You're a remarkable woman.

I hope that the original poster is okay with this thread becoming chatty. If it hasn't enough already then it will.

So I've got all kinds of small stories.

A year and a half ago I was creating my turkey decoy diorama at 5am deep in the woods under some pine trees. While putting the last decoy next to a stump I heard a bottle leaking in my back pocket. I keep mosquito spray and Ivy Dry in a fanny pack. I thought, "Those are pump sprayers and shouldn't be leaking" and look back at my hip I put my hand on the pack. Then I realize the noise is coming from my feet. RATTLESNAKE! I take a quick step back and realize it's just to my right then take a quick step to the left. It stops like a light switch. I figure I'm okay and go back to my turkey fort and wait out the dawn. At dawn a hen drops out of the tree I'm under and right onto the spot where I was going to put the decoy and runs away. If I knew I was screwing up my chance by setting up right under the birds I would have gladly killed that snake. Circle of life or no circle of life.

Today I was scouting a new spot. It was amazing. The forest road stops 1/4 mile from the river so I scouted the area down to the river. Pig signs were everywhere to I walked back up to the hills as I was unarmed (it's Sunday). I hate wild pigs. They'll eat bamboo, tree roots, my dog, me......

One word: Rattlesnake!

Seriously. I always feel bad for the dead dear that I find near rivers in the early spring. They starved or died of disease.

We don't have wild pigs here, if we did, we would hunt them instead of raising them

My first time deer hunting, I remember sitting up in my deer stand, freezing my bum and just waiting. Right at day break, I hear a whold bucn of loud beating noses in the trea behind me. I didn't turn and look, I was waiting for that doe to walk past me. Finally O looked and there was a whole tree of turkeys just waking up and they suddenly all took flight to the field next door. They were unbalievably loud! Didn't bother the deer though, shortly after they were in the thicket near me and then after waitng very patiently, they came out. I had tunnel vision and only saw the first doe and shot her. She went down quickly, my husband told me to stay put in the stand because I could spook a downed dear and we don't want to chase them. The rest of the group of deer didn't take off, they stayed put and sniffed the dead doe and walked around snorting and stomping. Then I saw that huge buck, I could have cared less about his antlers, his body was massive. I knew my husband had been talking about that particular buck, but they already passed his deer stand and were going to head the other direction. So I took the shot, he went down but not dead. My husband showed up quickly, actualy had to shoo off the rest of the deer and finished off the buck. I then got 10 minutes of butt chewing because I got his buck. He was so mad that I had to gut them both by myself and he only helped my get them through the crick, otherwise I had to drag them one by one to the truck.
Just so everyone knows, an old buck is not tastey at all, but I ground up all the meat on both deers and mixed the meat so you really couldn't taste the "old buck" flavor.

We are now divorced and I will now only get a big doe because I don't want the guys crying about the "prize buck" I am ging otu after food not a rack, I already have one and I don't need another.

Shot gun season is only a few weeks away, I haven't got myliscence yet, I need it to even push the deer with the guys. I don't shoot when we hunt in a group, always concerned about my vision and missing. The others are perfectly happy to fill my tag for me after they fill theirs. We skin and hand them after we kill and they stay hung in the barn till we butcher, usually the end of the week. We spend 2 days and the whole group shows up and we cut the meat off the bones, grind up what we want, cut out the loins and package it. Then we divvy out the meat as equally as posible between all of us.
I shot one last year at the farm, just me and a growly squirel LOL It was a small buck so it was easy to get back to the house. We ground all the meat and added bacon for flavor. Some really good stuff! I don't like plain ground deer in burgers but I will use ground deer in chilli and recipies like that. So adding the bacon was awesome, we now eat deer burgers with ground bacon mixed in.

I will be butchering rabbits the middle of the week, anyone want to learn how to do it? I can even teach how to can it.

I agree, whild animals are vicouse in the killing. If we do it right, there is very little vicouseness with it. But mistakes happen and we do our best to correct it and try harder to never have it happen again.

You got a buck and lost a husband who would leave you to do all the work. Sounds like a twofer to me.

And loud is an understatement. Taking off they sound like bedsheets flapping in a thunderstorm.

You don't expect me to understand the laws and how to be a responsible hunter? That's odd.

So you personally, and recommend others, trash our public forests by hanging trash in the trees to shoot at which you don't pack out and kill animals for sport only? Stay classy, dude.

The only time morality comes into play with hunting is when you are doing things like, you now, killing thousands of bison and leaving the carcasses to rot after skinning and taking only the tongue and hump meat. Or shooting hundreds of squirrels for no reason other than them providing living, moving, breathing, pop-up targets.

If you were eating the squirrels, I would have left it off at being "ecologically" minded enough to educate yourself on what you should and should not be shooting at. If you're not, you should have your licenses revoked. Hunting is a privilege, not a right.

And I "understand" perfectly. I see "you" out there every season in the next camp over. I am usually packing your garbage out with mine after stirring the fire you left smoldering.

I'm not going to respond to that with the exception that I never said I didn't eat the squirrels. As I explained later, I don't see that as a justification for killing them.

The only justification I can find for killing an animal is food, disseased, protecting myself, my family or my own animals and personal property. The guys hunt racoons and sellt he hide, I hate the practice but did like going with them to follow the dogs back when I could see well enough to keep up. Now to make me feel better about the coons, we feed the carcouses to the hogs

I don't think I care all that much about the animals feelings. but there is something morally right about cleaning up after yourself and doing your best to make a clean kill and not over killing the poppulation.

In Iowa, you can kill a deer and the only thing you have to take is the loin, thats it! I think a hunter should at least take the rest to a local locker and give it to them. Our lockers will grind up the deer given to them and give it to the local food banks. Why leave the meat to sit when it can feed people? Terribly selfish to just pull the loins and leave the rest lay.

I reply from atop my 20' deer stand. Many of the animals I see here are photographed to enjoy later. Those that are killed are completely butchered for food. Nothing is wasted. I abhor those who "kill for sport" discarding the meat. That is the same kind of sickness that brought us Columbine in my opinion.

I also trap hogs and coons. Feral hogs are fabulous table fare and here in Arkansas they cause terrible damage so the state game commission requests we kill them whenever we find them, 24/7/365! Raccoons take a bit of imagination but can be good eating as well. Smoked for hours at a low temp makes them pretty tasty. The fat has an off flavor so it must be completely removed by trimming or pre boiling and skimming before use in stews and the like.

Great to see this thread active. I did not grow up hunting, but my husband did. It took me a long time to appreciate game, but now it is my preference. After years of giving the bones to our sled dogs, we now cook them up for soup. Nothing is wasted, all scraps go to the dogs. I feel extremely lucky to be in a place where we can harvest animals.

I feel the same way, wish I could do more but some things we just can't do ourselves or we do without.

BF doesn't want me to raise chickens to butcher because of the cost involved. He said we can do without, but I like chicken! I'm getting 25 cornish cross chicks in Febuary to raise up to eat.

Deer season is almost here, I heard the guys talking about getting the guns out to clean them the other day. There is a pile of hunting apparal on the livingroom floor and I saw the special "hunting boots" in the pile. I say someones getting excited. Either way, each guy gets 3 tags every year so I will have 3 deer (crossing fingers) by the end of next month.