help with hunting and trapping

[werepacman]

Guide is written for older versions, some things are not accurate. Some you need to figure out by yourself.

I know only what worked fore me so most difficult thing now is to get enough cords in early game to smoke all meat.

As on my opinion active hunting without dogs simply does not exist.
If you combine two things - animals are faster one hit shot is almost never enough - you get result - it is not possible to hunt.
Only hypothetically possible you zoom in and animal is two steps from you you shot and it felled unconscious you run and cut its throat. But this requires few lucky combinations.
What happens when I chase an animal I get tired and lose time for more productive tasks. I could build trap instead and go for other tasks while trap is working passively.

Hunting requires days to track animals and build traps so you need to find alternative food sources before become a hunter. Good morning It is nice day for fishing isnt it.
Fishing with rod is nerfed so if you have 3.7 version you need to craft something or timberwork to buy a net and punt or build raft. Surviving early game without fishing is hard.
After you have sustainable source of food you can start looking for animals in free time.

What does work for me.
Build traps only if you see animal presence in that area.
It is easy with birds zoom in and out near water areas or hills and if you see or hear bird build 3 traps on the open visible area close to each other so you don't need to spend time to check it. Better cover another area with traps than put more traps on one.
But birds are not a good source of food. They are good only for feathers to make arrows, for sacrifice and for baiting.

With bigger game it is the same. Only build traps where you see animal presence. If there is no animals no meter how large your fences are. Often traps work to catch only one animal and after that they stay for year empty. So you don't need to put lots of effort in empty area. Better to find and catch that is dafenetely walking somewhere.
If you find favored animal place where are lots of tracks it is possible even one trap would be enough. Next day you come to continue working on fence there be an trapped animal.

And last and most important thing is to be in good relations with spirits. This requires additional sources of food for sacrifice and of course proper time and use of rituals. This is why hunting does not exist separately it is part of surviving and depends on other decisions.

[werepacman]

I was hiding instead of chasing and tiring animals. This didn't wokr. Today successfully chased wounded lynx.

[PALU]

Another important use of birds is to train the hide working skill. If you use bark for tanning you can use the fat as a sacrifice for the spirits.

However, hide working takes a lot of time, so you should be prepared to butcher bird carcasses without skinning them to get more time to find more food in some early situations.

[jonottawa]

Another important use of birds is to train the hide working skill. If you use bark for tanning you can use the fat as a sacrifice for the spirits.

However, hide working takes a lot of time, so you should be prepared to butcher bird carcasses without skinning them to get more time to find more food in some early situations.

Hideworking on elk or bear or other large animals might take a lot of time. On birds? Not so much. And I think you can trade your bird leather for 2 or 3 cuts and that will compensate you for your time.

[PALU]

Well, you can process about 5 birds in a day, and it will keep you occupied for most of that time. Also, the leather you produce initially is often of such a low quality that nobody will buy it.

[Tinker]

While the time to process five birds is quite long, especially if done serially, I often can do eight or nine a day which boosts the tanning skill a lot. Washing and starting the first stage of tanning is done in less than an hour I then have plenty of time to cook the joints and the fat and do other chores. After the second stage which does take longer I have a couple of hours for other jobs and depending on the time of day I complete the process before sleeping or the next day.

Initially many leathers are of low quality, but within a few weeks I begin to get more decent or fine leathers. Usually I make clothes out of everything which also bumps skills up. I can see no reason not to process any skins.