My name is Brian Wallin and I have taken both High Angle Woodsman 1 and 2 both of which are 4 day courses in Bridgeport CA. I could not be more impressed with Mark and his knowledge base, approachability and professionalism. Mark truly loves what he teaches and has an incredible ability to teach in a way that you can understand the practical application in both shooting and survival principles.
Over the High Angle Woodsman 1 and 2 course we covered in depth the following:
-High Angle rapid deployment of pack and tripod
-Wind calls and truly understanding mirage vs. approximate wind speed
-Shooter spotter dialog
-Locating and walking others onto targets
-Qualification shooting in high angle situations
-Kestrel and Range finder integration
-Basic land navigation reading maps and GPS utilization.
-How to make a bow drill and using it to start a fire
-Fishing with hands only
-Water purification
-Building shelters
-Harvesting an animal and all the different ways that those parts can be used for survival and protection for you and your equipment.
-Making a fishing net out of paracord
-Snares to trap different size animals
-True necessities in 1-5 day camping and hiking as well as understanding importance of weight in those situations
-Difference in real knives, axes and survival equipment vs. the stuff that will fail on you more than likely.
-Knife and ax sharpening
-How to build various types of fires
-Safe techniques in using an ax with different size handles an models
That's just some of it. Either way you can get an idea we were able to cover a wide range of topics in a short amount of time. I walked away from both courses with a lot of knowledge and a real respect for all the years that Mark has spent honing his craft. I am going to be taking High Angle Woodsman 3 here in a couple of months where we take everything we learned in both 1 and 2 to do a 4 day camp/shoot using only what we are carrying in our packs. If you are interested in getting more comfortable shooting and surviving in backcountry/high angle environments do yourself a favor and get in touch with Mark and explain what your goals are. You will walk away a better woodsman/shooter without a doubt. read more