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Message started by satchmoa on Nov 9th, 2010 at 12:09pm

Title: Re: Interesting read of survival
Post by Mad_Mat on Nov 26th, 2010 at 2:00pm
"Hence also the inclusion of a pen and a small scratch pad for making patrol maps. Some people might scoff at the idea, but speaking for myself only, it would be a comfort to have."

I went thru the "survival stuff" in the top of my fanny pack, just to see what I'd forgotten to list earlier.  Keeping in mind that some of the stuff is more "hunting" oriented than survival oriented, there is a spare cow call, a spare broadhead, and a small ziplock of bits and pieces of flagging tape I've cleaned out of the woods (I hate that people don't pull thier damn flagging down - most of its not even from blood trailing, but from marking extremely obvious horse trails, that you couldn't lose your way on if you tried - grrr!) -  I added another 50' of line, 2 AA's for the mini mag  (must have used the ones I though were in there).

Anyway, it occured to me that you might want to include a few yards of flagging tape in your survival kit, as long as you are carrying that pen.  If you are nut hunkering down to await rescue (something I'd probably never do) you could take that pen and write a simple message on the flagging, and leave it to mark your trial if someone is  looking for you - something like - date; your name; "heading Due North" or whatever, to leave a clue - tie the flagging in the most visible or most likely place for it to be found.

I'm not actually anti-snare wire; even though it may not take up much room in a kit, I just think that using that extra space for a matchbook would have more value.  Unless you are truly going into some huge wilderness, food is of relatively little importance.  I recall form sometime in the last few years, a woman being found along a river (in WA or somewhere in the PNW) who survived two weeks without food while awaiting rescue.  Turns out, no one was looking for her, or they were looking miles away - I forget which it was, but she was found accidentally by hikers.

You'd likely have more chance to snare a grouse than a rabbit, but its still pretty unlikely I'd think.  The bent stick for a spring type of snare is probably what I'd likely use (outside of an aldar swamp,  what are the odds of finding that springy sapling just where you need it - probably would have to improvise something) - but how likely is a rabbit going to walk in that spot - unless you are talking deep snow, a snowshoe rabbit will be all over his territory, and not all that likely to come back on that trail for a few days;  the deeper and softer the snow, the more likely they will stick to thier trails, but they will have many many different trails, so you'd need to have many snares set to increase your odds.  I' believe hunting in BWCA was mentioned, which is why I assume Snowshoe rabbit and not Cottontail - better odds of a Cottontail using its run.  If there is no snow on the ground, you won't have a clue where a rabbit may be travelling.  In fall or spring, maybe you could set a snare on a "drumming log" if you locate one and snag a grouse.  I once killed a blue grouse with a thrown stick, they are kinda dumb.  

And before you experiment with those snares, read your hynting and trapping regs to be sure it is legal - I'm pretty sure it would be illegal to snare a rabbit in Colorado, for instance.

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