Game Feed Stories; Tell us yours ....

P

Pahoo

New member
A previous thread about eating squirrels prompted me to start this post. This post also serves to encourage eating what we kill, harvest if you prefer. As Ted would say; "you kill it, you grill it". I know you guys have these stories in there and lets share them. Keep it clean and real. ....... :D

Our local Izaak Walton league, use to have a wild game feed night and folks donated game from the previous hunting and trapping season. I'm talking about the midwest so sadly, we don't get any Gators. We were standiing in the chow line and a buddy of mine kept commenting about liking RATS and how he wished it was on the line. By RATS, he ment Muskrats, from the trappers. He kept on until one guy in front of us, left the and told George that he should keep his mouth shut. We all know each other got a good laugh out of this one. ..... :barf:


Be Safe !!!
 
I once shot a ground hog, my good friend took it and cooked it up. I ate all sorts of food there, ate some gar, turtles, just about anything moved he would cook it up. I took him all sorts of stuff just to see what he would do with it. I sure do miss them old guys, seems I am the only one left from those days.
 
My grandmother was a Depression Era wife,,,

I don't care if it walked, crawled, flew, or slithered,,,
She could cook it and it was good to eat.

I spent a summer with them in West Virginia one year,,,
I had my Grandfather's .22 at my disposal,,,
I met some of the neighbor kids,,,
We hunted constantly.

No matter what animal I brought home,,,
Granny would help me skin it,,,
Then she'd cook it for me.

Papa wouldn't touch the game I brought home,,,
He said he spent too many years eating like that to ever do it on purpose.

I do remember bringing home a groundhog one day,,,
I think I can still taste the gravy she made.

Then it was back to Oklahoma and skinny jack rabbits.

Aarond
 
Papa wouldn't touch the game I brought home,,,
He said he spent too many years eating like that to ever do it on purpose.
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This seems to be a common story out of those Depression years and although I am not that old, I know that there were many folks, that raised rabbits and fed them table scraps. Rabbit got fat enough or close, and got eaten. ... :rolleyes:

I worked with a man who hunted Rattlers, as a kid, on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, with his dad and brother. They sold the venum to labs and ate some of the meat. He fixed some, one day at the shop and yes, it does taste like chicken ..... :)


Be Safe !!!
 
Years ago when I lived in NV, one of the local sportsman's groups would have a game meat fundraiser dinner. All kinds of game meat. Anything legal and fit for consumption was offered. Bobcat, coyote, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, venison, elk, moose, mountain goat, rattler, goose, swan, etc. They had a bunch of professional cooks do the cooking, so of course it tasted good.

On a different note, I also knew an old guy that lived out in the desert in a trailer (not a mobile/manufactured home, a travel trailer) and he always had some interesting recipes for game. Once he told us how to cook coots to make them taste good (they didn't). Another time he told us how to cook young rockchucks (they are so fat they will burn like a candle). He had all kinds of stories about growing up in the wild lands during the Depression, so it was always good to talk to him, we just didn't take cooking tips from him after that.
 
Rattlesnake is pretty tasty (and yes...a bit like chicken, though more chewy). Raccoon is pretty darn good, when cooked like a pot roast. Squirrel (Grey squirrel seems better than Fox Squirrel) and Rabbit are good to eat. And we eat deer and feral pig (females only). But...I also hunt coyotes, and I'm not eating that meat. Even the buzzards don't seem that wild about coyote meat. That makes me a bit more reluctant to say that we eat what I kill. Those all inclusive statements are sometimes hard to live up to.
 
I know that there were many folks, that raised rabbits...
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Not near old enough to remember the depression era but...

Growing up, it was common practice to get up on a Saturday and butcher anywhere from 50-75 tamed rabbits us kids had raised for the table.

Rabbit(tame and wild), squirrel, young groundhog and coon, turtle, deer, pheasant, grouse was all very common table fare. Including our beef, we ate what we butchered and grew in the garden. Nothing like taking your bucket out in 0 degree weather and digging your mounded potatoe's for that nights supper and the next mornings breakfast :rolleyes:.

Sitting here thinking bout all that makes me think how much healthier we ate... also getting hungry, mom can cook anything :D.
 
That makes me a bit more reluctant to say that we eat what I kill. Those all inclusive statements are sometimes hard to live up to.
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There are at least two kinds of hunt, one for food and the other for conservation efforts. Killing for the fun of it should never come into play. There are always grey areas and no, I have not eaten every animal I have hunted. Understand that I don't need much of a reason to hunt and kill, but never for the fun of it.

In the Midwest, there use to be many grain silos, there are fewer to day. Anyway, Pigeons love to roost in them. As kids, and too young to really hunt, we use to get Squabs and sold them to a lady for twenty five cents each. That was big money for us. My mom refused to fry them so we asked the Squab lady to cook one for us. They were very good but it did kind of spoil our future hunts. ..... :eek:

Be Safe !!!
 
We used to eat pigeon during the starving-student days in college. We'd shoot them off the eaves of the buildings with a pellet rifle after dark and gumbo them for several days meals. Yeah, it was probably illegal, worth several misdemeanors, but I believe the statute of limitations has expired.

When folks would invite me to pot-luck dinners, I'd often include game in the menu, then listen to folks talk during the meal. At one memorable event, there was this little liberal anti-hunting gal who went on and on about how she could never eat game, and how terrible the hunters were for killing those poor innocent creatures. Then I told her that she had just knocked back double helpings of fried rabbit and duck gumbo.

She didn't talk to me for a few weeks after that.
 
we use to get Squabs and sold them to a lady for twenty five cents each
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I got 2.00 ea in south omaha, them older guys loved them.

In them depression days, my Dads paw had a plan. He bought up the empty lots went up for sale, he worked for the railroad then, the kids my uncles and aunts grew garden plants there. Canned everything, Grandpa also told me they tied fishing line to 2 x 4s with treble hooks and corn to catch geese. Canned them too.
 
Let's see...

Called and killed a few bobcats. Bobcat is very tasty meat, white like pork/cottontail and has a great flavor. I'm told that during the Great Depression house cat was called the "poor man's rabbit." My dad was over one time, I offered him some and he said "hell no I'm not eating that." Then he watched me make a quesadilla with it, and decided to have some. He had me make him another! Last bobcat I got I called him on the way home and he said "make sure you get the meat!":p

Tried one of the coyotes I killed. After a 2 day marinade the meat was edible. Without the marinade though it was disgusting. The flavor was horrible.

Rattlesnake is also pretty good. When I kill snakes these days it's for eatin' more than for pest control.

Growing up my friend's dad raised pigeons to train his bird dogs with. He was the keeper at the fish hatchery so guess what the pigeons ate...fish food. One day he said "hey boys, go out and practice for bird season with about 6-8 of my pigeons. They keep breeding and I have too many of them." So we took them out, let them go one at a time, I think one got away. They were homing pigeons so it went home. Anyway we decided pigeons are just big dove and they should be good to eat. So we breasted them, got them breaded and battered and fried some up. Guess what they tasted like...fish food:D
 
Mine was from 5 years old and includes a "bar-b-q "beast samich of Collie... ya'll want the full story or leave it to ya'll imagination?

Brent
 
Many years ago a local church was sponsoring a Red Bean and Fried Rabbit dinner. A bunch of us youngsters were asked if we could supply the rabbits. Sure we could, we were great hunters, or so we thought. Rabbit hunting turned out to be a little tougher than we expected we only killed a couple. What to do?

We decided to shoot a bunch of small Nutria and pass them off as rabbit. We did, cleaned them, and we did. Everyone pigged out and said how great the “Fried Rabbit” was...... We all took a blood oath never to divulge our secret. It never was.

Now Nutria is a big aquatic rat. Gets up to about 25 pounds. It’s a South American import and the proper name is Coypu. Actually Nutria is the pelt from them, not the animal. They were trapped like Muskrats. They weren’t worth much back then so no one really put much time into trapping them. They bred like, ...well rats, so were everywhere in the marsh, not much trouble to kill many. And kill we did, no one ever knew......

As an addendum : If you ever hear a coonass (Cajun) talking about “Neturals”, this is the animal he’s referring too.

“Po-Yi! Pass a good time cher and don let dem dere Neutrals get you.”
 
Back when I was in the USAF several friends and I used to hunt grey squirrels. One guy's wife was surperb when it came to cooking what we killed so she did the honors. It was squirrel that night and MAN was it tasty. That was back in the 70's so no one ask me how she did them cause all I remember was it was good. Anyway my wife sometimes gets a wild hair and won't eat wild game. In this house I've usually got something wild several times a year to put on the table. She'll eat it and mostly doesn't return for seconds. That night someone had mentioned squirrel during the dinner. Everyone knew my wife real well and shot that person dagger laden glares. She was suspicious all along but continued to eat then admitted she enjoyed the meal. Our hosts also had some walnuts in a dish so, after the meal, I grabbed one and rolled it in her direction asking if she felt like eating that. What I knew was she liked the meal so I felt safe. What I'd forgotten was how long her memory was. To this day I don't mention walnuts.
 
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