new to bushcraft

[gixxer86]

Hello everyone,

i'm new here and new to bushcraft, i have always been interested in survival and i watch every survival programme that come on tv.

I'm wondering how to actually get into this as i really want to give it ago but not sure where to start or what to do. i have thought about just going to the woods thats a few miles down the road and spending the night there and building my own shelter, making fire and cooking etc etc. what do you's think?

id love a bit of help or advice on this if anyone is willing to help me.

thanks

[AJ]

Others more experienced than I will doubtless be along soon but 3 things come to mind.
1. Hi and welcome! You've come to a great place.
2. You need permission from the landowner to camp in Britain except for Scotland and parts of Dartmoor.
3. Read this forum a lot and get to know local bushcrafters.

I also like to watch a lot of youtube videos by people like Paul Kirtley, Ray Mears and Dave Canterbury (and many others ).

Hope you enjoy it here! :)

[gixxer86]

Hi AJ thanks for the welcome I stay up in Scotland so permission isn't a problem, I'm out in the country too and where I live there's plenty of woodland areas.

I'll look up some videos on YouTube like you said and watch them and hopefully I'll find a lot of useful information that will help me on my way.

[AJ]

Hope I didn't come across too pompous. I've only just started /started again myself. (And it was 1am, lol). Great bunch here, very helpful. Oh, I forgot to mention "get out and do it" and (my favourite), "leave no trace". (Actually my favourite is " thank you for the money" but that's not relevant here :)

[Rasputin]

Hi Gixxer and :welcome: from Shropshire, Ken. T^ Hi, theres no rocket science here take as much or as little as you feel comfortable with ie tent/tarp or plastic sheets a sleep system ie blanket/ s.bag etc some food and a means to cook and spend 1 night in the woods and go from there. You can make it as hard or easy as you like, personally Ime not a fan of the word Bushcraft, to me its just rough camping, the craft is what you can make from nowt. atb ,Ken

[gixxer86]

In all honesty I would call it rough camping as well but after doing some research on the net the word bushcraft seemed to come up constantly.

I think I'll just go and jump into it and spend a night in the woods, the place I thought about is only a couple of miles from the house so it's not majorly far if anything was to happen.

No AJ you came across fine with some good pointers, I've had a read through some of the pages her and found good information.

[Humakt]

Also remember there's a lot more to bushcraft than camping in the woods. Camping in the woods is...well, camping.
And it's just one tiny percentage of all the different activities that make up bushcraft. Equally, 'survival' is also just one tiny part of bushcraft.
There are lots of tiny parts to bushcraft.
Don't get hung up on what bushcraft 'is', just make it what you want it to be. Pick and choose the things you like and the things you don't. A great deal of bushcraft activities fall under the auspice of many other outdoor (and indoor!) activities, but we lump them together and give it the over-arching name 'bushcraft'.
Although I realise that may not be helping too much to start with.

[gixxer86]

Hi humakt thanks for the message there's a good few things that I would like to learn, survival is probably the main one I am interested in. I'm also a really creative person also and making something out of nothing is something I'm really good at.

The word "bushcraft" what exactly does it mean or what activities does it cover? I'm thinking its possibly one of these worlds that no one really knows exactly what it means but everyone as meanings for it if that makes any sense. Lol

[Humakt]

The word "bushcraft" what exactly does it mean or what activities does it cover? I'm thinking its possibly one of these worlds that no one really knows exactly what it means but everyone as meanings for it if that makes any sense. Lol

I can make the answer to that question as simple or as difficult as you want.
Here's an easy way of getting to the answer of that question, and one you can decide for yourself rather than have someone tell you - look over this forum and look at all the different things people are talking about. They all fall under bushcraft.

[Valantine]

:welcome: I think the guys have basically said it all, there is loads of info' on here to get yo going

[Ranger]

They really explained it well, but a good way to get started is grab a knife, (or if you don't have one, or a bad one like I had), get a mora companion and start working with wood , learning trees, and just what nature has to offer! 'Survival' is a gimmic that people use to get you to buy gear like bear grylls and gerber gear. Survival isn't just going in the middle of the woods with a knife and living like a mountain man, and that is where bushcraft comes in! It is a fun way to know skills that you can use in a survival situation, but is approached differently and is a gateway to other cool stuff, like tanning hides, making leather, etc.

[midas]

Hi Gixxer,just get out n chill,meet nature n enjoy.
As for survival.there tends to be one very important piece of advice offered on here.
"If it looks like a survival situation is about to arrise,."GO HOME"!!!
unless the zombies get you first,lol.atb.m

[beermaker]

Now then Gixxer! :) welcome to the forum! Guessing by your handle that you're into motorbikes too? T^

Wassail!
Phil

[trovilcl]

One of the most important things to bushcraft............woodroaming..........tramping ............woodcraft...........or whatever you may call it. Is to never stop learning. When you come to that (may it never happen) you'll strive for somthing else. Learn as much as you can, and dont just limit yourself to videos. There are hundreds of books on bushcraft and skills for the woods out there. Also this forum seems to super helpful. These guys seem to be a great bunch. Just go enjoy it.

[Midge_Fodder]

Second on the never stop learning. I've had a lifetime in the outdoors and never stopped yet.