Apparently riot gun for wilderness survival = fail

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Jubjub

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This is amusing on so many levels. British TV network sends guy into the Yukon to survive for three months in the wilderness. Armed with what looks to be a Remington 870 Express with an extended mag, and equipped with fishing gear, he manages to starve. In summer. In what is as far as I know a well known fishing destination.

Bonus points to the article for calling the 870 a "rifle".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209078/Channel-4-exploitation-row-cameraman-airlifted-wilderness-dying-starvation.html
 
Software, then hardware.

That guy would have probably starved with a freezer full of meat.

He has worked on shows for Channel 4, ITV, BBC and Discovery.
But he had no specific training for living alone in the remote territory, 80 per cent of which is pristene wilderness.
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To try and keep this gun related..


Were I charged with this survival expedition, I'd probably have taken my scoped Marlin 980S-CF bolt-action .22lr rifle, with backup iron sights, and my Smith & Wesson 610 Revolver for defense against predators (don't have any handguns in a higher caliber, otherwise I'd take a .44 Mag revolver). Two 500 round bricks of ammo for the rifle, and maybe 30-50 rounds for the revolver, should be sufficient. The idea would be to try for some small game every day, not big game, since I'd have no means of preserving meat.

This is coming from a guy who's never been hunting though, so I could be way off base here. And realistically, I probably wouldn't fair much better than this guy did, without some training and instruction. Actually I might, but only because I have some extra fat stores and could probably last three months without eating anything, haha :)
 
Oh, those crazy Brits! They're always up for a good laugh... :)

Some would argue that you should take a Weatherby 460 against BBB (Big Brown Bear), but I would prefer my Marlin 1894 in .44 mag. Easier to tote, easier to shoot.

Of course, learning to fish is the real issue with this tenderfoot.
 
Everyone who bought up guns and ammo for post-election SHTF scenarios ought to read this. Evidently, a gun isn't all you need to survive, on your own, in the wilderness - not even a well-stocked wilderness.
 
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To try and keep this gun related..
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Good point.

Personally I think the 870 was a fine choice. The main use for a long gun is going to be defensive in that kind of situation I would think

He was in fisherman's paradise, probably was little need to do any hunting anyway.

The article says he was expected to move around a lot, that might explain some of the problem.

Wish I could get an all expense paid 3 month fishing vacation to the Yukon :)
 
Coming from a guy who caught fish with his bare hands as a kid in creeks near his home I got to say this is hilarious. Maybe it's that whacky British media manipulation trying to convince folks to rely heavily on the government and not to try and go out there and be self-reliant folks.

I catch Bass off my dock every weekend, I toss them back because I question the levels of mercury in the fish. Get some good bait, plain old worms will do, aluminum foil in a pinch(yeah it's funny how good it works on a sunny day, cast a line and take a sit and wait.

Yukon in the summer, got no idea what the weather is like but even if it is in the thirties you could still dig out hide in the ground, cast a real long line, conserve your energy by relaxing, and rooting for grubs and roots when digging out the hide to keep you safe from the elements.

And in a pinch take the 870 with 00', get where there is a creek and shallow water and blast a couple larger fish. Or build a make-shift spear from a long branch, sharpen some smaller branches and tie(can you say spare shoe laces) them to the end having the ends flay out and then you have yourself a fishing spear. Or make a backyards bow out of nine pieces of good healthy tree branches with good give and memory. Or make a catch damn out of smaller trees you've dropped and large stones. I mean come on, what's with this guy.
 
I would say the 870 was a good choice for carrying while up there. All you'd need is different ammo for different food situations. Ptarmigin needs bird shot, small game needs bird shot, larger game could be taken with either buckshot or slugs including brown bear. One also needs to know how to fish, not just have the gear. You need some kind of skills in the wilderness as well. For those who choose to carry multiple weapons and ammo, I suggest you've never backpacked for any time in the wilderness. Get a back pack, weight it down with about 80lbs and start walking around the block. The fact that you will be pretty much on level ground will have something to do with it as well. In the wilderness where there are few roads/trails if any, you will find yourself crawling over or under deadfalls, swampy water, cold temps, warm temps rain sleet and snow sometimes. Carrying mutiple guns, ammo, etc., is simply silly if you have the shotgun. You need the room, and extra weight space for much more important gear. Can't put a moose steak in a pistol, cook it and eat it. Try carrying your drinking water in a .454 Casull. I lived in Northern British Columbia, Canada for 2 1/2 years, and I've done a lot of backpacking over the years as well. Colorado, Alaska, Arkansas, Texas, Idaho, and a couple of trips into Montana.
 
Ammo choice would be critical.

Of course you'd want buckshot or slugs for defense from bears, and say, 7 1/2's or 6's for small game/birds. Shotgun ammo is pretty bulky if you carry a substantial amount, though.

That's the other thing. Are there game laws and seasons there that would prohibit the taking of certain birds/animals (other than big game, of course)? If a fisherman got lost and had to live off the land (assuming he was more capable than this guy) by taking birds/animals to keep from starving, then that's understandable.
 
The article mentions that his heart rate when measured was 32 BPM; that's not necessarily bad, if he was a conditioned athlete, but I don't think he got conditioned that fast unless he was already close; What it may say is that he has an underlying heart problem and the reason for his weight-loss may ultimately have had nothing to do with whether he was able to find food successfully.
 
Lilke GG&G said, the shotgun is a good choice. A few slugs for defensive purposes and big game, and the rest in birdshot will take care of most problems, assuming the user knows what he is doing. It seems this fellow did not know, form both the hunting and fishing perspective.
 
Makes you wonder, out of all the hunters, how many process all the meat themself? I can't afford to pay somebody else to do it so I had to learn. I know a couple that can only shoot and drag it out of woods, and almost loose it when the see the insides.
 
kanook said:
Makes you wonder, out of all the hunters, how many process all the meat themself? I can't afford to pay somebody else to do it so I had to learn. I know a couple that can only shoot and drag it out of woods, and almost loose it when the see the insides.
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I am one of them... but I am not starving either.
 
The picture of that guy, where he's carrying his "rifle" (haha) shows him carrying a pack big enough for a generator, a freezer and a hundred dead deer. Insanity
 
I saw some video several months ago about this guy (I think it was the same guy??) and after a couple of days he was weeping because of loneliness. That in itself did not augur well as to his eventual success.

It was never clear -- at least from what I saw -- as to whether or not the big game hunting seasons were open, deer, bear, caribou, goat, sheep, etc.?? If they were NOT open, did he have some special dispensation from the B.C. F&G people to allow him to kill big game anyway for "reality" teeeveee??? Or was he limited strictly to fish, varmints and small game???

That said, if I were going into a situation such as he, and if the big game seasons were open, I'd take a good .308 Win. bolt action rifle with stainless steel fixtures and synthetic stock, plus a whole bunch of snare wire.

I do know how to set snare wire traps but I'd bet this man did not know.

Unless one practices survival methods in a real outdoor environment, one is not going to be successful trying to do it in a truly harsh, down-'n-dirty situation, no matter if one has read a survival manual or attended a seminar on how to get along outdoors.

I'd like to see a complete list of everything -- except camera gear -- he originally took with him.

Anyway, interesting experiment which I thought was doomed to failure after I watched his original three or four videos.

L.W
 
It sounds like he did well enough for awhile, and I see no reason to blame the shotgun OR his skills. He was able to obtain meat from small game and berries. That will do you for a while, but it's very likely he was running a long-term calorie deficit, and since he had no bulk food to make up for that deficit he slowly starved even though he was getting some food. To obtain his food he could easily have been burning calories like a tour de france racer, but even with lots of luck and skill he'd be hard pressed to bring in more than 1500 per day from small game, roots and berries. That's optimistic, frankly.

Even very experienced outdoorsmen will run into this problem if they don't have a cache of supplies to turn to, esp. in the north where the land-based caloric sources tend to be pretty lean. To borrow a phrase, it "takes a village" to survive up here in the long term. The outdoor skills will help you last till you can get to civilization or get found, but that's all they will do. You need other people and you need the ancient skills that allow you to prepare and store large amounts of backup food from berries to moose to salmon.

The dude made it SEVEN WEEKS in the barren ground Yukon, which is very impressive in my book. Lots of folks have folded in less time. I get the sense that some folks don't really comprehend how incredibly difficult the task actually is.

Yukon in the summer, got no idea what the weather is like but even if it is in the thirties you could still dig out hide in the ground, cast a real long line, conserve your energy by relaxing, and rooting for grubs and roots when digging out the hide to keep you safe from the elements.
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The Yukon ain't Florida. It's a hostile, alien planet my friend. And it has devoured a great many hearty, strong men. Even during the summer it's one of the most difficult places on the planet to survive.
 
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'But meat's a relatively easy thing to get your hands on too. There are hares, squirrels and gophers. They're good to eat because they're fatty.'
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Oh yeah, rabbits and squirrels are notorious for being so fatty. Heck, you could live off of just rabbit alone. As amusing as it is for us to watch morons flounder in the woods, I'd prefer to see Ron Hood be given his own show so we could learn how to actually stay alive.

Ron Hood of www.survival.com, btw.
 
But see, it doesn't really matter in the short term, about the hunting and fishing if the SHTF. You see, I didn't stockpile HUNTING ammo! Noooooooo. I stockpiled ammo for the black rifle, so I can go take all the food from my neighbor!
 
And when you're standing, knee deep in fired brass, short torn, headband askunder, looking over the corpses of the MZB's that tried to hurt your family, you'll be able to take their food as well.

Think, "Charles Bronson"

;-)
 
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