What Game Animals are considered edible?

[reddogge]

Don't eat anything with a frisbee in its mouth.

[Kip]

Tom those big rabbits at the Bear camp are edible,and the red sqs.and I guess even the buzzard that came eat some meat scraps one nite.Have fun and good luck.Kip

[mrpenguin]

I've read that Griz and Brown bear are dangerous to eat... is this true?  Anyone had the big bears?

[buckeye_hunter]

I'm in for elk and wild boar. Best tasting wild meat I have eaten!

[RUTANDSTRUT]

anything i kill i eat.  i do have to say, some spring bears (only early spring) ive eaten tastes really bad and tough which i assume this is due to just coming out of hibernation and just starting on natural foods again.  my 2 cents

[Chris Shelton]

this is something that I actually get a lot of crap for, lol.  I like a lot of you are going off the rule if I kill it I need to eat it.  My rule has gotten slack after the neighbor farmer asked me to try and thin the groundhog heard.  I like the little ones, but when it takes longer to skin a groundhog than it takes to skin a deer something is wrong!!!  So another rule of mine is that you cant cross something off the "food" list until you have tried it!!!  

Another common theme here is that a lot of you guys wont eat possum because of their diet!?!?!  Would you guys eat these>>>
 
They are caught on chicken necks that have sat out on the porch for a couple of days, lol

I just had my first possum this season, I boiled it for a bit then fried it, feed it to dad.  Then asked what he thought it was . . . he looked at me and said its chicken right, lol.

As a trapper the occasional possum gets caught in my coon sets.  So that is just something I have to get used to, or I could let them go, but I just don't think that is ethical.  So I eat them.  Ya got to try everything at least once.

[B/W lvr]

God has given us a huge variety of good foods to eat. When serving in the U.S. Army I learned in jungle school that anything that has fur or hair on it is edible. So I've eaten and liked tons of what some would consider "bad" food. Top of the list thats really good:Cougar, muskrat, rattlesnake, all the squirrels, dog, redtailed hawk,(before they were made illegal)crow, myna birds,coon, the list goes on and on. What you have to worry about is the veggies. Many of them will make you very sick or KILL you.In many fine restaurants "marsh hare" is on the menu. What is it? Muskrat!! Frank

[mookie]

I've eaten a lot of the things covered here except coyote and fox and most of it not to bad. Also tried a prairie dog once and I think a crap sandwich would have been better.

[coaster500]

My folks both live during the depression. My dads family ate any available protein. My dad would collect common birds, bullfrogs, anything; they even had a pidgin coup...

James Clavell's book King Rat about an Australian POW camp where the main character sold the officers rats they raised. They were told that it was some kind of exotic deer meat. The officers ate it in ecstasy. "I guess it's a state of mind" .. People will eat anything if they are hungry enough...

Good short read  

[coaster500]

Chris, whens the crab boil I'm in.... Yummmmmmm !!!

 

[SveinD]

I've heard the best meat one could ever taste is of the Giant Turtle! It took many, many voyages to get one alive from its natural habitat and have it brought to England bacause the sailors kept eating them! They all, including Darwin, said it was impossible to stop once you've had a bite!

[bretto]

If it walks,crawls,flys or swims it's edible. Just depends on how hungry You are Tom.

Personally I won't eat Possum again but I have tried it. Muskrat and Beaver are very good if cooked properly.

Having 2 sets of Grandparents who raised families during and after the Depression I was treated to many non-traditional meals. Some much better than others.

So keep an open mind and don't knock it til You try it.

bretto

[Hill Hunter]

My Dad tells a story, back in the depression my great uncle came into his aunts house, no one was around and there was a critter boiling in a pot on the stove, he got him a plate and had some. he went out into the Garden and found his aunt and told her that he had ate some of the ground hog she was a cookin. she said ground hog? all I have is that skunk I was a rinderin. I guess he said it was not that bad but did not go for 2nds. Had a teacher that said he would stomp every skunk he saw to death when he was young, Said you could sell the hide for enough to buy a new pair of shoes and as a bonus you got a week off of school.

[wapiti792]

Being raised in Tennessee, going to college in Kentucky, and now living in Illinois I have eaten on both sides of mason and dixon...My grandmother used to make squirrel brain stew and would throw a fit if I shot squirrels in the head. I ate it but couldn't get past it. Chittlins' are a regular Sunday lunch item back home and I ate it too even though it smelled up the house like poop...Guess I am a full blown yankee now 'cause I don't look at 'possums in the same light as I once did   :D  

I shot a pine squirrel in CO a couple of years ago 'cause it wouldn't shut up. I dressed and ate it 'cause I felt like it was the right thing to do and I felt guilty. THAT will never happen again. They can just keep yappin' 'cause I ain't given in again. I can still taste that nasty rodent  

[Hud]

When younger I had grasshoppers, worms and bees. There was a neighbor that shot robbins in her garden and then would eat them. As a teenager I shot some Bandtail pigeons during hunting season, and tried to cook them like any game bird. Bad idea, the birds lived near salt water and tasted worse than escargo, really bad. Most birds, including waterfowl around salt water don't taste good, unless they are marinated.

My dear mother cooked a big old Blue Grouse, I shot while deer hunting, thinking she would fix it like pheasant. Once again, buy some cheap wine and marinate it over night. Otherwise those tough old birds will taste like old sneakers and chew worse than boot leather.

Hope to never be so hungary to eat possum, skunk, badger, coyote, dog, cat, rat, snake, ground squirrel, most sea birds, and parts of animals considered a delicacy like brains, tongue, intestines and mountain oysters. Think I fix some chicken.

I shot a large pesky possum once.  It had an attitude problem like a badger, it would not let us get into our house. I thought they were suppose to play dead.  I put on rubber gloves to skin it.  I gagged until I threw up. The fur was worth a little money though.

[James Wrenn]

I am sure you can eat any animal or at least parts of it.I am just a bit pickier than some of you and will save a lot of critters until I get into the starvation mode of hungry.        :D

[Chris Shelton]

Originally posted by coaster500:
Chris, whens the crab boil I'm in.... Yummmmmmm !!!

     

haha, its a bit early yet, the crabs are still a bit far down the bay.  About the end of June we will start catchin them pretty good.  I guess Maryland's economy will boom this year, as long as the oil doesnt somehow come up the east coast.  I dont think there will be much gulf crabs this year