How to dress and carry like Yukon Cornelius

Image Above from Clay Walker

Who is Yukon Cornelius?

Yukon Cornelious is a character from the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie of 1964. He’s been in several sequel movies and remakes. He’s basically a far north prospector who’s spent so much time alone that he’s gone a little nuts, but he’s a beloved character for his bravery and perpetual good attitude.

Soldier Systems Daily has confirmed that Yukon was an U.S. Army SF NCO. Our own investigative journalists confirmed Yukon Cornelius’ tactical history. He’s known for beating Bumble, a yeti, with his bare hands. The man is a legend. And yes, he is licking his pickaxe in the video.

Apparently the explanation was cut from the film, but he’s supposed to be looking for a peppermint mine…Children’s movies can be pretty weird, but they help bring families together. For the low low cost of almost $2k you too can be Yukon Cornelius!

Shopping List

If you just want the items and not the alternatives or nuance, here’s a handy list with each item and its price:

• Revolver ($799)

• Revolver Grips ($75)

• Belt ($89.99)

• Belt Buckle ($10.99)

• Knife ($39.99)

• Hammer ($32.96)

• Holster ($199.99)

• Boots ($249.99)

• Pants ($49.99)

• Coat ($149.50)

• Headwear ($45.00)

• Backpack ($34.00)

• Bedding ($24.99)

• Canteen ($24.00)
  
  Total Cost $1,826.38

Revolver & Grips

Yukon rocks a shiny, tan gripped revolver appendix, but which revolver?

Revolver

Many have identified over the years that Yukon clearly carries a Colt SAA (Single Action Army) with stag horn grips. We wanted to choose something that matched this and was flashy for the costume purposes, so we specifically chose the 5.5” Cattleman Fully Nickel-Plated Steel. This doesn’t have the right color grips, but we can solve that shortly with one of the following grips:

Grips

Revolver grips can vary tremendously and can be modified a lot more than most shooters are used to. From how long the handle is, how aggressive the base’s forward swell or lack of it with a bird’s head grip, etc. It dramatically changes how the gun recoils in your hand. These will need to be somewhat custom fit on by a practiced gunsmith. These stag horn grips will fit the look and feel of Yukon’s choice well.

Belt

Belt Buckle Starting off with the belt and buckle, we selected Hanks Belts because of their strong reputation for leather gun belts in the industry. Their Xtreme concealed carry belt is the largest belt they produce, so it should go with the aesthetic well. In addition, instead of snaps they use Chicago screws to secure the buckle. This belt is an excellent choice for the costume, but also for normal use. This is much stronger and should be familiar to anyone who’s worked with kydex holsters before. Finding the right buckle for the low price was honestly pretty difficult, as Yukon wears a unique shape of buckle, but we were able to find one  very affordably on Etsy.

Knife

The knife that Yukon wears has features of two very different styles of knives. It has the wide profile and full handguard of a bowie knife, but is very short with a deft handle like a skinning knife. We decided that it made for sense if it was  a skinning knife, which fits his prospector / woodsman look. This is not a 15” bowie knife, though it has a wide blade profile in the movie. We went with an inexpensive skinning blade that has a relatively thicc profile for durability. You can skin anything past small game with this pretty effectively. We even chose an option that has the same black leather sheath with white stitching.

Here is a  bowie knife alternative here in case anyone disagrees with us about Yukon Cornelius’s choices.

Hammer

Yukon’s  hammer has a black head and grey wooden handle. The option we found that best fit the hammer profile and size of the handle was the option below; specifically their 2000gr model. It’s pretty close with the biggest gripe being that the handle is not going to fit proportionately and really often get in the way, but it can be cut and sanded down. Spray painting the grip grey isn’t much of a task either.

Holster or not to Holster

If you are going to follow the Yukon Cornelius outfit more accurately, then you won’t carry the gun in a holster and with the trigger exposed. This is very unsafe, even with a single action revolver. Only do this in a controlled, safe environment and without the firearm loaded. Alternatively, you could use a black leather holster to match. Even then, the Colt SAA and clones do not have modern safeties, so it’s advised that you carry how Wyatt Earp and many other real gunmen did: with the hammer resting on an empty cylinder. Only carry 5 rounds. This was very common in real life at the time for safety reasons and should still be practiced today when you are carrying antique designs.

There are two main methods to do this and two different quality levels for four main options: Standard vs Cross Draw worn appendix. You could wear it standard on the hip western style, but this doesn’t match Yukon’s look very well. Everyone knows Yukon Cornelius was in the know with all of his tools readily accessible, forward of the hips all the way back in 1964. For some though, this may not work given that OWB appendix is not a common thing nowadays. While OWB appendix does absolutely have a historical background in the West, it was not the most common method due to the need to ride a horse and saddle comfortably.

Metal lined vs non metal lined

Non metal lined leather holsters are much cheaper to produce, about half the cost or cheaper. However, metal lined holsters are adjustable in their retention and much faster. If you want a quality holster or something that can be practical for more than just looks, then you want a metal lined holster. This will significantly bring down your draw times. Metal lined holsters are not historical, having been invented in the 20th century for movies. The super fast draws from old westerns is not historically accurate with leather only lined holsters, but it is absolutely achievable with metal lined holsters. They also have the appearance of historical holsters, so no one is the wiser. It just comes at considerably more cost. Non metal lined

Cross Draw made into Appendix OWB

To carry with the holster outside of your belt, select the “correct” hand side for your draw. That means, if you want a right hand draw, then select right. If, however, you want the holster to ride inside the belt, then you want to select the opposite, in this case left. Be warned, if you wear it inside the belt with a non metal lined holster, you’re going to have very slow draw times and re-holstering with a  cross draw setup will be difficult.

Clothing

Yukon has pretty distinct clothing and, admittedly, none of the outfit was really going to work without the rest. Just the belt and tools are not going to work at any Christmas party, so we had to include all of the items. We selected items that were either very practically affordable and or very practical use items, while keeping with Yukon Cornelius’ chic. We wanted every item in this guide to actually have quality equipment and clothing for your use outside of an outfit.

Boots

Redwing boots have a strong reputation as being very comfortable, affordable and very long lasting boots. Take care of these properly and they will last you a lifetime. They match Yukon’s boots pretty closely, though not so clownish in proportions so as to be practical.

Coat and Pants

We felt that having the materials and color of the  coat and pants match was the most important part. These aren’t quite as light blue as the movie, but they can be faded to match more closely. They match the movie very well in terms of look and function. While the chest pockets are a slightly different shape, they are otherwise the same in terms of construction as we can see in the movie. The pockets that are on the coat are more modern and practical as well.

Headwear

We found this awesome  knit hat on Etsy that is cheaper than buying the hat and muffs separately. This has the added bonus of netting a knitted red beard for those not as blessed as ol’ Yukon. Also, the beard is removable too.

For those that have a big red beard or are going for a more thorough costume, we did include the following items to help you.

Earmuffs

These  earmuffs from Amazon look similar enough.

Hat

Snag this  hat from Amazon. 

Backpack & Accessories

Yukon wouldn’t be Yukon without his pack and supplies. While we didn’t go so far as to include his shovel and pickaxe, we thought we could solve the harder items to find.

Backpack

Yukon, for the 60s, had style. He was clearly wearing a dark brown, external frame, alice pack. This was an excellent choice in 1964 and while substandard today, it is still well respected and even often used. For a costume, a smaller and lighter version is probably more the move and we were able to find one. This is essentially a small backpack modeled after an alice pack and is perfect in size and weight to keep you comfortable. 

Alternatively, you can always get a real alice pack and dye it all brown. Otherwise, it won’t work as they didn’t come in that color scheme. They do come in a “coyote brown” that is honestly not that close; probably best to dye it to match if you’re willing to go to these lengths. Alice packs are 50+ year old design today and are fairly substandard compared to  modern packs, but their long military usage and common parts usage has kept them around. 

Bedding

While it’s clearly a sleeping mat, we thought we needed to include a smaller option if you went with the more practical backpack. Otherwise, any sleeping mat would be comically large in comparison. We came up with this green blanket which can be folded to the same width as the backpack and then rolled up to match the aesthetic. This surplus wool blanket is actually very useful and effective for the price.  Multiple blankets of this type with a few emergency space blankets, with properly layered clothing, is enough to keep you alive if you get caught in a snowstorm traveling this holiday season. 

But if you went with the full Alice pack, then look no further than the standard USGI foam mat. Most people hate it, but it’s cheap and will do the costume well enough as some of these items are pretty expensive. While there are much better sleeping pads out there, we wanted to keep the cost down and keep the look of ol’ Yukon. For the money, there isn’t a better sleeping pad, but for more money there are much better sleeping pads.

Canteen

Admittedly very tricky, this was the closest we found, but the pattern of the wool covering was a different color scheme. Perhaps if you reach out to the shop on Etsy, they can make something closer with a different wool covering. However, all things being said, this is very, very close to the original and most people honestly won’t be able to tell.  Yukon’s canteen is only visibly red plaid for a handful of seconds in the films. It’s the shape and wool covering that are much more important here for that accurate Yukon chic. 

Merry Christmas from 80 Percent Arms!

Now you know how to dress up just like ol’ Yukon Cornelius. We hope you learned a bit about how to carry appendix in a Western fashion, that your holiday season is full of love and good cheer. If you want to keep the Christmas spirit all year long, consider this Yukon Cornelius PVC patch. If you liked this article, be sure to check out our products and other articles, like how to have Han Solo’s Blaster!