Living off the land

Quote:
Originally Posted by viperman
Here's a .50 caliber. Bear/large game self defence rifle. Your right, not the greatest gun for hunting though.

http://www.wildwestguns.com/CoPilot...ide_rifles.html

Wow, talk about a hand cannon

not really a hand cannon, now what i might be getting soon is a hand cannon, .75 caliber smoothbore belgian import musket with gar gold paint (falls over drooling...)

 

speakin of guns, you americans are forgetting he is in canada. we have verry strict fire arms laws. thier is no right to bear arms up here.

. Thier is minimum legal length for rifles barrels but, I cant remeber off the top of my head. below that length it become eather a restricted or prohibited fire arm. all sawed off guns are elligal up here

hand guns (restricted firearms) are extreemly regulated. to the point that the government wants to know where your hand gun is at all times. you can not do so much as transport a hand gun with out a permit. nore can you hunt with hand guns.

 

what about muzzle loaders? you dont have to ship those through an ffl.

 

Who hunts with handguns??

 

i knew someone in tennessee who hunted with a .44 magnum with a scope attached, i also knew some one who hunted with a .44 1858 remington new army revolver with the ultra long "bison" barrel.

 

its way possable,my pearl and i have done it on and off.in a teepee.the first thing is to dig a well(just pound in a sand point,if you pick the right spot youll get watter)and dig a root celler to keep your food in.allso a soller pannle will heat your watter.and a earth oven works well.its worth it to make a small investmant before you start.keep studying.lovein you
frog

 

ha! you gotta be like a pilgrim and be in good with the locals , dem injuns is your survival .

 

you gotta learn how to talk to them hillbillys, talkin is your survival, literaly

 

we are not by any means close to self sufficiency at this point in time however we are getting closer n closer to it as time passes,,,

here in the last year we have built a greenhouse in order to grow year round,,, are in process of installing a woodstove as well so that we can have plants to sell in spring too
started rotating crops and making new areas for gardens and fruit trees , etc etc,
we have a systern for water collection n purchased a pump to haul water from the pond,,, a well would be too costly at this point in time and the depth of it would have to be close to 500 foot or more by drillin a well,,,
we have pastured off a small plot of land for the cow( for meat ) and are in process of pasturing off about three more acres... and getting atleast one more cow to raise to breed n milk
last week we went n bought a couple goat kids to help clear brush n shrubs n junk from hillside and eventually breed , milk, and sell .
we built a large chicken coop and fenced yard for poultry and raise and breed them for eggs meat n maybe eventually show,, ( a must in the wild country is keepin other critters outta poultry,,
we have the gardens and compost areas n such goin on rotational basis to keep the soil fertile and crops healthy,,
in the next few months we r goin to clean out the pond n such and restock it for fish and other critters, etc,,,
and we are building a cabin by hand the old fashioned way , with no electric or running water,, thus an outhouse, etc will be built as well as root cellars, earth oven etc,,,

by the way to the original poster of this,,,, it is a fun thing to do and sounds easy to do however it takes alot of work and dedication to be able to do this and as others have said,, read up research n you will also learn as you go but dont go jumpin into it thinkin that in a year you will have it as you say you want too,, takes along time

, luv n lite

 

For the Canadian wilderness you will need a high powered rifle. A .45-70 would work well for power but It doesn't have much distance, a High powered .375 would be better. As for $5-10 a year for ammo. Thats dreaming. A box of 12 shells for any high powered rifle cost $45-85 depending on the ammo. Reloading your own is cheaper in the long run but the initial costs of the equipment is mega bucks.

For fishing running a line across a stream or lake with several baited hooks works well. If you are going to be in an area with Northern Pike you will need to put steel leaders on your lines to keep them from biting through. Get a good pair of THICK leather gloves to help you deal with them, even then still be carful or your hands will end up as hamburger meat.

Depending on where you are in Canada you can hunt deer, Moose, elk, caribou, bears(very dangerous if you don’t know what your doing). And a huge number of small game. Come to think of it, a 10 gage shotgun would be useful if there are geese in the area.

For food to take with you: Rice is good if you can keep it dry. It lasts awhile and doesn’t take up much space for the amount it swells up to. Potatoes are a good choice too. Some jerky would be good to take incase you can’t get any meat. You need fats or you will get very sick. Also be sure to take vitamins so you don’t get scurvy. Be sure to have a bear bag or your food may magically disappear into the night.

I don’t know how long a carcass will last but you could smoke it as well as can it for a little extra variety.



If you want to try some of it the primitive way I suggest some books by John and Geri McPherson called Naked into the Wilderness. Look at them before you buy them just to make sure it’s the information you need. Check out some Boy Scout books too they have a huge collection of knowledge.

 

I wanna live off the fat of the land and raise a bunch of rabbits!

 

.................I would rather lay on a fat woman and mate like wild rabbits.

 

Viperman…

If you are hunting for food you should hunt whatever is available that is a reliable meat source and get to know the different species and how to skin and dress them (it’s easy to learn) and the easiest ways to trap and hunt them. Snaring snowshoe hares (and ptarmigan in the winter in some areas) is, in my opinion, one of the most effective and efficient ways to keep a steady flow of small game on hand without expending a lot of energy. Rabbits have these 10 year population cycles where they crash and then rebound and It’s good to wear gloves when you prepare them during the times when they are diseased. I didn’t and I caught Tularemia two winters ago which required antibiotics so better safe than sorry if you want my advice.

If you are expending a lot of energy in your lifestyle you will require some kind of a fat source to supplement a lean-meat diet if that’s what you are living on and this is where big game comes in. Learn how to dry and preserve meat and render fat. Hunting basically just takes experience so you will figure out what to hunt and what you need to hunt for food after you have been doing it for a while. I prefer a .22 single shot bolt action for small game and the traditional 30-30 carbine for big game hunting, since it’s light and the ammunition is cheap. You don’t need anything more powerful than that if you have the patience to get close to your prey and place the shot where it counts.

I am not sure what the "ideal" crops are for the ecosystems in Atlantic Canada but I would suggest planting a lot of root vegetables as staple crops. Potatoes, Rutabagas/Swedes, Turnips, along with Parsnips and Carrots and some greens if you like would be good to grow, with an emphasis on root vegetables/tubers. The important thing here is to grow more than you need in a given year (a 2 year reserve is ideal) so that you have a food supply cached if you get a bad year with little to no vegetables. Then you can fall back on what is stored and no worries. Root vegetables can be preserved in different ways, one good way to store potatoes for the long term is to dry them, cut the fresh potatoes into disks, dry them on large sheets of birch bark and on the roof of your cabin on hot days and finish drying them by the stove or a fire if required. They can then be wrapped up in birch bark and boxes and stored in a elevated cache which is a little storage shed up on stilts so the bears and mice can’t get into it. With that plentiful supply of potatoes and other root vegetables preserved you won’t be as vulnerable to crop failure/food shortages.

The easiest way to get a lot of fish in my experience is to net them with a gill net when they are spawning, I make my own gill nets but the commercial multifilament nets work very well. Fish are best dried for long term storage.

Check out the ethnographies of the local Indigenous people in your region, those books will tell you the most effective methods of food procurement used by the people who have been living there for thousands of years and what adjustments/adaptations they have made with more recent technologies. Reports by trappers in the region and local literature are your best bet for more detailed advice concerning your region.

I hope this has been helpful to you and good luck with your plans.