Trapping

You are all probably outstanding shots yet I’m discussing trapping, why?
It’s simple really. One person with a weapon could cover a wide area if they move round a lot. Even then you could spend all day wandering round and still end up with nothing. A day lost, energy consumed, no gain.

Shooting or fishing are time-consuming and tactically dangerous as you can’t concentrate on what you are doing and watch your back.

Trapping can be likened to a force multiplier.
One person can cover a large area setting traps covertly just before dusk and reaping the rewards at dawn.

Add a respectful attitude to PERSEC, and unless someone stumbles across one of your traps, you’ve got it made.
It leaves you all day to run the camp, work for gain, anything but waste time and energy.

Remember survival is all about gain over effort and traps are all gain for little effort.

I’ll follow this introduction with four articles on squirrel, rabbit, birds, and fish.
The articles won’t cover all the options of trapping, every region has its own little tricks, and I’d recommend researching the Internet for downloads.
I like Project Gutenberg. There are some good books available for free download. Old stuff, forgotten stuff.
In a survival situation you may need to forget high-tech and think stone age.
Not forgetting my other favorite, FM 21-76.

I’ll warn you now, if you don’t like trapping or killing things, feel free to skip the articles. I would just ask one thing. What you going to eat when there are no packaged meats available and no supermarkets?

Vegetarians, vegans or whatever you call yourself need not answer.
I’m pretty sure a dandelion salad will be more to their liking anyway.