Showing posts with label Cody and Dave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cody and Dave. Show all posts

Dual Survival 2011 -Three Episode Reviews

I watched three back to back of Cody and Dave's the Art of Self Reliance.

The first one was based in winter in the Rocky Mountains, specifically, Wyoming. In two feet of snow, we saw them use a fire starter to light a nice mound of branches. It was going pretty good so the snow that fell from an overhead branch didn't put it out.
They used dead snags and wood to build a lean-to and showed how to break off spruce and pine boughs to shingle the shelter, as well as provide a natural mattress and insulation. I was surprised they didn't use any snow to build walls around the lean to, if nothing more than just scraping it over and mounding it up.
On one of his recons, Cody came across the partially eaten carcass of an elk. After examination, they determined it was left by a human hunter, not a bear or wolves. I think the lack of tracks and amount of animal buried in the snow would have shown this as well.
Eventually they hiked down to a frozen lake where snowmobilers found them.

The second episode dealt with a couple kayackers dumping in the cold river in Kentucky. At first they are separated, but eventually rejoin. Fire is made with a Metal match stick by  Dave. Cody is unable to make a bow and drill fire, in spite of much smoke being produced. We're told it takes 800 degrees to ignite this wood.
A shelter is had in one of the many overhangs. It looked amazingly like one of my favorite haunts here in north east Georgia. They hike on and find the stuff from moon shiners, a good tarp and metal fixings.
Eventually they build a water craft with the tarp and duct tape, float it for awhile then get dumped back in the freezing cold water. They climb out, and walk to a black top road, where they hitch hike and are saved.
This episode is interesting in the amount of adventure that looks like my home. Dave snares a pole cat (skunk) but they let it go because of rabies danger. He does get some spray on his hat. Dave also finds some large shelf mushrooms, which get broken into pieces to join the worms Cody has found an is cooking in a kayaker's helmet.
Interesting stuff.

The third episode involves stranded men in northern Maine. We're told 90% of main is  heavily forested, with random logging roads. They find an old truck, use it's battery to make fire, and take the bench seat to sit on . The hood of the truck forms a reflector. A stray can of extra chunky dog food is opened for nourishment the second night. In the morning they walk three miles to the ocean, and are rescued on the beach.

There always is a lot of information on Dual Survival. Good stuff that is both practical and entertaining. We get to watch our man Cody, expert desert survivalist, deal with things outside his home town environment. He'll remind us of this fact, and then proceed to work on solutions. I love how he sucked water from his socks in Wyoming, while Dave laughed because they were surrounded by clean snow, some of which they were already melting in a plastic bag.
We love watching Dave create snares, teach us about electricity and hunting. He doesn't like eating crap. Neither man really needs to eat, neither one is dying of hunger. Just the mental and emotional aspects that come with obtaining food show us how important it is to feel control and care in our survival quest.

Watch any and all of this series if you get a chance. I even watch them more than once and feel challenged to try their techniques.

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Survivalist Junkie

Hello, My name is Carol and I'm a survivalist junkie.
I admit it, yesterday I watched 3 back to back episodes of Dual Survival- a guide to self-reliance.
It was on the Discovery Channel and featured two guys, both quite skilled, in 3 different scenarios.

I met one of the guys, Cody, years ago in Damascus Virginia, at Trail Days in 2003. He has long blond hair, walks barefooted everywhere, even over rocks, has a muscular build and quiet demeanor. Our non-combative methods of survival seem quite similar. He really made his feelings apparent when his partner decided to go after honey in a bees nest in the "hurricane-survival" simulation. He said he always tells his students to never go after something that can take you down. As we all know, bees are more dangerous than bears.

Dave, the other survivalist, is very smart (other than the bee incident), skilled and fun to watch. I think its worth watching him for several reasons. He demonstrated how to use a broken bottle to make an arrowhead, and then did the shaft feathers with duct tape. A wild turkey was bagged with this survivalist arrow. I'm impressed.

Other skills demonstrated was hollowing a plant stalk with fire to create a water carrying device, bow and drill fire making, friction fire making (Cody said this was difficult, only 40% of people are able to do this successfully), crossing a canyon-stream via slick mossy log (check up and down stream before attempting this dangerous endeavor, good point), removing stingers from scorpions before eating, skinning a rattlesnake, building a hammock with a parachute, creating loft for warmth with a parachute, leaving an obvious trail for search and resuce teams. Good stuff.

I smiled, though while watching the guys discuss the bad water in a lower canyon, bemoaning the fact they had no way to strain the bugs and larvae from it. As Cody squatted beside the steam, on his head plainly visible was a red bandanna. I couldn't even begin to count how many times a bandanna was used by my partner and me to strain water on the Pacific Crest Trail and Colorado Trail. Cow dung, tadpoles, algae and all around debris can be removed from the water by simply passing it through a bandanna first.

This in fact helps the chlorine be more effective in treating water. The amount of chlorine needed is directly proportional to the amount of organic matter in the water being treated. By removing most of the organic matter through filtering, only a few drops are needed for the worst of situations.

Hopefully they will continue to do many more episodes.

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