Survival Quarterly Magazine

Some of you may not know this, but I also write for Survival Quarterly Magazine.  Actually I have been a small part of the magazine since it was created and I have an article in every single issue.  The latest issue is Volume 4 issue 3 Crafts for the field part II.  In my article I show you how to haft an axe. Not just hafting but selecting materials,  what to look for and what to avoid when buying old axe heads and new handles.  I cover some of the more controversial topics like glue and wedges in the axe heads.  If you want to learn how to breath new life into a timeless tool this issue is for you. Some of the other topics and writers for this issue are:

Bear Baiting
By Karen Hood and Richard Neyman

Quality Control Before Damage Control
By Ted Nugent

Trash to Treasure
By Curtis Fidler

Psychology and Survival
By Brian Griffin

Natural Soap
By Chris Nyerges

Roycroft Pack Frame
By Jamie Burleigh

Natural and Manmade Shelter with minimal tools and gear
By Reuben Bolieu

Survival Quarterly is one of the highest quality magazines available, with durable pages, striking photos, and some of the biggest names in the biz, they truly are collectible. This really is not an issue to miss so pop over to Survival.com and grab an issue or two. While you are there pick up a few back issues, some knives, videos and other cool unique survival kit. There is almost always a sale going on in some form or fashion. I promise that you will love them and the information that they contain. ~NM

Vet Business spotlight

 I just wanted to take a minute to point you towards a very cool gift ideal from a Veteran owned and operated business.  They sell the kind of cool, ordinance based kit that makes you feel ALPHA, even if you can't have a beard.

If your woman just happens to be more Alpha than you or she has a better beard, they have got her covered too.  

Visit them HERE

Here is a post on RECOIL

Breach Bang Badassery

For those of you that are not yet in the know,  consider yourselves informed!

I am now writing with the over-the-top, mad dudes and dudetts of the Mad Duo writing team at Brechbangclear.com.

If this page is inactive for a while (like it always is) pop on over there for more rants, raves, reviews, and reports.   Not only from me but a whole team of weirdos and social outcasts that happen to write better than I do.  Here are a couple links to the pages containing my musings thus far, and my brief introduction to the forum.

My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades...I gotta wear shades!

See you on the other side! NM

Travel tip for the holiday season

Every once in a while I stumble across an ideal that I feel that I just have to share.  First off, I have an addiction.  Every time that I take the trip into town I just have to make time to stop by the local Goodwill store.  Sometimes I get things that I might need eventually,  kind of like a hoarder but much more selective.  So in recent trips I picked up a couple items for my travels around the country.  I usually fly somewhere two or three times a year so it will come in handy eventually.  First off I picked up a Memory Foam Neck Pillow.  I never got one before because I thought that I would only use it on the plane and then have to drag it along for the rest of the trip.  After a friend of mine (Mikhail Merkerov) used one in his hammock when we were up here training,  I decided to keep my eyes open for one.  After having this one for a little while I came up with a plan to make it a useful addition to my travel kit that provided zero burden.  What I did was open the zipper and pull out the memory foam insert leaving nothing but the fabric case.  I then went on the hunt for the next piece.  Eventually I discovered a Packable down jacket at the Goodwill for 12.00 SCORE!  I now stuff the down jacket into the pillow case and I have a very comfortable travel pillow that converts into a down jacket when I get to my destination.  Even better it converts back into a pillow when I settle into my sleeping bag or hammock.  Although it may not be the discovery of the century,  It will provide a useful travel item that offers a major advantage when you are away from home.  You may not need a jacket on vacation in Jamaica but when the flight is delayed and you have to spend two days in Chicago during the winter it will be fantastic.  If your going to carry a travel pillow anyway,  it might as well be dual duty and have the potential to save your ass in an emergency.  If you decide to put one together for your travels this holiday season, please comment and let us know how it worked out for you.  Better yet,  let us know if you have any tips or additions to make it an even more useful piece of kit.

NM

A Change of Pace

A scene that can only be experienced from horseback.

In an attempt to make all my military training relevant to a civilian career, I have recently attended (and graduated) from ROYAL TINE Guide and Packer school in Philipsburg Montana.  At first I thought that with my experience as a military scout and mountaineer I should be able to apply those skills to hunting and or guiding without any problems. Never-the-less, I decided to get some training just to fill in the holes.  It is a good thing that I did because sometime you just don't know, what you don't know.  I registered with Royal Tine, gathered the required gear and set out for Montana.  The folks that run the school are some of the coolest most genuine people that I have ever met.  Cody and LeRee' Hensen are straight shooters, they do no not try to sensationalize the job as a guide or packer.  In fact,  at first it almost seemed like they made the job seem like more trouble than one would expect.  From the outside looking in this appears to be a poor business practice to talk people out of attending the school, in fact it turned out to be as sound as the curriculum.  You see they keep the attendance small and the days full of training.  There is very little idle time and anyone that is not fully committed would probably have a hard time keeping up.  That said, Cody is a phenomenal instructor which isn't surprising considering that he has been refining this training for over 20 years.  They also had an assistant instructor named Bird,  Bird is a very capable outdoors man and he is one hell of an instructor.  

Royal Tine tack shed and classroom.

The kitchen is run by Cody's better half LeRee', and she is a master at her craft.  The cuisine during the course was diverse, plentiful, and restaurant quality.  The cook tent is a traditional wall tent with a dirt floor and logs for chairs.  It has all the charm of a back country hunting camp.  One major exception is the cleanliness of the kitchen/dining area.  I am still amazed at how clean she keeps that kitchen. You would have a hard time finding a stray crumb in the entire facility.  This is in fact a necessity that has been learned over the years as the cook tent has been the victim of a bear or two in the past.  Not surprisingly, we did not experience this type of event while at the course.   The menus most often consisted of various wild game dished prepared primarily with elk and antelope that were harvested by Cody and LeRee'.  I cannot imagine that it is possible to live in a field environment and eat as much or as well as the students at Royal Tine.  On a side note, LeRee' also runs a camp cook school so anyone can learn how to cook and maintain a kitchen in camp like royalty.  There is also a smaller course centered around dutch oven cooking.  Did I mention that the entire kitchen is run off of propane, a fire pit, and one wood stove.  

LeRee's country kitchen

In the mess tent (coffee is always ready)

A very humble but capable kitchen

Cody has the course max set at eight guide students and it fills up much faster than you might believe.   At the start of the course Cody and LeRee' laid out the camp rules and policies.  They collectively covered everything from maintaining our quarters to how to conduct ourselves at meal times.  Every camp rule also came with an explanation as to why this particular rule is in place.  In most cases they are a result of safety, avoiding animal infestation, or simply good backwoods etiquette that the client would expect from a professional guide.  After the rules were laid out we were given time to settle into our tents and prepare our gear and living arrangement.  There are two guide tents that house four students each and they are equipped with a wood stove and a wooden door, floors and cots.  After we were settled in we immediately began classes on horse and mule identification and confirmation.  WOW, Cody doesn't waist any time getting down to business.

If you are considering a career change into this profession I would recommend reading the following two books.  They both contain sound information.  Of course there are many more good books on the subject but I believe that these two are the standard to be met.  It is not required that you know what you are doing before you get to the course but the more you know then the more successful you will be.  It is quite a daunting task to learn so many subjects in such rapid succession without a little prior knowledge.  Just simply understanding some of the terms and buzz words before you go will aid in success.  

The next week was a blur of trail rides,  line splicing, saddle and tack repair, horse shoeing and some basic equine first aid and maintenance.  After we demonstrated some competence around the stock we were given a rotation of which we would be the wranglers or the camp jack.  Wranglers, wrangled the stock and performed other stock related chores each day.  The camp jack performed such mundane tasks as making the morning coffee, lighting the stoves, splitting wood and putting out the wash water at the chow tent.  The assignment of these chores really made it feel more like a back country working environment rather than a school.  Any guide that works for an outfitter will have theses tasks to perform in addition to the regular guide and packer duties.  Royal Tine does a great job giving the students the entire experience.  Sundays are a half day off and Mondays are off entirely.  These days provided a much needed rest period and time to absorb all the information that was learned during the week.  I spent my days off with a visit to Philipsburg thrift shops, lots of fly fishing, and a few beers at the local watering hole.  

 The infamous woodpile.

A back country trail ride perfect as a picture

All recharged its time to begin week two, we jumped right back in where we left off with some knot tying and eventually packing some mules for practice. We packed and pulled a few strings of mules on some short rides and surprisingly did quite well.  To go from zero experience to packing a string of mules and pulling for a few miles,  on a horse that I saddled, was amazing.  Keep in mind that when I showed up I had almost no experience around stock animals my entire life.  So at this point I have gained an immense amount of experience with handling stock, repairing tack, and all manner of cowboy skills.  Now that we were all proficient around the animals and competent enough to be counted on to complete these stock related chores,  we moved on to the hunting portion of the course.

 BOZ the horse and ABE the mule,  my travel companions on this odyssey.

Narrow rocky mountain trails, no problem.  Just a walk in the park.

  

We had many classes on all aspects of guiding and hunting.   We learned about the habits of the animals that we would be expected to guide for.  Cody and Bird led us on some mock guiding operations where they played either the game or the client depending on the lesson that they were teaching.  We stalked bighorn sheep (for real)  and that was amazing to see them in their natural environment.  We crossed paths with many deer, elk and black bear.  We even stalked up on a bear happily munching on a cow elk carcass and the raw power of that bear left us breathless.  It was truly a sight to behold.  

Hiking in for the mock sheep hunt.

No roads where we are going gents.

Glassing the next ridge line. 

The quarry has been spotted!

After the hunting portion we focused on the real hard work part of guiding,  Cody and Bird gave classes on blood trailing, and even green scoring and field scoring the trophies.  Blood trailing was a challenge even for me with a professional tracking background because the fake blood used was diluted by the rain and almost completely washed away.  The lesson plan was sound and we performed the task quite well under the circumstances and found the quarry.  It was great for me to get back out on a track line and feel that doubt and wonder once again.  Fortunately,  experience has taught me that if you stay focused the tracker will prevail.  We also received classes on care of hides, trophies and meat, and even different caping techniques depending on how the client wants his trophy mounted.  I never even would have thought to ask that question.   

In addition to everything else we were tested on hunting regulations and rules.  After which,  we had a lengthy discussion about hunter and guide ethics and Cody gave many examples of some of the hard decisions that a guide may have to make.  Many of those decisions have no good answer but he gave us some sound advise to help guide us to make good choices when faced with those decisions. Additionally, Cody gave examples of many times that he has had to make a hard decision,  some of his choices were obvious and some not.  This portion was a real eye opener and a very valuable part of the training for anyone that truly plans on guiding for any type of hunting outfit.  We also received our Red Cross Heart saver CPR certification because this is a requirement for any guide.  

We took a day and Cody taught us how to maintain trails to the National Forest standard in or out of a designated wilderness area.  After the class Bird took us out for a little practice and we used a variety of axes and cross cut saws to clear trails and process firewood.  Not all hunting areas allow the use of power tools and chain saws so it is important that the guides know how to perform theses tasks with tools that are allowed.  This is just one more thing that proves the folks a Royal Tine really understand what you will need to be successful in  guiding career.  

I am in cross cut hell!  

Posing like a poser do!

At the end of the course we set out on a pack trip so that we could put the skills to the test.  We packed all the necessary gear and equipment on the horses and mules and set out for the mountains. on the trip we learned about setting up a portable corral, rotating stock and how to keep them fed and watered while in the back country.   The pack trip was one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip for me.  Although the workload was fairly light we still managed to keep busy by exploring and experimenting in the forest.  

The field kitchen,  all packed in on mules.

My living arrangement,  not to shabby!

I love presents from the forest!

Taking a break from all the stress, yea right!

 Now where did I put my fly rod?

Now consider this,  You need not know very much before this course.  One gentleman in my course actually quit a job in the city with a well known tech firm to go and become a guide.  He had very little knowledge of the outdoors or hunting. He worked hard at the course and was provided with referrals.  Upon graduation he had a job with an outfitter and was on his way.  You see, Cody will give the successful students job leads but they must make the calls and land the job by themselves.  As a testament to the quality of student that graduates Royal Tine, every student that wanted a job with an outfitter, graduated the course with a job.  Now that is a record to be proud of.  

If you decide to sign up for the course go to the web site and open a line of communication with Cody and LeRee' first ROYAL TINE GUIDE AND PACKER SCHOOL.

Royal Tine is also VA approved and you can use your GI Bill to attend the course.  LeRee' will make this easy for you if you contact her and keep a good line of communication going during the registration process.  

They will send you a registration packet and a gear list. below are a couple of specific items that I was either really glad that I had or wish that I would have had.  Some are on the gear list and some are not. Just click on the picture or the link to see more about the item. On these specific items don't skimp, they are worth their weight in gold.  

boots

hunting backpack

-Be well and happy hunting NM

Setting your survival mindset

The subject of survival mindset is often  misrepresented lately.  Some people think that a survival mindset is to simply have the will to survive in an adverse situation.  While this is true, it is also a very incomplete statement.  Many people fail to understand that a mindset is a constant.  It is with you when things are not so adverse as well, but this type of mindset has to be developed constantly. Now I am not talking about survival skills here.  The skills certainly play a huge part in your success during a wilderness crisis but your mindset may be able to get you through a situation that you do not necessarily have the skills for.  I am going to list a few of the daily habits that help, in my opinion, a person to develop these skills and keep them tuned up and essentially "setting the mindset."

AWARENESS:  It is a very import survival skill to have situational awareness at all times. Recognizing a threat and removing yourself from a situation is survival.  If  getting out is not an option then at least being able to position yourself to the least danger and highest tactical advantage is an asset.  In order to develop situational awareness all you have to to do is pay attention.  Watch the world around you and learn its language.  By language I mean the patterns, the ebb and flow of the environment. This is called developing a baseline.  We do this naturally anyway but now you have to simply take mental notes of those baselines and it will soon become apparent when they are out of balance.  Of course I am over simplifying this.  It actually takes a lifetime to get the hang of, and at first can be mentally taxing.  Believe it or not you already do this but you may not understand what is going on.  As you walk down the street you are observing the other foot traffic and constantly making small adjustments to keep from running into people or stepping into other hazards.  Conversely, the person walking and texting slams right into people, garbage cans and even parked cars.  They have effectively turned off all situational awareness. 

LEARN PEOPLE HABITS:  This may not seem like a survival skill but it is amazing how much more clear the world is when you understand the people that surround you.   As a species we are all individuals but time and nature have conditioned the race of humans to respond a certain way to certain stimuli.  If you can pick up and read these patterns you are ahead of almost everyone around you.  My kids like it when we are driving in town and I go through a series of predictions about the vehicle in front of me.  By reading the patterns and measuring them against what I know to be true and a few educated assumptions I can predict what the driver ahead of me is going to do.  Because of this and a keen awareness I have never been in a car or motorcycle accident when I was behind the wheel.  Granted I have a lot of life left in me but I have avoided more accidents than I care to remember.   Last year I was out for a motorcycle ride with some friends and we were stopped at a gas station.  This old pickup truck pulled in just loaded down with firewood and I looked at my brothers and said "we don't want to be behind that guy,  that load is all wrong."  So we waited a while after he left.  Eventually we caught up to him on the highway and I signaled the others to pass him quickly. Just as we got beside him a couple rounds fell off and exploded on the highway.  That fool didn't even notice.  Had we not paid attention and been prepared that would have downed at least three of us at 70 mph on the highway.  Now rather than a funeral, we have a good close call story to laugh at. 

PLAY MIND GAMES:  Play with games like logic puzzles and mechanical process puzzles. These toys condition the mind to play out certain actions and predict the outcome.  It is a fact that this kind of play makes us more productive but it also makes our lives better.  It conditions us to see a problem and solve it.  To many people in this day and age see a problem and avoid it, only attempting to solve problems that they cannot avoid.  I approach everything as a puzzle and because of this almost everything that I own has been modified in some form or fashion.  I cant just buy something and assume that the person who developed it had all the answers.  I assume that they had a good start but there is always room for improvement.  So when I find a better way to use something or a way to modify it and make it better I just do it.  An example of how this helped me recently.  Yesterday when I finished my last Blog post I went out to change the transmission fluid in my truck.  This particular vehicle has no easily accessible fill port or dipstick for the transmission. It turned out that the fill plug is under the vehicle next to the drain plug which means that you have to pump the fluid up into the port rather than letting gravity do all the work.  So I grabbed some parts to try and make a pump.  It is a long way to town so I am not going just to get a fluid pump.  I modified an airbrush to do all the work automatically but it was very slow so I eventually modified a spray bottle with a piece of rubber fuel line, a drill and a bit of RTV.  It got the job done.  Granted, its not rocket science but I used what I had and modified it to make what I needed...that is in every way, the essence of survival and bush craft.    

I hope you enjoyed that little piece.  It is a long road to travel when you finally decide to let the gridlocked social systems stagnate without you.  Once you start to gain some momentum never let it go.  Develop it, streamline it and refine it.  Before you even realize it you will be living an independent life and nothing will be able to hold you back.  

As always, leave me a comment, join the conversation and share your stories in comments below.  I would also appreciate it if you subscribed to this blog by email and shared a link back here.  Thanks for stopping by and entertaining my muse.    

Be Well,

Norseman  

Water,Water Everywhere...Part 2

So yesterday I discussed water filtration and some of the facts and myths that surround that topic. Today I will finish this section with water collection, treatment and sterilization.  Perhaps there are some myths here that I can tackle as well.

So for starters, I guess that we need to gather water before we can treat it so assuming that there is no lake, stream river or other readily available water source, how do you find it? Being that water is priority the first, you should be making some effort to find a sustainable water source.  However, covering exactly how to do this is a topic for another article.  I will cover a few incidental water sources that you can exploit when on the move or when looking for a more reliable resource. 

Incidental water  can help to stretch the water that you have and supplement it occasionally but it is far from reliable.  The first is dew.  Dew collects on surfaces in the cooler evening hours and will be gone soon after the sun rises.  You can towel this up and wring it into a container or tie rags around your ankles and stroll around until they are saturated.  Once wet, you can wring them into a suitable container  and  continue until the dew is gone or evaporates.  Dew will be easier to collect from smooth surfaces like cars, windows and large rocks.  It will also collect on large flat leaves or other similar surfaces.  Never collect the dew from the surface of poison plants as some of the toxins may be present on the surface and will contaminate your water.  With a  trash bag you can collect large amounts of water by tying it over a dew covered branch and shaking the limb.  If left in place the heat of the sun will evaporate water from the plants leaves so it can condense in the bag.  Again, do not use this method with plants that contain toxins.

The second Incidental water is rainfall.  Rain is not always a reliable source but it does allow you to collect massive amounts if you are prepared for it and have the ability to start collecting it quickly. Some times the rain starts and stops very quickly so you have to have a plan and put it into action at the first sign of precipitation.  One of the best ways to collect rain in a survival situation is with a tarp, poncho, or space blanket.  Everyone heading out doors should have one of these options with them at all times in the wilderness.  If not then you can resort to laying out any and all pieces of plastic that you can find such as trash bags and potato chip bags.  They are not ideal but in the game of water collection every drop counts. 

The third incidental water is snow and ice.  I don't have any lab data for snow and ice so ill just leave it at that.  Most pathogens cannot survive snow and ice and when melted it is usually considered safe to drink but if you have the means, it would definitely benefit from some form of additional treatment.  So what do you do after you have collected this golden nectar?  Do you drink it or treat it?  Lets look at the lab data again.  

For this section of the test the Norwegian School of Winter Warfare collected incidental water from rain fall and tested it against the sample collected earlier.  The water may not be from the same source but testing like this gives a margin of comparison for the two untreated samples.  Results were surprising in that they still contained some of the same contaminants as the sample water.  How?  I do not know as I fully expected this rain water to be good to drink.  Perhaps the contaminants are too low to do a body any harm or perhaps not. In any event, incidental water could certainly benefit from further treatment. 

So armed with this data and the information from the previous post, it would seem to me, that any and all water collected in an emergency would benefit from some form of treatment.  So I will quit talking about collection and talk about treatment and ways to make that water, wherever you collect it, safe to drink.  

Water contains many contaminates such as pathogens, toxins and even minerals, many of these contaminates can be harmful if consumed by humans in large capacity.  Pathogens are the main source of concern in a wilderness survival situation and toxins are a major concern in an urban survival situation.  That is not to say that one is not present in the other environment, they certainly are but they are not the primary threat. I will focus mostly on the wilderness environment.

Pathogens are further divided into virus, cysts, bacteria, and parasites.  Many pathogens are microscopic and therefore can fit through tiny surfaces such as fabric and even poorly constructed water filters.  such as the tripod filter (pictured below).  Pathogens can soak into the fabric layer and essentially bypass the filter media all together.  It would be much more effective if the three layers were made of plastic bag or tarp and buckets or soda bottles would be the best option.  Many pathogens are also resistant to chemicals and can survive in extremely cold temperatures but are not usually present in snow and ice.  

There are a few means of treating water for both commercial and emergency uses.  I will list them but I am not going to go into much detail on all of them.  Many of these terms are used incorrectly on the web so I thought that I would clear the air and get us all on the same page before discussing some of these methods in detail.  

Desalination- Removes the salt from sea water

Reverse osmosis- Evaporates and re-condenses water leaving the contaminants behind.

Filtration- Passes water through a filter media to strain or otherwise remove contaminants.

Disinfection-Removes or destroys harmful bacteria and microorganisms 

Sterilization- Sterilizes harmful bacteria and microorganisms so they cannot reproduce in your body.

I am only going to discuss the last three focusing on the last two because I discussed filtration in part one of this post with some good detail.  Commercial filters are rated in microns, A micron as it relates to filters, is the size of the opening that the contaminate can pass through.  A 5 micron filter has smaller holes than a 10 micron filter etc.  The accepted standard for an emergency filter is 0.2 microns.  These contaminants vary is size, length, and width, but 0.2 is small enough to catch most if not all of them.  There is a good, more detailed explanation here if you want more information.  

Disinfection kills the harmful microorganisms but usually leaves them present albeit dead, in the water and this will not hurt you.  There are two accepted forms of disinfection and they are heat and chemicals.

Heat is probably the most effective way to treat water, it is easy to do and very effective.  Heat does not remove any suspended solids so muddy dirty water will remain muddy and dirty unless they are also passed through a filter of some sort.  Even filtering through a t-shirt will make the water much more palatable.  But even if you don't filter it...it will be dead and safe to drink even if it tastes like crap as long as there are not any non-organic contaminants in the water.  Non organic contaminant cannot always be removed but reverse osmosis is the most reliable method in those circumstances. 

On the topic of heat, there are many misconceptions about how much heat to use, So lets put those rumors and bad info to rest once and for all.  Bringing water to a boil will kill 99.9%  of all organic pathogens.  Giardia cyst will die at 60 deg C (140 F) and Cryptosporidium dies at 65 deg C (149 F).  Water will boil at 14,000 ft at 86 Deg C (186 F) and at 10,000 ft at 90 deg C (194 F).  At sea level water boils at 100 deg C (212 F). So even at 30,000 ft water will boil at 71.1 deg C (160 F) which will still do the trick...RUMOR SMASHED!  These are not my assumptions, it is just science. Furthermore the manual for Naval Preventative Medicine (P-5010) states that you must bring water to a rolling boil before it is considered safe for human consumption.  In short, like they taught us at the NSWW, "big bubbles no troubles."  So for all those that say you have to boil the water for 1-5-10 minutes, that is not required.  I always bring mine to "Big Bubbles" and have never had a problem and I have drank from some pretty suspect water sources.

It is worth mentioning that you do not need a container to boil water.  In the picture below we simply dug a bowl shaped hole, lined it with plastic and then put in some grass, moss or leaves to keep the hot rocks from burning the plastic.  Hot rocks will boil water in a matter of seconds.  Here also, are the lab results from water boiled with rocks against our control sample.  I think that you will find the results most impressive.

Another method of disinfection is chemical treatment of your water.  Again this method does not remove anything it just kills whatever is living there.  So again this is ineffective for toxins that are are usually present in water after disasters and floods.  You have been duly warned.  

Some common chemicals are crystalline iodine and iodine tablets , chlorine dioxide tablets , as well as liquid iodine solution, liquid betadine solution, and liquid chlorine bleach. I wont get into how to use these methods, there is plenty of information available for that.  What I will say is that these products put chemicals into the body that are not normally meant for human consumption so prolonged use could have adverse affects.  Use sparingly in an emergency,  you do not have to practice with these these methods either, just follow the directions on the bottle.  Also keep in mind that the temperature of the water will have an effect on the time it takes to thoroughly treat your water. Some directions have you double the dose to drink the water in half the time.  Remember that these are chemicals so less is best in my opinion.  

The last option that I will cover is sterilization.  Usually this method is accomplished with some form of UV radiation.  This UV radiation  from either a clear container in the sun or from a UV sterilizer pen

simply make the pathogen unable to reproduce.  I have heard that this is desired because it allows your immune system an opportunity to develop antibodies much like a vaccination.  I have seen no medical or scientific data that supports this claim so I wouldn't bet on it.  However, this is a very fast and effective way to make water drinkable but there are so many variables that it is not something that I will fully trust if I have any other options.  The biggest variable is suspended solids.  These organic contaminants can attach themselves to microscopic solids in the water and essentially hide in the shadows from the UV radiation.  This renders the light useless.  If you filter the water first than you can minimize the risk but it would take a commercial filter of 0.2 micron to eliminate the risk altogether.  I have used this method and I have never gotten sick as a result.  I think that is worth mentioning.  They do run on batteries which is not desirable but in an emergency they could certainly save your bacon.   

There is also a school of thought that says you can expose your water to bright sunlight and the UV radiation will do the same thing.  Just remember that the UV light is not as focused and the time allotted for this method is so variable that it would be almost impossible to gauge how long, is long enough. I have not personally used this method because I have not had too.  I suppose that its a good tool to keep in your mental tool box but is also carries a lot of risk and I would not recommend it.

With that said I will conclude this series on water but I want to thank again, the Norwegian School of Winter Warfare for the pictures and the training that I received there.  And I want to thank the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, Mountain Survival Course for making their references public like the winter survival manual from 2002 that I used as a reference throughout this series.  

For a very thorough article on water purification my good friend Robert Munilla at PracticalSurvivor.com has a great series that you should go check out HERE. He discusses many of the methods listed here and some insightful information that goes well beyond the scope of this article.

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Thanks and be well, Norseman