How long?

[Adam]

If you took every bit of survival gear with you right now, how long could you realistically survive in the wild? 1 day, 1 month, or 1 year?

 

[northernbushape]

Tough question.

With the gear I have I would have to say a couple months. Adequate and balanced nutrition would be the biggest challenge. Once the body uses up reserves, the imbalance of the diet would be the fatal flaw. I have enough knowledge to easily survive a few weeks or even a month, but as I say, proper nutrition would be a major hurdle to overcome.

I do carry multi-vitamins and minerals in my gear, but they will only carry you so far.

Wilderness nutrition is an area I am currently spending a fair amount of time learning about/

 

[deb60]

About 2 days! That is all, I don't really have a lot of stuff saved up for survival. I love Survivor on the TV but I know I couldn't do it. I should look more into a survival class.

 

[Alliegator]

I could probably make do until the frost killed all of the plants. Then wild plants and veggies get rather scarce. As far as the meat, I could live for quite some time, trapping small critters and using them for meals. But the lack of vegetables would really put a crimp into my nutritional requirements unless I had time to put some by in the way of dried or stored veggies.

 

[hydethebeef]

I could probably go a couple of months as well. I am guessing that is about how long it will take for me to be eaten by a bear or a pack of wolves.

 

[lbean]

I would last a couple hours. Even though I have some tool I do not really know how to survive on my own in nature very well. I would love to learn how to though.

 

[Stoker]

I'm guessing 3 months.Until I get totally used to the environment, I would pace the eating of the food. I would use my reading material also to help identify the edible plants.

 

[Michael]

I'm good on shelter and water purification. I'd basically be limited by how much food I could carry with me.

I don't really know how to hunt properly. I only know a couple of edible plants. I'm not great at identifying edible mushrooms. I don't have any fishing gear, and if I did I'm not really experienced at fishing.

So I'd be pretty much stuck with waiting until I got hungry enough to eat grubs, then ripping apart rotten stumps.

It takes a couple of weeks to starve. So I could survive a couple of weeks, plus whatever time the food I brought with me lasted, plus however long I could extend that by eating grubs and lucking into catching small animals to eat. Call it a month maybe.

 

[northernbushape]

Toss a couple of rat traps into your back country gear. They are a great alternative to snares and very effective for a variety of small critters. Easily baited too and they store nice and flat :tinysmile_grin_t:

 

[HikingGuy]

I do not own a lot of survival gear nor do I really know how to use it, it is something I would like to brush up on. I could currently maybe survive a few days, that would be about it.

 

[jeddah]

Within 24 hours. I don't know how to survive alone in the wilderness, except that if someone's with me. I only camped a few times, not an expert camper in the wild yet.

 

[primitivesite]

I would say about 2 months One big reason for that is that I'm in Michigan and it's going to be getting pretty cold in 2 months. If I were to start walking South immediately, and make progress every couple of days then perhaps 3 months. My wife is incredibly talented at preparing meals from edible wild flora. Dandelions, for instance, are quite edible and nutritious. So as long as we had the ability to purify water I think we could do quite well for a while.

 

[dinosaur]

Hmmm......pretty much indefinitely depending on the geographic location. As long as there are animals and hardwoods, I'd last a long time.

 

[sh4d0wm4573ri7]

Conceivably if proper survival equipment is available one should be able to survive indefinitely Cavemen, Mountain Men, Natives, and explorers have done so for many many years. But there are so many variables involved is hard to say. I would say if forced into a survival situation I would survive indefinitely simply because if one does not its not just game over, IT'S GAME OVER!

 

[Bear Warrior]

When I was in my 20s I spent 6 months camping in the wild with my German Sheppard/Wolf mix but now that I am 51 and not as healthy as I was in my 20s I would probably guess a couple of months.

 

[oldsarge]

I'm geared up for local hiking and carry enough to last me until help arrives if I'm hurt. From what I've read, 72 hours is a good starting point to plan for. Primarily water, fire starting , shelter materials and a little food. Based on proper planning prior to heading out. If I didn't return at a given time, it will take a while for others to locate me given the worst case scenario. If I fell and suffered a major mechanical breakage to my body and couldn't move. I'd have to maintain until help arrived. If I survived some type of crash or boat wreck, maybe even getting stranded due to other unseen circumstances but was still in good physical condition, I'd last much longer, probably months as long as I was able to acquire food. Others brought up a good point pertaining to wilderness nutrition, looks like I have some research to do! My survival experience was learned mostly through the military in Panama. Jungle survival, I feel is much easier than surviving in the mountains or forested areas where winter climates come into play. The jungle is a virtual smorgasbord when it comes to food. Plenty of shelter making materials and water supplies.

.

 

[IndianaHiker]

I look at wilderness survival differently than must on this thread do. I look at it to mean if I am out and something happens could I survive to get found or to get out and back to civilization on my own. If this is the case then yes. On hikes where I am out for multiple days I always have extra food, sleeping bag, and the ability to create shelter. I also carrying a water filter to pump water.

However I am not interested in long term survival as many seem to think about in this thread. If something happens that causes all the basic infrastructure to fail and we have a total melt down if life as we know could I survive. I think I could as I have a basic knowledge of growing food, constructing shelter, purifying water, etc. However here is my question. If all things crumble and I have to take up arms to protect myself and there is no humanity left among humans how long do I want to stay around in that setting. I think that not long would be the answer for me. I don't see me wanting to extend my life just to endure when I cant enjoy. Who knows thats my thought on this now maybe different if it ever happens.