How to make your own jerky in the bush

How to primitively dry meat to make jerky for use in long term wilderness survival.
You can use any kind of animal meat that is available on hand, rabbit, squirrel, birds, fish, venison, etc. Just remember to slice it thin like 1/2-1/3 inch or so.

Jerky is my favorite camp food. You can just keep going without having to cook anything or use utensils. Of course that is after you initially take the time to make it. Thanks for the tut.

First thing I thought when I saw this was, "This is definitely a Tim Allen idea" (tool time I believe? was the name of the show for those that don't know).

This is one of those things that every guy see's and wants to try and do it but do it better only to end up lighting the camp on fire and eating charcoal'ed beef jerky.

That being said I never even thought about making Jerky like this so will have to try it when I get a chance hopefully the camp don't burn down lol.

reply to post by warrenb


Informative video. He was pretty proficient with that bow drill.

Thanks for sharing it.

I'm sorry, but that title sounds really nasty. It's a good skill to have, though, so thanks for the information.

Wish I could see Videos on this old computer SSIGHHhhh

On the other hand the Mexican family down the street was "air drying" meat to preserve it. When I tried preserving meat for a camping trip I found it had to be LEAN as in no fat, because the fat will go rancid. Deer, goat rabbit are good meats to jerk.

I have gotten pretty good with drying meats in the last 2 months, but that was probably the best video using a bow drill that I have seen. It would have been nice to have a closer up view of the coal to be able to tell when its read to put on the tender.

I don't often chime in with something so off topic...but the title of this thread is freaking hilarious!

Let's just say i don't want to know how you make jerky in the bush. LOL

Ya'll need to get your heads out of the gutter. Having your head in the gutter isn't going to come in very handy when you are trying to survive. XD

Great video, thanks for posting it. How in the world did he get a coal that fast? I've tried it a couple times and had no success with it, any tips in that direction would be great! Looks like a broom stick or something for the spindle? What woods work best for which parts?
Dryer lint is a wonderful tinder by the way, don't inhale the smoke though because of the fabric softeners and nasty chemicals in synthetic clothing but for starting a fire, I've yet to find it's equal.

Im trying to watch this video but it's doing what every other
survival skills video does - they talk you to death. On another
video I was watching it took a guy 5 minutes to show how to
cut off a piece of hemlock bark to eat. Didn't bother teach anyone
what a hemlock tree might look like - many people don't know. They
need to edit these down and show come close ups at important
times. It's frustrating when you want to learn but they go on forever without being very informative.

He should've told us what woods he was using for his bow drill and
tinder. His bow drill form was very good, note how he held his left arm around his leg and kept his left wrist close to his shin. The bare foot helps him hold the fireboard with his foot. He laid a pretty lame fire, he rushed that part badly. You want a much bigger pile to put your tinder in.

Anyways, 9 minutes is too long to just see a bow drill fire and a tripod with meat on it. Anyone want to loan me a camera for a couple of months? I could save ppl alot of time. C'mon , you can trust me with your camera.....

reply to post by twitchy


Sorry, I didn't read your post before I wrote mine Twitchy. I can help
you with that.

Bowdrill Tips:

Any medium soft woods that are dry will work.

Stay away from evergreens except cedar.Also was his tinder
I think ( the shredded bark) even works when its wet out.

Spindle and board work well if theyre the same wood.

Cedar, pawpaw, and ashleaf maple are my favorites.

cattail stems, mullein stalks, horseweed all make great spindle
woods and hand drills.

Study his form; right leg back, keep bow level and in line with
your body. Left arm wrapped around his leg with wrist tight to
shin (that's the secret THINGY!)

Warm up the bowdrill with a minute of long slow strokes and build
it up (Yeah, just like sex, ok? i got it) then you build speed and
pressure simultaneously.

Make sure there's no drag in your handsocket. Lubricate that
end with something waxy but not wet or the wood swells and it
binds in the socket. If it does bind try a little sand on that end
to smooth it out. Spindle ends ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE.

Bowstring shouldn't slip

If that don't do it for you and have you cranking out fires like a
pro come back later for lesson 2 my young apprentice.
::inserts emperor laughing noise::

burn baby burn! burn!

reply to post by twitchy


I had seen a documentary or movie that they used hair to start a fire.

Good one Warrenb. Starred and flagged.

These are the sort of survival skills Americans, and other people from other countries should be learning, because the way things are going, soon enough only those with such skills will be able to thrive better if the economic crisis gets worse, and it seems that it won't get any better despite the lies from the politicians, and the administration in power.

I am amazed that this post hasn't gotten more responses.

Good work Warrenb.

Originally posted by calstorm
I have gotten pretty good with drying meats in the last 2 months, but that was probably the best video using a bow drill that I have seen. It would have been nice to have a closer up view of the coal to be able to tell when its read to put on the tender.

Yeah, he said he was really sure that the fire would start, but didn't show how he came to this conclusion. So you do need to have some coals in order to do this, you can't find coal readily in the wilderness unless you make charcoal from a piece of wood, which requires some time.

Remember that coal emits sulfur which is bad for your health, and can get into a really bad health problem if you inhale sulfur and it combines with your sweat or some water in your lungs, and then you get sulfuric acid inside your lungs. You might not feel the effects right away, unless you inhale a lot of sulfur but this can cause adverse health problems.

Here is an example of the health risks associated with coal.

gsa.confex.com...

So don't be inhaling the emissions from the coal burning, or use charcoal better, although charcoal also has some health side effects, but it is not as bad and at least you won't get so much sulfur.

If you have no choice but to use coal, if you don't have time to make charcoal from wood, then try not to inhale so much the fumes, and stay away as much as possible letting nature itself work and smoke your meat.

I would rather spend some more time making charcoal, and using charcoal because some sulfur will also get in your meat, and meats are already sulfury.

But it is your choice whaty you want to do of course. Just avoid inhaling the emissions from the burning material as much as possible.

[edit on 23-8-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

Thanks for the info
good to have info like that lodged in the back of your head for important times in the future

How to make your own jerky in the bush

We have a bush outside our dining room window. However, if I left any kind of meat there, next doors cat would eat it. Even if the cat left it alone, it would probably rot before it dried out. We rarely get sunny weather here. It's usually overcast or raining in the Yorkshire Dales.

Edit: I wonder how much meat there is on a small domestic cat?



[edit on 23-8-2009 by Adamus]

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


Hey Electric, the coal he was referring to in the video is not anthracite
or bituminous coal - it was the coal produced by the bow drill. The
friction of the drill kit creates small bits of wood called coal dust by
people who make hand fires like that. The dust catches in a notch cut
into the fireboard and when it gets hot enough it ignites. It's all simple physics, nothing too mysterious. Speed + pressure = friction = heat.
There are many other methiods of friction fire making but in an emergency situation the bow drill is your best choice. If the SHTF you
will eventually run out of matches so I think it's a very worthwhile skill
to learn. If I can find a good video of how to do it on the web I'll post
it.
Peace out.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


Thanks for the reply, how does Poplar wood perform with this method? Poplar, Birch, Willow, Walnut... I took a dendrology class but we didn't cover survival fire building, would be good to know what woods are suitable in your immediate area.
If you don't have sufficient sunlight, I'd say smoking meat would probably be your best bet to preserve it, or curing it with salt or sugar but I'm not too keen on curing unless you have piles of salt in your backpack. Keeping critters out of it is a problem, but then in a survival situation, those critters can be your next batch of jerky. Plenty of meat on a cat if you just had to do it.
One little tip alot of people don't take into consideration is that if you're going to put rocks around your fire, DO NOT USE quartz or rocks from a river or creek or even low lying areas, they trap water that flashes into steam when you build a fire near them and can explode.
(slightly off topic)
Geez I haven't seen a Pawpaw tree since I was a kid, where did they all go? To my understanding that was the only native american fruit tree until white folks got here?

Jerky is not a long term survival food.
There is no fat on it. You need the fat for quick energy.

High fat meats are smoked for storage. think smoked ham
High fat meats can be smoked till the meat is dry and rock hard.
en.wikipedia.org...
www.uga.edu...

The best dry product for long term survival is smoked pemmican
www.smokylake.com...

Smoked pemmican can be made from high fat meats.

Boil the meat till the meat start falling apart while skimming to fat off the water and saving it to cool.
Once the meat starts falling apart remove the meat from the boiling pot and boil the rest of the broth till thick.

Shred the meat and add some of the thick broth and then dry.

The skimmed and cooled fat will separate into two parts a thick solid lard.
and a non lard meat oils.
Save the lard for other uses. it may be used in wick lamps or eaten.
Take the meat oils and mix with the ground up dry meat and add any of these, ground dry berries, nuts, dry apple, corn flour. dry vegetables,
Put in sausage casing(before Sitx)or washed and boiled small intestine of what ever you have hunted.(by the way these intestine can be washed boiled then dried till needed then soaked and used)or cloth bags.
en.wikipedia.org...

These pemmican sausages are then hung in a smokehouse till dry and hard.
They will look like large black salami.
To use just peel the hide/casing and cube for soups or stews or slice for eating right off the salami roll.
Pemmican rolls were the main food of many arctic explorers.
And were the main winter food storage of the American Indians because of its high fat content.


[edit on 23-8-2009 by ANNED]