Keith McCafferty

Survival: Snake Boots

Online Editors — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:42:48 -0500

This past October, on a cloudy dawn streaked by light rain, a 12-year-old Georgia deer hunter heard his grandfather, who was standing below the boy’s treestand, say “Ouch.” Less than an hour later, 68-year-old Richard Rupert was dead, having succumbed to a rattlesnake bite on his calf. The story made headlines because snakebite fatalities are rare (the FDA estimates that of 8,000 people bitten by venomous snakes annually, fewer than 16 die) and because the young man acted heroically in his attempt to save his grandfather.

gunafter_2

Online Editors — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:11:17 -0500

How To Replace A Rifle Stock

Online Editors — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:22:56 -0500

In the current economic climate, it could be a while before that new rifle you've had your eyes on ever reaches your hands. But what if I told you that in one hour you could make your old rifle shed a pound or more and increase its accuracy for a fraction of the cost of a new gun? · All you need to do is glass-bed the barreled action into a synthetic replacement stock. Sounds like a job for a gunsmith?

A History Of The Survival (Space) Blanket

Online Editors — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:18:37 -0500

Like many sportsmen, I packed a space blanket for years before ever having to use it. When I finally did unwrap the crinkly Mylar sheet, it wasn't to save my life but to make a clean job of ending an animal's. An elk I'd shot had fallen in a shintangle in Idaho's Centennial Range, and I spread the blanket to keep the meat free from debris while quartering. By necessity I made camp nearby. When my fire died, I retrieved the blanket from where I'd stashed it—the Centennials being prime grizzly country—and wrapped myself up, frozen blood, bits of guts, and all.

Strike Anywhere: The Best Matches for Survival Situations

Online Editors — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:47:51 -0500

My father could reach into the pocket of his wool pants and pull out a wooden match, already lit. His trick, magic to a small boy, remains one of the most indelible images I have of nights around the campfire. Today, match light has flickered out in favor of the soulless flame of the butane lighter, but a simple stick of wood with a certain mix of chemicals in the head remains one of the most practical tools for starting fire. Nothing else has saved as many lives of those who desperately needed a flame to fend off the cold.

Quiz: How Good Are You at Reading Hunting Weather?

Joe_Cermele — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:38:18 -0400

Used to be that a man looked to the sky before reaching for his hunting gear. The clouds told him all he needed to know about the weather coming that day, how it would affect his hunting strategy, and what precautions he needed to take to stay alive. Today’s hunters rely on bow-tied TV meteorologists for the latest updates on God’s intentions, but a working knowledge of clouds can still go a long way toward filling a deer tag. Or saving your nervous system from a million-volt bolt of electricity.

Wrap Bait Fillets on Flatfish Plugs to Catch More Salmon and Smallmouth

Online Editors — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:16:49 -0400

No angler in the know would dream of casting or trolling a banana wobbler for king salmon without first adding a sardine or anchovy belly strip. But the effectiveness of bait-wrapping a lure to add scent isn’t limited to the Pacific Northwest. Few river smallmouths can resist a bait-wrapped Flatfish, and back-trolling a bait-wrapped Kwikfish is one of the best ways to catch Great Lakes steelhead. To wrap a lure, you’ll need a fillet knife, scissors, and a self-binding clear thread, such as Spider Thread (redwingtackle.com).

Build A Survival Fire With Condoms and Underwear

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:58:22 -0400

When my wife notices the small, square foil wrapper on my desk, she regards me with a coolly level gaze.

“I can explain,” I tell her. And I do, but she remains skeptical. After all, it’s not the kind of wrapper she’s used to seeing when I’m conducting research for this column. She becomes even more skeptical when I tell her I need it to start a fire.

10 Best Public Lands for Elk (And How to Hunt Them)

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:27:16 -0400

Mark Seacat likens hunting on public lands to a game of chess—not one you play with the wapiti so much as with other hunters.

What's the Best Survival Weapon?

colinkearns — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:20:58 -0400

If you’ve watched Survivorman, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Les Stroud, the star of the show, seems to starve during every episode. I don’t mean this as a criticism; Stroud is the real deal. But his hunger pangs raise a point: Boy Scout improv works better on the page than in the forest. If you want to bring down enough bacon to keep up your strength, you’re going to need bullets—and the more, the better. With this in mind, I recently tested two different approaches to the survival question.

The Pocket Protector