If there’s one main theme of Cameron Hanes’s memoir Endure: How to Work Hard, Outlast, and Keep Hammering, it’s obsession. He’s obsessed about becoming the best bowhunter. Everything else in his life is devoted to that goal.

How do you become obsessed? Should you even be obsessed? How do you stay consistent and keep hammering away at your goals? That’s what we’re going discuss in the second and final part of my notes based on Cameron’s book. I’ll go through seven Cameron Hanes’s quotes pertaining to perseverance, working hard, and longevity.

Humbleness Leads to Greatness

The rare people who do become truly exceptional at something do so not because they believe they’re exceptional. On the contrary, they become amazing because they’re obsessed with improvement. And that obsession with improvement stems from an unerring belief that they are, in fact, not that great at all. It’s anti-entitlement. People who become great at something become great because they understand that they’re not already great—they are mediocre, they are average—and that they could be so much better.

Cameron’s take on becoming obsessed with improvement reminds me of Zen Buddhism concept of “beginner’s mind.” It’s about cultivating the mindset of a true beginner regardless of your proficiency in a given field.

You’re always humble, open to new ideas, eager to learn, and without any preconceptions. To become exceptional, we need to cultivate such a mindset at all times.

Regardless of how good we are at something, we need to be able to see and acknowledge our weaknesses—and then relentlessly hammer away at them.

We also need to stay humble and never assume we know everything there is to know. Otherwise we’ll never question our beliefs. If we aren’t open to new ideas and new teachers, at one point we’ll stop growing, forever stuck in old ways.

What Is Your Poison?

It’s one thing to find your true passion in life, but what about your poison? What is the one thing or multiple things that hinder your ability to achieve the type of success you desire? Who or what is preventing you from fulfilling your potential? For me it was a number of things: alcohol, toxic people, lack of confidence, average physical ability, and so on.

Addressing the main obstacle that prevents you from achieving success is often more valuable than blindly pushing harder.

For example, let’s imagine that you want to become financially independent. You’ve built a great career or perhaps a lucrative business. But you’re still not rolling in cash. There’s always little money left before the next paycheck.

Sure, you could grind even harder but you won’t make much progress. Why? Because the impediment is that you spend money frivolously. Before you remove this poison from your system, you won’t reach your full potential. Excessive spending will always hold you back, regardless of how hard you push.

If you aren’t making much progress, identify the main culprit. Is it because you aren’t pushing hard enough or is it because there’s a poison coursing through your veins?

Do the Work When Others Are Asleep

My alarm is set for 4:55 a.m. because getting up “in the fours” sounds better in my head than getting up in the fives, more committed, but I never make it to the alarm. I turn it off before it goes off.

I don’t dread getting up; I love it.

It’s another chance to hammer.

I’ve convinced myself that every day is a gift and I get to jump out of bed and go run. I’m usually out the door before 5:00 a.m. (in the fours) to start my fasted cardio run.

As I run down the empty streets and see the houses knowing everyone is asleep inside, in my head I kind of like it. I don’t envy them, because I feel like each morning is another chance to sacrifice a little more. I turn it into a positive and just think how I’m out there working already. That makes me feel good.

The saying goes, the greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward.

There’s something magical about doing the work while everyone else is asleep. You don’t even have to be an early riser to experience it. Many years ago, before I started waking up early, I used to be a night owl. I wrote mostly at night, between 11 pm and 3 am.

These days, my routine is the complete opposite. Instead of quiet late nights I get quiet early mornings.

Working on your goals when others are asleep will fuel your obsession because only the obsessed are so committed.

Only an obsessed person would wake up at 4 am in the middle of winter and go rucking a long distance for the challenge of it (been there, done that).

Only an obsessed person would stay up until 3 am working on the new marketing strategy for their e-commerce business.

Only an obsessed person would wake up a few hours before their shift at the warehouse starts to study a skill that will help them secure a better job.

Being Tired vs Being Weak

There is never a question in my mind asking if I’m going to run today. I’m going to run no matter what. If I’m sick, I’ll still run. If I’m hurt, I’ll go slower. I’ll limp. Nothing will change. A lot of people look for ways or reasons not to run or exercise. Those things don’t even come to my mind anymore.

If I think I’m tired, I remember moments when I’m running hundreds of miles in an ultramarathon and I’m getting an hour of sleep or less. That’s when I should be tired. The other times means I’m just being weak.

There’s no doubt that Cameron Hanes is wired differently than almost every single person on Earth. For most people, a light cold, a little injury, or feeling under the weather means no workouts until they get better. Meanwhile, Cameron only allows himself to feel tired if he’s running hundreds of miles on an hour of sleep. Talk about a wildly different perspective on things.

As a person who’s been dealing with a chronic rotator cuff injury, I adapt my workouts to keep going without aggravating it. If you can work out without making things worse, then do that.

But I don’t think it’s a smart idea to run if your swollen Achilles tendon hurts like hell and feels as if it’s about to burst.

The reason why I’m dealing with a chronic injury is because I ignored my shoulder pain for months. I thought I had to suck it up and be tough like people like David Goggins or Cameron Hanes. In the end, pretending I was indestructible destroyed me.

To be able to progress sustainably over the long term, sometimes the body needs to rest.

My calisthenics coach recently told me that for those who work out a lot, the problem isn’t making excuses but not respecting recovery enough. And taking time off to let your body heal isn’t being weak. Pro athletes do it all the time, sometimes taking months off to heal an injury that unattended could end their career.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I admire Cameron’s endurance and wish my body were as resilient as his is. Yet, in my painful experience, in an effort to imitate people like Hanes or Goggins, we sometimes ignore the warning signals, thinking we can walk them off—only to pay the price later.

As Cameron emphasizes in his book:

I don’t want to discount or minimize anybody’s effort because I know just trying your best every day is a huge deal. I know it’s a hard path at times.

I’m not speaking for anybody else with my running and my training.

This is your journey.

We’re all on different trajectories. I’m at this point and have been doing this now for decades. There are certain ways I prepare, and that’s going to change and evolve. I’m going to continue to get better and I’m going to learn and grow.

All of us are evolving. It’s just a process. A process that takes time.

Even if our goals are the same, our journeys will be different.

If You’re Not Obsessed, You’re Going to Be Mediocre

I get obsessed with things. But as I always say, if you’re not obsessed, you’re going to be mediocre. I don’t care what it is. If you have a healthy, balanced relationship with whatever dream you have, then nobody will ever know your name. That’s the cold, hard truth. Sure, there are those born with the physical capabilities to play in the NBA, but I’m sure LeBron James would say he’s been obsessed with basketball his whole life.

The best of the best usually live and breathe their obsession. Everything in their lives, be it their daily schedule, where they live, who they spend time with, etc. is about getting an edge. You can see it when studying the lives of the greats like Michael Jordan, Nikola Tesla, Pablo Picasso, or Ernest Shackleton.

A healthy, balanced relationship with your dream rarely leads to greatness.

Surfing three times a week for one hour won’t cut it if you want to become a pro surfer.

Studying physics a few hours a week won’t cut it if you want to become a renowned physicist.

Writing a few hundred words a week won’t cut if you want to become an exceptional writer.

The relationship we have with our goals says a lot about the level of success we’ll be able to achieve in them.

For example, I run once a week. When I compare running to writing—which I practice every day—it’s clear to see that I’ll never become an exceptional runner. I may have a shot at becoming an exceptional writer because my relationship with it is much closer to an obsession than in the case of running. But running is not my priority. It’s just an accessory skill.

What is your level of dedication to your goals? There’s nothing wrong with prioritizing your goals and giving it your all only to your most important objectives.

The Dark Side of Obsession

Going back to the subject of obsession, if you’re going to be great at one thing, you’re probably not going to be great at other things. The way I’ve looked at it, I know I definitely have been short in some areas because I’ve been obsessive about other things. I know I probably wasn’t the best dad, the best husband, the best whatever, because I’ve been obsessed about bowhunting. For example, spending $3,000 to go on an out-of state hunt when you don’t have the money and have a newborn baby at home … yeah, that’s probably not a good decision. That’s not being the best provider you can be, because I put my dream ahead of being a provider for my family, for the people who rely on me. If you’re being honest with yourself, and I have been honest with myself, I know I’ve fallen short. That’s not justifying it at all, that’s just being real.

Cameron’s confession poses a difficult dilemma: do you let yourself obsess about a single thing so much that you neglect other aspects of your life? Or do you choose to tone down a little so that you don’t destroy your relationships or health?

In an ideal world, we would be able to get it all. But we don’t live in an ideal world with unlimited resources and no opportunity costs. There’s a price to pay for all decisions.

For example, if you decide to become an ultra-runner, you’ll have to train for up to a few hours a day almost every day of the week. Developing mental and physical toughness to take on long races will become your day job.

Try as you might, you won’t be able to create more time out of thin air. Something will have to give. Will it be your work or business life? Will it be your relationships? Will it be your other skills that you won’t be able to practice as much as before?

Do or do not, you make a sacrifice either way. What is it for you?

I’ve been struggling with this question for years. As a generalist interested in various activities, I’m not good at any single thing. I admire men who are world-class at a single thing. But at the same time, I need to accept that I’m not like them. My version of becoming exceptional needs to be different because I’m not willing to obsess about just one thing.

What is your version of being exceptional? Is it being excellent at just one thing or being competent (but not great) in a variety of fields?

Keep Hammering

There’s an incredible quote that inspires the San Antonio Spurs that is a beautiful summary of the “Keep Hammering” mindset. I love the Spurs and their approach to professional basketball. They are always focused on how they do things, not the reward for what they do. They care about the process, not the result. In 2018, NBA star and former Spur George Hill told me about the words of twentieth-century poet Jacob A. Riis that hangs in the Spurs’ locker room:

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”

Cameron achieved his goals through hammering away at them. There’s a reason why he likes to say “nobody cares, work harder.” It’s purely through hard, consistent work for years and years that he became great at what he does.

When you’re in doubt, remind yourself of all the momentum you’ve built until now. Perhaps it’s not visible to the naked eye, but the rock you’ve been hammering away at for so long might be just a single blow away from splitting in two.

This concludes my two-part series featuring the best quotes from Cameron Hanes’s book Endure. Keep hammering.

Questions to Ponder

1. Do you cultivate a beginner’s mind?

2. What is your poison that prevents you from achieving your goals?

3. Are you willing to work on your goals when others are asleep?

4. How does feeling tired or injured affect your workouts? Do you skip them because you have a little injury or feel under the weather? Or quite the contrary: do you still keep going when it would be advisable to address your injury before it turns into a chronic problem?

5. What relationship do you have with your dreams? Are you truly obsessed about them or is the relationship so balanced that it’s unlikely you’ll ever go past mediocrity?

6. If you have any obsessions, how do they negatively impact your life? Are you willing to accept that downside or do you need to dial things down?

7. Do you regularly acknowledge all the momentum you’ve built until now?

If you want more advice on how to be obsessed and keep hammering, sign up for a free weekly Discomfort Club newsletter. Enter your email address below:

Notes from “Endure” by Cameron Hanes Series

Hunt #1

I was halfway down the long ridge when a bugle erupted to my right. Far below, a 300-inch 6×6 was chasing cows in a timber-dotted draw. I craned my neck to locate the new bull in the dim predawn light. What I saw sent a shiver down my spine.

A wide, massive rack floated above a ridge 400 yards to the south — a rack I thought I would never see again. Days earlier, I had dogged that very bull from dawn till dusk as he pushed three-dozen cows and calves across deep canyons and near-vertical slopes. When the sun finally sank, the large Wyoming six-point was still beyond bow range, surrounded by his harem and posing on a rugged point of rock. He bugled, grunted, and plunged out of sight.

Hard hiking across miles of terrain had failed to show me that elk again. There would be no mistaking his wide-flung antlers with the broken left brow tine. After searching till my eyeballs ached, I figured he was gone for good.

Then, miles away from where I’d chased him, here he was again. A parade of cows and calves trotted across a knob and dipped out of sight. Ears and antlers followed, also sinking below the horizon.

I forgot the smaller bull below me, trotted into a deadfall-littered ravine, and hustled up the other side. I had barely reached the top when cow elk began filing across the main canyon 600 yards below. They joined the bunch with the other bull, creating a massive herd. I stopped counting at 60 elk.

Last in line was the heavy-antlered bull. As I watched through my 10X binoculars, he charged through the milling cows — screaming like a banshee and pacing back and forth. The smaller bull turned and fled. That 300-incher looked like a baby compared to the big guy.

A coulee angled steeply downhill toward the herd, and I ducked into it. Twenty minutes later, I crossed the main canyon and crept uphill through stunted evergreens. Elk were chirping and crunching in a meadow above the trees.

I slipped between two pines and peeked uphill. Cows and calves were feeding in an old burn, and several drifted within 15 yards. I eased an arrow from my hip quiver, nocked the shaft, and waited. The herd bull was nearby, hidden beyond the grassy folds. A stiff morning downdraft blew in my face.

Minutes passed before the bull bugled again just out of sight. I gripped my bow as cows trotted downhill toward me. Instantly, tall antlers rose above the slope.

The bull swaggered out and stopped barely 30 yards away. One cow nearly stepped on me as she scooted away from the rut-crazy male. I drew as the bull nosed another cow, planted my 30-yard pin behind his shoulder, and released.

The cow squirted ahead, the bull lunged forward…and the G5 Striker V2 broadhead smacked him dead-center with a “plop” no bowhunter wants to hear. Elk scattered in giant clouds of dust. The bull walked 100 yards, bedded, stood again, and trudged over a ridge. I backed away immediately. Gut-shot animals always die, but you should never push them.

The cool, sinking breeze had started swirling as the morning air heated up. I hoped the bull would not smell me and go on high alert. That hope was wrong.

Hunt #2

I’ve never lost a gut-shot animal. This happens to every bowhunter sooner or later, but unless spooked, a paunch-hit critter normally travels less than a half-mile. If you wait several hours before following, the result is usually good.

Midafternoon found me snooping along the likely path my bull had taken. Two spots of dark blood on a log and fresh tracks in the dust confirmed his path down a timber-choked draw. Another spot of body fluid 300 yards farther along proved the bull had continued downhill to the bottom of the ravine. I could not find another speck of blood, and the ground in the bottom was hard as a rock.

By dark, I’d scoured every slope and ravine within a half-mile. An old burn dominated the area, and it was mostly open enough to see a downed animal. Next morning, my friend Tommy Moore and I strapped on our hiking boots and continued the search. By midday, we were certain my bull had traveled farther than a half-mile. I suspected the wounded elk had smelled me on shifting air currents before I was able to leave. Juiced up on adrenaline, it was hard to say which direction he’d gone, or how far.

Deep canyons fanned out to the north, east, and south. Tommy and I canvassed the country within a mile, slowly hiking ravine bottoms and slopes in a grid pattern. It was too early for birds to find the carcass or death odor to set in. A tough situation. The sun set on that first full day of searching.

Tommy had to work the next day, but my wife, Greta, drove from home to help me. We searched from daylight till dark over the next four days, fanning outward across vast expanses of terrain within one to two miles. An animal can always crawl in a crack or stop in thick cover, where you might walk past and miss it only feet or yards away. But daytime temperatures were climbing into the 80s. Ravens, eagles, and magpies lived in the area, and such scavengers always descend on a carcass within a few days. After five days, the stench of decay should be detectable for several hundred yards.

The key was getting close to where the elk had dropped, and we certainly had not done that. Greta and I began calling my bull “Needle.” The haystack we were searching was incredibly big and rugged.

Day Six dawned warm and clear. Miraculously, Greta spied a dry, matchhead-sized drop of blood on a tree branch nearly one mile from where I had hit the elk. My wife’s eyes are incredible.

The bull had left the ravine and headed south. Two long, narrow, and fairly open canyons sliced the country even farther in that direction than we had looked — two to three miles away and a greater distance than I had ever seen a paunch-hit animal go.

Greta drove our pickup to the top of the first draw and dropped me off. Two hours later, I met her at the bottom. No birds, no coyotes, no smell. The place I’d hit the elk was 1¾ miles to the north.

Greta left me again at the head of the second canyon — 2¾ miles from impact.

“This is crazy,” I muttered, as I dropped into the narrow cut. I was beginning to believe we might never find Needle.

Halfway down the ravine, something white flashed to my right. A lone magpie sailed across a draw 100 yards above me and vanished beyond a ridge. The bird was alone, but it was the only one I’d seen that day. I decided to investigate.

As I crested the ridge, the bird flew from a tree and floated into another draw.

What the heck, I thought. Might as well follow.

I reached the top just as the bird dove into a clump of densely packed evergreens. As I eased ahead, four magpies erupted from the same spot. The Wyoming breeze fanned my face, carrying the faint smell of decaying carcass. I trotted down the hill as more birds scattered from the thicket. Seconds later, a fat antler tine appeared through the screen of limbs.

Not much later, Greta and I did a happy dance on the upwind side of the elk. Coyotes and birds have to eat, too, so nothing goes to waste in the woods. Selfishly, I was sad about all that ruined meat. But hairy and feathered scavengers had already polished off most of the bull’s rear end, and I knew not one scrap would be left when they were done.

I removed the head with knife and rubber gloves. A generous sprinkling of borax, salt, and baking soda on the de-fleshed skull cut the odor to nearly zero. I had gorgeous antlers to remind me of both hunts — the challenging sneak, and the taxing recovery. My 2021 Wyoming bull later scored a touch over 360 record-book points, in spite of two battle-broken tines on the left side. Intact, he would have scored over 370…one of my best-ever elk.

According to my GPS, Needle traveled just over 2¼ miles before he dropped. Our smartphones confirmed that Greta had walked over 30 miles looking for that bull, and I had walked over 50 miles. If you search hard and long enough for a mortally hit animal, you will almost certainly find it eventually. The double-hunt process might not always be fun, but the conclusion will be thrilling for a number of reasons!

Following Up a Center Hit

An animal hit solidly in the paunch with a sharp broadhead requires patience. It will always expire, but you must wait at least six to eight hours before beginning the search…preferably more if daylight allows. If it is pushed or smells you, it might travel much farther than the normal 400 to 800 yards.

After waiting, you should look for blood, body fluid, and tracks. Try to predict the most likely travel routes, and remember that gut-shot animals sometimes move uphill. Proceed slowly with eyes peeled, in case you need to take a finishing shot.

Beyond 24 hours, you should grid-search terrain, preferably with the help of friends. It is your responsibility to recover the animal, even if you lose the meat. Keep looking — it’s the ethical thing to do — and the critter will almost certainly be yours.

Bushcraft skills are essential for survival, especially if you plan on bugging out to a remote location.

The ability to use resources from the environment can save your behind when SHTF—and even help you thrive after—so it’s important to take the time to learn them.

In this article, we discuss bushcraft 101, from basic bushcraft tools to vital skills like foraging, building shelters, making fires, acquiring food, and more. You’ll also find useful tutorials throughout the article, so if you think you need to sharpen those bushcraft skills, read on:

Bushcraft 101: What Is Bushcraft and How Will It Help You Survive TEOTWAWKI?

Here’s the simple truth: Mother Nature provides all of your needs. All you have to do is figure out where to find these resources and know how to use them.

Bushcraft, used interchangeably with “wilderness skills,” focuses on using resources available in the natural environment for survival. This skill set includes fire making, foraging food, tracking, trapping, hunting game, and shelter-building using basic bushcraft gear.

Learning and mastering bushcraft skills will inevitably help you when SHTF.

Remember, in a large-scale disaster, most modern conveniences will go to the dogs. Without the grid, food supply, clean water, functional sewage, and the internet, society as we know it will plunge into chaos.

People will have no choice but to learn the old ways or perish. As a prepper, you’ll have to learn how to make fire, forage for food, purify water, build a shelter, and make tools with what little you can find.

By arming yourself with a sharp set of bushcraft skills, you’ll learn how to survive in a short-term emergency and even be self-sufficient in long-term scenarios. Once you’ve mastered these skills, you can go on to teach others.

Essential Bushcraft Tools

To do bushcraft, you must have the right bushcraft tools. Here are some of the basics to have in your arsenal:

Knife

A sharp and sturdy knife is indispensable in bushcraft. Without it, you’ll be unable to make fire, set up your shelter, hunt and prepare your food, carve other tools—plus a slew of other small tasks.

A durable full-tang knife with a fixed blade is often used for bushcraft. Full tang means the knife’s steel extends all the way through the handle, making it less prone to breakage and damage.

While folding knives are portable and great for EDC, they’re not exactly the safest or most reliable for tasks like woodworking, so stick with a fixed-blade knife instead. A knife with a drop point and a flat or Scandi grind is great for most bushcraft tasks, too.

How long should bushcraft knives be?

Bushcraft knives are usually around 3 and a half to 6 inches long. This length allows them to do both small, detailed tasks and heavy-duty work. Anything smaller will be hard to handle; anything bigger, on the other hand, will be a machete.

Should you go for a high carbon steel or stainless steel bushcraft knife?

As far as material goes, it’s a contest between high carbon and stainless steel. Your choice of steel will depend on your needs.

Carbon steel blades are durable, easier to sharpen, and tend to throw better sparks when used with a ferro rod. They’re more prone to rust and oxidation, however, so they need higher maintenance compared to their stainless steel cousins.

Stainless steel blades, on the other hand, take longer to sharpen, but they keep their edge longer. They require little maintenance and are virtually rust-proof, making them great for humid environments.

Don’t forget about the knife handle

The knife handle should feel good in your hand, too. Bushcraft knife handles are usually made from hardwood, but this absorbs moisture over time, so you can go for synthetic materials like Micarta or G10 fiberglass.

Knife Sharpener

Since you’re using a knife, it only makes sense to include a sharpening stone among your bushcraft tools. There are many knife sharpeners out there—the most common of which include Japanese water stones, whetstones, or oil stones.

Most sharpening stones have two sides: a coarse side for the initial sharpening and shaping, and a finer surface for the finishing touches. Leather belts also make for good stropping materials to keep your knives sharp even when on the field.

Check out the video above if you need pro tips on how to sharpen your knife while on the field or in your bushcraft camp.

Bushcraft Axe

Next up on our list of must-have bushcraft tools is an axe.

This bad boy is capable of doing tasks your knife can’t or shouldn’t do, like felling and limbing trees, cutting and splitting large pieces of firewood, and building permanent shelter.

Like your knife, axe blades can be made from high carbon steel or stainless steel. A bushcraft axe doesn’t have to be the biggest or longest, either.

Large axes with heavy bits may penetrate wood better, but they also require more energy for you to swing. That’s why most bushcrafters prefer using smaller, lighter axes they can conveniently stow away in a backpack. These are easier to carry around and can be used with only one hand.

Another important factor to consider when choosing this bushcraft gear is sharpness. An ideal axe should be able to keep its edge well even after use and abuse.

Lastly, an ergonomic hardwood handle is key for a good grip and chopping power.

Bushcraft Saw

Not all bushcrafters carry axes. Some enthusiasts prefer using a folding saw for woodworking since it’s significantly lighter and easier to carry around. It also makes for straighter cuts in the wood, which is great for building shelter, especially if you want a sturdy one to outlast the elements.

Saws are also more efficient since these bushcraft tools take less energy to cut through wood and produce more output in the same amount of time. Less effort means you have more time and energy left to do other tasks necessary for survival.

Compass

A compass is a pretty straightforward device. You don’t need a lot of bells and whistles in a compass; you just need to have a reliable one that orients accurately. Moreover, you have to know how to use one to find your way in the wilderness.

Firestriker

The last thing on our list of essential bushcraft tools is a firestriker.

Firestrikers or ferro rods are capable of creating fire through friction. Unlike lighters or matches, fire strikers work even when wet, are effective at any elevation, and don’t need fuel. They’re also easier to use compared to their flint-and-steel counterparts.

To know more about ferro rod fire starters, check out this comprehensive review.

Bushcraft Skills You Need to Learn

Now that you know the basic bushcraft tools, it’s time to dive into the skills you need to possess. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you have the sharpest knife or the most accurate compass out there if you don’t have any idea how to use them properly.

Below you’ll find an extensive checklist of all the bushcraft skills to have under your belt:

Foraging for Food and Medicine

Foraging, by definition, is the act of finding and gathering flora and fauna mainly for food. However, you can also use your foraging skills to find medicinal plants and herbs, natural cordage, firestarters, or materials for shelter.

Foraging for Food

Humans started out as hunter-gatherers. Before the dawn of agriculture and industrialization, the forests were our ancestors’ grocery stores.

Some examples of food you can forage in the wild include:

• Fruits
• Berries
• Nuts
• Mushrooms
• Tubers
• Shoots

Flowers, seeds, and weeds like dandelions and nettles are less obvious choices, but you can also forage and eat them when the going gets tough.

Know Your Local Geography

To be a good forager, you first have to know the lay of the land. What types of plants, fruit-bearing trees, and vegetation grow in your area? Where can you find them?

Take cattails, for example. This wild edible is common in most parts of North America and can be found near ponds and marshes. Cacti, on the other hand, are common in the West and Southwest regions of the States and can be found in dry, arid areas like deserts.

Plant Identification

Plant identification is crucial in foraging. Make a mistake, and you’ll end up with a bad allergy, a busted stomach…or you might not live to tell the tale at all.

Remember, Mother Nature may provide for all your needs, but she also has a lot of plants that can kill you on the spot, too, so it’s important to know how to distinguish friend from foe.

Ask yourself:

What do these edible plants look like? What are their distinct qualities, and how can you tell them apart from dangerous ones?

Some wild edibles, like root crops and bulbs, grow underground, so you also have to know how their leaves and shoots look above the surface.

If you’re a complete beginner, keeping a pocket guide with colored illustrations can help a lot. Make sure this pocket guide covers the area or climate that you’re in and carry it with you when out camping or backpacking. Try to identify the plants you can find along the way and take down notes with your personal observations.

You can also take classes with a forager to help you learn faster. These experts have years of insight and may have tips and learnings from their experiences that you can’t find in guidebooks about bushcraft skills.

Growing Seasons for Foraging

Aside from knowing the plants’ geographic location and appearance, you also have to be familiar with their growing seasons. When do these wild edibles grow most abundantly? Are they available only in certain seasons, or can you find them all year round?

Many edible mushroom species, for example, grow abundantly during the hot and humid summers. They grow at the edge of forests at the start of the season, especially after a nice, warm rain shower. By July to August, you can find tons of mushrooms in oak and beech groves or in areas where evergreen trees grow. They can also be abundant in south-facing hill slopes since these areas receive more warmth.

Foraging for Medicine

Plants aren’t only good for food. Many of them also have medicinal properties. To take advantage of these, you must know which parts of the plant to use and how to use them.

Here are some examples of common medicinal plants and what they can help with:

• You can steep willow bark into a tea and use it to treat aches, pains, fever, and swelling.
• Fennel tea also helps soothe an upset stomach and fight bloating and nausea.
• Yarrow leaves and flowers can be used to aid in blood clotting to slow down bleeding. You can also use it to treat fevers and coughs.
• Dandelions, usually passed off as weeds, can be turned into a salve for muscle aches and joint pain.
• Plantains have excellent anti-inflammatory properties and make good poultices.
• Comfrey poultices or compresses are great for fixing wounds and fractures.

Dos and Don’ts When Foraging

Building Bushcraft Shelters

Exposure to extremely harsh conditions can kill you in a matter of minutes, so knowing how to build temporary and long-term shelters is one of the most important bushcraft skills to know.

The good news? There are tons of ways to make bushcraft shelters from just about anything you can find in the environment.

Making cordage using natural materials

Cordage is one of the most vital components of bushcraft shelters. If you find yourself without rope or 550 paracord, you can use natural cordage to assemble frames or lash poles together for your shelter. You can also use cordage for other purposes, like climbing—and creating snares, traps, fishing lines, or bow drills for fire.

Cedar bark is one of the best sources of natural cordage. You can find these trees all over the country, especially if you’re in the Pacific Northwest region. To make cordage from cedar bark, you want to harvest the inner bark or bast of the tree. That’s the stringy, fibrous layer right under the protective outer bark.

As you can see in the video above, you’ll need to peel the outer bark off in one go and harvest the bast to create cordage from the fibers. You’ll want the bark to dry and age before turning it into ropes, though, since moist bark can shrink over time.

Plants like nettles also make for good cordage. Remove the leaves, flatten the stem, and carefully peel the nettle skin off. Once you’ve done that, twist the fibers until you form cordage. Unlike cedar bark, you don’t have to wait for the nettle stalks to dry out before you can use them. They’re also strong and capable of withstanding tension.

Just wear gloves when harvesting these plants—they’re not called stinging nettle for nothing.

Other natural materials you can use as cordage include some species of tall grass, willow saplings, roots, and jungle vines.

Tying Knots

Knot-tying is another one of the most basic but essential bushcraft skills to learn. If you don’t know how tie decent knots, cordage would be of little use.

There are various knots for different purposes. Here are some of our go-tos:

• Square knot – This is a multipurpose knot great for tying or connecting two lengths of rope.
• Figure eight – This knot retains the strength of the cordage well. It doesn’t unravel with pressure, so it’s good for climbing, creating footholds, or pulling someone to safety.
• Bowline knot – Also retains the strength of the rope or cordage. You can tie this with one hand, making it excellent for rescues or for tying down objects.
• Clove hitch – This is a quick-release knot for securing cordage to trees.
• Tautline hitch – It’s used to adjust the tension on tarp shelters.

For an in-depth look at more knots you can use for bushcraft and survival and how to tie them, check out this post.

Basic Types of Bushcraft Shelters

Bushcraft shelters come in all shapes and sizes. You can find shelter in nature, as in uninhabited caves, under rock overhangs, or near large fallen trees. You can also construct your own from tree limbs, branches, and foliage. Some types of bushcraft shelters you can make include:

• Lean-to shelter – a common free-standing shelter with three walls and an open side. This is one of the easiest bushcraft shelters you can construct.
• A-Frame shelter – has a triangular, A-shaped frame with a main ridgepole that runs along the top. Also known as the double lean-to shelter.
• Dug out shelter – a shelter made by digging a trench on the ground
• Fallen tree shelter – a shelter made from the flat base of a tree root

You can read more about how to build these bushcraft shelters and more in this article.

General Shelter Building Guidelines

Whatever type of shelter you’re looking for or are making, here are some things to consider:

• Pick a good location. Your shelter should be able to offer adequate protection from the environment and shield you from harsh rain and wind. It should also be located a safe distance away from your water source (about 200 meters).
• Choose a relatively flat location to avoid floods.
• Avoid setting up camp under large trees. While they offer shelter from rain, they also have thick branches that can fall on you. Plus, they’re prone to lightning strikes and their leaves will drip long after the rain has stopped—their cons outweigh the pros.
• Your shelter should be able to reflect and conserve heat. Stone faces or large boulders make for good heat reflectors. You can also construct a wall from medium-sized sticks and line it with foliage and moss, which are natural insulators.

We’ve previously talked about survival and bushcraft shelters at length in our other articles. Here’s a directory of useful info to help you out:

Waterproofing your shelter

Since your shelter is mostly made of wood, you’d want to take extra measures to make sure that it stays dry.

As we mentioned earlier, choosing the right place is essential in keeping dry. Pick a relatively flat and well-draining location, away from trees with a lot of leaves to prevent dripping. Stay away from ravines or canyons—they may be bone-dry now, but they’re notorious for flash-flooding after mild showers.

When building your shelter, don’t make it too big to conserve heat.

You also have to create roofs at an angle so that rainwater flows at the sides. Cover these steep, angled roof frames with broad leaves, starting from the lowest part and working your way towards the top. This way, your roof can work like shingles and shed rainwater without a hitch. Don’t forget to dig a rainwater runoff around your camp so you won’t wake up in a puddle.

Another way to waterproof your shelter is by simply bringing a tarp. Tarps are cheap, hard-wearing, and multifunctional. You can use different configurations to turn it into a shelter, use it as a ground sheet or to put on as an additional layer to your bushcraft shelter’s roof.

When using tarps to waterproof your shelter, make sure that it’s stretched out tautly and is securely pegged to the ground or to a tree so that it doesn’t collect rainwater. If you can’t afford a tarp, use a thick drop cloth or repurpose an old shower curtain.

Related: Waterproofing your survival gear and supplies

Making DIY cement from wood ash

Basic carpentry and woodworking are undoubtedly crucial bushcraft skills to know when making long-term shelters, but if you want to take it up a notch, you can create makeshift cement from wood ash.

As the name suggests, wood ash cement is made by burning biomass like dried bark and leaves. These materials are more common than the usual ingredients used to create makeshift cement like limestone or shells, but contain the same minerals like potassium, phosphorus, and calcium. When done properly, you can use wood ash cement as mortar to reinforce your shelter, or you can turn it into little blocks for various purposes.

The process is pretty labor-intensive and time-consuming, though, so it’s best to make this only if you’ve got the time and resources. As seen in the tutorial above, you’ll need a kiln or oven, a lot of ash from biomass (hardwood ash works best), and some clay or terracotta to use as aggregate.

Still, it’s a good-to-know skill that might come in handy when you’re building a semi-permanent bushcraft dwelling or bug-out camp.

Primitive Firemaking

Fire provides you with heat, light, and protection. This indispensable resource also allows you to cook food, purify water, and fend off predators. Needless to say, knowing how to make fire is one of the top bushcraft skills you should master.

You only need three ingredients to create fire: oxygen, heat, and fuel. These factors are collectively known as the combustion triangle. If one is missing, you can’t ignite a flame.

Oxygen, of course, comes from the air around us. You can best harness oxygen by allowing proper ventilation and by creating efficient firelays.

You can produce heat primarily through friction. Once you create a spark or an ember and it catches on to your fuel, chances are you’ll be able to create a fire.

Fuel comes in the form of combustible materials and is generally classified as tinder, kindling, and firewood.

Tinder is the smallest and finest of the bunch, usually made from thin wood shavings, feather sticks, and other fibrous materials. Its purpose is to catch sparks or embers to burn kindling like sticks and twigs. Once your tinder and kindling are burning, you can feed it larger chunks of fuelwood to keep it burning and to produce hot coals.

Natural Firestarters: Tinder, Kindling, and Firewood

Shavings or curls from fatwood or from resinous trees like cedar, birch, and pine make for excellent tinder, and you can find them almost anywhere in North America.

Tree bark also makes a great tinder and firestarter. Red cedar bark is especially fibrous and can be lit even when damp. You can fluff up red cedar bark to create a “bird’s nest” to catch sparks or live embers.

Birch bark is rich in resins which help them ignite faster. It’s also resistant to moisture and easy to gather. Simply skin dead fallen birch trees with a knife, and their barks will come off in sheets. You can tear birch bark into strips and bundle them up to start a fire.

Fatwood is another term for pine heartwood drenched in resin. Though not as common nor as easy to harvest as the other firestarters mentioned earlier, fatwood shavings light almost instantly, even in super damp conditions. You can also cut them up in chunks and use them as kindling or firewood.

Other natural fire starters include:

• Tinder fungus – This black and spongy species of mushroom is used to hold coals or reignite fires.
• Cattails – Dry and fluffy, cattails can be found near water or in marshlands. They don’t burn for very long, so they’re usually considered flash tinder.
• Pinecones – Like fatwood, pinecones are resinous and can be used as fuel.

Batoning and splitting firewood

Batoning firewood has been a very polarizing topic among preppers. Should you do it and risk ruining your knife? Or should you never do it at all?

Well, whether you’re in favor of it or not, you have to learn how to baton and split wood when you’re left with no other choice.

Batoning is the process of splitting wood with a knife and another blunt piece of wood called a baton. The idea is to lodge the knife onto a block of wood and strike it with the baton, thus splitting the wood into smaller chunks perfect for a campfire. Batoning can sometimes be easier than using an axe or saw, especially when you want to split small pieces of wood quickly.

The downside is that batoning needs a lot of practice, and it can damage your knife in the process. If you’re not careful, you might even end up hurting yourself.

The trick to successful batoning is to make sure that your knife is sharp and its edge is placed perfectly straight onto the block. Then, strike it with the baton nice and hard to split it right down the center.

Primitive Ways to Make Fire

Since primitive folks didn’t have matches or lighters, they primarily made fire through friction, and they produced friction through drills.

There are many types of drills out there, but they more or less have the same basic components: a spindle or a long stick that one uses to create friction and a fireboard, which is a flat piece of wood that collects the embers made by the spindle.

Here are some examples of primitive fire drills:

• Hand Drill – The hand drill can be operated by one person and is perhaps the most easily recognizable fire drills out there. The idea is pretty simple: you roll the spindle really fast between your palms, running your hands down its length very quickly until it produces embers. The embers are collected in a small nick or depression on the fireboard and are then transferred to a pile of tinder. Tinder ignites and boom, you have a fire.
• Bow Drill – The concept is pretty similar to a hand drill, but this time, you use a flexible stick and a piece of cordage to create a bow. The bow is used to turn the spindle and creates the friction for you.
• Two-Man Friction Drill – This one is essentially a bow drill but instead of going at it alone, one person holds the drill upright while the other operates the bow to create friction.
• Pump Fire Drill – This type of fire drill is a bit more complicated than the rest. The bow is powered by a manually operated pump mechanism that creates friction.

Aside from drills, another primitive way to create a friction fire is through a fire plough. Instead of using a spindle and a small depression on a fireboard, you make a groove along the length of the fireboard and slide another piece of wood along it, creating friction horizontally. The stick should be around an inch thick and made from softwood for best results.

You can also use flint and steel. This is how they used to kick it back in ye olde days. On one hand, you’ve got a striker made from carbon steel, and on the other, a hard stone made from flint or chert. Striking these materials against each other creates sparks, which catch on dry tinder.

You can perfect this method through practice, but a more convenient way to create fire through the same principle is by using ferrocerium rod fire starters instead.

Which Firelay Should You Use?

It’s not enough to light a fire—you should also be able to keep it going. An excellent firelay will help your fire stay lit throughout the night with little to no maintenance, so it’s important to pick the right one.

Here are some examples of firelays you can construct:

• Tipi firelay – As the name suggests, the tipi firelay sports a triangular shape like a tipi shelter and can be made from sticks and twigs. To build it, all you have to do is start from small kindling and work your way to the bigger ones, leaving an opening on the upwind side to ignite the tinder.
• Log cabin or upside down fire – This is a self-feeding firelay that burns from top to bottom. Up top, you have your tinder and kindling. The pieces of fuel get thicker as you go down the firelay, allowing the fire to produce a big, hot, and consistent flame with minimal tending.
• Star fire – This one is really simple. Start by building a small pile of tinder and kindling, and around it, place large pieces of firewood. The idea is to gradually push the larger pieces of fuel into the fire to keep it going.

Wanna know the nitty-gritty details of making these firelays? Check out these tutorials. If you want to learn more about firemaking in general, here’s the full roster of useful guides and resources:

Finding and Purifying Water in the Wild

Hydration is key for survival, so knowing how to find and purify water in the wild should be bushcraft 101.

Like the other bushcraft skills mentioned in this article, you can find many sources of water out there by first knowing the lay of the land, and by reading natural indications of water, like the following:

• Gurgling or rushing sounds – These indicate the presence of running water. Since water flows downward, you can most likely find it in low-lying areas, canyons, and valleys.
• Plants and vegetation – Certain plant species, like lilies and cattails only grow near water, so look out for these. Note the quality of the soil, too—muddy or marshy ones obviously indicate water. Large, thick vines and trees can also be sources of water themselves. Before you drink up, however, make sure that the plant is not poisonous and it doesn’t ooze bitter or cloudy sap.
• Presence of animals and insects – Grazing animals and herbivores are more likely to lead you to their watering holes. Watch out for birds, too. Birds will fly low and in a formation when in search of water, and will likely hop from tree to tree after having a drink.

When you can’t find a lake, river, or stream to get water from, you’ll have to get creative by collecting rainwater, creating a solar still, or looking for alternative sources of hydration. Here’s a guide on how to go about those methods.

Bushcraft Water Purification

A bandana or shemagh is excellent for taking out debris and dirt from your drinking water, but if you don’t have one on hand, you’ll have to make your own filter. The video above describes the process of how to make one with a bottle and some natural filters like rocks, leaves, and soil.

The idea is to stack the filters up in layers. The large and loose ones, like rocks and pebbles, go at the top to filter big pieces of debris. The filters gradually become finer to take out minute contaminants until you get clear water.

Once you’ve got a decent amount of water, purify it via boiling. Boiling kills microorganisms and viruses that might cause disease.

Related: Best Ultralight Backpacking Water Filters

Trapping and Hunting Game for Food

Berries, roots, and edible plants will keep you alive well enough, but if you want to fill your belly with something more substantial, you will have to learn how to track, trap, and hunt game for food.

Here’s what you need to know about these bushcraft skills:

Trapping

The biggest advantage of trapping is that it saves you time and energy. Unlike hunting, where you have to actively chase after a single quarry, trapping lets you catch a lot of prey without having to run after them.

You can set up traps in different places to increase your chances of catching a meal. This multitasking feat frees up a large chunk of your time, letting you do other stuff like building a campfire or reinforcing your shelter.

When setting up traps and snares, it’s important to develop a keen skill for tracking animals. Know what kind of animal you’re trapping by watching out for things like:

• Pawprints
• Fresh or worn tracks
• Droppings
• Disturbed vegetation
• The animal’s usual diet within the vicinity

Once you’ve determined your prey, it’s time to move. Here are tutorials that show how to create some of the most common traps out there:

Deadfall Trap

The deadfall trap is one of the earliest and most effective traps known to man. It’s used to catch small to medium-sized prey like rodents and squirrels.

Spring Snare Trap

Simple yet effective, the spring snare trap uses a length of wire or string to create a noose that tightens around the animal’s leg or neck.

Woven Fish Trap

This trap takes a long time and a lot of skill to make, but the payoff will be worth it. This trap lets you catch medium-sized fish and eels.

Prawn Trap

This is a smaller version of the fish trap for prawns and smaller species of fish.

Things to Remember When Making Traps

Traps take a lot of skill and practice. Here are some useful tips to remember when constructing traps and snares:

• Prepare the parts of your trap away from the area to avoid disturbing the vegetation and alerting the animals to your presence. All you have to do when you come to the site is to assemble it.
• Stay downwind.
• Always wear gloves when handling your traps. Animals have a keen sense of smell and can detect your scent. Rub plants, dirt, or the innards of your previous catch onto your trap to mask your own scent and confuse the animal.
• Blending in is key. Make sure that your trap blends well with the environment by camouflaging it with leaves, mud, and vegetation.
• Avoid using young twigs and cordage when making your traps. These release a scent that alerts animals of potential predators. If you can’t find old materials, age your trap by exposing it to the sun.
• Choose your bait wisely. Don’t use bait that the animal can just easily find elsewhere. Instead, use something that will potentially catch their attention.

For an in-depth look at other primitive ways to catch, cook, and eat food in the wild, check these out:

Other Bushcraft Skills You Have to Know

Shelter, fire, water, and food are the four foundations of outdoor survival. Once you develop your skills in these areas, you’ll be able to survive out in the wild without modern resources.

However, that doesn’t mean you have to stop there. These intermediate bushcraft skills will help you take your survival know-how to the next level:

Making Bushcraft Tools

What separates humans from other primates? Our ability to create and use tools to help make our lives easier. This video shows 7 useful primitive bushcraft tools and contraptions you can use in and around your camp.

Natural navigation

You need to know how to get your bearings when out in the woods. When you don’t have a compass and a map, natural navigation techniques will prevent you from getting lost in the wilderness.

Creating watercraft

At some point, you might have to leave your camp and venture out into bodies of water to get food or to explore. You can create a canoe from reeds, as shown in the video above, or construct a raft from driftwood.

Final Thoughts

You know what they say: the more you know, the less you need. Having a sharp set of bushcraft skills will not only help you survive in the wild; they will also help you live off the land and thrive without modern creature comforts long after SHTF.

How good are your bushcraft skills? Do you think you can survive an extreme bug out situation in the woods? Let us know in the comments!

How Does the Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 Perform When Used in Practice? (Experiences)

To deliver a trustworthy Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 Review, we gave the fish finder a test ourselves. It took us about an hour to install the device. If this is your first fish finder, you’ll find the manual easy to follow.

What also caught our attention was the TripleShot sonar which can locate fish at 150 feet around the boat and 300 feet below the surface. Navigating during our kayak fishing was also easier with this fish finder compared to other models out there. One final great thing about Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 is that you can use it in direct sunlight and rain since it’s waterproof.

Display

Hook Reveal 7 display is on a whole other level. It offers a Splitscreen option where you can customize the screen to your preferences.

If you opted for the SplitShot or TrippleShot Sonars, you can include mapping, SideScan imaging, Chirp Sonar, and DownScan imaging – all at once.

The display also introduces a new color specter in the Hook Reveal 7 series, which easily distinguishes underwater structures and provides better target separation. You can customize the colors of your sonar charts and StructureScan to suit your needs.

The 7-inch display comes at the perfect size for a solo fishing trip but also a group one. Up to 5 people can catch a good angle of the screen with this one.

Interface

The interface aspect of this Hook Reveal 7 review is not the shiniest. The Hook Reveal 7 has a basic touchpad with a few buttons to help you navigate the device and adjust the settings easily.

The interface is not complicated nor time-consuming and menu options are well-organized. What you get from this interface is as follows:

• Home Key. It takes to you to a homepage.
• Exit Key. You need this key to exit a page.
• Select Key. This key has the same purpose as an “OK” button.
• Arrows. Use them to navigate in all directions.
• Waypoints Keys. These mark a waypoint.
• Zoom Keys: Two keys for zooming in and out.

As you can tell, it’s a self-explanatory interface, and you won’t need too much time to get used to the device.

But, we do realize that some anglers are either used to touch screens or would prefer a similar interface over a touchpad. If that’s the case, then this Hook Reveal 7 fish finder might not be the best option for you.

Mapping

The mapping features of Hook Reveal 7 outdo any fish finders for the price it comes at. Initially, you can use the C-MAP Countour+ option to navigate through 24,000 US and Canadian lakes using a foot contour. So, you have pre-loaded maps to get you started and you can navigate freely in many US and Canadian waters.

However, if you need this fish finder for a local lake where you have a fruitful route you want to save, you can do it on Hook Reveal 7. The mapping features allow you to create a custom map. Here, you can mark waypoints and fish arches, or learn which places to avoid. But, the best custom maps option is Genesis Live, a feature that allows you to make contour maps – and chart them while at it.

The Sonar

All Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 models employ the CHIRP technology and support it with a DownScan. However, not all models are capable of side scanning. The HDI transducer’s capacity is caped on 83/200/455/800 kHz, meaning it’s far from enough for side scanning. The hook transducer offers a temperature sensor, transom mount, and 20-foot power cord.

Otherwise, the CHIRP sonar picks up various information from below the lake surface. Such include objects, fish, vegetation, and aspects of the underwater structure. You have an entire scope of the lake, with readable visuals for both beginner and advanced anglers.

Not to forget, the sonar features of Lowrance Hook 7 include an advanced signal processing Split Flasher that allows you a superb ice fishing experience and Fish ID. You don’t need to be an expert sonar reader to navigate toward the more prolific fish spots. With this feature, the fish finder will detect any fish-dense area and show you the way there.

Networking

Inspecting the networking features as part of our Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 review was a must. And, as it turns out, a network connection is a deal breaker for some anglers. Sadly, the Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 comes without Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Ethernet sharing option.

Essentially, if you want to share data on your Hook Reveal, you have to it old-school. That is, by removing the Micro SD card and transferring it to the desired device.

Who is Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 for?

Lowrance Hook 7 offers a series of products for both recreational and serious anglers. If you have a particular feature in mind, like side imaging or contour, preselect your preferences before you order a product.

The Verdict on this Premium Fish Finder

All things considered, what makes the Hook Reveal 7 a premium fish finder is the C Map contour. Many anglers enjoy creating their own contour maps because it’s adventurous. Plus, there’s the neat option to save the sonar logs, and share them with other devices.

The final say is yours – we hope our Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 Review satisfied your curiosity.

FAQ

Does Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 have maps?

Yes. All Lowrance Hook Reveal 7 products offer map options that include 4,000 US lakes, C-Map countour+, GPS only, or preloaded maps.

Does Lowrance Hook reveal 7 have a side scan?

Yes. Lowrance Hook 7 TripleShot, for instance, comes in 2D and down imaging.

Curious about which baits are the most effective for crabbing? This article looks at some of the most common crab baits that commercial and recreational fishermen use to fill up their traps.

The crabbing industry accounts for 1.4 million tons of crabs for the dinner plate per year. [Source] Below are some popular baits commercial and recreational crabbers use to trap them.

1. Crab Attractant

Crab attractants are usually made from natural fish oil and other baits. Crab attractants are designed to increase the range of attraction to your trap.

While it is not required for crabbing, a crab attractant is recommended to increase your yield.

Pro-Cure Crab & Shrimp Attractant

This crab attractant is best for Dungeness crabs. From its name, Crab and Shrimp Attractant, it’s also suitable for shrimps, so it’s best if you’re aiming for multiple species.

It’s made from natural baits like fish oil, anise oil, amino acids, and salmon egg juice. Its unique amino acids give unparalleled versatility to all kinds of species.

Smelly Jelly Crab Attractant

Smelly Jelly is another unique and best crab bait that works quickly, attracting crabs and other small invertebrates, including shrimps.

Smelly Jelly Crab Attractant is best for blue crabs. This gel-based crab attractant lasts long on your bait and is simple to use.

2. Chicken Necks and Other Parts

Chicken necks are the best bait to catch blue crabs. Crabs love the stinky part of a chicken, like the lungs, liver, and neck. Chicken is excellent, as other bottom-feeding marine animals do not commonly consume it.

Meaning when used, it doesn’t make other species go after it.

Crabs will eat any meat that includes a chicken’s liver and neck. These are both super cheap, making them perfect for crabbing.

The liver adds a scent to the water, while chicken necks are tough and easy to tie.

3. Razor Clams

Razor clams are most crabs’ favorite for their great scent. You might be thinking of crushing the clams, but don’t. Razor clams capture better when left uncrushed.

Additionally, razor clams are also great as it is naturally part of grousers’ diet.

4. Anchovies/Small Fish

For some experienced anglers, anchovies or small fish are good as it’s easy to find in a local grocery store.

Anchovies don’t make a massive difference if it’s frozen or not, but it better be sure to use them fresh to get the smelly fish quality and attract more crabs. Anchovies, plentiful through the seas, can be caught and put inside the trap.

5. Mink Carcasses

Mink Carcasses work for their intense stinky scent. As known for their oily and versatile characteristics, mink carcasses are commonly used for crabbing operations.

6. Turkey Necks

As well as chicken meat, turkey neck also attracts crabs. You can use any part, but the legs and neck work best to entice a crab.

7. Squid

Squid is the best bait for crabbing too! Cutting into the squid a few times releases more scents under the water.

A squid might be a bit pricey and not ideal for anglers who want to go over cheaper ones, but it also makes a great combination with other baits.

8. Salmon Head

Salmon heads are an effective way of catching more crabs. Fish heads attract crabs as much as other crab bait.

You can get these for free or cheap at your local supermarket, which works very well. Its bony structure makes it last in the water for quite some time. You can also use tuna for its fishy scent.

9. Smelly Jelly

Crabs find food like smelly jelly attractive. This is most commonly used on bait applications.

Smelly jelly attracts crabs with its smell and encourages grousers to hold on to the bait longer. It works on any of your bait.

10. Cat or Dog Food

If you’re someone who doesn’t want to get the stinky fishy smell of fish on your hand, then cat food or dog food might be of good use to you. Some anglers put holes in the canned cat food before using it as crab bait.

However, they don’t seem to eat cat food or dog food compared to others. So, if you’re desperate to catch a large sum, you might want to opt-in to other baits like fresh food.

11. Eels

Commercial crabbers use eels. These are good for anglers who want to let the traps stay and check them on a time-to-time basis.

You can leave it on your traps and stay on the hook for a few weeks until it decomposes. You can use an eel by cutting it into small pieces before putting it into the cage trap.

12. Bunkers

Bunkers are the best crab baits for their pungent smell, which crabs love. Bunkers are small salty fish used for catching blue crab.

These baits should be kept in a well-ventilated, dry location for their strong oily scent. Bunkers are small in size, so it is easy to handle. These are frequently used as blue crab bait.

Bunkers are more aromatic than rotten fish. But crabs go mad for rotten fish in a net bag. If you can’t get your hands on rotten fish, raw chicken is probably the next best thing and is easier to buy.

Crab Bait Holders

Crab traps and bait holders vary in shape and size. Choosing a good one ensures it’s strong enough to hold the lure underwater and will not be easily caught off by the current.

Skylety Crab Trap Bait Bags

This bait bag is easy to hang, making it perfect for crab fishing. Make sure you choose the one with the appropriate size, durability, practical design, and easy installation.

SF Mesh Bait Bags with Rubber Locker

This lure holder is of high strength, enough to protect the bait inside and from crab scratches. The mesh size is also great for preventing quick lure loss and is suitable for small lures.

Tips For Setting Crab Bait

Before we end, let us leave some more tips on setting the grouser lure you have in your care.

Many crabbers prefer to place traps. Crabs have an excellent sense of smell. This helps them find their food. Although crabs are not notoriously picky about what they eat, crabs still love fresh baits.

In that case, make sure you keep the quality of fresher bait. Keeping its freshness and natural smell is as essential as setting your lure bait for the best!

Crab Baiting Is A Fun Activity

We hope we’ve helped you to choose the best ones!

You can use various lures; the bottom line is to use a strong fishy scent to attract the grousers more. Plus, make it even better by keeping it fresh.

Try other human foods such as hot dogs, cheese, or bacon when setting your grouser trap. Most importantly, consider the season, region, and species of the crab you aim to catch. Location and time of year will drastically alter the crab species that can be caught.

Meat Block

10 lb of Venison 2.5 lb of pork straight pork fat or 10 lb of untrimmed pork butts 1 Bag of Taco Snack Sticks 10.75 oz for 12.5 lb 1 oz of Sure Cure (Included with purchase) 14.1 grams for 12.5 lb Water (2 lb per 25 lb batch of meat) 16 oz of water for a 12.5 lb batch

OPTIONAL Additives 1 Bag of Sure Gel 3 oz for 12.5 lb Encapsulated Citric Acid 2 oz for 12.5 lb

Equipment

Walton’s 50 lb Meat Mixer Walton’s 11 lb Sausage Stuffer Walton’s #12 Meat Grinder

Casing Preparation

We are using 19mm Smoke Collagen Casings, which will fit easily over our 12mm stuffing tube. These casings require no preparation; simply take them out of the package and put them on the stuffing tube.

Process

This meat was already ground once through a 3/8 plate and frozen. We defrosted it and ground it again through a 1/8 plate. The fact that it was still partially frozen sped up the 2nd ground significantly. What would normally be a process of 10 minutes was finished in under 3.

Pork Fat –

If you are adding just pork fat to your meat block, you should add somewhere between 20-25% of the weight of your venison meat in fat. In this case, that meant we added 2.5 lb, and we added that while we were grinding, this allows it to start mixing in with the venison as it grinds. We also made sure the pork was almost frozen to help it grind faster and better.

Pork Butts –

If you are adding pork butts, make sure that they are untrimmed, meaning that they have a good fat cap on them and that the skin is removed from the pork butt. You will be able to tell if the skin is still on by looking for small hair follicles; if you see that, then the skin is still on, and you will need to trim that off while leaving as much fat as possible on the meat.

Meat Mixing

Next, you need to mix the seasoning and cure into your meat. To do this, you can either use a meat mixer or do it by hand. Because this is a product that we are going to cure and smoke, we need to achieve a high level of protein extraction, so doing this with your hands is difficult but can be done. When using a mixer, add the meat to the mixer, then the seasoning and cure, and finally, the water. You will want to mix in both directions until all seasoning and cure have been mixed in and you have good protein extraction. You will know that a good level of protein extraction has been achieved when the meat is sticky and tacky; if you can pull a handful of it apart and it stretches, that is a good sign.

Sausage Stuffing

Next, choose the largest stuffing tube that your casings will fit over and begin stuffing. Stuff until the casings are full and smooth but leave yourself enough room on the end to close with a hog ring.

If you can just faintly see a swirl pattern running down the casing, that means you have stuffed them correctly. If that pattern is obvious, then they are understuffed, which will lead to excessively wrinkled casings and an odd texture.

If you cannot see that pattern at all, then you have overstuffed the casings, and you run a risk of the casings popping when you hang them in the smokehouse.

Note

If you added Encapsulated Citric Acid or other cure accelerators, you need to go directly from stuffing to smoking. If you did not use a cure accelerator of some sort, then after you’ve stuffed everything, the product has to be held in the refrigerator overnight to allow the cure time to work.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

Set up your smoker and hang your sausage on smoke sticks or lay on racks and smoke at: 125F for 1 hour 140F for 1 hour 155F for 2 hours 175F until internal meat temp of 160F

When they have reached 160 internal temperature, remove them from the smoker and put them in an ice bath to bring the heat down and help set the casing.

A water bath is not sufficient for this; the water needs to be ice water or shower them with a fan pointed at the hanging sticks.

Cooling

Lastly, leave them out at room temperature for about an hour before vacuum packing them; this will ensure you don’t get additional moisture in the vacuum bag, which would affect the shelf life of your meats.

Wrap up

Adding pork fat instead of pork butts will give them a more distinct taste and color. The intensity of the difference will depend on the protein you are using; deer works well with pork fat, so the 50/50 mix of venison and untrimmed pork butts will work well, but with something like goose, you really want to find straight pork fat.

Other Notes

Depending on your pH and your Water Activity, your sticks might be shelf-stable, but without a way to test this, you should vacuum pack and refrigerate these, and since these are wild game, they wouldn’t be considered “shelf-stable” technically.

What Is A Snack Stick?

Snack Sticks are meat snacks and semi-dried sausages that are stuffed into smoked collagen casings and then hung in a smokehouse for cooking. Many Snack Sticks will have a pH between 4.5 and 5.2 to give them some shelf stability and the classic tangy flavor.

Shop waltonsinc.com for Bratwurst Seasoning

Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders

Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese

Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives

Watch WaltonsTV: Wild Game – Venison Snack Sticks

Every hunter dreams of an instant kill, where their prey simply hits the ground dead. It’s the perfect shot, the best intention, and the only way to make sure the animal doesn’t suffer. Here, we’ll take a look at your placement when you’re trying to take down the gobbler you’ve got your eye on.

Broadside

If the turkey approaches you broadside, the best place to put your shot is right where the wing joints to the body. You’ll slice through heart and lungs and there is no more instant kill than that. Plus, should you miss your mark by an inch or two on any side of this shot, you’ll still hit enough necessary organs to take the bird down in one go (almost certainly).

We do have to note that broadside shots are usually the most preferred to take with both firearms and archery since they allow for a much larger target and an easier spot. Plus, broadside shots allow you to see spurs on gobblers and assure you that the bird you’re shooting is not a hen.

Above the Beard

Maybe your gobbler is just demanding that you shoot it from the front. It wants to look you in the eye when you put it down and you know what? You’re game for that.

Shoot just above the bird’s beard to get that turkey’s pretty fan on your wall. Shooting under will likely damage the breast meat and may cause a gut shot, which could end up ruining the entire bird. If you take the turkey with a shot above the beard but below the neck, you’ll go straight through the heart and lungs once again and put it down in a blink.

Where the Fan Meets

Or maybe you’re experiencing the opposite problem. The turkey won’t turn around and is being, well, a turkey. In this case, we recommend calling vigorously to try to get the gobbler’s attention. A broadside or front shot is so much easier than trying to knock off the bird’s backside.

However, we take whatever shots we can, right? It’s more important to bag your bird than it is to let it get away because it’s only showing its back to you.

Shoot at the base of the fan, just below the actual tail of the bird but above the cloaca. Unfortunately, you’ll likely see some meat loss with this shot but that doesn’t matter quite as much if you’re just after the fan and you’re feeding your dogs the rest. Still, even if you’re just after the fan, this probably isn’t the best shot in the world, anyway.

Try to get the bird to turn, but take what you can if it won’t.

From Behind

Maybe the turkey doesn’t even care enough to flip its fan at you. That, or you’re after a bearded hen that you’ve had your eye on and she couldn’t care less. Go ahead and shoot in the same position, but across the back rather than from underneath the fan. You’re looking to aim for the tail joint at the body and sort of up along the spine rather than down into the body cavity.

Again, ideally, you get the turkey to turn your way and try to get that broadside or front shot. If you can’t, the joint of the tail and the body is a simple place to put a shot.

The Head Debate

It is preferred to kill a turkey by placing a body shot across the heart or lungs to ruin as little meat as possible and to kill the bird instantly. After all, we want their meat and the trophies, and we want the turkey to die as fast as possible.

So why not try for a headshot and be done with it?

Turkeys have incredibly tiny brains. Anyone who’s watched them for a while will probably chuckle at that, but we aren’t making fun of their intelligence. Instead, this is a simple fact. The heart and lungs of a turkey are far larger than the brain and better targets. Yes, your rifle is probably going to completely behead that turkey if you manage to get a really solid shot at it.

The target is tiny, the brain is minuscule, and you don’t want to take a bird’s beak off and leave it to starve to death by a misfire. A body shot will kill almost any bird, even if you don’t clip the heart and lungs. The damage done to the internal system of the turkey is simply too much for the body to bear. That isn’t so if you miss their very small head (and smaller brain).

Bottom Line

We strongly recommend either a broadside or a front-facing shot. These are the easiest to take and assure that the bird is probably dead before it hits the ground.

Looking for some more tips? Check out our other articles: 15 Expert Tips for Spring Turkey Hunting and How to Clean a Wild Turkey.

The best coyote light is going to play to the few disadvantages nature’s premier predator has. Coyotes have great eye sight, hearing, smell, and agility which makes it very difficult for coyote hunters to see them long enough to pull a shot off. Many times coyotes will come and go while the night hunter is not aware of their presence. It is important that your coyote hunting lights are designed to light up dogs before they’re senses tell them you’re in the area. Hunting lights for coyotes are few and far between, but some of the best coyote hunting lights can be the difference in getting busted or having a successful set while calling coyotes.

Coyote Hunting Light Discussion Topics

• Coyote Weaknesses
• 5 Features Every Coyote Light Should Have
  • The Best Color Light for Coyote Hunting
  • Adjustable Hunting Light Intensity
  • Long Range Spot and Flood Combination
  • Mounting Versatility for all Hunting Vehicles
  • Strong & Non-Reflective Light Housing
• Recommendation for the Best Coyote Hunting Light

Before we ask ourselves what the 5 must have features are of coyote hunting lights, let’s dive into a coyotes weak points. If you don’t want to read the background information on a coyotes weak points (to better understand the 5 features we choose), scroll down to the bottom to see the 5 Features Your Coyote Hunting Light Must Have.

Coyote Weaknesses

THEIR VISION

While it is true that coyotes have good vision, they have a hard time seeing higher wavelength colors. The approximate high end of the wavelength spectrum they can see is near 540 nm, which is very close to green in color. Red is near 660 nm wavelength, which is why coyotes have a very hard time seeing it. Separate from colorations, coyotes do have better night vision and sensitivity to movement compared to humans. We humans are able to level the playing field by utilizing our gadgets and accessories. To compare coyotes vision to human vision, SC Psychological LTD. has done a great job at putting together a color spectrum graph:As shown in the graph above, a coyote can see two primary colors: yellow and blue. This is common vision for deer, hogs, and other dichromate vision mammals as well, so it doesn’t just apply to coyote hunting lights. This is also one reason why it is best to not wear blue jeans when going deer hunting or coyote hunting as they tend to stick out like a sore thumb. If they are covered by a high rack or deer blind, of course then they are an ok option.While coyotes don’t have the greatest color vision, another weakness is that they are not able to see as far as most humans can. Humans (some cases require glasses or contacts) can see 20/20 vision. Coyotes vision is closer to 20/70 vision and some may have even worse vision. This basically means a coyote can see at 20 feet what a human can see at 70 feet. The one vision strength coyotes have over humans is their peripheral vision. This is what can make it very hard to sneak up on a coyote. A human has 180 degree peripheral vision while coyotes have 260 degree peripheral vision. This is due to the shape of their head and location of their eyes. This is ultimately why coyote hunters should stay as still as possible, because any small bit of movement can be detected fairly easily if a coyote is in range. Here’s more information about the science behind a coyote’s vision and how to determine what color coyote hunting light works best for night hunting.

THEY LET EVERYONE KNOW WHERE THEY ARE

If you’ve ever been in coyote territory at night, you’ve most likely heard their high pitched yipping and howling they make prior to going on their nightly hunt. If you’re calling in a dominant male coyote’s territory – you may hear the dominant male howling or even barking at you from a distance. These yips and howl have a variety of behavioral purposes, all of them are related to communicating to other coyotes in the surrounding area. One purpose is to call the pack back together after a period of individual hunting, which is behavior you may hear in the early hours of the morning.

Another purpose, which is commonly heard as the sun goes down, is to warn other coyotes in the surrounding area of their presence and to not trespass on their territorial boundaries. These coyote packs may sound like there are 10-20 coyotes howling together, but in most cases it is one male, one female, and their offspring. Most packs are sized in the range of 3-5 coyotes. The howling can make your skin crawl if it’s the first time you’ve been exposed to it, but the best coyote hunters are able to use this to their advantage. The coyotes are telling you exactly where they are, leaving it up to you to move in close and find them. A Utah State Professor conducted a study which sought out to understand the behavioral attributes of coyotes and ultimately determine the meaning behind different types of barks and howls. You can learn more about this in our article Callin’ all Coyotes: Proven Tips for a Successful Coyote Hunt Across the United States.

THEY LOOK BACK WHEN THEY RETREAT

If you’re a quick, sharp shooter – this can play to your advantage. They have a habit of always looking back when they retreat, which gives a coyote hunter eye shine to go off of in attempting to take a shot. Using your coyote hunting light to quickly scan your surroundings can give you the best opportunity at picking up a retreating coyote. If the coyote located you and you are the reason it was spooked, then it may be time to move on to a different hunting spot. However, if the coyote was uncomfortable or unknowingly spooked, you may be able to save your stand by changing spots (even if it’s only 50 ft away) and calling again using a different call. It’s important to be aware that spooked coyotes and pressured coyotes are both very difficult to bring in. If you know the coyotes around you are spooked or pressured, it’s best to keep your coyote hunting light on a dim setting to minimize the opportunity for them to pick up any small changes in their surroundings.Another common scenario we’ve seen is if you call in a double or a triple but you are only able to take one coyote down – don’t give up. After the first shot, say you are running on a rabbit distress, switch to a pup distress-like high pitch sound and sometimes a coyote who hasn’t been heavily pressured will turn around and come back. We’ve had success with this tactic on coyotes that haven’t been heavily pressured. If a coyote is heavily pressured, they may not return for a long time.

HEAVY SLEEPER

Coyotes are very heavy sleepers, which is why it’s not always a complete shock for someone to stumble upon a sleeping coyote in a field or pasture. The flip side is that they typically sleep during the day as they are more active at night.If you’re night hunting, you have pretty slim chances to come across a sleeping coyote. Coyotes are nocturnal animals and they will easily travel 5 miles in one night searching for food. On the flip side, if you happen to locate a sleeping coyote, that lets you know they are spending time on your property and are comfortable enough with it to stay there during the day time. This is one indicator that you should break out your coyote hunting light at night to see if you can call in the entire pack.

5 Features Every Coyote Light Should Have

We’ve managed to compile some of the coyote’s weak points, now how can we take advantage of these weak points when looking for a quality predator hunting light for coyotes?

The Best Color Lights for Coyote Hunting

Coyotes are color blind by nature and because of this, the best color light for coyote hunting is red. They have a hard time seeing green as well, but red is a better color because it is a higher wavelength and gives you some “buffer” from the cut off of what wavelength light their eyes are able to see. Put this to your advantage by utilizing red coyote hunting lights in your arsenal.

It is important to realize that red is a very difficult color for many manufacturers to perfect. Due to the nature of the color, the company you choose must be one capable of engineering a beam that can truly throw the high wavelength color down range. There are very few predator hunting lights we have seen that are capable of doing this, with the Predator Cannon Hunting Light being one of the best we have ever seen. It is very rare to have a coyote hunting light that can literally light up an entire field in red.

Adjustable Hunting Light Intensity

Take advantage of coyotes telling us where they are. You can sneak into their territory with your light dimmed down until you locate them, then turn up the heat!Coyotes have great peripheral vision and they are able to pick up on the smallest movements and even shadows coming from light beams. The best way to locate and keep tabs on a shy coyote is to be capable of adjusting the intensity of the coyote light prior to illuminating the coyote without spooking it. It’s always good practice to increase intensity of your coyote hunting light to full intensity right before you take the shot. This gives the coyote hunter the best opportunity at an accurate shot.If you have a hard time getting a coyote to stop for an accurate shot, we’ve found making a loud kissing sound with your lips will often cause them to halt in their place. This is referred to by some coyote hunters as the “kiss of death”. It is also commonly used if a coyote appears to be disinterested, because it can spark their attention and sometimes cause them to start coming towards you. If they are fast approaching, you can increase the intensity of your coyote hunting light and get ready to take a shot.

Long Range Spot and Flood Combination

Next time the coyote looks back after a missed shot, get redemption with a coyote hunting light that is still lighting them up while you’re reloading!A study once found that coyotes will circle their prey within a large area, in attempt to validate what is going on with all of their senses prior to committing to the prey. Predator hunters lure them in with calls, pretending to be the coyote’s prey. Thus, coyotes will do the same to predator hunters. When choosing hunting lights for coyotes, it is important to have a wide flood light capable of lighting up coyote eyes across a large area. It is equally important that your lights for coyote hunting have the ability to reach out long range to spotlight coyotes before they commit. There are very few lights capable of doing both of these features, and the Predator Cannon Hunting Light is one of the best coyote huntings lights there are at lighting up an entire field.

Mounting Versatility for all Hunting Vehicles

You may be tracking through fields on foot, riding your side by side through the woods, or hunting from the high rack on back of your truck. Regardless of where you are chasing coyotes, your light needs to be versatile for all of these scenarios. A quality light for coyote hunting must be capable of lighting up large areas, spotlighting down range, and have versatile mounting capabilities. These features are hard to find but essential. We’ve managed to design a coyote hunting light fully compatible with these qualities. The Predator Cannon Hunting Light comes with a variety of mounting choices. The standard option is the side-mounted brackets which are great for mounting the light to your side by side, high rack, car or truck. An added option is the bottom-mounted brackets which give you more flexibility to get creative with the hunting light and even mount it to your own tripod or hand grip. Over 200 watts of red coyote light illuminating an entire field in the grips of your hands is second to none.

Strong & Non-Reflective Light Housing

You’ve found a piece of land to hunt, located the coyote, made it to the right spot, set up your hunting rig, and the last thing you need to ruin your night of calling is moonlight reflecting off the housing of your scan light while hunting those pesky animals. Another common one I’ve heard of is dropping the light from a high rack which many times can end up breaking. Now you’ve got a gun that works but no way to see the coyotes.

I would recommend going with a flat black, strong aluminum housing such as what is on the Predator Cannon Hunting Light. A predator hunting light designed for these instances will not only give you more confidence in a successful trip, but it will hold up to the out of the ordinary accidents that seem to always happen at the most inconvenient times.

Recommendation for the Best Coyote Hunting Light

The Predator Cannon Hunting Light is one of the best lights for coyote hunting available on the market today. It easily mounts to high racks, ATVs, trucks, and more while discretely lighting up more area.

What makes it the best light for coyote hunting?

The high intensity, dimmable LEDs are engineered to maintain your night vision while also staying at the optimal wavelength for color blindness in coyotes. Unlike any other long range light, this coyote hunting light is capable of broadcasting a flood to illuminate an entire field while also providing a long range spot beam for locating coyotes in the distance. The more area you can see, the better your chances at seeing more coyotes.

Outrigger Outdoors is your trusted source for coyote hunting lights. To setup your hunting rig with lights made for coyote hunting, contact us today!

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Does the P365 Live Up to the Hype?!

No gun has received the attention that I’ve seen the SIG Sauer P365 receive since its announcement in January just before SHOT Show. It gets this attention in all fairness, though, because when a gun shakes up the current single-stack 9mm market, dominated by Glock 43’s and M&P Shields, it’s understandable.

For the last 6 years, gun owners have bought into the idea that a concealed carry gun needs to be slim, lightweight, single-stack, somewhere between 6-8 round capacity, and striker-fired. Concealed carriers have also bought into the idea that it MUST be single-stack for a gun to fit those requirements.

Enter the SIG P365. It is all of those things—slimmer than the Glock 43, lighter than the Shield. It has a phenomenal trigger not just for guns in this class but even for any modern defensive pistol. And then there’s the fact that it just happens to hold 10+1 rounds in its standard configuration. That’s four more rounds than the G43 and three more than the M&P Shield. Readily available 12-round magazines boost that to nearly double the capacity of the Glock.

And you wonder why people are going nuts over this pistol.

But they’re also freaking out over some other aspects of the pistol, and not necessarily in a positive way. But first, let’s talk about some of the features and specifications of the gun.

Specifications

First Impressions:

Grip

I first got my hands on the P365 just before SHOT Show at a special SIG SAUER Range Day Media event. My good friend, Kyle Lamb, was there as well doing some demonstrations for SIG. Besides being involved in the excitement surrounding the P365, Kyle also has a gun he designed in collaboration with the team at SIG based on the P320 platform, the SIG SAUER X-VTAC 9mm, which is a pretty nice piece of hardware itself.

Kyle did a little demonstration of the P365 on camera with me, and the shots you see me fire there are the first I sent downrange out of this little beast. I call it that because it is like the Little Engine That Could, small in size and stature, but big in performance!

Right away, I knew there was something pretty special about the little gun. Placing it in my hand, I was immediately surprised at how good the grip felt. The P365 takes some of its design cues from P320, X-Series pistols. Particularly in its stippling and smooth trigger guard undercut. The undercut allows the shooter to get an even higher grip on the gun for greater control and flatter shooting.

The P365 sit’s nicely in the hand’s webbing because of the grip’s backstrap and beavertail design. I saw a graphic online with the outlines of 3 of the most popular single-stack 9mm handguns overlaid and compared to the P365.

Analyzing the graphic, I could see that the P365 has a bore axis height as low as anything out there. The low bore axis is surprising because SIG Sauer guns, especially in the Classic line of pistols, have established a reputation of having a bore axis that is relatively high compared to competing designs. Not that this has kept me from shooting them quickly and efficiently.

Bore axis height is an overrated factor, but regardless the SIG P365 performs exceptionally well in this regard.

Stippling on the grip is effective and comfortable. The gun sticks in the hand like it should without being too aggressive for more sensitive skin.

Trigger

The next thing I noticed right away was the trigger. My first trigger press surprised me as I wasn’t expecting it to fire so quickly and easily. Sig says it has a 6- lb trigger.

I have not put a trigger scale on it to test, but I would say 6 lbs. seems about right. But the trigger FEELS lighter than that. It is deceptive. I’m not sure what sorcery (you will see similar references throughout this review) is going on there, but it is a very nice, light, crisp trigger for a striker-fired gun.

The trigger reset is fantastic as well. It is short and distinct. The initial take-up of the trigger is light and free. The travel of the trigger once you “hit the wall” (the point where you feel resistance in the stroke) is about a quarter-inch. Pressing the trigger through the stroke is smooth and even. Once it breaks, there is no perceptible overtravel.

Instead of having the trigger break near the rear of the trigger guard opening, it breaks with about 3/8” open space behind the trigger. The length of pull has an outstanding balance. Shooters with smaller hands will have no problem working the trigger, and larger-handed folk will use it comfortably.

Sights

The original P365 came with SIG-Lite Night Sights. I have owned several SIG pistols with these night sights. They are good, serviceable tritium-based sights, far better than what many firearm manufacturers put on their stock pistols.

However, early into the P365 launch, customer’s discovered their pistols were breaking the tritium vials due to the extreme recoil velocity of the slide. These early pistols were sent back in and replaced with SIG SAUER’s new XRAY3 Day/Night Sights. The XRAY3 sights are fantastic! They are bright in daylight or low-light conditions. The front sight is a tritium vial surrounded by a bright green circle that is very easy to pick up in rapid strings of fire.

The rear notch sight in use works more like a blacked-out rear sight in daytime use, but it also has two tritium dots that show up very nicely in low light. While you can see the two rear dots in the daytime, I don’t notice them. While shooting fast, you get a very bright front sight that is easy to find in the rear notch.

Recoil and Shootability

The next thing I discovered about the P365 is that it is easy and pleasant to shoot. I call it the “little gun that shoots like a big gun.” This is true of the felt recoil and muzzle rise that occurs when firing, but it is also true in how accurate the gun is and the ease with which confidence comes to hit your intended target.

While some smaller guns can be challenging to shoot at a distance or small targets, my experience with the P365 is that if you see that bright green front sight on the target and press the trigger smoothly, you WILL hit for what you aim.

With my Glock 43, it just seems I have to concentrate much more on the sight picture, and even then, it sometimes isn’t enough when shots go where I do not expect them to. My confidence with the P365 is very high, and I find myself shooting it in situations and challenging shots that I usually reserve for my larger, duty-sized guns.

Now back to the handgun’s recoil. Recoil with the P365, like its trigger, is deceptive. It is a small gun, to be sure, so I expected it to be snappy. But it FEELS less snappy than similar guns in this category. Watch this video of me running a Bill Drill with the gun (done at 3.5 yards and shooting a 2.5” group in 1.94 seconds). Pay attention to HOW FLAT the gun is in my hand:

That is some serious voodoo magic. This thing seems to shoot flatter than some of my much bigger, heavier guns. Your mileage may vary depending on how effective and tight you grip your gun, but it is still impressive.

Capacity

Capacity is where the P365 gets the most significant amount of attention, and rightfully so. I don’t know what kind of witchcraft the engineers in Exeter, NH are employing, but for the size and thickness of the P365 to be able to fit 10 or 12 rounds into a profile that doesn’t look any bigger than an S&W Shield, it is pure witchcraft I’m telling you, pure mysticism!

The reality is that then-new Pistol Product Manager Phil Strader instructed engineers at SIG SAUER to design a new micro-compact pistol. And to start first by developing a double-stack magazine capable of holding at least 10 rounds and making it as small as possible.

The result? Three new patents just based around the magazine made the rest of the design much more easily achieved.

The gun comes with two 10-round magazines, one with a flush base plate and another with a slight pinky finger extension. Oddly enough, after shooting several hundred rounds, I came almost to prefer the flush baseplate when using the 10-round mags.

Due to the trigger guard undercut and other grip design features, I can sneak about half of my pinky onto the gun’s grip. But even if I couldn’t get a full grip on it, I never once felt compromised in shooting the gun well, unlike other competitor’s guns.

A 12-round magazine is also available, and while it extends the grip length, it is still just barely longer than some other guns with standard capacity magazines in them. The M&P Shield with a factory 8-round magazine is longer than the P365 with a 12-round magazine. Wizardry!! Harry Potter would be proud!

Even better than the capacity and the ability to remain a very concealable gun? The 12-round magazine makes the P365 feel and shoots like a different gun. It FILLS the hand, and it FEELS excellent!

The magazines are well-constructed metal-bodied, double-stack magazines. They are pretty much what to expect from SIG if you are familiar with their other mags. Excellent quality, great performing magazines, but they come at a cost. Currently, there are no aftermarket magazine options that I am aware of, so you’ll be getting your fill of extra mags direct from SIG.

Accuracy

The SIG SAUER P365 is accurate. Testing across many different loads, it exhibited outstanding groups. I am not the most skilled bullseye/target shooter (I prefer to go FAST), but the gun is accurate enough for a small defensive tool. Group sizes were consistently around 3 inches at 15 yards (I didn’t have a longer range to test with at the time).

My greatest challenge to shooting more accurately was the width of the front sight post, as it covered up much of the target from 15 yards and out. But I am confident that if you used a Ransom Rest to test inherent accuracy, I am sure the results would be excellent. One of the significant differences with this gun is the trigger. I don’t need to rehash the point, but it is a very shootable trigger; it lends itself to easy, accurate shooting.

Reported Failures

Reliability is the big “elephant in the room” part of the review. Much has been said about the reliability of the P365 in the months since its release. Several people, including some respected reviewers, have indicated that the gun may not be quite ready for prime time. They believed it was released too early, almost like a “beta version” to be tested by the gun-buying masses.

I am not sure what to make of this because my experience with several different P365’s has been quite positive.

But let’s take a look at some of the noted issues that have come up:

Return-to-Battery (RTB) Failures—

In the first month or so of release, customers reported RTB failures. The issues seemed only to affect the very first guns that hit the streets. I shot a couple of different early models and didn’t have a single RTB issue, but many people did. Some of it could have been ammunition issues, but I think there were some legitimate concerns. SIG fixed this on a warranty basis for existing owners and all newly manufactured guns with a slightly stronger recoil spring assembly (RSA). To date, with the two different P365’s I have in my possession, I have not had a single RTB failure.

SIG-Lite Night Sight Failures—

Some early guns were affected by faulty night sights. Again, Sig fixed this issue within a few weeks. All guns had their sights replaced, and new models shipped with the new XRAY3 Day/Night Sights, which are fantastic! (See above.) Also, there were some reports of sights coming loose in their sight channels. I’m not entirely sure just how widespread these issues were, but it seems Sig addressed it, as I have heard no new reports in some time.

Barrel and Slide Peening—

Another “issue” that received quite a bit of attention was peening. The slide excessively banging into the corners of the barrel hood and its slamming between the barrel cam and locking lug caused the excessive peening. I never thought it was much of an issue. Even if peening occurred, I didn’t feel it would be a failure point several thousand rounds down the road. Apparently, SIG Sauer took some steps to address this, but either way, no one’s even talking about this issue anymore.

Trigger Return Spring Failures—

Shortly after that, it was reported (and Tim at the Military Arms Channel experienced this on camera) that some guns were developing a trigger return spring failure. I’ve seen it mentioned that some owner’s springs broke, but I’m willing to bet most of the failures were instances of the spring popping out of position. This issue seems rectified, with no new reports of it in some time.

Primer/Striker Drag—

There is much attention to so-called primer drag, where the striker remains in contact with the primer as the barrel begins unlocking from the slide. Some believe that this is the reason for several broken firing pins. I am a little unclear on this. The reason being that I have other guns that exhibit primer drag, and it is more common with small, striker-fired firearms. Part of the reason for this is that the slide/barrel takes on recoil before unlocking due to the shorter rearward travel. On larger guns, the slide and barrel stay locked together longer and provide more time for the striker to retract before unlocking. I have witnessed primer drag on many other smaller guns, including Glock, Smith & Wesson, and others. Although it does appear that drag marks on the P365 may be more pronounced. I presume this is why it garnered more attention.

Broken Firing Pins—

There were a fair number of reported broken firing pins. Many believe that the primer drag is the culprit for causing this. I suppose it is possible, but let’s first establish that the firing pin itself is much harder than any primer. Regardless, there are plenty of documented instances of broken firing pins. According to SIG Sauer, it is unclear exactly how many of these occurred, but it is a limited number. Companies have developed and released hardened stainless steel replacement strikers as an aftermarket part for those highly concerned about this issue. However, as reports of broken firing pins have decreased substantially, it would seem that this is less and less of a problem affecting the product line. SIG Sauer has since redesigned the striker and reevaluated their manufacturing supplier due to some inconsistencies and out-of-spec hardness and tempering. Some firing pins were too brittle, and the primer drag likely did not help and instead exacerbated the problem.

Failure-to-Lockback (FTL)—

I’ve seen this mentioned, and in the case of one serious “reviewer,” he has tracked this statistic with monotonous consistency. I personally don’t believe many of these FTL’s are legitimate in that something with either the slide stop or magazine follower failed to work, causing the FTL. I think 99% of these are shooter-induced. What do I mean? Many shooters ride the slide stop with their dominant hand thumb because of its location and the gun’s small size. They may not notice it’s an issue just by looking at their grip, but I suspect due to the small, lightweight gun that the 365 is rotating, the slide stop up into their thumb. I have not experienced any FTL’s with either of my 2 guns. But I am confident when the shooter uses a properly-developed grip, they won’t have this issue. The problem is that most shooters do not have a good grip, and their lack of this has not been an issue on other guns they’ve fired. But it is exacerbated on this platform for whatever reason.

Various ejection/extraction/feeding issues—

I think many of these are ammunition related especially in the case of steel and aluminum-cased cartridges. Most of the malfunctions I have seen in the P365 platform have occurred with steel/aluminum-cased ammo. People will counter with, “Well, my [X brand of gun] has no issue with shooting steel or aluminum-cased ammo!” That’s a fair point. But we cannot make the case that the gun will get us killed by not being reliable in a gunfight simply because it doesn’t like cheap ammo. We don’t carry (I hope) cheap ammo in our defensive guns anyway. I had one malfunction out of over 5K rounds fired with brass-cased ammunition, and it was a +P round (more on this in a moment). Everything else was either steel or aluminum.

A NOTE: M of the above problems appear resolved. However, even if a person were to have a problem with their gun, SIG Sauer has one of the best warranty and customer service programs in the industry. My interactions with SIG’s customer service department have been nothing but positive and professional exchanges.

At this point, I should mention that I have been testing two different P365’s. SIG promised to send me one for review, but I couldn’t wait, so I purchased one myself made in mid-February. You’ll note that this is just a few weeks after they were officially released.

The other gun finally arrived from SIG in late May and was manufactured in the first week of May. I could have contacted SIG and said, “Never mind sending the gun; I have one already.” But I was interested in getting my hands on another one made at a different time for comparison. I heard all these bad things, and I figured the more guns I could experience, the better my test data.

By the time the demo gun from SIG arrived, I had already put almost 2,000 rounds through my personal gun. I fired an additional 3,000 rounds through the two guns throughout the remainder of the summer, about half-and-half. So I ended up with about 3,400 rounds fired through my personal gun and 1,600 rounds through the evaluation gun from SIG. Some fired in pure evaluation, and quite a few in different training courses.

I tested the guns with minimal cleaning. The somewhat loose standard followed was no cleaning, and fresh lubrication applied only once every 500 rounds. You will see from images in this article that my guns are still dirty. I believe that it is much more critical that firearms are well lubricated than being perfectly clean. I’m done evaluating them, so now I will give them an extensive cleaning.

I tested both guns with a variety of ammunition brands, types, and weights over the summer:

• Sig Sauer Elite Performance FMJ in 115, 124, and 147-grain varieties
• Sig Sauer Elite Performance JHP in 115 and 124-grain loads
• SIG Sauer 365 FMJ and V-Crown 115 grain
• Federal 115 gr FMJ Aluminum
• Federal 115 gr FMJ Brass
• Hornady XTP 124 gr
• G2 Research R.I.P.
• Winchester Ranger-T 124 gr +P
• Remington Golden Saber 124 gr +P
• Winchester 147 gr JHP (Whitebox)
• Federal Hydrashok 135 gr
• Federal Hydrashok Deep 135 gr
• Federal 150 gr HST Micro
• Winchester Train & Defend (FMJ and JHP both)
• Remington UMC 115 gr JHP
• Fiocchi 115 gr FMJ
• And a few others

Reliability

The gun ran perfectly smoothly until I started shooting the Federal aluminum-cased ammo. This stoppage happened about 200 rounds after shooting a variety of SIG Sauer FMJ loads. On the 212th shot, the Federal aluminum 115-grain case failed to extract, and a double-feed occurred. 16 shots later, the same thing happened. I made it through the remainder of the aluminum-cased ammo (about 80 rounds) without further issues.

One failure-to-feed malfunction occurred at around 700 rounds with one load of 124 grain Winchester Ranger-T +P. Considering the other 4500+ rounds of brass-cased (including several hundred nickel-plated cases and dozens and dozens of +P rounds as well) ammunition fired without trouble, I considered this a fluke. The malfunction that occurred was actually the next round in the magazine, taking a nosedive into the magazine body.

At around 1500 rounds, I fired my first steel-cased rounds through the guns. Neither one would run reliably with them. I averaged about 3 rounds per 10 or 12-round magazine that would double-feed when shooting steel-cased ammo. Talking with other P365 owners, this seems to be a hit-or-miss issue. Some report having no problem shooting the stuff; others have similar issues like mine.

I also tested the new SIG Sauer 365 FMJ and V-Crown 115 grain loads, designed and loaded to shoot and feel identical.

The point is that a person can practice more with the cheaper FMJ rounds and get the same velocity, recoil impulse, and point-of-impact/point-of-aim as the V-Crown JHP defensive loads.

These rounds have also been optimized for the shorter-barreled P365. I liked how they shot very much. I tested the 365 V-Crowns extensively, including in ballistic gelatin, and the performance was excellent. A full review of this ammunition is forthcoming.

Finally, around 2,500 rounds on my personally purchased P365, I experienced my first, legitimate brass-cased round failure. This failure was with a Federal Premium 115 grain brass-cased cartridge. It was a failure-to-extract malfunction. I have since had no other malfunctions with either of the two guns.

Overall, when shooting even just decent quality brass-cased loads, the P365 exhibited a 99.96% reliability rating.

I have spoken with numerous P365 owners, and I have personally witnessed several P365 owners fire their guns. Some of these were in handgun courses I instructed this year. I estimate that I have seen approximately 5,000-6,000 rounds fired through about 10 other P365 pistols. While I have seen a few malfunctions occur, and some seemed to experience more malfunctions than I did, including brass-cased ammunition, I can still count the TOTAL number of malfunctions witnessed in all these other guns on less than two hands. Worst-case scenario, the P365 is still 99.85%+ reliable. This represents a little more than 1 malfunction every 1,000 rounds, and I estimate about 1 in every 750.

How does this compare to other well-established firearms? My Glock 43 has had the same number of malfunctions in fewer rounds fired. I regularly witness malfunctions from a variety of semi-automatic handguns, including Glocks, Smith & Wesson M&P’s, Rugers, etc.

All guns have issues. Sometimes they are ammunition-caused, and I personally feel many shooters rationalize the malfunctions they do experience and claim that their gun is “100% reliable.” I haven’t met a 100% reliable semi-auto yet. Shoot them enough, and you will experience failures.

I personally feel that a failure rate of no more than 1 in every 500 rounds is an excellent standard. These numbers represent a 0.2% failure rate or a 99.8% reliability rate. You will see that the P365 falls above this standard.

Do I consider this good enough for personal defense, including EDC (Everyday Carry)? Yes, I do. As with any gun, you should do testing with a minimum of 500 rounds of your carry ammo.

I am sure some will disagree with my findings, but I can only speak from my own experience and data. And the data does not lie. Everything I wrote above is true. But even with some of the negativity surrounding the P365, here is what I found:

It is a freaking excellent gun!

That doesn’t mean it is without its faults or hasn’t had some growing pains for some people. But for me (and I can only speak from my own experience), the SIG P365 has been a very solid and reliable platform. So let me begin wrapping up my thoughts on this innovative platform:

The Bad

The grip—

I think the grip is too “shallow.” It is a very small gun. The width of the grip is less than an inch wide which is fine. But I think Sig could have increased the distance between the front strap and the back strap of the grip. That said, I think it feels very nice in hand. I like the contouring, the stippling, the length—there are many great aspects of the grip. I understand that it is a balancing act of building a compact and concealable gun, but that is also shootable for various shooters and hand sizes. I think they did an excellent job. But if I were king for a day, I would have stretched it out just a bit.

Failure-to-Extract Malfunctions—

In my experience, this malfunction is the most common one to occur with the P365 platform. Also known as a “double-feed,” this is where the fired case fails to extract fully. The slide continues rearward, picks up the next round, and shoves it into the rear of the still-chambered empty casing.

To clear this MOAM (Mother-Of-All-Malfunctions), it requires the shooter to lock the slide to the rear, strip the magazine from the gun, rack the slide multiple times, insert a loaded magazine, rack the slide, and chamber a fresh round. In contrast to FTF (Failure-to-Fire) and stovepipe malfunctions that generally only require a Tap-Rack to clear, you can see how this double-feed malfunction can cost a shooter some time to clear it when they might not have that much time in a fight.

Due to the nature of this, it is a little concerning that WHEN the P365 experiences a failure, the double-feed malfunction occurs at a higher rate when compared to most other handgun platforms. I believe this is because of the unique design and small, ultra-compact size. My personal belief is that the gun unlocks a tad early while gas pressure is still elevated, locking the empty casing in the chamber. This results in the extractor slipping off the case’s rim, and we get our double-feed malfunction.

I only experienced this with steel and aluminum-cased ammunition, which are less “slick” than brass-cased ammunition. There may be something to it with the modulus of elasticity of steel and aluminum being substantially higher than brass which would result in steel and aluminum cases contracting after firing back down to an extractable size at a slower rate than brass. I don’t know; I’m just thinking here, which can be downright dangerous at times!

The Front Sight—

While the new XRAY3 Day/Night Sights are excellent and visible, I feel the front sight is a tad wider than it needs to be. Or the rear notch could be wider. The width of the sights is basically the same as what you’d find on SIG’s full-sized guns, which when you shorten the distance between the front and rear sights, the front sight starts to fill the notch more and more. Typically for most people, having a little more light on either side of the front post in the notch is a little quicker to center and send the next shot. But this is a minor complaint because I shoot the P365 just fine.

Magazine Release—

This is also a minor issue I have with the gun, and it may be specific to me, but I think the mag release could be different. The P365 has a raised mag release button which shape follows the contour of the grip. The P320’s have a flat raised button. I think a hybrid approach would have been better—flat, but have the rear of the button start flush with the grip. My issue is that because the grip is so small, occasionally, when I grip a little too firmly with my support hand, during recoil, my hand will accidentally depress the mag release. So I have had to relax my support hand grip slightly to avoid this.

In analyzing the instances where this occurred, I determined that my support hand palm makes contact with the rear portion of the button. Starting the button flush with the surface and manufacturing it to be flat would still enable positive activation when desired but would likely eliminate the accidental dropping of the mag. The grip is small enough that virtually any adult hand and thumb can reach the mag release even if designed as described above.

Things I Like About the P365

Accuracy-

For its size, the SIG Sauer P365 is accurate.

Modular Chassis Construction—

While SIG Sauer does not advertise this fact, the reality is that the gun is built similarly to the P320. Both have a serialized “frame” or chassis that can easily be removed from the grip module. The potential exists for much future innovation and design improvements from both SIG and third-party aftermarket manufacturers. It is also convenient if a person wants to have two different grip modules with different accessories (such as one with a mounted FOXTROT365 weapon-mounted light) that would allow the owner to swap between other setups quickly. I recently picked up a FOXTROT365, and in my limited initial testing, I am quite impressed, and I look forward to putting it to use.

Feel of the Gun—

It just feels good in my hand. The contouring and texturing are excellent. The ergonomics are good. The slide serrations are effective.

Trigger—

There is no other small striker-fired handgun on the market with a trigger better than the one found on the P365. I also feel SIG was brilliant to have the trigger break at 90-degrees, in the “middle” of the stroke, instead of the rear of the trigger guard. Besides the trigger weight, smoothness, and break being good, the position at which it breaks is part of the secret as well, I think. It breaks before the finger can overwrap the trigger, causing any disturbance to the aim of the gun before it is fired.

Size and Capacity—

What’s not to love about 10+1 rounds (standard) and 12+1 rounds (extended) in a micro-compact size and form? This is the first micro-compact gun that tempts me to consider if I could replace my Glock 19 or SIG P320 Compact, both 15-round capacity guns. Packing the P365 around is a cinch. It disappears on my body in either the Tac-Lab M.T.R. or GrayGuns/PHLSTER Classic holsters, and there was tons of holster support for it from the get-go.

Shootability—

I come back to a statement I made earlier. It is the little gun that shoots like a much bigger gun. I LIKE shooting it!

The Verdict

I plan on sending a check to SIG Sauer in Exeter, New Hampshire, to pay them for the review gun they sent me. I like the P365 well enough that owning just one is not enough. Plus, I have plans for some fun upgrades and modifications I’d like to do to one of these guns, mainly because I want to. A tease?—think red dot and compensator as a start …

The P365 is a winner. 13 rounds in a tiny form that is easily concealed and is easy to shoot. Magic, I say.

Magically magical.

More Pics!

Links

SIG SAUER – www.sigsauer.com

GrayGuns – www.grayguns.com

Tac-Lab Holsters – www.facebook.com/TacLab2016/