Why do I hunt...food and products. Plain and simple. Every part of the animal is used, if not directly, through giving back to the earth.
My last deer:
Deer bone-sold to my friend who is a knife maker for custom handles. I got a steak knife set out of it
He made a lamp out of the bleached skull,
Meat- butchered and in my freezer and currently on the grill.
Hide-It made a nice blanket for my buddy. He's much better at skinning than I so this prize was his. I gave my last hide to my mom, who always gets
cold...no complaints about the cold anymore.
Liver-my hunting buddy took this - food for his dogs
Heart-ditto
Other asst innards-compost pile-they'll be good fertilizer come spring.
I only take what I need and never kill the young, those are the future of your food supply.
I only have one head mounted on a wall, at my parent's place. It was a Javelina that just would not give up. I shot him twice awith my 223 and he
still ran for a mile and a half before dropping dead in his tracks. This thing was freaking massive. I tried to use my pack to counter balance his
weight to sting him up but it wasn't heavy enough. I had to go add rocks to my 55lb pack to even get him off the ground.
For me, I need no trophies of what I take, as I take only what I need, but this Javelina had some spirit, so I honored it with a place above the
couch. The only reaction that I ever hear is "Holy Sh!t! How much did that one weigh?" I tell the story and always tell why it is the only animal on
my wall. That pig fed me and my friend for a little over a month, with occasional dinner guests who always loved my slow cooked pig. And to think,
pigs are considered pests, not game, up here in NorCal, so there is no bag limit. Doesn't mean that I'll go take a dozen of them, but I might take 2
just to save the time of coming back.
As to the whole "population control" argument...you have to look at different areas. In the Southwest, we do not get as much rain, thus there is not
always much forage for deer. Sometimes it really is necessary to cull the herds to prevent disease spreading among the weak. This alleviates
competition for food sources, allowing for a healthier population of animals, and preventing ecosystem destruction.
Personally I don't like to eat anything that I haven't prepared myself, not to say that I won't, just that I prefer to do it myself. This includes
butchering my own game, growing my own fruits and vegetables, brewing beer and hopefully next year my grapes will produce enough for some wine. I do
trade with friends, but only established friends who I can trust to act in a way such as myself.
"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be self-sufficient."
- Michel Eyquem De Montaigne
2 last things:
1. Calling hunting murder is bull. Until I find a deer that can look me in the eye and explain to me why it believes that it has a greater right to
live than me, I'm going to keep on hunting.
People keep elevating animals to near human level, without thinking that we're animals ourselves. Unless you are going to arrest every wolf, cat,
bear, shark, snake and crocodile for murder, because they all kill for their food, I will not stop "murdering". To elevate animals to an equal level
requires that they be treated equally in all aspects, including their actions. I know that some people will attack me for this position, but if you
are willing to go out on a limb and claim that animals have personalities and should be respected for such, then what exactly differentiates these
wild animals from your standard battery cage chickens that nobody seems to mind.
2. Whether or not a person hunts for meat, the animal dies, in the slaughterhouse or in the field. At least the animals in the wild are not loaded
with surplus antibiotics and steroids to boost production and can live free. And if a man can save a couple hundred bucks on meat by taking his own,
what difference does it make other than it's healthier than the farmed meat?