Nguyen Jenny - Hunting for food : guide to harvesting, field dressing and cooking wild game

With deep love for our parents Alice, Hanh, Joe and Ho, who put up with us.

This book wont teach you how to shoot the biggest buck. This book wont teach you how to catch the biggest fish. Instead, it was written to show you how to hunt and catch something that you can eat, and to allow you to reconnect with the past while providing you with skills and knowledge that you may be able to use in the future. Whether you have never picked up a fishing rod, gun or bow before, or you have been doing it for years, Hunting for Food is a reminder of what hunting and fishing is about at its most basic level: Hunting and fishing game for food allows us, as people in a modern world, to never grow dull to the knowledge that food, life and death are all connected. Just as important, it is also about holding onto the freedom of knowing how to provide and to do things on our own.

In these pages, you will learn the basics of hunting and catching many different species of game and fish, and you will also learn how to properly care for each species in the field to maximize your experience at the dining table. Field dressing and butchering directions are shown with step-by-step photos, and cooking tips and recipes are included at the end of each chapter. Once you get beyond the cleaning and butchering part, cooking will be a cinch. Wild game is not scary and anyone can learn how to cook it. Wild game is also very delicious forget what anyone has ever told you about it tasting gamy, fishy or tough. If youve had it before and didnt like it, give it a second chance and do the hunting, fishing, butchering and cooking yourself the right way. You may be surprised by how much of a difference it makes.

We hope that the information in this book will serve to empower and humble, which was our experience while writing our blog Food for Hunters , which then led us to write this book. From all the preseason preparation, to hours and days of sitting or searching, to actually shooting or catching something and gettting it out of the field, going through the intimate process of gutting and butchering the animal, and then cooking and eating it is a revelation. You will learn to see, know and appreciate food in an entirely different way, and we are really excited for all the new hunters and fishermen who will take to the fields and waters to begin this journey.

Every fall we sportsmen leave our homes. We arrive in our blinds and treestands before the rising of the sun and sit for hours in the cold and quiet, listening to the hooting of owls. The hours we will spend watching squirrels will make up much of our lives, and more often than not, we will come home with nothing. But we dont mind for no one knows the song of the wind that chimes through the trees, or the swelling and receding currents of grass in the fields like we do. To watch the sun peep over the horizon and spill its color into our woods and onto the twinkling surface of our marshes is a privilege and a pleasure. To be given the opportunity to come home with hard-earned game, is a gift.

White-tailed deer antlers have single tines that grow from the main beams, while mule deer antlers have forked tines.

There are few icons more recognizable in hunting than that of the deer hunter. From primitive cave paintings, to the elaborate medieval tapestries in the halls of the European elite, to portrayals in childrens movies, deer hunting is a loaded concept, a familiar motif in history, politics, art and popular culture. Consequently, out of all North American game, deer hunting also suffers greatly from a long festering sin of preconceived notion.

For too many, the hunting of deer is not only questionable, but its meat is often falsely classified as second-rate. As hunters, weve heard all the prejudices, even from within our own ranks. Its gamy. Its too tough. It smells. To this we say, rubbish! In our house venison is the favored game. Unapologetically delicious, organic and ethically killed through the spirit of self-reliance and respect, venison is everything grass-fed beef wishes it could be, and more.

The two most hunted species of deer in North America are the white-tailed deer and mule deer. Their physical differences can be seen in the ears, tail and antler formation. Mule deer get their name from their long mule-like ears. The antlers on a mule deer will fork as they grow from the main beams, whereas the whitetails rack has single (not forked) tines that grow upward from its main beams. The tail on a mule deer has a black tip and is narrower than the tail of the white-tailed deer. Both species have excellent senses of smell, eyesight and hearing, a combination that makes them very challenging to hunt.

Deer are browsers, eating many different plants, fruits, nuts and grains depending on whats available. During harsh winters, mule deer will resort to eating bark and twigs to survive as they can also live in harsh regions. Both mule and white-tailed deer are delicious table fare, but the white-tailed deer takes the crown in taste, as it often dines on crops farmers grow such as soybeans and corn throughout much of its range. They more typically live in areas with more agriculture, also foraging on plants, grasses, acorns, beechnuts, hickory, pecans, fruit and more when in season.

Mule deer are known as a Western deer, the majestic monarch of the Rocky Mountains. Mule deer and its subspecies range from the deserts of northern Mexico all the way into southern Alaska. Western Nebraska is the mule deers eastern border and the Pacific Ocean is its western border. They are not as numerous as the white-tailed deer, preferring the solitude of the high mountains or the openness of the prairie and desert.

The white-tailed deer is an edge dweller and has adapted well to farmlands across the country, where they come out from the forests to feed at night. Their range begins on the East Coast and sprawls west into Idaho, and from as far north as the Yukon south down into Mexico, Peru and Ecuador.

To hunt deer, several different types of firearms can be used. Firearms that are effective for deer include the bolt-action rifle, lever-action rifle, single-shot, modern semiauto rifle and muzzleloader in a wide range of calibers; the muzzleloader is available in the traditional flintlock, percussion sidelock and modern inline models. All of these styles can work well for hunting deer, so choose the gun that is best for your specific needs. Keep in mind that not all of these firearms may be legal in your state for hunting deer, so check with your states game laws before choosing one.

A broadside shot is the best position to shoot a deer, but be aware of any limbs and branches, which can change the course of your bullet or arrow.