15" AK serves well on camping trip

SilverFoxKnows

SilverFoxKnows

Joined
Sep 25, 2002
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Just got back from 4 days & 3 nights at the San Mateo campgrounds. Fun but exhausting. It's good to be home. The first day there Geoff wanted to get a fire going but said "Jason's got the lighter fluid, I hope he gets here soon". I've read enough, here, about fuzz sticks and tinder to know you don't need lighter fluid to start a fire. We're city boys, go easy on us ;)

Enter the AK. Got a little pile of chips going (and some bigger pieces to put under the logs but over the chips and newspaper). Had a fire going in no time. To many of the guys here that's child's play but it seemed to impress the guys there. I think the AK made an impression, too. :eek: :D

Frank
 
BruiseLeee said:
Lighter fluid is more spectacular. :)
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Yeah, my dad's never caught himself on fire with fuzz sticks.
Sounds like a fun trip, Frank:)

Jake
 
For even more excitement, a teaspoon of black or smokeless powder can help things along...directly after the "whoomp", you will have more embers than you know what to do with, each one starting small fires all over the area....
 
FallingKnife said:
Don't you have gasoline? (Toss the match from about 10 feet away.)
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real men do it from 5;)...anybody seen my eyelashes? :confused:

Jake
 
Well done Frank,
Reducing hunks of firewood down into more easily ignitable kindling is a task khukuris are well suited for. Still, if there's sufficient quantities of dead, dry, twigs around, you can save yourself some chopping time and still get a hot fire going fast. Even on a damp, rainy, day you can generally find dead twigs on the lower branches of trees, where the upper branches have pretty much kept the rain off of them. When I say twigs, I mean skinny little things that you can easily snap with your fingers. No "snap" means the wood is moisture laden and won't work well.
Gather up a ball of these twigs roughly the size of a canteloupe, set it in your fire lay, and start arranging larger, finger thick, twigs on top of it, in a way that you don't crush the ball of twigs, and ensuring that air can circulate through your fuel.
What you've got now is a dual purpose kind of deal. By itself, it will quickly burn down to a bed of coals to boil a pot of cowboy coffee, or heat a can of beans. If you need to cook longer, just keep adding fuel in the form of dead wood that you can easily break up by hand. Small cook fires are efficient, easy to manage, and easy to extinguish so you can go do other stuff. Or, once you get your initial fire lit, you can gradually add more and larger wood until you've got whatever size fire you want.
There's a gazillion different ways to arrange the wood in a campfire, but there's really only two points you need remember. A: Is the initial fire hot enough to ignite the fuel being used? (ever had to "start over" with a camp fire?), and B: Is there adequate air flow to ensure continued combustion?
Starting a campfire with lighter fluid? I'd be tied to a tree and horse whipped for that. :rolleyes: Seriously, as a medieval reenactor, I pride myself on being able to get a fire lit anytime, anywhere, using flint and steel as my primary ignition source. Still works just as well as it did in all the many centuries in which it was just about the only way to get a fire lit. And man, I'm here to tell you, chicks dig it when you can git r done like Dan'l Boone ;)

Sarge
 
since it was a state park. So I followed the rules and made my own kindling even though it would have been easier to gather some dry brush and deadfall. That firewood was tough stuff. I kept wishing I'd brought the big WWII but the "little" AK did the job.

I earned the names "Boyscout" and "the Human Swiss Army Knife" that weekend because every time they needed a flashlight, bottle opener, knife, watch or even a pen I was Johnny on the Spot. I may be a city boy but at least I can start a fire without lighter fluid ;)

Good to see ya back, Sarge.

Frank
 
OOPS :foot:

Sorry Frank, I'd kind of forgotten about such things as state parks and rules and such. Hope I didn't insult your intelligence with my dissertation on twigs :rolleyes:

Sarge
 
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