Justin Murphy, 17, tripped and fell on his 6-inch blade while coyote hunting near Mechanicsburg, Ohio, this June. He tells the story:

As told to Tommie Ethington:
It was my last day at home before I was scheduled to leave for two months of basic training with the U.S. Army, so I decided to spend it hunting coyotes with my friend Derek Fullen in the woods surrounded by cornfields on a neighbor’s property.

That evening, we heard some howls in response to our calls, but no coyotes came in. We called it quits around 11 p.m., and started walking the half mile back to my house. [ Read Full Post ]

By T. Edward Nickens

Getting airflow into a smoldering fire is key to a meat-cooking, firelight-­cheering, lifesaving blaze. The problem: Sticking your face into the flames invites smoke-filled lungs and a disturbing lack of eyebrows, and still doesn’t deliver the right kind of breeze. Here are three ways to turn a sputtering pile of half-burned sticks into Dante’s inferno.

Paper Plate
It cools off little old ladies at church dinners, and it’ll get your fire going in a pinch. Grab a paper plate and start fanning. Make sure to get on ground level so the breeze doesn’t create a mushroom cloud of ash, and keep it up at medium speed. [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

In the late 1990s, I attended a class on survival given by Peter Kummerfeldt and was spellbound at how much the guy knew and how well he presented it. Mr. Kummerfeldt, in case you’re not familiar with him, spent 30 years as an Air Force survival instructor and finished his career as head of the survival course at the Air Force Academy. He has taught the subject to other government agencies, is a flyfishing and hunting guide, and has been involved in search and rescue operations as well.

Peter is not one of the television survivalists who eats wolverine dung for the camera. He is not in show business; he is deadly serious about staying alive in the outdoors because he’s seen, first-hand, what happens when your skills are not up to that job. [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

Yesterday, Joe Cermele asked if everyone was getting pumped for the Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week. Many of you are. Apparently, so are the sharks....

From this story on capecodonline.com: 
State marine biologists believe a great white shark was the likely predator that bit a man Monday as he swam in deep water at Ballston Beach. The man, identified as Christopher Myers, had severe cuts to his lower legs. He was being treated Tuesday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, a hospital spokesman said. The last confirmed injury in Massachusetts by a great white shark occurred in 1936, state officials said. 

[ Read Full Post ]

by Keith McCafferty

Despite what you might have read in survival manuals, making fire without tools is no easy task. 

By late afternoon it seems like a dream, that day I made fire by rubbing sticks together.

On that occasion I’d been sitting in an Indian wickiup, using a bow drill provided by a professional survivalist, and I’d risen smoke from the blurring spindle, given birth to a glowing coal, and coaxed the coal into flame. The adage “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” seemed to be applicable to something other than political scandal.

But now, here in the Purcell Mountains, battling wintry spring weather more typical of a survival situation, I not only don’t have fire but I have yet to produce a single wisp of smoke. What I do have is a blister on my left palm as big as a silver dollar from bearing down against the socket of the bow drill and the disheartening realization that, should my life depend on making fire with a shoelace and a couple of sticks of wood, I’d be halfway to dying now.
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Sam Euker, 25, was elk hunting near Dillon, Mont., last October when he lost his footing and tumbled 600 feet down the side of a mountain. He tells the story here.

As told to Jed Portman:
It was the first day of the Montana elk season. My friend Paul Lacey and I hiked 5 miles together before lunch, then decided to split up. I dropped down into the valley, where I’d heard bugling earlier, and was rewarded with a shot at a big bull around 2 p.m. I circled down the ridge and found my 5-pointer on a steep slope—it was a tough spot to dress him out, so it was two hours before I tied the antlers to my pack and set off to find Paul.
[ Read Full Post ]