Survivors
- Thread starter Burnsy2023
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Soldato
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I'd escape to a forest near a lake in the highlands with some friends. I'd take fishing tackle, any weapons/hunting tools i could gather (copius amounts of knives), tools (general building tools, and lots of em) and build a log cabin hidden away. If I had enough time to gather equipment, I'd take the necessary parts to build a generator (probably water powered) and take some kind of solar panel to run small electrical appliances from. Radio being a priority. I'd try to pitch the site within a couple of days walk of a small village, who might have stuck together for the crisis and i could befriend/trade with. We'd live off hunting and foraging first but we'd eventually maintain a section of land on the edge of the forest/clearing for farming animas/veg.
The programme said 90% would die, 10% i still 600millionn people! 6million in the uk alone. The programe look more like 99.5%
at 10% all people would have to do is relocate together in the cites burn the dead and some sort of scioety can still exsist.
at 10% all people would have to do is relocate together in the cites burn the dead and some sort of scioety can still exsist.
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In the last episode they said that the survival rate was under 1%.
LOL! Got to love keyboard survivalists
Have you ever even chopped down a tree, yet alone built a log cabin?
All your gizmos and gazmos? What happens when they break within a year? You'd slowly slip further and further back down the technology scale.
Hunting and foraging? Have you ever hunted? What would you hunt with? Have you ever prepared meat? Do you know what mushrooms and berries are ok, and which will kill you? What would you eat in winter?
You make it sound like a holiday camp, where in reality, you'd probably be dead...
clearly you never watched ray mears! and you can still fish in the winterLOL! Got to love keyboard survivalists
Have you ever even chopped down a tree, yet alone built a log cabin?
All your gizmos and gazmos? What happens when they break within a year? You'd slowly slip further and further back down the technology scale.
Hunting and foraging? Have you ever hunted? What would you hunt with? Have you ever prepared meat? Do you know what mushrooms and berries are ok, and which will kill you? What would you eat in winter?
You make it sound like a holiday camp, where in reality, you'd probably be dead...
LOL! Got to love keyboard survivalists
Have you ever even chopped down a tree, yet alone built a log cabin?
All your gizmos and gazmos? What happens when they break within a year? You'd slowly slip further and further back down the technology scale.
Hunting and foraging? Have you ever hunted? What would you hunt with? Have you ever prepared meat? Do you know what mushrooms and berries are ok, and which will kill you? What would you eat in winter?
You make it sound like a holiday camp, where in reality, you'd probably be dead...
You are very pessimistic Neil, you only have to look at 3rd world countries to see how ingenious people can be, in Cuba they still run around in 1950's cars, In africa they build plows out of old scrap aeroplanes and tow them with oxen.
It certainly would be a difficult, but i'd enjoy working things out, every day being like scrap yard challenge
So you can chop a tree down? That doesn't mean you can build a log cabin
I can put a couple of bricks onto each other. Doesn't mean I can build a house! Seriously, you'd be far better off finding an existing house/property before you start wasting X hundred man hours building something yourself.Have you ever prepared meat? Have you ever stored meat?
The gizmos and gazmos you referred to were solar panels and the like? You'll be after all the mod-cons and want a jacuzzi next
I'm not saying everyone will die, I'm just suggesting a good portion of folks who have never ever dug up a potato, yet alone survived without Tescos for a year, would most likely not do very well...
Maybe you'd do better than I gave you credit for then. But I hope you can understand me raising my eyebrows at your gung-ho take on the end of civilization and how 'OK' you'd be. Most people really have no idea how hard it would get if they had to go off and fend for themselves.
Going back to your case for example... Salt - Where you going to get it? Even fire, once your matches have run out, would prove very difficult for most.
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Salt can be gained from either finding existing supplies or evapourating sea water.
You are right about making fires without matches. I've done this and it's surprisingly hard, especially after seeing Ray Mears on the TV and thinking it'll take 5 mins.
Assuming existing supplies are gone, salt ain't straight forward. If you're busy with the day to day struggle of just trying to survive, trips down to the sea side to evapourate huge quantities of sea water, to collect the salt, might be tricky...
But it's a never ending list...
What happens when your tools break. Your axe and knife for example. Can you make new ones? What happens when your car dies? Or its battery goes flat? All the other ones nearby around the country are now ceased up from 2yrs of sitting idle. Clothes? Medical care? Have something as simple as impacting molars? Chances are you could die from even that!
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Soldato
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Its pretty unfair to assume that everyone would die when put into a survival situation. even given common knowledge of how to carry out basic survival tasks, someone could last a suprising amount of time. I think "do you even know how to cut down a tree?" is over reacting a bit. everyone knows how to cut down a tree.. and even if they don't, its a managable job.. its not unreasonable to assume a ten year old cut cut down a tree. "gadgets and gizmos?" what gadgets and gizmos? a radio? a portable solar panel... these would both last ptetty long if you looked after them. When i said log cabin, i didnt mean a 5 star holiday chalet with 3 stories. I meant a simple enclosed living space.. at least good enough to use until something better can be made/ a safe house is found. a couple of tents would suffice until something could be constructed. Hunting? build traps.. fishing isnt rocket science and everyone knows how to make a bow and arrow with the right wood and a knife. As for preserving meat.. maybe i could choose a sea loch to pitch next to? And as has been stated, theres plenty of books out there (a few of which I own) which describe all the essentials on surviving for a sustained period. Take a large SAS survival book.. Infact, a trained SAS officer could survive with a dry pair of socks and a knife! given all the advice one could have to offer and put in a survival situation, a modern man (in healthy condition) would go pretty far, I believe.
If you're replying to my original post, you've put words into my mouth.
Someone suggested they'd simply disappear into the woods and build a log cabin. I tried grounding this idea by basically saying most people have never even cut down a tree yet alone fashioned an entire cabin. I suspect most of us could not do it. Even more so when X hundred hours of labour is wasted on it when this time should actually be spend surviving!
You mention hunting, and you'd build traps. Have your ever built a trap? Yet alone prepared the meat of the animal caught in one?
And as for your comment, "everyone knows how to make a bow and arrow with the right wood and a knife," I think this exemplifies the exact nievity I'm trying to highlight! Go on, build your bow and arrow and try and hunt with it... Bet you'd die of starvation
It's all the little things people forget. ALL drinking water would need treating. Get a tooth ache? What you going to do? Get a nasty cut while working? How you going to stitch it up? Make sure you clean it well, else it's going bad! Your knife breaks? How you going to make another? You car breaks down? How you going to travel the 15 miles you used to drive so easily?
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Soldato
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it was my post you replied to 
I've actually made a bow and arrow in australia with a pen knife and a length of string and it worked pretty damn well! As for traps.. as I said, take a look at an SAS survival guide. They illustrate loads of traps you can build for hunting.
tooth ache? bad luck really.. I'm sure i would probably get to a very bad state before making a descion that'd save me. I guess you'd be lucky to survive but I'd make a pretty good go of it.
Sure, I couldnt build a log cabin straight off. theres other shelters you could build quite easily. Why i built an igloo without instruction the other day!
Oh and water in the highlands tends to be pretty safe, if you're high up. I've been happy enough to drink litres of the stuff in the past. If you're really worried, you could stockpile iodine and chlorine tablets to last until you had a feasible way of boiling it.
who said anything about cars? Youd need one to get out there of course but after that they're not needed. people seem to think theyre an essential part of survival but you can walk 25 miles a day.
I've actually made a bow and arrow in australia with a pen knife and a length of string and it worked pretty damn well! As for traps.. as I said, take a look at an SAS survival guide. They illustrate loads of traps you can build for hunting.
tooth ache? bad luck really.. I'm sure i would probably get to a very bad state before making a descion that'd save me. I guess you'd be lucky to survive but I'd make a pretty good go of it.
Sure, I couldnt build a log cabin straight off. theres other shelters you could build quite easily. Why i built an igloo without instruction the other day!
Oh and water in the highlands tends to be pretty safe, if you're high up. I've been happy enough to drink litres of the stuff in the past. If you're really worried, you could stockpile iodine and chlorine tablets to last until you had a feasible way of boiling it.
who said anything about cars? Youd need one to get out there of course but after that they're not needed. people seem to think theyre an essential part of survival but you can walk 25 miles a day.
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Well, you've done more than 99% of other folks then...
In reality, if you took 100 people and told them to build a bow and arrow and go hunt in the wood with it to survive. I recon almost all of them would die...
Soldato
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probably yeah. although a knife and a quick pair of legs could bag you a sheep or lamb. its funny, i've also been so close to a gethering of deer and stag in the highlands that I (!) had to back off becuase THEY weren't! That being said, I don't think i'd do too well one on one with a stag
Yes, but due to this I suspect farm animals would be the first things to get eaten, and would disappear quite quickly.
Wild dogs would be another concern within a couple of years. They'd hunt far better than us!
Soldato
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true. it might be an idea to have one to train!
did you know theres nomad tribes in africa that have packs of 5 dogs to do their hunting? the pack has a lead, which is set off first on large game to jump onto its back and attack its neck and then each of the other dogs is instructed to bring down a certain leg to imobilise the animal. They say they're the best trained dogs in the world.
yep did it with a hand chain/wire saw. not that hard tbh.
one of these jobbies
but why make a cabin where then hundreds of ready made farm houses?
Also why hu8nt when there's already livestock?
More to the point why bother with food at all, more than enough tinned food to last you untill you die, or at least til lyou set up your own farm etc.
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