How to make a bow drill in the wild (for starting fires and drilling holes)

A bow drill is most often used for starting a fire – it’s the most efficient fire starting method – but a bow drill can be used for drilling holes too. A bow drill consists of five basic components – spindle (or drill), board, socket (aka handhold or bearing block), string, and the bow..

The flax plant is an excellent source of food, natural fibers, and oils. Flax grows to about 4-feet tall and 2-feet wide. Leaves are wider in the middle and shaped like a lance tip. Flax grows natively in cooler regions. Often found just above the waterline in bogs, the plant grows in organic dirt or…

How to escape a car that has been submerged under water

About 400 people die each year from drowning inside their own submerged vehicles. Here’s how to escape a car submerged under water.

It is quite common to fall or be thrown during a combat situation. To minimize the chance of injury, and ensure you can bounce back to your feet quickly, you must use falling techniques to absorb the impact of the fall and allow use of your body’s momentum to quickly return to your feet.

In a wilderness survival situation, clay can be used to construct bowels, cups, ovenware, and other utensils. It is especially useful when the need for a waterproof container arises.

Various handgun and rifle bullet calibers

Forget what you see on TV. The reality of gunshot wounds and terminal (death inducing) gunshot injuries is remarkably different from what is shown in the movies where the gunman appears to have an unlimited supply of bullets, gunshots knock the enemy off their feet, and gunshot victims make long, drawn out confessions as they…

Popular outdoor clothing manufacturer Columbia knocks it out of the park with new information hang tags, cut from stainless steel, that double as survival tools. The steel tags are templated 4” tags with components that can be snapped out to form tools such as a sun dial, handsaw, water purifier, sextant, fishing kit, and emergency…

Many cultures have utilized the blowgun as a tool to capture or stun wildlife or as a weapon to defend their tribes. Blowgun projectiles for these weapons vary from seeds, clay pellets, piano wire, bamboo skewers, wire coat hangers, knitting needles, to darts dipped in poisonous substances. Projectile sizes range from .40 cal to .625…

When creating bugout bags, a collection of supplies required to survive an unexpected event, most survivalists use a backpack to hold the survival supplies. Their large size however, can be a constraint. That doesn’t have to be the case however. With a bit of compromise, you can create a bugout bag the size of a…