How to Build a Survival Shelter

                                                            How to Build a Survival Shelter

                                                     

Build your shelter near a strong, stable face of rock if you can. This can reduce your wind exposure as well as reflect the warmth of a fire back into your shelter.The best spot to build a shelter. If you’re in the woods.Be sure to build on the flattest ground you can find, avoiding the tops of hills, bottoms of valleys, and any other low points or flood zones where colder air will settle.Look around in your immediate area.Try to find 2 trees with low split trunks that are within 10 feet (3.0 m) of each other. If you can’t find this type of set-up, just look for 1 tree in a flat area.In a coniferous area with trees that don't typically split their trunks, stick a sturdy "Y" shaped branch into the ground to simulate a tree with a split trunk.

10 feet (3.0 m) long  and the branch is 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 cm) thick; otherwise, it probably won’t be sturdy enough to support your shelter. About a serrated survival knife that doubles as a wood saw, you can also saw down any 10 ft (3.0 m) branch that you find to make it straight enough for your shelter.Find a thick, straight tree branch .The “V” is the part of the tree where the trunk first splits as it moves upward.

If you have rope,a long stick that ends in a “V” against a tree, then place the end of the branch in this “V.”Be sure to build on the flattest ground you can find.Try avoiding the tops of hills, bottoms of valleys, and any other low points or flood zones where colder air will settle.A “V” that’s about 3 to 5 feet (0.91 to 1.52 m) off the ground.Make sure you use a very strong tying material if you do this.

Tree or on the ground. Place this end of the branch in the “V” of a nearby tree to make a horizontal frame for your shelter.Lay the second end of the branch against another tree or on the ground.Use the end of the branch on the ground, your shelter will have an A-frame, which will make it slightly smaller.

 Against this main branch lean several long, relatively thin branches against it.About 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5.1 cm) in diameter.Along both sides of the branch at about a 45- to 50-degree angle.Avoid placing the branches at a smaller angle than 45 degrees.This would make your shelter too big.Use sticks along the sides of your main branch as well to fill in the space between the thicker “ribs.”And small ones.Smaller sticks should be less than or equal to 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter.

To protect you from the elements.Place insulation over these branches.You canuse dead leaves, moss, and other forest debris as your insulation.Use a tarp if you have one.small branches over this insulation to help keep it in place.Increase heat retention and weather resistance.Add as many layers of insulation as time will allow.Other things you can use as insulation include thin twigs, leaves, brush, or even mud. Add all of this to the frame of the shelter in order of decreasing size until you can't find any holes you can fit your fist through.Whatever combination is available to you.

Help stop the cold ground from sucking all of your precious body heat away.Lay additional insulation . As a bed. Other insulation materials you may have left over and spread them over the floor of your shelter. Gather extra dead leaves, pine boughs or whatever other insulation materials.Use a pile of branches as a bed.It will do a better job of keeping you warm than the ground will.

Gently pushing down on the branches,your shelter’s stability Test . Carefully! You want to check the structure's safety by finding a spot where it feels like it might start to give way. And with a couple of sticks tied together into a “Y” shape and propped up against the weak spot.You don't want to actually put enough pressure for it to collapse.