Question to hunters...

Do you hunt to eat, or hunt for sport?

  • Hunt to eat

    Votes: 35 83.3%

  • Hunt for sport

    Votes: 7 16.7%
  • Total voters
    42
E

Epyon

New member
How many of you eat what you hunt? How many of you hunt for sport and don't eat it? (Varmint hunting is NOT included since they are pests, but if you eat them let us know so we can avoid your cooking... :p ) For those of you who don't eat what you hunt, do you at least give the meat to people who would appreciate it? I ask because I firmly believe that if I kill something it's because I'm either defending myself or I plan to eat it, to me wasting the animal I hunted is very disrespectful and shows how ungrateful/wasteful you are to the animal and the planet you live on, if I hunt an animal for the first time and don't like the taste of it, I tend to give the meat to someone who would like it.


Epyon
 
both

i usually start of trying to get a wall hanger in november, but in december i try to get some does for the freezer.
 
They are not mutually exclusive. I hunt for the sport, but I use the meat (of game animals).

The conventional image of 'sport' hunters as necessarily wasteful is more than a little skewed, IMHO. From what I've seen of the non-hunting community, it has become somewhat of a dichotomy: you either laugh while you kill the animal and then leave to body to rot, or you weep over the carcass and then carry off and use every scrap of bone and tendon. I'm sure there are examples of both of those, but neither describes the vast majority of hunters. And there are laws (at least in my state) against wasting meat. Anyhow, the issue can't really be clarified as "sport" hunters and "meat" hunters. It's some of both in everyone. Purity of motive is very rare.
 
I hunt for sport, but I eat what I kill, except varmints. I was unable to vote because you forgot to include "both" as an answer.
IMO, anyone that leaves a deer to rot is an idiot and doesn't deserve to have the privilege of hunting. I also have a low opinion of those that just take the loins and leave the rest. Deer taken on a nuisance license are an exception, of course.
 
Both, but I never let game spoil. I will give it to someone if I decide not to keep it for myself. hpg
 
Definetly for the horns! But I also eat everything I kill. Thats the only way. Sometimes I hook a few freinds up with some shoulders or a big ham. But I never waste.

Swampdog: You're very correct! I will not tolerate someone killing and leaving deer, if they're gonna do that, they better do it somewhere else!

I think you need to adjust the poll choices though. Mayeb like this:
1) hunt for sport and eat
2) hunt for food, not sport
3) hunt for sport and don't eat.
4) hunt for sport and waste meat.
 
YOu should also add pest destruction to that list, which is not quite the same thing as varmint hunting. Many large introduced mammals here are a pest, and are culled to reduce enviromental harm. Deer for example, believe it or not.
 
Interesting...

Interesting responses, I'm glad to see hunters that try not to waste the animal. Sorry I didn't put up both as an answer, and I didn't mean to come off as vague, I mainly wanted to know how many people actually ate what they kill in addition to having a trophy of it. When I was making the poll I was considering trophy as wasting the animal and not eating its meat. (The trophy hunters I've met are people that go over to Africa and shoot elephants just for the ivory and let the meat rot!:mad: :mad: :mad: ) I guess that's why the perception of "trophy" in my mind was stuck as someone who wastes what they kill. As for my hunting experience I've only hunted duck once when I was a kid, and haven't really had an opportunity to hunt since. As for obtaining permits to kill pest game animals I'll just place that under varmint hunting for this poll.

To rangermonroe, what exactly do you hunt that'd make you emaciated if you ate it? I would think that most animals we hunt have nutrional value that our steroid injected beef lacks. (Mainly thinking of antelope, deer, elk, and bison... sooo delicious, I can't wait to move out to Colorado so I can hunt every season possible.)


Epyon
 
both

It is a sport, but it is also for food. That means, btw, that I'm not interested in hunting stuff I won't eat. But that's me.

Springmom
 
I reload so in a since I make the bullets. I find, shoot, gut, skin, cut, grind and wrap, then I cook em. Well sometimes Karen cooks em.
Hunting is fun, I enjoy it but as soon as you shoot it's all work till you sit down and eat. Not bad work I have to admit.
I have shot a spike that was standing next to a 3 or 4 point because he was going to be better meat. Unless it is a real trophy I will shoot the younger better meat every time.
 
I see I see...

To rem33, I'm used to gutting, skinning, and cutting meat; my family and I have celebrated many times the Muslim holiday of sacrifice in rememberance of the story of Ibrahim(Abraham) being told by Allah(God) to sacrafice his son, and instead a ram took the son's place. Usually we'd go to a slaughterhouse and pick out the healthiest cow or goat, say a prayer in thanks for our food and then distribute the meat amongst friends, family, and the poor especially. So all in all, I'd say I could probably cut up deer or elk in similar fashion to a cow or goat, the biggest challenge I'd see is all the equipment I'd have to carry in with me, and then all the equipment PLUS the meat I've obtained while hunting. However, I probably won't post a thread on advice on hunting deer or elk until it's time for me to go on my first big hunt. I would also think my other big concern other than logistics is encountering bears, especially if I've got a carcass to take back to my vehicle.

To springmom, I totally agree. In fact your comment reminded me why I want to hunt mostly deer and elk, and on some rare day/occasion bison. It's because I tried it first, and once I realized just how good it is, I wanted to hunt them for myself.


Epyon
 
The trophy hunters I've met are people that go over to Africa and shoot elephants just for the ivory and let the meat rot!
Click to expand...

I'm not by any means an African hunter, but from my reading, it would seem that, at least some of the time, the locals quickly gather at the kill site and butcher the meat. That would make sense, in protein starved Africa.
I've also read that even when they are culling herds they also process the meat.

Any real African hunters care to comment?
 
Hmmm... interesting notion swampdog...

However, now comes the ethics question of hunting endangered animals like rhinos and elephants? I absolutely refuse to do so! Unless I had to defend myself against one I would not shoot an animal that I know is on its way to extinction because of mankind's ruthlessness/carelessness. For those of you who would disagree let me just say, that you'd probably agree with me if I said that'd be one less critter to eat or the fact that if their populations don't climb back up there will be no future generations of hunters being able to get that trophy their great great great grandfather bagged back in the year 2006.:p


Epyon
 
Epyon

If I hunted to eat, much the same if I fished to eat, I would be and emaciated fellow

I really suck at all of the above.

I eat most that I kill. Still, it's slim pickins at the Monroe Hacienda.

Thank God for Kroger, or me , the missus, and all the young'uns would starve!
 
Epyon, H&H Hunter is far more knowledgeable about African hunting than I am, but some basics:

Rhinos aren't hunted, legally. Poached, yes, for sale of the horn to rich Arabs, mostly Yemeni for dagger handles.

Anyplace there is licensed hunting of elephants, the herds are generally on the increase. License fees are split between the government and the local villages. The locals thus have a vested interest in protection against poaching. In some areas, there are too many elephants, and they are essentially killed as pests in order to preserve habitat at the carrying capacity of the land.

Elephants are in no way endangered as a species. In some of the African countries, poaching has devastated the herds. For instance, in Uganda back in the Idi Amin era, AK47s on full auto provided meat for both rebels and government soldiers.

Everything I've ever read indicates that any wasting of meat in Africa is a rarity. A kill of any animal beyond "camp meat" brings locals out in droves. Rural Africans in general subsist on a rather protein-poor diet.

Them's the basics. :)

Art
 
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