by Tim MacWelch
GLUE WITH PINE SAP
Pine-sap glue is a waterproof, resinous glue made from the sap of evergreen trees such as pine, spruce, fir, and cedar. It is ideal for wet conditions because it ‘s impermeable to moisture but will melt easily. To make the glue, gather the sap and pitch from wounds and weeping spots on an evergreen’s trunk and branches. The clearer and softer the pitch, the better (although darker pitch is still usable). Heat in a fireproof container for a few minutes, and add ground charcoal as an aggregate. When the pitch cools, it should look like shiny black plastic. Simply heat the glue and the items to be glued, and use while hot (it is okay to heat repeatedly).
BURN IT UP WITH FATWOOD
Fatwood is known by many names, including fat lighter, lighter knot, rich lighter, and heart pine. Whatever you choose to call it, fatwood comes from the same place: the heartwood of pine trees and a few other resinous conifers. As a tree dies, the pine resin can become concentrated in the heartwood, which then becomes hard and very rot-resistant. You may also find fatwood in the joints where pine limbs intersect with the trunk.
Fatwood is prized because it lights readily and burns well even in wet weather. The resin in the wood makes it almost waterproof and very flammable—both great qualities in for starting a fire.
The fatwood can be cut and split into small sticks for kindling or carved into shavings for tinder. To find yourself a ready supply of this fire-starting wonder, look through a pine forest until you come across a stump with only the center remaining. This center should seem solid. Cut off some pieces of this wood, and give them a look and a sniff. If they look like perfectly good wood (not rotten at all), then smell the pieces—if it’s fatwood, it will smell strongly of pine (in a chemical way, like scented cleaner) and resin, with the sharp odor of turpentine. Burn it as a final test; good fatwood makes thick, black smoke.
032 KNOW YOUR QUARRY
You’ve got the tools and the proper permits, but you need a strategy if you’re going to bring home the bacon. Or venison. Or squirrel. Study up on these common prey animals, and learn what to expect.
ANIMAL
DEER
STRATEGY
Place treestands and ground blinds on travel routes and near feeding areas. Take pains to control your scent, and be quiet and still. Various calls, scents, and food supplements (where legal) will help draw them near.
FLAVOR
Deer produce rich, red meat that is very nutritious.
SEASON
Typically fall and early winter depending on region and hunting method.
ANIMAL
BEAR
STRATEGY
Strategies vary widely by region. Where legal, baiting of bears has been a successful tactic. Other hunters will try to “drive” bears through a stand of timber, sometimes with dogs. Spotting and stalking is popular in the west.
FLAVOR
The meat is rich and dark, though a little greasy for some palates.
SEASON
Depending on the area, bear seasons occur in the spring and/or fall.
ANIMAL
ELK
STRATEGY
Spot-and-stalk is the most popular tactic with these imposing animals. Glass for elk in likely feeding and bedding areas, and quietly move in for a shot with the wind in your face. Calls are effective during the rut.
FLAVOR
Elk meat has a richer, bolder flavor than that of their whitetail cousins.
SEASON
Throughout the fall, typically broken down by method: bow, rifle, or muzzleloader.
ANIMAL
MOOSE
STRATEGY
Despite their size, these huge animals can seemingly disappear into their surroundings. During the rut, bulls are very aggressive and will come to calls.
FLAVOR
Mild and tender. Many people prefer it to deer or elk meat.
SEASON
Usually September through November, though tags are hard to come by in the lower 48.
ANIMAL
FERAL HOG
STRATEGY
Hogs have terrible eyesight, but a great sense of smell. Set up near known feeding or watering areas or stalk them into the wind. In some states (hello, Texas), hogs can be hunted at night.
FLAVOR
You already know what these guys taste like—they’re made of pork.
SEASON
Generally open year-round, as wild pigs have become a nuisance species in many areas.
ANIMAL
SQUIRREL
STRATEGY
Scoped small-caliber rifles (.17s and .22s) are great for picking squirrels out of the treetops. Shotguns loaded with No. 4 or 6 shot are popular, too.
FLAVOR
Squirrels have nutty, tender, sweet-tasting meat.
SEASON
Typically from early fall through winter, although some states have spring seasons.
ANIMAL
RABBIT
STRATEGY
Rabbits are usually hunted with hounds (usually beagles), but solo hunters can roust them from thickets and brush piles.
FLAVOR
These herbivores produce a very lean, healthy, and delicious meat.
SEASON
Typically hunted from fall through winter.
ANIMAL
TURKEY
Turkeys have tremendous eyesight and very good hearing. Camo up and keep your movement to a minimum. In the spring, prey upon their desire to mate and draw toms in with hen calls.
FLAVOR
Extremely lean when compared to farmed birds, yet very tasty when prepared right.
SEASON
Both spring and fall; turkeys are a classic conservation story, prolific in all states but Alaska.
033 PAY ATTENTION TO SEASON
Hunting and trapping seasons exist for many reasons, primarily to preserve the stock. State wildlife agencies take into consideration the animal’s mating patterns and rearing of the young. The season also focuses on the animal’s preparation for winter as well as other factors. In most areas and for most animals, there are specific seasons when they can be taken, and the rest of the year is left for them to remain undisturbed.
For most wild game, the season runs from fall into midwinter. A few animals have a shorter season, and some (often ones that are considered nuisance animals) have a continuous open season, meaning that you can take them any time hunting is allowed. Any hunting done out of season (or out of place) is considered poaching, and it can carry steep punishments. Pick up a guidebook or research online to clarify your options.
034 SCOUT YOUR HUNTING GROUNDS
If you have the means, scouting your hunting area prior to the season can prove invaluable. You can hang trail cameras on known travel routes to surveil the local animals, or hike into the wild to glass feeding areas from a high vantage.
Alternatively, you might slip through the woods in search of tracks, scat, beds, scrapes, rubs, and wallows. Gather as much reconnaissance as possible ahead of time to get a better idea of your quarry’s patterns, habits, and tendencies once the season starts.
035 GET THE RIGHT ACTION
The longer the barrel, the easier it is to aim. This truism works in firearms, blowguns, and tanks, and it’s why the rifle (as opposed to, say, a pistol) makes the most sense for hunting. Modern rifles come in a dizzying array of variations; try a few and make an educated purchase.
MUZZLELOADER These single-shot blackpowder rifles are loaded through the muzzle (hence the name), and fired when the hammer hits a cap. Each round is manually pushed down the barrel.
SINGLE SHOT This rifle has a break action, which is often a more familiar action for shotguns than rifles. Single-shot rifles open at the breech, and you manually insert one bullet at a time for each shot. Why is this older style still around? Two reasons: safe operation and strong, durable components.
BOLT-ACTION A classic rifle, the bolt-action rifle requires a little work, but there are fewer pieces that can malfunction than on a more co
mplex rifle action. Each time you close the bolt, you’re chambering a new round.
LEVER ACTION A lever-action rifle uses a lever underneath the rifle, near the trigger, to load each fresh round. These were popularized in cowboy shows and movies and have remained high on the list.
PUMP-ACTION Pump-action rifles chamber a round when you slide the fore-end to the rear—just like a pump-action shotgun.
SEMIAUTOMATIC Clever engineering in the semiauto rifle uses part of the energy of each shot to eject the spent cartridge and chamber another round. These rifles offer the fastest follow-up shots.
SPORTING RIFLES (AR PLATFORM) With the AR-15’s common use in the military and popularity among those who have served, it’s only natural that this rifle would have a growing following among hunters and sportsmen. These are versatile, rugged, modular rifles that many people prefer.
036 SHOOT OLD-SCHOOL
The oldest rifles in the world are simple muzzleloaders. Since the Chinese invented gunpowder in the 10th century, these rifles have been through many iterations, from the matchlock to the wheel-lock to the flintlock—invented especially for King Louis XIII of France.
Muzzleloaders have experienced a resurgence of interest in the past 25 years, and though today’s model is still loaded from the business end of the barrel, the rest of the weapon is state of the art.
037 GO THE DISTANCE WITH YOUR RIFLE
Because gravity never stops working, even on a speeding bullet, you’ll need to learn to judge distances, adjust your sights or scope accordingly, and shoot accurately at a particular distance. Range finders are tools that help you calculate the distance to the target while you’re in the field. You should also spend some time at the range, working on your distances. Practice your shots and sight adjustments at 25, 50, 100, 150 meters, and so on. Remember that the game won’t be standing next to a 100-meter sign during your hunt, so you’ll need to know what that distance looks like.
038 LEAN UP THE MESS
Shooting your rifle is all fun and games, but you’ll need to do some housekeeping to clean and preserve your investment. Purchase a basic gun-cleaning kit and use it after you’re done shooting. Your gun will repay you with years of dependable service.
039 SCOPE IT OUT
If you’re going to hunt with a rifle and plan to shoot out more than 50 yards, a scope is a mandatory investment. The right optic will allow for a degree of precision not regularly possible with open sights. Talk to your gun dealer to figure out what kind of scope is right for your rifle and the terrain where you’ll be hunting. Rifle scopes are available with either a fixed or variable magnification. That is, it will magnify an image a specific amount (6X, for instance), or across a range (say, 3–9X). Another important thing to consider when buying a scope is the size of the objective lens. In a typical scope configuration, like 3–9x42, “42” represents the diameter of the objective lens in millimeters. The larger the objective lens, the greater the scope’s ability to “see” during low-light conditions. The trade-off, however, is added weight.
040 MAKE SOME ADJUSTMENTS
Once you have your scope installed, it’s time to learn how to use it. The two adjustments that every scope will have are the windage (side to side adjustment) and the elevation (up and down). These are adjusted by a pair of small dials. The windage adjustment will allow you to correct for the wind’s force on the round (which can be surprising). The elevation adjustment can correct for the drop on the bullet over distance. Focus is another common adjustment, and it works just like the focus on a manual camera lens. Just twist the lens bell until your view is sharp.
041 EMBRACE ARCHERY
Want to hunt like your ancestors? Pick up a bow. Native people worldwide developed the bow and arrow to improve upon the hand-thrown spear and spear-thrower (called an atlatl). But when you think about it, the bow is not really a primitive weapon. It is a complicated, intellectual invention created from very random, unrelated items. And, of course, modern compound bows involve all kinds of high-tech innovations.
A flexible stick, strong string, smaller sticks, the feathers from birds, glue from plants, and sharp pieces of stone all converged to become the most lethal long-range weapon until the birth of the firearm. Let’s check out the bows that are available for today’s archer.
SELF BOW A bow made from one solid piece of material, typically wood, is referred to as a self bow. This is the oldest and most traditional bow style.
RECURVE The recurve bow, as you might guess, has curved limbs, which store up more energy than a flat bow. These can be self bows with curved limb tips or composite bows glued together from various materials.
LONGBOW Popularized in Europe but found everywhere, longbows are self bows around 6 feet (2 m) in length. Their increased power and range changed the nature of medieval warfare.
COMPOUND A modern engineering marvel, the compound bow uses fiberglass limbs and a pulley system to store great energy, but is lightweight to hold in a drawn position. The compound bow is the one most commonly used for hunting.
042 ADD SOME SIGHTS
A bow of any kind can have one or more sights attached to it. While some archers may practice instinctive shooting (firing without looking down the arrow) or traditional aiming (looking down the arrow shaft), sights can add accuracy and make your hunt more productive, and they are always present on compound bows. If you haven’t been shooting in years and need an edge, the sights will do it.
Compound bows are outfitted with a vertical row of sighting pins. As the target grows more remote, you’ll use lower pins, which raises the bow and gives you the arcing trajectory you need to hit the target.
A peep sight (which can accompany the pin sights) is a little donut-shaped disk placed in the bowstring that allows you to look through the center hole at the pin, which should be covering the target. These two visual points give you better accuracy than just the pins—like the front and rear sights on a rifle, they align the entire weapon.
043 GET SOME PROTECTION
A painful discovery that new archers make on their first day of shooting is this: Archery can hurt. Bruised fingertips and scraped inner forearms are the most common complaints, both of which can be remedied with a little protective gear. An archery glove or finger tab will save the wear and tear on your fingertips as you shoot, and an arm guard will save your forearm from worse damage. I once saw a neophyte archer shoot a compound bow with no arm guard and an inward bent elbow. The string slapped his arm with such force that, in mere minutes, he had a fluid-filled blister the size of a hamburger bun. Don’t repeat his mistake.
044 AVOID DRY FIRES
If you’re just playing around with a bow or have an epic misfire, you might release a fully drawn bow without an arrow on the string. This is called a dry fire, and the only faster way to destroy your bow is with a chain saw. Because the arrow absorbs so much force from the bowstring when shot, normal arrow firing isn’t damaging to the bow. A dry fire, however, is a sudden shock and jolt to all of the bow’s bent fibers. Whether they’re wood, fiberglass, or something else, these fibers are damaged by the dry-fire shock. Will your bow explode if you dry fire? Nope, but it’s more likely to break later.
045 CARVE A BOW
Need a bow? Don’t have one? No problem—you can make a quickie survival bow and start shooting it immediately. Bow making can be a fun hobby at home and a means for catching some calories in a survival situation. Carve this bow from a sapling or tree branch, then string it with some of the strongest cordage you can get. It is surprisingly quick and easy.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT WOOD Some of the best wood for making bows include Osage orange, yew, ash, black locust, and hickory; most hardwoods (like oak and maple) will work. Start with a relatively straight sapling or branch that is free of knots, side branches, and twists, about 6 feet (2 m) long and 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter. It should be dead and dry but have no sign of rot. Cut it carefully to avoid creating any cracks in the wood. This piece is now your bow stave.