Pablo’s Woodlife

While Sam and the American Bushman talk about muzzle loading rifles, unbelievably at the same time, my attention has also switched to all things missile-firing, but in a more primitive way. Must be a winter thing when the ground is too soggy to camp. I have renewed my interest in archery and in particular field archery (as opposed to target shooting). I started up archery about this time last year and got caught up in the wave of excitement of seeing the arrow thud satisfactorily into the target.

After a while, I was pretty consistently getting close to the ‘gold’ at 25 yards. I instantly upgraded the bow and started hanging stuff off it in the form of sights and stabilisers. Not exactly what I planned when I first took it up, which was to use the bow as a means of recreating a traditional hunting method. I soon regretted the decision as it became a bit of a chore travelling to the archery club every week and once there, queuing for your turn to shoot at the target. I lost more interest as the fascination with bushcraft grew during the summer months.

I’ve now rekindled this interest and bought a Korean traditional hunter bow, a Samick SKB, which is light enough to carry around on field shoots and practice in the woods (errr…not the public woods obviously). I’ll be shooting strictly in the ‘bare-bow’ category on the next field shoot on 26th. Last autumn’s shoot was my first and I enjoyed it immensely. Unfortunately, I missed the spring and summer ones. These particular field shoots are made more interesting by the inclusion of 35 x 3D animal targets. The fact that actual hunting with a bow is illegal in Britain makes these shoots the nearest thing to it, even if the animal doesn’t move around! (I don’t believe there’s many crocodiles in Essex either).

I’ve been practicing with the bow nearly all weekend. Oh…you’re back then! You didn’t need to spend so long there! Unlike the game, this is getting quite an expensive past-time as I’ve lost 2 arrows and broken 2 others. At this rate I won’t have any arrows left for the field shoot next weekend. I’ve decided that I’ll buy an arrow jig and have a go at making them myself. I’ll probably do this after Christmas. At least I’m hitting the target most of the time and the grouping is getting a bit better. No more practice now until the big day next Sunday.

With a cloudless sky but a fresh cold wind which made me put on my fleece gloves, I ventured into the woods this morning. I travelled light with just a flask of tea, folding sit mat, the usual tool bag and the NRA survival kit. I wanted to have a general look at all the contents in the field but not put them under any great test…yet.

I wanted to have a good look at Blastmatch first of all. My first thoughts were, “Wow, this is big.” It’s nearly 4 inches long and a little heavy. I weighed this up with the fact that it is a survival tool and not really a bushcraft tool. Even though I had read the instructions, I scratched my head for a while before I actually managed to get it to work. And when I did…I was literally blinded by the number and strength of the sparks. This thing is awesome! I just had to get some tinder (without using the wet-fire tinder in the NRA kit) and try starting a fire. I needn’t have bothered with the tinder as even damp, unprepared wood just about caught with the extreme heat of the produced sparks. I actually wondered if there was any magnesium in the striker.

This bit of kit is a survival ‘ace’. The design allows the unit to be used one-handed which is a great advantage. This is because the thumb pushes against the catch which contains the striker. By pushing against this, and pushing the tip of the rod against a hard surface the rod is pushed down the spring-loaded tube. Looking closely, I realised that this very system might have one disadvantage. The part where you press your thumb to cause the necessary friction against the rod was also the tube catch which keeps the top closed. This part of the unit had already part-melted with the intense heat thus, because the top is closed under the pressure of the spring, it now occasionally springs open.

A point to note. Don’t push the flint rod too far down when striking. I wondered if this was a design fault. All it needed was a stopper to stop the rod going too far down the tube. It’s also advantageous to have something solid to rest the tip of the rod against as you push down. It doesn’t take a great deal of pressure to create the spark, but you couldn’t create a spark by pushing the rod into soft ground.

I can’t fault this unit except to say that it is a bit bulky and heavy. It’s just slightly too big to go in my possible’s pouch (without taking something else out) but I would have no hesitation in packing it in my expedition survival kit. Will any of the other items in the NRA kit join it? We’ll have to wait and see.

Even though I was getting warm working with the Blastmatch, my feet were getting cold with inactivity and I decided to walk around the wood. I noticed that the leaves were at last turning, but some were stubbornly hanging on to the trees. The bright light shining through them made a wonderful autumnal spectacle.

After a week of rain the weekend turned out nice with sunny spells. Saturday saw me back into the local woods armed with camera and the Korean Samick SKB bow. I am going to take the bow to the bushmoot next weekend, so I wanted to do a couple of practice shots. As I had the video camera with me, I had a go at doing a movie of the practice. You can see the results at the end of this post or on Pablo’s Video Channel link on the right.

After doing the shoot and after breaking two arrow points and losing an aluminium arrow in the undergrowth, I gave up and sat in my favourite spot deep in the woods. The undergrowth was growing up fast and I imagined that after next weeks moot, my return to these woods would see the secret clearing completely enveloped by the nettles. It would soon be time for a little cutting back.

After a cereal bar and some water, I went off in search of some new wildflowers in bloom in the area. I wasn’t disappointed as I soon came across large areas covered by Forget-me-nots and Speedwell. Ragged robin also made patches of early appearance as well as Common comfrey.

I was pleased to see this plant as I’d not seen it in this area before. It is a well known herbalist plant; the roots being used to make plaster of paris type sludge for setting bones and in fact some English folk names reflect this use being called ‘knitbone’ and ‘boneset’. The juice from the root can also be mixed with sugar and liquorice and used as a cough linctus. The whole plant can also be boiled and eaten like spinach.

I also spotted a clump of Woody nightshade. Unlike the nightshade namesake of the deadly variety, the red berries which appear in the autumn are not poisonous, but they will give you an upset stomach.

Next week I gear up (literally) for the moot and I’ll post my preparations on Wednesday or Thursday.

All the best,

Pablo.

A series of statutes passed in the 14th and 15th centuries banned a large number of field sports and other games in order to protect regular archery practice. Edward IV passed a law that every Engishman from the age of 16 to 60 should own a longbow (of his own height) and to practice every Sunday after church and on feast days. In 1542 an Act established that the minimum target distance for anyone over the age of 24 years was 220 yards (!) A trained archer could shoot 12 to 15 arrows per minute and hit a man-sized target at a minimum of 200 yards. All men from 16 to 60 had a duty to protect the country in time of crisis (the posse comitatus). The acts have never been repealed.

In a law case (Oxford police v. hales, quinn, fairclough et al.) the defendants had set up archery targets on the high street and were prosecuted. Their defence was that archery was a legal duty. The magistrates concurred and allowed their defence but fined each defendant 10 guineas plus costs for failing to wear their swords during the exercise.

It was with this ancient law in mind that a few stalwart archers from the Essex Bushcraft group, bravely mustered at midday on a private field in a bitterly cold northerly wind to practice shooting at 25 meters at a paper crow stuck on to some hay bales. They each had their Bushcraft knife at their sides.

Master archer John managed to group well, while Mark managed to hit the straw bale(once) with his 7ft home made Ash bow. Pablo, with his small hunter bow without sights, grouped badly but scored well finishing with an amazing kill shot from a kneeling position (try that with yer Long Bows ha ha).

A great few hours with lots of Bushcraft talk. It was great to meet JP from Bearclaw. What with him and Les from Wildcrafts, the December meet should be amazing.

How many of you broke the law today by not practicing? (Members of other countries exempted of course).

Pablo.

My mate Paul and I headed south to meet up with the Reading Group on Friday afternoon. A little rain was forecast but the whole weekend turned out fine and dry.

After a hot and sticky walk-in we arrived to find the parachute already up and a brew on the go. Mark presented me with a fine looking kuksa as a gift for doing the Reading group forum. I was completely overwhelmed and promptly planned what liquid substance should go in it. Well – it’s got to be sealed properly hasn’t it?

We woke up to a beautiful day on Saturday and after breakfast, a couple of us went roving with the bows to do a bit of stump shooting. I’d brought along the Samick SKB, the length of which proved ideal in the particular closed-in area of woodland we chose to shoot in. We all did pretty well getting close to the challenging choices of target and in a couple of instances even killed a stump or two!

Mark had brought along a large awl which enabled the construction of some wooden chairs. John decided to assemble what can only be described as a throne, which was in keeping with his heavy-weight style of camping. Hence he was dubbed “His Majesty, King John” for the rest of the meet. The chairs will be kept on site ready for the next meet.

Some of us went for a wander after lunch and ended up tracking along the moderately fast flowing stream. There was a lot of damselfly activity and I spent some time trying to photograph the amazingly coloured and aptly named Beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo).

We followed some tracks along the stream bank and decided it belonged to a small fox. The tracks ended up at a kill site where the only evidence left of the prey was a claw of a crustacian. Looking again at the photo I’m not too sure if there might be other tracks in there and I wish I’d studied the area in more detail at the time. Other tracks seen were roe, fallow, muntjac, mouse and a number of birds that had hopped along the bank. There was still no sign of the elusive water vole tracks.

The evening meal was a barbeque of literally tons of meat mostly provided by King John.
Earlier, Steve (who was on my Shadowhawk tracking course) and I identified a good sit spot covering an area where there might be some evening mammal activity. Andy had already spotted a fox cub, and muntjac had been heard the previous evening. After the barbeque, along with Andy we sat for an hour being bitten to death by mosquitos! The sum total of our sightings? One rabbit, five hundred and three mosquitos - oh and some sheep! Well, you can’t win them all.

One of the best things about meets is that you can share experiences and stories around the fire. With new faces comes new stories and experiences. Knowledge is shared, kit examined and compared, and tips are passed on. This meet was no exception. John was busy dying a leather water bottle while Mark had made a fantastic flute case. You can see these pics on the network.

Prior to packing up on Sunday, conversation meandered on to the dreaded tick subject mentioned in my last post. This prompted everyone to start examining themselves. Low and behold ticks were found on nearly everyone’s legs. A tick removal session then took place. Anyone watching would be forgiven in thinking that a strange bunch of primates had invaded the woods and were busy de-fleaing themselves. Mark’s pocket microscope (is there nothing that he dosesn’t have handy?) showed in real terms what a monstrous looking creature the tick is.

A certain lesson learned and a good tip is to tuck the trousers in to socks or put elastics around the bottom of the trousers. Those with sleeping areas on the bracken slopes (myself included) should also have cleared a path through the bracken leading to the hammock. Whatever the precautions though, it’s inevitable that you will get a couple if you go tracking or exploring through the undergrowth.

All too soon it was time to say our goodbyes and leave the site. We doused the fire and cached the pot hangers. Another excellent weekend and a big thanks to Mark for organising the meet and everyone else that came along.

Pablo.

I’ve not long been back from Mark’s in Reading. As usual it was a great meet with seven of us eating ourselves full to bursting with John’s chicken in red wine sauce last night.

I forgot my camera so a big thanks to John who took these pics on his camera and gave me the memory card.

The weather was variable with strong winds at times and occasional showers. The sun did venture out but it was still a case where 3 or 4 layers were necessary to keep the chill out at night. Taking heed of the weather forecast, I’d brought along my Tatonka 3 x 3 m tarp. It was certainly a luxury compared to the usual Auscam 2.5 x 1.75. I had my usual DD Scout hammock but this time I swapped my Alpkit down sleeping bag for my summer synthetic bag with no adverse effect comfort wise during the night.

On Saturday, Mark and I took out the bows for a bit of stump shooting. We were both a bit rusty but managed to get two shots each on target at about 30 meters. The rest weren’t too far away though. It helps to practice regularly when you’re shooting bows.

Mark’s bow is a cracking piece of kit. It’s a Reiver bow from Border Archery.

I was shooting my usual Samick SKB. On this shot we both hit the target. Mark’s arrow went straight through it demonstrating the difference in draw weight (60lb compared to mine – 35lb).

We were all quite industrious carving and whittling this weekend. The challenge was to make a spoon at one end and a spatula the other. I managed it but cut them up as it will be shorter and more manageable. This was made of birch.

Mark showed us how to split sweet chestnut so you can get the wood thin enough for a chopping board. You always split the wood in the centre making two halves, then split it in the centre again continuing like that until you get a piece thin enough for use. I whittled the basic shape of my board but didn’t have time to finish it completely.

Once again, a big thanks to Mark and to John who cooked up the meal and took the photos. It was great to see Andy, Ben and Bob again and be introduced to Dom.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

At the kind invite of Les, I went to Prior’s Wood in Essex this weekend. I met my old mate John Scrivy and Les and Brett who are all instructors for Les’s Bushcraft and Survival School, Wildcrafts.

There was only one student this weekend, Trevor. The course was a general and gentle introduction to Bushcraft and included knife safety and use, fire lighting, water purification, natural shelter construction, wild food walk amongst others.

After setting up, Les showed me around the wood, which was a nice open and airy coppice woodland, with a newly constructed fishing lake on the outside of the wood. Judging by the tracks, there was a lot of activity in the woods with fallow and muntjac. There was also a lot of badger activity with a large latrine area. The lake attracted a number of visitors including this Grey heron seen on Sunday.

When Scrivy arrived it wasn’t long before the air rifles came out and we were happily pinging .22 pellets at a beer can target. You might think this was boy’s and their toys, but earlier I was introduced to a number of airsoft weapons (Les and Brett are airsoft champions) including a home made mortar. Now that was a big boy’s toy!! What a laugh!

The abundance of birch and the dry conditions made fire lighting easy and we soon had a fire on the go for a bit of food and the social. Plenty of mead, port, cider, and beer went round. The pic above shows something you don’t find too often. In fact we think it’s a pretty rare occurrence. It’s Crampball growing on birch.

Everyone went to to their bivis and hammocks with a smile although in the morning, the smile might not be so prominent as sore heads would inevitably kick in.

The next day, after a good breakfast, Les took Trevor through some knife safety, knife skill and sharpening and fire lighting…

… while Scrivy and I wandered over to the lake and dragged out some crayfish traps that Les and Brett had placed earlier. It was a terrific haul of crayfish, which would be cooked up for lunch. These are signal crayfish, a very aggressive and invasive species. Once caught it is illegal to put them back. What a shame. They have to be eaten!

After lunch Les, armed with his air rifle, and I went to try and find the Grey squirrel I had bumped into earlier. The squirrel (and his mate) certainly knew what we were about and gave us the runaround high in the tree canopy. Nobody could get a clear sight for a shot so we came back empty handed.

Pretty soon it was time to gather around the fire again. Trevor stayed in his well built debris shelter. We had been joined by Mark, also an old friend. The mead went round and round and some delicious pork chops and lamb steaks were covered in honey, barbequed on green sticks and devoured hungrily. Another great evening and I was kindly welcomed to the Wildcrafts fold.

Orthetrum cancellatum – Black-tailed Skimmer seen on the lake

After breakfast on Sunday we swapped out the airguns for an older form of weapon; the bow and arrow. I tried to set up what I thought was a clever shot with the video camera and Scrivy with equal cleverness nearly killed it with a well-placed shot no less than 8 inches below the camera itself! A lucky escape for the camera.

It wasn’t long before it was time to pack up. The weekend seemed to have flown by as there was so much going on. Even though I wasn’t a student I watched some of Les’s instruction with a professional eye and admired the easy way he imparted his vast knowledge of traditional bushcraft especially knowledge on wild flowers and fungi. I would recommend this short course to anyone wanting to experience a bit of bushcraft for the weekend.

Thanks for a great weekend, guys.

Pablo

The start of the bank holiday saw me in my studio finishing off the leather sheath for my new leatherman.

I bought the leatherman at the Gathering. There was a certain amount of head scratching as I tried to tried to duplicate the nylon case and its sleeve for the extra bit drivers. I also wanted a space for a small fire steel and some tiny tweezers to extract splinters which I know I will miss from the Swiss Army Knife.

After a few weeks I’ll do a comparison between the two. The sheath didn’t turn out too bad. The stitching still isn’t straight yet, but at least it’s reasonably strong. The sheath is designed to go horizontally on the belt.

On Sunday I went into Poor Park woods. I saw all the usual suspects including a fox, which I was pleased about. Rob, the ex-gamekeeper, likes to keep the foxes down which I know is necessary, but I like to see a few about. This was a sign that they were still in the neighbourhood.

The harvest has been safely gathered in and the fields are already ploughed in readiness for planting the spring crops.

I saw the fallow herd but only at a distance. They were all together this time and I counted about 15 animals including five or six fawns. I’d only seen two fawns on previous occasions. A Muntjac paid me a visit as I set up the hammock. I could hear him but not see him. I climbed into the hammock and promptly dozed off in the afternoon sun.

Today I mooched about in Park Woods. These are  my small local woods. I’ve been so busy this year that I’ve hardly visited this narrow strip of woodland. I seemed to have missed a whole season in these woods and I was amazed that now, at the end of summer, coupled with the recent dry spell, the undergrowth of tall nettles had literally been vanquished. The secret clearing was almost transparent and I could nearly see through to the south side from the northern edge.

I pinged a few arrows with the Samick bow to keep in practice, but gave up when one rebounded off a long log. I spent a good 20 minutes looking for it and, as usual, realised that you should always look farther than you think to find that missing arrow!

The dried bed of a usually large puddle showed up some good badger tracks.

The blackberries were out and I noticed a few gnawed hazelnuts on the ground.

As I came out of the woods, the heat hit me as I walked towards the car. Autumn might be just around the corner but summer wasn’t done yet.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.