Survivor's Toolbox: Hunting & Fishing

Most of us get our food from stores. If we want a nice cut of meat or a filet of fish we go to the butcher or the fish market. But when mutant guinea pigs take over the planet with their cute wiggly noses of doom and the butchers and fish mongers are no more, where will you get your tasty vittles?

I don't know about you, but I plan to hunt and fish for my dinners. I have no desire to kill, gut, and fillet anything. Frankly, scaling and gutting fish has always totally grossed me out. For that matter, I don't particularly care to handle it when it's store bought and all I have to do is prepare dinner.

From Super Punch

However, I know how to fish. I know how to find fresh bait. I know how to bait the line. I know how to cast the line. I know how to wait. I have trouble with the waiting, but I know that if I go at dawn or dusk the fish bite more. I know how to scale a fish. I know how to gut it.

When those cute wiggly nosed overlords have decreed that all sentient animals must eat vegetables - preferably lettuce and carrots - having a lovely (yet secretive) fish dinner will be worth the time, trouble, and mess. (Tip: scale a fish like you would sand a plank of wood: go with the grain.)

Fish and veggie dinners will be good for you, but they'll get old fast.

When fishing, you pretty much need some bait, a hook and line (and a rod and reel if you want to be fancy about it), and a way to store fish until you are ready to prepare them.

Hunting is another animal all together. It requires a bit more preparation and practice. For example, to successfully track and kill prey, you must know how to track and kill prey.

Take the opportunity now, before wiggly nosed despots lock you in a cage with sawdust on the floor, to learn how to hunt properly.

• Choose your weapon (Sam, pictured right, took down her deer with a shotgun).
• Learn how to use your weapon.
• If you don't have someone who can teach you how to hunt, take a hunting course.



Sammy D. - Survivor Extraordinaire -
and her first six point buck

• Make sure you have the appropriate gear (weapon, ammo, climate appropriate clothing, shoes or boots, orange clothing, survival kit, snack, and water).

Once the Guinea Pigs of  Soul Crushing Cuteness have destroyed man's society, ditch the orange vest and hat. They aren't cute and they are meant to make you stand out. Until hiding from the Guineas is necessary, always wear your vest: it will help protect you from an accidental shooting.

Before anyone asks, Sam and her family don't kill for sport: they eat what they kill. Sammy's buck helped to feed her, her sister, and her parents. Also note that when she hunted and bagged her buck, she was 11. With the proper training and practice, anyone of any age can feed her family.

I understand if you don't want to practice hunting before it's actually necessary. However, you should go with a hunting party to observe. You will have to stay quiet and take appropriate precautions (e.g. -  using scent to camouflage yourself from prey and wearing your orange vest hat combo). Practicing with your weapon at a firing range will develop the skill to use it, but firing on inanimate objects is very different than tracking and shooting a live, running animal.

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