, beaver fever is a real thing.'

My dad.

Beaver fever is definitely a real thing.

But beaver fever is kind of a slang term

or kind of a code term

for you getting infected

by some sort of waterborne pathogen,

Giardia, cryptosporidium,

and even hepatitis can be found

in some sort of natural waters.

This is from JoePatrick85.

What should you do if a grizzly bear attacks?

If you do find yourself being attacked,

the best thing to do is curl up in a ball,

protect the back of your head and your neck,

'cause that is the kill spot for a grizzly bear.

That's where it's gonna try and take out its prey

by snapping that neck, suffocating it,

just doing all sorts of damage

to whatever portion of your body is exposed.

However, it's more about the prevention

of a grizzly bear attacking.

Understand what's going on in that natural environment.

Is it a calving season?

Are the fish running?

Is it the time right before these bears

are gettin' ready to den up and they're very hungry

and they're kind of aggressive?

Understand that environment

and the factors that could

attribute to a grizzly bear attack,

and ultimately you can reduce it.

If there is a chance that a bear is running at you,

and he's comin' full steam ahead,

most bear attacks are something called bluff charges.

They're lookin' to scare you off

or lookin' to scare you out of an area.

It doesn't mean they're gonna come full force

and start takin' you down and tearin' you to pieces.

They're just bluffing,

but that bluff can be very, very close.

The best thing that you can do

to let those animals know you're in the environment

is to be loud, to be kind of in their vision, if you will.

And their first vision is really smell.

So if they can smell you coming, they can hear you coming,

they're ultimately gonna kinda flee that area.

Bear spray's an option.

Carrying some bells around your dog's neck

or even around your own wrists or ankles

will give just enough sound

to let those predators know that you're in the area

and you really don't wanna be messed with.

Next question.

Why are there so many types of knots?

There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of knots,

but I will say this, there's only really kind of,

in my mind, four categories of knots.

It's an end of the rope knot, a middle of the rope knot,

an anchor knot, and then a knot

that would join two ropes together.

An end of the rope knot can also serve as an anchor knot.

Something like a bow line

allows me to take a piece of material, the rope,

and create a knot at the end

that can be used for any number of things,

whether I gotta hook some sort of carabiner on here,

throw this over a tree,

and then lower a bag of food to protect myself from bears.

But this right here is a knot

that goes at the end of my rope.

More importantly, this is something I could use

to repel out of a helo or repel off the side of a cliff.

A middle of the rope knot

is where I need to put a knot in the middle of the rope.

Even doing something like a butterfly

or an alpine hitch

allows me to take my knot and put it in the middle.

I could have somebody tied off to this side,

somebody clipped in here,

and somebody trailing off to this side.

The last knot,

when I wanna connect two pieces of cordage together,

something like a square knot

allows me to take two ends

and know that I can secure those two ends together

and take a shortened length of rope

and extend it out by connecting two ends together.

Next question is from viinnviinn.

What's the most nutritious insect?

The most nutritious insect is the one that catches a fish.

If you are finding insects that can ultimately catch a fish

or catch something else that's gonna lead to a bigger,

better meal, more calories, more fat, I would go there.

But if I have to eat some insects,

and if you do have to eat some insects,

I do think you suck at your job,

that's just my personal opinion,

but I would definitely go with

either grasshoppers or crickets.

Because they are relatively easy to catch.

They're pretty good to eat.

They're not the worst thing.

Skewer it up, squeeze the guts out, roast it over fire,

ensure you kill all the parasites,

whatever could be growing on that inside,

pop it in your mouth,

and it tastes like popcorn covered in insects.

Next question is from unstableemployee.

Does anyone know the best way to sharpen a machete?

There's a lot of different ways you can sharpen a machete,

and it's very similar to sharpening a knife.

My time in the jungles in Central America and in the Amazon,

my favorite thing to use was a rotten log

with a handful of sand,

and I'd run that machete right back and forth across it.

Creating a new edge allowed me to chop.

Next question is from brettpatrick.

What are your top four essential survivalist tools

and/or weapons?

My core four things that I always bring out with me

are what I call the core four.

That is a blade of some sort, a barrier, a bottle,

and an aspect of a burn or a fire making tool.

When we think of a blade, that can come in the form

of a stone blade, it can come in the form of a steel blade,

or it can even come in the form of an ax.

Some sort of tool that allows you to process,

allows you to cut.

It allows you to take large material and break it down.

When I think of a barrier, that could be a tarp,

it could be a blanket, it could be a sleeping bag,

something that gives you a barrier

from the natural environment,

something that's just gonna enable you to stay warmer

or stay shaded if necessary.

A bottle.

Now it sounds kinda crazy,

but I'm talkin' about a single-walled steel water bottle.

Something that allows me to boil water in it.

More importantly, carry water.

'Cause water's not gonna be everywhere.

So when I find a spot with water, I wanna boil it out

and I wanna be able to bring it with me

if I have to leave a place.

And then fire, you're burn.

That is ultimately something

that's gonna give you an advantage

when it comes to making a fire.

That could be the form of a ferro rod

or a good tinder bundle, a lighter, a tin full of matches,

but something that's gonna allow you to make fire,

'cause fire, if you're not experienced

with making fire in the bush, can be very difficult.

So give yourself that advantage,

have a tool to make that fire

and you'll be good with those core four.

This is from questionanserz.

Is the water in a wilderness lake drinkable or not?

Yes, all water in lakes, streams, rivers,

and ponds are drinkable.

However, you need to purify that water,

and I'm not talking about filtering.

There's a difference between filtering water

and purifying water.

When you filter water,

you're going to remove the particulates,

the grasses, the leaves, a little bit of dirt and debris.

When you purify the water,

you're ultimately killing all of the bacteria,

any of the little nasty things

that could be living in that water.

The easiest way to do this is boiling water.

If you don't have the means of boiling water,

a filter is a great option.

A filter that is a commercial grade filter

that will remove not only the particulates,

but the girardia, the cryptosporidium,

the beaver fever, if you will.

It's gonna remove all of those pathogens from the water,

making it safe to drink.

Next question from DatHutchTouch9.

How would you guys go about

washing/cleaning your clothes in the wild?

Anytime I catch fish or process any game,

I always wash my clothes.

I don't want that smell.

I don't want that oil.

I don't want that fat on my clothes.

It's gonna attract bears, all sorts of little vermin.

You want to avoid that.

Strip yourself down, find a stream,

grab a handful of sand or a coarse rock

and work it into that clothing fiber.

You're looking to exfoliate all of that kind of

saturated stuff that's on the clothing.

Scrub it out, wash, rinse, repeat.

Do that two or three times, air dry 'em out.

You'll definitely be good to go.

But if you do want something that has a little bit more

of like antibacterial fighting

or something that's more soapy, there are plants,

something like a yucca or something like a sage,

that you can incorporate into that wash

and get 'em a little bit cleaner,

smelling a little bit fresher.

Take that yucca root, smash it up.

It's gonna have a lot of saponins in it,

and it's gonna be kind of a sudsy material.

Sage, stick it in your pockets, wash it with that sand,

that coarse rock in a stream,

and you're gonna make your clothes a little bit fresher.

Next question is from quora.

How do you treat common injuries or illness in the wild?

Mostly weeds.

All the stuff you pick outta your yards,

those are some of the most beneficial for you.

Even something like stinging nettle.

Stinging nettle will sting you.

And what do you do with stinging nettle

to get rid of that sting?

You take that same leaf that stung you,

roll it up in your fingers,

spit in your hand, make a little spit poultice,

and scrub those little needles out of your hand,

and you'll ease that pain.

Something as simple as dandelion root,

something as simple as yarrow,

all those things can kill infections,

can kill bacteria inside of you.

So the medicinal plants, it takes years of knowledge

and a lot of experience to really get to know 'em.

But once you do know 'em, there's endless opportunities.

Most of the medicines that we have today

typically derive from some sort of plant-based medicine.

hotupdate1.

Does anyone know how to catch a rabbit?

How do I make a trap?

How do I bait it?

What to bait it with?

It's very, very important to note,

primitive trapping in the United States is 100% illegal.

Typically, if you're going to be any sort of trapping,

you have to be in a no-shit survival situation,

like food is a must and you're going through

all those means to try to get some food.

If that is the case, the best options are snares.

Snares work in a variety of ways,

but the most simplest of snare is a wire snare

or a small piece of cordage snare.

And what that is is really where you

identify the path that an animal travels,

a path to its den, a path to water, a path to food,

and what you would do is create a small snare in that path.

Why?

Because that's the process and the route

that that animal is traveling.

And a snare is essentially a small little noose

that's hung off of a stick or a tree

that when the animal walks through

its head is gonna fit through,

but its shoulders are going to be a little bit too wide

and that noose is gonna shrink down onto its head

as it starts to move through or as it starts to run,

creating a super tight little noose around its head,

and ultimately it expires.

But here's the catch.

If you are in a survival situation

and you do have to employ some sort of snare,

you have to be the first one

to that animal once it's caught,

'cause an animal in distress, a coyote,

a fox, any sort of scavenger or predator,

is gonna key in on that sound

and try and get to that animal before you do.

And this is from Apocalypse Outdoor.

Do LifeStraws actually work?

I picked one up at the store today,

and I'm a little skeptical about using it though.

LifeStraws are a great option.

Essentially LifeStraw is a giant straw

that allows you to put the straw

directly into the water and start drinking.

That straw has all the filtering mechanisms

and purification mechanisms inside

for you to suck up dirty water

and ultimately consume safe, clean, drinkable water.

This is from sirgasoft.

How do you make a primitive fish trap?

Primitive fish traps are a very popular way to catch fish.

The reason why, it is a passive means of acquiring food.

A passive means, like a fish trap,

allows you to be doing something else

while it's working for you.

Now, there's a variety of fish traps,

from basket traps to fish weirs, to even spring pole snares

that trigger when a fish takes the bait.

But the key difference is

understanding what is required to set those up.

Fish weirs can come from logs and stones,

and that just allows the fish in a stream

to kinda move into a trap and get stuck there.

You come over there later, spear 'em,

throw 'em out on the bank with your hands,

and you've got a meal.

A basket trap is more like a funnel.

Going with the stream,

it's gonna swim into that basket trap,

ultimately getting trapped.

Think about the traps and how many fish that they can catch.

A basket trap, maybe two, three, or four.

A giant fish weir, 20 or 30,

and a spring pole snare, designed for catching fish,

maybe will get you one.

This is from Anson McCade.

Do you know how to survive falling through the ice?

Most people quickly drown, and the reason why is

your body goes into what's called

a cold water shock response.

Soon as your flesh touches that water,

you instantly wanna breathe in.

You wanna take a deep breath,

and when you do that,

you ultimately inhale water and quickly drown.

Also, people have a tendency, even if they get their feet,

or even close to their knees wet,

they start to hyperventilate,

and it causes them to breathe erratically,

and in a higher elevation it can definitely lead to

quickly passing out into that icy water and drowning.

If you do find yourself in water, hold your breath,

come back up, grab onto that edge,

create as much space as you can,

spread your body weight out,

and crawl across that ice

until you can get to a piece of solid ground.

Strip all your clothes off and try to create a fire.

Take anything that's dry.

Maybe somebody else has some clothing.

But you need to start rewarming yourself.

If you have none of those things, exercise,

running in place, jumping jacks, pushups,

whatever you can do to keep your body core temperature

at a much higher level.

Next question is from Tyler Arbuckle.

If an igloo is made of ice, how does it keep you warm?

An igloo isn't technically made out of ice.

It's made out of snow,

and it's made out of kind of a specific type of snow,

a highly compacted snow.

More importantly, snow is mostly air,

if you really think about it.

So essentially that snow is a great thermal layer,

being that it's mostly air.

Once you create that igloo shape

and you crawl inside of it,

your body heat will ultimately heat up that entire igloo.

A lot of the igloos you see on YouTube

and different survival shows

aren't really the 100% authentic igloos.

Most Inuit, most Nunavut,

or Eskimo igloos you would come across

were typically lined with animal skin,

seal skins and caribou skins to be exact,

and then were typically heated

by something called a kudlik,

which is a small oil lamp, essentially seal oil or seal fat.

That small kudlik, heating the inside of the igloo,

along with the animal skins, creates a pretty warm shelter.

Next question is from Nicole Apelian.

Shelter is key to survival in the wilderness.

If you're in a pinch,

an old cedar stump can make

a great shelter from the elements.

What are some other possible natural shelters

you may find in the wilderness?

A free shelter is always the best shelter,

caves, rock overhangs, large boulder fields

where you have fixed immovable boulders.

All of those can create a barrier from the wind

or any of the elements.

More importantly, it doesn't require you to make anything

or to craft anything or cut anything down.

If it's there and it's safe to be in there,

that's a great shelter.

Next question is from WillyWonkaTheFearful.

When backpacking alone, how do you combat loneliness?

Loneliness is definitely a factor,

and I believe there's been some studies

proving that about three months

completely isolated and alone

can lead to all sorts of mental issues.

We are primates and we typically like to stay together

in small groups and small little bands,

but to combat loneliness, you have to stay active.

You have to stay busy.

You always have to think about

how can I improve upon my current situation?

If I have a shelter or I have a fire,

or I have a sustainable source of food,

how can I make that better?

Keeping your mind occupied will ultimately

help you battle out some of that loneliness.

Next question is from Tony Mohorovich.

TV show: Vegetarian Survivalist.

10 vegetarians/vegans are dropped into the wilderness.

Who will be the last plant-based eater to survive?

Who will succumb to hunger for the flesh?

That's an interesting TV show, to be honest with ya.

But here's a fun fact.

I was a vegan for a year and a half, based on a dare.

A buddy of mine dared me to only eat

plant-based sort of materials for about 90 days.

I said, Sure, why not?

But the one thing it taught me was

the plants I could eat in the bush,

and let tell you, there's tons of 'em.

Plants, berries, roots, you name it,

there's a variety of food options out there.

Are they as calorically high

compared to eating a squirrel

or a possum or some sort of deer?

Absolutely not, but it will keep you alive.

It will keep you fed.

Next question is from Brilliant-Ratio2412.

What are the best animals to eat

that are safest to consume in the wild

with no parasites that you'd get?

Not all animals have parasites.

It's kind of a myth.

There are certain animals that are scavengers

or eat dead things, are more likely to have parasites

and have different sort of bacteria on their flesh,

in their flesh, or on their fur.

You wanna avoid those.

But squirrels, rabbits, possum, elk, deer, moose,

all those sort of things are very safe to eat.

This is from HISTORY TV Canada.

If you were a contestant on 'Alone'

and you can only bring one item with you,

what item would you bring?

Well, ironically enough,

I was a contestant on Alone, up in the Canadian Arctic,

and I was afforded to bring 10 items.

But if I could only bring one item,

I would definitely bring an ax,

but an ax, a big chopping tool to fell trees,

to build a shelter, to cut firewood, to make spears.

All of that right there is essential with an ax.

And this is from redditask.

If you got lost hiking, what's your best survival advice?

If you're ever lost when you're hiking,

you hear a lotta people say you should stay in place,

and I agree to that to a certain point.

What if you're on the side of a cliff

or you're hanging on the edge of a floodplain?

The most important thing when you are lost

is get to a safe location

where you can find some form of shelter and then stay put.

Once you're in that stay-put situation,

you need to start thinking about how I can signal for help.

And how you signal for help

is anything that's gonna give you contrasting colors,

movement, and anything that's extremely loud.

So a whistle, maybe waving a jacket high over your head.

The movement, the color, and the sound

will ultimately allow a search and rescue, a rescue plane,

any other additional hikers

find you when you're lost in the bush.

That's all the questions I have received from the internet.

I hope you learned something, and I'll see you in the bush.

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