Departing the modern world to live in the wild isn’t the sort of thing you want to do on a whim. To keep from ending up like Chris McCandless, you need to pair the right gear with your skill set.
For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume you have your basic hunting kit already figured out. You know what kind of rifle and shotgun you need to handle bit game in your area. I’m also assuming that you’ve got the right tent or other shelter to meet your needs along with a sleeping bag rated to the lowest temps in the area.
I’m also assuming you’ve got the basic clothing items figured out. You know to bring a proper hat for the weather, and you’ve got enough socks to make sure you can always keep your feet dry.
For the purposes of this article, we’re going to look at some wilderness survival items you might be tempted to leave behind or take a shortcut on to save some money. We’ll also look a spin through some nuts-and-bolts items that you might want to tweak or what sets one type apart from the others.
A Proper Compass
Getting lost is arguably the number one reason people get into trouble in the wild.
I had a cousin who got lost on a back country hunting trip in Montana using the same compass my dad used to have glued to the dash of his minivan!
If you’re going to try to live in the wild, you need a proper compass with features like adjustable declination, sighting mirror, and a clinometer.
This will let you make your own map, or justify your position based on the tallest landmarks in the area.
Related: Essential Survival Know-Hows Modern People Have Forgotten
I also recommend one that has some sort of low-light or illumination feature. The last thing you want to do is drop a buck at sunset, then get lost because you can’t read your compass at a glance while dragging it back to camp.
Good Knives
My great-grandfather considered himself one of the last mountain men. The saying he passed down through me to my daughter is “Never go into the woods with less than a knife.”
I recommend two knives. The first is a high-quality folding pocketknife for simple things like cutting food or whittling a stick. The other is the knife that does all the real work, and bushcraft.
A Quality Hatchet
After a knife a good hatchet is arguably the next most important tool to bring with you for surviving in the wild. You can use it to chop wood and improvise it as a hammer or other bushcraft jobs.
In my twenties I beat up a lot of so-called quality hatchets until the handle or the wedge would give up the ghost. If you’re going to survive in the wild, I would go with a hatchet that has a high carbon steel head, and a fiberglass handle.
Good Cordage
Good cordage is absolutely essential if you plan on living in the wild for more than a few days. I’m a big fan of 550 rope as a general-purpose rope.
It’s got the weight capacity you need to handle most functional things like a bear hang or reinforcing a ridge pole. While also being small enough to fit in your pack.
I don’t like 550 for any sort of climbing just because the narrow diameter is hard on the hands, and I’m not a master climber. If you’re going to survive somewhere that will require making steep elevation changes or you need to do a lot of climbing, I would also make sure to put some bona fide climbing rope in your pack.
A Waterproof Lighter
I know seeing waterproof lighter on the list might seem a little strange. I’m going with the assumption that you already know how to manually start a fire manually. You probably already know how to protect your fire with an ember bundle.
A waterproof lighter sealed in a zip top bag is for those unforeseen times when a massive downpour or a flash flood puts your fire out. In a desperate moment like that, you’re wet, and hurting. The last thing you want to do is rub two damp sticks together. Otherwise it’s never used for casual fire starting.
Fishing Gear
Growing up in the land of 10,000 lakes, I think fishing gear is absolutely essential for surviving in the wild. While I have the deepest respect for fly fishing, I would rather bring a fiberglass rod around 5’6” with two open faced reels.
A small fishing net with a collapsible handle is also a good idea. It keeps you from losing fish at the shore or side of the canoe. You can even repurpose it for other things around camp or when scrounging.
Wilderness Long-Term Survival Guide
Wilderness Long-Term Survival Guide is the first handbook ever that helps people NOT just to survive in the wild, BUT to LIVE there!
You can use it to turn the wild into your second home and become self-reliant in nature long term.
With this guide, you can make the wild your bug-out location that will keep you safe even in the worst of times.
If a major crisis hits and you need to head for the woods, with the knowledge in this book you can rebuild everything from scratch, just like our ancestors who chose a piece of land in the middle of nowhere and restarted their lives.
A Dry Bag
A good size dry bag is a great way to keep your clothes and essential items dry in wet conditions. I took a five-day wilderness retreat in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and just used a big dry bag as a dresser for all my clothes.
Then crammed my sleeping bag and memory foam pillow into it each morning. Really came in handy when a tree branch ripped a hole in my tent during a storm!
Back Up Food with a Limit
Even if you’re planning to hunt and fish for your primary food source, you still need to bring some staples with you to survive in the wild. This might be a bag or rice, or even a cache of self-heating MREs.
You need a backup food source for those times when the fish unexpectedly moved to deep water, or the big game stay on the other side of the ridge for a whole week. You also need to set a limit on how far you let that food stash dwindle.
Once the rice in the bag gets below the line you drew on it, you pack up and head to greener pastures. That might be heading home with your tail tucked between your legs, or to the trapper cabin in the next drainage over to ask for help. Whatever it is, when you hit that line, you make the safe choice without question!
Tarp
A good tarp is worth it’s weight in platinum when it comes to living in the wild. You slip it under your tent to keep the floor dry in wet conditions. You can use it to create a temporary shelter if the weather moves in while you’re glassing for game.
Related: Shelter Mistakes That Can Get You Killed
You can use it to create a rain catch or create a wind break. You can even use a small, dedicated tarp to give you a clean workspace when field dressing or butchering an animal.
I recommend tarps made from ripstop nylon or polyester to prevent tears. A polyurethane coating or silicone treatment for water proofing. It should also have good grommets that aren’t going to rip out under modest tension.
Reliable Traps
Trapping relatively low energy output, with the chance to bring in some valuable protein. If you’re going to be out in the wild for a while, make sure to use that journal we talked about to note small game, and then trap responsibly so you don’t wipe out the population of rabbits, squirrels, or muskrats you’re trapping.
In a pinch homemade snares and dead fall traps sound easy, and will minimize what you have to pack out. However, they’re also very unreliable. You burn a lot more energy making and setting those traps than you do a manmade trap.
First Aid Kit & Medical Supplies
The longer you plan to live in the wild, and the more remote your location is, the more extensive you want your first aid kit and medical supplies to be. Most of my wilderness retreats have been within an hour’s hike of where I parked the car and another half hour drive to the main road.
People knew where I was, and I could even call out for trouble once I got to the car. So, I didn’t take much beyond a standard hiking first-aid kit with me.
My Uncle Donny lived 12 times over the horizon, in East Texas. He kept a small medical clinic with him.
He once famously amputated his own index and middle fingers on his left hand at the middle joint. Then stitched them using his Marine Corps medical training and the suture kit from his medical supplies.
One item you should never forget adding to your medical kit is antibiotics. Having a stockpile of antibiotics is crucial. Without antibiotics, your chances of survival during a crisis go way down, especially if you are in the wilderness. You can’t generally buy antibiotics over the counter, so here is how to stockpile antibiotics without a prescription.
Subsonic 22 Rifle Ammo
When most people think of wilderness survival it conjures up an image of a guy lugging a freshly shot deer, or black bear back to his hunting shack. Let’s imagine you go out hoping to bag a deer, and you get skunked. On the walk back you spot a chunky squirrel or a tasty-looking rabbit to fill your desperately empty stomach.
Pulling out the .30-06 is going to turn it into pink mist and blow out any game living in the area. Even a 410 shotgun or a 22 rifle might make so much noise that it will spook out the deer you’re hoping to get tomorrow.
My uncle Donny’s trick for a moment like this was to carry a 22-rifle loaded with subsonic ammo. So, when he did get skunked deer hunting, he’d pop a squirrel or a rabbit on the walk back to his shack.
A Foraging Book
A book that helps you accurately determine the safe forage foods in the wild area you’ll be living is invaluable. The last thing you want to do is accidentally poison yourself when you’re already so far out from civilization.
Instead of relying on information from the internet, I recommend getting The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods by Dr. Nicole Apelian. In this book, she poured over 20 years of plant knowledge and her first-hand experiences in both making natural remedies and finding foods in the wild.
The Loyalty of a Fine Dog
You could rightfully argue that you don’t absolutely need a good dog with you to survive in the wild. It even counts as yet another mouth to feed beyond your own. If you had a poodle or a poorly trained schnauzer, you’d be absolutely correct, and I wouldn’t argue with you for a second.
If you have something like my well-trained golden retriever and German shepherd cross with hunting bloodlines, a good dog at your side will your wilderness survival experience to the next level. I spend an hour a day in the wilderness preserve with my dog, and our communication rivals any scene from I am Legend.
Not only will a man’s best friend bump up your hunting success, but it gives you some much-needed company. To survive in the wild, you need to keep your mind right. A good dog will keep your emotions pointed in the right direction when you’re in the toughest of times. It will also give you someone to talk to other than yourself.
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I love that you included a good dog. My pitbulls will always be by my side. They provide an advanced warning system, personal protection, and love and companionship. My livestock might have to fend for themselves but my dog will always be at my side.
Remember, you also need to feed and care for them also.
If it dies, it can not be replaced.
Depending on the situation, dogs can be a big problem.
A guardian dog is what we need for our livestock and a defensive dog for other matters.
When is a safe location a good cat to hunt the rats and mice that can deplete our gardens, fruit & nut trees and supposed stored prep foods. Each of our animal pets have a service to the whole and we must provide food to them also.
A lot of the prepper food stories are one sided as we focus on the human side first.
Many articles neglect what people, preppers, the average family would do in an emergency to feed and house their critters in a SHTF scenario or in a peace time period.
What is it done for them too.
There are stories of people panic in wildfire areas that get the humans safe but second thought to let their animals fend for themselves, many times end in tragedy because of panic.
Besides a good dog a good sidearm is needed today in our border illegal society, courtesy of Obama-Biden-Harris-Walz, your safety is compromised at your bug out location.
A vote for Harris-Walz is the final nail in America’s independence of a crumbled Constitution. Whom Harris-Walz will take your guns for sure or imprison us like the political Jan 6th protesters are today.
Wonder why we have a resurgence of diseases and Covid before this November 5th election, open southern border, free roaming terrorist, Chinese nationals, young military age people flooding our cities. South American gangs taking over real estate like in Colorado.
Yes a good dog will help if properly trained and you can aim right.
Don’t forget have food supplies for our animals too.
She was Indian, now black, not from a middle class family. Both parents are wealthy and her father is a Marxist university professor who admits their family had owned slaves and Jamaican Indian ancestry. Just like Obama’s muddy birth history where he grew up and iron mike.
Who is Harris really, how long did she live out of the country and maybe lived in Canada, do Demoncrat’s know who they are voting for?
The dog days of Summer have faded into Fall.
Our America’s Fall – down is just a few days coming.
Which America do you want?
Good , well done article. I would say you covered most important ones.. Only one comment , include 550 cord that you might need it to set up the tarp keeping you out of the rain.!
There is a whole section on 550 cord, you must have missed that page.
Good list but here are a few more for your consideration;
Don’t forget a reliable way to purify water. Even a a small pot (titanium to save weight) to boil water will work.
Flint and steel with a bit of fresh pine sap will outlast any lighter.
It may sound funny but large rat traps are another small lightweight, self contained, silent and efficient method of gathering small animals for emergency food.
With that compass you should include a topographical map of your area. It will give you an idea of rough or impassable terrain and water sources. Arguably more important than a compass itself.
A pump up pellet rifle will kill a lot of small game that is shot at close range. A Benjamin 397 (.177) or 392 (.22) makes for a lightweight firearm. Pellets are very compact and can be found for sale rather inexpensively.
Rugged footwear and gloves will also help you live outdoors. Mud boots for wetlands and shoreline.
Great comment to set a limit (line) on your food bag. You also need to leave some brought food (and stored water) for times when you may become immobilized by an injury or sickness, or even a lengthy severe foul weather that changes the landscape making movement slower and more difficult. Merely living in a 4-season state I am shocked every year, driving the same country roads (X 20 years), how the landscape has changed–and I keep asking myself: “Is this what I remember? ” And, “I never saw that before” (because some tree was in my line of sight, but now the leaves are gone). That food-bag limit line is important. Tornados, floods, fires and earthquakes, can change the appearance of the landscape. By the time you arrive, the landscape may be altogether different–it should be predicted in a major national bug-out where amateurs are leaving campfires unattended–there will be 100 different “Murphy’s Laws” in operation in that nightmare.. So that compass is important, but so iis write-in-rain paper notebooks/pen/pencil. With a few small nails, even tacks, you can use the waterproof paper and nail-tap it into a “marker tree” you set for yourself to remember your way (similar to the dropping of bread crumbs principle) for yourself. Bino’s may help see your marker from a distance. I agree with you on your .22 recommendation
There are many items that all the lists state – but I love this list because of the items that most do not mention. Namely – tarp, subsonic 22s and a dog. I always have a sidearm – but it is primarily for self defense up close. A good 22 is most likely the best survival gun you can have – especially if you are a good shot. Shooting subsonics is not something I tend to do – and I’ll give that a go. I remember Henry used to have a survival 22 that would break down to a stalk – and was a semi-auto. I think it was a Henry 7 rifle? If that is still out on the market – it would fit a survival kit well. Small – but builds out to a small rifle for hunting in the 100 foot range. Subsonics would go well with that gun.
Henry still makes the survival rifle I believe.
There is a 10/22 that breaks down also
A small New Testament will help keep your spirit fed and sharp. A couple of wipe rags sure do come in handy after you poop. Quality gallon zip lock bags have endless use and don’t take much room or weight. A backpack for the dog with his rations that can later be slung up a tree to keep food safe from critters. I personally like to have a small plastic jar to catch pine sap for its manifold application.
Bring a good book on Yoga so you can limber up , bend over and kiss your A goodbye.
Now that’s hysterical. We use to say that in grammar school when ducking and tucking under our desks for nuclear drills.
Poodles are excellent dogs for the survivalists. They were originally bred to be hunting dogs and have a natural ability to hunt down and point out game. They are also fierce in protecting their owners, loyal and dedicated companions. It’s incorrect to say they are not what you want for survival
A simple candle has many uses and is typically light weight and by it’s nature water proof.
And some gorilla duct tape to patch tent holes and other uses.
A suggestion though.
Make several food and ammo depots. If your supplies can get you 7-10 days on them, make the depot at 6 days. Have several in a grid pattern.
Each one to get you 7-10 days worth of supplies.
Of course, there is a risk of damage and theft though.
Works if you are in an area that you can do this sort of thing.
I have (a) .22 survival gun. It is awesome! Simple. Light weight. Waterproof, and stores in its own plastic butt stock. And it floats too!
This particular one is a Charter Arms – AR7. And, yes, Henry also manufactured them. There were others as well. I don’t think anyone is manufacturing them new now, however. Bought it new for less than $100 many decades ago.
I think Henry still manufactures these compact rifles. Look under Henry Survival Rifles and you will likely find them. Lightweight – compact and allows a few extra magazines to be stored inside stock – well worth looking at. Henry also sells a Survival Kit, a basic packable bag that has room for a few included extra items. A person could make their own kit very easily, leaving out some and adding other items for their specific area.
Good information. Depending on the situation a dog could be a help or a hindrance. We have hunting dogs. Great for food gathering but not so much for security except to alert us.
McCandless had the mental capacity equivalent of a high school freshman. I live up by the bus. I’ve been too the bus before it was saddly removed. Tough trex but doable with a dash of knowledge and common sense.
With my knowledge of a person named Chris McCandless …..He basically starved to death….He would have done good on a alone episode.
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