Let's talk about hunting

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

OK, so I looked at Rocky's and it's interesting. Do you have to gut and skin the deer before taking it in? I've done it a few times in my youth, and it's not a huge deal but I know what kind of mess it creates. I also don't think my fiance would appreciate me skinning game in the garage. It seems far to convenient to shoot a deer and then just drive it in to them and drop it off.

I love deer jerky and deer sausage, you don't know if they blend the sausage with pork?

Yeah, you have to gut it and skin it before you take it in.
Gutting it you have to do regardless, if you don't you can wreck the meat pretty quickly if you don't get it cleaned up right away.
As for skinning it, no butcher I've ever been to will skin it as having all that fur in the shop is a big problem. You don't have to do that at home though, you can do it in the field, if you want. It's a lot easier if you can take it somewhere to hang it (or have something to hang it off in the field), but you can do it on the tailgate if you're so inclined, and don't mind taking your time.

As for mixing it with pork, yup, Rocky's will do that for you.
He's got his own proportions, but I'm sure if you want he'd change it up if you wanted more/less pork in there.

We make our own sausage, and we typically use about 20% pork belly. I can't remember what Rocky uses (I did get sausage made there, and it is delicious), but I'm sure it's similar.

[nickerjones]

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

Not really behind the idea killing for fun, and wish you would shoot an animal with a camera instead of a weapon.

My dad's best friend is avid well known hunter here. This guy goes everywhere and hunts everything. His office looked like a zoo with stuffed animals from his exploits. I do want to say he either eats all the meat or pays to have it processed and it is then donated to homeless shelters. Anyway as far as your camera idea.... This guy got invited to take part in a new hunting idea. It would be like bass masters but for deer, so Deer Masters if you will. You go out and hunt like your normally do. You carry a full size gun but when you pull the trigger it takes a picture of the animal and where you would have shot them. I thought it was a cool idea but Im not against shooting animals either. I'm a proponent of eating what you kill so it was cool to see sport hunting presented in a way that didn't kill animals.

[Hevishot]

Most places blend the sausage with pork if you specify. Alot of people do not like the full gameyness that can come from a deer or moose. If you are planning to skin at home remember that OLFA knifes are cheaper and more efficient than stopping to sharpen some fancy skinning knife that is a pain to work with. If you ever skin out an elk or moose or quarter one in the bush the OLFA knife makes life easy.

I am also suprised there are no bird hunters out there pheasant/partridge hunting is a great time.

[speede5]

You always gut the deer in the field, or you should be.

I don't know of any butchers who let you bring in an animal that isn't skinned. Pretty sure it's a regulation.

[Vulcan]

Here's an article on ethical killing. That it's becoming the in thing shouldn't discourage people as I agree with most of their points.

Kesia Nagata is uncomfortable buying commercially produced meat.
“It looks all flabby and grey and not at all appealing,” she says. As a Buddhist-raised, recovering vegetarian, the grisly reality of feed lots, slaughterhouses and the shrink-wrapped denial represented by the neatly packaged meat in her grocery store weighs on her soul.
So Nagata — a 22-year-old filmmaker — is learning to hunt. So is her brother, Kai. Both are in their 20s, raised a stone’s throw from Commercial Drive.
“We were vegetarian growing up, so hunting was never really on the radar when we were kids,” she said. “My parents were trying to make a choice about minimizing evil, both nutritional and ethical.”
Not a lot of the animal protein available met their standard. The environmental impact of what she calls “industrial meat” is enough to put Nagata off her feed.
“I want my meat to be grass-finished, and killed as ethically as possible,” she said. “As much as I firmly believe in the necessity of animal protein and saturated fats, the commercial stuff is all toxic.”

http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/E...288/story.html

[Swarly]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

Here's an article on ethical killing. That it's becoming the in thing shouldn't discourage people as I agree with most of their points.

I love the use of the term 'recovering vegetarian', as if it is a disease that you should be getting over, like a recovering alcoholic

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Swarly

I love the use of the term 'recovering vegetarian', as if it is a disease that you should be getting over, like a recovering alcoholic

I was going to reply but

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc
Let's try not to take this into an argument here too. I'm looking for info on it, not a debate on vegan vs meat, etc etc.

[Robotic]

I was also wanting to get into hunting this year. I received my PAL a month ago. If you're planning on getting your gun licence I suggest you get it sooner than later. It took about 3 months to receive the card from the time I mailed everything out - after completing the exam.

Next step for me is the hunters ed. I'm curious how the lottery ticketing process works. Should I figure out where I want to hunt before I start putting my name into the draws? Anyone know someone or a network of people where one can shadow from a hunter. I have friends/family that hunt, but live in Grande Prairie, and I'd prefer to stay closer to the Calgary area (couple hours from the city).

[Hevishot]

Check out the alberta outdoorsmen forum. Google it I don't want to post the link just incase its a no no.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

You can get some good guns cheap, but you're probably looking at $700 or so for a "Starter" rifle.

Since you mentioned deer specifically, I'd throw out a recommendation for the Savage Arms Stevens 200 in a .270. No frills, dead accurate, nice rifle. I picked up that with a half-decent Bushnell scope for less than $500 new with the intention of it being a 'starter' rifle, and never did bother to upgrade.

[GGG]

I am also thinking about getting into hunting so my kids understand food and can make an informed choice. I went a few times as child. I think that it is important for everyone to be agents in the killing of their food. Something as simple as fishing works quite well. If you can't kill your own food you shouldn't eat meat.

[Ruttiger]

So I had to insert a story into this thread.

Coles notes version is that my Dad shot a pretty sizeable whitetail in November of 1991. More than sizeable actually - for a couple years it was seen as the potential new Boone & Crockett Typical Whitetail world record. For a variety of reasons it ended up being knocked down in final scoring by B & C, but not without a fair amount of controversy along the way. It IS, however, the world record by Buckmaster Magazine's scoring system, and a fairly famous animal in hunting circles to this day.

He's the farthest thing from a trophy hunter mind you - I can probably count the number of tags he's filled in 40+ years of hunting on two hands. And yes, we did eat the deer.

http://ontariotrophybucks.ca/index.php?showtopic=19781

http://www.buckmasters.com/big-buck-....aspx?sid=1215

http://whitetailreplicas.net/typical...Downloads.html

[CaramonLS]

Hunt with a rifle first... hands down, at least until you get the hang of it.

What sort of range do you need? 250 yards? 500 yards? 1000 yards? As this will determine the kind of gun you're going to want.

At 250 yards you can take down just about anything with any sort of gun (that isn't a 22). If you plan on shooting really long distances - you need to think about something more powerful.

If you want something that shoots long and straight, a good investment is a Rem 700 model in 7mm Rem Mag. It is about the best in terms of ballistics you're going to find that isn't a .50 BMG or .338 Lapua (which will cost you an arm and a leg).

The model I quoted will probably run you around $700.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Robotic

I was also wanting to get into hunting this year. I received my PAL a month ago. If you're planning on getting your gun licence I suggest you get it sooner than later. It took about 3 months to receive the card from the time I mailed everything out - after completing the exam.

Next step for me is the hunters ed. I'm curious how the lottery ticketing process works. Should I figure out where I want to hunt before I start putting my name into the draws? Anyone know someone or a network of people where one can shadow from a hunter. I have friends/family that hunt, but live in Grande Prairie, and I'd prefer to stay closer to the Calgary area (couple hours from the city).

First of all, it's not a lottery per se. It's a priority system, they start with everyone with the highest priority, issue tags to them and work their way down. Once they get to a priorty level that has more applicants than there are tags available, then it's a random draw.

And yes, you do need to figure out where you want to hunt first.
You can only be drawn for a single WMU (Wildlife Management Unit), which all have a specific number of tags/species. When you put in for your draws you have to specify which WMU you are applying, though you do get to put in your second and third choice.

Of course you can always just get your general white tail tag which for the most part is good for anywhere in the province (though there are some restrictions so make sure you know where/what you're allowed to shoot).

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Hunt with a rifle first... hands down, at least until you get the hang of it.

What sort of range do you need? 250 yards? 500 yards? 1000 yards? As this will determine the kind of gun you're going to want.

At 250 yards you can take down just about anything with any sort of gun (that isn't a 22). If you plan on shooting really long distances - you need to think about something more powerful.

If you want something that shoots long and straight, a good investment is a Rem 700 model in 7mm Rem Mag. It is about the best in terms of ballistics you're going to find that isn't a .50 BMG or .338 Lapua (which will cost you an arm and a leg).

The model I quoted will probably run you around $700.

Yeah, I'd say that if people are asking about hunting, and they don't already know what kind of gun they should be using (read: haven't done much shooting), it's probably not a good idea to be suggesting they be going for a lot of long range shots/guns.

That being said, I'm a pretty strong believer that the .30-06 is pretty much the best "Jack of all trades" guns you can get for Alberta, followed closely by .308. There's nothing in the province you can't kill with those guns from a pretty decent range.

[fundmark19]

Just passed my pal can't wait for that card to show up!

[Hack&Lube]

Sometimes I wonder how a big fat Canada Goose would taste when I see them around Eau Claire...

And I love eating duck...

But part of me still irrationally cringes when I see pictures like this:

[puffnstuff]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Sometimes I wonder how a big fat Canada Goose would taste when I see them around Eau Claire...

And I love eating duck...

But part of me still irrationally cringes when I see pictures like this:

Obviously, this is a picture of the Duck, Duck, Goose World Champs

[missdpuck]

If you really want to hunt, come down here and go after some pythons. That situation is way out of control.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

Not really behind the idea killing for fun, and wish you would shoot an animal with a camera instead of a weapon.

However, if you are going to hunt I have much more respect for someone who can pull it off with a bow versus a rifle.

That's all I got.

How is this actually a thing? Killing an animal with an arrow is far more painful than using a high-powered rifle.