Buy Your Ammo Here

I've added a link to the right hand side of this page where you can buy your ammo for the upcoming season. Check it out and stock up.

Guest Post - Fire Starting

As a former Iraq War vet, I am an outdoor enthusiast and have had my share of survival tests including the dry scrub wilderness of the Middle East. Now while that isn't necessarily pleasurable, I do enjoy visiting local places, such as national parks and the wilderness of the West and Pacific Northwest. I'm also a regular airsoft milsim player, a form of simulation play with realistic looking replica firearms. This keeps me outdoors a few weekends a month in wooded areas and large swaths of backcountry. Every now and then I come across a situation where I need to start a fire whether to cook or for warmth. Some of the airsoft events I go to last multiple days, and you have to make do with whatever is in your bag. The nights can be fairly cold and a hot drink or warm soup can make a big difference. A few times, I have been without the ideal tools and forced to improvise. Here are a few ways I've learned to make a fire from materials on hand when a match is nowhere to be found.

Preparation and Basics: First, you will need dry tinder in a location isolated from wind or rain. Things that will suffice for tinder include: bark, birds nests, rope, dead leaves. Then make sure the area where you're starting the fire is free from strong winds and you have at least a 5 foot area clear of dry brush and other combustible materials. (you don't want it to get out of your control). The tinder pile should be piled a few inches high, and your combustible sources arranged from ease and speed of combustibility. Once the tinder is ignited, let it burn till the flame is larger, then place dry leaves or bark on top. Once the bark is ignited you can move to sticks and then thicker pieces of wood.

1. Come Prepared: If you are in an area prone to excessive moisture, it is wise to be a prepared. Purchasing a Firesteel, commonly known as a magnesium firestarter in the camping section of your local sporting goods store shouldn't cost you more than 10 dollars. They generally are small and rectangular, some are cylindrical. These are better than matches because moisture isn't a concern. In other words a wet, rainy night won't become a wet, rainy cold night because they can work wet. First, use your knife, rubbing slowly to shave off some of the magnesium into a pile. Place the metal on the pile of tinder. Next, holding the knife perpendicular to the surface of the firestarter, scrape it quickly and lightly to generate sparks, the spark should be hot enough to ignite the tinder/magnesium mix quickly.

2. Sun and Glass: This next method I have is if your group knows they're going to hunker down in one location and it's still bright out. You have to use any piece of convex glass on you, and focus it like a magnifying glass onto the tinder. A pair of sunlglasses, sometimes someone's eye goggles, even some rifle optics or lens covers will suffice. I personally use the lens of my tactical flashlight, as it screws off easily and I don't have to sacrifice or break any equipment to use it. You should face the optics towards the source of light, and with some patience and testing you'll ignite your tinder quickly.

3. Battery and Wire: The next method involves using a battery and some wire. This is optimal for use at night when you can't use a lens. Take a battery (AA, 9volt, etc) and attach insulated wire to both ends, (I usually carry some extra wires for my airsoft electric guns to do field repairs.) next you have to touch the two ends of the wires together to create sparks, place the wires on top of the tinder to ignite.

4. Flint and Steel: A more primitive method is with a Flint and steel. It's similar to using a Firesteel but much more skill based. If you happen to have a used matchcase, the flint at the bottom is a great source but if you are not able to access even that, a stone will work. The stone should be hard edged and struck with a carbon steel object such as a knife (Most tactical knives are carbon steel, stainless steel does not work). The striking should be done in a downward motion to appropriately direct the sparks. Once the tinder is smoldering, gently fan to bring oxygen to fuel the flame. Continue adding fuel to strengthen the flame.

5. Fire Plow: If you have absolutely none of these tools but a lot of gumption and elbow grease, you can try a fire-plow. The fire-plow is a friction method of ignition. You rub a hardwood shaft against a softer wood base. The base should be about 16î long on the longest side. To use this method, cut a straight groove in the base and plow the blunt tip of the shaft up and down the groove. The plowing action of the shaft pushes out small particles of wood fibers. Then, as you apply more pressure on each stroke, the friction ignites the wood particles. This requires a lot of patience and repetitive motions, be mindful not to slip, as you can get a nasty splinter from being a little inattentive.

Fires are a great way to make the outdoors more livable. You can boil water, cook food, and the smoke will keep the bugs off you. Speaking of smoke, I've even used it as a trap to lure in enemy airsoft players! I'd wait out in the side away from the fire, and I'd ambush them as they come to investigate the source of smoke (I of course never leave the fire unattended, its always within my line of site with a large canteen of water handy next to it) Just remember to respect the fire and always keep it as small as you need it. Also, I always clear it with the Airsoft event planners, or local forest officials to see if it's permissible to start a fire.

John Durfee is a Gulf War veteran and the marketing manager for Airsplat, the nation's largest retailer of Airsoft Guns and Apparel.

My Dream River Boat

Man could I get to the catfish with one of these. Just think, if everyone reading this donated $10.00 I could get one:)

BE SAFE!!!!!!!

Don't let this be you! If you are hunting from a tree stand USE YOUR HARNESS!! No deer is worth getting paralyzed or worse.

Please be responsible and take a Hunters Safety Course. This post was brought to you by HUNTERcourse.com

One Happy Family!

A friend called to borrow my frog net to catch a few frogs for an evening catfishing trip. He was taking his neighbors on their first catfishing adventure and the results were impressive. The large one above weighted 20lbs 12oz and the "smaller" one weighted 12lbs 13oz. CONGRATS!! I think we may have some new catfisherman in the area.

Fishing for Hybrid Bass

Tony Bowen, a guest writer, has written an interesting article about fishing hybrid bass. Read it here.

My Favorite Dog Quote

The late George Bird Evans writes in Troubles with Bird Dogs. "I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better. They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and do not for all of their marvelous instincts appear to know about death. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying."

Tred Barta Update

Tred Barta is an outgoing, outspoken individual that has good old time values. Watch one of his TV shows and you know you are dealing with a special person. Last year Tred had some very unfortunate medical issues strike him and I'm not sure that I could have survived as he did.

Pat LeFemine at Bowsite.com has posted an exclusive interview that you really need to listen to. This man is something special and I think everyone could learn about living through the tough times and to make the best out what ever God hands you.

Tred Barta Interview

The Fresh Air Fund

Share your love of the outdoors with a child that may never have another option to experience our lifestyle. Consider becoming a host family for the Fresh Air Fund. To learn more about this program click on the banner above.

Scouting from the Skinning Shack

To be successful hunting deer you really need to know what the deer are eating and when they are eating. Sure, watching a deer feed is one way to know the preferred food source at the time, but what did the deer eat 3 hours ago or 6 hours ago? If you could just figure out what the deer is eating or going to eat when you are sitting in your stand you could choose the stand that is closest to that food source the following day. So how do you figure this out?

If you are hunting solo then I can't help you with this tip, unless you have multiple tags. But if you are hunting with partners and one of them is successful it's time to get messy. Grab your rubber gloves, if you must, and start playing CSI on the deers digestive tract. Start closest to the exit point and work your way up to the esophagus. Observing the different food stuff in the digestive tract will give you an idea of the order the deer ate in the past 12-18 hours. If the esophagus has acorns in it, you can bet that the other deer in the area will be eating acorns the following day within a few hours that this deer was shot.

Deer, like other animals, are creatures of habit. Getting messy is just another way to help you break their habit, hopefully with a well placed shot.

A Jerky Treat

If you are like me you enjoy eating jerky. The problem is that most store bought jerky tastes more like the bottom of a grease pail than jerky. Because of this I have resorted to only eating jerky that I make, until now.

I've had the pleasure of trying the jerky from Jerky.com and I can tell you that it is some good stuff. They recently sent me two new flavors to try. Sweet and Spicy Mango and Sweet and Spicy Orange. All I can say is grab a cold one and enjoy. These flavors are not what you expect in a jerky but they were both very good and in no way were the flavors overpowering. They hit the spicy part right so if you are into very mild jerky these are not the flavors for you.

If you like jerky and want to try something a bit different click here, order a few bags and enjoy.

Weekly Rut Report

Here is a link to the weekly rut report by Larry Weishuhn
Weekly Rut Report

Happy 4th of July

Happy Independence Day from OutdoorU!

Flagging your Gear

When you are out hunting and need to set down your backpack or other gear it can sometimes be a challenge to find it again. A great way to make sure you can easily find your stash again is to mark its location with a flag like the utility companies use to mark underground utilities.

They are very visible and can be rolled up for easy carrying. Check your local building supply store for these flags. If you can't find them check with your utility company. They will gladly let you have one or two. Just don't take one that is already being used to mark utilities, the fine would probably pay for another hunting trip.

Scouting Bears

One way to determine what size bears are in your area is to hang a bait bag up in a tree. Choose a tree with fairly smooth bark. Leave the area for a day or two and come back to check the tree for claw marks. A 4 inch wide claw pattern equates to approximately a 200 pound bear. A 5 inch wide claw pattern equates to approximately a 300 pound bear and a claw pattern wider than 5 inches equates to one big bear.

Shoot Better by Looking Farther Away

Have you ever played a video or arcade racing game and noticed that you do better if you focus down the track rather that at the front of the car?

When shooting at upland game or clay birds, look where you expect the birds or clays to be when you shoot. Our eyes are much better at focusing from far to near than vise versa.

If you are watching the gun barrel and a bird flushes or you yell Pull at the trap range, the object you desire to hit seems to get away a whole lot faster and is normally a blur.

Try keeping your eyes focused on where you expect to shoot and your hits will improve greatly.

Canine CPR

There may come a time when your 4-legged friend needs your help and knowing how to perform CPR may save their life. This process is not difficult to learn and all dog owners should know how to do it properly.

• Check for breathing and a pulse. Watch the chest closely for any movement. Check for a pulse with your index and middle fingers. The best place to check for a pulse is on the femoral artery, ankles and chest.
  
  
• If you see no signs of breathing and cannot find a pulse it is time to start chest compressions. Lay the dog on his side. Place your hands on top of each other, lock your elbows, place your hands on the dogs ribcage and start compressions. Perform 5-10 compressions, using fairly strong force.
  
  
• If this does not get the dog breathing again you will need to do mouth to nose breathing. I know this sounds funny, but remember, you are trying to save a dogs life. Put your mouth over the dogs nose, lightly sealing around the sides of the nose with your hands and blow a steady, medium size breath into the dogs nose.
  
  
• Rotate between chest compressions and nose breathing and after a minute or so check for a pulse. Continue this routine until the dog recovers and then get him to a vet.
  

If the dog does not survive, at least you will know that you did everything you could.

Keep Those Turkey Wings

Turkey hunters, after you have harvested your turkey keep the wings. Traditional shooters will gladly take them from you to make their own fletching from. Maybe you could even make some type of trade. If you have no one that wants them, send them to me. I'll take all of the wings you can get:)

First Robin Hood

Kind of fun but what a waste of $12.00!!

Your Arrow as a Sight

If you shoot a traditional style bow there are many different methods of aiming. The two most popular ways are instinctive and gap shooting. Shooting instinctively you concentrate only on the target but your subconscious mind still sees the arrow and makes the needed adjustments to make an accurate shot. Gap shooters use their secondary vision to see the arrow while they are looking at the target. In either method the arrow is still used as a reference, whether you actually see the arrow or not.

To enhance your subconscious or conscious minds ability to see the arrow put a small wrap of white tape around the end of the arrow behind the field point or broadhead. This little extra added visibility can make a big difference in your accuracy. This becomes especially beneficial during periods of low light. Using white reflective tape may also come in handy for arrow retrieval in the event that you miss.