What's your Bushcraft lineage?

[Tripitaka of AA]

Where do you go to learn this stuff? Do you have to join the military, or be born into an "outdoors" family? Does it make any difference? Do you need to check your teacher's credentials before you take the lesson? Are there "styles" of Bushcraft? Do you need to learn one-to-one with a "Sensei", or can you read some books and wing it?

Elsewhere on this site, the answers would be fairly clear. Are there parallels with studying the arts of self-defence, or is that a red herring?

Just a thought. Possibly worth discussing, or maybe not. It might be a totally unnecessary side-track from the fascinating information that the recent threads have brought. I'm just trying to find ways to contribute to a forum where I have got even less to offer than usual. This whole Outdoors thing is just so alien to me, questions is all I can think of. If anything, I'd say I am a highly experienced "Indoorsman". Please continue to post this terrific information. Watch out for my extremely dumb questions, as I'm sure I'll have more to offer...

[Ramirez]

I used to camp with my Dad when I was younger in Algonquin park , although looking back on it he wasn't much of an outdoorsman and I hated every minute of it so I stopped going around 13.

Funny story though, years later an buddy of mine is taking lessons from some neo-ninja and asks me if I want to go "bush training" with him, it didn't take long for me to figure out the grandmaster knew less than me about the outdoors, he didn't know anything about map reading , compass declination("what do you mean magnetic north") , he could barely pitch a tent. The damn fool was busy trying to show us how his ninja skill was so great that he could build a fire that would burn through the rain. He built a bonfire so large it was useless, you couldn't get within 5 feet of the thing to cook because of the heat...I finally doused it because I was afraid the fool was going to kill us in the middle of a forest fire.

[Ramirez]

actually Dave, you can sign up for courses, Ray Mears runs one in the UK although I am sure you can find other reputable instructors. You might be able to volunteer with the Boy Scouts and I am sure some of the other volunteers will know all about bushcraft, you can pick it up on their camping trips.

[David Craik]

For most of my life I was of the "read books and wing it" variety. Trial and error. Unlike martial arts most of these skills can be tested at will in a "real world" environment.

[wildwills]

For me it was two-fold....my dad and Boy Scouts. I also had the opportunity when I was active duty to participate in some survival training.

[jjaje]

Scouting as a youth and again as an adult. We would try more complex challenges. Lighting a fire with only one match and no "prepared" fire starters. Then lighting a fire without a match. I admit to preferring to use a spark over a bow/friction unit. You have to really be on your game to do the bow.

We would do wilderness survival campouts, where you make a shelter and improvise most gear. We routinely did map reading. We've done basic search and rescue, and taught what to do if lost (which is really important information)

[Abbax8]

Playing in the woods as a kid. Fishing with my brother then on my own. Trying things out. Read Field and Stream and Outdoor Life. Later became a Boy Scout parent and learned some more. Also watched some shows on TV and got some ideas. A few books here and there.

Dennis

[stella fuentes]

My father, brothers and cousins HAD to take me along with them, or I'd follow them into the wild anyway. My mother wanted a girly girl play the piano, sew and cook daughter...I wanted THAT AND the outdoors fun, too.
It's easy to find/forage edible things in the jungle, from where I come from, or on the beach, and it was all fun to me.
Once we went out in the mountains for a week with only a can of sardines and a cup of rice, but we actually found a lot of wild edible stuff that tasted good. (honey, with bees in it; papaya, sweet potato, even freshwater shrimps!) We practiced the firebow, the magnifying glass or eyeglasses techniques for making fire, and slept wherever..
we even had to slather on water from soaked tobacco leaves to keep the bugs off!!
I think the trips into the wilds was more family bonding and happy times than survival training, but we travelled light to be more mobile. I loved every minute of it, even the worst ones

[David Craik]

Since I'm a "has-been", I will elaborate. I put a lot of this in the mod forum, but here goes. As even a young kid I was fascinated with wilderness survival techniques. I read survival manuals and pored over Field and Stream and things like "Soldier of Fortune" religiously. Because I grew up poor, I spent all of my time in the woods building shelters, traps, weaving blankets from reeds, figuring out direction and time, purifying water. I would intentionally get lost to see if I could make it without outside assistance. We didn't have the money to buy a ColecoVision, and I never even had a car until I was married. So I spent many a night at Caesar's Head cold and hungry because it seemed pretty cool to be able to survive in an era of "Rambo" and "Red Dawn".

My dream was always to live as Tom Neale did on a deserted island. This didn't work out as I wound up getting married and the wife wasn't too hip on living off of taro and having centipedes crawl on her. In the military I went to J.E.S.T. (Jungle Environment Survival Training) in Stella's home country, the Philippines. Robert has also done this course. You are thrust into the heavy jungle with minimal equipment, your guides were the Negritos of the Philippines, sort of P.I. bushmen who I am convinced could survive on the moon if they had to.

I also did some water survival courses and did a course on medicinal plants found in the Southeastern U.S. by a fellow who was half-Cherokee and was into such things. My FFA advisor who was an Army Vietnam vet provided me lots of tips and instruction on stuff he was taught. I attended a desert survival training course in Yuma, AZ prior to Desert Storm - an action I didn't wind up even participating in.

I am no "expert" in anything. I have no certificate saying I'm a guru (outside of my J.E.S.T. certificate, which only signifies I completed the course), nor do I have dreams of societal collapse or anarchy. I have no TV show where I have eaten marmoset intestine or ever been in a hurricane. I like my electricity and ribs easily procured from the nearby Piggly-Wiggly. But I have picked up some stuff along the way. I still spend a lot of time in the woods; I am far more at ease keeping company with trees and possums than people. When I retired from the military, I asked my wife how she could bear to put up with me being at home all the time. She said she could just hand me my rifle and knife and she would get a break from me for a few days at least.

[Brian R. VanCise]

I think having someone teach you these skills can really be a plus!!! Less trial and error that way. Having family members who were outdoorsmen, hunteers, etc. is and was a big plus for me. That and just being in an area that allowed for a kid to wander around, build a camp, put up tents, start a fire, purify water, make a trap, etc, etc. So if you are interested there are courses out there where professionals can help you out and give you some expert knowledge!

[David Craik]

Trial and error is inevitable. A lot of things can be taught, but for others you have to try it yourself to see if you can make it work. Making a fire with a friction drill is a good example, flint-knapping is another. Freezing in a forest without your wilderness "sensei" there is a lousy time to realize you suck at making a fire.

Like martial arts, the knowledge of the mechanics and the skill in practice are two different things. For the average person who has never tried these skills I think it is going to be very difficult to make them work. Like a person who has never been in a fight, the best course of action is avoidance. Mother Nature is a very skilled opponent against a "modern" human who has been insulated against her for centuries. If you don't know what you are doing or have the correct mindset, she will kick the crap out of you.

But you are absolutely right Brian, a helping hand to impart knowledge is a huge help.

[tgace334]

Since I'm a "has-been", I will elaborate. I put a lot of this in the mod forum, but here goes. As even a young kid I was fascinated with wilderness survival techniques. I read survival manuals and pored over Field and Stream and things like "Soldier of Fortune" religiously. Because I grew up poor, I spent all of my time in the woods building shelters, traps, weaving blankets from reeds, figuring out direction and time, purifying water. I would intentionally get lost to see if I could make it without outside assistance. We didn't have the money to buy a ColecoVision, and I never even had a car until I was married. So I spent many a night at Caesar's Head cold and hungry because it seemed pretty cool to be able to survive in an era of "Rambo" and "Red Dawn".

Almost the exact same thing here. I grew up in "the styx". Entertainment was plinking bottles and cans with a .22..hunting...camping..etc. I remember after getting a Tom Brown tracking book spending the day wandering the woods shoe less in nothing but shorts. LOL. I am far to happy with creature comforts now.

[David Craik]

It's funny, you couldn't keep shoes on me as a kid - unless I was going somewhere like to school - yet my daughter's boyfriend's mother said my daughter exibited behavior that was "low-class' by walking the 50 yards to the grandparents RV (down a paved driveway!) bare-foot. It seems to me regular people have grown progressively softer as times go on, yet criminals more brutal and violent. If I won the lottery I'd never wear shoes again. Maybe bunny slippers or sandals.

[Silent memory]

actually Dave, you can sign up for courses, Ray Mears runs one in the UK although I am sure you can find other reputable instructors. You might be able to volunteer with the Boy Scouts and I am sure some of the other volunteers will know all about bushcraft, you can pick it up on their camping trips.

Just to add into this even though it has been a long time from the OP question:

If you have £700 to spare you can do a basic weekend course with Ray Mears. Personally I would just buy his books and see. Also the SAS Survival guide from John Wiseman and the new one from Bear Grylls as well.