I started the survey then quit when I got to the persuit part.
Our game laws have changed to the point that, where I hunt , one would be lucky to kill a legal deer once every ten years.
I encounter all manner of edible animals during my hunting that I dont even consider for food or supplies. Unlike primative people, I have canned soup and bologna at home, I can order buckskin and supplies online and have them delivered to my door. I survive on the mighty dollarthat I earn by working.
Most people now a days hunt as a past time and can live without hunting and not starve. The overwhelming majority of hunters I encounter are more worried about how much beer is in the cooler than actually killing animals and have never ever ventured more than a half mile from the truck or four wheeler. Most consider two hours in a comfy padded chair in a over size heated deer blind as a long hard hunt.
The amount of dollars a person has and is willing to spend to gain access to certain places to hunt has more bearing on overall success than skill at persuit of game does these days.
Modern hunters have differant goals and motivaters than primative people and are not dependent upon a successful hunt to survive, nor do modern hunters need the raw materials gained from a successful hunt. A typical hunter around here throws away everything but the backstraps and major muscles of a deer. Oh! the most prized part is the antlers and the bigger they are it seems like we regard that person as a better hunter because they killed a deer with bigger antlers. Ducks are stripped of their breast meat and the rest is tossed.
I just don't see how modern hunters success rates can shed any light what so ever on how successfull primative hunters where. Technology, money, ego, motives, access to remote areas, and our modern lifestyles are just too differant to make even a good guess at what primative success rates may have been.
Not trying to rain on your parade and I wish you the best of luck with it, I just don't get it.
I do live in SE Texas so that may have a large bearing on my veiw of it and it may work better in other places, but around here it just would not work. Too many fences, regulations, greed and laziness along with ego's built around sucess in the job market more than skill sets built upon experience gianed in the woods actually persuing game.
My two cents. Terry
