Show us your best BUSH FIX?
General Topic
Here's mine.
Drove 217 miles to a lake and realized that left my oil cap on the bench at home after I added a few drops of oil. Oil splashed out all over during the drive (but I was still 70% of the way from the add-full lines). The electrical tape alone wasn't cutting it so I searched for whatever I had in the boat that might work. Sucker did it's job for the weekend!
What's your best?
PS. My kid got that bobber in a Secret Santa thing at school. I've moved on from those things but glad we had it in the boat! :)
Speaking of "bush fix" this truly was in the Canadian bush...
Several years ago while on my annual fishing trip to Canada in the middle of nowhere where we have to pull boats up a river through the rapids to get to the lake, the plastic connector on the end of the fuel hose that connects it to my 15hp Evinrude broke.
I scratched my head for a couple minutes and then removed the broken connector from the end of the fuel hose, used a knife to enlarge a vent hole in the back of the motor cover and then ran the fuel hose through the hole, removed the existing fuel line from the fuel pump and connected the hose directly to the fuel pump. I was pretty proud of that one and it worked flawlessly for the entire week.
I’m surprised you got the tape to stick with the oil being all over the place. Nice Mcgyver job!
Lmao Mike my brother and I did the EXACT SAME THING moose hunting this past fall.
Great minds think alike, right Adam? LOL!
ANther good one for all bowhunters, I remember on one of the like 4 or 5 times I bowhunted with my dad, I remember telling him my fast way to lift a bow tot he tree is to pinch the haul line in between the bow string and the cam, that way you don't need to tie a knot. So my dad does it and the string jumps off the cam. I'm like you can't be serious. We ended up removing the haul line from the tree stand, doubling it up for strength (after snapping it once) ties it around both limbs of the bow so it was pretty tight on the limbs, then used a thick dead stick and started twisting the string in essence creating a mobile bow press. Once compressed, popped his string back on, took a test shot and continued to hunt.
Feel like I'm McGyvering something every week it's hard to have things come to mind when you need them! But the bow press trick is always in my mind. A length of paracord and you're good to go.
LOL MIKE! ((EDIT i guess i was typing as my bro and mike were posting :))My brother and I fixed the fuel tank on our 15hp evindrude in the north this past year. Couldn’t get good vacuum out of the factory hose end motor side (so lots of surging), so we cut it off turned it around, bored a hole a shade smaller in the fuel tank and rammed er in. Ran like a champ after that. Sorry no pics of the fix but here’s a pic of the beauty with a 15 and 2 for backup. Both shafts in the water gets you 17hp :)
Last spring my wife and I headed out to bear camp, we were super excited to get our tent setup and hit the treestand. Well, looks like I forgot the most important part to an Arctic Oven tent, the steel spider shaped deal for the very top that all the poles connect to. I was livid, no tent and we brought the 4 runner instead of the Tacoma so there wouldn't be much room to sleep for the week. After pissing and moaning for about 20 minutes I decided to try duct taping a few tent stakes together in the same shape as the piece we forgot and it worked perfectly! Got to the stand just in time to arrow a grizzly too! .
Later last fall, my Hoyt blew up on a pretty dang nice caribou when I went to shoot him. Strings totally derailed and I figured I was done as we didn't have a press. After a few cuss words and some tears from blowing a great opportunity Hunt and I made a press out of some paracord and ratchet straps and got the bow back to shooting.
This past March while goat hunting on Kodiak, the vessel we were hunting from had a snafu with the anchor, pretty important piece of gear while aboard a boat for over a week. Anyhow, the anchor line broke and it was on the bottom of the bay. Our captain threw on his scuba gear and dove down to grab it! Not sure how deep it was, but there'd be no way in hell I'd have done that, ha.
Neither of those are nearly as impressive as my buddy repairing a super cub wing with mountain house boxes and duct tape.
Before the days of bowsite and backcountry camping I went fishing with a buddy May long weekend. We canoed about 8 miles in that night and reached our camping area with a foot and a half of snow at midnight. When our brand new tent poles snapped, we were forced to be inventive with simply a tarp. Cut some pines down for the floor, made a triangular roof, and blocked the far side off with a cut pine so the snow wouldn't fly in and slept like babies.
Many years ago me and a buddy four wheeled the old truck into a remote fishing pond. Hours later back at the truck and it wouldn't start. First thought was the fuel pump, we took the hood off the truck and the air filter, took the outboard motor tank and hose ,ran the hose from the six gallon tank to the carb and my buddy pumped the primer bulb. Truck started so he sat on the front seat with the tank on his lap and we limped out of the woods. Still laugh about it today.
Back in 2005, I spent the entire month up in the hills archery elk hunting.
During the 2nd week of season, one night I hit 2 deer on my way back to camp. Luckily I got pulled to a local ranch and then got a ride back to camp.
The next morning, I got pulled to the closest town and assessed the damages.
I had no lights and the transmission cooler line was broke. I changed the bulbs in the turn signals to white and used them for head lights and wired them in place with baling wire. I then went to a mechanic and he had a high pressure line that I bypassed the tranny cooler.
I drove back to camp and used my truck for another 2 weeks
It was actually my brother that fixed this. This is an X-ray of a dislocated knee. I grabbed a Bush and had him pull as hard as he could. Fixed! Since I hunt usually by myself I carry parachute cord for many uses. If I ever dislocate a knee again I will tie off my leg(ankle) to some immovable object and then get downhill from where my ankles tied off. I’d use my weight and gravity to slowly stretch out the muscles and get the knee back in place.
DL, You sir have balls the size of church bells! OUCH!
DL - Did you mean to say 'Busch"? :)
Similar to DL my EMT uncle popped my dislocated elbow back in to semi finish an elk hunt a couple years ago
A few years ago one of my partners had a stick cause is string to come off while practicing. I forgot my bow press so no press in camp. Ended up using the crotch of a juniper tree and an atv. Put a strap on the handle and used the winch to pull it through until it compressed. A little sketchy but it worked.
By the title I thought this was going to be another manscaping thread..
Ha Rellik! A buddy of mine did the same sort of thing when the fuel pump went out on his old BMW Bavarian at about two in the morning. Only the tank he grabbed from the boat didn’t have a squeeze bulb. It was an old push button on top of the tank.
I was on a deer hunt and taking a few shots at the target, a small stick rolled my string iff the cam. Didn't have my portable press in the pickup and no bow shop's anywhere close so used a ratchet straps to get string back on. Man was I nervous to let rachet open up thinking with all the pressure built up it might wreck something, after it snapped back in place bow shot perfect.
Here’s another of my fixes, or attempts. Seeing yourself up sounds worse than it really is.
had a stick puncture a cv boot on an atv during moose season and pretty far in. The steering kept binding. Once i found out what was up I took some diff fluid i had squirted it in the hole. wrapped the boot in gorilla tape then wrapped in chicken wire. put another 50 miles on it during moose season.
A good duct tape or gorilla tape is a must at camp! Super glue and parachute cord too.
I’ve had to “fix” all kinds of things in the field but I seem to have a favorite thing and that’s whittling a spoon.
I’m good for about once a year for forgetting, losing or breaking my spoon while out and about. This year I should have the art about dialed in I figure.
Dear Lord, Dl. Just stop it! You win. ;0) Pretty clever stuff from some of ya'll. Wish I was as crafty. I feel sheltered now...
I read about a great fix a guy did in Arkansas. While out frogging at night these two fellas had a fuse blow out for the headlights on their old for pickup. This story was one of the entries for the Darwin awards. Not finding any spare old style fuses the driver, we’ll call him Carl decided a .22 cartridge would work. Well it did until it got so hot it discharged shooting one of Carl’s nuts. His partner said they were fortunate it went off when it did. Had it gone off a second or two later they would have driven off into the canal instead of the levee. Talk about good luck!
Nick Muche for the win! I'd like to hear more about fixing the wing of a Super Cub with Mountain House boxes and duct tape.
I was whitetail hunting in early season in MO once. On my way to the stand i spotted a couple does... grabbed my release out of my pack and strapped it on - only to find out the pin holding the release to the strap had fallen out... the deer ended up walking right by me and i couldn't shoot. i went on to my stand and climbed up - as i was hunting with a buddy..
i ended up stretching the little spring out that comes with the grunt call lanyard and i looped it through the pin hole several times and it worked like a charm. I even killed a doe later that evening.
Nope not what I was thinking when I read “ bush fix”
My d-loop broke drawing back on a bull in 2016. That sucked. Of course I couldn't find my spares that I usually keep in my first aid kit. Made one out of para cord.
This is my arm on one of those Canadian fishing trips after my buddy messed up a cast after a few too many Bud Lights, dilly dilly! It took little bush fix!
"Nick Muche for the win! I'd like to hear more about fixing the wing of a Super Cub with Mountain House boxes and duct tape."
Thankfully, I wasn't there! You'd have to ask Jonah about that one. Ingenuity at it's finest I can assure you.
Those Alaskan bush pilots would probably get the win every time with some of the repairs they've had to do.
Haha! That was a lot of duct tape. Had to fix the tires too. The bear must have thought that plane was a chew toy.
Wow I wanna know how he fixed the tires!
Not really in the bush as Southern Iowa isn't really bush country, however we were several miles from any boat ramp on a private lake bowfishing. I was getting down off the raised bowfishing platform, tripped over some bowfishing line and did a header into the bottom of the boat from 4ft up. Caught myself with my hands but dislocated my left ring finger. It was literally laying in a 90° bend under my pinky finger. Well... now what... Asked my buddy if he could drive the boat back to the ramp, then thought well wait a minute. We just got here, if I go to the ER they will just yank it back into place, hell I can do that! My buddy gagged at the sound when it popped back in place. Took my ring off that finger and got back to business. It was a little tender by the time we put the boat on the trailer.
I immediately thought of this when I saw the thread title!
Great thread!
Jonah's plane repair!:)
Mark
I read a article in a 4Wd magazine years ago about fixing a motor in the field. The fella carried tons of tools with him to be prepared for anything. He burnt a piston along the edge And it scored the cylinder. He dropped the pan and removed the rod and piston. He cut off the rod with a hack saw close to the journal and bolted it back together on the crankshaft. Put the pan back on and removed the spark plug wire to that cylinder. He also revel the valve cover and backed off the intake valve rocker so fuel wouldn’t go into the cylinder. Cranked it up and drove out.
Cheesehead did ya just push it thru and cut the barb off?? I did that once in the meat above my thumb when I was lifting a 40" pike into the boat and the giant daredevil popped out and stuck me good. My girlfriend(now wife) said quite being a baby and turn your head. She pushed it thru and cut the barb off, still have the scar. Shawn
I didn't notice the GIANT moose shed in the background behind the plane until just now!
Rut Nut, apparently you didn't click on my thread... :^)
He didn't repair the tires, he had new ones flown in and he replaced them. You can tell that the first set of tires were larger tundra tires and the new ones are smaller.
Shawn, check out my link. This is how we removed the hook and it worked really slick. The key is to push down on the eye of the hook and then jerk quickly on the string. By doing that, the barb stays behind the hook and does not snag flesh as it pulls out.
We used braided line and I had my buddy put a glove on and wrap the line around his hand so he could jerk hard without stopping. I only wanted to do it one time.
I actually had to use the string method for hook removal another time a year or so later...
The string method is much easier and much less painful than pushing the hook through and cutting the barb off.
No, somehow I missed your post Mike.
Amazing what you can do with a couple cases of duct tape! ;-)
I was fishing the Flaming Gorge Reservoir one time and we could not get the boat started for a hour. Then I noticed the kill switch lanyard had pop off and I put it back on. LOL I guess I don't have the McGyver gene. :(
Red Green would be proud. LOL!
Not sure if it’s my best, but most recent. Ran the bearings out of the hub on my quad trailer sixteen miles in , off-road. Built this skid set up to save leaving the trailer and multiple trips with the rest.
Some guys back at the trail head said that’s pretty ingenious. I said “ yup, if we’d lost the other skid, we’d had to found two tires to get it out”.
