I think your on to something thinking about very small game like squirrels, rats and, rabbits.

My thinking is that for the most part practical survival is more about staying alive to get out or get rescued than living off the land or homestead. The later course is romantic, reenacting Grizzly Adams episodes and imagining yourself to be a pioneer, but IMO very unrealistic.

That said if there is going to be any living off the land I think that concentrating on small game is the way to go. I really think that too many people are focusing on a live off the land strategy and compounding the error by concentrating on a high-risk/high-yield large game strategy.

IMO small game are far more promising for several reasons. First, small game are much more adapted to living around people and the urban and suburban environment most people live in. Second, small game are fast breeders and highly resistant to being depleted.

Additionally, small game take less in the way of resources to process and consume in a limited amount of time. Kill an elk and an average family is going to need to think about preserving the meat and start worrying about the consequences of when this system fails. This can lead to a feast and famine situation where people gorge themselves to consume the resource before it goes bad and then it is lean times until you get another. This is not a situation that is conducive to being mobile or active enough to self-rescue or efficiency. Smaller meat animals can be harvested to better match consumption and eliminate worries about storing meat.

For harvesting small animals I would give some thought to construction simple snares and/or tip-up traps. The base material for a simple snare or tip-up can be be as simple as some strong and flexible but light wire.

Go to the fishing section of any store and you can find solid leader wire or stranded stainless. These are both light and very compact. You can pre-cut these to length but if your kit includes a pocket tool, or even nail clippers, you can wait and give yourself a bit more flexibility.