13 year old saying hello

[youngsurviver13]

Hi i am a 13 year old boy that likes to do survivaling stuff, and ive tried to do a bow drill fire with no succsess, any tips? Ive also tryed snares they have been triped but notheing in them any tips there either?

[Sarge47]

Welcome halfling! If you're dead serious about wanting to learn it would help greatly if you shared more info. Give us an idea about your locale, you don't have to be very specific, just some general info. Also how much outdoors experience do you have? Remember, survival is NOT a game, but truely a life or death situation!

[pete lynch]

Venturing into the woods should be for enjoyment but you should know what to do if things take a bad turn.
Dont run off into the wilderness to needlessly kill animals with traps and snares.
And learn how to start fires in your back yard in a safe place where fire doesnt spread.
We are mostly adults here so that is the kind of advice you will get.
Like Sarge said, " Remember, survival is NOT a game, but truely a life or death situation!"

[crashdive123]

Not knowing what you have done, how you have done it or why you have done it puts me in a position of not being able to help you. Gotta know where the trip starts in order to get to the destination.

[Faiaoga]

Have you become involved with Boy Scouts, 4H or other similar groups? If your own family does not have people who can help you, those organizations might be good to join. You can also start using the library for survival reading and can look here for instructional videos. Good luck and have fun safely.
Faiaoga

[el-amigo]

Hello and welcome. Stay safe and practice, practice, practice...

[hunter63]

Hi i am a 13 year old boy that likes to do surviving stuff, and ive tried to do a bow drill fire with no succsess, any tips? Ive also tryed snares they have been triped but notheing in them any tips there either?

Hunter63 saying Hey and welcome to the forum.

I'm 65 and I haven't been able to start a friction too many times my self, when I wanted to.......certainly not well enough to depend on it is rough "survival conditions"...So I carry lighters, fire steels burning glass and and have couple of other trick up my sleeve.

Do your research, keep trying and remember that for every u-tube out there that are thousands of tries that failed.

[gryffynklm]

Welcome to the forum. can you tell us how you set up your fire and snare set up.
What woods did you use for the parts?

[ElevenBravo]

Andrew saying howdy from SW VA!

I know at your young age, you already know it all... I did when I was 13! HA HA!

My best advice, young grasshoper... is to listen to the wisdom, experience and advice of your elders here. Ive been in the service for more years than you have been alive, and there are others here in similar status.

Now, dont take me wrong... What I want to encourage you to do, is first and foremost... Learn from our mistakes, before you learn from our successes!!

If you were closer to me, Id be willing to mentor you in some of the basics. I am by far not an expert, but Ive got my fair share of boots in the field time clocked in.



On the bow drill thing, first Id suggest you learn to identify the types of trees in your geographical area, so you can identify them by sight... Thats something Im *still* working on. Then, find out which is hard wood, and which is soft wood.... I can never remember, but I dont think it matters as long as two differnt woods are used in the bow drill method.

Remember, your failures will teach you *WAY* more than your successes will!

I applaud you for your interest and encourage you to persue your outdoor interest! And in closing, always remember.... Here, no question is too stupid to ask (as long as your not asking about a 22LR being your primary battle weapon).

Take care bro, look forward to hearing about your adventures!
Andrew

[Sarge47]

On the bow drill thing, first Id suggest you learn to identify the types of trees in your geographical area, so you can identify them by sight... Thats something Im *still* working on. Then, find out which is hard wood, and which is soft wood.... I can never remember, but I dont think it matters as long as two differnt woods are used in the bow drill method.

Remember, your failures will teach you *WAY* more than your successes will!

I applaud you for your interest and encourage you to persue your outdoor interest!

I disagree with this. At 13 you needn't be doing anything with fire without adult supervision! Forest fires have been started this way!

[ElevenBravo]

Oh well, you know as well as i do, hes gonna do what what he wants... Might as well give advice.

Make sure little grasshopper, you have a liter Nalgee bottle handy in case the flames skeer you.

GL,
Andrew

[Sarge47]

Oh well, you know as well as i do, hes gonna do what what he wants... Might as well give advice.

Make sure little grasshopper, you have a liter Nalgee bottle handy in case the flames skeer you.

GL,
Andrew

You DO realize, don't you that giving harmful advice to a minor child can make you liable under the law if anything bad happens, right? Besides, even Ron Hood ALWAYS warns people yes, even adults, on his videos to be really careful with fire!

[ElevenBravo]

I went back, cant find anything harmful I said. Maybe someone else can chime in for a second & third opinion?

[Sarge47]

I went back, cant find anything harmful I said. Maybe someone else can chime in for a second & third opinion?

You encouraged him to "make fire." Devastating forest fires have been started that way...just sayin'.

[ElevenBravo]

Still, I went back... could not find anything harmful I had said. I advised on what wood I thought was needed for a bow drill. I remain confused.

Please quote where I actually encouraged him to make a fire.... you cant because its a matter of opinion.

If I encouraged him to get his driver's licenses, how would that pan out if there was a "devastating car wreck" as a result?


Grasshopper, Im sorry if I must bow out, because the logic is not present and Id rather resign from a form than be banned from it, so Ill offer no further advice.

[alaskabushman]

How are we supposed to pass on wilderness survival skills to the next generation if we discourage them when they ask for help? I've been out in the woods with a .22 and building fires unsupervised since I was 9 years old! I never started any forest fires, and everything I shot I had to eat. My advice on the fire drills? Forget it, I have never been able to get one to work, even with the "right" wood and proper technique. Just seems like a lot of work when a ferrocerium rod (synthetic flint) will build a fire much more reliably and faster. Snares, like a fire drill, just take practice. Observe animals habits and how they move on the trails. Pick up a couple books on survival snaring or better yet a book on trapping, since they almost always have a section on snares. I've been trapping in Alaska for 11 years now and I can say snares are an effective way to bring in game with practice. Just make sure you eat what you kill.

[kyratshooter]

I got to say that at 13 I was already venturing into the forest with rifle in hand, kitchen matches in pocket and knife on the belt. No forest fires followed in my wake.

We want kids out in the woods, we need to give them the information for safe actions in the forest or send them back inside to play video games.

Why not tell this young one HOW to build a SAFE campfire.

http://www.smokeybear.com/campfire-safety.asp

This is the first young trainee we have had in months that asked a couple of legitimate questions and did not want to ROTTW. Let's get some details of climate and locale and set him on the right course.

I realize that times have changed. My own children could not carry lighters or matches since ownership of anything that could light any kind of cigarettes was illigal for minors to possess. They both carried spark rods on their keychains and, when not in school, usually either a SAK or multitool.

A quick google search of either of this boy's questions would get him a couple of hundred u-tube hits. I am thankful he has come here for guidance.

Makes me wish I lived closer to my 13 year old grandson.

[hunter63]

Well so far he hasn't been back....

[Sarge47]

I understand what you all are saying, but we now live in a society where Tort Lawyers abide...rather well. About two months ago a young girl pulled out right in front of my bus that was traveling at 24 miles an hour.(this was certified by the GPS tracking the company puts on all of the Transit buses.) I slammed into her and she spun around, hitting another car that was waiting to pull out onto the street. I had been passing an end-loader that was about to make a right hand turn into the large parking lot that the waiting car was about to exit. The end loader driver, not seeing me, had motioned her on across. This was verified by 3 witnesses, including the driver of the 2nd vehicle that was hit. As a result, both the end-loader driver and the University whom he works for are being sued by the girl's insurance company, even though she wasn't paying attention to my bus at all. It looks like the insurance company is going to win the law suit as the insurance companies for the other two are willing to settle out of court. There have been several other instances of some of our drivers being sued for braking suddenly when some high school students created a disturbance on the bus. The drivers were immediately terminated! One driver, a retired police officer had a fight on his school bus. A very large boy was on top of another boy, punching the poor kid's lights out and ignoring the driver's verbal attempts to get him to stop. The driver simply pulled the big kid off of the other one and received a 3-day suspension without pay for his efforts. Seems like the School district here forbids any drivers to even touch a child. I have since refused to drive any of our school buses as a result.

Remember, this 13 year old is not related to any of you, therefore you don't have parental permission to give him any direct information. If you want to, as Kyrat said, point him to a link, then, hopefully you won't get in any trouble. Myself, I won't do it, and if a 13 year old child of mine came on here asking about this, and I didn't know any of you like I do now, then I'd make him quit the forum and tell the others to leave my kid alone, that it was MY responsibility to teach him what I felt that he needs to know since I know him better than any of you...that is if this really WAS a 13 year old kid. Note that he hasn't been back since the one post a few days ago. Just sayin'.

[BENESSE]

+1 Sarge.
Being sensible is always prudent when there are other ways to be helpful like offering legitimate links.