12 Outdoor Survival Skills Everyone Should Master

The outdoor life is highly different from the life routine that most of us have. So, wilderness survival becomes very difficult whenever one of us has to go through an outdoor situation with the least resources. However, knowing different basic survival skills can help everyone perform better in outdoor situations. You may not always have a survival kit or go bag at your disposal in dire circumstances. Here we will be discussing the top 12 basic survival skills that everyone should master.

12 Outdoor Survival Skills Every Guy Should Master

Below are the top 12 basic survival skills that everyone must master. Mastering these skills will prepare you for any wilderness survival situation that the outdoor world puts you through.

  1. Knowing which place is better to deploy your camp

Locating suitable campsites is important because you are looking to take care of things like staying dry, warm, safe from insects, safe from animals, and a lot more. Going for the higher areas with a slight slope will ensure that you will stay dry.

Similarly, you can look at things that will protect you against coldness. However, you can make a shelter in any case, and that is exactly what the next part is all about.

  2. Making a shelter

Now that you know how to find the right place for deploying your camp, you also need to know how to make one. You will not be carrying a camp with you all the time so learning to use natural resources is the best choice for any survival situations. Shelter may very, so prepare to know how to make personal or group shelter. Also take into account the weather. You will want to modify insulation for cold weather situations. Here are some ways by which you can also make a shelter:

• Using flexible tree branches to get structural strength
• Utilizing big and dense leaves for shelter
• Using surrounding trees to get a better area

  3. Building a weapon

Outdoor survival may need you to cut some things and defend yourself. So, having a weapon is necessary for your survival situation. You must learn the skill of making a weapon. Making a bow and arrow can be as important as having a makeshift knife. The good part is that you can make a knife with wood and stone or even use some bone if you can have it.

  4. Basic first aid for oneself and others

Basic first aid matters a lot. When you are in the outdoor world, you do not have a lot of time and resources to deal with the survival situation. You many not always have a first aid kit at your disposal. Whether it takes tying a bandage with a cloth or using something to disinfect a wound, you must know it. It is a skill that requires an equal amount of knowledge of things.

  5. Mastering to start a fire using the least amount of resources

The next skill that you need to master is starting a fire. Fire building has the following basic factors that you must know:

• What will start the fire: battery, friction, lighter, flint
• Fuel for the starting fire: tinder, wood scraps, coconut wool, cotton
• What you will use to keep the fire going: twigs, dry leaves
• Fire will not only help in staying warm and safe, but it will also be beneficial to cook.

  6. Collecting water whenever and wherever possible

It can be about collecting water from the rain using leaves and containers. Similarly, you need to get some from a stream of water. You must know how you can get water to stay away from dehydration at all times. Some of your options are:

• Collecting clean snow and melting it to get water
• Getting water from tree trunks and bamboo
• Getting water from fruits like coconut

  7. Knowing which plants and animals are edible

While you are careful about your nutrition, you must be careful about what you eat. You might be the next person who dies because of eating poisonous berries. So, master the knowledge of distinguishing between edible plants and animals.

  8. Making a Gig and using it in the right way

No, we are not talking about freelancing gigs. A gig is a spear-like tool that can help you catch animals and fish. It only works well if you make it right and use it right. So, first, you need to find the right sapling and then prepare it by dividing its one end into equal vertical sections. 4-6 would be enough.

It will become a fork that has tongs in each direction. Now you can easily catch animals and fish.

  9. Navigating without a GPS

Knowing which way to go is important when you do not have a map. So, in the daytime, you can use the sun to know the east and west directions because it sets in the west and rises from the east. If you cannot find the directions this way, you can use a floating-point to locate north and south.

Place a leaf in still water and rub a metallic pin on your hair. Once the pin gets electromagnetic charges, you will place it on the leaf. The pin will start pointing towards the north and south. Now the directions from the sun will become clearer.

  10. Tying different knots

Knotting different knots is important because sometimes you need more strength when tying. Similarly, sometimes you need to reuse a rope after you go down while hiking on it. So, below are some of the knots that will be helpful in outdoor survival:

• Hitches
• Bends
• Loops
• Bowline

  11. Sending survival signals

Survival in outdoor areas may mean that someone is coming to help you. However, how would they find you when you do not have any contact with them? What you need to do is to master the art of signaling. There are many survival techniques for signaling. Here is what you can do:

• Using fire to create a lot of smoke in daylight if you are in a forest or at a beach
• Creating huge fire for night time to single your presence
• Using stones and objects to create a sign at the beach in the daylight

In all of these ways, you can master the art of sending signals because you may not have a flare every time.

  12. Keeping insects and animals away

Keeping different insects and animals away is important, especially when you are sleeping. Here you can master using airflow to your advantage and using it. Having a fire will keep animals away. Putting a few non-dry leaves in that fire will make smoke that will keep the insects like mosquitoes away.

Final Remarks:

Learning basic survival skills is just like preparing for an exam, but you are not sure about the contents this time. So, we have made these 12 basic wilderness survival skills list. Learn this, and you will be ready to tackle most of the outdoor survival challenges no matter where you are and in whatever condition you are.