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Primitive skills overnight.

The rum might make you feel warm but in reality you'll lose body heat more easily. Just be careful with it.

Sounds like a dream trip! That's a Hawken, correct? Ridiculously good firearms for the era and still a good gun today.

I dig the head of that axe.. I'm an axe junkie. What does it weigh? Looks like maybe a 2#er?
Thank you for the warning,, but the Crack about the alcohol being for the cold was in jest. We just sat around the campfire drinking at night.

I never really weighed the ax head during the process but yeah it's in the 2 lb range. It is indeed a Hawken replica, I think it was an Italian company but it's been like 40 years since I built it.
 
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Thank you for the warning,, but the Crack about the alcohol being for the cols was in jest. We just sat around the campfire drinking a not at night.

I never really weighed the ax head during the process but yeah it's in the 2 lb range. It is indeed a Hawken replica, I think it was an Italian company but it's been like 40 years since I built it.
Lets here how it went !!!
 
It was a fun trip, colder than heck the first day, maybe 15 degrees warmer the second. We built shelters and slept in them and it was warmer than expected than my three wool blankets would have been. One of the guys surprised us with three Bison robes to sleep under. First time for those things and they are amazingly warm.

Had to be careful cutting wood and building the first day. It would have been easy to sweat but that could have been very bad in that cold.

We had a couple impromptu shoots and I took two of three with my .58. The ax worked well but it's one of those in between things, larger and less handy than a belt ax, smaller and less efficient than a full ax.

Overall it was a good time.
 
I remember reading in the Muzzleloader magazine about guys that would go camping in the dead of winter dressed in period clothing from the 1700's. They would build shelters much like the early explorers would have built to spend the night in. Primitive might be fun, but it would be more fun in warmer weather. :)
It was definitely cold, probably the coldest I have done in primitive gear. Wool sure helps. I wore wool leggings shirt, toque, and blanket coat, but I do not believe my face and hands have ever been colder at times. I have mittens on lanyards to go over the fingerless wool gloves but when they were off it was brutal.

The fire was fed constantly and was our most favorite place to be.
 
In my library...
  1. Tom Brown's Field Guides,
  2. Primative Wilderness living & Survival Skills - J&G McPherson
  3. Outdoor Survival Skills - L.D. Olsen
  4. Roughing It Easy #1 & #2 - D. Thomas
Also, Traditional Bowhunter magazine.
My library…

1. A Hundred and One Reasons to Stay the Heck Home - T. Wave
 
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