Is hunting a realistic option during civil chaos

Originally posted by Chewingonmushrooms
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.

You can jerky the meat and preserve it.

reply to post by DrumsRfun


No doubt a life saving skill to know when the time comes. I still believe it's best to work together as a group, in that it helps with survival and ups the chances of helping the most vunerable amongst us (elderly, children etc..). Not to mention it'll give people a sense of duty to the community at large as long as everyone pulls equal (but not the same) weight.

Even if there are 50 million deer in the US, if 1 million people are hunting them every day, they will get used up fast. Remember, it doesn't matter how many deer are in the US. It only matters how many are close to you and how many people are hunting around you. It's a math thing and not even a difficult math problem.

V

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


I lived in Virginia around 1995. There were more than a million deer in Virginia at that time, and they let people hunt as many as they wanted durring hunting season. People were constantly hitting deer with their cars. They were also worried mad cow disease would get into the States and spread nationally via the deer population.
I had deer running through my property all the time, they would eat my green tomatoes as they ripened. I had deer whistlers on the cars to get the deer to stand still so they wouldn't dash in front of the car. People in the country side had deer hanging from their swing sets draining. My husband helped a friend cut up a deer in his wife's kitchen. Good Grief! I am not sure that's the best spot to do that.

reply to post by projectvxn


Most of the people in the cities who have no skills for gardening or hunting will die. The people in the country will probably be just fine, business as ussual with out electricity. Stress will kill some people. Alot of city people would walk out and head back to their country relatives to survive.

I plan to hunt pigs, cows and sheep, you know the ones that just stand around in a field all day or liberate those chicken in battery farms. I hope there's enough squirrel in the local area and loads of rabbits too, I have a new sling shot on the way and will be honing my skills on the squirrels who are constantly raiding my bird feeders.

To be honest and I don't intend to be racist, but the biggest thing I fear in a SHTF scenario is the local camp of Travelers down my road. Not the type of people to mess with and probably have access to guns. A Sling shot won't do much against a shot gun.

Originally posted by ldyserenity
reply to post by dr_strangecraft

 

Well one good sized buck could last an entire season at least. But with as many humans there are I agree. But what's wrong with growing food?

Kudos to that!

If you are able to secure a decent plot, at the very least you can have some serious supply of potatoes, I have no problem cultivating these. And you can always add beans and other cultivars for protein. Pumpkins have a long shelf life, if you store them properly they'll last a while and you can grow metric tons of these.

As to people not being able to hunt... I bet you I can bag some grey geese using some common items, if need be. There are just too many the place I live

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


Your comments, at least about deer populations being adversely effected by poaching/predation do to hunting during "civil unrest", are slightly off the mark.

The populations of deer, at least here in the NW United States are higher now, then when Lewis and Clark came through back in the day. Given the proper time of day, you almost trip over the little darlings, or hit 'em with your car... Elk are much the same, though to a lesser extent.

It would take, IMHO, quite litterally years to reduce the population of these animals to anywhere near dangerously low levels.

Given the skill level of most hunters, the deer have little to fear, at least until the skill level of the would be hunters increases with experiance. I would assume, for the sake of conversation, that any "civil unrest" would have been curtailed by then, one way or another...

Hunting is difficult, especially when you don't know what you're doing. Even if you do, sometimes you get skunked. That's just the way it is. But hunting, trapping, and otherwise living off the land is a very viable option.

Just because people hunt it doesn't mean that they are skilled enough to kill. Growing up,I spent a lot of time in the woods without killing anything. I didn't kill my first deer until I was 14. A lot of guys that regularly hunt with my dad are really terrible hunters. I kind of feel sorry for them. My dad does too, he will often share what he killed just so they don't leave empty handed.
Having a gun doesn't make you a hunter anymore than having a hammer makes you a carpenter.

reply to post by Sparky63


That's true enough. Yet no matter how skilled, sometimes you get skunked. It's happened to me, more than once. While I'm not Dan'l Boone, I'm not exactly helpless either...

But it's amazing how hunger will aid in gaining skills.

I think it will become a problem at some point and my thinking on this comes from many a winter night in north central Illinois listening to my gradfather talk about how back in the 60's there were not a lot of deer around.

Most of the hunting for whitetail took place in the East...PA/WV. It wasnt until conservation became a big thing did the deer population explode to what we see today. Hell, more deer are killed in Illinois with a car than the deer seasons.

I think about 25%-40% of the population will be gone after day 60. I think those of "nut jobs" will be fine to some extent, but those of you with out the proper protection are going to be easy pickenings and human nature in this country leads me to believe that if you are hunting on my land, you just may die on my land.

I will mark your grave, but you will burried underneath said grave, because you will have had to come a long way for me to extinguish you

Originally posted by Sparky63
Just because people hunt it doesn't mean that they are skilled enough to kill. Growing up,I spent a lot of time in the woods without killing anything. I didn't kill my first deer until I was 14.

There is so much deer where we live, I know multiple people who killed deers with their vehicles while driving at very moderate speeds. It also hit one this past spring at 25 mph, the poor thing dashed out on the roadway from behind a tree. A person with ANY firearm won't have a problem getting protein. With bows, well that does require a lot of skill.

S&F for another good thread...

I have reserved my thoughts to myself waiting to see how others would respond... and now it's time...

People who live in rural parts are already doing some of their own food production... that's why we live in the country... to have our own gardens raise chickens goats etc... if we were faced with a full meltdown of civilization we country folks are already halfway to full sustainability... where as city dwellers... not so much...

there have been a great many studies done on pry animals over the years... one that just came out states that in the first few days after hunting season opens those animals become scarce and very wary.... they quickly withdraw from open meadows game trails and road sides.... the more pressure hunters put on them the more the retreat into the really rugged backcountry.... That is something I have personally witnessed with my own eyes where hunters from a nearby big city descend in mass...

those are facts a skilled and successful hunter knows without needing to be told... but a city kid who's every meal comes out of the Microwave wouldn't.... A hunter knows how to lead a running or flying animal that guy who only shoots at paper targets doesnt...

just like fishing... just cause to throw a lure in the water doesn't mean you'll come away with a fish... you have to know where to find them... under the docks at a confluence hovering in pools looks for food to wash down to them from upstream....

My point is there are thousands of little things we hunters and fishermen do, without thinking about them... why... because that's where we were taught.. and if it worked for dad and grandpa it sure as hell works for us too...

Now Imagine a person, hungry, yet he's never done any outdoors stuff... Well maybe the computer game deer hunter... throw him in the woods with one of those so called black rifles and see what gets???? just like any tool.... what good is it if you don't know how to use it???

No sir... I think maybe 1 in ten people your likely to meet is an avid hunter... those other 9 do not have the skills to fend for themselves in the backcountry... or sure they may make a lot of noise shooting at everything that moves and a lot of things that don't... but once they die off or simply move on... those deer squirrel and rabbits will be right back doing what they always did... Laughing at want-a-bes... But a good hunter knows to wait... they know when it's time to go afield and when it's best to just stay home... their pry will still be there... long after the city folk have moved on...

Edit to add:

even in good times, with technology, hunting takes a tremendous amount of effort:

not true for all us... every morning my granddaughter and I sit and watch whitetails graze in our meadow... she likes to throw food out the kitchen window to a pair of young raccoons who know a sucker when they see one... there must be a dozen rabbits out by the pond... Little Sarah has named everyone of them... for me and where I am... it's not much effort... but I had better not let my four year old find out or there will be hell to pay... yeah even little girls got that whole wrath of god thing going when it comes to her "Pets"

Good thread! Not that many people will resort to hunting. The population is concentrated in urban areas where there is virtually no game to be had and people, for the most part, don'teven own firearms. Many are "against" them. In a SHTF scenario these folks are not suddenly going to march into the country and start shooting animals. I would venture to say that the suburbs are in the same situation, albeit with more game available, especially small animals.

The rural areas are likely to have more experienced hunters who not only know how to shoot, but how to butcher the kill. They also own the firearms and have sufficient ammunition, particularly the survivalist types. The most common combination would be a Ruger 10-22 after small game, not a 30-06 going after bear. I suspect the rural areas would quickly develop an economy which included hunters being paid for their meat.

The chaos will be in the urban areas. We've already seen what will happen every time the power goes out and it becomes a "Night of the animals" when gangs begin to rob stores of everything they can lay their hands on.

If you are really worried about this kind of breakdown you ought to get to a rural environment where you can be as self-sufficient as possible. I don't think the urban areas have a chance. Of course, whereever you are the comet might strike there, so it's all a crap shoot.

reply to post by schuyler


Even in urban/suburban areas there is, if you look closely, game to be had. It's not going to feed a family of twelve at one shot, but it's there.

Squirrels. Pigeons. Dogs. Cats. ...and many another critter can all make it into the pots, if you're willing to put forth the effort. I've even the occasional whitetail trottin' down the main street of my hometown. Possums are all over the place. Now in the event of civil unrest, hunting in an urban setting might be a bit problematic, especially if you're noisey, but the critters are there, if you know where to look.

reply to post by buddhasystem


Where do you live? Sounds like I need to plan a hunting trip in your neck of the woods. The deer in Central Florida are numerous but small.

I think that with so much emphasis being placed on hunting and food gathering that an important part is being left out, mainly water. Most people can last 3 weeks-2 months without eating before they starve, but you'll be hard pressed to find anyone surviving a week without water. In a SHTF scenerio, running water through pipes would most likely not be available (assuming there is no electricity). My questions to experts (I'm a noob), how do you know what wells are good for use, and is it necessary to moved closer to a river, or lake?

reply to post by Chewingonmushrooms


the simple answer is you don't... and Giardia is quite common in the states...

on the up side... is every home with a hot water heater is storing up to 150 gallons of fresh drinking water... power or not... the real trick is getting it out because just opening the valve at the bottom isn't going to do it... you'll need to cut the water feed maybe even blow into the tank... have something ready to collect it though... so lets do the math... how many homes are in your neighbourhood with hot water heaters ????

reply to post by Chewingonmushrooms


You don't. Ever. Trust water in a survival situation. Ever.

If you aren't sure of the water, boil it, or disinfect it. Common household bleach will do the job. I can't remember just off hand the proper ratio of bleach to water.

But boiling it is the safest bet.

reply to post by seagull


Sure, but the problem in an urban area is the game to people ratio. You may be able to shoot a few rabbits, but of you've got a million hungry people around you there will be some, ah, competition for the spoils.