5 Survival Skills That Every Man Should Learn

Survival skills are an important part of any man’s knowledge.

These skills are strange in that they are absolutely critical for empowering and protecting yourself, yet most people hope they never have to rely on them.

Yet, given how unpredictable the modern world is, you never know when you might have to rely on your survival skills.

In this article, we discuss 5 survival skills that every man should learn, focusing mainly on classic survival skills that will empower men if they happen to be lost in the wild.  

Within each section, we give an overview of the skill we selected and explain why it’s so important in case you’re stranded. Towards the end of the article, we offer our final thoughts on the future of survival skills.

Alright, so somehow you’re lost in the wild with minimal resources and no guidance except your own internal wisdom and intuition. What do you do first?

A Temporary Spot You Can Call Home

We recommend first finding a place that you can temporarily call home.

This is only an ephemeral spot, as you should anticipate returning to civilization shortly. Conceptualizing your shelter in this way is important as it will allow you to retain hope that your situation will soon return to balance.

One of the most important criteria for finding a shelter is how protected it is from the elements.

If you’re stuck in rainy weather, then finding shelter is paramount, as getting wet can really dampen your mood and even cause mold and bacteria growth if you’re not careful.

Safety, Comfort, and Security in Mind

If you’re stuck in scorching hot weather, then finding shelter that is shaded will be an indispensable part of returning to civilization. If you’re stuck in cold weather, then you will want to find shelter that is as insulating as possible, as maintaining proper body temperature is critical for both rational thinking and physical health.

You should also take caution to find shelter that is away from potential predators. While very few predators will intentionally prey on humans, their curious presence could instill fear in even the bravest survivors. This fear could lead to irrational thinking which could ultimately be your demise.

Thus, we recommend choosing a location that is both isolated as well as somewhat visible. You don’t want to be too secluded, as this might make it difficult to be found or to source valuable resources.

Once you’ve found the location for your shelter, now it’s time to start building one.

This is one of the most crucial survival skills for men, as without it, you will likely be sleeping on mother earth with no protective floor, roof or walls.

While this might be fine in some environments for several days, this kind of shelter is certainly not sustainable.

Choosing Your Resources to Build a Sustainable Shelter

Of course, as we mentioned above, you always want to assume that this shelter is temporary, as this will allow you to retain hope of returning to society. Yet, this temporary nature doesn’t mean the shelter can’t be sustainably built.

Building a sustainable shelter entails using materials that can be easily replenished during the time that you use the shelter.

If you build your shelter from some rare resource you happen to come across, then you might have to totally redesign your shelter if it is destroyed in some way. This could really set you back and incite significant stress, which could lead to your demise.

For example, some people who must rely on survival skills utilize the first resource they find that seems suitable for shelter, like a large blanket that was found in a forest.  Yet, an overnight rainstorm might soak this blanket or even cause it to unfurl, thus becoming ineffective.

In this situation, you likely wouldn’t have access to more blankets. Instead, you would have to search for new resources to build a shelter. This could be incredibly inconvenient if you decide to set up camp in a certain location. There might not be any useful resources nearby.

Taking Advantage of Renewable Resources

Instead, if you built your shelter from an abundant resource like nearby trees and leaves, then you will be able to gradually refine it over time in case you’re stranded longer than expected. Even though trees are not an immediately renewable resource, there is usually at least an abundance of them to support a temporary shelter.

In terms of building the actual structure, it’s difficult to generalize given the varying conditions that readers might find themselves in. Most important is to protect yourself from rain or snow as well as dangerous organisms in the wild.  

Once you’ve chosen the location of your shelter and have actually created it, it’s time to build a fire. This is important regardless of the weather conditions.

A fire will not only keep you warm but will also allow you to cook any food you find as well as purify your water. Fires will also keep some animals away and could potentially help search parties find you.

Furthermore, fires are one of the most important survival skills because they can occupy your mind and prevent you from reflecting on the negative aspects of your condition.

Simply staring into the flames can feel almost hypnotic and can provide an activity for you to do while you pass the lonely nighttime hours. There’s something magically primitive about the contrast of light and dark that can be appreciated even when you’re at rock-bottom.

Additionally, fires provide a source of light at night. This can make navigating the space around your shelter easier. In the absence of a fire, you could accidentally knock down part of your shelter when walking at night. This could be devastating, as building an impromptu shelter in pitch-black is near impossible.

Materials You Need for Building Fire

There are many ways to build a fire using the most basic supplies. For example, one of the most basic ways is to connect the positive and negative ends of a battery to some kind of wire, foil, or steel wool. This could create a spark which will lead to a fire.

One common way of sourcing foil is from gum wrappers, making a pack of gum a critical resource to have with you at all times when traveling in the wild. You never know when you might use its wrapper to start a fire.

In terms of the ingredients of your fire, we recommend using a diversity of material if at all possible. This will keep your fire burning as long as possible, which is important when being stranded.

We recommend using a combination of dry fibrous material like newspaper, cotton balls, and paper as well as various sizes of wood. We usually recommend a large arm-sized log as your base.

It’s also important to source plenty of extra material for the fire. You should always have a collection of back-up material in case your fire burns quicker than usual.  

Foraging for water is certainly the most important survival skill of all, as its impossible to go much longer than a few days without clean drinking water. Even a shortage of water can dehydrate you and lead to irrational thinking, which could lead you into a deeper hole.

This best way to purify water that you find in the wild is by boiling it, as this is the only method that will guarantee you potable water.

If you can’t locate an abundant source of water because there are no nearby bodies of water or there is lack of rain, then dew is one source of water that can also be used. In order to collect dew, we recommend taking a material that can absorb liquid and padding the area where the dew is. Then, you can squeeze the absorbent material over your mouth and collect the dew droplets.

Dew usually does not have to be purified, though to be safe, we would recommend sampling the dew before consuming it all. If it tastes funky or off-putting, then we recommend finding another source of water.

There should almost always be some source of water available unless you’re stranded in the desert. Yet, even here there are cacti that can provide temporary relief.

If you are surrounded by maple trees, then cutting a hole in the bark might yield sufficient maple syrup. This is some of the best kind of natural water, as it’s delicious, calorically dense, and full of nutrition.

After finding water, the next most important survival skill is to forage for food. You might be able to last several weeks without food, but eventually a lack of fuel will lead to your premature demise.

Getting sufficient calories is important when you’re stranded, as maintaining your weight is critical for proper health. While some weight loss is okay, drastic weight loss could render you unable to maintain your shelter and source water and food in the future. This could lead to a disastrous situation in which you starve.

For this reason, we recommend trying to source an abundance of food. You can never have too much food when you’re stranded, as you never know how long you’ll be in your current situation.

Depending on where you are, foraging for food could either be easy or hard. If you’re lost in a tropical jungle, then it shouldn’t be hard to find fruit trees. The main difficulty here will be finding ripe fruit that can be easily harvested.

If you’re stranded somewhere without a source of naturally growing food, then you will have to hunt in order to locate calories. We recommend throwing rocks at creatures like birds and squirrels, as this could be an easy way of acquiring meat.

Alternatively, the bravest survivors could forge a spear from some kind of stick and stone and use it to attack a deer. This could easily provide enough food to fill you up for a while.

Furthermore, if there is a body of water nearby, forging a fishing rod is another possibility. Considering that fish are a healthy source of calories and protein, fishing could be a sustainable activity that allows you to survive the elements with your health and sanity intact.

We think all of the survival skills we discussed in this article are absolutely critical for any man to know.

Men have traditionally been seen as the stronger, more able-bodied gender. While this has been obviously refuted in recent years, such progressive thinking still doesn’t prevent years of engrained sexism from influencing us in dire situations.

As a man, if you’re stranded with other women, there might be an unconscious tendency for everyone to assume the roles they are most comfortable with at first.

Unfortunately, due to the history of abuse that women have received, this means that many men will be put into positions of power and relied on for locating and building shelter, building a fire, foraging for food, and finding water.

In this sense, men must be prepared in case this kind of situation arises. We’re not saying that women aren’t capable of doing these things. In fact, they certainly are. However, in dramatic circumstances, most humans resort back to their most familiar personalities in order to repress the imminent possibility of death.  

What this means is that survival skills are going to change drastically in the future as women are put in positions of p ower and are more fairly treated.

If a group of people is stranded in the wild in the future, and many of the members are women, we anticipate a totally different division of labor when compared with modern appropriations. This means a focus on love, comfort, relaxation, care, and mental health.

Of course, traditional emphases such as physical health, shelter, fire, water, and food will still be focused on. Yet, historically, feminine concerns might take priority in the future as the patriarchy is dissolved. This dissolution will surely send shockwaves through the collective consciousness, influencing everyone in its path, including survivors in the wild.