It’s open season on holiday shopping. You’ll never bag that big deal sitting on your recliner watching sports on TV.
Here are some gift ideas for the outdoor enthusiasts on your gift list.
* For the aspiring knifemaker: Build a heirloom custom knife with a Damascus steel knife blank. This handmade, high carbon steel blade, is shaped, ground, and has holes drilled through the handle, so that scales (handle material) can be attached with pins (and epoxy).
This blank has an overall length of about 9 inches. The blade is 4 inches long, about an 1/8 thick and is made from 1095 high carbon and 15n20 nickel, welded in a raindrop pattern, with over 200 layers of steel. Cost is $37.95, with free shipping.
Order online here. For books, DVDs and videos on knife making visit www.texasknife.com.
* For the backpacker, backwoods hunter or angler who needs clean drinking water, the Sawyer Mini is a personal water filtration system that is effective, lightweight, inexpensive and easy to use. It’s as easy as scooping water into the collapsible bag, attaching the filter and drinking.
It’s also ideal for international travel and emergency preparedness. The filter removes 99.9 percent of all bacteria, such as salmonella, cholera and E.coli, and 99.9 percent of all protozoa, such as giardia and cryptosporidium. The Sawyer Mini weighs 2 ounces and filters up to 100,000 gallons of water. Attaches to included drinking pouch, standard disposable bottles (28 mm thread), hydration packs, or use the straw to drink directly from your water source.
The kit also includes filter cleaning plunger (syringe) and cleaning and maintenance instructions. Available is five colors. Cost is about $25. For more information visit their website.
* For the angler looking for a space-saving way to store fishing rod and reels, the Cabela’s Ceiling Rod Rack is a handsome addition to any den or Man Cave.
Made of solid wood, this rack may be purchased at Cabela’s retail stores, ordered for pick-up or purchased online. The rack is capable of holding up to 11 rod and reel combinations, and is ideal for freshwater spinning and casting tackle. Felt liners must be applied to cutouts in the rack.
The item number is lK-133417. Regular price is $19.99, on sale now for $9.99. Visit www.Cabelas.com for store locations or to buy online.
* For the bird hunter who goes after everything that flies, from doves and ducks, to geese and wild turkeys, Remington screw-in choke tubes (Rem Chokes) are available in a wide range of constrictions for their popular Remington 870, 1100 and 11-87 shotguns.
For use with lead or steel shot, these choke tubes screw in to threaded barrels and fit flush with the end of the barrel.
For more outdoors news and information, see Art Lander’s Outdoors on KyForward.
In 12 gauge, the improved cylinder choke tube is diameter .720, ideal for dove, quail or woodcock, or shooting steel shot when waterfowl hunting. The modified choke tube is diameter .710 and comes in handy when pass shooting doves during late season.
The full choke, diameter .700, and Extra Full Extended, diameter .687, are good choices for turkey hunting with lead shot.
Midway USA sells a full line of Rem Chokes, plus choke tubes for other brands of shotguns, and choke tube accessories such as lubes, wrenches and carrying cases. Visit their website here.
* For the angler who loves to fry up a mess of fish fillets, potatoes and hush puppies, just as important as a big iron skillet, is a lidded pot to store oil, so it can be reused.
The Cook N Home 1 1/2 quart Oil Storage pot is made of stainless steel, and includes a filter. When finished frying, pour the oil in the skillet through the filter into the pot, clean the filter to remove frying residue, and put the pot in the refrigerator.
When frying up fish again, simply put the pot on the stove, heat up the oil, and pour into the skillet.
The Cook N Home 1 1/2 quart Oil Storage pot is available online for about $28, with free shipping. Here is the link.
Art Lander Jr. is outdoors editor for KyForward. He is a native Kentuckian, a graduate of Western Kentucky University and a life-long hunter, angler, gardener and nature enthusiast. He has worked as a newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and author and is a former staff writer for Kentucky Afield Magazine, editor of the annual Kentucky Hunting & Trapping Guide and Kentucky Spring Hunting Guide, and co-writer of the Kentucky Afield Outdoors newspaper column.