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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Jun 30, 2015 19:51:39 GMT
Sam is just wacky enough were he might win it because he's not really there or he'll go completely off the edge.
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Post by ineffableone on Jun 30, 2015 21:18:29 GMT
Sam is just wacky enough were he might win it because he's not really there or he'll go completely off the edge. BTW turns out Sam is a BCUSA member also, though he hadn't been on the forum much until today when he suddenly joined in the Alone discussion thread. So 3 of the cast are BCUSA members.
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Jun 30, 2015 21:45:58 GMT
Okay, what's BCUSA ? Let me take a guess first, Back Country USA ?
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Post by ineffableone on Jun 30, 2015 21:58:25 GMT
Okay, what's BCUSA ? Let me take a guess first, Back Country USA ? Bush Craft USA. It is a Bushcrafter forum that started when it was realized that BushcraftUK was just too European for many of the US bushcrafters. While there are still plenty of US members of BCUK and European members of BCUSA, BCUSA gives a forum for the US folks to get a more N American perspective. I had mentioned 2 of the cast were BCUSA members in my First post starting this thread, so updated when Sam showed up. Since no one had asked previously I didn't realize it wasn't known.
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Jun 30, 2015 22:06:25 GMT
Well I got the USA part right.
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Sean (Shadowhowler)
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Post by Sean (Shadowhowler) on Jul 1, 2015 1:26:43 GMT
Sam is just nuts enough to make it... ;-) Its not like I don't understand the STRONG desire to howl to the wolves... I used to do it all the time. However, he has no means of escape and limited weapons... its just not the right time. :-)
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Jul 1, 2015 2:28:11 GMT
They said there's about two hundred Wolves that hunt that area. Let's see, 200 Wolves against one squirrel, not good odds.
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Post by ineffableone on Jul 1, 2015 3:37:09 GMT
Sam is just nuts enough to make it... ;-) Its not like I don't understand the STRONG desire to howl to the wolves... I used to do it all the time. However, he has no means of escape and limited weapons... its just not the right time. :-) Well he was at least announcing he had moved into the area. Some preditors would actually respect that he made himself known, of course others might find the mimicking insulting. Not just moving in and staying quiet until noticed but announcing yourself could be a decent strategy. A lot of that wolf howling was likely the wolves telling eachother a bunch of humans had just moved into the area. If you think about it though, almost all predators leave some sort of anouncement that they are in the area. From clawing trees, to leaving scent markers, to howling and making a racket. Most pedators do give fair warning that they are occupying an area.
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Post by chrisperoni on Jul 1, 2015 3:58:27 GMT
Yeah but he's not a predator of the wolves and usually it's not a good idea to let the animals at the top of the food chain know where you are lol
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Post by ineffableone on Jul 1, 2015 4:50:08 GMT
Yeah but he's not a predator of the wolves and usually it's not a good idea to let the animals at the top of the food chain know where you are lol He is however a predator. And most wolves these days do recognize humans as the top of the food chain and have a healthy fear of humans. The tip of Vancouver island is not so remote that the wolves there are inexperienced of humans. They know humans all too well and know to be cautious of them.
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Post by bigpete on Jul 1, 2015 7:00:06 GMT
Sounds like a good show hope it comes to Australian normal tv one day
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Jul 2, 2015 2:27:27 GMT
Pete, you can watch it on the History Channel website. That's how I'm watching it, no TV reception.
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Post by ineffableone on Jul 3, 2015 18:21:48 GMT
Another really good episode. And 2 more contestants down. One due to bears again, and another due to loss of ferro rod.
It sort of sucks how quickly the cast are dropping. I am bumed Joe lost his ferro rod since if that hadn't happened I know the man has the skills to stay out there quite a lot longer. He had just improved his location and was about to really do some serious camp set up. But a simple accident knocked him out. Without a good fire making device he was crippled dramatically and was right in tapping out.
Poor Wayne finally moved off the beach and seems to have pissed off the bear who's territory he was in. Much props to the production team who went out in the middle of the night to rescue Wayne.
Dustin, we still barely get footage of him again. Maybe he needs to tap out or go fight with bears so they will show some footage of him. LOL :wink: It seems that the more camera time one gets is in relation to how long one is lasting, so him not getting a lot of footage might be a good sign of him actually going the distance in this show/contest.
Sam looks like he is doing good and getting a bit more settled in. I look forward to more from him. I also hope he works a bit more on his camp setting something up a bit sturdier. While his camp is an ok set up for now. That is not a camp set up to last into winter.
Not much Mitch this episode. Though sounds like he will have more in the next episode.
Brant seems to be seriously struggling. I think I remember he was military with no real bushcrafting knowledge. That really seems to be hurting him. He is the only one without fire.
Alan, oh man he is entertaining. Seems like he has a decent shelter set up and is getting some decent food going. Though it is interesting that he doesn't seem to be working on a longer term camp set up. So far he seems the most settled in, but his set up is still pretty primitive. While an ok set up for a few weeks, if he wanted to stay for months he has a lot of work to do. And typically it is better to get started sooner than later.
Lucas has got some serious plans, but not sure why he felt his cabin idea was ruined due to low quality clay. So what, you can still build those walls. If you can't have an indoor fire place that is ok. Walls are still a very good idea. And there is plenty of ways to build an indoor fire without clay. Seems he focused too much on one specific idea and when it seemed to no longer be do able it crushed him mentally and he lost sight of the bigger picture. I am looking forward to seeing where his camp goes from here. He seems the only one going for a serious long term set up
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Post by chrisperoni on Jul 3, 2015 19:52:13 GMT
I haven't watched it yet. Did Joe try making fire another way? I know it's incredibly wet but he has to know several methods to make fire I would think.
Are we just crazy not being afraid if the animals? I just don't see myself being psyched out by bears.
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Post by ineffableone on Jul 3, 2015 20:07:09 GMT
I haven't watched it yet. Did Joe try making fire another way? I know it's incredibly wet but he has to know several methods to make fire I would think. Are we just crazy not being afraid if the animals? I just don't see myself being psyched out by bears. No Joe spent a bit of time after not finding his ferro rod, and then decided to tap out. I think he saw it would have just been a constant up hill battle without the ferro rod. Even with the ferro rod he struggled to get fire. So without, I think he knew he was out of the competition and the risk of staying without fire was just too high for him. No I don't think we are crazy for not being afraid of the animals. Most of the people in the show don't have these animals in their area. The ones that did have bears had bears much less densely populated and much more afraid of humans. Most of the guys in the show just don't know how to judge bear behavior and haven't had to deal with them on a regular basis. It was hard for me to see the situations with the bears from someone else's perspective. Most of the issues they have had I would have never put myself into because I grew up hiking and camping in the PNW and learned the behavior of bears to the point I don't even consciously think about it. I see things like the bears in the tree and immediate think those bears are terrified of the human. I see extensive sign of bear occupation of an area I immediate think, time to move to another area to avoid confrontation. For me bears and wolves are very predictable and understandable, as well as good at letting you know they are there. The cougars are the ones that are the real worry. They are so stealthy and good at being quiet and hidden that you could be in their territory and not know until it is a problem. The cougars don't leave a lot of tell tales to alert you of their presence. Even their scratching posts to sharpen their claws can easily be mistaken as a bear scratching post by people who are not used to cougars or just not thinking about it and assuming the bears. It seems like Mitch is going to have a cougar encounter coming up in the next episode, so we will get to hopefully see how at least he reacts to that.
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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Jul 3, 2015 23:01:12 GMT
Ok I torrented the first 3 episodes and I must say I am very disappointed. To me this looks just like another "pseudo-reality" show like Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People, Axmen etc. that History Channel makes. It just seems very scripted to me, which is only understandable. These "reality" shows have to make regular activities interesting television entertainment. Ice Road Truckers is a perfect example of that, there seems to be lots and lots going on every episode, yet nothing major happens. Guys surviving in the wilderness, well there is not much possibility for dramatic things. Yet when looking at the first 3 episodes there is huge action going on. That's been what 5 days and 4 competitors have already quitted, even though there is 500,000$'s for the winner? I just don't get how survival experts would not last at least few days in that enviroment. Before I started watching I was thinking how many weeks it will be before first one quits, now I'm thinking how many weeks will someone last... How were their starting locations chosen? I mean it seemed like some starting places were bit unfavorable. Remember there is 500,000$'s for the winner, that's a huge amount of money. So getting a bad "spawn" in one shot event like this one is pretty unfair, given that they were most likely given instructions on not to go too far from the starting place (into other contestants spawn). And how alone are they? Imagine that for example a cougar had killed one of the reality tv-contestants when filming the show. How much negative publicity and possible lawsuits would History Channel get if that would have happened? How easy would it be to shed that negative image off? I dare to say that History Channel does not want to take that risk of contestant dying on their reality show. My guess is that the contestants will sign a pact of silence about the production stuff. Hate to be a negative Nancy but I was very disappointed for the show. I was thinking this would be a really longterm program some contestants could live out there for months and months. For example few years ago in Finland there was a contest who could stay inside a mini excavator for the longest. They only got 30 min bathroom break per day. 2 guys spent half a year in those things. They spent damn 183 days, 23,5 hours a day sitting inside that mini-excavator. One of the contestants was in a shopping mall in my city. Contest was ended as draw for health reasons and they both got that 30,000€ excavator. They probably would have sat there much much longer. Sure there were no wild animals but in the Alone tv-show the price is 500,000$'s and people are quitting after few days. I'm not convinced about the reality part of this History Channel show. Maybe I'm just too skeptic towards "reality" that History Channel produces. I guess I'm alone with my dislike of the show... (hahaa, an intended pun)
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Post by ineffableone on Jul 4, 2015 0:21:06 GMT
Jussi, your welcome to your opinion. I actually have had communications with 3 of the contestants via Bushcraft USA, and 2 others via youtube. The show was not scripted and the people were all quite real. They were told they would be disqualified if they didn't produce enough footage. As for entering eachother's areas, the locations had natural barriers, mountains large bodies of water etc. Not to mention, the terrain and foliage is not exactly easy to travel through. Yes the guys have signed a contract prohibiting them from discussing some things, but the guys I know if the show had been less than legit they would have said something.
I agree that some of the guys got sucky starting locations, and I consider that a strike against the production team. Josh being stuck literally in a momma bear's front yard. Mitch not having fresh water, Joe being placed in a swamp. I also think the fact that the guys were dropped off at such varied times, from early morning to almost sunset. The guys who were dropped just before sunset were really screwed that 1st day. Which would effect the entire rest of their time.
If you watched all 3 episodes. Then you saw it took the rescue team 3 hours to get to Wayne when he had a bear right outside his shelter. They weren't able to just pop in and save him. They had a long drive on logging roads then bushwhacking down to the beach.
As I said your welcome to your opinion, but I think your wrong in your assessment. I think that has more to do with you seeing too many scripted fake reality shows than the merits of this show.
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Sean (Shadowhowler)
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Post by Sean (Shadowhowler) on Jul 4, 2015 0:32:45 GMT
I thought I was jaded and cynical... but Jussi takes the cake here. :-P
Felt bad for Joe... to make such a simple but fatal mistake. I can't really blame him for tapping out... without a means of easily making fire he is at such a HUGE disadvantage going forward. Sure, he could have tried to tough it out and hope everyone else was more screwed then him... but it is SO unlikely there seams little point.
As for Wayne... yeah, another bear victim. Not sure why he felt safer to hide under his tarp in the light where he would have no night vision and no real defense. If the bear was after him as hard as he thought it was... which I doubt... then that tarp was NO defense.
I gotta agree with ya ineffableone... the bears and wolves are not a real problem, at least not in my mind as I have experience with both animals. Its the *&^%ing cougars man... terrifying. We have not seen them yet and, like you said, I guess we might see one next episode... but they certainly are my biggest concern out there.
Lucas and Alan are my early favorites right now.
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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Jul 4, 2015 2:58:05 GMT
Here is where eveyone is located. It should take about an hour to drive from Port Hardy to Winter Harbour in emergency as it's 70km and it says this at Winter Harbour homepage "Located west of Port Hardy, a well maintained gravel road leads past brilliant blue lakes and emerald forests, through Holberg and on to Winter Harbour at the mouth of Quatsino Sound." also says "Logging trucks are active Monday-Friday until 6pm on the road from Port Hardy to Winter Harbour. Take care when driving these roads, and have respect for large logging trucks." By boat "To save the raod trip, many visitors put their boats in at Coal Harbour and come around the corner to Winter Harbour. The boat trip is approximately 45 minutes and we can refuel you when you get here!" So if there is active logging operation going on, there is a chance they could hear it. Helicopter that fetched Joe was from West Coast Helicopters and their main base is located in Port McNeill, it's very quick copter fetch if needed. Like I said I have very little faith in History Channel, as you can see they altered the area map to their tv show so it would seem more remote than it actually is. They also altered the distance scale. For example in their map distance between Alan and Josh is over 5 miles which is over 8 kilometres, in reality that distance is about 2,5 km which is c. 1,5 miles. So the 5 miles in their distance is actually about 1,5 miles in real life. You can check the distances in Google Maps. Vancouver Island as whole seems to be huge but they are all within quite small area. The rescue story just added intense moments for the viewers, as mentioned above boat trip from Coal Harbour to Winter Harbour is about 45 mins casually. In emergency by rescue boat probably around 30 mins to where Wayne is located. In reality 3 hours is an awfully slow search and rescue time, and in real emergency they would most likely have dropped guys from the heli on the nearby shore or done a line pickup. I have nothing bad to say about the competitiors. In fact I think they are very brave to get into program like this blindly. I presented some facts there above and I have very little faith for History Channel. I still believe that lot of these events are scripted and History Channel has participants write the silence pact. Even here in Finland most "reality" shows force a pact like this and if you break it there is like a 50,000$ fine etc. So it's only logical that they don't say anything negative about the show, perhaps if they get popularity they might have a chance for a future project with History Channel and the program will boost their Youtube fame. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. It was similar reason why I stopped doing sword reviews, I couldn't stay unbiased. Hopefully this post sheds some light on my above post. I put facts to back up my above statements. Of course I can't prove all the facts about History Channel scripting their programs but you can see some of the scamming & altering facts.
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Post by freq on Jul 4, 2015 3:50:34 GMT
i couldnt understand the problem with the lost farro rod he had a fire going already it was a case of keeping it going then, not such a big deal, im more disturbed by the area the guy wanted to build a "log cabin" in it was at the bottom of a gully, wondering if he realized cold air sinks and he was making his home in an area that would be colder than surrounding higher ground making it harder to keep warm.
as for bears n wolves dont have em in aus but what i know of animal behavour not too great of a risk,people dont understand we arnt on most things menu, if they were grizzlies or polar bears whole different box and dice, not to mention what i know of tv shows, haven't heard anything about "reality tv show contestant attacked by wild animal" they hype up the danger factor they arent really allowed to put people in serious danger would get sued in a heartbeat if they got hurt, that being said most of the tap outs have been them simply talking them selves out of sticking it out, as for the were used to being armed argument, goes to show how unprepared most preppers are if you take away all their fancy gadgets and amenity's
but still a fun watch lol
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