Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleF
I think butchering your own meat in general helps to give true respect to the animals that you consume. I also seemed to find that if you butcher your own food, you suddenly realize that you want to use everything up and waste as little as possible (ie: consumption of innards and other "weird stuff").
I grew up around farms and whatnot and I started as a child learning how to gut fish when I went fishing with my father. I've also killed and plucked chickens and I once also was tasked with killing a pig old school style for a large banquet when I was working with a group of natives in Asia (Pig tied down and I had to hit the heart with a 5-6 inch long blade). Blood is surprisingly hot. I even went bird hunting with natives using an air gun, but we didn't find anything to try to shoot, so they had me hunting down escaped chickens as a form of entertainment for them.
I wanted to try hunting ever since I was a kid and I did have some offers to take me deer hunting, but the stars never aligned and my mom didn't want me doing that. I was aiming to do this now that I'm out of the home, but I think the final nail in the coffin for this activity was when one of our clients was mauled by a Grizzly while hunting. I really don't need certain table talk with my wife and mom about the risks that with never really materialize and they will over blow with subjective BS made up misinformation.
I've never fired a real gun. Paintball, BB, airsoft etc. is not the same no matter how much my wife and mom say it is. I've even participated in tactical war games with police, movie extras, former military, gun nuts etc. in Asia. Quite fun, but I've always seemingly leaned more towards the long guns in the same way I also enjoy archery.
I'd love to try to fire a real gun, but I'd also like to do it with people I enjoy the company of. I also don't feel the need to just go out there on my own and get a firearms license or go to a gun range. Shooting prairie dogs and whatnot seems like a crap ton of fun and it seems like something I'd be willing to get a gun license just to try out with a few buddies), but again... too much disapproving perspectives from wife and mom if I decided to just do on my own or with people they don't know. I'm thinking I should convince more of my buddies to find an outlet and tinker around with this stuff just once or twice for a bachelor party or just some garden variety guys weekend or something. At least I won't have to deal with the gun commentary alone.
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Yah I butcher all of my own, grinding, prep and the works. The last elk I did took 6 hours between the two of us. I also don't trophy hunt, it's for meat and that's it. The butchering isn't just for the experience, it's for the cost and practicality as well, it's expensive to butcher meat, and it's expensive to hunt, so when you actually get an animal (like a deer, which is small) it's just an impractical amount to pay for the output. I prefer to try and take elk only because it's a worthwhile amount of meat for the effort, output and $$.
Some fun shooting like pest control is definitely fun, but I take that like fishing, I don't equate the same degree of self awareness and such to very small animals like rodents and fish. Plus if it serves a purpose (like damage control) it's not just wasteful killing which I don't agree with. I have trouble thinking of predator control in hunting areas sometimes too, because wolves and cougars are beautiful, but they are very unwanted for the most part and cause lots of problems. Coyotes try to #### up my dogs all the time so I hate them.
I'm usually always open to introducing people to firearms, so feel free to reach out and if I can or have the ability to I'm happy to help out.