Survival Ready Blog, Outdoor Survival Gear & Skills, SHTF , Survival Skills, Preppers, Survival Gear, Survival Kits
  • Home
  • About
    • Team & Contributors
  • Survival Skills
    • Wilderness Survival
    • Hunting, Trapping & Fishing >
      • Hunting
      • Trapping
      • Fishing >
        • Improvised Fishing Gear
    • Fire Making >
      • How to Light A Fire
      • 101 Ways to Start A Fire
    • Water Sourcing >
      • Water Storing & Filtering
    • Shelter Building
    • First Aid
    • Psychology Of Survival
    • Urban Survival
    • Financial Survival
    • Self Defense >
      • Self Defense in Real Life
      • Self Defense For Women
      • Crime Prevention Series
  • Survival Gear
    • Battle Proven Bug-out Bag Gear
    • Outdoor Survival Gear
    • Homemade Survival Kits
    • Survival Knives
    • 101 Uses for Paracord
    • Survival Gear Reviews
    • Crisis Tested Bug-out Bag
  • Survival Kits
    • Disaster Preparedness Kit
    • Best Wilderness Survival Kits Gear
    • Emergency Food Storage
    • Emergency Survival Kits
    • Emergency Preparedness Kit
    • Survival Kit List
    • Urban Survival Kit
    • Military Survival Kits
  • Prepping
    • Blackout Preparedness
    • Emergency Preparedness
    • Gardening
    • DIY
    • Homesteading >
      • Food Preservation >
        • Canning Food
        • Canning Meat
        • Canning Soft Fruits and Berries
        • Canning Fish
    • Off Grid Living
    • Home Security & Defense
  • Products

The Best Type of Primitive Shelter for Cold Weather

6/23/2015

3 Comments

 
Picture


A dugout can be as plain or as fancy as you have time and energy to make it. To build one you will need to find a suitable hill to dig into. Try to find one that is not too hard to dig into and doesn’t have any large rocks above it that may roll onto your shelter.

Try to find a spot that when you dig 10 or so feet back into the hillside it will be above your head. You are basically digging a trench into the hillside, walling up the front with either logs or piled rocks, adding a roof and you have a dugout shelter.

The roof can be a ridge pole running from the back wall (dirt) to your front wall. Put more poles in tightly together, add a layer of pine boughs and then cover with dirt. The dirt you remove from your trench can be used to build up the side walls where the hill slopes down to nothing at your front wall. You will want to add a drainage ditch to divert any runoff around you dugout.

If you have the time, energy and resources you can build a stone fireplace and chimney along the back wall.






It is much simpler to build than a cabin, and it will keep you much warmer in the winter if you build it right. Mountain men spent many a winter in dugouts spread around the Rockies. While this may be a poor (or impossible to make) shelter in the flat lands, it really shines in hilly country.

The dugout is a simple shelter to make if you have a digging tool, and while I have never done it you might even be able to do it with just a digging stick. It will require more work that most primitive shelters but will pay many rewards in warmth and safety.

The other day someone asked my opinion of what the best cold weather primitive shelter was. My immediate response was the dugout. A dugout is simply a cross between a log (or stone) cabin and a hole in the ground. 
By Dennis Diaz
Picture
Picture
Image Via www.pinterest.com
I have seen picture from the Great Depression of poor folks living in dugouts that were even simpler than I just described. These were just a trench with no front wall and poles laid across for a roof. Across the front the people would usually drape a sheet or blanket for a door.
A dugout, while more work will be worth the time and effort it takes if you plan of spending much time in it during cold weather.
Images Via bushcraftusa.com
About the Author
Picture
Dennis Diaz is the Chief Editor of Survival Ready. He is an avid survivalist who is passionate bout learning and teaching survival and preparedness skills and strategies. Author of the The 12 Month Prepper & Survivalist Playbook. 

He enjoys helping others prepare themselves for multiple dangerous scenarios, by coaching them on how develop their own customized survival & preparedness plans and develop their survival skills. He teaches his students and readers to make preparedness and survival knowledge part of their daily lives.

3 Comments
Jim
6/23/2015 02:24:10 pm

I repaired broken water mains during 32 Wisconsin winters and one thing that I am certain of is that it is warmer beneath the ground than above it besides being out of the wind. Making a dugout with a vent for smoke from your fire is much more efficient than trying to heat an above ground structure. It's also cooler in the hot months. Just make sure to shore up your walls from floor to ceiling.

Reply
Edward Morris
10/8/2015 12:30:25 pm

Thank for the info on the Doug out .

Reply
Sandra
2/4/2016 12:45:42 am

Over the years, I've watched people build various kinds of shelters for a year-long (or more) stay in the wilds of New Jersey, where temperatures can fluctuate from 100 in the summer to 0 in the winter (less with wind chill).
One of the more impressive shelters was a dugout type, sunk into fairly flat earth. It had a sloping entrance that curved to the left (to help trap the cold outside), plus a flap and then a door, creating an area where you could remove wet rain gear, etc.
The best thing about this shelter (well, one of the best) was that the entire shelter - the sloping entrance and the circular interior - was lined with cedar slats. The smell was wonderful - and it helped cut down on bugs in the warmer months.
The woman who dug out the area and built the shelter said it was so well insulated that in the winter often just lighting a candle provided enough warmth. She did, however, have an interior fire for cooking and more warmth should she need it.
A lot of building shelters is just knowing basic principles of insulation (dead air space), how to control heat and air flow, and maximum use of space.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Survival Ready
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Blackout Preparedness
    Bugging Out With Disabilities
    Bugging Out With Pets
    Bug Out
    Camping
    Cold Weather Survival
    DIY
    Emergency Food Storage
    Emergency Preparedness
    Emergency Supplies
    Family Survival
    Firearms
    Fire Making
    First Aid
    Fishing
    Food Procurement
    Food Storage
    Gardening
    Home Defense
    Home Prepping
    Home Security
    Homesteading
    How To
    Hunting
    News
    Off Grid Living
    Pandemic Survival
    Prepping
    Prevent Food Spoiling
    Psychology Of Survival
    Self Defense
    Shelter Building
    Social Unrest Survival
    Survival Gear
    Survival Knives
    Survival Medicine
    Survival Team
    Tools
    Trapping
    Urban Survival
    Water Purification
    Water Sourcing
    Water Storage
    Water Treatment
    Weapons
    Wilderness Survival
    Winter Survival
    Zombie Survival Guide

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo used under Creative Commons from New York National Guard