Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Snow, Air or Water??

We all know that old saying that snow is 9/10ths air and 1/10th water, but never ones to believe everything we hear we put it to the test..
 

so, fill the trangia with snow
 
 
set it beside the fire to melt !
 
 
and the result, well about 1/5th of the trangia was water so it's a case of about 4/5ths air 1/5th water, not quite what we've all been led to believe!
 
 
oh yeah, remember what they say about the yellow snow!!
 

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Paracord Belt

This is a very simple idea with many possibilities, it can be a belt or baldric to hold a parang (this is the traditional way to carry a parang) a knife, a possibles pouch or anything else, although not traditionally made from paracord the concept is the same.
 

you will need, a knife, some cordage and a stick!
 
 
first, carve yourself a simple toggle
 
 
cut about 4 feet of paracord and in one end form a loop and tie an adjustable knot
 
 
tie the toggle onto the other end with a constrictor knot
 
 
and that's it !! It's that simple..
 
 

to adjust the size,simply slide the knot to as tight or as loose a fit as you require, works as a belt...
 
 
..or a baldric. The heavier the item suspended from it, the more secure the rig becomes.

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Affiliates of the Pathfinder School


Buzzard Bushcraft are proud to announce that we are now affiliates of Dave Canterbury's Pathfinder school, we hope you will take the time to check out their website, links are below

Product Detail Page


(image copyright of the Pathfinder school llc.)

Monday, 21 January 2013

Duck Dynasty Delight

A good friend of Buzzards from Atlanta ,Georgia was fortunate enough to meet the cast of Duck Dynasty, even better Joshua was baptised by Willie Robertson, a more memorable day you could not have!! So we would just like to wish him all the best and thank him and his family for sending us the photo's, we really do appreciate it. Congratulations Joshua!!!


From left to right, Phil Robertson, Kay Robertson, Joshua, Bob and Sheila (Dad and Mom)


Willie Robertson and Joshua


Joshua and Uncle Si Robertson


Jason Robertson and Joshua

REDNECK AND PROUD, BROTHER!!!!






Sunday, 20 January 2013

Wild Food in Snowy Wood

There's been a great fall of snow lately and it always provides a challenge for the bushcrafter, after all it becomes a different terrain needing different skills and challenging us from the norm, so what can be found to eat in a survival scenario if you find yourself out in just such a case..


on the look out..


Rosehips, nice and sweet and a good source of vitamin C, helps ward off colds, so anice find, make sure to discard the seeds!


wood sorrel, a nice sharp taste at this time of year


Yarrow, a great medicinal plant and makes a great tea



Tri-corn garlic, one of my favourites and a nice find on such a day.

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Early This Year !!!

Now We don't believe in man made climate change,we believe it's simply a thing the earth goes through every 10 thousand years or so, after all there was an ice age 10,000 years ago and it all melted, obviously because the earth heated up.....naturally!!!!

We are probably going through something similar right now, ice is melting at the polar caps, animals are migrating at different times and as we can see below the wild garlic is starting to show already..in January!!! In all my outdoor years gathering my favourite wild green I've never seen it out this early, but I'm not complaining, I'll soon be looking for other alliums to devour too..



Spring in January..I have no problem with that!!

Sunday, 13 January 2013

Oatmeal Cookies

These are a great trail food snack, you can enjoy them as is or add peanut butter, dried wild fruit, gathered hazlenuts, coconut or anything that takes your fancy or that you've foraged, the basic ingredients are as follows

2 cups oats
1 cup flour
4 oz butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon syrup
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda


mix all the dry ingredients together


slowly melt the butter and honey and syrup together


mix all the ingredients together and shape into cookies or cereal bars


bake at about 180*c for about 10 minutes


makes about 16 cookies and they keep for about a week!

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Improvised Duck Tape Sheath

Davy knocked up a quick sheath for his knife and ferro rod using a piece of webbing and some bright orange duck tape, makes a very effective sheath and it's easy to find if it's dropped..again another good use for a vital piece of survival equipment!


Sunday, 6 January 2013

Davys Venison Jerky

Davy got to work recently slicing up the Red Deer venison and making some jerky..It's a handy resource to have from nibbling on it as a trail food to using it in soups and stews where it rehydrates giving a lovely meaty base to other wild or foraged greens that can be found..It took about 3 lbs venison to make about 1lb jerky
 

 
Seasoned with a texas spice bbq mix it tastes great and will keep us chomping for quite a while!!!
 
 

Saturday, 5 January 2013

Dual Survival Season 3 .. A Comment

Davy and I recently had the opportunity to see the first episodes of the 3rd series of Dual Survival, this one obviously no longer featuring Dave Canterbury and we both came to the same conclusion...the magic has gone!
Regardless of your personal opinion of DC and whether he embellished his Cirriculum Vitae or not you can't knock the mans ability and knowledge. In certain episodes he often carried Cody and was able to call upon ideas that had the Desert Dude stumped, DC certainly was a capable man! I think it was Discoverys extremely bad foresight not to renew his contract after the 2nd series.
After all they pursued a certain British Survival expert with a passion regardless of how many nights he spent in Hotels and how faked and rigged his episodes were.
There seemed to be nothing but positive feedback from all outdoorsmen when the first series aired and a little controversy does no harm in the long run after all "there's no such thing as bad advertising!" Pity Discovery didn't realise this and use it to their advantage.
 
As for Cody, well, he proclaims to be a spiritual person and so I can't understand why he seems to have so little forgiveness in his soul, he also doesn't realise how well they worked as a team. Whether it was Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy or Bonnie and Clyde it matters not if you get on together in real life but matters a great deal how you come across on screen and CL and DC had chemistry! A little tetchiness would even have added to the on screen magic!!
As for the new guy, Joe Teti, I'm afraid he has no on screen persona at all, he is dry and arrogant, seems to have little charm and brash skills..he could very well be a nice guy in the real world but he's not Dual Survival material thus I'm sure discovery will pursue this team relentlessly!! Go figure!
Cody, you're going to have to try and carry this series on your own, your new partner doesn't cut it.. Dave, continue with the Pathfinder School ( I continue to wear my T-shirt with pride)..It's just a pity Discovery and Cody don't realise what they've done by shooting themselves in the foot, forgiveness would have been the adult thing to do instead of throwing a childish tantrum..to this end it looks like no one wins, especially the viewers.

Wednesday, 2 January 2013

Duck tape Cup

Cody Lundin is quoted as saying "on the eighth day God created Duck tape" and you know what, he just might have a point..I've seen it used as a knife handle, arrow fletchings, hatchet cover, string, repairs and even a boat!!! We always carry a small roll of it when we are out, and if the worst comes to the worst you can even make a cup out of it
 
 
pick a suitable mould to wrap the tape around, I've used everything from a can to my fist and even the end of a small tree branch
 
 
might not look like much but it works as an impromptu small folding Kuksa!
 
 
A word of warning, as you can see it works very well with cold fluids, but leaks quickly if you use hot, make a bigger one for a basket or container for berries etc if you need to!