I am reading a book "Wild" edited by Clint Willis. There is a story "Savages" by Joe Kane. He got lost with his native american guides in jungles (more or less modern time). They are hungry. They have machetes, but they neither hunt nor gather food. As he explains, travelling between communities is one thing, but if you want to gather food, then you have to make a base camp, find material for weapons, make weapons, then begin hunting. In opinion of his guides, it is waste of time - it is better to find some community where you can get the food.
There are his thoughts: hunting is too hard work which requires long-term planning and a lot of efforts. This idea is ignored by his local guides. As I understand, the reason is the guides think they had better travel further within this time than staying in one place hoping to be found.
I come again to my thoughts: on military training I was told that if I got lost, I should try to get back as soon as possible, especially in dangerous situation. Therefore, I need to be as light as possible to move faster. I do not need to try to find anything to get me food unless I find it on the way because it will slow me down.
And I am thinking what would I do if I really get lost while walking? First of all, I will think that I am not lost, so I will try to track my steps back. Once it did not work, I will try to orient and then move out of the area, so I won't stop in one place. It might be mistake, but I think this how most people would do. Is it really worth learning how to set snares then if I move? Yes, it catches food while you sleep, but how long will it take to find animal footpath, set the snare, walk safe distance and in the morning get back to collect it?
I also read a book of ex-SAS guy, he also thought snares were just waste of time...
I agree you can use wire from snares for other purposes, but it is a bit different discussion.
Regards,