My first squirrel hunt/ kill

First squirrel

On 15/05/2012 I went out walking with a friend, Ben Saint and where we walk is sometimes uses for pheasant shoots, so there are pheasant feeders around there, and by some of the pheasant feeders someone had laid very strong rat/ squirrel traps and they were somewhat successful, we found one squirrel but it wasn’t dead it was trapped up around the shoulder so on the basis it didn’t squirm or run away when we got close we assumed it has been there a while so Ben took my knife and simply pushed it through the side of the neck, killing the squirrel almost instantly.

We took the squirrel which we named Shellie back to base camp, it’s the first squirrel I have ever skinned and first animal Ben had ever killed so it was an interesting effort to try and gut and skin it, but we did it, it took a long time, we used the Finnish Pukko knife. The video will be on YouTube soon I hope.

We then decided to light a fire and cook the squirrel, I had never eaten squirrel before so after spit roasting it over a fire we decided it was done enough to eat, It tasted great, no sauce no vegetables just plain meat straight of the bone, not a huge amount of meat but enough for Ben and I to have a good try each.

As we were walking out of our den we noticed more pheasant feeders, so in hope we had a look to see if they had traps, one more un-dead but seriously injured squirrel which was dispatched with another quick stab to the throat, and two outright dead but still warm ones, so on this discovery we pulled out our knives and skinned and gutted the lot of them, the 3 bodies currently are in a plastic bag in my freezer and Ben insisted on taking the skins, he wanted to practise tanning and making stuff from them.

So next time I see Ben we’re taking a squirrel and seeing if we can make a nice little sauce for it and make it all the nicer. Very successful day and I did take home one of the tails to try and save to put on my hat.

Hope you all have enjoyed my very brief recount of that glorious sunny squirrel hunting day.

Stay safe

God Bless
WWB

An update

I haven't posted in a long time, but in the last couple of months I have been out and done abit, here is a quick look back at the last couple of months:

I have been confirmed a place on an expedition trip to MADagascar so I have been doing some exped training, I went for a long walk in February with a couple friends, I carried 20 Kg for 19 miles which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, It was a nice day out, explored a new area around my friends area, it was simply just walking, we stopped once for lunch, our pace was slower than normal walking but again it was quicker then I thought we would be.

In march we did another exped training camp, but this one was with the team who is going to MADagascar it was a two day walk in the Royal Forest of Dean, 15 miles first day and 9 the second, I carried less weight so it was more comfortable, we had to buy all our food at each stop so we didn't have to carry allot of food at any time. It was a very good camp but they put us in a campsite down in a valley at the beginning of March so when we woke up in the mourning it was very cold, frost everywhere, but it was a brilliant weekend.

Stay Safe
God Bless
WWB

A small day out with a Friend

Finaly free from extra work so managed to have a day out with a friend (28th Jan with Ben), packed a few tools and bits and bobs planned some reviews review and went for a walk, found a nice spot lit a small fire and did the videos, practised some carving and did some hawk throwing with a little less then perfect success luckily no damage so all good. Unfortunatly it was only a short day so need to get out again soon.
Stay safe out there guys
God Bless
Andew
WWB

A Nice November walk

Hey all

On the date of 20/11/11 (uk date setup) I successfully managed to get away from home for a day, I left the house at 07:45 with my boots on my feet, my knife on my side and a bag on my back and I was away, I wasn't planning on going any where far or fast that day, I just wanted to have a nice stroll around the downs near me.
So that's what I did, had a map, and a GPS so I went geocaching, which is basically a global treasure hunt, useing co-ordinates other players put online you find these little box items called caches, once found you sign your name in it and if its large enough it might have some trading goodies in it, the real treasure is the finding it, the walk and the nature around. That day i found 23 Geocaches :)
When I left the house that morning it was very foggy, and it was foggy all morning and then in the afternoon it was misty, which gave everything a hazy soft look to it which was beautifull, but the weather held up for the day so misty but dry was the day.
That day I saw many beautifull sites, the wildlife, the flowers and birds, and heard some beautifull songs, really I was just glad to be out for the day, back spending good quality time with mother nature and all God's creatures and life.
I made two video's for YouTube that day, one about Geocaching and my day and the other about a green heat gell cooker I used, simply just a small pot filled with this flamible gell, which you use to heat your pan and it's contents, that day I had a vegitable Korma boil in a bag meal and a couple of biscuits, the green heat cooker did well, it boiled my water quick enough once I stopped watching it (it's true what they say, a watched pot never boils) and still has enough fuel left in it for next time.
In the end a very successful day which I very much enjoyed.

More posts to come when I next get out again,
Thanks for joining me on this trip guys
Stay Safe
God Bless
WWB

Review: Jack Pyke 3.5 inch skinning knife

Good day all

This is a quick review post of a knife I recently was given by a good friend of mine, I've been carrying it for about a week now and I am very impressed with it, it is the "Jack Pyke 3.5 inch skinning knife" the blade is 440 stainless which is nice to try seeing as all my other blades are carbon steel of some sort, there is the thing that stainless doesn’t sharpen as well as carbon but this blade has a very fine edge so it sharpens well.

The blade is black coated with a nice belly to the blade, making it ideal for the sweeping cut strokes often used in skinning, it carves well and has a very good strong point which can be used to pierce and stab to get under the skin of your game/ quarry but the point is fine enough it can be used for fine slices such as gutting.

Other good features are the back of the blade is very good for striking a fire steel, the sheath is a hard plastic with a simple button lock, just press the button and pull the knife out, the handle is made of wooden scales help on with two allen key bolts and is very comfortable to hold and use.

It came on a piece of paracord and is designed be worn as a neck knife but I’ve changed the piece of paracord to a longer piece so I can wear it across my chest like a haversack or shoulder bag, this means I can hide it under my arm and keep it concealed.

All in all I think this is a very good knife and I will now be carrying this whenever I go out as a back-up knife instead of my Opinel #8 or BG folding scout.

Thank you all for supporting me

God Bless

Stay safe

WWB

Camping trip to Devon with family

Over the dates of 25/08/2011 - 29/08/2011 myself and my family (Mum, Dad, Sister and Dog) went camping in south Devon on a Campsite called Deerswell Camping, it was an absolutly loverly site with a perfect view, on one side to the south the was the sea and we could see Start point Lighthouse, to the west were rolling hills and farmers fields.
We arrived on the Thursday afternoon after spending the morning packing the car and doing all the final checks, I only took one bag my Alice pack which included my tent (Vango Banshee 300) and wool blanket so my stuff took up the least amount of space in the car, considering it was only 3 nights away we had a lot of stuff, but for camping you need certain gear the only things that change in quantity with time are clothes and food.
Anyway the Base camp Toronto we took worked really well, its not a new tent and this is the first time we used it and it leeked a little at the seems but was fine, once we pegged it out properly it was secure and didn't rock to much in the wind, we set up our oil lamp which we run with citronella oil inside on the table and it slowly leaked heat into the tent so we were dry, out of the wind and warm which for my Mother who doesn't normally camp with us was very important.
On the Friday we went into the local towns to have a look around and buy some bits and bobs like food. That night it was raining and Dad didn't want to go out so we set up a BBQ in the pourch part of the tent and cooked a fried breakfast.
Saturday was the best day of the holiday, we went down to Slapton sands beach, the family settled down on the pebbles the dog jumped in the sea and I went looking for limpets and muscles, I found loads of each but broke the tip of my Bear Grylls folding scout knife collecting a monster of a limpet.
After collecting sea food I left my full canteen cup with the family and went climbing and scrambleing over rocks and cliffs, there was one particually steep hard scramble which I did, got to the top and found a soft, clean, white feather which I have now put into my bush hat as a memory from a good camp and a great day climbing.
Saturday night I got a chance to dry our new Dutch oven which we brought only earlier that week, it worked great, I cooked a chicken stew, the video about it is on youtube.
Sunday was a sunny dry day so we put the tents down and packed the car and we left just before lunch time, the dog loved the whole camp, she was so well behaved, good dog.

Thank you guys for joining me on this camp
Stay Safe
God bless you and yours
Andrew the WhiteWolfBushcrafter

Night Hawk and Devises Explorer Camp At Pottern

I had a camp this weekend 09/07/11 - 10/07/11 it was at Pottern campsite with Night Hawks ESU, Devises ESU, Devises scouts, we did climbing, archery, air rifle shooting, and pionnering, all of which I do outside of scouting, in the pionnering we made a tower by making two tri-pods and turned one upside down inside the the other both tripods had supports around the base of them to keep them triangle, we then put poles on the base of the upside down one to make a platform, and I stayed up on it and helped some explorers one at a time onto it, we were about 15 - 20 ft up then the other two groups who had made catapults started fireing tennis balls at me and they got very close, as in a caught one in my hat and another hit me in the head :-P
Archery we had an instructor come down and basicly he did a quick safety brief gave us the bows and let those who had shot before coach and help the others, it was good, we were just useing recurve bows and i really wish I had my longbow with me but we were just shooting over 10M so it wouldn't be smart.
Air rifles, the instructor is ex-forces and ex-armed police and now a ballistics engineer so if anyone knows about guns it's him, he had a .177 and two .22 air rifles which were scrap and he fixed for use in scouting activities, that was good, we were shooting at targets, knock-down rabbits and birds and disks, one of the .22 had a scope and was under lever which was cool, I've never used an under lever before.
Climbing again had a specalist instructor, because I've done a climbing course I could belay which meant two people could climb at any one time, I did get to climb too, I did all 3 climbs on the wall which was only 40 ft tall but i was wearing magnum boots so it wasn't as easy as normal but still doable, he wouldn't let me climb barefoot which would have been ideal but it was good.
Our explorer leader took some frisbies with him and we were playing with them in our free time and they were good ones, they flew great and one got stuck in a tree so I just had to climb up to get it  because I could :-D
For this camp I slept under my Basha and had a great night sleep, was up to 03:00 sitting by our dying camp fire trying to make a spoon, I've never made a spoon before it wasn't that good, it accidently got thrown on the fire we used to cook breakfast so I'll have to try make another one soon.
The devises scouts had the option of sleeping in emergancy shelter, a large bin bag and string, only four of them did.
Thats just a quick over view of what happened on the weekend and some of the highlights, don't want to make you to jealous now do we?? :P

Andrew (whitewolfbushcrafter)