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Saturday  10am-6pm  

Sunday  Noon - 5pm  

  

9107 Mendenhall Mall Rd. Suite #301 

(907)789-0956 

 



Christmas is quickly approaching so if you have a loved one that loves to look good and play hard, we can help you with gift ideas. Our last email included our Christmas coupon punch card, if you didn't get a copy the first time, just scroll down. We still have some Doorbuster stock on sale and our annual $50 NAO Gift Certificate Drawing will start on December 15th. We will be giving out ten $50 Gift Certificates - one for each day.

The winner for our $25 Nugget Alaskan Outfitter Gift Certificate for November 2017 is
Gus Marx. Congratulations Gus!  To pick up your gift certificate, drop by the front counter and we will get it for you.     
 
Winners are selected from those of you who receive and open our monthly e-newsletter. It doesn't matter when or how you signed up for our e-mail club - if you are on our email list you are a potential winner each month. Keep scrolling down for the coupon!
Distress Signals  

The idea for this newsletter came from a SEADOGS workout as a group of us were talking about the use of distress signals. Maybe it is a sign that I am getting old, maybe not everyone in the group are hunters, but very few knew the distress signal of firing a gun three times to show that you are in distress. It made me think that maybe there were others out there that were also unfamiliar with distress signals. I always research the information for each newsletter instead of assuming I know everything and low and behold the rule of three's is not universal. So if you plan to travel out of the USA, you will want to do some research in what distress signals apply to the country to which you will travel.
Fire

 Fire works much better down south than it does in our very wet environment, but the advantages of creating a distress sign from fire in the SE is that it will really stand out! The rule is to create three fires in a triangle formation with each fire being about 100 paces apart. It is best if you can keep them burning continuously, but this might not be practical given the energy and amount of wood required to keep them going. NAO carries several light weight and easy to carry things that can help you start a fire, including weatherproof matches, flint and steel and tinder on a rope. As long as you have some foolproof way to create a lasting spark you can start a fire with tinder flaked from the inside of a stick and lots of spruce sap. You can find spruce sap dribbling down the sides of most spruce trees. It is super sticky, smells amazing and immediately catches on fire. Once you get your fire going well adding green evergreen limbs to it will help create smoke that can be seen from greater distances.

Audible Signals
 
The rule of three with noise-based signaling such as with a firearm or whistle includes three shots/blasts spaced five seconds apart.  By spacing the shots out you give anyone within earshot time to identify the sound and then focus in on the direction it is emitting from.  Failing to space gun shots out will likely result in anyone who hears them assuming you are a hunter who missed his first shot and is firing consecutive follow-up shots.
There really is no excuse for not having a whistle in your pack, as they are light and take up virtually no space.  The added benefit of a whistle is that it requires little effort (as opposed to prolonged yelling) and it will never run out of ammunition.  Even if you are completely incapacitated, as long as you are lucid enough to put the whistle in your mouth you will be able to signal with it.


SOS/HELP

SOS - Save our Souls or Save our Ship, became a universally accepted distress call in the early 1900's. The morse code version looks like this ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
consisting of three short, three long, three short units. These can be communicated audibly (Whistle blasts, banging on a drum/pipe) or visually (blinks from a flashlight or mirror). Spelling out SOS with rocks, wood, clothing, business cards, money in the sand etc is much easier that trying to find enough material to spell HELP. Make your letters BIG enough to be seen easily from the air. When using a mirror, be aware that in SE Alaska there are a multitude of small muskegs and other wet reflective surfaces in which a mirror signal can easily be lost. Also please don't flash it directly into the eyes of aircraft pilots, they get a little cranky when they are blinded by mirrors or have flares shot at them. We carry survival kits with mirrors in them, we also carry the tiny little air horns shown in the picture. Easy to carry and good for distress signals, animal deterrent and general personal safety.
Flags
 
The above flag is used for maritime distress, it can be copied for wilderness distress as well. An international distress symbol was to hang your country flag upside down, however this doesn't work for some countries. Going back to the rules of three, if you have a rectangular piece of fabric you can tie one end into a knot thereby forming a triangle shape and hang it up in a highly visibly place with the point hanging down. Crossing a set of skis is another way to flag down help and many skis have very bright and highly visible bottoms that are easy to see. If you are in sight of a boat, plane, or person, waving your hands overhead can also "flag someone down and let them know you are in distress.


InReach/EPIRB
 
EPIRB - Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. There are now several types of EPIRB's on the market with SPOT and InReach being tow of the most well known. NAO carries the InReach EPIRB's which unlike the SPOT version, lets the lost person text a wide variety of messages to their chosen recipients, so it is handy not just for emergencies. The recipient can also keep track of where the person with the InReach is at all times, so when rescuers are needed the recipient can let them know where they are and what condition they were in at the last communication.

Survival
 
When I go to a school to present information on Search and Rescue, I always cover the seven steps to survival. Getting lost can be a scary event whether you are an adult or child and it is important to not panic. Realizing that you are lost is the first step to survival, the second is to stop take a breath, empty out all of your pockets and do a complete inventory. Hopefully you will find a whistle, knife and fire starting materials. Step three is to set up a shelter, then you can move on to step four which is to create your distress signal/signals. Steps five and six are food and water. Going back to the rule of threes - you can live up to three days without water and three weeks without food, although it won't be fun. Which brings me to the last step which is play! Attitude is everything in survival and with a positive can-do can-survive attitude your chances of survival increase dramatically.
Coupon!!
I have already sent this - but in case you missed it the first time. Print it out and bring it in or show it to us on your phone and we will swap it out for the real thing. Merry Christmas everyone!
December Events
 
Whats NEW at NAO?
Now in for Christmas, Carhartt Christmas stockings in Duck and Camo.


Ruffwear collars, toys, leashes, water bowls and more.

P.J. Salvage pajamas and blankets are back for the Holiday Season.

Xtratuf has come out with a new fishing boot, with reinforced bib, heel and shin guards to help reduce wear. The new soles have been upgraded to the highest slip resistant rating available. We carry them in insulated plain toe and composite toe.

Nugget Alaskan Outfitter | 907-789-0956 | stacey@nuggetoutfitter.com | http://www.nuggetoutfitter.com
9107 Mendenhall Mall Rd Ste 301
Juneau, AK 99801

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