Pick ten only to survive.

R. Macleod & Son - The Best Hunting Companion
John Gryphon

John Gryphon

Well-Known Member
The new series of Alone is coming up, the list is below.
Btw it wont shock me if someone picks a comb.

Participants are provided with a long list of survival tools, from which they may only choose 10 items to take with them. These are checked to ensure there are no alterations and that they match criteria before being packed ready for launch.

ONLY 10 ITEMS MAY BE CHOSEN...
- Adze
- Axe with Mask
- Bank line
- Bar of Soap
- Biodegradable Tube of Toothpaste
- Bivi Bag
- Block of salt
- Carabiner
- Climbing Rope
- Comb
- Cooking Pot
- Face Washer
- Ferro Rod Set
- Fishing Line & Hooks
- Food ration
- Foraging Bag
- Frying Pan
- Hammock
- Hatchet/ Small Axe
- Hunting Knife
- LED Flashlight
- Long Bow or Recurve Bow & Arrows
- Machete
- Multi Tool
- Paracord
- Pocket Knife
- Roll Dental Floss
- Roll of wire
- Roll Tape
- Saw
- Scotch Eyed Auger
- Sharpening Stone
- Sleeping Bag
- Sleeping Bag Liner
- Small Bowl
- Small Sewing Kit
- Small Shovel
- Small Towel
- Spoon
- Tarp
- Two-Handled Draw Knife
- Water Bottle

What 10 items would you choose to take into the untamed wilderness of New Zealand’s South Island?
 
- Bivi Bag
- Cooking Pot
- Ferro Rod Set
- Fishing Line & Hooks
- Hatchet/ Small Axe
- Hunting Knife
- Paracord
- Spoon
- Tarp
- Water Bottle
 
- Bivi Bag
- Climbing Rope
- Cooking Pot
- Fishing Line & Hooks
- Ferro Rod Set
- Long Bow or Recurve Bow & Arrows
- Machete
- Paracord
- Small Shovel
- Water Bottle
 
Bivi bag
Sleeping bag
Food ration
Hunting knife
Ferro rod
Cooking pot
Fishing line and hooks
Bow
Salt
Paracord
 
My choice?

Ferro Rod Set
Fishing Line & Hooks
Long Bow or Recurve Bow & Arrows
knife (NOT a folder)
Tarp
Hatchet/ Small Axe (Gransfor small forest axe)
Cooking Pot
Saw
Paracord
Sleeping bag or hammock as my luxury

Personal preferences might vary but basic rules to inform choice :

1. Don't waste your choice(s) on things you can make or are unnecessary for the 5 elements of survival - Water, shelter, food, security and psychological wellbeing)
2. Every item needs to be of good quality and robust
3. Every item must have (or lend itself to) more than one purpose
4. Don't replicate function in your choices (though there may be some overlap)
5. Every item needs to be something that is not easy to find or make in the bush
6. Knowledge and skills are more important than gear - Knowledge and skill weigh nothing and (with practice) remain with you. Gear is heavy, expensive and can break or be lost

E.g

Ferro rod - fire provides food prep, warmth, light, security, a sense of home and psychological support
Fishing line - Food, clothing repairs, suture, lashings and it will burn
Bow - Food, security and psychological comfort
Knife, axe and the saw - the foundations of your kit - food prep, making a shelter, harvesting and splitting logs, feather sticks for kindling, making a spoon and a host of camp luxuries - (I might be tempted to choose either axe or saw in order to add something else)
Tarp - shelter, water collection (rain) sense of place and psychological support
Cooking pot - water collection, water treatment and food prep
Paracord - beats having to make cordage from nettles or bark - camp and shelter making, traps, doubles as bank line for fishing, keeping food off the ground, tourniquet, belt, make a bow and drill for fire lighting and a host of other uses
Hammock or sleeping bag - hammock keeps you off the ground and they are very very comfortable - you can quickly manufacture a pole bed to keep you off the ground but not as comfortable. You can create insulation using ferns etc, however there is nothing like the comfort of a sleeping bag. Comfort at night minimises sleep deprivation and helps slow down that downward spiral of body and mind in difficult circumstances - having to choose between the two? I would go for the sleeping bag - though I might be tempted to forego the axe in order to include the hammock
 
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-bivi bag
-sleeping bag
-tarp
-paracord
-hatchet/small axe
-ferro rod
-cooking pot
-water bottle
-fishing line/hooks
-block of salt


Scott
 
- Cooking Pot
- Foraging Bag
- Hammock
- Machete
- Roll Dental Floss
- Roll of wire
- Sharpening Stone
- Water Bottle
- Small Sewing Kit
- Ferro Rod Set

I don't need salt I can get that by evaporation of sea water.
I don't need a fishing kit as I can make a "corral" type walled fish trap with stones to catch fish when the tide goes out.
I don't need a bow I can make spears using the machete and fire hardening the wooden tip.
I don't need paracord as I assume there is cord included in the hammock that can be "borrowed" when cord is needed.
I need a sewing kit for mending deep wounds also the needles can be bend under heat for use as fishing hooks with the dental floss line for stream fishes.
Dental floss for use as a fishing line with homemade bone hooks and also for small foot snares for catching birds and for sutures.
Machete doubles as a knife and a small axe and the blade if bright or polished bright can be used a signalling mirror.
I can bang on the metal cooking pot with the back edge of the machete to make a crude bell as a signal device.
Foraging bag in cloth for carrying everything besides what you find foraging also in an emergency used as a dressing or in strips as a tourniquet.
Roll of wire for fish "tailers" or flying gaff with homemade fish spear, or snares, hinges on doors, trips and traps be that man or animal/
Dental floss can be used for activating line for trips and traps.
 
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Fero Rods
Cooking Pot
Fishing kit
LED Flashlight
Long Bow or Recurve Bow & Arrows
Machete
Paracord
Sleeping Bag
Hammock
Tarp
 
I think I'd like to know where you are going to be alone before choosing. I don't know if that's in the rules or not.

Having said that, my list would be (along with reasons):

1. Fishing line and hooks (food)
2. Long or recurved bow and arrows (more food)
3. Food ration (to tide over whilst you learn and catch stuff)
4. Bowl (cooking and eating from)
5. Water bottle (for, um, water)
6. Axe (to build shelter)
7. Tarp (shelter)
8. Machete (multiple uses, building shelter, butchering, deputising for a knife etc)
9. Ferro rod set (Fire!!)
10 Sleeping bag

Hopefully these will cover the basics of food, water and shelter.

Assuming I could secure those requirements and have time to spare, I'd kidnap a local female, have kids, start a dynasty and build a city and call it Pedropolis. Not sure the series would last that long though. Being 68 at the end of May, I'd have to be smartish about it anyway.
 
With all these "aids" you have to assume the worst case. Which is why you NEVER make a spear by lashing your knife to a long straight branch as if the spear breaks in the animal and it runs off your knife is gone! Therefore a bow when the arrows are spent is useful only for making a fire by stick and bow, and a bow itself can be anyway made from a branch and paracord and crude arrows from fire sharpened sticks. Also a fish trap is preferred to a fishing line and hook as such is useless if the line breaks and takes the hook with it.
 
Not a bad list of things to have in a bag incase of an emergency.
You know, like if the police come looking for you, for your use of harsh online language or you shared a meme and it offended someone.
 
enfieldspares said:
With all these "aids" you have to assume the worst case. Which is why you NEVER make a spear by lashing your knife to a long straight branch as if the spear breaks in the animal and it runs off your knife is gone! Therefore a bow when the arrows are spent is useful only for making a fire by stick and bow, and a bow itself can be anyway made from a branch and paracord and crude arrows from fire sharpened sticks. Also a fish trap is preferred to a fishing line and hook as such is useless if the line breaks and takes the hook with it.
Click to expand...
Good points. I didn't consider dental floss as use for anything except keeping that winning smile either.
 


What is the Tensile Strength of Dental Floss​

The tensile strength of dental floss can vary depending on the specific brand, type, and materials used. Dental floss is designed to be strong enough to withstand the forces applied during the flossing process without breaking. On average, the tensile strength of dental floss typically falls within the range of 4.5 to 10 kilograms of force.

Now having posted all the above I'd sooner have had both the sewing kit AND the fishing kit. But as I couldn't the floss gives me relatively clean "thread" for suturing a wound and an in the box cutter to cut it to length that also with bent needles from the sewing kit serves as fishing line. In one sense there's not enough info. Does the sewing kit contain scissors? How much thread? How much length of line in the fishing kit and what breaking strain? But an interesting exercise and thanks to JG for posting it.
 
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I have watched all of the series one, two and three.
The one that sticks out in my mind, was the ex US Marine, who thought he would breeze through it with no issues. Only to bale out the first day after he saw a Black Bear nearby.
 
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