Tarp shelter How-To: Avoid ripping corner grommets out and three go-to knots, Five things you don't want in a survival knife, Les Stroud SK Arctic survival knife review and five things to do when the GPS goes weird

Tarp shelter How-To: Avoid ripping corner grommets out and three go-to knots, Five things you don't want in a survival knife, Les Stroud SK Arctic survival knife review and five things to do when the GPS goes weird

SurvivalCommonSense.com

Update

May 7, 2013

This tarp shelter in Montana's Beartooth Mountains protected us well at the end of a long day of hiking and climbing. (John Nerness photo)

Pitching an emergency tarp shelter

is a basic wilderness survival skill. But what do you do to keep the corner grommets from ripping out in the wind? Here's a simple technique for preventing that.

Here are some of the posts we published this week:

Three knots for tarp shelter building
Video: Five things to avoid in a survival knife
Video review: Les Stroud SK Arctic survival knife
Five steps to assure GPS accuracy

*Please subscribe to the SurvivalCommon Sense.com Youtube Channel. and this weekly update - Thanks!
* Thanks to all of you who support the YouTube channel. Last week, the how-to rocket stove tutorial went over 500,000 views! And that is within one year. I appreciate you viewers and your input.

*Camping means using tarps IMO, and a couple of strategically-located tarps can help make a rainy day fun, or protect you from the sun.

Snow trench tarp shelter

But you can't just randomly drape a tarp over a tree or rock and call it good. You readers have asked for specific info on tarp shelters, so that's what's coming up - Tarp Shelters 101.
The first two videos in this series were published this week, and judging from viewer response, this is what you had in mind.
I'm working on the followups, so let me know if there are some specific topics you'd like covered.
Pun intended.
Go outside and enjoy spring! - Leon

Three must-have knots for tarp shelters

Effective knots are survival tools and knowing how to tie them correctly is a really valuable survival skill.

When bad weather hits, you may only have a few minutes to make a shelter where you may end up hunkering down for several hours. Here are three basic knots to help set up your shelter.

Five things to avoid in a survival knife

My preferences in survival/hunting knives are based on experience, personal prejudices and use in the field.
So when readers ask which style knife I prefer, it's sometimes easier to point out what I don't want. Here are my five favorite things to avoid in a survival knife

Review: Les Stroud SK Arctic knife

Recently,

the market has been flooded with survival gear endorsed by Bear Grylls, Les Stroud and Mykel Hawke. The quality ranges from good to junk.

How do you tell what is a good product?

Somebody needs to field test it. That's what I did with the Les Stroud SK Arctic survival knife. Here's what I found.

Five steps to GPS accuracy in the field

Ever have one of those "GPS days" when the darn thing is providing a bearing that looks way off the mark...."that can't be right?" GPS receivers are very accurate - what should the hiker do when the information displayed just doesn't make sense? Navigation expert Blake Miller explains what to do.

I never claimed to know everything!

But there are many experienced outdoors experts out there, and their knowledge should be passed along.

I am a veteran newspaper reporter, photographer and interviewer, and my goal is to make sure this vital survival information is available - free - to everybody.

Leon Pantenburg

I have decades of experience in backpacking, canoeing and just knocking around wilderness areas throughout the United States.(Check out my bio!)

I've also learned a lot from making mistakes and hope to pass on that knowledge to you and your family.

The content of SurvivalCommon Sense.com is reader-driven. Toward that end, there is a special email address: survivalcommonsense.com@gmail.com for specific survival-related questions.

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