Stranded in a Florida Swamp

[Cr0ck1]

Ok id love to hear this and get some info..

Let hear what plants you can eat, where to find fresh water, and what animals you could kill and snare and how to..

This should be in interesting thread..


Stranded with just a pocket knife.

[Iluv2hunt]

The ends of briars are called wild asparagus. If I see a healthy one in the woods I eat them all the time. It is the light green growth at the end of the chute

[GoodOyster]

Cattails can be eaten (well certain parts like the roots). I could weave a fish trap out of saplings or palmetto fronds. Turtles, frogs and lizards can be caught by hand and eaten. You can get water from dew on the leaves in the morning, or out of air plants. If you can find some fat pine or cypress and some dry sticks, a fire can be started using a bow/drill contraption using a shoelace, then you can boil some water and cook stuff. I can kill a squirrel or rabbit by throwing a stick or rock (at least I could when I was a kid!). There's wild onions and stuff.

We used to do stuff as kids that now are considered "survival" stuff - make lean-tos, bows and arrows, slings, fishing poles, spears, catch crawdads. It was just "fun" back then.

[Iluv2hunt]

Well first off I would use my energy to get out. Anyone that steps foot off of a road without a trusty ole compass is a fool to begin with.
You should have a general idea of a heading you should be taking to get out from where you are. I bought like 10 compasses and have one in all my packs and clipped on my safety harness. Nowadays everything is gps's nowadays too

With maybe the exception of the glades I dont think there is much area in Fl that you can walk a heading for a day and not hit a travel path (a road of some sort). If you pick a heading and stay on it, you are going to hit something man made, or hit a river which you can follow (always downstream)

[SIXFOOTER]

I don't go anywhere without an EDC pack of some kind. I carry a Camelback with water, small first aid kit, fire, signal, space blanket, etc in there. Also carry a water filter, I have a .1 micron filter with a nalgene bottle. I carry a blade, a way to make a fite etc. If my truck breaks out in the boonies I will have enough to walk out. Most importantly, I carry a cell phone, these days an iPhone. This thing is the catz azz, got all kind of nav aids on it. Oh Yea, I can call help with it too.
The OP was looking for bush skills I think. My kit has some fishing gear in a sucrets container and a few other things.
I would be curios too, what plants to we have here in S Fla that are edible and how do you prepart them? I have done some searching and have not found much at all specific to S Fla.

[Cr0ck1]

I allways carry all that stuff and a gps with extra fresh batteries.

[Cr0ck1]

everything in life comes in a backpacking version.. Very small!

[swampman88]

heck in your stranged, make fire its not that hard then set one of those big palmmetas on fire...... someone will come

[Cr0ck1]

super duper controlled burn.

[flhuntfish]

The first thing that id do is set a bigger fire. Someone will smell/see it and will come investigate. That would get you out i think within a day especially during hunting season. Down in the Everglades might be tougher though

[Glowworm]

try the US Army Survival Manual FM 21-76
http://www.equipped.com/fm21-76.htm

good reference in here, however I feel it needs to be updated. But the basics are sound. It;s what I used for SERE School when I was on active Duty.

[graybellplumb]

I have a book called Surviving the Wilds of Florida by Reid F Tillery. Its pretty informative.

[Skunk Ape]

Yea,thats all good stuff but anymore you cant be lost more than a day.You will come across a road or house something.It aint like it was when we were kids anymore.people,people,people every were

You ain't been out in a ti-ti head at night yet without a compass.

[Skunk Ape]

That's peoples biggest problem,they panic.That happened to my buddy last year,no compass and his flashlight died. I got him out at midnight. He was less than 100 yards from the road in stuff so thick you can't move in a forward direction.

[DONY1]

Just came across this and thought about the guy stuck in the glades right now. Hope survival mode kicks in and he comes through.