Innehållsförteckning för #256 från American Frontiersman

wire line is now used for lake trout bobbing. About 250 to 300 feet of line is wrapped around a jig stick. A monofilament leader from 15- to 30-pound test is attached to the business end of the wire, and the lure is tied to the monofilament. Barracuda and leadhead jigs in various colors are the lures of choice. Swedish Pimples and Piggybacks are several of the more popular bobbing lures for lake trout, but any jigging lure that weighs between 0.5 and 2 ounces should work. Cut bait is attached to the hooks of bobbing lures to add to their attractiveness. Chunks of meat are usually sliced from smelt, suckers or herring to serve as bait. The odor from the flesh that’s added to hooks helps create the illusion…

For many of us, there’s no better way to relax and have a good time than heading for the nearest lake or river, launching a boat and enjoying a day on the water. Regardless of what we’re doing—fishing, hunting, sightseeing, water skiing, swimming—we all go boating with the intention of having a safe, pleasant experience, and that’s what we typically get. It doesn’t always happen that way, however. Sometimes something goes wrong, and the whole day is ruined. It might be nothing more than a bad experience at a crowded boat ramp or something as minor as a flat tire on the boat trailer or a bad trolling motor battery. Occasionally, however, it’s something worse—something that could put us and our fellow passengers in danger. We get caught out…

The annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas is a chance for over 2,000 manufacturers and exhibitors to showcase their latest and greatest guns, gear, ammo and more. It’s the largest trade show of its kind in the world, covering 16 acres of space with attendees and buyers coming from 115 countries around the world. In the air rifle category, the big-bore trend continues, with several companies announcing .50-caliber models. Several have also introduced exciting arrow-firing airguns to satisfy demand from hunters who live in states that allow them. More and more are coming online every year, so let’s check them out. AirForce Airguns HM1000x Chassis Rifle Part of the RAW lineup, this 7.8-pound rifle offers lots of adjustability and is built for precision shooting. It features…

Many hunters dream of hunting out West at least once in their life. Whether you’re hunting deer, elk, moose, bear, sheep, goats or mountain lions, the lure of high peaks and abundant game is a siren call few can ignore. But your big hunt can quickly turn into the hunt from Hades if you aren’t prepared for the mishaps and hardships you’ll likely encounter. First of all, assuming your doctor has cleared you for the adventure, you might be gasping by the time you get to your campsite. No, you aren’t having a heart attack. Oxygen grows scarce starting at around 8,000 feet above sea level. Your body needs a few days to acclimate to the high country. Common complaints include headaches, diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, blurred vision, shortness of breath…

My FIRST BACKPACK wasn’t a pack at all but an old Washington Star newspaper bag that I used to deliver papers as a kid. At 14 years old, I needed a pack for a camping trip, so I filled the newspaper bag with canned goods, a canteen, a mess kit and a blanket and hiked into the woods to camp with some friends. In those days, the state-of-the-art pack was the Trapper Nelson, but since I wasn’t a Boy Scout, I knew nothing of it. In the 1970s, I became a backpacker when the aluminum and nylon external-frame pack dominated the market. Through timing and circumstance, I missed ever using a wood-and-canvas Trapper Nelson pack. Thankfully, that gap in my experience was eventually filled thanks to the Woodsmoke Symposium on…

Every day, nearly 2 billion pallets are used in the United States alone. The majority of these are made from wood, and roughly half a billion are discarded each year! The wood required to replace and produce new pallets accounts for roughly half of the entire annual hardwood harvest. But most single-use pallets are still more than serviceable for numerous farm and homestead projects. Let’s take a look at a few. Gates, Doors & Fencing Gates and doors can be expensive, especially for animal paddocks. On our farm, we use pallets as quick, easy, low-cost access options when appropriate and possible. Pallets can also be used for making fencing, especially the longer 12- to 18-foot kind. Smaller pallets will also suffice, but using them takes more work. Drying Firewood While…

North American Arms (NAA) has been Originally, the only way to load one o remove spent cartridge casings was to remove the cylinder. The casings could be dumped out or punched out one at a time. That changed in 2011, when NAA first introduced the top-break Ranger, but after a short production run, it was dropped from the line. In 2013, the Sidewinder, with a swing-out cylinder, appeared, offer- cranking out stainless steel, .22-caliber mini-revolvers for well over four decades. r ing easier and faster loading. Five years later, in 2018, an improved hinged-frame Ranger II was trotted out. It looked a lot like a scaled-down Schofield from the 19th century with a 1.63-inch barrel. I got my hands on one for testing, and it performed rather well, especially when…

Raccoons aren’t difficult to trap if you know what you’re doing. Let’s look at how to use a steel trap to secure the makings of a coonskin hat and a meal. Just remember to cook the raccoon meat until it’s well done—just as you would with bear or hog meat—to prevent the possibility of getting trichinosis. A lot of people parboil a raccoon to make it tender before browning it. The traditional traps for raccoons are the Oneida Victor No. 11 double long spring and the No. 1.5 coil spring. When they’re set on land, you place them in a small dug-out depression with a piece of paper on top and then some dirt and leaves for cover. Sometimes you put down a layer of peat moss first, under the…

In 1803, the United States acquired the vast tract of land stretching north from the mouth of the Mississippi to Minnesota and west to the Rockies known as the Louisiana Purchase. Shortly thereafter, President Thomas Jefferson created the Corps of Discovery to explore this new territory. With Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as co-commanders, the Corps departed St. Louis on May 14, 1804, and arrived at Decision Point on the Missouri River on June 3, 1805, after a journey of almost 13 months. Traveling from western North Carolina, it took my partners and I three long days of driving plus a canoe shuttle to reach the same point. Our plan was to canoe down 65 miles of the Missouri in six days and sleep at some of the same campsites…

Life jackets, or personal flotation devices (PFDs), are placed into five basic categories, and PFD manufacturers are required by law to include a label, usually inside the back collar, identifying its classification. Type I PFDs are the most buoyant, and they’re designed to turn unconscious wearers in the water to a face-up position. They are effective for all waters and the most highly recommended for children. Type II PFDs will turn some unconscious wearers face-up but only under limited conditions. They are intended for calm, inland waters or where there’s a good chance of a quick rescue. Type III PFDs are flotation aids only and cannot turn an unconscious wearer face-up without assistance. Hunting float coats and fishing vests are examples of this type. Type IV PFDs are throwable devices…

There’s something about hunting with a single-shot rifle. It just brings out the best in marksmanship. One good shot was good enough for longhunters, mountain men, pioneers and soldiers through the late 1800s. Even after repeating rifles became the norm, hunters and trappers kept the single-shot market alive. Due to the economics through the Great Depression, many woodsmen couldn’t afford repeating rifles or a large supply of ammo to feed them. Besides, most woodsmen were excellent shots and didn’t feel the need to shoot quickly multiple times. Besides, there’s a certain amount of pride in making one good shot count. I grew up on a homestead where our only rifle was a single-shot Remington Model 33. We used the little .22 for everything from dispatching foxes threatening our chickens to…

There’s something very special about a picture. At some point, we’ve all probably been ensnared by the family photo album during a holiday or some other visit. Browse through the old photos, and before long, you’ll find yourself transported back in time, remembering the people, adventures and feelings of days gone by. With pictures, we can show our kids and grandkids places they’ve never been and introduce them to family they’ve never known. The fact that we love pictures isn’t new. In fact, humans have been recording images ever since they created the first cave paintings. Historians love to look at old images to study the past; they’re great resources because they offer details that would otherwise have been forgotten. Each time period has its famous images, and the era…

“When Distant Dust Could Mean Trouble”By David Wright One major challenge when studying history is to learn it accurately. So often the sources that teach us this history mislead us. Books, movies and even friendly conversations can create false realities and lead us down a mistaken trail of understanding. Most historians agree that primary sources—journals, articles and tools actually created during the target time period—are some of the best sources to learn from. Although primary sources are best, we spend lots of our time learning from secondary sources, or those that have been prepared by people after using a primary source. For example, if you see a fender bender happen at your local gas station, you are a primary source. If you tell a friend about it and they tell…

DEPENDING  on where you live in the U.S., your chances of getting bitten by a rabid raccoon may be good, bad or somewhere in between. This map of the U.S. from the CDC shows counties where rabid raccoons were reported during 2014, with light grey for one tested animal, medium grey for two to five tested animals, and dark grey for six to 600-plus tested animals. Point locations (red dots) for rabid raccoons were randomly selected within each reporting jurisdiction. The total number of reported cases involving raccoons in 2014 was 1,822, representing 30.2 percent of all wildlife rabies cases in the U.S. IF YOU’RE BITTEN: Raccoons, skunks, foxes and coyotes are the terrestrial animals most often infected with rabies in the U.S. Each bite from such wildlife must be…

Who wouldn’t have wanted to live in the Old West? Nothing but freedom and fresh air stretched as far as the eye could see. A man with a fast pony and a straight-shooting rifle could live out his days in peace and quiet. That’s partly why the Old West is so legendary, and it’s true that the frontier really was that way. In fact, at one point in his journal, Osborne Russell noted, “I shouldered my rifle and ascended the highest mountain on foot. I reached the snow in about an hour when, seating myself upon a huge fragment of granite and having full view of the country around me, in a few moments was almost lost in contemplation.” Sitting on a high mountain overlooking the valley below surely sounds…

This year, gun-makers seem to be stepping out of their comfort zones and trying new things. Bolt-action rifles are that new stomping ground for many, and we see that trend continue with Escort, a Turkish manufacturer. While the company is best known for its array of affordable shotguns, this year it branched out with a familiar-looking rimfire rifle. While the design isn’t particularly unique—and some might even argue that it’s “CZ-esque”—the major aspect that separates it from the Czech rifle is the price tag. The Escort .22 LR can be found at your local gun shop for around $195, and this alone was enough for me to want to take a closer look. ➤ First Impressions Yes, the new .22 LR is simply called the “Escort .22 LR.” Call me…

Revolving rifles and carbines have existed for quite some time. In fact, one of Samuel Colt’s early products was a revolving rifle. Its added firepower resulted in some military usage during the Seminole Wars in Florida and the American Civil War. Other gun-makers developed revolving-cylinder or turret rifles during the cap and ball era, but once self-contained metallic cartridges made their appearance—along with cartridge-feeding magazines—revolving rifles became mostly irrelevant. Most pundits agree that this was mainly due to the barrel/cylinder gap on revolvers, which spews hot gases and lead particles when the firearm is discharged. Thus, the shooter cannot hold a revolving rifle like a conventional rifle for fear of injuring his or her support arm. However, revolving rifles and carbines have hung on and remain quite popular today. This…