Check out this small passage from The New Yorker.
Twenty-one years ago this month, on September 6, 1992, the decomposed body of Christopher McCandless was discovered by moose hunters just outside the northern boundary of Denali National Park. He had died inside a rusting bus that served as a makeshift shelter for trappers, dog mushers, and other backcountry visitors. Taped to the door was a note scrawled on a page torn from a novel by Nikolai Gogol:Read the story here.
ATTENTION POSSIBLE VISITORS.
S.O.S.
I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE. I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE. IN THE NAME OF GOD, PLEASE REMAIN TO SAVE ME. I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY AND SHALL RETURN THIS EVENING. THANK YOU,
CHRIS McCANDLESS
AUGUST ?
From a cryptic diary found among his possessions, it appeared that McCandless had been dead for nineteen days. A driver’s license issued eight months before he perished indicated that he was twenty-four years old and weighed a hundred and forty pounds. After his body was flown out of the wilderness, an autopsy determined that it weighed sixty-seven pounds and lacked discernible subcutaneous fat. The probable cause of death, according to the coroner’s report, was starvation.
I post this simply as a cautionary tale to those that think they can head out into the woods and simply "live off the land".
At the time Wild Pigs weren't the issue that they are now. I wonder if they did roam the way they do now if Chris could have survived?
Yeah, I've been researching that too. People in the prepper community that are stupid will say that it's easy for them to live off the land like our ancestors. Our ancestors had a lot more game around when this side of the world was less tarnished by industrialization. They also did not have a million hunters that could get easy kills by getting high powered rifles with long range scopes on them and decrease the population of animals rapidly quick..
ReplyDeleteIn any true bug out scenario they also aren't taking into account the rapid increase of a number of inexperienced hunters that would be looking to survive and be scaring away all the game. The more experienced guys will probably find it difficult to hunt, but I imagine they'll get a few. Unfortunately, there's a good chance that those inexperienced hunters will still manage to have guns on them. After a while of failed hunting and desperation setting in, it's likely that they may just find it easier to kill the experienced hunters who have food already caught rather than gain experience killing the game.
To be honest, with my bug out gear I'm seriously considering taking my assault rifle (an AK-47) out of the equation and just sticking with my pistol. I would add a compound bow with a few arrows instead since they would be lighter weight, quieter, and easily reusable. I have some archery experience and I'm a pretty good shot. With the weight I've saved I'll add more emergency rations and food in my pack.
After some serious thought, I still think a bug out bag would be good for me since my plan involves stealing a plane along with my roommates taking ones as well. Once we reach the island we have picked out it's all a matter of setting up shop there, fishing, and killing birds. It won't be easy, but I think our chances of finding food are better there. I also have a really expensive water filter and some purification means in my bag to last me and them a good long while too.
Wouldn't a recurve bow be a better choice? A compound bow shots faster and it's easier to hit the target, but a recurve bow last longer (I guess)
DeleteSteal a plane and fly to the island.
DeleteSounds like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
After shooting up the school at Columbine they planned on stealing a plane and flying off to the island which existed only in their fantasy.
A compound bow is nice but why make it more complicated?
more things to go wrong.
Recurve will do.
Learn to use an Atlatl even better.
All you need then are warheads.
Perhaps a boomerang even.
Bows are easy, what's hard is an arrow.
DeleteYup, even a broadhead it's rather easy to make with a nail, but an arrow...
DeleteDidn't know that about Columbine.
DeleteI'm actually still split between deciding on a compound bow or a recurve bow. Compound bows have some better performance, but yeah the increased parts make it harder to maintain. I haven't made a solid decision on that yet.
I've thought about making arrows too just in case I lose one of my bolts, which is likely to happen, and I found some pretty good steel arrowheads for sale online and at a few sporting goods store:
http://www.amazon.com/Fixed-Broadheads-100-grain-Archery-Hunting/dp/B00M0DSHCS/ref=pd_sim_sbs_sg_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JMRAWB3W9HFDBVYMXGV
I was thinking of including those in my BOB. Now, I've never made an arrow from scratch, but I've heard that the hardest part to create is the arrowhead. Once that's made it's all downhill from there. I need to try it out myself sometime though.
By the way, I can't throw a boomerang worth shit. Well, I could learn with practice, but still, I'm only putting things in my BOB that I know how to use.
You should look for this type of broadhead
Deletehttp://www.3riversarchery.com/Broadheads.asp
And if you want to learn how to do one, just Google it and you will find it
"I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY"
ReplyDeleteIts important to note the futility of this too.
100g of blueberries contain 57cal
An adult in shelter and doing a limited amount of physical activity might get by on 1500cals, say 3kg of blueberries.
An adult in the cold doing physical work might need 3 or 4 thousand calories, or more.
8kg of berries.
A nice snack if you are passing, but foraging it wont keep you alive.
He'd been better off eating bugs...
DeleteDon't get me started on the snail content of blueberries!
DeleteBastards lay eggs in a little bit at the top, mine had a near 100% visibility rate after a day in the fridge.
I wrote a longer post that got lost somehow and I am not going to redo. This chap says a lot of interesting things about survival or should that be living off the land which I think aren't quite the same thing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfa-XVztQrDlf-2v1UUdkwg
This guy starved to death because he could not cross a river.
ReplyDeleteThe nearest town was only twenty miles away.
The nearest way to cross the river was a ferry one mile up stream.
He had a map and a compass but there is no evidence he ever opened the map or used the compass.
he ate plants that most of the year are safe to eat and quite numerous, while he was there the plants exude a poisonous substance.
He killed a Moose or an elk yet he did not take any way to preserve the meat and it spoiled faster than he could eat it.
He basically killed small animals that did not have a high fat content and did not make up what he was losing. (Yes, you can starve to death eating rabbits and squirrels) He was beside a river which has numerous fish and he took fishing gear. But as with the map and compass there is no evidence he ever even took the gear out much less used it.
Chris died in Alaska, during the summer with a rifle and survival gear and surrounded by game, yet starved to death.
My take on this Chris McCandles is, he either committed slow suicide or was dumber than a 28 oz framing hammer.
This clown was and is not your average or common hunter much less out doors expert definitely not a survivalist.
I think the thing that sprang out most was not taking some way to preserve a large animal which he killed and being one mile from a ferry crossing even though unmanned and for the love of all that is Holly he was only twenty miles from civilization.
This man was a fool.
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SHTF The one common meat animal that will be around and relatively easy to kill will be human.
I understand experts say your inner cities will be eating long pig three weeks after any collapse stops the food supply.
"Good Eating!"
>Joe/Jim Orphans of the Sky Robert A. Heinlein<
Yeah, his diet was marginal. Then he ate some potato seeds (contain a poisonous amino acid), and had zero reserves left to recover with after he realized his mistake.
DeleteSteve: Ya gotta sign in, then type a post, then copy the post, publish the post (and see your hard spent time vanish) then paste the post.
ReplyDeleteYep. I think I may have pressed "sign out" instead of "publish" as the former is more easily reached. I don't think the internet will suffer from my post going missing.
Delete