Gunfighter

yellowdog762 · Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 46

I went on a short “Bush Craft” class in east Texas this weekend and I came away with a few new thoughts and observations. One interesting thing that our instructor suggested people consider carrying was a small cast net.

While the weights in the net might prevent it from being something that you would carry on a casual stroll though the woods, it might not be a bad idea to have a cast net in a boat, plane, ground transportation or in a go bag.

On our walk we ended up near a small pond. While most of us participated in a discussion of some aquatic plants; two people that had small travel rods proceeded to make a number of casts with various small lures to no effect. In a real survival situation I probably would have tried baiting a small hook with one of the many grass hoppers or crickets in the area, but they didn’t.

After we wrapped up the plant discussion someone brought out a medium sized cast net and proceeded to demonstrate its’ use. Many of us had used a cast net before so we stepped aside and those that had not proceeded to flail the water with the net. After only a couple of practice throws, virtually every person caught at least several small fish. Our champion fish catcher was a small statured 14 year old girl.

What I find really interesting about this is that within 10 minutes several people, none of whom had ever used a cast net before, managed to catch enough fish for one to two meals. This on disturbed water during the middle of the day.

I can not think of another way that an inexperienced person could quickly, safely and QUIETLY catch enough food to feed several people in only a few minutes.

We noted that while larger cast nets can be easily and profitably handled by most men, they are also often used from the deck of a boat or other ideal vantage point. You may want to select one of the smaller models for your survival pack to lessen the weight, to simplify use in a survival situation and to insure that most members of your party can easily use the net. Nylon nets are cheaper and don’t rot but they seem to tangle a little easier.

M.W. · Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 134 Location: inside the loop

Kinda cool way to spend a great weekend!

Who does these "Bush Craft" outings or is that the name of the compsny?
Website? Thanks,YD762 good idea on a cast net.

Hoff · Joined: 28 Jun 2007 Posts: 507 Location: Warrior Nirvana

Good information for us Yellowdog, Also readers here is a link http://www.texasgulfcoastfishing.com/castnets.htm

with instuctions on throwing the castnet
Hoff

yellowdog762 · Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 46

T.R. Zimmermann taught this one. He is a botanist and several other –otanist things. He also writes for Primitive Archer and Wilderness Way Magazines and he happens to live in Houston. http://www.wwmag.net/backissu.htm

I read a number of his articles over the years and then came across one of his classes in Leisure Learning. www.llu.com

For his next class he is trying to put togather a class called Eat the Beach where the class meets in Galveston and harvests various edible and medicinal food plants from the dunes. The class will end up in the estuaries, eating snails and minnows I imagine. He also said something about teaching survival fishing in this class

Based on some of his stories, he has apparently been to a number of places around the world, many of them working for Uncle Sam.

He is getting on up there so I don’t know how many more classes he’ll be doing.

Zimmermann has some good ideas that would probably translate to many areas of the world even if the plant knowledge is a bit specialized to the US. He is not really a gun guy but because of that he has some interesting alternate solutions to many problems that, as a gun guy, I’d probably try to solve with a gun.

In addition to his bush craft classes he teaches classes on the medicinal uses of wild plants, flint knapping and using a sling-as in David vs Goliath. I have a strong interest in some of these things for their value as improvised weapons and silent methods of hunting and self defense.

M.W. · Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 134 Location: inside the loop

Thanks for the info about Wilderness Way magazine,Yellowdog.

Never know what piece of information in a dangerous situation will be the difference between life and death. I love to watch the Man vs.Wild show on the Discovery channel for that reason,but hands on training is needed as well.
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/manvswild.html
(Btw,I never go near a beach without my weapon,call it a learned experience,lol.)

Like Brian tells us,CE (continuing ed) involving many types of specialized knowledge is important to prepare for the problems that we will face in the months and years ahead. We all hope that bad things won't happen to us or our loved ones...but hope is not a strategy.

Also,the old saying "You can get more accomplished with a harsh word and a gun than you can with just a harsh word" has real meaning in some situations.
Mr. Zimmerman sounds quite talented,and no point in arguing of course, but it is unsual for an outdoorsman not to consider a gun of some kind to be an essential tool for any survival planning.

yellowdog762 · Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 46

“Unusual” is very descriptive of him. I ignored the stuff he said that I didn’t agree with and just worked on trying to retain the other, there was a lot of good stuff.

Hoff · Joined: 28 Jun 2007 Posts: 507 Location: Warrior Nirvana

Wise observations guys. A good student will recognize what information will fit under his umbrella of operations and discard what is not.
Hoff