Hunt4Survival

Sorry folks I could not find a better subforum. Please move if needed. You guys don't have a legal or general subforum that I could find.

I study bushcraft/survival and my hunting experience is limited to fishing with a tiny bit of shooting squirrels and birds with a pellet gun. I own a 22 rifle, that I've never used. I am buying land soon - where i'm not sure yet. I plan to have 100 acres or so off the grid to build a small house on for the wife and build a small survival shelter that will slowly one day morph into a woodlands palace for my play house when i'm my "backyard". The idea is to slowly transition from the "wife's house" to the woodland palace and live totally self sufficient making,growing,hunting,trapping anything we need so we don't have to rely on someone else's ideas of how society should live.

I know or have read, in a true survival situation it's legal to take any animal with any means in season or out if you need food to survive. Perhaps someone here can confirm this.

I will be off the grid away from any cities towns. I do not believe in having to buy a hunting license just so my wife and I can survive on our own land. I understand in every state there are animals that's legal to hunt without a license because they are considered nuisance animals or are way over populated.

Without actually calling each state in the USA for a list..is there such a publications that details these animals nationally? - It would help in choosing my future property.

Any other tips or thoughts that might help in my situation from those with experience in these matters?

Thank you.

Oldtimr

I don't know where you read that, but I don't know of any states in the lower 48 that would tolerate subsistance killing of animals. Alaska has some subsistance hunting for residents but it is also controled with laws about when and how and what. If a person was in the rockies and got lost and was starving and needed food to live and killed to survive til rescue, I doubt they would be prosecuted. However, to decide you are going to live off the grid and just do what you want to do, kill what you want, when you want and how you want, that won't fly. You might get free food, but it would be on a tray with guards watching you eat.

Bocajnala

To do what you want legally you'll have to raise your own meat. And buy hunting license for the things that you want to hunt. Even animals that many consider to be a nuisance still have a season (Racoon, opposum etc..) And animals that have No closed seasons, like coyote and ground hogs still require you to have a hunting license.
-Jake

Bob H in NH

If there are "survival" clauses, you won't qualify, you are not in survival mode, you chose to do what you are doing. closest I can think of the something like the show Alaska the Last Frontier, they are homestead folks, but they are bound by hunting seasons, bag limits, fishing seasons etc. They farm, raise cattle AND hunt/fish.

You will be subject to taxes, even property taxes, so you will be subject to laws of the land. You can "live off the grid" but that isn't living away from the established laws.

There may be animals you can shoot year round, and maybe without a license, but most have seasons and most require licenses. You can live off "your land" but the animals on "your land" aren't "your animals" unless they are livestock.

Topgun 3006

Some of your comments aren't correct Jake. There are many states that don't have a closed season on a number of animals that are considered pests and it can range from rabbits to coons to coyotes, etc. Many places also don't require a license to shoot them. One that I'm well aware of is in Wyoming where I can kill pdogs and coyotes year around with no license even though I'm not a resident. As to whether a person would want to eat some of those critters, it would be up to them. There are also some states that allow a resident to hunt ungulates without a license on their own land, but they are still bound by the season dates and bag limits. There is absolutely no state in our country that would allow the OP to legally do what he's talking about. Therefore, you are correct that he would have to raise his own domestic stock if he wanted to be self sufficient for edible meat like he wants to do, unless he has some great property with a good number of different wild animals in a state that has sufficient bag limits for him to do what he wants ans still stay legal under the state guidelines. More and more families that are out in the western states are only eating wild game that they shoot, but they are buying the various licenses and tags needed for the family members to do it legally within the laws of the state where they live and not indiscriminately like the OP is suggesting.

flags

My suggestion is before you really think you can live completely off the grid and hunt up your own food, you at least learn how to shoot the .22 rifle and actually kill some game. From what you write you sound like a city guy that has wathced way too many reality TV programs. Very few people can safely do what you say you want to do and most of them have a very extensive hunting/fishing/camping background. I don't see that in your post.

sachiko

I really don't see buying 100 acres and building a house as being "off the grid."

My husband has told me he once had a fantasy of hiking into the state forest on the Upper Peninsula with a couple blankets, a bow, an ax, and a couple of pots, and some various tools, some wire, some fishing tackle, etc. (A couple years ago, they found a body of a hunter who disappeared over 20 years ago.) He figured he could build a small hut, dry meat to make jerky, dry the blueberries and raspberries which grow plentifully up there. He figured he could walk into the nearest town occasionally and buy some necessities like clothes, maybe some flour, and adult beverages.

That would be "off the grid." He says it would have been a terrible mistake because he wouldn't have met me.

Topgun 3006

I think you got that right, as I've watched a couple of those shows just out of curiosity. These people do what he's talking about and it seems they all think they can survive a nuclear holocaust, etc. At best they all seem to come across as a nutcase!

Hunt4Survival

I'll clarify a few things. I'm 47 year old Cajun who had fished most of my life. Though not a "hunter" I have owned and shot my 22 rifle and my semi auto 22 long rifled barrel pistol enough over the last 30 years to know i'm a good shot. I simply haven't used it to do any real hunting yet but to me that's no big deal - small game and a gun is just a different type of fish and fish trap for me. Easily learned to shoot skin gut and cook. I have no fears there. I have gone camping for extended periods of time all my life. I can and do live for days at a time camping out just fishing for my meat. I have no fears of being able to survive.

Listen..I didn't think I had to say all that for you to answer my questions. I certainly aren't asking any of you for extensive backgrounds to see if you are even qualified to answer me.

Oldtimr

No one needs your background to tell you you cannot do what you want to do in the United States of America regardless of what you do not believe in. The land may be yours if you buy it, however, the wildlife belongs to the state and or federal government depending on what it is. You asked the question, don't shoot the messengers because they didn;t tell you what you want to hear.