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Before you purchase that bowie knife, you might have a few questions that you want answered. One of the most frequently asked questions about these knives is whether or not you need a permit to own one. Do you have to have a permit if you keep your bowie knife at home? Do you need a permit if you will use it on a hunting trip? These questions are vital, but the answers might be far from enlightening.

In Your Home - Do you need a permit to own bowie knives and keep them in your home? The short answer to this is “no”. You are legally allowed to possess these knives within your home and you can keep them wherever you see fit. You can display them, put one beside your bed, or hide them away for future needs. However, when carrying such a weapon outside your home, things become stickier.

How do you know if you can carry bowie knives in public? The Internet is your most powerful tool in this case. Every US state has its own website, where you will find listed the laws governing firearms and bladed weapons. These laws will give you a broad overview of your rights and responsibilities where bowie knives, balisongs, dirks and daggers are concerned. However, your state’s laws are not the only consideration that you will have to make. In some states, the laws of counties or cities supersede those of the state in some instances.

The question of taking your bowie knife on a hunting, camping or fishing trip is quite different from “carrying it in public”. As these knives are designed for outdoors use, most states do not prohibit you from using them or carrying them without a permit if you will be engaged in an activity for which the knife was designed (a legal activity, of course).

As you can see, while you don’t have to have a permit to own bowie knives, you do have to take care to ensure that you remain on the right side of the law when carrying and using these tools. A little research can go a long way here.

Dave is the owner of an online bowie knives and glock grip extensions store.

Bowie knives are fantastically versatile, enabling you to accomplish numerous different tasks with a single knife. However, what exactly are all the features of the blade used for? This can be hard to understand, as you’ll find bowie knives with different features from another. Part of the confusion is simply due to the modern evolution of the knife, while other models try to remain historically accurate. Here are a few features that you might find and need to understand.

Clip Point - Your bowie knife has one defining feature; it has a clipped point. This is the end of the blade and it looks like someone cut a section out of the tip. This is an important feature and serves several purposes. First, it serves to narrow the point of the knife, giving you greater control during use. Second, it ensures that the bowie knife has better penetrative (stabbing) power. As you might imagine, these benefits come in quite handy.

Another element of bowie knife design is the clipped point. In fact, if a knife claims to be a bowie, but does not have this distinctive feature, it is not a bowie knife. The clipped point was one of the original innovations that helped to cement this knife’s reputation in the Western world. It allows immense control of the point during general use or during combat, and provides greater penetration when using the knife for stabbing. A sharpened false edge on the clipped point offers extra cutting power, as well.

Spanish Notch - The Spanish Notch is another sometime inclusion. You’ll find that this notch offers little in the way of enhanced usability, but it does provide you with a handy point to start sharpening the blade. The notch sits at the back edge of the blade, just before the ricasso. This might have originally been used to help skin branches, or have been used to work with nautical rigging or other rope forms, but today it has few uses and is rarely found except on historically accurate bowie knives.

Guard - The guard, or quillions, of the blade serve several purposes, as well. You’ll find that traditional blades have angled guards, with the upper guard angled forward toward the point and the lower guard angled back, toward the butt. These provide protection for the hand, as well as allowing the wielder to trap an opponent’s blade (the upper guard only). The guard also serves to keep your hand from running off the handle and onto the blade when stabbing with the knife.

Dave is the owner of an online bowie knives and glock grip extensions store.

One of the most important questions when considering the purchase of a bowie knife is what it can cut. What can you use that new bowie knife to cut? What are the limitations? Will it cut equally well through skin as through cooked meat or raw vegetables? What about wood and underbrush? What uses can you put that new bowie knife to?

Why is there such a great disparity where the bowie knife is concerned? Actually, it boils down to the several different types of bowie knife out there. For instance, you will find smaller versions, as well as very large versions and everything in between.

As you might surmise, very large knives aren’t the ideal item to use when cutting something delicate - it’s a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack an eggshell. Conversely, using a small bowie knife to cut heavy, thick things is equally unwise, something like using a razorblade to chop firewood comes to mind.

So, what can you cut with a bowie knife? It all depends on your particular knife. While you most certainly can use that gigantic blade to gut a fish, chances are quite good that the blade will be so large that you’ll muck up the job. It’s quite difficult to make a precision cut when the blade is twice as long as the fish! Now, you can take that in the opposite direction as well. You might not have much luck using a six-inch bowie knife to cut through thick brush or cut kindling for your fire.

How do you know what your bowie knife can cut? The trick is to buy a knife that is suited to your purpose. Knife blades that run in the middle ground can be used to cut a wider variety of materials, but you’ll find that, while they are good “jacks-of-all-trades,” they’re not good for very specific tasks where a long or short blade should be used. So, the first trick is to buy a bowie knife that fits your needs. This will require that you know what those needs are. Of course, buying more than one knife to fill those needs is always an option, as well.

Dave is the owner of an online bowie knife and glock grip extensions store.

Fire starting has become somewhat of a lost art. Decades ago, it was an essential skill for survival, but modern technology has made it so simple that most people would be at a loss to start a fire if they were without a cigarette lighter or matches. However, anybody can learn to start fire without either matches or a lighter - rain or shine. Let’s look at the necessary ingredients for starting fire.

The three basic ingredients are fuel, oxygen and heat. We’re going to assume, for this discussion that the fuel is wood. Oxygen is a given as long as you’re alive, so let’s look at your heat source. You’ve got to have sufficient heat to ignite your fuel, or at least your tinder so that it can in turn ignite your fuel, or wood. Let’s consider how to get that heat source.

There are three basic sources for heat to start your fire - first is a flame which can come from a match or lighter. But what if you don’t have either of those on hand? There are really only two other heat sources for starting fires and that would be either a coal or a spark. Coals can be generated by creating friction between two wood objects. This can be achieved by a drill or bow and drill combination. Friction between the wood materials can actually create a coal which can then be used to ignite tinder. In a future article, we’ll explain just how to do this in detail. For now, suffice it to say that this involves a significant amount of work. For those who have learned to start a fire this way, the universal lesson taught is that it is prudent to have another more efficient method on hand. That’s where spark comes in.

The right kind of steel can be useful to create enough sparks to light tinder. It can be a very small piece making it convenient to carry with you, ready for use at any time. One real benefit in the use of a fire steel is that if it’s good quality, it will work even if it’s wet. There are all kinds of them on the market, it just depends upon your favorite style.

When it comes to tinder, there are numerous natural materials that work well. Dead moss, bark shavings and dead grass are just a few of the possibilities. Those that are really serious about fire starting might want to consider carrying some tinder with them, just to be prepared. Whatever method you use, practice makes perfect. Develop your skill enough so that you’ll be able to get the results you want under any circumstances.

This article was written by Griz Garzo, who is passionate about wilderness survival and primitive skills, including firestarting.

The most commonly used type of compass for outdoor recreation is called a protractor, orienteering , or baseplate compass. These compasses usually have a clear plastic baseplate, a magnetic needle, and a dial that can be twisted to set the compass. Other types of compasses include lensatic and pocket compasses. These work a little differently, and will not be covered in this article, which focuses only on the baseplate type of compass.

First, learn how to hold the compass properly. Keep the compass flat and level, so that you are looking down at it (or across the top of the needle and into the mirror with a mirrored compass). Point the compass so that the direction of travel indicator at the top of the compass dial is facing away from you. If you dangle the compass from your neck by the lanyard, it will be facing the correct direction when you lift the compass and hold it flat in the palm of your hand.

Observe the Magnetic Needle: The most important thing to remember about the needle is that red end of the needle ALWAYS POINTS NORTH. When you start using a map with your compass you will have to make a correction for magnetic north, which compasses point toward, and geographic (also called true north) that maps line up with. For now, just practice using your compass to navigate with and worry about the adjustments for magnetic and true north (called magnetic declination) after you start to use the compass with a map.

Next, sight an object or direction you would like to travel: face in the direction you would like to determine or travel, whether it is toward a landscape feature like a hill or just a path you plan to hike. Now, carefully line up the direction of travel indicator with the object or direction you wish to travel. You can do this by looking at the object then glancing down at the properly held compass while slightly adjusting the way your body is facing until everything lines up. Always keep your body and the compass lined up and moving as a single unit.

Now, set the compass: Holding the compass still in the direction you sighted, twist the dial until the hollow orientation arrow lines up beneath the needle. When the needle is “boxed” in this manner, the compass is set.

Read the Compass: The number on the compass dial that lines up with the direction of travel indicator at the top (front) of the compass dial is your bearing, or compass direction. The bearing can be expressed in a few different ways, depending on the type of compass you have. The azimuth method is moth common and easiest. It is a single number between 0-360 degrees. East is at 90 degrees, south at 180, west at 270, and north at 360 (which is also 0).

Practice these 5 steps until you are comfortable using bearings to navigate around your neighborhood. Learn how to adjust for magnetic declination and read a map before doing any serious or off-trail hiking.

Need to know more about compasses? Check out Compass-HowTo.com to learn all you need to know about this and many other compass how-to topics. You’ll see compass recommendations and reviews, and resources for learning how to use a compass.

What do you call the creative use of natural things to provide for your survival? Bushcraft survival. The phrase has been made popular by TV survivalist Ray Mears and Les Hiddins (The bush Tucker Man). It involves using natural cordage, bushcraft knives, building natural shelters, eating wild edible plants, starting fires without matches or cigarette lighters, and obtaining and purifying water in primitive situations. Although early American mountain men and the Indians were masters of these skills, they have been pretty much forgotten these days.

But is there a practical use for these skills today? It turns out that interest is growing in bushcraft survival especially among outdoor enthusiasts such as backpackers, climbers and hunters. A variety of situations can arise in which it could mean the difference between life and death to know some basic wilderness survival skills.

However, in the new age of man made disaster scenarios, especially related to terrorism, these skills are not only useful for everyone, but they could mean the difference for an individual’s or even family’s ability to survive a catastrophic event.

There are a variety of ways to learn these skills, from books and videos. While many videos are available on youtube, there are also websites devoted to the development of bushcraft survival skills. But really, the bottom line is to try out the various techniques yourself after reading about them or watching them demonstrated in a video. It’s one thing to know about them, and quite another to know, by experience, how to do them. With practice, you can become very proficient in the art.

One of the best ways to learn Bushcraft survival is by doing it together as a family. Children enjoy developing these skills plus, it helps them to become more confident in problem solving using only what is at hand - a skill that could really pay off later in life. That’s all for now. We’ll have more to say later about specific survival skills and equipment that could make all the difference. See you then.

To find great resources onBushcraft Survival and read more of Griz Garzo’s articles, visit http://www.bushcraftsurvival.net.

Buck knives are a very familiar brand to many who have spent anytime in the great outdoors, hunting, fishing, or camping. They seem like they’ve been around forever, generation after generation. They are as familiar as that trail you’ve walked a thousand times, or that favorite hunting or fishing spot that keeps calling you back year after year. And while everyone knows what to expect from a Buck knife, it’s time everyone took their outdoor knife work to another level and started looking forward by looking back at the Buck 119 Special.

A perennial best seller for Buck, the 119 Special features a classic design and look that looks very simple but that is capable of performing a diverse range of functions. The knife is ten inches long with a six inch 420HC stainless steel clip point style blade. The handle is phenolic, a synthetic plastic material that can take whatever abuse you can throw at it. The knife’s look is finished off with a polished aluminum finger guard and butt.

Precision cutting ability is one of the major attributes of the 119 Special. Cutting through bone or wood to make kindling is no problem for the 119 Special, and the clip point style blade allows for precision cutting in tight places such as might be encountered while dressing out or skinning an animal.

The handle is made of extremely durable phenolic, a synthetic thermo-plastic that provides a good grip. This handle will not break under any circumstance, and the handle’s weight gives the knife a nice balanced feel while handling.

The sheath is solidly built with a sturdy button down latch and a belt loop. The belt loop is adequate to get the job done and the latch is reliable and tough. Also, the inside of the sheath is lined with plastic so that you don’t cut up the sheath while taking the knife in and out.

The 119 Special is quite light weighing in at about ten and one half ounces including the sheath and this fact combined with its versatility and durability makes the 119 Special a good choice for a survival knife. You could use it to cut bark from trees, prepare food, cut kenneling, cut branches to build a make shift shelter, and skin game among other things.

The Buck 119 special is a true classic, having been a best seller for Buck for more than forty seven years. It is a no frills design that has gotten the job done for generations. You can expect to pay fifty or so dollars from a retailer, although the MSRP is eighty or so dollars. Happy hunting!

Find great deals on Buck Knives by searching online. There you will see the Buck 119 special and so much more to consider. Head online today for your needs.

Many people, mistakenly believe handheld GPS units completely replace the old standby — a handheld compass (and its map companion). For short hikes on your home turf, perhaps, but for serious outdoor activities, here are three reasons why you should bring your compass and map.

Determining Directions with GPS Only Works while Moving

If you are standing on top of a mountain trying to figure out which direction you are facing, you can forget getting an accurate direction from a GPS unit. The navigation arrow will bounce all over the place.

Higher-end GPS units and newer iPhone models include built-in electronic compasses that detect the Earth’s magnetic field rather than relying on satellite communications. These will produce roughly the same 2 to 5 degrees of accuracy you get with a regular compass, and can be a good substitute, but consider some of the other reasons you will want your compass and map.

Distant Terrain Features are Easier to Work With when Using Map and Compass

The overview you get from studying a map, which always displays its finest-scale features, provides great information about distant features that you may be able to recall when you need to. GPS screens either have to be panned or zoomed, or both, to show you the same information. So a good old-fashioned paper (laminated) map is a must for adventurers. Unfortunately GPS units and phones make poor protractors for plotting courses on a paper map. A baseplate compass does the job perfectly.

GPS Is Power Hungry

A handheld compass is less likely to break or malfunction than more complex instruments like GPS units and other mobile devices (although some GPS units are very rugged). A more likely scenario involves the pack of AA batteries sitting on your dashboard back at the trailhead. Carry a GPS unit, and use it to store waypoints and periodically double check your progress, but consider using the compass and map to track your route. It will help you get a feel for the terrain, and helps cut down on battery waste.

Need to know more about why you should have both a compass and GPS? Head to Compass-HowTo.com to learn all you need to know about this and all kinds of other compass topics. You’ll find compass recommendations and reviews, and helpful information on learning how to use a compass.

Back at the beginning of the seventeenth century when Galileo invented the telescope, two were put side by side and the modern day binoculars were invented. The Galilean design is still used today for the less expensive versions and has some limitations in terms of its magnification capabilities.

A better design which can produce improved images at a higher magnification uses Keplerian optics. This was an improvement on the Galilean design and came from the Keplerian Telescope that was invented in 1611 by Johannes Kepler. This method has one problem, the image you see is inverted but there are ways to get around this.

An Italian politician named Ignazio Porro came up with a double Z design called and called it the Porro Prism. It was patented in 1852 but was improved toward the end of the century by manufacturer Carl Zeiss. Carl Zeiss has achieved great success and are still around after all these years and are still very successful.

At the time most units being made were used for visits to the opera and so were mainly fixed magnification items. This was not always to be the case as they gained popularity with from other fields such as the military. Traditionally they had magnification adjusters on both eyepieces. Unfortunately this process was quite slow which was ok if you were looking at something that was static and have time to adjust them.

With their use becoming more widespread certainly for military uses it meant that they were better when focused with a central focusing adjuster. This meant that both eyepieces could be focused with one movement. The both tubes are adjusted simultaneously and results in much quicker vision for far off subjects. With differences in the strength of some people’s eyes there was still a need to have some separate adjustment which could compensate for this. With the eye adjustments made for a specific user, they are then able to be used for viewing objects at varying distances using the central wheel to change the focus.

Another often used magnification technique that is also used for cameras is the zoom lens. This is done by a some adjusting lenses moved with a lever. These are not the sturdiest of designs and are prone to damage as the whole unit is much more fragile. They also have a tendency to cause eye strain and fatigue to the user.

In this day and age, binoculars are much more powerful and are even used for amateur astrology. You can now watch such events as a comet passing or a supernova taking place. Whereas for terrestrial viewing a lens size of 70mm is recommended, for astrology the 90mm and larger lens size what is recommended.

Whatever they are used for today, the actual design has not changed much in four hundred years. They are unlikely to ever be made redundant as there will always be a use for them as long as we have a bird in a tree.

Mike Davis is a writer of many binocular reviews and articles. He lists out the best binocular for birding, astronomy, hunting, butterfly watching, and even for watching concerts and sports.

As exceptionally tinted leaves bedazzle the fall scenery, walkers and hunters across the nation will check out mountain tops, forest and fields, but several, regrettably, are poorly trained for the beating their feet will take. Hunters and walkers will frequently navigate the most rugged terrain.

Walkers, hunters among others who take pleasure in the outdoors frequently hardly understand how demanding it can be to endure continual, strenuous walking on unsteady landscape. Taking walks up and down sloping hillsides and wandering through muddy, slick fields and wooded areas places tension on the muscles and tendons within the feet and ankles, particularly if you have not conditioned decently prior to reaching the trail.

The most effective gear for walking up and down in the woodlands is a high caliber pair of well fabricated walking boots. This is purchase in quality boots prevents sprained ankles or strained Achilles muscles. It can be wise for walkers and hunters to make the investment in top-grade hiking boots. Sturdy, well insulated and moisture-proof boots with steel or graphite shanks provide terrific ankle and foot support that provides lessening strain and muscle tiredness to keep down injury risk.

In wet and crisp, cold temperature, putting on suitable socks can help avoid blisters, fungal infections and frostbite. An excellent synthetic sock for the initial layer retains dry feet and lessens rubbing that forms blisters. For that second layer, wool socks provide warmth, catch dampness away from the skin, and help to make the hiking boot cozier. Wool allows moisture to evaporate faster than cotton, so fewer blisters grow.

What goes on if your feet or ankles hurt during a hike or hunt? Pain usually occurs from overuse, being in poor condition, as well as from just walking. If you are not familiar with walking on sloped or uneven ground, your legs and feet will get tired and trigger muscles and tendons to ache. To prevent a serious injury, like a severe ankle sprain or an Achilles tendon rupture, rest for awhile if you start hurting.

Moderation is another good strategy to follow when first starting out in the forest. Evaluate hiking to skiing in that beginners should accept much easier trails until they become better conditioned and much more confident. Using common sense in starting easy is likely to make your hunt much more comfortable and enjoyable.

Hunting expert and Author Ethan O. Tanner explains the different types of hunting accessories the determining factors in easy hunting tips for your outdoor needs.