SURVIVAL TIPS

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50 Survival Tips and Tricks for the Outdoors

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When it comes to survival tips and techniques, the more you know, the better. While you can’t possibly prepare for every single thing that is out there, you can try your best to be as aware of many of them as you can. Sometimes these bits and pieces of knowledge can seem quite like useless trivia at times, but don’t be fooled. The knowledge is there not to be useful ALL the time, but rather to be there when you need it the most. That is why we put together a massive list of 50 Survival Tips and Tricks for the outdoors.

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Best Survival Tips and Tricks: Ultimate Guide List

How to create a thick fire signal

1. Create a thick fire signal.

A combination of fresh pine and spruce leaves produce a lot of smoke, which is what you want with the signal. Start out by building a small fire using dry leaves, twigs, or other tinder.

Collect the fresh pine and spruce leaves and compile them into a bow. When the fire is up and smoking, put the leaves over the fire, making sure to cover it completely. This will cause the branches to burn intensely, producing even more smoke.

Additional things to consider: ​

  • Choosing the location – ideally, you want to build a fire on elevated grounds, such as a peak, top of a hill or ridge.  Clear the area so that the fire will not catch onto nearby twigs/other flammables. If it’s too difficult to clear the area of debris, then the next best option is to isolate the fire with stones to control the fire.
  • What creates the thick smoke?  – Dry grass, leaves, pine needles, paper, wood shaving, small sticks are great for starting fires. To sustain the fire, you will need to find dry wood , full branches and anything similar that will provide a slow but long lasting fuel. To create more smoke; simply add living branches, wet leaves and even rubber materials.
  • Don’t forget to thoroughly extinguish the fire when you depart your location or when you are rescued. The last thing you want to do is start a raging fire in the forest.

How to stay cool in the desert

2. Staying Cool in the Desert.

This may not be the best-smelling solution to preventing heatstroke when you’re out in the scorching desert, but it works. Take a piece of cloth like a bandana and soak it in urine. Wrap it around your head and it will keep your head from feeling the wrath of the sun. Heat stroke is the second leading cause of death in the desert, next to dehydration.

3. Learn to tell where North is without navigational survival gear!

If you need the help of a compass but you don’t have one, you can use an analog watch to do that. Point the hour (short) hand at the sun and draw two imaginary lines between it and the 12 o’clock point. You will create an angle between the two lines. Draw an imaginary straight line bisecting the angle. The line point away from the sun is north, because the sun always goes to set in the west direction.

Disclaimer: telling time by sun doesn’t work as effectively when you are too far up north or south.

4. What if you don’t have a watch?

Don’t worry. As long as you know what time it is, you can still tell where north is. Simply draw an analog representation of the time on the ground and draw the lines from there. Cellphones are particularly useful in telling the actual time regardless where you are because mobile tech nowadays uses GPS to be able to tell the time of the day regardless of location. Of course, it’s always advised that a survivalist have a watch with them at all times.

5. Always have char cloth ready.

Take any small piece of cloth and place it inside a metal container. Make sure that the container has a cover. Burn the container (with the cloth inside it) for a couple of minutes. You know you’re doing it right if the cloth remains intact but is dark from all the burning. Char cloth is really great for starting fires because it catches fire with just a small spark. Tip: Try cutting or ripping a large cloth into really small pieces and neatly roll them inside a tuna can. You’ll have yourself an entire pack of char cloth!

How to Start a fire using hand sanitizer [how to video]

6. Use hand sanitizer from your survival kit to start embers.

Hand sanitizers may look like they’re only useful for cleaning your hands, but they’re also good for starting fires. This is because they contain alcohol, which is flammable. Simply use some of the stuff on a char cloth or some leaves or other tinder and they’ll easily catch fire from a spark. So always keep a small bottle in your pocket.

7. Shave off that fat wood!

The resins from pine trees are very useful if you reduce them into tiny shavings. They easily catch fire and can therefore be used as an easy to find ingredient to starting fires because the can be found practically everywhere. But what makes them special is that the smoke that’s produced from burning the shaved fat wood makes effective mosquito repellents.

Insulation against cold [HOW TO STAY WARM]

8. Learn basic body insulation.

This is a life saver in many situations where you’re caught in really cold weather and you’ve got no means of starting a fire. Simply stuff newspaper, dry grass, and leaves under your clothes and you’ll be retaining significant amounts of body heat when you need it the most. You can do this to almost all of your clothing, from head to toe.

How to get water from trees

9. Get water from trees.

This works on any tree, but it works better with those with leaves that are directly exposed to the sun. Wrap a plastic bag around the leaves.

When the sun forces the water inside the leaves to evaporate, the water will be trapped inside the plastic bag and settle into the plastic bag.

With proper positioning, the water will be trapped in a way that you can simple poke a hole through the bag so that the water flows through. You can then keep the water in a container. Note: Make sure your plastic bags are clean.

It takes grit and a little bit of creativity, but sometimes knowing unique places to find water will be the difference maker in staying hydrated.

Similarly, you can use the same tactic to extract water from plants.

10. Use toothpaste to relieve bug bites.

This is a well-known home remedy for burns and some wounds, but few people know that their tooth paste can help treat bug bites as well. This is because they have properties that will help sooth any itchiness or pain that most bug bites cause. They will also help reduce any swelling that might result from the bites.

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