Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Fire Starters

On the list of "Great Chit the Human Race invented" - Zippos aren't often mentioned but they should be. Old school just works and pretty simple device.

I take a small chunk of fat wood roll it in paraffin then while warm roll it in ancient gunpowder. They light pretty easily & burn for a while. Heavier than cotton balls though.

Coghlans Fire Sticks.
That’s what I carry. I’ve tested them several times, even letting them get a bit wet, and they start pretty easily with a butane lighter or a match, then burn hot for a time, plenty long enough to get damp tinder going.

I carry two butane lighters, matches, and a Ferro rod.

If I’m at the point where I’m building a fire in the middle of nowhere things have probably gone wrong. I want to be able to build a fire as easily as possible under the conditions, with cold stiff fingers, in the dark, snowing, etc.

Esbit Fuel tabs. Light easy and burn long and hot. Soaking cotton balls and making some sawdust paraffin concoction is too much work and messy. During hunting season in the remote areas of the Rockies, where making a fire might mean avoiding hypothermia, I have a zippo on me and Bic lighter, Fuel tabs, waterproof matches and small candle in my pack. If it's whitetail season in the midwest tree stand, or dirt biking, or casual hiking, it's a Zippo or Bic lighter and nothing else.

A 9 volt battery and a couple inches of wire and some kinling kept in a plastic bag will get a fire going and you can keep it in your pocket for emergencies when a lighter craps out or your matches are wet.

A 9 volt battery and a couple inches of wire and some kindling kept in a plastic bag will get a fire going and you can keep it in your pocket for emergencies when a lighter craps out or your matches are wet.

I rarely build fires when hunting and have never been in a situation where I felt I had to, to prevent hypothermia or otherwise survive. Even at -40 when trapping or when spending an unexpected night on the mountain during elk season. It is just more work than it is worth to me if you’re properly prepared.

I do, however play with different fire starter because I just like to burn things in my off time. Based on my experience (both sober and……..NOT sober) the road flares are still the way to go. Unless they have been soaking in a creek (and even then, maybe) all you do is flick the cap on the flare head and you’re in business, frozen fingers be damned. No fumbling with lighters, no messy witches brew concoction to deal with, nothing. I am a believer.

There are lots of similar products on the market. Before lighting one, break it in half. The fuzzy broken end will light much faster than a smooth solid end.

In nearly 60 years of hunting, I've never needed to start a fire but it only takes once to be glad you have a couple good methods of getting it done. One twisted ankle or 1 fall through ice on a frozen creek can change your whole day really fast.

I've only needed a fire 2x times in 40 years of being old enough to notice. Both were falls into water in cold temps where you needed to get warm asap. Once through the ice on a creek and once, as mentioned, my dad fell out of a boat in a remote lake, miles from the nearest person (portage a canoe in) and it was starting to snow.

I’m currently a trioxane guy but if I ever ran out I’d be a petro-jellyball guy. That just makes sense to me.

Lots of great posts in this thread!

Ditto. I don't get the desire to mess with small items and numb fingers when there are flares. I've had one in my pack for a really long time. Do they have a shelf life?

I am sure they have a lawyered up expiration date but have never really looked. I just buy a new 3 pack every couple of years and then play with the old ones. I have never had one not instantly light despite sitting in my pickup's toolbox and in my pack through whatever weather I come across. They are in a zip lock bag though.....

I was running a trapline in northern MN and we had a sharp drop in temp and I got in a rush to get my traps out before the river froze and turned over my canoe a long way from the road. A match safe saved my life. Birch bark burns like its soaked in kerosene, even gives off oil black smoke. The under dead branches still on the spruce tree are like fat wood. I had to swim to shore and break shore ice to get out. My clothes were nearly frozen stiff by the time I got a fire going and I stayed there until enough of my clothes were dry to hike back to the truck. It was up to -9 when I got back to camp and changed to dry gear, got a grappling hook (trap drag) to pull the canoe back to shore.

Bic and zippo lighters don't work when wet, your wet thumb on the striker wheel will stop them from working. If carry a match safe use your bic to light the stove light fires etc. save the match safe for emergencies.

The only fire helper I need are cotton balls with vaseline impregnated. A small pill bottle of it goes a long ways.

I get used chew cans, cut cardboard strips, the height of the can! Cut a piece of cotton rag or heavy cotton string! Lay the string on the cardboard, rollup and put in the can. Fill the can with paraffin wax. The string is the wick, cardboard and paraffin the fuel. I ask friends to save the all plastic cans, and make ten or twenty at a time. They will burn for ten to fifteen minutes. The only time I needed to use one, i just kicked the knots out of a dead doug fir, all rotten and gray. The knots are so full of pitch, water doesn't soak in the knots. The knots once started will burn in a good rain. Road flares are in the truck, never carried in my pack, yet!! Never tried the cotton ball and boy butter thing!

If you dip them in paraffin wax they become waterproof and they burn much longer too. Plus they're less messy.

Toilet paper tubes stuffed with dryer lint. Not from yer bellybuttons numbnuts

On hunting trips i carry a propane torch, learned it from the natives.. they know what T Fug it takes to stay warm. Heap big match, eh

If you have small children, their clothing is by law fireproofed. Lint from their pajamas won't burn well. Collect your lint after running a load of towels.

I am in the vaseline/cottonball camp. When my boys and I messed around with various methods...this one worked the best.

Must add that I have not tried any commercial stuff like trioxane, flares, etc.

I carry a lighter(either a bic, or zippo), small pill bottle with the vaseline/cottonballs, ferro rods, and waterproof matches.

Have never needed to make a fire in an emergency, but have done some for cooking/comfort/ambiance a few times out hunting.