Survivalist Camps

[Laura]

Is there such a thing as a camp, or weekend where young men can learn to 'survive' out in the wild?

I would love for my boy to learn some kind of training in this area.....and for myself too!!

If you know of anything like this I would love to hear about it!!
Thanks
Laura

[rAcErRicK]

This site would be a start.

http://www.hollowtop.com/Schools_North_America.htm

Another list.

http://www.dmoz.org/Recreation/Outdoors/Survival_and_Primitive_Technology/Schools_and_Courses/North_America/United_States/

[NCLee]

One way to get started is for him to become a Boy Scout. My brother was a Scout leader and he learned a lot, himself, as well as working with the Scouts to complete their merit badges. Both of his sons became Eagle Scouts. Several times during the year, they had camp outs. My brother has become an "expert" in dutch oven cooking and similar related skills.

Don't know if Girl Scouting has the same potential for learning wilderness type skills. However, becoming a Scout master may take you further along that path, yourself. May be worth checking out, at least.

A FWIW - I've added a Boy Scout manual and a Girl Scout Cookbook to my reference library

Lee

[Laura]

Maybe we can pick up a boy scout manual. The boy will turn 18 tomorrow.....so I think it's a wee bit late for scouts!

Thanks for the advice!
Laura

[Steve_L]

I did that when I was in Junior ROTC. We did it at Fort Ord and Camp Roberts.

There are problems. Like you can't legally fish with nets and traps. You can't throw soap weed in the river. There's a couple of hundred other students there and they chase all the small game away. You can't eat the commandant who got caught in your snare and make fish hooks from his bones and a hat from his skin. With that many students, all the good material and locations get used up. You spend a lot of time marking the locations of your snares and traps so you can take them down later because Bambi and Thumper might get caught after you leave. Other students play grab-donkey with your snares and traps because you caught something and their trap doesn't work.

There was one more little drawback: signing up for J-ROTC meant your draft board put you on the "certain to be drafted" and sent to Vietnam list, until they went to the lottery. If that bugged you, then you shouldn't sign up.

I think the one thing I learned in survival training is that when you're hungry, you'll eat a bug. When you're really hungry, you'll eat Army Cole slaw or an National Guard commandant caught in your snare...

If I was to teach my child wilderness survival, I'd use FM21-76, SURVIVAL available here:
http://www.ar15.com/content/manuals/FM21-76_SurvivalManual.pdf
And practice various skills in the back yard: making snares and traps, skinning Thumpers, making shelters and stuff, with the occasional trip up the road to the national forest when the backyard isn't suitable. (I live just a couple of miles away from a national forest). Plant identification, for example, is a field trip unless you have a really wild or well thought out back yard.

This isn't rocket science. The military does have a lower limit of an 85 IQ, and I think anyone can follow along and learn out of FM21-76. Basically, if you're literate enough to read this far into my long drawn out post, you're good to go for FM21-76.

My commandant (who was smart enough NOT to get caught in my snare) swears by the US Air Force Survival Manual, AFR64-4. He said it was more applicable and better written than FM21-76. Since he went to the US Air Force Academy, I believe him to have been bias towards it. Air Force people tend to think they're smarter than Army People. Other people have their favorite book. Heck, if you just learn FM21-76, you'll cover most of it. I've seen other survival manuals like the SAS manual or the USMC survival manuals. Whatever. I don't know enough to compare them.

I'd rather train my own children. A private survival school is interested taking your money and in your child having a good time so you'll recommend it to your friends; if you learn anything useful, that's just gravy. The US Army, for example, didn't give a rip if I was happy or not.

In any event, it is not likely you're going to get to a level where you can survive in the Kalahari desert like a !Kung bushman or in the arctic like an Inuit. What I learned in survival school wasn't in the book: Get away from crowds of people, don't have any dependents you don't want hanging on you, kids who cry alot scare away the game, and if you REALLY were in a survival situation, you would do things that were illegal (For example, if you were lost or a survivor of an airplane accident, taking Bambi out of season is a good thing; you either eat or the game warden arrests you and you eat in a nice iron bar shelter with blankets and everything!). And ohyah, when you're leading a platoon out on a map reading exercise, and they find the markers for the other platoons, don't complain too much when they hide them. It slows down the platoons that come after you and means your time is relatively better.

[cinok]

Maybe we can pick up a boy scout manual. The boy will turn 18 tomorrow.....so I think it's a wee bit late for scouts!

Thanks for the advice!
Laura

Uncle Sam has some fantastic survival schools.

[ArmySGT.]

Uncle Sam has some fantastic survival schools.

Yes, yes, he does. You may not like the tuition though.

Laura. why not a school like Tom Brown's, or John and Geri McPherson, of Randolph, KS?

[jebrown]

Laura:
Here are two very good books on survival:
98.6 Degrees or How to Keep your Ass Alive
When All Hell Breaks Loose
Both are written by Cody Lundin
I have read both of them and they are very informative. His knowledge comes from actual living experiences and as a teacher of survival skills he is not one who read a couple of survival books and decided to write one of his own.
His school is Aboriginal Living Schools at alssadventures.com
If you read both of his books and review his web site I think you will agree that it is worth attending his school. I wish I could but health problems prohibit that.
Some of his comments are pretty funny but he is very serious about your learning survival skills.
I am a Navy Man but I will admit that the information in the Army Survival book is excellent as well. Never have been able to locate a copy of the Air Force Manual.

Jerry

[Cil]

To quote my brother, "Google is your friend." :D