Feral Jundi

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

DIY: Survival Mindset, Snares And Kit Ideas, By Doug

Filed under: DIY,Fish and Game,Texas — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 5:51 AM

   This is some good stuff.  Doug (not Doug Brooks) has been working on a lot of interesting concepts lately involving lightweight combat survival kits and the mindset and knowledge necessary to use all of that stuff. So it is cool to see where it is all taking him.

   To properly set this up, Doug lives down in Texas, is prior service and has worked in the security contracting industry. He has guest posted before, and is a welcome contributor to the blog.  Enjoy. –Matt

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 Texas Hog

 

     Here is a website and book which I’ve found absolutely awesome.  It is set up by some US Military SERE instructors.

Their belief is that any man in the world can live off the land, very well in fact with nothing more than:

-a handful of snares

-.22 pistol

-poncho

-thermals

-bowie knife & multi tool

     I have been playing with their techniques out in the woods for the past couple of weeks or so and have concluded they are right.  Damn right in fact!

     Attached is a picture of a 200 lb. wild boar which I took last week with a single shot from a .22 pistol. As soon as he was hit with the sub-sonic round he dropped to the ground.

(he appears a lot smaller than he actually was, due to me having cleaned him & having his skin with its 1.5″ fat layer removed.)

    The boar was caught up in one of my snares. The snare had caught him right around the nose.  Boy, was he really pissed off when I walked up on him while checking my trap line the other morning.

     I shot him from 20 yards because I knew I could and more to the point I wanted to stay near a tree encase I had to climb it if need be. It was an instant kill so it turned out to be no worries.

     At noon the day before, I set up 3 hog snares.  By 9am the next morning two of the snares had game in them, while the third had either fallen down or been knocked down by a passing coyote.

    Now talk about an easy way to get food. With minimal effort using only a handfull of commercial grade snares, I had 300 lbs of animal laying on the ground.   all in a span of a few hours with having burned minimal calories.

     Also, this was my very first time setting up snares, so needless to say I am highly impressed. Talk about an extremely successful method of living off the land.

     The snares take up very little space in my buttpack.  6 small snares (squirrles, rabbits, skunks, or anything up to 20 lbs), 4 medium snares (coyotes, racoon, deer, or anything up to 100 lbs) & 1 large snare (large deer, aligator, black bear, wild hog up, or anything up to 200 lbs) are a perfect loadout.

Plus, if you were to attach the snares to a lifting trap, one could trap even larger animals.

     Now addmittedly it took all day for me and one of my buddies down here to process all that meat.  Way too much work for one person.  I wont be setting up more than 1 large game trap at a time from now on. But this is how we learn.

In fact I learned a ton on trapping from that one FTX.

     Now if one were to combine the skills of living off the land with super lightweight gear from our SERE instructors with trackers, then one could have an extremely highly effective tracking team. They wouldn’t even need to carry armor or much ammo. A rifle with 1-2 mags is all. Their job isn’t to engage baddies but simply trail them and radio in their location.

     Even without the tracking aspect, those SERE instructors really know there business. Their $13 book is worth every penny.  Those boys are squared away.

     As far as outdoor survival goes, everyone and their dog has some sort of survival book & dvd out there.  they all say pretty much the same thing.  Interesting yes, but I haven’t been overly impressed. The SERE instructors though, are the heat.  No bs and all practicallity.

    What I really love about them is their travel light & stay warm at night attitude.  (you may not always be comfortable, but you will be alive & well.) With my messed up spine, I simply can not carry that much weight anymore.

    My daily carry out here in the woods, outside of what is on my belt & in my pants pockets is just a maxpedition fanny pack. (expensive but a very tough piece of kit)

(more…)

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Quotes: Marcus Luttrell on the Ability to Fight Alone

Filed under: Afghanistan,Quotes — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 11:31 AM

   Doug sent me this quote, and I thought it was awesome.  We have reinforced this idea within our troops and within our law enforcement, that they must work as a team to accomplish goals and missions.  And I agree, that is essential and a no brainer.  But what happens when you are alone, or your team was decimated? Situations like what Chris Turner was in, who had to think on their own in order to defend self and others at the UN guest house in Afghanistan.  Guys like Marcus Luttrell who had to survive on their own, and against the mountain men of Afghanistan after his team was wiped out. Most importantly, men or women who are all ‘heroes in waiting’, all silently standing by, waiting for fate to decide when they shall meet other super empowered individuals who wish to do harm.

   Let’s take it back even further in history.  Jeremiah Johnson, William Cody, Frederick Burnham and the rest of the rugged individuals who made up the West, operated on their own in non-permissive environments and kicked ass.  These are the same guys called upon by the US Army to hunt and kill indian combatants and influence the Scouting movement, both in the militaries of the world, and the Boy Scouting movement so popular throughout the world.

    The point is, super empowered individuals, armed with the intellect and mental toughness needed to prosecute their war, are shockingly effective.  In my view, the only way to defeat these types of warriors on the field of battle, is with another super empowered individual armed with the same mindset.

   So thanks to Doug and the rest of the readership who have helped to push along these ideas.  I need your help to build this snowmobile, and the end result is that the Feral Jundi readership will be armed with the ideas that will help them win the fight.  Think of FJ as a mental armory, and in this armory, we are trying to build some of the most lethal and radical ideas around. –Matt

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     “The last hour had tought me a few major lessons, the main one being I must gain the ability to fight alone, in direct contrast to everything I had ever been taught.   SEALs as you know fight in teams, only in teams, each man relying entirely on the others to do exactly the right thing.  Thats how we do it, fighting as one in a team of four or maybe ten or even twenty, but always as one unit. One mind, one strategy.  We are, instinctively, always backing up, always covering, always moving to plug the gap or pave the way.  Thats what makes us great.

     But up here being hunted down, all alone—this was entirely another game.  And first I had to learn to move like an Afghan mountain man, stealthily, staying out of sight, making no sound, causing no disturbance.  Of course, we had learned all that back in California, but not on the heightened scale which was required up here, against a native enemy even more stealthy, quiet and unseen than we were.”

     I resolved that when I next had to strike out against my enemy, it would be with our customary deadly force, always ensuring I held the element of surprise.  Those are the tactics that invariably win conflicts for the truely ruthless underdog like the mujahidden, al Qaeda and from now on, me.” –Lone Survivor, by Marcus Luttrell, p. 275.

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