Meat Hunt(s)

[Pucky Freak]

Fishing, not hunting, but river trot lines for channel cats. Once you find the right spots, you can sometimes pull a dozen 3 lb. fish daily, with most of the time spent is cleaning them. Small channel cats are great eating.

IA resident you can buy 100 doe tags if you wanted to. I'm planning to buy at least 6 resident deer tags this year, mostly because one farm where I was granted access asked me to reduce the doe population (which I plan on doing so I will hopefully be welcome back next year). Fawns and young does are the best eating.

Something to consider for SE - an outfitted hog hunt in SC. Hogs are not considered a game animal in that state, and are usually hunted from stands over timed feeders - no closed season. You can shoot a whole pile of them and fill up your freezer. It's up to you if you are OK with this style of hunting. I used to live in SC and the feral hog meat I've ate was better than farm raised pork IMO.

 

[bowhuntmontana]

When I was a Montana resident, we had some good relationships with a few ranches that had a lot of whitetails. Between what I could buy, draw, and pick up in the leftover tags, I could often get six or seven whitetail doe tags. That was a freezer filler and a good time all rolled into an archery season. I miss that pretty bad now. I am trying to find consistent cow elk hunts between Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Colorado that I can do on a rotation of sorts to hopefully put two cows in the freezer each year. Still working on that, but it sounds like a great plan in my head.

 

[Birddy]

This is a great thread. I would love to find a place to successfully hunt cow elk late season. I feel like that would be a major freezer filler! Usually shoot 3 deer a year but an elk would be a nice touch!

 

[beagle001]

Eventually, I am hoping I can swing a second western trip a year for cow elk.
Right now, in my area of Wisconsin, between archery and rifle, I get two buck tags and at least 5 doe tags, with the opportunity to buy more reasonably. Between my wife and I, that is plenty of tags to fill.

 

[npaden]

I forgot about wild pigs. It would be pretty hard to beat the sheer volume of meat you can get from them. I personally have to drive 100 miles to get consistent pork though. Have to factor that into the cost and convenience, although you might be able to make that up on volume. I've shot over a dozen pigs off my 160 acre property in a single year and it didn't even seem to make a dent in the population. If you wanted to trap pigs most ranchers will welcome you with open arms. It would be pretty easy to trap over 100 pigs a year if you worked at it. I seem to remember a Meat Eater podcast where they were talking to a guy who trapped pigs and I want to say he trapped 2,000 or some huge number like that one year.

 

[3855WIN]

I was a member of a Mississippi club for years that was on the Deer Management Assistance Program. That gave us extra doe tags over the State season limit. One season, I killed 9 during archery season and finished with 15 by the end of late primitive season. Me and two others killed 27 archery deer that season on that place.
When son was 7, he killed 9. We would eat around five at home and give the rest away.
I don’t think I’d ever get tired of killing deer with a bow. Doe patrol can get old with a rifle.

 

[Kiwi]

I've got a few productive spots where I could shoot one deer each day of hunting at least 90% of the time. Its public land but the secret is getting to know the place, the deer habits and timing the hunt i.e. new moon and after bad whether. Probably shoot one a month on average to keep the freeze full. Only cost is petrol.

Not really meat hunting, but in the NZ mountains you can see 20+ tahr a day and shoot them all if you wanted. Well, that's the case for the next few months when the government is about to do a big cull.

 

[Yellowstoner]

Is there a good comprehensive list of NR costs to hunt across the country? I'd like to see total costs, rather than just tag fees (IE some states make you buy a hunting and/or conservation license + the cost of the tag itself) if possible. I'm sure someone has a bookmark to this somewhere and I'm just not finding it online. I've never hunted outside of MT, but am thinking about doing a pronghorn doe hunt this fall in WY.

 

[LousyResident]

Eventually, I am hoping I can swing a second western trip a year for cow elk.
Right now, in my area of Wisconsin, between archery and rifle, I get two buck tags and at least 5 doe tags, with the opportunity to buy more reasonably. Between my wife and I, that is plenty of tags to fill.

Our Idaho tag this year is good for any elk for archery (which we're planning to hunt), an any weapon mid season cow ell from something like mid-October through mid-November, and a late season muzzeloader only hunt for cow elk. I'm not sure if we'll be able to swing it this year, but we're hoping that we can at least find the elk enough during archery to make a quick, fly up, long weekend, cow elk hunt reasonable in terms of success and cost if we don't fill our tags.

 

[LousyResident]

I forgot about wild pigs. It would be pretty hard to beat the sheer volume of meat you can get from them. I personally have to drive 100 miles to get consistent pork though. Have to factor that into the cost and convenience, although you might be able to make that up on volume. I've shot over a dozen pigs off my 160 acre property in a single year and it didn't even seem to make a dent in the population. If you wanted to trap pigs most ranchers will welcome you with open arms. It would be pretty easy to trap over 100 pigs a year if you worked at it. I seem to remember a Meat Eater podcast where they were talking to a guy who trapped pigs and I want to say he trapped 2,000 or some huge number like that one year.

It's an interesting dynamic here in South Florida because everyone still claims they are rampant, but they're actually somewhat difficult to find on public land. Outfitter groups are a dime a dozen down here and you can easily get into $100-$150/pig costs for anything with a guarantee harvest attached. At the same time, I know of guys that hunt leases down here that are overrun with hogs but don't want to shoot the pigs themselves and aren't willing to let anyone else.

I've floated the idea to a few guys down here about opening up steeply discounted doe/hog only lease memberships but no one really seems to be interested, despite, apparently, being overrun with hogs and does. If I could join somewhere within a few hours of me for $500/year just to kill pigs all year long I'd be up for that in a heartbeat.

 

[LousyResident]

When I was a Montana resident, we had some good relationships with a few ranches that had a lot of whitetails. Between what I could buy, draw, and pick up in the leftover tags, I could often get six or seven whitetail doe tags. That was a freezer filler and a good time all rolled into an archery season. I miss that pretty bad now. I am trying to find consistent cow elk hunts between Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Colorado that I can do on a rotation of sorts to hopefully put two cows in the freezer each year. Still working on that, but it sounds like a great plan in my head.

That ranch relationship is a dream for both a freezer filling situation, but also for introducing new hunters I imagine. It seems like it would be a win-win-win for everyone. It makes me think of the MeatEater episodes filmed out at Doug Duren's place in Wisconsin.

 

[AssawomanGunsmith]

My fastest way is going on my back deck over looking the crop field behind my house and picking off a few whitetail does. We have tons of deer around and you would be hard pressed to hunt a day or two and not have a shot.

 

[LousyResident]

My fastest way is going on my back deck over looking the crop field behind my house and picking off a few whitetail does. We have tons of deer around and you would be hard pressed to hunt a day or two and not have a shot.

Do you ever take any new hunters out to get them hooked?

 

[AssawomanGunsmith]

Do you ever take any new hunters out to get them hooked?

Yes for the past few years I've been taking warriors from the Freedom Hunters Organization, on Veterans day last year a friend of mine who is active duty coast guard shot her first buck which was around a 135" whitetail and I couldn't have been happier.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I wouldn't drive that far without a good chance of killing a good buck. I'm not starving, so I don't hunt for the meat solely. The meat is just a bonus for me. We haven't shot does on our place in over 10 years and don't plan to anytime soon. This management practice works great for us, but may not work everywhere.

 

[stealthy_bowman]

Meat hunting for me is only a local affair. I am in NJ, and in the part of the state in which I live, deer densities are higher than anywhere I've been. I've actually heard that it's among the highest in the nation. Regulations here allow for unlimited doe harvests in most seasons, and in the early part of the season we have earn-a-buck regulations that require harvesting an antler-less deer before you can legally harvest a buck. My two sons and I usually take at least 3-6 does a season, in addition to at least 3 bucks, and that pretty much takes care of our annual venison needs. Therefore, on hunting trips out of state, I am not really interested in meat hunting.

 

[WyoLuck]

Hoping this year is a freezer filler. Buck antelope, 2 does, a cow elk, and maybe a bull. Then depending on my access, a leftover cow elk too. $200 for the tags, each trip within 150 miles drive. And can throw in a deer tag if have time for general tag. All areas over objective so happy to help with management and get good meat out of it.

 

[WyoDoug]

When I do meat hunts I always do them in Wyoming where I reside. The only exception is game that I can’t get in Wyoming like feral pigs I plan to hunt in Texas and Arkansas. That is because the game I hunt for meat is plentiful in my home state.

 

[Steiny]

Pretty easy to fill the freezer in the midwest with fat, good eating whitetail does. Tags are pretty cheap and the deer are plentiful.
I shot a buck and four does last year in IN and IL.

 

[JTHOMP]

Never been to south Florida, but I'd guess there is public land down there somewhere that is full of pigs. Also check west TN. Unless it has changed I know there are areas there a few years ago you could kill 3 does a day. Met a guy from east TN that had done it in an weekend.