Curved blades such as the one on this Kershaw can be very difficult to sharpen or hone

The lowly pocket knife is probably one of the most useful tools any member of Homo sapiens can have. Our earliest fossil records of primitive humans show evidence of their us of sharpened rocks and bones for cutting. Flaked flint, obsidian, and other stones made fine slicing instruments, but as technology advanced we began to use bronze, iron, and eventually modern steel to create our blades.

Ever since Og first noticed that his handy sharpened piece of bone didn’t flay deer the way it once did, one common problem plagued all users of blades, and that is the maintenance of a well honed edge. Older materials dulled quickly and easily, leading to an arms race in which materials science gave the edge to whoever could create a metallurgically superior blade. Modern science has given us high carbon steel, ceramic materials, and even high strength plastics with which to craft our cutting instruments. Some of these materials such as ceramics are designed to never dull, and in that they excel, but they are brittle by comparison to modern steel which is more common by far. So how does one maintain the common steel blade?

Most steel blades come from the factory with a perfectly honed edge. If you have a brand new knife that seems to cut just fine, rule #1 is don’t @#$! with it! After some use, your knife may need to be honed, but unless you’ve damaged the blade it likely does not need to be sharpened. Honing and sharpening are two different things. Honing realigns the blade where the thinnest part may have curled or folded slightly, and polishes it too. Sharpening actually removes material from the metal and can change the bevel itself.

To maintain a good edge, you should hone regularly using a honing steel or a strop and a bit of polish. Leave sharpening for when a blade is well and truly dulled, chipped, or otherwise damaged. You can only sharpen a blade so many times before it becomes too thin for practical use. On the other hand, you can and should hone a blade regularly. To hone your blade, you can use a honing oil stone, a steel, or a strop. The methods for honing vary for each of these methods, but we’ll touch on each of them.

Honing Steel Many people have this mystery device stuck in the knife block in their kitchen. It’s a common accessory included in kitchen knife sets, but the proper use of it remains elusive. Start by holding the steel in your fist, with the steel portion pointing down as in a stabbing grip. Place the tip of the steel on a solid surface such as a counter top (use a towel or cutting board if you have nice granite or other surface to avoid marring it). Now you’ve got a pillar of steel against which to draw your blade. With your other hand holding the knife angled away from the steel at about a 22.5 degree angle (the most common angle for knife bevels, though yours may vary) pull the knife toward you (handle first) while at the same time sliding it down the steel. The motion should be smooth and fluid, starting with the hilt of the knife up near the hilt of the steel, and then sliding down the steel and the knife to the tips.

Simple, no?

Fine – here’s a nifty video that demonstrates exactly how to use a honing steel.

Honing With An Oil Stone Honing with an oil stone is done using much the same method as sharpening on a whetstone, but the stone used is very very fine (usually 1,000 grit or more) and does not remove much material at all. Make sure your stone is liberally oiled using a light mineral oil and establish your blade angle (again, 22.5 degrees is the most common. Use a blade guide necessary) and push the blade away from you as if slicing a thin layer off the top of the stone. Then flip the knife over and repeat the process, pulling the knife blade first (carefully) towards you. If your blade is curved, as many are, you will have to follow the curve as you draw the blade while maintaining the same angle. This takes a bit of practice, so don’t start out trying this on the wife’s nice cutlery.

Polishing Wheels The final method is to use a felt wheel with a bit of polishing compound. This can be easier to maintain an angle for many beginners, but the danger is in the wheel itself polishing too much, or worse grabbing the blade and flinging it out of your hands, so be careful and wear personal protective equipment when using power tools. First, make sure the direction of the wheel is set so that the top of the wheel is spinning away from you. If it does grab the knife from your hands we want it flung into the wall of your shop or garage, not into your chest. Safety first and all. Second, apply a bit of compound (I like a 327 Tripoli for knives) and establish your blade angle. The blade angle can be a bit tricky to figure, but look at the side of your buffing wheel like the face of a compass (360 degrees in a circle, right?) and measure the 22.5 degrees from the top of the wheel. This is where you’ll hold the blade. Use a light touch, and don’t forget to get both sides.

In future articles, I’ll go into more detail on honing with a leather strop, and sharpening blades when they’ve been damaged.

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious or secular persuasions and or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that any country is necessarily greater than any other country, and without regard to race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the “wishee.” By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the “wishor” to actually implement any of the wishes for her or him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the “wishor”.

The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the “wishor”.

Best regards (without prejudice)

-Daniels

This is a subject I’m frequently torn over.

To me, hunting is a year-round activity. Even when game are not in season, days on end are spent in the woods hiking and scouting learning about the animals and their habits. Where legal, bait stands have to be refilled even in the off-season, and shooting lanes around blinds and stands have to be maintained.

Recently my day job has kept me behind a desk and out of the woods, and so I haven’t been able to be as diligent at scouting. In fact, I haven’t made it out into the woods at all since April this year. Naturally, as I watch deer season come to a close I’ve got the urge to get out and see what I can find. But I’m afraid without having the chance to scout my favorite hunting grounds before hand, I’d just be wasting my time.

This has me looking at paying for a guided hunt.

Guided hunts come in many forms, and many prices. Some take place on huge 10,000 acre ranches with miles of 10 foot fences keeping monster bucks and does alike on the property. Others are much smaller, only a few hundred acres, with bottle-fed bucks with no fear of humans wandering the park-like grounds. Neither of these are my cup of tea, and I’m not even sure they qualify as hunting. Harvesting, maybe.

Google “Guided Texas Deer Hunt” and you’re instantly bombarded with literally thousands of options. Most of these offer “guaranteed” trophy bucks with kill fees based on the size of the rack. Deer breeding and “hunting” ranches has become a multi-BILLION dollar business lately, though for the life of me I can’t quite figure out why. Naturally however these outfits spend thousands of dollars on ads and SEO to remain near the top of the search results. When a quality “shooter” buck can cost an operator over ten thousand dollars, it’s easy to see why.

But show me a low-fenced ranch where the guides have spent days scouting out the best locations, identifying scrapes and noting what game trails are active, and that’s where I want to be. Finding a quality guided hunt like this is not very easy however, and this late in the season many ranches are fully booked up.

I’m keeping my eyes peeled however. If I don’t get a chance to go up to Oklahoma to hunt with Evyl Robot before their gun season is over, I may just find a nice big low fenced ranch with a quality management program where the bucks roam freely and the does have never seen the inside of a stock trailer.

Training is an important part of everyone’s life. No matter what you do in life, you train for it. Some people train at sitting on the couch and watching TV. That isn’t quite as useful as someone who trains at surfing the internet (I’m pretty sure I’m well on my way to becoming a pro at that) but the really useful training is what I want to talk about.

Directed training. Training with a plan. Training that you continue to practice and hone on a regular basis in a controlled environment.

When it comes to preparedness, there are any number of skills that can be improved dramatically with just a bit of training, and lost fairly quickly if that training is discontinued. Defensive pistol shooting is one of those skills.

Most preparedness-minded individuals agree that personal and family protection in the form of a firearm is a very important part of being prepared, right up there with food and first-aid. Far too many people however simply purchase a pistol and a few boxes of ammunition and call it done.

Even if you have the right equipment it is useless if you cannot reliably and successfully employ it when needed. An unplanned trip to the range to shoot off 150 rounds slow-fire at a bulls-eye target helps. A little. A very little.

The primary problem is that the majority of ranges do not allow shooters to practice draws from concealment or transitions from target to target. There are many reasons for this: safety and insurance restrictions to name but a few. Most ranges have a hard enough time keeping people from shooting the paper-hangers.

How do you get started? Where can you go to learn and practice defensive pistol techniques? The first step should be research and find a knowledgeable teacher and to enroll in a defensive pistol course. There are literally hundreds of places with quality instructors where you can get started. But once you’ve spent a weekend learning the basics, where can you go to practice?

If you do not have a range near you with open bays that allow moving and shooting and drawing from concealment, one of the best ways I’ve found to get at least a little bit of practice is to join IDPA. The International Defensive Pistol Association is an action-pistol league run by Bill and Joyce Wilson of Wilson Combat fame, and is based out of Berryville Arkansas. The league was started by Bill Wilson, Ken Hackathorn, and Larry Vickers as an alternative to IPSC and USPSA, which had turned into “gun races” with highly specialized speed-draw holsters, highly-tuned race guns, and custom ammunition. The purpose of IDPA is to provide a environment where competitors can hone their defensive pistol skills utilizing “stock” equipment that would be suitable for concealed carry.

A quality holster like this one from Comp-Tac is perfect for both IDPA and daily concealed carry.

While IDPA competition and training does much good in enhancing valuable skills and further ingraining the muscle memory necessary for a rapid draw and presentation, it is not without some drawbacks. The primary problem many people have experienced when attending their first few matches begins with the discovery that the firearm and holster they have already purchased do not conform to the guidelines set forth in the IDPA rule book.

With few exceptions, to compete in IDPA you need a plastic or Kydex IWB strong-side holster, or an OWB holster that fits your belt like a glove, and that can be reholsterd easily. This eliminates most leather IWB holsters as being suitable for use. Other holsters that require the muzzle to be swept around for proper presentation such as a shoulder holster, crossdraw, or small of the back holster are are all illegal (and may actually be unsafe) for competition.

Many popular defensive pistols are disqualified, or must be handicapped, right out of the box. My Para Ordnance 14.45 (legal for use in ESP or CDP) for example is not allowed to be loaded to full capacity in any IDPA competition. Common modifications such as sights or pinned grip safeties are also illegal. In fact, I’m pretty sure even modifying a Series 80 1911 by removing the firing pin block in order to get a smoother trigger is illegal in CDP.

In addition, with the exception of the occasional back-up gun or “BUG” match, subcompact and smaller firearms that are the most popular for concealed carry are, where legal, uncompetitive, if not outright banned from regular competition for failure to make power factor or other reasons.

We understand that at the end of the day, IDPA is just another “gun game” with the rules necessary to level the playing field for competitors. But for those seeking just a chance to run their defensive pistol setup under the stress of the timer, and with so many rules complicating things and forcing competitors to act in ways they would never act in a true self-defense situation, is it really worth all the trouble?

We spoke with IDPA 5-gun master and spokesman Caleb Gidddings of Gun Nuts Media to get his take on the situation, and to understand further what IDPA has to offer.

The bottom line in any self defense situation where you need to actually fire your gun is to get rounds on target as quickly and as accurately as possible. On top of that, you need to be able to judge in a split second whether accuracy or speed is going to be the more critical component in that situation. Shooting IDPA helps prepare you for that eventually as the critical components of shooting such as sight alignment and trigger control are reinforced under simulated stress. IDPA isn’t teaching you tactics, but it is teaching you to be a better shooter. To my knowledge, no one who has ever survived a gunfight has wished at the end of it that they were less competent with a handgun.

Plinking mediocre groups with your Bersa .380 or Hi-Point won’t really make you a better shooter. Competing will.

Caleb makes some good points. At the end of the day, the skills you pick up learning rapid magazine changes, target transition, quick draws and accurate presentations are all things that you will be able to use with few changes from setup to setup. Whether you’re shooting a Glock or a 1911, carrying a Kel-Tec P3AT or a full size FNP-45 Tactical handgun, the basic skills all still apply.

There’s an old saying, “Beware the man with only one gun; he probably knows how to use it.” Yes, it’s true that minor changes in holster, the location (or lack) of a safety, and the size of the pistol will all affect the speed and accuracy of your shooting. But if you have the basics down, you’ll be well ahead of 99% of all gun owners out there.

Don’t be afraid to change up your carry rig. If you carry concealed from day-to-day one way, and shoot IDPA another, you’ll still be just fine should you ever need to deploy your firearm.

Like all organized shooting competitions, IDPA is just another “gun game”, but it’s one specifically oriented towards concealed carry, and one where you can learn a lot and hone the skills you learn in basic defensive pistol courses in a safe and controlled environment. You can find an IDPA league near you on their website at IDPA.com.

All work and no sleep make Jack a dull boy. All work and no sleep make Jack a dull boy. All work and no sleep make Jack a dull boy. All work and no sleep make Jack a dull boy. All work and no sleep make Jack a dull boy. All work and no sleep make Jack a dull boy. All work and no sleep make Jack a dull boy…

ZZZzzzzzzzz….

If you’re a preparedness minded individual like myself, you probably have a well stocked larder, ample survival gear, and a few ammo cans full of rifle and handgun ammunition. But if Uncle and NJT are wrong, and the Zombie Apocalypse happens, AND if it turns out that shotguns ARE the best tool to put down brain eating shamblers, I’m going to be woefully short on ammo. The one thing I’ve not seen for sale in, well, ever, is bulk defensive shotgun ammunition.

Sure, you can buy a case of 12 gauge loads, but I’ve only ever seen Dove, Waterfowl, and trap or skeet loads available by the case. I’m sure you CAN get bulk 00 buckshot loads or slugs, but for the life of me I can’t think of a good source.

So, does anyone have a good (and cheap) source for full-power 12 gauge 00 buck loads and/or slugs?

All of this stuff lives in a bag that is very nearly always with me or at least no further than in my vehicle. There was a lot more crap in that bag than I remembered. Perhaps it’s time to pare things down a bit and upgrade from EDC Bag 1.0 to EDC Bag 1.1 with a little bit lighter load.

Say Uncle started it. And being a good lemming, I’m following.

Everything you can see in this photo fits in the bag (including the laptop, charger, etc.) and, for the most part, has a dedicated purpose. There is often a pistol and a few extra magazines tucked away inside as well. Laying it all out like this, it’s a lot more stuff than I realized.

I think I’ve fallen into the trap usually reserved for large purses in my attempt to cram tons of stuff in there. Going through it, there seemed to be a fair amount of junk that needed to be tossed, along with some redundant items. There are a few things I probably should add to it as well.

What all is inside of Bag 1.0?

• Laptop

• Wireless trackball
• Laptop charger
• Ethernet cable (and spare)
• iPhone charger (and 120v adapter)
• Two external hard drives with USB adapters (should probably narrow this to one)
• Thumb drive
• Mini, Micro, and Type B USB cables
• RCA to 3.5mm stero mini-cable
• Handheld GPS
• Twelve CR123A batteries
• Surefire flashlight with Picatinny rail mount
• S&W folding knife
• Esbit stove, with fuel
• LED headlamp
• Hairbrush
• Scarf
• Two sharpie markers
• Pen
• Pencil
• Notebook
• Compass
• Lockpick set
• Duct tape
• Vinyl tape
• 100ft Paracord
• AAA Batteries
• Lighter
• Ibuprofen
• Diphenhydramine
• Oxymetazoline hydrochloride spray
• Pseudoephedrine
• Cyanoacrylate
• Saline spray
• Res-Q-Pak with Quick-Clot
• Foam ear plugs
• Peltor ear plugs
• Carmex lip balm
• Padlock
• Carabiner (25kN rating)
• Two Grimloc keepers
• Matches
• Fork and spoon
• Salt and pepper
• Clif bar
• Checkbooks
• Dart set
• Box cutter
• P-38 “John Wayne” can opener

Rust is probably the number one enemy of rod and reel, knife, and gun owners. In just a few short weeks, unprotected firearms left alone in even a moderately humid environment will begin to grow an orange or brown colored 5-o’clock shadow. Steel pistols carried concealed during the hot summer months are even more susceptible to rust as corrosive sweat and oils from the wearer encourage rapid rust formation. Fishing reels that are not cleaned and rinsed on a regular basis, especially saltwater rigs, will quickly oxidize to the point that they lock-up completely.

Most owners of fishing, hunting, and shooting equipment know that their gear requires thorough cleaning and oiling after each use, but even clean and oiled if left alone, unprotected, for months at a time in a garage, closet, attic, or gun safe your expensive gear can quickly become ruined, even permanently damaged beyond repair.

When opened, this little pack of dessicant is able to dehumidify up to 3 cubic feet of storage space.

The key to keeping the rust bug away, in addition to keeping your gear well oiled, is to keep the ambient humidity down as low as possible. There are a number of ways to do this, such as a GoldenRod or other electrically powered dehumidifier, but the cheapest and most portable is the lowly pouch of silica gel.

Online retailer Lucky Gunner sent me a sample of Dry-Packs reusable silica gel for review not too long ago. The problem with reviewing desiccants such as this is that you either need a very long time, or a high humidity level, to see how well they work. North Texas isn’t a region well known for its particularly high humidity, though compared to areas located in mountainous ares out west, the ambient 50%-60% RH (relative humidity) is sufficient for a test spanning a month or so.

The Dry-Packs silica gel canister holds about 40 grams of desiccant in a perforated metal box about the size of an Altoids tin. In the center of the can is a small window that can be used to observe the color of the silica gel. This particular type of desiccant has had methyl violet added to it, an indicator that turns from orange to green when it is hydrated. Other brands use cobalt chloride or ammonium tetrachlorocobaltate (try saying that five times fast) and turn from blue to pink when they have absorbed enough moisture to become saturated.

Little cans of desiccant such as this are small enough to keep in a gun case, tackle box, first-aid, or survival kit, and are cheap insurance to make sure that humidity and moisture don’t ruin your gear.

To test the effectiveness of this particular brand, we placed it in a long-gun case along with two older shotguns that I’d recently inherited. These particular shotguns had been stored in soft cases, tucked away in a late family member’s closet for a number of years with no cleaning or maintenance. When they came to me, one of them was so corroded and damaged that the action had completely locked up. I took them to one of my local gunsmiths and had them completely disassembled, detailed, and put back together. All of the surface rust was completely removed, and the few parts that had pitting were replaced.

Now restored to clean and working order, well oiled and rubbed down with a silicon impregnated cloth, the shotguns were ready to go back in the closet. Inside the case, I placed the little metal can. There, until some time in late January when the light-geese conservation order begins, it will stay and quietly do its job sucking moisture from the air while keeping my precious scatter-guns dry and rust free.

Once the little rust-killing can has sucked up all the moisture it can, I can simply toss it in the oven at 250-280 degrees Fahrenheit for a few hours and watch in amazement as the indicator turns from green back to orange once all the water has been baked out.

Priced at only $10 each, these little canisters are fantastic insurance to keep your equipment dry and rust free.

December is right around the corner, and the cold north winds have begun to slowly slide south. In an unusually cold fall storm, the Northeast was socked in by a massive heavy wet snowfall, leaving millions without power. This is just a taste of the winter weather that is coming.

I know, I know: every year it’s the same thing. But the summer warmth always seems to leave us a little complacent. It won’t be long before we hear the evening news reporting on some poor unfortunate soul who succumbed to the cold while stranded on the side of the road.

It doesn’t have to be that way. With only a minimal amount of planning and a compact, but well stocked, cold weather travel kit, it’s easy to make sure that you’re not one of those chilling statistics found by the snow plows the next morning after a heavy snowstorm.

My work keeps me on the road for the most part, though this winter it appears that I will be lucky enough to be down south where snow and ice are a rarity. Still, I’ve assembled a cold weather kit that I can easily toss in the back of the truck should I need to head up north. It fits neatly into a waterproof Rubbermaid tote that can ride in the bed of my pickup, but if you’re in a car, a duffle bag works equally as well.

The kit is divided into two parts: the first keeps me from getting stranded, or helps me to self-rescue, and the second part keeps me alive if I’m well and truly stuck and left waiting for assistance.

Jumper Cables Cold weather is very hard on batteries. A car that won’t start is probably the most common cold weather problem. Buy a set of jumper cables and learn to use them: positive to positive first (that’s the red terminal) and negative (that’s the black one) from the good vehicle to ground (the frame or alternator body) on the dead one last in order to avoid catastrophes such as this.

Shovel If you’re stuck in a snow bank or just skidded off the road on a patch of ice, a shovel is an indispensable tool for freeing yourself from snow and mud. Also, should you become stranded, you’ll need the shovel to keep your exhaust clear of snow so that you can run the engine and heater for brief periods without running the risk of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide. At a minimum, I carry a small folding shovel. If I’m heading somewhere like the mountains where I know the snow might fall in feet instead of inches, I’ll toss in a larger purpose-built snow shovel.

Kitty Litter, Sand Bag, or Granite Chips Many people swear by kitty litter as a traction device. I’m not too keen on using it, as it tends to clump and then dissolve away if there is moisture on the ground. Instead, I like to carry a couple of full sandbags, or ideally some sandbags full of granite chips. You can find granite chips, often for free, from your local funeral home or monument carver.

Tow Strap or Chain There’s no need to wait for a tow truck if you’ve got a tow strap or chain. A helpful passing motorist can render assistance if you’ve got your own tow strap. Remember to attach it to a tow point on both your car and the rescuing vehicle: most trucks and many cars have dedicated tow hooks beneath the bumper. Don’t use the bumper itself, as it will rip clean off, and never attach a tow strap to an axle or portion of the suspension.

Tire Chains with Bungees or Chain Tensioners Even if you’re not traveling in the mountains or where the snow can get truly deep, carry a set of tire chains sized for your tires. You may never need them, but if you do get stuck, they are a fantastic traction device for getting you unstuck. Learn to use them in the safety of your driveway at home before heading out, so that if you need to chain-up on the side of the road you will already be familiar with them.

Ice Scraper and Brush I’m still amazed by the number of people who don’t keep an ice scraper in their vehicle. Even down south, a light frost can leave your windshield obscured. Go out and buy an ice scraper now, put it in your trunk and forget about it until you need it.

Extra Sub-Zero Windsield Fluid While not quite as important as an ice scraper, sub-zero windshield wiper fluid is an absolute necessity anywhere flurries may fly. Without it, your windshield will quickly become an icy mess that is impossible to see through. If you don’t have sub-zero fluid in your reservoir now, flush out that summer-time stuff and replace it with sub-zero, and carry an extra gallon with you in your cold weather kit.

Aftermath of the Chicago blizzard of 2011. *image used without permission

The remainder of my kit consists of things that help me stay safe and warm while waiting out the storm. These items also go with me in my backpack whenever I’m out hunting or hiking in potentially cold environments, even in the summer such as when exploring the mountains or anywhere the weather can turn suddenly.

Warm Clothes A parka, extra socks and base layer of wool or waterproof moisture-wicking clothing, will go a long way towards keeping you warm. Often times, people go about with just enough warm layers to keep them comfortable while they hustle from vehicle to building and back. If you’re one of these, make sure you keep some heavy winter clothes in your vehicle. And even if you’re not, having a backup set is a godsend should you find yourself wet or muddy from trying to free a stuck vehicle.

Cold Weather Sleeping Bag (ECWS) If I’m going to be stuck in an unheated vehicle, or really anywhere overnight, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I’m snug as a bug. New and lightly-used military surplus Extreme Cold Weather Sleeping systems (ECWS) are fantastic at keeping you warm, even at temperatures as low as -40 degrees. Most come in a handy compression sack, so they don’t take up much room. New ones are a bit pricey, but bargains can be found, so hunt around until you find a deal you can afford.

Flashlight and Spare Batteries I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: the cold is hell on batteries and electronics. You should have a flashlight in your kit, but also make sure to stock extra batteries.

Spare Phone and/or Batteries Nearly everyone has a smart phone these days, and when it comes to getting the word out to your friends and loved ones, they are great. If you can’t get a signal, try sending text messages. SMS messaging systems use a relay and hold system that will hold onto your message until it can be delivered, and SMS messages take up very little bandwidth, so getting one through on with only tenuous signal strength is much easier than actually connecting a voice call. As with your flashlight, carry an extra battery and charger if you can. Alternatively, keep an older phone that you no longer use on a daily basis in your kit, along with a 12v charger. Even deactivated and/or without a SIM card, most mobile phones are capable of making an emergency 911 call.

Water, MREs and heaters Water is important for two reasons: the first and most obvious is that it keeps you from becoming dehydrated in dry cold air. The second reason water is important is that it keeps you warm. Mixed with a tasty drink mix and heated with an MRE heater, it warms you from the inside out. The calories from MREs and drink mixes are also critical in helping your body stay warm. Even just sitting still, your body can burn as much as 5,000 calories just keeping warm. Help it out by keeping some high-calorie snacks and non-perishable food in your kit.

Hand Warmers Behind warm food and liquids, hand warmers are the ultimate morale booster in cold environments. Keep a few in your kit. They don’t take up much room, and as long as they are unopened they will last for years until you need them.

Flares and/or Warning Triangles Visibility is universally poor during snow storms, and accumulations can camouflage your stranded car on the side on the road. Use road flares, electronic flares, or even reflective warning triangles to warn approaching vehicles to keep a wary eye out.

Blaze Orange Fabric Flagging tape, blaze orange fabric, or any brightly colored cloth tied to your radio antenna or the top of your vehicle is a great way to alert passing motorists or rescuers to your location.

First Aid Kit This is not so much a necessity for a cold weather kit, as it is something that should be with you at all times. I keep a large first aid kit in my vehicle, and carry a small one with me everywhere else.

Whether you’re hiking a trail in bear country, or simply resting at home, having a firearm for personal protection is something everyone should consider. There are many schools of thought as to what constitutes an appropriate home defense, concealed carry, or trail gun, and just as many options available for purchase.

Mom commented after firing the PMR-30 that “…this is the perfect gun for me. It makes little holes, but it can make 30 of them. And it doesn’t beat me up.”

Debates over the “perfect” handgun caliber have raged on for dozens of years. Is it better to have a caliber that begins with “.4″ or is the 9mm “Euro-pellet” sufficient when topped with modern expanding hollowpoints? Many seek to find the perfect “man-stopper,” “bear medicine,” or basically any bullet capable of a “one-shot stop” but they’re more likely to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow that’s been crapped out by a unicorn. Such a cartridge simply does not exist.

Still, millions of dollars have been spent on countless studies analyzing the effectiveness of various calibers. The result has been a few exotic cartridges, few of which have ever made it into large-scale production. In the past 30 years the 10mm, .40 S&W, and .357 Sig have been the only handgun cartridges that have reached any level of prominence and, of those three, the .40 S&W is the only caliber to come anywhere close towards becoming as common as the 9mm or .45 ACP.

As with handguns, thousands of words and millions of dollars have been spent determining the suitability of the 5.56/.223 caliber “poodle shooter” versus any number of larger rifle cartridges, and even more hybrid and wildcat rounds have been spawned by this debate than were ever conceived of by the 9mm and .45 brouhaha. Still, by virtue of its use by the US military, not to mention the performance of the round, the 5.56/.223 caliber remains one of the more common rifle chamberings, and thousands of hunters pursuing everything from varmints to white tailed deer have proven its efficacy in the field.

What is not often considered is the person who will be utilizing the firearm. Many people neglect the human element. Having a revolver that can drop a bear with a single well-placed shot is admirable, but can just anyone pick up a .44 Magnum, .454 Casull, or .500 S&W chambered revolver and be proficient with it? A 12 gauge may work well for home defense but how many people, with little or no training, can accurately fire multiple rounds of full-power 00 buck loads?

Perhaps the perfect example of the wrong solution being over-hyped is the ultra-lightweight .38 Special/.357 Magnum snub nosed revolver, which is often wrongly promoted as the perfect weapon for a small woman. It’s easily concealable, and the double-action is reliable, but accuracy is sub-par at best, and it kicks hard enough to make even the most ardent seekers of “recoil-therapy” reconsider firing off more than a couple dozen rounds at a stretch. I know very few women who will tolerate hard hitting firearms (with the notable exception of Jennifer, who is just, odd when it comes to recoil).

Put a hard hitting pistol or rifle in the hands of many women, and almost all new shooters, and you’ll find their taste for the shooting sports quickly sours. That’s no way to gain new shooters and, for someone seeking a gun for self-defense, is a great way to convince them that there are many other things they’d rather do instead of run a few hundred rounds through the firearm while training.

And then we come to my own mother. Mom is not someone who I would consider old, though I suppose she’s getting there, nor infirm, though she has a few problems here and there that have left her on disability. Mom never has spent as much time at the range as I do, has only owned a gun on a few occasions, and never carried one for self-defense. In addition, she has problems with her hands that make it difficult for her to manipulate a stiff double-action trigger, and intense recoil leaves her wrists or shoulder sore and her nerves frayed.

The FN Five-seveN, AMT Automag II, and Kel-Tec PMR-30 are all low recoil semi-automatic handguns that can function as trail guns or self-defense handguns.

When it came time to find Mom a suitable pistol, rifle, and shotgun, low recoil was an absolute priority. This meant that a number of standard firearms were immediately tossed out. The pump action 12 gauge, favored by many for home defense, was simply too much gun. Instead, a semi-automatic 20 gauge was more appropriate. When outfitting Mom for hunting season, we skipped the .30 caliber rifles completely and went straight to the 6.5×55 Swedish Mauser and .223 AR-15, both of which are more than capable of taking deer and feral hog alike.

And pistols? Pistols are, and always have been, a study in compromise. In reality, anything a pistol can do, a rifle or shotgun can do better. So why the big fuss over caliber when it comes to pistols?

It’s not uncommon for a rifle to fail to yield a “one shot stop” even with a well placed round. I’ve seen deer, hogs, elk, and all manner of medium and large game run for hundreds of yards, sometimes even miles, despite a fatal wound. Stories abound of bears and moose who charge and injure or even kill a hunter, only to later fall dead from a lung or heart shot.

Can we really expect a pistol to reliably stop a determined attacker, no matter what the caliber? Of course not.

At the end of the day it is far more important to have a gun, any gun really, and preferably one that you can use accurately, and that you have trained with extensively. When I took Mom to the range, I didn’t give her a snub-nosed .357 Magnum, nor did I give her a semi-automatic .40, .45 ACP, 9mm, or even a .38 Special. Instead, we started out with .22 Long Rifle and worked our way up, next to the .22 Magnum and eventually to the 5.7×28.

Mom fires a 5.56mm AR-15, another low recoil firearm suitable for both hunting and self-defense.

Both the .22 Magnum and 5.7×28 were easy shooting cartridges that Mom, despite her aversion to recoil, could shoot all day long. And on top of that, she was deadly accurate with them. No flinches, no jerking of the trigger, just round after round put on target in a tight little group at distances up to 25 yards away. In the case of the PMR-30, that meant she had 30 rounds in a tight group about the size of a softball right in the center-of-mass.

Caliber isn’t everything. My friend Caleb proved that a cup of Starbucks’ brew and a .25 ACP Jetfire pistol can be exactly what is needed to dissuade a goblin. It’s been said that a .25 ACP may be great to carry when you don’t have a gun, but in this case it did the trick.

Even if you are forced to rely upon the ballistic performance of a particular firearm, when avoiding the conflict doesn’t work and merely the threat of force fails, whether it be against a criminal assault or a bruin who thinks you’re in their territory, small caliber firearms can work, especially when you can put more rounds down range faster. FBI statistics even show that more firearm-related deaths are caused by the lowly .22 LR than by any other caliber. That’s primarily due to the prevalence of guns chambered for the round, but it goes to show how effective it can be.

Dave Sevigny once told me to “just get the biggest caliber you can hit with or the one you’re most comfortable with,” and I think that’s key. For some people, that means a magnum rifle cartridge and a 10mm handgun. For Mom, that means a Five-seveN or .22 Magnum pistol for self-defense, and a .223 or 6.5×55 rifle for hunting.