My Five Reasons Why Hunting is an Important Survival Skill

I saw this article and have to agree that learning how to hunt is extremely important. The way the author laid out his reasoning and how he connected it to not just hunting but also survival in general. I think it is a worthwhile read.

My Five Reasons Why Hunting is an Important Survival Skill

By
Wild Bill
-
February 5, 2019

Hunting has a large part to play in American culture and history. It was mainly done as a means to provide the family with food, clothing and shelter. Today, hunting is known as a classic American sport.

However, there are some time-tested hunting tips you should keep in mind. You can read this hunting guide to understand how hunting should be done, and you can get some golden old-school hunting tips too.


Though times have changed, there are good reasons why hunting is still an important skill to take up. Here are my 5 reasons why:

Hunting Helps You to Better Protect Yourself and Your Family

Learning how to handle your weapons is a necessity if you want to master the skill of hunting. Without knowing your weapon well, you will not be able to take a good shot at your hunt. You may end up simply injuring the game or worse still, injuring a person nearby through misfiring.

To build the hunting skill, much time must be put into practice so that you know how to control your weapon. Over time, you will find yourself get better at handling your weapons. Your precision and accuracy of shooting will increase. Same goes to your level of focus and concentration. These are all essential skills for self-defense.

Please follow the link for the rest of the article: My Five Reasons Why Hunting is an Important Survival Skill - The Prepper Journal

 

I would add that hunting teaches a family to eat unfamiliar things.

If a hunter goes out for a pig, pork is pretty familiar to most households. If pig pickings are poor though, a hunter may come home with a deer, moose, raccoon, or gallons of crawfish and bullfrogs.

Hunting families roll with the punches and learn to eat what tastes good. (They also learn to cook what they have so it tastes good)

 

When squirrel hunting decades ago with Dad (who grew up in a poor family during the Great Depression), he would always bring back some "skunk cabbage", as he called it. Early on I would sometimes bring home a big King Woodpecker or a couple fat Robins. Good eating! Protected now though. We once brought back a big Gopher Tortoise too, before they were protected. Excellent when batter fried.
Squirrel, rabbit, raccoon - all good meal items.
People don't don't realise what good foods they are missing by not hunting.

 

Hunting has several safety aspects too.
Keeps you out of populated areas.
Provides natural foods of known quality, not so much in the cities and towns.
Allowes you to cultivate sustainable herds which provides more food longer term.
Allowes you to eat when others starve due to lack of skill, equipement, and time!

 

Hunting is very important, but so is fishing. They go together if you have access to water. My preference in wild game is Elk number 1 then moose. then everything else. Salmon is well up there too. Fresh salmon ranks with elk, moose too.

 

I hunt crows and coyotes. They will teach you perseverance, deviousness and humility.

 

Crows never come to the same ruse twice. They teach each other.

During the Spanish influenza pandemic, folks around here ate crow soup to fight/avoid the sickness. It's said you couldn't find a crow around here for 20 years afterwards.

 

Louisiana has a town named after the crows.
There are so many in the area when the French first settled they named the place after Birds of Carrion
What is know now-days as Carencro

 

Never hunted crows but coyotes were my enemy because they would attack my cows and calves. Have had coyotes eat a calf as it was still being born and the cow was defenseless.

 

One night, as my then very young son was eating yet another serving of moose, looked at me with sorrowful eyes and asked - "Dad, can we have hamburger one night like regular people?"

The freezer was so full of salmon, trout, moose and bear bits, it took most of the winter before we had room for 'hamburger'....

 

I try to hunt on their morning flight path. Open up on them as they pass, and then call them back with a wounded crow call. The trouble with that call is that I also attract every hawk, coyote, bear and crazy-lady-trying-to-rescue-the-crying-baby within earshot.

I dropped a scouting crow in the water and had a whole flock on top of me even when I was in the open trying to fish him out.

I swear they can spot the golden arches on McDonald's bags and french fry pouches. I always include some among my decoy spread. I ask the nice ladies at McDonald's for some brand new bags and fry pouches so the game warden can't claim I'm baiting.

 

Hunting provides an excuse for yet one more rifle or at a minimum a scope upgrade. It teaches confrontation and negotiation skills with your significant other. If not that it teaches subterfuge and fast thinking skills should you get caught, e.g. "Honey I've had this rifle for years, even before we started dating. I just thought it was time to take it out of the safe to give it a good cleaning and check for rust. Still looks, pretty, good, too, damn near new if you ask me (heh, heh)." or even better "Well, Honey, I was moving a pile of your purses and shoes out of the way and found my old Tikka! I've been looking for this guy for years!".

Trust me, successfully sneaking a new gun past the wife IS a survival skill....

 

In the words of Metallica :
I hunt , therefore I am ...
Harvest the land...
Taking the fallen lamb...

I hunt , I respect the land and the life of the animals in it.
Hunting teaches one many lessons , if one takes the time to listen.
Andy

 

Well said Andy, and you bring another set of reasons to the table!
Hunting will show you changes in your area, things most would never see. It shows you subtleties in the animals and the greenery that can affect you personally! Things such and depredations, lack of food or water, changes in the weather amd even alert you to possable dangers! Hunting can also show you many good things, especially if you have bears, big healthy bears are a sign of abundant food, food you can take advantage of! Scraggly bears can tell you there are problems, problems that if you can identify the cause, both can benifit from! I like to see predators, they show me things i might not see on my own! I like to see wolves, they show me there is good meat in the area. Fox, Cougar, and even Coyoties all know how to find food wjen the pickins are thin, watching all the predators is a super smart thing to do!
Eagles are another predator to watch for, a nested pair show that there is good water close, water with abundent fish or small vermin, many are good eatin, as well as providing valuable pelts for the harsh winter's to come! Hunting is a part of mans D.N.A, and is as much ingrained in us as it is the animals we exist along side, to deny those primal needs is to deny us of what makes us.................predators!
Finally, if we watch and learn from the wild things, we become more and more like them, and our chances of survival go up considerably!

 

Tell us the benefits of crow soup. How can it prevent the flu. Never heard that before.

 

Hunting is one of the great American sports. Along with those reasons listed you can add the teaches of cover and concealment , patience , and respect for the animals we hunt . Also knowing how the animals live and survive , can help you see any changes in their environment that could endanger their survival and thin their existence.

 

When I do go hunting I always like to make note of wild plants that are either edible or can be used for medicine as well. Even when I do not get something I always find game trails, find signs of other animals in area including humans. And the day is never a loss because you get to relax and enjoy nature, good for your health by itself. I don't hunt like many do now, from a quad or vehicle. I walk for miles in the bush looking for bedding places, were they water etc. I always take a small shoulder bag (possibles) into which I put plants I find, or want to research what they are, or maybe an interesting rock. I always find something.

 

I once had a blood lust that could not be filled I hunted and hunted hard and the more I took the more I needed I always made good use of what I took then some where in my mid 30s it changed I still hunt and hunt hard but the blood lust is not there I am more picky at what I take and how I do it I guess I grew up some

Hunting fishing traping and Bushcraft go hand and hand.

 

Fishing was my start , living in the mountains I had lots of opportunity and I used it.
Grey squirrels were protected so I had incentive to be morally disciplined in my hunting practices. skunks and raccoons and pest birds and a few game birds however were fair game..
Ground squirrels got bad press so they were not on the list either.
Dad never said any thing but I didn't feel comfortable killing something I was not going to eat . except rattlers which yes I've eaten a few.
Dad and I went deer hunting a few times but not successfully .
Eventually on my own I had some success but the one thing that I had to overcome is the will to kill larger mammals .
My first encounters dressing game, I had to equate to cleaning fish. Long as I could keep this process in mind I could over come the process of gutting and skinning.
Recently I saw a video on the warrior mentality concerning cops dealing with taking action .
Unlike paper targets perps and predators are not operating fairly, their intention is to catch you off guard. "ambush"
People just getting into self-defense and fire arms and hunting are usually passive and the tendency to "deer in head lights" is a problem.
Start small and grow into it .
Ideally it is best to learn hunting WITH those that do it well . Have good out door habits ,ethical in their behavior.

 

Never got the blood lust as I started young and was taught by my Father and older brothers about being ethical. Never was a trophy hunter. We bent the law, but followed a higher law necessity, and never took game unless needed for the family. Ethical poachers at times. Do have a blood lust for predators that come after animals in my charge or a threat to my family.