[andrewshogun]

So to start, I am a catch and release bass fisherman, and whatever I kill I will usually eat - i hate seeing flesh go to waste for no good reason. Unfortunately in the world of hunting, there's no 'catch and release'. I prefer to eat what I kill, but plan to start off with smaller game hunting - i.e. varmint. The idea of eating varmint does not sound too appetizing, however. So I was wondering what you guys do your varmint kills usually. Skinning the animal seems expensive and/or messy if done yourself, and I don't know if I'd want a collection of yote fur in my garage. What do you guys typically do?

[ojibweindian]

Buzzard's gotta eat, too. They'll appreciate the fact that you made it easier for them.

[okespe04]

Jacks, Yotes, nutria, ect people here and Oregon blast em and leave em. As stated above nothing in the woods goes to waste. They are called vermin for a reason.

[chas08]

I had to overcome the same feeling a few years ago while trying to bring a hog population under control. You can only eat, and give away so much pork. I take comfort in knowing that nothing ever truly goes to waste in nature. Something will benefit from it. Be it buzzards, 'yotes, or worms.

[ArmedBear]

I consider it to be humane, vs. what else happens to excess vermin populations: poisoning.

Poison is a crappy way to die (I've killed a mouse that was dying of poisoning at a friend's house, just out of compassion for it). It's also a pretty nasty thing to do to the ecosystem.

That's what BLM does to prairie dogs when they get too numerous.

Shoot them, and they are returned to nature as food and fertilizer.

[ArmedBear]

You can only eat, and give away so much pork.

That's one thing we don't have in Idaho.

I'd love to go hunt some feral pigs.

[Cougfan2]

Count this kid out for eating varmints, but then again, I have eaten squirrel. What's that if not a "Tree Rat".

[41magsnub]

I have a friend who is adamant about eating what you kill, it is some sort of hard core religious thing with him. The carrion birds need to eat too argument has no sway with him. He misses out on a log of gopher and prairie dog hunt fun.

[dagger dog]

Some of those old dirty 'yote pelts can go for 40$ if in prime. Skin 'em scape 'em, dry on a rack. Talk to someone in your fish and game department they can tell you where to find people that will pay you for those pelts. Same goes with fox,'coon, 'possum,and other fur bearers. The meat left over provides the other varmints a free meal!

Squirrel, cottontail rabbit, groundhog ( or whatever you call them in your neck of the woods) just to name a few ,all are rodents, but can be excellent table fare in the hands of a competent cook. Even 'possum or 'coon have provided meat for the table when hard times were about.

Look at the amount of road kill you see on todays highways, all those animals named above, plus all the "game" species. What little "predation" you are planning on doing is not going to seal your soul to damnation. Taking an animals life, is not a small manner by any means , and consuming them can be done in many ways, even the ones you can't eat.

[TheBookGuy]

My buddies and I used to go hunting "rock chucks", prairie dogs, squirrels, chipmunks... if it skittered on the ground it was fair game. We used our deer rifles, mine was .308 with 175 gr. hollow point hand loads.
There was NEVER was enough left to eat, though they decorated the sagebrush real purty like!

[caribou]

There is a time and a use for almost every animal.

It takes a Hunter to catch, clean , skin and utilize his catch.......

Up this way, we even make expensive beautifull "Fancy" parkas out of ground squirrls.
Wolves, Wolverine, Polarbears, Otters ect....

If you cant eat it, tan it.

[Art Eatman]

With my occasinal coyote, I cut off the tail, skin it out, salt it, and tack it to a porch post. The buzzards and ants take care of the rest.

[dakotasin]

leave the varmints lay. many of them carry nasty diseases you want no part of. some of them are literally destructive enough they should be shot on sight to somehow manage to keep the population in check (feral cats, skunks).

as to the skinning question, it is neither messy or expensive to skin a mammal. whether you want to skin it out or take the whole carcass to a fur buyer is up to you. the majority of the time i'll sell the entire carcass and let someone else deal w/ the skinning part. you get paid a ton less, but don't have any worries, either.

[IdahoLT1]

the ground squirrels(prarie dogs/whistle pigs/sage rats) i shoot end up being eaten by each other. They dont go to waste. If you want to see pure cannabilism(not eating own species out of starvation), look no further than those varmints.

not only that, but they are very nasty and disease ridden, as are most varmints. Eating something that could potentially carry/transmit/spread the Bubonic plague doesnt sound very appetizing.

[IdahoLT1]

My buddies and I used to go hunting "rock chucks", prairie dogs, squirrels, chipmunks... if it skittered on the ground it was fair game. We used our deer rifles, mine was .308 with 175 gr. hollow point hand loads.
There was NEVER was enough left to eat, though they decorated the sagebrush real purty like!

You and me both. I use my .308 but load it with 110gr. Hornady Vmax's to ~3200FPS. It will literally rip them apart and send chunks 15ft in the air. You dont need to walk up and confirm the kill when you see that destruction. 68 was the total i got in a 3hour afternoon one day last spring. That afternoon, me, my buddy and my younger brother scored ~170. .223 with vamx's and 2 .308 using vmax's were the tools of destruction.

[qajaq59]

We used to hang the woodchucks on the fences for the critters when I hunted them. It also make the horse rancher happy because he'd lost several horses to the holes they made.

[usmc1371]

Maybe its just me but pretty much every varmint I hit with my .204 is turned inside out instantly. I got a coyote last week with my 375 HnH, I dare say the 375 may be my new fav coyote gun. No wounding them its all or nothing with a 260 grain accubond. It's not uncommon to shoot well over a hundred sage rats in an afternoon so picking them up would be to much like work plus they eat each other. Nasty little things.

[Arkel23]

Just leave em just like everyone else said the wolves, yotes, maybe some bears and other varmints will eat em up.

[AKElroy]

I would definately make a clear distinction between vermin and varmints, and between beneficial and non-beneficial animals. I have no concience regarding taking vermin, even for practice, and non-beneficial or damaging varmints without eating them.

I put feral hogs in this catagory; we had to agree to a standing kill on sight order on my lease, even if they are left for the buzzards. That said, I cannot tell with hogs yet when the pigglets are weaned, so I have avoided taking sows with little ones in tow. I hope the other hunters I share this lease with don't figure out who I am with this post!

[Warhawk83]

I wish I had a bunch of varmints to shoot....sounds fun.

[~z]

AKElroy,
Your second statement seems to contradict your first.
Are you saying you dont shoot the sows with piglets because you want to give the piglets a chance to grow up and become more of a problem?
Confused
~z

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

I don't feel like having razor-sharp pieces of copper and lead in my Speer TNT-shot woodchuck meat, thank you.

Besides, after one shot, most of the meat is splattered into the field.

[JHK94]

Squirrel, cottontail rabbit, groundhog ( or whatever you call them in your neck of the woods) just to name a few ,all are rodents

Rabbits aren't rodents, they are lagomorphs.

[bowman1962]

Squirrel and Rabbits ain't rodents!! there for decorating a plate full of Biscuits & Gravy....

[millertyme]

Thanks, JHK94 for the scientific explanation. I worked on a farm with a couple buddies when i was a teenager in Pennsylvania. There was plenty to shoot at and if it didn't have wings there was a high likelihood of it ending up in the farmer's freezer. He was old Pennsylvania Deutsch and ate most everything he ever shot. A lazy afternoon on the edge of a field with a .22lr loaded with CCI Stingers killed a bunch of prarie dogs, some of which I even ate. And it tasted just like chicken.

[RoostRider]

I'm confused here too....

.....I have no concience regarding taking vermin, even for practice, and non-beneficial or damaging varmints without eating them.

I put feral hogs in this category; we had to agree to a standing kill on sight order on my lease, even if they are left for the buzzards. That said, I cannot tell with hogs yet when the piglets are weaned, so I have avoided taking sows with little ones in tow. I hope the other hunters I share this lease with don't figure out who I am with this post!

LOL.... because you have been violating the lease by letting Sows with piglets go?

Is this because you can't stand to see piglets starve? Fair enough, but then why not, assuming your logic, just shoot them too?

Or is this because you want more targets for later?

Or is there some kind of misinterpretation here?

[dagger dog]

JHK,

Look at them big buck teeth and tell me them ain't rodents, I kept a hutch full of New Zealand whites when I was a kid, and they could chew through a 2X4 quicker than any rat! The're just more cuddly than a rat and thats why the different classification.:D

[JWF III]

Seen a predator hunting show just in the last week or two. The guy was hunting Bobcats. As usual he skinned it out for the pelt, but later on it showed him and his wife sitting down to eat. And he said, (paraphrased) "Bobcats are also very tastey." i just don't think it's something I could do.

I had a cat for a pet, that happened to be sired (don't know if that's correct terminology for felines?) by a Bobcat. We had that cat for 16 years, and just put him down this last winter. I know I'll never shoot a Bobcat just because of him. I just don't have it in me.

Now coyotes, coy dogs, feral dogs and the like, I'll lay them out as quick as I can get the crosshairs on 'em. And leave 'em laying right where they fall. The carcass is usually gone within 2 days.

Wyman

[AKElroy]

Your second statement seems to contradict your first.
Are you saying you dont shoot the sows with piglets because you want to give the piglets a chance to grow up and become more of a problem?

Yep. One of the nice things about being old is allowing myself the latitude to be inconsistant. I just do not enjoy orphaning the little guys to starve. I could target the little ones first, but I just flat do not enjoy that either unless they are at least eating size.

Have you ever really watched them interact? They are very communal, engaging the little ones far more directly than deer or other animals. It's a lot like watching dogs with pups. OK, so I'm getting soft. Ditto the coon's in my backyard. I used to pop em' with regularity, until my neighbor started feeding them. Now they drape themselves, 11 of them, nose to tail, straddling the railing on my deck. I can't bring myself to pop them anymore either.

I realize I may have to leave the forum now. I will post pics soon of the next pig kill, (sans pigglets), to redeem some respect. Don't tell Flint about this.

[Sunray]

There are recipes available for every game animal. The word varmint covers a lot of animals. Some of which aren't varmints, everywhere. Very few of 'em carry disease. Most do not. Not any more than any game animal.
A ground hog, for example, is a big rat that lives very cleanly and eats the same thing beef cattle eat. Grass, clover, etc. Cleaning one is no more messy that cleaning a fish.
Skinning a coyote isn't any more messy or expensive than a deer either. Having the hides tanned can be expensive, but that can be done yourself. That can be smelly and messy though.

[larrichan]

Having spent several years in the field as a wildlife ecologist, I've tasted quite a few different meats (including rodents and bats). The rule is that if in doubt on the species, cook it well to prevent any possible disease transmission. The next best thing I can tell you is that if the animal is eating vegetable matter, it will taste good. If it is eating carrion or meat, it will probably be very strong and pungent. Also, anything can be covered up in taco sauce, chili, or barbecue sauce. Interesting note, in Brownsville, Texas several years ago, one of the schools was shut down by the health department because the cafeteria workers were trapping the rats and adding them to the taco meat they were serving the kids. When they reopened the school, the students wouldn't eat the all-beef tacos because they didn't taste good! As with eating most foods, an individual's psychological attitude towards the food from years of eating habits has more to do with the perception of what is edible than what in reality is edible.

[Sunray]

"...if the animal is eating vegetable matter, it will taste good..." Depends on the veggies. Mind you, I've heard from very unreliable sources, that non-carrion meat eaters have tasty, tender meat.
"...anything can be covered up..." Nope. Tainted meat is still tainted. The old wive's tale that Medieval food was heavily spiced to cover the taste of tainted meat isn't true. A plastic salt shaker with an assortment of ground herbs and spices can make an MRE taste like real food though.

[Fremmer]

Lots of gravy! Lots and lots of gravy!