48
votes
Can I eat the rabbits my cat catches?
Based on several sources related to parasites that can be found in rabbit meat, as noted in other answers in this post, it is difficult to correctly diagnose whether a rabbit has been infected or not ...
41
votes
Accepted
Can I eat the rabbits my cat catches?
Can I eat the rabbits my cat catches?
The short answer is yes, but most people would not.
Our cat would do the same thing as yours, when we lived in the country. Sometimes the rabbit was just as big ...
33
votes
Accepted
Why are there separate seasons for archery and firearm hunting for deer?
I think the main reason for this is that the hunting styles are a lot different between the two. Archery hunters often don't wear orange and get very close to the their prey while gun hunters wear ...
28
votes
Accepted
How likely are you to be injured by falling shot from a game shoot?
Pheasant shooters will almost certainly be using shotguns, not rifles. A shotgun cartridge contains many small pellets, and they lose their velocity much more rapidly than bullets do. In fact, their ...
24
votes
Can I eat the rabbits my cat catches?
TLDR
Wear gloves!
Discard the rabbit if there are white spots on the liver
Use a meat thermometer and make sure your meat is cooked through to 165 F / 74 C.
My copy of Joy of Cooking contains this ...
23
votes
Accepted
What is this weird mechanical thing I found in the woods?
The fact that's it's staked out near a hunting tower suggests it's bait to attract animals. A couple of factors suggest it's meant for wild boar (which are found in Austria), or at least to withstand ...
22
votes
What is the responsible way to sell a firearm?
One possible solution, if you find a buyer that is willing to wait for it, i have heard of people taking a copy of the buyer's drivers license to the police station and asking them to run it to check ...
19
votes
What is pelt sealing and why is it required for certain species?
From reading the question, I suspect the OP understands "sealing" to be the verb described by the description "apply a nonporous coating to (a surface) to make it impervious.".
When they talk about ...
18
votes
How likely are you to be injured by falling shot from a game shoot?
Falling birdshot stings a little, but I've never known it break the skin. It's no worse than having a 5p piece dropped on you from a couple of feet up.
If you're on a public footpath, guns may not ...
17
votes
Accepted
Are elk and deer colorblind to blaze orange/pink clothes?
Humans have trichromatic vision. Deer, Elk (wapiti) and some other animals have dichromatic vision. It's not that deer and Elk can't "see" oranges and reds, they just perceive them differently.
...
16
votes
Accepted
Why would archery season be either before or after rifle season?
Your question was about deer hunting in Pennsylvania and Oregon where the majority of the deer are whitetail deer and mule deer, respectively. My answer applies to both, generally. There are many ...
16
votes
Accepted
What does it mean for a caliber to be flat shooting?
Bullets follow a parabolic arc as seen below,
Image Source
As you can see the yellow line is a bullet fired from a longer barrel which results in a higher velocity and thus less drop over distance. ...
14
votes
What is the responsible way to sell a firearm?
There are three ways that I am aware of, as a private seller to sell your guns to someone else correctly. Keep in mind that correctly is very jurisdiction-driven, and in some ways dependent on opinion....
14
votes
Accepted
Outfitter does "game prep but not processing"
It means that they will clean and gut/quarter but not turn it into jerky/steak/hamburger for you. In other words they will help you get it out of the field and then it’s up to you to process it from ...
13
votes
Accepted
Any rational reason to pick a spear to hunt?
I think the reasons why people want to hunt using spears are the similar to the reasons for archery and crossbow hunting: it's about the challenge of hunting with weapons that are - at their core - a ...
13
votes
Accepted
How to identify unsafe trees for climbing stand?
I am not a hunter nor a tree climber, but I have a lot of trees on my property, and I keep an eye on them (to, e.g., prevent them from falling on the house or overshading the understory.) There are ...
12
votes
Trustworthyness of a claim that a "not hung" doe can't be completely processed
You really shouldn't waste any time after you shoot a deer, how long you wait to dress your deer can affect the taste of the meat.
The first thing that happens after you kill a deer is rigor mortis. ...
10
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between hiking boots and “hunting boots”?
From that linked site, "Hunting" just seems to be a marketing term, since most of the boots appear in multiple categories.
Here in New Zealand, professional hunters usually wear rubber lace-ups. When ...
10
votes
What is the responsible way to sell a firearm?
I live in a state that doesn't have universal background checks, unfortunately.
Universal background checks are simply an elimination of private sale, so the lack of such a policy simply means you ...
10
votes
Accepted
Can orange safety vest be used when hiking during hunting season?
This answer is based on research and my experience hiking in the United States, specifically the Midwest and Northeastern US. I mostly focus on deer season, because that's the big one in this area. Be ...
9
votes
Accepted
Kayaking with a shotgun
Kayaking with a shotgun isn't an original concept, in fact it seems to be increasingly popular with water fowl hunters:
All you need to do is buy some kayak gun mounts:
As far as transporting your ...
9
votes
Why is it legal to hunt over planted food but not placed food?
First it is not illegal to feed and hunt in all areas, only some. Google "deer feeder" there are industries around this market.
I discuss some of the considerations in my answer at What are the ...
9
votes
Are elk and deer colorblind to blaze orange/pink clothes?
I can't take any credit for already knowing this, all my information comes from an article from Penn State University, entitled Deer-Forest Study: The eyes have it!
Some of the information in this ...
9
votes
Accepted
Fending off a boar with an axe?
The most useful thing you can do with an axe in case of a boar attack is throwing it into the bushes and climbing the nearest tree.
Trying to melee with a charging boar is a bad ideaTM, regardless of ...
9
votes
Can I eat the rabbits my cat catches?
As for the legality of it, be sure to check with your local authorities. A man in Texas got a visit from a game warden for illegally taking wildlife when a dove flew into his window. Texas Monthly ...
9
votes
Risk of getting Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the United States?
According to the CDC, the risk is low, and no cases in humans have been reported.
The lack of evidence of a link between CWD transmission and unusual cases of CJD, despite several epidemiologic ...
9
votes
If I kill a deer how long can the body last before preserving?
In addition to @JamesJenkins' answer:
Blood and innards of a deer are removed asap*, and AFAIK the same was done in pre-fridge days: they'd probably cook + eat the organs (possibly incl. the blood) ...
8
votes
Carrying small game while hunting on foot?
Have you considered a grouse net? I've seen different sizes of these. 10 or 12 litres.
They are meant to be strapped to your backpack
Here's an example from a
Norwegian netstore
8
votes
Why are there separate seasons for archery and firearm hunting for deer?
One shooting the other basically. It's a safety measure.
Where I live we don't have hunting season. We hunt the whole year round. I'm a bow-hunter and I've encounter myself looking up the barrel of a ...
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