Campaigner Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

[Kykeydet12]

pards:
this thread is for everyone to post a trick tip or techniqueson campiagning. it can be anywhere from keeping warm , to keeping powder dry. let's keep it reasonable also. no campers or the such.

Mytips: If it get's cold at a reenactment , and you've already used all your blankesand great coat, use your poncho

[paulcalloway]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

If it get's cold at a reenactment , and you've already used all your blankesand great coat, use your poncho

I appreciate your post and I think you've got a good concept here... but I'm not sure that this "Trick" you've noted is really much of a trick. It sort of strikes me as something even the most dimwitted amongst us would have figured out years ago.

But I'll play along, here's my trick:

If you ever get your ramrod firmly stuck down your barrel, find someone with a cloth canteen strap... wrap the cloth canteen strap around the threads of the ramrod tightly, have someone hold the stock of the rifle. Grasp the canteen straps between both hands and you should be able to pull the ramrod loose.

[Tom Ezell]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

But I'll play along, here's my trick:

If you ever get your ramrod firmly stuck down your barrel, find someone with a cloth canteen strap... wrap the cloth canteen strap around the threads of the ramrod tightly, have someone hold the stock of the rifle. Grasp the canteen straps between both hands and you should be able to pull the ramrod loose.

To amplify on Paul's comment, most rammers get stuck down there because of a dry patch, friction, and not a wholr lot to pull on. Pour a little water down the bore and work the patch back and forth... She'll usually come right on out.

Tom

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

My tip for keeping warm is to stand next to a fire. :sarcastic

[TeamsterPhil]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

Here's my tip:

If you're driving the supply wagon and you are convinced that the Critters are galloping behind you to steal Dom's food - give your team their heads, yell "get up" real loud and cuss a whole lot. If this is done properly, you won't spill any of the beans that are soaking in the kettle in the bed of the wagon.

A tip for those that may be in front of this wagon: Unless you have an artillery piece, get out of the way - we're bigger than you and we'll run you over.

Phil Campbell
Head Teamster, Crabby's Kids

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

A note on keeping warm by a fire. As anyone who spends alot of time camping or in the outdoors with a campfire probably knows...A good small fire will keep you warmer than the bonfire we might otherwise be inclined to build. "If you start to sweat and have to back way off the campfire, you'll suddenly become very cold."

Paul B. Boulden Jr.

RAH VA MIL '04

[Matt Woodburn]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

OK, here's a few:

ALWAYS keep one pair of dry socks tucked away to put on before you go to bed. You'll sleep better.

Actually wear a sleeping cap, even in warm weather. Our ancestors knew something here. I was surprised how much better I slept.

Never put your tin cup in the fire without liquid in it. The heat is transferred to the liquid instead of the cup. Without the water, the solder will melt and you cup will fall apart. Good laugh for me, bad deal for you.

For crossing a stream: take off your shoes and socks, roll up your pants and drawers. Put just the shoes back on and cross the stream. The shoes will keep your feet from getting scraped up. Once on the other side, take off the shoes, dump the water, put your dry socks back on and you're on your comfy way.

A small red coal from the fire dropped in a pipe bowl will usually keep your pipe lit better and longer than a match or flame from a stick.

Always keep some "perforated paper" tucked away somewhere. You can find some in period looking wrappers. A friend told me of tearing off half of his nice $90 hand sewn shirt as pricy butt wipe. That shirt has got to be drafty now. I still laugh.

Bacon rind and other fat can be used to "oil" down your musket and bayonet to keep the rust off.

Unbearably hard hardtack will make great dumplings when boiled.

A candle stuck in a bayonet for a candle stick might be a nice sight, but wax left inside the bayonet opening can make it very difficult to fix your bayonet. Have fun scraping the wax out with a stick, fork, your finger nail, etc. Instead, light your candle, drip some wax the size of a dime on a rock or log, etc. then hold the candle in the wax for 15 seconds while it dries. Much better solution.

Learn how to take apart the internal pieces of your gun's lock and put it back together. Understand how they work. If your lock stops working at an event, you'll know how fix it. The most common problems are broken sear springs or a worn sear or tumbler. It's not as complex in there as you might think. If your life counted on your rifle working you'd learn how to do this very soon after enlistment.

And last, none of your gear is really fireproof. Don't put it in the fire.

Best Regards,

[GreencoatCross]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

In a rain, if there is nothing to sleep in but mud, try to find some fence rails. Put a few next to each other on the ground, put your bedding down, and sleep! The rails will also work well in a downpour, just lay one end on the lowest horizontal fence rail you can find (still on the fence of course) and the other end on the ground; cover up with a gum blanket and the rain will roll right off

Keep your water handy during marches. Don't wear your canteen under everything, wear everything under the canteen!

Spooning with your comrades is nothing to be scared of and it's a real life-saver at times...just do it if it's bitterly cold out!

Carry an extra pair of socks or two, and an extra shirt in your knapsack just in case it gets wet or cold out.

Massage your feet before you go to bed. I used to have chronic ice-cube feet at night until I gave them a rub-down before turning in.

Consider where you carry your blanket and gum-blanket in your knapsack. The often-seen blanket stored between the flaps can get wet real fast in a storm and the best place for it, IMO, is in the "inner" knapsack bag, the one closest to your body (that's where govt. clothing goes anyway). The gum-blanket can go between the flaps so if it's starting to look like you'll need it all you need to do is reack back and pull it out instead of stopping and rooting around for it.

"One may reap healthy benefits from wearing a red shirt or band close to the body." :tounge_sm

You'll figure out a lot more as you go along.

Brian White

[HOG.EYE.MAN]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

Hydrate yourself before attending events, and don't eat too much toast! (Very important)

If you run out of water during the evening time, you can always wait until your pards fall asleep before refilling your canteen with their water. (personal favorite)

Don't swallow tobacco juice. (dangerous)

Never wear your "smoking cap" on top of your hardee hat. :sarcastic (Jeff McIntire)

Don't roll your trousers up past your ankles. (Or at all)

Try not to sneeze during drill. (ragweed)

Throw one of your pards on two blankets and toss him up in the air. (Fun times.....Jeff McIntire Lil Mac again....)

Only burn candles when cooking rations over the fire at night. (Rob Hodge special)

If you slip on your arse while marching, try not to scream like a little girl. (Tyrone)


Words from the Hog-Eye......Too bad this isn't the sinks!
Just having some fun!

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

If you have drank your pards bottle of applejack, do not scream to the 1st Sgt "Suck my ar** you redheaded son of a w***". You WILL spend the night in the gaurdhouse, and it gets really cold in there, I speak from expirence. :wink_smil

[tomarch]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

When sleeping in REALLY cold weather, an hour or two before you turn in, put a good-sized rock near the fire (about the size of a loaf of bread). Heat it evenly untill you can just barely hold it in your bare hands. Put it at the foot of your bedroll so the soles of your feet rest against it, roll up and snooze away! I've have personally done this sleeping out in 17 F.with a blanket and ground cloth.P.S. wearing a sleeping cap to bed is must for this to work! :)

[KarinTimour]

A Note on Rocks

This trip would also work with bricks or parts of bricks, since they've been put in a kiln to make them into bricks. Two important points to keep in mind about using rocks as footwarmers: a) heat it to just beyond comfortable heat for picking it up with your bare hands; b) know and be able to recognize igneous rocks and sedimentary rocks. I've been told that if you heat a sedimentary rock to too high a heat, it can explode -- I've never tried it, and it might be one of those things that was told to see if I'd believe it.

Karin Timour
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Kykeydet12]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

Paul;
in our area you'd be suprised . :wink_smil

Before you go to a reenactment,spend the night before sleeping eather outside, or on the floor, this may sound silly , but the first night out doors is the hardest to sleep in, you'll stay awake a while , so if your first night is at home, you'll sleep better in the field.

you can actually fit 4-5 people ina "A' frame tent. it will be kinda cramped but all the body heat will build up and you will be warm.

don't stand by the fire to long you'll heat your self up and on the way to the tent will get colder and colder, by the time you get to your tent you are freezing.

if you are using a shelter half with a pard, try laying side by side , but be beside his feet and him beside your feet, saves some room, also put a candle by your head and one by his head, you can both keep your feet warm and fall asleep with a small light, set this way for a couple of minutes and warm your self up then blow out the candles and go to sleep, this also works with a lantern , if you carry one.

hey paul; this idea came around as the brain child of a pard of mine on another forum only on a much different subject.

Rob young

[John E. Tobey]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

Here's a list of "old soldier tricks" that were listed by "one of the originals". Unfortunately, the vet didn't explain the actual "how to". I've been trying to figure them all out for years:

“It was the private soldier who taught me not to step on the heels of my file closer.
He also taught me how to make a feather bed of two oak rails.
How to grind coffee in a tin cup with the shank of a bayonet.
How to boil roasting ears in the their own husks in the ashes.
How to drink boiling coffee without blistering my throat.
How to conceal my person behind a sapling not half so thick as my body.
How to fill my canteen from a warm pond and let the water cool in the sun on a hot day.
How to march eighteen or twenty miles over rough roads day after day without getting an ache in my feet.
How to make one day’s rations last three days without going hungry.
How to get a refreshing drink of water without swallowing a drop.
How to lift a nervous hen from the bosom of her family without any outcry from herself or relatives.
How to fool the sergeant on roll-call – once. That trick was like a limited ticket, good “for this day and this train only.”
How to “explain things” to the captain.
How to launder one’s linen, which was woven of the coarsest flannel, in cold water.
How to make one’s self clean when it was muddy, and how to look fresh when it was dusty.
How to divide the last pint of water in your canteen so as to get a drink and a sponge bath and have enough left for coffee.
How to make two month’s pay – twenty six dollars – last till next pay-day, two or three months away, after you had sent half of it home and spent half the remainder.
How to keep awake on picket all night when your dry eyes ached and burned for sleep.
How to sleep like a tired working man under the guns of a battery shelling the enemy’s lines.
How to light a fire in the woods with wet twigs in a pelting rain and a fretful wind with your last match.”
[Burdette, "Drums of the 47th" ppg. 113-114]

John Tobey

[Johan Steele]

Re: Campaigners tips, tricks, and techniches

Just as a note about staying warm at night, put at least 2/3's of your blankets underneath you. The ground will rob you of as much heat as the night cold. My gum blanket over the top of everything keeps the dew off of me, there is little worse than waking up damp all over.

I'm still waiting for my wife to finish knitting my sleeping cap...