Fire starting for campers/hikers/hunters

Blacksmith101 · Dec 14, 2016

Something you may not have thought of for fire starting.... Fritos Corn Chips! You can light one with a match or lighter and they contain enough cooking oil to burn nicely. Don't believe it? Get yourself a bag of Fritos and try it, then sit back and finish the bag by a nice warm fire. Use the Fritos to get the twigs and small sticks started as you work your way up to manly size firewood.

chrisflhtc · Dec 15, 2016

Doritos work well also

c

Melnic · Dec 15, 2016

Fritos and Doritos is a well known boy scout trick. At least in the boy scout troops my son belonged to. If they did not know it, I taught them it.
That is exactly what I'm talking about, knowing all the tricks. Hmm, dried carbohydrates with oil = catch fire easily. Knowledge is power.
Vaseline with dryer lint or cotton ball etc, old cotton pajamas. all those things. I wonder if anyone published a list.

BenL · Dec 15, 2016

In my hiking pack, I carry a Blastmatch:

And some Wetfire:

and they have never failed.

Whiskey · Dec 30, 2016

Biggfoot44 said:
Lots of firestarting options. None is best all conditions, all the time.

Have multiple options, and redundancies.

Best advice.

Those Titan matches do look good, I'll pick some up.

welder516 · Dec 30, 2016

On one trip I did , I used old plastic pill bottles and put lint plus other flammables (combustibles) and they worked well . Also hand sanitizer works very well and also is a must for cleanliness .

Derwood · Jan 4, 2017

I just remembered one of my favorite fire starting techniques when I was a Scout: aerosol bug spray. Procedure: Light match, hold away from body/place on tinder material, spray bug repellent on match to create a torch to light anything. Obviously this was not sanctioned by anyone including the scouts...and maybe it could somehow make the can explode (although I doubt it)...and it works like a charm every time, especially in the rain. I was once on a campout in very wet snow and could not get a fire started using any normal method. This technique allowed me to get a fire going quickly and dry out my clothes. It's also a good way to run around like an insane 12-year-old scaring the other boys with your OFF Torch.

Mack C-85 · Jan 4, 2017

Derwood said:
I just remembered one of my favorite fire starting techniques when I was a Scout: aerosol bug spray. Procedure: Light match, hold away from body/place on tinder material, spray bug repellent on match to create a torch to light anything. Obviously this was not sanctioned by anyone including the scouts...and maybe it could somehow make the can explode (although I doubt it)...and it works like a charm every time, especially in the rain. I was once on a campout in very wet snow and could not get a fire started using any normal method. This technique allowed me to get a fire going quickly and dry out my clothes. It's also a good way to run around like an insane 12-year-old scaring the other boys with your OFF Torch.

As an Assistant Scoutmaster......NO way!! Never!! :tantrum:

As the cold, wet SOB who sees a blazing fire....your a genius!!! :rockon:

As I teach all my kids, when it comes to survival.....if it works, it ain't stupid!! :innocent0

Boxcab · Jan 4, 2017

Compact, functional, and very easy to acquire.

Just a reminder, that sometimes the obvious solution should not be ignored...

.

Mack C-85 · Jan 4, 2017

Boxcab said:
Compact, functional, and very easy to acquire.

Just a reminder, that sometimes the obvious solution should not be ignored...

.

Not a good cold weather alternative......if it gets too cold they cease to function.

Derwood · Jan 4, 2017

Boxcab nailed it, but I have to say Bic brand lighters are 1000x better than those clear ones, which have a tendency to fall apart when you need them most.

You can put the lighter inside your jacket to warm it up if it won't start in the cold. I always go with a Bic lighter and a book of matches as backup.

Blacksmith101 · Jan 13, 2017

I always carry a USAF Survival kit magnesium fire starter I got when I was in the Air Force.

Harbor Freight sells a knock off for $2.00:
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=Fire+starter

Another one that hasn't been mentioned is a couple of batteries out of a flashlight and some fine steel wool. Pull the steel wool out to a long strand and while holding the batteries end to end use the steel wool to complete the circuit from positive to negative and the steel wool will ignite. You can use used dry SOS scrub pads, a 9 volt battery, the car battery (use jumper cables to touch the steel wool), etc.

Doco Overboard · Jan 23, 2017

Remove the battery from your feeder and short out the terminals with a piece of metal or use steel wool across a lantern battery.

Minuteman · Jan 23, 2017

Blacksmith101 said:
I always carry a USAF Survival kit magnesium fire starter I got when I was in the Air Force.

Harbor Freight sells a knock off for $2.00:
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=Fire+starter

Another one that hasn't been mentioned is a couple of batteries out of a flashlight and some fine steel wool. Pull the steel wool out to a long strand and while holding the batteries end to end use the steel wool to complete the circuit from positive to negative and the steel wool will ignite. You can use used dry SOS scrub pads, a 9 volt battery, the car battery (use jumper cables to touch the steel wool), etc.

Great tip about the steel wool!

Doco Overboard · Jan 23, 2017

Sorry Blacksmith 101, I failed to read your entire post! I learned that in hunters safety back in 79 and got all excited when I didn't see it mentioned and it was right in front of me. I carry a small signal flare that's easy to strike when I cant feel my hands now.

Minuteman · Jan 24, 2017

tallen702 · Jan 25, 2017

Just got the latest Field and Stream in the mailbox yesterday. Entire issue is about "fire" in some form or another. Really great how-to articles on what kind of fires to build for what kind of situations. They also talk about all kinds of fire-starting aids and how they work.

Minuteman · Jan 25, 2017

tallen702 said:
Just got the latest Field and Stream in the mailbox yesterday. Entire issue is about "fire" in some form or another. Really great how-to articles on what kind of fires to build for what kind of situations. They also talk about all kinds of fire-starting aids and how they work.

Cool. Anything new or different than what we have covered here?

tallen702 · Jan 26, 2017

Minuteman said:
Cool. Anything new or different than what we have covered here?

The only fire starting methods that they covered that weren't covered here were a couple of "instant" tinder sources that you can buy from most survival supply companies. They were big fans of the Titan matches.

Some DIY stuff they covered was the use of duct tape as emergency tinder. twist strands of it into "sticks" with the adhesive side out and it's supposed to burn pretty well and slow enough to get a fire going. They also said you could ball it up and use a knife to cut rips into it to increase surface area and airflow to produce a reliable tinder ball that will burn hot and long enough to dry out marginally wet kindling to get a heat source going.

The nice thing is that they covered about 5 or 6 types of atypical fires for specific situations. Proper signal fire building, pit/trench fires for high wind scenarios, long-log fires for long term heat output, platform fires for surviving in heavy snow pack, etc. They included step by step instructions and even diagrams with the more esoteric types. When I'm done with the issue, I'll cut out the pertinent pages and scan them as PDFs and attach them here.

EKing · Jan 26, 2017

Minuteman said:
Cool. Anything new or different than what we have covered here?

I like the videos by the King of Random on youtube. He shows how to use glycerin and pot perm to make a fire with chemical reaction. He also shows how to make a fire piston.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja_6Yin9JuM

Fire starting for campers/hikers/hunters

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