13 Survival Skills Everyone Had Less Than 100 Years Ago

The world is changing. Today we’re glued to a screen and forget that there is a world outside that we can explore.

Because of that, there will be a lot of people who will be SOL when SHTF.

Skills we had just less than 100 years ago are rare today. you don’t have to look far back into your family to find a time where people were vastly more self-reliant.

you might only have to look back to your grandparents.

here are 13 skills that everyone had just a few generations ago:

1. Start a fire in any conditions.

The wilderness environment has its own rules and having the ability to start a fire when the odds are against you, meant the difference between life and death. Nature doesn’t play by your rules and it’s neutral to your sufferance or your survival skills. It may provide you with the resources to survive, but you need to carry emergency fire lighting equipment with you and know how to use it.

2. Learning to use an axe.

If you spend a lot of time in the wilderness, an axe is one of the most satisfying tools to have and use. However, it is also a dangerous tool in the wrong hands and it can become lethal. Learning how to use an axe requires proper training and not only from books. Even more you need to learn how to look after it as it may become your main survival tool.

3. Calculate your position using the sun and stars.

You can calculate your longitude and latitude with a simple solar compass, the angle of the North Star and an equation of time table.

4. Finding North without a compass.

You can find your sense of direction by learning the path of celestial objects, but also by paying attention to what’s on the ground. The shapes, shadows, sound and natural formation can all be used for various natural navigation techniques.

5. Navigate using a map and compass.

Long before the invention of the GPS, people were teaching their kids how to navigate by using a map and compass. This is the cornerstone of wilderness travel and learning how to follow a compass bearing was one of the survival skills passed on from one generation to another.

6. Provide food for yourself.

This should be on every survival skills list and it requires all your concentration as it brings together all your field craft, tracking, hunting and practical skills. It doesn’t matter if you hunt and fish for meat or if you forage for edible plants. This is one of the survival skills that is hard, both physically and emotionally since failure is more present than success.

7. Move silently.

Although we now live in an environment controlled by speed and noise, learning to move silently in order to observe the world around you is one of the survival skills often overlooked. If you need to hunt or if you have to travel undetected, you should learn how to move without disturbing the environment around you and attract attention on yourself.

8. How to prepare a mammal.

Every hunter knows that game preparation is an important skill as you might not have the luxury of keeping your prey in proper condition. In the field, most mammal preparation is very similar; it’s mostly a matter of scale.

9. Using animal tendons.

This is one of the survival skills left to us by the Native Americans and using as much as possible of the animal was a way of showing respect to nature and the animal itself. Sinew makes a strong binding and it was used when cordage was not available.

10. Fishing.

When it comes to survival skills, fishing is seen mostly as a hobby due to all these modern fishing tools that make life easier for us. However, improvised fishing is another thing all together. Once you struggle with improvising bait, setting up the line and playing the waiting game, you will truly discover what survival fishing is all about.

11. Learning different knots.

While there are entire books on how to make various knots, in order to have a good start on your survival skills, you should learn by making the clove hitch. Go further with a couple of tensioning knots for tarps, the figure eight, bowline, the timber hitch and prusik knot.

12. Wilderness first aid.

As long as you look after yourself in an unknown environment, you should be able to prevent accidents and medical emergencies from happening. However, the more you are out, the higher the chance of getting injured or ill. Having first aid training should be basic knowledge for today’s generations, but you can take things even further. If you want to become a real survivalists you should attend to a wilderness first aid course. You will be able to learn how to treat various medical emergencies, but most importantly, you will learn how to improvise when resources are scarce.

13. Respect nature.

I’ve always heard people say that if the brown stuff hits the fan, they will hunt and fish or get anything they require from nature. While this may be true for certain cases, the vast majority of people are trained to only consume. We are already destroying nature at a fast pace right now, when we have all the things we could possibly want. Imagine what would happen if people become desperate for food, or wood to cook their food or heat their homes. Our grandparents learned that you can’t exploit nature without consequences, but what about us?

You can read more at Prepper’s Will.