"John Keeney" wrote in message ...
"Fred the Red Shirt" wrote in message
om...
"Paul J. Adam" wrote in message
...

Again, for survival after escaping from an unflyable aircraft? The idea
is
"not to die of exposure, hunger or angry wildlife", not "stand off all
of 3
Shock Army singlehandedly". Every ounce of grenades, heavy-calibre
ammunition, et cetera you carry is an ounce less of food, water, radio
beacon, spare batteries, flares, dye markers and other items that might
actually improve your chances of living until rescue.

Respectfully, doesn't that depend on what you are most likely to need
to do in order to survive?

WILDERNESS survival in peacetime is different from survival behind
enemy lines in time of war.

A lone downed airman -or lone downed crew for that matter- isn't
in a position to get into fire fights: there's just no way they can have
brought enough fire power with them. Not getting captured means
stealth and recovery. Survival means not ****ing off the more heavily
armed people around you, water, shelter in bad weather and food.
In that order.

A good knife can be used stealthily in making shelter, some places
getting water and food. Perhaps a gun with subsonic ammo would
be sufficiently comforting and useful for small game in a long term
situation to be worth while.

Which has some clear implications IRT guns. It would seem that
shooting game for food would be a bad idea as gunshots can attract
unwanted attention. OTOH, shooting a lone person who has spotted
you and is running to report your presence to the military is
probably worth the risk.

I would think that gathering plants and insects for food would
be highly prefereable to hunting game with a firearm. The
probability of success is higher and for the most part you can eat
as you gather, no need to gut, skin, dress or cook a grub or cattail
root.

In wartime, if you include a gun in the survival kit it seems it
ought to be the sort useful for shooting humans because it would
be inadvisable to shoot anything else.

When I was in High School we had a visit from a US Army Helicopter
pilot who had been shot down twice in Vietnam. He said that both
times when he was rescued he was running pretty hard to keep ahead
of the VC. Obviously he wasn't going to take time to hunt for
food, but a good rifle might have helped to keep the VC at a
distance.

In the wilderness, defending oneself against wild animals is pretty
much a non-issue unless you go out of your way to harrass a moose or
something. OTOH, in peacetime you will most likely be staying
near the crash site waiting for rescue so hunting is more practical.

--

FF