My Jet Boil Saved my bacon

Tikkamike

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Dec 26, 2009
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5,476
Location
Big Horn Basin, Wyoming
This weekend I went out and shot an elk, stupid me thought it would be a good idea to shoot her in the bottom of a canyon. My dad and I use a modified snowmobile sled with skis for pulling by hand to pack elk out. We decided dad would walk back to the truck and get the sled and I would get down in the canyon and quarter her out and start packing quarters to the top where we load her up and pull her out. Long story short I quickly went through 2 bottles of water so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use my new jetboil to replenish the water supply. it worked like a charm and i was very very happy I had that thing with me. cause sometimes eating snow just isnt enough.. So in my opinion Jetboil=money well spent
 
Jetboil stoves are currently the best system on the market to melt snow or boil water quickly and easily. The MSR Pocket Rocket is smaller and will fit inside the MSR Titan Tea Kettle with a 4 oz. fuel cannister for a package about 1/2 the size of the Jetboil, but the Jetboil is still king when it comes to ease of use and convienence, especially if any wind comes up. The Jetboil--another product initially developed for alpine mountain climbing--where so much of our good gear is initially developed.
 
Best backpacking stove I've ever used for simplicity and efficiency. Boiling water is no longer a hassle or time consuming.

A fringe benefit is that the empty or low fuel canisters make for one impressive fire cracker. Last August when our hunting trip was complete, we started a fire at our campsite to burn up any paper and burnable trash. I had one of the larger size fuel canisters that was low on fuel, so after the fire was going great guns I placed the fuel container on top of the wood in the flames. We moved back about 20 yards just to be 'safe'. It took a little while before we started hearing a pinging sound of metal deformation coming from the fuel canister. Sounded like the tin being stretched tighter than a banjo string. The rate of the pinging sound increased in frequency like popcorn in the microwave.

I took a few more cautionary steps back and plugged my ears. Man oh man - what an explosive detonation!!! I saw a fireball about 7 feet in diameter for just an instant, and the concussion was like several cherry bombs had gone off at the same time. Saw part of the canister shoot high in the sky. About three times more powerful than I'd have expected. My truck was about 10 yards from the explosion so I walked over to make sure the radiator was still intact.

In studying these fuel canisters I observed that there's no pressure relief valve present like on propane or map fuel canisters. I suspect that's what allowed the container to reach such high pressure internally, and high temperature, before letting go.

Better than buying fireworks! When this fuel canister went off, there was another set of hunters about 1 mile down the river bed that had arrived earlier in the day. I quick got my binoculars out to see what they were doing and promptly saw them looking at me through their binoculars. From now on I'm saving my used JetBoil canisters for the last fire of the hunts. Truly impressive. But future fires will be about twice as far away from the truck and camp.
 
I especially like the part where the other hunters were glassed looking towards the sound of the blast. What was going through their minds? :)
 
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