9 ways to make a survival shelter out of a military poncho

[Cyriacus]

Hell no, I do it with squaddies, we're all exhibitionists. Incidentally they all take tents with them on exercise or sleep in their vehicles, not under though. A few years ago on exercise on Salisbury Plain ( where Stonehenge is) a squaddie couldn't be bothered putting a bivvie up so he slept under his tank, however it rained hard all night and the tank sunk in the wet ground, squashed him flat.

So basically, now youre a bunch of Flasher Exhibitionist Fetishists, who live in Tents and do "Exercise" together, then sleep in your Cars? And occassionally sleep underneath Fuel Tanks, when its not raining?

Great!

[MA-Caver]

Yes, obviously.
I could make way more than 9 different types of bag by screwing with a Poncho.

Really? Isn't that considered.. erm a little kinky? Even for an Aussie?

Well, those cute fuzzy soft koalas tend to have (very) sharp claws and aren't quite so docile as they seem.

Leave him alone , he can't help it if he can't find a girlfriend.
Besides , screwing your poncho is a lot cheaper and you don't have to get it anything for Valentines day.

Amen on that.

Yeah. Grappling.

Im sure its just a coincidence that you keep this Grappling out of Public Sight!

Of course you wouldn't want secret "how to subdue a man to total submission" secrets to get out in the general public now would ya? Geez.

Back to seriousness of the video. Thoughts.

These variations of the "shelters" to me... look like one and the same, just different configurations... or is that what makes them "different". It's the surroundings and terrain that will determine which way you're going to (be able to) set it up.
Thing is you're still exposed to the temperatures of the area and while it may provide shade it'll hardly cool you down enough to make a (real) difference... particularly at night. If the poncho is all you got well, better than nothing eh? If so then best to wrap it around close to your body to preserve heat. Even if you got a fire going... you gonna stay up ALL night feeding the flames? This is of course after hiking all day wandering around lost, yelling hoping someone will hear you, climbing up and down over boulders or steeply sloped canyon walls, etc.
The various configurations are good if you got someone injured and need to protect them from the elements but again, you'd better have something else to keep 'em warm.

In the jungles yeah rain water tends to fall straight down, unless accompanied by monsoon winds (depending upon which part of the world you're in at the time. Same with mountainous terrain. An open faced lean-to may (or may not) keep the rain out. Make sure you got something to keep your ass dry while you're sitting under that nicely improvised lean-to waiting for the rain to go away. A lot of precious body heat tends to go through that contact with the ground. Hope there's nothing in your pack that won't get crushed or soaked while you're sitting on your pack keeping said butt dry.

I loved how he says it's a "high visibility poncho and it's a camo pattern on it. If you wanna be seen then the obnoxious hunter neon orange is the best way to go, particularly from the air, while you're passed out under the shelter from hypothermia, exhaustion, possible injuries and whatever. So long as it's not in autumn where leaves could fall on it and obscure it enough for a spotter to say..."ahh, it's nothing, lets look along that ridge over there."

Still, if you know/understand weather patterns enough to tell when a storm is just a fast mover and will blow over in anywhere between 1/2 hour to a couple of hours, those shelters will at least keep you dry. Or at least keep the sun from burning you red-red. Done right, the hoodie portion of the poncho can be used to collect rain-water for drinking while waiting for the storm(s) to pass.

Overall for the uninitiated (read: city folk) those are good viable methods.

[Tez3]

My other (ex RAF REGT) actually said just about everything MA Caver did about the poncho! (He long ago gave up on me as regards anything else lol.) he did say a bivvie bag would be a good thing to take along with you.

[MA-Caver]

My other (ex RAF REGT) actually said just about everything MA Caver did about the poncho! (He long ago gave up on me as regards anything else lol.) he did say a bivvie bag would be a good thing to take along with you.

Amen to that! And another positive thing about it... it'll keep the creepy (poisonous) crawlies off of you better too. Though some large predators (depending upon where you're at and how deep in the wilderness you just happened to find yourself in) might appreciate a human stuffed burrito.