Hunting just for the kill

[land cruiser]

Hunting wolves is awesome. Eating? Not so much

 

[charvey9]

Hunting wolves is awesome. Eating? Not so much

I'd try it, just to say I did.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

I was with with some guys when one offerd up some elk meat for dinner. He mentioned his brother or brother-in-law shot it but didnt eat venison. The more I thought of it the more I realized I can see points that lead me to be ok with it and points against it in principle. If I didnt eat venison I really dont know if I would hunt.

Should people be hunting game animals, not predators, if they dont want the meat? Isnt the meat the real reason any hunter should be out there? If you dont want the meat you are only going out for the thrill of killing. Part of me thinks to each their own, but part of me does not agree with hunting just to kill. I am not talking trophy hunting either. This was a spike so there was no trophy. The guy basically shot an elk and walked away because someone else wanted the meat. This brings up another point; hunting to give meat away. The meat wasnt wasted.

How do you feel about hunters that kill but have no interest in the meat? Is it ok if they donate the meat? I know in some situations it is normal like Africa or other farther destinations. I guess killing an elk at home because you like to hunt and giving the meat to a neighbor is a lot like killing a Kudu in Africa and giving the meat to locals.

If you hunt legally then that's where my interest begins and ends. You don't eat the meat? No prob...as long as wanton waste isn't the result. Maybe the guy hunts for the connection to nature, for the challenge, or just to unplug and escape for a bit. Who cares? The division amonsts sportsmen is something our enemies relish and why they are kicking our butts with stuff like Agenda 21, nonlead ammo, greater regulations and restrictions, lobbying for wolves and lions, meanwhile we waste our angst on stupid dribble like this. WTFU people!!! The antis outnumber us 100 to 1.

 

[ssliger]

If you hunt legally then that's where my interest begins and ends. You don't eat the meat? No prob...as long as wanton waste isn't the result. Maybe the guy hunts for the connection to nature, for the challenge, or just to unplug and escape for a bit. Who cares? The division amonsts sportsmen is something our enemies relish and why they are kicking our butts with stuff like Agenda 21, nonlead ammo, greater regulations and restrictions, lobbying for wolves and lions, meanwhile we waste our angst on stupid dribble like this. WTFU people!!! The antis outnumber us 100 to 1.

I agree that there is too much division among sportsmen. I am around a lot of people through my job, and from time to time. Hunting will get brought up. Some people are hunters, some are not. I know with the people I have met that are not hunters, they respect the fact that I eat the animals I kill.

 

[trdhunter]

I feel that as long as the meat is taken care of and nothing is wasted then whatever. I have given away plenty of waterfowl in the past because I did not enjoy the taste. Now, I only shoot the occasional duck for two reasons. One I feel like if im not going to eat it that im not as driven to shoot it. Two, I enjoy hunting chukars way more and they are delicious.

 

[huntin'monkey]

Posssibly the only wild game meat they tried had not been handled properly, wasn't cooled quick enough, or wasn't field dressed soon enough. The results were gamey, non appetizing meat that could even smell up your kitchen when you cook it. I would think if they had someone who did handle the meat properly, and properly prepared it, the person would not even know it was wild game they were eating. Just my .02

+1

Personally, I'm in it for the meat for my freezer and for the total hunt experience. I don't shoot things I won't eat. I feel bad for folks who are so disconnected from what hunting is about that they won't eat the meat.

Having said that, I do give a fair amount of meat to my friends and family, including the whole first deer I shot and my half of my first elk. I'm all about sharing the love and converting others to game meat.

 

[5MilesBack]

Leaving Africa out of this. I don't agree one bit with people hunting and not eating the meat. I was in a guys house a couple years ago and he had a ton of awesome mounts and trophy pics. I started talking with him about hunting and such, and he explained to me how he gives all the meat away cause he hates the taste. It really disappointed me. I'm am in no way saying that people that hunt game animals and don't eat the meat are bad people, they are just not my kind of people.

How do you feel about people that have a vegetable garden but don't eat vegetables?

I love to garden, grew up on a farm and have always grown stuff. But I don't do it for the harvest, I do it because I enjoy it and I enjoy giving the rewards of that harvest to others that don't have gardens. It's always a blessing for someone.

I will admit that if I never took another bite of game meat, I'd still be out there every single chance I got.......to make the kill. That part of me I can never get rid of. I was born that way. However, I still have the choice on whether to act on that passion.

Here's a question: What if you never had to actually make the kill, and you'd go out in the woods and find a bunch of meat already sitting there wrapped and cooled in a cooler. Would you still hunt? If so, why? BECAUSE OF THE KILL. If killing is not an option, then I'm not all that interested in hunting. Make no mistake about it, it's about the kill.....not the meat. The meat is just an added benefit of that kill. Unless it's a coyote or a wolf or a prairie dog, etc, etc.

 

[huntin'monkey]

Personally I love to eat every bit of what I kill, predators included. Bear, bobcat, and coyote were all on my table at some point this past year. However, if I ever get bitten by that tick that makes you allergic to red meat I don't think I'll give up hunting.

So how do you cook 'yote to make it tasty? I watched the MeatEater episode where Steve and Remi shot and barbecued a song dog and heard Steve talk about it in his podcasts. Sounds like it was tough to stomach. Do you just grind all of the meat and make very heavily spiced sausage?

I'd love to get a cougar, on the other hand. I hear they are delicious.

 

[huntin'monkey]

Here's a question: What if you never had to actually make the kill, and you'd go out in the woods and find a bunch of meat already sitting there wrapped and cooled in a cooler. Would you still hunt? If so, why? BECAUSE OF THE KILL. If killing is not an option, then I'm not all that interested in hunting. Make no mistake about it, it's about the kill.....not the meat. The meat is just an added benefit of that kill. Unless it's a coyote or a wolf or a prairie dog, etc, etc.

I disagree. It's both for a lot of us, and more. It's about the total experience for me -- studying the animal at home, looking at maps and satellite images to learn an area, planning seasons with my partners, scouting trips, equipment purchasing and maintenance, getting fit, target practice sessions, the hunt itself, taking the shot, field dressing the kill, packing out, butchering, cooking and eating great meats -- each of these parts adds meaning to my experience and each builds upon the next to create the total experience. Hunting is year round obsession for me. I'm never not hunting, I'm just not always in the stalk/kill stage. I know places where I could go sit on a friend's porch and shoot a nice buck. But it wouldn't mean the same to me to do that, even for a serious wall hanger, as it does to hunt the year through for a decent sized blacktail forky taken in the wilderness.

 

[5MilesBack]

I disagree. It's both for a lot of us, and more. It's about the total experience for me -- studying the animal at home, looking at maps and satellite images to learn an area, planning seasons with my partners, scouting trips, equipment purchasing and maintenance, getting fit, target practice sessions, the hunt itself, taking the shot, field dressing the kill, packing out, butchering, cooking and eating great meats -- each of these parts adds meaning to my experience and each builds upon the next to create the total experience. Hunting is year round obsession for me. I'm never not hunting, I'm just not always in the stalk/kill stage. I know places where I could go sit on a friend's porch and shoot a nice buck. But it wouldn't mean the same to me to do that, even for a serious wall hanger, as it does to hunt the year through for a decent sized blacktail forky taken in the wilderness.

Ok, let me ask you this. If killing was out of the question, would you still do all that year round? Perhaps.....but then it's not hunting and has absolutely nothing to do with hunting anymore. There are plenty of people that get out in the backcountry every year that aren't hunters at all.

Hunting still has everything to do with the kill or the possibility of the kill. Otherwise it's just nature hiking. And there's nothing wrong with that, but that's not hunting.

 

[Poser]

I think anybody who doesn't appreciate elk backstrap, or any undulant backstrap for that matter, should be taken out and shot. Kidding of course, but they should at least be flogged.

Its worth noting that HFTH grind all donated game meat from nose to tail and mix it 50/50 with beef fat. It is what it is, but some hunters have grand illusions of a people at a homeless shelter sitting around carving into a big venison roast. There have also been cases of people at shelters discovering that they are eating game meat and complaining to the state authorities in some cases resulting in the meat being destroyed. I'm not saying that it is not a worthwhile program or that it does not look good for the image of hunting. In abundant years, I share game meat with friends and neighbors so long as I am confident that they will actually use it.

 

[KNOPHISH]

It is a sad day when the freezer is empty of game meat. But it did happen one time & I bought some hamburger at the store. Nasty chit I about puked.

 

[hodgeman]

I have to admit, I don't get it. I hunt quite a lot, and eat game meat on a near-daily basis. I give away a fair amount to friends, family and the community as well.

But I can't say I'd even bother if there wasn't a full freezer at the end of the season.

 

[Poser]

How do you feel about people that have a vegetable garden but don't eat vegetables?

I love to garden, grew up on a farm and have always grown stuff. But I don't do it for the harvest, I do it because I enjoy it and I enjoy giving the rewards of that harvest to others that don't have gardens. It's always a blessing for someone.

I will admit that if I never took another bite of game meat, I'd still be out there every single chance I got.......to make the kill. That part of me I can never get rid of. I was born that way. However, I still have the choice on whether to act on that passion.

Here's a question: What if you never had to actually make the kill, and you'd go out in the woods and find a bunch of meat already sitting there wrapped and cooled in a cooler. Would you still hunt? If so, why? BECAUSE OF THE KILL. If killing is not an option, then I'm not all that interested in hunting. Make no mistake about it, it's about the kill.....not the meat. The meat is just an added benefit of that kill. Unless it's a coyote or a wolf or a prairie dog, etc, etc.

I'm unsure of the point of your argument. There are many reasons to hunt or grow a garden. In my philosophy, the conversion of the yield to food is A principal factor (it may not always be THE principal factor). Of course experience, tradition, enjoyment, even masochism etc are all other factors and different hunts, seasons, trips etc may have a slightly different value assignment to each of these factors, but meat is almost always going to be a principle factor.

To go back to the waterfowling example, I'm not a big duck hunter, but I do live in a major flyway and in area with a significant duck hunting culture. When I do go waterfowling, I generally don't have a desire to kill more birds that I have time to process. With ducks, I dry pluck them to their down, dip them in hot wax, then in cold water and remove the down via wax. This process allows for maximum yield, maximum cooking options and the most flavor, but, just like hunting in general, it requires some effort and is time consuming. I've been exposed "mainstream" waterfowling culture where guys have arbitrary goals for the season such as killing a 1,000 ducks and consider the season a failure if they did not get there. I have seen guys stomp undesirable sub species of ducks into the mud.

I'm familiar with the whole unity of hunters argument and I get it. In the bigger picture, I'd probably defend these guys, but, as far as a interpersonal relationship between myself and that type of hunter, I have disdain from them. I think they are wasteful slobs with poor ethics. They aren't people that I think are good for the overall perception of hunting, so I feel no obligation to embrace them as my fellow hunters.

What we are really talking about here is this: Hunting is time consuming, often expensive and often requires great effort. Actively living in the contemporary world means that there are easier, often cheaper and certainly less time consuming ways to acquire meat, however, as hunters, we yield certain benefits from our hunting efforts, the principal and most tangible benefit being food, whether we eat it ourselves or share it with others, it is important. There is a type of hunter who, to varying degrees, emphasizes this aspect and there is a type of hunter who, to varying degrees, deemphasizes this aspect.

 

[MuleyFever]

I dont think that giving away game meat beyond what you may be able to eat is the same as a person who eats none. Filling your freezer and your neighbors is different to me than just going for the killing and not taking any home for yourself.

Obviously we hunt for different reasons so we have different opinions on topics like this one. I do not hunt just for the kill. I have passed up so many animals even when my freezer was empty because I just like to be in nature and didnt feel like killing that animal at that time. I have also decided that it was time to bring some meat home and killed small bucks or does when I kind of wanted to hunt more for a bigger buck. I have never enjoyed the act of killing fully and often feel just a bit sad for the animal but I am ok with it because I will consume it.

Maybe my internal conflict is because I am in it more for the total experience than just the desire to kill. That and some of the people I met that didnt eat the meat were so disconnected from the actual act of hunting it made me a little upset. I am sure there are some great people that put a lot of time, money and care into hunting that dont eat venison and that is great. I just have not met them.

 

[Ross]

If what they do with the meat is legal and no waste that is a personal decision and their call...I don't worry about something I don't control.

 

[5MilesBack]

I'm unsure of the point of your argument.

He said that those people that kill but don't eat the meat aren't his kind of people. I'm just wondering where he stands on vegetable growers that don't eat veggies.

We all hunt for different reasons, but in the end if there's no possibility of the kill or the kill itself.......then it's not hunting. I don't hunt for meat, I hunt for the kill. The meat is just an added bonus. If they took the meat out of the hunt, I'd still hunt. But if they took the kill out of the hunt, we'd no longer be hunters.

 

[Mtslackcountry]

I think that if they know that where the meat ends up its not going to be wasted then its fine. I give away meat when I have too much. This last year my brother and I both killed bulls, I shot 2 antelope and a deer as well. I knew there was no way I would eat that much meat in a year so I lined up a guy that wanted my deer should I get one. Once I got my deer off it went to said buddy.

 

[MuleyFever]

We all hunt for different reasons, but in the end if there's no possibility of the kill or the kill itself.......then it's not hunting. I don't hunt for meat, I hunt for the kill. The meat is just an added bonus. If they took the meat out of the hunt, I'd still hunt. But if they took the kill out of the hunt, we'd no longer be hunters.

Do you think wildlife photographers and cinematographers can be called hunters? People who look for sunken ships are called treasure hunters. Does hunting have to mean killing? If a guy just wants to be in nature and see animals but doesnt want to eat them why not take a picture. Many hunters are photographers second. Is there a moral issue with people just wanting to kill animals because it feels good?

 

[realunlucky]

Isn't hunting a management tool? Can that be accomplished without killing?