re: Has anyone ever started a fire using primitive methods?

I have with a bow drill I made. That said, I live in south TX and it's dry af.

I have a flint and steel and it's pretty easy that way, but bow drill is pretty iffy even here.

I use a dried yucca stalk for my spindle and western cedar for the fire board. 550 cord and a slightly curved crape myrtle limb for my bow

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You realize you can make a lighter waterproof right?

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You've never been wet. I'm talking living in the rain for 4 days, outside. No tents, no dry anything and every finger is a raisin. You're lighter quickly becomes useless, even if it was in a plastic bag. One spin of the striker with your wet thumb = worthless. There's a reason why folks who are survivalist carry something else. Now, I do have a lighter in my gear because I'm not going somewhere like I described anytime soon.

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Every branch has a different version of SERE, right? But aren't they all just kind of the same stuff? I've heard some stories of the situations they do and it's fricking wild.

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Yeah, every branch has something different. I went thru the AF, where you have 17 days. First week is academics in a classroom, a week in the woods, and beating in a POW camp at the end. The woods had some fun, also, plenty of suck. The POW camp had mostly suck with just a little fun. I wouldn't recommend.

Which guy do you want to be:

1. Guy who counts on lighter and doesn't have lighter when it counts and is SOL

2. Guy who can start fire without lighter

I know which one I am.

If you haven't ever been in the woods long enough and haven't been wet enough or cold enough, or stranded enough that starting a fire was like when Tom Hanks started the fire in Castaway, you may not need to opine here, even though it's 2021.