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Tuesday 10am - 8pm Wednesday 10am - 6pm Thursday 10am - 6pm Friday 10am - 6pm Saturday 10am - 4pm

WJS Outdoors

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The outdoor sportsman's store, featuring trustworthy products from fishing and survival packs for hiking to anything in-between.

🎯 Gear Up for the Great Outdoors with WJS Outdoors! Looking for the perfect fishing, hiking, or survival gear? 🏕️ We've got you covered! WJS Outdoors is a family-owned shop built by sportsmen, for sportsmen — and we only carry gear we’d use ourselves. From trusted names like G***k, Sig Sauer, R***r, Mossberg, and Savage Arms, to Trapper Tackle, Line Cutterz, Impact Lures, and more — our shelves are stocked with the brands you know and love. 🎣🔫🧭

Need expert advice? Our team includes certified gunsmiths, armorers, and Coast Guard captains ready to help.

💥 Come see why WJS Outdoors is becoming the go-to destination for anglers, hunters, and outdoor adventurers across the region. Your next adventure starts here!

📍 Visit us or shop online anytime: store.wjsguns.com

11/01/2026

Thank you for your continued support, it really means a lot to us. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Remember to check our blog for reviews and featured articles on products, hot topics, current news, tips, and much more at www.wjsoutdoors.com. Look for sales and specials in our online store. We think our customers are the best and we want you to know we appreciate your business!

08/22/2026

Eight posts deep in this series and here's the most important thing we can tell you: the lone wolf dies first.

Grid-down survival in Florida — or anywhere — is a community operation. One person cannot run security, find water, preserve food, care for kids, and handle medical emergencies simultaneously. It doesn't work. Skills beat stuff. A neighbor who knows how to purify water, field dress an animal, and treat a wound is worth more than a storage room full of gear they can't use.

We built this series because prepared communities are stronger communities. That is the entire mission of WJS Outdoors on the Space Coast. We're not just a gun store. We never have been.

We're a resource. We have on-staff gunsmiths, armorers, Coast Guard licensed captains, and certified fi****ms and self-defense instructors. We carry the gear that actually works because we only stock what we'd personally use. We offer training because knowing how to use your equipment matters more than the equipment itself.

Share this series with the people you want in your corner when things get hard. That's the whole point.

Come train with us. Come talk to us. Come see the difference a family-owned store makes.

2137 N Courtenay Pkwy, Ste 24, Merritt Island, FL
store.wjsguns.com

08/21/2026

When hospitals are unreachable, you are the medic. Florida's specific environment creates specific risks — know them before you need to.

Heat stroke is the number one killer in a Florida grid-down scenario, not violence, not hunger. Know the signs: hot, dry skin with no sweating, confusion, rapid pulse, possible unconsciousness. This is a medical emergency. Cool the person immediately with wet cloth, shade, and fanning. Oral rehydration salts if they're conscious. Do not wait.

Wound infection moves fast in Florida heat and humidity. Clean every wound immediately with the cleanest water available. Keep it covered. Check it twice a day. Red streaking extending out from the wound — red lines spreading toward the body — is blood poisoning and it is a kill-level emergency.

Florida plants that actually help:

Plantain (Plantago major): not the banana — this is the low flat-leafed "w**d" growing in disturbed soil and lawns everywhere in Florida. Mash fresh leaves into a poultice for insect stings, minor cuts, and inflammation. It works.

Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis): found in moist Florida woodlands. Flowers and ripe berries are used for immune support. Never eat unripe berries — they're toxic.

Yarrow: easy to grow and worth having. It's a styptic — applied to wounds it helps stop bleeding. Works dried or fresh.

Minimum kit for every household: manual tourniquet, hemostatic gauze (QuikClot or equivalent), an Israeli bandage, and oral rehydration salts.

We offer Emergency First Aid training by appointment. Visit store.wjsguns.com to learn more.

08/20/2026

No refrigeration in a grid-down scenario. Florida's heat and humidity will spoil unpreserved food in hours. These methods work without electricity.

Salt curing: use 1 pound of non-iodized salt per 5 pounds of meat. Pack it dry, fully coated. Hang it or lay it flat in the coolest spot you can find — interior room, north-facing shade. This is the oldest preservation method on earth because it works.

Smoking: hardwoods only. Oak, hickory, citrus wood (Florida has it everywhere). Avoid pine — the resin taints the meat and can make you sick. You're smoking for preservation, not for flavor. Target 150-180 degrees Fahrenheit and think of it as controlled drying. This takes hours, not minutes.

Sun drying: cut meat into strips no thicker than a quarter inch. Hang them with airflow on all sides in direct sun. Florida sun will dry them in 2-3 days. Cover with cheesecloth to keep insects off — not plastic, which traps moisture.

Lacto-fermentation for vegetables: salt plus water plus time equals preserved food with no heat required. Cabbage, green tomatoes, peppers — anything firm works. It keeps for weeks in a cool spot.

Root cellaring does not work in Florida. The ground is too warm and too wet. A buried clay pot in deep shade is the closest functional equivalent.

Everything you need starts with the right knowledge. store.wjsguns.com

08/19/2026

The threat in a Florida grid-down scenario is not cold. It's heat, humidity, mosquitoes, flooding, and if you're unlucky, hurricane-force winds. Build accordingly.

Site selection is everything: Florida floods fast and floods flat. Get off low ground. Elevation and drainage matter more than almost any other factor. If you can see a drainage ditch or a retention pond nearby, you're too close.

Natural building materials that are actually available here:
- Cabbage palm fronds thatch well and shed rain if layered correctly
- Bamboo — invasive and growing everywhere in Central and North Florida — is fast-growing, strong, and makes excellent framing
- Live oak branches are dense and rot-resistant

Build for airflow, not insulation. In Florida, ventilation is survival. A sealed shelter in summer heat will cook you. Leave gaps at the top, orient your opening to catch prevailing wind.

Sleep off the ground. A hammock strung between two trees, or a raised platform, keeps you off moisture, out of reach of most snakes, and dramatically reduces mosquito exposure.

An emergency Mylar blanket works as a waterproof tarp in a pinch. Keep one in every kit.

Mosquito netting is not optional and is not comfort gear. West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) are both real kill risks in Florida. EEE has a mortality rate over 30%. Net up.

We carry hammocks, tarps, and survival gear in store and at store.wjsguns.com

08/18/2026

Florida has year-round hunting opportunities that most states don't come close to. If the grid goes down, you are not running out of protein on the Space Coast.

Feral hogs: no bag limit, no closed season on private land in Florida. Every county has them. High-protein, destructive, and genuinely dangerous — treat a big boar like dangerous game. Use .308, .30-06, or larger. Shot placement: directly behind the ear for a brain shot, or behind the shoulder angling forward into the vitals. Do not underestimate them.

White-tailed deer: Florida's season runs roughly October through February depending on your zone. In a true grid-down food crisis, the calculus on regulations changes.

Wild turkey: Central and North Florida, spring and fall. Challenging but worth the effort.

Squirrel and rabbit: underrated survival protein. Abundant statewide, easy to process, low ammo cost. A .22 LR is ideal and you can carry hundreds of rounds.

Alligator: technically requires a tag under normal circumstances. In a survival scenario — a shot to the back of the skull or directly behind the eyes puts one down clean. They're everywhere in Florida and they are a legitimate protein source.

One critical note on Florida heat: field dressing in summer here is not like anywhere else. Heat and humidity mean spoilage starts in under 2 hours if you don't get the carcass into shade and start cooling it fast. Work fast. Work in the shade. Have your tools ready before the shot.

We carry hunting ammo, field knives, and field dressing kits. Come see us at store.wjsguns.com

08/17/2026

Florida is one of the best foraging states in the country. Subtropical climate means something edible is growing every single month of the year.

What you can actually eat in Florida:

Saw palmetto berries (fall harvest): olive-sized, dark purple when ripe. Edible but bitter raw. Dry them or cook them to improve the flavor. Calorie-dense.

Cattail: found in freshwater marshes statewide. The whole plant is usable depending on season. Harvest the green flower heads in early summer like corn on the cob. Collect the yellow pollen in spring — it's a flour substitute. The starchy rootstock is available year-round.

Prickly pear cactus: common in Central and South Florida sandy areas. Both the pads and the fruit (tuna) are edible. Burn the spines off with a flame before handling.

Cabbage palm: Florida's state tree. The heart of palm is edible and nutritious — but harvesting it kills the tree. Emergency use only.

Sea purslane: grows right along the coast in sandy and saline areas. Succulent leaves. Eat raw or cooked. High in omega-3s.

Wild blueberries and muscadine grapes: North and Central Florida, late spring through summer. Both are easy to identify and safe.

Hard avoids: coontie palm (requires extensive processing to remove cycasin — a potent carcinogen) and water hemlock, which grows in wet areas and is fatal.

Knowledge is gear. Visit store.wjsguns.com

08/16/2026

Florida's humidity will ruin your lighter and rot your tinder overnight. Starting fire here is a skill — not a given.

Best tinder sources in Florida:
- Fatwood: dig up old longleaf or slash pine stumps. The resin-saturated heartwood catches even in wet conditions. Shave it fine.
- Spanish moss: works as a tinder bundle, but collect it off the ground — not live off the tree. Live moss has chiggers. Dry it before you need it.
- Cabbage palm fiber: the brown fibrous material around the base of the fronds. Dry, takes a spark well.

A ferro rod with fatwood shavings beats a lighter in high humidity every time. Lighters fail when they're wet. Ferro rods don't.

Keep your tinder sealed in a zip-lock or dry bag. Once it absorbs Florida moisture, it's done. Prep it before you need it, not during a storm.

If the ground is saturated (and after any rain event in Florida, it will be), build your fire on a raised platform — a few logs or a flat rock. Fire built on wet ground drowns itself.

We stock ferro rods, fatwood fire starters, and complete survival kits at WJS Outdoors. Stop by or check us out at store.wjsguns.com

Address

2137 N. Courtenay Pkwy, Suite 23
Merritt Island, FL
32953

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 8pm
Wednesday	10am - 6pm
Thursday	10am - 6pm
Friday	10am - 6pm
Saturday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

+13217359842

Website

https://www.wjsoutdoors.com/

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