Why, In Most Bush-Craft/Survival Situations, You Do Not Want To Be Killing, Or Even Hunting, Big Game Animals

Common Survival Myth, About Bush Craft and About the Hunting of Animals.

A common "American" and Hollywood movie based, survival belief/MYTH and a very common reason WHY MANY FAIL TO SURVIVE  a real life situation: is that you can just head to the nearest patch of forest and live off the large ungulates such as the bison, caribou, deer, ELK, pronghorn, or wapiti that MAY abide there. The fact is, these types of critters can and do have a huge range and are not; and were NOT EVER; a RELIABLE food source, to stake your life on.

Plus, the caloric expenditure needed to actively hunt them could outweigh the gain and put you in a worse off position than you were to begin with. 

In Most Bush-Craft/Survival Situations, You Do Not Want To Be Killing, Or Even Hunting, Big Game Animals.
Why?

The reasons are easy to understand, and easy to remember, because they make perfect sense; to any one understanding survival, really wishing to survive, or to remain a survivor.

The first cardinal rules of bushcraft/survival: Don't waste energy and time. Don't hunt big game, unless absolutely necessary-- it will never be ABSOLUTELY necessary.

1. YOU DO NOT EXPEND ENERGY UNNECESSARILY. Wasted energy can be and often is, the difference between life and death.
2. Plants, berries, fruit, and vegetables are always, always the first food priorities, in a bushcraft/survival situation and undoubtedly should be at any time.
3. The hunting of big animals uses energy in the form of calories from food (See.  http://cookingforsurvival--yourdownbutnotout.blogspot.ca/2012/03/survival-foods-think-plants.html
4. Because they are usually much more abundant, and/or, much easier to catch; birds, fish, and small game, plants and vegetables, will much more readily meet all your food requirements.
5. Big-game animals usually weigh too much to be easily transported to camp or storage areas.
6. The absolute necessity of dressing and butchering big game animals will always attract other, perhaps dangerous, predators, scavengers, and vermin to the area.
7. Most of us do not know how to properly dry, prepare, or smoke meats for storage and if, on rare occasion, we do have the knowledge, we have not had enough practise to be able to do so efficiently-- so would be much better off to obtain some of that much needed practise through the handling of much smaller birds, fish, and game.
8. Small game animals are very much easier to dress out, butcher, dry smoke, or otherwise prepare.
9. Having watched so many "reality" TV survival shows, most of us will not have a practical, truly usable  knife, of the type needed, in order to accomplish any of these chores.
10. Most of us have little knowledge of how to best store fresh meat.
11. Most of us do not know how; do not wish to exert the tremendous amount of energy required, and will not have or know how to manufacture the necessary equipment to produce a usable animal hide.
12. Even if we had or have produced all the necessary equipment, and have the knowledge and skills to do so, it really is unwise--perhaps even deadly, to exert that much energy-- UNNECESSARILY. 

© Al (Alex, Alexander) D Girvan 2012