Advice: Love hunting; don't like the meat

[Qmandan]

Posting under a new account because I'm almost embarrassed to ask this question. I love everything about hunting: the challenge, the solitude, getting out into the woods, the sport of it, I hate hiking just for hiking's sake....but give me the same hike with a tag in my pocket and a purpose and I love it....BUT, I don't like the game meat at all. Call me spoiled. I've taken a few elk: a bull and a cow. I enjoyed the steaks of the cow and some sausage with breakfast, but that was about it. My bull was older so even the steak wasn't great (to my taste). For both of those, I ate less than 10% and gave the other 90% to friends and to people online (was lucky that I found someone in my area that had a son with a medical condition where he couldn't eat much fat...so I was able to give them a bunch). I found a lot of joy gifting so much to that kid and his family. Is this all weird? Is not liking the meat enough of a reason to hang it all up? Is it legal to just give/gift the unprocessed quarters to other people? (I'm in Utah). I've heard that you have to keep the tag with the meat...so how would that work if I gifted different quarters to different people? With my two elk, I paid for it to be processed and then just gave most of it away...so I'm thinking of this time giving the quarters away so I don't have to pay for processing. Here is another thought: would it be weird to post in my local hunting facebook group: "help me pack an elk out, and take home whatever you pack...." and to have a list of people I can text when I've got an elk down to come help, with the promise they can keep whatever they pack out? I'm just not sure if something like that is unethical or legal or if I'd have any takers.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

find a place to donate the meat. I know several guys who just have more than they can eat, and that is what they do.

 

[WoolyBugger]

I know a few people who hunt and don’t eat the meat. Some hunt to spend time with family members because it’s the only time they are all together. The state I live in has a program to donate meat to help feed the hungry

 

[TaperPin]

Paying for anything with game meat will be illegal, even if it’s payment for helping you pack it out. Of course there’s nothing wrong with a friend that helps you and you donating meat to him. It’s the difference between placing an ad offering dinner in exchange for sex, verses swiping on a hookup sight for a date who wants to go out for dinner.

 

[RockAndSage]

I have a buddy who gave me a "venison sandwich" last fall, when I was helping him move. Best damn venison sandwich I've ever had, and would have enjoyed 2 more. It almost felt sinful to be eating venison in a sandwich, given how hard it is to get tags out here in Nevada. It's just a rare gift to get, in any form. But man, was it good.

After enjoying every bite, he asked, "So, you wanna know what meat that really was?"

Now, I've spent a lot of time working overseas, in some really low-down, dirty places. And he's been around the block a time or two himself. So I started completely expecting him to tell me something like, "wokked dog", or "stirfried cat", or something. Maybe even jackrabbit.

Nope.

It was coot.

No sh*t, it was real, actual, marshfed, free-range coot. Just another one of the nasty little oil-slicks out on the duck pond.

And it was the best damned venison sandwich I've ever had in my life.

As a kid, my family tried to cook up coot once or twice, just to see if we could - and it was absolutely inedible, trash-can bad. It turns out, we just didn't know how to cook it. Coot is not duck - but if you prepare it like venison, especially if you brine it in buttermilk or some other things, and get every speck of fat off during the cleaning of it, it can be phenomenal.

The takeaway here, is that if you don't like the elk or deer you're getting...it's only matter of finding the right game care and cooking recipes to make it exceptionally good fare.