Proper equipment essential to survival

This is the second of a three-part series about survival skills.

Pay attention and live is another great motto for staying alive in the Great Outdoors. No one wants to become lost, not me, not any of my friends and not the young boy down the street.

It is the responsibility of the adults to make sure the others in your camping/hiking/hunting group have the necessary information and training to stay alive if one or more become lost. But remember, not all adults have received the necessary training to remain alive if faced with a survival situation.

Of all the columns written in this space each year, those about survival are the most important. Mentioning a certain process, technique or method of accomplishing a survival task may save a life or even several lives.

The number-one rule when realizing a person is lost is to stop and remain in one place. Your task at this point is to make camp and keep improving the camp.

Survival tools will make this task easier. The number one survival tool, in my book, is a knife. It doesn’t need to be a large knife, as even a pocket knife will be appropriate and useful.

I once asked the late Chairman of the Board of Buck Knives, Chuck Buck, why people want to own large knives, such as ones resembling a machete. He passed along a one-word answer, “Ignorance.”

The topic of hunting knives was discussed with a Moses Lake butcher a few years ago. This man takes only a pocket knife with him when hunting elk or deer. The small knife allows him to field dress the animal, before hiking to camp to get the horses.

My left front pocket contains a pocket knife of medium size. There are few times when it is not in place. The knife is along when on a two-hour hike in familiar territory.

Hiking in unfamiliar territory necessitates more survival gear, including a larger knife. My favorite hunting knife is a Buck, which has a knife blade on one side and a gut hook and saw combination on the other side.

Carrying a backpack in unfamiliar territory just seems natural, as this allows me to pack extra gear. At this point the hunting knife is in the pack and the pocket knife is in place.

Competing with the knife for the number one spot on the survival equipment list is some sort of fire-making equipment. This can be plain matches, waterproof matches or some sort of flint and steel apparatus.

No matter which fire making device you use, make sure you have practiced making fire with it, such as in a backyard fire pit. It also isn’t a bad idea to take along tinder of some sort.

Tinder is what is used to start a fire. One spark should be able to turn tinder into a fire when more material is added. The best tinder I’ve seen and used is cotton balls and petroleum jelly.

Turn a resealable sandwich bag inside out and stick your hand inside. Reach this hand in a bag inside a jar of petroleum jelly and grab a bunch of the stuff. Then turn the bag back to the original shape.

Throw several cotton balls into the bag and close it. Work the jelly into the cotton balls until all are saturated. When needed, take one cotton ball out of the bag and pull it apart a bit, but still in one piece.

A match or spark-making device should set this tinder ablaze and it should burn for several minutes. At this point you should have collected wood of varying sizes to build the fire to a larger and larger size. Collecting firewood will be a main chore while in survival camp. Collect more than you think you will need.

The FoodSaver machine, the same machine used to package elk and deer steaks at my house, is also used to package matches and saturated cotton balls in separate containers.

Parachute cord or paracord bracelets are the rage these days. It doesn’t matter if a length of this material is carried on the wrist or in the pack, it will come in handy when making and improving a survival camp.

The survival shelter can be elaborate and detailed when using 550 paracord. The numbers mean it has a rating of 550 pounds. This is good, but hopefully a person in a survival situation will not be required to lift or move something weighing 550 pounds.

The exciting characteristic of paracord is it can be dissected into several smaller strands. These are useful when securing the parts of the survival shelter. Having 10 feet of paracord in the backpack will improve the survival experience greatly.

Next week: Final life-saving survival tips.