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FEATURED POSTS

Best hunting knife? Fox River EXT-1 improved review

513 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Users helped design what may be one of the best knives on the market for big game hunting. The Bark River improved EXT-1 checks all the boxes for me.

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Survival Knives

Mora knives, best beginner knife, best survival knife

What makes a good knife review? Here is what to look for

600 300 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Before you invest in a tool that might save your life, look around for a thorough, knowledgeable review.

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Hunt|Fish|Camp

Five things to know about hunting and eating snakes

585 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

One way to deal with invasive species is to make them profitable to harvest. If a market for python meat and hides develops, it could help solve the Florida Everglades snake problem. Eat snake meat? Nigel Robert, founder of morereptiles.com tells what you need to know.

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Making Fire

make charcloth, survival firemaking

How to Make Charcloth: A miracle material for catching sparks and making fire

600 300 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Catching a spark and blowing it into a flame is a skill that can save your life. Charcloth is a material that has been “cooked” like charcoal is at high temperatures until it becomes black. Properly-made charcloth will easily catch a spark and grow into an ember. This ember can be transferred to a tinder bundle and blown into a flame.

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Emergency Shelter

These Eureka! Timberline tents have held up well for almost a decade of use by Boy Scout Troop 18. Central Oregon's winter is beautiful, (Pantenburg photo)

How to stake down a tent securely in deep snow

600 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

How do you keep your tent from blowing down in heavy winds, when you’re on top of deep snow or in deep, loose sand? This simple technique works really, really well.

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Survival Gear

Review: Cyansky K3 V2 Tactical Flashlight

306 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

A solid, dependable flashlight and/or headlamp should be a standard item in your survival/preparedness gear. This Cyansky K3 V2.0 flashlight supplies spotlight performance in a light, compact package.

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Survival Skills

make-laundry-soap

Recipe: How to make frontloader washing machine laundry soap

600 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

I’m not buying laundry soap again. This recipe is easy and cheap, and helps eliminate those huge plastic detergent bottles. The ingredients are available at any grocery store.

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VIDEOS | TIPS & HOW TO's

Deer hunting gear update | What can work best for you?
442 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Here are some gear items I wrung out during the Mississippi deer season. These can work for you!

Video and review: Irish Setter Pinnacle 7-inch hiking boot
484 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

if I only had one pair of boots to wear for everything, the choice would be simple: sturdy, ankle-high, non-insulated hikers with a fairly aggressive  tread pattern on the sole. Like these Irish Setter Pinnacles.

Video: How to find dry firemaking tinder in wet weather
448 325 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

The ability to start a fire under survival conditions can save your life. The inability can cost your life. Here are some tips for finding dry tinder under wet, stormy conditions.

Leon Pantenburg writes a survival skills blog with tips and techniques to help typical folks survive an unexpected urban or wilderness emergency, using their common sense and emergency preparedness training. Topics include survival knives, survival clothing and camp cooking, making a fire, emergency shelter, hunting and fishing, competent survival skills and survival gear reviews.