Bushcraft skills.

I would respectfully suggest a slightly different approach: Whether you're in a remote area, or downtown in a major metropolitan area - or any place in between - you are potentially vulnerable to predators. They usually have two legs, but there are some serious Quadra pedal threats as well.

As such, I would recommend some serious firearms AND self defense training. It's OK to start with a local gunshop CCW class to get your toe in the water, but I would then advise that you look up a good instructor who will teach you situational awareness, de-escalation & conflict avoidance and finally, how to fight with a firearm. Clint Smith and John Farnam are the two instructors who's names comes to mind. Both also have wives who are world class instructors in their own right who specialize in teaching women.

Once you can provide for your own safety/security, pick up Cody Lundin's book "98.6 The art of keeping your ass alive", buy some simple but good quality equipment (proper clothing, a Mora knife, stainless steel water bottle kit, some firestarting stuff etc) and go have some fun in the woods. Start small in a park with a campground and work on your fire making skills for example and slowly expand your skill set.

Learning to sharpen a knife can be challenging but here's a video that will simplify it for you and serve as a starting point:
This is a critical skill as well.

The key is to take it easy, have some fun and enjoy the learning process. Good luck!
 
I like to have a topo sheet with me, but I don't always. I spend a fair amount of time in the Smoky Mts and I like to have a topo map with me. These are readily available. It really depends on just how far you're hiking, what you intend to, and if you are camping over night. As I said, if you're interested in bushcraft skills, start car camping, bring your books if you have any, and start playing in your free time. Just try to pay attention to "the rules" if you're in a state or national park in terms of cutting down trees, fires, and so forth. One of the reasons I live in the East is because generally speaking I like tree covered mountains. I can visit the Rocky Mt if I want to.
 
Brommeland said:
I would respectfully suggest a slightly different approach: Whether you're in a remote area, or downtown in a major metropolitan area - or any place in between - you are potentially vulnerable to predators. They usually have two legs, but there are some serious Quadra pedal threats as well.

As such, I would recommend some serious firearms AND self defense training. It's OK to start with a local gunshop CCW class to get your toe in the water, but I would then advise that you look up a good instructor who will teach you situational awareness, de-escalation & conflict avoidance and finally, how to fight with a firearm. Clint Smith and John Farnam are the two instructors who's names comes to mind. Both also have wives who are world class instructors in their own right who specialize in teaching women.

Once you can provide for your own safety/security, pick up Cody Lundin's book "98.6 The art of keeping your ass alive", buy some simple but good quality equipment (proper clothing, a Mora knife, stainless steel water bottle kit, some firestarting stuff etc) and go have some fun in the woods. Start small in a park with a campground and work on your fire making skills for example and slowly expand your skill set.

Learning to sharpen a knife can be challenging but here's a video that will simplify it for you and serve as a starting point:
This is a critical skill as well.

The key is to take it easy, have some fun and enjoy the learning process. Good luck!
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Uhhhmmm...she was asking about bushcraft. Diving into the self-defense conceal carry shooting training world is absolutely not the first place to do that, no offense. Plenty of other folks here have given good advice. Do what millions of other folks have done: get some good equipment, ignore the hacks trying to sell you on something, and just out into the wilderness and start building up skills through actual experience. Skip the gunshop. Just my opinion.
 
Lots and lots of folks get raped, robbed and "disappeared" in the backcountry every year. Smart people take that into consideration. Those who get raped, robbed and "disappeared" apparently do not.

I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you. Personal defense is what I do for a living. Take my advice or don't.
 
Brommeland said:
Lots and lots of folks get raped, robbed and "disappeared" in the backcountry every year. Smart people take that into consideration. Those who get raped, robbed and "disappeared" apparently do not.

I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you. Personal defense is what I do for a living. Take my advice or don't.
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Next time someone asks for advice, maybe try to actually have some useful advice instead of an advertisement for services that weren't asked for? Good day.

Edited to keep this party polite.
 
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Quiet said:
Next time someone asks for advice, maybe try to actually have some useful advice instead of an advertisement for services that weren't asked for? Good day.

Edited to keep this party polite.
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Apparently you have some reading comprehension issues. I never offered my services to anyone. I offered information and a recommendation based upon my experience and skillset. I don't travel to train - and my holster line is exclusively made for men. My recommendation was to seek out others to teach the necessary skills to enable her to safely do "bushcraft" alone under circumstances in which she would otherwise fall prey to whatever predator happened upon her. It seems that you have some misogynistic attitude that women should be helpless victims....
 
Brommeland said:
... whatever predator happened upon her.
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TARZAN.jpg
 
Brommeland said:
Apparently you have some reading comprehension issues. I never offered my services to anyone. I offered information and a recommendation based upon my experience and skillset. I don't travel to train - and my holster line is exclusively made for men. My recommendation was to seek out others to teach the necessary skills to enable her to safely do "bushcraft" alone under circumstances in which she would otherwise fall prey to whatever predator happened upon her. It seems that you have some misogynistic attitude that women should be helpless victims....
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....ok, man. Sure thing.

"Hi! I'm looking for recommendations on having my carpets clea"You need to get some tactical gun training FIRST, because bad guys break into your home all the time!!".

I have no attitude that women should be helpless victims, those are your words based on your hysterics talking points (which is what most gun-trainers rely on). My wife is a better shot than I am, and we both lawfully carry, so it's safe to say that no, I don't want women to be victims.

My point was...know what, nevermind. This isn't the place for an argument with someone who isn't getting the point. Oh, and look, you even managed to sneak in another mention of some other item you sell. Well done. I'm going to let this go, because the point's been made. Thankfully, the rest of the folks (who have good reading (and context) comprehension skills like I do) gave the OP some good advice. You have a good day. LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! BAD GUY! TACTICAL RELOAD! SCAN FOR THE THREAT!

LOL
 
Brommeland said:
It seems that you have some misogynistic attitude that women should be helpless victims....
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Or, just spitballing' here, is it you that has a misogynistic view that when a woman asks for advice about X, you decide that what she really needs to know about is Y?

"Hey, little girlie asked a question about bushcrafting, but since she's just a poor simple little girl who doesn't know what she really needs to know, I'm going to tell her about this thing I think is actually more important, even though it has nothing to do with the thing she asked."
 
I would find someone who has actually been out in the bush in your area. Those folks are going to know more specifically about the terrain and environment than any book can teach you. Books are a great starting point, but the only way you'll learn is to just get out there and do it. Once you've done it for the first time, you'll know exactly how you will do it next time and so forth.

Rule #1 of going out into the wilderness; ALWAYS let people know where you are going...
 
A lot of good advice here to get you headed in the right direction. One thing I'd add is to look for techniques and gear that are safe and effective when you don't have a lot of fine motor control, at least for the emergency "I need this right away or I'm probably going to die soon" type of stuff. It doesn't need to be the only or even the main way you know to do them. Being a practiced backup technique is fine.

Being really cold can turn your well practiced hands into complete idiots that struggle to do things you've done hundreds of times. When you're already soaking wet, you can't feel your hands and you're shivering uncontrollably in the middle of nowhere and you really, really need a fire to warm up and dry out isn't the time to figure out that the only way you know how to get a fire going requires you to have dry, steady hands that you can still feel. Just something to think about. Good luck.
 
I'll tell ya how bushcraftin' works:

You stuff 10 pounds of beef jerky and a gallon of whiskey in your pack. Get one of those fancy water filter straws just in case you run out of whiskey too fast and need somethin' to drink. Get a tenkara fishin' pole setup and bring that too, along with an Opinel and a Squirt. Then you just grab your titanium sword and head on out into the bush.

When you're down to your last pound of beef jerky, turn around and start headin' back.
 
Mikel_24 said:
I know my ways arround compass and topo sheet, but again, at night or with 0 visibility (fog, blizzard, etc.) where you cannot get any visual references, you are basically screwed.
Mikel
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It's a bad habit I know but I rarely take a map with me. :eek: I DO carry a solid sighting compass with me always. The trick to navigating without a map is to start before you need it. At the very least shoot a bearing along the road you came in on and worst case you just shoot 90 degrees back to it if you get lost. Works if you can't triangulate too. More walking though.:confused:

One tip when your out, even on well marked trails, is to look back every once and a while when you hike. It helps to give you an idea what the hike out looks like.

At home I'd suggest two things. First, learn how to sharpen a knife. Bushcraft is world's harder with a dull knife. Second, buy one of those bundles of kindling and practice feather sticks or the mors kochanski try stick. Try and get a bundle with the least amount of knots.
 
Shotgun said:
It's a bad habit I know but I rarely take a map with me. :eek: I DO carry a solid sighting compass with me always. The trick to navigating without a map is to start before you need it. At the very least shoot a bearing along the road you came in on and worst case you just shoot 90 degrees back to it if you get lost. Works if you can't triangulate too. More walking though.:confused:
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If I had to choose between a proper map and a compass, I'll take the map almost every time. Exception being in featureless/near featureless terrain with little changes in elevation or few, if any, discernable (from a distance) terrain features.
 
leghog said:
If I had to choose between a proper map and a compass, I'll take the map almost every time. Exception being in featureless/near featureless terrain with little changes in elevation or few, if any, discernable (from a distance) terrain features.
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Interesting. Complete opposite here though if I think about it, being in the forests around here you can’t really see the mountains a lot of the time. That’s also why I like a sighting compass. Just look up at the tree your compass is pointing at and walk toward that. Keeps from having to look down at the compass all the time.
 
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