I am looking for some tips and advice regarding how to dress yourself up for hunting while in an emergency survival situation. For the sake of answering all the right questions, let's lay out a scenario:
You're stranded in the woods and understand that you'll be stranded long enough to die of hunger if you don't eat more than the trail mix you have with you while you find rescue. You want to hunt, but have no weapons, no camo, and no hunting supplies. You have a hiking outfit on, which includes a blue jacket and white shirt (nothing that will blend in), and black jeans. [EDIT]You still have a knife and some other equipment, but you weren't prepared to survive, so have no survival kit.[\]
First, I would set as many traps as I can in the first half of the day, because they're important for gathering food. After gathering some food, my next interest would be to spend some time actively hunting game. However, there's a problem: I stand out like none other with a blue and white outfit. Animals should easily spot me moving. I could take my shirt off, knowing that my skin tone is more neutral and natural than white and blue, but I still have an outline because I am in the woods and trees aren't flesh colored. So here's some important questions:
What does it take to 'break up' my outline? Can I simply use mud or improvised paint to change my color and add a pattern, or should I use actual physical objects as a sort of half-arsed ghillie suit thing?
What can I paint my face/body with? Mud is usually a uniform color, is there something I can paint green, brown, and black with?
Should I just assume that hunting is a delicate procedure that either can't be done or is likely a waste of energy in a situation like this?
And a bonus question, because it's not worth its own thread: Do you think the time spent on a bow could be better used to make a sling and a few traps? I have read that a sling can be fairly accurate with experience and powerful, depending on the ammo. I will definitely make sure either weapon is paired with a more reliable spear, especially if it ends up being the unlikely scenario of self defense from a buck or coyote you pissed off with your weapons.
[EDIT]I don't plan to hunt as a means of sheer survival, but as an activity to benefit after sheer survival has been met (basically the acquisition of some food, a shelter, and fire). For the sake of evrybody having the right idea, this may be more of a "living in the wild" rather than "staying alive for rescue in the wild" because I want to learn and eventually experience being part of nature, not trying to avoid it. If my intent was strictly to find my way into my comfortable bed and brimming refrigerator as soon as possible, then I wouldn't think of hunting, I would spend all that time a way out of the woods.
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