A few weekends ago I went to the last day of the Grand Forks Gun Show.  It was $5 to get in well worth it in my opinion to check our current firearm prices along with other firearm related stuff.  After I paid I walked in and made a B line to the conceal and carry booth.  The company was permittocarry.org.  I spoke to Rusty about what I would have to do to get a Wisconsin, North Dakota and Minnesota conceal carry permit.  He was super knowledgeable and super helpful.  I really enjoyed talking to him and if his classes are anything like he was that day I would recommend him to anyone.  After talking to him I realized the classes were quite expensive for my cheap self at the time so I put that on the back burner.  Once I was done talking to Rusty I went out to see the prices of guns and if I could find any deals on them.  Holy piss were gun prices high at the gun show.  I seriously think the vendors were out of their minds.  Their brand new guns were on average $60 to $80 more than I what I could get if I just drove across town to Scheels and purchased them there.  The biggest offenders in that department were rifles.  The used pistols cost around as much as you would pay for a new one.  The craziest thing I found though was a Traditions 1851 black powder revolver you know the one you can find at Cabela's for around $180. Well this one booth had it sitting there with a sign that said "sale $320."  I damn  near shit myself when I saw that price.  Seriously these vendors were just either crazy or leaving hundreds of dollars to dicker with on the initial price they were selling it for.  Either way it was crazy in my mind.  Being there on the last day I expected to see deals and lots of empty tables I saw neither.  I know in a gun show you usually negotiate the price, but seriously seeing prices like that made me not even wanna talk to the vendors.  So in the end I found no gun deals and that the prices for used guns are quite high.  I still don't like how expensive firearms have gotten, but I don't think there is much I can do about it.

My trip did not go in vain though I was able to purchase one thing.  It was a cheap knife.  I was looking for a cheap beat around knife at the gun show, and I noticed my options were quite limited.  Some guy had Helle knives for a really good price that made me drool, but they were still out of what I limited myself I would spend.  I had my purchase narrowed down to two knives both of which I was going to try to talk down the price to get, because thanks to my trusty smart phone I knew what they were really worth.  The first guy I dickered with gave me a price so good I ended up purchasing that knife and not even trying with the other one. The knife I got was a Timber Wolf model 103 skinning knife that came in a leather sheath.  The guy had it on the table for $15, I offered him $6 and he took it.  I was amazed by that especially knowing the knife was around $12 to purchase online.  I really got a deal and am quite proud of it.  Once I got back from the gun show I took the knife out played with it a little then made the review you see below.  I hope you enjoy it.

My Squirrel Traps and Quad Survival Fish Fry and Squirrel Feed

We got old man Rounce to finally cook us up the fish we caught during our ice fishing video also some squirrel Jim and Andy got.  So I invited everyone who was around over for some fish fry and squirrel feed.  Rounce spent the whole day getting the squirrel ready and thawing out some fish.  So I had some spare time before we ate and had to fill my time with something.  I decided to fill my time by making a squirrel trap setup.  So I went down to the new farmers store opening in town and got myself some rat traps.  Now I first learned about using rat traps to catch squirrels in a good ole Dave Cantebury video which you can see here.  I took an old hand drill drilled some holes in the trap tied some string through the holes then went about creating some platform that squirrels could get to and cats couldn't at least not easily.  I found some old pieces of wood my brother used to try to build a skateboard ramp back when that was pouplar and nailed them into a half assed L shape.  Then I found a tree nearby where I could see my traps from the deck and leaned the platform against the tree and nailed it there.  I then filled the traps with some peanut butter and bread combo as the internet suggested to me.  I set the traps up tied them to the platform so they didn't fall and hit the ground when the trap snapped.  As of right now I'm sitting outside on the deck typing this and have not gotten a squirrel yet, but I also haven't seen an squirrels running around either.  If i get some I plan giving the meat to Old Man Rounce for food and salting and freezing the tail to give to Mepps for some fishing lures.  This squirrel trap setup literally only cost my $5 by the way.  Basically anyone can afford to do it.  Here's some pictures of the cheap setup.

As soon as I got done with this the guys showed up and Rounce started up the fish fry.  The squirrel rounce first deep fried quickly, then let is sit on the stove in a dutch oven on low in butter and other unknown things (his recipe's are always so good they are mostly kept secret).  Then after that he let it sit in the oven at 300 degrees for a few hours, before serving it with the fish.  The fish was fried up the traditional Wisconsin way and most of the wish was panfish and crappie.  The fish was good as expected.  All of use were pretty timid about trying out the squirrel at first being it was a rodent and all, but after the first bite we were hooked and ate it up.  It tasted a lot like the dark meet of chicken.  We also had french fries, and baked beans.  A lot of stories and talk going around while we were eating and it was nice that we all got to hang out.  Everyone decided before they dispursed that we would eat squirrel again and Eric wants to start hunting squirrel for food now.  Here's a few pictures of the fish fry.

Had to quick take a picture of the squirrel before everyone took and ate it all

I haven't made any progress on the 3 more YouTube videos I'm trying to put up, but I blame that on the amazing get outsides or else weather we are having.  By the way Happy St. Patrick's day everyone and go put on your kilt, because only real men wear kilts!

Want to help us make more videos and go on more adventures

If you guys would like to see us go on more adventures, have more fun, and show it all to you through more videos and blogging, then donate to us on our Kickstarter page.  You even get different rewards depending on how much you donated.  The funding we receive on the Kickstarter page will go to two videos we will make this summer.  It will be the survival contest involving the members of Quad Survival where you the fans get to vote who won, and a canoeing trip which Eric would love us to have.  The rules of Kickstarter are if we do not reach our minimum funding limit you will not get charged.  So in other words if we do not reach the money asked for you will not have to pay if you donate.  For more info on how Kickstarter works go check out their website.  Thanks to all in advance who donated.

Here is the link to our Kickstarter page http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/quadsurvival/help-fund-2-of-our-outdoor-survival-adventure-yout

What I've been up to lately (Jared)

I've been quite busy with school lately, which I guess anyone can expect.  I sadly don't have the funds to the Grand Forks Men's Show, so I don't have a fun blog post full of pictures involving that sadly.  I apologize, but there is not much I can do about it.  There is something I have taken to lately involving the outdoors that is free for me.  The Wellness Center at the university here is letting students get free cross country ski rental.  I haven't cross country skied since before I drove, so it has been a while.  I gave it a shot earlier this week and have really enjoyed it.  You can only rent the ski's for one hour so it limits you to using the ski trail behind the Wellness Center.  I don't mind that, it saves me from driving anywhere.

Skiing in Grand Forks is way easier than what I remember from cross country skiing at home.  That is probably because there are no hills.  They used to have cross country ski trials behind my house at home and they were difficult compared to anything Grand Forks can offer.  What do you expect though flat boring Grand Forks, vs beautiful hilly wooded Wisconsin.  The skis they gave me were simple cheap beginner skis, but I don't have enough skill to notice the difference and they work fine.  The skis have not been abused much yet and are in good shape.  The trail is about 1 mile total length each way and I have worked myself up to being able to go through the trail almost 5 times in 45 minutes which I have no idea if it is a good pace or not, but it sure is a workout.  Maybe if I keep enjoying this I can ask for skis for Easter haha.

I am slowly working on planning with the boys our survival contest we are planning on having this summer.  Hopefully the funding somehow will be there for us to get some actual cameras and other things to keep the cameras running so every one of us has a camera to use for the contest.  I doubt that would happen, but it's a good dream.  Also Eric and I have been talking a little about taking a canoe trip as well this summer.  If I only do two things this summer besides fishing when I'm not working a canoe trip and survival contest would be fun, so I hope those don't fall though.  By the way I would like to thank all the people viewing our videos on YouTube and looking at our blog.  If you guys have any requests of what you would like us to do feel free to write it on the comments section of anything.  Now go have a good rest of the weekend everyone.

2011-2012 Ice Fishing YouTube Video

I finally got to putting our ice fishing video on YouTube.  It's a compilation of what we recorded while I (Jared) was home during my Christmas break.  Jim, Andy, and I had no job to speak of at the time (my job is in North Dakota), so we spent most of it fishing.  That is because we didn't have much money to do many other activities.  I had a ball, and we fished hard.  11 days straight hard.  Fishing was really bad, but we were not alone.  Everyone we talked to supposedly did way worse than us.  The funny thing is as soon as I left to go back to school all the guys started catching fish like crazy.  Go figure.  We fished so hard on this trip that we sometimes fished more than one lake a day, but what do you expect with so many lakes nearby and nothing else to do.

Here is a list of lakes we fished in order:
Little Ripley
Round
Little Long
Gordon Flowage (I forgot the technical name, but this is what we call it)
Tozer
Shell Lake
Spooner Flowage (in the city of Spooner)
Spooner Flowage
Tozer
Cable
Bashaw
Shell Lake
Pavlas
Pavlas
Spooner Flowage
Tozer

So as you see we did a pretty good amount of fishing.  This video is the first video that we got all four original members of Quad Survival.  It was Paul's first time ice fishing and of course we did a horrible job of taking him out ice fishing.  We didn't have a shack, lacked a lot of equipment, and didn't catch any fish.  It seemed like Paul had an O.K. time though.  Next time Paul I swear we will give you a proper ice fishing experience.  The first few days we went ice fishing there was ice and no snow which made running to flags comical.  I really wish I wasn't still stuck in school I really want to go ice fishing more.  I've never had more fun for that long of a period of time.  We really did not have that good or expensive of equipment.  In fact we trapped minnows for most of the time out fishing.  This goes to show ya that you don't need all that expensive stuff to catch fish and you especially don't need it to have a good time.  We tried to make it so we could survive just from ice fishing, but that did not work well and thanks to Andy and Jim's suggestion we had some squirrel to eat.  More on that later probably.  Well I am starting to ramble so here is the video.

Also I have a Twitter now by the way.  My Twitter is @JaredofQS.  In case you want to follow my daily routines.

What I did over the weekend (Jared)

Well on Saturday over the weekend I decided to take the little lady out predator hunting.  I have a cheap predator call and the free Android app.  The hunt went as about as well as I expected.  We didn't see nor hear anything except shooting way off in the distance.  The main reason for me going out though was an attempting to find some public lands I could trap on that would seem fruitfull.  I did find what looked like two different fox tracks on the land we hunted, but not many other signs.  Now I have to somehow get some more cash and go out trapping.  By the way the lady thinks I need to get a ground blind and a heater or she's never going out hunting with me again.  Go figure haha.  Anyway here are some pics of us hunting.

Grand Forks Men's Show Is Coming Up

There are few things that excite me involving the outdoors in Grand Forks North Dakota, but this is one of them.  The Grand Forks Men's Show is going to be going on February 25 and 26th which is a Saturday and Sunday.  It is at the Alerus Center  I forgot the exact cost, but if I remember it was somewhere around $5.  Anyway the man show is basically an everything outdoor show for Grand Forks.  Examples are campers, 4wheelers, motorcycles, and petting zoo.  The big ticket items for the show are a free beer tasting (my favorite), trophy live whitetails, and a world champion goose caller Sean Hammock.  Basically this is all I have to be excited about this month so I figured I better tell everyone else about it.  If your in the area go at least for the beer tasting haha.