I have often pondered how similar a rubber band is to a worm or perhaps they can be fashioned into a bug or minnow.

Using my knife I fashioned a small minnow and thought I might coax a pan fish that typically hang out around my dock. To my surprise I caught a good sized bass instead. As I pulled it up to the dock it broke the line! I was dismayed but it did prove that my improvised lure worked!

For now I exercise catch and release when fishing at my pond and I’m quite sure that I’ve caught this one before as illustrated by the photo of our last encounter.

I made another improvised lure using a smaller hook and to my surprise I hooked more bass but they they all got off and I concluded that a larger hook was needed to be effective with bass.

I believe that a small hook works well with pan fish but a different rubber band shaped more like a grub or insect might appeal to them better and perhaps using it at a different time of day may yield more success.

I recommend experimenting with rubber bands for fun and with the prospect that rubber bands might be a good addition to your tackle box or survival kit.

I discuss various reflective signaling methods in a previous article “Back-To-Back CD Signal Mirror Method” that can be applied to this new reflective method. Although the glass surface of a cell phone is reflective, it can play a different role in signaling by means of providing a flat surface for a silverized Mylar snack wrapper.

My father used to turn snack bar wrappers inside-out and hung them on a fruit tree to ward off pillaging birds. That memory inspired me to try the same method using my cell phone as a base to hold a silverized snack wrapper as a cover. When held over one eye while using an extended hand as an aiming sight, the sun’s light can be directed to your target to gain attention to persons in the distance in an emergency.

This is a fun project to practice with friends or aimed at a distant reflective surface like a car’s license plate, signal lights, or road signs.

I have tried it and it actually works! But, I like the prospect of something more stable/reliable for floatation so I began to ponder how this method could be improved. In a previous article, “Gallons Of Flotation” I discuss that a gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds, and conversely, a gallon container of air can support eight pounds of flotation. This gave me an idea that empty containers could be used to fill the pants legs to provide reliable flotation if needed. In fact, empty 2 liter soda bottles would fit nicely down the pant legs for this purpose.

 
 
I tied the bottoms of the pant legs together then inserted 2 bottles in each leg resulting in a total of 4 bottles that equated to almost 17 pounds of flotation. Then I tightened the belt to close the waist area. I slipped the pant legs over my head with the tied end behind my neck while I used the remaining belt strap to wrap around my leg to secure the improvised PFD to my body. As I entered the water I was glad to have the strap around my leg as it helped to support my body as I floated on my back and freed my hands to paddle in any direction as needed.

When improvising a PDF, any buoyant material could be used as a filler to any clothing, tarp, net, or other surrounding material.

 
 
 
At first I met a slingshot craftsman who was also a regional competitor. I inquired about the possibility of just pinching together a rubberband/leather pouch set between my thumb and forefinger. He said that it could be done but you would need to rotate your hand downward at launch as you released your projectile. I bought the set from him and then decided on what ammunition to use.

 
 
 
 
Steel bearings (or shot) was expensive as were clay pellets, so I went to Walmart and found “Cherry Sours” candy that was cheap, biodegradable, environmentally safe, and coincidentally just the right size.
 
 
 

 
 
 
I was careful at first, trying to apply the rotation technique and actually hit a 3 inch can lid on my DIY Simple Spinner Targets from 7 meters away, but shortly afterwards I got careless and smacked my thumb multiple times really hard, with the result of creating a blood blister under my thumbnail. If you choose to try this method I would recommend wearing a leather glove on your hand at first.

 
 
 
Deterred by the difficulty and pain, I considered trying an alternative safer method of tying the ends of the rubber bands into loops that I could slip over my thumb and forefinger to use as a frame. Voila! It was smooth shooting and I hit my target a number of times… it’s quite intuitive for aiming. However, unless you have very strong fingers your draw back will be somewhat limited, but, it would have knock down potential for small game.

For purists… using your fingers to hold the bands would in essence be a frame, but you wouldn’t need a mechanical frame that would have to be constructed, and be potentially awkward to carry. Eliminating a frame would make for ultra light weight and convenient when backpacking or for easy storage.

The action begins when the shaft is rotated by hand, causing the cordage to rap around the shaft which in turn lifts the handle with each wind of the cord. Once the handle reaches the top of the shaft both hands are used to grasp the handle to press down, causing the spindle to turn. Once the handle reaches the bottom of the stroke, the inertia of the flywheel continues to turn the shaft, thus rewinding the cordage and lifting the handle to the top. The cycle of pressing down the handle repeatedly keeps the shaft turning in alternate directions with each push until the resulting char and smoke is produced from the hearth board.

The most difficult element to construct on this device is the flywheel where wood blocks or stones have been used that usually needs some lashing or stone drilling. The purpose of this article is to offer a simple alternative for the first-time firecrafter when constructing a fire pump drill.

I saw a three hole masonry brick that gave me the idea that the center hole would allow for a balanced flywheel. Without the need for lashing, I could use wedges of wood to attach it in place on the spindle shaft. By cutting notches below the brick it would hold the bottom two wedges in place while at the top an additional two wedges tighten the brick in place (see photo).

To fasten the cordage to the handle I cut a joinery “dove tail” at each end, and for the spindle I cut a slit at the top of the shaft wherein I placed the middle strand of a “figure eight” knot while the rest of the knot encompassed the tip.

It takes a little time to adjust to the rhythm of pumping the handle but once it flows and the resulting char and smoke begins to appear, the resulting ember makes it is a delight to perform.

The materials that I used included a satellite dish antenna, some olive oil, and a discarded birthday balloon made of silvered Mylar that I had salvaged from a local dumpster. The oil was used for adhesion because of it’s dense viscosity and sticky nature towards the thin Mylar foil but a person could use a spray adhesive instead for a more permanent application.

I cut the balloon along the side so that the Mylar film could be spread out into a flat sheet. Next I cleaned the surface of the antenna before pouring a small amount of oil on the antenna dish and spread it by hand evenly on the surface. Then I laid the foil over the oiled dish surface and smoothed it out with my dry hand. I tucked the outlying foil under the dish edges to prevent light winds from lifting it off of the dish. Then I pointed the dish at the sun.

For optical firecraft I use dark colored tinder because it absorbs heat better. I prefer using fibrous material that I press together to create a flat surface onto which the reflected light can focus. You can place the palm of your hand above the dish briefly to find the focal point of the light rays so that you can know where to position the tinder. After a few moments smoke began to appear from the tinder bundle and in short order an ember began to glow whereupon I removed it and blew it into a flame.

How practical is this method? Much easier than most primitive methods used in the woods but keeping in mind that these materials are readily available in an urban setting where it would most likely be used. Of course, you’ll also need sunshine!

In the past, when I would go to a restaurant with my wife I would look for a candle for a little atmosphere at the table. If there wasn’t one I would take one of the complimentary bread buns and poke a hole into it with my table knife. I would put in a pad of butter and then twist up a piece of paper napkin to use as a wick and poke that into the butter. I would light it with my EDC lighter and Voilà! I had a candle!

With this experience as my inspiration I took a butter stick out of the fridge, set it on end in a small bowl, and let it warm up to room temperature. I cut a piece of paper towel and lightly buttered it on one side and rolled it up, flattening it with each round to create a wide vs. round wick. I used a spoon handle to poke down the center of the butter stick then I turned up the wick at the bottom end a little so that I could poke it down into the hole.

Once it was lit, it burned brightly at first and the butter began to melt. I had to attend to it by trimming the wick occasionally with some scissors along with the surrounding wrapping paper as it would burn off around the edge from time to time. It burned that way for over an hour. The butter would continue to leak into the bowl and gather at the bottom. When the cube burned down to a quarter inch in height and the wick began to have trouble staying upright I changed my strategy from candle mode to slush lamp! (See “Slush Lamp Basics“)
 

I decided to use a different wick for this approach and added a small strip of cotton from some scrap jeans and placed it inside the remaining square paper wrapper. Then I cut out a piece of scrap aluminum from a pet food cup and placed it on top. This effectively supported the new wick in addition to isolating the cotton wick from the melted butter. The new flame burned for 4 more hours!

In the end, the candle provided a quick usable flame but required constant maintenance. It also provided clarified butter at it’s base that worked wonderfully as fuel for a slush lamp. The slush lamp was virtually maintenance free. Depending on the emergency a person would have to decide on whether to use the butter as a fuel for light and warmth, or for using butter as a food, but then again, this was just a proof-of-concept project that was fun to do!

I used my Leatherman Wave to do the work in fashioning a hook. The walls of the wishbone are thin but usually one side of the bone is a little thicker so you will want to favor that side when cutting away the material to form the point of the hook. Although the portion where the two sides meet is important for strength, it needs to be reduced in size to slip bait over it in order to be secured to the hook.

In order to fasten cordage to the hook I ruffed up the upper shank area to produce some friction on the smooth bone surface. I use plain dental floss as the cordage to fasten to the hook using a whipping knot normally used to secure rope ends. This knot provides a lot of surface area on the roughened area and is very tight and secure.

As with conventional fishing hooks it’s important to match the appropriate size to the type of fish that you are angling for. I have made hooks from chicken bones for use with smaller fish. When I mount the worm bait I skewer it lengthwise past the hook’s bend then poke the point through the the side and pull the pierced area down to the middle of the hook. For other bait I poke the hook through the side and slide it down to the bend.

Although you can use a fishing pole I like to hold the line in my hand when fishing off of a dock. There’s something unique and exciting about hand fishing. Because the hook is barb-less you need to know when to pull the line to keep tension long enough to land the fish on the dock or the bank. A barb could be fashioned but I question the structural integrity of the bone’s point and its subsequent durability.

If you haven’t made a hook in the past, now is a good time to try. If the bone should break, you can always use it for a fish gorge… that works too!

Awhile back I decided to make a spinner target so that it would signal a hit without having to replace a toppled can or a perforated paper target. I could open my backdoor to shoot from either inside the threshold or step out onto my porch while observing safety precautions from either position to confirm a clear down range. Although commercial spinner targets are very robust and durable when used with conventional gun ammunition, they are not needed for most BBs, small rocks, or acorns.

The materials needed to make a DIY simple spinner target are made with household items such as a metal coat hanger, tin can lids, and one and a quarter inch binder clips. The only tool needed would be a pair of pliers for bending the coat hanger.

I wanted to use different sized can lids for targets that ranged from three and a quarter inches to two inches in diameter and hung them in descending order by size. You can vary the lid size, quantity, and distance to your own liking. I bent the wire to include small “bumps” to act as barriers between each can lid with a slight sag between them that enables the cans to recenter after being hit. Then I opened a binder clip over the wire and clamped it onto the top edge of the can lid.

I found that sometimes a can lid may be sprung out when hit but that is the advantage of having multiple lids hanging on the coat hanger wire so you can continue practicing. Because the stones or acorns used with a slingshot have more mass, the can lids are more prone to be sprung loose.

I have had a lot of fun using the DIY simple spinner target and it has enabled me to sharpen my shooting skills. I recommend making one for your own benefit and enjoyment that will help you be better prepared.

In my youth my grandfather made for me a simple slingshot using a “Y” shaped cutting from a tree branch along with thick rubber band straps with a leather pouch. I had a lot of fun using it but never achieved critical skill for hunting.

Awhile back I found a shed antler and kept it for any future projects and it dawned on me that it could be made into a slingshot. I began by taping off the places where it needed to be cut and proceeded to use a hacksaw for that task. I also had some spare leather pieces that I used to make the pouch. What remained was the need for the straps.

In days gone by large wide rubber bands were easy to come by but these days the only ones that I could find were half the lengths that I remember. In order to get the length needed I had to “daisy chain” or loop the two rubber bands together, then using the same technique of looping I attached the ends to the pouch and antler frame.

I was eager to try it out. Without the wrist support of the modern slingshot I had to readjust my grip on the unsupported handle. My initial shots proved to be better than when I used my modern slingshot! By my third shot I was able to hit a two and a half inch can lid at seven yards! I think that a contributing factor is that I lean the frame forward as I shoot and it seems to make a notable difference. For now, this antler frame is my go-to slingshot and I am delighted at the results.

For shooting tips and inspiration you can watch “Carolina Camera: The Sling Shot Man” to witness some remarkable marksmanship.