(SurvivalDaily.com) – As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. With survival skills, however, it can be hard to practice the tasks and scenarios that may be required during an emergency or bug-out event. Heading out into the woods with untested gear and skills that haven’t been honed could prove incredibly dangerous, if not deadly.
While your disaster plan may seem flawless on paper, you should still put it to the test. Go camping for a few days with just your bug-out bag and whatever else is included in your plan. You don’t even have to go any further than your own backyard.
A dry-run camping trip in your own yard is a great way to test your skills safely. After all, if something goes wrong, you’re already home. Want to see if your bug-out bag really will keep you alive long enough to get out of dodge? Need to test out the new gear you bought? This is one way to try it out without putting yourself in unnecessary danger.
Test Your Loadout
The worst time to realize something doesn’t work properly or isn’t reliable is when your life depends on it. That’s why you need to test your equipment and tweak certain items. Going camping and testing out your gear is the only way to know if it all works well together. If something doesn’t perform well, replace it with something better.
On the other hand, if something is working well, you obviously don’t want to change it. But without testing, you may inadvertently change things that work well and sabotage your own bug-out bag in the process.
Pick the Right Bag
It may not seem like it, but bag design isn’t just for cosmetic purposes — it actually matters. Of course, you wouldn’t realize this if you never tested your pack. The only way to determine if the fit and shape is right is to simply try it out.
When it comes to picking a pack, it really is about personal preference. If you like being organized, you might want to stay away from top-loading packs. Instead, you should go for a flat-open pack. They open completely, allowing you to see all of the contents without digging to the bottom. This prevents you from having to pull items out of your bag and lay them out, possibly forgetting them.
Match Made In Heaven?
A great combo to have when camping (or when the time comes, surviving) is the hatchet and multi-tool combo. The hatchet itself is ideal for chopping, rough carving, and shaping wood. Multi-tools, on the other hand, come in a variety of designs; they may contain a knife, pliers, or even scissors. Whatever multi-tool you choose, you can use them for food processing, light cutting, fine carving, and whittling.
Here are a few of the best brands:
Practice Makes Perfect
Testing your gear is essential to learning how it works and whether it is reliable. A little experimentation not only helps you determine what’s useful to you, but also helps you figure out what you need to improve on. That’s something you can’t do on paper alone.
Take a weekend trip to your backyard, play with your bug-out equipment, and learn the best way to utilize each tool. Maybe even try to learn the best way to make a shelter, if you don’t plan on bringing one — and don’t worry, no one would blame you if you didn’t. It will help you become more efficient, which is vital when the time comes to survive.
~Copyright 2021, SurvivalDaily.com
