Is hunting a realistic option during civil chaos

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


Neat thread.

My 2 cents. In the event of a true SHTF scenario, there won't be the competition for wild game because the majority of human competition will die off rather quickly. Stupidity, lack of survival skills, and violence as a result of the cause of SHTF will create a hunting bonanza.

Just speculation of course.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by dr_strangecraft

 

Neat thread.

My 2 cents. In the event of a true SHTF scenario, there won't be the competition for wild game because the majority of human competition will die off rather quickly. Stupidity, lack of survival skills, and violence as a result of the cause of SHTF will create a hunting bonanza.

Just speculation of course.

I hear human hind quarter and back strap are quit delish

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by ldyserenity

 

Eating our little four-legged buddies would be a last resort. Just pointing out that there are all types of food sources out there.

The way I figure it is, once the survivors make it through the first winter, the wildlife population would stabilize, if not explode. And you would now have a full growing season ahead of you.

I agree with that...without the human population infringing definately the wildlife population would wildly expand. I've never hunted myself but the old man knows how. Oh I know I could hit the target but he'd have to do all the prep...lol. I was in the army so I do know how to hit a target...lol. I just would be just as happy eating fruits and veggies. I survive on less than 1200 cals a day. I am sure if I was trying to survive though that would go up. But I know how to get enough calories eating vegan...even though it means eating avacado.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by dr_strangecraft

 

Neat thread.

My 2 cents. In the event of a true SHTF scenario, there won't be the competition for wild game because the majority of human competition will die off rather quickly.

Not near quickly enough, beezzer.

Rome wasn't burnt in a day.

FEMA estimates the average American city has about 14 days worth of food, when all the trucks cease making deliveries. That's rounding up because people will eat less as the food runs low, and because people will conserve effort because they are hungry, and rounding back down because of spoilage, distribution problems, etc.

The people who make it out of the cities will have already overcome the "idiot factor" by besting the rioters and gangs on their way out to the boonies. But consider.

-With no hunting license enforcement, everyone can hunt.

-You can shoot from a roadway

-You can use a spotlight, for hunting after dark

-You can use two cables, between two pickups, and run a drag to flush game.

-You can use bait, robot decoys, and traps for big game

-You can go hunting every single day, not just on the weekends, once everyone is downsized.


I don't know what it's like where you live, but Opening Day in Texas, in addition to being a functional state holiday, is louder than the 4th of July by many orders of magnitude. It sounds like taking the beach at Normandy. Imagine what it will be like, once hunting is no longer a "sport."


Every day will be Opening Day.


STMF

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


Quite possible. Just throwing another idea out there.

Though, a factor yet to be discussed is time of year as well. Winter will really decrease the human population. Summer, spring would provide more human competition.

Hunting is easy, lots of mammals out there, even when the shtf. remember the donner family. This is a source.

Hunting / trapping is a realistic option for some people. Who? People who are experienced hunters, people who hit what they are aiming at more often than not, and people who live in the country / rural areas.

If you are going for meat and not a trophy, hunting becomes a lot more basic, with game more available. Here in south-central Florida, we have wild pig, bear, dear, turkey, rabbit, squirrel, skunk, possum, coon, snake - you get the idea. Also plenty of fish, turtle, and gator in the lakes, rivers and wetlands.

I don't think there will be a problem here with game getting scarce, probably the opposite: less weekend warrior types coming out here from the urban areas and cities, and getting drunk and killing anything that moves then leaving the carcass.

I expect a tremendous attrition rate for anyone in heavily populated areas. People who are med dependent, people drinking contaminated water when the taps dry up and the power is gone, resurgence of rat-born diseases, and disease from human corpses. I suspect once their gas tanks are empty, most people won't make it too much farther.

Our little towns are one helluva long walk from any major urban center. I'd expect if the SHTF, we'd do what we've done when hurricanes hit: band together and take care of each other. I'd think that would include making sure our game supply is protected and managed well, especially against outsiders or marauders.

Wow, Lots of opinions to this post.

Being a hunter all my life and regularly taking everything from Rabbit & Squirrel to Deer & Elk, I have only failed to fill a tag twice in 30 years (and one time was due to a wildfire in my area and couldn't hunt)

While reading people's posts on here you can get a good idea who actually hunts and knows how and who is just has never......

To all the people who mention road hunting and dragging cables and such. If there is no food or food deliveries there will most likely be no gas either. So you will be on foot.

Assuming there will be no law enforcement thus everybody will be able to hunt freely means that there will be a heavy hunter load in the woods. Having that many people in the woods will do a couple of things.

1. Animals will be driven VERY deep into the woods, mountains, swamps or whatever environment you hunt.
2. People will be very frustrated not finding anything but other hunters and tempers will be short.
bad things will happen.....

Without vehicles to haul the lazy hunters around most people, whether their a seasoned hunter or not won't be able to travel miles into the wilderness to find the game. Whether it is due to being out of shape, not being able to survive outside of civilization, or just plain too weak from starvation or sickness to make the trek.

When Deer & Elk get hunted to heavily they go where ever they need to get away from the people. If that means 20 miles away into the thickest, nastiest, gnarliest piece of woods around that's where they will be.

There will be game to get. The question is will you be able to get it?

reply to post by mwood

animals are stupid and not all of them will head to the thickets, Ive seen dogs push a herd while other deer just stood by and watched them pass by

I'm not too worried about it, most hunters are too lazy to even get out of their vehicles

I think a lot of the single male "survivalists" are clueless as to what would really happen. If you live far away from cities you may be able to hunt just fine for awhile. But those city people will start coming out of the cities, it is simply foolish to believe "people will just sit and starve to death" they will be like locusts. The majority of people live in urban areas, if you don't, your the minority. Contrary to what some hicks want to believe, cities are actually full of very smart people. Sure there are a lot of morons but, by and large, cities concentrate all types of people. There will be strongly armed bands of people roaming about looking for whatever they can get. They will ahve numbers and possibly much greater firepower. They will get good at it quickly or they will die. There will be many replacements to fill the void.

To hunt, you'll have to move around, that will make you vulnerable.

Now lets assume you live in a rural area. You have people around you that do hunt and fish regularly. People are going to need food every day because storage becomes a problem without refrigeration. People will hunt/fish daily. No one in America has herds of deer. The buffalo are all gone. Most of the game will be gone within 6 months or very scarce. The longer the situation goes on the farther out you will need to roam to hunt. Doom on you.

No matter where you live - every time you go out of your hidey hole you will be taking a risk. The fact that you are out hunting also makes you a target of other hunters. You are competing for survival after all. Maybe your Rambo and have lots of guns. Maybe your the star of your own movie in your head . Maybe.... there are lots of other people like you.

I don't think it will be fun at all, I think it will suck really bad for even the prepared mind.


V

yeah we all used to talk about the great city dweller push when the SHTF, they would move like wild buffalo across the plains devouring everything in their path. the real problem with that scenario is that the government will lock down all the cities and highways when marshal law has been commanded, and checkpoint charlie will be ran by local rednecks to keep the riff raff out. i live in the country so I'm where i need to be with the locals and the fresh running springs and plentiful wild life, but most of if not all of your city and suburb dwellers don't have guns or even know how to use them...they will rely on the Fema camps to feed them like down at katrina, i assure you that they wont get very far if they mosey to far south, it will be like deliverance or southern comfort

people start messing with other peoples livestock and there wont be a trial, these good ole boy farmers have a way to deal with rustlers

Originally posted by anumohi
hunting is easy, you only need woods where you can find animal trails, especially around highways, deer love highways and road ways...you can hunt them at night with a flashlight, they are very curious animals, you can lay in the grass with a 22 rifle and a flashlight on the edge of a field and click the light off and on and eventually they will come close enough to shoot them in their great big glowing green eyeballs

hunting in the day is pretty much the same thing, just go find a comfy place to set upwind and wait for the deer to mosey in, just make sure you don't make any sudden moves or accidentally catch their attention.

I want to know more about hunting deer with a 22 rifle....

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


I think the game would dry up fairly fast. I have been thinking about the cultivation of insects as a more reliable food source. Depending on which species you cultivate they could very well double as brilliant help with cultivation of plants as well in underground grow rooms fashioned from the huge surplus overseas shipping containers piling up at all the ports you can get them fairly cheap nowadays 5-6 hundred bucks.

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft

Originally posted by anumohi
hunting is easy, you only need woods where you can find animal trails, especially around highways, deer love highways and road ways...you can hunt them at night with a flashlight, they are very curious animals, you can lay in the grass with a 22 rifle and a flashlight on the edge of a field and click the light off and on and eventually they will come close enough to shoot them in their great big glowing green eyeballs

hunting in the day is pretty much the same thing, just go find a comfy place to set upwind and wait for the deer to mosey in, just make sure you don't make any sudden moves or accidentally catch their attention.

I want to know more about hunting deer with a 22 rifle....

if they run away shoot them in their lil brown eye
if they're facing you shoot them in the eye or in the tip of the nose
if they are standing broadside shoot them right in the heart. that's a couple inches behind the front shoulder blade center mass
a good 1500 or better fps hollow point will be better than target round nose. you want to be no more than 30 yards when you shoot them, the reason is is it has more ft pounds of impact pressure and does more damage the closer you get. you don't want to wound the animal and it run off... any round of any caliber can do that if you don't place the shot just right in the sweet spot

a good flashlight or a 250,000 candle power Qbeam is excellent for finding them at night in the fields, just aim for those glowing green eyes

Originally posted by IKTOMI
reply to post by dr_strangecraft

 

I think the game would dry up fairly fast. I have been thinking about the cultivation of insects as a more reliable food source. Depending on which species you cultivate they could very well double as brilliant help with cultivation of plants as well in underground grow rooms fashioned from the huge surplus overseas shipping containers piling up at all the ports you can get them fairly cheap nowadays 5-6 hundred bucks.

there are hundreds of millions of deer throughout the US and probably a billion or 2 in Canada. you aren't going to get them all, no one is

but you can eat bugs and worms if you want

Originally posted by anumohi

there are hundreds of millions of deer throughout the US and probably a billion or 2 in Canada. you aren't going to get them all, no one is

but you can eat bugs and worms if you want

The best estimate for current US deer population I can find is 30 million deer. Before hunting laws, the population was estimated to have plummeted during the European expansion from 50 million down to less that 1/2 a million by 1900.

If a national crisis meant there would be no enforcement of hunting laws, and a return of subsistence hunting, I can imagine another, similar 99% drop in the deer population in the US.

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft

Originally posted by anumohi

there are hundreds of millions of deer throughout the US and probably a billion or 2 in Canada. you aren't going to get them all, no one is

but you can eat bugs and worms if you want

The best estimate for current US deer population I can find is 30 million deer. Before hunting laws, the population was estimated to have plummeted during the European expansion from 50 million down to less that 1/2 a million by 1900.

If a national crisis meant there would be no enforcement of hunting laws, and a return of subsistence hunting, I can imagine another, similar 99% drop in the deer population in the US.

30 million doesn't even come close to how many white tail that are out there, especially in the national forest lands, every season we don't even make any countable dent in the harvest and the herd keeps getting larger..I'm not complaining because i remember when deer were hard to find and there was only a 3 day season, there were more conservation agents in the woods than deer..lol...no kidding

we have wild hogs now becoming a greater problem and them bad boys could feed an army, there plenty to go around for sometime, i see not running out of game unless they are all contaminated, and if thats the case we shall all perish

Nevermind....what I was going to say is not really on topic.

I live in NYC so im furecked, but I've been checking out the pigeons lately....feeding nice and sweet getting them plump. The pigeons here are "gangsta" in that they have no fear whatsoever of humans. When SHTF they won't know what hit them.

I think that people will start to hunt together. I imagine that if SHFT then there will be very little electricity and almost no refridgeration, so a lone hunter hunting a 500 pount deer isn;t going to be hungry enough to eat the whole thing for himself. It would make more sense to hunt deer with a group of hunters, conserving energy and kill one deer for an entire small town and either have one big feast as a unit or divide parts amongst themselves.