Make a Throwing Arrow

This is a hunting arrow that my old mentor taught me how to make.  Some people call it a Swiss arrow; others call it a Yorkshire arrow.  He always called it a throwing arrow, so that’s how I refer to it.  The throwing arrow works on the same principle as the atlatl, but instead of using a solid stick as a dart thrower, you use a piece of string.

The arrow or dart is much like a regular arrow except it is a little larger in diameter and a little longer.  The arrow that I am making here is about 3/8 inch on the large end (back), 5/16 inch on the small end, and around 36 inches long.

So, let’s make a throwing arrow.  The first thing that we will need is an arrow shaft.  I found a nice straight shoot of Yaupon Holly that I cut for my arrow shaft, but any good solid, straight wood will do.  If you don’t have access to any wild material, you can buy a 3/8 inch dowel rod at the hardware store.  After removing the bark, I let the shaft dry of a couple of days so that it wouldn’t be too sticky.  I did a little gentle hand straightening to take a couple of small kinks out of the shaft.  Pictured below: Yaupon Holly arrow shaft.

Next is the fletching.  I split a couple of wild turkey wing feathers and cut them to length for fletchings.  I am going to use four fletchings on this arrow.  Don’t ask me why.  That’s the way my mentor did it, so I’m just continuing the tradition.  I’m sure it will work just as well with three fletchings. Pictured below:  Turkey feather fletchings.

 After the fletchings are cut, they need to be attached to the shaft.  In this case I used glue and deer sinew to attach the fletchings.  After the sinew is dry you can cut the fletchings to shape.  Here’s a hint, don’t leave the fletchings too tall or they will slow down the speed of your arrow, kind of like a floofloo arrow.  Pictured below:  Two views of the fletched arrow.

 Because I am going to use this arrow for target practice I attached a commercial field point to the front.  For actual hunting you would want to knap out a nice broadhead from flint or glass.  Pictured below:  Field point attached to front of arrow.

Now the last step.  Come down about an inch below the front of your fletchings and cut a notch in the shaft.  The notch should be cut to a depth of little less than half way through the shaft.  The front side of the notch (the side toward the front of the arrow) should be straight up and down.  The back side of the notch should be sloped back toward the fletchings.  The picture below gives a good illustration of how the finished notch should look.

Now you need a string to throw the arrow with.  I twisted one up out of yucca fiber, but a piece of para-cord or any other similar size string will do.  The string needs to be about one-and-a-half times the length of the arrow.  You will need to tie an overhand knot in each end of the string.

These directions for attaching the string to the arrow are for a right-handed person:

1. Hold the arrow in front of you in right hand with the notch facing you.

2. Lay the knotted end of the string into the notch from the left with the knot ending up about 1/8 inch to the right of the notch.

3. Put your left thumb on top of the string in the notch to hold the string in place.

4. Using your free right hand, wrap the string in back of the arrow and then pass it over the top of the string between the arrow shaft and the notch.

5. Pull the string tight in order to lock it in place in the notch.

6. Use your left hand to keep the string tight while you wrap the loose end of the string around your right hand two or three times.

7. Now pull your right hand to the front of the arrow (keep tension on the string so that it doesn’t fall out of the notch).

8. Grip the arrow shaft between the thumb and fingers of your right hand about three inches back from the point.  You may have to wrap or un-wrap a little more string around your right hand in order to have your hand in the right place on the shaft.  You are now ready to throw.

This process sounds kind of complicated, but it really only takes about three seconds to get the string on the arrow and have it ready to throw.  The pictures below are probably easier to understand than the written explanation.

 Throwing the arrow just takes practice.  You want to throw it with an overhand motion, not side-arm.  Your arm should be fairly straight but not locked at the elbow.  I find that I get the best results if I just forget about the string and act like I’m trying to throw the arrow with my hand; and then keep my throwing hand moving in a follow-through that ends by my knee.  Pictured below: Throwing the arrow.

 I can throw one of these arrows about 40 to 50 yards, but I have to admit that my accuracy is not that great.  It’s like anything else; practice makes perfect, or at least better.

  

Learn to Shoot a Pistol with Accuracy

Many people buy pistols for self defense but few people really know how to shoot a pistol with any kind of accuracy.  The relatively short barrel and the short sight plane make a pistol more difficult to fire accurately than a long gun.  Learning to fire a pistol accurately is basically the same as learning any other physical skill; it takes time, practice, and a methodical approach.

I suggest that you learn to shoot a pistol with a .22 caliber revolver.  There are several reasons for this:

1. The ammo is cheap

2. The recoil is light, so you won’t be as likely to develop a “flinch”

3.  A revolver allows you to load chambers in a random pattern leaving some of them without a cartridge (the reason for this will be explained in a moment)

You will need to use the same size target and shoot from the same distance at every practice session when you are first learning to shoot, so buy or print a pile of targets.  You will also need to record each and every shot that you make, so I recommend that you buy a small notebook and print off a bunch of miniature targets that look like the one that you will be shooting at.  Cut the small targets out and glue them into your notebook, and you will be ready to go to the range.  Be sure and take hearing protection, a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope, and if you want to make your targets last longer take a roll of masking tape and a black marker with you.  This way after you fire ten or twelve rounds at your target you can tape over the holes.  If you hit the bull, you can use the black marker to color the tape black.

At the range you want to set up your target in a safe shooting location, then pace off twenty-five yards and draw a shooting line on the ground.  I like to set up a small table to hold my ammo, binoculars, notebook, tape, etc.

The first time that you shoot, you want to do something that is a little unusual but is very effective for teaching proper trigger pull, and this is why I recommend that you use a revolver.  If your revolver holds six rounds, load it with four rounds in a random pattern.  If your revolver holds nine rounds like mine, then load it with six rounds.  Don’t leave the empty chambers right next to each other, space them randomly around the cylinder.  Now spin the cylinder, and without looking at it, close the cylinder.  Now when you thumb the hammer back, you don’t know if it will be falling on a live round or an empty chamber.

When learning to shoot you always want to fire single action, so step up to the line and assume a good shooting stance.  Your feet should be about shoulder width apart facing straight ahead.  Your hips and shoulders should be square to the target.  If you are right handed your left foot should be about 14 to 18 inches in front of your right foot, depending on how tall you are.  Hold the gun with both hands.  The right hand should be wrapped around the grips with the index finger extended.  The left hand should cup under the butt and come up onto the left side of the grips.  Arms should be relaxed and bent slightly at the elbows.

When you are comfortable with your stance, thumb the hammer back and place the first digit of your right index finger on the trigger.  Sight down the barrel so that the top of the front sight fills the slot in the back sight with the top of the front blade dead even with the top of the wings on the rear sight.  The center of the bull should be sitting right on top of the front sight.

Now draw in a breath, exhale half of it, and relax.  Keeping the gun on target squeeze the trigger  slowly.  If you are squeezing the trigger properly you should not know exactly when it is going to fall.  It should be a complete surprise to you.  This is the hardest thing for most people to learn, and this is where the empty chambers in your cylinder will really help you in developing the correct trigger pull.  When you squeeze the trigger the hammer may fall on an empty chamber.  If the happens, take note of your reaction.  Did you jerk when the hammer snapped down?  If you did it means that you knew when the hammer was going to fall, and you jerked in anticipation of the discharge.  If you are squeezing the trigger properly, you should not know the exact moment when the hammer will fall, and so you can’t anticipate the discharge and you won’t flinch.  You should use this method of leaving random chambers empty until you never flinch.  You’ll be surprised at how quickly you will overcome flinching, and you will be amazed at the difference it makes in the accuracy of your shooting.

Each time you discharge a round you should stop, lay your pistol down, look at the target through your binoculars, and mark the target in your notebook at the exact spot the round hit on your target.  Then pick up the pistol and fire another round.  This is very time consuming, but it will make you pause and consider each shot and what you might have done wrong.  In no time at all you will start shooting tighter and tighter groups, even if you don’t know exactly what corrections you are making.  Don’t ask me how it works.  Maybe a brain researcher can explain it.  I just know that it does work.

Please don’t get in a hurry.  When I was learning to shoot, I made it a point not to shoot more than a hundred rounds per practice session.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Just be patient, be methodical, and keep practicing.  The results will be well worth the effort.

Home Preparedness Guidelines

Before you start on a program of home preparedness there are several questions that you need to ask yourself:

(1) What am I preparing for? 

This list could include short-term power outage, seasonal weather like tornadoes or hurricanes, earthquake, unemployment, interruption to the economic system, collapse of the economic system, break-down of the social order, insurrections or riots, nuclear or biological war, electro-magnetic pulse attack, asteroid collision, and who knows what.

(2) Am I currently living in a survivable and defensible location?

Are you in a big city? (not good)  Do you live in a small town? (better)  Do you live in a rural community? (better still)  Do you live on a farm at least two hours from a major metropolitan area? (very good)  Are you well established on your farm with a good support group of like-minded neighbors? (best)

(3) What kind of financial resources do I have to devote to preparedness?

Preparedness is an investment, just like a bank account or stocks and bonds.  Some people live paycheck to paycheck and don't have funds for investment.  Don't let this stop you from preparing to the extent that you can.  Some people have money to invest, but they spend it on things that they want in the here and now.  Not a good approach to home preparedness or to life in general.  If this is you, you're probably not reading this anyway.  Some people invest in bank accounts, stocks, bonds, 401K's, life insurance, health insurance, long-term disability insurance, etc.  A person with this kind of money to invest can easily redirect part of their investment to home preparedness.  The amount would depend entirely on what level of commitment the individual wants to make, but I wouldn't cash in my 401K or cancel my life insurance for the sake of preparedness.  Keep things in perspective.  You're a lot more likely to retire than you are to get hit by an asteroid.  I hope.

So how should you go about preparing?

Home Defense

I believe that no amount of food, water, medical supplies, tools, farming equipment, or coin can save you if someone else can take them away from you.  Of course you can just chalk it up to me being a Texan, but the first thing I would recommend is a weapon to protect yourself, your family, and what you already have.  If you will have only one weapon, I recommend a good reliable 12 ga. pump shotgun and a variety of ammo including bird shot, duck and turkey shot, buckshot, and slugs.  If you want to invest more extensively in home defense and hunting weapons, see my posts on "Five Guns for the Homestead."

Heat

Depending on where you live, and what time of year it is; you could be dead long before you have a chance to die of thirst or starvation.  Hypothermia, or the loss of body heat, can kill you just as dead as a bullet from an AK-47.  You need a source of heat if the power goes out.  It can be as cheap as a propane camping heater for the short term, or it can be as expensive as a high quality wood burning stove that will last for decades.  There are many choices between these extremes so pick one that fits your budget and invest in some heat.

Light

A source of light is not really necessary for survival, but it sure does make it easier.  My power never seems to go out during the daytime.  Getting to the breaker box in a dark closet to flip switches, and going out into the dark night to get the generator running is nearly impossible without some kind of light.  If you're going to use flashlights, make sure that you have fresh batteries.  Mine never did so I bought plug-in rechargeable flashlights that stay plugged into a wall socket until needed.  I also bought several hand cranked flashlights.  Again, light is not absolutely necessary for survival; but it's cheap and very helpful.  Get some flashlights.  I also have kerosene lanterns in every room, a propane camp light, and lots of candles for longer term situations.

Water

Three days is about all that you can survive without drinkable water, and you need a minimum of a quart a day just to stay alive.  A gallon a day per person is more realistic.  Water is cheap.  There's no reason not to lay in a supply of drinking water in plastic bottles.  Several cases will fit under your bed.  For longer term situations you can look into a cistern or a water well.  These are both still very common in rural areas.

Food

Food is where a lot of people start a preparedness program, but as you can see it's way down on my list.  The explanation for this is simple.  The average person can live for three weeks without food.  Of course nobody, including me, wants to go that long without a meal.  How much food to store and what kind of food to store depends on how many people you are feeding and for how long.  I would say that the bare minimum should be one week's food for each person in your family.  This would be for a short-term situation and could be made up of canned goods and dried foods.  The longer that you are planning for, the more thought you will have to put into your food storage program.  One thing I would definitely advise is not to store a bunch of stuff that you don't normally eat.  Keep a rotating stock of items that you already eat and replace them with more as you consume them.  I had a neighbor that bought buckets and buckets of nitrogen packed hard red wheat.  He never ate a tablespoon full of it, and ended up giving it all away just before it expired.  Lots of money down the drain.

Medical Supplies

Most homes have a medicine cabinet with basic first aid supplies and over-the-counter medications.  That's a good thing, but make sure that they are fresh, and if you are running low on anything go ahead and buy a backup.  The rule in my house is, "If you've used half of it, buy a new one."  If you take prescription medications, you should have an extra month's supply of these on hand at all times.  Also, do yourself a favor and buy a good home medical book and a Red Cross first-aid handbook.  There are quiet a few posts on this blog about home medical supplies and it would be worth your time to read them.

A Radio

A good battery powered or hand-cranked radio will keep you informed about weather conditions and other events that may affect your survival.  You can get little battery powered radios for under $20.00.  A good hand cranked radio with AM/FM, short wave, and weather bands can be purchased for under $100.00.  This is money well spent.  The radio that I have can also be used to recharge a cell-phone.

All of these things listed above are the bare minimum preparedness supplies that I would keep on hand.  If you are looking to prepare for longer term situations please scroll through the posts on this blog.  There is a wealth of information based on personal experience about how to prepare for almost any survival situation.

The Tennessee Squirrel Cooker

The Tennessee squirrel cooker is a very handy little cooking devise that I always carry with my trail gear.  It only weighs a few ounces and takes up hardly any space.  I stick mine in under the cords holding my bedroll closed, and I never even know it's there until it's time to cook dinner. Pictured below: top, Tennessee squirrel cooker tucked under bedroll straps (note leather cover over fork tines); bottom, squirrel cooker in hand 

It may be called a squirrel cooker, but you can use it to cook a portion or two of just about any kind of meat. I've cooked squirrel, rabbit, beef, chicken, fish, hotdogs, and sausage to name a few.  I've also been know to stick an ear of corn on it to roast.  Pictured below: top, chicken breast cooking on the squirrel cooker; bottom, how squirrel cooker fits together

A friend of mine who is a blacksmith made my squirrel cooker, but you can buy them at mountainman rendezvous or order them on the internet (Woodenhawk Trading Company at woodenhawk.com has them for $15.00 US).

I actually added another piece to my squirrel cooker so that I can use it like a set of miniature fire irons.  This is real handy for suspending my small cook pot over the fire.  Pictured below:  Squirrel cooker with extra piece used as miniature fire-irons

A squirrel cooker won't do much good if you are cooking dinner for a crowd, but if it's just you, or you and a partner, the squirrel cooker will do the job.

Making Jerky in Your Kitchen Stove

Jerked meat was a pioneer staple in the days before refrigeration.  This was, and still is, an excellent way to preserve meat.  It's easy to do, it doesn't require any special equipment, and the meat will keep for months.  In this post I'm going to tell you how to make jerky in your kitchen. 

Jerking meat is a process for reducing the moisture content of the meat to the point where bacteria can no longer grow in the meat.  Meat does not have to be cooked before it is jerked, although some authorities recommend blanching wild meat in boiling water before it is jerked.  Many different meats can be jerked.  Venison, beef, and buffalo are probably the most common.  You want to avoid fatty meats as they will not jerk well and can become rancid or spoiled.  If you buy beef to jerk I would suggest that you buy a very lean roast In this instance I am jerking a round roast that weighs 44 ounces. Pictured below: round roast ready to jerk.

The first step is to slice up the meat.  You want to cut the meat in nice thin strips about a quarter inch thick.  The old timers always sliced their jerky so that the grain of the meat ran up and down the strip.  I have no idea why, but this is the way that I do it because they might have known something that I don’t.

 Pictured below: meat cut into strips.

After you have sliced the meat you need to decide if you want to add spices to the jerky or if you just want it plain.  If you are making jerky to snack on you'll probably want to spice it up.  If you are making jerky to store and use in cooking you will probably want to leave it plain.  When I make snack jerky I marinate it is soy sauce, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Sometimes I add a little red pepper or jalapeno juice to make it hotter. 

In this instance I am using about 2 cups of soy sauce, a teaspoon each of salt, black pepper, and garlic, and a half teaspoon or red pepper. Let the meat soak in the marinade for at least 3 hours; over-night is better.  Pictured below: top, spices I use when making snack jerky: bottom, meat marinating in spices.   

To dry the meat out you can use the oven of your cook stove.  I put a pan in the bottom of the oven to catch any drippings off of the meat then drape the strips of meat over the wire cooking racks in the oven.  Turn the oven to its lowest setting (below 200 degrees for sure) and leave the oven door propped open about six inches.  Pictured below: meat on racks ready to jerk

 Check the jerky periodically.  It will probably take about six to eight hours to dehydrate.  The trick to good jerky is to get it dry but not too dry.  You can test the jerky by bending it.  When it is about right it will break when you bent it, but it won't snap.  If it snaps it’s too dry.  Pictured below: finished jerky ready to bag.

 When your jerky is done take it out of the oven and let it cool.  You can store it in zip-lock bags or sealed jars and it will keep for a long time.  Put the bags/jars in the refrigerator and it will keep even longer.  Pictured below: bag of jerky.

This finished batch of jerky weighs in at about twelve ounces, or about one-forth of the weight of the original meat.  This represents a lot of concentrated nutrition, so don’t over-eat on this stuff.  One piece is enough for a meal.

Paper Plates as a Survival Tool?

I am all about recycling and reusing stuff.  I try to avoid buying things that are designed to be thrown away.  But I make one serious exception to this rule, and that is that I keep a good supply of paper plates, Styrofoam bowls, plastic cups, and plastic tableware.  Now these items are not for any kind of long-term, end of the world as we know it type of survival scenario.  My paper plates are for short term emergencies, like when there is an ice storm and the power is out for two or three days.

If you don't have paper plates during one of these short term emergencies you have, basically, just three choices about dishes:

Choice 1 - You use your dishes and pile them in the sink and hope that the power comes back on before you run out of dishes.  When the power does come back on you will be faced with a sink full of dirty dishes, covered in dried out food, that have to be washed.

Choice 2 - If you live in the city and your water still works, or if you live in the country and have a generator that will power your well pump; you can rinse the dishes off in cold water.  This will not adequately kill germs on the dishes, and you should not eat off of them again, but at least they won't have crud all over them.  You need to set them aside and give them a real washing when the power comes back on.

Choice 3 - You can put a big pot of water on your gas or wood stove (if you have one), heat the water up, and do dishes the old time way.  Not horrible, but it is kind of a pain.  Especially if the power is out for a week or more, which has happened to us.

So here's what we do now.  We have our supply of paper plates, cups, and etc.  When the power goes out we eat a lot of stuff that doesn't require cooking.  Sandwiches, cereal, fresh and canned fruit, peanut butter, cheese, canned drinks, breakfast bars, Vienna sausages, sardines, almonds, crackers, chips; that sort of thing.  We turn the generator on for a couple of hours a day to keep the refrigerator and freezer cold.  We eat everything off of paper plates, and throw it all away.  No mess to clean up when the power comes back on.

If we just have to cook something on the stove, then we heat up a little water and wash the pots and pans the old time way.  More likely we cook in our cast iron skillets which we hardly ever wash anyway.  We usually just wipe them out or maybe rinse out with a little cold water.

Anyhow, lay in a supply of paper plates and you'll thank me the next time the power's off for a couple of days.

Super Storm Sandy - When Will They Learn?

Super Storm Sandy has once again revealed two of the most destructive beliefs that a human being can have. Number one, "It won't happen to me"; and number two, "If something bad happens someone will take care of me."

Let me start off by saying that my heart goes out to those who had to evacuate and returned to find their homes damaged or destroyed.  I also have some sympathy for everyone who has to deal with the hardships of being without power, food, and water.  I say "some" sympathy because I stress the fact that it should only be a hardship, not a life threatening situation.

For those who chose not to evacuate and then called on first responders to come and rescue them; they should be ashamed, and they should have to pay for the cost of the rescue.  If a responder was injured or killed in the attempt to rescue one of these people then that individual should be charged with reckless endangerment and prosecuted.  If you don't have the guts to follow through, then don't ignore the warning to leave.

For those who are without food, water, light, or heat, please heed these words of advice, IN AN EMERGENCY, YOU CAN'T DEPEND ON ANYONE BUT YOURSELF. 

You have to be prepared for an emergency, and guess what, sometimes you don't have four days warning before the emergency happens, so be prepared ALL the time.  You don't have to build a bunker and buy an arsenal of weapons.  Just do some simple things like store some food and water under your bed; buy a propane or kerosene heater and some fuel for it.  Buy a propane cook stove.  Buy a kerosene or propane lantern and a couple of hand cranked flashlights.  Keep some batteries in the refrigerator and buy a battery powered or hand crank radio.  You can get all of this stuff for less than the price of a Louis Viton bag and a pair of Prada sunglasses.

Did you notice the news footage of stores in the Northeast in the days just before the storm?  People carrying out cases of water, empty shelves everywhere.  It's the same footage we see every time an event like this occurs.  We also hear stories about price gouging and looting every time there's a disaster.  Please, please, do yourself a favor and prepare when times are good for the bad times that will inevitably occur.  You don't wait until your car is skidding toward a tree to buy car insurance.  Go out as soon as you can and buy the things that you need to prepare for a disaster, natural or otherwise. Someday, in the not to distant future, you will be glad that you did.