Much, if not most, of the survival info we get from tv, mags and books is sheer nons - Page 4

ghostdog · 08-28-2012, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ppine

Watching other people on TV and reading a lot is not a waste of time in my opinion. You can get a lot of ideas that way and save from having to reinvent the wheel. The field experience has to go along with it. People that do things the same way all their lives miss out.

That is how I see it too. Some things are good for musing over and some may become valuable. Try out what you find interesting and take what you can use. Leave the rest.

I call my side yard Advanced Base Camp as it is a staging area for techniques and experiments. I can perfect outdoor methods before I set out into the wild. Other experiments can be done in the wild before you try to rely on them.

One peeve I have always had is the Solar Still. We constructed two of them one sunny day in very wet earth and sand and left them to collect for five hours. The holes were four feet wide and four feet deep. It took a lot of effort to build them and we only got a cup and a half of water out of them. It was not enough to bother with loosing all the sweat it took to build them together. I have heard the same story over and over with those who have actually tried them yet you see them in many survival manuals.

Greatoutdoors · 08-28-2012, 08:13 PM

Well the solar still is for SURVIVAL. I have never seen anyone say that they were going to produce a gallon of water. Now you have the experience of knowing you can do it if you have to, but you also know not to depend on that option solely. I personally would still see it in the plus column.

ghostdog · 08-28-2012, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greatoutdoors

Well the solar still is for SURVIVAL. I have never seen anyone say that they were going to produce a gallon of water. Now you have the experience of knowing you can do it if you have to, but you also know not to depend on that option solely. I personally would still see it in the plus column.

What were the results when you made one? What was your overall experience?

Theo · 08-28-2012, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdog

What were the results when you made one? What was your overall experience?

Well, you had better results than I did. And I even added greens to the still for more moisture. Personally, I don't think they are worth the energy to make. Not enough return for the effort. Kind of like using a corn chip to light a fire. It can be done but it would do you more good as food than tinder.

ghostdog · 08-29-2012, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theo

Well, you had better results than I did. And I even added greens to the still for more moisture. Personally, I don't think they are worth the energy to make. Not enough return for the effort. Kind of like using a corn chip to light a fire. It can be done but it would do you more good as food than tinder.

I totally agree. I was lucky enough to have very damp soil when we made our stills, unlike one usually finds in the desert.

I know people all talk about how much water you loose when constructing a solar still but I didn’t seem to have that problem. Of course it may have been different if I had not thought to bring a twangy headed Scottish girlfriend with her favorite shovel. I could not imagine doing this by hand or with a digging stick.

Some time after that I came across a book that I like among that genre of books, David Alloway’s Desert Survival Skills. His area of operation was Big Bend and the Chihuahuan Desert. He takes as dim a view on solar stills as you and I do. He calls them a cult item in survival lore. He used to make all of his students build one just to show the high failure rate in normal conditions, a side that the books don’t deal with sufficiently. The normal yield was one cup over a full day. Some didn’t give any water at all.

He did have a very interesting piece of information on estimated survival time and labor. Physiology of Man in the Desert by E. F. Adolph illustrates temperature, physical exertion and dehydration. A person at complete rest in 100 degree temperatures in the shade has an expected survival of 9.5 days with 10 quarts of water. A person with the same water and in the same temperatures who walks at night until exhausted and rests in the shade in the day cuts their survival time to 5.5 days.

You really don’t want to loose any water to labor if you have a choice.

And how many times have we seen anyone on those survival TV shows making a solar still. I have one time. I think it was Ray Mears in Arizona. He didn’t get a drop out of his. It was a total disaster. I have not seen anyone try it since. Has anyone else seen this done on one of the survival TV shows? I have only seen a few episodes of this kind of thing so I very well could have missed it but even with shows where they can’t find a water source, I have not seen anyone after Ray do this.

So this thread is about real world experience over just taking what the books and TV shows tell us? Some things are learned by experience that you just don't get from a book…

10 Gauge Double Barrel Shotgun (TWO bullets in) vs Me .. 110lbs - YouTube

wvbreamfisherman · 08-29-2012, 11:41 AM

Ya gotta lean into the weapon when you're that little. At least she had it tight to her shoulder. Ouch!

ghostdog · 08-29-2012, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wvbreamfisherman

Ya gotta lean into the weapon when you're that little. At least she had it tight to her shoulder. Ouch!

At least she was laughing about it. Though I haven't shot a 10 guage, I always found a magnum 12 gauge pushed, not the kick of a high powered rifle. Anyway the take from that part of the whole thing is; if you weight a dollar ten perhaps a .410 bore is a better choice than a double 10 gauge now that she actually tried it for herself.

Grandpa · 08-29-2012, 04:26 PM

It's all about fit. If I hand my extended stock shotgun to my petite little wife, she's gonna get rocked. But cut that stock down to fit her and raise the comb to match her cheek placement and she can shoot all day.

You see it all the time at the trap shoots when those little sub-juniors are shooting 100 target events with a 12 guage.

Tubby · 08-29-2012, 04:49 PM

Ouch! I remember doing something like that when I was a child. It was a good lesson and I will remember it all of my life. I DID learn to shoot when I was a kid though, and now I do fair with a shotgun. As far as survival skills, I have to agree with the majority who say you really need to try things out before you need it. The experience of trying and failing or succeeding is the best way to remember any technique.

ghostdog · 08-29-2012, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grandpa

It's all about fit. If I hand my extended stock shotgun to my petite little wife, she's gonna get rocked. But cut that stock down to fit her and raise the comb to match her cheek placement and she can shoot all day.

You see it all the time at the trap shoots when those little sub-juniors are shooting 100 target events with a 12 guage.

Good point. I wonder if she was shooting target loads or the full magnum. That gun was bigger than she was.

Now, I wounder if we could get her to build a solar still and post the video.