Hunting Vs Trapping
The age old debate of hunting vs trapping to get food in the wild, there are of course pros and cons to both. They both require a certain set of skills and knowledge of animal behavior. But one requires more skill and time than the other.
The Truth About Hunting and Trapping
Popular Media like TV, Movies, the Internet, and even books have given most people the impression that hunting and trapping is easy. Walk out of camp with a weapon, and come back in a couple of hours with a wild boar or deer slung over your shoulders. Then comes the image of people sitting around the campfire grilling strips of meat dripping with fat.
What the media does not show is a hunter stalking his prey for hours on end or sitting in a hunters stand waiting for game. Then comes the kill, not all kill shots are clean and the animal needs to be put down as quickly and humanely as possible.
After which the animal needs to be field dressed, skinned, and the parts processed (a messy job). Meat in the wild does not come cleaned and neatly packaged.
The same applies to trapping, often the animal won’t be dead, it will have suffered in the trap, and you will need to kill it as soon as possible, do NOT leave traps armed without checking on them frequently.
Benefits of Hunting in a Survival Scenario
Often big game are easier to hunt than to trap (if you are an experienced hunter),
Small game like birds, squirrels, and rabbits, are an easy kill for a hunter with a sharp eye and good aim. Hunting an animal can provide food that makes the difference between eating or starving. A survivalist will put to use ALL parts of the animal, nothing should go to waste, primitive man did not waste any parts of the animal and as a survivalist, you should do the same. Waste not, want not.
The Cons of Hunting in a Survival Situation
Hunting an animal is not easy, they don’t line up and wait for you to take them down. The successful hunter needs to know how to read sign, track animals, how animals behave, how to look for game trails, and watering holes. A hunter needs to be patient and have good aim.
In other words, a hunter needs to have experience, skills, and a weapon. Also, know this, animals are dangerous, and an animal wounded but not killed in a hunt is a very dangerous animal indeed.
Basics Of Hunting
Knowledge of animal behavior is essential, observe wildlife in your spare time, learn to track them, identify their lairs, and patterns of movement (animal trails). Look for animal signs, scat (animal droppings), disturbed vegetation, and feeding signs.
When hunting, try to stay downwind of your prey. Keep your body weight on your rear foot and slowly place your weight on your front foot. Being very careful to create as little noise as possible. Be aware of anything that may create noise when stepped on, such as dead leaves, twigs, etc. Move slowly, stop often, listen for animal sounds, be aware of smells, and listen to your instincts. Often your subconscious realizes there is prey about before you do.
If you are unlucky your prey may spot you first, if it does. freeze. This might seem counterintuitive, but hunting an animal in its lair is often more difficult. Animals are often at their most alert around their lair.
The best hunting times are usually at first light, there are of course animals that are nocturnal, but unless you are very familiar with the area. stumbling around in the dark pretty much guarantees failure and the risk of getting lost.
Benefits of Trapping in Outdoor Survival
Unlike hunting, traps can be in 5 different places at the same time, thus increasing your chances of getting food for dinner by 5 fold. Once you have your trap set, you can do other things, such as improving your shelter, collecting water, or foraging. Trapping is efficient, and only requires a little bit of time to set up (if you know how).
Disadvantages of Trapping
You need to know where to set your traps. Just dropping a trap in random locations significantly lowers your chances of trapping anything. Trapping is illegal in many countries/states. Depending on the trap, they can be dangerous to humans, including yourself (always remember where you set your traps). Making a trap for large game requires a lot of time, energy and often requires more than one person to arm the trap safely.
Rules of Trapping
Check traps frequently.
Never leave a trap armed if you are moving on, disable the trap and if possible fully disassemble and remove all traces of the trap.
Once you see an animal in your trap, either kill it and eat it, or let it go. Never leave it in the trap (that is cruel).
Wild Game is Scarce
In a real survival situation, food is often low on the totem pole of priorities. Shelter, heat, and water often being right up there on the top. After the priority items have been dealt with and stomachs start growling, food becomes a concern. With no grocery store in sight.
You start to think of hunting or trapping. In the good old days, game was plentiful. But much of the game has been killed off or driven away. Cities, towns, villages, and farms have replaced a substantial part of wildlife’s natural habitat.
Basics Of Trapping
Snare wire traps are some of the easiest to set up, and they work well on small game. Snare traps or string traps are easy to set up. A snare wire or string, a knife, and some wood are all that is required. Larger traps such as deadfalls and spear traps work well on medium to large animals. Illustrating the many varieties of traps is beyond the scope of this article.
At the bottom of this linked article is a good FREE Illustrated public domain book on trapping.
Hunting Vs Trapping
In most survival situations, I would strongly recommend trapping versus hunting. Because it requires fewer skills, is less dangerous, and has a higher chance of success. 20 traps are much more likely to put food on your table than one person hunting.
As for setting up traps, with a little bit of practice, the average person can learn to setup up a simple trap in a few minutes. What is harder to learn is where to set up the traps. Some knowledge of animal behavior is going to be essential.
The Truth About Hunting And Trapping
The truth is, both hunting and trapping for food is not as easy as most people think. Every year people go out hunting for recreation. Many of them return empty-handed. Not a big deal if it is for recreation, but a catastrophe if your life depends on hunting for food. In general foraging and fishing are probably the two most efficient ways of filling your belly (environment permitting of course).
Keep in mind, only trap animals for food in a life or death situation.
