Night # 2 "Alone in the DARK" Lessons learned

[laughing beetle]

not in other words iceman those are the words

Absolutly!!

[crashdive123]

Sorry Iceman - it's just a saying I use from time to time.

[ryaninmichigan]

discharging your weapon at something you can not ID is a big mistake. bottom line.

[Sourdough]

discharging your weapon at something you can not ID is a big mistake. bottom line.

I agree 100%......Now, the question on the table is: Other than battery powered night vision goggles. Do you have any ideas on assisting night vision.

[crashdive123]

Hope - one of the things I learned quite a while ago was to not look directly at what you want to see, but rather try and use your peripheral vision to see what you want. I don't know how it works, but it does work some. On the surface of an open ocean - no moon - no stars - gets mighty dark. The only lights are from the phosphorescence generated from little sea creatures.

[tsitenha]

Eating blueberries, billberries and others of the same family of berries will gradually improve your night vision, (night fighter pilots WWII used this method)
Carrots will also help, none of theses are failsafe but they do improve over a period of time.
Carry a storm lamp, early colonist used a candle in a lamp that had a perforated tin body worked well enough for them. The back side of the lamp was solid and polished reflecting the small amount of light away from your eyes and toward your traveling direction

[Sourdough]

This is meant to be funny so don't have a cow, or go ahead have a cow. So you are OK with the whole ID thing. Please be assured all bodies are ID be for being turned over to the Grizzly Bears for proper disposal.

[laughing beetle]

HAHAHAHA!!! more coffee on the computer screen!!! HAHAHAHA!!!

[Sourdough]

discharging your weapon at something you can not ID is a big mistake. bottom line.

Here is a "Bottom Line" for ya. Many times I have gone into tall grass and willow thickets to Finnish off wounded Bears. When charged at 12' feet, I don't ask for proper ID. However I do present my ID .375 H&H. Please note I present my ID over and over as fast as I can.

[laughing beetle]

Amen to that!!

[ryaninmichigan]

Here is a "Bottom Line" for ya. Many times I have gone into tall grass and willow thickets to Finnish off wounded Bears. When charged at 12' feet, I don't ask for proper ID. However I do present my ID .375 H&H. Please note I present my ID over and over as fast as I can.

Going in for a wounded bear is another topic. Wondering aroud in the dark is another. Remeber We have bears also. your not the only one to be charged. The longer you are in the dark I find, teh better vission gets.

[crashdive123]

Please don't take this as a jab Hope - one of the things that I have noticed as I get older is that my night vision is not as good as it was long ago. That may be contributing a bit.

[Sourdough]

Please don't take this as a jab Hope - one of the things that I have noticed as I get older is that my night vision is not as good as it was long ago. That may be contributing a bit.

Crash, I have "Blessed" eyesight, even at near 62 I have 20/20 and 20/15. This project started out as a practice in reconnaissance. SHTF, and I want to monitor what human activity is in the area. Kind of a variation on my regular daylight patrols to see which bears are in the swamps, or along the river fishing. The snows came for keeps today so there will be no more dark-dark nights. It was a narrow window of little moon, no snow, in which to do some research. I am good with the results. I still wonder about yellow goggles. Or even a helmet with yellow motorcycle lens. I would like to be able to distinguish a person at a safe distance, so as to be able to retreat, without engagement. Maybe I should buy some "night vision" goggles so I can properly "ID" targets, be for shooting them. I think the target won't care as much as people on this forum care........

[crashdive123]

Gotcha......

[wareagle69]

Here is a "Bottom Line" for ya. Many times I have gone into tall grass and willow thickets to Finnish off wounded Bears. When charged at 12' feet, I don't ask for proper ID. However I do present my ID .375 H&H. Please note I present my ID over and over as fast as I can.

so are you wounding finnish bears or are you going to finnish wounded bears

[Rick]

I have a Sony handi cam that I purchased several years ago. The neat thing is it has night vision built in. I can film at night in nearly total darkness without lights and it was a lot cheaper than night vision goggles.

Hopeak, the only thing I can offer is a red lensed flashlight.

[Gray Wolf]

Rick, what model Sony is that?

[Rick]

It's the CCD-TRV65. I bought it in '99. It's out of production but I'm sure you can still find the technology on other cameras. It has what Sony called Nightshot capability. You can film in 0 lux.

[indiana joe]

thanks for the report you never learn unless you try i envy your remote location
to be part of the wild instead of visiting it is a dream of many but many are also to
scared to try.

[Jay]

1 This is a very interesting experiment. I've had similar experinces in real situations and my feelings and conclutions about it mirror yours to a large extent. I think you should (maybe all of us) do this more often and carefully document our feeling and thoughts. (after we come back home.) I do an exercise with my military students...where they are blindfolded and sent over difficult terrain along a pre laid course. A string is streched from tree to tree,over and under obstacles through thick brush etc. the student has to keep a hand on the string and negotiate his way along the course. At the debrief I ask them. How far do you think you traveled. what was under foot, what did you smell what trees did you touch. (some can be identified clearly by touch....bark texture shape of leaves smell etc.) How many knots were on the string. what did you hear. etc. Some people just dont absorb much via other senses once they loose the sense of sight. A very few are remarkably accurate in their discription of the terrain and conditions involved. one even gave compass directions based on how the heat of the sun was hitting his body.


Do this exercise if you can.....its a real eye operner. You'll be amazed at how much we depend on our sight.


I learned to avoid the creeks because of the noise they make voids one of your last two useful defensive senses, hearing.
2 I learned that working in elephant county. I'm extremely uncomfortable if my hearing is interfered with. Ditto rain.

I could not detect changes in smell, other than the level of dampness of the air.
2 I agree....especially in damp or wet conditions.

I learned that If anything had moved, I would have been hard pressed to hold my fire. For those who don't know, I co-habituate with number of LARGE fuzzy things with long claws, and sharp teeth. I could only distinguish objects at three feet to ten feet, depending on the forest canopy.
3 Sometimes suspense builds up to such a level that it hard not to do anything. every nerve is screaming for action....some action....any action!

I was not scared, but was extremely uncomfortable with the conditions. And must admit that had anything large moved I was sure that stark terror would have been my automatic uncontrollable reaction.

4 I agree completely. I am not scared...just quite frequently terrified. Especially since some of the animals in areas that I work in carry automatic wepons.

I also learned that when you fall, you have no control over where you land, as contrasted with daytime you can make minor adjustments in mid-fall so as to avoid sharp sticks or sharp rocks. In the dark you just fall and have a surprising amount of time to wonder if you will get hurt, and how badly.


5 Ditto. found that moving slowly in a low crouch with thighs almost paralel to the ground helps a bit.


I thought after falling several times that I should have brought a flashlight, for should I have gotten hurt it would help with getting home. But that would have voided the whole point of the research.

I wonder if colored glasses would help, like amber, yellow or rose.....???[/QUOTE]


6 It would be nice to get some feedback from other who have tried this. I think it will be a very useful experiment and will teach us a lot of lessons.

my two cents worth.
cheers
J