How plentiful will small game be after TSHTF?

[OakRidgeStars]

I've been following an interesting discussion over at SB about hunting small game after TSHTF. How reasonable is it that small game could be decimated as more people are forced to hunt animals for survival?

Thread at SB: http://www.survivalistboards.com/showth ... p?t=384604

[MarcSpaz]

What I believe is there are so many people that think they can live off the land, but can't. Because there are so few people with the ability to truely live like a nomad, bringing or creating shelter, understanding how animals move or migrate, what plants are safe to eat, how to safely clean, prep and preserve meat, that it is almost impossible for small game to be hunted out of existence if society collapses.

What I think is possible is, a lot of people would die in a very short amount of time. Before that happens, small game might get hunted out in the areas around the burbs and close farm lands. However, true survivors will be able to make fire, shelter and weapons, and then track food over large distances.

I also think obesity in America will no longer be an issue. LoL.

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[Palladin]

There's a reason God made bunnies good at math.
They'll be boppin around like usual shortly after we wipe each other out.

[M1A4ME]

What I believe is there are so many people that think they can live off the land, but can't. Because there are so few people with the ability to truely live like a nomad, bringing or creating shelter, understanding how animals move or migrate, what plants are safe to eat, how to safely clean, prep and preserve meat, that it is almost impossible for small game to be hunted out of existence if society collapses.

What I think is possible is, a lot of people would die in a very short amount of time. Before that happens, small game might get hunted out in the areas around the burbs and close farm lands. However, true survivors will be able to make fire, shelter and weapons, and then track food over large distances.

I also think obesity in America will no longer be an issue. LoL.

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And there it is. When my dad was growing up in the mountains they hunted for food. If they needed it, they didn't let the hunting seasons stop them from getting a few squirrels or rabbits for supper. You've got to feed your family, no matter what the book at the state house "says".

Even then, there was small game to hunt/kill/eat. No deer. My dad grew up without ever seeing or hunting deer on the side of the mountains where they lived. It's only been since the late 90's that deer have grown their population enough to be seen (fairly often) on that side of the mountains.

Also, we think of small game as squirrels/rabbits. Dad said they ate raccoons, possums, and ground hogs, too. I asked about foxes and he said even their dogs refused to eat foxes (no idea why).

I think something a lot of folks over look is fish and other aquatic life. At home, the creeks are loaded with smaller fish and craw dads. It's tough to turn over a rock and not find one or more craw dads of various sizes. I'd be eating them.

[SHMIV]

I'm wondering how long it will take for folks to eat the pet cats, or the chihuahua.

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[skeeterss0]

I'm wondering how long it will take for folks to eat the pet cats, or the chihuahua.

I'm wondering how long it will take for folks to eat each other.

[Reverenddel]

The small game population will take a hit at first. Then the larger game. Then the population.

Because people don't know how to properly store game without cold... It'll be a spike in pathogens, and people dying.

Agreeing with Marc, "obesity" won't be an issue.

Keep in mind, people need to practice woodcraft if they expect to live after a disaster. When the disaster is happening is NOT the time to learn these things!

[kelu]

Keep in mind, people need to practice woodcraft if they expect to live after a disaster. When the disaster is happening is NOT the time to learn these things!

Why woodcraft? To make coffins?

[jdonovan]

comes down to resource management.

in the urban/suburban/near-rural the people/sq-mile outstrip the game animals/sq-mile. In the short term demand will out strip supply. Demand will collapse until supply can meet demand.

In the short term its going to look like a plague of cartoon locusts went across the land. Everything that was, or could be edible will have been eaten, or wasted.

[MarcSpaz]

I'm wondering how long it will take for folks to eat the pet cats, or the chihuahua.

I'm wondering how long it will take for folks to eat each other.

They are already eating each other. You don't have to wonder any longer.

[Reverenddel]

Kelu.

Woodcraft is the alternative name for "camping skills" Mainly because it's based in the woods.

Wilderness skills are something everyone should know. There are classes out there that aren't very expensive, but if you have property, or access to property, and the ability to read. You can practice things, and make life much better.

[kelu]

Oh, I learned something today, thanks.
I've been thru somewhat you call SHTF in this thread. Stores empty, you have money but nothing to buy with them. There is another name for SHTF; it's called communism. Just look at what happens now in Venezuela, if 25 years in the past looks like a too distant memory.
The key? almost everybody in the city had a small garden. And we were in a better position because almost everybody had relatives in the country, and those have been raised chickens, pork, rabbits, etc. It made the life almost manageable. But it wasn't easy.
In America, where only 5% of population raise some animals... it's going to be bad. And a garden is not growing overnight.

[jdonovan]

nor are the skills to tend it learned in a single season. It can be as simple as throw seeds on the ground, and wait... but it like most things works better if you know what you are doing, and have some knowledge.

[MarcSpaz]

Speaking of meal plans in a SHTF situation, I had a few friends stop by for dinner tonight.

[larkins]

I pretty much agree with MarcSpaz, at least in rural areas (like where I live, in Alleghany County over near the West Virginia line.) Very few folks have the skills to hunt small game, so the small game population will be reduced somewhat, but by no means eliminated. Now over in the heavily populated east, that's a different matter, since there isn't much game population to start with, and a LOT of hungry folks in a food crisis situation.

[Reverenddel]

"There is another name for SHTF; it's called communism."

Kelu CRACKS me up! HAHAH

Agreed! I read the articles on Argentina over the past few years, with everyone's take. The one thing I came away with is that you have to relearn social skills, and being able to share, and trade, and barter.

"I have a buncha dried fish, you have some tomatoes, wanna trade?"

[bali]

in the lower 48 states, game and fish will be GONE a month after the power goes out (and stays out) and the only reason that it will last a month is that the livestock will be slaughtered first, and the stored grain all eaten. cats and dogs will run down a lot of the game.

Plenty of people know about traps, snares, jacklighting, baiting, using silencers, trotlines, nets, etc.

google an atlas and look how much food the US imports, then how much your state imports. Once shtf, tons of food a few miles from you is likely to rot, cause you wont know that it's there.

there's over 100 million cats and dogs in the US, with very few in Alaska, so they will quickly kill off what game the hunters/trappers miss. Decimate means to kill 1 in 10 adult males. Did you know that?

cannibalism will be commonplace within 90 days of shtf, you can count on it, and if you are noticed, you'll probably be shot. So you need a sound suppressor on your gun, and subsonic ammo for it. You'll need concealable armor, luminous sights, and enough sense to not be out and about in daylight.

[bali]

the dog packs will run deer to the ground, the cats will kill all the small stuff, like rabbits. People have no clue how LITTLE food there is on small game. Only half of an animal's live weight is edible food, A squirrel weighs at most a lb. Lean meat is just 70 calories per oz, so a lb of it is just 1000 calories and an active man needs 3000 calories per day,(ie, 6 squirrels) EVERY day, or he'll be losing body weight. He'll need 2 more squirrels per day if it's cold. Nobody can provide that by hunting. You'll need traps, snares, bait, nets, trotlines, etc, to provide half that much and you'll then need plant foods to fill out the other half. you'll have to move quite a bit, too, cause such demands quickly "hunt out" several square miles of woods.

When the woods are full of well armed, desperate people, you dont want a single shot, a shotgun, a bolt action or anything noisy. you'll need night vision, luminous sights, a sound suppressor, subsonic ammo and a lot of ability and no small amount of luck.

Your BOL is not nearly as remote or un-known-about" as you fantasize it to be, guaranteed.

[MarcSpaz]

Bali, I have to seriously disagree. Let’s review reality real quick. There will likely never be an ELE in our life time, or in the next few generations, which is the only scenario that would lead to the probability of a situation where infrastructure in the US would completely collapse with no chance of recovery in a dozen life times. So, let’s take that off the table for a few minutes.

A real risk exists for a SHTF event where infrastructure could fail in a significant area for several months. Based on actual events that have occurred in the US, in that time, the expectation is looting will go wild within days. Most people in the cities will flee to areas of the country where life is Business as Usual. Probably a good amount of people in the burbs will do the same thing. That will leave about 4% to 5% of the population in the affected area that are not first responders, utility or military. As infrastructure gets repaired, homes and businesses are rebuilt, people will start to come back to the area.

If you are one of those ~5% that stick around, I'm 100% confident that you can take care of yourself or you would have left with everyone else. So, this is what we are really talking about. And there is a lot of hunting and fishing you can do until the grocery store opens in a few months.

Now, going back to your worst case... There are about 310 million people in the US. 100% of them live on 10% of the real estate. Of the people in the US, there is an estimate of only about 13 million people who know how to hunt, prep and preserve food without refrigeration.

Assuming there are zero casualties from whatever event you are thinking of (which is very unlikely in real-world) many of the people in the US would either starve, die of dehydration, illness or injury LONG before the fish, deer and pigs are hunted out of existence. Likely in anywhere from a couple days to a few months.

Urban Dogs and cats would become food for locals, but would eventually overrun cities and towns. Cats would likely be at the top of the food chain in abandoned cities because of their ability to climb, see in darkness, speed and stealth. Corn and other crops will continue to grow in absents of man. Wildlife will flourish as man dies off.

With almost 3.8 million square miles in the US and an expected ELE SHTF event leaving roughly 13 million people alive capable of taking care of themselves within a few months, there is a ton of space to spread out and there is so much wildlife that if you know what you are doing, you will never go hungry.


But, I'm just a keyboard warrior... what do I know.

[WRW]

Yeah, people would be booby-trapping "their" game plots like pot growers do.

And, rabbits may be right rapid at procreation, but without regulation there may not be enough breeders left to replenish the heard.

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