Online: | |
Visits: | |
Stories: |
from Survival Blog:
A couple of weeks ago one of my prepper friends stopped by and said: “Check this out” he hands me a small spool of green wire. I was intrigued, what is it? Trip wire? Snare wire? “It’s both and much more,” he said. After he told me a few of the ways it could be used, it became clear to me that Paddle Wire was the one missing component in my survival gear. If you don’t have a good supply of Paddle wire or never even heard of it, you wouldn’t be alone. Paddle wire is a low-cost 22 to 24 gauge green enamel coated florist’s wire. It’s used in the making of floral arrangements. Typically it comes on 100′ rolls and it is commonly available at any Dollar General store, almost all craft stores and even your local Wal-Mart. If you just simply can’t find the energy drag yourself out of the house, then Amazon along with hundreds of online retailers sell it online. Do yourself a huge favor and pick up a few rolls of it.
At a cost of about $2.00 per 100′ it will be money well spent in a SHTF disaster. I now keep at least 10 spools of it around and I am always discovering new ways to use the stuff. It’s at least as versatile as duct tape or paracord, maybe even more! Easily bent, twisted and formed for almost any purpose it reminds me of the wooden spools of trip wire used by soldiers in Vietnam. Personally I am big on multipurpose items in all of my survival kits,I evaluate the usefulness of an item versus the weight and size. It’s a grading system of sorts and Paddle certainly gets high marks for its versatility and size.
Traps
Obviously the first thought that comes to mind is a snare or noose trap for small game. Traps are beneficial especially if you are going to be in one place for a while, at least overnight. They are easy to make, silent, and they work very well. There are a number of simple ways to make noose traps for small game. A single strand with a twisted loop and one end, feed the wire through the loop to form a noose and attach it to a tree or limb, this is a simple squirrel snare. Placed on the ground along the known path of small game or baited, this same configuration will even trap larger game especially when you use several strands twisted together and anchored to a nearby tree.
Lashing
Since a 100′ spool can easily be carried in your pocket and a small section can be used to lash a knife to a long stick to make an improvised spear as a defensive weapon or hunting tool. Tying up a muffler or making emergency vehicle repairs under the hood or in hot areas where duct tape won’t work.