Hot Survival Training Posts
How To: Make a banded solomon bar fob
The Solomon Bar is one of the most popular ways to incorporate paracord into a tie. The following video shows how to generate the banded bar, a dual-colored Solomon bar design. This video will show you how it's done! It's easy. So easy, in fact, that this clip can present a complete overview of the process in about 5 minutes' time. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
How To: Use a compass and map
This video tutorial is in the Disaster Preparation category which will show you how to use a map style compass. The first thing is to get your bearings by sight without a map. The arrow on the compass represents the direction of travel, the N on the compass dial is the compass North and the red needle points to the magnetic North. First align the compass N with the magnetic North. Now say you want to go 90 degrees East. Next you align 90 degrees with your direction of travel arrow. Rotate the...
How To: Perform an easy mod when setting up a hammock
If you find yourself out in the wild and need to find a way to keep yourself free of any moisture or animals, installing a hammock is s good idea. Not only does it give you a place to lay, but it can keep you safe from small critters and any kind of moisture from the ground.
How To: Build a quick shelter when out in the wilderness
If you find yourself out in the wilderness and it's getting dark, you're going to need some shelter. This is important if you hope to keep yourself safe from the cold and other animals.
How To: Tie a Swiss seat rope harness
If you want to go down the sides of mountains or walls like the military does, then check out this next tutorial! In this video, you'll find out how to tie a Swiss seat rope harness. This easy to follow video talks about what you need to do in order to tie this harness and how you can use it when climbing up or down things.
How To: Tie a one handed bowline with ITS tactical
In this video, you'll learn to tie a knot that could save your life in the wilderness. You can tie this knot one-handed, especially useful if your other hand isn't free, and use it to pull yourself to safety in an emergency situation. You can find the complete directions for tying this one-handed bowline here.
How To: Keep your tinder dry & make a tinder carrier
In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to make a tinder carrier that will keep the tinder dry. To make a tinder carrier, users can simply by a small cheap tin can. Then cut an X-shape in the side of the can to allow you to burn and blow on the winder. Now place the tinder in the can. The tin can can be used to store the tinder for dryness, and conduct fire with the tinder. This video will benefit those viewers who are planning to camp, and would like to learn how to make a tinder carrier t...
How To: Make a trapeze spring snare to catch small game
Ryan teaches us how to make a trapeze spring snare to catch small game in this video. You will need: finishing line, a knife, paracord, and natural living wood. the trap will have two snares built into one mechanism. Start off by gathering all your wood and then place a stake down into the ground. Make a notch in your anchor to place a stick through it, then tie paracord down into a "y" shape tied down onto the stick. When you pull the string, there will be a lot of tension. Tie the center so...
News: Afrigadget
Yankee ingenuity is a trait we hold in the highest regard here at Wonderhowto. So imagine our delight in sharing Afrigadget, whose tagline is: "solving everyday problems with African ingenuity".
How To: Make fire with a bow drill
Do you consider yourself a survivalist? Well, you can't be a survival expert if you don't know how to start a fire without a match or lighter. The bow drill is an ancient tool for making fire. The bow rotates the drill, and the friction produces enough heat to start a fire.
How To: Tie a 7x5 Turks Head knot
In order to tie a 7 x 5 Turks Head Knot, you will need to begin by draping the rope or twine over the fingers of your outstretched hand. Fold your pink down, leaving your three fingers outstretched. Catch the string in front and hold it with your pinky.
How To: Tie the lizard tail sinnet
In this tutorial, you'll be finding out how to tie the lizard tail sinnet. It's basically
How To: Harvest and then store trombone zucchini
Storing food by dehydrating, is a smart way to help prepare yourself, and others, for anything bad that may happen to the world. Many things can be dehyrdated and eaten years ahead into the future. Fruits, veggies, meat all can be stored for years. So in this tutorial, you'll be finding out how to harvest and then store trombone zucchini. It's an interesting looking veggie and is great with meals. Enjoy!
How To: Easily tie paracord prayer beads
Although this may not directly help anyone when out in the wilderness, it's still something that many people rely on. This tutorial will show you how to easily tie a paracord prayer beads. It can be used to make a great looking necklace and/or bracelet. It's may seem very difficult to do, but this can be done with the right supplies. So pay attention, good luck, and enjoy!
How To: Make a double spring snare trap
Making traps is a lost art. Landmines are facing international condemnation, hunting is barely allowed anywhere. There just aren't that many reason to make them anymore. But don't let that stop you! This video will teach you how to make a double spring snare trap using only basic wilderness materials. Hopefully you'll catch more rabbits this way than Elmer Fudd did.
How To: Use a Swedish firesteel and char cloth to make a fire
Knowing how to make your own fire when you're at in the wild is important. It keeps your body nice and warm and will give you a heat source to cook food. But sometimes, starting a fire is no easy task. In this video, you'll find out how to use a Swedish firesteel and char cloth to help start a fire. Good luck and enjoy!
How To: Tie the artillery hitch in the wild
Tying knots and hitches can be an important survival technique. Having the right kind of knots made can make sure you're able to hold on to whatever it is you need. An artillery hitch or loop, is something that is used because it does not bind under tension and can be removed easily afterwards. This is a very complicated knot to perform so pay attention to this tutorial above and good luck!
How To: Develop a perfect pull-up so you can save yourself
Many, many Americans cannot do a single pull-up. That is just the state of our society. And it means that these people, if faced with a survival situation where they are dangling for a ledge or need to scale a building, are less likely to survive than they could be. This video will teach you how to develop your pull-up motion and techniques to improve your strength and survival ability.
How To: Use the Universal Edibility Test to Identify Safe Plants to Eat Anywhere
You're lost. You're cold, thirsty— you're hungry. What if you're not much of a hunter? Maybe you're a gatherer. So, then you'll eat plants. But what if you eat something poisonous? What if you're allergic to it?
How To: Make an Ojibwa Deadfall trap
Deafall traps are the type of trap most familiar to the American public, largely due to the efforts of Elmer Fudd to catch Bugs Bunny on Looney Tunes. In real life, they tend to work quite a bit better than they did on the show. In this video, Wilderness Outfitters presenter Crier demonstrates how to construct one type of deadfall trap, the Ojibwa Deadfall. Knowing how to make traps like this will make you much are able to survive if you are stranded in the wilderness with no food.
How To: Tie a two-color switchback strap
Switchback straps are an easy, efficient way to carry around a lot of cord, rope, or string. They also look cool, especially the two-color version demonstrated in this video. They may look simple to tie, but as you know if you've tried to tie one without instructions before, they certainly aren't!
How To: Set up a hammock in the bush
There are nearly as many ways to set up a hammock in the bush as there are to skin a cat, to use the old cliche. This video demonstrates one simple way to set up a hammock in the bush. As the presenter explains, this simplicity is a blessing when you are out in the bush and need something to sleep in as quickly as possible. If you don't have a tent and there are trees around, hammocks are the superior choice for your survival and comfort because spiders and other pests that live on the ground...
How To: Tie a Button Knot lanyard
Think you're a knot master? Have you mastered the Button Knot? Simple and elegant, the Button Knot makes for more than just a decorative button; It makes for a wonderful lanyard leash. From Tying It All Together, learn how to tie a Button Knot lanyard in a just a few steps.
How To: Build and understand a rocket stove
Thinking about building a rocket stove? A rocket stove is simply made and accepts small-diameter fuel such as twigs or small branches, yielding high combustion efficiency and directing the resultant heat onto a small area. In this video learn how to make a rocket stove with the help of a few friends and items you can find in your own barn!
How To: Make a Royal Crown Sinnet
A Royal Crown Sinnet is a sinnet created by alternating wall knots and crown knots stacked on top of one another. This creates pretty, thick sinnet that anyone would be thrilled to have adorn their keychain, especially if you use alternating colored chords like they do in this video to create a very cool effect.
How To: Tie a taut line knot
With this free video tutorial, you'll learn how to tie a taut line knot. The taut line is an essential camping knot. Use it to tie your guyline to your rain or dinner fly. The knot is easy to tie provided, of course, you know how to go about making it. For an easy-to-follow, step-by-step overview of how to tie this useful camper's knot in a minute's time or less, watch this free video knot tyer's guide.
How To: Utilize evaporative cooling while camping
Keeping things like food and water refrigerated while you're camping in the bush is nearly impossible. Unless of course you've chosen to camp somewhere freezing cold. But if you haven't, evaporative cooling can be an effective technique to utilize for keeping water cool and food from spoiling as quickly. Obviously this can be crucial in a wilderness survival situation when your food supplies may be limited. This video outlines two ways to utilize evaporative cooling, first to cool a water bot...
How To: Give your knife skills a tune-up
The fine folks at The Pathfinder School present what they call a spring tune-up for for you knife techniques, which have presumable deteriorated during the winter. The host is trying out a new knife he has been asked to test, and uses it to make a trap knotch and drill into a log, among other things.
How To: Make a Doug's Deafall trap
If you're out in the wilderness, need food, and any sophisticated equipment like guns, catching food can be a very difficult proposition. In this video, we learn how to make a trap called Doug's Deadfall, a very simple but effective deadfall trap. It was culled from Les Stroud's book Survive. No word on who Doug is, but we owe him many thanks.
How To: Make an Adjustable Switchback Strap
With only his hands and some sparse text, JD of Tying It All Together teaches us how to make an adjustable switchback strap. This is both an easy way to carry lots of cord or string with you into the wilderness and a stylish fashion accessory. Tis is a very useful item for anyone to carry with them into a survival situation.
How To: Start a fire with a flint and steel
Brush up on your survival skills with help from this video. In this outdoor training tutorial, learn how to correctly start a fire using a flint and steel using paper and tissue. In the wild, without paper and tissue, a leaf and dry grass would most likely be used. Get your fire started with no problem with the skills taught in this video.
How To: Make a candy stripe bar
In this Disaster Preparation video tutorial you will learn how to make a candy stripe bar. The candy stripe bar is a slick way to create a strap of slanted lines. One of the many tying techniques used to create friendship bracelets, the bar can be modified to create stripes meeting at an angle. The line used in the video is a 450 test, 1/8” nylon parachute cord. To attach the cords to the ring, hang the ring on a hook, take two different colored cords and tie the cow hitch. For this, pass a...
How To: Tie double coin and cross knots
Tying it All Together shows how to do double loop knotting in this video tutorial. The tutorial outlines two different types of knots that can be done using two uncommon ways of tying the knots. The double coin know requires you to fold a piece of string in half laying the two sides of the string side by side. With a series of twists, turns, and coils you can create the coin knot. The second type of knot, cross knot, requires double loop knotting to create a squared-looking knot. As an additi...
How To: Build an igloo in Minnesota
This video tests the idea that an igloo, once left to freeze in the extreme cold, will be strong enough to stand on without collapsing. The experiment takes place in Minnesota where the temperature was fifteen degrees below zero at the start. Begin by shoveling snow into a dome-shaped pile. In the video, the dome is approximately six feet across at the base and three-and-a-half to four feet tall. Let the pile freeze for about two hours. The temperature had warmed up to about eleven degrees be...
How To: Kill Prey in the Wild with a Survival Deadfall Trap
The worst can always happen. Even if you think you're absolutely prepared, you can somehow find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere by yourself. It can happen. Without a map, without a compass, without a cell phone... without food and water.
How To: Make a Swiss seat rope harness
In this tutorial, learn an important safety tip for the next time you head out camping or hiking. In this video, you will get advice on how to make a Swiss seat rope harness. You will learn to utilize a length of rope to make a field expedient rappelling harness, that is similar to the seat used by the military. With practice, you can tie this Swiss seat in 90 seconds or less. Essentially, this is a high speed, low drag way to make your own harness. This harness is useful for rappelling or ex...
How To: Make a "hobo" stove
In this tutorial, learn how to make a lightweight stove for camping and survival. You will learn how to make an ultra lightweight alcohol stove. This stove weighs only one ounce and has no moving parts. It only takes a few short minutes to make and will outlast most conventional stoves. This video will show you everything you need to know to get up and running with this mini stove. The stove boils in under five minutes and the fuel is super cheap. This is the perfect stove for hiking, backpac...
How To: Make a survival stove
If you find yourself stranded somewhere, or hungry in the wild, you will definitely need this tutorial.
How To: Start a fire with the "fire saw" friction method
This video illustrate us how to start a fire with the "fire saw" friction method. Here are the following steps:
How To: Start a fire with a "flint on marcasite" method
In this Disaster Preparation video tutorial you will learn how to start a fire with a "flint on marcasite" method. Mal Stephens, head instructor of Maine Primitive Skill School presents this video. Marcasite is a form of iron pyrite and you can get friction fire from fine grained iron pyrites. For the flint, you can use any hard stone. For the burning material, find some tinder fungus. Now hold the marcasite immediately above the tinder fungus and strike it with the flint. The sparks from the...