Anyone interested increasing their self reliance, going off-grid, or simply providing for their family when times get tough should be heavily focused on creating a productive and sustainable food source. The foundational building block for this is a survival garden.

Providing enough food to sustain your family can seem like a daunting proposition that would require several acres of land. But with a little planning and consideration, you can create a productive garden that will serve you and your family well all year long.

What is a Survival Garden?

The simplest explanation would be that it is a garden capable of growing the food you and your family need to survive (or at least a large portion of it) until the next growing season.

This may seem straightforward, but when you break it down and see how many calories, vitamins, and minerals you need to replace daily to stay healthy, you realize there has to be some serious planning and consideration put into it.

Survival gardening has a critical urgency about it, and doesn’t have to be pretty.

If you’ve seen the movie “The Martian”, you can use the example of Mark Watney, who formulates a plan to survive the harsh climate of Mars by potato farming in his own feces. Is it going to make the cover of Better Homes and Gardens? No. Did it keep him alive? Yes.

When you consider how important food security is to your family, there is no reason not to do everything in your power to make the most effective survival garden possible.

In addition to keeping you alive, there are a few other reasons why having your own garden is beneficial:

• Health Benefits: Starting a garden for the resulting health benefits alone is worth it. Do you know what most people do when they have access to fresh, free produce? They eat tons more of it! Even if you are relatively careful with what you eat, increasing your produce consumption will always benefit you.
• The Money: Eating your own produce can save you some significant coin. And to top it off, you could also take it to the very same markets where you used to spend your money and make some money. You probably will not get rich, but you’ll certainly be able to offset some costs.
• Help Feed People in Need: In times where you’re not depending on every calorie from your survival garden to feed your family, another option is to donate the surplus to a local food bank or family in need. The extra potatoes and carrots you are tired of seeing in the cellar could be the reason someone’s kid has a little more to eat.

Survival Garden Layout Examples

If you are trying to provide a chunk of your family’s calories from the homestead, then you need to be really smart about your survival garden layout.

So what do survival gardens look like? Well, that question has a lot of answers. There are many different types of gardens, each with their own corresponding perks and benefits.

It is perfectly acceptable to use a pre-established clearly defined archetype, or you could take your inspiration from several styles and create something unique to your situation and property.

Here are some terrific and time-tested survival garden layouts to help get your wheels spinning:

1. Square Foot Gardening

Square foot gardening was originally devised as a way to teach growing capabilities and capacities to people in underserved areas. They can be made in nearly any size or configuration.

There are some solid reasons you might choose to follow a square foot gardening format. The planting guidelines prevent crowding while helping to maximize the space available and eliminate the wasted space of row planting. Similar plants are grown in non-linear configurations as they would in the wild so that they are not crowded out and can reach optimal size.

This same aim of efficient use of space also applies to how the garden is physically built. It is a raised bed that is visually divided by materials like wooden dowels, string, or twine tacked into a square-foot grid. This allows the cultivation of personal amounts of produce, in small areas, with little need to travel.

As they are raised beds, less bending is needed, so they are less work to maintain.

2. Victory Gardens

The victory garden is seeing a comeback in these uncertain and turbulent times. While it started as a way to reduce reliance on staples in order to free up rations during the second world war, it is once again enjoying a resurgence in popularity.

Victory gardens are designed to provide most of what a family of two to four people will need for much, if not all, of the year. With a high reliance on beans, drying and preservation will be crucial for maximizing the usefulness of the garden.

3. Keyhole Gardens

Keyhole gardens are perfect for hot and particularly dry climates. They consist of a wide round garden that is several feet deep and has a small radial arc of material removed.

With this material removed, the gardener can stand in the center of the garden, with the produce at approximately waist height. All areas of the garden can be reached easily by the gardener with very little strain on the back.

Since they are so deep, a key benefit of constructing keyhole gardens is their resistance to drought. Cardboard layered into the soil also helps to prevent water loss through evaporation. The center is preferred to be a compost bin with a base of rock at least the size of gravel, to facilitate drainage. As the material in the bin composts and is watered into the surrounding soil, it helps feed the crops in the garden.

Keyhole gardens do not make especially efficient use of space, since they are often quite a bit deeper than simple raised beds, but they do offer an extremely rich substrate to grow in.

Since they are fed by the compost, as well as being primarily watered from there, keyhole gardens are perfect for root vegetables like carrots, radishes, and beets, and leafy vegetables like spinach, lettuce, chard, and herbs.

4. The Permaculture Food Forest

One of the hallmarks of a permaculture style “food forest” is that it’s typically not in 1 specific “garden.” Rather, the plants and trees making up a food forest are strategically scattered throughout an area, to take advantage of microclimates, optimal growing conditions, and companion plantings as much as possible.

If you have a larger area and are looking to build an extremely diverse and naturally productive garden, creating a food forest modeled on permaculture principles might be the perfect option.

The benefits of permaculture systems are myriad. They not only focus on boosting biodiversity across the board, they also promote function stacking.

For example, a portion of the food forest may utilize clover as part of the ground cover. Clover could “stack functions” by not only preventing weeds, but also acting as a nitrogen-fixer, increasing the available nitrogen for neighboring plants. A 3rd function of a clover ground cover could be that it’s a source of pollen for important pollinators like bees and butterflies. This mentality will extend to many aspects of gardening and is the foundation for the entire permaculture model.

5. The Backyard Homestead Layout

The concept of a “homestead” is one that feels bigger than just a vegetable garden. Instead, a homestead typically incorporates fruit trees, perennial plants like berries, animals like chickens and goats, honey bees, or any number of other things. Still, at its core, the goal of a homestead is in line with survival gardening-support and sustain the lives of the people living there.

The Backyard Homestead Book is a popular and info-packed resource for planning maximum food production, even on postage-stamp-sized lots in the city and suburbs. It has a comprehensive walk-through of all the pertinent info you need to begin your journey towards self-sufficiency and self-reliance.

It covers the basics like garden design and crops to plant, but then it takes things a step further, by covering material on food preservation, highlighting methods like pickling, canning, even drying, and dehydration. This gem will help you through the entire food production process, from seed to snack.

6. Self Sufficient Backyard Layout

This is one of those resources that you can keep on your bookshelf, and every time you read it you seem to find something new and useful in it.

It is written by a couple that would be considered modern-day pioneers, living a lifestyle that includes growing their own food all year, collecting water, producing natural remedies from foraged plants, and using renewable energy.

It is a great book for anyone looking to begin the transition to a more self-sufficient lifestyle, or anyone wanting to learn how to effectively use just a quarter acre to produce food and energy for their own family.

What should I grow in my survival garden?

That is a very open-ended question, but we can start to narrow it down by your growing zone and garden location. It is important to have a large variety of nutrient-dense vegetables, and ideally ones that can also be stored in some long term fashion, whether it is by canning, drying and dehydrating, pickling, or cellar storage.

Proteins & Fats

You will need plenty of protein and fats in your diet. Protein is needed to build and maintain muscle mass and fats are needed as a source of energy.

• Nut trees: Hazelnuts, hickory nuts, walnuts, pecans, chestnuts, and so many others. The options for nut trees that will grow in the US is impressive. Nuts can provide a source for healthy unsaturated fats, as well as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and are full of vitamins and minerals.
• Chickens: While not a vegetable, you certainly can raise chickens in your garden area. You will need to take some infrastructure precautions to ensure they do not eat your plants, but letting them free range in the area will keep your gardens largely bug free, and cut down or eliminate the need for separate feeding.
• Beans: An important source of vegetarian protein, beans and other legumes also provide ample fiber and a robust dose of antioxidants. Even if you are growing chickens or other livestock for meat, beans will be a vital source of supplemental off-season protein.

Carbs

Carbohydrates are forms of sugars that occur in starchy or fibrous foods. They are an energy source and are broken down and metabolized into either long-term or short-term energy.

• Potatoes: Potatoes are a fantastic and long-storing carbohydrate. It is an easily grown root vegetable that stores well and can be used in countless ways. A smart planting of potato slips can contribute hundreds of pounds of potatoes for your stores.

• Corn: A relatively fast-growing cereal grain, corn is very versatile and can be used and stored in many ways. With minimal processing, it can also be converted to feed, flour, alcohol and fuel.

• Beans: You thought we ran through all the benefits of beans? Nope! Beans will also fill a slot for complex cards, giving you a source for the long term, all-day energy you are going to need to keep your homestead running.

• Squash: A plant that is incredibly nutritious and versatile, squash is another vegetable that can store easily, in its native state, for long periods. The meat is generally eaten roasted or steamed.

• Peas: Peas are a good source of starches, like potatoes, they are great thickeners. They are high in fiber, protein, and vitamins A, B6, C, and K.

Vitamins and Micronutrients

Vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients help your body to function by providing essential components to support bodily processes.

• Chard: A leafy green that is great in salads, and adds a splash of color. A common ingredient in healthy diets, both the leaves and the stalks can be eaten.

• Spinach: A super healthy leafy green. Loaded with antioxidants and nutrients, and a great source of iron.

• Garlic: Closely related to onions, garlic is in the same family as leeks, shallots, and chives. Garlic is a long-standing favorite and is used to season cuisines the world over.

• Broccoli: The tiny trees that are the bane of every child’s dinner plate. One of the most versatile plants, can be eaten raw or cooked, and the leaves, stalk, and flowering head can all be eaten. Growing broccoli provides a great return on investment.

• Cauliflower: Another relative of the mustard plant, cauliflower often resembles cheese curd but has a texture that couldn’t be more different.

• Kale: A close relative of cabbage, kale is packed with nutrients and vitamins. Care should be exercised not to eat kale to an excess, however, as it contains a compound that can interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis.

• Cabbage: Is a leafy green that gives a tremendous amount of leaves on each densely packed head. They can grow very large and can be stored for long periods and used as needed, like potatoes and other staples. A great source of vitamins K and C, along with significant dietary fiber.

Medicinals

You may want to consider adding a section in your garden to contain your medicinal plants. These are plants that can be used to treat common ailments like headaches, inflammation, and pain. Often made into teas, salves, or pastes. Common medicinal plants you may want to consider include:

• Calendula: known to be an antifungal, antiseptic, healer of wounds.
• Cilantro: Helps digestion, possibly linked to heavy metal removal from the body.
• Lemon Balm: Relaxing effects with possible antiviral properties.
• Peppermint: Helps with digestion if brewed in tea, and soothes aches when applied topically.
• Rosemary: Increases oxygen to the brain, a great alternative to caffeine.
• Mullein: Can help heal respiratory infections.

How much space do I need to grow it all in?

That is probably the best part about a survival garden-there is no one single way to do it that will be best. Do what is right for you and your circumstances. This means it is extremely easy to adapt this information to your needs. From tiny urban gardens to acres of country land, there is something for everyone.

Urban gardens are growing in popularity and are becoming more widely permitted. There is a push in many urban centers for green rooftops to reduce HVAC load and provide additional food for building residents.

Agriscaping is transforming common landscapes into productive agricultural spaces. This can look like neighborhood food forests or fruit and nut trees alongside the street in place of ornamentals. Many neighborhoods have begun creating spaces that function as both food forests and community gardening space.

All that said however, one of the early contributors to SCP Survival shared the following recommendation from her grandma who was a serious gardener at the turn of the century:

Grandma Carrie’s Rule of Thumb (how big does my garden need to be?)

Grandma Carrie grew and preserved everything that her family ate in the late 1880’s and early 1900’s short of wheat, sugar, salt and spices. Her garden was well over a quarter acre. And she had a rule of thumb – One quart per person, per day.

Since she was feeding ten people she would need to can 3,650 quarts of fruits and vegetables. Add to that the crops that went into the root cellar, some crops were dried and stored in burlap bags, milk and eggs were gathered year ‘round, animals were butchered as needed and the meat was stored in crocks.

To supply each member of the family with their “quart a day” you should plan approximately 1,000 to 2,500 square feet of garden space for each person. This amount depends on soil fertility, the crops you choose to grow, methods of cultivation, and the length of your growing season. Other food sources like fruit trees and livestock also play a huge part in the amount of vegetables you need.

A 2,000 square foot garden would be a 40 foot by 50 foot section of your property. This can be a pretty significant undertaking especially if you have no experience gardening. Crops such as squash and cucumbers require significantly more space than spinach, Swiss chard, carrots, onions and beets. Peas, tomatoes and some beans do best with a fence, cage or pole to grow UP on which decreases the square feet necessary.

Here are some rough estimates on space to yield for feeding four people for one year:

*Estimate based on ½ whole and ½ sauce

This chart would be 2,018 square feet of growing space without any paths in between them. I have given the yield in quarts but to have a better idea if this would suit your family, you will probably want to consider pints (or twice as many jars half the size). For example, one pint of beets would probably be adequate for a meal for four people, a 100 foot row will yield around 48 pints which would provide enough beets for one meal a week for a year.

This chart provides 657 quarts plus potatoes, about half of Grandma Carrie’s rule of thumb.

What is the best location for my survival garden?

You will want to make sure you evaluate all possibilities before deciding where to put your garden. Make sure you consider the exposure to the sun, water, soil, and how easy it will be for you to access it as often as you will need to.

Most people think about the first few, but not everyone considers access. The last thing you want to do is put a big garden plot in what you think is a perfect place, only to have to lug all your gardening equipment or any tools you need, to a garden that is now quite inconvenient to get to.

When considering your garden’s placement, you will naturally have to consider the sun and water placement. If you live in the northern hemisphere, you will want to make sure your garden is south of your house, or far enough north of your house that it will not lie in its shadow. Use this same logic when plating. When possible plant so that the taller crops, like corn, on the north end of the garden bed, so that they do not cast a shadow over the other plants.

One of the principles of permaculture is the zones of use. The mindset being that you do not want to expend excess energy to get to things you use all the time, and things that are largely self-managing should be the farthest away. It also simplifies care and harvesting. The zones of use are:

1. Zone 1 is the most visited area or areas. This zone will have things that either need daily attention or that you use daily. Examples of things to grow in zone 1 are seedlings, salad components, cooking herbs, or anything that needs daily water, like a lemon tree. Believe it or not, animals are ideally sited in Zone 1.
2. Zone 2 are things that still need attention, but not specifically daily. If your particular setup allows for it, zone 2 is irrigated. Zone 2 is also mulched. Examples of zone 2 plants would be smaller fruiting trees and trellised fruit vines, bramble berries like blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. This is also the zone that contains windbreaks, ponds, and barrier hedges. Plants that are only harvested once or twice per season belong here like potatoes and corn.
3. Zone 3 is semi-managed. An example of zone 3 plants would be large and mature fruit and nut trees. It is not mulched, nor visited on any regular basis.
4. Zone 4 is a minimally managed area for foraging wild foods and growing timber.
5. Zone 5 is completely and entirely unmanaged. All pure native plants and wildlife.

Keep in mind what you will eventually be planting, and be sure to plant companions together when possible. The main idea of companion planting is that you plant different crops together, they help sustain each other and ensure you have a strong and fruitful harvest.

Companions can be used for pest deterrents, balancing out nutrients, and attracting pollinators. For instance:

• Tomatoes work very well with beans, chives, and oregano, but not with corn, dill, and potatoes.
• If you want a successful cucumber and squash harvest, plant corn, beans, or radishes with them.
• If you have pine trees on your property, be careful not to place your garden where the shed needles fall, since they make the soil very acidic.

For more on companion planting, check out this comprehensive guide.

Knowing Your Soil is Crucial

The quality of your soil is the imperative. Much more needs to be done to prepare a garden space than simply digging up the lawn. “Friability”, or easy to crumble is normally the first obstacle to overcome. Grasses can grow in clay – or cracks in asphalt for that matter but vegetables need lose, crumbly, loamy soil. Amendments need to be made in the way of compost, perhaps sand and possibly nutrients to alter the pH level.

How do you intend to water your garden? Tomatoes for example, need to be soaked 6-8 inches deep every 5-10 days depending on the heat and amount of rain you have. If the grid is down, is your water down? If you are collecting water in a rain barrel, do you intend to drip irrigate or hand water? Is one barrel enough? Do you have all the materials on hand now?

Want Some Extra Credit? Here Are Some Gardening “Force Multipliers”

The following are tools or techniques used to be more effective at reaching your objective of producing enough food to survive. They help you get the most out of your garden by helping to create ideal conditions, one way or another, for your crops.

Greenhouse

A greenhouse is one of the common things that people think of when picturing a large garden set up. A greenhouse is a large open building that is largely transparent or translucent, allowing in sunlight, but also sealed against the outside elements.

Utilizing a large amount of solar gain, greenhouses are able to trap solar energy in the form of heat, and can often be used to extend the growing season.

Greenhouses can be used to grow later into the year, in order to gain an extra harvest or two, and also to begin earlier each year, by providing a warm place to germinate seeds and give plants a head start before transplanting to the soil once the threat of frost has passed.

Cold Frames

Cold frames use the same principles of trapping solar energy as greenhouses but on a much smaller scale. Cold frames are made from a wooden box similar to a raised bed, frequently angled toward the south. They will usually have a windowed lid, often made from an upcycled home window that is attached to the top with a hinge so that it can tilt open for easy access to the contents.

Cold frames are frequently used in the same manner as full-size greenhouses, to either continue growing past the fall frost dates or to gain an early start by germinating seeds and plant starts before they would normally be able to be put in the ground.

Row Covers

Row covers are also known as low tunnels. A crucial force multiplier for those who utilize planting rows for their crops, row covers can protect from freezing temperatures, wind, and pests.

They are essentially tiny hoop houses that run the length of the planting rows. They are very low to the ground and often only allow around 1-2 feet of clearance for the plants they cover, and as such are only suitable for very young plants or those that grow close to the ground like root vegetables and greens. They help keep the soil in the row warm for early season starts, and for late-season harvests.

Chickens or livestock

Introducing chickens or other small livestock to your survival garden can have several benefits. Not only will they create manure that will be essential to your composting and fertilizing capabilities, but they also can help reduce pests and insects.

People do not give chickens enough credit, they are amazing little omnivores. They eat just about any organic matter you allow them to, but they will also meet you halfway on the cleanup, tilling most of their waste directly into the soil. You do need to keep an eye on them, and make sure that they aren’t sick. If so, there are a handful of DIY chicken doctoring things you can do own your own.

Guinea fowl are another valuable addition, frequently eating so many nuisance insects like ticks, that they will not need any supplemental feeding. Using livestock in conjunction with a rotating pasture system will allow you to always have perfectly fertilized and productive soil ready for planting, while your livestock always has fresh ground to work.

Composting

Generating your own compost is an incredibly valuable process for anyone seeking to grow large amounts of high-quality produce.

Composting is the breaking down of common solid organic matter by aerobic bacteria. It is used to recycle organic material into nutrient-rich material called compost that is similar to humus. It is one of the best soil amendments and can be a valuable fertilizer for self-sustaining gardeners.

Vermicomposting

Similar to composting, the goal of vermicomposting is to create a nutrient dense growing medium from discarded organic materials. The basic process is the same, the organic matter that would normally be discarded is added to the compost pile, decomposed aerobically, and turned into a usable highly fertile soil material.

The difference is that in normal composting the main agent breaking down the matter is aerobic bacteria and other organisms, and with vermicomposting that process is accelerated through the use of earthworms to break down the material faster and more thoroughly than without.

Rainwater harvesting

One of the most valuable resources for gardeners, water, literally falls from the sky. With a little preparation and sweat equity, a rain catchment system can quickly and easily be implemented, allowing the storage of large quantities of water for later use.

Rainwater harvesting is often done with a minimum of special equipment, generally requiring little more than a roof, a gutter with a downspout, and a rain barrel or water tank. Provided measures are taken to discard the water contained in the “first flush” which will contain debris and contaminants that should be allowed to wash away before collection begins, rainwater can easily be made potable.

Earthworks and Landforms

A very effective method of large scale gardening and permaculture resource management is to create earthworks to help control water flow and erosion. These methods can include:

Ditches

Ditches are essentially a trenched drainage device. Ditches are going to be fairly deep and narrow, allowing an easy way to direct high volumes of water that will also be fast-moving.

A ditch will often be used to prevent a surge of water volume from eroding other portions of the gardening or crop areas. For example, ditches may be utilized to funnel water runoff from a large rainstorm away from delicate beds of greens or herbs, and directed to a swale where it can be spread out over a larger area, slowed down, and allowing the water to settle and soak in.

Swales

Swales are large, open, gentle depressions that follow the contour of the land, allowing stormwater runoff a place to slow down and spread out over a larger area, eventually facilitating settling and absorption.

They are broad and shallow and are only slightly depressed when compared to the surrounding area. Swales are perfect for filtering runoff, immobilizing contaminants, pollutants, and particulates by allowing them to settle and be filtered by the surrounding soil.

Hugelkultur

Often thought of as the perfect companion to swales, the hugelkultur or more simply “hugel”, is a hill or a mound for growing, that is built on a foundation of a pile of felled trees or rotten wood. It is ultra-low maintenance and drought-resistant garden and earthworks feature that will produce a fertile mound of growing medium that only gets more productive over the years as the wood continues to rot and release nutrients into the soil around it.

While it takes a good bit of effort to physically construct the hugel, it will compound the benefits it offers over the years. For the first several years after its creation, the aerobic decomposition will have an exothermic effect on the soil, giving you a longer growing season.

In the years following that, the wood will begin to shrink and will create voids that allow a self tilling effect to take place. The rotting wood will also hold water like a sponge, retaining large amounts of water that are automatically released into the surrounding soil, combating dry conditions, and reducing or eliminating the need for separate irrigation.

The main thing to remember with hugels is to use wood in the core that will rot and decay. Do not use any rot-resistant or allelopathic woods like cedar, black walnut, l7 or black locust. They will not rot, and will actually inhibit microbial growth, significantly reducing the desirable effects produced by the decomposition.

Preservation and Long Term Storage

While the short term goal with your garden is to feed yourself and your family, the long-term goal is to have a decent stockpile of survival foods. There are many methods that you can utilize that will allow you to save your harvest and to feed your family over a tough winter or in an emergency.

Root Cellars

One of the oldest long-term storage methods, root cellars work to preserve and store food by using the cool dampness of being underground to their advantage. Root cellars are nice and cool, but still above 32°. They are also humid which allows vegetables to retain their moisture and preventing them from turning rubbery. In addition to root vegetables, cellars are great for storing nuts, seeds, and even some fruits and vegetables.

Canning

Canning is a great way to save meats, stews, veggies, and jams for later use. With canning, you use mason jars to store and preserve your foods and either pressure or hot water method to seal them. The lids of the jar have a wax ring that seals to the rim of the jar. If left in a cool, dark place, home-canned items can be stored for a year or more.

Dehydration

Dehydration is a fantastic way to preserve your favorite fruits, vegetables, and even herbs and meats! Some items you will want to eat in the dried form such as apple chips, others you may want to rehydrate by soaking in hot water or adding to soups and stews.

Seed Saving

While most seeds you won’t be eating, saving your seeds is an easy way to get a jump on your garden for next year. Saving the seeds from fruits and vegetables that you grew this year allows you to cut down on your gardening costs in the future. Heirloom seed preservation is also important for genetic diversity and can be traded and sold.

Getting Started

There are many articles out there inferring that preppers should buy seeds packaged for long term storage so that when the shit hits the fan they can dig up part of the lawn and grow their own food. This is a woefullly misguided notion. Remember, the time to start learning is not when you are hungry.

Once you have taken all the factors into consideration and chosen a location, it is time to plan out your garden. Make a sketch on some graph paper of your garden, and get that seed catalog handy. If you need help planning it, the Farmers Almanac has a very easy to use garden planner.

Once your garden is prepared, your layout is decided, and your seeds have arrived, you probably want to get planting, but you might be wondering when is the best time to start. The good news is, every season has things that can be planted, whether you are in spring, summer, or fall, there are plants that should be going in the ground to get ready for the upcoming growing season.

You might think that because you weren’t ready until late August, you may have missed the summer season. And you would be right! But that’s alright, late-season brassicas do well, and fall is the perfect time to get some garlic and onions in the ground. The same goes for spring and summer, there is always something that needs to get in the ground soon in order to be ready for the upcoming season.

Winter is the perfect time of year to solidify next year’s garden plan. It is time to inventory the pantry to evaluate the most popular crops and adjust the garden space allotments accordingly. Heirloom seeds are inventoried, new seeds are ordered and indoor starts are planted.

Need An Easy Way To Start? Try the 3 Sisters

If you are eager to get started with an easy garden, you may want to try out a small plot with a “3 sisters garden”. This is a method that has been used for thousands of years to grow multiple crops in one place simultaneously, and is a perfect example of function stacking and utilizing natural architecture. This layout can also be adapted to nearly any type of garden.

You will plant beans (generally a pole bean), sweet corn, and squash. The rationale behind the companion plants here is that the corn provides a sturdy stalk for the beans to climb, while the squash leaves shade the soil, minimizes water loss, and prevents weeds, and the beans fix nitrogen in the soil for the corn and the squash to excel.

Some things in life are so obvious they get overlooked for a long time. That’s the case—no pun intended—with the 7.62×40 WT cartridge, a .223 Rem. case necked up to .308 Win. Original work on this cartridge was done by Kurt Buchert, who called it the 7.62×40 USA. With Buchert’s blessing, Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat took the concept and made it a functional reality.

Why? We’ll get to that. Folks have been trying to put bigger bullets and more power into an AR-15 for a long time for both military and sporting purposes. Examples include the 6.5 Grendel, the 6.8 Rem. SPC and the big, shoulder-smacking .450 Bushmaster. None have seen big-time success, but all have cult-like followings among users who believe they’re the answer to all things ballistic. Admittedly, I dote over the .30 Rem. AR, which I find to be the most powerful and ballistically balanced cartridge you can fire from an AR-platform rifle.

One problem is all these cartridges require not just a new barrel, but also a new bolt, possibly a new buffer and buffer spring, a new magazine and in some cases, even a new upper receiver. This makes conversions more costly and less appealing. With the 7.62×40 WT, all you need is a new barrel and a Wilson Combat-modified Lancer L5 AWM 5.56 magazine (though some unmodified AR-15 magazines will work). Ballistically, it converts your AR-15 into a flatter-shooting .30-30 Win., which sort of answers the “why” question.

Wilson began developing the 7.62×40 WT after studying the ballistics offered by the .300 AAC Blackout. He wanted a cartridge that would give optimum supersonic performance with lighter .30-caliber bullets, instead of the 220-grain projectiles for which the .300 AAC Blackout was designed.

“After experimenting with the .300 Blackout, I concluded the cartridge case really needed to be 39 to 40 mm long to work properly with common 110- to 125-grain, .30-caliber bullets,” said Wilson. (The .300 AAC Blackout case is about 35 mm long.) “Don’t take me wrong, I’m not anti-.300 Blackout. I just firmly believe it’s a subsonic-only cartridge.”

Wilson established his reputation by building superb custom 1911 pistols, but Wilson Combat also makes wonderful ARs. He is not just a competitive shooter with a tactical mindset; he is also an avid hunter. At present, Wilson may be doing more to help solve the feral hog problem in Texas using an AR-15 than anyone.

He discovered 125-grain Sierra Pro-Hunter and 125-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets actually performed more like controlled-expansion bullets at 7.62×40 WT impact velocities. After guiding hunters to more than 60 hog kills, Wilson believes, “With the same shot placement, the 7.62×40 WT works about like a 6.8 SPC and runs cleaner than it or the .30 Rem. AR when suppressed.”

Based on 7.62×40 WT testing I conducted using Wilson Combat ammunition, 125-grain bullets leave a 16-inch barrel at around 2,400 fps and a 20-inch barrel at 2,500 fps. This equates to velocities high enough to generate bullet expansion at 250 yards. If zeroed 1.5 inches high at 100 yards, drop at 250 yards is less than 10 inches. These are great short-range ballistics—perfect for hunting or a utility/survival rifle. With the wide variety of available .30-caliber bullet options, moderate-range tactical applications are virtually endless.

Granted, the ballistics are similar to the Soviet 7.62×39 mm cartridge used in AK-platform rifles. However, converting an AR to the Russian cartridge requires a new barrel, bolt and magazine. What’s more, that particular cartridge has a dismal history of poor reliability in AR-platform rifles. Additionally, since factory 7.62×39 mm ammunition is loaded with bullets having diameters between 0.308 inch and the original spec of 0.311 inch, accuracy can be less than inspiring.

Wilson Combat offers complete rifles, upper receivers, barrels and five different factory loads for the 7.62×40 WT, but it’s unclear whether others will follow suit. Given the usefulness of this cartridge, it wouldn’t surprise me if more AR manufacturers got on board, and Wilson expects no royalties to follow his lead.

Ammunition availability is the risk with any new cartridge—demand drives the train. The good news is, unlike some other new cartridges, 7.62×40 WT brass is easily made from .223 Rem. cases.

The 7.62×40 WT has become Wilson’s go-to cartridge at the ranch, but of course some folks will never get the concept. Despite what one unenthusiastic blogger has said about the round, an AR chambered for the 7.62×40 WT is lighter, more powerful, flatter shooting, harder hitting and infinitely more versatile than a .30-30 Win. lever action, whether you are hunting or fighting. It’s also a great youth deer rifle or police patrol rifle.

There’s no doubt the AR is America’s favorite rifle. Wilson Combat just made it more useful and, dare I say, better.

Last month, Sasquatch The Legend explored the topic of Where Sasquatch Sleeps. This month, it’s what exactly this mysterious creature sustains itself on that is the focus.

Dinner plate, homemade pie (author photos)

Roots? Berries? Fish? Elk? Even…humans? Every living thing must eat in order to sustain itself, but what exactly does the being we call Bigfoot or Sasquatch consume? Sasquatch The Legend turned to a few of our favorite Bigfoot/Sasquatch reference books for answers.

Kathy Moscowitz Strain’s Giants, Cannibals & Monsters: Bigfoot in Native Culture (2008) is an excellent source of historic tales originally sourced from the oral traditions of native peoples of the the Americas.

Within Strain’s book, some of the oldest references to the giant beings we now know as Bigfoot or Sasquatch depict them as cannibalistic monsters capable of carrying away innocent men, women and children to consume at their leisure.

“There was a great Giant who lived in the north. His name was Oo-wel’lin, and he was as big as a pine tree. When he saw the country full of people he said they looked good to eat, and came and carried them off and ate them. He could catch ten men at a time and hold them between his fingers, and put more in a net on his back, and carry them off,” begins one story from the Miwok Indian people of California, quoted by Strain (p. 29).

Stories of cannibal Bigfoot-like beings are not limited to California, but are echoed in the oral histories of native peoples throughout the Western United States and Canada (see Tom Sewid’s artwork below, depicting the Dzoonakwa stealing children.)

Bigfoot-like creature capturing children (artwork and photo: Tom Sewid)

In another story, “Che-ha-lum-che comes out only at night and wanders around seeking Mewuk (people) to eat. He prefers women; of these he catches and carries off all he can find. Sometimes he makes a crying noise, hoo-oo’-oo, like a baby, to lure them. If they come he seizes them and tosses them into his big pack basket and carries them to his cave, where he eats them. In the basket is a long spike which pierces their bodies when they are thrown in, so they can not escape. In his caves are the remains of his victims—horns of deer and bones of people and different kinds of animals” (Strain, p. 35).

(Thankfully, these accounts are from the distant past, and Sasquatch The Legend is not aware of documented, modern accounts that suggest Bigfoot/Sasquatch is still eating human beings, at least not at the present time. However, as author David Paulides notes in his many books, there are countless human beings who have disappeared in the forests across North America under mysterious circumstances, so caution is always advised when in areas where Sasquatch have been seen.)

Early Bigfoot researcher and author, Ivan T. Sanderson, in Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life (1960) includes many eyewitness stories about Sasquatch, some which include the beings eating. One story about a berry-eating Sasquatch near Chiliwack, British Columbia, Canada stands out:

Wild huckleberries, Alaska (author photo)

“Green Hicks suddenly stopped us and drew our attention to a large, light brown creature standing about 8 feet high, standing on its hind legs (standing upright) pulling at the berry bushes with one hand or paw toward him and putting berries in his mouth with the other hand, or paw. I stood still wondering, and McRae and Green Hicks were arguing. Hicks said, ‘It is a wild man’ and McRae said, ‘It is a bear.’ As far as I am concerned the strange creature looked more like a human being” (Sanderson, p. 77).

John Napier’s Bigfoot: The Yeti & Sasquatch in Myth and Reality (1972) recounts the tale of the kidnapping of Albert Ostman by a Sasquatch family. Ostman speaks of “grasses with sweet roots, spruce and hemlock tips and tubers” which the mother and son Sasquatch collect and bring back to the cave to eat (Napier, p. 74). Napier notes that “Grass and spruce tips, however rich they might be in protein, hardly seem an adequate diet” for a large Sasquatch being.

Meadow grasses and trees, Breckenridge, Colorado (author photo)

Napier also mentions the Chapman story, a tale from Canada in which a family living on a remote homestead was visited one day by an “8 foot high male creature which emerged from the woods,” left “gigantic footsteps”, and seemingly turned over (and presumably ate) a heavy barrel of salted fish (Napier, p. 76).

Bigfoot researcher John Green, in his book, Sasquatch The Apes Among Us (1978) very helpfully sorts and categorizes observed Sasquatch behaviors such as eating. Green notes that Sasquatch have been seen by humans while eating all of the following items: “roots, leaves, berries, grass stems, water weeds, small rodents, fish, raw bacon & eggs, garbage” and also have been seen carrying away, presumably to eat, such items as “deer, sheep, cattle, corn, chickens and rabbits” (Green, p. 447).

Homegrown corn (author photo)

A story from a 10-year-old boy in West Linn, Oregon, in Green’s book, tells of “a big hairy animal standing upright in the Detroit Reservoir, in Oregon.” Witnesses watched it “reach down and catch a fish, which it ate after biting off the head. When it noticed them it ran off and left 16-inch footprints in the mud” (Green, p. 434).

In J. Robert Alley’s Raincoast Sasquatch (2003), a book that is a treasure trove of eyewitness Sasquatch encounters, the author describes multiple accounts of Sasquatch beings being seen searching for food such as picking berries, digging for beach sand and piling up rocks, presumably in a search for crabs and clams, and carrying deer.

Sandy beach near Forks, Washington (author photo)

In one account from the 1960s in Alaska, a boater told of seeing “what looked like a manlike, dark, hairy creature, digging in the sand like he was digging for clams using a stick….digging with its right hand. The stick it had been digging with would have been about the size of a small baseball bat or halibut club. While digging, it would pick something up with its left hand and, it seemed like, would put something to its mouth” (Alley, pp. 84-85).

In another exciting encounter from Alley, a teenage boy describes walking with his friends on a road near Ketchikan, Alaska when “Suddenly we saw a deer come crashing out of the woods on the bluff above us, and right behind it came a big black thing. Both the deer and the creature passed within thirty feet of the nearest boy and it appeared to me to be about ten feet tall. The deer crossed the road at top speed but the thing saw us, seemed to stop for a second, and then took off right after the deer again. It was real big and ran on two legs, covered all over with black hair” (Alley, p. 91).

Deer, Olympic National Park, Washington (author photo)

Brushes with Bigfoot: Sasquatch Behaviors Reported in Close Encounters, Native and Non-native Perspectives (2021) a more recent book also by J. Robert Alley, contains a couple stories about eyewitnesses seeing Sasquatch in a search for food. One witness watched a Sasquatch on the Unuk River in Alaska “lifting rocks up with his hand and he scraped the crabs out with the other hand” (p. 105).

Another witness, one of a very few to actually see a Sasquatch eating, said that while he and a friend were out night fishing, he watched the big figure of a Sasquatch on the riverbank near them, consuming fish guts. “It moved on two legs but would bend over, backside to us, to scoop up the fish guts that we left. It was just shoveling them in at an enormous rate, ‘Mmow,’ like that…you could hear him sucking up the stuff, ‘Mowww,’ without even chewing—just huge slurping sounds when he’d lift it all up to his mouth. I couldn’t believe how much of the stuff he was just puttin’ away!” (pp. 126-127).

Jeff Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, in his work, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, (2006) notes that, “the menu of food items reported by eyewitnesses ranges from berries to elk” (p. 168) and that “the Sasquatch diet seems to span the wide spectrum of a generalized omnivore” (Meldrum, p. 188).

Elk on a hill, California (photo: Rachel Hebert)

Linda Coil Suchy’s Who’s Watching You? An exploration of the Bigfoot Phenomenon in the Pacific Northwest (2009) includes an interesting story about Suchy’s own grandmother, who lived in the Bellingham, Washington area in the 1960s and ‘70s and kept a huge vegetable and fruit garden.

Vegetable garden (author photo)

The grandmother saw that vegetables and fruits were being taken from her garden in amounts that seemed excessive for the usual visitors of deer and rabbits, and she saw extraordinarily large footprints in her garden, so one week she sat up late over several nights, waiting to see who exactly was visiting. She saw “a dark brown hairy beast, at least eight feet tall” and watched as it ate her “raspberries, tomatoes, squash and green beans” (Suchy, pp. 17-18).

Homegrown tomatoes and green beans (author photo)

Concluding that it was “just an unfortunate creature who’s hungry, that’s all” the grandmother decided to leave food for the visitor on her picnic table. She even began baking entire squash or pumpkin cakes for her visitor, leaving them on the table for him. In return, he would leave her tokens of appreciation, such as “an apple, a pine cone, a flower or a pretty rock.” (Suchy, pp. 18-20). Apparently this giving and taking relationship continued for several years. (Suchy even includes her grandmother’s recipe for Squash or Pumpkin Cake in her book, a particularly nice touch.)

In Nick Redfern’s The Bigfoot Book: The Encyclopedia of Sasquatch, Yeti and Cryptic Primates (2016), a letter from a woman in Florida complains that a Bigfoot-like being has been “taking apples that my daughter brought down from up north, off my back porch” (Redfern, p. 192). Redfern also relates a funny story from a female Chehalis tribal member in British Columbia, Canada, who said that “when her husband was returning from the hunt with a score or more of ducks he had shot, a Sasquatch stepped out of the bush and took the ducks from him—except one, which the giant stuffed into the shirt of the frightened Indian” (Redfern, pp. 67-68).

Honeycrisp apples (author photo)

Steve Isdahl’s recent book, The Day Sasquatch Became Real For Me (2020) while not always easy to read because its contents include hundreds of viewer letters transcribed just as written by the individual authors, is still a fantastic resource to draw upon due to the wealth of information that can be gleaned from its eyewitness accounts.

In Isdah’s book are several descriptions of Sasquatch beings being observed eating or seen taking animals away, presumably to eat them later. In one story, a hunter hears a pig “let out this blood-curdling scream” and then hears something stepping very close to him, so he raises his flashlight to see what it is. He sees something taking the pig, something ”8-foot-tall, light brown/gray…looked like a less hairy, pissed-off Chewbacca” (Isdahl, p. 50). A different hog-hunter, in Texas, describes seeing a Sasquatch capture a wild hog and “tear the head from its body” (Isdahl, p. 168).

Wild hogs with alligator, Florida (photo: Tom Corser, www.tomcorser.com)

In another story sent to Isdahl, this one from Florida, a boater spots a “6 foot creature, muscular, with reddish hair” standing up, holding a small alligator in its right hand and eating it (Isdahl, p. 190). In a tale from a trout fisherman, an 18-year-old young man describes having pebbles tossed at him while he was fishing, seeing something a “big creature…with reddish-brown hair” standing up and looking at him, and feeling that it “wasn’t really showing aggression but just letting me know, hey, you’re in my spot” (Isdahl, p. 234).

Trout fishing stream, Montana (author photo)

In still another story, a fisherman has huge, “cinder-block sized” rocks chucked at him from a massive being hidden in the trees. The next day, he returns to the site and finds “just-eaten” white tail deer (Isdahl, pp. 281-282). And in yet another story a group of elk hunters in Montana come across a “big bull elk, dead in the creek” with “its neck broken” but “still warm” and immediately after, encounter a huge Sasquatch, “standing, watching” (Isdahl, pp. 207-208).

As this array of accounts from various places and times suggests, Sasquatch seems to be an omnivore capable of and interested in eating many different types of foods, ranging from meats to fish and shellfish to plant matter such as roots, vegetables and fruits. (Surely we should also include homemade squash cakes in this list.)

This article could continue for many additional pages, detailing more foods that Sasquatch is said to have eaten, including everything from acorn meal to packaged luncheon meat to entire sticks of butter. It seems that the Sasquatch can and does eat many different foods, depending on what is available to it in its environment.

Perhaps in terms of its diet and those foods that appeal to it, Sasquatch is much more like us than we might have realized.

by Christina Hebert

For more great stories, check out our News & Views section, here.

I settled into my stand with favorable weather conditions and plenty of optimism for an early season September bowhunt in the rolling hills of Eastern Ohio.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, I heard a branch crack to the right and behind me. It was a buck sporting a symmetrical 8-point frame, most likely a 2½- or 3½-year-old. I was in college at the time and still a bowhunting novice, and this would be the largest buck I’d ever taken with a bow. He walked past my setup at 5 yards. I drew and made the rookie mistake of aiming with my arms and not my body. When a deer is that close to your stand and you are at full draw, bend at the waist to keep your anchor point consistent.

Lesson learned.

I shot high, and the deer bounded 15 yards away, uncertain what had just whizzed right over his spine. His confusion bought me enough time to nock another arrow, draw and shoot. The second shot hit the deer in what looked like the middle of his frame. On impact, his rear legs kicked backward and up like a bronco. He bolted as I sat shaking.

The real work was just about to start.

Every bowhunter strives for perfect shot placement, but every shot can’t hit the mark every time. Sometimes we make a lethal hit but compound less-than-desirable shot placement with mistakes in recovering the animal. A liver hit often leads to such a situation. The liver is tucked between the lungs and the rumen or stomach, so a shot that hits just slightly farther back than you would like will often hit the liver. If you think you may have hit the liver, remember these five steps to make sure you give yourself the best chance at recovery.

Back Off Right Away

My experience was a classic case of a liver hit—because of where I saw the arrow hit on impact, the deer’s reaction, and the dark red blood I found on the ground and arrow. After giving the deer a half hour, I made the mistake of going after it. I kicked him up about 100 yards from where I shot him. It was at that point I decided to depart the woods for the night and come back the next day. If ever in doubt, give the animal time.

Bring Help

I was hunting by myself, so I didn’t have the luxury of having a friend to help me find the deer – or so I thought. My uncle, who lived about an hour from the property, volunteered to come help me track. His help was invaluable because a liver hit typically produces only small, sporadic drops of blood. Several times my uncle located blood when I couldn’t. More eyeballs help. Also, check your local laws and regulations regarding the use of tracking dogs. You can’t underestimate the nose of a well-trained tracking K-9.

Get Rest and Stay Hydrated

Don’t miscalculate your rest and how you feel before and during the track. Bring water and snacks. This was especially true for me since it was September and temperatures still reached well into the 80s. If you become fatigued, your motor skills and senses suffer, and you may give up the trail too soon. Also, you need to maintain high morale, and that starts with feeling rested and nourished.

Track Your Tracking

Develop a system to mark the last spot you saw sign. Whether its tracks, blood or the site where you saw the animal, bring marking tape, glow sticks, toilet paper, or use the GPS application on your phone to track your progress. Don’t waste time and energy having to backtrack or – worse – getting lost. Take your time, and record your path.

Take a Weapon

A liver hit is a lethal shot, but it may take longer for the deer to expire than with a heart/lung hit. When you find the deer, it could still be alive. Bringing a weapon with you on any tracking job is a good idea but especially for a liver hit.

Fortunately, I was able to find my buck the next morning. He was on a trail only 100 yards from camp in the opposite direction from where I started to track. In total, the buck traveled about a mile and showed signs of bedding down on several occasions the night he was hit. There were times when blood was sparse and patience paid dividends. I’m hard-pressed to find a tougher animal than a whitetail, but every deer will succumb to a lethal liver hit. Follow these rules and stick with the trail and you will increase your chances of recovering your deer.

About the Author

Jeremy Juhasz is a public relations and marketing professional from Atlanta, Georgia. When he’s not in the office, Jeremy is an avid bowhunter who has chased whitetails in Western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Georgia. Follow him on Twitter @JeremyJuhasz for all things PR, hunting and Buffalo, New York sports.

Because trophy bucks absolutely love the solitude and security of a swamp.

It hadn’t rained at all, but the foggy afternoon mist hung so thick around me that water clung to every branch, every blade of grass and every inch of this bowhunter’s body!

The thick stand of poplars took on a surreal look as every nook and cranny faded into that dreary gray, washed-out landscape. As I scanned the dense line of willows that marked the edge of the giant swamp, I caught myself wishing for darkness so I could slip out of this hell hole. What I saw next caused my heart to skip a beat.

Standing like statues just inside the impenetrable willows were two giant white-tailed bucks, both staring intently past my ambush toward the picked cornfield where several deer had already begun feeding. How the bucks had arrived at this spot undetected astonished me. They were only about 15 yards away wearing matching socks of heavy, wet mud well past their knees!

These trophy whitetails apparently bedded somewhere out in the center of this vast morass and were in no hurry to leave the safety of its confines before total darkness. All thoughts of warming up vanished as I slowly eased my longbow from its resting spot … The next move belonged to the deer.

For many long minutes, the bucks seemed frozen in time, standing stock-still at close range but barely visible through the 15 yards of soup to the densely woven clump of willows where they held their ground. That both deer were shooters was not in question. I couldn’t begin to count points given the situation, but even though they were well within range, I had no shot.

At one point, I considered grunting softly to try to spur some action, but abandoned the idea because I knew that at such close range both bucks would pinpoint me and the game would be over. Now, with darkness closing fast and few options open, I looked down for a split second to check the water pouring down the limbs and riser of my longbow, across the fingers of my shooting glove, and also matting my feathers tightly to the cedar shaft nocked to my bowstring. Getting off an accurate shot, even at close range, would be difficult!

Not that it mattered. For when I looked back toward the bucks, they had vanished! No sound, no movement … Maybe I had imagined it all, but the muddy trail leading into the depths of the huge swamp told the story. A pair of swamp bucks had outsmarted me again.

Wherever whitetails are, there are hunters who pursue them with passion and conviction like few other trophies. A big buck is often described as a separate species in that its habits and behavior differs significantly from other whitetails, making it seemingly impossible to kill at times.

The common denominator, though, wherever they call home, is that trophy bucks absolutely love the solitude and security of a swamp. From the vast tamarack swamps in the North to cattail and willow swamps in mid-America to the brackish tidal swamps of the South, white-tailed bucks grow old by sticking like glue to the heavy cover in and around swamp country. Hunting these areas is difficult, but not impossible.

Finding a Swamp

To find a swamp, drive roads in your area or study local topo maps. These maps will show low ground clearly and these areas should be circled and checked out on foot. One beauty of swamp hunting is that it is often open to the public because the ground isn’t useable for farming or development. In my home state of Minnesota, vast acreages of swamps are open to public hunting in the form of Waterfowl Production.

Areas or Wildlife Management Areas, offering excellent hunting opportunities if you are willing to work hard at your sport (more on that later).

Pinpointing the Bucks

Whitetails aren’t amphibious, so in order for them to use a swamp there needs to be some high ground. Oak islands are a favorite hotspot of mine to locate big bucks because they will use these areas for both bedding and feeding, often staying put for days without leaving these sanctuaries during daylight hours. Aerial photos are the key here because you can locate high ground hotspots easily with them. Getting a personal aerial view can really help you get a feel for the lay of the land and how the bucks are using it. A word of caution: Bucks will often use swamps that seem devoid of high ground, so don’t overlook any areas during your search.

I hunted around a big cattail and willow swamp in Minnesota for two years while chasing a giant buck that I only saw twice, both times before the season opened. His sign was prevalent around the edges of the swamp, but I never saw him with other deer. I finally found out why after an early season snowstorm allowed me to track him back to his bedding area.

The freak storm dumped several inches of heavy snow across the landscape in early October, and after climbing down from a morning stand, I decided to check the edges of the swamp for fresh sign. I found a huge set of tracks leading back from the preferred feeding area, right through the center of the main bedding thicket, and into the heart of the nasty swamp.

Curious as to why the buck would cross this abysmal mess, I donned hip boots and followed him: A hundred yards into the heart of the cover, I heard crashing ahead of me but couldn’t see a thing because the cattails and willows were well over my head, but I soon came upon an old, dilapidated muskrat hut with a well-worn bed directly on top! That monster buck had apparently been bedding every day in the middle of this swamp, with absolutely no dry ground in sight, making him virtually unhuntable!

Find Their Weaknesses

Even bucks like the one just mentioned have weaknesses, and their Achilles Heel is the rut. Normally nocturnal and reluctant to leave their sanctuaries, even cagey old swamp trophies can be taken once they begin to travel in search of does. Such was the case for the Minnesota buck mentioned in the muskrat hut story. A month after I found his bedding spot, he made the mistake of returning to his bed a little late one morning while following a hot doe and was killed by a rifle hunter on the opposite side of the swamp. He had 17 points and grossed nearly 180 inches, but became vulnerable during the rut.

Once the rut begins in earnest, I like to spend all day every day on stand between the nastiest swamp cover I can find and areas of heaviest doe concentrations. The bucks, even the biggest ones, will show eventually, so patience is the key … along with long hours spent in the woods.

Swamp Access

Hunting swamps is difficult at best, but it is not impossible. One of the beauties of swamp hunting, especially on areas of public land, is that few hunters have the work ethic required to go off road and into the center of the nastiest cover. So for the hunter willing to go the extra mile, the reward will be unhunted country and trophy bucks.

Obviously, getting into and out of the swamp is a challenge, requiring hip boots, chest waders or, in some cases, a lightweight boat or canoe. My favorite tool is my ultra light Old Town canoe. Appropriately modeled the Pack, this swamp country super sleuth is only 12 feet long and weighs a mere 33 pounds, allowing me to carry it easily to out-of-the-way access points and then paddle silently into big buck havens.

As far as boots go, I almost always wear chest waders now when hunting swamp country whitetails. Although the water is seldom more than knee-deep, the soft bottoms of most swamps can test the height of even hip boots, and going over the top of your boots in the dark en route to your stand in the morning is a good way to ruin a hunt. Obviously, I don’t sit on stand all day wearing chest waders, but I put my regular hunting boots in my pack or lash them on the outside and then leave the waders rolled up when I hit high ground.

Favorite Tactic

My favorite swamp-hunting tactic is to get back onto some remote oak island very early in the morning, well before daylight, and wait for the big bucks to return from wherever they have been feeding and/or chasing does. Big bucks will leave the fields well before daylight but will slow down once they penetrate the edges of the swamp. A hunter who is already positioned well back into the mess will have the element of surprise on his side as the relaxed deer reaches the sanctuary.

I have actually gone so far as to sleep under my overturned canoe in order to beat the bucks to their bedding zone, but be sure to check your local regulations as this isn’t always legal, especially on public land that does not allow overnight camping.

A couple of years ago, I paddled quietly along an old drainage ditch to reach a small oak island well before daylight, and then watched a steady stream of deer pass by my stand well after the sun had risen above the trees. Included in the parade were six different bucks ranging from 2-year-olds in the 120 class to a massive 10-pointer that would have approached record book minimums. I raised my longbow several times as I tracked a nice 4×5 across the slight ridge in front of me at less than 10 yards before deciding to hold my fire.

The monster never offered me an acceptable shot. I slipped back into my canoe under the cover of darkness that evening without the weight of a big buck in the front end, but I never saw or heard another hunter and was surrounded by bucks throughout the day.

The upshot is whitetail hunters looking to score big should learn a little swamp savvy.

– Lead photo by Mike Searles

This article was published in the October 2006 edition of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine. Join today to have Buckmasters delivered to your home.

When we talk about ammunition for the AR-15, the most likely mentions include .223 Remington, 5.56×45 NATO, and .300 Blackout. Why? Because they are the most popular and readily available rounds available for sporting rifles today. But they are not the only rounds available.

Have you heard of the debate between 6.5 Grendel vs. 6.5 Creedmoor? Firearms enthusiasts everywhere can argue for hours about the two rounds and their ideal uses, kinetic energy ratings, and price per round comparisons.

Did you know that in Europe, the 6.5 caliber is immensely popular? Both hunters and target shooters adopted the round over a century ago. Here in North America, we stuck to what we know. That is changing, though. Both of the 6.5 caliber rounds we discuss here are making waves.

The History Behind 6.5 Grendel Vs. 6.5 Creedmoor

6.5 Grendel next to a standard 5.56mm round

Both the 6.5 Grendel and 6.5 Creedmoor were designed with unique goals in mind. Like most other AR-15 ammunition, though, 6.5 Grendel stems from a desire to replace the iconic .223 Remington, while 6.5 Creedmoor hails from the .308 Winchester round.

6.5 Grendel History

During the Vietnam War, the M-16 and 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge saw extensive military use. That use left a lot to be desired, though. Soldiers in the field reported inaccurate ammunition and regular weapon jams. A better platform and caliber were necessary. Enter the 6.5mm caliber.

Many companies sought to improve upon the .223 Remington and 5.56x45mm rounds. Thus Bill Alexander, the creator of the .50 Beowulf, set out to develop the 6.5 Grendel by modifying a 6.5mm PPC case and succeeded. The 6.5 Grendel is significantly more potent than the original .223 Remington while still running in an AR-15.

The 6.5mm Grendel was first publicly announced in 2003 at a Blackwater Training Facility in North Carolina where it displayed its ability to pack a bigger punch than the 5.56 NATO round – one could consider it as the round that basically became the US version of the 7.62×39.

6.5 Creedmoor History

On the other hand, 6.5 Creedmoor was developed largely because of the competitive shooting scene. Dave Emary and Dennis DeMille, of Hornady Manufacturing, worked on the cartridge in the early 2000s. Their goal was simple: create a round for high-power rifle competition shooting, specifically with a high ballistic coefficient, that was more shootable than a .308.

The initial design drew inspirations from the .260 Remington, a wildcat cartridge. Again, they saw success. The 6.5 Creedmoor was as accurate as the .308 Winchester but delivered less recoil, had less wind drift and a relatively flat trajectory. In fact, most people in the precision community now consider .308 to be a completely dead round for the sport, with no reason to choose it over the 6.5 Creedmoor.In terms of precision shooting rounds, the 6.5 Creedmoor became one of the most hotly discussed cartridges of the 21st century. Originally introduced in 2007, today, almost every barrel manufacturer in the U.S. has tooled up to accommodate for the hotly demanded barrel chambered in 6.5 CM.

6.5 Grendel vs. 6.5 Creedmoor: Cartridge Sizes

As 6.5 Creedmoor was based on the .308 cartridge, it’s naturally a larger round. The 6.5 Grendel features a rim diameter of .441”, while the 6.5 Creedmoor is .473”. The larger size means the Creedmoor round achieves a higher maximum average pressure, because it has a larger case capacity for more powder.

6.5 Grendel Specs

• Bullet Diameter: .264”
• Case Length: 1.52”
• Maximum Overall Length: 2.26”
• Rim Diameter: .441”
• Case Capacity: 35gr H2O
• Max Pressure: 52,0000 psi

6.5 Creedmoor Specs

• Bullet Diameter: .264”
• Case Length: 1.92”
• Maximum Overall Length: 2.825”
• Rim Diameter: .473”
• Case Capacity: 52.5gr H2O
• Max Pressure: 62,000 psi

6.5 Creedmoor vs 6.5 Grendel Ballistics

The sheer size difference between the two rounds means a significant gap in ballistics. That being said, both rounds were built with unique purposes in mind. One was meant to replace .223 Remington, while the other was meant to improve upon .308 Winchester—two distinct rounds with massive differences of their own.

6.5 Grendel Ballistics

• Muzzle Velocity: 2,580 fps, 1,818 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 100 Yards: +2.2”, 1,581 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 200 Yards: 0”, 1,376 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 300 Yards: -9.2”, 1,189 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 400 Yards: -26.4”, 1,023 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 500 Yards: -52.8”, 876 ft-lb.

6.5 Creedmoor Ballistics

• Muzzle Velocity: 2,925 fps, 2,280 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 100 Yards: +1.6”, 1,968 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 200 Yards: 0”, 1,693 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 300 Yards: -7.1”, 1,448 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 400 Yards: -20.6”, 1,232 ft-lb.
• Trajectory – 500 Yards: -41.6”, 1,024 ft-lb.

6.5 Grendel vs 6.5 Creedmoor Applications

As you can see 6.5 Grendel and 6.5 Creedmoor are fantastic rounds that successfully improve upon their respective parent rounds. But like all other rounds, each one has its own optimal application.

Why Choose 6.5 Grendel

In terms of intended applications, the 6.5 Grendel is best if you only expect to be using it in a rifle meant for home defense or any kind of target shooting on a range. It is also a very viable caliber for hunting white tail deer and varmints. If you’re looking for a caliber that’s somewhere in between the 5.56mm NATO and 7.62mm NATO rounds, this is it.

Why Choose 6.5 Creedmoor

To be clear, both calibers are excellent for hunting small game such as feral hogs, whitetail deer, and fallow deer at short- to medium-range distances. However, if you wish to hunt larger game, bigger than a deer, then 6.5 Creedmoor is the better choice. In Europe, hunters will take down moose with 6.5 Swede, which is fairly close to the 6.5CM round. Even in competitive shooting, 6.5 Creedmoor is the clear winner when compared against the 6.5 Grendel for its superior bullet velocity and (less bullet drop) flatter flight path.