Survival Hunting

Survival hunting, like survival fishing, is not about the sport of hunting. The whole concept of hunting changes when it means whether you eat or not. Again, as with fishing, I am going to be talking about things that are now illegal. I will not even tell you which of these many methods of taking game for food I have personally tried. I will tell you that I know enough about all of them to tell you that they work. 

First, there is some argument about whether you should use a bow or a gun for most of your hunting. While the bow is silent, many times you need to follow a wounded deer for a mile or more after shooting it. This can cause you to be seen by other people. While the gun does give away your presence, if only shot once it is very difficult to tell exactly where the shot came from. If you are really good with a bow and limit your shots to a distance where you know you will get a good clean hit, a bow is an excellent choice. I use a crossbow, so I have a little advantage in that I have a scope sight on it and tend to be more accurate than I ever was with a compound. I still keep one of my old recurves as a back-up. The down side of a crossbow is that they are noisy and clumsy to carry in the woods. If you are able to sit in one spot they are excellent.  You can even try other methods of hunting. I have taken more than a few rabbits and squirrels with air guns. Air guns have come a long way since the days of my Red Ryder BB gun. Now I will not even look at a air rifle unless it is a single stroke cocking gun with at least 1,000 FPS. Another weapon I have used to kill squirrels with is a slingshot. I have worked with a boomerang and throwing sticks but have never hunted with them. In an emergency, a spear can be used to bring down game, especially small game.  While all of these options are there and should be considered, a firearm is still the best way to procure game for food.

Like I stated, this is not sport hunting. If you see a grouse or a pheasant sitting on the ground, that is the time to shoot it. While when sport hunting that is considered unsportsmanlike, in a survival situation it is considered smart. I would do as much hunting as possible with a .22 rimfire. They make the least noise and you can bring down most food type animals with a .22. Many people will tell you that the .22 is not powerful enough to kill a deer and I will tell them that they are just flat wrong. While you must be closer and be able to place your shot exactly, I know of many deer that were shot with .22s.  However, if you were to try to shoot a black bear or any North American animal larger than a deer, I would not trust the .22 to do the job. I presume that a perfectly placed shot from close range would bring the animals down, but I would not trust it except in dire emergencies. 

I believe that most survival writers lean toward hunting the big game animals too much. I would stay with the rabbit and squirrel sized animals and also the many birds that are large enough to be worth killing and cleaning. All of these can be hunted with the .22 or maybe a .410 shotgun. With the .410 you get a little more noise than the .22 but you get a chance at wing shots if you jump a grouse or pheasant. You can also get slugs for them and some of them will handle a .44 bullet when used as a single shot. With that, the only thing you do not get is a rifled barrel. If I had to pick one gun for all of my hunting I would pick a over and under with a .22 rifle on top and either a .410 or a twenty gauge underneath. With the twenty gauge, you get and excellent deer gun when used with slugs. You also get a gun that is a little better at hitting flying targets. However, that being said, I would still opt for the .410 due to the reduced noise factor. 

You can bait many animals to come to a certain spot on a regular basis. However you need to have what they like to eat for bait. While it is illegal now, I would not hesitate to do it in a survival situation. 

So there you have a few tips on survival hunting. I could write more and have written much more on the subject. However, I like to keep this blog fairly short. My next entry will have to do with the amount of ammo you need to gave on hand. Until then SURVIVE.

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