Living Off the Land? - NOT!

[CharlesHarris]

[Highlander]

To my way of thinking this is way over the top,.. 25 squirrels a day..... hell would you have time or energy to eat that many if you had them?

Vegetarians can also manage in the wild, and they would not be eating meat at all,.. or do we say that a vegetarian could never survive?.... people have survived for weeks on end on little more than energy/protine giving bugs,.. even if they have lost weight

I am sure that I could manage on a lot less than that,.. and have done so with no real lack of energy

[Timelord]

Large amounts of meat may not be able to be stored before the meat goes off. This means that a calorific value of the initial weight in meat may not equate to "x" number of days when you have had to throw half of the meat away or that you can not physically take it with you on the move. What is possible with a large amount is to gorge on it as animal do - to a point that is. 1) obviously you can only fit so much in your tum & 2) A lot of the nutrients and protein will not be taken in due to the excess amount. Nevertheless, it is a survival strategy and certainly helps to weigh against the leaner times.
In the leaner times, then the calorific value that is needed per day can be supplemented by the body breaking down part of its own structure to supply the nutrients. therefore it is not just a case of you need "x" amount of calories or it is not enough.. yes it might not be enough but the body can compensate for a time until the feast time returns. Also remember you can adjust the energy exertion being undertaken if possible to reduce the calorie burn. This all helps but eventually a balance, uneven though it may be over time, needs to be achieved. Hopefully time will give you that luxury. lol. TL.

[Steve]

Bugging out to live in the woods is absolutely the last resort, when it is utterly impossible to stay at home and you can't make it to an alternative address. You will probably die, your fire steel, bow and arrows and bushcraft knife will not save you.

[Sunna]

woods.....? what woods are these the uk has almost no woodland anymore ,and if theirs no power and everybobys cooking and boiling their drinking water what little we have will soon go up in smoke .

[bigpaul]

[Mortblanc]

I have to agree with most of the above.

Most of the information is not applicable for GB.

In fact, most if it is not applicable to the U.S. situation.

The caloric values are severely underestimated! Go to ay dieting site and check their calorie value on any meat, fish or poultry. They will give double or triple the food value the article specifies.

In fact, the weights of the game specified are way off the norm. A mature buck deer (stag) will dress out at over 100 pounds not 70, and the average mature black bear will dress out at nearly 200 pounds.

The article is fudging the numbers to prove what they want to prove.

[Highlander]

A mature buck deer (stag) will dress out at over 100 pounds not 70,

I agree, I feed my dogs on Red deer and I am only allowed the stags under 100lbs, the others go to dealers

[Rush2112]

the caloric value may not be there, but it does give your stomach something to work on, rather than itself. true, one cannot survive long term this way, but as a stop gap measure knowing a few wild edibles could prove invaluable. I'd rather have a couple hundred calories than zero.

[Mortblanc]

While I do not plan on "living off the land", foraging wild eatables is a part of my long term plan.

That plan being for me to stretch my food stocks for as long as possible by not being picky and adding the odd bit of greens from the hedgerow, and peeling the skin off trash birds taken with the pellet rifle rather than opening another can of Spam or veggies. It is the true definition of foraging and has been practice by small farmers and tenants for thousands of years, both legally and illegally.

The deer that cross my plot are reserve food supply as well as the fish in the nearby lake and the rabbits in the hedgerows. Smoking and drying the meat from surplus critters is knowledge I have gained and nothing will go to waste from spoilage as the article proposes.

While the article is emphasizing that "living off the land" as a total survival philosophy is a great cultural myth, which it is, the points they are using are flawed.

It seems that of late we are getting flooded with useless cut and paste articles written by people that do not know what they are talking about.