The Three Best Ways to Feed Yourself in a Survival Scenario: Hint – It’s Not By Hunting

PlanandPrepared.com welcomes Ben Ayad to the site. Ben is an IT project manager and founder of a newbie blog called outdoorstime.com. Ben loves outdoors activities and the nature that God has created, as any human being does. He shares what he knows about outdoors and the passion of other outdoors’ lovers who pride themselves in living off the land for extended periods of time in wilderness settings across the US.

Stockpiling food will not do you any good if you are forced away from your home in sudden SHTF situation. So you better have thought of other ways to provide food for you and your party.

Many people assume that in the case of a natural disaster, all-out war or rampant spread of disease that they will just get their gun and automatically turn into good hunters to provide for themselves. For some that is true but for the majority of others it’s not realistic and there are better ways of providing for you and the other survivors in your group.

Why is a not a good idea to assume you can provide for yourself by hunting? First of all it’s not easy even for experienced hunters to consistently bag game. Also, in a SHTF situation the game may become just as scarce as people. Not only that but you will probably not have a limitless supply of ammo for your firearm and you may need it for personal security.

So how do you provide for the sustenance of your group members? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Foraging

One of the quickest ways to gather food in a survival scenario is by foraging. Mother Nature does a nice job of providing you with an abundance of food just about any place you go or get stranded.
Foraging fruits and vegetables may not be as tasty and filling as a big slab of venison cooked up just right but it’s healthy for you and there is plenty of stuff around if you know where to look.

The big problem with foraging is knowing where to look for food. Even when you think it’s not there it usually is. Sure some foods will jump out at you like vegetables that you see growing and fruit’ hanging on trees but a lot of edible stuff is much less obvious. That is why you need to educate yourself in order to survive better in a SHTF scenario.

How to better educate yourself about foraging?

You may not want to put the effort into this but quite frankly the only way you will be able to find the abundance of not so obvious food sources that are out there is to educate yourself. If nothing else, at least take the time to throw a paperback book on identifying food sources into your survival preparedness pack.

Here is an article with an overview of some books that will help you when it comes to foraging for food in a survival situation:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/124845-top-ten-wilderness-survival-books/

2. Scavenging

I am a big fan of the Walking Dead TV show on AMC. If you have ever watched the show (which is set in a time after a zombie apocalypse) you will notice that they are not out in the woods hunting all the time for food to survive. How do they survive? That is right; by scavenging.

A lot of the food you will need in a survival situation has already been provided for you, this is especially true in an urban situation. Grocery store shelves, residences and even places like gyms and bowling alleys always have food on hand to sell to customers. Some of your scavenging choices will be obvious and other will come from creative thinking.

Whether you are out in the wilderness or in an urban setting there will always be opportunities to scavenge. That is because even in remote areas there are cabins, hotels, isolated farms, ranger stations and other buildings that people will store non-perishable food items in.

Here are a few tips for scavenging in a survival scenario:

Be prepared to defend yourself

This may be straight out of movies but you have to admit that they may have it right. If there is a breakdown of civil order it may come down to every man for himself. Not everyone will be kind and considerate of other like you probably are so be prepared for it.

Scout the areas you will go into beforehand

Don’t ever assume that an area is devoid of other people. Chances are if you survived others will too. You may also run into aggressive groups that are best to be avoided. If you scout a suspicious area for an hour or two ahead of time you will have a much better idea of how safe a place is to scavenge at.

If food gets scarce think outside the box

This is especially true if food gets scarce. You may have to be very creative in your methods of collecting the food you need for survival. Places such as shelters for the homeless and churches that have canned good drives are examples of places that people often overlook when it comes to scavenging for food.

3. Fishing

One thing that the good Lord provides us with is plenty of fish no matter where you are in the world. Over 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by water and that means there is a lot of fish out there to be caught. Everything from the smallest ponds to the biggest oceans has fish in them. So in a SHTF scenario you better have a good idea of how to catch fish to survive.

Sure it would be great to have your high tech fishing rod and reel setup with you to catch fish in a survival situation but chances are that’s not going to happen. So what do you do? Here are a few ideas on how to provide yourself with some nutrient rich fish to eat when you are trying to survive.

Hook, line and sinker

You may not have enough room in your survival pack to take a fishing pole with you but don’t despair. You most certainly can find room for some fishing line, hooks and a few sinkers. They will not take up much space and they are ultra-lightweight supplies too.

There are so many ways you can catch fish with just a hook, line and sinker. Bait is easy to find too because many fish are attracted to anything stinky or somewhat edible. Bread, meat scraps and other edibles make good bait. You can also dig for worms or catch small bait fish too.

Don’t just sit there with one line in the water either. Set as many lines in the water as you can. Be creative also and experiment with setting lines in different places to increase your chances of catching fish.

Think it can’t be done? Check out this YouTube video.

Building fish traps

Now don’t run out to the store and spend $50 on a manufactured fish trap and store it with your survival gear. Chances are if you are in a survival situation you are not going to have time to pack and carry a lot of gear. Fish traps fortunately can be easily made using junk that you will find lying around or by gathering up some things that Mother Nature has nicely provided for you.

Here is one idea that shows you how to turn an empty plastic bottle into an efficient fish trap

Preparedness Is the Key

Let’s just hope that articles like this one never have to be acted upon. The truth is though that with terrorists getting closer to acquiring weapons of mass destruction, climate change causing more severe natural disasters and the threat of war between major superpowers getting ever closer, a SHTF scenario is a lot closer than we all like to admit.

Your best hope when a worst case scenario hits is to be knowledgeable and be prepared. Without a doubt the individuals that are knowledgeable and prepared have a much better chance of survival in a SHTF situation than those who aren’t.

If you have other food during SHTF tips or comments, please leave them in the comments section below.

Stay safe out there!

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