I learned at a young age, you eat what you kill. If you don't want to eat it, dont kill it. I don't understand the "kill" and give it away mentality.

I keep as much as my family can eat and give/donate the rest.

I shoot deer that I am not going to eat for a few reasons: herd management, population control, culling, or because I have a friend, relative, community member, etc. that does not have the ability to hunt and either doesnt have the funds to provide meat to their family as much as they would like or they like venison but don't hunt.

Same for me. We use venison for everything, we very rarely have to buy meat.

....and just what's wrong with giving meat to friends whom one used to hunt with and are now disabled or can't hunt, or giving to a family you know is on hard times?

If I'm reading you wrong I apologize, but maybe you should re-evalute your principles and how you interact with those who are less fortunate than you! If I'm going out I've usually already made contact with those I know to see how their situation is - freezer getting low or money getting short! I like to hunt and they need the grub - in my mind "it's the right thing to do". Not suggesting that the meat should go to waste!

Did that help you understand (at least where I'm coming from)?

I always kill more than my family can eat.

Nothing makes me happier and more driven to succeed than when I am hunting for another family. I love to have an excuse to kill more animals.

you don't under stand deer managment then.

I personally kill my limit of deer almost every year, usually about 5 does/culls, last year I took one for the wall and this year I hope to take another one. there is no way I could eat 5 deer....not happening. I have to take these animals off the ranch, so what do you suppose I do with them?

All my family that are non-hunters love venison, I don't care for it really, aside from some stew meat and dried sausage. I'll give a few to them and the rest I donate to a meat ministry.

I could understand shooting one and letting it lay, but there are more whitetail now than when columbus got here, and you have to take a certain number of animals off most places every year.

better for them to get eaten by somebody

It just makes it that much better when you get to feast on what you have successfully hunted.

Why not the Coon's, They are a hell-of -alot cleaner than a chicken.

Anyone ho throws away a hog less than 100 lbs just doesnt know how cook. Send em my way! Btw, I eat all the bigguns too.

Eat most things we kill ducks dove squirel rabbit frogs but not big on hogs. Not to much on deer hunting but love me some deer meat. Would also like to try possum has anybody had expeirence with this would like to hear your take.

White tail and duck gets given away every time. I only eat the exotics and hogs I kill. I'm careful not to eat wild game for long periods of time though as it's not healthy.

WHAT?

whats not healthy about it?

Wild game doesn't have the fat content and make-up of domestic raised red meat, which means that your body won't get all the necessary nutrients. It's really not healthy for children as they are still growing. An example of this is you can look up is rabbit starvation.

But, while that is true the way to combat it is to consume organs, but I'm too much of a wimp to want to eat innards all the time. These guys on here that brag about only feeding their family only wild game are doing them a disservice.

We eat what we shoot, with the exception of snakes or cyotes. We actually only eat what we shoot. We do not buy beef at the store at all. We process our own as well...Pat

I thought you were gonna give me some b.s about too much iron or iodine in wild game.

I'm familiar with rabbit starvation, but I'm fairly certain you could get the proper amount of fat eating deer,wild turkey and ferel hog.

People survided long before cattle were raised domestically on wild game

About the only thing I haven't eaten is a fox, a bunch of pigs and a whole lot of sparrows

I shoot hogs but never eat the boars, just as I don't eat rats, cockroaches, snakes, coyotes, and all the other nuisance critters I happen across.

But you point is well taken because there are non-nuisance animals that I don't shoot for the reason you suggest.

rule of the house is "if you shoot, you eat it." luckily so far i've only had to prepare whitetail, axis, fallow, red deer, wild hog, and a wild turkey. no weird little critters... but if he brings them home one day i'm sure i can come up with a good recipe for it. :o)

If I ain't gonna eat it, I don't shoot it, unless I think it might be considering eatin' me or what I'm considering eatin'.

All of you who don't eat the edible animals you take, it's a shame you weren't taught better by your mentors.

If you are killing for vermin control like predators, crows coons and such then I can understand.

Hogs are good eating and the fact that some of you are too lazy to process just speaks bad of you if you leave them lay.

I was taught hunter's etheics; I sure wish everyone was.

I eat everything that I kill.
Except for varmints(not rabbit) and hogs
I only hunt because of the meat