Undertakement: Rambo: Ruzz' Awesome Mighty Braun Outdoors Almost all survivalists will tell you that you dont need to be Rambo to survive. And you know what? Their right. But they are also boring. I mean think, anyone can sneak around a leveled neighborhood with a .22 and gather intel on an invasion force. But it would be alot more fun to stowm right up to their base with a full auto .50, a rocket launcher and grenades and get into an action packed worthy of Hollywood battle. Though you probly wouldnt live as long. Strength: Now unless you know for certain you can sustain the tremendous calorie requirements for a six pack, huge bicepts, calves etc, I suggest you dont get these. They also make stealth that much more difficult. What is better is endurance and strength. Now lets apply this to a solid survival princeipal. When in a survival situation take in as many calories and do as little work as possible. So lets say you need to build a shelter. If you are fairly strong you can do this more efficiently than if you are out of shape. Think of it as horsepower on a tractor or something. A nice all around horse power is 100 to 200. Any less and you cant do jobs easily, quickly or even at all. But you are "fuel efficient". Much more and you may do it quickly and easily but you run the risk of being unwieldy or akward. You also use up more fuel. Few survival situations are gonna be easy on you and few are going to need you to be able to bench press 500+ pounds. Unless your taking on some humanoid in the South American jungles. Moderation is nice here. Weapons: Another motif you hear is that you can always have enough firepower. That you dount need full autos. Youve heard them. I have read several times that ANY assault gun is useless against most modern sporting rifles and an experienced sharp shooter. BULL! Its worse than useless! The full auto will make you overconfident. Granted a full auto's bullets go as far as any sporting firearms, but they would have to "spray" instead of 1 nice surgically placed bullet. The full autos do need alot of ammo too. But so what! Why take out 1 to 5 deer with a sniper rifle when you can mow down a whole heard for your team. Now before anyone gets ideas to show me what that sniper rifle can do, That was just an example. Just to inspire ideas. I dont condone that kind of hunting in times other than necesary. Now lets move onto super powerful rifles. 308 on up. You need to work up to these and when you cant take anymore swat you can stop there. Dont go from .22 and go straight to .50. Your thoughts will be so rearranged youll not shoot (or even think!) straight for a while. If at all. Wear hearing protectors. Alot of what people consider recoil is actually only sound. Often you can "squeze out" a couple more calibers out of a shooter with just ear protection. Oh, and uh, dont shoot from prone with some of the bigger calibers or youll break your colarbone. Also be careful to have scopes up far enough so that you dont develope shooters eye. A nice little cressant on your eyebrow that mysterously conforms to the arc on your scopes eyepeice. Hmmmmm. Anyway you cant go to extreme with shotguns. I would like to see a full auto side by side. Enen in .410 it would be impressive and devestating. If your lucky you can find an 8, 6, 2, or even 0 gauge. Some people question the existance of the 0 and im not certain it exists but i think it does. You wouldnt be able to (legaly) hunt any waterfowl with it. Shooting a slug, ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha ha. Next we come to the anacherist. Build up your arm strength by push ups and chinups and whaaazzzups. Now get the bow on its strongest setting. Get alot of inexpensive arrows. Maybe 5 very good arrows. Save them though, youll not see many. Now we come to exploding arrows. I approach this with caution, as with all forms of combustion. (blowing up is funny until it happens to you!) I would buy them from someone who knows what they are doing. Problem is anyone who knows what they are doing probly has enough common sense not to! I havent done it yet myself, so I cant help ya too much. Make your own arrows and bows. That way under governmental lock up you can make your own with imputiny! The lost art and science of making your own weapons is indespensable. I'll cover that some other time. Or maybe here if i feel like it. Ah alright. Now all a weapon is is a projectile, launcher and maybe aiming device. you probly wont be able to make something that shoots like a store bought gun but you can get close. But as I said they can be dangerous if you overextend its capabilities. Thats why most survivalists stick to bows. Silent, constructable in the wilderness (even cityscape) and devestating. Again you wont be duplicating the results of a compound too soon You would need a very big bow to do that. It takes alot of practice. Took me 2 years of on and off to get one right. Since this is an art when you start out, go crazy, just dont go crazy while doin it, got it? Try different parts of different trees, strings, (i like farmers baleing string) and tightnessess. And someday youll construct an awesome work of force, clouds will part, children will scream and a bolt of black lightning will come down on you while you hold your masterpeice to the skies with a ground shaking yeaaah. Just think of what the people at bear, browning rebel and other bow companies go thru in a year! Wait young anarcherist! You forgot the arrows of reason. Ok enough of that. The key to these are feathers. Try some without them and with them and youll see what i mean. Simply (when devoid of glue) take a knife and stick it in the arrow and put a feather in. For more accuracy, shorter difference and a nifty flapping sound that sounds like a mourning dove taking off make them flu-flu. Put them at a slight angle on the arrow. The more feathers you put on the more accurate and slow it goes, with the previously mentioned method with the knife you run the risk of ruining the arrow so two is usually plenty. To make a point as hard as steel use greenwood and hold it over a fire. There are many ways to make points. Take a soda can and cut up triangles. make ponits out of other sticks. Put a nail on the end. Light an M-80 thats taped on the end. Plenty of ways. Just think of them as missiles and you get to make warheads. Remember this is an art so experiment with fun, unless its life or death then you can make it science. Stamina and Speed: This comes in very handy when your plans fail! You should be able to ascend half way up a hill under fair conditions with no previous conditioning. But in tip top shape you should go up and down 5 big nasty hills full tilt. Now remember to be ready for a survival situation your standard load must be higher than your survival load. So you must be able to go up over at least 6 hills, 10 idealy. If you arnt likely to be tackling hills anytime soon go for distance. Full tilt the hole way. To increase speed use a mountain bike, but remember to have a heavy work load. Full tilt the hole time. Oh and dont swing on a swing before running, you just seem to go imposibly slow. You should be able to hold your breath for 1 minute without any extra conditioning. The best I have heard of is 5 minutes by a black belt Tae Kwan Do recipiant. Then you can swim submerged for longer periods. You wont stay under for 5 minutes swimming though, your body will use up the oxygen well before then. Mind Endurance: This will help with all the afformentioned stuff. Put your mind into holding your breath for 30 seconds more than usual. Demand your legs to run the last 25 yards. Insist that you stay up and finish the material at hand, who cares if its 4:23 in the morning. Sarcastically inquire to your arms as to why that arrow has not been pulled back on 125 pounds of pull. This will eventually affect your mental attitude. For instance you will snap and start cursing and threatening at the radio when the losers on it are complaining of the weather. You will also anylize things better. This is extremley helpful, if not necisary, in a survival situation. Youll not panic, complain, or make as many mistakes. You will hold together much longer. Its hard to explain how to do it, you just do it. Use anger hatred and rage to accomplish the impossible. Rest: If you want results, youll need down time. This is a treat. Only when your completley done should you engage in a break. Sit back near a river, pond or mountain range. To prevent becoming extremley cold blooded you need a way to vent any remaining rage. Usually nature will sap it out if you just relax. Bring an instrument with you and play it. Make sure its hardy enough to take the pounding and inclement weather. Bring something fun to read. Meditate. Watch stuff with binoculars. Look thru both ends. Have fun! --