Over the weekend, myself and another commander from our church’s Royal Rangers program took five of our boys out for a weekend of learning and earning three merits; primitive shelters, primitive snares, and wilderness survival. We had a great weekend, even though it was short on good sleep!

Commander Craig and I left our church in Branson with the five boys who attended this merit weekend and met with another Royal Ranger outpost in Springfield. Commander Mark quickly went over some last minute preparations and made sure everyone had the proper gear (and that no one was at an advantage gear-wise over everyone else), then we hit the road towards our District Commander Jerry’s house out past Republic. Jerry has a beautiful piece of property with open fields, ponds, cedar glades, wooded areas, and lots of diverse plant life. It was a perfect setting for our wilderness survival weekend.

Not long after we arrived, we all spread out (but still stayed within eyesight of each other) and picked a spot to build our primitive shelters. We spent a few hours working on our shelters; most everyone built a lean-to type shelter. Most everyone got their frames built, and a few even started getting their shelters covered with leaves. Here are some pics of mine from later that evening…

After a few hours, we paused on our shelters and headed on over towards Jerry’s pond to filter some water for fire control and cooking with later. Jerry led the way and stopped several times to point out some useful and edible plants.
Next, we headed on over towards Jerry’s pavilion, and spent the next several hours going over different methods of starting a fire in the wild, and then working on building and setting some primitive snares. The boys worked on trying to light a fire with one waterproof match, or using a fire striker block and pocket knife. Mark then demonstrated a couple of other ways to light a fire in a survival situation, including wrapping a bare wire around 3 matches then hooking each end of the wire to a vehicle battery. He even started a fire by mixing some water purification powder with a little anti-freeze.

The boys then worked on constructing and setting several different types of snares, including a figure 4 deadfall snare, a squirrel pole, twitch-up snare, an Ojibwa Bird Pole, and others.

After building snares, we filtered some more water from the pond, then headed back to camp to finish our shelters and start cooking dinner. Each person received a raw potato and some baby carrots. Jerry surprised us all with some frozen corn on the cob, which was very welcomed! Most people either boiled their potato in some tin cans we all brought, or wrapped theirs in tin foil with some carrots and cooked over the coals. Food is always so much better over a campfire. After dinner, we all sat around the campfire and visited for a while, then Mark delivered the evening council fire devotion.

Soon, everyone was slowing heading off to bed. Just after dark, Rob showed up to hang out with us and spend the night around the campfire. He was going to give the morning council fire devotion. Everyone was allowed two survival blankets to keep warm overnight. No sleeping bags, regular blankets or pillows. Most of us had the cheap survival blankets you can get at Wal-Mart. They will keep you somewhat warm, but you get what you pay for. They are very thin and cheap, and tear easily. Mark and one other boy each had much better quality ones, and they “survived” the night better than the rest of us. Even Jerry built a primitive shelter and spent the night in it, even though his warm and comfy house/bed was just a few hundred yards away. Now that is dedication!

Most everyone was up around 5 am to huddle around the campfire and warm up. It wasn’t long before we started cooking breakfast; bacon, eggs and potatoes! Everyone got their fill and really enjoyed breakfast. Then it was time for Rob to deliver the morning council fire devotion.

After cleaning up camp very well and trying to make it look back to normal as possible, we all met under the pavilion for a few minutes while Mark went over some last minute info and reviewed what we had learned over the weekend. Then he officially declared that the boys had earned their three merits: Primitive Snares, Primitive Shelters, and Wilderness Survival!

We took a few group photos, then said our goodbyes and headed back to Branson. Everyone was tired and anxious to get home for a hot shower and a nap!

Report by Justin Fisher

Night time survival	Leaders hamming it up.	Bacon fying in the can.
YUM BACON	Fried taters and bacon	I love fried potatoes
Devotion	Sharing around the fire	Water Purification
survival fires methods	figure4 deadfall	Primative Snares class
Great group	1st filter using a bandana	council fire
Time for Jesus	Yum Fried Potatoes	Aah! These are wonderful
Great Help	In the woods	Survivors!
AR Debris Shelter
		We survived a group shot
Marks leaf bed		Just right and a good shelter
Do you guys mind if I take a nap	Ernie's Shelter
You should have seen the fire!		Gathering leaves
2 of these make a great bed
	Center of survial camp	Justins Hut
See the rock in the middle ask him about it!!!		Jones Debris hut
ER Camp	16 and older camp
Stayed up all night tending fire	AR Camp with leaves
Monkeys climbing around
Alex's reflector fire	Craig tending fire
Craigs place	3 am fire check	Theres people under those survival blankets
Father and son's having fun!	Man this is fun!	Nice hardwood for fires!
Roughing it! He was tuckered out!	Stump chopper!
Slicing up Left over Apples so everyone gets a slice		Rob on his Leaf bed..it's better than nothing for sure!
tin foil pans for cooking with.	Yes I love bacon	It's fun cooking around the fire.
Can we stay 2 nights?	Man we are eating good!	Jerry camped in his Debris hut too ask him about the 3 am call from a varment.
Teen Center	Doc tea Drinkers
Smokey