By Slaton L. White

Do your dogs bark at the end of a long stalk? Here’s the perfect antidote—a shoe that resembles Crocs, but is designed on a last (like a real shoe) and contains an innovative shock-absorbing footbed that “massages” tired feet while in camp. The flexible, anti-microbial (no stink) shoe is made of silicon and cork and can actually double as a wet wader.

MSRP: $100 [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

Of all the many things we can buy covered in camo that shouldn’t be camo-ed, flashlights rank near the top of the list, along with knives. Several years ago a big game guide showed me his knife. He had dipped the handle in some kind of rubberized bright orange paint. It was easy to hold onto, he said, and easy to find when he set it down somewhere.

Which brings us to the TerraLux Lightstar 80. I used one last season and found it to be in most ways a basic, serviceable light. It’s a fairly inexpensive ($30 list, sells for less) 80 lumen LED light that runs for five hours on a pair of AA batteries. It has a rubber ring around the end so you can hold it in your mouth comfortably, and the on-off switch can even be operated with tongue pressure.

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By T. Edward Nickens

Two things I know: You can never have enough cordage, and you need a little bit—or a lot—of a lot of different kinds. At home, I keep lines and ropes stashed in two places: a good-sized plastic tote, and hanging from a hodge-podge of nails driven into the walls. I keep a pretty good collection in my truck, too—from parachute cord to mid-diameter climbing rope to a seriously stout tow strap. Because you never know.

Twisted rope, also called laid rope, has a spiral look due to the (typically) three strands that are twisted together. A lot of what you see is the inexpensive yellow polypropylene stuff that you can buy in any corner drugstore. It has a tendency to kink up, and it’s not the strongest rope design out there. But twisted poly rope has its uses. It’s impervious to water, and it’s one of the few ropes that sink, which has its value in some rescue situations. And in its yellow form, it’s very visible. And while polypro twisted rope isn’t easy to knot, it is cheap enough that I keep some around (webriggingsupply.com).

Braided ropes are made by weaving fiber... [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

“The only time I ever got my s**t together, I couldn’t pick it up.”—Roger Miller

Packing successfully for a hunting trip is far more important than making out a will which will hold up. If you die and your will is successfully contested, what do you care? You’re dead. If, however, you bring only longjohn bottoms on a hunt and leave the tops at home, you’ll regret it bitterly for a week or more.

Because I’m at the age when I have trouble remembering who I am, much less all the stuff that I have to take along, I’ve developed a system that’s worked pretty well. First, take out all the hunting gear you own. I mean everything, even if it has no place where you’re going.

Second, assemble what you need, and don’t do this by simply slinging it into a duffle bag. Don’t assume that you have patches and gun oil in your cleaning kit. You may have taken them out on the last trip because the TSA doesn’t allow gun oil. Are all your batteries fresh? Have you gained so much weight since last season that, when you button your heavy pants, little purple veins erupt on your nose?
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By Slaton L. White

Native Americans repelled insects with a noxious concoction of bear fat and pine tar. Thanks to modern chemistry, we now have our choice of repellents that are easy to use and won’t gag a maggot. But how effective are they?

To find out, we had Boy Scouts from Troop 15 (Westchester County, N.Y.) take four different repellents with them on a 10-day canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area last summer to see how well modern bug dope could stand up to the area’s legendary hordes of flying pests. The results may surprise you.

Natrapel
$6 (5-oz. spray)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Lowdown: Coming in at the head of the pack, this DEET-free product uses a proprietary formula that includes picaridin (a generic name for a completely unpronounceable chemical formula) that doesn’t cause adverse reactions and doesn’t smell like DEET. “I’m not saying it smelled good for a repellent,” said White. “I’m saying it smelled really good.”
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