Welcome to the Survival Common Sense Shop featuring hand crafted or hand selected items to include with any survival gear.  Leon Pantenburg created these products after extensive field testing with the help of Scout troops, survival experts, military consults and experienced hunters.  Click here for a full listing of products.

All these items will fit inside this small tin. When fully loaded, it will weigh about four ounces, the same as an iPod.

Check out the shop to find:

• Pocket Tin Emergency Survival Kits with knife
• Key Chain Survival Tools
• Wallet Sized Waxed Cloth Fire Starter
• Bulk Packs of Waxed Cloth Fire Starter
• Petroleum Jelly Fire Starter Balls

Click here for more details.

These credit-card sized waxed firestarters will fit in a wallet or purse and make several individual fires. (Pantenburg photos)

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A really popular post on SurvivalCommonSense.com is the annual ten best gifts for a survivalist/prepper dad. Before Fathers Day rolls around on June 17, here are some gift ideas and new products, and the links of where to buy them.

by Leon Pantenburg

1) The SurvivalCommonSense.com store went on line several months ago, and the response has been gratifying. New products are being added, so with this bit of  blatant commercialism, here are some hard-to-find survival kit items:

• Wallet-sized waxed firestarter: This waxed cloth fire starter is invaluable for lighting a fire under difficult
  
  

  Visit the store!

  conditions. This wallet sized set includes 3 strips. Each strip in the package is sized 1.5″x 5″ and individually packaged. The package includes complete instructions on how to use to light a fire.

• Keyring survival kit: You can’t use equipment you don’t have along. This keyring kit is lightweight, reliable and convenient. View the keyring survival kit video.

• Ferrocerium rod: These rods put out sparks at approximately 5,500 degree Fahrenheit, and can be used to light a variety of tinders, including my go-to favorite, cotton balls and petroleum jelly. Check out the video on how to use a ferro rod. Let the kids make up the cotton ball  firestarters, and dad will have a highly-effective survival tool with a personal touch. These tools could save dad’s bacon in the backcountry, and because his children helped make it, dad will have another reason to take the kit along! Check out the custom ferro rods!

A C.T. Fischer four-inch bushcraft knife can handle most outdoor tasks. (Pantenburg photo)

2) C.T. Fischer four-inch Bushcraft knife.  I’ve used my Fischer Bushcraft knife constantly since I got it about six months ago. With a wide, V-ground blade, strength is combined with cutting efficiency. This knife makes heavy cutting jobs go quickly, and I love how it looks with my .40 caliber flintlock rifle and matching tomahawk.

I haven’t had the chance to use the knife on  a big game animal yet, but I’m guessing it will do the job very, very well. The blade holds a razor-sharp edge for a long, long time, and resharpening is easy. (I also have a Fischer Nessmuk – another great backcountry choice.) If you want to get dad a custom knife he will cherish, use and be able to pass to his children, a Fischer is a great choice!

3) Mora Knife: I love the Mora design, and here is an inexpensive place to get dad a really useful knife. Mora of Sweden Clipper 840 Carbon Steel Knife

Platypus soft water bottles flank this Nalgene quart container.

4) Water bottle: Platy Soft Bottle with HyperFlow Cap (Water is an absolute necessity. I generally carry a Nalgene or other rigid water bottle to drink out of. 32oz Nalgene BPA Free Water Bottle In my pack, I’ll carry several soft bottles to replenish my Nalgene. The soft bottles are protected in the pack.

5) Map and compass: A GPS is useful, but not without a map and compass!  Suunto M-3DL Compass

6) Mini BIC lighter: Butane lighters are fairly reliable for starting fires. But make a few simple modifications and additions, and you can make dad another unique survival tool. (The best place to get a pack of three mini BICs is the local WalMart). View the video on how to upgrade a butane lighter.

7) Sun protection: Sunscreen is an item that needs to be in every survival kit, regardless if you’re in the arctic or the tropics. I carry the tube type, because it is less messy to apply. Get Chapstick with sun protection – it is easy to carry and can be used to cover any exposed skin. Tape a poptop or paper clip to the side so the tube can be secured to a lanyard.

Paracord:  I carry about 100 feet of quality Paracord, and it is one of those do-everything items. Get the good stuff, though. There is a lot of imitations on the market that may fail in survival situations.

9) “Surviving a Wilderness Emergency:“  This book, by wilderness survival expert Peter Kummerfeldt, is my go-to book for basic, common sense wilderness survival.

I met Peter several years ago at the Deschutes (OR) County Sportsman’s Expo after attending one of his seminars.  I sat spellbound through every presentation he did that day. Afterward, we chatted at his booth, and I bought a copy of  “Surviving a Wilderness Emergency.”  That night, after absorbing all the survival common sense, I  threw away several items of survival gear I’d carried for years.

10) Small, laminated picture of dad with his family: If you’re only going to get one gift for dad on Father’s Day, make it this one. Dad should always carry the photo with his survival gear. Then, if an emergency happens and he is in a bad situation, he has a reminder of why he can never give up and the reason(s)  it is so important to get back!

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I’m a sucker for a new how-to-survive book and can’t resist the urge to buy it when I see one that isn’t already in my library.  So when I came across “Show Me How to Survive” by Joseph Pred and the editors of OutdoorLife magazine I ordered it in hopes that maybe, just maybe, there might be something worthwhile in it.  My hopes were dashed yesterday when the book arrived in the mail.

Survival expert Peter Kummerfeldt reviews: Outdoor Life's Show Me How to Survive

by Peter Kummerfeldt

Recommendation  #127 – get water in the desert.  Commonly referred to as a “solar

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still” this process does not work except in those rare conditions when the desert soil is saturated with water – after a thunderstorm for example.  In order for this process to work there must be moisture in the soil.   Typically, desert soil contains no water regardless of how deep you dig.  The work involved with digging the hole in the hard packed desert soil, covering that hole with plastic, weighting down the edges of the plastic with rocks and more soil, is not repaid in water!  It is most likely that you will loose more water sweating while digging the hole than you will recover from the apparatus!

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

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Preparation and carrying the ten essentials are vital to any outdoor trip.  Map, compass and GPS make up my navigation kit.  Still, the unplanned happens and the magnetic compass may be broken or left at home.  Here is one way to make use of the sun to stay found.

Notice the shadow moving out from the trekking pole. At the furthest point of the shadow, place a marker such as a rock, stick or tent peg in the ground.

by Blake Miller

The Sun provides an excellent means of direction finding.  The ideal situation is one where the sky is bright and relatively free of clouds.

One method is called a “shadow stick compass.”

In an open area, clear away forest debris and duff.  Place a stick or trekking pole (extended about three feet – longer is better than shorter) into the ground as deep as possible (see image at left.)

Twenty or thirty minutes later, place another marker at the end of the moving shadow.

The markers shown above were placed over a period of one hour, each thirty minutes apart. A piece of baling twine (yellow) was laid adjacent to the markers to provide reference. The line of markers runs east west.

To find north, I simply put the toes of my boots next to the markers with my body perpendicular to the yellow line made by the twine. Facing away from the trekking pole, north is straight in front of me.

Blake Miller has made a career out of staying found and knowing where he is at all times. His formal navigation training began when he joined the U.S. Navy in 1973. He served as an officer aboard several Navy ships over his

Blake Miller

twenty-year career; many of those tours included the duty of Navigator. Blake began working with satellite navigation systems at sea in 1976, culminating with the then-new satellite positioning systems aboard the Battleship WISCONSIN in early 1990.

In 1998 Blake started Outdoor Quest, a business dedicated to backcountry navigation and wilderness survival. Blake has taught classes to wild land firefighters, state agency staffs, Search and Rescue team members, hunters, hikers, skiers, fishermen and equestrians. He regularly teaches classes through the Community Education programs at Central Oregon (Bend) and Chemeketa (Salem, OR) Community Colleges.

As a volunteer, Blake teaches navigation and survival classes to students in the local school districts, and conservation groups. He is a member of a Search and Rescue team.

If you have any questions about land navigation or wilderness survival, you can contact Blake through SurvivalCommonSense.com@gmail.com, or you can go to his website.

Contact Information:

Website: www.outdoorquest.biz

Blog: outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Phone: 541-280-0573

Email: outdrquest@aol.com

To hear the Blake Miller interview about choosing a magnetic compass and GPS on SurvivalCommonSense.com Radio, click here.

For more navigation information, click here

Click here to buy survival kits

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One reader wondered why hot, tasty food is categorized as a survival item on SurvivalCommonSense.com, and why I claim recipes are a survival tool. Well – that’s a really good question! So here is a story from World War II about food and its affect on morale.

American tank at Bastogne. (US Army photo)

by Leon Pantenburg

I am a history nerd, particularly fascinated by World War II. That  historical aspect is embedded in my psyche: When I was growing up, it seemed as if every adult male I knew was a WWII veteran.

In my immediate family, my Dad was an infantry captain in both the European and Pacific theaters; my Uncle John Lynch, US Coast Guard, drove landing craft on Iwo Jima and Okinawa; Uncle Harold Lindeman was an MP in the European theater; Uncle Fred Varnum was a baker in the U.S. Army in Europe and Uncle Fredrick Wirth served in the Aleutions. (My uncles Vincent Wirth and  Henry Adams served with the U.S. Army in Korea.)

To my frustration, none of these men ever talked about their service!

(To view the original 1944 newsreel, click on Battle of the Bulge)

In 2003, I wrote “Vanishing Heroes,” a special edition tribute to World War II veterans that published in the Bend, OR, “Bulletin” on Veterans Day. I was privileged to interview a variety of  service members from all branches and who served in every theater.

For me, the Battle of the Bulge has always been particularly fascinating. (To read more about that battle, click here.) On Dec. 16, 1944, the Germans launched a surprise winter offensive through the Ardennes Forest that caught the Allies completely by surprise. One of the keys to the battle was in the town of Bastogne, Belguim. Whoever controlled Bastogne controlled the roads needed for further penetration of Allied lines.

My uncle Fred was in Bastogne during the entire siege, which  lasted from Dec. 20 through Dec. 27. The besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Patton’s Third Army, which included my dad. Despite my pestering, neither ever talked about that battle.

The World War II memorial at Bastogne, Belgium, today.

So interviewing Corporal Francis C.  Buck, (Headquarters Company, First Battalion, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division), was an incredible privilege!

Buck made four combat jumps with the 82nd, which included drops at Sicily, Salerno, D Day and Operation Market Garden.

He had been wounded at the La Fiere Bridge on D-Day (To read more about the La Fiere battle, click here). After he recovered, Buck ended up being one of the reinforcements rushed to Bastogne to prop up the disintegrating American lines. When it came to survival gear, the troops were not prepared at all.

What food they had was cold, canned rations, with no way to heat them. They didn’t dare make a fire, and the soldiers had to tough out the long, frigid nights.

To quote from “Vanishing Heroes”:

“The only jump we made during the Battle of the Bulge was from the back of a truck,” Buck said. “We didn’t have any equipment and very little ammunition. No gloves and no winter clothes, just jump boots. We put up a tent and each of us had a blanket.”

Buck and his comrades set up a defensive line, and Buck periodically would take off his boots and massage his feet to keep them from freezing.

“I used my boots for a pillow,” Buck said. “I woke up to two inches of new snow.”

The Germans attacked at dawn, and Buck went on to describe the intensity of the fighting that day.

“So what was the worst part?” I asked. (Before the words were out, I regretted them. Talk about insensitive!)

Buck thought a few moments.

“It’s tough – really tough – to fight in snow and cold. We didn’t stay warm, and my feet froze. One man shot himself in the foot to get off the line,” Buck said. “But the hardest part is the cold, frozen chow.”

Buck saw my raised eyebrows and  elaborated.

Reinforcements enter Bastogne on Dec. 27, 1944 (US Army photo)

“Sometimes, the only thing you have to look forward to is a hot meal,” he said. “The day may have gone to hell, but if you think there’s  a hot meal coming, that may be the high point. It gives you something familiar in a really bad situation.”

In one instance, during a brutal  artillery barrage, Buck said he was crouched in the bottom of his foxhole, “scared to death and shaking from more than the cold.”

“It was funny, what comes to mind,” he said, chuckling. “I remember thinking how good a cup of hot coffee would taste.”

“Vanishing Heroes”  went on to win the 2004 National Journalism Award from the American Legion and numerous other local and regional awards.

Napoleon said an army “marches on its stomach.” And the interview with Buck re-enforced what I had learned from several other “Vanishing Hero” participants: Hot, tasty food is vital to helping maintain a survival mindset, be it in a battle or a wilderness emergency!

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Your first line of defence against hypothermia is your clothing. Make the right choices to survive

In this video, produced by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, survival expert Peter Kummerfeldt explains how to dress to survive under the most extreme conditions:

Outdoor Survival-Chapter 7-Clothing from Colorado Parks & Wildlife on Vimeo.
Dressing to survive starts with knowing what fabrics to wear, no matter what the season or conditions may be, or what the conditions might be. Different fabrics have radically different properties. Choosing the wrong type, or mixing clothing of

These Troop 18 Boy Scouts stayed warm on this winter hike because they all dressed correctly for the weather conditions.

different materials, can be disastrous!

by Leon Pantenburg

You may not be able to tell what a garment is made of by looking. A nice, fuzzy, thick 100-percent cotton flannel shirt will be warm and cozy until it gets wet. Then that wet shirt may suck the heat out of your torso and cause hypothermia!

On the other side of the equation is wool. My hands-down favorite in the winter, wool, is generally a bad choice for a desert hike in August. Wool traps heat, and while it provides some UV protection, the material will prevent your body from cooling.
So, the buyer needs to beware.

Before buying any clothing item, read the labels and find out what the material is. Ignore fashion or what’s trendy (I know that’s hard – I have a 16-year-old daughter!), and make your purchase based on the activity and the clothing protection that will be needed.

Here are some common fabric choices:

* Cotton: Depending on where you live, cotton clothing can kill you. Cotton is hydrophilic, meaning it is no good at wicking wetness away from the skin, and can become damp just by being exposed to humidity.

Since I’ve spent a lot of time in the Deep South, my favorite hot weather shirt is a medium-weight, white, 100 percent cotton Navy surplus shirt. The shirt has a collar that can be pulled up to shade my neck, and pockets with flaps and buttons. Cotton also has a reasonable amount of UV protection.

Both of these 100% cotton garments would keep you warm until they got wet. Then, this clothing can become dangerous to wear!

On really hot days in a canoe, a cotton shirt can be soaked with water, and worn to cool you down. On a desert hike, help prevent heat stroke by using a few ounces of water to wet the shirt down. (The water can come from anywhere, including that algae-edged stock tank. The evaporation is what cools you!)

Typical urban casual garb is probably all cotton: sweatsocks, Hanes or Fruit of the Loom underwear, jeans, tee shirt, flannel shirt and sweatshirt. This outfit may keep you warm in town, but don’t wear it into the backcountry! Once the cotton gets wet, you could end up in trouble.

Don’t be mislead by the looks and camouflage patterns of 100 percent cotton hunting clothes. These garments may be just what you need for a hot, September dove hunt in Mississippi, but they become cold and clammy when damp or wet, just like anything else made of cotton.

* Polypropylene: This material doesn’t absorb water, so it is a hydrophobic. This makes it a great base layer, since it wicks moisture away from your body. The bad news is that polypropylene melts, so a spark from the campfire may melt holes in your clothing.

* Wool: Where I live in Central Oregon, wool is the standard for six months of the year. A good pair of wool pants and wool socks are the first clothing items we recommend to new Boy Scouts in our troop. For our winter scout excursions, any sort of cotton clothing is strongly discouraged. Jeans are banned.

Wool absorbs moisture, but stays warmer than many other fabrics. Wool is also inherently flame retardant.

* Polyester: This is essentially fabric made from plastic, and it’s good stuff. The material has good insulative and windstopping value, and can be made into many different thicknesses.

Dressed completely in wool, I was warm and comfortable on this winter hike. I took off my hat and coat for the photo.

* Nylon: The fabric is pretty tough and can be used on your outer layer. It doesn’t absorb much moisture, and what does evaporates quickly. It is best used as some sort of windbreaker, to keep your clothing from being compromised by the wind.

* Down: This material is not a fabric, but rather, fluffy feathers stuffed inside a garment or sleeping bag. When dry, down is one of my favorite insulative materials.

In addition, a down sleeping bag or garment is virtually impossible to dry out in the backcountry, even with a roaring campfire.

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Survival gear doesn’t need to be elaborate or expensive. Some of the best items are common, easily-found products you may already have. One of those items is a large metal cup. Here’s why you need one. (Check out the video below.)

 by Leon Pantenburg

I slogged along in the ranks, my rifle slung over my shoulder, headed toward the sound of the guns. As an embedded journalist in the Confederate infantry, I was covering the battle of Champion Hill re-enactment between Vicksburg and

The Civil War replica, left, and the more contemporary military canteen cup have many uses in a survival kit. (Pantenburg photo)

Jackson,  Mississippi.

Except for the Nikon and ballpoint pen hidden in my haversack, all my accouterments and weapons were authentic. It didn’t take long to form opinions.

The  heavy wool uniform was like wearing a sweatsuit. The small kepi offered virtually no protection from the sun. The canteen was too small, the leather shoe soles were slippery and the authentic food really sucked.

But several common items proved invaluable. My cotton bandana was soaked in water and worn around my neck to cool and protect it from the fierce sun.  A flint and steel kit could stand up to the hard marching and campaigning, where as matches didn’t last in the heat and humidity. Hardtack was durable, but tasteless.

But the large quart tin cup was a stellar performer. It  served as my mess kit, and worked really well for boiling coffee and heating rations over a campfire. Water stations were set up all over, and we’d stop frequently to hydrate, replenish canteens and pour water over our heads. But the most appreciated use came as we were marching back after the battle.

A sutler set up along the line of march, and would fill any cup with cold beer for a dollar. He would take an IOU, and he did a land office business.

I’ve included a tin cup in my gear for many years.  When I hiked the John Muir Trail in 1976, I carried a metal Sierra cup on my belt. At every running stream, I’d use the cup to get a drink. I also mixed instant oatmeal in it, and used it for just about everything.

That was my first wilderness trip where a tin cup proved its worth. Give some thought to adding one to your survival gear.

Here’s what I have used a metal cup for:

This 40-ounce enamelware cup went along on a nine-day canoe trip through the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. It was used for everything.

• Mess Kit: I used a 40-ounce blue enamel cup and a plastic spoon as my only eating utensils during a nine-day canoe trip through the Boundary Waters. Weight was critical because of the frequent portages between lakes. During that trip the utensil was also used  for picking blueberries, dipping water out of the lake for purification, brewing coffee, rinsing off  after a sweaty portage, and various other tasks.
• Cooking: I typically carry an aluminum can alcohol stove in my 24-ounce metal cup, along with four ounces of alcohol in two small plastic containers. That is just enough fuel to last a day of cross-country skiing, snowshoeing or elk hunting. I put the metal cup directly on top of the alcohol stove, and brewing up a hot drink is quick and easy. If you have to warm up a hypothermic person, this tool can be a lifesaver.
• Campfire cooking: Save your stove fuel for emergencies. Time permitting, you can make a small fire and purify water or cook a hot meal over the flames. And it looks and feels really cool to do that!
• Bathing: NEVER pollute a water source by rinsing the soap off your body into it. Instead, fill your cup with water get a good distance away from the source, wet yourself down and lather up. Rinse off the same way. You can also use the cup to hold water for brushing your teeth.

The cup can also be handy for dipping water out of  suspicious source before purifying. In a pinch, you could also dig with it, but I wouldn’t waste my time digging a hole to make a solar still!

The tin or enamelware cups are cheap and can be found anywhere. Include one  in your survival gear and you’ll be surprised how useful it is!

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Frequently, a survival situation starts out when someone gets lost. Here are some simple tips from survival expert Peter Kummerfeldt about using a map, compass and GPS to stay found.

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

If you read this website with any degree of frequency, you’ll realize that survival firemaking is one of  the most emphasized survival skills. Enter this drawing, and you could win a free custom ferro rod for your survival kit.

by Leon Pantenburg

The ability to start a fire in a survival situation can save your life. The inability can cost your life. – Leon

Enter to win a ferro rod firestriker with a custom antler tip handle. See how on the left of this illustration! (Pantenburg photo)

Now, you can win a custom Ferrocerium (also commonly referred to as a ferro, flint or magnesium) rod, with an antler handle, just by participating in this free drawing.

Entering is easy. Here’s what you do:

• Sign up for the free weekly SurvivalCommonSense.com email update. Just click on the blue box below.
• “Like” my Facebook page.
• If you’re already signed up for the update, and already “Like” SurvivalCommonSense.com, then send me an email at survivalcommonsense.com@gmail.com and say something to the effect of: “Hey, Leon – enter me in the contest.”

The ferro rod will have a handle made from the  antler of a buck I harvested, and will be personally designed by me to be really cool!

The winner will be announced in the SurvivalCommonSense.com email update in about a week. (If you aren’t feeling lucky, you can buy a custom antler ferro rod here.)

To learn how to use a ferro rod to start a fire, check out the videos below:

For more info on making survival kits, click here

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There is more than just meat to harvest from a big game animal. With a little thought and ingenuity, you can find useful projects that will use many of the other parts of the animal!

The best way to show respect for the big game animal you harvest is to use as much of it as possible.

by Leon Pantenburg

Before the foreigners arrived on the American scene, the indigenous people used virtually every part of  a big game animal.

They had no choice! The carcass of a deer, elk, buffalo, antelope or other game animal was their combination grocery/hardware and home store. A large animal provided the raw materials for food, shelter, weapons and virtually everything else needed for wilderness survival.

Today, a harvested big game animal is still a great survival resource. And, IMO, the best way to show respect and appreciation for the animal whose life you took  is to use everything possible.

To start with, every shred of usable meat should be harvested. That means learning butchering and meatcutting skills to most effectively cut, wrap and preserve the meat. (Every prepper and survivalist should know basic butchering as a survival skill!) Get good tools, and practice cutting and wrapping meat whenever you can. The better you are at butchering, the less meat you’ll waste.

Get a meat grinder or grinding attachment for your blender. I have been using the same Osterizer blender with grinder for over 20 years. By now, it has ground up the meat from a small herd of deer and elk and is still going strong.

The ability to make your own hamburger is cost-effective, and assures you save all the tougher and less flavorful cuts to eat.

Don’t neglect the organs. In October, after a successful elk hunt in Oregon, the intact heart was saved from one elk  carcass. It was donated to  Mountainview High School (in Bend, OR) to be used in the anatomy class for dissection.

Dog Food: My office supervisor is Belle, a 12-year-old Labrador (non)Retriever, and there are no wasted scrap meats at my house.

While butchering, meat scraps are placed in gallon Ziploc bags, labeled, and frozen. Later, the scraps will boiled and used to supplement Belle’s  food. The broth is also saved. Belle’s favorite meal is  boiled elk or deer scraps, with broth, poured over her regular dry dog food.

Dog Liver Treats: If boiled deer scraps are Belle’s favorite meal, then baked liver treats are her favorite food on earth! If you don’t personally like liver, don’t leave it in the gutpile! (Take along a 2-gallon Ziploc bag and it will be big enough to carry a bull elk liver!) Give the liver to someone who will eat it, or use it to make dog treats.

Store  the completed liver treats in a plastic sandwich bag in the freezer until ready to use. If you don’t have a dog, give the treats to somebody who does. I imagine other organ meats could be prepared in a similar manner.

In no particular order, here are some suggestions to make the fullest use of that elk, deer or antelope carcass.

Soap: If an animal has fat, that fat can be rendered into lard, and made into soap. I made some soap one year from a fat whitetail doe, and distributed it to the rest of the hunting club members for Christmas presents. I called it “Buck Rub,” but think about it while you’re while out on stand, and you can probably come up with a better name!

Soapmaking expert Karla Moore, owner of Heart of Iowa Soapworks, regularly makes soap with a variety of wild game tallows. Click here to get her recipe for a basic  bar soap.

Hides: I am too lazy to attempt braintanning a hide like the Indians did.  But the hide can still be kept, rolled up in a garbage bag in your freezer,  until it can be donated to a worthy cause. In many areas, barrels are placed at check stations to collect hides, and local civic clubs process the hides as fundraisers.

In my hometown of Bend, OR, the local taxidermist trades hides for leather gloves. The hide has value, even if you don’t personally want to tan it.

Fishing Lures: If you know a fly tier, give the tail to him or her. The hollow hairs of a whitetail make great lures, and flytiers – good ones, anyway – are notorious, constant scroungers of natural materials such as animal hairs, feathers and other stuff. Play your cards right, and you might get some neat flies back. Squirrel tails are another fantastic resource for fly and jig lure makers.

Buck Tail jig: One of the finest all-around lures I know of  is a simple leadhead jig tied into a
bucktail. Making one is simplicity itself – all you have to do tie some of the long tail hairs to the jig and go fishing.

Tip the jig with a minnow or a nightcrawler and and you have a very effective rig for catching walleye or northern pike. One of the most effective colors for the jig is the hair’s natural brown.

Antlers or Horns:Talk about a useful material! You can make handles for knives, and other tools, and use them for a

A shed antler makes good handles for these ferro rods, used for firestarting. (Pantenburg photo)

multitude of pioneer products.

Saw an antler into thin slices, drill two holes in the center, and you have bone buttons. These become prime barter items at historic re-enactments or mountain man rendezvouses.

I used a piece of horn for the handle of my blackpowder rifle’s round ball short starter. It’s easy to make powder measures out of antler tips. Just cut off the desired length, clamp it into a drill press and start drilling. Pour sand or salt into the hole from a powder measure, and keep enlarging the hole  until you get the right sized hole for the desired volume. When you’re done, check the capacity of the horn with a powder measure and gunpowder. These are so easy to make, you can have several.

Elk Ivory: Every elk has two ivory molars in the back of their jaws. I got a pair of nice ivories when I can across a kill site from some other hunters. My Leatherman allowed me to quickly remove the teeth.

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