How to Find Game

Finding wild game to hunt and places to fish in a survival situation will be a lifesaver. These are spots you will want to take care of and make sure to protect. Finding these places may not be as easy as one thinks depending on the situation of the disaster catastrophe that has put you in the survival situation to begin with.

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Typically there are some pretty easy ways to find wildlife. In the early morning hours is when a lot of wildlife is very active. You can oftentimes hear birds in the morning. If you listen, you can find where these birds are nesting at and sometimes even water sources. Paying attention for obvious signs such as animal tracks also lets you know where wild game can be found. Most wild game will be found in forest areas near water sources.

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When it comes to fishing, not every place you see water is guaranteed to have fish in it. It is a good idea to look along the shoreline and examine the water edge for signs of smaller fish. Also fish tend to like areas that have overhangs such as trees or fallen logs in the water. Finding a good fishing spot as well as a good hunting spot will be an essential part of your survival in any situation that calls for you to provide your own food.

 

In the mountains of the Philippines, the most difficult game to catch is the deer. That is according to my father-in-law who was a leisure hunter in the olden days. With some of his friends, he rarely comes home with no catch. Usually it would be wild boar but sometimes deer - the bounty is divided among the 4 of them hunters. It was amusing to listen to my father-in-laws stories because he is an honest man so I believe all he was saying.

The wild boar is easier to catch when there is a ripe jackfruit. They would set up a trap with the jackfruit as the bait (just a slice will do). The aroma of the jackfruit beckons the hungry wild boar and when it steps on the makeshift bamboo flooring, the wild boar is caught when the bamboo flooring turns into a net-like design. But the most effect trap is the sharp pointed stick that would hit the wild boar and maim it.

With the deer, they have to burn some bamboo, about 10 poles so the ashes will be a lot for the deer to smell. The ashes are salty in taste and the deer love it. However, a gun is needed for the deer since it is quite impossible to be caught using a trap.

 

The issue with hunting spots in the wilderness is that you also will stumble across with dangerous mammal predators such as cougars, bears, pack of wolves etc or when fishing you can find large crocodiles or alligators. Therefore you need to make sure that there are not threats around while you're hunting game. Sometimes is not worth the risk in hunting some large animal such as Deer.

 

When looking for a water source with fish, I generally check the flow of the water. If it's stagnant, there is a good chance that there is nothing but smaller fish in there. If I see that there is a good flow to the water, or an oxygen source of some sort, then I will give it a go and see what I can find in there. Where I live, we have lots of catfish which are usually under the docks, logs, rocky areas, etc. as well as Mangroves who are around the shaded areas, but not necessarily hiding under there. I also check for larger birds that eat fish. If I see them hovering, I'm going to go hover as well and hope for the best.

 

Learning to read tracks and learning animal behaviour will help you find the animals. I see it lots where you see someone expecting the animals to come to them. The best way is hit the ground learn the food and water sources and take in whatever knowledge the local hunters have to offer.

 

Find their food and you will find the animals. From there you can backtrack to their bedding areas and then set up your traps or stands on the trails between them. Most animals are creatures of habit and understanding them makes finding them easier.

I am pretty fortunate. Where I live I am the undisputed top of the food chain. If we have mountain lions or wolves they are so shy that they are never seen. No crocs, no bears and I eat gators and have no fear of them at all. About the only things here that might harm you are a few snakes and other people. Even the snakes are good about warning you before they bite you. Our sharks are even pretty nice neighbors here. More people get bit by dogs than anything else and those are seldom fatal. LOL, you are about as likely to be attacked by bigfoot as to be attacked by an animal big enough to kill you in a predatory way here.

 

When my grandfather and I were hunting squirrels, first thing was to look for trees producing a crop of nuts (forest mast). If at the base of the tree, you find nut cuttings, then there are squirrels about. I love squirrel gravy.

In a survival situation, one is going to bait the game animal.

In a survival situation, raise rats. Will there be a shortage of rats? No. Bait them & shunt them into enclosures. When killing time rolls around, snuff them with carbon monoxide. Dip their bodies into boiling water for a little while to kill the parasites that will be infesting their fur. Now you can field dress them. Yum yum. Yucky you say; well, you can always make gravy.

Feeding rats = Stale bread soaked with stale milk; let's face it, what will they not eat?

Wait until it frosts to hunt squirrel
https://www.fieldandstream.com/answ...s-and-other-small-game/shot-squirrel-y?page=1

Carbon monoxide makes meat royally red:
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/carbon-monoxide
... and this is in your supermarket meat. Oh joy!

Butchers used to sell squirrel. Then it was made law that squirrels sold in store had to have their heads left on. Why? People were selling kittens. Hmmmmmm ... now there's an idea.