The human eye is a true marvel of nature. It can focus on 50 different objects every second. It can distinguish approximately 10 million different colors, and it can even identify a candle flame up to more than a mile and a half away. Unfortunately, it has its limitations … and that’s where technology must step in.  Whether you need a riflescope, a rangefinder, night-vision goggles or a pair of sophisticated binoculars, equipment has improved greatly over recent years to give you a better view than ever before. You can take and store still images electronically, record in high definition ..read more

protect your daily driver from an electromagnetic pulse. I’m a car guy—not new cars, mind you, but the “classic cars” of my youth. I had a front row seat for the peak of the “muscle car” era of the 1960s and ’70s; and, during my teenage years, I enjoyed turning wrenches under the hoods of Dodge, Ford and Chevrolet cars and pickup trucks. Back then, all I needed to keep them running were simple hand tools, a vacuum gauge, some feeler gauges and maybe an ignition timing light. In those days, car makers produced models that could go from the dealer’s showroom straight to the local drag strip and ..read more

If you have to keep track of time, do it in style. The fundamental concept that time is the one commodity we all share is strikingly profound. There are few other ideas that connect everyone so deeply. None of us knows how much time we have, but it is the most precious gift we are given. Marking the passing of time can be as simple as a glance at your wristwatch, but this act pays homage to the journey we call “life.” Over the years, we’ve crafted a number of increasingly complex devices to reflect the passing of sand though the hourglass, but somewhere along this progression, there was a gold ..read more

5 Ways to up your camp cuisine game As stated many times in survival books, manuals and television shows, food is the last in the order of priorities when it comes to survival. To underscore this point, there have been many stories of survivors in the wilderness lasting well over a month without food.  Energy gets low just being at home in the city, but even more calories are burned in an outdoor setting. Activities such as hiking, backpacking, making a camp for survival or even recreational car camping can burn a lot of calories. So, although the lack of food isn’t as detrimental to surv ..read more

sense anymore? I was sitting in a ground blind in my favorite turkey area, my back against a large oak tree. I was hunting on public land about 25 miles from where I live. I had arrived before first light, hoping to catch the birds coming out of the roost. There was plenty of sign, so I knew my chances were good. Three hours into my hunt, I heard what sounded like a herd of elephants crashing through the woods. Suddenly, a bunch of dogs, followed by their owners, came into my hunting area. At this point, all was lost. I unloaded my shotgun, pulled my camo mask off and picked up my decoy. Any b ..read more

Survive Outdoors Longer gear—the difference between comfort and disaster By Jim Cobb Living in the upper Midwest, you become used to snow and frigid temperatures. Like seemingly endless farm fields and random Dollar General stores in the middle of nowhere, they’re just part of the landscape in the winter months. As a teenager, the first accessory you bought for your car was a set of jumper cables, and Mom usually provided an old blanket to keep in the trunk, just in case. Survive Outdoors Longer makes a number of products that’ll be welcome additions to a winter kit for your car or truck. (Pho ..read more

This easy-to-find plant provides food, fiber and medicinal benefits. NAME: MILKWEED 
(Asclepias syriaca and A. California) Milkweed is part of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae). Formerly, milkweed had been classified in its own family—the milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae). The genus, Asclepias, contains about 100 species, with about 60 of them found in the United States. Some are found all across North America. About a third of the species are most common in the U.S. West, and the rest are most common in the Eastern states. DESCRIPTION This perennial plant grows erect, usually 2 to 3 feet t ..read more

SURVIVAL CAN COME DOWN TO YOUR ABILITY TO STAY WARM AND DRY STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE TRAVIS Many Scandinavian cultures use the word “friluftsliv,” which loosely translates as “outdoor lifestyle” to describe their affinity for outdoor activities. Considering their colder climates and long, dark winters, it is worth paying attention to how Nordic peoples keep comfortable in the outdoors. TEMPERATURE REGULATION The human body is adapted to live in a tropical climate. On average, we begin to lose our unaided ability to maintain core body temperature (97.7-99.5 degrees) when the ambient temperature ..read more

You and Santa can Satisfy everyone for less than $100 each! By Michael D’Angona Many people receive gifts during the holidays … and they get put away, never to be used and ultimately forgotten. Don’t let your gifts to family and friends suffer the same fate. Give them goodies that serve a practical purpose, keep them safe, warm and dry, arm them with the tools to fix or carry things, and ultimately survive when bad times come their way. Additionally, many of these life-enhancing gifts are rather inexpensive, especially when compared to the benefits that any one of them can provide in times of ..read more

Nhan-Esteban Khuong teaches “primitive” blacksmithing for the 21St century. Metalsmithing—taking raw metals and pounding them into functional tools such as knives, swords, awls, fire-strikers, shovels and many more implements—is one of the oldest arts known to man. It’s a common oversimplification to think of human technological advancement in terms of “Stone Age,” “Iron Age,” “Industrial Age” and the like, because, in reality, humans have been working with metals for more than 10,000 years! The development of metallurgical technologies (such as smelting and mass production) largely replaced t ..read more