Survivability vs Sustainability.wmv

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http://www.thepathfinderschoolllc.com

Tags: Pathfinder,Bushcraft,Survival,Trapping,Hunting

Video Transcription

back in the woods afternoon guys Dave Canberra the Pathfinder school I wanted to have a discussion with you guys today about the difference between survivability and sustainability and there's a big difference there most of what I teach in the videos that I do on the internet cover both aspects of both survivability and sustainability I teach both in my classes survivability and sustainability here at the Pathfinder school I live both survivability and sustainability by growing my own food raising my own animals feeding my family off of my farm collecting things and hunting in the woods that is long-term sustainability and the difference between survivability or a three-day scenario and sustainability really boils down to very few things and if you understand what those few things are then you understand what you need to put in your kit because that's a lot of the questions that I get is if you had to survive more than three days what would you put in your bag if you're going out into the woods for two weeks what would you put in your bag well all of those things are dictated by lots of variables they're dictated by whether they're dictated by terrain they're dictated by your current health level or physical condition and how much you can actually carry how much you want to carry over distance how far you're going to be traveling in that time period all of those things dictate what you're going to carry what's the local game animals that are available versus the wild edibles versus is it easy to fish where you're going or do you have to hunt for mammal type game all of those things encompass the thought pattern you have to go through when you're building a kit to go into the woods for a longer-term situation of sustainability and not just survivability okay so first let's step back for a minute in time and let's have a historical discussion again about peoples who lived alone the frontier areas of what was then considered the West and is now considered the eastern woodlands let's talk a little bit about them because they experienced sustainability all of the time and I'm not talking about the people who lived on homesteads

necessarily obviously they were practicing sustainable living but the people who went out on trucks to do explorations for purchases of land to explore new areas that companies like the Virginia Company could acquire land to do long hunts or game hunts for different companies at different trading companies all of those peoples traveled over long distance they had to be sustainable because they were going to be out there for a week for a month for half a year they didn't know how long they were going to be there they were there until it was time to come back and many times they didn't even know how far or where exactly they were going they didn't have maps per se that we have now they didn't have accurate compasses to take bearings they lived by their wit's they navigated by what was around them to get back to where they were before and they understood those type things that we aren't very good at today but at the same time they explored a lot of new areas so they didn't know exactly where they were all the time you know Daniel Boone was famous for saying that he'd never been lost he'd been turned around a time or two but he'd never been lost basically he wasn't sure we was going until he got there the fact of the matter is that what these people all had in common was and I've explained this about the five season survivability before they had those five C's of survivability they had their cutting tools as we discussed in a video the other day they had containers they had combustion devices to make fire they had cordage ah's and they had cover whether it was a wool blanket whether it was a trail tarp of some kind that was oil skin very similar to the one Steve critter David showed you guys in a video recently or whether they built a station camp which was basically a three-sided structure with an open front with a roof on it that either had was made of cattail was made of vegetation or skins to cover them and that was their permanent base camp per se and they went out from there on their hunts and things like that and then returned but they may have been going for a week at a time so they still had to practice somewhat sustainability on their way and this is where the adding what equipment comes in and I think that we have to number one take lessons off of what they did and also take lessons off what they had to deal with and what we can do better today and that's what I like to do with history is take what's great and use it take what's not so great what we've learned and use that to to combine things to make it better to make my survivability and my sustainability more accurate and easier to accomplish so let's look at Footwear to begin with I think that the first thing you have to look at beyond your initial kit is clothing and footwear especially footwear Footwear is going to be the most important thing that you have because you're not going to be on horseback you're going to be walking and walking is an important element of this because I assume when people ask me these questions they're not saying what would you put your big green Jeep what would you put on the back your ATV what can I throw my horse it's what can I throw on my back which means you're going to be walking and carrying these things so Footwear is a big concern now any days of the frontier most of the time they wore moccasins but they complained about them every day in historical journals and historical writings they say that every woodsman had a moccasin all attached to his shooting bag and the nightly chore before bed was to repair or remake their moccasins and that moccasins were only a civilized way of going barefoot and they hated them all the hunters had to sleep with their feet toward the fire to keep from getting rheumatism and joint problems and all those things associated with not wearing proper footwear they couldn't wear French or English made boots because the soles were all slick they did have any tread on them so they weren't quiet they were not very good at climbing hills and things of that nature that you get with a barefoot type grip that you get Moxon's but moccasins were miserable for them but they had nothing better they had nothing better today we have lots of things that are better we can buy quality Footwear that's made for the seasonality that we're choosing that's made for the environment we're choosing and that's very durable we just have to find what Footwear that is then you got to look at your clothes how fast are you going to tear those clothes up do you have an extra pair of pants do you have an extra piece of outerwear are you going to tear this stuff up are you going to be environment where you're prone to tear this stuff up are you going to be an environment where you're going to be wet all the time you need to make sure that if you can't cover your body and you're going get wet no matter what you do can you dry one set of clothes out while you're wearing the other side all of those things are important to understand once you go beyond the clothing part of it sustaining your body's core temperature through a microclimate of your clothing including your Footwear your hat then you need to think about exactly what they thought about and if you look at the ledgers that I've read in past Diaries of the teepee once you get beyond the five season survivability which they all carry with them the next most important thing to them was a way to secure gain a way to secure meat it's not hard to understand edible plants but you're not going to live off them sustainably long term you're going to have to be able to secure meat and that's important so the first thing that those people would buy was some type of firearm some of the earlier Native Americans before they were introduced to the firearm carried bows and arrows bows and arrows are a very viable option today as well but they're not as accurate over long distance they're not you're not going to get the easy shot most of the time that you're going to get with a firearm so those type things a weapon that you're going to secure meat with is very important and it's very important to have multiples or backups two is one one is none rule of threes I need three cutting tools maybe I need three ways to secure game well my first way to secure game is my 12-gauge shotgun my second way to secure game is a simple slingshot and then maybe my third way to secure game and some kind of traps not primitive traps with sticks and strings but mechanical traps because mechanical traps for something they bought very often again they often time had horses to carry this stuff but you can't put and we'll talk about in a minute you can put enough trapping implements in your kit that don't weigh a whole lot to really make it easier for you to secure game and be much more guaranteed to secure game with just four simple items that I'm going to show you in just a minute above and beyond a firearm or a bow okay so real quick let's discuss the things that you can add your packet don't take up a lot of room don't take a lot of weight but we'll make it much easier for you to secure game beyond your firearm or your bow firearms and bows are probably the most popular items that you would carry and every woodsman carried a gun there's no question about it they all had a flintlock smoothbore rifle with them all the time and that follows through all the way through history when they started making cap locks to the shotgun you know every woodsman and frontiersman carried a firearm with them that was their way of securing me to me the shotgun is the most versatile followed by the flintlock 12-gauge is where I'd want to go first and I would go from there depending on how long I was going to be gone weight of ammunition can be a concern but for sheer stopping power and sure killing game give me a 12-gauge every day now let's talk about beyond that okay the pocket hunting system a sling shot very very adaptable weapon very easy to become accurate with very good for killing small game ammunition is free all you have to do is pick up rocks if you want to carry ball bearings or you're already carrying something that was shot large shot like buckshot or some kind of 50 caliber ammunition in a ball form or 45 something like that it could be shot out of this the other advantage to having this bow adapter on there that we use on the pocket hunting system is it can be removed to shoot it as a slingshot but if I've got a bow as my primary weapon and I damage that bow whether it be a traditional bow or compound bow I can shoot either wooden arrows carbon arrows or aluminum arrows with this arrow rest that gives me the advantage of being able to utilize my ammunition even though I've damaged my primary weapon and that's a big thing especially if you're a bow hunter doesn't take up a lot of room it's got plenty of power with the black bands on it it's 42 pounds of 28 inches we're investigating some bands now that I looked at last weekend that are 55 pounds at 28 inches a fishing kit is an option if you're going to be anywhere that there's going to be fish and that's as simple as either a pocket fishing kit if you want to go that route or if you're already carrying your bank line with you all you have to do is throw a little box of hooks in your stuff and maybe a couple sinkers or just the hooks you can make sinkers out of rocks or anything else and then you have the ability to fish and recreating the hooks is the hard part and that go back to what's going to take a lot of time and energy to recreate versus what can I carry that doesn't weigh a whole lot that affords me a lot of options with the slingbow system or the pocket hunting system like this one it gives you the option to shoot arrows it would take a long time to carve something that you could shoot arrows out of if you're going to make a slingshot out of wood doesn't take very long to make the slingshot portion but to make something that will shoot arrows would take it's terribly longer and be more detailed so to carry a slingshot or to carry a pocket hunter would not be a bad option the next thing I would probably think about would be a frog gig a premade frog gig this is a 4-time B&M gig doesn't weigh anything I've got a leather pouch for here the slides into I can put that in the pack but I don't have to carve this now I don't have to take a chance on breaking it now I don't have to worry about fire hardening it now it's very strong it can be used on small game as well if I had something in a trap that wasn't dead yet that I wanted dead like a raccoon or something like that then I could potentially stake it to the ground with this to hold it down or kill it I can also use this for snakes and things like that if I want to as well as frogs and fish so it's a very good adaptable item for hunting that only needs to stick for doesn't weigh very much to put in my pack then I would probably carry two selections of traps I would have some snares like these and there's a dozen snares right here and I can guarantee you that weighs less than a pound and a half for a dozen snares cable snares are always going to be more beneficial to you than trying to make primitive snares out of line these things are never going to be chewed through they're not going to give it all they're going to be useful for other things as well because you can use them for bindings of what-have-you for different types of traps you can use them to stake out other traps if you need to like Connor bears things like that so they're very useful item to have and they don't take up a lot of room the next one would be the 110 Conibear and I've got three of them stacked up here that doesn't take up this system of twelve snares and three Connor bears doesn't take up very much room I mean that package is probably six inches by six inches by three or four inches high and I've got twelve snares and three Connor bears the one tancana bear as we've talked about before is Bo proof if you've got three of these in your pack and nothing else you can just about bet between that and your firearm you're going to have food and if you're fishing that's a bonus but you can use these for fishing as well as one of my buddies have shown in another video and I think I talked about in my video as well so with just that system in a few fish hooks and maybe some sinkers with that much gear you know and your firearm or your bow that you're carrying you've guaranteed yourself for the most part if you can find the game if you understand simplistic landscape tracking and sine tracking and you can find game or you can find a water source you pretty much guarantee yourself food and that's the most important thing to sustainability beyond being able to control your body core temperature which is about survivability now we're beyond all of that we can start firing build shelter we know how to keep warm that's survivability we're talking about sustainability which means long term which means you have to have protein and fat and the only way you're going to get all of that stuff is from animal okay very simple system doesn't weigh very much doesn't really even cost very much beyond the cost of the pocket hunting system and if you want the slingshot you know it cost you less than ten bucks and you got five six bucks apiece in these Connor bear traps three or four bucks or something like that in these snares and three or four bucks in a frog gig you know for weight less than a hundred bucks you got a system right here that will secure food beyond a shadow of a doubt if you can find it okay real quick before we move on this video to what I think is the next important part of sustainability in your kit is I think that we need to understand that we're talking about adding things to our kit that require specialized skill and lots and lots of dirt time to really get good at and that's where primitive skills like making bows and arrows making primitive traps making primitive clothing for that matter all of those things take lots and lots of practice many of them take specialized materials that you may not have on hand at that time and many of them are not going to do the common person any good if he's stuck out somewhere for a week or two whether it be from natural disaster or by choice or by accident it doesn't really matter the point is unless you have practice these skills extensively it's not going to work out for you as well as a manufactured item I can build traps all day I can show you how to build traps all day I can show you how to set those traps all day but until you go out and do it and practice it and understand the subtle nuances of how to set your noose where to set your noose how to set up the perfect set how to funnel the animal into that set what to bait it with and where to bait it all of those things are important and unless you practice it nobody can teach it to you and no book can teach it to you either so the way to avoid those things is to carry the items with you that are easier that are a lot less brainpower to try to worry about that's the last thing you want to worry about in a situation is man I can't remember how Dave did that figure 4 deadfall which Dave would never use a figure more deadfall but the fact of the matter is I'm using that for an example you don't want to try to think about those things any ten-year-old can go out and make a 25 pound or 30 pound bow that will last for a month it's not going to kill a deer

a 50 60 pound bow is going to kill a deer at 15 or 20 yards even with a marginal shot and that's what's important to remember is when you're talking about things like bows and arrows

the Native Americans killed Buffalo with bows that were 35 and 40 pounds from horses from 3 or 4 feet away shooting right directly in the heart with bows they shot every single day of their life they didn't go out and make a survival bow in 30 or 40 minutes out of the green piece of wood that was only 25 or 30 pounds was going to take string set and not be the greatest thing in the world and not be very accurate with the arrows that they made at 20 yards and go try to kill deer with it there's a big difference there and you have to understand that and if you are willing to put in the dirt time to make that skill yours and you own that skill I can make a 50 pound boats going to last 10 years and I can make arrows and shoot dead straight at 20 yards and I can make broad heads for those out of stone that I know are going to kill a deer and things of that nature then more power to you because that's what I love doing myself but everyone doesn't have that opportunity and the way to avoid having to

about that is to carry those manufactured items with you and be as adaptable as you can with those items something happened in my bow I still have the pocket hunting system I can shoot arrows until I can either repair or get out and that's what's important same thing with the traps manufactured traps are and they're more bulletproof than trying to make primitive traps if you bait the whiskers on a one tank on a bear with anything that stinks you're going to catch something in and sooner or later if you're anywhere around animals that's what's important to understand you're trying to bulletproof the system so now let's move on from that and let's talk about the next thing that I think would be important to add to your kit beyond all the fluff okay I think the next thing is how do I process the food now that I have it okay very simple in a short-term situation to carry a cup on a bottle and I've got about everything I need for a 72-hour scenario but it takes a little more than this for a longer term sustainable situation because I want things that I can cook in a little better than just cooking in this Cup or cooking in this bottle like I said this is great for short term for long term I need more than that just a quick side note guys I'm going to give you a quick historical reference for a second about cookware and things like that in general looking back at history you know one of the first items of trade with the Native Americans by the Europeans and the Spanish beyond firearms was cook pots and if you look further ahead in history to Lewis and Clark in the 1800s when they return from their epic journey the only two manufactured items that they brought back with them that they left with were their firearms and their cook pots that tells you how important it was for long-term sustainability to have those cooking type utensils with them this is a great system to add to something else and what I would add to that obviously would be first of all some type of stove where I could get my stuff up off the coals so I could get airflow underneath it because I'll heat better that way very simple add-on to the system some type of bulletproof eating utensil I'm not going to carve spoons and forks out in the woods if I don't have to I'm going to have something that's bulletproof that when I go you know to using it I'm not going to break it over and over fire are not the mess with it there's a way anything this one's titanium most sporks are pretty much useless something that actually has fork tips on it will do you some good just my two cents on sports and then you're going to want some kind of pot and if your pot is adaptable with the equipment's that you have all the better you know this seagull this MSR seagull we've talked about a lot of times has a lid on it that can be used for a pressure cooker it can be used to hold food longer-term if I want to I can wrap you know meeting a bandana and put it inside of it and it will keep it protected longer-term I have a handle on this pot so that I can put in the fire pull it out I also have the ability because I have this stainless steel spreader this fish mouth opener as they're called with my bottling cup and I'll talk about that real quick for you guys the one that we carry on our website is stainless steel the one do you buy from Bass Pro Shops or off the internet that's black is lead-based paint so if you're worried about that the ones we carry are stainless steel I can take that and with this MSR lid I can hook it into that lid just like this and I now have a pan that I can cook with so now I have a pan I have a pot I have a cup and have a bottle now I have a lot of combinations I can use to cook and process my food and make more than one thing at a time if I'm frying some meat on here cooking a stew in here boiling my water in here and drinking it out of here I can do all that it wants not to worry about it and for sustainability sake you want that so those are just some small adaptations you know and showing you if I were going for a long term type cook kit or a longer term cook kit these are the items that I would put in there to make sure that I had that sustainability factor in my cooking and I think that is where you need to go to add things to your kit for sustainability needs to be ways now that I have food how do i process that food how do I cook that food that's what's important and then you want to be able to understand at that point the term live food never spoils because then you want to learn how to be able to keep food alive so you don't have to process it right away and we've talked about that in other videos as well so this video is really meant just to talk about sustainability versus survivability I hope you enjoyed this video it's going to be you know a little bit lengthy I tried not to ramble on as much as I could I'll get this posted as fast as I can guys I got a very slow connection out here but I'm trying to get videos up for you as fast as I can on things that I think are important I appreciate everything you do for me I appreciate your views I appreciate your support everything you do for me for my family and for my school and I'll be back to another video as soon as I can you