Hello Captain,
I just read “A Poor Man’s Guide to Prepping and Food Storage," by T.P. He mentions getting free meat by way of road kill and says “It helps to be able to tell how long an animal has been dead.”
 
I can help. Having been a bricklayer in the Southwest and the Northwest for 35 years, I have worked with and become friends with many native Americans. Years ago one of my pals told me that he ate road kill all the time. When I asked how he knew if it was fresh or not he replied:
 
“That’s easy. When I’m on my way home from work I look for dead animals on the road. Whenever I see one I stop and draw a circle around it. [Most of us in construction carry lumber crayons] Then, when I go to the store to buy a pack of beer, I stop and pick up the ones that don’t have a circle!”
 
Happy Hunting, - Maddog

Everyone writes about what you need to survive the end; but no one writes about what you need to know before the end happens. Protection, Water purification, hunting, trapping, cleaning an animal, sewing, soap making, and herbal knowledge are just a few examples of what I consider to be incredibly important to know. Now, I know what you all are thinking, males got this down for the most part, right? Well what about your women. What happens to them if god forbid they get separated? Can they take care of themselves. A lot of women couldn’t.

Protection is pretty straightforward, you think you have it covered with a gun right? What happens when you run out of cartridges? Do you know how to make gun powder? Do you know how to reload fired brass? If not then you might consider learning a primitive skill, bow and arrow making. It’s amazing just how many things you can use to make bows, and even more impressive is the amount of things you can make an arrow out of.  A simple bow and knowing how to make it and what to make it out of may be primitive but it could save your life, or at the very least keep you fed.  If your on the go you may want to consider the bundle bow; it’s a bow made out of normally three somewhat straight sticks, can’t find a stick, then thin PVC pipe or old fiberglass fishing rods will work too. Just keep in mind that it what ever you use needs to have some give to it and needs to be strong. [JWR Adds: Using old fishing rod sections might prove dangerous, if they fail, under strain. You do not want your forearm impaled with shredded fiberglass.] One of the sticks need to be about half the size of the larger one, the second needs to be a little bit longer at about three quarters of the length of the large one. Bind them together in several places with some string. Now you should have something that is quite strong that tapers to one stick at the ends.  Wrap some extra string on the ends of the bundle for the nocks. Now you have a bow, but how do you string it. That’s an easy answer; you want a string that is quite strong but not to stretchy remember you want it to bend the bow so you can have power behind the arrow. Once you have decided on the cordage, you want to tie it to the bow your looking for a gap between the bow and the string that is roughly the distance between your thumb and the bottom of your fist when your giving a thumbs up sign. There now you have a bow, Now for the ammunition. Arrows can be made from river cane or straight sticks, they can even be made out of PVC pipe, so long as it is good and stiff and has a small diameter, it can be made into an arrow. But seriously keep in mind that you cannot make a very good arrow out of a toothpick. Once you’ve picked your arrows you can either attach things to make a blade or if your like me, just sharpen the ends. You can also add feathers to the back end but I have also shot arrows without the fletching. Spears are another primitive weapon to consider. They can be made from simple house hold objects, such as broom handles. They may not be as effective as a good bow but hey they will work in a pinch.

Water purification is something that everyone should know about. You can make even the worse looking and smelling water drinkable if you can follow a few simple steps. Now some of you are wondering why not just drink from the running stream. Well, I don’t know about you but I figure that animals use that water which means that the ground around it or even the water itself is their bathroom. I don’t feel like drinking potty water; it’s not so appealing now is it? So, to purify your water you will want to bring it to nearly a boil for at least a minute. I suggest a minute but to be honest by the time it reaches the boiling point, most things have already been killed; and by the time it cools from the boil all things have been killed. If you have the time and you have enough sand you can also make a sand filter. If you have a container you will want to put a few holes in the bottom. Now you have to find a way to keep the sand from getting out so you could use a few inches of pebbles, grass mesh is also possible so long as you are sure it isn’t a poisonous grass, or if you have it some type of cotton material will work great. Next you will want a layer of gravel this is mostly just to strengthen your bottom filter layer. Next, fill the container with sand. Now go collect some of that water, pour it into your filter and catch at the bottom, if it isn’t clear run it again. Just to be on the safe side though even after filtering the water I would boil it just so I can be sure that everything that is possible was removed.

Hunting, Trapping, and cleaning an animal is something else everyone should know how to do. I’m sure everyone here has been hunting but has your spouse? Can she take the life of an animal? Animals are difficult to hunt even for the experienced hunter, sometimes, so you can  imagine just how difficult it would be for someone who has never hunted a day in their life. Hunting is straight forward, point and shoot and hope you made your mark. But trapping is a bit different. You need to make sure that you are on an animal’s path, it’s pointless to put a trap up if you haven’t seen animal tracks. There are lots of traps to chose from, some use large rocks or logs, some use holes. Most of the time these traps take too much time and well by the time your done with one you don’t want to make another; and if your using traps the more you use the better the chance you will get an animal for your dinner. A dozen is normally the smallest amount you want to put out, anything less and the chances of you getting an animal are close to nothing. The Snare trap is easy and reliable so long as you do it right. With the right snare trap you can get anything from a rat to a pig. You can make a snare from wire, string, cord or vines.  Vines aren’t the best material to use but if you have nothing else then trust in mother nature to provide. Wire is the best material but string works just as well. There are two common designs of snare traps; one will keep your prey at ground level and may or may not strangle them. The second  will flip the animal into the air and hold it off the ground, the likely hood of this trap strangling the prey is almost always a guarantee. To make either you need to make a loop in the material; this loops needs to be able to tighten and hold the animal, the loop should be free moving; the free movement allows the loop to tighten when the animal struggles or as it walks forward into the trap. In the second design the movement of the material will trigger the trap and fling the animal up into the air, here the animals own body weight works against it, as it is this weight that will cause the material to tighten. Always remember to set the loop in the diameter of the animal you are hoping to catch; want a pig, make the loop bigger, want a rabbit, smaller. Make sure that the end of the snare trap (opposite the loop) is secure in a bush, or staked. You may want to make a funnel of debris to force the animal into the snare.  In the first design as the animal goes through the snare tightens any fighting makes it tighter. In the second design once the animal is in the snare it will pull the material far enough that the trap will trigger and the animal will be flipped into the air and strangled. In this design you will want a flexible limb or bush, the snare itself, a trigger and a something to hold the trigger. This snare isn’t good in cold weather because you run the risk of the flexible parts freezing. For the trigger you are going to want something with a lip, the same for the part that is holding the trigger. Wrap the material for the snare around the trigger (at the top) a few times and make sure it isn’t coming off. Tie the other end of the snare to the flexible part of the trap. Set the trigger into the lip of the trigger holder and you have your trigger snare trap. Then it becomes a waiting game. It is recommended that you check the traps before going to sleep and as soon as you wake. It has been proven that an animal will chew through it’s own leg to get out of a trap if trapped by it’s leg. The point of the snares is to proved food not to torture the animal. Well you have your animal, so now what. It’s time to get it ready for cooking. You will want to make a small hole in the skin but be careful you do not want to punch a hole in the guts of the animal as that would taint the meat. Once you have the hole you will want to split the skin as if unzipping a coat; once that is done you can remove the skin like a sock, just be careful not to pull to hard. Now that is done you can make another small hole in the abdomen and pull the guts out. It is recommended to wash the animal in some form of water just to be sure that nothing undesirable is inside. Now it’s time to cook it.

Sewing and soap making are something every person in the free world should know how to do. This way you can make your own clothes and you can always make sure your clean. Sewing is simple you just put to pieces of cloth together and hold them together with a piece of string. Most people have enough knowledge to do rough sewing. It will get better over time. As far as soap making, well all that fat off the animals can be boiled down to form tallow which is really the base of the soap. Ash can be boiled in water and that will make the lye water. To know you have the perfect solution of lye water, take an egg if it sinks you need to boil the ash longer, if the whole egg floats you will want to add more water as your lye is too strong when the egg floats with roughly the size of a quarter above the water, then your lye water is perfect and ready for use. You will want at least a pound of fat to every six ounces of lye water. Add the water to the fat and stir. Once you can see the lines of your stirring, often referred to as trace, you can pour your soap into well in this case what ever you have that will allow the lye to set. Let it sit for at least a week before you even consider using it. Typically, soap needs to cure for a month but there is no guarantee that you will have that long to wait. But please wait for at least a week. In pinch you can rub water and ash together to get a form soap.

Herbal knowledge covers everything from what grows wild that is good to eat, to medicines that can be made from what great mother nature has to offer. An example of this is, did you know you could take pine needles and boil them in water and you will have a drink full of vitamin C. Herbal knowledge is not something you can learn from trail and error. You must take the time to learn this ahead of time. If you don’t something you think is just fine could turn out to be deadly. I personally recommend The Master Book of Herbalism by Paul Beyerl, while he does bring in religion to it, the illustrations and the information contained with in it are priceless.  As far as wild edibles you might like the book The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants it’s published by the Department of the Army. This book covers everything from what is safe to eat to what can be used as medicine. This book also has color photographs throughout.

By now your most likely saying well, I’ve stocked food, I’ve got plenty of ammo for my guns, I know how to clean an animal, soap can be stocked, and I’ve got a medical bag, I’m covered. Well, what happens when your stockpiles run out? What happens if your partner gets separated, or if one of your kids gets lost? Do they have the knowledge the would need to survive? Are you sure? Because every good survivalist knows and lives by this one rule: nothing lasts forever.

James Wesley:
In reference to CentOre's recent article, "Subsistence Fishing After TEOTWAWKI", one method not mentioned which works very well (speaking from experience) is to kill a non-edible animal like a prairie dog and hang it over a bank.

After a couple of days maggots begin to fall off of the decaying carcass and the fish learn to come to that bank to get a free meal.

Then using yo-yo fishing lines you bait whatever hooks you use with scraps and pretty much I've never gone without a pan full of fish a day to eat.

The other method is to use 12 volt DC current.  This is the same trick that the fish and wildlife guys use to do fish counts.  Place a couple of copper rods several feet apart in the water -- driven into the ground.  Hook up your jumper cables from your vehicle and let it run for a bit.  The 12 volt DC current acts as a fish magnet and you can pick and choose which ones you want to eat. - Hugh D.

Introductory Disclaimer: Many ideas expressed within this article may not be legal in all jurisdictions.  Items covered and methods discussed are strictly theoretical in nature unless otherwise stated.

Many people have a love of fishing.  Take a pole, and maybe a youngster, down to the shore, or a dock, baiting up, casting out, and waiting for a bite.  It’s a great time to just sit, talk, and enjoy nature.  Right?
Not after TEOTWAWKI!  There will not be many ‘restful’ days, or nights for that matter.  Our group has a saying that: “Sportsman-ship goes out the window when Survival-ship comes in the door.”  Catching as many fish as you can properly make use of with a minimum of effort will become the rule.  It is wasteful to catch more of any game than you can make use of.  If you can dry and/or smoke ten pounds of fish per day don’t go out and catch a hundred pounds unless you have the means to keep the unprocessed fish from spoiling.
Looking back at the Native Americans and their ways is a good place to start. In the Columbia River Drainage they fished with both nets and spears.  They still do, where the white man hasn’t messed up the stream flow.
Let’s discuss several methods of catching many fish.  Gigging, Netting, Bow Fishing and Trot Lining.

Gigging
Gigging involves using a device that resembles a spear with two or more points.  A quick search online for “fishing gigs” will show the full range of styles that have been used and are in use today.
Using a fishing gig generally requires being able to see the fish you are hunting, getting close enough to reach it with the gig, and doing all that in a stealthy enough manner that you do not spook the target.  Another method involves finding a spot that fish are known to pass, setting up and waiting for the fish to come to you.  Again, you must be ready to strike at the proper moment.  You may miss the first few times.  There is a trick of optics called ‘parallax’ that we will discuss in depth a little later on.  A fish is not where it seems to be and the gigger must learn about and adjust for this before many fish are gigged.

Netting
The net has been used down through the centuries and has evolved into very sophisticated ‘fishing systems’ used on all modern fishing vessels.  In this paper we are talking about a simple net you weave yourself and use up close and personal.  Go online and do a search for fishing net making.  You will find the size and shapes of the shuttles that are used, and the one very basic knot that creates all good nets.  Generally you need to decide where you are going to use the net before you begin to build it.  If it is a stream situation, then determine the width and maximum depth at the place you will be fishing.  If I were to make one, I would generally make a net that is one and a half times the width of the water and twice as deep as the water.  The size of the net openings is determined by the size of the fish you wish to catch.  For instance, if you are going out to catch all the fish you can regardless of size, then a net made with a mesh opening of 1 inch would probably be good.  If, however, you only want to catch large fish [say, for splitting and smoking] then a net mesh size that will allow the smaller fish to escape and keep only the larger fish then you want to make a mesh size commensurate with the fish size.

EXAMPLE: We have a large annual run of German Browns every fall in a small creek off a large reservoir. The larger fish can be well over ten pounds.  The creek is about thirty feet wide and 5 to 6 feet deep (at a spot that would work for netting).  Personally [If I were going to net this creek which of course I am not since it is not legal], my net would be about forty to fifty feet long and ten to twelve feet tall.  One note to remember, a 4” mesh net takes ¼ as many knots as a 1” mesh.  When you multiply that out to the total size of your net you might come to the decision to make a course net first.  Maybe you should/could make just a small one to keep the deer out of your garden, before you tackle a really fine net.

One word of caution.  You will read many articles and, in fact talk to many people who will write or speak of making a ‘gill net’.  I see the word tossed about as if it were the only net to make or use. A gill net is a very sophisticated fishing tool that is sized precisely to the size fish you are going to take.  Fish too small can swim right through it.  Fish too large will run into it and go away.  Only the ‘right’ sized fish will be able to poke its head nearly through the primary netting to the extent the much smaller gill strands of the net will catch behind the fish’s gills and hold it securely until harvested.  I will not say you cannot make one.  I will say I would never invest the time and precious materials needed in making and then maintaining a gill net.

Bow Fishing
Anyone who has used a target bow, a hunting bow, or a sophisticated archery competition bow might want to consider its’ use in the area of fish harvesting, provided of course that it is legal in your area.  For many summers when I was a kid I would take my trusty long bow, attach an old spinning reel below the grip with electricians tape.  I would take an old, damaged but pretty much still straight target arrow shaft, drill a small hole through the metal tip just about as far back on the ferrule as I could and still be on the metal.  I would drill the hole so a 1½ to 2 inch finishing nail would fit loosely.  The head end of the finish nail plus about a ½ inch would be bent 90 degrees? and hammered flat enough that I could attach a small fishing swivel-snap to it through a very small hole I drilled in the flattened nail head.  I would then slide the nail point through hole in my shaft.  The pointy end would now be bent about 45 degrees?, such that the swivel-snap and the point would both be pointed up the shaft.  Attach some old about 30 lb monofilament or braided line to the swivel-snap and wind about 50 feet onto the reel.
When I went fishing I would nock the arrow, open the bail on the reel and I was ready to fish.  Carp were always in season [and legal at the time to hunt with bows].  Upon spotting a likely candidate I would draw my bow and loose the arrow.  If I struck the fish I would play it on the spinning reel.  When I landed the fish all I had to do was make certain the barb went completely through the fish.  Then a light pull on the shaft would flip the barb/swivel-snap/nail over so it was pointed down the shaft.  Then the arrow could be withdrawn with minimum damage to the flesh of the fish, and no damage to the arrow.  I could be back to fishing in under two minutes once I had landed the fish.

The tricky part is learning to compensate for the parallax that occurs when you look into water at an angle. [The natural tendency is to aim too high, so if in doubt, hold low.] All I can say is, you will get lots of fish just as soon as you figure the angle out.  The variables include 1) the angle you are looking into the water at, and 2) the depth of the fish in the water.  Each shot requires a fresh mental computation.

Trot Lining
Simply stated, a trot line is nothing more than a long line with many hooks.  However, there is a little more to it than that. 
Not having lived in the southern states where trot lining for catfish is nearly akin to a religion, I’ll just share the simple way I was taught up in the Pacific Northwest.  In the 1960s I had what I consider to be a real honor to know a gentleman in the State of Washington I will call ‘Bob Ford’.  Bob was an octopus fisherman.  He was on a scientific register back east somewhere and he supplied octopus parts for many science research projects.  Bob ran three trot lines.  As I recall two of the lines were 1,000 feet long and the big one was 1,500 feet long.  They were set in the shelter of Dungeness Spit in areas where he knew the bottoms to be sandy and free of snags.  Bob would go out every day and ‘pull’ his lines.  He would start by going to his marker buoy and hauling up the 75 to 100 feet of anchor line that anchored the trot line against the tides.  He had a roller assembly on the forward, port gunwale where he placed the line as he pulled it.  When he got to the anchor he would move it over the pulley and keep on pulling on the trot line. About every fifty feet or so was a cedar box that was about twelve inches square and four feet long.  One of the twelve by twelve inch ends was open.  Each trap was on about a five foot tag line off the main trot line.  He would pull each box up to see if it held an octopus.  Then he would pull again to the next box.  Now you might say one person pulling well over 3,500 feet of wet, soggy line festooned with a bunch of heavy anchors and water logged cedar boxes every day, and sometimes twice a day, is a little hard to believe.  Well he did it.  He did it every day for over twenty years.  I knew him when I was the Keeper of a nearby Lighthouse.  At the time Bob was in his ‘younger’ eighties as he put it.  Nobody, not even the young loggers in the area, ever challenged him to arm wrestling!!  Every Friday morning the Oriental market buyers would come over from Seattle to bid on any ‘extra’s’ Bob had caught.

So, how does this story fit in?  Well, if you want to be a successful trot liner you need to follow every one of the rules that old Bob taught me.  1) You need a bottom that is free of snags, 2) you have to attach your hooks to the trot line in such a way that the main line will not get tangled and broken, 3) you need to put each hook on the end of a short leader, and 4) fish with the right bait.  Old Bob’s ‘bait’ was the cedar box.  You see, octopi like darkness.  They feed at night, but when the sun comes up they look for a cave to hide in.  Well, in our area there must have been a real cave shortage because the octopi would crawl into the cedar ‘caves’ and defend it all the time it was being hauled to the surface.  A really large octopus would even fight him when he tried to get them out of ‘their cave’.  In your case you too have to use ‘the right bait’.  Yours will probably be something you know the local fish like to eat.  In our area I am well stocked up with many flavors of ‘Power bait™’.  It stores well and the fish around me don’t seem to care if it’s five or six years old.  My mainline is 100 pound test braided synthetic line.  Every six feet there is about a ½ to 1 inch dropper knot tied in the main line. 
For each dropper there is about an eighteen inch, 20 pound monofilament leader with a swivel-snap [see my aforemention of bow fishing] on the dropper end and a #6 or #8 2x treble hook snelled onto the business end of the leader. (You may want to use a different hook and system for your local area.)  A short study on the web will teach you the dropper knot and how to snell a hook.  I direct you there because Mr. Rawles properly frowns on pictures or drawings as some readers have trouble downloading them.

The leaders are all carried in a bucket. They are all pre-baited and placed in the bucket with a little water over them so they don’t dry out.  Each end of the mainline has an anchor on it and an anchor line that goes to the surface.  I frown on marker buoys as too many people might see them from too far away.  A small piece of driftwood three or four feet long works just fine as an anchor line float and has a much lower profile.
I put down one anchor and begin to pay out the main line.  Each time I come to a dropper knot I snap on a swivel snap with its’ leader and pre-baited hook.  When I get to the far end I set my second anchor, anchor line, and marker buoy.  You should always put a marker buoy on each end so if one marker buoy gets loose or damaged you can go to the other end and not lose your trot line.
Depending upon your situation you may need to place small weights every so far to keep the line where you want it.  Many cat fishers set their lines in the evening and pull them in the morning

As I stated earlier: You have an obligation to get food and keep your family fed.  But, you have an equally important obligation of not taking more than you can make use of at any one time.  So, I recommend you start small until you get an idea of what a ‘normal’ catch might be.  One method to do this is to only put a swivel, leader, hook and bait on every second or third dropper while you are ‘testing the waters’.
As a side issue, we like crawfish.  They supply some of the nutrients our other foods might be otherwise lacking.  We have a stash of crawdad traps picked up for peanuts at garage sales.  Anything you can open, close, and punch holes in will make a bait can.  Why not make use of the fish offal, I think that’s the word.  I call them fish guts.  Use them to bait a few crawdad traps.  If you get more ‘dads’ than you can eat at one time [a rare occurrence at our house!] they can up great with a water bath canner and a little vinegar and pickling spice.

Disclaimer: Many thoughts expressed here may not be legal in some or all jurisdictions.  Consult your state's fishing and trapping regulations! Items covered and methods discussed are strictly theoretical in nature unless otherwise stated. - CentOre
(CentOre is a loosely connected group of people in the Oregon High Desert interested in improving our existing skills, and learning new skills that will enhance our odds when it hits.)

Mr. Rawles,
Regarding the use of rawhide, I would recommend the short film "Lige: Portrait of a Rawhide Braider" (1985), that can be found at Folkstreams.net. The film is just under half an hour in length and is fascinating for both the people portrayed and the information it contains about the traditional working of rawhide in "the region known as the Sagebrush Corner of northeastern California and northwestern Nevada".

The site contains many additional short films (free and licensed for individual viewing) that would interest readers of your blog - rural and traditional crafts, music, lifestyles are examined. Fascinating shorts that will bring back long forgotten memories for some and will educate many others. Regards, - J.F.

This time of year we have a lot of hides on hand – deer, elk, and even cow hides when we are butchering.  We’ve tanned them, traded them for gloves, given them away to others, but usually we just dispose of them.  Not anymore.  This last year we’ve been experimenting with using rawhide, and after a year, we are convinced having rawhide on-hand is one of the more valuable items for regular or emergency use.  It is quite easy to process, unlimited in its use, and readily available to most of us.  Hopefully some of our experiences get others thinking and considering how to make use of rawhide.

Tanning a hide for leather is quite a laborious activity, and while leather is very valuable and useful, its manufacture is intimidating.  Rawhide in comparison is quite easy to produce, and provides many of the values and versatility.  Rawhide is simply an untreated animal hide.  Any animal hide is useful, and I would recommend trying out rawhide from a smaller animal, preferably a road kill, as your first foray into this product.  The only tools needed are a plastic garbage can or barrel, and a good stick for stirring.  We are currently processing several hides and you can see pictures and follow the progress on our blog.

The best part of working with rawhide is that you can set it aside for long periods of time and not worry about taking care of it.  Even the unprocessed hides can sit if you keep them dry with some salt on them.  The salt will help keep bacteria down that cause rot or smell.  We made one deer hide into rawhide last year, and we used it up so quickly that we decided to keep all of our hides this year.

After pulling the hides off our deer, we trimmed off the larger pieces of fat and meat, then simply folded them and allowed them to dry out in the Wyoming air.  In wetter climates we have found the hides don’t dry very quickly or as thoroughly and recommend you salt the hide heavily before it dries to keep bacteria and smell down.  When the hide is dry we can simply fold and store it as is for up to a year.  Check on the hide periodically to make sure it doesn’t start to smell or go bad.  We sometimes dry them by the woodstove if needed.

If you prefer a cleaner hide (which we strongly recommend) and you have the time immediately after removing it from the animal, it should be scrapped to clean off all meat, fat, and membrane just as you would to tan it for leather.  If the hide has been stored for a while dried, lay it out and put some water on it, or soak it for about a day to loosen it up and make it easier for scraping.  A 4 to 6 foot long piece of 2x6 lumber is the best tool to drape the hide over, with the flesh side up for scraping.  Another recommendation is to use an 8” draw knife (two handled) for scraping with.  It makes the work more uniform and easy.

With the hide scrapped, it is ready for removing the hair.  Soaking the hide in water or solution is often sufficient to loosen the hide’s hold on the hair allowing it to pull off easily.  In the colder winter months, however, we have found it best to mix up a solution of water and hydrated lime at about 70 degrees F – about a quart of lime for every 15 gallons of water used.  Soaking the hides in this solution for a week is enough, and you can leave the hides in the solution up to 6 weeks if you need to.  Raising the pH of the hide is what we are after.  Right now we have two hides soaking outside at about 45*F and after 3 days the hair is starting to pull out.  We may let them soak more than a week because of the cold.  Be sure to regularly stir the hides to keep them in solution.  We also use a bucket of water on top of the hides to keep them from floating out of the lime. 

We use hydrated lime because we already have it on hand for gardening needs.  You can use (and many other folks do) other options such as lye, wood ash, or other alkali options.  Just be careful with protective gloves and goggles but give it a try.  Rawhide is fun because it is so basic and forgiving.  Play around with options and see what works for you – you really can’t go to wrong with rawhide.

Once the hair is slipping out remove it from the solution and when dry enough to work, we put it back on our 2x6 with the hair up and use a duller draw knife to carefully scrap off the hair.  It comes off pretty quickly, but be careful not to damage the hide – it is quite soft and can be cut or torn after soaking so long.  When the hair is removed, you will need to rinse and treat the rawhide to restore the pH back neutral.  If you have a source of running water you can put it in that for a day or two.  We have lots of rain barrels, and soaking in one of those for 2 days is typically good, followed by a few rinses in a bucket.  Next, we use a cup of vinegar for each 15 gallons of water used to neutralize the hide and get it as close to neutral [pH] as possible.  Years ago we had a swimming pool, and we still have pH test strips that are very handy for projects like this to see how we are doing with respect to the pH.

Guess what – that is really it!  The rawhide will need some stretching and scraping, but only if you want to do it, and only when you are ready to it.  At this point, we fold up the hide again and dry it out well by the woodstove to put it into storage.  Without the hair, a deer hide will fold up and fit in a shoe box, so it is nice and small.  I recommend smoking the hide outside if you can around a fire – it will dry it out very well, and the smoking gives it a nice smell and will help preserve it for later use.  If you don’t smoke it, adding a layer of salt will also be advisable.
Depending on how you plan to use the rawhide, you will stretch and scrap it more accordingly.  We have found by repeatedly stretching and scraping the hide as it dries, it becomes more translucent – enough so that it could even be used as an emergency replacement for a window pane if glass were broken and unavailable.  Stretching it less will make it thicker and more opaque.
Now is the real fun part of rawhide – using it for everything!  As an engineer, I love finding new tools or techniques that let me do the most with an item, and rawhide is one of the best I’ve found – ever.  This stuff is really nature’s 'duct tape', better than plastic, and begs for experimentation.  In the event of SHTF, I believe this stuff will be prized by all who have access and use it.
The most common use for rawhide is cordage and rope.  We’ve made a lot of plant-based cordage, and even made string with ligaments, but nothing is as strong or long-lasting as rawhide strips.  Cordage will become rough and stiff over time if not well used or kept dry, but with repeated use, working it over and over on metal or wood posts, and with some oil the cordage will be quite supple.  It can be twisted or braided and both work well.  If you plan to make a lot of cordage, I’d recommend getting a leather strap cutter – they are inexpensive and make great, uniform cuts.
Many folks on the internet have some great examples of using rawhide for knife sheaths and hard, custom formed containers.  We haven’t tried these yet but they look like fun.  With rawhide, the key is keeping it dry to keep its form.  When it dries out, it is tough, rigid, and durable.  When it gets wet, it softens and can be reformed – this can be a big advantage, too.  I also recommend oiling rawhide lightly to help make it more water repellant, but do so lightly as the oil itself can soften the hide.

Rawhide is a fantastic replacement for nails, which is how we use most of ours.  Small strips of cordage wrap easily like string when wet and then as it dries, it will shrink, tighten, and harden into a rock-solid bond.  Think of the rawhide bones that dog’s chew (another good use for your hide) and remember how hard those can be.  We use rawhide to bind arrowheads on shafts, and when covered in a protective, thin layer of pine pitch, the arrowhead becomes a solid part of the shaft.  The strength to weight ratio of rawhide is very good.  Early pioneers constructed "Red River Carts" entirely without nails, using only an axe, wood on hand, and rawhide.

I fixed a rake handle when it was stepped on and split by wrapping a s3x4 inch strip of wet rawhide tightly around the break, and tying it in place until the hide dried and shrunk.  That fix will outlast the rest of the tool.  Similarly, a loose head on a splitting maul was tightened easily with a long, 1x8 inch strip wrapped cross-wise and dried.  When roasting marshmallows, we found that a few wraps of rawhide are good enough in a pinch for a handle and insulate from heat quite well.  This led us to speculate that rawhide would be useful for any number of automotive repairs on exhaust, water, or engine related repairs, though we have yet to try them.

I have heard it is possible to boil up glue using rawhide, though I’ve never tried it.  Likewise I have never tasted rawhide, but know throughout history it was a common staple for famished travelers and pioneers.  In a situation of starvation, boiled rawhide will nourish better than boiled plastic – and let’s hope we never get to that point.

Rawhide applied around an object also is a great stiffener.  We have stiffened wooden bows with narrow strips of it wrapped or laid along the outer edge of a bow, and in some cases stiffened the bow too much with what seemed a small piece of hide.  A loose furniture piece or piece of machinery could quickly and inexpensively be helped along by that old deer skin.  A few years ago I gave a steer hide to a woman who made a beautiful set of rawhide pack saddle panyards with the hair left on it.

I’ve read of several accounts of Plains Indian shields made from buffalo rawhide stopping or deflecting bullets.  It is quite feasible, seeing the thickness and toughness of rawhide to imagine it working though I don’t think a modern rifle bullet would be stopped in such a way.  It does make you wonder about armor applications, though.  Our 12 year-old son is working a deer hide right now that he wants to experiment with to see if and how several layers of rawhide would perform against different caliber bullets.  Sounds like a great school science project in the making.  Another thought he came up with was putting a layer of rawhide on cowboy chaps or a motorcycle jacket for added protection.  Perhaps a shoe’s sole replacement or shin guards during rattlesnake season.  Our older son speculated at casting a broken arm in rawhide to protect it if plaster were unavailable – though rawhide is far from sterile and I would not recommend it on a wound, it was a good idea.  At least they are thinking of ideas and that is worthwhile in and of itself.

Even if you are not a hunter or rancher it isn’t difficult to get hides.  I’ve posted on Craigslist to give away cow hides after butchering and was overwhelmed with the volume of responses.  Posting online or asking around will put you in touch with hunters in your area, or ask at a local butcher shop or meat processor.  These are good folks to get to know for future emergency events anyway.  Another option is road kill – yes, it is gross and a little hillbilly, but the price is right, and small hides are easiest to work with.  I recommend being picky about the road kill you pick up ;-)  The price is right and there is a ready supply.

The last recommendation I have for rawhide is to avoid the larger animal hides like elk or cow in favor of a deer hide or smaller animal.  The larger animal hides are much thicker and heavier to work with and unless you have a big project needing these features the rawhide is less versatile.  Deer hides are thinner, more pliable, and more than adequate for most jobs.  For small cordage, squirrel or rabbit are actually my preference, so bigger usually isn’t better.  As we finish our latest batch of rawhide and put it into use we will post more pictures on our blog,

Rawhide has been the ‘duct tape’ of the world for centuries.  It is reasonably available, requires minimal effort, and offers great strength, versatility, and usability for so many situations it is worth considering for your preparations.  It will be a valuable barter item in the case of TEOTWAWKI.  God in His wisdom has provided us with yet another item for our needs and deserves our praise and thanks.  I hope these ideas and options are valuable or useful in your efforts.  It has been fun for us.

James,
J.M.'s article on brain tanning mentions buildings and furniture held together with rawhide straps, and I thought I'd mention another such building. The roof of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah is a particularly innovative design for its time, and because of the builders' lack of available metals (the few metal fasteners in the roof were made from discarded ox shoes) most
of the structure depends on wooden pegs to hold it together. The builders wrapped parts of the wooden trusses in green rawhide; as the rawhide shrank during drying, it formed tight, strong straps around the trusses, preventing splitting and holding the wooden pegs firmly in place. These trusses and their rawhide straps remained in place from the building's dedication in 1867 until the Tabernacle was renovated in 2005. - Joshua T.

Michael Z. Williamson Re: Guns for a Tight Budget Minimalist Survivalist

Dear Jim,
While I much prefer modern autos, there are many good Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers from the early part of the 20th Century, in .38 Special (an easy to find, common caliber) that retail for $100-$250.  The finishes may be well-worn and ugly, but as long as the function is sound, these are an excellent choice.  The hand fitting done at the time usually exceeds what is done on modern guns.  I am especially enamored of the Smith Model 1905 Military and Police, and the Colt Cobra.

For shotguns, the classic single shot is available for as little as $80 in some forums, used in good shape.  I also really like the Stevens Model 520 takedown.  Mine disassembles small enough to carry in the bottom of a gym bag, and cost $250. Here is a picture of one.  There are many out there, usually reasonably priced, and there are plenty of spare parts for repairs.  It's a reliable shotgun, and compact enough to be discreet for travel.

I also like the 10-22, there really isn't a better choice.  It's easily improved, I just wish the factory did most of that up front rather than leaving it to the aftermarket.  It would cost the same to put in a decent trigger and round the rear of the bolt as it does to produce now, and save buyers a lot of hassle.

As to birdshot, this has been posted before, but bears repeating: Birdshot is for birds, not people.  The physics of this is that a column of shot acts as a fluid, not as a mass.  This means it splashes on impact with heavy targets.  One ounce of shot cannot hit as hard as a one ounce slug, or a smaller number of much larger buckshot. Remember that Dick Cheney's hunting partner was shot with birdshot and suffered minimal effects.  The range was not close, but both rifles and buckshot would easily deliver stops at that range.

Also, I would like to remind readers that the "storing magazines is bad for springs" myth is from a misunderstanding of mechanics.  A spring will not suffer harm within its design range.  What wears out a spring is cycles and metal fatigue.  Constantly cycling your magazines is bad for the magazines, and bad for the ammo that is being constantly bumped around.  Load it and leave it, unless you intend to shoot it. (One exception: Some box magazines for shotguns, such as the Saiga, can deform the plastic shotshell.  But his is a different matter.)

In today's world, you might wonder why working rawhide and brain tanning buckskin skill would be a benefit to anybody, when you can run to the hardware store and buy an unlimited supply of plastic, nylon, fiberglass, and what not to do your jobs. And why would anybody in their right mind want to wear anything made out of buckskin? When you have designer jeans, and all kinds of clothing to buy, in most stores like Wal-mart, K-mart, or even the used clothing stores? One question you might ask is how much of these things will be available when the fiat dollar bites the dust, or if a number of natural disasters happen? And what about a total SHTF situation, where there are no open stores selling anything? Might be worth consideration?
 
Working rawhide will give you a good substitute in most cases for a lot of plastics, and if you learn to brain tan buckskin, you can make clothing as soft and comfortable as velvet, but let me tell you, it isn't easy work! And right off, I'd hate to arm wrestle an Indian squaw from the 1800's that did hide scraping on a daily basis, those had to be very strong women!   And let me tell you, after scraping both sides of a bull hide, you realize that your arms aren't nearly as strong as you thought they were. Lets start with buckskin first.
 
The tools you'll need is a very sharp knife, a scraper, (I'll get into that a little down the line) a 2x4 stud hide rack, which is made up of  4- stud 8' long nailed or bolted into a square, bolting is better with holes so you can adjust the size of the rack to fit the hide your working on,  and it's best to mount the hide as high as possible on the rack, to save your back. 4- 25' lengths of heavy cordage, bailing twine, or parachute chord, which I find works the best, to lace the hide on the rack. a 1/8" to 1/4" leather punch, or a knife will work in a pinch to poke holes about 2" apart around the edge of the hide, A large needle made from a coat hanger, to feed the cordage through the holes, and lace on the rack.
 
Now for the scraper, I took a large file, heated it up on the forge, pounded out one end, and ground it out like a chisel edge, put a 90 degree bend back about 3" from the edge, when you get it done, it should look like an old well used hoe with rounded edges, no sharp edges like a new hoe would have, as this will damage your hide when scraping. When you get that done, re-temper it. This can be done by heating it up to an orange heat, then quench it in a bucket of salt water. The harder you can get the edge, the less you have to sharpen it. Now mount this in a 2' handle, an old shovel handle, or any smooth round piece of wood. You can use pine pitch to mount it in a cut out and wrap it with rawhide. Or if you have a welder, it can be welded on a piece of 1-1/2" black iron pipe, are you starting to get the picture?
 
Now getting back to the hide, a fresh hide is best to work with while it's still wet, and the cleaner you can skin, leaving all meat and fat on the animal, the less work you have later. Now don't get the idea that deer hide are the only thing that make good buckskin, Elk, young beef calves, dogs, coyotes, wolves, antelope, sheep, goats, most any medium sized animal hides can make good buckskin. I use to have a local dairyman save me the calves that died, and instead of taking them to the local dump, they would dump them in my front yard, and I'd skin them out, then I'd haul the calf to the dump minus the hide and brain, and sinews, leg bones and hoofs. (good knife handles and making glue)
 
Most of the books I've read on tanning suggest salting down the hides, but I have found it's a lot stronger buckskin if you work with a fresh hide unsalted, salted hides I've found tear easy and don't have the strength you need in long term buckskin clothing. I've got a pair of pants I made about 40 years ago that are still as good and strong as the day they were made. but I also don't wear them daily like jeans.
 
Okay, you now have your hide laced to the rack and ready to start scraping. Start on the flesh side (the other side from the hair) and scrape in down strokes, it's just like shaving, you slip side ways and you get cut, same with a hide. And you'll find the more careful you can skin, with no knife strokes on the hide the easier it will scrape. you have to remove all fat and membrane from the skin, get as close as possible to your lacing without cutting them. And by now you will have pains in the back of your arms. A little side note here, when you get into rawhide and Buckskinning, you take great care to get a head or neck shot on the animal your hunting, I've found that a shot right behind the ear is an instant kill with most rifles, including a .22 Long Rifle.
 
 Once you get that side as clean as possible, turn the rack over and start on the hair. You'll find if you can mount your rack against a tree or against anything to work in an upright position, it works better than flat on the ground. You'll notice that the hair comes off with a layer of skin (the scarf skin) under the hair, this has to be removed, to get the brain penetration. And if you let the hide dry out for an hour after you do the flesh side, your scraper will make a tearing sound as you scrape. There again scrape as close as possible to your cordage and holes, without cutting them! I suggest working in a shaded area if possible, so the hide doesn't dry out before you get it scraped.
 
When all hair and scarf skin is removed, cut the hide out of the rack with a knife about an inch out from the holes and lacing, take the skin and wash it in a clean bucket of water, then let it soak. Meanwhile take the brains and boil them in a kettle of water, then mash them into the water, to where it looks like a white liquid, some people take a piece of cotton cloth and put in the pan of boiling water, then put the brains in the water over the cloth, and as it cools, mash the brains by pulling the cloth up and squeezing it with your hands and keep dipping it in the kettle until all the brain is mashed into a liquid, I never tried this, as I mash them pretty good with a potatoes masher. Then take the liquid brain and water mixture, pore it into a half full, (2 to 2 1/2 gallons) 5 gallon bucket of cool water, dip the hide in the bucket, and squeeze it until it's saturated with the brain water.
 
I have found that a 6' rope tied loose around a tree on both ends, works good to work the hide, put the bucket under the rope, take the hide and work it back and forth over the rope to where the water drains back into the bucket. When the hide is wrung out good dip it back in the bucket, and soak it up again. by dipping and wringing it out you are forcing the solution through the hide, and removing the hide glue between the fibers, keep this process up for about a half an hour then the last wringing out and working of the hide, let it hang over the rope for a couple hours, but just before it's dried, still damp, work it over the rope stretching it from one direction then the other, until it's completely dry. Now you should have a soft stark white buckskin hide. But this isn't really tanned like chrome tanning, if you get the hide wet in this state, it will get hard when it dries out again.
 
To prevent this from happening, it has to be smoked. By doing this you saturate the hide fibers with wood smoke pitch. I dig a hole about 30" deep 12" diameter, and take the coals from a fire drop into the hole, and drop in damp chainsaw sawdust in over the coals, then make a small teepee framework and clamp the hide with clothes pins or clamps, but make sure there is only smoke coming up out of the hole and not much heat! Keep turning the hide so all parts on both sides are exposed to the smoke coming up out of the hole. I like the hide to come out about the color of a buckskin horse, but the longer you smoke it the darker it gets and more water resistant. Just roll it up and store in a cool dry place until you have enough hides to make something out of them!
 
It takes me five hides to make a shirt, with fringe, four hides to make pants, and I did make my pants out of two large elk hides. Now getting back to the circle of hide you left on the rack, unlace it, so you have a big circle of hide, and now you can cut several feet of lacing from the left over piece. Good for lacing, or buckstitching your clothes, and dozens of uses for this lacing.
 
Now for the rawhide-
Use the basic same process as you did for buckskin, but after both sides are scraped clean, cut it out of the rack then and not go through the braining process. Some of the old timers use to not use a rack and just stretch the hide out and put ashes on the hair side, and keeping the hide damp for several days and changing the ashes, the hair will brush off with little effort leaving the scarfskin on the hide for more strength. But really has to be rinsed good before using! Using lime does the same thing and works faster than the ashes. Depending on what you have available.
 
My wife's grandmother had some chairs made back about 1900 by a Navajo carpenter made with 1" and 2" willow saplings, the bark was cleaned off the wood, and his joints were made with slots cut through the wood and laces into place with rawhide, and the seat was made with woven rawhide, and the chair was just as solid as the day it was made. So much for screws, glue, and nails in the white man's furniture!

I've also seen some adobe homes built by the Spanish back in the early 1700s in southern California, where log rafters were laced into place with rawhide, then willow saplings laced on to the log rafters, and I'm not sure what was over the willow saplings, this couldn't be seen from inside the house, but it supported the half round clay tile for hundreds of years.
 
One trick I learned using rawhide was making foot forms. Take a 2x8 about 18 inches long, draw around your foot on two of these, left and right, then drill a hole on the line, cut around the foot pattern, take a rasp and widen the cut so the foot form drops back into the form with about 1/4" clearance around the form, shave the foot form to where its rounded. Take the rawhide from around the neck of the animal, where it's the thickest, cut two pieces out about 2" wider than your foot. soak the rawhide for a day, then put it over the hole in the form, and using a mallet, tap the foot form into the hole, over the rawhide to where it's level with the form, then trim the excess sticking up out of the form  with a knife, let it set in the form for a day or two until it dried out good, then tap it out of the form, and you should have a rawhide soul that your foot fits into. I took an old warn out pair of boots, cut around the soul, threw away the old warn out soul, punched holes about a half inch apart around the boot and the rawhide soul and sewed them together with wet rawhide lacing. The lacing when it dried swells and seals off the punched holes, and made a good pair of moccasin boots. and in the winter if you spread out a fresh rabbit or cat hide inside the boot, it's nice and warm.
 
I know the animal lovers will be appalled by suggesting using dog and cat hides, but just keep in mind that WTSHTF, there is going to be a big problem with feral dogs and cats, as people not having the heart to kill them when they can no longer feed them, will just turn them loose to forage for themselves, causing problems for other people trying to survive in a changed world.
 
A trick about rawhide lacing, when you use it, soak it, and when it's wet and flexible, run it through a rag with tallow in it, but without stretching it as you pull it through, this gives it a protective coating, and makes it water resistant. Oh yeah, the tallow is the fat you saved from the animal you skinned and rendered it out in a frying pan, and pored it into a can for later use! About every five years or so, I wipe down my buckskin pants and shirt with tallow, and let it hang in the sun for a couple hours until the tallow souls into the skins, then smoke them again, this preserves the buckskin for a very long time. I've read that some of the old Mountain men wore the same buckskins for several years in the mountains hunting and trapping. The re-smoking reduces smells, and if you hunt in buckskins, wrap them up at night with pine needles, or cedar bark, to give you that sent the next day.
 
Once you get into rawhiding, you'll find hundreds of used for this long forgotten material! Many of the big ranches in the west during the 1800's had a hired Mexican or Indian rawhider, that worked full time on rawhide, ropes, bridles, reigns, chaps, and saddle repairs. This might be something worthwhile to learn for an uncertain future, especially if it can make you life more comfortable in the hard times ahead.

J.W.R.:
Greeting from a long time reader in Southeast Texas. Regarding the article "Trapping Options for the Non-Trapper" by Pat in Oregon: When I was a child some 60 years ago, my neighbor had a problem with pigeons eating the chicken feed.  She solved the problem with large rat traps, which you can still get in any hardware store.
 
She baited the traps with the feed and placed them on the fence posts.  She also attaching about two feet of string to the trap and tied it to a nail in the post.  This kept the pigeon from taking the trap away if it wasn't
a clean kill.
 
The game was collected through the day, cleaned and stored in the refrigerator until she had enough to make pigeon pot pie.
 
Today I watch large flocks of pigeons feeding in parking lots and flying over the stores in our town, and wonder how many pot pies I am missing.
 
Keep up the good work, - Paul B.

James, 
On trapping skunks: According to my neighbour, an easier way to kill a skunk that has been caught in a live trap is as follows: After you recognize that there is indeed a skunk in the trap and not just a black cat, cover the trap in a blanket, or better yet, already have a blanket covering the trap. This way you can peek into the trap to see what is in there and also camouflage the cage-like look of the trap. It is either that or throw it over the trap after you see a skunk in there. Skunks will not spray themselves. Then you just carry the trap over to the back of your car, start it up and direct the exhaust from the tail pipe into a gap in the blanket. In just 10 minutes your skunk problem is over and no neighbours will have heard a gun shot. - Lee M.

Dear Brother James,
Just a slight correction to a great post by Pat in Oregon, you can indeed use foot hold traps in Oregon, it is a wonder though because Oregon is a very liberal state which prostitutes itself to the federal government all it can to the peril of its citizens. The regs are available online, here. May God grant you and yours peace through Christ. God Bless, - Paul S.

Most folks are familiar to some extent with animal trapping but have little experience.  In a TEOTWAWKI world I suggest there are several advantages that trapping will offer almost everyone.  With minimal equipment and some basic experience trapping can offer security, food, and economic opportunities.  Before taking any action please familiarize yourself with your local laws and requirements related to fur-bearing animals and trapping.
 
I trapped coyotes and bobcat back in my college days with a good friend.  It was a great time but required considerable equipment, preparation, effort, and skill.  Today I still do a lot of trapping, though not for profit.  Most of my trapping is for security of my livestock and preservation of my garden.
My first recommendation for everyone is to have a live trap.  These are the cages with the trap-door that locks shut when the animal enters the cage.  These are useful every day in the city, suburbs, or on the farm and very simple to use.  New they cost about $150 for large animals, but they are often found on craigslist for $30 or less.  The best part about these traps is that they are so effective and easy; yet do not injure the animal.  This is very important in a populated area where neighborhood pets are a frequent “by-catch”.
 
The live is effective at guarding our chicken coop.  The western Oregon woodlands are full of predators – coyotes, skunks, raccoons, and feral cats.  All of these predators love chicken, and frequent our coop.  We keep a live trap ready at the back of the coop at all times, and it never fails to catch a troublemaker.  Since deploying this security measure we have never lost a chicken to a land-based predator.  No bait is necessary; we simply leave the cage open against the back of the coop, and as the snoop travels along the coup it naturally enters.  We have regularly caught the neighbor’s cats, and it is always much appreciated when we can return the cat (still in the cage) safely to the grateful owners – no harm done to either party and stronger, friendly ties are forged between us.
 
A side benefit we soon realized with our live trap is a big reduction in field rats.  All of the chicken feed and eggs naturally draws rats, and they regularly are caught in the trap as well.  I recommend your first trap to be a big one – big enough for large raccoons, but if you can find a smaller one just for rats and rodents this is also a good investment.  Over the last three years we have averaged 4 skunk, 2 raccoon, 3 opossum, 5 rats, 1 squirrel, and 1 cat.

Look for a strong, sturdy construction on the trap.  Newer traps with fancy double-doors or mechanisms are less reliable.  Another great benefit of heavier wiring is that the trap is more forgiving when a trapped skunk must be dispatched by a .22 while in the trap.  We tried to get a tarp over a caged skunk to help calm it for transportation, but that did not work!  The .22 is the cleanest option for all involved with skunk work.
 
In the last couple of years the budget cuts to our county’s Animal Control office rendered it almost entirely useless.  Animal Control now only responds to dog control, since that still generates income for the county.  Neither Animal Control nor the Sheriff’s office is willing to respond to livestock or predator calls – including cougar threats!  Last night the Sheriff informed me personally that even if my children and I were physically attacked by wild or domestic animals, other than dogs, they would not respond unless there was a court order.  We are on our own.  Having a means to neutralize a threat to our animals (and kids!) with a live trap is simple, easy and effective.
 
In Oregon the use of foot hold traps is not allowed.  Too many pets were being injured, I guess.  I still have many foothold traps from my college days, and expect these could be valuable in a post TEOTWAWKI world.  Our area has been plagued over the years with “drop off” pets – people disposing of their pets they no longer want or can care for by simply driving out in the country and dropping them off.  Wild dogs and cats are often our problem to deal with, and leg hold traps could help if or when they might be permitted.  They might be quite effective against 2-legged intruders in some scenarios, too.  Just another option to consider in your planning.
 
Wire snares are another inexpensive option to consider –especially if your plans include livestock like sheep or cattle.  My wife’s family ranches on 3 sections of northern Wyoming range, with coyotes (and of course wolves) being a major concern.  Wire snares around the perimeter have been our most effective means of coyote control, and are inexpensive to deploy in numbers.  Take caution when using these as they are very effective on a neighbor’s dog and are deadly or at least disabling.  Because of this risk I do not recommend them for everyone unless you have some pressing need or experience.
Food opportunities are an obvious option trapping affords post TEOTWAWKI.  No, our family has not yet sampled opossum or raccoon.  While it might sound unappetizing in our current lifestyle of plenty, preparation is not about having treats, it’s about having options.  Food for your dog is also an important consideration. 
 
My second recommendation for every person would be to get at least one #110 Connibear style body-grip [killing] trap.  These are small, inexpensive, and fantastically effective tools for catching smaller animals – especially squirrels and weasels.  Squirrels are abundant in suburban and city settings and could become quite valuable.  A single trap can be found on eBay for about $8 and are so effective; we only allow each of our children to use them for catching one squirrel.  This gives the kids a great learning experience with the trap and the habits of a squirrel, and is also good practice skinning and sampling wild game.  It teaches them the responsibility to wisely use the life they took – a valuable lesson preparing them for hunting when they get older.  A simple Google search of the web or SurvivalBlog.com will provide more than adequate suggestions on using these traps.
 
The last trap recommendation I would offer is to get one or two mole traps.  The scissor trap is available for $5-10 and is quite valuable Pre-TEOTWAWKI in teaching skills, securing our gardens, and helping neighbors.  A wide variety of trap styles are available but we have found the old standard scissor traps to be most effective.  My younger daughters, ages 10 and 7 are my mole trappers – they wait for me to return each night from work to make our ‘rounds’ checking traps.  We have caught 15 to-dates this year, and they love it!  Our neighbors love it too, since we ran out of targets in our yard and expanded our territory.  Sure, it technically isn’t ‘trapping’ in the traditional sense, but don’t underestimate the value of quality time with children, service to neighbors, and riddance of problem animals in preparing us for a SHTF event.
 
In this sense trapping can be a valuable service to offer others as well.  My live trap is frequently at friend’s homes to deal with marauding raccoons or rats.  The added benefit of the body trap is its use on fur-bearing animals such as martin, mink, or fishers.  In some parts of the US they can pose a threat to livestock, and with the proper license they can be a valuable source of income.  Even the less-valuable pelts from raccoon and skunks are quite sought after by friends and the community – people love a nice raccoon pelt, and skunk pelts are beautiful and proudly displayed when we give them as gifts.  Even small ‘niche’ skills like these can have real value in any type of economy.
 
Two final recommendations I would offer for someone unfamiliar with trapping – a big bag of salt and a small ‘tanning kit’ of chemicals.  Salt is a critical, “stock up” item for preparations in general, and is very useful in working with animal hides.  I won’t go into skinning or tanning an animal hide, but it is quite easy and very fun – especially for teenage boys.  When the animal is skinned and the hide stretched out on a board, salt on the underside of the skin can preserve it for months until you work it for tanning.  Van Dyke’s Taxidermy supply has several ‘tanning kits’ offering complete directions and chemicals needed to tan animal furs.  They are easy to use and a $30 kit has tanned 6 or 7 different animal hides over the years.  It has offered us great experiences and fun for us to do together.   If or when you start trapping animals, making use of that animal will be the next logical step.
 
Fur trapping is not for most folks, but it does offer considerations and options for everyone as we are abandoned by our society and government.   There are pictures of equipment, skinning animals, and tanning hides on our family blog (nwpodcast.blogspot.com).  Our goal in emergency preparations is to find what opportunities afford us the greatest benefit and options.  Hopefully my ideas have generated some options for you.