Weekend Training

[1Admin]

Greg- if you don't know the area, be careful swimming with all your fighting gear on. A lot younger and a lot dumber we used to do that, just basically sling your rifle and jump in, swim across. LBE, boots, etc. fills with water quickly. Always worked out "cept for that one time."

A little buddy of mine and me were cross a creek. From the LOOKS of it, we were most of the way to the other side. Little trees sticking out of the water right ahead of us. Must be o.k. to stop swimming and put your feet down right?? Wrong. I corrected and looped my arm around a small tree trunk (chest deep still treading water). Little buddy isn't far behind, does the same exact thing, stops swimming and puts feet down. And sinks like an anchor. I do the "I'll help" deal and pretty soon we are both going under. He kicked me or I kicked him (depends on who's telling the story;) and we separate, sinking. Boy that creek was a LOT deeper in that center than we figured.... Feet finally hit bottom, look up and it's like trying to look through motor oil mixed with sweet tea. Kick and push up like hell and finally get back above water. Little buddy does the same and surfaces a few seconds after me. His brother who is on watch on start side has already ditched his rifle and jumped in to help his bro. We drag little buddy to bank of creek. It's February, water is about 60. Little buddy weighs maybe 110 soaking weight. He's shaking and going into shock. What is he more freaked out about? He had to ditch his rifle in the abyss.... Polytech A to the K is at the bottom of Crapwater Creek, FLoriGAbama.... Little buddy is fighting us to let him go back in for his rifle. Brother volunteers. No says I till we get a safety cord tied on the brother. Brother goes in a couple times, down for a few seconds, up without anything. Finally he's down a REALLY long time. I think "oh great" and start pulling him up ("Got me a Marlin!") Brother comes up arse backwards out of the water as I'm pulling like mad, looks like a bad cartoon where a character gets "fished" out of the water. It's funny later, but with the trauma/cold we are all shivering, shaking and a mess.

One person going across and rigging a safety line could have stopped all that. We went with poncho rafts for gear, rifles slung and NO gear worn for water after that. Still had one problem later but I doubt that person's swimming capability.

Poncho rafts, really easy thing to rig, takes less than a minute and could save your bacon...

Sorry for the thread drift

[Grand58742]

Not trying to pirate a thread, so if this is improper, let me know.

A small herd of us is going up north this weekend. There are many streams, creeks and small rivers in the national forest and we are going to practice water crossings. Hints? Tips? We're taking all BOB gear except long guns and their ammo. Definately the wrong season to be wandering the national forest with a rifle or shotgun.

And not only that, but a good time to put other items in your BOB to use as well. Some things like water filters might not "expire" so to speak, but the seals can dry rot and the whole contraption becomes useless or even worse, water isn't filtered correctly and contamination becomes an issue. I'm sure you have other items in your pack that probably don't get used that often and that would be a good time to try them out.

[Sharpshooter]

Not trying to pirate a thread, so if this is improper, let me know.

A small herd of us is going up north this weekend. There are many streams, creeks and small rivers in the national forest and we are going to practice water crossings. Hints? Tips? We're taking all BOB gear except long guns and their ammo. Definately the wrong season to be wandering the national forest with a rifle or shotgun.

Take water lol sound dumb but is overlooked all the time. Floatation device for aided rescuse if its need or i case someone in the group doesnt know how to swim. There is always the chance of someone not knowing and wont admit that they dont and even if they do maybe fatigued from walking and not have strength to swim with bob.

[WiseOwl]

Not trying to pirate a thread, so if this is improper, let me know.

A small herd of us is going up north this weekend. There are many streams, creeks and small rivers in the national forest and we are going to practice water crossings. Hints? Tips? We're taking all BOB gear except long guns and their ammo. Definately the wrong season to be wandering the national forest with a rifle or shotgun.

I echo Matt on the chaff powder. Where I go backpacking in the Cohutta sometimes, this one trail has about 28 river crossings. Couple of years back when it wasnt so dry, it was mid thigh deep on me and I am 6'2.
The Uncle Chappy is not a nice guy.
Needless to say, after that trip I always carried some gold bond and wore briefs over boxers.
Also, if you happen to fall in and there is even a slight current, swim diagonally towards the shore. If you find a safe spot, it may be good to practice this. As hot as it has been across the country lately, that may end up being a fun exercise.:cool:

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Not trying to pirate a thread, so if this is improper, let me know.
A small herd of us is going up north this weekend. There are many streams, creeks and small rivers in the national forest and we are going to practice water crossings. Hints? Tips? We're taking all BOB gear except long guns and their ammo. Definately the wrong season to be wandering the national forest with a rifle or shotgun.

safety, rope to tie off and pull the little ones if needed or anyone who slips, extra socks, chaff powder for the walk afterwards, water proof cells and other sensitive items even though you "think" you will be wading cause ya might be swimmin! Add time on the trail if you are removing socks n boots when crossing cause it eats up alot of time.
Dont care on the thread, i'm all about the discussion of real training, sick of politics and whines

[Greg B.]

Not trying to pirate a thread, so if this is improper, let me know.

A small herd of us is going up north this weekend. There are many streams, creeks and small rivers in the national forest and we are going to practice water crossings. Hints? Tips? We're taking all BOB gear except long guns and their ammo. Definately the wrong season to be wandering the national forest with a rifle or shotgun.

[max velocity]

[QUOTE=Matt In Oklahoma;43966]I wont show the video for OPSEC reasons and I'm going to break this down and anyone who thinks it's easy give it a try and have someone time ya because you have less than 4-5 minutes once it starts and when you roll up on something like this you have no idea how long it has been going on and time flies. This was designed to be a probable on failure with a possible though on a save:

The scenario timeline went like this. After having been briefed that the area was safe to work on the patient, but not giving any other information, the caregivers approached the victim at which time the large arterial spurt (ketchup in a syringe from under a tear in the pants leg)happened causing a bit of an

[Hit or Miss]

Sorry it has taken so long to get this information out, but I have
had a little difficulty accessing the sight. The board we used to
kill the rabbits was something we made after watching a you tube
video titled "Urban Survival Livestock - Raising Rabbits Part 4"
We thought it worked quickly and quietly.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

[QUOTE=Matt In Oklahoma;43933]Once this was accomplished we went into the last scenario in which I used ketchup as blood to simulate a wounded leg and a syringe filled with ketchup was used to simulate the squirting action of arterial spurting. The caregivers were instructed that the scene was safe and to begin. Time moves quickly with arterial spurting as minutes are all you have. Being familiar with equipment and communication with one another and the victim became all too important. The victim sadly didn

[WiseOwl]

Good stuff Matt!

Will, you are right on man!

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Mat- Great training and good on you for not only doing it, but encouraging others to follow suit. This brings up a real hot button issue for me. There are far too many people clogging up survival forums with uneducated opinions. These guys and gals love to buy a bunch of survival stuff, read about survival stuff and talk about survival stuff, but they really don't practice much...if at all. They will talk for hours, telling you about the best knife or pistol for combat, but have never been in combat, trained for combat or even seen combat from a distance. Don't believe me, google "Table top review of (insert survival item here)." You're going to get like 50 hits from guys displaying a piece of gear that's obviously never been used, holding it in their obese, powder-puff hands, telling you it's a great item to buy. How the *&%$ do they know, clearly they never used it. The extent of his training is walking into Wal-Mart, buying crap and doing table top reviews on it. Point being, in a disaster, I'd rather have a guy backing me up with a 1960s lever gun and a Mora knife who trains with that stuff regularly than the guy with the Busse Battle Mistress and SCAR rifle who’s an armchair commando. I love what you did in that training and also deeply encourage people to get out of the house and get some dirt time. Then report back with what you learned so I can look for that issue when I train. OK, off my soap box now.

Thanks I appreciate that
The rabbits, from team Hit or Miss, was a good learning experience and some folks got to experience 22 subsonic CBs and learned to appreciate the silence and lethality and them rabbits are tasty too.
The cost of this kind of training is minumal. This medical stuff cost me a old set of pants that was done for anyway, $1 for ketchup, $1.59 for syringe to simulate squirting blood, the legs are leftover materials, the bandages have been reused about a dozen times now at $7 a pop or so and the splint is repacked and back in my bag and a few cents for zip ties. I washed the training bandages and the tourniquet to get the ketchup off.
I did make a mistake this morning with the ketchup. I tossed it in the back of the truck, it was 105 today and the ketchup was well, almost boiling and when i tried to pour it on my training victim, Sharpshooter, he was quick to let me know LOL shudup big baby and take one for the team hahahha, had him lying in stickers too hehehehe
We have a good bunch with alot of talent, skills and mainly desire, to draw from and running senarios like this it dont take long to figure out what ya know, what ya thought you knew and what works and what needs work.

Mat- Great training and good on you for not only doing it, but encouraging others to follow suit. This brings up a real hot button issue for me. There are far too many people clogging up survival forums with uneducated opinions. These guys and gals love to buy a bunch of survival stuff, read about survival stuff and talk about survival stuff, but they really don't practice much...if at all. They will talk for hours, telling you about the best knife or pistol for combat, but have never been in combat, trained for combat or even seen combat from a distance. Don't believe me, google "Table top review of (insert survival item here)." You're going to get like 50 hits from guys displaying a piece of gear that's obviously never been used, holding it in their obese, powder-puff hands, telling you it's a great item to buy. How the *&%$ do they know, clearly they never used it. The extent of his training is walking into Wal-Mart, buying crap and doing table top reviews on it. Point being, in a disaster, I'd rather have a guy backing me up with a 1960s lever gun and a Mora knife who trains with that stuff regularly than the guy with the Busse Battle Mistress and SCAR rifle who

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Part 3

Karen made us some cotton backings for splints and such to use in case it goes long term for comfort and blood absorption if needed. Hit n Miss made us some large cloth cravats that can be used for a lot of things from slings to wraps.



Many things were discussed, shown and covered to include our kits, upgraded and desires. We tried to get everyone involved and hands on and many had valuable input.

I'm hoping that others are also gathering and doing things and would really like to see/hear what is being accomplished as we are always looking for new ideas.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Part 2

First Aid Training



Today we trained on first aid and our kits and what we might need to do/get.
I made a training dummy consisting of one

[Matt In Oklahoma]

More Weekend Training

We trained yet again even though some couldnt be present, they were missed and they have some items that will be passed on the next time we see one another. I am blessed to have many skills and ideas of those surrounding me and watching everyone to include myself learn each and everytime is awesome.

This training was twofold between harvesting rabbits and getting them from field (pen) to table. They were killed, skinned, the skinned preserved to work later, cleaned and eaten. A couple of methods were used in the life taking and the pros and cons were openly discussed. I am proud of all for stepping up their game and getting out of their comfort zone and getting sticky hands in the gut piles. This is real and this will ensure you eat.

If you want to see the kill method used on one watch here, if not then dont

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPla51JCrR0&feature=youtu.be

This was a device Hit or Miss constructed from someone on youtube. I will have them add on so credit can be given as to where they learned it.



PART 2 TO FOLLOW ON THE FIRST AID: