Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2017 i American Frontiersman

Please let this be a hardy “hello and it’s great to see you” to all American Frontiersman fans! On behalf of the many contributors to AF magazine, I’d like to say a big ole “It’s great to be back in the saddle again!” It’s wonderful to be able to welcome subscribers and those of you who hunt us down on the newsstands to our trade blanket after a short publishing respite. We’ve been hard at work revamping some of our most popular titles. Check out a snapshot of what we publish for outdoor-, shooting- and selfreliance- minded folks by visiting athlonoutdoors.com. Much of our online content related to both AF and sister publications The New Pioneer and Survivor’s Edge can be found at realworldsurvivor.com. In our last issue, we featured…

Icannot begin to tell you how many times I have described something as being “the best thing since sliced bread.” We use that idiom to bestow significant importance to an item or idea. I am a huge fan of sliced bread. I bake a loaf almost every day. I know firsthand how difficult it can be to create that perfect slice of bread. They are sometimes too thick, or too thin, or too lopsided. The one constant implied, but never stated, in that idiom is the knife used to make that perfect slice. A knife is arguably the most important tool you own. Don’t believe that? Try to imagine daily life without any knives in your home. What would you use to butter your toast, slice fruits and vegetables, cut…

• Burnham’s earliest playmates were the Lakota children on the reservation where he grew up. • Due to the lessons he passed to Robert Baden-Powell, and for being the epitome of a model scout, Burnham has been called the father of the world scouting movement. • During the Boer War, Burnham commanded the Lovat Scouts. • After the Boer War, Burnham led mineral and archaeological expeditions in Africa and Mexico. • Burnham foiled an assassination plot against President William Howard Taft, personally helping to disarm the assailant. • Frederick Burnham had a plan to import hippos into American swamps and farm them as a meat source. • He wrote two books about his adventures: Scouting On Two Continents (1926) and Taking Chances (1944). • Ernest Hemingway had planned to produce…

“Help me!”yelled Garrett, one of my junior trapping buddies. He sounded panicked on the phone. “I set the traps like you showed me. This morning I caught a fox and shot it. Now what do I do?” Turning a dead animal into a tanned hide on the wall or a fur check in your pocket is a process with many choices. Either sell the animal without skinning or learn to skin, flesh and stretch your pelts. Selling skinned and fleshed animals will often double or triple the price a buyer will pay for your fur. To sell fur, you need contacts. There are fur buyers in almost every area of the country. If you don’t know any trappers near you, check your state trapper’s association website. Some state websites have…

Historical trekking is essentially a camping trip done with clothing and equipment that is historically correct for the period you are emulating. The thing that differentiates historical trekking from the sort of camping done at rendezvous and reenactments is movement. At a rendezvous, you live in a stationary camp at the event, but a trek implies travel, usually on foot, though trekking can also be done by canoe or on horseback. However you do it, it is the movement that makes it a trek. It’s the element of travel that makes a big impact on the gear you’ll use. When I camp at a big event, I like my comfort. I’ll have a tent, an awning, a cot with three fluffy wool blankets, candle lanterns, cast-iron cooking gear, clean clothes…

The average four-point blanket is 72 by 90 inches. Before ripping or cutting, make sure to allow extra space in the overlap for the girth of the body. Lay out the pattern pieces so the blanket stripes match on the arms and body of the capote. Tear the blanket whenever possible, as this will prevent fraying. Width: Measure the largest measurement (shoulder, chest or hip) and then add 14 inches for front overlap. Length: Measure from center of shoulder to middle of calf. Armpit Span: Measure from the center of the armpit around the back to the center of the other armpit. Sleeve: Measure from the center of the neck (in the back) to the fingertips. This will allow a fold-over sleeve. Subtract half of the distance between the arm…

Drinking horns are fairly simple to make with the proper amount of time and care, though there are a few factors to take into consideration when determining how much effort you want to put into it. Horns that have already been cleaned and cured can be found online or at reenactment festivals. These can serve as blank slates that you can decorate and modify as you please. Step 1: Obtain a horn. Any horn will work, though cow and buffalo horns tend to be the optimal size. Call or pay a visit to a meat processor to see if they have any horns on hand or to request that they save you some. Step 2: Remove the core. This is the part of the task that may cause you to…

Say “fur trade” to most people and they will probably instantly envision a buckskin-clad individual wading up a Rocky Mountain stream back around 1830 in search of a place to set his beaver traps. Fur has always been subject to the whims of the fashion industry, with many historical ups and downs in demand. But modern trappers usually consider the period from around 1900 to maybe 1960 as the real golden era of the fur industry, as both demand and prices rose to new heights. The 20th century also brought into use an entirely new group of cutting tools to handle those pelts. Of the modern knives, the most well-known is probably the “trapper”- pattern two-blade folder. Given that there is no “Federal Bureau Knife Standardization,” defining what makes a…

Lying far out on mainland Alaska’s westernmost peninsula, just below the Arctic Circle, Nome is among the remotest settlements in North America. Boasting the world’s northernmost Mexican restaurant, a campus for the University of Alaska and a stunning Pacific coastline, the small city and its 3,800-odd inhabitants can be reached only by sea or air. From time to time, politicians and business leaders in the state’s larger towns bring up the thought of building a road to cover the 500 or so miles to the nearest highway leading to Fairbanks or Anchorage, but when they do, they are quickly reminded that to do so would cost billions of dollars. Nome was even less accessible in 1924, a time before regular air service reached the town, which then had about 1,500…

There are times when being able to take the chill off your fingers and hands can be as important as a steak dinner to a hungry man. I’ve certainly been there on many occasions, when my aching cold fingers have led to fear of impending frostbite. To help in eliminating this problem, there are a variety of different commercially available hand-warmers on the market, but in my experience, none of those provide the instant relief that an open flame produces. Unfortunately, a traditional open fire isn’t always a practical solution. In some cases, it might be difficult to find enough dry tinder or firewood. Other times you may not have the time to devote to building a fire, or you may feel that the smoke generated could be detrimental. But…

Don’t over-bow yourself! Like a powerful rifle that pounds you into flinching, a bow too hard to pull brings bad shooting form that’s tough to correct. As a youth, I shot well with progressively stronger bows to 50 pounds. Then I bought a 65-pound recurve. I strained to draw it. My accuracy fell off; decades later, I’m still fighting habits forced by that bow! Choose a bow you can hold easily. Laminated wood-and-fiberglass limbs are efficient. You don’t need a heavy bow to kill a deer; 40-pound thrust can send arrows through whitetails. Start at 25 to 35 pounds, hone your shooting technique and then add only the draw weight you need. These days, a 55-pound bow is stiff. SPLIT FINGERS VS. THREE UNDER: “My arrow keeps coming off.” Novices…

George Washington Sears, aka Nessmuk, established a name for himself as a 19th century writer and traveled outdoorsman. Nessmuk was a pioneer in the ultralight philosophy, and his equipment reflected the minimal gear he deemed necessary to enjoy the outdoors. Nessmuk’s kit included his patterned knife and double-bit hatchet. These are easily the most recognized items today, but his Sairy Gamp canoe is the most unimaginable. The idea of a 10.5-pound canoe seems preposterous, even impossible, but it was part of the 26-pound total kit weight Nessmuk used while traveling throughout the Adirondacks. Fast-forward to the 21st century, an age when canoes are sold in large box stores and seen on rooftops along the interstate system, and boats of featherweight design are not common sights. That is, until you travel…

IF Frederick Russell Burnham had not existed, it would be necessary to invent him. Whether anyone would have believed the invention is another matter, for Burnham, who lived a long life taking in the years from the Civil War through World War II, was a kind of Forrest Gump—without that fictional character’s simplicity, to be sure, but with every bit of his talent for being at the right place at exactly the right time, and for making history in the bargain. Could there be anyone of Burnham’s sort in the tame present? A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham, Steve Kemper’s vigorous biography of this larger-thanlife but largely forgotten figure, provides a fine example that any would-be pioneer could profitably follow. Burnham was brave, resourceful and careful to…

_ What A Deer Needs: Most wildlife, especially whitetails, spend 90 percent of their energy trying to survive and the remaining 10 percent trying to reproduce. Survival, the Doughertys like to say, is governed by the “Big Three”—food, cover and security. _ As Craig put it in Whitetails: From Ground to Gun, “One or two out of the three doesn’t cut it. You won’t have good hunting if you can only offer deer food. What you will have is a bunch of nighttime visitors who spend most of the night feeding and hanging out on your property and are gone long before daylight. Combining food and cover is better, but if your cover’s security is breached every other day by hunters or ATVs or even roaming dogs, it offers little…

When we speak about packing our bag, we have many different concepts of what this bag will become if it’s used for emergency purposes. We hear terms like EDC, bug-out, INCH or go bag and many other names for a bag we are keeping somewhere for specific emergency use during a time of need for gear that will help sustain us over either the short or long term. I think when we start to look at anything we may need to carry, we have to consider weight placed into the bag if we intend to carry it over distance. But for kits that go into a car or recreational vehicle of some sort, these concerns are somewhat less. However, the true aim for this article was not to tell you…

We can all speculate as to what terrible situation might befall humanity. Everything from a worldwide cataclysmic financial event to a widespread natural disaster is possible. While we may not be in agreement as to what sort of bad cloud might blow over, we should not have any quarrel as to whether or not we should be prepared to deal with bad times when they arrive. The things that will help you survive are the very same things that helped the early American settlers. Case in point: A good horse was worth a fortune before the combustion engine and electricity. I’m not suggesting that everyone who hopes to prepare for a short- or long-term survival situation must have a horse. Let’s face it, for some of us it’s simply not…

Sometimes we are lucky: In a man’s work we get both a snapshot of our times and an education on what a creative mind can ultimately accomplish. Robert W. Loveless’ knife designs are the baselines for knifemakers around the world, and collectors continue to push the prices of his work to dizzying heights. But to focus on the market’s treatment of Loveless’ work is to miss most of the point. Loveless and his legacy are quintessentially 20th century American, and though most of us may never be able to afford one of his knives, the story of how he transcended his art is free to all of us. Loveless’ Life Loveless’ life-education was an Odyssian wandering of a curious mind and an adventurous soul. Born in 1929 near Warren, Ohio,…

In 1967, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the American purchase of Alaska from Russia, a group of civic leaders organized a short dogsled race between Wasilla and Knik, today both part of the Anchorage metropolitan area. The original race was the brainchild of a woman named Dorothy Page, who laid out a course of 25 miles to honor the 1925 Serum Run. Later elected the mayor of Wasilla, Page saw her race grow to encompass a route of more than 1,100 miles thanks to the efforts of an ally, Joe Redington, who had long advocated adding the original route to the national register of historic trails, and so the Iditarod course was born in 1978. CHARTING A COURSE: The present Iditarod Trail takes in several historic routes from the…

Say your assignment is to pick up some groceries. Option one: Hop into your Ford Focus, toddle down the interstate, wait behind three red lights, grab the milk, pump a little gas and then finally get home to discover you got the wrong brand. Option two: Hotwire a Lamborghini, test its top speed, snatch up the milk, zip down the interstate, screech to a stop in front of your house and discover that you drove so fast you timetraveled to the future. Both options get the job done. However, for indefinable reasons, the second method just seems better. Sometimes efficiency is not the goal. People never seem to tire of the innate satisfaction intrinsic to classic blackpowder firearms. The flash of yellow, the billowing smoke and the smell of burnt…

The young mother was gripped with worry. Anxiously awaiting her husband’s return, she tended her young child in the crude log cabin about 20 miles outside of Mankato, Minnesota. Nights earlier, the sky beyond the cabin had turned a fiery red. Unknown to her at the time, she had witnessed the burning of the nearby town of New Ulm by Little Crow’s warriors during the Dakota War of 1862. One late afternoon, her worst fears were realized. Forms could be seen moving about in the timber along the creek. The shapes of the eagle feathers silhouetted against the gloaming struck a desperate panic within her and evoked a primal fear. The young woman knew that she could never escape carrying a child. She hid her son in a shock of…

Nothing beats talking with an expert, or better yet, arranging a property visit. The Doughertys manage or have helped plan more than 350,000 acres of wildlife habitat and can apply that wisdom to your ground. Their books, Grow ’Em Right: A Guide to Creating Habitat and Food Plots and Whitetails: From Ground to Gun, are also full of intel for a new wildlife manager. Neil recommended I read them in order, Grow ’Em Right followed by Whitetails: From Ground to Gun, but sort of like watching Star Wa rs in the perfect order, I’d recommend the first part of Whitetails first, on the land connection, then the more how-to Grow ’Em Right, followed by the hunting section of Whitetails. Both books, and more on the Doughertys’ consulting work, can be found at northcountrywhitetails.com.…

“There is no technique, there is just the way to do it. Now, are we going to measure or are we going to cook?” —Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun When I’m in camp, I don’t necessarily break out a recipe book in order to make some tasty rabbit stew. I just use what I have on hand. So don’t think you have to follow my recipes exactly or use the same ingredients I use. Think of the recipes in this book as a guide, not a rule. Here are some of my most important tips about cooking in the wild: • Recipes are interchangeable. If you have a recipe you like for cooking red meat, then you can use it to cook raccoon. • Think of opossum as pork. Whatever…

The wind was in his face, and the snow was knee-deep. A slobbering elk bugled; for an instant a mist of overheated air wreathed his muzzle while the otherworldly, high-pitched scream echoed off the mountainside. The animal’s entire being and essence was locked in on a nearby cow elk, the focus of his desire. The hunter crawled into range using trees, the snow and the advantage of his white capote coat to get close enough to take a shot at the giant animal. His finger curled around the trigger and squeezed. Seconds later, a ball from the .58-caliber flintlock exploded a huge hole behind the elk’s shoulder. The bull crashed to his knees and then flattened out on the reddening snow. The camp would have meat tonight. Without the camouflage…

Prior to 1800, only Native Americans spent summers in the valley we now call Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In 1806 the valley was discovered by John Colter, and as he traveled through, he encouraged the Crow to trap beaver and trade their pelts. Later many famous men of the era travelled through the valley, including William Sublette, Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith and David Jackson. In this painting, two mountain men make their way along the Snake River, set against the Grand Tetons of Jackson Hole. It is September, and the trapping season has arrived. There must be other members of their expedition camped nearby because they travel without a single pack animal. Painted by Joe Velazquez, it was commissioned by the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce in 2010. For more information,…

From the earliest times, mankind has found it necessary to learn how to not only prepare and preserve drink, but also to safely and efficiently transport it. Humans have come up with some innovative techniques for doing this over the centuries. From caveman times to the Viking and Anglo-Saxon ages, to the modern age, we’ve used everything from wood, animal bladders, ceramics, animal horns, metal and plastic. Some materials stick around through the ages, whether it’s because of their simplicity or the tradition and history they represent. The simplest and earliest forms of drinking vessels were blocks of wood that had been carved into the shape of a bowl or mug. Hollowed-out gourds were also early light, easily transportable drinking vessels. Over time, methods were developed to make more sophisticated…

Westerns, a welcome staple of American literature that began with Owen Wister’s The Virginian (“When you call me that, smile.”), now have bookshelves bursting with superstar titles and authors. Early favorites included the respected and prolific Zane Grey (with romantic titles like Riders of the Purple Sage), Max Brand, Luke Short and Ernest Haycox. Then, springing from popular pulp-fiction magazines, along came The Man—Louis L’Amour, winner and reigning champion with 89 novels, including one I re-read at least once a year, the treasured Hondo. The qualities that make Hondo so packed with reader reward include the exactness of the prose, which anchors every scene into a felt reality and leaps off the page to pull the reader into the experience being described. All writers have that gift to one degree…

Dogsleds can carry a surpr ising amount of weight. Even so, a seasoned driver knows to keep the weight down for the sake of the dogs. The rules of the Iditarod require a driver to carry common-sense survival gear, including a sleeping bag rated for cold weather, an ax, snowshoes and booties for the dogs. Dogs go through booties like water on the rough, icy g round, and a well-prepared musher may carry 3,000 or more of them to last the duration of the race. Mushers also carry a small stove, using methanol for fuel, w hich is more efficient than ethanol or denatured alcohol in cold temperatures. The rules stipulate that the stove must be large enough to heat 3 gallons of water at a time. Sufficient rations for…

He shot 38 times. The rain of arrows knocked just four grouse off their perches. This was not some novice, but the legendary archer Howard Hill. By his twenties, the athletically gifted Hill had abandoned other sports to practice with the longbow. He would eventually tally 196 straight tournament wins. In 1928, he set a flight record. Hollywood recruited him to shoot for Errol Flynn in the 1938 film Robin Hood, where Hill split an arrow on cue. Once, on an elk hunt, he ran out of cover 185 yards from a bull. Too far. But after deliberating, he loosed a shaft. It flew high. The next struck low. The third “buried itself to the feathers” in the elk’s chest. At exhibitions, Hill hit tossed coins and glanced arrows from…