Guest Post 'Tips to Stay Safe this Season'

The following is a guest post written by Blake Anderson of  Huntertreestands.com.

Tips to Stay Safe Hunting This Season

Blake Anderson

Hunting can be an exciting and fun activity for people of all ages, but it should also be taken very seriously. That’s why I’ve laid out a few of the tips that I find are most important for staying safe during this hunting season.

The first set of advice will be centered on firearm safety. To start things off, remember to always keep the muzzle of your gun pointed in a safe direction. This may be common sense, but accidental discharges do happen, even by experienced hunters. If your gun is always pointed in a safe direction, then you can completely eliminate the possibility of an accident occurring. You should pay particular attention to where your muzzle is pointed when you’re loading or unloading, but if you’re not actually using the gun then it should always remain unloaded. The only times when your weapon should contain live ammunition is when you’re actually using it in the woods or at a shooting range. So keep the ammunition out of the chamber and out of the magazine when it’s not meant to be used.

Most hunters nowadays use tree stands to increase their odds of shooting a deer or any other animal that’s remarkably intelligent. Hunting tree stands allow you to get 20 or 30 feet off the ground and provide you with the ability to get as close as possible to the deer without giving your position away. As you can imagine, getting that high up in a tree can be a dangerous task. You shouldn’t worry though, because it’s a very rare occurrence that a hunter is seriously injured from using a tree stand; however there are still a few simple rules to keep in mind at all times. Always use safety harnesses and restraints that will assist you in the case of a fall. Wear these as soon as you begin your climb up the tree and make sure that you have them on before you begin to descend again. Tree stands can give you the advantages necessary to ensure a successful hunt, but you should never forget the basic safety rules when it comes to using them. 

The last bit of advice is to pack all of the essential items necessary for survival. When you’re traveling great distances to reach your hunting location, you must always be prepared in case something goes wrong. Have a basic waterproof fire starting kit and a survival knife handy at all times is a great idea. Building a fire will provide you with an excellent method of staying warm during unexpected cold nights and drying off when you get wet so that you don’t end up with hypothermia. Keep plenty of water with you as well or a method for purification if you plan to use stream water. There are many other items you should have on you, but the key necessities will always be shelter, protection, water and fire.

Note from the Grouch;

Hunting season has opened in some locations and many more will be opening in the next few months. Every year there are accidents, the leading cause of death and injury in the hunting woods is falling from tree stands. Please use a safety harness and climb safely. Avoid unnecessary risks and go home safe every day. 

Good Luck this season! 

Ranger Beads, or teeth in this case...

Not not human teeth!

Moose teeth.

A new take on a very old system for keeping track of distance traveled.

It really is a pretty simple system. A cord, four 'mile or kilometer' beads and 9 '1/10th of a mile or 100 meter' beads.

You need to know how many paces it takes you to make 1/10th of a mile, or paces in 100 meters. As you hit that number of paces you pull down one of the nine beads. The tenth time you do it you pull one of the four beads down, representing you've walked either a mile or a kilometer.

Pace Beads:
4 Upper beads = 1 mile (1/10 mile) or 1 kilometer (1000 meters)
9 Lower Beads = 1/10 mile or 1/10 kilometer (100 meters)

Determining Pace:
Zero your car odometer by a landmark and drive until your odometer hits .1 mile. Walk this distance a number of times counting how many times the same foot hits the street. Average the results. This is your base pace count. You could also use a hand held GPS unit and determine your paces for the desired distances. Do it several times across multiple terrain types and make note of the numbers for each, I keep this data in my field notebook even though I have it memorized at this point.

Example: You’re walking to your next point and have a normal pace of 100 for 1/10th of a mile. You need to climb a section of hill for the next 1/10th of a mile, so for that section, your pace for the next section will be 120 paces per 1/10th of a mile instead of 100. If you were doing the same thing in the dark it would be 140 paces because you are applying the 20% for two different factors. Assume at least a 10 percent error rate on flat open terrain.

The easiest way I've found to do this without assumptions is to use the GPS unit I mentioned and walk the terrain types and keep track. This will give you the exact pace count on each terrain type without assumptions. You'll also want to do this with whatever you typically carry from a pack perspective. If you've got a heavy pack your paces will not be the same as when you're walking with no pack.

There's a ton of instruction available on the web for how to use them.

Here's the set I put together from moose teeth, I used four of the front teeth for my 'miles/kilometers' and nine of the molars for my '1/10th or 100 meters). I hang it via the grim-loc on my left pack strap from a d-ring there. As long as you're disciplined and maintain your count focus they work quite well.

A Grouch's Field Dressing Kit (Another BisonGear Product)

Being something of an organizational freak when it comes to keeping gear organized in kits I was happy to see the BisonGear Survival pouch on their website. I'd actually seen one of these when a friend of mine came up for a weekend of bow shooting. He was using his to carry a gear repair kit and some miscellaneous archery kit. The possibilities I recognized were endless. I guess I should also state for the record that after discovering BisonGear I've become a bit of a maniac for their products. There are good reasons for that though, not the least of which is they are designed for bowhunters and back country hunting types by bowhunters and back country hunting types. In other words people like me are at the design wheel and they come up with stuff that just plain works and is built out of materials I like in a bombproof fashion.

Here's the deal, all of my gear that I carry is broken down into this 'kit' or that 'kit', I've got a shelter kit, a hydration kit, and a fire kit, those are the top three buckets. Then there is a cook kit, a first aid kit, a tracking kit, and a field dressing kit when the seasons are in. Told ya I was a organizational freak. The point is I organize by groups, building a 'kit' for those groups and then putting them into containers/pouches/packs and so on.

The BisonGear Survival pouch measures 9.25" Wide x 6.5" Tall x 3" Deep, but that really doesn't tell you much beyond the outer size dimensions, more on that in a second. The one I have is also in Bucksuede but also comes in hemp, wool, and wolfskin.


This is what the outside looks like.

As you can see in the second image there are a pair of straps on the back with snaps. Now these were designed to be used in conjunction with a BisonGear pack with the customized waist belt but there's no reason they couldn't be used to put it on a regular belt. Or some of you may remember how I mounted it to my pack basket as seen to the right. There's a strap around the top of that basket and I just slipped the straps from the pouch behind it and snapped them shut. I had no problems with movement of accidental disconnecting, the snaps are heavy duty and I'd say highly unlikely to have them unsnap on their own.

I've also had it mounted to my Lost River pack and it carried just fine in that configuration, seen below. There is also the obvious carry method, just toss it in the pack!

 So you've got some options there for carry, in or on a pack or on your belt if you just want to grab one thing and hit the trail for example, this pouch would do that as it is roomy enough to carry quite a bit. Off to the inside!

We're coming up on the hunting seasons again and this will be carried again on all outings. I liked the pouch's layout and so I am now using it for the field dressing load-out.

 In the below you can see how the fold out works and how it is laid out with sewn slots to accommodate different sized miscellaneous items.Along with that fold out there is a pass through compartment in the center and a large mesh zippered compartment in the main lid. From left to right the notebook, warrior wipes, ruler, cordage, zip ties, hand sanitizer, Petzl headlamp, fine work knife, and hunting license are all visible and I haven't used all of the slots in the organizer.

The mesh compartment is large, the zipper is high quality. I use this to hold several pair of black nitrile gloves. These are used for obvious reasons when dressing game, I also carry them in my tracking kit for handling bones or sorting scat to determine what something has been eating. In a pinch they can also be used as a water vessel and will carry quite a bit before rupturing.

 As you can see there are several slot pockets, some of pen size and others much larger.

Here's what it looks like loaded up with the dressing kit.

 As you can see, this is where the gloves are carried in this particular configuration.

 All of the junk you see below fits nicely in the pouch and it isn't stuffed, there's actually room to spare.

In looking at the next image you'll see the zip lock bags, this is the pass through compartment I mentioned. There are ten quart zip lock bags and a bag of wet wipes as well. I use the zip locks to bring out the heart and liver separate from everything else, or in the case of small game like grouse or rabbits if I've dressed them in the field, I'll use the bags to ferry my bounty home.

In the image below you'll notice the headlamp, this is a Petzl Tactikka XP model, super light weight and super functional. There is also a leather strop and pretty much the only thing I've found I need to carry to get a edge back to hair poppin sharp. It's flat and weighs pretty much nothing. I've got some green compound on the back side. The holes allow me to put one on a limb stub and hold the other with my finger thus keeping the strop flat and under tension in order to go through the stropping process.

A fine edged knife used for precise work, primarily on small game and birds.

Another knife, this one has a lot of uses obviously but I've found it does a nice job during the gutting process and if I need to open the pelvis up because it does have the saw that works great.

Saw blade on the left, and you'd be surprised at how well the blade on the right works to unzip a deer, that safety end and the curve to the back help keep you from puncturing things you don't want to puncture. Incidentally, the yellow zip ties are easier than using a piece of string to tie off the exit end in order to pull it back through the pelvis after the cut. I've also got some cordage as seen to the left that I use when I've got a long drag and want to close the cavity back up to prevent debris from entering the chest and abdomen area. Proper handling I've found, goes along way to excellence at the table.

Also carry a small travel size bottle of hand sanitizer which beyond it's obvious intended use makes one heck of a fire starter if you're in a real jam, burns something fierce and for a long time. Some antimicrobial 'warrior wipes' a couple 3M steri-strip wound closures for any nicks or slices if I got careless while working. Also a notebook pen for collecting any notes that I might deem needed.  Sometimes I'll note the condition of the organs as an example, or where the broad head entered and what it did, how far the animal went and so on.

That's pretty much it for the dressing kit, it's made up of things I've found useful over the years of taking assorted meat from the backwoods and onto my table.

Previous to setting up the BG pouch for a dressing kit I had built it our as a PSK (Personal Survival Kit) and it works for that too! Here's a couple shots of what that looked like.

In that load-out there was enough gear and items to provide for an emergency overnight or two and not have anything else with me. As an example there's water purification, fire kit, shelter in the form of a mylar sleeping bag, 2000 calories of rations, note pad, pen, small FAK, navigation, cordage, gear repair, duck tape, emergency whistle, bandanna, more cordage, hand sanitizer, and a five hour energy drink. Like I said, it worked well at housing a PSK.

Overall the versatility and construction of this little workhorse pouch have appealed to me enough to make it a staple in my stable of organizational freak products! Once more BisonGear has put a nice little package together that delivers in many big ways.

BisonGear Boonie Hat (A Bowhunter's Instant Classic)

I'm a head cover kind of guy. Freely admit to owning enough hats to wear a different one each day for at least a month, though those are day to day hats. I own others that are purpose built for different activities and seasons. Stormy Kromer for working in cool weather, fur bombers for deep winter head preservation, wide brimmed for sun and rain protection, and then there's bowhunting.

A hat beyond a ball cap is a personal thing, I tend to think of them like faces, each unique, each with its own personality and quirks. They also tend to take on the characteristics of the wearer, and they tend to become imbued with memories and luck, or lack there of. A traditional bowhunter, at least this one, tends to have a lucky hat or two, they get that way via memories made while wearing it. I fully realize this is a sentimental and somewhat superstitious thing with absolutely no basis in fact. Right. Well, I know I have a couple hats that when I wear them in the backwoods I tend to see things beyond the average. Could be more game, could be finding stashes of chaga, could be finding that confluence of deer trails that I'd never found before, or even some lucky stumping action.


Stump shooting is one of my favorite past times and it's really very simple. You course the back woods with bow in hand, sending arrow after arrow at whatever likely target that will hone your skill and make arrow recovery a given, it gets me covering ground and enjoying fresh air. Not to mention it is an excellent way to scout for sign, the moose track as seen below and the morel below that were both found while stumpin.

I digress.

A couple months ago I picked up a BisonGear boonie hat in bucksuede, predator camo which is the same as my packs. Now I'm a boonie hat kind of guy and while this hat is called a boonie hat I think that's a little bit of a misnomer. A boonie hat in my classical definition has a wider brim, more militaristic in appearance, has a chin strap, vent holes, vegetation band, and saw heavy use in south east Asia, guess I am getting off track again. Suffice it to say that this BG Boonie is more of a brimmed bucket hat. Nonetheless let me tell ya the good stuff cause this hat has it in spades.

BisonGear offers the hat in the following materials.

Hemp Weight: 4.5 oz Bucksuede Weight: 3.5 oz
Fleece Weight: 2.9 oz
Scent Lok Weight: 2.5 oz
Wolfskin Weight: 2.6 oz

The hat has a 2" wide brim, and is 3.75" tall with a pocket in the lid, it's soft all around so there is no noise and the brim collapses easily when drawing the string back to anchor.

When I first got mine I stuffed a head net in the pocket and carried it there until I needed to deploy it to defeat the screaming hordes of buzzing mosquito, now as my temperatures are already starting to drop, I've got a kuiu beanie in the pocket.

The stitching looks to be bombproof and well executed, I'm pretty sure this thing would last a lifetime. The brim at two inches is just about perfect for a bowman. When I draw the string does contact the brim but it is so soft if folds easily and it isn't long enough to droop down into my line of sight like a wider brim might do.

So back to the stump shooting conversation. I know I shouldn't attribute better shooting to a new hat, all I am saying is I've been even more 'on' when it comes to accuracy, I think it's related to feel and confidence, and that's all I'm going to speculate.

This one as I said is in bucksuede, I'm going to try one of the hemp versions soon. I like the bucksuede but it's hydrophobic which is great from a rain perspective, from a sweating perspective not so much. Instead of absorbing sweat from my brow it tends to trickle down my face. I took to wearing a bandanna under the hat and thus the problem was solved, and it kept me cooler too.

What more can a man say about a bucket hat? Only that I think I found  a damn fine one, top shelf quality, like everything else BisonGear makes.

Backwoods Bum Approved!

Mercury Rising, 'Fish Singing' & Old Canvas

Unseasonably warm would be an understatement. It simply doesn't get this hot here very often, most of my summer has been similar to prior summers, mild to cool. In fact the average day time temps through the hottest months of summer for my area is July and August at 66 and 65 degrees, that's right, mid 60s in July and August is the average. So when  the mercury cracked into the 90s and the heat advisory went into effect I rounded up the family and headed to a small lake in the north county. I'd like to say it helped, and maybe it helped to distract us a little but the heat was dang near overwhelming to tell the truth. I know, I know, low 90s is nothing compared to most of the rest of the country but it is nearly a 30 degree move from what we are used to.

Thus we found ourselves on a small north country lake, canoes in the water and old canvas for shelter.

This was the view from the left rear of the old tent, which was made in Duluth Minnesota back in the mid to late 1940s. It's stamped with some of the locations it's been to, like the Annual Scout Retreat in 1956 and the Apostle Islands in 1960 to name a few. Patches in places, wearing a little thin in others, still keeping its occupants dry though, as we would all experience a strong series of storms on the first night.

Like I said, it was hot and hot not like Minnesota hot, I mean like south east United States hot where I grew up. Just nasty humid dead air stuff, and in those conditions I knew the fish wouldn't be biting. Nonetheless the boys got the canoes in the water and paddled off to try some late afternoon angling.

My old battle worn and water weary canoe is still being paddled across the lakes of Northern Minnesota these many years later.

Meanwhile my youngest boy was disappointed that he couldn't see the fish he felt were or should have been there. Can't you just see the disappointment?

Well, once he'd expressed his disappointment in the lack of fish or other aquatic creatures to play with, he elected to 'sing the fish up', apparently he's more in tune with his Celtic ancestry than I am; and some ancient ability to sing the fish to shore and thus his 'singing to the fish' began.

Sadly, it didn't work, or maybe it did and my ineptitude with rod and reel when my patience is lacking due to the heat resulted in dead worms but no fish. He was fine though, as he was soon distracted by a dragonfly that needed catching.

And so I put the rod away and worked on camp, getting ready for nightfall and dinner, before I did I started to notice the auto-focus drive on my camera was slipping and not hitting, it would just grind away and never find focus. Camera is pushing three years old now and I know for a fact it's had over 25,000 images taken as that's how many images are in my files since I purchased the camera, so sadly the days of this Pentax K-x might be numbered.

I finally got to bust out two of my four Coleman lanterns, ordinarily I don't pack them as I rarely camp where I have an opportunity at having such luxuries in camp. Normally I'm much lighter and more of a minimalist when it comes to camp gear. In this case I splurged and too the old '65 and the newer version out, oddly enough, the '65 puts out just as much light as the new model and consumes fuel at about the same rate it seems to me.

 Of course Caiden had to assist with inspection and set up, the dragonfly long forgotten.

A lone loon spent most of the late afternoon and evening on the lake about a hundred and fifty yards off shore of our camp. Later in the night and early the next morning a series of loon calls fell through the little lake valley, a haunting sound that has always had an odd affect on me.

If you've never heard a loon calling take a listen to this video, it isn't mine but it is one of the best I've heard in that so many of the loon's vocalizations are heard in the short 49 seconds.

As sundown came on the lake became glass, a looking glass for the sky above.

The camera at this point began to really fall down. I had the big 70-300mm lens on and I believe she just gave up. I switched back to the 28-80mm but there was only a small improvement.

Dinner was pork chops over an open fire, some foil wrapped vegetables rounding it out. No pics though, unfortunately. I did fiddle with the camera and dropped another lens size, down to the 18-55mm and got it working enough to get a few more images. A new camera now on the top of my mental list.

That was about it for the camera and it is a shame really, that pentax has documented much of the past three years of my outdoor life, lot of miles and memories. I couldn't get it to record either and this really bummed me out for we were treated to one of the greatest light and sound shows I have seen in the wild. The heat lightening and thunder began just as darkness settled, we could see it and hear it a long way off. About four hours after dark the lightening intensified, the wind came ripping through the pines and across the lake. A deafening roar and the storm was upon us with a vengeance. We watched from inside the old canvas tent, the front doors opened wide to receive the cool stiff wind coming off the water. There was no pause in the lightening, full dark never reached because another jagged bolt consumed the darkness leaving only white eye searing jolts. The rain came hard and fast and at times sideways, through it all that old canvas stood like some soldier on a wall, stalwart and stoic, taking in whatever was being dished out. And thus the night was spent.

The next morning I coaxed one more picture from my old Pentax, and perhaps one of her finest. The lake at peace after the night's roaring drama, fog gently rising from the warmer than air waters. A stillness fit to soothe a man's heart and soul.