Here is the most comprehensive guide to making your own Native American tools and weapons. This reference takes you through the steps of the basic flint-knapping of arrowheads and scrapers to the most complex decorating and finishing techniques of painting and fletching. Fully illustrated with photographs and line illustrations, this is the perfect book for the survivalist, historian, student, or Native American enthusiast.

Here is the complete guide to a skill that may be mysterious to some, written by Monte Burch, an authority who practices many of the traditions of tanning and hiding. Starting at the beginning, Burch introduces the hunter to the tools of a tanner, and even gives complete plans for making many of these implements. Instructions are given for making fleshing beams, stretchers for pelts, fleshing knives, and many others. He also covers tanning formulas and materials, both traditional and modern. From the oldest method to the newest twist, Burch's guide will be indispensable to the modern hunter. (6 x 9, 240 pages, b&w photos, illustrations) Monte Burch has been trapping and tanning since the 1950s, and writing about the outdoors for four decades. He has written thousands of magazine articles and more than fifty books-including Field Dressing and Butchering Upland Birds, Waterfowl, and Wild Turkeys; Field Dressing and Butchering Deer; and Field Dressing and Butchering Rabbits, Squirrels, and Other Small Game. He lives on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks, where trapping and tanning are a way of life.

For an angler, it's tough to beat the fresh-caught flavor and satisfaction of a delicious fish dinner savored after a successful day on the water. But to get the most from your catch, it must be handled, cleaned, and prepared properly from the moment of capture. In this long-awaited guide, outdoorsman Monte Burch, with the help of step-by-step instructions and detailed illustrations, explains how to handle all types of gamefish caught in both fresh and salt water, including trout, salmon, bass, walleye, perch, catfish, northern pike, bluefish, redfish, striped bass, and many others. This handbook covers the skills needed for gutting, scaling, skinning, steaking, and filleting all popular gamefish, as well as the knives, tools, and other equipment needed, and illustrates basic cooking methods. Burch also describes the best techniques for preserving fish, including freezing, drying, pickling, canning, and smoking. Then he shares many of his favorite recipes for frying, baking, poaching, and broiling your fish. Cleaning and Preparing Gamefish is a book all anglers will want to keep close at hand and refer to often. Its usefulness will last a lifetime.

Time-honored practices for a more self-reliant and satisfying lifestyle. Ever have the urge to raise your own chickens, grind your own flour, or start your own compost pile? If any of these ideas sound appealing, this is the book for you. A growing number of people are intrigued by the "homesteader" experience and the idea of doing things themselves, whether they own a big spread in the wilderness or live on a small plot of land in the suburbs. Traditional Crafts and Skills from the Country presents the practical information necessary to become more self-reliant at home, pick up a new hobby, or even learn a skill that may provide a secondary income. The authors' crafts and skills include: beekeeping; raising sheep and goats; starting seeds; composting; felling trees; building split-rail fences; making soap and candles; drying and preserving foods; laying stone; making butter and cheese; reading the weather; and much more. From raising livestock to woodcrafting, from the garden to the kitchen, Monte and Joan Burch have a fresh and easy-to-follow approach to country wisdom that is sure to win over even the most die-hard city dweller.

The sport of hunting ducks and geese is alive and quite well in North America, thanks in large part to a resurgence of waterfowl numbers, which, in turn, can be traced to conservation groups such as Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl, Inc., as well as to sportsmen who impose limits on themselves far stricter than those issued by the law.
Assembling the gear, fixing the decoys, working with the Labs and Chesapeakes, caring for the firearms, fixing the blinds or duck boats, and always looking for more hotspots to hunt, waterfowlers are a breed unto themselves.
In these pages, read how to become adept at all aspects of duck and goose hunting--how to set the decoys in various conditions, how to call for the various species at different times of the year, and how to get out there on the marsh or grain field and collect birds.

Extend your working, living and storage areas with low-cost barns, sheds and animal shelters. Building Small Barns, Sheds & Shelters provides basic, easy-to-follow construction methods for attractive outbuildings. Here's complete information on tools and materials; foundations and floors; framing, sheathing and roofing; windows and doors; wiring and plumbing; and finishing details. Specific plans and how-to-build instructions for popular home and family-farm structures include:

-- Multi-purpose barns

-- Woodshed, toolshed and carport plans

-- Combination small barn/studio

-- Barn-style garage

-- Underground root cellar

-- Smokehouse

-- Housing for poultry, rabbits, hogs

-- Various fencing designs

Whether you’re interested in building a simple wood shed or a two-car garage, a pole building can save you time and money. Stressing the versatility and practicality of pole building construction techniques, Monte Burch offers complete plans and clear step-by-step instructions for building more than 25 structures that include a barbecue shelter, grape arbor, and even a large hay barn. Easily adaptable to your specific needs and landscape, pole buildings require no foundation, limited grading, and few materials.

Smoke and cure everything from store-bought meats to freshly harvested fish and game! Drawing on more than forty years of experience smoking everything from succulent salmon to whole hogs, award-winning outdoor writer and photographer Monte Burch presents this practical handbook for anyone who wants to make their own smoked or cured products. The Complete Guide to Smoking and Salt Curing introduces beginners to the ancient art of preserving meat, fish, and game with full-color photographs and clear instructions on how to select meats and avoid contamination, how to choose smokers, and how to use various tools. This easy-to-follow guide also includes delicious recipes for: Rubs Sauces Marinades Ham Sausage Bacon And more! Whether you are a serious hunter or angler seeking to cure and smoke the fish and game you've harvested yourself or simply a consumer looking to stretch your grocery dollar while creating delicious smoke salmon or cured bacon at home, Burch will have you making mouthwatering meals in no time.