The List of Uses for Duct Tape Just Keeps Growing

Everyone knows that duct tape is the emergency repair, fix-everything, multi-purpose magic material. Here are a few more uses for when you're in the backcountry.

If you don't know that duct tape is just about the most widely used emergency repair or fix-it material on the planet then you must have just been dropped on earth from a spaceship. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of articles and videos on the nearly endless uses for the stuff.

One of the great features of duct tape is that it now comes in different colors for different uses. You're not limited to silver-gray. Pack some blaze orange or other colors for easy visibility, or camo colored to help hide things while you're hunting.

Carrying a heavy, bulky roll of tape is often impractical. Thankfully, duct tape lends itself to being wrapped around things like ski poles, lighters, cooking utensils or anything else, so you can save some space and weight when packing your gear. You can also wrap it on itself in flat layers and shove it in a ziplock baggie to keep it protected from the elements.

Here's an infographic with a few more very useful hacks for using duct tape to make your treks into the forests, fields or mountains easier, safer and more enjoyable.

Source: Partselect.com

Duct tape can literally save the day should you have a broken anything when you're in either the backcountry (or urban area).

When you're in the wilderness it can provide a temporary fix for a broken fishing rod, ski pole, snowshoes, backpack, sunglasses, arrow fletching, tent pole or tent, air mattress, boots, hammock (shoot, you could even make a hammock completely out of duct tape if you have enough of it), and on and on.

You can manipulate duct tape to create a drinking cup and bowl, make a belt, create animal snares and nets with it, make cordage, containers, splints and bandages for medical emergencies, and on and on.

You can use it to fashion snow blindness eye protection, waterproof things that need waterproofing, mark trails, hide things or keep them out of the reach of critters, use it to start a fire, and on and on.

The "on and on" part here is the key. The only limit to what you can use it for is your own imagination.

That's why every truck or car in America probably has a roll or two of duct tape in the cab, why every camper or hiker hopefully has packed some into his or her backpack, every hunter has squirreled some into his kit, every angler has some in her tacklebox, and every red blooded American has a roll or two in a drawer at home.

I'll tell you what, I'd sure like be invested in a small piece of the duct tape market.

Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.

NEXT: How to be Medically Prepared for Disaster Situations