This article provides a quick reference for how to build a shelter in the woods. There are many different types of survival shelters. Which one you use depends on the types of survival techniques you are utilizing. This article is not a full survival guide on survival shelters. I will just be discussing survival shelters in general and filling you in on some basic survival tactics to consider. The type of shelter discussed here is called the “lean-to” survival shelter.
Why might you need a survival shelter?
Survival shelters can provide protection from the elements and from dangerous wildlife. You might find yourself in a situation where it will be necessary to employ some wilderness survival skills and build a survival shelter. Examples of situations necessitating survival shelters are: 1) Getting lost from your group during a hiking or camping trip, 2) A plane or car crash that leaves you stranded in the wilderness, 3) Being chased by looters or wild animals and ending up lost in the wild, 4) Traveling on foot through the wilderness to get to your bug out safe zone or retreat, etc…
Where to build your survival shelter
“ DSCF3751,” © 2009 Mike Petrucci, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
You should build it close to a water source if possible. However, you do not want to be any closer than 50 or so yards because being too close will prevent you from staying warm. Also, water levels can rise from heavy rains. An ideal location for building survival shelters is the area between an open field and a dense underbrush area. This is because you will be more easily visible to a rescue party, while at the same time utilizing the dense brush area to cut down on winds and keep heat in. Make sure that wherever you build your survival shelter, it is clear of any unstable looking trees or branches that might fall and injure you. Finally, make sure that the ground upon which you build your shelter is free of bugs (I learned this the hard way once and woke up to a whole bunch of ants crawling on me).
Use what you have with you
If you were hiking or camping, there is a good chance you have some supplies with you. Also, if you were in a car or a plane crash, look around for an emergency survival kit or any other materials that might be useful for building survival shelters. Consider, rope, twain, nylon, tarps, blankets, panchos, debris from wreckage, etc…
Look for a stationary object to brace the shelter against
Consider large fallen trees trunks or boulders. Again, make sure that it is indeed sturdy. You could be injured from the collapse of your survival shelter if it is not secure and stable.
Gather sticks, branches, brush and leaves
The sticks and branches will be used to fashion the frame of the survival shelter. The leaves and brush will be used for insulation and the outer covering.
Build it
A popular type of shelter is called the lean-to shelter. This is a great survival shelter because of its small size, and ease of construction. It is important to keep the shelter small because that is more conducive to conserving heat. Also, ease of construction is important because you may be racing against a rapidly decreasing night temperature and also because you won’t want to tire yourself out when you are trying to conserve energy. Here is a great tutorial video I found that shows you how to construct a lean-to shelter. The video was prepared by 5 minute survival:
Remember that when you are constructing the shelter, make sure that you pay attention to which way the wind is coming from and point the opening of your shelter opposite the wind direction.
Once you have your survival shelter built, you should build a fire just outside the opening of your shelter. A properly built shelter, designed to keep heat inside is one of many valuable survival tactics and techniques that could save your life.
I encourage you to brush up on your wilderness survival skills and actually practice how to build a shelter in the woods. Go out on a camping trip and practice several types of survival shelters. This is really the only way to master your bushcraft and survival skills.
I think that if you can find an area where there are lots of trees then it might be easier to bulid the shelter
Thanks for your comment. That is a good point if there is a place like that nearby.
Hi there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your article seem to be running off the screen in Firefox.
I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know.
The design and style look great though! Hope you get the problem solved soon.
Many thanks
Thanks for the heads up. I apologize for any inconvenience caused by the poor display. I will try and figure out the problem and fix it. THANKS!
Good day! This is kind of off topic but I need
some advice from an established blog. Is it very difficult
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My best advice is to be consistent and work on it every day and also learn something new every day. If you ever have a question, just google or youtube it. And feel free to message me if it is not to difficult a problem I might now the answer 🙂
I am really enjoying the theme/design of your blog.
Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility problems?
A small number of my blog readers have complained about my website
not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Chrome.
Do you have any solutions to help fix this problem?
Just make sure you update all plugins whenever available and always update wordpress when a new version comes out.
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Thanks for the support. Survival and prepping is very important. Please keep me posted on what you develop. I support you in your endeavors as well. The message needs to be brought to as many people as possible.