Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Could you live on deer in a major crisis?

It would require far too much gasoline to travel to where the deer are to make subsistence hunting viable here. And, due to a 40+ year drought cycle and mining's impact on the area, all animal populations are way down.

Really, ask your army special forces friends how long you'd last

I'll play. After everything is decimated in the 1st 3 months (I'm being generous). You'll have to deal with roving bands of brigand gangs, as well as, invading countries such as China who will follow up with killing more and subjugating the rest.

This doom and gloom stuff is so fun, I'm beginning to understand it's popularity!

No, not even in Tassie.

When I was working in the sheds for Pitcher around Broken Hill in the early 80's there was a miners strike going full swing. Each weekend when we came in to the Hill the mob of cattle that was on a block just out of town got smaller and smaller...pretty much non existent at the close of the strike.

This thread popped into my head at work yesterday.



Not a F'ing chance.


I know that, it's been demonstrated.

1980s, the our first firearms deer season was bucks only, daylight to about 9 there were constant shots. It often sounded like scattered battles. From noon on, shots every few minutes. Walking, driving, standing...you couldn't help but see 10-20 deer a day, minimum.
Often groups of 5-10.

We had the gamut of seasons, but 1 tag for the year.

Early 90's they started including a doe tag with the license.
That allowed 2 deer,
and provided the opportunity to kill a deer and keep hunting. With the used, unmarked
tag hidden. Tags would be used over and over. By some.

In a couple years there was a noticeable decrease in deer.


Early 2000s PGC got on the quality bandwagon, and I'll leave the rest out of this.
Now guys can buy unlimited tags through a controlled system.

They can kill 4 maybe 5 deer without even breaking the law.

Where I could have easily killed 4 deer on most days in the 80s, you can now
hunt all day and not see a deer. The first day used to sound like a Trap Shoot.
Now, it's a few scattered shots per hour. Despite now being able to shoot any
deer except spikes and forkhorns(brow tines count), some first days I'll hear under
20 shots. There used to be more than that just from the public land within earshot.


Based on that.

With most deer killing coming in season, legally, regulated, and only by people
hunting as a past time,
as opposed to desperate, unregulated slaughter by
anyone with a chance to kill a deer.


Anyplace without enormous blocks of unpopulated land would soon eliminate
the animals.

I read the title and thought " we already do!" Not realizing the apocalyptic nature of the question. My immediate family eats 2 1/2-3 deer a year. Generally don't buy beef. I remember grandad telling me about the great depression up here in Wisconsin, and how they had a game warden in their small community. When a shot rang out, he would try to track down the perpetrator, only because he wanted to help distribute meat for those who had none. Refrigeration was non existent. Hard times, yes. But I would argue better times. But yeah, the deer would run out when the yahoos dispersed.

Considering how with a whole lot less people the deer, elk, buffalo etc. etc. etc. were decimated from sea to sea relatively early in our history. I wouldn't see that being a option for long, but ya I could for a while at least.

A body can survive on grain.

My boss had that cartoon on his cubicle wall in 1984.
He was from Montana where he hunted with a rifle, but now hunts WA with a bow.

1 family member who hunts would be hunting to feed several families and possibly the neighbors, too. He'd be shooting as many deer as possible.
There'd be a run on 22 shorts for suburban hunting. People would hear a pop at 2am and think nothing of it. If their windows were shut, they night not even hear it.

I have no answer for China or other invading nations…..but, the roving bands can be somewhat address.

You simply move into an area of very low population, many miles to large towns/cities, many miles to interstates (main arteries for travel and connects to large cities), and an area that is very inhospitable!

If you’ve are well established and are properly prepared you along with your friends/neighbors could hope to weather the storm! memtb

I've never eaten rock chucks but you can bet that the population would take a hit for the stew pots. There are lots of them around her now but there would also be a lot of hunters after them. I shot 15 from my back step last summer.

We live partially on deer meat now. I figure they would be shot out quickly if people could get fuel to drive.

I am still eating 2021 venison.

You would have to eat EVERY bite of EVERY internal organ AND the contents of the stomach and small intestines and even then nutrition would be iffy.

if they anything like a West Virginia groundhog (and they look simuler) they good eating ,in a crockpot or rolled in flour and fried ,how my granma fixed them

During the Depression they called armadillos "Hoover Hogs" in honor of the President.

It's hard to imagine being as poor as my parents were. Poor people the world over eat beans and rice and survive just fine. My grandad kept a pipe wrench under the wagon seat and would drive closer and closer toward a sitting rabbit. He was good with a rock too they said. Couldn't afford bullets. Sold the Ballard rifle. Pop once sent me some money when Jimmy Carter was in. Said we might have to eat possum. I said, well I do have a .22. After a minute he said, ooh ..... you won't have to eat possum. Gave me hope it did.

My wife's grandad was an illiterate immigrant in Pennsy. He was a shameless poacher. With his Model 12 20 gauge he killed everything from ground hog to deer and told the game warden he should forget the rumors he was hearing, for his own sake.

There are many more deer here now than ever in my lifetime and prior. I've counted 40+ several times from my house in late winter, all does. Hogs showed up here about 20 years ago but on my property they are still feast or famine.

My dad tells the story of an old timer neighbor that used to shoot deer in the guts with a .22 to keep them out of his watermelon patch.

In a survival situation, I would not want a black powder firearm.Though they are simplistic in design, but black powder is a "corrosive master"!
A simple single shot rifle, pistol, shotgun or other non repeating arm should work great.

Just my opinion.