Hunting on the Go

[RikJohnson]

This was motivated by another discussion about hunting large bears.

Survival books tell you all these neat tricks to make traps and build shelters and so on... but they don't tell you why! The sole reason they want you to make trap-lines and build shelters is to keep you in one place so the rescue party can find you.

BUT...
The purpose of a Ranger is to Range!
Rangers cannot build a shelter and run trap lines because it keeps them in one place when they should be moving around, spying on the enemy, collecting information and so on. SWpending hours a day checking and repairing your traps is as bad as abandining them and returning days later to find your dinner bloated and rotting or stolen by another animal.

True, you can make a Base-Camp, range from that for a while, then move to another base camp. But mostly you'll be moving around. Which means light and minimalist gear.

Now, a 30.06 is a great weapon to hunt deer, elk or stop a bear or orc, but look at what that does to a rabbit!
And if you are ranging, you are NOT going to waste time tracking, killing and dressing a deer, then having to smoke all that meat or let it rot...
You'll be living off fish and rabbits and the such. which means a .22 or .410.
now you are carrying two rifles, one for combat and one for survival. The alternative being to eat ONLY MREs the entire time (can you say corkscrew).

If we are ranging for a weekend, we only need trail foods. If we are ranging for a week or more, we'll supplement those rations with whatever we can find and hunt/fish along the way (I'm avoiding the position of a varment-hunting & fishing license as another topic)

So, we carry a heavy bow (Longbow, crossbow, carriage bow, etc) for combat but then, should we carry a lighter bow for varmet hunting for dinner?
and get bogged down with weight and gear?

[bjaurelio]

Use the same bow. Just carry a few arrows with blunts for hunting small game and save your broadheads for combat.

[Rifter]

To be honest I would too use the same bow and simply change what I hunt with to what I'm hunting

[BrianGrubbs]

The blunt arrows would be the first choice for me, but if you're looking for another weapon to carry, try a sling. Super light weight, and readily available ammo.

Brian

[RikJohnson]

The blunt arrows would be the first choice for me, but if you're looking for another weapon to carry, try a sling. Super light weight, and readily available ammo.

Brian

I sling and I carry a bag into which I am always adding decent stones.
I also have a "meatball" mold which I can use to press sand&Clay into bullets.

My accuracy is .. well it rangesfrom good to 'run away', but in't good enough for dinner.

[Straelbora]

Personally, I'd go with the phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.

[Greg]

*whoops*

[Greg]

Interesting thoughts.

For one, we have to make a distinction between the function of a bullet and an arrow. Bullets, such as in the 30-06 and .22 you referenced, are not designed to cut persay, causing a 'bleedout' like an arrow tipped with a broadhead is. Bullets deform as they hit even soft targets, due to their shape, and intentionally 'mushroom' to actually create additional resistance to prevent a pass-through. This is because the damage they cause is due to shock upon impact...that's the bulk of what puts a deer down, and that's why a 30-06 destroys a rabbit. Not the entry hole, persay, but rather the exit hole that's many times the size of the projectile.

In a situation where we are carrying period weapons, such as bows, shooting a rabbit is a very different experience. Bows don't create massive, explosive exit holes. They go right on through. There's a gent, name isn't coming to mind, who is a large proponent of bamboo-backed osage bows, who has a series of blog posts on his bowmaking page detailing his lifelong pursuit and love-hate relationship with hunting squirrels.

SQUIRRELS.

He advocates using the heavy-poundage bows that folks regularly use on deer, elk, and bear, because squirrels are uncompromising quarry...why should we then compromise? He shoots a 60#er at the little critters regularly.

Now, to bring this down to middle-earth...
In Gondor, the Ithilien rangers are a military unit. They have access to food stores and things courtesy of colonized Gondor and their Military supply chain that the rangers in the North do not have access to. To this end, they can get away with, and probably need to carry fullsize heavy longbows for the occasion when massed fire over an open battlefield a la Agincourt may arise.

Zoom across the map to Arnor, and we have a very different situation in the 3rd age.

The Dunedain don't have access to a military rations depot. They don't have much in the way of established towns (Fornost fell way back in T.A. 1974, so it was long gone), and I find it hard to believe that the great wealth of Numenor was still present thousands of years after its fall, so the average Ranger doesn't exactly have capital to be buying rations, etc. when popping in and out of bree. After all, they possess a "Thankless" job, not one that pays every two weeks on time, plus time-and-a-half for overtime and holidays, here...

So where does all of the food come from?

Aragorn himself stated that he had "some skill as a hunter at need", though he also mentioned that it would take up more time than he and the four hobbits could spare, being pursued on the road. This could have alluded to trapping, hunting with a bow, etc...we'll never really be sure on that one. But the fact of the matter is, it was a routine part of his existence.

My best guess is that, since there were a fair number of these rangers wandering about, they'd probably keep somewhat loose tabs on one another, and pitch in when food became available. Ranger A gets an opportunity to shoot a deer, so Ranger B covers his patrol area a bit (assuming they had patrols...but if they had a chieftain, I'd imagine things were reasonable organized) while Ranger A smokes the whole deer...and distributes the spoils to his nearby co-horts, and stashes the rest at a nearby outpost. Other similar means could be used for gathering edibles, etc., though I like to snag them as I move anyway.

SO, if you'll pardon the segue from bows...
Northern Rangers are posed with a very different martial- and food-situation. They aren't likely to find themselves in an open combat given the terrain and lack of large armies in proximity...they're dealing with small patrols, with small patrols. Mobility through the woods both while ranging and in combat would be the order of the day. This says, to me, smaller bows, with hunting being their chief objective. A bodkin is a lever, of sorts, and even with 45# behind it, it can open a chain maille ring handily (thank heavens Tolkien didn't include plate armor past the forearms and shins.)

In short, carrying ONE bow, designed with hunting up to and including deer-sized game, will serve you plenty well in a woods combat situation, no massed-lobbing necessary.


As for shelters...a Ranger works better when he sleeps comfortably. I seek out or build a shelter every night...doesn't mean it takes so long that I ruin my days' productivity or my mobility to do it.

[Eledhwen]

Well said, Greg. I'm with you on this. Your thoughts echo my own quite closely.

Unless one is lucky, hunting *is* time intensive work. If you have to go from point A to point B as fast as possible, hunting is not likely to be terribly successful.

Smaller longbows meant for hunting should work fine. Reflex-deflex bows should be fine too, and those can be a fair bit shorter than the usual six feet.

Eledhwenn

[Ringulf]

Very inciteful!
The differences in the Northern and Southern Ranger groups are based on their mission perameters thus weapons and provisions differ accordingly. Much food for thought here. Thanks Greg and Eledhwen!

[Eledhwen]

The mission parameters vary because the cultural support system varies. Dispersed, decentralized, and localized vs organized, centralized, and cohesive. Gondor has a structure, merchant trade routes and systems, manufacturing abilities, so its armed units have support that the 'villages' of the North don't have. Southern units can operate in large groups with supply lines whereas the Northern folk operate dispersed, often alone, with whatever supply they can scrounge or secure for themselves.

The cultural and social background affects things like military ability pretty heavily. There's more to it, but this is very much a core aspect.

Eledhwen

[Greg]

Hunting is VERY time-intensive, and I'll happily say that if you intend to eat rabbit, setting a trap is about the only way you're going to get one. Seeing one sitting still is virtually impossible, and shooting one once flushed is just as difficult. The only way to consistently catch rabbit in a period setting is Falconry, and that brings in a whole new set of complications, including feeding and weighing your bird. Scales of any sort are going to need a base camp to live at, and now we're back to square one.

[ineffableone]

Something to note on bows. If you want a lighter weight, all you have to do is not draw it back as far. It really is just that simple.

So if your going after small game with a war bow, you can easily just not draw it back to your normal anchor point. Even shooting a deer you might want to limit your bow's power. A 50-60# bow can shoot an arrow right through a deer.

As for hunting on the go, I have thought a lot about this. In Middle Earth without massive deforestation and encroachment of civilization etc the wild game would be fairly plentiful. But in our times/world hunting is quite limited due to hunting seasons, scarcity of game animals, etc in general I would have to say that it would mostly be a matter of luck. I don't know how many folks here have actually done any hunting, but if you have you might have noticed after the first couple shots of hunting season all the deer seem to disappear. Game are not stupid, and quickly start to hide. Unless you are skilled stalker, and walk very carefully in the forest, all the animals are being alerted to you being there. The birds give out alarm calls, and other animals listen and hide when they hear the birds warning. Squirrels and bunnies will seek shelter if they hear a bird warning. Squirrels too give warning calls and can send warnings quite a distance in relay. And I don't know how many of you have hunted squirrel with a bow, but they are agile little buggers, and seldom stay still long.

My thinking is the best ways for gaining meat while ranging would be set up traps/snares before you go to sleep, and check your traps in the morning. Trapping is a much more calorie conservation technique of getting meat.

Or hunting/trapping a larger animal like boar or deer. I mention trapping too for large game, it is possible to snare deer or boar, however it happens to be illegal for us in our present time but I would bet a ranger would have snared deer and boar. Then take the time to dry and smoke it. You would then have enough food to not have to hunt for a while. The larger game technique would mean staying in one camp for a day or two every so often when ever you need to resupply your meat stocks.

I would imagine the hunt small game while moving and stopping to hunt larger game techniques would be mission dependent some times. Like hurrying Hobbits through the forests while trying to avoid Ring Wraiths your not going to do a lot of hunting. But if your scouting and protecting a border you might take small game but stay on the move. And if your trying to go over a mountain you can be pretty sure your going to take the time to hunt some big game and dry and smoke it so you have food while you go over the pass.

[Laothain]

I agree being a traditional bowhunter it takes a great deal of time and even more patience to get game and squirrels can be down right annoying. I remember watching the Real Robing Hood on youtube and from the way it sounded they used the same bow for big and small game and just used different arrows to bring it down

[Kortoso]

Hunting game by any means tends to slow you down no matter what. You have to stop to clean, skin and butcher the beast, and conjure a fire to cook it. Doing this with small game is relatively less bother than dealing with a deer, unless you are with a group.

Rabbits (jackrabbits, Rik?) live in predictable areas and come out at predictable times, and they leave tracks and scat. Learn this and become more "rangery".

In my range, I have fewer rabbits and more turkeys. These would be like the grouse of the Old World. They are stupid birds and I find it easy to walk into the middle of the flock on the ground without spooking them much. I could take one of them easily with a thrown stick. But then I would have to pluck it, clean it and cook it in order to make its death worthwhile.

PS: To answer your question with a question, does a heavy bow destroy small game in the way that a heavy rifle would?