Once the warmer months hit my area this year, I'm planning on several camping trips where I head off for a weekend and go camping.

I've always enjoyed getting away from it all, and I'd like to learn to feed myself while I'm out there instead of packing all my food.  I'd much rather pack my .22 and dine on small game and wild plants.  I've got a couple field guides to edible plants.  Does anyone have any suggestions for preparing small game over a campfire?  What kinds of animals are good to eat?  How do you prepare them to make them tasty?  I'm thinking mostly rabbits and squirrels, possibly raccoons, but I understand 'coons are scavengers and may not be the cleanest animal to eat.

Also, I have never seen rabbits in the woods--the only time I have seen rabbits are in meadows and in open, grassy fields--not in an area covered by trees.  Or am I just looking in the wrong places?

I'd be willing to take some spices with me--garlic and salt etc.., but I'd prefer to season the meat with what I can find in the woods, if possible.

Understand, I don't really know anything about feeding yourself this way, but I figure there's one way to learn, and that's to do it!

So any books or suggestions from the ARFers out there?

-Nick Viejo.

You usually can't legally hunt too much small game in spring /summer months.

Try some winter camping, you'll learn a lot more.
The only advise I can give about cooking small game over a campfire is do it in the daylite or you'll be eating undercooked bunnywabbits :)  Squirrel and young groundhogs are OK too. Try some covered pit cooking (dig hole, burn down some wood to a good bed of coals, put some dirt over it, add your food wrapped in foil, cover with more dirt) You'll have to experiment with times. This takes longer, but the results are better and you don't have to tend it while cooking.
PS,,Take a break down fishing pole. And don't eat the mushrooms.

OK Another question...

I would probably be camping out in the Allegheny National forests in Pennsylvania.  I went onto the Pennsylvania Game Commission website and from what I see, they are pretty lenient about hunting small game.

So when I am in the National Forest, am I subject to Pennsylvania laws, Federal laws, or both?

-Nick Viejo.

Hunting and fishing would still be controlled by the state, but they usually have some different or additional regs for National Forests (At least W.Va. does, not sure about Penn.) Usually, you can shoot in a National Forest.

Another option may be to just boil the little critter.  It will take some of the gameiness taste out of it and will make it tender as well.  Add a little seasoning to the pot and you might just have something.

Just a thought.

Come on...you people gotta have more ideas than this.  BTT

By the way, if any of you are interested, I found a nice collection of wild game recipes, although most of them assume you are at home with a stove, oven and plenty of ingredients lying around.  Check it out and be sure to download the zip file there with 600-some odd recipes.

[url]http://www.coon-n-crockett.org/cookbook.htm[/url]

Probably my favorites were the skunk recipes.  I'll have to try that sometime (he advises telling your guests that it's wild turkey until [b]after[/b] they've eaten it.

-Nick Viejo.