Primitive Survival Shelter Build with Bare Hands - No Tools Needed

Description

I head into the forest to to build a primitive survival shelter using just my hands and no tools. This bushcraft shelter is ideal for a 24 hour survival situation. I forage for resources and use nature to my advantage. Using natural materials such as sticks and moss to build this primitive shelter. Building a bushcraft shelter can be a challenge, but by using minimal effort and your intuition you can work with nature to protect and provide for yourself. I scout the area for a fallen tree. I use the tree as a ridgepole for the A-frame shelter. Using sticks to support the frame of the shelter, I then use moss on the wood roof to keep the rain out. If I was looking to bug out, this would be the type of low-profile, stealth shelter that I would build.

Here is a previous shelter I built using No Tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOIXeFtBYB0

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Tags: primitive,survival,shelter,build,by hand,forest,bushcraft,bushcraft shelter,bushcraft camp,survival shelter,primitive survival,natural materials,skills,moss,wilderness skills,nature,survival situation,survival challenge,foraging,primitive technology,primitive hut,moss shelter,bug out,brave wilderness,tree,tree shelter,building,shelter building,woods,survival skills,primitive skills,camping,camp,primitive survival shelter,ta outdoors,hobbit house,hobbit

Video Transcription

so you're in a survival situation and you need to build a shelter but you've got no tools you need to keep warm you need to stay out the wind and ideally you need to stay dry you've got to use the resources that are around you this is my take on making a short-term survival shelter for a 24 hour situation the first thing I want to do is check out what resources are surrounding me obviously if I was in a survival situation I'm not now but if I was I'd need to be conserving my energy try not to waste it so I'd want to do the minimal amount of effort and work as possible but get the maximum amount of reward from it so the first thing I need to do is take in the environment what's around me the nature the situation the weather the first thing I need to take in is the resources what's behind me is I'm in a coniferous woodland it's not such a soft wood it's pine this is all Scots pine there's loads of it around I know instantly that that's going to be quite good for fire lighting the other thing I noticed is that it's fairly dense in this woodland which means there's the chance or every chance of a tree that could blow down in a strong wind situation so I'd need to be aware of the sight of where I choose to set up my shelter to make sure that it's not near any trees that are half sort of falling down or branches that are looking like they're gonna fall down on top of me my safety comes first at the end of the day so let's go have a look at the environment and see what we can get looking at this woodland incidentally I can see there's plenty of deadfall and dead trees around now that's a great thing because there's loads of resources for shelter however it was also a bad thing because it can mean that things can fold fall down on top of me there's also moss around which means it's a fairly damp area and doesn't see much sunlight it's likely to get a little bit more cold but judging by all these dead branches they look like they're be fairly easy to snap and great to get shelter going so now I need to find my sight of where I'm going to set up the shelter over here I can already see a natural area where I'd like to set up a shelter there's a big tree here that's fallen down it's snaps looks like it snapped down at the roots here so it's rotting away it's gone right there and that's probably the root system there this has been down a long time because there's moss growing on it as well but this looks like an ideal height it's not too high there's a few overhanging branches here which I'd probably need to get rid of because they look a bit unstable then I need to check above looking above there's a few I would call widow-makers there's not set necessarily gonna do too much damage but these little branches that have bent over here I need to move that out the way but above the actual shelter log here the main ridge line that I'm going to use it looks like we're pretty clear above so this looks like a safe place to set up a shelter so I've already got a natural ridge line of this tree I just want to check where the top of the tree is there that it's not going to slip down because there's going to be weight on this ridge line if I put too much weight and that ridge line slips down it could fall on top of me and damage me during the night so here's the end of the log here there is a bit of spring in it there's a bit of a moderates falling through here but if you can see naturally if this slips down it's going to slip into that v-notch section there don't throw away these resources because these can all be used to help build the shelter I'm just clearing the area a bit of any loose branches okay say there's a branch here above my head that could be dangerous there's a couple of pokey branches here I don't want to poke my eyes out with I'd like the entrance to the shelter that side I just want to get with these pokey branches out of the way so that I have a comfortable ground to work the ridgepole has plenty of these protruding sticks where branches used to come out I'm actually going to leave these on because they'll help to balance any sticks that are leaning up against this and stop them from sliding back down or sliding forward off it means that there's less work for me having to pull these off and obviously it's more of a stable and secure structure so leave I leave these on on the underside I'll probably take them off because that's where you can either poke your eye poke your head could cause some damage so I'll take the underside ones off but I'll leave any any ones on the side on the top the style of shelter that I'm going for is what's called an a-frame shelter it's one of the most simple and rudimentary forms of bushcraft shelters that you can make I've got plenty of a-frame shelters in the past and the common mistake that I've made personally is I've always started up near the top of the ridge pole here and I've ended up making the shelter far bigger than it ever needed to be so from experience from my experience I prefer to start building the shelter and resting sticks up against the bottom the lower part of the ridge Pole and that way you can gauge how big you want your shelter and not set it too big and end up doing too much work so all I need to do now is snap up loads of smaller sort of logs and sticks of which there's plenty around here get them here and then I'll start building it to begin with I'm only going to need sticks really that are kind of this length I can use fairly rotten ones for download for lowdown and I want them slightly angled forward because well that pressure eventually is going to push this way I don't want them angle this way they're just going to slide off I personally like to slightly angle them a little bit forward like that I don't like smashing them against trees like that because a obviously damages the tree but B this could whip around and go back in my eye like that nice clean break to pretty even size sticks obviously other ways of breaking the sticks or putting your foot or your heel on there pulling up and leaving here and probably not as good for your back because you're bending over and you will get tired but a good way of snapping obviously thicker logs once you start getting to thicker diameter branches or logs you won't obviously be able to split them with your foot you need to find a pivot point in between two trees and use the trees as a as a breaking point for this the stick itself just need to make sure now I go towards the end of the stick so I've got the most leverage probably keep that long one there I'm using all Deadwood it's all found on the draw I'm not cutting down in the trees I've got no cutting tools you can genuinely identified the rotten and dying trees from the lichen or the moss or fungi growing on it be aware that the more fungi or liking it or moss that it has growing on it it's likely to be weak and form a weak spot in your structure just be aware of that at this point I can test whether I need to put anymore sticks in because I can just lie down and I know that that faster here even knows three I don't really need because my head's under the shelter already and this is why I always start at the bottom of the shelter then work up it's just my way of doing it I'm happy with that so the basic structure of the shelter complete obviously there's loads of gaps it would act like a sieve at the moment if it did rain so I need to plug in those gaps again with natural materials that I can find around me it's easiest to use the resources that are most abundant because it saves you having to travel far distances to then bring it back and again you're expending more energy then one of the most common things we've got is down here because it's a very dense woodland but moss some sphagnum Moss there's different other different species of moss as well but this is ideal because it's very peaty soil it's so easy to just peel this back in nice big clumps like that you can actually see the clay underneath this sword as well this sort of sand and clay there and that's the Pitti area of the soil but this just peels back in really large clumps and actually what you could do is roll it back almost like turf like you do on your garden lawn and if you just keep rolling it like that that's generally the technique I use then once it breaks off you've got yourself I'll show you here a pretty large area almost this can act like shingles really and that should help to at least water resist it might not prevent all of the water that rains because moss does tend to absorb water but it also does retain it as well at the end of the day if I have my shelter as it is and leave it like it is now I'm definitely gonna get wet in there whereas if I have Moss like this it's gonna just help slow down that rainfall yes I will still probably get wet but at least it will prevent it you slow it down a little bit more but what it will do is stop the wind it'll act as a windshield if I work from the bottom up

it gives that Moss that's placed on the top of the shelter something to lean up against if I ended up doing it from the top down eventually it's going to slide down and leave exposed parts at the top of the shelter so it's much easier to start building it up from the bottom as you can see that that was one piece of layer that I got there so this if I am in a survival situation which I'm obviously not now I'm just I'm just simulating it but if I was I then got a large amount of material with very little energy expenditure and you know it's nice and quick today it's also widely available right down below the shelter just here just keep rolling it back toughen it up it's handy cuz it grows right near the shelter what is and just roll it getting a year the roots of the moss up that was a nice bit like a nice bit of turf there Hank of moss it's gonna suck it up here for now so there is this issue of this tree here so I may try and get that down because it is it could obviously fall on a shelter shouldn't knock it down but just to give you an idea and the difference here's the the one side that I haven't done with moss yet plenty of gaps loads of chance to the rain to get in there still a fairly stable structure but then this side is the one with the moss on and you can see much much more water site that muscle obviously grow into that wood over time and it'll all decomposed together so it's all letting nature go back to its original form and the main difference is inside this is where you can see the difference look at that left-hand side here where there's no sticks where there's no moss sorry that would be a geek I get completely psyched right hand side that's completely sealed off from the rain there there might be one or two tiny gaps at the top but other than that you can see the difference that Moss makes you can see where I've pulled up the moss you can actually see the faint kind of darker patches now the PT soil where I've pulled up this Moss tried to scavenge for the moss really as close to the shelter as possible so that I don't have to travel so far this Moss will all grow back everything around here that I've taken here this will all grow back and it will get mossy again but yeah try it I've tried to take it as close to the shelter as possible so that it's the minimum amount of effort that I need to build this shelter here we go it was right away now let's clear the shelter so this is the Finnish shelter now you can see the a-frame structure to it I've walked around the shelter and checked for any gaps especially where the support sticks meet the ridgepole that's a typical place where I'm gonna get gaps and that's most likely where the rain will enter I've put that as moss over the top like that just to act as a but runoff ready to get that water coming off as quick as possible this will obviously still leak it's not going to be perfect but it's much better than being out in the open facing the elements one of the things I didn't mention earlier was the the wind direction that's a really important thing to think about when you're setting up a shelter especially in in a survival situation you've got a you know the elements at the end of the day are gonna be the things that we'll be testing you the most this the wind's coming from that direction so it's hitting the back of the shelter and coming up over it obviously the wind can change and in that sort of situation this would not be an ideal ideal shelter if it did change and was coming into the shelter what I would do is block off this entrance here pull a couple of side sticks out and pull the moss away from the side and have a shelter an entrance sorry at the side of the shelter that's personally what I would do if the wind direction did change and come straight into the shelter so yeah this is it this is home it's like a hobbit home little hobbit house

the moss obviously acts it's got two things really it helps to prevent doesn't prevent water coming through but it helps to reduce the water coming in any rain water coming in and the second thing is that it has very good insulating property so it will retain that heat downsides of having moss it's going to retain that water as well which means that it will if it does get damp and wet it will if it's if it's dripping through it will continue to drip for a fair while it's almost like a sponge it acts like a sponge in a survival situation you just got to use the materials that are around you and I have tried to use all the materials that around me oh these no tools I've just used my hands and I've just used you know the moss in the closed area I've used sticks in the closed area I've used the log that was the ridgepole that was already here so I've really tried to expend as little energy as possible I do realize that this is not a perfect shelter by any means it's not a perfect natural shelter

things that I would say the disadvantages from this one that I've built it's a little bit flat the angle on it I would have rather it be a little bit more steep the flatter you have it the more likely it's gonna collapse and the more likely that when the rain does hit it's going to puddle and sit on that shelter I mean it's a nice steep angle I'm quite pleased with it but it's not the best so that's one of the downsides another downside was this Ridge pole when you saw me earlier bouncing up and down on it its wedged in now but when I was bouncing up and down and it is really springy and I wasn't too kind of confident in that but you know it took my weight and I really was pulling on it and it didn't give so if I could do that I'd figure it'd have to be one hell of a storm to be able to to basically bring it down but that's a disadvantage as well another disadvantage you may have seen me earlier just clearing out the debris and all that all the Duff and pieces of pine needles and sticks and everything from under the shelter after it was built in my opinion I probably should have done that and cleared the area before I built this a-frame I'm not too sure I'm sure you guys do it differently it's just the way I've done it but that again is probably a disadvantage because I had to then you know get in there and it was quite awkward to get things out another disadvantage it's probably slightly big you could definitely sleep two people in this shelter it's not so much a cement there's only to be a one person shelter but where I've made it so big you know I've used up that time in that effort where it could have been smaller I would have finished the shelter in probably half the time this shelter took me to see you know guys an hour and a half that's with that's quite long I realized for a you know in a survival situation you need to build it probably quicker than that but that's with me filming and moving the camera all the time in that if you guys out there who film you know that takes a long time so it's about an hour and a half maybe hour and 45 minutes for me the most time-consuming part was breaking the sticks that was quite time-consuming especially when it got to bigger sticks cuz I had to go and get there the sticks dragged him over to a pinch point snapped them and actually for me that was the most time-consuming part stacking them up against the log didn't take too long the moss was was fairly time-consuming as well let me just show you the inside there are a few gaps still that I need to fill but as you can see it's pretty well covered I would be dry if I was in this shelter I'm quite pleased with it it took me a while to clear out all the Duff and everything and the debris on the forest floor that took a while should have done that earlier I wouldn't sleep directly on the ground there that's gonna get me cold and with it that's gonna SAP the heat up my body I'd either have built a raised bed or I would put layers and layers of moss down but I'd have to make sure that that Moss is dry or even better would be get to get some spruce boughs or something like that or pine boughs there's plenty of point here but spruce boughs would be ideal and that could act as a nice soft bed another option for the bed I'm not going to build the bed in this episode this is just more for the actual shelter itself but another option to get the bed a bit more comfy is this dead grass here there's plenty of it surrounding this woodland it's not too far from my shelter so it's easy to harvest and I can just pick it up in fairly big clumps like this it is dry obviously if it was wet probably wouldn't go for this option I would go for a raised bed if everything was rot wet I would build a raised bed a little bit more difficult with no tools but it is doable and that can act as a nice soft almost like straw where animals sleep on and it also would help to retain my heat a little bit and keep me up off the floor the other advantage of this shelter over perhaps a lean-to shelter is that you can see it's a bit more stealth is a bit more low-profile it almost just blends into the forest quite naturally so if you were in that survival situation where you're escaping evading you're hiding out you're bugging out you're getting away from somewhere or someone this type of shelter is fairly good for that well thanks so much if you watch this video all the way through I really appreciate it if you enjoyed this sort of video give the subscribe button hit and make sure to tick that bell notification so you can get emails whenever I upload a video I just want to say a massive thanks to all my subscribers and everyone who's following the channel you've been really helpful really supportive and I'll see you soon in the next adventure

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