Friday, 5 November 2010

In The Woods Pt3 - Stalking Squirrels


The day was still warm, but in the wood the canopy keeps the world in shadow. The constant changeable breeze rattled the coppice and the whooshing of the trees hid the elephantine sound of our footsteps. A footpath runs along one boundary of the wood and, being mostly clear, meant we could if not properly creep, it at least reduced the noise of our ‘stalking’. 

A flicker of movement ahead and to the right revealed our quarry, munching on a nut at the base of an Oak. I twisted so my body would obscure my hand signal to TNM. The squirrel froze, and did a very good job of disappearing into the leaf litter. I shouldered the air rifle and realized just in time that the scope was set on too higher level of magnification. Finding a grey camouflaged thing against a backdrop of leaf and shadow wasn’t that easy. The cross hairs danced over his shoulder and as I should have been at my stillest my squeeze of the trigger must have pulled the muzzle to the right. The squirrel jumped four of five feet to the left; I worked the bolt back and forward and sent a perfectly aimed puff of air towards him. Sadly the puff of air wasn’t pushing a pellet.

The Air Arms S400 is a single shot rifle; I have an aftermarket ‘pellet feeder’ that must be clicked forward by hand each time. Right hand - Pull bolt back, Left hand - index pellet into place, Right hand - slide bolt forward. Ready to shoot. Supposedly. I’d missed the middle step and worked the bolt over an empty chamber. The squirrel gave me a withering look but stayed still. The next pellet jammed on loading. The squirrel sighed and bounded up a beech tree to wait patently to be shot. Now frantically fiddling I managed to free the now deformed pellet from the feeder. Through gritted teeth I start again. Bolt back, finger on the pellet feeder…No feckin’ pellets!! The Northern Monkey bounded off toward the hut to get more pellets and the squirrel and I kept each other under observation.  TNM is back in a flash and I feed a pellet into the chamber. The squirrel was now further up the tree and had disappeared from sight.  

As my heart rate slows, the terrible sinking feeling begins: had I shot him? Had I made a clean miss? The only way we could know would be to keep him treed until another shot opportunity presents itself.
I made that sound easy didn’t I? Several glimpses later a Holly bow lashes me across the eye and half blinded I give TNM the rifle. Due to the dense undergrowth and the fence line it’s not possible to get to the far side of the tree that the squirrel is now hiding up, I leave the wood to get a better view from the footpath. Twenty feet up the tree is the classic rotted hole at the intersection of two boughs.  A hidey-hole with a bushy tail poking out. Dead, dying or hiding?

Several attempts to climb the tree prove fruitless so we cut a long pole from the coppice and rig up a lasso loop to grab the tail with. By the time we get back to the footpath armed with our retrieval-rig the tail is no longer poking out of the hole.

I’d love it if this blog were a long and triumphant record of hunting success’s and delicious meals, I’d settle for an amusing record of failures and frustrations. This time I’m just gutted, I just don’t know if I hit him, earlier in the day I was putting pellet after pellet through a hole smaller than our smallest coin. Did I fluff the shot completely? Did I allow a wounded squirrel to get away? I’m just not sure and worst of all I doubt I’ll ever know. The following day my eye swells up and I’m sofa-bound for a day feeling very sorry of myself.

More soon
Your pal
SBW


Thursday, 4 November 2010

I Want One - A Not So Occasional Series Pt18

Just a quick one to tell you that contrary to appearances I've not disappeared, just been very busy and the camera is knackered (3rd replacement) so none of the posts I've been writing can go up yet.

In the meantime here's the very best in UK air rifles, hand made by Ben Taylor at Milbro - designer of the TheoBen (he's the Ben) Rapid 7 and many of it's later iterations.

This is a bolt action, magazine fed rifle, based on a Theoben. The 500 version relates to the 500cc bottle that is mostly used on the FAC rifle. The action is overhauled for better efficiency but it retains the Buddy bottle supply, with a modified Theoben regulator. This will give about 20% more shots per charge of air with much improved consistency and accuracy. It is fitted with a UK Custom Stock. It is supplied with a London made Milbro Huggett standard moderator. The rifle is only available with a scope sight rail built in. Overall weight will vary from 7.5 lbs to 8.5lbs depending on barrel length and stock density. It is built to sub 12ft/lb specifications. The rifle is available in .177″, .20″, .22″ or .25″ calibres.

Totally awesome, just the thing for hunting "Tree Rabbits'  but £1350. AKA $ 2,197.26. Ouch.

More soon
SBW

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Bear Grylls - Omnivore


bear grylls - born shit eater from twobob.tv on Vimeo.
NSFW - unless work is plumbing I guess
Silly, yet somehow, silly.

More soon
SBW

In The Woods Pt2 The AccuCover Review

In the morning we breakfasted on noodles and eggs before pumping the rifle up and sighting-in. The Northern Monkey is very well practised at laying out ground works and has a pace pretty much bang on a meter. So forgetting the tape measure wasn't a big deal.  We used James Marchington's free air gun targets, which are conveniently scaled so one square equals one click of the scopes adjustment at 25 yards. Handy.


Friend of the blog Nick Matthews has designed this neat accuracy accessory that he was kind enough to send me for testing. Like all the cleverest designs he’s taken one thing and got it to do more than one job.

Apart from the obvious role in protecting the lens of your scope from harm, the Acuccover’s big bright markings promote eye-to-scope alignment, first: by starting the process of adjusting your focal length before you’re close enough to see the cross hairs, giving speedier target acquisition. Then the outsized bright markings help to eliminate parallax error by exaggerating your perception of level and plumb so you look dead straight through the scope. Nick explained to me that the Accucover also helps in reducing 'cant error' AKA rifle tilt which is particularly important with lower velocity rifles. A nice bit of kit and available to fit most sizes of scope.

More to come
Your pal
SBW

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

In The Woods Pt1 Escape Velocity


'First thing you learn is you always gotta wait' Lou Reed

I was to be snaring Rabbits with another blogger over the weekend. But as is so often the lot of the self employed, one thing leads to another, a client sets a meeting back and a Friday departure disappears over the horizon. 

Seeing as I already had the weekend booked, I roused The Northern Monkey and we resolved to visit the permission in the forest. 

Saturday: one thing leads to another and we finally leave at the end of the afternoon. The drive out of town is uneventful, and we're making good pace, too good to be true. We spend an hour or so sitting in the car, gridlocked, with the engine off. By the time we're finally back on the move it's getting dark. 

Then follows a hilarious [you had to be there] interlude where we drive round a village trying to find an unmarked turning before we get to the wood. Then, for shits & giggles, we repeated the process on foot in the wood itself.

SBW [on phone]: So we're in the wood, where's the hut?
R [on phone, losing patience with SBW]: If you're in the wood, you're standing next to it
R [talking to E] They're in the wood they can't find the hut
The sound of splashing bath water and laughter
R [on phone, laughing]: Good luck, call me in the morning. CLICK

Now we'd scared off any inhabitants the wood may have had, we spend a relaxing evening in the hut eating our bean stew and bickering.

SBW: the deal was I cook and you pump up the rifle
TNM: I'll do it in the morning
SBW: I bet you if you don't do it they'll be Squirrels outside first thing
TNM: What! After a night of us two snoring like a pair of chain-saws they'll be long gone

I don't remember the highlights of the next argument, which was about who sleeps where on the sleeping platform, but I remember that it revolved around who was more likely to want to go for a piss in the night. TNM's getting on a bit so I let him have the easier route to the door.

Sunday-first light

SBW: Are you awake?
TNM: Yeah man
SBW [fighting his way out of a hooj duvet and now straddling TNM on his way to the door]:
Good, I just wanted you to know I'm not trying to mount you

Of course there was a Squirrel perfectly poised on a tree not ten yards away.

More Soon
Your Pal

SBW

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

A Ferreter Of The Old School



I saw this video by Will Halfacree on James Marchington's blog. It reminded me of our day ferreting, only Frank, 90, is a lot fitter!

Frank, a legend from East Budleigh, still continues to use the traditional method of Ferrets to catch rabbits in the Devon hedgerows.

Enjoy
SBW

Sunday, 17 October 2010

Skull Pix 2


Just got back from a trip to the forest. Where I found this beauty.

Chances are you already know what it is. As usual, the challenge of being the first to comment with a correct identification wins FIVE SOLID GOLD BUSHWACKER POINTS.

Additional points may also be awarded for, style, scientific interest, flair, wit and misanthropy.

More of our adventure as and when I get the time to write them up

As ever
Your pal
The bushwacker

Sunday, 3 October 2010

Weekend reading: Rasch of Kandahar


On the 13th of January, just seven days after the retreat commenced, one man, bloody and torn, mounted on a miserable pony, and pursued by horsemen, was seen riding furiously across the plains to Jellalabad. That was Dr. Brydon, the sole person to tell the tale of the passage of Khourd Caboul.
More than 16,000 people had set out on the retreat from Kabul, and in the end only one man, Dr. William Brydon, a British Army surgeon, had made it alive to Jalalabad. The garrison there lit signal fires and sounded bugles to guide other British survivors to safety, but after several days they realized that Brydon would be the only one. It was believed the Afghans let him live so he could tell the grisly story.
The English in Afghanistan” from North American Review July 1842


The blogosphere's best armed apiarist, has taken a few moments out from his busy schedule, keeping the world safe for democracy, to share his ponderings with us. This missive takes us from the graveyard of empire via apiary to the potential for permaculture to rebuild damaged lands, and back again.
This one is a MUST READ, Rasch of Kandahar at his best!

More soon
Your pal
SBW



Friday, 1 October 2010

Unboxing: Boker SubCom F Knife Review


Boker Subcom F [unit of scale .270]

Ahh Subcom. I've been a fan of theses ‘discrete folders’ [AKA ‘small penknives’] for what seems like an age now, but due to the ill thought out BS of UK knife law, locking folders tend to stay in the drawer, so there are always other things to spend the money on.

I needed a dry-bag for a forthcoming trip so I was foraging a forum I frequent for bargains when I noticed I was able to pick this one up, in decent condition, for roughly what I'd have paid in the US of A. Before I knew what was happening it was in the post to me. Opps!

Let the Unboxing commence:
First things first, minimum bid: Any locking folder is judged first on the tolerance of its lock-up. Any play in the blade’s locked position is unacceptable. The Subcom’s lock-up is 100%. Flawless.

Chad Los Banos, the Subcom’s designer, has pulled off the difficult trick of making the ‘littlest big knife’; pocket-able and compact whilst feeling full-sized in the hand. He’s not followed much of the orthodoxy of knife design and as is so often the case the ‘clean sheet’ approach has paid off. The blade is comparatively short, but the cutting edge is comparatively long. The handle is slim but deep, giving the feeling of holding a much bigger shape. Clever stuff.

"either too small or too big, too skinny a blade, and not enough handle to fill the hand." The Subcom series of folders and fixed blades were designed to fill the hand, while remaining small enough to "stay out of your way,"

The Subcom’s blade is AUS8; not the best of the best, but some way up the performance curve from the generic tool steels and lower cost than the super steels. For the price you pay, very good value.


Of all the ways to lock a folding knife, frame-lock is my preferred choice, you get a really solid feeling and the absence of moving parts such as rings or pivots means there is little to wear out or fatigue. Part of the frame is sprung so it locks the blade in the open position. The steel is thinned and heat-treated so it’s flexible enough to be bent out the way letting the blade be folded into the handle. As the blade is opened the sprung section snaps back into the locked position. One of the things that attracted me to the Subcom’s design was the moveable element of the frame is full sized. Quite a few of the production folders use a section of thinner steel as the catch and as a result always seem less satisfying in the hand than the customs, and higher priced production offerings.


Where Boker, the manufacturer, has made a production saving is with the use of Fiber Reinforced Nylon for the ‘scale’ side of the handle, less rigid than G10 or Micarta, it’s had to be stiffened with a thin steel plate, from a manufacturing-to-a-price point of view it’s an intelligent choice and probably a lot of the reason the knife can be such a reasonable price.


In summation: you get about 110% of the design, and about 70% of the build and finish you’d get from a custom folder, for about 10% of the price. Highly recommended. Highly pimpable too… TBC

More soon
Your pal
SBW PS There are more knife reviews in the 'kit' tab at the top of the page, or click HERE for my knife buying guide, you might like it.

Thursday, 16 September 2010

Forage Hackney

Time was running wild, ticking by with the exhilarating inevitability of a James Bond style doomsday device; a very special guest is expected imminently. My room looks like what it is – a place for a plumber to keep his tools with a bed shoehorned into the corner. I’ve tidied for hours; the end is almost in sight. So we went foraging. Priorities init?
AIR (Artist In Residence) and your pal the Bushwacker set out to forage the neighbourhood. The apple tree, that was to be the basis for our planned crumble had been stripped so we crossed the bridge onto Hackney Marshes. Where it turned out a bounty had been laid on for us.
Blackberries seemed a bit past their best, but Elderberries had just come on-song.


Some serious boiling-down later

Looks like jam

Tastes like jam

More soon
Your pal
SBW

Plant ID?

Is this an EDIBlE red currant tree?

Just thought I'd check!
SBW

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Mora Knife Review: Clipper Vs Forrest


The Forrest has been out for a while now, so I thought it was about time we compared the new model to the benchmark Clipper. When I posted my 1st review of the Forrest, regular commenter and wise blogger Hodgeman commented that 'Mora is probably the biggest bang for buck outfit in existence' and I make him right. You can spend crazy money on a knife and you get style, fit, finish, and the joy of owning something made by a real craftsman, what you don't get is a knife that's any better at cutting than the £10/$10 Mora Clipper. They take a wicked edge and hold it pretty well too. Several bloggers and You Tubers have repeated Mors Kochanski's demonstration and beaten one into a tree trunk then stood on it. Some of them pretty big fella's too.


As you can see the Clipper is made to a price, a low price. The bade is stamped from sheet steel and then has the cutting edge fairly crudely ground on to it before being set in a plastic handle. In the picture you can see the marks left my the grinding process, not great looking but that's not what you're buying at a 10 spot. All the money is in the steel i.e the bit you cut with.


The Forrest is all together a classier proposition, almost as though Mora realised they'd already cornered the market in the cutting-tool-for-low-price space, and have now set out to teach the vendors of £30/$30 knives how it's done. The blade has benefited from some sculpting, which does add something to the usability of the knife. I'm massively impressed. It's not easy to define the difference ( post a comment if you feel you can put it into words). 


The sheath has benefited from a design re-think, with the old clip-on design replaced by a through-the-loop system which not only offers added security, but lets the knife move in relation to the users posture.
So in short the extra cash has gone on the blades grind - much neater, the blades shape - one part for slicing cuts one part for pushing cuts, and the sheath - a vast improvement.

When even The Northern Monkey says it's worth the extra cash, you know it's value for money!

More soon
Your pal
SBW

Monday, 13 September 2010

Sami Folk Art: The Kuksa

While the last Kuksa I showed you was very nicely made, it was a bit too nicely made, if you know what I mean. I traded for these two with Gary from Bearclaw Bushcraft and Nordmarken Canoe UK, he had picked them up in the Sami winter market, they have a charming unevenness to them gained as they were whittled to shape by the fireside. The Sami tradition is to soak the finished cup in salt water to bring out the grain in the burl wood. As the burl is a mutation of the tree the grain no longer grows in the straight lines we're used to seeing, it tumbles in on itself creating random patterns and becoming far more resilient against splitting. Ideal for a piece of wood that's expected to get wet.

Here you can see the transition between the 'figured' wood of the burl used for the bowl and the handle's strait grain of the trunk of the tree the burl was harvested from.

Readers from back-in-the-day will remember my love of printed ephemera. The little leaflets helpfully provided to the maker by the local tourist board also deserve a mention:

The rites of baptism release elements and lend depth to the pleasure of drinking: Fill your Kuksa with Rum or Cognac. Allow your thoughts to be transferred to the proximity of the Polar Star sip at the noble liquid and listen to the way Nature speaks through the Kuksa. If you detect a salty taste your ritual has been a complete success. 

More soon
Your Pal
SBW

Saturday, 11 September 2010

Review: Fallkniven F1 Vs Mora Forest


Lets get ready to ruuuuuumble! Two giants of the swedish knife making industry are squaring up to.... Nah it's not really fair, one is a heavy weight survival knife that can happly be used to pry floorboards up and the other is a svelt bushcrafter.

I've never had a survival knife that was so confidence inspiring as the F1, maybe it could be an inch (25mm) longer, but then it wouldn't be quite as wonderfully stow-able as it is. The blade could be a tad thinner, but then it wouldn't be as strong as it is. It could be easier to sharpen, but then it wouldn't hold an edge as long as it does. I've beaten it into a log 'till the mallet disintegrated, I've pried 70+ year old floorboards up with it, I've taken it into the Tuscan hills and used it for everything (food, firewood and green wood) for a week and it would still take hairs off my forearm. It's weaknesses are it's strengths. Hell of a price these days if you buy it in the UK, still very reasonable in the US of A.

How do you take the worlds best value utility knife and make it even better? Well the chaps at the Mora knife worx must be talented because they've made it look easy. I'm hoping to get a few years of use out of mine so I haven't pounded it into any logs, but on past experience of their other products I suspect it would come out, if not unscathed, at least still useable. It's certainly a better food preparation knife than the F1, easier to use, and easier to sharpen, like all Mora knives it takes a wicked edge and holds it well to. As well as the F1? No - but very few steels hold an edge like VG10, all of them a lot more costly than the bargain Mora Forest knife.

But which is best?
To be frank with you I wouldn't be without either of them, the Forest knife is the one I reach for for most tasks, it's an excellent craft knife and butchery tool. But on a canoe trip, or hunting in the Tuscan hills I'd want to know the F1 was there.


My other reviews of the F1 are here and here


Hope this helps
Your pal
SBW

Friday, 10 September 2010

Foraging The Edible Highway


See it's spreading, I've been keeping these pears under observation for a while and was planning to go back with a ladder, but yesterday afternoon I saw these two 'highway harvesters'. Raiding what I'd come to think of as MY 'Conference' pears.

More Soon
Your Pal
SBW

I Know What I'll Do Next Summer

"......out here in the cheap showiness of nature." Rev Lovejoy

Ever since I saw Ray Mears go there on TV I've wanted to go to the legendarily beautiful Värmland region of Sweden. He called canoeing its lakes and hiking it's forests “close to a religious experience!”

I've also long wanted to go on the prestigious WEISS survival course which is held there, unfortunately I'm not the only one, so when I had the money all the places were booked up. Now Gary from Bearclaw Bushcraft who organises the UK contingent for the WEISS course, has teamed up with a local crew to offer a mix of guided and self guided trips. At merciful prices.

They do the whole mix: Bushcraft courses, Fishing trips, Canoe expeditions and Hunting. At this time Gary doesn't yet have all the details of how this winters hunts will be organised and the full details of the firearm permits for EU and non EU nationals, but cash permitting, I'll let you know before I leave!

 What is firmed up is next summers canoe trips:    

Canoe
           14 days hire for $160.00 or €125.00

Tents (2-man)                          $64  or € 50
Waterproof pack/bag               $30 or  € 22
Pack Barrel 120 liters              $22 or € 17
Canoe cart                               $39 or € 31
Sleeping Bag incl. inner sheet $53 or € 41
Sleeping pad                            $14 or € 11
Triangia cook set                     $14 or € 11
Backpack                                $52 or € 40

If you're only able to go for a week your looking at about 60% of these costs.

You see - Just like Rev Lovejoy said 'the CHEAP showiness of nature'!

If you reckon you're going to make it get in touch as The Northern Monkey and myself are planning to go and we cordially invite you to drinks and a storytelling competition around the lakeside campfire one night.

More soon
Your pal
SBW

Thursday, 9 September 2010

Bushcraft Icons: Kuksa

Traditionally carved from the burl growth of a Birch tree, these wooden cups known as Kuksa or Guksi are as Scandaweegen as anything. In the cold of the Sammi peoples arctic homeland a metal cup would be a one way ticket to a stuck lip. So the insulating properties, and light weight of wood make this a perfectly adapted tool for the region. They also look totally cool in the suburbs, and clearly designate their owner as 'more bushcraft than thou' around any campfire. So there.

More soon
Your Pal
SBW

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Unboxing: Mora Forest Knife Review


In these times of economic uncertainty the overpriced, and the badly made will - if you believe in the sanctity of Adam Smith's worldview - be driven from the marketplace. Here's how. I've wanted to test out the new Mora's for a while now, so when the chance came to trade for one I jumped at it. The Forest model is about three times the price of the much loved Mora Clipper so I was intrigued to see if  the Forest was as big a bargain as it's stable mate.

Designed with the bushcrafter in mind the Forest has a blade length of 106 mm (4.17in), and is 2.5 mm (0.1 in) thick Sandvik 12C27 steel, hardened quite softly [if that makes ant sense at all] to HRC 57-58. The knife currently only comes with a khaki green hand grip and a sheath of the same colour. I'd have preferred orange myself. The sheath design is a vast improvement on the old clipper sheath, the belt loop fully encloses the belt, rather than just clipping on, and it allows the knife to pivot with the wearers movement.

The new design of profile-ground stainless steel blade is a fair bit more sophisticated than the Clippers stamped offering. It follows the idea that as different parts of the blade are used for different tasks the blade can have different profiles to accommodate them.  I'm guessing the extra grinding is what's led to the the price hike. The blade works very well. I've never had a stainless steel Mora before, but found it easy enough to sharpen on the Sharpmaker. Leaving an amusing series of bald patches up my arm.

Is it worth the extra cash over the already excellent clipper?
Is any knife? Yeah I'm keeping it. It's very nice to cut with, the new sheath is way better. And I've already decided how to pimp the first one. Gary from Bearclaws Bushcraft has the whole range - and lots of other low cost - high usefulness bushcraft kit at his trading post. If all purchasing decisions were made purely on a 'quality of product' to 'cost of product' comparison, would any other knife companies exist? Seriously.

More soon
Your Pal
SBW

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Water Purifiers: Pre-Mac Trekker Review

This afternoon while tool shopping in 'crack converters' ( a chain of pawn shops) I found an unused Pre-Mac Trekker, complete with vintage picture of Ray Mears on the Package
Ray Mears had a period where he looked a lot like BoB

There are lots of rubbish water purifier systems availible, quite a few so-so ones and a couple of really good ones, each with thier own advantages. Here are some thoughts on the best options I've used.

The MSR miniworks is highly regarded, although perhaps a little bulky, and has an amazing flow rate of 1 litre per minute. The miniwoks uses a filtration system down to 0.3 microns which is enough to remove all bacteria, protozoa, etc. Of course, the ceramic filter can do nothing about viruses. They must be killed pre or post use, by either high temperatures, ultraviolet light, or chemicals like iodine and chlorine. Where you believe the water to be virus free [and you're right] the filtration-only design comes into it's own avoiding the taste of iodine or chlorine.

The british army and some NATO forces use the Pre-Mac Trekker which, while is has an annoying flow rate of only 0.4 litres per minute, does have other things going for it. Designed 'to produce safe drinking water from contaminated sources by elimination of pathogenic organisms - bacteria, viruses and cysts' in tests by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine the Trekker achived total elimination of the bacteria Eschedria coli and a reduction of Poliovirus in excess of 99.9%. One clever feature is the use of a resin that has iodine in it, so very small amounts of Iodine are present in the filtered water - leave the water to stand for three minutes and everything's zapped. I like the Trekker a lot, while it pumps slower and has a slight taste of iodine, it packs smaller, and is the best choice for when you absolutely, positively, have to kill every virus in the cup.

More Soon
SBW

Monday, 6 September 2010

Arragh Spider!!!





This has to be the biggest spider I've ever seen in the UK. There were a couple of smaller versions nearby, I'm guessing this is the female of the species?

Any Arachnologists out there?
More soon
SBW