Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Fire Starters

Hot cuppa on a long cold morning elk stand. I’ve never done much stand hunting but I don’t get around so well now and my boys talked me into watching a saddle and head of a canyon one morning. It is a mile or so from a vehicle, so took a backpack stove and a pad to sit on.

We have sort of two topics going on this thread:
1. how to start routine fires (for which the majority of us will use a BIC type lighter), and
2. crisis fires when we are cold/wet/without normal gear/in high wind and precipitation/all of the above.

Like BC30cal, I take a bunch of back up ways to start a fire and almost never need any of them. Piezo lighter, Storm Proof lighter, candle, Trioxane or homemade fatwood/Vaseline-cotton fire starter, a few Vaseline cotton balls, a few thin slats of fat wood, ferro rod, strike anywhere matches ---
AND a great new addition from Mackay will be the candles that won’t go out! That whole pile goes easily in a ziploc in a pocket.

I like to split old fir fatwood into thin slats 5 inches long (which fit in a plastic Costco candy jar for storage). Cut the fatwood into 5 inch long blocks then use an old knife to split off slats. I prefer slats that are paper thin on one side, for easy ignition, and 1/8 inch thick on the other side. I wrap a few slats in a paper towel, in a ziploc to carry. They burn hot and long and place flame like a super match.

The pic below is of some handy fatwood scraps, not full slats.