Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Fire Starters

In a pinch, and if you have them, Fritos Corn Chips work well too. The oil and the corn burn pretty good. Plus you can eat them! Way back when I started all things hunting, I decided to learn how to start an emergency fire before I needed one. Can only imagine what my parent's neighbors thought about me out in my parent's yard, in my underwear, in the cold, rain and snow trying to start a fire! Lol! In my travels, I've used all kinds of Zippo lighters, dryer lint, cotton balls with vaseline, magnesium bars, road flairs, fritos... all kinds of stuff. My favorite lighter is a Zippo style, but one of the high pressure ones for lighting cigars. Of course, if I'm flying to a hunt, that'll determine what I can bring or I'll find a place to get something once I arrive to my destination.

I did just find a new and unused, but older, sitting in the back of a cabinet, magnesium stick. If anyone can use it, please PM me and it's yours.

I used to do pretty well with cheap champagne until she caught on……

If I am trying to travel light a propane bottle and torch head are out of the question. Usually I would have a pack, ditty bag and pockets. Then i would have several ways to make a fire, matches (water resistant), lighter, magnesium stick and sometimes carry paste, which is heavy but does work well with the magnesium.
I always carry something on my person and other items in the pack/bag. You never know what could happen and you could get separated ftom your gear. Food is important, but water is more important, typically water is available here in AK.
If you're up high you might have to walk, but usually it can be found.
Fire can be lifesaving as hypothermia can be deadly, I've only been in that situation once while sheep hunting and its humbling to be in that position.

Fritos are terrible. They never last long enough to get up the trail, let alone start a fire. I'm addicted to those things.

Lol…….

RC, that’s what I’ve done when I “practiced” using the fire sticks. A small piece is all I need to get a fire going.

I have never got to the point where I needed a fire under dire conditions. At least not yet…..

In my 50 plus years doing all this stuff, I've needed one once. I was moose hunting up in NE Manitoba, in the Ferry Rock region. Long story short, we ran out of gas for the outboards and while the outfitter was content to play cards in the cabin until the gas showed up, I was not. We had had a bull encounter in an area not far from the cabin so I loaded up the canoe, paddled across the lake, through a little channel to another lake and then to the far end of the second lake to a rock outcropping. I got up to the top of that rock outcropping and got comfortable, fresh moose sign in the area. I settled in, got my binos out and did a little moose calling. After a short time, I was rewarded with a reply grunt from across the lake. I went back down to the canoe, loaded my stuff back in and shoved off. My mistake, didn't get settled into the canoe and rolled it right over. In a fraction of a second, I was soaked! Got back on shore and emptied out the canoe, thankfully, didn't loose anything, nothing was at the bottom of the lake. Air temperature was in the mid 30°'s, no ice on the lake but the water was cold. Soaking wet and shivering, I got a fire going and dug out my second set of clothes that were in my waterproof daypack. So at least I had dry, and eventually, warm clothes. Glad I got the fire going, warmed me, and my spirit, back up. Should have just put the wet shoes back on when paddling back to the cabin, the bottom of the aluminum canoe got pretty cold with just socks on. Amazing how fast I forgot all about the moose that grunted back at me!

Should add, started this fire with wooden matches that I kept in a metal twist top waterproof match holder and dryer lint kept in a plastic ziplock baggie. There was an abundant supply of dry kindling, so thankfully, that wasn't a problem.

Here's what I make. It burns longer than the equivalent amount of kerosene soaked on a cotton swab too.


Pinch of vaseline, pinch of dryer lint, and pinch of sawdust.

Roll it around and mix it all up real good.

We call it gunk. I have never had it not want to light, or never not been able to start a fire with it. Even semi-wet/damp sticks will usually dry out enough to light by the time the gunk burns out. That pinch will generally burn at least 5 minutes. And you usually don't even have to use the whole piece. I actually only use a portion of what I have and save the rest in case I need to add a little more to get the fire going, but i've never needed the whole piece.

The dryer lint when mixed with vaseline seems to wick it up pretty good. I think that's what helps it burn as long as it does. Much like how candle wax helps the wick last longer too. And the sawdust, helps it light.

Mix all 3 together and it works really good.

Was given a can of Pyro Putty and it works well. Was in the cotton ball camp before that.

I’m due to add some more cotton balls and Vaseline to my kit, but this time I’m considering mixing each cotton ball with some fine steel wool, and then coating in Vaseline. Might increase the burning temp.

Get a good 1/2" quality ferrorod or that expensive ferro barrel unit from Holland gunsmithing. Either work.

Get a Bic or two. If you need a refillable lighter forger the Zippo and go with the Exotac lighter. It holds fluid longer and is o-ring sealed. Exotac makes an good Bic cover that is quaint and excellent match cases. I have everything Exotac and it's spendy but top notch.

For not f***in around invest in those small Orion mini flares. They work.

Now for fire starters Get an old cookie sheet. Get heavy duty paper towels. Now get some parrifin block of canning wax at grocery store, you can use part of an toilet ring maybe and then a little boiled linseed oil. You can add small bit of vasline, but just a little if you feel you want. Put these in cookie sheet and melt outside maybe in an gas grill grate low heat. Lower piece of paper towel for a few seconds with some tongs and lift out after saturated.

What you get is an nice waxy material that can be folded into small squares size of a thick business card. They remind me of the child chunky books. Anyway you can carry them much easier than the messy Vaseline cotton ball bus8ness. These are solid and you open the material up fluff and scratch it a bit with a blade and it 3xposes fibers. Hit that with a Bic or ferro rod and it will burn in any weather even on a snowbank. Done it many times. I carry these in my filson tin jacket.

Cotton balls with the petroleum jelly, but mix in a little 0000 steel wool. A 9-volt battery will easily start a fire.

Phil

There are hundreds of various strikers on the market. At least half are worthless. They all have the same ferrorod but the problem is the steel in the striker. It takes a good quality, hard steel to throw a spark and many are made with cheap soft steel. If yours won't throw sparks, try a knife or anything else around the house to see if you can find something harder and sharper. The best I've found is a StrikeForce. It throws an inferno of sparks. They also make a small version called the Sparkforce that fits nicely in the worthless column. If I use the steel from the Strikeforce on the Sparkforce, it works great.

If you have a striker that won't spark, Amazon sells these steel strikers that make any ferrorod into a good fire starter. I attached one to my SparkForce to make it a good one.
BAYITE STEEL

Also, don't buy a bunch of fire starter stuff and just toss it in your pack. Using it takes practice. Practice at home, preferably in lousy conditions, to learn the tricks before you really need it.

A friend bought some of this fire starter putty. You dig out a small lump and work the fibers loose so a spark can light them. Supposedly. He had it in his hot garage and the putty melted, soaking into the fibers. It's easy to start with an open flame, but very difficult with a sparker.

Good stuff all. A few more tidbits.

1. I tested dryer lint against pure cotton balls, and the cotton balls were better. Both had equal amounts of Vaseline kneaded into them inside a ziploc bag. Cotton balls ignite easier and burn better than the dryer lint I tried. I think the reason is that lint has a mix of fibers, some of which burn better than others, while the pure cotton balls ignite consistently.

2. Bic lighters and their clones have come apart into tiny pieces in my pack and pockets at times. Also, as said, they can be hard to light with cold fingers/thumb, virtually impossible if wet. I carry lighters but trust my ferro rods more, and I can use larger hand muscles which work better in severe cold.

3. Angled head piezo lighters, sometimes called cigar lighters, are shaped WAY better to start campfires. I have the REI Stormproof lighter and the cap on it is majorly in the way of igniting tinder, and often pushes it out of the way. Great ignition, dumb design.

4. Learn to pull the ferro rod rather than push the striker down toward the tinder. Puts the sparks closer to the tinder and does not scatter it.

Trick birthday candles are what I keep in my pack.

The kind that when you blow them out, they instantly relight.

Work slick as heck for starting fires.

Word of warning though, and this is from using them for years. The "trick candle" re-igniting part is only in the top 1/2 to 1/3 of them after that they are just a regular candle. But they are fantastic and they weigh nothing. Stick a few in a ziplock with a lighter and matches and you are good to go.










Screwing around with scraping flints and steels when you have frozen hands is miserable. Just light a couple candles and get stuff going.

Keeping a little stove in my pack has helped immensely.

During the late season hunt I will often stop during the day and brew up a cup of coffee or hot tea or some noodles or instant mac and cheese to warm myself up if I am getting too cold.

It helps keep me motivated.

I wish those came in larger sizes.

Here's another good one. These can be found at Walmart along with Presto Logs, etc. They're very light weight and will burn hot for 15 min. Just light the wrapper. They won't light with a striker, though. You need a match or lighter.

Drier lint. There are some problems with it. I mentioned before that children's clothes are fireproofed. If you get lint from those, it won't burn at all.
Some kinds of synthetics are also hard to burn. Your best bet is to clean the filter, then run a load of all cotton towels. Pure cotton lint will burn better than anything.

I don't mess with it. Go to Walmart's cosmetics dept. and spend $1 for a bag of the jumbo cotton balls. Make sure they're pure cotton as they also sell some synthetic ones that won't burn well.

I'm a leader for a Trail Life troop. We spend a lot of time with the boys teaching them survival stuff. We never allow them to use matches. Any one can start a fire with matches or a lighter. We have them use strikers all the time to learn how to do it the hard way. We've experimented with all kinds of tinder. We've used cotton balls, char cloth, fuzzy wood, commercial stuff, jute string, and many other things. So far, by far the easiest to light with a striker that we've found is the good old vasoline cotton ball.

Mackay;
Top of the morning my cyber friend, I hope you and your fine family are well.

Oh - belated Happy Birthday as well.

Thanks to you and my friend Okanagan as well as the rest of course for your input.

As I believe you and others might know, I teach the Survival/First Aid portion of the BC Hunter Safety course so it's always good to have new tricks to share.

You're right that when one is "really and truly" cold, fooling with a ferro rod and fat wood or such tinder might be too slow to be a life saver.

Since I'm me - and Okanagan can verify this as he's been to our place a couple times for visits - I tend towards being more than a "belt and suspenders" sort.

Whenever I'm hunting, in my left pocket in a plastic bag is a ferro rod, 0000 steel wool and cotton balls soaked in Vaseline. In the pack there's a pocket torch, fat wood, a magnesium block with another ferro rod, more Vaseline soaked cotton balls and a variety of windproof/waterproof matches.

Honestly Mackay, I tell the class that if I'm still mobile, they'll be able to find this little old hunter from space by the thermal signature!

Now I'll be looking in the Dollar Store for those candles too!

Thanks again and good luck on your hunts this fall.

Dwayne