Honest question...

[stevek]

My wife and I both shoot and are NRA instructors. We are also getting better with our compound bows, but that's another story Neither of us have ever hunted, and we were watching the outdoor channel yesterday. The question my wife had was, "Do the folks hunting bear, and other larger game eat their kill? And if not, what is the reasoning?" We know about deer and turkey...Sorry to be so naive, but I'm thinking about possibly deer hunting this year for the first time. Per another thread in this forum, we get our meat at the supermarket so the animals aren't harmed

Truly looking for some input, and information.

 

[Grumulkin]

Being a vegetarian, I do not eat my kill but I try to ensure that someone who appreciates it gets my kill. Every big game animal is edible though some, I've heard, taste better than others.

My wife, who isn't a vegetarian, wants no part of wild game meat. I don't quite understand that since I would think wild game would be some of the healthiest meat going.

 

[courtgreene]

People eat bear all the time. Predator hunters who go after coyotes and wolves justify not eating their kills as protecting game animals from too much predation. Where you stand on that is up to you but it makes sense to me. As for those who go after lions, leopards, etc... I have no idea what they do. As for really big animals that you don't generally find on menus like giraffe, zebra, elephant and cape buffalo, I've never hunted any and probably never will, but I saw on some show(outdoor channel) that they often give the edible stuff to tribal folk so it is eaten, while they just take the show-off parts. Some massive game that most of the western hemisphere isn't even allowed to hunt like whales, polar bear, and other sea mammals are harvested and eaten by those who are allowed to hunt them via the same cultural practices that allow those people to hunt them.

 

[hardluk1]

stevek Bear is a good meat That said it may not be on your favorite table meat. Check with some local bear hunters and see if they could let you try some and see. Most states also have some kind of feed the needy program too and you can help there,maybe. The diffence between meat taste can be like eating your standard grass feed cow off the local pasture and a grain polished and well aged cow. Big difference in taste can be found. With deer , a nice younger doe probable ain't gona taste like a old trophy buck dureing the rut. Good luck with bow hunting. Nothing like watching deer upclose and learning there habits..

 

[BADUNAME37]

Bear tastes just like roast beef, if the bear is not too old and if it has been dieting on blackberries all its life.

I know, as the rug is hanging on the wall right in front of me.

 

[Art Eatman]

I've never known a deer hunter who didn't eat the meat. Not in the last forty or fifty years, anyway.

There's a learning process, of course. How to do a clean job of field dressing, how to skin and how to butcher. Granted, many hunters have a commercial operation do the skinning and butchering--but I've always done my own.

 

[buck460XVR]

The question my wife had was, "Do the folks hunting bear, and other larger game eat their kill? .

Hunting originated from the desire of man to eat something other than roots and berries. Scientists claim that the human brain developed into what we know it today because man is a meat eater. That said, not all meat is created equal, but if one is hungry enough, they will eat any flesh including their own.

I don't hunt bear, nor do I hunt geese anymore because I don't like eating it. My state, like most, has wanton waste laws pertaining to game animals, so disposing of edible parts of the carcass is considered a crime. I generally eat the animals I shoot, not only because I enjoy eating them, but outta respect to the animal that I killed. I have yet to eat a coyote or fox, but then these laws generally do not pertain to fur-bearers and predators

 

[courtgreene]

Buck, agreed... now about your tag line. true, my guns are expensive and continue costing more and more the longer I have them.

 

[Justin Holder]

"Worms gotta eat too"

 

[JWF III]

Predator hunters who go after coyotes and wolves justify not eating their kills as protecting game animals from too much predation. Where you stand on that is up to you but it makes sense to me. As for those who go after lions, leopards, etc... I have no idea what they do.

Not exactly the same, but... One of the guys that has a predator hunting show (Pursuit Chan. maybe?), eats his Bobcat kills after harvesting the fur. I know I couldn't do it. I won't even shoot a Bob. (They remind me too much of my old 1/2 wild bobcat, 1/2 dom. shorthair pet. He had the bobbed tail and the size, just not the coloring.) But that show's host swears it's the best meat he's had. I won't be finding out, but I doubt it's better than caribou. I could get real fat for the winter on that.

Wyman

 

[ballbags(again)]

" Per another thread in this forum, we get our meat at the supermarket so the animals aren't harmed"
Dead is Dead maybe more Quickly and Assuredly but Killed none the Less

 

[wankerjake]

One of the guys that has a predator hunting show (Pursuit Chan. maybe?), eats his Bobcat kills after harvesting the fur. I know I couldn't do it

Bobcat is good meat, I'll eat the next one I get too. Cook thoroughly of course

 

[Art Eatman]

Cougar is scrumptious!

While I'm not in the sheep and goat business, I'll control coyote numbers to a minor extent. Wily and I compete for quail. Gotta have some coyotes around, though; that yodel dog serenade is a wondrous thing.

 

[cisco11]

Bear meat is good,
SOME griz. can be eaten.
The large Alaskan browns can't be eaten, unless you are starving. They taste too fishy. Black bear is very good. The best thing about black bear is to render the fat. Great shortening for baking. Was on Alaska hunt last Aug/ Sept. on Chinsana River, shot Small black that strolled into camp when she got a whiff of our breakfast. Figured she commited suicide.
Cisco

 

[MCgunner]

I've heard cats were good to eat. I've probably eaten cat at one time or another in a Chinese restaurant, but fortunately, I didn't know what it was. I eat pigs and deer and waterfowl and doves, mostly what I hunt down here.

North Zone DOVE opens in a little over a month!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!

 

[CoRoMo]

As I was raised, it is cheating to not field dress/clean what you kill/catch, and it is dishonest to not eat it also. I was told that you don't have to cook it, but if you are going to kill/catch it, you have to clean it and eat it when Momma cooks it. This what how my family brought us up.

The only exceptions were for your first time, and for the vermin that were not for eating in the first place. Daddy would show you how to clean the fish or dress out the animal you got, after that time, it is your duty and it is cheating to dump that responsibility onto someone else. Not eating what you brought home was downright disrespectful.

 

[chas08]

For the most part, I eat what I kill. I rarely kill a predator ('Yotes) I just won't kill a Bobcat. Hogs are the only real exception. I take the Bluebell approach to them, "I eat what I can and leave the rest" buzzards and 'yotes got to eat too.

 

[FLAvalanche]

Bear is excellent if cooked properly. My uncle has his own construction business and has a dump truck that scrap wood is kept in. Anything under 24" in length is put in the dump truck.

If we got a bear we'd throw the bear on top of the dump truck and take it out to the Amish. They'd take the wood in trade for butchering the bear and cooking up a nice bear roast.

I love rug steak.

I eat almost everything I kill. I don't eat most of the nuicanse pests like racoons and coyote. Large pigs are left to feed the buzzards and bring in more coyote. Whitetail Deer, Axis Deer, smaller hogs, turkey, rabbit and squirrel all get eaten. I'm still working on getting a bobcat, I want to try one.

 

[MCgunner]

I just won't kill a Bobcat.

I've had shots at Bobcat in the past, one BIG one. But, I don't like killin' 'em either and never did. That big one I sat there looking at him at about 200 yards through my scope and just watched hiim. He was a big'un. I would shoot one if I wanted the mount, but I'm really not that into a cat mount. The mounts I've got are of a deer I shot in West Texas and a Javelina killed on that same ranch....and a mallard. I ate the deer and even the Javelina, but not the mallard.

 

[metalman8600]

A vegetarian hunter, now I've heard it all.

 

[chas08]

I've had shots at Bobcat in the past, one BIG one. But, I don't like killin' 'em either and never did.

I probably should have said I won't ever again kill a Bobcat. I sold a few hides when I was younger but I haven't killed one in near 30 years.

I watched a young cat jump on a blue wood rat that was eating my corn on a lease in Lasalle county years ago. He messed with that rat, entertaining himself and me, as I watched through my rifle scope, for 15 minutes before dispatching it with a bite to the head. I decided then that I would never kill another one.

I've since been entertained a couple more times. Once by a female and her three kittens not more than 15 yards from my tripod. I won't condemn others for taking them for whatever reason they choose. I just know that I'm done with it.

 

[flipajig]

I eat every thing that I kill as long as its not a varmit.. or a rat..

 

[MCgunner]

I've since been entertained a couple more times. Once by a female and her three kittens not more than 15 yards from my tripod.

I had three kittens playing right UNDER my tripod last year. It was really neat. I stayed dead still and stared down the most wary one. He couldn't figure out what I was, don't think. He finally trotted off. That was really cool. I've got lots of 'em on my place. Friend's boy shot one there several years ago, about 30 lbs. They had it tanned at a local taxidermist.

 

[Arkel23]

A vegetarian hunter, now I've heard it all.

Lol.

 

[FatPants]

Deer, squirrel, upland birds.. absolutely, it would be a waste not to eat them.

Yotes and feral hogs rot where they lie.