Ever Start A Fire in the Rain?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Ever Start A Fire in the Rain?

Posted: 11/3/2002 11:18:18 PM EDT

I am working on expanding my skills, and this is one I haven't tried yet.

Please share your experiences, and the circumstances. Thanks.

Posted: 11/3/2002 11:21:08 PM EDT

[#1]

gasoline

[pyro]

Posted: 11/3/2002 11:22:06 PM EDT

[#2]

White gas.
Lots and lots of White gas
[X]

Posted: 11/3/2002 11:35:13 PM EDT

[#3]

When I was still single, me and this hot little redhead...

Oh, nevermind...

Posted: 11/3/2002 11:41:36 PM EDT

[#4]

Seriously, go to a Boy Scout handbook. AN OLD one

I lived on Kodiak Island for over a decade and lit quite a few fires in the rain. I'll be damned if i can give you any specific directions, though, as each one was different.

The most important ingredient is perseverence.

Posted: 11/3/2002 11:58:21 PM EDT

[#5]

piccolo gave you some good advise, in addition get the BSA field guide. Learned more about field craft in the sense of making fires, etc from my days of scouting (was an Eagle scout back in the day) than the military taught me.

Posted: 11/4/2002 12:22:41 AM EDT

[#6]

Yeah, I'm going to brag.

Basic training was one place I learned very little because of my years in scouting.

Because I scouted in the late 50s and early 60s, about 15 years after WW2, the BSA was given a BOATLOAD of military equipment.Us scouts learned to use this stuff, it was similar to the stuff we got issued in the army later in the early 70s, so i already knew how to use it.

I learned to shoot a service rifle (M-1)in scouts, too. The m-16 came easily.

Coupled with my scout training, the drill sgt was pretty much in awe of me. When a city kid ran from a snake, I caught it and prepared it for a suppliment for my Cs(we were in bivouac at the time).

I also got in trouble, too when the Drill Sgt got a bit curious and asked me where I learned all this stuff. I told him "In the Boy Scouts."

He asked me if I knew the difference between the Army and the Boy Scouts.

With a straight face, I replied, "Yes, Drill Sergeant. The Boy Scouts have adult supervision!"

I would up pushing Fort Dix away from me several hundred tomes for that.

Try get a Boyscout Fieldbook from AT LEAST the 60s, or earlier if you can find it.

Posted: 11/4/2002 12:22:56 AM EDT

[#7]

It was down to a light drizzle at the time, but...

I was 15, gave my spot in a tent to some other guy. Started to POUR around midnight, Spent 4+ hours in fetal position, freezing (sleeping bag was soaked through, a didn't have as much as a tarp).

Got up when the downpour ended (still raining, but just drizzle). Gathered dry kindling from many of the numerous pines (this was LP Michigan) - the stuff against the trunk and under the other branches is extremely well protected from the rain.

Improvised a little lean-to to keep my fire out of the rain, got something started out of sheer force of will.

The trick was to find dry stuff. I guess the simplicity of that is dependent on how much it has rained. The second trick is to improvise a "roof" over the fire.

Once my fire got going, the drizzle couldn't hurt it so much and it would tolerate wetter and wetter wood (nothing green, just soaked from night's rain). The wood that had served as a lean-to was offered to the fire gods.

By the time the tent-based assholes woke up, I had dried most of my stuff and started breakfast, I refused to let on as to how miserable I'd been.

I spent some cold, miserable nights in the army. Many have been as bad, few have been worse.

Adam

Posted: 11/4/2002 12:24:03 AM EDT

[#8]

Yeah, I'm going to brag.

Basic training was one place I learned very little because of my years in scouting.

Because I scouted in the late 50s and early 60s, about 15 years after WW2, the BSA was given a BOATLOAD of military equipment.Us scouts learned to use this stuff, it was similar to the stuff we got issued in the army later in the early 70s, so i already knew how to use it.

I learned to shoot a service rifle (M-1)in scouts, too. The m-16 came easily.

Coupled with my scout training, the drill sgt was pretty much in awe of me. When a city kid ran from a snake, I caught it and prepared it for a suppliment for my Cs(we were in bivouac at the time).

I also got in trouble, too when the Drill Sgt got a bit curious and asked me where I learned all this stuff. I told him "In the Boy Scouts."

He asked me if I knew the difference between the Army and the Boy Scouts.

With a straight face, I replied, "Yes, Drill Sergeant. The Boy Scouts have adult supervision!"

I would up pushing Fort Dix away from me several hundred tomes for that.

Try get a Boyscout Fieldbook from AT LEAST the 60s, or earlier if you can find it.

Posted: 11/4/2002 12:33:37 AM EDT

[#9]

I always take 1 or 2 cases of 6 hour firelogs when I'm out camping/hunting.I've used them to start fires in torrential downpours.They work like a charm!!I have had people laugh at me when I use them, but when its pouring out and they can't get their fire started and you walk over and hand them one of the firelogs, they see the error of their ways.HTH.

Skullboy.

Posted: 11/4/2002 12:45:40 AM EDT

[#10]

Don't know what you have for trees down there but Birch bark will burn when wet. Start there.

Posted: 11/4/2002 1:30:10 AM EDT

[#11]

Ask STLRN to pick you up a set of MARPAT next trip to the BX.

Posted: 11/4/2002 1:33:55 AM EDT

[#12]

I always bring a supply of road flares for just such an adventure.

They smell bad though.

Posted: 11/4/2002 1:52:56 AM EDT

[#13]

AROCK
We don't have BXs, they are PXs and its actually the Marine Corps Clothing Sales or Cash Sales that sell cammies though, but since he probably ain't a Marine I wouldn't buy them for him, sorry would only get them for those that wear the uniform for a reason not to live out Walter Mitty fantasies.

Posted: 11/4/2002 2:09:35 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
AROCK
We don't have BXs, they are PXs and its actually the Marine Corps Clothing Sales or Cash Sales that sell cammies though, but since he probably ain't a Marine I wouldn't buy them for him, sorry would only get them for those that wear the uniform for a reason not to live out Walter Mitty fantasies.

View Quote

Works every time. Even in the rain...

Posted: 11/4/2002 2:13:06 AM EDT

[#15]

Nope there not water proof, as I can tell you from being soaked in the rain while wearing MarPats for about 12 days a couple of months ago.

Posted: 11/4/2002 2:13:48 AM EDT

[#16]

Aaaaahhhhh!!!!

Posted: 11/4/2002 2:44:00 AM EDT

[#17]

[img]http://www.shomer-tec.com/products/gi_survival_fire_starter.jpg[/img]

This little device (above) from [url]http://www.shomer-tec.com/item.cfm?Action=catalog&variable=490[/url] works on even wet wood and last a lifetime. I have also had good luck w/ a [b]Gerber Strike-Force[/b] (same page 82 as above in catalogue).

Mike

Posted: 11/4/2002 4:44:35 AM EDT

[#18]

I make my own firestarters. Candle wax mixed with shredded wood (the shredded wood for fish/meat smokers works good). I melt the wax in a coffee can, when the wax is melted I mix in as much of the wood as the wax will hold. Then pour it into a paper egg carton. After the wax has solidified(sp?), cut the egg carton. Makes 12 small easy to carry, firestarters.

Posted: 11/4/2002 5:22:08 AM EDT

[#19]

During a three day backpack excursion through the Chiricahuas in southeastern Arizona, it rained cats and dogs. By the second night, there simply was no dry firewood to be found. As we set up camp, I built a four-sided chimney of smaller wood, about two feet tall, and filled it halfway with pine needles and cones, and some paper garbage we were packing along, anything that was nearly dry. Then I tossed in a couple of spoonfulls of Sterno and lit it. It took a little while, but the small fire inside the chimney dried out the wood enough to begin burning vigorously. By the time my chimney collapsed there were enough embers to ignite larger, though soaked, pieces of wood. We had a great fire that night!

Posted: 11/4/2002 5:32:30 AM EDT

[#20]

Take a field dressing and rub some Chapstick on it. Works great.

When I "car camp" in the rain, the first thing I do when I arrive on the site is pop a road flare. Toss it where I want a fire. Gather wood and trash, and pile it on the flare. Works every time.

Posted: 11/4/2002 5:46:08 AM EDT

[#21]

Lighterknot(sp?), fuzz sticks, or the fur from the base of a palmetto(lots of them here if FL).

Posted: 11/4/2002 6:04:44 AM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
Don't know what you have for trees down there but Birch bark will burn when wet. Start there.

View Quote

I second the motion. Used birch bark to great effect on a 10 day canoe trip in the BWCA in upper Minnesota.

Posted: 11/4/2002 6:27:55 AM EDT

[#23]

Magnesium, works every time!

Posted: 11/4/2002 6:49:21 AM EDT

[#24]

I burned off my arm hair and part of my hair with that stuff - it rocks.

Quoted:
White gas.
Lots and lots of White gas
[X]

View Quote

Posted: 11/4/2002 7:07:05 AM EDT

[#25]

cut some strips off of an old bike tire innertube. It is light to carry and will light when wet and catch anything on fire it melts on.

Posted: 11/4/2002 8:42:32 AM EDT

[#26]

First you get a CAT.

Round up whatever wood you want to burn

Add 2-3 gallons of Boy Scout lighter Fluid (diesel)

Enjoy your fire...
[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/Frog%5FLegs%2FCAT%2Ejpg[/img]
[:D]

Posted: 11/4/2002 8:51:12 AM EDT

[#27]

Road flare. Works everytime.

Posted: 11/4/2002 9:12:22 AM EDT

[#28]

What's that gay-looking machine? Barbie's First Backhoe?

[peep]

Posted: 11/4/2002 11:13:49 AM EDT

[#29]

Like idiots me and a buddy went to the boundary waters in minasota(sp)/canada in september. We of course got caught in the rain storms as winter hit.
We had about 3 days of rain and had to build a fire to keep from freezing and to cook food.
So I had several things I brought along to help start a fire in any weather. They make these fire sticks, which look like partical board soaked in stuff that burn real well and hot. They are small so you can carry a pack of 10 and they don't weigh much. Also cotton balls light easy as long as they aren't soaking. This will start a fire anywhere. Keeping it going was the only problem till we could dry off some wood. We got lucky and found several dead logs we could cut into for dry kindling, and the white ash, or birch peels off and dries pretty quick to keep stuff burning till you can get bigger logs dry and going.