Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Benchmade Shot Show 2011 Coverage, Equip 2 Endure

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Military service dogs, Paws and Stripes Albuquerque, NM Home

Military service dogs, Paws and Stripes Albuquerque, NM Home

Paws and Stripes™ is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization for wounded veterans of our United States military that works to provide service dogs for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.  The service dogs are obtained only from shelters, and are trained by professionals specializing in service dogs.  It is the aim of this organization to provide these dogs and training for no cost to the veteran.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Say it ain't so Fallkniven!


I have several fallkniven blades and they are amazing knives. One thing I did not expect to see at Shot Show 2011 was a fallkniven with a tanto edge and serrations. Where is my convex edge ? I don't know about this one! What do you guys think ?
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Les Stroud's new knife The Temagami, from Helle.

I got a chance to handle the new Les Stroud Temagami knife at Shotshow Show 2011, and so far I believe it's got potential. Very comfortable grip with no hard angles. Full tang design, with brass pins and curly burch handles. We do know there are two versions coming out soon. The stainless first followed by the carbon model. At a wholesale price of $100, count on this being as high as the $180.00 area for retail!
Adam
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Friday, January 7, 2011

Review of the Pathfinder Advanced Training Course, By: William Echols (aka: SafariOutfitter)


Pathfinder Advanced Training


This story is about the Pathfinder Advanced Training that some friends and I attended during the month of November, 2010.
It started off for me on November 3, 2010 with a nine hour drive up from South Florida to Estill, South Carolina.  I arrived at a designated rendezvous spot at the same time as Dave Canterbury, his wife Iris, and one of Dave’s assistant instructors Steve Davis (aka: Critter).  Dave took an interest in my Jeep (asking me if I’d sell it to him) so we talked a little about off-roadway vehicles while waiting for our friend Chance Sanders.  Once Chance showed up, we drove out to what would be our first staging area where some of the participants set up camp for the night.  That evening a few of us went out to a local restaurant and Dave bought us dinner.  While we were eating, some of the patrons recognized Dave and he took a moment to talk with and take pictures with some of his fans.
The second morning, we woke up and went back to the rendezvous spot at 8AM to meet with the other attendees.  Everyone introduced themselves, signed off on some paperwork, Dave gave a safety brief, and then Steve separated us into two person teams.  A few minutes later, we were back out at the first staging area and twelve of us set out on a hike with Iris driving a safety vehicle.  We were permitted to take whatever we could carry, but food and water were prohibited items.  Before the first half mile, my partner Bill McGee began to have problems with a pre-existing injury.  I took his backpack from him and hiked with both of our rucks.  It was right about that time that it started to rain and those of us that were former military began to yell “If it’s not raining, it’s not training.”  After couple of hours, we came to a cache where there was potable water and live animals that were to be used so as not to violate any trapping or hunting laws.  Each team was given one chicken to be kept alive during the training exercise.  The idea being that if you can keep the chicken alive, live food doesn’t spoil and can be eaten later.  Then it was off to the main training area.  We arrived and were allotted 30 minutes to set up camp before lessons would continue.  This was when we had a little comical relief since I had to spend some time chasing around our chicken because it had escaped from the noose tied around its leg.  Once camp was set up, a few of use took advantage of the rain and used ponchos or tarps to catch drinkable water.  Then Dave began to discuss that for every lesson; there would be a required “deliverable” and a reward for completion of a task.  We moved onto our next period of instruction which was fire starting.  Conventional ways of starting fires with matches, lighters, and commercially available fire starters like magnesium sticks and feroceium rods were covered along with types of tinder like Vaseline soaked cotton and wet fire tabs.  We also went over more primitive methods like flint & steel, fire piston, and bow/drill.  Then the first “deliverable” assignment for the teams was to create bow/drill sets, start a fire, and then purify/boil water in a metal container.  Once this task was completed by a team, they were allowed to use the fresh water from the cache.  The idea being that once we demonstrated competency with a skill such as purifying water, we would then be given that resource so we didn’t have to spend time procuring drinkable water and we’d be able to focus on training.  Since some teams now had a fire, we continued to another lesson.  We were instructed on how to use coals from a fire to create primitive containers.  Our next “deliverable” was to make a primitive container that could be used to boil 8 ounces of water in it.  The containers weren’t due the same day because of the time required to make one using coals, but every moment I had to relax, I was working on our team’s container.  For the teams that had successfully completed the first day’s tasks, they were rewarded with a rabbit from the cache for their dinner.  All they had to do was kill, clean, and cook the meals.  Ramen noodles were given to those that hadn’t completed their “deliverables.”  Dave also passed out a vitamin pack to each participant just to make sure everyone stayed healthy.  For the rest of the evening, folks continued to work on their skills and some of us got better acquainted each other around a community fire.  
On the third day, the first lessons involved creating hunting tools.  Our “deliverables” were rabbit sticks, frog gaffs, and small game spears.  Then Dave and Steve began a discussion about trapping game.  They talked about looking for bedding, routes, and feeding, when animals are on alert or relaxed, and how they’re look for the easiest path.  They showed us a couple examples of spring traps.  The first was a spring snare trap and the second was a spring spear trap.  Our next “deliverables” now were to go out into the woods away from camp and make three traps a person.  I made a few snare traps, a split stick deadfall, and Chance and I took some time to make a platform deadfall trap back at camp as an example for others to learn from.  Then there was a competition to see who could hit a designated target at about 20 yards with our rabbit sticks.  The reward was a can of mountain dew soda pop in a custom primitive cozy that Dave had fashioned.  After the first round, only Lowell Loggins and I had hit our targets.  Round two, Lowell’s aim was better than mine and he was given the award.  As our lessons continued, there was a discussion about the importance of the calorie game in a survival situation and why you shouldn’t wait to attempt to obtain food.  An example that Dave gave was that you could build a whole bunch of traps on the third day, but that the traps might not catch anything until the seventh day and a week would be a long time to go without food.  Then we built a large game trap with an alley leading to a camouflaged pit with filled bamboo pugil sticks in it.  While we were building the trap, we tested a canteen cup stove/grill from CanteenShop.com and used it to help dig the pit.    We used a goat from the cache to test the trap and learned how we could make improvements since the trap didn’t work as planned.  Iris recorded a video that Dave posted on his YouTube channel so others can learn from our experience.  Once the goat was killed, Lowell and Chance butchered the meat.  One of Dave’s instructors in training named Dan Moore made a sack out of the scrotum.  Chance’s wife Laura began processing the stomach into a water carrier.  One of the skilled students Tony Daniel began prepping the skin to turn into a hide.  As the sun started to set, I made a grill to cook our dinner while another skilled student Mark DeJong made a rack to smoke the rest of the meat.  Also, Chance began to render some of the fat to be used later and a few guys slept by the smoker to make sure the fire burned through the night so the meat wouldn’t spoil.  
On the fourth day, some people had left the training.  For those of us that remained, we went out and checked our traps and then began a class about primitive debris shelters.  Tony and Mark made an A-frame shelter insulated with pine needles, Lowell & Dan made a lean-to insulated with pine needles, and my partner Bill and I made a lean-to insulated with leaves and cabbage palms fronds.  Dave showed us a couple of uses for the fat that Chance had processed the night before and then the local media showed up with the property owner.  Michael Dewitt Jr. from the Hampton Co. Guardian Newspaper interviewed Dave and several of the participants.  While that was going on, Steve started a navigation class showing things like how to find North using a watch, using shadow sticks on the ground to determine direction, and how to make a portable shadow compass.  That afternoon, we reviewed the shelters that we had built and discussed how they could be improved.  Afterwards, we were challenged to the “Nordstrom Challenge” which involved making a fire with a knife and “non-flame” fire starter and then boiling water in a metal container all within 20 minutes.  Tony was the winner and was awarded a bag of Combo pretzel snacks which he was kind enough to share with everyone.  Before that evening, all the “deliverables” were due.  Everyone completed their task and Dave complimented us on our accomplishments.  Apparently we were the second class to ever have completed all “deliverables” and Laura was the first female to ever complete the Advanced Training Class.  Dave also talked about how surprised he with our skill levels and that he should have given us harder tasks to challenge our abilities.  We dined on the rest of the animals from the cache and waited for the stars to come out.  Once the sun had set, Dan taught a celestial navigation class.  That night, everyone slept in our primitive shelters.  
When we woke up on the 5th day, we dismantled our camp and set out to check our game traps one final time.  Then we loaded up our gear and hiked back to our initial staging area.  Once everyone arrived, we decided to treat ourselves to a hearty breakfast at one of the diners in the area.   We all gorged ourselves and talked about the past few days.  Many of us exchanged contact numbers and then I had to say good bye because I had a long drive ahead of me.  
Since I’ve been back, many folks have asked me what I thought of the training.  Even prior to this event, some people had been asking me what I thought of Dave, about his classes that he offers, and about the skills he shows on both the internet and television.  One of the reasons I went to this event was because I refuse to become an “armchair bandit.”  I wanted to meet Dave myself and see exactly what was taught during one of his classes first hand before I started to talk about him or anything he teaches.  Now if anyone asks, I can say that day Dave Canterbury and the instructors that I’ve met are very knowledgeable and are great folks to learn with.  As a matter of fact, we had such a great time together at this past event that some of the Pathfinder instructors and friends are planning on joining me for a canoe/kayak expedition through the Everglades that I will write about in my next article.
    I want to give a special thanks to the property owner Butch Richister and my friend Chance Sanders for their contributions that made the Estill, SC training event possible.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

More Bear Grylls ULTIMATE Knife News!


Got another email from a Subscriber about his BG Knife...
"Hey Adam,
     I have started to follow your videos online for advice and stumbled across your warning about the infamous gerber bear grylls knife. Unfortunately for me I had already gotten the knife; and to say the least you hit the nail on the head. I put the knife through very little use and actually never really used the pummel and it broke as all the others that have been reported.

     I contacted gerber and they informed me that my only choice is to return the knife to gerber for a replacement. Gerbers official release of this knife isn't until February so i'll have to wait until then to return it. I asked if they had fixed the problem and if the new knives coming out were going to fixed but was told that they will be the exact knives that were released in November. I've included picture of the damage to my knife. Hope this information was useful for you.

                                  N.M.
                                  Quantico, Va"

Monday, January 3, 2011

E2E Survival Bracelets Are In!

Thanks to Spencer from The Paracord Survival Project! E2E members who still want one let me know.
- Adam
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5