Survival hunting

K

Kevin the grey

Joined
Aug 26, 2005
Messages
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I'm Bitc#y. I'm cold and wet and tired. If you look at me wrong I won't have to go hunting. I'll be eating long pork for my evening meal.

Not exactly the frame of mind for a stealthy hunter. I have pretty good arms.
Pretty darn good aim as well. I do not think I could get close enough to something to throw even a light spear or throwing arrow.

Maybe I could chuck a rock big enough to kill a squirrel far enough to have a chance to sneak in that close.

What tips do you guys have for procurring food in the wild. For the now could we stay away from creepy crawly things? Lets stick with the furry beasts .
 
There is one helluva lot of mice everywhere. Whapem with a stick.:thumbup:
 
What about feathered beasts? We have grouse here we call stupid chickens. I have walked through half a dozen that barely move out of the way. Good throwing stick and you are set.

--Carl
 
Snares. (Assuming no firearms, no bows and arrows, etc).
I think you gotta go with snares for several reasons.
-They work while you are doing other things, like building a fire, your debris shelter, or making your spear.
-You can set numerous snares,traps, deadfalls, all over, thus multiplying your chances.
-Paracord/550 cord will hold most of the smaller game animals.

Fishing
If near a big enough water source, I think you gotta go for fishing too (even though they do't have fur)
-numerous makeshift methods for catching them.
-like snares, you can set many fishooks, lines, or traps, thus increasing your chances.

Besides those static methods, it would probably be good to have couple of baseball sized rocks picked out, and a throwing stick or two.

With cordage make a sling? (I could never get the hang of it).

Tie two good sized rock together with a 4 foot peice of cordage to make one of those tangle-foot throwers...whatever they are called.

I never liked the fold-up wrist rocket slingshots, until now. I'm thinking they fold pretty flat, and, in a medium pack wouldn't take up a lot of room.
Rocks are free, and hit hard coming out of a wrist-rocket. Rabbits and squirrels could be taken.

Making your own bow and arrow? probably beyond my skill set, for sure.

I would start with simple deadfalls, then set snares, then look for water source for fishing. Hopefully I'd already be sheltering near my water source.
Snaring and trapping near a stream or creek is probably going to be one of the more fruitful places.
 
I'm a less than successful hunter myself. Without a firearm I'd probably starve to death :p .

Thats why I prefer fishing :D .

If it comes down to throwing stones, try ducks and geese. Those darned things refuse to leave even after being beaned with a Black Walnut when you're trying to scare 'em out of your pond.
 
The only problem with wrist-rockets is, I can only hit a beer can about 10% of the time at 20 feet :( I'm sure practice is an issue, but I think I'd rather have a c02 air pistol for squirrels/bunnies. Of course, CO2 cartridges and BB's or pellets are kind of heavy. If I really thought I might need it, I'd upgrade to a .22 pistol. runningboar has some comments on this I'm sure; he's got a couple and has discussed them in other threads.

I agree that lots of snares and lots of fishhooks/traps is probably the wisest choice.

I'm sure, like me, you're ignoring hunting laws if it's a survival situation.
 
The easiest is snares. Caught heaps of rabbits when I was a kid - kept the family freezer filled. I found that they a lot more humane than steel traps.I just used a simple wire running noose. Set out heaps of them - they are 'working' while you do something else.Survival hunting means you eat anything - rats,rabbits,cats (my step dad in Holland during WW2) - you eat you live - you don't you die.Pretty simple...
 
Kevin,

Hunting is hard work and definitely not a sure thing. What are you hunting, what method are you using, archery, firearms...., how long have you been hunting/how much time do you spend in the woods.

In your intitial post you say survival hunting, this is completetly different from sport hunting. In a survival situation all bets are off, aircraft cable snares for deer, jacklighting, fishhooks and braided line baited with corn, if me or my family is starving there is no such thing as fair chase or ethics.

Sport hunting on the other hand is supposed to be fun, it doesn't sound like you are having fun. If you know any hunters that are successful in your area, pick their brain, and if possible go to the woods with them and absorb as much as possible. If you have any specific questions I will try to answer to the best of my ability. Chris
 
Chris . I agree completely. A man who does not feed his family because it is not ethical will have his false ethics bred out of the gene pool.

Ethics are for playing golf.

Commendable,expendable luxuries.
 
Dig a Pit, (on a deer trail) drive sharpened pieces of rebar into the bottom, cover with sticks and leaves.

Go far away, and drive by noise, so they go down their trail and fall into pit.
If there are cliffs nearby, drive them off cliffs.

Make a snare-field (like a mine field) tyr to drive them in that direction.
Make it somewhere that naturally funnels them into the field.
 
Isn't long pork human flesh? I like hunting with a slingshot, I'm usually good for a rabbit or two each year. These are rabbits that hang around the hay stacks and aren't very spooked by cars or people. I use commercial steel ball ammo instead of rocks when hunting.
 
Anybody heard of or used the "squirrel pole"? It is where you attach a bunch of wire snares all around a long pole and lean it up against a large tree. Theoretically, the squirrels will take the easisest route to ground and take the pole route, eventually snaring their head, falling off the pole, and then thrashing around. The thrashing attracts more curious squirrels who then go down the pole and in turn snare themselves. This was taught to me at the USMC mountain warfare school, but I always dismissed it as BS and never tried it out.
 
Skunkwerx,
I think those are too labor intensive, and I am not sure that you could drive deer over a cliff without a LOT of people, simple cable snares work plenty good.

Another problem is that now game herds are kept artificially large, if you go back to the depression and for a long time after, large game and small became very rare, if something like that happens again it will become the same way. If I ever had to go to a foraging type lifestyle I think I would try to get to my beloved swamps of south GA, Miss, or LA. It is terrain I am very familiar with but is inhospitable to most and I would venture to say as long as my health stayed good I could live very well, lots of game, turtles, fish, and crawfish as well as very rich soil for subsistance farming.

One thing that we have not talked about that someone else mentioned is air rifles, my old sheridan will put a steady stream of small game in the pot and a few thousand 5mm pellets don't take up much space or weight. Chris

EDIT, Long pig is people
 
Kevin the grey said:
Chris . I agree completely. A man who does not feed his family because it is not ethical will have his false ethics bred out of the gene pool.

Ethics are for playing golf.

Commendable,expendable luxuries.
Click to expand...

This is just so wrong that I have to comment on it.

Wikipedia defines ethics as:
"Ethics (from the Ancient Greek "ethikos", meaning "arising from habit"), a major branch of philosophy, is the study of value or quality. It covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as right, wrong, good, evil, and responsibility."

Ignoring everything else that is - in my humble opinion - wrong in your statement even feeding your hungry family is in fact nothing else than some sort of ethical behaviour. It may not be a good idea to discard ethics so easily.

-Connor
 
Connor,

We are talking ethical hunting, observing the rules of fair chase, not ethics in general. Chris
 
Connor, one cannot discard something that does not exist.

I think that I would be found at least as cordial,civil and more co-operative than most. I am most assuredly not a gentleman though I believe in acting in a gentle manner.

The theory of ethics is just too fluid a commodity to be contained in any philosophy. therefor they do not exist except in the mind of the man who would force them upon himself. If something exists only in your mind it is an illusion.

Being philosophical is a fine thing for Tea-rooms and in the boudoir. Once you leave the confines of civilisations veil it is best to behave in an appropriate manner.

All animals will kill in any way shape or form to survive or they will not survive.

Right or wrong,good and evil , lies and truth do not exist. There is only Nature.

There is no such thing as ethics. Only how we choose to act and the consequences thereof.
 
Kevin the grey said:
There is no such thing as ethics. Only how we choose to act and the consequences thereof.
Click to expand...

Interesting theory. Would you care to explain why you brought up the ethical "problem" in hunting at all?

From my point of view you either have or don't have a reason to hunt an animal, which is probably for the food hide or other materials. Hunting for "fun" or throphies is by my ethical values a despicable thing to do.

-Connor
 
Is your philosophy so narrow it cannot encompass the fact that there are more philosphies than your own.


As for ethics being a problem ? I never said they were. Someone else raised that issue. I merely put forth a point of view.

The words "wrong" "despicable" "problem" did not come from me.
 
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