Ever gone and lived off the land with only what you can carry?

R

Ruger

Moderator
I was curious, anyone ever done this, gun, matches, canteen, compass, and a knife. I did when I was about 20, decided it would be a fun project to try. I went to a large ranch I used to hunt on, and stayed out 5days. Shot young hogs for food, rabbits, and even tried a snake. It was alot of fun, but did get a little lonely. I cheated a little in that I drank from a windmill, and slept in a deerstand. I carried the above mentioned plus, a .270, .357 pistol, and .22 pistol. Try it sometime, gives you a little practice in case you ever have to do it.



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Live Free or Die Trying,

Steve Moody


Just once wouldn't it be nice to hear a politician say,"I don't believe this way, but the people do."
 
Steve, I took a 5 day wilderness survival course one time. We had no guns, but I did take along 3 yards of 6lb test and a #6 hook, which came in handy. I caught lots of small (around a pound or less) fish in a stream, cooked 'em up over a fire started with flashlight batteries. Slept under a piece of plastic, learned how to use same plastic to purify water, etc, etc.
Learned a lot, gained self confidence more than anything! ;)

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Happiness is a tight group!
 
Yeah...SERE school, no firearms. Had to trap small game, fish or pull stuff out of the ground to eat. Water was not a problem.
Lasted 5 days, then transitioned into land nav course/capture/POW camp for 24 hours of fun.

Mike
 
Longest time three weeks. SAK clothes on my back, canteen, garbage bag. Smoky Mountains in Oct. Beautiful! To old and too slow to enjoy that primitive now.

Cheers,

ts

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Ditto. Two weeks out in the boonies of Arkansas. Great weight loss program.
Last time was one week with an old friend.

On the way back to Texas, did the dumb thing, and stopped at the first Wendy's we saw. Partner and I loaded up with double cheese burger & etc, made it about 1 mile down the road.
We both did the "colon blow concerto" for about 20 minutes. Now he's an assistant DA in Brownsville. (Sorry Ray) Go figure......
 
I grew up in the sierra's. Used to spend a lot of time out by myself. Can't remember the longest time out, but must have been more than a couple of weeks. I used to take some food, but that was usually gone in short order.

Now my little brother took off when he was 12 for the mountain top. Wanted to be a trapper for the rest of his life. He took off between christmas and new years. After two weeks the search and rescue gave up on him. Towards the end of April a plane was flying over and noticed some smoke comming out of the snow. Reported it and search and rescue went out there. Sure enough, they found him frying up a muskrat he had traped. Had built himself a nice ice cave at about the 7,000 foot level. By the time they found him he had the whole inside lined with beaver and muskrat pelts.

Yep you guessed it. He had to repeat a grade in school, besides getting his hide tanned. Also, my parents took away his hunting license for a year. That bout killed him.



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Richard

The debate is not about guns,
but rather who has the ultimate power to rule,
the People or Government.
RKBA!
 
In the boy scouts this ritual was called the order of the arrow...

and as a former boyscout BE PREPARED.

Going into the woods with a "live off the land mentality" is an exercise in stupidity given your odds against mother nature on a given day, much less a week.

How many time have you heard of hikers getting lost in a snowsorm on a "day hike" or dying of exposure due to inexperience and bravado.

Could I do it? Sure (becasue I've trained in CONTROLLED Conditions). Should anybody run off into the woods with a flannel shirt and a rifle to "live off the land"? Well lets hope he's paid up his 25¢ search and rescue fee for the year. And that his will is in order.

Packing for an unexpected night in the woods is one thing but intentionally enetering the woods unprepared is just asking yourself for trouble.

(sorry to sound so harsh but I've had to go look for a few unprepared hikers before)

Dr.Rob
 
Dr. Rob,

If you have the items I mentioned plus a way to purify water, plus a general understanding of how to suruvive, like Richards brother, how is that unprepared? Must we take a tent, dry food, 20 gallons of water and a whole mess of other things, like pots and pans. I won't knock a way to signal someone if something should happen, but how are we any different from the men who did much the same as a course of life 300yrs ago, with exception that we aren't as tough.





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Live Free or Die Trying,

Steve Moody


Just once wouldn't it be nice to hear a politician say,"I don't believe this way, but the people do."
 
Ruger..let me re-state my position. Yeah I've been there done that. Perhaps I should not have posted on this thread.. but every few months here in colorado we have yet ANOTHER one of those cases of someone who really doesn't know what they are doing trying this stunt.. intentionally of not.

Case in point...

1.Last weekend (sept 18th) 4 hikers on Mount Evans get caught in a Snowstorm. All are unprepared have no compass, flashlights, foul weather gear etc. Some are wearing shorts.One manages to call 911 from a cell phone to get help. He is directed down the mountain in a white out by a game warden blowing a car horn. Two spend a miserable freezing night in the woods while the CAP looks for them. They are foiund frostbitten and delirious in the morning.

2. Previous Saturday. A hunter from Luisiana gets caught in a freezing rainstorm at 10 thosand feet during bow season. He dies a lonely death in the cold sopping wet a MILE from his truck. The CAP and the national Gaurd scour the woods for 3 days running all game from the area with ATV's horses and helicopters.

My point was... know what the hell you are doing before you get the jones to "live off the land like daniel boone". Ignorance of conditions and a lack of preparation caused both instances.

I had a buddy suggest such a "forage" backpacking trip once.. "lets take 22's and fishing line and go. No i said, lets PACK like we normally do and take our 22's with us. WHY? he said I wanna live off the land and kill what i find etc., we don't need to take food." Well... I'll let some OTHER soccer team eat his remains when they go hungry.. ;) in the meantime check out the "Gear for Deer Hunting thread"
http://www.thefiringline.com/NonCGI/Forum5/HTML/000097.html

There are some good suggestions for survival gear and foods.

Stay safe and be prepared,

Dr.Rob
 
Hey, Dr.Rob

I was OA too! Made Brotherhood my second year and served as Chapter Chief one year. I got tapped out at Camp Karankawa in South Texas, in the summer, led blindfolded through the snake laden, mosquito infested wilderness for my night alone under the stars when I was a tender 14 years...but that's another story.

After all these gleaming success stories this is a bit embarrassing but what the heck...

A friend of mine, his Dad, my Dad and I decided we were going to "rough it" on a deer hunt when I was 18. We lived in North Alabama at that time and we were going to pack in on horseback along Cotaco Creek, waaaay back, and take nothing but water, coffee, powdered milk, bacon, eggs, flour, grease, iron skillet and, being the "he-men" we all were, we would just kill us some meat!

We hit the trail a little after daylight and kept a sharp eye for squirrels and such on the way in. We ate bacon and eggs for lunch. We went a bit further and found a likely spot and set up camp, hunted about the last 2 hours of daylight. We ate bacon and eggs for supper. Up before daylight next morning for the last of the bacon and eggs. Hunted all day and didn't see anything. Suppertime, after no lunch, and we realize we can't even make biscuits or pancakes with the flour and milk 'cause we ate all the dang eggs.

Up the next morning, hunted half a day, met at camp around noon, shot at a duck swimming down the river (it was a diver and probably best we couldn't hit it), drank the milk and went back hunting. That evening we drank the last of the coffee but we still had grease and water! Next morning we realized you can't do much with grease and water, hunted half a day, came to camp about noon, looked at the horses...nah, we couldn't (but we started to realize why the mountain men always had a pack mule!), really started to get irritated at the two blue jays that had been yelling at us for two days...wait a minute - two shots, two blue jays, cleaned 'em, rolled 'em in flour, fried 'em in grease and ATE 'EM!

Packed our stuff and headed home!

Mikey
 
Dr. Rob,

I can agree with you on your points, but let it be known this Texas fella wouldn't try it in your neck of the woods, spent a week there near the Rawah lakes with a friend of my Uncles, we took a 5 lbs of hamburger, some soup Ramen Noodle and decided to eat what we could catch the rest of the trip. I was so sick of trout by day four, I rocked some critter I think was a groundhog, and ate that just to see what it was like, went back to trout that evening, MMM MMM good. I've since tried grasshoppers, fresh not cooked, snake, racoon(greasy), numerous birds, prickly pear, and probably a few others I wish not to remember, cooked stuff over wood and dried manure, I like wood better.lol

I'm glad you posted, brought up a good point.




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Live Free or Die Trying,

Steve Moody


Just once wouldn't it be nice to hear a politician say,"I don't believe this way, but the people do."
 
Been messing around in the mountains doing search and rescue for years. Summer time is no big deal but winter survival schools are a must do for outdoorsmen.

A friend and myself managed to ride our snowmobiles into the coulee from hell a few years back. Got both of them stuck in the creek miles from the trail in waist deep fluff. We wrestled one out of the creek, then waited 2 days (-20 at night) for the snow to set up good enough for my partner to ride out for some help. Lived off of a Snicker bars, jerky, and Power bars.

Rescue party were all green and got stuck on the way out, so we (victims) ended up rescuing them. Man, what an ordeal...
 
Hank,

I don't even own a pack frame. When I did my deal in South Texas, I took exactly what I stated above. I carried the .357 in a shoulder holster, the .22 pistol in a sob, and the rifle via the sling. I carried matches and such in a fanny pack, with the canteen attached to that. I'm 5'10" and weigh about 220lbs.

When I went to the mountains I carried another guys pack and the other stuff came in via packs on horses. As a side note, I didn't care for the mountains much, a big guy like me likes lots of oxygen, at the time I was running about 3 miles per day but I still wasn't to keen on the thin air. The walk-in was a doozy, it took us 7hrs. Seven hours up the side of a mountain, Not for a TX flatlander.



------------------
Live Free or Die Trying,

Steve Moody


Just once wouldn't it be nice to hear a politician say,"I don't believe this way, but the people do."
 
Cool, I was just trying to figure out how that 20 gals of water etc. got there! Now I know! You are THE MAN!
Hank
 
Steve, Sorry. I did misread part of this.
I have lived on the banks of the Mississippi for more than two weeks showing up with no more than my normal pocket carry. Needs to be a climate time of year without the fire ants being to po'ed though! Hank
The only useful thing I had in my pockets was a knife!
 
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