Game population at risk when SHTF?

[Redcap]

Maple.Apple...Out here on the coast we use green vine maple,it's everywhere...

Alder, any fruit wood, oak, ash...


Pretty much anything that isn't an evergreen makes a good smoking wood...

 

[jimwsea]

How is the average person going to store this meat once they have it? I'm willing to bet less than 30% of the city population knows how to store meat without a freezer.

Shoot first, ask questions later.

 

[MA Duce]

Did nobody else get this?! Hilarious! You sir, have won for funniest post on this thread!

I was trying to take the high road......while laughing like ****!!!!

 

[MA Duce]

Alder, any fruit wood, oak, ash...


Pretty much anything that isn't an evergreen makes a good smoking wood...

Yeah..if you've never had alder smoked salmon you have not lived.

 

[mjbskwim]

Some rednecks will kill and freeze game,most people who want to acquire illegal meats will do drive bys at farms and ranch's
Those will be the cars you see on the sides of the roads by the farms and ranch's. With no drivers

 

[kickstart my heart]

Hunting activity will go way up, but I think the majority of people living in the city, lack the basic knowledge and resources to hunt/fish to survive. I live in an apartment complex, and I bet of all the people living here, maybe 10 of us own firearms (out of several hundred), and out of us 10, I bet maybe 3 of us have actually hunted or fished with something other than a bobber and worm when we were kids. The other thing is, how many of people living in the city could figure out how the heck to get to "the woods" to survive/hunt, and when they get there, not die from exposure? We were having the "what if there's a big natural disaster" talk at work recently, and one of my less than bright coworkers told me "I'd walk North, or whatever direction it is, toward Mt. Rainier. Bet the hunting would be good there." Now we're in Renton, which means he won't be getting there if he thinks he needs to go North. Besides, how long would it take him to walk there even if he figured out a route? He'd be better off walking toward Issaquah and posting up in someone's back yard and waiting for a deer to go eat their flowers.

My guess is most people the first couple days would have to many hang ups, but eventually break down to looting (and the real smarties will be those people you see stealing electronics when there's no power to use them or house left to put them in), stealing from their friends/neighbors, and eventually trying to catch domestic animals like dogs and cats after a week of no normal food to be found.

 

[MA Duce]

Hunting activity will go way up, but I think the majority of people living in the city, lack the basic knowledge and resources to hunt/fish to survive. I live in an apartment complex, and I bet of all the people living here, maybe 10 of us own firearms (out of several hundred), and out of us 10, I bet maybe 3 of us have actually hunted or fished with something other than a bobber and worm when we were kids. The other thing is, how many of people living in the city could figure out how the heck to get to "the woods" to survive/hunt, and when they get there, not die from exposure? We were having the "what if there's a big natural disaster" talk at work recently, and one of my less than bright coworkers told me "I'd walk North, or whatever direction it is, toward Mt. Rainier. Bet the hunting would be good there." Now we're in Renton, which means he won't be getting there if he thinks he needs to go North. Besides, how long would it take him to walk there even if he figured out a route? He'd be better off walking toward Issaquah and posting up in someone's back yard and waiting for a deer to go eat their flowers.

My guess is most people the first couple days would have to many hang ups, but eventually break down to looting (and the real smarties will be those people you see stealing electronics when there's no power to use them or house left to put them in), stealing from their friends/neighbors, and eventually trying to catch domestic animals like dogs and cats after a week of no normal food to be found.

I think that is a very realistic assessment...sadly.

 

[KalamaMark]

Yes.

 

[Woodswalker]

My guess is most people the first couple days would have to many hang ups, but eventually break down to looting (and the real smarties will be those people you see stealing electronics when there's no power to use them or house left to put them in), stealing from their friends/neighbors, and eventually trying to catch domestic animals like dogs and cats after a week of no normal food to be found.

Probably too true...although around where I live, we would let those folks self-select themselves for bait/feed/fertilizer. Hogs and possum have to eat too you know....and the crabs LIKE nice rancid stuff.

I'm sure that the game population would take a BEATING for the first few months...especially if things went down in the winter/early spring. though as mentioned in other threads..there is PLENTY to eat if you know what you are looking at.

My kids look at me funny when i go out to the side yard and bring back a colander of salad greens. I use NO chemicals on the yard or trees.....still wash/rinse things WELL though...dont know what the critters might have done on the greens. A good swamp can provide well for a while if there are cat-tails...roots, stalks and heads all are fine eats...and other wet-ground plants that you may not immediately think of for food are pretty tasty.

Crawdads are both tasty and high-calorie as well. Within a mile radius of my place I could continue to feed my family of 4 very well until the spring crops started in...and so on. I do also mantain a winter garden with broccoli, cabbages (including Kale), turnips, beets, carrots and several onion types.

 

[mjbskwim]

Heck you can survive completely on Dandelions if you read some articles.
Plenty of foods around if you know what to look for.

I'm going to the book store now!

 

[Decker]

I do also maintain a winter garden with broccoli, cabbages (including Kale), turnips, beets, carrots and several onion types.

Wait a moment... so I know there's a lot I don't know and this is yet again more to add to my list.

How are you gardening with all the freezing weather and rain? I pulled my carrots and onions up, could I have planted a late batch?



-d

 

[torpedoman]

Meat is meat...

I think we covered the answer to this in the infamous Cannibalism thread. A nice tender, organic fed, office kept human... hmm

Ah yes there is this cute little gal down at the bank that I've always wanted a piece of. The difference between a worm and steak is the worm is higher in protein and lower in cholesterol

 

[Woodswalker]

Wait a moment... so I know there's a lot I don't know and this is yet again more to add to my list.

How are you gardening with all the freezing weather and rain? I pulled my carrots and onions up, could I have planted a late batch?



-d

Well, I plant more or less continuously through the growing season...see successive planting ...put the last carrots down just weeks before it got really chilly...the WET weather this "summer" really didn't help. I have my stuff in a cold frame now, made from double layers of clear visquine (sp) which will USUALLY keep the frost out. Kale however will SWEETEN with a frost...so its outside. Keeps it from getting bitter as it gets older. You will lose some to the cold. For cool climes...my tomatoes are in old tires....Oh and i forgot...there is a batch of parsnips outside the frame...a good frost tends to sweeten them up, the starch in the parsnip root changes into sugar, adding a lot of flavor.

See an excellent article to start with here... Fall and Winter Vegetable Planting Guide
and here: <broken link removed>
and one with lots of links. What to grow in a winter garden? - The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

And Torpedoman....

Ah yes there is this cute little gal down at the bank that I've always wanted a piece of

Think maybe you were considering a different "piece"?

 

[Decker]

Awesome links, WW. Thank you.

-d

 

[pdxjohann]

Jesus will beam me up

 

[Swedish K]

My guess is most people the first couple days would have to many hang ups, but eventually break down to looting (and the real smarties will be those people you see stealing electronics when there's no power to use them or house left to put them in), stealing from their friends/neighbors, and eventually trying to catch domestic animals like dogs and cats after a week of no normal food to be found.

True enough - I wonder how many of those that actually catch the random cat or dog end up dead because they have no idea how to clean said animal and get food poisoning, etc.

Just a thought but in this scenario wouldn't any anti gun bumper stickers / signs be kinda like the old K-mart Blue Light Special asking for those that they despise to come shopping? Of course the opposite may be true as well - post those "gun control is hitting what you aim at" stickers so the invading army / new world order / un / govt. know where to look. If you are going to go paranoid you might as well go all the way. (one of the reasons I never drove my ex gf's car - god forbid you get in front of an anti gun or left leaning cop.

 

[slingshot1943]

I'm letting the kids keep a horse out here. Could be a multipurpose animal. Got rid of the cows, I don't want to butcher and preserve a cow. I'm getting some chickens. not my favorite meat but the package is the right size.

 

[mjbskwim]

Chicken is healthier than horse or beef.And easier to feed.Always plenty of bugs.

 

[DunRanull]

Realistically game and fish population will plummet to an all time low. There are to many people looking for food they wil eat anything they can find. Your pets deer fish and I am sure even trash fish and predators. My grandpa fed his family thru the depression on skunks.

I bet that your Gramps had several "pews" to himself at church, huh?

 

[HB of CJ]

SHTF Remaining Game In Woods ... Anecdotal ... Family Experiences ...

My Dad was a 10 year old young man in about the year 1934. Southwest Virginia around Roanoke and Lynchburg. Times were very tough. During summer he would take a single shot .22rf rifle and about 6 .22 shells and go out into the woods to hunt for the pot.

At this time my family still lived in a small frame house in Roanoke. About 12 people in a small 1000 square foot 3 bedroom home. The toilet was still in the out house in the back yard. Yep. My granddad had the only paying job. Stoker on a road locomotive.

Dad got caught by the local game warden. Seems lots of game wardens and revenuers were out in the woods looking for poachers and still operators. The warden told my Dad to go home and never go back into the woods looking for whatever to shoot and eat.

Seems the woods were full of very desperate criminal folks. Very bad people. They would have knocked my young Dad on the head in a second just to steal his cheap single shot .22rf rifle and whatever else he had. There was nothing left in the woods to shoot.

The Blue Ridge mountains in SW Virginia got cleaned out of ALL animals in just a couple of years. Nothing was left. All shot out for the pot. Consider the population density THEN compared with all the people TODAY. SW Oregon would be cleaned out in no time.

We have a light load population total in and around the Illinois Valley SW OR. Our situation remains that there would be too many stupid and desperately motivated individuals and way too many rifles of all descriptions. The game would quickly disappear.

I for one can not think of a more non intelligent situation or undertaking that grabbing your handy assault rifle and head out into Bambie Land expecting to find and shoot something your could eat. Somebody will up and shoot YOU for whatever you have. Wow!

Respectfully.