Survivorman or Man vs. Wild

[superdave1984]

Survivorman is just not very charismatic. The only knock I have on him is he carries things that not everybody would. Often he carries a gun, matches/lighter, a tent, etc. Bear only has a knife, water bottle and flint. If you are lost or were not planning on any wilderness trek, you may not have anything. It does seem suspicious that he happens to "find" a bunch of useful stuff in the jungle though.
Bear gets naked for a reason. Wet clothes will drop your body temp in a hurry. Some of the stuff he eats, the average Joe wouldn't because either they wouldn't know it was edible, or it is just too disgusting. Both shows have their following. But if you dropped both guys in the jungle with nothing, my money's on Bear. Although he also has a better chance of getting himself injured or killed because of the things he does. Les is much safer with his life. I see a good idea for a show. Bear vs Les. Drop them both in the same jungle, with the same equipment and see who does better and gets out first.

[Southeasttackle]

Survivorman is just not very charismatic. The only knock I have on him is he carries things that not everybody would. Often he carries a gun, matches/lighter, a tent, etc. Bear only has a knife, water bottle and flint. If you are lost or were not planning on any wilderness trek, you may not have anything. It does seem suspicious that he happens to "find" a bunch of useful stuff in the jungle though.
Bear gets naked for a reason. Wet clothes will drop your body temp in a hurry. Some of the stuff he eats, the average Joe wouldn't because either they wouldn't know it was edible, or it is just too disgusting. Both shows have their following. But if you dropped both guys in the jungle with nothing, my money's on Bear. Although he also has a better chance of getting himself injured or killed because of the things he does. Les is much safer with his life. I see a good idea for a show. Bear vs Les. Drop them both in the same jungle, with the same equipment and see who does better and gets out first.

Les never carries a flint and uses natural materials to start a fire. He only carries his leatherman as he said he never goes anywhere without one. When he does have other items with him it is something that a person in his situation would have, such as a hunter with a gun or a hot air balloonist with a hot air balloon.
As for bear getting naked - you should never get wet in a survival situation. You should go around water to keep from getting wet and cold. The only difference would be if you were trying to cool off. I think that is everyones point - Bear would jump off a twenty foot cliff doing a backflip (risking breaking his neck) then get naked and gripe about being cold. When Les and any other rational person would walk down the bank and look for a place to cross. Bear just looks for stuff to get into. Unfortunatly there are some people who fall for these antics.

[OKSTATEjiggy]

Les never carries a flint and uses natural materials to start a fire. He only carries his leatherman as he said he never goes anywhere without one. When he does have other items with him it is something that a person in his situation would have, such as a hunter with a gun or a hot air balloonist with a hot air balloon.
As for bear getting naked - you should never get wet in a survival situation. You should go around water to keep from getting wet and cold. The only difference would be if you were trying to cool off. I think that is everyones point - Bear would jump off a twenty foot cliff doing a backflip (risking breaking his neck) then get naked and gripe about being cold. When Les and any other rational person would walk down the bank and look for a place to cross. Bear just looks for stuff to get into. Unfortunatly there are some people who fall for these antics.

Precisely!!

[Fatman]

Survivorman!!!!! He shows the actual situation and it's only him by his lonesome. Having a camera crew and with his backgroung Baer just does foolish things.

Fatman

[Hanr3]

Survival has been a hobbie of mine for the past 40 years. Ever since we moved to Frisco Colorado. A small town of 500 well above sea level. Denver is a mile high (5,600'), I lived at 9,100 feet. I even took Survival training in the Marine Corp. Les is hte man. Les actually attempts the things your taught in survival training, figure 4 dead falls, snares, fire building techniques, eating tubers, bugs, etc. Watch his earlier shows and you will see Les attempt survival techniques, and see him make the typical rookie mistakes. By his 5th season he has most of the skills pretty well mastered. Yes, he resigned and unfortunately there wont be another season.

Bear is an idiot. You never jump or get wet in a survival situation. 90% of his stunts involve either jumping, getting wet, or both at the same time. The only show of his that I thought was any semblence of entertaining was with Chevy Chase. Chevy was cold, you could see it in his face.

I'd be happy to teach any of you some basic survival skills. Pic of me sleeping in my shelter last winter.
http://chevytruckworld.tenmagazines....nr3/287441.jpg

[OKSTATEjiggy]

Hanr3, I often wonder about ways one could collect and store rain water and possibly even boil water in the outdoors if you couldn't find any old cans or anything that got thrown on the ground. Could you somehow fasten some tree bark together? I guess you could use skins or some intestinal material to collect rain water, but what if you didn't have much luck killing a deer? Maybe you could use some other plant material?

[Pomoxis]

I like both shows. Having had survivor training I enjoy "Man Vs Wild" in that he goes out of his way to encounter things just to show you what he would do (I don't always agree but that's a different thread).
The best part of Survivorman is he's a no BS gotta do it or I'm hurt because I'm by myself don't take unnecessary chances type show.

Both shows have different appeals and use. I can see where both teach fundamentals and get you thinking about what's important in a crises. I don't, however, expect either to be pure survival training. I've been there, done that, and it's boring as hell after the first time through.

I find the variety and presentation styles of both shows entertaining.

To each their own I guess.
Jer

[hnd]

i'll take survivorman all day long...

YouTube - Re: Man Vs. Wild, Bear Grylls is a Phony

bear grylls is a tool

[Hanr3]

Hanr3, I often wonder about ways one could collect and store rain water and possibly even boil water in the outdoors if you couldn't find any old cans or anything that got thrown on the ground. Could you somehow fasten some tree bark together? I guess you could use skins or some intestinal material to collect rain water, but what if you didn't have much luck killing a deer? Maybe you could use some other plant material?

Collecting rain water has some inherent problems. If you chose to store it in a non sterile container, animal intestine for example, you subject the water to parisites in the container. Some parasites wont bother you, some will make you puke, some the hersey two step, and others might just kill you. A better option is to find a clean source of water to drink from when needed. Clean being the key word. Finding the water will depend on the climate. As for food, your better off trying to capture/kill smaller to medium sized game, rabbits, woodchuck, snakes, birds, etc. You will learn to stalk, and then go after bigger game, deer, elk, etc. Be forewarned, the bigger the game the more dangerous it can be. Deer and Elk have horns. Granted they look great on the wall, however out in the middle of nowhere those horns are spears and will puncture a lung. Hoofs aren't anything to mess with either. Like getting hit in the head with a hammer. That deer isnt going to stand there and let you put a choke hold on it.

As to your original question about storing water, find places where mother nature stores it naturally for you until you can make a more suitable place to store it. See below.
Boiling water assumes you can build a fire, if so, use the fire to hollow out a log, make a bowl. Chare away the wood and clean up the ashes with rocks/water. This will create a hollow sterile spot to store water, boil water etc. To boil the water, throw hot rocks into the wooden bowl. Heat the rocks in the fire. Dont use rocks found next to or in the water. They could have water trapped inside the rock, when that water heats up it expands, eventually it will get to a point it needs to relieve pressure and the rock explodes sending small pieces of rock everywhere. This is why you never use "river rock" to line a fire pit. Once you have a bowl, now you can boil/sterilize that intestine/hide and use it to store water.

I highly recommend practicing your survival skills at home, when your life doesnt depend on it. No doubt when you need those skills the most you may not be thinking clearly, or may have just suffered an accident.

Couple of resources.
Survival manuals from any of the Services.
Tom Brown wrote numerous books on survival, excellent collection. I have several.
Believe it of not, pick up a Boy Scout handbook, or join a Troop. They have a lot of the basic info your after. Boy Scouts is more than just merit badges and collecting things for a good cause. You cant take "Outings out of Scouting"! When I was Scout Master we went camping one weekend a month every month of the year except December. In December we did a lock in so the youth could bring all the crap they couldnt bring on regualr campouts. TVs', video games, radios, movies, etc. The Troop grew from 12 regulars to 40 regulars. The hardest thing was getting the parents away from car camping and into real camping/backpacking. However once they made a backpacking trip they are hooked.

[Pomoxis]

I was in the Scouts AND an Ex Navy Aircrewman. The very first part of survival is the battle cry of the scouts. "Be Prepared".
With just a film canister of items you can survive.
Coil of wire
plastic sheeting (water collection/storage..etc)
rubber tubing (water collection/weapon/other)
few small hooks and fishing line (fishing/firstaid)
antiseptic (thin foil packs)..
35mm camera container (water collection/storage/other).

With just that you can easily survive a few months. If you have a knife of any decent type then you can survive much longer. I personally favor the leatherman tools.

Do research and consider the scouts. If you're too old you can always become an assistant scout leader/helper and learn.

Water has priority over food (you can survive 14+ days without food) and the most common "survival" we'll need to do will NOT require us to walk out. When you're lost it's often best to stay put and let help find you. If you do decide to move you will want to leave markers indicating your direction of travel.

At the end of all the survival techniques ..etc the one major factor that determines if you will survive is your mental state.

Survival is often as simple as making the decision to not give up.
Man Vs Wild and Survivorman are TV. Many of the techniques shown are for example if you are in an EXTREME situation with NO OTHER CHOICE. Understand these guys do have emergency help and support immediately available. They take MANY UNNECESSARY risks for the purpose of illustrating what you CAN do given no other choice.

While making for a really nice show it's not reasonable to expect to be in that situation unless you're in the military.

I was trained for open ocean, desert, wooded, and cold weather. I missed advanced training for artic and jungle (wasn't needed). Most of my training was a repeat of Scouts with a few more advanced subjects.