Subsistence Trapping

Ragnar Benson, America's favorite survivalist, has lived off the land all his life. From a very early age he learned from his Amish neighbors and his Uncle Dugan, a full Ojibwa Indian, how to hunt, fish, forage, raise his own fruits and vegetables, and trap, which is the subject of his latest book.

In Subsistence Trapping, Ragnar teaches how to develop the necessary skills to trap animals for both food and pelts. To do this, you have to learn how to expertly read tracks and sign, choose and set the right bait, construct and use the appropriate snare for your targeted critters, and build and deploy traps, including floating colony traps, artificial-den traps, fish traps, bird traps, and wolf traps. Here Ragnar shares the simple, effective, and time-tested methods and devices he developed from six decades of trapping, as well as the skills he observed among indigenous populations around the world. He also covers how to harvest and prepare the animals once you have trapped them, including his wife's world-famous rabbit potpie!

It might not be necessary to use the information set out in this manual immediately, but it is irrational to believe you won't need to know how to do all these things to stay alive in the future—perhaps even in the near future. Subsistence Trapping is an excellent companion to Paladin's classic Trapper's Bible.