Search Results for: alaska trapper

Letter Re: Grub and Gear–Lessons Learned from an Alaskan Trapper

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James, Going through some old gear last month, I found my food supply lists and notes from 1976-79. I thought the old list might be of interest and the lessons I learned during the first three years in the remote Alaska bush may be helpful to a few of your readers. I do not recommend Alaska for a TEOTWAWKI retreat but the lessons I learned the hard way may be helpful to any one in a cold climate. I grew up in California listing to stories from my grandfather about Alaska and the Yukon. When I graduated from high school my grandfather gave me his remote trapping cabin in Alaska. At 18 I had a lot to learn and discovered many things the hard way. I was lucky to survive the first year. When I got to Alaska I met my Grandfather’s old trapping partner. He told me that the…


Garden Bed Weed Management, by Southern Trapper

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…greatly reduces the effort in weeding. Check out growfood.com for more info TominAlaska Gardening and working a 9 to 5 job is a great conflict. My garden was 30 rows in a 40X50 plot. Southeast Alaska weeds grew at a tremendous rate because of the constant rain. It takes dedication to begin weeding at 3:30am until 6:00am. Showering, kids off to school, get breakfast, pack lunches etc then driving to work for the 8:00am start time. Speed home after work at 5:00pm and dive back into garden. Weed until 6:30pm supper. Back to garden to weed until midnight. That was one row of weeding done. It takes youth, fanaticism, a great wife that appreciates fresh food and takes care of the household details, long Alaskan summer days and a lot of experimentation to be acknowledged the best gardener in your area. It also helps if you give up TV and…


Grub and Gear–Lessons Learned from an Alaskan Trapper, by Old Dog

James, I enjoy your blog. I’m praying the Lord’s peace during your mourning. I greatly enjoyed the recent letter on Lessons-Learned from Alaska. I’d like to add: One way to deal with condensation on a rifle, or other piece of equipment, in cold climates is to bag it in plastic [such as a trash bag) outside, before entering a warm area. Once inside, the condensation will build up on the exterior of the bag. Once the rifle, or other equipment, comes up to the indoor temperature it may be removed from the plastic cover [and checked for condensation]. Lord Bless and Keep and Shine. – Cloudwarmer…


The Protein All Around Us, by Oregon Bill

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…quite so stupid! As my Dad would say, “you cannot put an old head on young shoulders”. With age, SOMETIMES comes wisdom. Nurse kim I, too,eat coon. Get it from a trapper friend when he finds live ones in his traps. He removes the tail for me. I bring the carcass to a boil several times then discard the water to remove the gamey taste. Then simmer the meat in Mexican spices to make tamales. Lots of work, but we’ll worth the effort. Would love to have you do a post of tanning. Matt in Oklahoma The menu will greatly change in hard times. Cleaning skunks is an art and generally not the best option. Possum, robins, crows and even the dog might be a part of it. You are definitely on the right path with traps and trying things. K in Tenn Thanks for sharing! Gene Canfield I’ve had…


Letter Re: Let’s Talk About Trapping: North American Furbearers

Letter Re: Let’s Talk About Trapping: North American Furbearer As a fellow trapper I enthusiastically read the article on trapping and although I have never eaten Raccoon. I can vouch that beaver and muskrat are good meat sources. Muskrat, I do not eat regularly, but beaver is more substantial and I do regularly take the meat and the skin is durable enough to be used for hats, mittens, coats, etc. When skinning beaver take care not to cut the castor glands, first these smell awful and would taint the meat, second you can sell them, and third you can use these to make your own lure for predators. Here is a link to a nice diagram showing where the castor glands are I often harvest part of the beaver for cooking, the skin for tanning and use the remaining parts for bait for predators. It seems to be a universal bait good for lynx, fox,…


Retreat Owner Profiles

…Rugers but kept these because I haven’t found anything good to replace them), Win 70 and Rem 700 hunting rifles in .270, .30-06, .308, .300 WM, .375 H&H. P14 Enfield in .416 Rigby. Browning A5 12 gauge and 20 gauge, Marlin 336 .30-30, Savage 24C in .22/20gauge, 2 Keltec SU-16s (in our BoBs), FR-8 (308), Alaskan Co-pilot in .45-70 with 1.5 scope and ghost-ring backup sights, SA M6 survival rifle. Not that we ever want to use them, but we have 6 tactical vests with level III armor (and level IV plates for 4 of them), and helmets. I also have two sets of NVD – an AN/PVS-7C with helmet attachment, and an ITT unit that is similar, designed for boaters. Stored ammunition: Roughly 150,000 rounds, various calibers. All stored in ammo cans, labeled by caliber. Only about 25K in .22LR and another 10K in shotgun ammo. I have ‘minimum…


Pat’s Product Review: Buffalo Bore Ammunition–Thinking Outside The Box

…new Buffalo Bore heavy 30-30 150 grain Barnes TSX round will not only penetrate deeply (and hold together) on deer and elk, it will mushroom very nicely. This load would also be great for black bear, too.   What’s nice about this load is, if you are going from deer hunting, to elk or black bear, you don’t have to readjust your sights, as you’d normally have to do when changing from one bullet weight to another. Nope, you can use this same 150 grain Barnes TSX bullet for much of your .30-30 hunting needs. However, if I were up in Alaska, where the really big bears are, and moose, I’d go with the other Buffalo Bore 190 grain JFN hard cast 30-30 load, for deeper penetration.   In a Winchester .30-30 with a 20″ barrel, Sundles is getting 2,271 FPS. And, even in a little 16″ barrel Trapper, he…


The Fleecing of History – Part 1, by Lazer

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…to do with respect and moral beliefs that most anything else. And they only live in peace by a very thin margin of the live and let live ethos. Once crossed by either party, it’s game on, and culturally binding ties deteriorate rapidly…. Where we are at present… PatVT Very interesting and informative.Looking forward to part 2! Trapper John Great points. Two words that strike me are HUBRIS and DOMINATION. The group in power have domination as their ultimate goal. TominAlaska Trapper John, Yes, they have had world domination on their minds since KMarx. Most of these individuals are out of control. They are drunk with power and it will spill over their cups when they enacts draconian gun “laws”. Such law may be the line in the sand as half the American population is fed up with the lies, deceit, corruption, arrogance and threats. If they truly realize what…


Odds ‘n Sods:

More on the unfolding derivatives debacle: The $300 Trillion Time Bomb   o o o Mark sent us this news article link: Mass Zimbabwe arrests over prices. Mark’s comment: “Note that today [in Zimbabwe] a single banana cost more than a four bedroom house did in 2000.”    o o o David V. recommended this history article from Alaska that has a some applicability to retreat provisioning: Black River Trapper: Fred Thomas    o o o From Gold-Eagle.com, Gary Dorsch, Editor of Global Money Trends (by way of SHTF Daily): Global Exodus From The US Dollar In Motion. The article includes this alarming statistic: “Since the Bernanke Fed discontinued the decades-old reporting of the broad M3 money supply in March of 2006, the growth rate of M3 has accelerated from an 8% rate to a sizzling 13.7% clip, its fastest in more than three decades. The Bernanke Fed is preventing…


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Dick S. mentioned that there’s a great article in the February issue of Field & Stream magazine, titled; “The Ultimate Survivor: Life in the wild with Alaska’s toughest trapper.”    o o o The 25% off sale at SafeCastle on all Mountain House foods in #10 cans is in progress. They are offering free shipping to the 48 continental states! The sale ends on February 13th, so order soon!    o o o The recent article titled “Forges Foundries, and Factories” by JIR prompted several readers to write to remind me about the wealth of resources on traditional skills, published by Lindsay Books. Yes, they’ve been mentioned before in SurvivalBlog, but it bears repeating. BTW, one of their latest titles is devoted wood gasification–alowing you to make electricity from firewood.    o o o The folks at Medical Corps are holding another one of their excellent three-day “Combat/Field Medicine…


Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — March 11, 2020

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Today is the birthday of author Douglas Adams (born 1952). He is the author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Trapper and survivalist Claude Lafayette Dallas, Jr. was born March 11, 1950. The subject of several books and movies, Dallas had a “colorful” life. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of two game wardens, in Idaho. He served 22 years of a 30-year sentence before being released in 2005. He reportedly now lives in the wilds of Alaska. Also on this day, the Great Blizzard of ’88 struck the northeastern United States (1888). March 11th is the birthday of the late actor Anton Yelchin (born 1989, died June 19, 2016). He is remembered for his portrayal of Kyle Reese in Terminator: Salvation, and as Ensign Pavel Checkov, in the most recent Star Trek movie series. He died in a freak accident wherein his parked Jeep Grand Cherokee…


Cold Weather Considerations – Part 3, by JM

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…and cheeks are one of the most common parts to get frostbitten, so you need to make sure you keep everything warm. For a hat you should consider a stocking cap in the winter, either a heavy one for colder days or a lighter one for warmer days, since they can also cover your ears. If you need to keep your ears uncovered (like to wear hearing protectors at the range), there are also insulated baseball caps available, which have the added advantage of a bill to keep falling snow out of your eyes. For the ultimate in head warmth consider a trapper-style hat – I’ve worn these in -40°F wind chills and my head has stayed toasty warm. Another good option for keeping your head and face warm is a balaclava; if you cover your nose and mouth it’ll trap some heat inside, so the air you breathe in…


SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on pro-gun Wyoming. Region-Wide In recent data from The Tax Foundation, most of the American Redoubt States rank well, as usual: 2018 State Business Tax Climate Index o o o Likewise, in safety rankings, most of the American Redoubt States rank very well: 2017’s Safest States in America. Note that Montana and Wyoming were dinged for road safety in part because they have so many long stretches of highway with 80-mile per hour speed limits, some severe winter weather at the higher elevations, and so many deer and elk collisions. Otherwise, they’d be near the top of the list. Idaho Wolf Trapper Certification Classes Scheduled in Coeur d’Alene…