MCgunner
Member
I just wonder how many people in the modern world have had to hunt to eat? I have, couple of years in College. Oh, I coulda quit school and worked, did for a semester when it got just too lean times. But, for about 2 years, and especially one summer when I was working down south of San Antonio and living on a very large ranch, I hunted to eat. I had to if I wanted to continue my education. My parents were working poor and couldn't help with the school. Oh, I guess I could have joined the military. That was a good way to pay for school in the 70s, GI bill, but I just kept my nose to the grindstone and worked as many as three jobs, studied every spare moment, and hunted and scrounged when I could.
I used a .22 LR Mossberg M152 semi-auto a lot. .22 was cost effective. I've still got that gun. I shot rabbit, even scaled quail with it. I hunted deer with my .30-30. I'd have preferred using a shotgun for running rabbits and quail, but I just couldn't justify an expensive round for so little meat. That's how lean the times were. I've been broker than broke working my way through college. Haven't ever been so broke since. I guess it was a good experience, though. It sorta shows you how lean the times can get. I've seined farm ponds for crayfish and fished ponds for catfish and brim. I worked a summer job in Seabrook, Texas at the Texas Parks and Wildlife marine lab. Got to legally use all sorts of illegal fishing techniques, there, lots of running gill nets, and of course, after weighing and recording the "samples", we cleaned 'em. I fried up several rattlers I happened upon in my scrounging trips. You really gotta watch for them suckers in the spring.
That's when I found out that dandelion greens are really good. I learned to prepare prickly pear pads and eat the fruit. I picked dew berries every season, what a treat! I knew of every pecan tree around my area. I even learned to eat mesquite beans and made mesquite jelly once, though it was a little expensive to do so I gave it up as a viable food source. Too much pectin (sure jell) required and it ain't cheap.
Anyone else ever have to survive for a while? Any pet wild "lawn greens" or berries you liked?
I used a .22 LR Mossberg M152 semi-auto a lot. .22 was cost effective. I've still got that gun. I shot rabbit, even scaled quail with it. I hunted deer with my .30-30. I'd have preferred using a shotgun for running rabbits and quail, but I just couldn't justify an expensive round for so little meat. That's how lean the times were. I've been broker than broke working my way through college. Haven't ever been so broke since. I guess it was a good experience, though. It sorta shows you how lean the times can get. I've seined farm ponds for crayfish and fished ponds for catfish and brim. I worked a summer job in Seabrook, Texas at the Texas Parks and Wildlife marine lab. Got to legally use all sorts of illegal fishing techniques, there, lots of running gill nets, and of course, after weighing and recording the "samples", we cleaned 'em. I fried up several rattlers I happened upon in my scrounging trips. You really gotta watch for them suckers in the spring.
That's when I found out that dandelion greens are really good. I learned to prepare prickly pear pads and eat the fruit. I picked dew berries every season, what a treat! I knew of every pecan tree around my area. I even learned to eat mesquite beans and made mesquite jelly once, though it was a little expensive to do so I gave it up as a viable food source. Too much pectin (sure jell) required and it ain't cheap.
Anyone else ever have to survive for a while? Any pet wild "lawn greens" or berries you liked?