Posted: 6/13/2005 12:24:02 PM EDT
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Simple question, I wondered what percentage of people do with this. Do you only shoot what you eat, or will you trophy hunt? I will not put varmit hunting in this mix one way or the other, I will let your mind decide whether it has the eating exemption, or whether it falls under trophy.  |
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I honestly don't even like to categorize hunting as 'meat' or 'trophy'. I hunt because I like to hunt. I enjoy eating deer, but see no reason to shoot an immature one (though it happens...) As for small (edible) game, I do enjoy eating rabbit/quail/duck/goose etc, and even the occassional squirrel. |
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I hunt deer for meat. I cannot even begin to afford a head mount for a deer. A nice rack (uhhh huu...he said 'nice rack') would be great ,but they are few and far between round' here. Im convinced(all else being equal,clean, quick kill) that the one-two year old deer are the tastiest. Now when I can afford it ,I will go out west and try my luck at bighorn. That I will spring the $$$ for the mount  |
Toss the pieces in butter,olive oil and garlic in a pan and fry.
Man, you need to take a yearling doe or a very young buck, go for the doe, DAMN some of the finest meat you will ever eat, I am talking fork tender. and no I dont have a problem taking a yearling or a doe of any age, alot better eating than a nasty ole rutting buck. |
Uh...remember that you're talking to someone who lives in the liberal-deer-season southeastern US, where we can kill 10,20, or more every year. I've ate my share of venison. |
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I just got back from 6 days in the Idaho panhandle bear hunting. I would have eaten some of the meat in a heartbeat, but I was trophy hunting and would have rather had the mount. I didn't even see one but I would not have wasted the meat. The guide's families got any meat that was left from any hunters. |
I never said you did not but buy your post, I got the impression you would not shoot a yearling, that is all, carry on...... |
My bad. I've been (successfully) deer hunting since I was 14 or so. I've killed my share of younger animals. I just grew out of it. FWIW, often (during season) I'll come home (out in the country) to 10,15, or more deer in the back yard. Sometimes the front.  So I don't get worked up over killing 'em anymore. But I have to agree, nothing tastes better than a yearling; I just hate to kill 'em and run the risk of mistakenly killing a buck fawn before his time is up. |
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I say normally I only shoot what I will eat. I guess a test is whether you'd pass up a perfectly good young, grain field fed buck and wait for a trophy. I haven't yet, but I've thought about it. To not eat it just seems wasteful and dumb. But I'm know I'm not hunting entirely for meat so long as the thought of bagging a trophy is rattling around the recessed of my skull. I still don't think that makes me a "trophy hunter", but I know there is always the temptation not to go just for quality meat. I havent been tested on the above yet though. Hunting success has been lackluster, so I have shot the first legal thing that presented itself (or in too many cases, not shot anything because nothing legal was seen  )
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I eat, Deer , Elk, pigs... I still am not going to eat the Bear, I dont eat the yote's/or the Cougars and Im death walking for Rabbits. I have never hunted birds, but would love to give turkey a shot. Sorry guys, I was the one that got CavVet rolling on this one because I said I would hunt bear, but I cant stand the taste, so I dont eat them.
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I only hunt what we'll eat (which is quite a broad variety ). But I also kill plenty of pests. I have a farm - if it messes with our animals, gardens, or orchards (or family members, of course ) it dies, plain & simple. Since you had the foresight to exclude that from your poll and qualify it in your initial post, I was able to respond YES. |
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Yes I generally eat what I hunt except for prarrie dogs and varmints like coyote, fox, bobcat, racoon, etc. etc Prarrie dogs I've shot for fun. Not often but a couple times when visiting friends in OK. The rest I harvest the pelts and the skulls from some but I don't generally eat them. Out of curiosity I have tried each usually cooked on a stick over a campfire. |
| I'm an eater. the bigger question is taking game specifically for a trophy, at the very least it can not be good for the gene pool to extract the biggest, healthiest, most robust bull elk from a herd. I believe it to be a "compensation" thing. Hunting is for the experience, not the wall decoration. IMO |
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I either eat or give away the meat from anything I kill. I don't go out just to kill them for sport. Damn, I wish we could squirrel hunt in Washington. My wife wants to go back to Kentucky to visit her family, I want to go back to kill some tree rats!! Nothing finer than biscuits and squirrel gravy on a cold winter morning. |