Eating your Kill
ITT: We discuss killing, gutting, skinning, ageing and finally EATING animals yourself... How you do it, which animals you have done it to, whether you agree with killing your own food or not.. The dangers and benefits it presents ... and finally the pleasure or alternately the discomfort it gives you!
OK so killing first up. I have killed (for food) Crays, Fish, Rabbits, Chickens, one Pig, Guinea Fowl, Quail, Snake, Wild Boar and a Kangaroo ... the pig was the hardest to kill since i was shit scared when i did it and it was not enjoyable at all since i really like pigs as pets ... but saying that bacon is pretty sick as well... killing Lobsters (crayfish) is second nature to me as i would kill about ten a night when i worked at a seafood restaurant in sydney for about a year and a half ... chickens Meh strange watching them run around afterwards for the first couple of times ... snake was just a python i killed while camping ... used to go boar hunting with a friend and his dad and uncle and shot a couple of boars and a kangaroo ... thats about it.. also i would like to add that i do hold life sacred and i have only killed animals that i have eaten (or for other people to eat)
Gutting - is fucking gross and i hate doing it but its gotta be done ... with fish i dry gut and never touch the fish with my bare hands i always use rubber gloves. I NEVER run water over it to get the blood out, i use chux cloth it takes longer but you get a supirior product that WILL stay fresh longer. I use a paring knife and garden snips for the gutting and gill-ing and try to get both of the out at the same time. Gutting rabbits, chickens and the snake i found pretty straight forward ... i haven't gutted pig, boar or kangaroo other people did it for us
Anyway i find killing animals yourself for a purpose actually brings you closer and gives you a respect for animals that you otherwise didn't have before ... im not saying people who haven't experienced this dont have respect for animals, it just changes you somehow IMO.
OK so killing first up. I have killed (for food) Crays, Fish, Rabbits, Chickens, one Pig, Guinea Fowl, Quail, Snake, Wild Boar and a Kangaroo ... the pig was the hardest to kill since i was shit scared when i did it and it was not enjoyable at all since i really like pigs as pets ... but saying that bacon is pretty sick as well... killing Lobsters (crayfish) is second nature to me as i would kill about ten a night when i worked at a seafood restaurant in sydney for about a year and a half ... chickens Meh strange watching them run around afterwards for the first couple of times ... snake was just a python i killed while camping ... used to go boar hunting with a friend and his dad and uncle and shot a couple of boars and a kangaroo ... thats about it.. also i would like to add that i do hold life sacred and i have only killed animals that i have eaten (or for other people to eat)
Gutting - is fucking gross and i hate doing it but its gotta be done ... with fish i dry gut and never touch the fish with my bare hands i always use rubber gloves. I NEVER run water over it to get the blood out, i use chux cloth it takes longer but you get a supirior product that WILL stay fresh longer. I use a paring knife and garden snips for the gutting and gill-ing and try to get both of the out at the same time. Gutting rabbits, chickens and the snake i found pretty straight forward ... i haven't gutted pig, boar or kangaroo other people did it for us
Anyway i find killing animals yourself for a purpose actually brings you closer and gives you a respect for animals that you otherwise didn't have before ... im not saying people who haven't experienced this dont have respect for animals, it just changes you somehow IMO.
Comments
Sorry, not very constructive, I know.
Skinning is pretty basic for me. Get a pole tied up high between some trees where there will be plenty of shade during the day, get the carcass hanging from it, skin from the ankles to the neck. Hack the head off afterwards. I've never bothered to clean off the inside of the carcass until I'm about to butcher it. Most of the blood drips off and what doesn't tends to air dry and harden, protecting the meat. "Spicing" the body liberally with pepper or juniper keeps the bugs away then I cover the whole thing in a cloth bag, close the top off with pins and shake more spices at the top to discourage bugs further. If I'm at a camp away from home, it's ready to be brought home. Otherwise, most of this is done at home. Either way, it's ready to be cut up and put into the freezer at that point.
I'm more of a meat hunter than a trophy antler hunter, but when I do bag something with antlers I prefer to keep them for projects rather than throw them up on the wall on a plaque. Stretching the hides over a wooden frame to clean off and brain tan is also common if time allows. I always have a use for leather. I have it in my mind to save the intestines of the next kill to save for sausage casings because I want some authentic made ones for good, spiced sausages and maybe some specialty items like droëwors.
I hardly ever hunt fowl but when I do I keep the bigger feathers now for projects aside from the meat. Similarly, I don't fish too often but when I do I usually go for catfish or trout. I fucking love smoked catfish, man. Just as good as smoked salmon if you catch them from the right areas.
I've plowed through countless other species for food but those are my mainstays. What you say about respecting the animals is pretty important. My first hunting season was pretty awful and I had an adrenaline dump when I saw a group of deer and ended up shooting a doe in the gut and subsequently the leg. Slowed it down enough to where I could catch up to it uphill on foot and I felt stupid wasting more ammo so when it just sort of fell over on a hillside trying to get back up and escape... that was pretty surreal. Eventually it couldn't even really move but it was still alive. Probably wasn't smart on my end but I decided to slit its throat to finish it off. I found out that slitting a throat wasn't as easy as Hollywood makes it out to be, those windpipes are tough and the hide isn't easy to cut right through. The whole time the doe was still alive looking at me scared as fuck. Since then I've made a point to finish them off ASAP and never really took excessive pleasure in it.
Heh, I used to buy crab claws at the market stalls in Uxbridge when I was a kid and pinch people with them. Got them for free and had endless hours of fun.
The snake was easy, and very similar to gutting a fish. I also thouroughly enjoyed it cooked on the coals.
Like others have said, I don't kill any animal except for direct or indirect (in the case of using fish as live/dead bait) consumption. I always kill animals that I catch as quickly and most humanely as possible, and there is no room in my life for animal cruelty.