Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Starting Fires in Tent Stoves

What's the best way to start a fire in a tent stove? What tricks have you learned? Do you use paper or firestarters or...?

How about those of you who use coal? How exactly do you start burning it?

I've heard that paper in a tent stove will cause lots of spark and could cause a greater risk of burn holes in the tent.

Thanks.

Some wax paper and a little #2 fuel oil.

We've always used the fire starter they make for fireplaces, works great.

I am tempted to spin a tale, clearly illustrating how "not" to do it

I was elk hunting on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona, with two companions,one of whom was at the time a well-known hunting writer,and all round great guy....the other was a cattle broker buddy from Amarillo.Of course we had the lineup of resident Apache guides who would stoically stand in a circle at night around a big campfire outside our big canvas sleeping tent,warming by the fire and chatting among them selves...It was all very peaceful and serene......

My writer buddy was inordinately fond of stoking the sheepherder stove in the tent full of what I think was mesquite,or some kind of greasy-burning wood from the area,and giving her hell with the oil he used to start the fire in the stove....of course we had warm goose down sleeping bags and I asked him several times through the week not to stoke the fire so hot because it got really HOT in the tent at night.....

On this particular night,after 4-5 nights of alternately roasting and freezing,we were preparing for bed and I am lying in my bag,watching Rich go through his deliberate and calculated routine with the stove,stuffing more and more logs in;each layer receiving a generous dose of oil...

....Scott, my other buddy,aware of my concerns about a hot tent is a big guy and his sleeping bag is shaking as he tried to hide his laughter as a glared at Rich and admonished him in a controlled voice......."Rich..please don't throw so much wood in the stove...it'll get too hot"..

"OK, Bob"...says Rich (oblivious),as he squirts another charge of oil onto another layer of logs...(Scott is laughing harder).....

The lamps go out,the stove is chirping merrily; we can hear our Apache guides chatting outside near their fire..and we are speaking in hushed tones just before starting to dose off......

Suddenly...the serenity of this peaceful scene on a cold January night is shattered as the door blows off the wood stove,along with the vent pipe,and sparks and chunks of burning wood the size of tangerines are hurtling through the tent at Mach 1.....I rocket from from my sleeping bag;grab it and hurtle from the tent,all the while having the presence of mind to commence a barrage of obscene epithets at Rich....Scott is directly behind laughing so hard his belly shook and then here comes Rich...his ears burning from my verbal onslaught.... "Go..amn it,Rich! I told you not to stoke that [bleep] fire so hot!!!!

We all three emerge, running,half naked into the cold January air, past the Apache guides...most of whom simply stared..aware they have witnessed big league insanity.A couple had the presence of mind to douse the flames.....

Rich was thereafter relieved of duty on the stove at gunpoint; we slept "cold' after that..

BobinNH,

LOL...That should be written up in a magazine.

Classic!

Leftybolt

We use wood shavings or chainsaw cuttings, add in some diesel and mix together. Make sureits not saturated with diesel.

We usually have a 5 gallon pail of mixed product. All you need is a small cup full. Place kindling on top. Light. - No flare up, just a nice burn.

BUT as of last year we purchased a diesel heater. NICE !!!

When we need another tent set up when all our kids get older, then we will use the wood stove again for that tent.

Lefty...true...every word

If truck camping a one pound propane canister and torch. Works great on just about any kind of wood. As well as starting the campfire.

I've been using wadded newspaper in my Simms Folding Sheepherders Stove for 35 years in my canvas A-wall tent. I have never had any problem whatsoever with sparks from the paper.

I wad up a number of sheets, put them on the floor of the stove, then layer over a bunch of small kindling sticks, add larger pieces of wood and light it. It always catches the wood and never provides any spark problem.

I have always had a good spark arrestor on the chimney top!

That's my experience.

L.W.

+1 MightyPeace, the diesel and wood shavings work great. we usually have it packed in a vacume sealed bag to conserve space. So it can be loaded into a pack on a packhorse easily. Just cut the corner off the bag and you have a nice spout to pour onto your kindling.

Great story Bob! You had me laughing out loud with that one.

It also reminded me of the "stokers" that I've shared a wall tent with over the years. I've froze my a$$ off with some and slept on top of my sleeping bag because it was so friggen hot with others. I remember being so hot one night that I went out into the frosty night in my underwear for some relief. While cooling off I heard the "stoker" shoving more wood in the stove!

Birch bark peelings, dried spruce boughs, small spruce kindling, paper and if needed a small amount of charcoal lighter or those little fire starters that resemble a candle. I always make sure my kindling is high enough to let air under it. I use a match to light something bigger and use that to start the fire, easier on the fingers.

Birch bark peelings, dried spruce boughs, small spruce kindling, paper and if needed a small amount of charcoal lighter or those little fire starters that resemble a candle. I always make sure my kindling is high enough to let air under it. I use a match to light something bigger and use that to start the fire, easier on the fingers.

Fire it up any way one wants. My bit of advice for the metal stoves, is to put about a 1/2 to 1 inch layer of soil in the bottom of the stove before the first fire. Seems to help seal any cracks or seams and insulates the bottom against excessively hot coals.

Lonny. ain't it the truth though? LOL!

I like to place a layer of small logs, preferrably unsplit, on the bottom of the stove. Then paper, kindling, more wood and a wadded up piece of paper right in the mouth of the chimney. I light the chimney piece first, to start a draft. When that starts to draft, then I light the other paper and things generally work out. The bottom layer takes awhile to light and, being unsplit as well as below the heat, burns longer into the night. It's definitely good to have some ashes or soil to insulate the floor of the stove - my dog likes to sleep there, otherwise she wants in my sleeping bag and that doesn't help me sleep.

I tend to use newspaper to help dry sweat from the inside of my boots, which stinks to the heavens before long, so I'm not afraid to put a little extra into the fire

Lived for three years in a tent, always started with birch bark and small twigs. I was living up near Duluth so very seldom let it go out in the winter. I could bank it in the morning and have a fire at night when I got back from work or my trapline.

erich

Lived in a tent for 3 years near Duluth? Now that sounds like the makings of a book. I bet you didn't let that fire go out for about 6 months. That's an adventure I'd like to hear more about.

In the late 70's fur prices were high and I had a job where I worked a lot of hours and banked them instead of takeing the overtime and spent the winters staying ahead of the ice trapping. I'd start the fall in Warroad or International Falls and trap mink, muskrats, beaver and bank running fox out of my canoe. As things would freeze up I'd move south aways and set up again all the way down to Fergus Falls. Then after full freeze up I'd head back to my house near Detroit Lakes and trap through the ice untill the beaver started to get to many bite marks and then start north again. Did that a few years and got divorced.

My Mom and Dad were retiring and seeing as I didn't have a job would I build them a home(I'm a journeyman carpenter) on a lake in NW WI. Took the Bronco, my horse, dog, tent and boats and moved on to their property I spent the summers building the house and fishing winters I trapped , hunted and icefished. It took three summers and two winters.

Just living what life dealt me.

erich

We use this:

http://www.ezfire.com/?gclid=CKWKuvr696ACFQz_iAodt1Yo1A

Fast and easy, so you can start dinner or beverages instead of messing with a fire.

I carry a couple in my pack out in the field as well.

Manny