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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Telor" data-source="post: 277584" data-attributes="member: 1786">I have a difficult time seeing the 'cityfolk' side of this topic. I've always lived within 5 minutes of excellent camping/hunting ground. Now, I live in (technically) a city but I'm a halfhour walk from hunting ground. I was in BoyScouts for years and I hunt and fish since I've been legally allowed to.Making a fire without matches or anything of the sort is hard to do. Even if you know what you're doing. Finally a movie, Cast Away, got it right. If you can remember what Tom Cruise did, it will still take you a few hours until you get a decent spark.If you owned a can opener you could live on Speghetti-Os, over an open fire, for a long time. The can would serve as its own pot. Unless you know how to purify water with a firepit, expect to have dysentary regularly; unless you're already very sick it won't kill you, but you'll become very use to the 'runs'. If you know how to spot a spring you can avoid this situation all together.Killing an animal is extremely easy to do. It wouldn't take an unlearned human long to fashion a spear or bow and arrow and be capable of killing an animal, even something the size of a deer. Field dressing an animal is a completely different story. An unlearned human would wast (I"m guessing) 70% of the animal's resources not counting the skins, since in this scenario we wouldn't need animal skins for a long time. As someone said earlier, unless you have enough people to eat the meat in a day, depending the the temperature, it will spoil. Do you know how and where to bury meat to keep it for a few more days?We all know how to tie our shoes but how many of us know more than 10 kinds of knots? Worse yet, how many of us know what kind of plant material can serve in place of rope? This knowledge is extremely important. Making tents, strung bows, shoes, you name it requires decent knot knowledge.Do you know what a 'bearbag' is? It would take you a only few days in the wilderness with food, to learn what a bearbag is. While I'm on the subject, (it is extremely rare that this encounter would happen, once every 3 years probably but) a bear can out run, out climb, and out swim you. Should you encounter a pissed off bear, what do you do? Spears and arrows, unless he has like a dozen stuck in him, will just piss him off even more.I really could go on, but I think it is important for all humans to have basic outdoor knowledge. Not because of a threat of nuclear holocaust. How many movies have you seen where the backpacking family (or whatever) gets stranded out somewhere and has to learn all of this stuff the hard way, usually one dieing or another missing his toes, or both. It wouldn't make much of a movie if someone in the family was totally prepared. Talk to any park ranger, too many 'normal' people go camping and get themselves in some kind of trouble, albeit most of the time it is minor.Another reason I think it is important: I love hearing this one, "How can you kill an animal? That is so cruel?" coming from a person who eats hamburg. Usually I just laugh in their face and tell them to go get their food from the new Walmart Supercenter and pick up the hamburg that doesn't come from a killed animal. I'd guess millions of americans don't understand where their sandwiches come from nor do they understand the sacrifice said animal made for them to have a delicious meal. Obviously vegetarians have every right to ask me that question and I respect their opinions because they can back them up.I turned this into a freakin book, I apologize. But this is one of my favorite topics.-Telor</blockquote>

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