If you've watched our channel for a while then you've probably seen any number of videos
such as, what to do if your city was a war zone, or how to defend the earth from an alien
invasion.
In these and many other videos we often advocate that you do one thing: flee the cities.
In such a catastrophic scenario, cities will become death traps, and with cities importing
all of the food and most of the water that they use, your survival could very well depend
on learning to live off the land.
So today we're tasking our favorite wilderness lab rat to hit them bricks and teach us all
how to survive for three days, eating only what you can catch!
Day 1: So I sort of have trust issues with The Infographics Show.
Now they've typically been up front about challenges, but they've certainly snuck a
few in on me.
When I got sent to Hawaii because the fans requested it, I almost had a nervous breakdown
because I kept expecting some bomb to drop, like I had to go and live inside a volcano
for a day or something equally insane.
But no weirdness ever came, and it turned out to just be a pleasant little self-vacation.
Well, a little bit ago me and the girlfriend underwent a challenge together, and then last
week we got an offer to stay for a few days in a cabin up in the mountains near Big Bear,
California.
Infographics said that they figured they owed us this much, especially since the girlfriend
had to deal with a pretty tough three day challenge.
Consider it a sort of thank you and we're sorry rolled into one, they said.
By the way, yes we’ve seen your comments asking for a face reveal and we’re both
really flattered, but take a look at other people’s comments and you might see why
we prefer to remain as anonymous as possible.
We’re already worried our poor narrator could get mobbed if someone hears his voice
and thinks “hey, it’s that guy from the challenges!”.
Oh and changing clothes?
Well, obviously we used a key for that every morning… even the Infographics wouldn’t
make us wear the same stinky clothes for three days straight!
Anyways, we took the offer and made the drive up to the mountains, and sure enough found
a perfectly pleasant little place.
Kind of romantic really, deck with a gorgeous view, no neighbors for miles, and an outdoor
hot tub that overlooks a freaking mountain.
Within an hour of arriving though, my spider sense went off- something wasn't quite right.
Sure enough, I got a call from the show: “Oh hey while you're up there, we've got a challenge
for you- no, not both of you, just you.”
Apparently I'm always on the clock, and the girlfriend deserves the rest- clearly Infographics
is playing favorites here, or maybe they’re secretly terrified of her...
So, yeah, I should've seen this coming, but basically I have to eat only what I can catch
up here in the mountains for the next three days.
Honestly, it should've been obvious the moment that I opened the door to the cabin and found
some very basic survival supplies on the kitchen counter., but I sort of figured, I don't know,
it's a cabin out in the woods, survival stuff makes sense, right?
So the girlfriend had a pretty good laugh, then told me she was driving down to the store
to pick up her supplies for the three days, and wished me luck finding lunch.
Alright, so at least they're not making me actually live rough out here, and I do still
get the comforts of a cabin to come back to, but this isn't gonna be a vacation by any
stretch of the imagination.
I remember my survival training from the military pretty well, and did you know that animals
really don't like getting eaten?
They tend to make it incredibly difficult to catch and eat them, really uncooperative.
Luckily though, I've had to scrounge with barely any tools before, but I think only
once in my entire six years was I in a situation where we ran out of MREs and actually had
to scavenge.
Using firearms was not an option, because you know, they're loud and make it easy for
bad guys to find you.
So I have a pretty good idea of the wildlife in the area at least, and we are in a really
remote area close to Big Bear in SoCal.
I spotted several small lakes, and I know that on the other side of the mountains where
I'm at is desert, and at the foot of the mountains is several smaller towns and cities.
That's good, because it means most animals are going to remain trapped between the peaks
and the cities at the foot of the mountains, not crossing over to the other side of the
mountains since there's only desert there.
I'm thinking that most of my sustenance is going to have to come from fishing, because
hunting is incredibly difficult, never mind when you don't have a firearm or even a bow
and arrow.
You can make a throwing stick with a weighted end, which will knock the crap out of a smaller
mammal such as squirrel or rabbit, but it takes pretty damn good aim.
I am also pretty confident I can whip up a few small snares for rabbits, squirrels and
groundhogs, all animals that are pretty abundant in SoCal.
There's also deer, but let's face it, venison is tasty but there's no chance of catching
one without a true hunting tool.
It's still late summer, so snake is definitely an option, as are several types of lizards
that inhabit the area.
I'm honestly not picky, and if you want to survive in the wild you better not be either.
I almost wish that this challenge was closer to the coast though, the ocean in SoCal is
practically teeming with mussels.
This isn't going to be easy, but I'm kind of excited.
I haven't been in a situation like this for a while, though I guess my homeless challenge
came close.
It's time to go mano-a-mano with mother nature!
Day 1: So the challenge started on the morning of what is technically day 2 of our stay in
the cabin.
I was already up and out of the cabin well before sunrise.
I found on google maps that there's a small lake just six miles as the crow flies from
the cabin, and during summer time fish tend to bite best right before sun up and just
after sun down.
During the hottest parts of the day they retreat to deeper, cold water, so it's not likely
you'll get a bite then.
I took a length of string with me, and the night before I spent whittling a few fishing
hooks out of wood.
The show had included a packet of balloons along with the supplies, which let me know
that they knew what they were doing- balloons are incredibly useful for emergency survival
fishing.
What I don't have is bait, but that's ok, because mother nature is full of it if you
know where to look.
I left at around 2:30 am, and it took me two and a half hours to make six miles in pretty
rough terrain.
That wasn't good, because it meant I'd have to move quick if I wanted to catch anything.
As soon as I got to the lake I did a quick survey- I know these lakes are stocked with
trout, carp, and bass for sure, but it's best to fish for each in different locations.
Bass will typically hide in areas with vegetation, where they can ambush prey, while trout prefer
areas of clear water where they can keep an eye out on bigger bass trying to eat them.
With that in mind, I did a quick scout and picked two different spots.
With insects up and about, I knew trout would be coming in close to shore, and odds were
good that a few bass would tag along.
I lucked out and found a rotting log, and sure enough after digging into it I managed
to find a virtual treasure trove of large grubs and some beetles.
I used these for bait, and set them on my wooden hooks.
I rigged six hooks on string to six balloons, and each hook would hang at a different length
than the others, targeting fish at different depths.
I inflated the balloons a quarter of the way so they would act as floaters, keeping the
bait suspended in the water and letting me know if I got a bite.
Then finally, I tied each line to a branch on a tree, so even if a good-sized bass snapped
one up it wouldn't be able to get away- unless my wooden hook snapped, which was a real possibility.
I set up my fishing lines around the perimeter of a small cove I found with deep, clear water.
There was plenty of vegetation pushing up onto the shore itself, which means that this
was a place insects would frequent, and accidentally fall into the water.
The trout and bass would both know this, so I figured my odds were pretty good.
Now it's important to note that this type of fishing is illegal in pretty much every
state, but this is technically a survival situation, plus Infographics can pick up the
tab if some ranger managed to find me out here in the ass end of nowhere.
I set my lines and waited, and incredibly, three of them hit within a half hour.
Two of them were smaller trout, about eight and ten inches respectively, which means they
were likely still juveniles.
Well, sorry but a man's gotta eat.
The third line I suspect hit a bass though, because the hook got snapped in two.
It takes a really aggressive fish like a bass, or a pike, to snap a hook like that- it is
made out of wood after all.
Sadly, there are no pike in southern california, they make for great fishing and good eating.
I reset my two lines and snagged a third trout, my gamble had paid off after all, though I
guess you can see by now why this technique is illegal, in an hour I'd already caught
three fish.
Now in a real survival situation I would've kept fishing as long as I could, and simply
smoked the meat I couldn't eat.
When you don't know where your next meal is coming from, you don't take chances and get
what you can get when you can.
This isn't a real survival situation, and worse come to worse if I failed to catch more
food tomorrow I would go hungry for a day or two- I honestly rather not take any more
fish than I needed, and was confident I could repeat my fishing trip tomorrow.
On the way back I stopped and picked up a few grubs.
They're about an inch long and really thick around, and chock full of protein.
You gotta bite the heads off from behind though, or their nasty little pincers can latch onto
your lips or tongue and that hurts like hell.
So I came home and found the girlfriend already awake, making herself eggs.
She was kind of surprised to see me walk in with three fish and start preparing them,
I guess she didn't think it would be that easy.
Honestly, survival really isn't that easy, and if that lake wasn't nearby I'd be in a
world of trouble.
Typically in a survival situation you spend most of your day just hunting or scavenging,
but sometimes you get lucky like today.
The girlfriend was fine with me gutting and filleting my fish, but she freaked when she
saw me dump out a handful of grubs from my pocket.
She then practically fainted when I bit the head off one and popped it in my mouth.
Hey, bugs aren't amazing to eat, but food is food and I was in full survival mode.
I then chased her around the house with the remaining grubs until she locked herself in
the bathroom.
I knew I had enough fish for solid eating for the day, so food was no longer a pressing
concern.
That let me focus on preparations for tomorrow, and improving the tools I had for survival.
I whittled more fishing hooks and made a weighted throwing stick by wedging a rock on the end
of a large, splintered stick, and then wrapping it up with string.
You can use vines or even long grass to do the same thing, and soon I had a bonafide
hunting throwing stick, though I've never been good with these so my odds probably weren't
great.
I decided that tomorrow I'd try my hand at catching rabbit, squirrel or possibly groundhog-
basically, mammal was on the menu.
I could probably live on fish for a few days, but for the sake of the challenge I wanted
to see how hard it would be to move to land and try to go for harder prey.
Small mammals, especially rabbits, tend to follow small tracks through the woods, you
can find well-worn paths that lead through the underbrush and give the rabbit a quick
method of escape.
Rabbits are creatures of habit and will typically use the same paths day after day for weeks
and months on end.
Luckily, as it's late summer there should still be plenty of rabbits out and about,
otherwise it might be best to look for an actual warren.
To catch a rabbit the best tool is a simple snare.
You can find all kinds of complex traps to build in survival situations, but snares are
simple, easy, and pretty damn effective.
Well, if your rabbit actually travels down the path you set it on.
That's where the snare's simplicity works in your favor, as you can quickly set these
up in several locations and increase the odds of catching something.
Ideally you would use metal wire to create the snare, as it will help keep the circular
shape needed.
I only have heavy duty string though, so I'll have to improvise.
The way a snare works is by forcing the rabbit to try to move through it, at which point
the rabbit will hopefully stick his head through the snare and the force of him trying to escape
it will cinch the snare closed.
You want to make your loop large enough for the rabbit's head to enter the snare, but
not so big that the snare might close around the rabbit's body rather than the head.
You really want the snare to cinch tight around the rabbit's neck, for a quick, humane death.
With no metal wire I used long, rigid blades of grass I found and interweaved them with
the string.
Not only will they help keep the circular shape of the snare, but they'll help camouflage
the string as well.
With plenty of fish to eat, I spent the day scouting the land around the cabin, and identified
several locations that looked promising.
Tomorrow, hopefully, I would eat meat.
Day 2: The best time to hunt rabbit is early in the morning or late in the afternoon, and
the best way to hunt rabbit is with dogs- sadly, I'd have to rely on trapping one instead.
I set out at 4 am this time, and set up eight snares along what I hoped where different
trails used by rabbits.
To set each snare I found a part of the path where vegetation closed in and made a natural
funnel, then further closed the funnel with sticks I dug into the ground, sort of like
miniature fences on each side.
You have to be careful and not make it super obvious, because rabbits are incredibly skittish
animals, but you should work the vegetation to make a narrow enough funnel that the rabbit
will more likely than not hit your snare as it's running along.
Then I simply hung the snare from an overhead branch.
There would be nothing to do until about noon, and my stomach was definitely growling.
I wasn't very confident with my snares to be honest, because even if you hit the right
path you still have to get lucky enough for the rabbit to actually run through the snare
itself.
Odds are never in your favor when snaring or trapping with homemade items.
So with the sun rising, I knew that lizards and reptiles would be waking up and moving
to warm rocks to absorb the sun and get their cold blood warmed up.
That's the perk of hunting a cold-blooded animal, you can be pretty sure of finding
them early in the morning if you know where to look and there happens to be the right
type of rocky outcroppings in your area.
For me though, there were not, so lizard was off the menu.
I found a few warming themselves on the sides of trees, but these things were tiny.
My stomach was growling and I started thinking I might have to resort to fishing.
This late in the day though odds weren't good of catching anything there either.
Worse come to worse, there was always bugs.
Not great tasting, pretty gross, but full of protein and when you're hungry you can't
be picky.
That's when I came across a snake, easily two and a half feet long.
Now years ago I had all the snakes found in Africa and the middle east practically memorized,
but I'll be honest with you- I have no clue about American snakes.
All I know is rattlers and that's it, and this was no rattler.
I had no idea if it was venomous or not, and I had to really think about what I was going
to do.
Was it worth the risk?
Yes, I decided, because if this was a real-world situation I would take the risk.
You do NOT look a gift horse in the mouth when you're in survival mode, because nature
is incredibly fickle and cruel.
It must have been around noon by then, which meant the snake was fully warmed up and mobile,
and that's a shame because it would've been much easier to catch early in the morning
while it's still slow after the cold night.
I chased it to a tree stump and managed to corner it, then thought carefully about how
to do this.
It was coiling up, so grabbing it by the tail wasn't an option, and all I had with me was
my weighted stick.
I doubted I could hit this thing's small head with one throw, so I looked for alternatives-
and found a large rock.
Perfect.
I grabbed the rock and holding it over my head, simply smashed it on the snake.
Not pretty, certainly not graceful, but that was one dead snake.
I picked up my prize and then started heading back home, checking my snares on the way back-
to find nothing.
Just as I thought.
Honestly, I can't overstate just how much rabbits hate to be eaten.
If the girlfriend nearly fainted when I ate a grub in front of her, she about died when
she saw me bring in a snake.
She's not typically girly-girl, she is probably one of the toughest people I know to be honest,
but while I was going through survival training and all kinds of unpleasantness in the military,
she was going to fancy acting academies in New York.
Let's just say that all the food she has ever eaten has been nicely wrapped up in plastic
at the grocery store.
Snake's easy to prepare, just slice in half and scoop guts out, then lay in sections over
a fire.
Turns out this thing was a gopher snake, totally not dangerous to humans at all, but hey, no
reason to take chances.
At about two and a half feet long, it wasn't exactly belly filling for an entire day, but
enough to live on.
Later I checked my snares and still nothing, though one had been knocked aside- little
bastard probably ran right past it.
I fixed it and left all the snares up overnight.
Day 3: I did not catch a rabbit.
Actually, the snares didn't work at all.
I found two of them on the ground, which means that a larger animal probably trashed them.
No blood though, so it wasn't like a rabbit got snared and then a coyote or bobcat ate
my lunch.
That's ok, I didn't really think I'd have much luck with the snares, you really, really
have to get lucky with those things.
Instead I went fishing again today, because I had little faith in snares and I honestly
didn't think I'd get so lucky again with finding another snake.
Wildlife is a bit scarce up here to be honest, though I did see several deer- shame I didn't
at least have a compound bow for this challenge.
I managed to catch two fish, one of them a bass!
That's good, because I much prefer the taste of bass to trout.
On the way back home though I spotted a fat, juicy squirrel just perfectly perched in the
middle of a branch that stuck out and away from all the other branches.
It was just sort of sitting there, half-paying attention to me, and I happened to have my
throwing stick with me.
I threw as hard as I could and... missed by like three feet.
Incredibly, that stupid squirrel just sat there, almost like it was taunting me to try
again.
So I fetched my stick and tried again, this time actually slamming into the tree branch
it was perched on.
This got it scampering up into the body of the tree, and I knew I'd never catch it then.
Also, the impact knocked the rock loose on the stick and I'd have to fix my stick if
I wanted to use it again.
I told you, animals really try hard not to get eaten.
I brought the fish back to the cabin and prepared them, though I had to convince the girlfriend
I had no grubs with me before she let me through the front door.
Later in the day I checked on the snares but like I said earlier, never caught anything
on them.
I decided to just take them all down since this was my final day- if you're going to
hunt you should always be respectful and responsible.
All in all, I didn't do too bad, though I think my survival skills need some sharpening.
I got really lucky with the snake on day two, and was even luckier that there was a good
lake for fishing nearby the cabin.
It's no surprise that early man often set up camp near lakes and rivers, without fish
we really wouldn't have survived I think.
Without the right tools, land animals are just incredibly hard to catch.
As a big perk though, the girlfriend was totally grossed out by me gutting and fixing various
animals, but she did say that she thought it was kind of sexy the way I just went out
into the woods and provided food.
So there you have it guys, if you want girls to like you prove to them that you can catch
wild animals in an emergency.
Or just buy them food, it worked for me when we started dating.
How would you survive if you could only eat what you catch?
Have any hunting or trapping tips you can share?
Let us know in the comments!
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