I know how attractive it is to concentrate all our training time on the hard skills like shooting and tactics. I have been guilty of spending a good amount of time doing it myself in the past. However, I now spend a good bit of time practicing other skills needed for sustainment. There are more skills needed in the bush or when the grid goes down than just shooting. In this article, I am going to talk about a few things that are high priorities for you to learn. SHELTER Building your own shelter does not have to be complex, and it does not include a pop-up tent. The type of shelter I am talking about is a simple one-man poncho shelter. This will give you a bit of shade and cover from rain, snow, wind, and dew of the morning. In a pinch, the poncho can act as a full body blanket and you can wrap yourself like a mummy to protect yourself from cold and rain. I have done this more than a few times in Afghanistan during the winter. The first poncho shelter is where you suspend the poncho flat by tying the corners to trees or posts, leaving the sides fully open for ventilation, perfect for a hot day. The best setup will have the sides suspended about 30” to 40” off the ground. Just be sure to give it a slight lean towards the downward slope of the land you are on. If you are expecting rain, the ‘front and back’ may be perched up to make the poncho stand somewhat akin to an A-frame shelter. In this case, you can anchor the sides down to the ground and make a sort of moat, around your shelter. It will not have much room, but it will keep you mostly dry. Another option is to have one side anchored to the ground while the other is open, like a lean-to. This will give the most room, but it will leave you slightly more exposed. Hopefully there is no rain expected. You can set this up pretty much anywhere, like on a fence, against a vehicle, etcetera. To make this, you will want plenty of long bungee cords and 550 cord. You would be wise to learn how to tie knots with 550 cord with no light. You may not always be able to put up a shelter during the day. WATER TREATMENT If you do not clean your drinking water, you can get sick. Do not count of having purification tablets all the time. No, a filter will not clean everything. You will want to conduct chemical or thermal purification. That means you need either a vial of bleach, or a canteen cup to boil water with before filling up your canteen. Make sure the water gets to a full boil for 1-3 minutes. This is the most efficient way to purify water, as long as you have time and the ability to light a fire. Be sure to pack a canteen and a matching canteen cup and stove. They are easy to find and purchase surplus varieties for maybe $20 total (cover, canteen, cup, stove), so put that on your shopping list. COOKING Depending on the type of food you are preparing, you may have to cook it properly or risk getting parasites or food poisoning. Raw meat can be dangerous when medical treatment is not a phone call away. You need to know how to light a fire and keep it lit. You can always collect fuel tabs, but you would be wise to use wood when possible and save the fuel tabs when there is no dry wood. Just my two cents. The best advice I can give you is to have premade hardtack and other food that will have a decent shelf life. In a pinch, a bag of Rice can be a pretty easy thing to prepare. Just heat some water and simmer the rice. Depending on the environment, the scent of cooking food will just attract trouble. There are plenty of stories from Vietnam talking about how the smell of food cooking gave away the enemy. MEDICAL/HYGIENE Your health is going to be in your own hands if things go bad. Your best bet is going to be if you play the game of prevention, rather than try to treat an infection or injury. Start by keeping your feet dry and washing your body often. This sounds silly, but people get skin infections all the time today from poor hygiene. Foot fungus is not something you want to deal with when Walmart is not available for you to get your treatment cream. A cavity leading to a rotten tooth can be a handicap when dentists are not taking patients. You get the point. Change your clothes, wash your body and clothes. Air your body out and wipe properly. BUILDING If you should need to build anything, you will need tools. If you can carry the tools, that would be ideal, but what if you are building traps? Perhaps you will just be wise to have something like a machete or a good bowie knife for processing wood. If you are building a wooden shelter, utensils, traps, or defensive weapons, you will need a knife or some type of chopping instrument. Knives are the multitool of the survivor. Just remember to maintain the edge and you will be golden. NAVIGATION If you cannot terrain associate at a trot, you should not leave the house. If you cannot retrace your path through a new town after making a few turns, you need to work on your navigation. If you had to get to the store without using the roads, could you? Can you get to pretty much any place in town without the aid of GPS or seeing road names? Can you find where you are trying to go just by finding key terrain features? Can you spot that terrain feature from any direction? Do you know how to find North just by knowing what time it is? Do you know how to find north without a compass? These are the skills you need. I would go as far as to say this is needed even now with technology at your fingertips. CLOSING I am not a pro survivalist, but I have had plenty of field time. I have eaten wild game, made traps, treated sketchy water, been exposed to heat and freezing, and have had to build my living space. This was not for extended periods, but I am acquainted with the chore that is survival away from the technical world. It can be quite refreshing to put away a phone and work on that fieldcraft.
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