Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2019 i American Frontiersman

Coming in hot to trot! We couldn’t think of a better way to dive into the action of this year’s summer issue than with artist David Wright’s “No Time To Linger,” which was inspired by the first-person fur trade journals Wright uses for his research. These mountain men on a mission unexpectedly encountered hostile Indians somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and are now hightailing it to a safer location. As much as it disappoints them, the three men intentionally cut their one pack horse loose with the hopes that the marauding Indians might head after it instead of them. Now that’s being survival-minded! With springtime and hostiles now in the rearview mirror, we look to a jam-packed summer issue poised to entertain, inspire and teach you about your favorite…

1974 Dick Kirby makes his first aluminum mouth call with a pair of tin snips, aluminum siding, a balloon and duct tape. 1975 Quaker Boy (QB) introduces the first-ever raspy-style mouth call, the “Old Turk.” 1979 QB creates the first-ever double-reed raspy mouth call, the “Quaker Boy Special.” 1982 QB releases the first-ever pot-style slate call to the industry, the “Double Slate.” 1985 QB introduces the first-ever notch-style call to the industry, the “Cutter.” 1986 QB unveils the first aluminum-surface pot-style call, the “Aluminator.” 1987 QB introduces the first full wire-framed headnet, the “Bandit.” This was followed by the first ever three-quarter-length headnet, the “Bandito.” Both share patents. 1988 QB releases In Quest of the Grand Slam, the pioneer in turkey-hunting videos. 1991 QB introduces the first-ever double-sided pot-style call,…

SNAPPING TURTLES are best handled by grasping the hind legs, the rear edge of the shell or the tail while keeping those hooked jaws well away. Beware their long claws, too. I’ve used four methods for catching common snappers. But, again, check regulations first to be sure what’s legal in your area. The most reliable snapper-catcher is a turtle trap you buy or build and set in a wetland environment where snappers live. Some traps require bait; others do not. Almost all work great if properly placed, and catching multiple turtles in a good spot is common. A Google search for “turtle trap” will turn up dozens of retailers who sell them, and good plans for DIY traps as well. Where snappers are abundant, you sometimes can catch them on…

Grits Gresham, the famed outdoor writer and co-host of The American Sportsman, once wrote about a fishing challenge: He bet a friend that he could attach some hooks to a piece of broomstick and catch a bass with it. He proceeded to make a rudimentary lure and do just that, winning the bet and earning a good story in the process. Gresham was no fool. Behind his down-home nickname was a master’s degree in forestry and wildlife management from Louisiana State University. He knew a feeding bass might hit just about anything plopped down on the surface, reacting to the possibility that it could be a June bug or other delicacy. This is not to say that Gresham’s most basic of lures could actually outperform the many topwater plugs available…

Ingredients • 1 pound (3 cups) fresh chestnuts or chinkapins • 1 cup celery, finely chopped • ½ cup onion, chopped • ½ stick butter or margarine • 1 tsp. poultry seasoning or crushed dried sage leaves • 8 cups dried bread cubes • ¾ to 1 cup chicken broth or water • ¼ tsp. pepper • 1/8 tsp. salt Directions Using a knife, cut an “X” in the nut shells, then roast them in the oven on a baking sheet at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. Allow them to cool before peeling, then chop them up. Cook the celery and onion in butter in a small saucepan until tender but not brown, then remove them from the heat and stir in the poultry seasoning or sage along…

WHAT’S NEW in the ancient world of blackpowder firearms? You’ll find refined engineering taking the muzzleloader to sub-MOA performance, new sabot projectile options for your next hunt and improved entry-level in-line guns with more features at surprisingly low prices. And there are lots of fascinating historical kits and products for the traditional patched-ball, flint and percussion enthusiasts. American Pioneer Video Building the Daniel Boone Rifle With more than 40 titles, American Pioneer Video is a great and entertaining resource for learning about the products and lifestyles of early America. In this volume, master gunsmith Mike Miller uses his vast knowledge of American firearms to recreate a rifle that Daniel Boone might well have used: a brass-mounted, maple-stocked, long-barreled flintlock with a wooden patch box and featuring the bold architecture that…

EN FRANKLIN once said, “If you fail to prepare, then you are preparing to fail.” This is true about many aspects of life, and one pursuit that certainly follows this creed is trapping. Traps are tools, and the tools that work the best are those that are best cared for. Prepping traps is a straightforward process, but it’s pivotal to success on the winter line. “Too Long in the Mountains” By David Wright Over the years, people have developed numerous ways to prepare their traps. In the old days, trappers used natural materials, such as sumac berries, maple bark or walnut hulls for dying traps. Today, we have a variety of modern products commercially available that are affordable and easy to use, and for the first-time trapper, these modern approaches…

N If you have your heart set on bagging a fall turkey, you must first find some birds to hunt. We key in on food sources. You can start by driving the back roads and looking for birds feeding in open crop fields, such as cut-corn lots, bean fields, harvested wheat flats and grape vineyards. Any time of the day is a good time to scout, including afternoons. Once you spot some birds, you should have some idea where that flock will be at first light, and that will be within hearing distance of where you found them foraging. Pay close attention to those suspected feeding fields that are off the beaten path and not easily visible from the road, too. If you can’t locate any birds feeding around active…

His roots curl deeply into the rocks of the North Carolina mountains. As a boy, his father took him into the woods and taught him how to hunt and fish. From these beginnings in the early 1970s, Daniel Winkler grew into a student of the history and habits of the early American frontier period. Through visiting black-powder rendezvous and shooting matches, he found a creative outlet in constructing functional, historically accurate tools and equipment. From buckskins to powder horns, but particularly flintlocks rifles, knives and axes, Winkler studied and created those tools that frontier-era pioneers depended upon, both in quality of construction and intelligence of design, to survive. His method evolved into a process combining modern materials with traditional designs that took the best from the past and the present.…

1. Armadillos are native to South America, but for the last two centuries, they have steadily been migrating northward. Now they are found as far north as Indiana and Nebraska. Those found in colder areas will frequently be missing their tails. Because of a low body temperature, they easily get frostbite. 2. Due to their bad eyesight, the primary defense of an armadillo is to jump straight up. Most of the armadillo deaths on roads happen when the animals jump into underside of a vehicle. 3. Leprosy is one of the bacterial diseases that armadillos carry. The animals are often used in research projects on the disease. 4. The back of an Andean lute, called the charango, is made from an armadillo shell. 5. Baby armadillos have soft shells similar…

People who live off the land do so in many different ways. Some people fish, some people hunt, and some people are agriculturalists. Many are a combination of several different methods, and each has its advantages and disadvantages for providing food and precious energy. One reason that people living a subsistence lifestyle aren’t overweight is the fact that the lifestyle requires substantial calorie input to get calorie output. It requires a lot of energy to find food in the wild, and you don’t gain that much in return. These are “expensive” ways of gathering food in the woods. Trapping is one efficient method that people of the past would use to gain substantial calories, and some folks maintain the tradition today. Cheap Thrills Trapping is a great passive activity for…

• The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, 2nd Edition by Edward C. Smith • Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques For Vegetable Gardeners, 2nd Edition by Suzanne Ashworth • The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds: 322 Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, Flowers, Trees and Shrubs by Robert E. Gough and Cheryl Moore-Gough • Gardening Like a Ninja: A Guide to Sneaking Delicious Edibles Into Your Landscape by Angela England • Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte • Secret Garden of Survival: How to Grow a Camouflaged Food Forest by Rick Austin • Secret Greenhouse of Survival: How to Build the Ultimate Homestead & Prepper Greenhouse by Rick Austin…

Some have called Marty Meierotto from Two Rivers, Alaska, the toughest trapper in the state. According to the man himself, he’s one of the hardest-working and most enthusiastic Alaskan trappers. I had the chance to meet Marty and spend some time talking to him and his wife, Dominique, at the National Trappers Association Convention in Escanaba, Michigan, last July. “I’m no tougher than anyone else,” he told me. “It depends on how much you want something. Usually the guy that works the hardest does the best. I’m not even the best trapper. I’m still learning. You never learn it all.” Marty’s enthusiasm for trapping and living in the woods came across clearly in other comments. “I don’t judge success by the amount of fur I catch or money. Success is…

PART OF PARKERÕS MISSION with Calvary Longrifles is to promote the history of Pennsylvania/Kentucky longrifles and the important role they played in the growth, development and history of our country. One of the ways he accomplishes this is with the Alabama Kentucky Rifle Show held in January each year at the Joe Wheeler State Park Lodge in Rogersville, Alabama. Gun builders collectors and accountrement makers from around the country display their flintlock rifles, pistols, fowlers and related gear, presenting a great opportunity to learn more about one of the most important rifles in our nation’s history.…

My dad, Dick Kirby, was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and trapping tremendously. A family friend, Bob Wozniak, introduced him to turkey hunting in the early ’60s. Dad always liked being in the woods at first light, and when he tagged his first bird, he was hooked on the calling aspects of the sport. Back then, commercial calls were few and far between, so Dad started making his own out of necessity. Using a pair of tin snips, some aluminum siding, a roll of duct tape and a pink balloon, he soon had a working model. That’s when he began entering—and winning—turkey calling contests and selling calls out of the back of his truck. He also began supporting National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) membership drives by donating his now-much-sought-after…

Depending on your age, you may be old enough to remember when being “salty” wasn’t a reference to feeling embittered. The earliest memory I have of the word involves the phrase “worth your salt.” As a boy, before I understood what table salt was for, I knew that salt was something valuable. While you may now, as an adult, understand that salt has value, you may not realize that it’s something that belongs in quantity in your survival stores. That’s because salt is absolutely essential to sustaining yourself for the long term. This is a fact that many preppers don’t grasp because, thanks to the abundance of sodium in modern processed foods, we have the luxury of not worrying about getting enough salt in our diets. In any long-term survival…

IF you could take only one fishing lure to catch fish anywhere in the world, in fresh water or salt water, what lure would you choose? A team of experts had to answer this question when putting together survival kits for World War II pilots. Ultimately, the white-hair buck-tail jig was chosen. The bucktail jig resembled a wide variety of baitfish that swim in both fresh and salt water. This compact lure featured only one hook, could be fished with a handline, a green stick or a pole, and had an extremely good chance of catching a wide variety of fish. Jigs like this—very simple lures—have lead heads and bodies made of a wide variety of materials. Because a jig only has a single hook, it can easily be stowed…

One of the hard lessons any longterm back-to-the land survivalist must learn is that they are not going to be able to live off hunting wild game to sustain themselves. Most of their food will have to come from growing it in large truck gardens. China is the classic example of this and has supported a huge population for thousands of years off very small family farming plots. While you may have enough commercial garden seeds to plant your first year, what do you do after that if replacements are not available through the normal supply chain? Your first thought might be to save seeds from what you are growing, but most modern garden plants are hybrids and won’t come true the second year. For the knowledgeable, the answer is…

The Ozark chinkapin (also spelled “chinquapin” just to keep things interesting) can truly be considered the little brother to its close relative, the American chestnut. Unlike the Allegheny chinkapin, which is basically a bush, the Ozark chinkapin is a respectably sized tree growing up to 65 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet in diameter—not up to the timber standards of the giant American chestnut, which was rightly termed “The Redwood of the East,” but still a good-sized tree. Its wood is rot-resistant, and like the chestnut, it was widely used for timber and railroad crossties. These three trees are closely related. The scientific name for the Ozark chinkapin is Castanea ozarkensis, while the Allegheny chinkapin’s is Castanea pumila and the American chestnut’s is Castanea dentata. Chinkapins normally have one…

I have been invited to many “industry” hunts over the past 30 years, but my first hint that this outing—hosted by Rugerwould be different came several weeks prior, when I received an event schedule. Typically, magazine writers, editors and television hosts arrive in camp the afternoon of the first day, rush to change into hunting togs and head afield. I raised an eyebrow and read the schedule twice to be sure, but it was right there in black and white: Guest hunters would not get an opportunity to “put some hair in the scope” until the morning of day three. The instructors of the Sportsman’s All-Weather All-Terrain Marksmanship (SAAM) course held at the FTW Ranch in Barksdale, Texas, were certainly emphasizing their commitment to training and their motto: “You only…

Do Your Homework: When you start a project, make sure amply research the topic before picking up a single tool. Step-by-step manuals, websites, and forums are great resources for DIYers. As well, many quality gun manufacturers offer the owner’s manual online for free. Stay Organized: Guns have some incredibly tiny parts that can easily be misplaced if not kept reigned in, so being overly organized is paramount. Use small bins, sealable baggies, and labels to keep the parts clean, separated, and organized. Be meticulous and exact. Too Much Force: Because firearms are intricately built to extremely high tolerances, brute force is a gunsmith’s enemy. If the part doesn’t yield with a light tap or a twist, there’s probably a very good reason. A heavy wallop with a bigger hammer will…