Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Surviving a cold wet night

I've had butane lighters just lock up and not work but when a buddy of mine dumped a water bottle full of water, a Vaseline soaked cotton ball and his ferro rod onto the ground and with two strikes had the cotton ball burning for 15 minutes, I was convinced.

Lots of good stuff in thread.

Going to update my post from 6 years ago as I've changed a few things.

Still carry the normal stuff I listed in the first line. My fire kit remains pretty much unchanged- it's robust as getting a good fire going is really going to increase the comfort on an unexpected night out. My first aid kit is a little more robust to handle bleeding incidents better. I've added a Garmin inReach Mini and basically don't leave home without it. Satellite communication is one of things there really is no reason not to be without if spending time in remote areas.

One big change is I rarely hunt with a daypack any more; I've instead gone to carrying my frame (SG Krux) with a 50-ish liter bag. I can get one full load of meat out without hiking back to the truck. I tried smaller bags with my frame, but the 50 liter bag cinches down about as small as the smaller ones and isn't much heavier. It also allows me more volume to carry a few more things that would make a unexpected night out a little more tolerable.

I carry a Mountain Laurel Designs Spirit Apex quilt. It has a "poncho" hole so I can use it when glassing wearing it over the top of me if needed. I've found this to be great way to increase the time glassing in very cold weather. It also gives me another emergency insulating layer.

I carry a different bivy now. It's a custom bivy made my Nunatak, insulated with Apex and highly wind/water resistant.

https://nunatakusa.com/content/30-akula-bivy-system

I use a heavier (but higher r value) pad- a cut down Thermarest z pad (50" long)

I still carry a sil tarp, but a larger one. I found the 5x8' tarp a little too small when glassing in crappy conditions, the new one is 7x9' 12 oz vs 8 oz, but much better coverage.

Still carry a heavier insulated jacket, but also carry insulated pants now too (Apex insulated like the jacket).

A little more weight and a little more volume, but better prepped for a night out

@mtwarden, thanks for the update.

This thread is one of the classics and contains so much good information.

I've done some extensive testing with cotton balls, cotton pads, vasiline, and candle wax! Been working on it off and on for two years now!

My final conclusions have been that cotton pads dipped in wax only will light with a Ferro rod in every condition faster than any other variant I have tried

I've tried vasoline only, vasiline with wax for the outside coating, vasiline and wax melted together, and dipped in wax only.

I have compared in different elevations, temps, raining, snowing, wet, dry, and submerged in water first

Burn time is around 12 minutes

The pads that I've been useing are the "Equate premium cotton rounds" sold at your local Wal-Mart. Pads fit inside a pellet tin for pellet rifles perfectly. 5 or 6 pads to a tin. Just my 02

FYI......lets the pads soak until thourally saturated


Trystan

I agree with David_Walter that this thread is a classic and has lot of info - and the info added by Trystan is yet anther example of this!

Many years ago I took a winter survival course, and one thing I remember is that for the "make a fire" section of the course, participants had to hold their hands in a bucket filled with water and ice - and then make a fire.

I forget how many minutes this had to be - but at the time is seemed like a bloody long while!

Of course many here are from fairly warm climes and having hands chilled in ice isn't particularly relevant.

I will just note, however, that many of the fire-making methods mentioned in this thread are just not practical with extremely cold,numb hands (e.g. 9 volt battery + steel wool, matches (dipped in wax or not, you can't hold the bloody things properly when you can't feel your hands, Bic, Zippo or Ronson lighters - very difficult to get the wheel to spin and create sparks).

I recall that one of the participants on the winter survival course had a LARGE, piezo-electric cigar lighter that almost everybody in the course could use effectively after the ice bucket hand treatment.

I also recall that participants had lots of different fire steels (ferro rods) and that there were big differences both in the ferro rods, and their strikers. The Swedish Firesteel put out a LOT of sparks LINK to Light My Fire USA

Winter (early Spring/late Fall) in addition to a large fire steel and Bic (actually two Bics- one in my pocket, one in my pack), I carry a small flare- this is is about a bombproof way of starting a fire as there is

small flare

For tinder on my person I carry a Large LiveFire tin- super easy to ignite and will burn a loooong time (and can be put out and reused several times)

https://www.livefiregear.com/shop/live-fire-original/

Also a Trioxane bar

Fire in the winter for an unexpected night out is not optional

https://bigfoot-bushcraft.com/?gcli...a4N_1Vpqf67VzIgGXl1Lyj50rBRoCkrcQAvD_BwE

Just ordered a bunch for myself my son and a couple hunting buddies for Christmas. Hell I get cold fishing and this would be a quick easy way to get a fire going stream side.....

I just watched a video where a guy used twine as burn material to get a fire going unraveled the twin and damn if it didn't take off with a soaked cotton ball underneath struck with a ferro rod!!!

Happy Holidays To all ya'll !!!! Stay safe!

When I went through arctic survival school at Eielson AFB, AK, it was -42* on day two of the sleep out.

The NCOs beat into our heads “three methods of fire starting” and I still follow that philosophy.

Tinder sticks or fire starter goop or Vaseline balls, Swedish fire sticks, bic lighters (stashed close to the body so they stay warm and work well), and matches.

The only wrong way is just taking one way.

Everything either breaks or gets lost when you need it most. One is none, two is one, and all that.

If you had dreds they would have frozen.

If you had a brain it would've prevented you from saying that.

Thanks for the link to the small flairs! I've been packing a full sized road flair....Lol

David Walters, I absolutely agree with the three ways to start a fire. I also feel that one of those ways should be reserved for a guaranteed easy start such as the fire starting flair mtwarden referenced.

Trystan