strictly for the meat?

[chemist308]

When I hunt, I figure you can't eat the antlers. I enjoy eating almost every manner of critter there's a season for--with some exceptions that I've never tried (possum, muskrat and crow to name a few). But I'm pretty much in the game for the meat. I know one person who refuses to any meat other than wild game, but I'm not quite there yet with this. I can see that happening in a few years with me.

So, how many out there look at hunting just for the meat? Not saying you can't want a trophy, but just that it's not the reason you're out there. How many do it as part of a self reliant lifestyle?

 

[fixyurgun]

I've got an eight point rack my dad killed in '57. That plenty of antlers for me. I don't shoot it if I'm not going to eat it. jim

 

[bakert]

Don't hunt much anymore but I was strictly a meat hunter. Deer, smaller game such as rabbits ,squirrel, doves, quail etc. Never understood people that didn't like the taste of wild game

 

[righteousbarbarian]

I don't hunt yet but I'm looking into hunting in the future. I also only desire to hunt for the meat for a few reasons. One is that I am disgusted by the animal cruelty and environmental destruction that is involved with meat that comes from conventional factory farms. I would much rather give a wild animal a quick death from a bullet than eat meat from an animal that suffered every single day of its life only to die a horrible death in a slaughterhouse. Two is that I think eating meat from the wild is often times more healthy than the aforementioned alternative. Third, I welcome the opportunity to share the meat I kill from a large game animal with a local charitable organization that helps to feed economically disadvantaged people.

Besides food species, I would also be willing to hunt animals that are destructive to the environment or varmints that are destroying someone's property or livelihood.

 

[john1911]

I hunt for the thrill of the hunt. It would be dishonest of me to say I only hunt for meat. I love the thrill and challenge of hunting mature whitetail bucks. When I go hunting, I want to harvest the biggest buck in the area.

I like eating venison (or any wild game). But, for me, the cost of the meat doesn't justify the expense of the hunt. I can buy meat much cheaper than I can harvest it (legally anyway ).

 

[single action]

Yes I hunt as part of a self reliant lifestyle. My wife and I either raise or hunt about 50% of all the meat we eat.(sometimes you just cant resist that fast food burger!) But I hunt mostly for the enjoyment. I could get enough deer meat from road kills if I needed too, but where is the fun and relaxation in that? when deer hunting I usually kill does, but if a big 10 pointer walks out, he's mine i will just have to break out the pressure cooker!

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Hunting strictly for meat?

I take it you're not a dove hunter.

 

[Clipper]

Strictly for meat, not exactly, but I prefer to shoot does, because I find they usually taste better. I find the concept of 'Trophy hunting' to be distasteful if the hunter has no plan to keep the meat. Poor people have to eat too, but if feeding them becomes a convenient excuse to kill an animal so one can feel like they're performing some kind of public service while collecting horns to show off, I'm unimpressed.

 

[coelacanth]

yup-me too. . . . .

I don't think time, trouble and treasure are a good trade for antlers. Seen one rack you've pretty much seen 'em all. Wander around the woods and pick 'em up after the deer are done with 'em if you want some.

 

[countertop]

i hunt strictly to piss off PETA


well, and cause I like meat too

 

[possom813]

I don't shoot it if I'm not going to eat it. jim

Ditto on that, however; there are some exceptions to that rule, such as coyotes. I wouldn't have such contempt for coyotes if it weren't for the fact that the get about 1-3 sheep a month off of my mother in laws place.

 

[koja48]

I must admit that I like wild game meat, but I hunt for the outdoor experience.

 

[Stover954rr]

Wooo Hoooo!! A thread for me! I get in disagreements all the time with my "trophy hunting inlaws" Every time I go up my father inlaw can't wait to get me "a big buck". While I do appreciate his enthusiasm, I would just as soon take a doe (taste the same to me!)

And as Possom said coyotes are the only animal I shoot that I don't eat (and red squirrels (there are thousands of them).

 

[ID_shooting]

I got a "big rack" when I was kid, now when I have the time to go, I try to do iether sex or doe only hunts. Usually the first doe I see, after checking for swollen teats, gets a bullet. I have been known to have a doe hanging on opening morning and then usually I get to play camp b@%ch the rest of the week or I spend all day fishing while I wait for somone who needs help recovering a deer.

 

[jeepmor]

I don't have enough game to choose from in the PNW to be selective. Doe tags are not doled out like on the Eastern side of the US, it's namely buck tags. If it's legal, I shoot it then and there. If it happens to be a big deer or elk, all the better. But thus far, in my admittedly limited experience, it's about the meat, not the trophy. If I get into a herd of buck deer or elk, I'll pick the biggest one I can of course, but I won't let them all escape just because I can't get that monster in the background that I cannot get a clean shot on, I'll take his little cousin, no problem.

If you ever hunted the rainforests in the PNW, I think you'll know where I'm coming from. Being selective is just not really an option in my experience out here. There's lots of game around, it's just they have tons of cover to disappear into.

I do enjoy coyote hunting, but more for the get togethers they are for my family. I had the drop on 2 coyotes this deer season and did not take the shot, I was hunting deer, not coyotes. Dumbest coyotes I've seen to date, I was on private land. These dogs obviously live quite the sheltered life compared to the ones I've shot at in the past.

 

[Art Eatman]

For all that I tend to look for Ol' Biggie, I've eaten a bunch of doe meat. But the horns nailed to the garage rafters are memories, and I can still look at them and describe hunts from decades in the past...

Wuz one guy on our deer lease who'd only shoot six-pointers. No biggies, no does. Six-pointers only. And then? He'd not butcher them; he'd dissect them! He'd separate every muscle, remove all, repeat, all sinew.

I'd watch him, and look at the backstraps and inner tenders--and cry. The SOB had it all ground up and made into sausage. Cry, I tell you, cry.

Some folks carry this meat thing just way too far...



Art

 

[308win]

Meat (except groundhogs as I haven't developed a craving to eat one and don't expect to. I have heard of others eating them and I say good on them.) In Ohio, we have too many deer. I would like to see DNR adopt a policy such that if you want an antlered deer you first have to fill three doe tags.

Let the flame wars begin I can take it.

 

[eliphalet]

I hunt meat unless vermin

I take it you're not a dove hunter.

Nope, shot one with a pellet gun when I was a kid and then one flying over cause the guys said I couldn't hit it, I did. I think those two the only dove I ever shot. Quail are so tasty I have hunted them a few times but they are really to small to mess with, it needs to be a chucker or better to be worth it to me, But then I have hunted stuff over 50 years, undoubtedly killed thousands of critters large and small, and It ain't such a big thrill as it usta be.

It is fine for those that do, just fine, It's just not my thing, to each his own.

Did shoot a elk with black powder last year that was the best thrill I have had hunting in a long time. We have tags and planned again this year but a medical procedure has elk hunting finished this fall.

Drew a doe tag again this year and will try to find a nice big barren doe for the freezer.


The best "hunting" memories to me are not the "kill" or the trophy, but the memories of things, people, experiences and places the hunt happened. Like killing the elk across a mountain river, getting over there in a canoe, the animal taken care of and the risky trips back across to retrieve it, or deer kinda the same way. Times with my Father and Son who is gone now. The elk that boy shot, or the two bucks we shot side by side and such. The day Dad and I both got our first elk. To me these are the hunting memories that count.

 

[Rembrandt]

I hunt for the excitement of outwitting those wise old bucks who have survived through their craftyness. Will only take a buck that's bigger than what's on the wall.....meat is a side benefit.

 

[MCgunner]

It's only the rich man that can afford to be a trophy hunter, or some that live in states with lots of public land with big deer on 'em. On my little place, if it moves, it's dead. ROFL! Really, it's overpopulated and there are no trophies there. This one is one of the bigger ones I've killed down there, so should give you an idea. I don't give a nit about horns, can't eat 'em, but that don't mean if a big one walks out, I won't shoot 'em. LOL I have one nice 8 pointer I mounted, but it ain't no record book buck by any means. I just like the 10" G2s on it.

Down here in Texas, if you're a billionaire or have more money than sense, you can BUY a trophy. Just book a hunt on the King ranch, they have plenty of trophies and it's fair chase. They charge by the inch, so they manage for the most inches. All it takes in Texas to have a record book trophy is a large bank account. I'm not impressed by trophies that are purchased, sorry. Now, I saw a WOSER buck out at the plant a guy from West Virginia killed on public land, just an ordinary working stiff that scouted and knew where this big boy was at and waited to use his tag on him. That's different. I still like eatin' the meat and it saves me money cause I own my land. I could never justify meat hunting if I have to pay for a Texas lease. I'd just buy a side of beef and have it butchered and save money.

Here's my last year's "trophy", ROFL. I have a few roasts left and some sausage off this "big boy". Time to stock up again.

 

[MCgunner]

Hunting strictly for meat?

I take it you're not a dove hunter.

Well, I gotta say, I LOVE to shoot birds, ducks and doves, and I do that for the sport. Deer, though, it gets old mid season really. I get bored with it. I do enjoy the outdoor experience out west, just getting out in big, beautiful country. But, I've enjoyed that without a rifle, just back packing. I don't have to hunt for that experience. Of all the hunting I do, deer excites me the least, but I still enjoy it. I often pass on the deer stand to go duck hunting, though, even if the meat rewards are less. I'm just a waterfowl addict. And, truth be told, I'd rather hunt squirrel for the sport than deer. Just me, I guess. I think part of it is the shooting. Happiness is a warm gun barrel. I'm kinda like the buzzard who says, "Patience HELL, I'm gonna KILL somethin'!" LOL

 

[buck460XVR]

Sometimes I hunt for meat(antlerless only seasons), sometimes I hunt for horn(when there's meat in the freezer). Whether it be big or small game, I always hunt for the sport and the enjoyment of being out in the woods. The older I get, the more I appreciate the beauty of the outdoors, the opportunity to hunt and watching the antics of non-game species.

 

[GunTech]

I like killing and eating tasty animals. I'll take a dry cow elk over a big rack any day, and a small yearling deer (deer veal) is my favorite venison.

 

[308win]

The memories are the trophies:

The swishing sound of my dad's canvas hunting pants as he walked through the Red Top and briars;
The taste of fall apples and cold fresh butchered fried shoulder meat sandwiches;
The smell of dew wet grass and the sight of low hanging fog early in the morning;
The whisper of wings over your blind when it is too dark to shoot but not so dark that you can't see the ducks;
The smell of a wet retriever mingled with the mud and brackish water of a slough off the main river channel;
The chuckle of the current against the blind pilings;
The smell of my Granfather's and Grandmother's pot-bellied coal stove on Thanksgiving day after a morning of bird hunting;
The haunting moan like call of a goose asking for an answer from his mate laying dead on the water;
The raucous chuckle of the hen Mallard in the button bush behind your blind calling to the same ducks as you;
The dry, dusty stillness of a woods on a September afternoon when even the Rain Crows aren't calling and the squirrels are laying on high limbs hoping for any kind of a breeze;
The almost weightless form of a Bobwhite in your hand and the wonder at how a creature can make the day worth while;
The bleat of a fawn in the night while its mother is hanging on a pole in your camp.

These are a very few of my trophies; I just hope I can continue to add to them.

 

[brighamr]

I hunt mainly for meat, but i'm a firm believer that the rest of the animal shouldn't go to waste (brains, small intenstine, sinew, bones, and skins are all valuable comodities).

I like to think of it this way: If I'm going to kill something, it better be for good use. If you happen to draw a trophy buck tag (once in a lifetime deal in some states), that's fine, but gettin a buck every year just for wall ornaments is a waste IMO (there are far more does available).

just my 2 c