Outdoor Survival Info

Archive for July, 2007

Survival situations can include driving your car. You might be evading an aggressor, or you could be trying to get to the Emergency Room with a wounded family member in the car. Regardless of what is pushing you to drive like a stunt man, you need to have the skills necessary to get where you need to go without crashing your car.

I came across this interesting article about one particular facet of hard driving: Braking. Take a look:

Brake and Stop a Car in the Shortest Distance

Guns are expensive. That’s the plain and simple truth. A quality firearm will cost you anywhere from $500 to $3000. Not exactly pocket change, I know. A lot of people I know don’t own any guns at all because they feel that they just don’t have the money to afford one.

Whether you are looking for a hunting tool, a defensive weapon, or just something that will give you hours of fun at the range, you don’t have to save paycheck after paycheck to get it. What you can do is buy the Maverick Model 88 Field. I bought one almost two years ago, and it’s a great little shotgun. Maverick is an offshoot of Mossberg, and the 88 is basically a bare bones version of the Mossberg 500. Barrels and chokes are interchangeable. Brand new, after taxes, I spent less that $160 on mine.

I know what you’re thinking… “What a cheap gun!” Well, cheap as far as money is concerned. Sure, there aren’t any bells or whistles on this shotgun, but thing works. It’s simple, and it works. I took a 200 lbs. buck with it last season, so I know it’s effective. This hunting season, I’ll be using it on squirrel, dove, deer, and duck. Based on its past performance, I am confident that it will get the job done.

The Maverick 88 is a 12 gauge shotgun, with a smooth-bore barrel that comes with a modified choke Accu-Choke installed. It is chambered to take 2 ¾” or 3” shells. The stock is black synthetic, which feels nice and keeps the gun light. I’ve taken a few pictures so you can see what it looks like. Now, I don’t have a proper photography studio setup, so the pics are kind of amateurish. I’ll get better with time. Anyway…

Here is the shotgun (most of it, anyway).

The barrel has standard ribbing to which you can attach clip-on sighting systems.

The integral recoil pad makes this a breeze to shoot. That pad will come in handy on a long day of shooting squirrels or doves.

If you don’t have much money to spend on a firearm, take a serious look at a Maverick Model 88 Field. It’s inexpensive, durable, and gets the job done. Head to your local gun shop and take a look at one.

If you don’t know how to fish, take the time to learn the basics. It may save your life one day. That’s important, isn’t it? Fishing is fun and relaxing, but besides that, it’s a way to fill your belly when there’s not much else to eat.

When in a survival situation, you’ll need to find three things: Shelter, water, and food. Shelter you can build, water you can find and collect, but what will you eat? Twigs aren’t really fit for human consumption, regardless of how many there are lying around. Hunting is a great source of meat, but in an emergency, animals can be scarce and hard to pin down. But fish seem to be everywhere. Anything from a small pond up to the ocean is a fine place to find fish.

Now, if you’re stuck in an urban environment, you probably won’t have anywhere to get fish. But if you’re in that kind of environment, there’s probably other food sources available. If, however, you are anywhere on the outskirts of the city, head to the hills for refuge. Unless the hills are on fire, of course.

You should keep many things in your emergency supply kit. Among those items should be some simple and portable fishing tools. You don’t need fancy equipment, but you do need some basic skills. You should know the types of fish you can find in your area, what they typically like to eat, and where they usually hang out in the water. This basic knowledge and gear can help you snag a fish to eat when you would otherwise go hungry.

Get some gear and put it in your pack.

I have finally made my decision about a hunting rifle. Now, I know that in the past I said I was going to get a surplus Mosin-Nagant to hunt with, but I don’t think I will now. I think I would rather have something a little more modern. Modern…ha.

I’ve chosen the lever action .30-30. New or used is fine, as long as it works, and is in good condition. I would, of course, prefer a new one. I chose this particular rifle (looking for a Marlin 336W, but I’ll take a Winchester 94) because it has a strong reputation for being an effective rifle for hunting Arkansas deer. The weight of the bullet and the muzzle energy is great for these hardwoods, where you rarely get a shot past 200 yards.

Like I could hit something 200 yards away…

Whatever particular rifle I end up with, I’m going with iron sights. No scope for me. My reasoning is based purely in practicality. I want to be a good marksman. And I’m going to become a good marksman by learning to manage stock iron sights. Only after I can regularly bullseye a target at 100 yards (and get really close to a regular bullseye at 150 – 200 yards) will I progress to a scoped rifle.

Not only will I have a reputed and proven rifle platform, I’ll have something with class. The lever action .30-30 has long been an American favorite. And though I embrace change, I also embrace and preserve tradition.

When I get my rifle — which could be months from now — I’ll post pictures of it here. I’ll also critique it, write an article about breaking down and cleaning it, and give a range report. I’m going to try out that LEVERevolution ammunition from Hornady, too. I’ll let you know how that goes in my reports.

I read an article today that made a pretty decent case for the .270 as an ideal deer hunting cartridge. The article was in the current issue of Peterson’s Hunting (August 2007). Technically, the piece was written from the angle of getting rid of (well, not hunting with) some too-weak, too-strong, or generally ill-suited-for-deer cartridges.

Once the “herd was culled,” as the writer put it, there were a few good old chamberings left. The writer touted the .270 as the best all-around deer cartridge. Apparently, it’s versatile enough to be effective against a wide variety of deer, and in a wide variety of locales.

I still haven’t bought my rifle for this next deer season, and this article was persuasive enough that my mind may be swaying. We’ll see how it turns out. And, of course, you’ll get some pictures when I get my rifle.