Here we have looked far and wide to gather the absolute best survival pro tips. Check these out so that you can take your survival game to the highest level.
Know a tip or trick that you think should be in the list? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Ultimate Survival Tips and Tricks:
Survival Priorities
Remember that your survival priorities are shelter first, then water, then food. You can live 3 hours in bad weather, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. Conduct your activities accordingly.
Watch As A Compass
If you somehow don't have a compass on you, but do have a watch, it turns out there's an easy way to get direction orientation by using your watch in the Northern Hemisphere. Check out the following video for how to do it.
Stomach Meds
In a survival situation, good quality food is often unavailable, so plan for an upset stomach, indigestion, or diarrhea by including a common product like Pepto-Bismol in your bug out bag.
Food Sources
Consider that your typical food sources will no longer be available. Can you hunt, fish, or gather? It makes sense to polish up these type of skills right now so that you can use them if you need to. Another short term strategy is stocking up on freeze dried food.
Gardening is one skill that you should pick up as well. When you know how to grow, process, and store food from plants, you have one of the best food sources available.
Water Is Important
For your bug out bag, which should last you 72 hours, you need to have at least 3 Liters of clean water spread out across 3 different containers. You will have to purify more water along the way.
Metal Canteen
A metal canteen is not only a tough container for holding water in, it can also be used to boil water to purify it or even cook food with it. Try to have at least one in your survival kit.
Military Poncho
Not only is it great to have a military style poncho in your kit to keep you dry, but it also can be used as a great tarp shelter to get you out of the wind, rain, and snow. Check out Creek Stewart's article on the different shelters you can set up.
Hot Water Heater
Remember in disaster situations that most homes have a hot water heater with anywhere from 40-80 gallons of fresh water storage that can be drained and used.
Morning Dew
If you find yourself short on water and its morning time, find a grassy field that has morning dew and use a piece of clothing to drag it around the grass and soak up a lot of water. Then ring out the cloth into your water container.
First Aid Is Important
Not only is it critical to have a solid first aid kit in your survival gear, but you also need to have some basic skills and know how in order to use it. Consider getting some basic training and learning about how to administer first aid properly. There are plenty of great Youtube videos if you need a refresher.
Aluminum Foil
A sheet of aluminum foil is very handy for creating a dry fire base by laying it out on the ground to start a fire on. You can also cut strips of it and short out a battery to create a spark. Fold up a sheet for your kit.
Get The Right Knife
A survival knife is the most critical tool you need. Make sure to always have a good one handy.
You can process wood for fire, build a shelter, hunt, have a weapon for self defense, process animals, and many other capabilities all in a single tool.
Remember that a knife with the following will usually let you do what you need to do:
- full tang
- good pommel
- fixed blade
- overall length of 9-11 inches
- tip point
- single edge blade
Scarecrow Man
It's important to maintain your body temperature. If you are in extreme cold environments, try to collect dry leaves and grass and stuff your shirt and pants with them. It will provide a lot more insulation to trap your own body heat on you as well as block wind that makes it through your outer layer to keep you warmer.
Emergency Heat Blanket
If you have an emergency heat blanket, consider using sticks to drape the emergency blanket as a reflective "wall" on the opposite side of your fire to reflect heat back towards your shelter. You can also duct tape the blanket to your tarp shelter to reflect heat back towards you.
Get A Shemagh
A shemagh is an extremely useful piece of cloth to have in your kit. There are many things you can do with a shemagh. You can wrap your head several ways to solve all sorts of issues. Also, you can use it to store gear, secure a broken arm, and many other things.
The Situation Matters
Depending on the type of survival situation that you find yourself in, the challenges will be different. You should study and prepare ahead of time for the different scenarios that might happen. There is a great breakdown of many different SHTF scenarios over at Survival Chops.
Last Ditch Lighter
Zippo or other typical lighters aren't the best to have for survival because they are not sealed and the lighter fluid will evaporate out of them within a few weeks or less.
If you have a Zippo lighter on hand and its out of fuel, you could still get a few fires out of it.
Pull the lighter insert out of the outer metal container and remove the cotton wadding from the bottom.
Now use the cotton wadding as tinder and use the lighter to throw sparks onto the cotton tinder.
Sharpen Your Pencils
Grab a cheap, plastic pencil sharpener for your survival kit. It allows you to take small twigs and create very nice kindling for starting a fire. It can save you a lot of work with your knife or even allow someone in your party to create tinder while the knife is being used for bigger chores.
Glow Sticks
Glow sticks are very handy to have on you for night time lighting when your other options are gone. They are also great at allowing rescue teams to see and find you if you tie one to you as you travel at night.
For even more visibility, you can tie a glow stick to a 3 foot length of paracord and swing it in circles to signal people from far away. It will appear as a big glowing donut to others that see it since the human eye will blur the moving light together.
Don't Eat Snow
If snow is your only option for water, make sure to melt it first, and then take extra precaution to purify that water just in case. Eating snow as a source of water can be dangerous by lowering your body temperature as well as exposing you to possible microbes in the snow if its not fresh.
Grungy Water
You should always have a few ways to purify your water. Water purification tablets, a LifeStraw water filter, and boiling are some of the best ways. You should have all 3 available.
Sometimes though, the water you have access to is so nasty you need to remove some of the junk out of it before you employ your water purification. There are many ways to make a water filter out in the bush. Check out this article for the fundamentals of it.
Spare Socks
Keeping your feet dry and protected is essential for survival. Always have a spare pair of socks that are in a water tight bag in your kit. That way if you get your feet wet, you can swap socks and get the other pair drying.
Shelter Location
Always make sure to build your shelter in a place that is "high and dry". Even though it is more convenient, don't locate your shelter directly by a body of water since the water attracts insects, animals, and people that you don't want to have to deal with.
Gas Runs Our Lives
Gasoline is critical for vehicles, heaters, and generators. It's wise to make sure you know how to transfer it from one machine to another. Having the right equipment makes the job a lot easier.
Cans Everywhere
Can food can usually be found in every home. It will definitely be the most abundant ready to eat food source at first if everything goes down. Take the time now to learn how to open it with any tools available.
Many More
Here are some of our favorite tips from others.
AlfieAesthetics is a very popular youtube channel by a survival expert with a British accent. Here are his top 50 tips:
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