Survival Tips That Everyone Needs To Know - AskReddit

when defending yourself there is no need to fight fair what is a surprisingly unknown survival fact that everyone should know pack a whistle there's no chance your voice will hold out yelling at the top of your lungs and whistles carry long distances especially handy if you've injured yourself and need to rely on others finding you SOS in Morse code is three short blasts three longer ones three short pause and repeat this is an especially handy and harmless device to give kids that are along for a hike along with if you get separated stop walking and blow the whistle Lots and will come to you if you get stuck in your car in the snow stay with your vehicle hypothermia makes you delirious and you can wander the wrong direction and freeze to death your vehicle is also a lot easier to locate than you are keep it on the open bottle of water a blanket matches candle and a rope in the car during the winter months a wax candle will provide enough heat to keep the car warm enough to survive with the blanket around you but make sure the window is slightly open for air tie the rope to the car if you get out to relieve yourself that way you can find your way back by following the rope if snowing water well it is obvious the other thing is to make sure the car exhaust is clear if you keep the car running you may very well kill yourself by carbon monoxide otherwise also if there is an empty bottle you can pee in it and use it for a warmth for a while when wild camping and hiking in Scotland some Dutch outdoor guy told us to always keep tampons to start a fire he was so right in a wet environment where all the leaves and branches are moist and the wind blows like crazy we sometimes needed 1.5 hours to start a fire and we needed the fire to at least have a warm meal in the night they're the best fire starter they're lightweight and tiny easy to carry you can pull them apart and there's a lot of easily burning material that you can use as a fire starter most subway platforms have a space for a person to crawl under in case they fall on the subways tracks so if you fall off the edge of the platform and onto the tracks instead of trying to climb back up if you see a train coming there's a crawl area underneath it might be tight and you'll certainly get dirty but better than dying here's one you can use every day know your exits people will natural they want to go out the way they came in because it's the only exit they remember especially at places like concert venues you don't have to be paranoid just take a quick glance and make a mental note in the off chance an emergency happens it could mean the difference between the swift and safe exit are being trampled in a panicking mass of people if you are drinking plenty of water but still showing signs of dehydration headache fatigue muscle aches blurred vision stumbling around you may be low on electrolytes salty foods can really help with this but normal rehydration salts such as Pedialyte work even better and should probably be in more people's backpacks disclaimer those symptoms aren't limited to dehydration and can also occur due to heat exhaustion hypothermia or altitude sickness if you somehow are in a situation where you feel like you could drown and have no energy to go on turn on your back and do the backstroke saved my life while at the beach last week after getting sucked out by rip current and for people who aren't comfortable floating focus on keeping your belly up like a balloon full of air if you spread out your arms it might make things easier if you can't fully backstroke because maybe you can't stay on top of the water well enough or you can't extend your arms like that swim like a frog by lifting your arms above your head and then pushing them back towards your body barrel cactus in the Sonoran Desert are not full of water as is commonly portrayed instead they are full of acidic solutions that induce vomiting and diarrhea if consumed these can easily be fatal for a dehydrated person in the desert the barrel cactus fruit by contrast is one of the most agreeable edibles in the cactus world they are easy to pick thornless and tasty if you accidentally disturb a bee hive or wasp nest and are being swarmed do not run for water it seems intuitive that jumping in water will keep the bees off view but actually they will wait for you to resurface and resume stinging you instead run as fast and as far away as you can bees or wasps are territorial and will not easily leave their home range so once you leave their comfort zone you're pretty much safe a mirror is the best way to signal for help you can use the reflection of the Sun directed at a boat or plane like you sibling with to annoy you the proper way to use a mirror to signal for help is to hold up one hand with a peace sign and position it so that whatever you are trying to signal can be seen between your fingers then shine the light from the mirror on your fingers this guarantees that whatever you are signaling can see the light if you are lost in the wilderness if you have shelter in a source of water and if you have reason to believe people will be looking for you you are usually better to stay put than to try to find your way out wandering around lost you expend a lot of energy you could easily get into a far worse situation and anyone looking for you will likely start at your last known or expected location which if you are lost you might be wandering farther from this is not always the case it depends on if you are injured or not and the nature of the injuries on your relative safety where you are at how far you are relative to your expected or last known location how visible you are in a number of other situational factors it is often worth a low risk climbed to a better vantage point if possible people have died a few hundred meters from a road which could have led them to safety I have been planning an expedition to the Arctic hailing from a bear less UK I had had to research polar bears on how to prevent being mauled to death I was quite surprised to find the survival rates of bear attacks differ massively depending on what you use guns have the lowest human survival rate till 220 percent from memory bear spray it is ok till to 60 to 70 percent however the most effective way to scare off a bear is using a flare gun greater than 90 percent apparently bears find screaming balls of fire hurdling towards them quite discouraging if you hear of a mass shooting currently taking place in a location where our loved one is like their workplace school church or the mall they said they were visiting /etc you may feel very very tempted to call them don't if they're alive they're hiding and trying to stay invisible if their phone rings or even vibrates it will draw attention to them quite possibly that of the shooters and give away their hiding space don't try to contact them at all until you are certain that the perpetrators have been stopped contrary to popular belief if an alligator is chasing you you should not run in zig zag do one zig and then run straight the alligator is not going to try to follow the zig zag it will just run for you straight and you'll be slower do one zig so that the alligator will have to do one zig if it wants to get you and then just run in a straight line like your butt is on fire if you don't know for sure what to eat most animals are safe to eat most plants will make you sick clearly hundreds of exceptions but if you know nothing steer toward killing Bambi before eating leaves also a diet of solely rabbit will make you stupid and dead something apparently seriously lacking in the nutrition provided I saw an account of an experienced wilderness guy who could catch loads of rabbit and nothing much else kept a diary coherency of the writing deteriorated then stopped I used to be in military cadets when I was a teenager the most important thing I've been taught to take care of as my feet he mentioned how if you're gonna wash one thing that it should be your feet as you take them for granted think of how difficult it is to get out of a survival situation where you have trench foot even if you're in a spot where you can't wash your feet just take your shoes and socks off and let an air out and dry also if it's extremely cold weather put your boots inside your sleeping bag at the bottom when you sleep your body heat will keep them from freezing and you won't have to spend hours wearing ice-cold boots you can remove the top of most car seats to break the windows of your car in case you can't open the doors specially useful if you drive into a lake or something like that not all cars can get this done not all are removable or sturdy enough for this but it's an option of last resort just get a window hammer they're dirt cheap and often come as part of a tool you wanted anyways in my case it's also a seat belt cutter pocket knife and magnesium strip short hikes are in my experience the most dangerous this is because we tend to not take them as seriously a person going on a two-hour hike will likely not pack much may not take a map or even really consult a map may not tell anyone where they're going etc they may think that a liter of water and their cell phone is basically all that they need all it takes for disaster to strike is getting off the trail and getting turned around or for an ankle or leg to get broken throw in dampness and a miserable night of shivering hypothermia can strike at temps well above freezing especially if you're wet and suddenly that person is substantially weakened less than 24 hours after setting out here in the pnw it happens all of the time somebody will venture off of a well-established a hiking trail not respecting the fact that it's a rugged semi wilderness all around them and they'll get turned around and suddenly find that their phone lost coverage in all of those mountains they'll start wondering they all do something stupid like follow the river to civilization which in the mountains is generally horrible advice and cue the rescue team I'd consider myself a veteran hiker slash backpacker but I once got turned around on a crazy simple day hike ended up not getting back to my car until well after dark after that experience I made a simple survival kit in a Nalgene bottle essentially the bare minimum that I'd need to reliably survive a few days on my own and I always throw it in my backpack on even the shortest trails a red line just under your skin starting at a cut and tracing its way up your limb that's blood poisoning go get medical help right away I took an interesting thermal picture of my hand when a puncture wound became infected the wound and a trail up my arm were measurably warmer than the surrounding flesh less than an hour after my first dose of antibiotics the temperature difference was barely noticeable if you have a watch with hands and dial not digital display you can use it as a compass hold the watch flat and point the hour hand at the Sun halfway between the hour hand and 12:00 o'clock points South you use the shorter gap to twelve so if the hour hand is a four to would be south if the hour hand is at eight ten would be Souths there's a few problems such as nighttime and when the Sun is directly overhead but it helps in a pinch if you ever fall off a ship at sea and we're lucky enough to be spotted don't try to swim your way to safety the more you try to swim the lesser the chances of survival just try to keep afloat and conserve energy and body heat while rescue team do what they're supposed to unless you are in hypothermic waters the best bet always is to stay afloat without trying to swim to somewhere this information about falling overboard hypothermia and conditions survival at sea etc are based on my own experience of 12-year sailing on merchant ships if you are in a car that drives in water it's better to crack the glass before it sinks at that point you cannot open the door due to pressure you want to stay relaxed and let the car fill up with water once the car is filled up with water you will be able to open the door and escape so stay relaxed and face the music calm it might save your life always be wary of children that have lost their parents as it's a common ruse for abduction especially if the child tries to lead you somewhere what you should do in those situations is keep the child with you and contact emergency services it may be in your instincts to follow a lost child to where they claim they last saw their parents but it isn't worth the risk let the authorities take care of it if the child is lost you'll have helped them if they aren't you've dodged a bullet always play it safe in situations like that when I was a producer on the Amazing Race our security team always briefed us that the safest floors in general in a hotel were 4 through 7 above the fourth floor is the safest zone from any kind of bomb or explosive it might be driven or tossed into a building and below the 7th floor gives you the best chance of survival from a fire I got so many other great travel tips from them but that one has always stood out and to this day I request a room between those floors while on the platform waiting for a train or subway stand sideways facing the direction the train is coming this is so that your body is facing parallel to the tracks and if someone pushes you or bumps into you you will not fall into the tracks there have been cases of crazy folks just shoving people onto the tracks if you are facing the track you can only stop your fall if you step your foot forward which you might not be able to if you are standing sideways not only can you see someone coming at you from the side but your feet are planted in such a way that you can resist a shove facing the direction the train is coming for also allows you to see that a train is coming I have to I learned in self-defense classes test your pepper spray before you have to ever use it imagine how much angrier your attacker will be when you pull it out and find it doesn't even work because it might have been faulty or you weren't familiar with using it and fumbled if someone is pulling you it is much more effective to push back against them than it is to pull in the opposite direction use their flow of force against them to try and make them stumble or fall if they tug maybe pretend to tug back and wait for them to pull harder then force yourself forward in their direction as hard as possible they don't expect the weight to shift like that without a fight and by over compensating their force they may fall backward when you go out during the winter dress like you have to walk home I'm an uber driver and I can't tell you how many times people are heading downtown and aren't dressed for the weather if something happens and you end up on the street waiting 20 minutes for your next ride hypothermia is a very real possibility lugging a winter coat to a concert or restaurant may suck but there's still snow on the ground and that miniskirt and crop top is not going to protect you at all I won't even get into high heels or men's dress shoes on ice this is a tip for surviving with mental health issues I often ignore my own advice but when I remember to do it it usually helps when you're feeling super depressed ask yourself these questions am i thirsty am i hungry am i tired and in need of sleep have I showered today have I gotten up and walked around in a while have I gotten out of bed and dressed I find that a surprising number of times some things on that list need attending to and once done I often feel better there's no cure for depression there's just learning to manage and live with it hope that helps someone I always wear a belt even if I don't really need it to keep my pants up a belt is good for a whole lot of stuff like fastening things together for a while keeping you tethered to something if you need to do that for some reason to whip help grip things something to wrap your hand in for a scrap or abduction if it's leather you can cook and eat it I hope you like ties though it fits a cloth belt you can take some of it apart to make a snare or make other things you'd need string for even as a little bit of firestarter if you're that desperate my family runs self-defense classes when defending yourself there is no need to fight fair it is fair game to punch them in the balls or worse in terms of fights bar brawls people in the street muggings etc if they have a weapon any weapon run seriously you will die no matter how good you think you are or how many tests disarms you've done in a dojo run like hell and be prepared to kill if cornered we witnessed experienced black belts hurt themselves with a real knife after signing disclaimers so badly they were hospitalized when they were just sparring it's just not worth it if the fight is just brewing repeatedly announced that you don't want to fight them attracts help shows you're not trying to one-up them covers but legally and doesn't prepare them if you do fight nah man I don't want to fight you I don't want to fight you look I don't want to fight you whatever man I don't want to fight I'm just gonna walk away all right I don't want to fight you if it's not immediately life-threatening and you can avoid it try not to throw the first punch again legal coverage but it also means you're not the guy who gets into something they didn't want to the first punch is the trigger for everything to kick off up until that point you can still defuse everything back to harsh words and idle threats once a punch is thrown someone's getting really hurt and you literally have no idea if the other guy is more experienced or better at it than you no matter who you are however you can react to anything that appears to come towards you perfectly legitimately if he's faking out a punch you have no idea of that but connect as if it was real if you're surprised attacked etc without warning no holds barred literally who cares about his eyesight his future fatherhood prospects whether his kneecaps will ever work again or if he can breathe you can't afford to end up on the floor be incapacitated yourself stunned reeling unconscious for him to summon aid or even just to fall to the ground awkwardly and that guy could stab you and you wouldn't know until after he walked away things are really that quick your brain doesn't notice some subtle movements your body won't scream out in pain because of the adrenaline and someone who knows what they're doing will not attract attention to the weapon until it's in you you can't take that risk once it gets physical don't stop until you're sure he's not able to harm you and then run away anyway for a good measure legal hint report to the police at the first opportunity don't wait once they have shown they have an intention to hurt you and they've started to act on it nothing is out of line and to quote the legal people in our clubs who were always ask the questions if you feel your life is genuinely in danger you can do almost anything to protect it until the point it's no longer in danger worry about the legalities later but if your life is in danger you would act to protect going back in for another kick or using a weapon when he's already down and you could run or anything else yeah that's not self-defense you're not defending yourself by walking back into a fight you could have easily escaped victims who just tried to punch him once but he punched back so I shot him are also often harder to take seriously for self-defense then he was three times my size I was on my own he attacked I was in a struggle for my life at that point especially if they were heard to try to stop the fight from happening ran away immediately they could and called the police as they ran you can also act in self-defense of others but again you are defending you're giving them time to run away wife child friend whoever if there's a threat that's what you're giving them the opportunity to escape the threat but there's literally nothing wrong with breaking the guy's knee as your first action kick it so it goes sideways in fact from a self defense point of view it's perfectly legitimate it's a perfect way to prevent pursuit and allow you to escape self-defence is cowardly at its heart everything you can to capitulate avoid the fight etc but if it escalates the quickest most effective way to incapacitate them and then run away thanks for listening to radio TTS hit the subscribe button and activate the notification bell to be able to survive the apocalypse click the right box for the radio DTS Survival playlist let us know in the comments what you think about this advice

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Id: ygZNsBQCeBM

Length: 20min 16sec (1216 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020