Lars Anderson makes Legolas look like a...

[The Grand Nudger]

The most 'exotic' meat we've ever had round here was ostrich, back when foot and mouth was all the rage. Pretty sure it wasn't hunted though. I never even got to try it; when I went to buy some, cow was back on the menu so all the ostrich had gone.

LOL, comin up, my grandparents neighbors thought emu would replace beef (it was all the rage at state fairs) - so I used to hop the fence at night and plink the little fuckers.

And to forestall you, I've heard every argument in favour of hunting, and not a single one of them is worth a damn. If you hunt, it isn't for food, or to thin the herds or to manage populations of animals, blah blah blah. It's because you like killing things, but hunters never admit that.

I hunt for food, to thin herds and manage populations - but mostly because I like to kill things. If my only aim was to manage a population I'd poison them. Throw the right seeds at the edge and bye-bye deer problem. hrugs:
(that said, deer sinew makes for great binding....I have alot of it on my bow, I prefer it to fiberglass or dacron patches, animals are useful right down to the shit that holds them together. But...I can go to Micheals Arts and Crafts and get synthetic shit that's worlds better, objectively...I know that. Imagine that...a bunch of redneck at a scrapbooking shop, lol.)

But archery has no value as a skill, that's all.

I think that like most skills not tied to employment, it's the getting of the skill that has the most value. Something to sink time into, something to exercise a little discipline over. Accomplishment, mastery. As far as archery goes, for me, it's the very last moment of a skill which took me far longer to learn than archery itself. Maybe that's why I measure the value of a bow or of a technique by it's ability to take game, and it's usefulness in the pursuit of the same? I want one draw that will stop the animal cold, put it in shock or kill it outright (though I confess to prefering shock while going for a kill out of compassion, I suppose - it's complicated - nothing like being close when they breath their last). All of the skill in that is expressed in setting up a situation where I feel comfortable loosing the arrow. I don't want to miss and possibly lose the point. I don't want the animal to live and run (if I want it to run I give it a good chimp hollar..lol - never fails..they know what's up)- and I cant take a shot at a previously wounded animal, for whatever reason...I figure it's earned a pass. Some guys put numbers on the board, that's not really my style. I like to watch them more than anything, I take maybe 1/20th of the shots presented to me. The rest I file away in the "someday, if you live that long" category. Unless it's a hog, that's kill on sight territory, so good - and they're mean as shit - they can take a broadhead to the face from 20yards and walk it off...worthy.

I don't ride. I find horses terrifying.

If they weren't so cowardly and foolish I might hunt them too, I fucking -hate- horses. Did you know that a human being in good health can run them to death on foot? Worthless.

I grew up on a farm as well, and that built a great disgust in me for butchering and cleaning, it's the shittiest part. The only thing I can clean without the taint of revulsion is fish ( I think that anyone who can clean a mammal without just a little bit of emotional entaglement is untrustworthy). I'd probably dig a hole and bury the animal if waste didn't make me even sicker. The day I won't clean a deer after I've killed it is the day I stop hunting...and it's probably coming. That's a line that I think can't be crossed, because then it's -just- killing, it's mechanical, and probably worse. As it stands, it's too powerful to let go of. Part of who I am and who my family is and who we are (all of us). It makes me feel connected, it's a sink for my joy and my despair. We call it "deer fever" over here. I'm in the lottery for elk tags this year, and I'll probably go for bobcat as well. The first is useful, the latter is a matter of curiosity, I've never seen a damned bobcat up here- I think it's a money sink for Fish and Game, but they need the cash, so they can take mine. They spend it building and repairing habitat. That's another hobby of mine "volunteering" to "manage habitat"....I have this map...you see.....