Relying on Hunting?

[jansman]

I'm not much of a lover of rabbit, when I go lamping on friends land, I tend to just boil up the rabbits and use it to supplement my dog feed, mixi is everywhere but their good enough for dog food. There are a lot of deer around here, pidgin and pheasant around this way all of which are good eating. Squirrel is nice when BBQ'ed, you can even bake hedgehogs in clay if you fancy trying it.

Hedgehogs in clay. That old myth still doin' the rounds?I wouldn't fancy the ticks and tapeworms they contain.

[Red Doe]

Don't know about hedgehogs...don't get them up this way...but the red deer are absolutely louping with ticks. I know, my work involves dealing with their hides. Ticks, keds, worms and a rather disgusting parasite whose name I forget but they burrow into the throat of the beast, lay eggs and the larva hatch on in there.
In spite of that, common sense means when you eat any wild animal, give it a once over first. Avoid liver if there are white spots as they often mean parasites and/or disease. The offal, if you eat it, should be a healthy dark red colour, not pink or grey. Meat likewise.
A lovely old butcher told me that over the years we have so demanded lean meat and don't eat things like mutton anymore, that the whole look of it has changed over time.
Really good tasting beef, mutton and venison is dark red verging on blue sometimes. Venison has little fat in it compared to meat which should be nicely marbled.

[nickdutch]

I don't think that anyone would rely 100% on hunting, but I am trying to learn it in case I can't make enough money to get meat by any other means.

[jansman]

You are right Nick,you couldn't rely on hunting. One reason is that it is a learned skill which must be practiced regularly. All of the 1980's I hunted with dogs-anything that moved was fair game to that pack!

The dogs had to be trained ,maintained and worked regularly. Replacement pups had to be brought in every three yrs. or so and the training started all over again.
They were the days!We lived like wildmen,coursing hares ,foxes and deer. Digging foxes and badgers with the Russells-they were mean. (Badgering was legal then ).

The same with shooting,it was practice,practice.
I am going to find the photos of the old hunting team now...