10 Survival Skills Your Great-Grandparents Knew (That Most Of Us Have Forgotten) After 50s

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Sometimes the most crazy skills are the ones that are needed most in a survival situation, didn’t you ever watch MacGyver?

Yeah, there was the one where he lassoed dinner with some duct tape.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Sometimes the most crazy skills are the ones that are needed most in a survival situation, didn’t you ever watch MacGyver?

Yeah, there was the one where he lassoed dinner with some duct tape.

After you wrangle up a pigeon, get you a fire started, easy peasy!

originally posted by: Asktheanimals
a reply to: TrollMagnet
In cities a victor rat trap will be worth more than a fifth of scotch.
pan traps? worth 100 rounds of ammo.
The secret to survival in post shtf will be for others to not notice you.
That means no shooting to draw attention for miles.
No fishing (everyone will be at water sources).

Yup, my post was so long I did not want to get into the whole shooting thing, but you are exactly spot on. Shooting brings people. If you have resources, or know how to gather them, you do not want to run into hungry strangers, or do anything that may make them think you got just shot something to eat. Trapping is silent and efficient and I can set ten traps with a ball of wire in my pocket that weighs less than a pound.

a reply to: TrollMagnet

Shooting brings people.

Smoke will bring people too.
There are ways to minimize smoke when cooking.

originally posted by: TrollMagnet
a reply to: Mizzazz22

That article is total trash. Anyone who thinks hunting is a way to provide food in a survival situation is living in Hollywood.

I can understand that if you do not hunt, you think animals may just jump out and strike a pose while you take aim, but if you dont have years under your belt, you will not get within range of an animal, or even know how to track it if it doesnt drop. If you need food and are under stress with a whole bunch of other idiots out there thinking hunting is the answer, you will be hungry most of the time. Feast and famine.

Truth is, if you want to have a skill to provide food during a SHTF scenario, you learn to TRAP way before the SHTF. Hunting is a total waste of time 99% of the time. Trapping on the other hand. I can put out 20 traps in less than two hours in an area with no deer and have 50lbs of meat the next day, and they work while I sleep, get gas, forage, etc, etc. Trapping is by far the most reliable way to consistently eat if the stores do not have food. It should have been #1 on the list.

I am a hunter. I am also a self taught trapper since very few do it anymore. I learned to trap years ago after learning some history. Up until the 90's, most of the old ladies in Europe could teach you how to trap. The people who survived through WW1 and 2 learned to trap stray dogs and cats. At the end of WW2 Europe was a little short on pets.

Trapping is also an art. You are not going to go get a bunch of animals without experience. You need to perfect it, learn the tricks, then you can actually get a good harvest. The steady flow of food is also easier to preserve than a moose.

Whoever wrote that article is LARPing. I cant even believe they put gardening. You actually need to use farming techniques, or very large garden techniques, NOT the same thing as what people do in their backyard. The time to plate it takes, the calories, and the amount of loss you will have make "gardening" only feasible compared to gathering if you do it in bulk, especially if you have a horse. I have had many horses. Talk about sucking up resources. Best part about a horse if the SHTF is you can eat it, other than that they are a large loss of resources compared to a dual sport motorcycle that gets 50MPG, or an old diesel that cab fun off a variety of fuels.

I could go on, I just think it is ridiculous. My 9 year old son has spent enough time off grid to know this crap wont get you very far. If you hunt and you have ever been out on opening day thinking there are a lot of people, imagine if they were all starving. Meanwhile you can trap raccoons in trash cans pretty much every night no matter where you live.

Another thing. Raising animals makes you a target. It is a weakness to raise chickens and things, unless you are in a very very safe place. The people who raise animals are consistently targeted during conflicts by fighters as a source of food. The opposite of what you want if you want to keep all your stuff.

At least 90% of Americans would die if the SHTF. We are the weakest nation in the world if you turn off the power.

My grandparents were 95% self sufficient. They HUNTED. They grew a GARDEN. They raised four children in that small house and stayed there until my elderly grandfather died and my elderly grandmother moved to a small town. They lived a good ways from modern conveniences. I have lots of pics as proof. As a child, I helped them burn grass for the garden area. They had fruit trees. They didn't need a million acres or even hundreds. One half acre is plenty to provide enough food.

Not everyone has the awesomeness they had to live in. So maybe what you meant is 'Not everyone...'

People are too spoiled with the hundreds of food choices they feel they need to have and all the toys. My father and his siblings and my grandparents lived a simple life, were never hungry and had beautiful surroundings to work and play.

a reply to: TrollMagnet

Old electric guitar strings make ideal snares.
Your post was long but information takes space to convey.
I suggest people sincere about this subject read your entire post.

a reply to: StoutBroux

People are too spoiled with the hundreds of food choices they feel they need to have and all the toys.

I'm spoiled beyond belief but I guarantee I could survive better than at least 98% of the population.

Two ways to know how to survive = The curiousity to do so with guidance from those that have.
Or by actual need of wanting to survive.

I like the trapping discussion.

If SHTF where I live, I'll probably be completely sustained by squirrel.

Nothing like a stick on a tree with some wire loops.

I noticed a squirrel feeder with an ear of corn on it; Then later noticed three or four stalks of corn growing out of the ground. For a squirrel I'd say that was a pretty good ear to stalk ration since each stalk yields about the same amount of stalks growing.

So one squirrel eating like a pig for about a week, drops three or four kernels, those three to four kernels yield three to four ears... sustainable for more than that squirrel over time.

The sad part is the one that put that ear of corn on there never put another one and I think that squirrel was trying to teach them how to grow it if they can't replace it.

I wouldn't have put one as it would have made them dependent on me providing them corn, unfortunately I don't think the person "got" the thank you lesson of the squirrel teaching them how to plant since they pulled them up and still didn't put an ear on there. *rolls eyes* for squirrel only because I don't think they can do that.

a reply to: Crowfoot

For the squirrel, I hope it is better to have accidentally or deliberately planted and lost stalks of corn than to never have planted at all.

a reply to: Mizzazz22 Tapped in my day. Would say muskrat would provide most meat for me. Rabbits are a problem unless you use a certain sort of trap that kills instantly otherwise a number or other animals are going to get your kill. Hunting is really not such a waste of time depending on situation. Depending on time of year groundhogs are a good eat and you can catch them in muskrat traps or 22cal them. Gots to learn plant eats. Lots of them out there. But you take in location, time of year, type of folks you have in your party, it could be bad.

a reply to: jannybobani9

I wouldn't know since the neighbor has cats and walking to the mailbox the person across from the cat people property in front of me; Put the feeder near the cat yard/property line... I share an access(driveway) with the people that put the squirrel feeder there for about a quarter acre.

Lack of thinking or foresight or just an A-hole? One or more of my sisters might agree with the latter(A-hole) he having cursed out our mom on thanksgiving(hearsay I really don't know wasn't there) and my mom's husband kisses the guys butt for no reason I know of. Hearing about what allegedly happened a month later? What does she(sister) expect me to do? If true next time call the police that he's communicating threats to the elderly... a bunch of drama instead of peace doesn't make any sense to me, having not lodged a complaint THEN so the drama is still ongoing, but all of them are feuding for different reasons; Saying that was just to try to get me to enter the dramatic fray.

lol any wonder why am I happy to be alone?

No Thanks not my soap opera to get involved... is a good mental plow to recall when tending one's own field no matter where you are.

a reply to: Mizzazz22

An OP thats a 2 paragraph C&P, without proper credit given to the author (there is a word for that) and not a single thought from the OP.

Quality

a reply to: Crowfoot

What a plot twist.
Someone refill that popcorn for the squirrels.
The drama is ongoing but the snacks are out.

He cussed your mom out for Thanksgiving?
Damn.

I worked in the mining industry as a blaster and fishing is no problem.
DuPont's spinners will get you fish even when the fish are not biting.
Traps are good and fishing for ducks is something hobos did back in the 1930s
I have a survival bow and a long bow for hunting or fishing.
the fun place i can fish is in the desert where there is no lakes or rivers.
but there are two large pipes called the Los Angeles Aqueduct that are full of fish that only me and a couple friends know about.

I will not survive long without my medications, but I can teach others.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals
a reply to: TrollMagnet

Old electric guitar strings make ideal snares.
Your post was long but information takes space to convey.
I suggest people sincere about this subject read your entire post.

Thank you. Its only a complicated argument because the things popularized don't work very well. We are so far separated from our ancestors who could live off the land, most people dont know where to start or what the results are supposed to look like.

Most people don't need a 3 week survival course,
just the determination to learn a new skill.

Here's a Youtube presentation showing
an exceptionally easy non traditional
way to catch fish.

www.youtube.com...

If and when the SHTF I doubt you'll
need to provide your fishing license
to any park ranger.

For those adverse to eating meat, delight
yourself in knowing there's like a zillion
plants you can eat.

The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to
Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing
Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer

Survival is only difficult as an advertising
technique if someone is trying to sell
prepper supplies

a reply to: Mizzazz22

What a time to be around.
This new generation is taking the world in such a different direction.

Every generation worries about the upcoming generation, thinking they are doing something wrong or that they have "lost their way" and are not fit to survive in the environment at hand.

But evolution seems to consistently bring with a new generation, a new environment that makes survival unfit for the earlier generation, not the latter.

Today, the kids have the entire cosmos in the palm of their hands. Never before, has there been such availability of information access. By the time the kids are 16, they have seen, heard, and felt it all. Some kids are even bored!
What a strange concept for those in older generations who were more profoundly touched by life experiences in slow-mo.

During our time today, the meaning of survival is reminiscent of psychological survival and psychological battles.

I can only wonder what survival is going to look like for future generations, who are doing things so differently than the previous generations.