how long could YOU live off the land?

[Peter_t]

Imagine you were somewhere in the UK where you were miles away from civilisation. also imagine you didnt have to follow the UKs laws of hunting etc. you have some basic equipment, knife, axe, saw, tarp, sleeping bag, firesteel and a cooking pot. i think i would last about 3 or 4 weeks, lack of foraging and trapping skills letting me down.
how long would you survive?

pete

 

[sam_acw]

Considering you can survive for 21-28 days without food, or serious negative effects, then I'll pick that as a pretty sensible amount.

 

[Bernie Garland]

If i could take me dog ferret and bow indefinatley.

Bernie

 

[sapper1]

Come on Bernie I know you could make a bow .

 

[saddle_tramp]

does this include poaching farm animals?

 

[Bernie Garland]

Come on Bernie I know you could make a bow .

I could,but it wouldent live with my compound

Bernie

 

[Mesquite]

Very nice looking bow Bernie.

And in answer to the thread question not very long as my foraging and trapping skills are very low, got a long way to go before I could confidently live for a while off the land. Be a great diet for me though

 

[John Fenna]

how long would you survive?

Oh... till about tea time...

 

[Wayland]

Until I got fed up of shell fish I guess.

 

[Minotaur]

Very interesting questions.

Wonder what the diet change would do to you?

Also what problems would you have?

Rice, and wheat would be a big whole to fill, and even the hunters, and trappers took them along.

 

[Mike Ameling]

Time of the year and growing season really affects this. Living off of "nuts and berries" sounds so ... romantic ... but not very do-able. They become ripe/edible at different times of the year. And the same applies to most plants - wild grains, roots/tubers, fruits, veggies. They mature at different times, and then require "storage" to be available at other times of the year.

So the "hunter" portion of hunter/gatherer has to step in to fill the void. But even the animals and fishes have their "yearly" cycles/migrations/hibernations.

In any area it would be pretty hard to accomplish for any length of time - unless you "cheated" by using some of modern agricultural production - grains/veggies/animals. The hunter/gatherer populations were pretty small and spread out quite far apart for a reason. Available "game" animals in any area will only support so many "predators". Ditto naturally growing plants/veggies/fruits.

And, as stated before, you can generally live 30 days without any food - as long as you have water to drink. So 30 days would be do-able for many people. Past that quickly gets very rough to do.

Just my thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. Fish and shellfish are all too commonly not thought about in such a situation. But, depending upon your area, fish tend to be easier to get than hunting, and give you a better return for the time/energy invested in acquiring them. And all those "illegal" methods of fishing were made so because they worked so well!

 

[spamel]

30 days without food if you are correctly hydrated, not doing much in the way of exercise/work and have a bit of blubber to burn! Dependant on the season, and considering you may not have much in the way of equipment and would need to replen your water stocks from a water source that hasn't been affected by sewage or chemicals from farmland (good luck finding that one!), so a fire would be needed to keep you warm and to boil your water to make it safe. That means gathering fire wood, splitting/cutting it and this will drain your energy too. I reckon with a fair bit of work each day and no food, you could start knocking days off straight away due to the fact you're not just sitting still waiting for rescue. Of course, never having been in that situation, it is all guess work. Without proper tools and training, motivation and the ability to track and hunt, yiou're not gonna do too well. In UK, even worse still as there is nothing worth hunting in that situation! Small aimals are again a drain on your energy. Traps and snares would be the way ahead, all illegal unless in a survival situation, and not a self imposed one neither.

 

[sam_acw]

There's a good article over at OMF entitled Fasting Facts which is well worth a read.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Well I just bought 'Sea weed and Eat it' so am building up my foraging knowledge.

Nick

 

[sapper1]

I am lucky enough to live on the seashore surrounded by farmland so I could probably live for years just with what i could forage around me.

 

[Wayland]

Yep, there's a good reason most Mesolithic communities spent a good bit of time near the sea shore.

It would be difficult to starve there even if limpets are a bit like fish flavoured rubber.

It would certainly give you a stable food supply while giving you time to source other stuff.

Of course the "TEOTWAWKI" crowd would get a shock if they were relying on it because they'd be beaten to it by all the grannies that know darned well how to find food in tough times.

 

[Raptordog]

30 days without food if you are correctly hydrated, not doing much in the way of exercise/work and have a bit of blubber to burn! Dependant on the season, and considering you may not have much in the way of equipment and would need to replen your water stocks from a water source that hasn't been affected by sewage or chemicals from farmland (good luck finding that one!), so a fire would be needed to keep you warm and to boil your water to make it safe. That means gathering fire wood, splitting/cutting it and this will drain your energy too. I reckon with a fair bit of work each day and no food, you could start knocking days off straight away due to the fact you're not just sitting still waiting for rescue. Of course, never having been in that situation, it is all guess work. Without proper tools and training, motivation and the ability to track and hunt, yiou're not gonna do too well. In UK, even worse still as there is nothing worth hunting in that situation! Small aimals are again a drain on your energy. Traps and snares would be the way ahead, all illegal unless in a survival situation, and not a self imposed one neither.

Got to agree.....about sums it up........

 

[John Fenna]

I live within a hike of the sea - the Irish Sea.
This is arguably the most poluted saline water in the world, thanks to several nuclear reactors, more than a few sewerage outlets and too many other poluting agents .
Shellfish - no thanks!
The filterfeeders are all dying thanks to polution and limpets are foul to start with.

I will stick with inland food - but the game is all gone or in Nature Reserves, or - if you think of fish - so rare you need a license to catch them to throw them back. Or they are farm animals.....
So that leaves plants.
Around field edges they are covered either in fertiliser or the governments prefered poisons, or both. The bl00dy squirrels have had all the nuts, the berries are rotting thanks to the global warming induced rain and the death of all the bees means that nowt else has fruited......
I am getting hungry now...so I reckon that tea time has arrived and my "living off the land" has become "living off Tescos" again!

When the end of civilisation comes then I will stand a better chance as I will not get in trouble for eating those dole scroungers who will at last have a reason for being.
I have no moral problems with canibalism.
Mind you with the level of polution in their bodies I may have to think of them as toxic....still!





:tapedshut

I am kidding - honest.
I think I could do OK for long enough to start farming and surviving at a subsistance level...

 

[NatG]

on my own, not very long, especially not in the UK, our land is so far bastardised fom how it would have been for hunters and gatherers that it would be too hard, plus much of the knowledge and i suspect a few of the resources have dissappeared, nolonger to be found here.

Moreover i thinkit's a bit strange that people think of the lone hunter/gatherer eeking out a living on the shore whne in reality thee would have been a large group all pulling together to harvest and store a myriad of different foods to last them through hard times. One man alone would have LOTS of trouble.

On the other hand, if we throw in a few modern comforts and go to a different part of the world then i think i could last quite a long time, somewhere in canada or eastern europe for example, with modern tools and techniques a decent shelter could easily be made, a log burning stove would half the amount of wood i'd have to collect, a few big bags of rice should last for at least a season and modern flavourings and preservatives would help with the taste and storage of food.

might be fun to have a go!

 

[pauldr]

ooooooh thats a nice little toy where did you get it ?