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| We don't need weapons to "hunt" Bigfoot |
This is a guest post by Ron Mcallen. Ron is an avid outdoorsman and hunter who has traveled all over the nation.
Hunting has long been one of the great American pastimes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recorded nearly 13 million active American hunters in the last survey, who combined for over 200 million days chasing deer, elk, turkey and even Kodiak bears. Hunting has been a vital part of human activity since the days our ancestors first picked up a sharpened stick, but what would happen if you had to hunt Bigfoot and bring home a meal without the aid of a high-powered rifle or compound bow?
Photo of an animal trap by Stephen McCulloch via Wikimedia Commons
Snare It Up
Passive hunting lets you gather up your next meal without having to stalk, chase or overpower your quarry, this technique will come in quite handy while hunting Sasquatch and conserving your energy. By creating snares, hunters can collect prey animals in a situation where you cannot afford to waste heat or energy. Place a snare where you can find the telltale signs of small animals, such as tracks, droppings, chewed plants and nests.
Rigging a snare requires only a length of rope or elastic material and can be done by putting a knotted loop over an area. Small animals with poor vision, namely rabbits and squirrels, walk over the rope, which tightens when they pull it forward.
Netting
Dispatching an immobilized animal poses little difficulty, even when larger than you or armed with teeth and claws, but in the case of this big creature, this approach might not be the best strategy to use. For example, imagine placing nets in areas where Bigfoot will run when startled, upon capture you will have only a few precious seconds to either tranquilize or take a fatal shot, so be sure to make it count. It's hard to improvise a net out in the wild unless you can find a source of thin bark, so purchase nylon nets at an outdoor gear store to be prepared for hunting with your hands.
Pitfalls And Perils
One of the oldest methods of hunting large game incorporates the power of gravity. By creating a pitfall, larger animals that would be impossible to take down without a weapon can be made into a meal. Creating a pitfall while is time and energy-intensive it is probably the best strategy for hunting Bigfoot, however, since you will need to dig out an area deep enough that a creature cannot climb out of, and then cover it with leaves, sticks, and other camouflage. Lay a pitfall along an area where Bigfoot is sure to cross, such as a worn path. Larger animals congregate around water sources, which can be scarce in rural areas, so laying a pitfall near the only pond or river in an area gives a higher chance of success.
Foot Traps
More likely to catch an animal than a simple snare, a hunting trap will immobilize any animal that wanders into its catch spring. To make a foot trap from scratch, sharpen stakes with a pocketknife that will clamp down on an animal's paws or hooves. Some public areas have outlawed the use of foot traps, due to their risk to other hunters. Be sure to take a
hunter course to understand the state's hunting laws and regulations. These courses help you come home with a better probability of catching the historic creature known as Bigfoot, whether you go out armed with a weapon or just your own two hands.
Most of those traps are unlikely to contain a large, strong animal with opposable thumbs for very long, unless it becomes severely injured somehow. Digging a pit trap is the least likely to work because it takes so much time & effort, leaving lots of human odor (from sweat, etc.) and all the dirt that used to be in the pit has to go somewhere. It is harder than one would think to make a believable cover for a pit trap, too. That is why not very many have actually been used in real life situations. A tripwire with a massive boulder or log(s) would work if the animal was forced to move through an area that is difficult to cross, making it less likely that it could swiftly move out of the way of the killing deadfall. Of course, you never know, sometimes the simplest, off the wall thing takes out the most wary and ferocious, powerful thing. You listed about every trap known within reason.
ReplyDeleteI think I would make some throwing spears, then a bow and arrows. You need the spears 1st to acquire deer sinew for the bowstring and to reinforce the bow with. The spearheads and arrowheads would be knapped stone, and potentially bone as well. This allows you to actively hunt while your traps are working for you in the areas you are not hunting in.
Anyway, this article gets us all thinking about what we might do and what we think would and wouldn't work (in our most humble opinions, of course!).