It might have been a hi-jacked thread or under an entirely different heading. It was a while ago. Maybe someone can find it.
Jeff
Jeff
Pinelands woodland survival seminar on June 18
- Thread starter Pinetones
- Start date
Boy, that brings back memories. That guy "Broke Jeep Joe" could not laugh with the rest of the world. His butt was wound so tight that he took off like a helicopter.
I remember finding that thread a while ago, just after reading and taking copious notes from Brown's books, thinking how remarkable his experiences were. But could this be a dependable source? Came to the Forum to see what y'all thought. Satanic cults? Huge packs of wild dogs? etc. Great stuff for one of my teen books. I had the plot sketched out and everything; then I read the thread and decided, even for fiction . . . too much.
Glo
Based on our members' opinions, Mr. Brown gets two thumbs of for professional bullsh*tter. His books are nonetheless a good read in my opinion, and much can still be learned from him (if you roll a fat wallet). All this aside, is anyone planning to visit New Lisbon for any of the meetings? I may hit the one on June 18 if I can get off work a bit early.
well as to the wild dog packs i have never run into any all my years in the woods.ran into what may have been one wild dog once miles from anywhere rumaging through a trash pile and when i walked up he growled at me.when i proceeded to close in on him he turned tail and ran.I really can't see a mess of dogs unrelated to each other and of different breed realistically banning around an unknown leader and actually cooperating enough to make it in the woods unless of course their dump dogs which by standards wouldn't really be wild at all just a bunch of uncooperating dogs that fiight over garbage with the biggest one winning and not really cooperating like wolves.
I don't doubt that Brown has some good skills but I do think his BS is even better then the skills.No one walks into the woods nekked and lives easily after three days of hard work.We all come from a material culture,the native americans also had a material culture though different from our own.They made it easily because they had each other and each had their own specialties.Yes you may become proficient at all skills but still you would run yourself ragged and live like an animal for months till you managed to accumulate much of the essentials needed for a comfortable life.even then you would be on a non stop routine to daily provide for yourself without help from anyone.If you have several people in camp doing chores such as cordage making,shelter improvement,gardening,clothes making while you have several others out trapping and hunting and fishing now your talking a worthwhile adventure,especially if you take in with you what you need and gradually replace things with natural made stuffs.yes you may be able to do it by yourself but you will be living rougher much longer then Tom lets on no matter how good you are.In order to kill enugh deer and tan all the skins to make clothes you will be naked for weeks.you could make clothes from grass or reed mats but that takes a lot of cordage which also takes time and their very uncomfortable.Id suggest slowly making a stash of needed articles and then jumping in with most of your essentials already there and maybe taking a few people with you instead of trying to do it all yourself and forget about the sixth sense thing.me and another former student walked into toms camp on forked river to pay the caretakers a visit one time and they were all standing in the road talking and we got to with 100 ft of them before they looked up and saw us.they live out there all year,you'd think if the sixth sense thing was real they'd of felt us wired up civilized ,stressed out creatures invade their kingdom.nope we walked right up on em.sorry,we have five sense and most of the time thats about it except for the occasional premonition that can't be depended on on a regular basis.
Al
I don't doubt that Brown has some good skills but I do think his BS is even better then the skills.No one walks into the woods nekked and lives easily after three days of hard work.We all come from a material culture,the native americans also had a material culture though different from our own.They made it easily because they had each other and each had their own specialties.Yes you may become proficient at all skills but still you would run yourself ragged and live like an animal for months till you managed to accumulate much of the essentials needed for a comfortable life.even then you would be on a non stop routine to daily provide for yourself without help from anyone.If you have several people in camp doing chores such as cordage making,shelter improvement,gardening,clothes making while you have several others out trapping and hunting and fishing now your talking a worthwhile adventure,especially if you take in with you what you need and gradually replace things with natural made stuffs.yes you may be able to do it by yourself but you will be living rougher much longer then Tom lets on no matter how good you are.In order to kill enugh deer and tan all the skins to make clothes you will be naked for weeks.you could make clothes from grass or reed mats but that takes a lot of cordage which also takes time and their very uncomfortable.Id suggest slowly making a stash of needed articles and then jumping in with most of your essentials already there and maybe taking a few people with you instead of trying to do it all yourself and forget about the sixth sense thing.me and another former student walked into toms camp on forked river to pay the caretakers a visit one time and they were all standing in the road talking and we got to with 100 ft of them before they looked up and saw us.they live out there all year,you'd think if the sixth sense thing was real they'd of felt us wired up civilized ,stressed out creatures invade their kingdom.nope we walked right up on em.sorry,we have five sense and most of the time thats about it except for the occasional premonition that can't be depended on on a regular basis.
Al
Just watch the episodes of 'Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment' on the Discovery Channel to see what it takes in bold, living color. It should be in reruns soon, might even be on UTube. Surprising who hits the 'take me home' button first. There were 2 from NJ participating.
I found this interesting article about someone, who like my friend, enjoyed their stays at Tom's school. Just click on the Native American Spirituality section to read. It does get a little weird.
http://www.markvirtue.com/trip/set8.html
http://www.markvirtue.com/trip/set8.html
I've been taught skills by "chainsmoking" men and they knew thier stuff. It doesn't matter what vice they have, just that they teach you sound technique! I have heard he is a skilled tracker, and that he's assisted official investigations, so I feel he must have something going for him. As to weither he learned his skills from "Grandfather", a book, or is channeling some alien hunter from the Zool Dynasty, seems like he "gets 'er done". Besides, he probably CAN charge $900 due to the psyco-babble and atmosphere he creates! Business like that IS another version of Hollywood!
The female bus driver from Monmouth (Middletown) is one of the final five. She's a pretty sharp shot in the field too.
i have a fire piston and cannot get it to work for anything.I've seen videos of them working but i cannot get this one to work at all and I'm using tinder fungus off of birch trees i collected in UP michigan.the best stuff their is for fire piston.
Al
I've been watching this since the beginning.it just finished last night.yes it does illustrate that it is very hard to make it from scratch,even with a group.the winners I never would of picked.the first two out i thought would be the winners.of course one of the winners had to be flaky,thats always a given since the first survivor show.
Al
Those pistons do look interesting. They say its a primitive tool, but I really dont see how so. I've been successful with hand and bow drills, but both are a real pain. That birch fungus is awesome and you can take it to another destination since it stays lit so long. In the pines, I've found ground-up cedar bark and pine needles make the best tinder option. These things are really fun to fool around with while camping.
The easiest fire starter I have ever used is some steel wool and a little 9 volt battery, just keep them separate and the battery contacts covered until used 