Concealed Wilderness Fire: The Dakota Fire Pit
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- Опубліковано 24 січ 2019
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The Dakota Fire Pit is an extremely efficient fire. It performs very similar to the Swedish Fire Torch. It is a great option for a low-profile, concealed fire in the wilderness.
This may be a technique you want to learn that could be applicable to survival, bushcraft, preparedness, tactical survival, escape and evasion, or just camping.
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I love that you put the cautions, disclaimers, and environmental responsibility reminder right at the beginning. Should head off some of those comment section trolls!
You are the first person I've seen go into the underground fire possibility. Thanks for that. I travel in my job and I saw a peat fire while driving through Southern Georgia. Excellent information. This is the best video on the Dakota fire pit that I've seen.
That's true! Watched many videos about Dakota fire pit nobody mentioned that! Thanks Joshua!
Ive made a few of these throughout my life but i never even knew root fires were possible. Anywhere. So again; here we are! Thank you for the lesson! 👍
Thank you for your sacrifice and service to our country !!
Super unique survival and outdoor bug out tips. Love our US military. Thanks brother!
Being in Minnesota, we have several peat bogs, and our fair share of uneducated people. It's nice to see someone who cares about his viewers as well as the environment. Great video, as always.
Up North Prepper Milaca here,I have to be wicked careful up here!
Thank you very much for the extensive explanation of everything that needs to be done to do it right. Thank you for sharing
Ty for the preamble as most dont care to talk about fire safety with this fire type. Often, things that go without saying, should be said.
Thank you for the knowledge fellow patriot. Appreciate you.
Great info...but don't let those flames get to high or you will scorch the leaves on those small trees. Then there will be a tell tell sign if you're being tracked.
Great video. The dakota pit works excellent for cooking and being extremely efficient with the amount of fuel it takes to burn. Same concept as a rocket stove. Super useful knowledge. Thanks for sharing!
Love D.F.H.s!!! They’re great for cooking and making coffee over also.
Really nice demo. I use a 1" PVC pipe w a one sided point sawed onto it & pound & drill it in from the air hole to the fire hole.
Essential knowledge. Including the warnings. Thank you.
I've never used a Dakota Fire Pit, after watching your video I now have a general idea about them, I'll have to practice making one so can get use to it.
Excellent presentation brother! I have used these on occasion and it is amazing how efficient they are with fuel. Great example of "leave no trace" as well. Take care.
As a retired SERE Instructor, we taught this method, but, what most people don't understand is that while making a fire near a tree during the daytime to break up any smoke that may be produced by your fire, building and using a Dakota hole fire at night will light up the underside of any branches and the trunk of the tree that are above the fire.
Very true. When I teach this in person I teach them to do this away from camp and only long enough to boil water/cook what they need and then sterilize and move away to set up a RON or shelter. With any luck that will give them some distance from any unwanted attention. Of course there will still be sign left behind but we lessen it as much as possible when we can.
I used a Dakota Fire Pit for the first time this weekend. I was out in the desert and it was a really windy so I built a DFP for my cooking fire and it worked perfectly! I was worried because the soil is very sandy. But because of the recent rains in California, it was like wet beach sand so the hole held its shape and the air tunnel didn't collapse! I was very proud of myself for getting it right the first time! And it was because of your videos, not because of my skill level, that I was successful!
YES! Love learning about people getting outside and trying these things out for themselves. I can put the bug in your ear with a video, but there is no substitute for actual experience. Well done! Glad you were able to learn the technique from one of my videos, that is my goal. Reproducible results for people.
@@GrayBeardedGreenBeret I have learned a TON of things from your videos! I hope you continue to share your knowledge with the world! So few "men" have these skills and it's a damn shame.
I had heard of this type of fire pit,but had never seen a demonstration. Great safety advice too. Thanks
Enjoyed the video. The preface enhances the the overall message.
No other words but.... perfect
This is a great idea. My interest in bush craft was fired while I was a small child in the cub scouts. I heard of the Dakota fire pit as being used on the plains during the indian wars to keep from being found. I was hooked. I have stayed engaged my whole life learning new things. The Dakota Fire Hole is responsible for me being prepared today.
Being from Eastern NC I knew that doing this in the sandy soil would be a major task. Great work.
Scared the hell out of me when the guitar came in, thought the guitar player was coming through my left window! Lol good vid thanks for sharing sir.
Awesome advice and a great low vis option if a fire is necessary. Here in St. Louis I'm working mostly with clay and loam instead of sand, but I'll have to give this some practice.
great point josh. alot of people starting out in survival and bushcraft dont take these things into consideration. as a former hotshot i get angry when i see idiots in the forest starting unnecessary fires and or not putting out their campfires when they think that just because its in a fire pit theres no need for worry.
Great video lots of good information given and explained very well. Thanks and keep the videos coming.
Very nice block of instruction. The boy back at mackall would be proud.
I really enjoy your channel and its content! I just found it a couple days ago so I'm playing catch up on all your clips! It's nice to see how much we are alike with mindset and personal pre fences. Keep up the good work and keep the videos coming.
I saw this many years ago on the show Man v Wild with Bear Grylls. I have done it anually at a boy scout campout for my troop. My favorite type of fire in my area of Ohio
This is fantastic. Thank you so much.
Nice demonstration. Thanks for the refresher course.
Avery video you make are so packed with great information
Great videos. Thank you for showing us your special little fire.
By far the best Dakota pit i have saved.. Thank you
thank you for the demonstration!
Great information from you as always! Thank you!
You really make a fabulous explanation of everything. You are a great teacher.
Thank you. I enjoyed this the second time around. The preamble is a smart addition.
best stealth fire video out there ! thank you
Joshua, thanks for sharing, great information !
Awesome Info and Precautions (as other have said..) I've enjoyed this way when out if no fire ring is available..
An excellent demonstration!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
There are a few discussions about being tracked here in the comments and they all contain valid points. I'd like to note that a key difference between SHTF vs enemy presence is observation vs detection. SHTF is about protecting limited resources from opportunists. Certainly, they will often be desperate opportunists who act irrationally in the heat of the moment, but they possess neither the resources nor the intent to gamble on a dedicated track. I'd feel very comfortable using a discretionary fire and moving on. Even those opportunists that do take notice are not going to roll up on someone like Josh and think, "hallejulah, this guy's easy pickings!" On the other hand, when a SHTF situation endures to the point of evading a persistent enemy presence, you've got a whole different set of problems. By all means, correct me if I'm wrong.
Saw this video posted by somebody else, at some point. Still a solid video
I dont remember the beginning segment with the root fire warning at the beginning. Definitely very important.
great content, very thorough, didn't think of the tracker component, and i guess its just good to leave things how you found it.
I enjoyed the video. Thank you!
Hey Josh again another really useful video. Can't wait to try making one of these.
Excellent video. Great information on safety. The other videos that I have seen only do the pit there is no other information expressed as to why, where, and when to use this type of fire. Thank you.👍🏻
Deja vu. Thanks for sharing, J.
I was cleaning up my property of any dead wood & started a burn pile. The center piece of the pile was a tree that was too close to the house & I removed it, root & all with a dozer. The root ball was 6' in diameter. Root & dirt. I pushed it out to the burn pile. I cut the tree up & folded it up on the root ball & over the course of a year covered the ball with organic materials that I wanted to dispose of. I set the pile on fire during the winter snow as I am concerned about the fire getting away from me and so far that has not happened. As the pile burned I used a Ford 5000 with a box blade to push the un burned material together & the root ball as the target. Over the course of 5 days, 95% of the pile was successfully burned except the root ball. I went to the house because i was cold! I returned in the spring, 4 months later to bushog & when I got up to the root ball found that was still "smoldering". You could see day light where 6' of root was completely burned out. I was shocked & immediately changed over to my box blade & pushed the smoldering root ball into my pond, putting the smoldering root system out. You cannot over emphasize the care you need in protecting the root system of a tree when using a field fire. Well done Mr. Graybeard. Give us some more!
i appreciate that you are a steward of earth. i am a prepper and was a bio student.enjoy your class
Awesome video my friend! Thanks for sharing and have a blessed day!
Great video. Thx.
As always very informative
Love the vids, that's very good training.
Very informative! thanks
This info is awesome
Did not realize you could start a robot fire. Just another great video
Pretty good video. Informative.
Awesome
Very informative video.
Great post
Good video and information.
Thorough from safety, context of use, perspective on this techniques purpose, and well executed and taught demo. Brilliant brother. Thank you!
Hey man great information!
Your videos are so informative. I like that you use a Mora knife, which are excellent and very reasonably priced. I use the Robust which is much cheaper than yours but still a great knife. Thanks for all the warnings a the beginning. Great presenting skills if I may say.
Dakota pit is nice, just make sure to have a good amount of soil that you can pile back on; fire kills the soil and makes it hard for stuff to grow back.
Still though, have fun and be safe :)
great
Nicely done as always Brother. Especially the warnings, not covered enough. A few hints for the viewers (I'm sure you already know 😉) a couple of flat rocks in the bottom of the fire hole can help with ground moisture and building it on a bank in a "L" shape can speed things up. Learned that from Lars over at Survival Russia. Carry on!
Both great tips and will be covered in the future. Thanks for watching and commenting
@@GrayBeardedGreenBeret glad to help! BTW I like the Paracord wrap on the ,E-tool. Never enough cordage!
If you're worried about being tracked in a span of 48 hoursish or less, you can't stop to build a fire and expect it to not be found, Dakota or not. My limited tracking experience would lead me to where you built the fire, and perhaps I would not find the fire pit but would know you stopped there, were on your knees, were performing an activity, etc... My instructors are far more experienced and knowledgeable than I am, and would figure out in minutes that a Dakota fire pit was made. Bruised green vegetation (stepped on or grabbed), top shine, prints on leaves and in the dirt under the leaves, even the TINDER GATHERING earlier in the field are just some of the signs that tell the story. In fact, if they lost your trail, the fire pit area is where they would pick it up again and continue the chase. I have the Dakota fire pit video in my to do list. They come in handy in windy weather, dry areas, keeping a low profile, and are great at leaving no trace for other campers and hikers.
Love your vids and instruction. Thanks for sharing, keep up the good work!
Definitely wouldn’t fool trained or experienced, including myself, but you can probably agree that there aren’t many of us trained and experienced in tracking. I think this technique will certainly help with the amount of displacement and is way less obvious than a surface fire. Good points.
@@GrayBeardedGreenBeret This is true. Most would not notice a sign that was left on purpose! Thanks for the reply!
Huh? Start the post saying anybody with experience could track the Dakota fire pit. End post saying it is a great leave no trace method. One or the other, but it can't be both.
@@mattmiller1179 Leave no trace means dont make a mess for others and make it look natural. To the trained, there is always a trace.
@Josh M The difference in appearance ground debris and grass has after being walked upon. Usually only visible from the correct angle. Sometimes it looks shinier, so the label has stuck.
Thanks so much. I've heard of one, however, never saw it put so simple and clearly. the step by step, and detailed info along with the cautions and preservation ideas were excellent.
One question, digging that close to a tree you will inevitably hit a bed ot roots everywhere. You can't avoid it, trees have roots, the closer to a tree, the bigger and more roots you have.
Yes, you will have roots. It’s not as big of a concern as most make it out to be. Just something to be aware of. You have to make sure this is out just the same as you do a surface fire which is also capable of starting a forest ablaze
Great video on safety and technique. I would challenge the assumption that it’s only useful for E&E. They can be very helpful for windy conditions and as you mentioned carry most of the benefits of a rocket stove without carrying the stove. Also, a lot of the risks of being right next to tree go away when concealment isn’t required.
Definitely not just for E&E, that wasn’t meant to be the implication and I don’t remember saying it was only useful for that.
Great video! New subscriber👍
Welcome!
Isn't this an older video? Either way it's good knowledge and thank you for sharing it.
It was originally filmed in 2018, yes. The preface was filmed recently
I'm guessing you got a few questions when you originally posted this video. Just as good the second time around.
A few months ago lightning struck a tree on side of mountain a couple miles from house. Three days later a wild fire took over side of Mtns several blocks evacuated, basically a real mess. Reason for delay was fire travelled through root system underground half mile from lightning strike.
Thanks for the great video, maybe sometime you could put out something on hygiene and sanatation in the wild when a guy has no soap. I have yet to come across anyone teaching on that. Thanks for all that you do.
Sigma3 survival school has a whole series on camp hygiene. Might be worth a look if you've never heard of them.
@@machodeth4822 thanks will CK it out
Cool stuff.
If you’re going to build that to stay concealed from someone tracking you, how far (or close) away would your trackers have to be for you to decide to not build one?
Excellent Safety Brief. One thing I could suggest when digging in soft material like that when you make the passage way, if you happen to find a tin can, pop can, or if you want to be environmentally friendly most of a hollowed out branch or 2 board like chunks to make an a frame. you can use those to bore the way through and if you took the time to open the both ends of the can you can leave it and it will support the dirt above it much like a culvert. a sad but true fact no matter where you go there is always some kind of trash laying around.
Here's kind of an Idea and Kind of a question for ya, since it seems like you are doing some more of the escape and evasion stuff. here is a topic that may or may not come up that often. When your bug out bag food runs out (your sos food bars) and you are still needing to be on the move for escape and evasion (no time to hunt or fish), what do you do for food on the move?
I am actually filming those over the next couple of weeks. Part of my system relies on pre-staged resupply caches. I am doing videos on building them, what to pack in them, and how to hide them so you can find them again easily. The whole Bug Out series, once it is complete, will make a lot more sense as far as the system I use and why I pack what I do.
If your bridge collapses you now have a key hole fire which work the same and for the same reasons.
This is phenomenal training! Going out this weekend to try it out. Would you be able to realistically use this inside or within a distance that would be beneficial and/or effective to maintain while under a ridgeline shelter to stay warm/cook stay alive and conceal fire?
Yes, I wouldn't use it in an enclosed shelter but a breathable shelter like a tarp shelter, for sure.
Hmmm, I feel certain that you previously taught me, in a different video, to keep the knife stationary and drag the ferro rod across the knife instead of the other way around. I'm probably wrong... 🤔
Man this is great stuff. Especially the covering your tracks part, thanks for sharing 💪😀🤘 btw why do you do 3 strikes or less on the rod? If u can answer that. If not no worries 😉
If it takes more than three, something is either wrong with your technique, tinder, or both and you need to stop and correct that before you keep wasting the resource. Proper technique and proper tinder you will get it in 1-3 strikes every time
@@GrayBeardedGreenBeret good to know, thank you 😀
If you had limited small wood for a fire would this fire, burning hot, producing coals faster cook your meal faster or boil your water faster and in turn use less wood?
Would you be concerned about the Scent of the smoke on the sapling ? If you were being tracked that is.
For a trained tracker there is still enough going on that would be hard to hide, luckily there aren’t that many. The heat and smoke discolored and dried/wilted the leaves even with this one.
Stupid question but made me think: can I feed this fire from my secondary/wind hole (example would be if I were boiling water over main hole)? Besides momentarily blocking the wind/air are there any other advantages/disadvantages to doing it this way? Thank you for your time.
You could probably get away with that
@thegraybeardedgreenberet I know this video is somewhat old, but I looked through the comments and could not find any information. Who makes that shovel and badass sheath for it??
Hey the Gray Bearded Green Beret! I have an interesting piece of information to share with you. I read a survival manual (I have no idea which book or where) a long time ago which had a section on making a concealed campfire in an urban setting. One tip it gave was that you can take a soggy piece of cardboard and suspend it over your fire, and it supposedly will absorb some of the smoke and serve to mask the smell and make it not travel as far. I'm not sure if it's true but maybe it's something you could try out in future videos (hanging a wet blanket, etc over this type of concealed fire in a wilderness setting?). Anyway, your videos rock man, keep the amazing content coming. Peace
I am not sure that is true. I know that tree branches will dissipate the smoke a bit, I talk about that in my Dakota Fire Pit video. I would say a blanket or cardboard would have the same effect. However, all of the smoke has to go somewhere and anything can only dissipate the smoke so much. Smoke is a sign of incomplete combustion, or a poor choice of fuel. Best bet is to maintain the fire to where it is all but smokeless. In an urban environment you may not have the best selection of fuel, so it could be necessary to deal with the smoke using other means. It seems to me that a wet piece of cardboard would be less porous and would do nothing but direct the smoke to billow out the sides instead of straight up; that and anything suspended over the fire is going to dry out from the convection and then will likely catch fire itself. I don't see it being able to absorb any smoke given what little contact time it would have with the smoke as it rolls by. I don't know, it sounds as if it would be a pretty temporary thing and might fall into the "hack" category more than being useful. The value of the tree branches is that they would take a column of smoke and dissipate it into dozens of smaller columns of smoke so they would be a bit less visible over distance. Maybe if you poked several holes in the cardboard to achieve that same thing it could be useful. Just mentally spit-balling all of this.
@@GrayBeardedGreenBeret Thanks for the reply man! Great to get your take on this. I can't remember where I read this. I want to say it was one of those "zombie apocalypse" survival manuals that was a fad years ago, so some of the info might not have been the best. Nowadays I rely on much more quality sources of info, but for some reason this little tidbit always stuck with me and I wanted to see if it held water. Thanks for clearing up the misinformation. One more quick question, what do you think of the Bushcraft 101 books?
ryanladdy91 they are good books, I have them all in my personal library and have read them all. The first two used to basically be the “field manuals” if you will for the three main Pathfinder School courses (Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced). The courses have morphed a bit over time as we are consistently updating them to make them as good as they can be so the books are now a bit behind that, but still very valuable despite that.
@@GrayBeardedGreenBeret Great, glad to see I have legit sources of info on my bookshelf. Thanks for taking the time to reply
Everybody builds them so the chimney blows on the fire. I would think that you'd want a small hot fire and to get that chimney drawing good. Instead of side-draft, make it a top-draft, with your fire smaller and more inside the chimney, so it works as a, you know, chimney. It also would prevent any flames from ever showing above ground, because the flames are being pulled sideways into the chimney. This would also put more heat into the ground. Curl up and sleep right between the two openings.
I'm surprised that nobody who's done a Dakota fire pit uses that chimney to make a little, almost smokeless rocket stove.
Have you ever actually done this or are you just speaking from theory?
Am I right that the DFP isn't for warmth but for tasks like boiling water? Obviously you can't cook too much at once. How many soldier per DFP? Or is this primarily for one/two person evasion?
I like the Dakota fire pits but in a bugout evasion scenario wouldn't it be faster to use the H type fire lay for water purification or warming food?
You could probably get away with that technique, also, if you dug the H deep enough to conceal it well. More than one way to skin a cat for sure.
@@GrayBeardedGreenBeret Yeah that's for sure 😁, I wouldn't build a fire if I was evading in the first place unless I was hyporthermic .
Tree Rat69 I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to, might be necessary for warmth like you say or to boil water or cook a critter if I caught one, but I set my Go Bag up to avoid that as long as possible. Water filter and tablets, emergency rations, resupply caches.
Lucas Forge Jack Pine Special.
Is this type of fire still useful if there is little to no wind? Or is the tunnel funneling enough either way?
It will draft either way, yes
Yes ! You did not show how to properly conceal . The fire pit. What technique did you use . To blend the surface debris ?
Now is that fire pit a North or a South Dakota?
how about a 9oz woodstove with secondary burn? Canway Camping Stove, Wood Stove/Backpacking Stove,Portable Stainless Steel Wood Burning Stove
Haven't used any of those before. Sounds cool.
Wouldn't also double as a cat hole?
Probably want to wait until the fire is out, but sure
In a get home bag. I’d maybe have to cover 30 miles do you think a shelters really that important? I’d like to think I’d keep moving if I had the calories
You can cover thirty miles in a day if you know where you are going and everything goes right. I’d argue if you’re walking home with a bag to live out of things maybe aren’t going right and you should plan on that being the trend. Why would you intentionally plan for best case and not take shelter which is critical?
Umm... Why when u are digging it looks grey like ash? Why is the soil sucha strange color?