Phoning for fish is where you take an old WWII, Korean, or Vietnam era army surplus telephone, or one of those old crank telephones found out in the barn. You split the wire and put them on the opposite sides of a creek. The fish have to basically swim between the two wires to be shocked. A small clear stream where you can see the fish is best, but people have done this from canoes in small ponds.

Some people have even paid out wire through a casting rod, with a weight tied to the end of it, to bring up channel cat. Catfish are electrical creatures, and are attracted to it. They are also attracted to any source of electricity in the water; say, a boat motor that is shorting out or something. They sense it in their wiskers, I think.

A family in my home town came to the ER because of phoning for fish. I think the son-in-law got zapped because he still had his hands in the water from pulling in the last fish when Dad started cranking.

Turned out to be an impromptu IQ test; one which they failed, in my view.

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You could always bury your weapon and ammo under a metal fence/pole or in the middle of nowhere.

In a survival type situation you might be better off figuring out what edible plants are in your area. Setting traplines might be something to try out too.

If guns were outlawed or hard to aquire someone might research online and figure out how to make there own.

If a mini mill / lathe were too expensive, some folks would most likely build a zip gun.



- NSBiz

My vote is for a stun gun, there are several models out including direct contact ones to ones that shoot out and penetrate to incapacitate.

But really how much of a bother is it to apply for a a firearms purchase. Not to carry a firearm thats a different thing entirely, just to purchase a firearm. Most state have a simple little safety test (study and take it at the gun store), then a waiting period to pick up the gun. Doesn't seem too hard to me. Now if your concerned with potential confiscation in the future, then also another issue. Many ways around this as well if youre creative.

Use what the tribes people have for ages. The crossbow thing is rediculous in my opinion.

Plus it all depends on whaat the intended use for the alternate weapon would be for...Protection, hunting?

Your mind a knife and a lighter.

[edit on 4/24/2007 by Amazon Lights]

lets keep it simple,like a long-chain for close targets.or sling-shot for targets in distance,you can always find stones for ammo,anyway thats what i use,the greek knows from war, watch the 300....

Most effective weapons: Knife and Bow (crossbow or compound). Knife one needs to know how to use it, and bow, well need some aim practice.

A sling would be my own worst enemy if ya know what I mean

Just reading through the posts and I am amazd at some of what I am reading.
When I here "survival" the first thing that pops in my mind is when the nation goes to hell. Not "we are without power for a few days".

I think some clarification of "survival" needs to be made.

With the worst case senario, guns will be great but at some point in time you are going to run out of ammo. So you will need a renewable resource for weaponry. Again learning to make your own bow and arrows out of most anything handy will increase your chances of survival. A crossbow will at some point break or you will run out of bolts for it. Again you will need a renewable resource for your weapons.

Some one mentioned bartering earlier, what are you going to barter with?

Someone also mentioned people leaving thee city for the country side. You will probably not have to worry about this much. Most city dwellers are terrified of the country side at night and again they will need gas to get wher they are going. The economies have collapsed so how will they get gas. By the time they get to my neck of the woods they will be tired and hungry and have very sore feet. They will then have to learn the skills of surviving off of the land, they will be able to see that meat doesnt come from the grocery store and that there are plenty of other cuts of meat other than fillet mignon.

Originally posted by ultralo1
With the worst case senario, guns will be great but at some point in time you are going to run out of ammo.

I probably only have another 60 years, and that's being extremely optomistic. I've got ammo for that. In three different locations, where I can access my cache if someone else takes legal possession of the property.

I live in a place where I don't need a license to own the guns I already have. Only a couple of my guns were bought through a dealer. The others have no paper trail that points to me. I own them legally, but even if they are outlawed, there are no records.

Some one mentioned bartering earlier, what are you going to barter with?

I have stuff set aside to barter with. Cavemen bartered. People always do; even in stalingrad when they were starving to death. Bartering is as natural as two kids trading their sandwiches at school.

Originally posted by ultralo1
Just reading through the posts and I am amazed at some of what I am reading.
When I here "survival" the first thing that pops in my mind is when the nation goes to hell. Not "we are without power for a few days".

I think some clarification of "survival" needs to be made.

It is really to hard to pin it down to one situation. Survival means different things to different people. Some people find it very hard or almost impossible to go two days with out electricity. when they make it threw they honestly feel like they survived.

i agree that spear is a good gun,but what if you got to run,it will slow you down and i promise you when hell will break free we better run

I have to agree with many of the posters that archery would be the next level to consider if firearms are out. However, archery takes skill to be able to hit target effectivly so if you are serious its something you will have to practice to be proficcient at.

Crossbows are another option and pack quite a punch if you hit the target. Still like shooting there is skill involved.

dart guns can be very good protection, they come in a wide variety of types. I saw this show the other day on ripley's and the man was a professional dart gun shooter, god he was amazing! Silent but deadley...

A good old David and Goliath sling would be easy to make and could take down anything in the lower 48 States. I would be pissing my pants if facing a Grizzly with one though. I can send a fist sized chunk of rock farther than a football field. Many folks do not take the sling seriously because they make them wrong, or use them wrong.

When making a proper sling, the parachute cords should be as long as the distance from your navel to the ground. Never shorter. With experience, they can be longer. There should also be a diamond shaped hole cut into the pouch section to help seat odd shaped ammo. One cord will have a small loop in it and the other should have a knot tied in it to grip or have a small wooden sphere on to help grip.

When using a sling you put the loop on your ring finger and hold the knot or sphere of wood with your thumb and fore finger. The cords and pouch will hang down in front of you as you place a rock into the pouch and push it into the center to seat it into the diamond cutout. Small rocks make poor projectiles. Your practice ammo should be at least two inches in diameter. This is a sling after all and not a pea shooter. You want to start your projectile around your back as acquire your target. You will swing the sling around your head as you track your target. NEVER try to be a helicopter. With a MAXIMUM of three revolutions around your head, prepare to release your projectile on the fourth by bringing the rock DOWN in back of you and with the motion of a baseball pitcher bring the rock up over your head and really snap that downward motion as you release the rock. Your force will come NOT FROM WHIRLING THE ROCK OVER YOUR HEAD, BUT FROM THIS ONE FINAL SNAP. You can whirl the rock over your head just fast enough to keep the rock in the pocket and put all your force into the final over the head fling. This should produce range and force which will shock and amaze most bystanders when done correctly.

Are we talking about self defense, hunting, assault, or are we going for a combo deal?

Read up on some chemistry, and learn about improvised explosives. Also, some poisons and gasses can be readily had.

Bleach + Ammonia will make a room a pretty hostile environment, for example.

You can disconnect the airbag sensors in most new cars and rig them into explosives, so that when the impact sensors try to deploy the airbags, it detonates instead. Useful for making car bombs that you don't need to drive personnally and die using. Just place a brick on the petal and run. Remotes can be made out of cell phones too, so all you have to do is dial.

Go to a feed store and pick up a cattle prod. Use it as a club or a beating stick.

get a very good knife. One you can use for sharpening sticks, or preparing your dinner. I might go so far as to say get two, a skinners pocket knife and a machette. There is a world of usefullness in a machette. And don't forget to grab a wetstone.

Get some big, strong dogs. They will alert you if someone is approaching, help defend your home/dwelling, and if worse came to worse, could be used as food. Remember though, big dogs have big appetites, so only keep as many as you can feed.

Jesus... Slings, Slingshots, crossbows.. are you all kids?
None of that is going to serve as a decent, useful weapon, in real life.

If you can't get a firearm period, then a pellet rifle is the next best thing.
Most of them you can buy at any sporting goods store.. or better yet, online.
They have airguns that shoot at 1,600fps now, and with Gamo's new pellet, you can kill wild boar, deer, etc with a headshot.

Aside from that, should you need to kill a human, you'll still be far enough away to keep yourself safe from edged weapon attacks, and you can use it for hunting.

Slings, rocks, stunguns.. jesus.. you people aren't going to last long.

Originally posted by MichaelMyers
Jesus... Slings, Slingshots, crossbows.. are you all kids?
None of that is going to serve as a decent, useful weapon, in real life.

If you can't get a firearm period, then a pellet rifle is the next best thing.
Most of them you can buy at any sporting goods store.. or better yet, online.
They have airguns that shoot at 1,600fps now, and with Gamo's new pellet, you can kill wild boar, deer, etc with a headshot.

Slings, rocks, stunguns.. jesus.. you people aren't going to last long.

Crossbows are extremely effective and deadly weapons, what kind of crossbows are you thinking about? Medieval ones?

Pellet guns regardless of the velocity are not going to be effective for home protection.

Slings and slingshots I agree are not very practical except in a survival scenario where You have no other options.

Yea, like ANY of these kids know how to use any weapon with enough ease to protect themselfs in the first place.

Second, to say an airgun despite velocity isnt good for home protection.
Do you really think in a Situation X, you'll be able to stay at home anyways long term?
And ontop of that, you tell me, that an airgun hitting at 1,600 fps, with an 18gr or even 25gr hollow point pellet, isnt going to be good for protection, yet alone hunting?
You need to get off the computer.