How young were you when you started learning wilderness survival?

[jhnnymwr75]

I'm not talking about the cute, walking, talking, stuff, but the hand drill fires, water purification and shelter building. Also who taught you? did you enjoy learning or was it a chore of some sort?

Myself, i'm self taught for the most part with little bits and pieces from those i have been around, still with much to learn. Started at around 15 years old (which i'm guessing will be later than most on here) only giving me 2 years of experience, and decent amount of time in the bush. I enjoy this, and consider it as a hobby of mine. And I treat it like a chore so I get it done.

Your turn.

[Sourdough]

but the hand drill fires, water purification and shelter building. Also who taught you? :

I ain't never done any of that stuff you listed. I use matches or lighter........the water here is pure right from the creek......and I use tents.

[jhnnymwr75]

I ain't never done any of that stuff you listed. I use matches or lighter........the water here is pure right from the creek......and I use tents.

Alright, then anything survival. I guess that was stupid of me to put it that way. My bad.

[JPGreco]

Boy Scouts, about 13yrs old, but only really learned some basics.

[Winter]

I guess reading "To Build a fire" In 5-6th grade. But at the time I spent my days on creeks. I was a fearsome crawdad hunter.

[frdgrss]

11 or12 years old Boy Scouts

[crashdive123]

Cub Scouts, then Boy Scouts.

[Rick]

I'd have to say the scouts. I'm pretty old and I still consider myself learning. So much to know, so few brain cells.

[el-amigo]

Interesting question!

When I was 5-6 years old, my parents took me fishing and camping almost every weekend and holiday.
I had a chance to learn to light camp fires, prepare and cook food (mainly fish), handle a knife and I just maintained these skills since.
I started to study it seriously in 2010. I'm not a doomsday prepper, but I'd like to know and experience our environment, and I'd like to be able to live with it.

[Sarge47]

Like many others on here, the Boy Scouts!

[Old Professor]

As best I can remember, Boy Scouts.

[natertot]

I was never in the scouts......kinda wish I was. For me, my father was always big into fishing. I grew up doing some camping and small game hunting as well. When I was in high school, I did a couple of one weekers in the Lake Superior National Forest with a small group. Shortly after high school, I joined the Navy, got married, had a couple of kids and as of last year, was finally able to go back to the outdoor activities.

Now my future plans is to read, watch videos, and go out and try. Kinda self taught with a little direction....Thanks to WSF!

[oldsoldier]

My grandfather started teaching me woodslore when I was about 6. Plants, snaring and such. To bad he died when I was 8 he was a full blood cherokee indian and had lots of knowledge I would have loved to have had.

[wildWoman]

I ain't never done any of that stuff you listed. I use matches or lighter........the water here is pure right from the creek......and I use tents.

Same here. And started with that (camping, orienteering, bear safety etc) at age 19. I've always been a late bloomer

[Sarge47]

While I was never actually in the Boy Scouts I always wanted to be, so at the age of 9, at a local "resale" shop I picked up cast-off Boy Scout Uniforms and old manuals. Thanks to the manual I learned a lot. Survival starts with learning outdoor skills and lore and that's what I did. I acquired a two-quart canteen, mess kit, pocket knife, and such. I learned how to start a fire with a limit of two matches. While I know that's not a primitive method I could give a rat's hind parts! Fire is fire and there is very minimal energy expenditure involved. You'd be surprised how many people today can go through a whole box of matches and not get the job done. Now I can start fires without matches, but I save those methods for back-up. My favorite tool is the butane device used to start charcoal fires. I know, not what you expected to hear, right? My philosophy is simple, get the job done properly as quick and as safely as possible without wasting a lot of energy!

[hunter63]

I have to say, that the survival shelter building, water purification, and fire starting had to be in July 2009.....When I joined this forum.

Up to that point I was too busy hunting fishing, shooting, reloading, canoeing, boating, 4 wheeling, foraging, hiking, cabin building, gardening,......So I'm behind.
I have never started a fire with a hand drill, never used paracord for anything, unless you count clothesline, for pulling my bow/gun up a tree, drag a deer,....never "baton ed" and wood, never owned knives other than hunting and pocket knives, unless you count green river and bowie knives.

Didn't even own one of the old Russian Nagant Rifles...thought they were silly, why not save your money and buy something decent.......Never owned a .22 that would take anything on the planet, with shot placement, and drive tacks at 200 yards......

So you see I'm really behind all y'all, but working hard to catch up, took the interweb to show me where I was deficient in all these skills...

Oh wait, did you mean spending time in the wild and camping/cooking out kinda kids stuff?....That would have to be most all my life, Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts, mostly, but these were kinda lame compared to our (friends, family) trips and outings......

[BornthatWay]

Well I do not really know how old I was as is seems like alot of it was taught to me at an ealry age and jsut became second nature..Beleive it or not my garndmother taught me alot as well as my dad. However we never camped until i had children and they wanted to go camping so that is when I began to really do some reading as the internet was not around to get that info at that time. I like many other do not use sticks to start a fire as I have very bad arthritis in my hands and a not so good hear so I use lighters and PJ balls and most of the time I will use my firesteel to get a spark. I save my energy for other things that reqauire it.

Now i am teaching my 4 year old grandaughter all these things so she will have the skills when she needs them. she loves camping and has her own hammock and wants to camp whenever she is here with me. Yes i learned a few things here but mostly I just was taught at an ealy age with it being made fun and given reasons as to why these were important to know.

[Wildthang]

I started survival at birth, because I had six older sisters But seriously, my Dad was an old hillbilly from Arkansas, and had me shooting a .22 at 4 years old, starting fires by 6, and hunting with a .22 rifle by 7 years old. He taught me a lot of things, and I really didn't know that they were survival skills because that is the way he lived. We lived on a farm in Oklahoma that had no running water or electricity, so he did everything the hard way, and until we moved to town when I was 10 years old, I just though that was the way everybody lived.
We would be out in the woods and he would say, see that, that is sassafrass, you can make tea out of that. He would always tell me the names of plants and what you could do with them. Back then I really didn't know what he was up to, or why he felt the need to tell me all of those things. Sometimes we would eat muskidines, persimmons, fry squirrels over a fire, and other kinds of things he would find in the woods, and I was wondering why we didn't just take a sandwitch along, but I guess he knew what he was doing, because I remember those things to this very day. And I didn't have a clue why he was teaching me all of those things!

[BornthatWay]

I hear ya Wildthang. That is how it was for me. As I hope I conveyd in my earlier post. It is just second nature now and when you need the info it is just there in your head.

[jhnnymwr75]

I was never in the scouts......kinda wish I was.

I was in for a year, but I got sick of going because my scouts leader made me go to a church I didn't belong to to get my badges and everything. The Mormon church believes they started they whole boy scout thing (or at least all of the Mormons in my area believe that) and I knew other wise so I got out of it. Never really looked back. Wish I could have found an alternative tho.