What is one of the most multi-purpose tools out there?

I want to ask/share a "rumor" about Bismuth shotgun shells. Of course they can be used for getting foor or defending yourself, but what about medicinal uses? Bismuth is one of the main active ingredients in Pepto-Bismal, and can settle upset stomachs. Additionally, Bismuth is soft (softer than lead) meaning you could probably break a pellet of buckshot into grains to ingest. I do not know if this would work, but from my reading it would. Any input?

Second, is the famed powder on a bleeding wound. Break open a round of ammunition, pour a small amount of the powder over the wound, light it. Smokeless powder is similar to gasoline in that it burns when in open spaces and explodes when compressed or contained. So theoretically, the burning powder would "melt" your skin together and force a rough scab (kinda like the old trick of putting a knife blade in a fire for awhile, then pressing it to the wounded area).

Are these ideas all myth, have some truth, or would they actually work?

Are there any other survival ideas out there similar to this?

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I'll have to give that some thought.

If I could only have one tool, it would be a hunting knife.

Any kind of powder helps stop bleeding.  But I don't like the idea of burning it.  You'd just be adding wound to wound. I my opinion.  I don't know.  I've never tried it.

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The idea is that a painful burn is worse than bleeding to death... you know, uncontrolled bleeding is a danger, and "melting" a seal will prevent excessive blood loss. Also, the heat will kill off most (if not all) bacteria and viruses on the wound, thus preventing infection.

I have never tried it, but I was wondering if anyone had heard of it before.

I agree that a knife is one of the best tools you can have.

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does work, it cauterizes the wound, sealing off the bleeding, if the wound does not involve a main artery.  I have seen it done, it is not pretty and unless you get immediate medical help, the wound will still most likely infect.  There is a similar treatment done to people with chronic nose bleeds, they cauterize the lining of the nose to seal the capilaries that are close to the surface in the mucous membranes.  If the wound involves a main artery, it will not help, due to the fact that even with it cauterized, the natural process of blood flow has been interupted and blood can not flow back to the heart.

Either way the smell is terrible, the pain is excruciating, and you will probably pass out.  But as a very last resort, after tourniqet and all other options have been exhausted, it will work.

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That can staunch blood flow.

Pressure is always first and foremost of course, but one can make a paste of spider webs or cob webs and grasses and pack the wound with that. Clay type river mud can also be used.  but keep in mind these types of thinga aref or emergency only and must when able be cleansed well and properly bandaged and or sutured.

~Cat~

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They would be used as an emergecny resource only until one got someplace where they could then attain proper or rephrased current medical treatment.

However since I am from Native American decent I do know they did (and many that keep the old ways) still do utilize the webs and certain ferns, or mosses to make a bandage of natural stuffs.

There is much herbal lore that is or could be still very useful today to those willing to research and experiment a bit. Many times in todays world the things we take for granted if gone in a nano second could be done without with only a bit of common sense and a small trial & error period.

Case in point a simple analogy if you will.

Using nail polish  or warmed glue on a splinter to aid in it's removal, OR just utilizing riverbed clay schmeered on and allowed to dry.

In the case of bee stings using the benzocaine verses the pulp of a fern mixed with some mud.

They all come out in the wash, so to speak. The People did not die from as many infections BEFORE the days of so many sterilizations and anti bacterial products, for one reason. Our bodies have become weaker and dependant instead of being as resilient and strong as they were intended to be naturally.

Hope this explaination and examples help in some small way and perhaps light a spark of interest in some to further examine the natural remodies available to all woods folk.

Namaste`

~Cat~

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Diseases were a MAJOR problem before their awareness! More than 70% of the 600,000 that died in the civil war were killed by infections, not explosives or bullets. Diseases were the most effective weapons used against us when the settlers came, and plagued us all the way up to the Trail of Tears. Even president Garfield- who was shot- did not die of the bullet. He lived more than 80 days, but died because so many people put their hands on/IN the wound without washing them.

Some Native American remedys still do thrive today, many in pill form (many of the OTC medications are derived from the same plants our ancestors used in old times). But some of the old tactics are harmful. It depends on the culture and the remedy itself. I will agree though that there are many old ideas that are still useful in herbal medicine today... but sterilization is important.

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It would be much cheaper to use pepto bismol or carry some tums than to start cutting open your shotshells for a tummy ache.

Surgical cautery uses electricity to seal bleeding vessels with heat.  Hard to imagine being anywhere in north america that a cell phone could not get you into a real O.R. fast enough to make anything other than pressure dressings or tourniquets in the field to be just messing about with something you saw on an old Gunsmoke rerun.

Both of which are techniques, not tools by the way.

As for useful tools, spend the money to get a good knife made in the USA and it will be a worthwhile investment.  Chinese stainless knives are cheap & plentiful, but won't hold an edge worth spit.  I'd rather carry one $50 knife than 50 $1 knives.  Same goes for a compass, only more so!  Stick to those made in the USA or western europe, unless you have unlimited time to explore terrain off your planned route.  The Glock entrenching tool, w/saw concealed in the telescoping handle is lighter and stronger than any GI version from any nation.  Just in case you are compelled to dig field expedient fortifications, a snow cave, or a cat hole latrine.  Cheap flashlights can be as bad as cheap knives.  Everybody should have at least one good one.  A three D cell maglight can be had for about $20.  It will save you far more than $18 worth of time and aggravation from trying to get by with a $2 light.

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spend the money to get a good knife made in the USA and it will be a worthwhile investment. 

Good point

Do yourselves a favor and make the investment of buying one from a sole craftsman who specialises in damascus steel blades, they hold a razor sharp edge an last a lifetime.

And take the time to learn how to use a flint and steel learn how to make fire without matches carry a tin box within another tin box to hold your dry tinder and maybe even a bit of steel wool cuz it starts on fire fast and easy.

This single item carried always on your person with tin inside tin, to keep it dry can be a life saver when your soaked and need an emergency fire fast.

Rog

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Wow David, you have never been to VA LOL!

The farm where I hunt (when not on my property) is in Floyd county. The police station is 40 miles away. The hospital is 50 or more miles away. There is a doctors office about 25 miles away, but no ambulance. Either way the road to the house is gravel and no ambulance could fit on it. Then there are 5 gates and 1/6 a mile of driveway... then two miles of woods you go through to find me.

I am dead if I do not have the right tools. Even if an ATV was waiting to take me to a 4x4 at the very scene of the accident, it is at LEAST 40 minuites to the hospital.

Cell phones? Ok... if you want to play games, that's fine. No service otherwise.

I have never seen "Gunsmoke". I saw a parody of it on The Simpsons, but that was just some dancing Native Americans. My idea came from the fact that smokeless powder burns hot, and does not explode, when in open air. And, on the show "Lost", I saw it used. A T.V. show I know, but theoretically it would work.

Not attacking you David, it's just that hunting is not always that easy. Most people out there don't know what a cell phone is. For us... well, make do or make dead.

For knives, I have ones that are too cheap and ones that are too expensive. I have a $200 one, it costed more than most of my guns and has a Moose antler handle and some of the best steel ever invented, hand-crafted in Alaska. I have a $1.50 Fury knife too. The $1.50 knife has skinned game, cut rope, shaved sticks and done everything I ask of it. I have had it for 5 years at least, and from hunting trips to Boy Scout campouts it has held up. Then again, I may have just gotten lucky. Has anyone else tried the Fury brand?

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No surprise about Mr. Brooke.  WWII was the first time in history that more soldiers died of wounds than did of disease.  Which brings up the matter of insect repellant being of great usefulness any time other than the dead of winter when our insect pals are not out chewing on us.

FRS radios are cheap and real handy if more than one person in more than one location are in your outdoor party.

Fifty miles from a hospital, part of which is a gravel road, ain't exactly the third world Deric.  Unless one has a head injury w/loss of consciousnes, they should be able to apply their own tourniqet.  Unless one has a spinal injury that impairs mobility, they should be able to make it to definitive medical treatment in a couple hours or so.  In most of the USA a cell phone could get you a helicopter ambulance considerably sooner.  Which of course points out the need for some basic first aid supplies for any back country jaunt.  You should be able to make your own kit to cover most contingencies for about the size of an index card box and a pound or less of weight. 

Having just spent a couple days getting my stuff ready for deer season in WI, I gotta plug a great product.  Ultra Seal from the REI Co-Op is the best stuff I've ever run into for waterproofing leather.  It is silicone, so it is breathable unlike waxes or oils.  Real easy to apply & not particularly messy or smelly either.  I still had dry feet last year when I sunk in a muck hole in a marsh up to my boot tops.  Just finished applying it to boots, belts, holsters, & gloves.  I'm set to be warm & dry for another season, regardless of NOV weather.

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David...

Carteroid artery, femorial artery, broken leg or broken legs, spinal injury, anything that blinds you, broken arms... there are thousands of things that kill you even with modern first aid kits. A broken rib can lead to piercing something and internal bleeding. Swallowing something- even just a bug- can lead to bad things.

WWI was a giant technicality. More people died of disease, but for a different reason than all other wars. In other wars, like the US Civil War, infections in wounds and after surgery led to most deaths. However, in WWI, it was totally different. The ancient Spanish Flu came back and for the first time since the middle ages it became a massive death causer- a pandemic. Unlike other wars, the Spanish Flu was spread by being with someone, sharing food or drinks or coughing or sneezing getting on someone else. No wounds were involved in this case.

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Actually typhus & pneumonia are the traditional most common causes of morbidity in warfare prior to WWII.  Improvements? in pesticide technology such as the invention of DDT, and better sanitation and medical treatment in WWII finally pushed disease down below wound effects as the leading cause of death for the first time in the history of warfare.

One's probability of surviving any sort of trauma other than GSW's in the woods is >90% in the USA. 

But don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.  I'm looking forward to hearing about how many teeth you chip trying to pull the bullet from a 7.62X54R so you can pour the powder from the case in a superficial laceration and light it for the fun of the experience.  I have an uncle who as a kid pulled several bullets & dumped the powder in a soup bowl and lit it for sport.  His eyebrows grew back in a couple months, no big deal.  By the way, bismuth is the component of pepto bismol used for diarrhea, not upset stomachs.  That is the stuff in pepto that turns your stool black.  I think carrying extra toilet paper into the forest would serve you better than eating your shot shells?  It is much lighter to carry as well. 

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nothing like  being secure while we are all experts I suggest if you are going into the country for a hunting or hikeing exp. some basic common sense goes along way knowing basic first aide and some rather out reaching ideas or options could never hurt.no one plans on slipping and sliding down that small creek to have their pride and joy hunting knife slice thru leg or what ever and nick an artery. stoppoing blood loss is priority. how ever some one else knowing where your at with an expected time out is a great way to save a life let some one know where your gonna be.dont take much blood to go into shock and all that goes with it

never take a hunting trip lightly as far as safety.a small injury can turn very serious very quick at the bottom of a hollar or revein .

everhave a bow string break and get  hit in eye with arrow? black powder gun hang fire?  it can happen   be secure in you safety and enjoy your hunt. some times a matter of minutes can meen life or death. ever fall out tree stand or shoot by another hunter  the best cure is a secure.

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I agree with the Knife as the best survival tool I carry a ruauna

I would bet my life on it any time.

cost me about 4oo. its a hell of a knife

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