Survival Tips for Treasure Hunters

[fistfulladirt]

I could eat 5 cans of Spam before I could gag on a bowl of oatmeal.

 

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[BillA]

I could eat 5 cans of Spam before I could gag on a bowl of oatmeal.

cold or hot?

 

[Phil]

FIRE STARTER

The single most important piece of gear you carry in your daypack is fire starter. This cannot be stressed enough because fire is not only used to prevent hypothermia, it is also the best distress signal in case you are injured and unable to walk to safety.

So which is best?

There are many products for sale, as well as homemade fire starters, and all of them work great if you are trying to light the barbecue at home. However, will it work in 50 mph winds in a blizzard? Most don't.

More importantly, how many fires can you start? If you are injured and need to create a signal, you will need to build THREE separate fires in a triangle (Three is the universal signal for help). And you will need to build those fires in an open area so they can be easily seen from the air, where the winds are often howling. Also, if you are not injured and you are walking to safety, you will need to build several fires along the way.

And lastly, if you are entering the second stage of hypothermia, or a helicopter is flying nearby, when the time comes to build a fire...........You need it NOW.

The only thing I have found that meets these criteria is a can of WD-40, paper towels, and a lighter.

Carry the paper towels and lighters in separate zip-lock bags to keep them dry, and use one sheet for each fire. Break off dry dead limbs from a tree (Smaller than the size of a pencil), and put them over the paper towel. Spray WD-40 on it, light it, and POOF.......Instant fire. If it begins to die down, just spray more WD-40 on it until it takes off.

 

[ARC]

from the jungle:
never camp under a large tree
never camp alongside a stream

Please elaborate.

And... Bill.. long time since I have seen you post... hope all is well.

.

 

[fistfulladirt]

cold or hot?

i could probably do the cold oatmeal, first sliced...then fried in bacon grease.

 

[Phil]

MAKE A PLAN AND STICK TO IT

The next tip comes from a husband, wife, and their newborn baby from Los Angeles that visited relatives in Oregon for Christmas, and decided to take the highway along the coast on their way home.

Like so many other stories we have all heard, the GPS told them to turn off the highway onto a gravel road that led them into the mountains. Soon thereafter, they were stuck in the snow and it was snowing. They chose to stay put and wait for help to arrive. However, when the fuel ran out a few days later, the husband decided to go for help.

Search and Rescue found the wife and baby the next day using cell phone towers to pinpoint their location. Both survived. However, the husband's body was found less than a mile away in a ravine off the road.

What did he do wrong?

It could be argued he made a mistake by going for help. However, things could have turned out very differently and the mother and child could have died just as easily (Think of the guy I wrote about earlier that waited and died months later from starvation).

The mistake was sitting around for a few days, allowing his body to become weak from lack of food, then deciding to go for help.

In other words, stay or go? It's a 50/50 risk either way. Choose the best option given the circumstances then do it. If you choose the best course of action is to go for help, leave immediately while you still have the energy.

And lastly.........Do not leave the road. It might look like a shortcut, but the snow is likely to be deeper when you leave road (Gravel in the road warms up and melts snow), and you can walk in the tracks made by your vehicle.

 

[BillA]

Please elaborate.

And... Bill.. long time since I have seen you post... hope all is well.

.

grrrr, lost posf
trees can be big with 8' dia branches 60-80' up, nice clearing around the base
the son of some explorer went to hike thru Corcovado Park and a year later was found under one of these

it can rain 6" in 15 min, and if it does so upstream....

ffad
if I have bacon grease I can eat horse flowers

 

[gunsil]

FIRE STARTER

The single most important piece of gear you carry in your daypack is fire starter. This cannot be stressed enough because fire is not only used to prevent hypothermia, it is also the best distress signal in case you are injured and unable to walk to safety.

So which is best?

There are many products for sale, as well as homemade fire starters, and all of them work great if you are trying to light the barbecue at home. However, will it work in 50 mph winds in a blizzard? Most don't.

More importantly, how many fires can you start? If you are injured and need to create a signal, you will need to build THREE separate fires in a triangle (Three is the universal signal for help). And you will need to build those fires in an open area so they can be easily seen from the air, where the winds are often howling. Also, if you are not injured and you are walking to safety, you will need to build several fires along the way.

And lastly, if you are entering the second stage of hypothermia, or a helicopter is flying nearby, when the time comes to build a fire...........You need it NOW.

The only thing I have found that meets these criteria is a can of WD-40, paper towels, and a lighter.

Carry the paper towels and lighters in separate zip-lock bags to keep them dry, and use one sheet for each fire. Break off dry dead limbs from a tree (Smaller than the size of a pencil), and put them over the paper towel. Spray WD-40 on it, light it, and POOF.......Instant fire. If it begins to die down, just spray more WD-40 on it until it takes off.

ZIPPO!! I always carried a faithful Zippo with extra flints up in the cotton and freshly filled they will make fire for a week or longer even in a good wind. When I was in the BSA I had a very practical scoutmaster. Besides being trained in flint and steel, bow fire makers, waterproofing strike anywhere matches, we had to carry a small bottle of what he called "boy scout water" which was either lighter fluid or kerosene. I also make fire starters by taking newspaper and rolling it tightly into about 1/2" cylinders, tie three cylinders together every three inches with cotton string and cut into 3" pieces between the strings. Then put a bunch of paraffin in an old coffee can, melt the paraffin and soak the tied newspaper rolls in the paraffin, remove and let harden. the string ties act as places to light and these babies will burn wet and burn hot. A little bulky but lightweight and very efficient, you can even fry eggs in a small skillet with three of these. I think I learned how to make these from the old "Mark Trail" in the comic strips of yore. For those who live where white birch grows, white birch bark ignites easily even when wet and will also get a good fire going. Best to use bark from a dead limb. Ain't gonna find me cold or needing a signal fire in the woods of the northeast. If there are pines around the larger ones usually exude sap which hardens, it too will ignite wet and burn hot and start your fire. We usually carried a a piece of hardened sap too unless we were headed into a known piney area. As long as you can light a match nature provides in the woods if you know what to look for.

Carry a can of WD?? who the heck has room in their pack for that?!? 2 oz plastic bottle of boy scout water is smaller, lighter, and easier to use. Don't need no stinkin' paper towels, (besides you should have "field paper" with you anyways) boy scout water will start wood easily. Cheap butane lighters are useless and unreliable, Zippo is the only reliable lighter, and waterproofed (paraffin coated) strike anywhere matches have kept many generations of woodsmen warm and alive.

Regarding compasses they are useless in the woods unless you mark your bearings going in they will not help you find your way back. Same on the water. Most folks don't know how to go around a swamp, ravine, or lake following a compass and end up at the right spot on the other side to continue your route anyways, it takes training to do so. One of my BSA orienteering students came up to me twenty years later, I hadn't seen him since high school and thanked me for saving his life in Nam. I said what the hell?? Enlisted men aren't issued compasses only officers, but he carried his Silva BSA compass. He took bearings when carried in a Huey wherever they went. One day he got caught in an ambush with his platoon and only he and two other grunts survived, one wounded. LT with the compass dead. He had taken his bearings going out and was able to find his way back to the fire base leading his two buddies to safety. Took them two and a half days. True story, but you have to have training to do this, you can't just carry a compass and think it will save you.

 

[Phil]

Ain't gonna find me cold or needing a signal fire in the woods of the northeast.

Gunsil, you bring up a good point I should have mentioned in my posts. The tips I have written are for the backcountry of the WESTERN HALF of the lower 48.

You guys in the East get storms that last for weeks, and the temps can stay below zero for days at a time. I do not have experience in that environment, but I assume it would be foolish to leave your vehicle or snowmobile in the middle of a blizzard when the temperature is 20 below. On the plus side, what you guys call "mountains", we call "hills", and what you call "snow" we call "ice". Thus, when the weather does clear you can cover a lot of ground in a day walking to safety.

Here, our storms typically come in waves that last 3-5 days, and temps are not nearly as extreme as the East coast. On the other hand, it is not unusual to get ten of feet of snow in 24 hours, the terrain is straight up, straight down, straight up, straight down, and because you sink up to your waist with every step, walking in the snow is very tiresome, and it can take an entire day to travel 3-5 miles. In this environment, 2 ounces of fire starter simply isn't enough because as mentioned, it will be necessary to start several fires since it could take several days to get to safety.

Your ideas are great and you got me to thinking about putting a zippo in my pack. I've never had a problem with bic lighters but there is always that worry about them getting wet and not working too. If a Zippo can give me peace of mind, that is worth it's weight in gold!

 

[gunsil]

Phil, no offense, but some of your statements are preposterous. Just making them without qualifying you mean NW is irresponsible, and even then survival is not much different coast to coast for cold weather. We live in a modern age and only a damn fool would venture out with blizzard forecasts and unless you are climbing McKinley or something the forecasts are pretty accurate. Sure, you have higher mountains up in the Sierra and Rockies, but I have hiked around western OR and WA and the hills and mountains there are no higher or more rugged than those in the NE. Upstate NY has the highest total annual snowfall of any place in the US period. Every year. You must think it is flat here if you think it is easy to cover a lot of ground in a day, like I said there are plenty of mountains here as rugged as western CA, OR, or WA. Have you actually ever been in the NE deep woods and mountains? How much kero do you think you need to start a fire, a few small squirts will suffice, a 2oz bottle will easily make more than four fires if you know what you are doing. Besides you also have a lot of pine out there which has sap, needles, and twigs that ignite easily. Bics are junk, you talk about making a fire in a heavy wind, they won't work in such conditions, you obviously haven't been exposed to the conditions you speak of to have tried it. Waterproof matches are more reliable than a Bic. Bics will crack and break open if dropped especially in very cold. The WD and Bic idea makes me pretty sure you are an armchair survivalist who has ideas about what to do but has never actually had to use them. Where do you get the idea of needing three fires in a triangle? Search and rescue folks look for smoke, one smoky fire is all one needs to alert aircraft. Do you even know the sixteen points of the compass? One other thing, aerosol doesn't work well below zero (WD) and neither do butane lighters. No pressure.

This is not aimed at you Phil, but a friend has this sign on his house which I think is pretty funny. "SUPPORT SEARCH AND RESCUE-------GET LOST!!"

 

[cyzak]

In Colorado if you have a fishing or hunting license and S+R has to come find you the cost is offset buy money going in to S+R fund. A helicopter ride can be expensive I personally know this so a $30.00 dollar license is good insurance.

 

[Phil]

Gunsil, "Boy Scout Water" (Lighter fluid or kerosene) and WD-40 are both highly flammable. The only difference is WD-40 comes in an aerosol can, whereas the other is put into a container that can leak and leave you with nothing to start a fire.

As for Bic lighters, I carry 6 lighters separated into three ziplock bags (2 per bag), and put each bag in different compartments in my daypack. If one fails, I have five more. If one breaks, I have five more. If I run out of fluid in one, I have five more. It two get wet, I have four more. If I lose one, I have five more. If I lose two, I have four more. They are very lightweight, do not require maintenance, and are readily available everywhere.

Are there better lighters? Absolutely! I have a junk drawer full of them, including a $100 plasma lighter that works in 100 mph winds unless the battery is dead. I also have a few zippos that ran out of lighter fluid, and one leaks. Ultimately, I chose lightweight redundancy over the other options because as I said, I can lose five cheap lighters and still start a fire. How many fires can you start if you lose your zippo? How many fires can you start if you forget to refill your zippo with lighter fluid? How many fires can a person start if the battery dies in a plasma lighter?

I have spent years running around the backcountry in all kinds of weather, as well as riding snowmobiles in the backcountry during the winter, and prefer redundancy with other critical gear such as two leatherman tools, two headlamps, spare batteries for headlamps (also separated into different ziplock bags), two cans of the small 3 ounce WD-40, two extra pairs of gloves in the winter, as well as six energy bars. It works for me.

As for East coast versus West coast, I obviously offended you, and for that I apologize. It was not my intent. Have a great day sir.

 

[avajohonson2395]

Amazing advice. I like to keep a Life Straw, Mylar blanket, and a fire starter in my backpack too because they are so lightweight and don't take up much space.

 

[islamoradamark]

IM in good shape I watch Naked and afraid

 

[GoldieLocks]

What about the idea of carrying g a whistle or air horn to signal for help?

 

[Phil]

What about the idea of carrying g a whistle or air horn to signal for help?

I just yell BEAR and the wife screams louder than any whistle. LOL

She yells SNAKE and makes me scream louder than a girl.

It's not funny when she does it.

 

[Trezurehunter]

I always carry extra supplies in my truck for outings , and in case of road emergencies in the Winter. I also have day packs and a 20 year supply of emergency food in the basement in case of disaster close to home, like Tornadoes, power outages, riots, etc. There are some great suggestions on this thread.

 

[releventchair]

A friend was in trouble in the front of the boat.
Clod rain and wind up North on a fishing trip out back of beyond.
He said something about the cold ,and later said he didn't feel right when I asked him what was going on when he lost attention. We'd later learn he had a medical issue.
Ran us downwind to a rock outcrop and he being a giant it was demanding getting him out of the boat.

The exertion of getting him on land helped.
I told him to start hauling wood . At which point he looked at the forest and said what wood. (Yes , he was in the beginning stages of being too cold and his core temp getting lowered).
I showed him a dead snag and to bring it to the outcrop.
Again he was a giant , but at this point a weak one.
While I was nabbing some lower spruce dead limb twigs a glance had him looking at the snag. Kick it down I told him.
He did.
Took him a while to haul it the short distance and I then showed him a birch and how to roll the loose bark off it stopping before it got tender/too new..

The twigs were laid on a quick crude stick lean too against the snag , and stuffed under it , with the opening upwind,towards the water. Bark under it's upwind edge against the fine twigs under the lean to..

A magnesium fireblock was in my wool jackshirt. But it was a Bic lighter used to ignite the bark. The wind drove it into the tinder and I started adding finger diameter branches from the spruce on top of the back of the leanto and hollered for more wood ,several times /whenever my friend returned with a stick. And telling him to keep moving.
(He wanted to hug that little fire for sure...)
When fire was assured and enough coals to keep drying more fuel I let him tend it while I went for more wood. Crutches on wet rock and thin saturated loam are a delicate act , more so dragging wood. Which is why he had been put to finding it earlier.
With time now not an issue , all was getting more where we needed it to be.

I won't repeat what he said to me later. But he knew he was in trouble after , more than when he actually was in trouble.

In most my hunting coats is a baggie of laundry lint. Compresses compactly and paper or paper towel can be added in moderation.
Always try to keep a tinder stash dry. And try not to use it unless a real emergency.
Good tinder on the trail or spotted elsewhere is always worth nabbing a good sample of.

Each batch of lint needs tested as textile fibers vary. A load of cotton towels dried often yields a decent lint. Polyester melts. Lets not burn wool , but you're free to test it at your leisure. Suck experiments are valuable if they save you time later ,elsewhere ,or even never.
I used it as a "cheat" around home instead of using up my charcloth for flint and steel fire starting.
Those Bic lighters that are out of fuel? Still spark. (Try one testing laundry lint.) I don't tote my flint and steel kit. That was for shoots and such. I do tote that mag block. Still unused in emergency. Like a compass in the other pocket though , where my wool shirt goes ,they go. Separated from my pack (stranger things have happened) ,I've got fire and a method of wobbling a deliberate course.

Keep a new (but tested) Bic dry. And importantly in the cold , warm against a layer of fabric near your skin ,they'll often fire.
I've recycled many flints from dead/expired Bics to use in Zippo's too.
I smoke , but don't carry a Zippo anymore. Good lighters. But a worn hinge on multiples has had them leak fluid or fumes on my leg.
A lid not closed tightly can cost fuel. A good squirt and a half a day or less was standard refilling. (For my use. It will vary with user.) Carrying naptha would be required. Nothing wrong with that. Just add it too the list.
But if a Zippo fits the bill for anyone , use it! As with any firestarting system/method , have a back up.
Follow instructions on how to care for the wick and double check it before heading out.
I've sent a sentimental one to Pa. for hinge repair and it was stolen on the return. "Package arrived damaged" at one point. Package arrived missing contents" at another.
Yet no one seemed to want to know at which point the lighter mysteriously disappeared.
The post office no longer asks me how it's doing after a few communications. For some reason.......

 

[Megalodon]

I agree that these tips are excellent. Thanks for sharing! I'm new to treasure hunting, so they are very useful for me. And what about hunting in winter? I'm thinking about buying an ice fishing shelter. Does anyone use it? It would be great if someone shared the experience. Having looked through a review https://under-the-open-sky.com/best-ice-fishing-shelter/, I decided that Eskimo Qucflip 1 would be a good choice. It is small, so I think it would be perfect for solo hunting. Also, I can use it in case I try ice fishing (finally).

I'm not sure I'm reading your question correctly. If it is cold enough to require an ice fishing shelter, then the ground or shoreline would be too frozen for digging good signals. Perhaps, you could mark such signals and return when it is warmer? I did a lot of ice fishing thru the 1960's and early 1970's and it is an effective way to catch cold weather species. But huts or tents were not used where I fished in MA. I used tip-ups and skated to them when flags signaled catches. Staying dry and warm is critical. Drinking liquor all day on the ice is inviting trouble. I have damaged blood vessels in my hands from repeatedly freezing them on those ice fishing trips. I asked my doc about Reynauld's (sp?) syndrome and he asked me if I had ever frozen my hands. I told him, yes - hundreds of times when ice fishing and he said only once was necessary to cause sufficient damage to blood vessels. You don't want to shake my hand in the winter now - unless you like holding a block of ice.

 

[newnan man]

I live in Florida, hypothermia sets in below 60 degrees.
I avoid it by sleeping in late until the temps raise up to the 70's!