Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2019 i Survivor's Edge

As you read this, 75 years ago this June, American soldiers faced fears and doubts as Normandy Beach, the Atlantic Wall and the strength of the German forces loomed very large on the horizon. John MacPhee, a private in the 16th infantry of the 1st Division, E Company, was on board the USS Henrico and waiting to go ashore. He remembers, “The night before was like waiting to go to the electric chair. Being a part of the first wave, we were told that we would probably all be killed, not too encouraging.” Sergeant Felice P. Nappi of the 175th infantry of the 29th Division, 2nd Battalion, wondered, “Would we face up to the challenge? What was mortal combat really like? Would a lot of our friends be killed or…

An ocean can become a burial ground for those unable to navigate its featureless surface. Boaters depend on electronic navigation systems to make it to safe harbor, but there are manual substitutes should these systems fail or become inoperable. Understanding how to fix your boat’s position on a paper chart using visual bearings or other observations and determining a course to steer from a fixed position toward safety are skills that should be developed by anyone putting to sea. If you become disoriented, slow or stop your boat and determine your position before you get further from safety, run up onto a shoal or strike some other underwater hazard and become stranded. GPS coordinates, radar ranges and bearings and visual bearings taken with a compass can all be plotted on…

Once you’ve determined triage priorities, it’s time to get the victims to where the bulk of your medical supplies are. If your survival group is bugging out, that would be the hospital tent. The materials you’ll need for traumatic injuries will be different than those required to deal with infectious disease outbreaks. Likewise, the victims of our MCI scenario should be kept separate from infectious disease patients if possible. Furnishings of your hospital tent should be minimalist in nature. You’ll need a work surface, wash basin, examination area, procedure table, lighting, waste bins and bed spaces. The more areas that can be wiped down and disinfected easily, the better. At a bare minimum, your supplies should include: • Bandage scissors or EMT shears • Nitrile gloves (sterile and non-sterile) •…

During her two Naked and Afraid challenges, Melissa experienced a wide variety of foods to keep her calorie count high and her energy level sustained. She reminisces now about her varied menu while abroad. She said: In Ecuador we ate piranhas, peacock bass, dogfish and a couple of other species of fish that I could not identify. Spearfishing, primitive fish traps and the Yoyito fishing hand reel I had with me helped secure the fish on that challenge. I also caught a lot of piranhas in the Amazon, which tasted very plain, not at all fishy, as some people have said. We ate a ton of tiny nuts from a spiny palm. They were so delicious, and it is a taste I miss even today. They had a slight sweetness…

EVERY person has his or her own idea of what a survival knife should be. Even so, that term probably conjures a fairly conventional design to your mind’s eye. When the Texas blade-smith William Collins thought about what a survival knife should be, he threw convention to the wind and decided to put function before form. After a lengthy testing period involving the creation of many prototypes and months of feedback from outdoor professionals, the WCSK was born. So, what’s in a name? WOODLANDS: The blade must be able to perform the duties of a hunting knife, be capable of camp carving tasks as well as perform as a light hatchet. COMBAT: The blade must be rugged enough to withstand the rigors of a combat environment. Piercing, prying, slashing and…

“It’s the ultimate survival weapon,” inventor Tim Ralston said as he described the Scavenger 6 firearm system, the latest in a line of survival/preparedness tools that he’s designed for SHTF scenarios. Driving to the test-firing location at the base of the Four Peaks mountain range in the Tonto National Forest, 40 miles east-northeast of Phoenix, the affable Ralston shared his rationale and philosophies on upholding an overall-preparedness lifestyle and how that has inspired him to create a firearm platform that could, as he explained, fire almost every caliber of ammunition available on the commercial market. “It’s the ultimate—the one gun—the only gun you’ll ever need in a doomsday scenario,” Ralston said assuredly. A bold statement in and of itself, but perhaps most especially for him, a personality within the survival…

RECENTLY, THE LOCAL NEWS HERE IN New Hampshire ran a story about the rising ocean waters and the effects it was having on coastal property. As New Hampshire is a small state, what happens along the coast affects us all in some way or another. I wanted to find out more, so I did some research. No matter what side of the political fence you stand on regarding global warming, you have to admit that it is happening, and it has an effect on how we live our lives going forward. Dry areas are drier, and out west there is no such thing as “fire season” anymore; it happens yearround. Hurricanes are forming sooner, more often and stronger than ever, and the melting of the ice caps has increased the water…

In 1972, a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes Mountains with 45 passengers. Two months later, 16 of those people had survived to be rescued. What they went through is one of the greatest survival sagas of the modern era, and it’s one of the stories that Les Stroud tells in Will To Live: Dispatches from the Edge of Survival. Survival is an ordeal. That’s how the author puts it, and he would know. For eight seasons, he has entertained viewers of the show "Survivorman" with his solo struggles. Each episode is like a mini documentary of his efforts to make it through a week in a survival situation. From jungles to mountains, deserts to tropical islands, each show is an example of how miserable survival can…

My outdoor gear ended up in the bedroom closet for logistical reasons: It was the only place left in our home, but it also served a practical purpose. Before, when gear was “out of sight and out of mind” in a storage unit, it was all too easy to walk out the door without an essential item. But with everything front and center, it was a snap to remember to grab my base layers before heading out in just about any condition or that my headlamp needed new batteries. Keep your gear close to ensure that you’re prepared no matter what the conditions are.…

Newer diesel engines and their exhaust systems are more complicated than previous models and require the use of a specific amount of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). In fact, running excessively low or out of DEF will inhibit your vehicle from operating at normal speeds and can prevent an engine from starting at all. Bear in mind that we had clean-burning diesel vehicles before DEF was required and we adopted much stricter European Union emission standards. The newer diesels also need to be occasionally driven at higher speeds to prevent the buildup of particles, aka soot, in their more-complicated exhaust systems. Failing to do so will eventually prevent the vehicle from operating properly. Unless you have your new diesel vehicle’s computer system modified or “chipped,” which voids the warranty and will…

Designed specifically for .22 LR shooters and hunters in particular, this 1-inch-tubed, durable, hardcoat anodized scope weighs 14.2 ounces, is adjustable from 3X to 9X magnification and shockproof, fogproof and dustproof/waterproof to the IP67 standard. Translated, the IP67 means that it scored a 6 (the highest rating) by resisting the “harmful” penetration of dust or dirt into the unit after being in direct contact with the matter for eight hours. The 7 represents the second-highest rating for water resistance, indicating it was undamaged by immersion in water at a depth of up to 1 meter for up to 30 minutes. I will probably never hunt with my .22 underwater or in an eight-hour dust storm, but it’s nice to know I could. This scope has a .22 LR bullet-drop compensating…

Casting off lines from a dock and racing your boat offshore to escape danger on land can instead make you an easy target to locate and track if precautions aren’t taken. AIS and DSC radios are two prevalent technologies to consider when trying to disappear at sea, as each of these is capable of reporting your vessel’s identifying details, position, course and speed to those on shore and on nearby vessels. On most boats, electronics are integrated and use a single GPS receiver to provide position data to every connected device; some, like AIS, are designed to automatically transmit the information to others. Disconnecting the GPS from such networks will effectively make you invisible to everything but radar and the eyes of vigilant lookouts. Avoiding radar detection is more difficult,…

A ditch bag is the first piece of gear you reach for in an emergency that requires you to enter the water or a life raft. Intended to support your efforts to survive, it’s waterproof, buoyant and packed with the gear that’ll keep you alive at sea, where the elements and marine life conspire against the human body and mind. Signaling devices, provisions, survival equipment like knives and fishing supplies, cash and identification are a few of the items that should be stocked inside. The only limit on its contents is the size of the bag. A firearm and ammunition should also be considered, as they can be employed to fend off sharks, take a bird for a meal and defend one’s life on a hostile shore. A ditch bag…

A small shrimp trawl is a piece of equipment that can enable anyone living near salt water to have food, live bait for fishing and a source of income, with fresh deheaded shrimp selling from $6.99 per pound for medium-sized and $12.99 per pound for XX-jumbo shrimp. A small shrimp trawl can be dragged behind a boat equipped with a 25- to 30-horsepower motor in bays, estuary areas, bayous and brackish-water regions to produce shrimp and crabs for the table and plenty of live fish bait for anglers fishing for inshore and nearshore species. Alternatively, a shrimp net can provide a fun day on the water during which families can pick out the shrimp and crabs, see all the other critters caught in a shrimp net and later prepare the…

The ARRL is to amateur radio what the NRA is to the shooting sports. It promulgates the rules of competitions and formally acknowledges excellence in radio operation, serves as an archive for all things radio and facilitates the teaching and learning of radio science at all levels of the hobby through its monthly magazine and by training instructors and creating educational courses (many of which can be taken online), including excellent preparatory classes and study manuals for the FCC tests. It provides its members such services as radio insurance, direct support for various aspects of the hobby and college scholarships, and it continuously advocates for the interests of amateur radio in Congress. On the local level, just about every ham is a member of an ARRL-affiliated club. Membership is $49…

William Collins is the sole proprietor and craftsman behind WC Knives LLC. While his interest in making knives goes back to his high school years, WC Knives wasn’t started until 2012. His time in the U.S. Air Force and a lifetime spent in the Texas outdoors taught William that a knife is a tool that, first and foremost, needs to work effectively and efficiently. According to William, function trumps aesthetics, hence his company motto: “Knives made to work.” William does all the work on his knives himself, including his own heat-treat process. While William has a number of designs available, he’s best known for his unique dual-grind edges like those found on his Master Woodsman and the WCSK. Over the years, William has built a solid customer base with a…

James grew up clearing brush on the family farm in central Texas, and the first tool he used for that task was a machete. He has a great deal of appreciation for these blades and their abilities, but they’re usually the cheapest, lowest-quality tool in the arsenal. One of the things he wanted to be able to do when he began his blacksmithing journey was to make his own machetes. According to Tobin, he met James about 8 years ago when he wanted to learn how to roll forged sockets for knife handles—he just hung around and never left. Today, they’re partners in the very badass STAB HQ forge in Texas.…

If you need to shelter in place, these items must be on hand. WATER: A conservative number is 1 gallon per day per person for drinking and hygiene. That equals 30 gallons per person for a month’s duration. Filling water-safe containers will save space and money. FOOD: This should consist of items that don’t need to be cooked unless you have the means to safely cook them (obviously, don’t use portable gas grills or charcoal inside a building). Stick to canned cooked meat, canned vegetables and freeze-dried meals. COMMUNICATION: Keep your cell phones and electronics fully charged. You can’t tell people that you need help if you can’t contact them. Also, have rechargeable two-way radios on hand as well as handcrank radios for listening to emergency broadcasts. POWER: A generator…

Just in case you missed this year’s SHOT Show, here are the highlights of the new products that have everyone talking. Some won’t be available for purchase until later this year, but they will be worth the wait. Update your gear to be best prepared for any unexpected situation or just to enjoy a simpler, more relaxed trek into the outdoors. 1 SPOT X The SPOT X 2-Way Satellite Messenger is a convenient keypad controlled handheld device that makes communicating with family and friends, getting help when in need and posting to social media accounts simple, easy and fast. × Message cell phones or send emails from almost anywhere × Send S.O.S. to a 24/7 rescue center × Share your location with friends and family using a Google Maps Interface…

To prevent accidental poisonings from pest controls, disinfectants and some strong medicines, companies in the early 1800s introduced bottles with distinctive designs. Raised bumps, grooves and shapes, raised letters spelling “poison” and the skull and crossbones were pressed into the glass to distinguish its contents, specifically in candlelight. This practice is no longer applied to dangerous products (besides an obvious warning label), but the number of poisonous substances has increased dramatically. SYMPTOMS OF POISONING In 2017, the 55 poison-control centers in the United States provided help to nearly 2.12 million people suspected of being poisoned. That’s one person poisoned every 15 seconds, and while 80 percent of those victims experienced very minor effects on the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control, over 33,000 people die every year from…

For a bow, it is my Bear Kodiak Hunter Recurve, made in the mid-1970s. It is left-handed and a 45-pound draw. I actually bought it on eBay for dirt cheap, around $160, and it came with some arrows and a bow quiver, all in really good condition, which was a real steal! I quickly learned how to shoot with that bow and took it with me to South Africa as my item. (In the 40-day challenge, we each are allowed one item and one blade per individual survivalist.) The knife that I cherish the most is my Brothers of Bushcraft Fieldcraft by Tops Knives. It was the first “expensive” knife I had ever owned. It was a birthday present a few years ago from my boyfriend, when he took me…

SOPPING SHRIMP BAKE The first time we made this dish, we decided that we could prepare this yummy sauce and eat it on most anything—rice, noodles and even bread! Serves 4-6. INGREDIENTS: 2 pounds fresh, wild shrimp (cleaned and deheaded)½ cup butter2 Tbsp. chili or cocktail sauce2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce1 Tbsp. Creole or Cajun seasoning1 Tbsp. lemon juice½ Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley½ tsp. paprika½ tsp. dried oregano½ tsp. ground red pepper Spread the shrimp in a shallow foil-lined pan. Combine the butter, chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Creole or Cajun seasoning, lemon juice, parsley, paprika, oregano and red pepper in a saucepan, stirring over low heat until the butter is melted. Pour the sauce over the shrimp and chill for at least two hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, then…

Water in a survival situation can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, you can’t live without it for any more than three or four days, and on the other, underneath its surface, you won’t live more than three or four minutes. Water’s properties can restore your health, but it can lead to rust, mold, mildew and decay; it can destroy metal and damage cloth. Though you want to drink it, you’ll also want to keep it away from your stuff, which is why a reliable waterproof duffle bag is vital if you foresee your survival situation involving rain, surf, sea, mud or dew of any kind. To thrive, you must protect your gear, and nothing does this better than Alps Outdoorz’s latest waterproof duffle bag, the Crusader X. With…

I HAVE always been drawn to fine writing instruments and watches. With the rise of ABC (Altimeter, Barometer, Compass) watches a few years back, my watch selection drastically changed. Once Garmin added GPS functionality to their ABC watches I have never looked back. Recently Garmin upped the ante by including additional features for military, law enforcement and hardcore adventurers with their new Tactix Charlie. FUNCTIONS The full color screen includes a negative mode – providing a stealthier display when necessary. Downloadable watch faces – combined with customizable complications – ensure that you have the features you need most at a glance, while available widgets and custom apps allow you to tailor the Tactix Charlie to your specific needs. The Tactix Charlie comes complete with ABC and GPS functionality, but unlike…

The mission planners at NASA had to think of everything. This included the possibility that the returning spacecraft would splash down outside the recovery area. With this in mind, contingency equipment was needed in the form of survival gear and signal equipment. During the early Mercury and Gemini programs, most of the survival gear was standard military issue, which proved to be bulky and heavy. By the time the Apollo program began, the survival kit was specifically designed and built to be used by astronauts. The survival equipment was stored in two rucksacks stowed in the command module’s right-hand forward equipment bay. They were always within easy reach to grab at a moment’s notice if something went wrong during the splashdown. The rucksacks were 18 inches long, 6 inches wide,…

Rising sea levels, storm surges and strong storms along coastal regions are nothing to play with. During storms, there are those people who think that big waves and rising water is some sort of game. They head out with surfboards or stand on the jetties and seawalls, putting themselves in grave danger. More importantly, they’re putting the lives of first responders in danger. The storms are getting larger and more frequent, and they’re doing more damage both in property and human life. When officials advise or possibly order you to evacuate, then move. Even if you’ve never been flooded or experienced damage before, and even if you’ve stocked up supplies for a year, err on the side of safety. If you’re still unconcerned, just ask the people in the Carolinas…

“So this is what it feels like to be part of a fad.” I glanced over at my husband, expecting a look of derision, but he was calmly unballing and refolding his socks into a small cardboard box we’d lifted from a recent Amazon delivery. It had been my idea to try out some of the organization ideas that Marie Kondo—the Japanese decluttering expert—had popularized, but in truth he was doing a far better job than I was (turns out I like my socks balled up). Even better: We had a surprisingly large pile of discards on the floor and Kondo’s vertical folding technique really was creating more space in our closet. This all started when we found out we were going to be the proud parents of Wild Child…

EVERY year, it seems an increasing number of Americans learn from experience what it’s like to be forced to leave their homes to avoid the path of a hurricane or a raging wilderness or suburban fire. In some instances, folks have been compelled to travel through several states in order to reach a projected position of safety. Therefore, vehicles that get very good to excellent gas mileage and can transport several passengers, some personal possessions and other supplies are ideally suited for these types of evacuations. Among these are several rear-wheel-drive (RWD) and front-wheel-drive (FWD) vehicles, ideally suited due to the need to travel long distances when fuel may be difficult or impossible to purchase. Even in the immediate aftermath of a serious emergency, it pays to operate a fuel-efficient…