Hunting question

I live in New England, and although I don't hunt myself, I'm familiar with deer hunters and the like.

Not familiar with quail hunting.

The Houston Chronicle is raising questions about the Cheney hunting episode, including potential issues of alcohol, etc.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3669994.html

Quail aren't huge. I assume hitting them with a single rifle bullet isn't easy. Hence, the shotgun.

But would he be shooting them for the purposes of eating his catch, so to speak? If so, how edible is a quail riddled with shotgun pellets?

Or is he just hunting them for the fun of blasting birds?

Personally I'm not against hunting if you intend to use the animal for food - you're still acquiring meat, just not at the store. I am, however, very much against "killing for fun", where you don't want to consume the animal, just kill it, and I'm having a hard time figuring out how edible a quail is after it's been peppered with buckshot.

:puke:

It's not as if it was a bow and arrow or shooting a deer. Someone flushes the birds out, and the shooters aim for the area, not the specific individual prey, in the hopes of killing many of the birds.

Doesn't sound like much of a sport to me.

If you don't aim for a specific bird, you won't hit very many, the pattern of shot is not that wide. As for a single projectile, it would be larger, heavier, and have a lot more range. Instead of running out of steam and falling to earth in a short distance, as bird shot does, a single projectile could go a lot farther, creating more danger.
You don't have to approve of hunting, but please try to be accurate when we discuss it, it makes us look like we don't care about facts if we are not well informed.:toast:

...doesn't get too much shot. A couple-three pellets, maybe.

You try to dig them out as you're dressing the bird, but when I was small my grandmother would always warn us "might still be some shot in that bird," so we'd be careful when we bit down. I found a pellet or two when my grandad switched from bowhunting pheasant to gun hunting as he got older. (Bowhunting birds takes INCREDIBLY steady hands and good eyesight!)

And that's a pheasant, which is a larger target and will collect more shot.

helpfully,
Bright

... Cheney was reported to have killed about seventy pheasants in an afternoon. I don't think they all went into the freezer for his consumption later.

One of the things that the press really hasn't asked about this incident is whether or not the Anderson Ranch operates a captive bird operation for its special guests, such as Cheney. Does it raise the birds for hunting? No source has definitively said, but it's so common among the rich in this country and elsewhere that it seems likely.

As for hunting any bird and eating them, yes, there are always the stray pellets that miss pre-cooking inspection. It only takes a few to bring down an average bird, and one or two of those will get missed.

Mostly, he's hunting them in controlled situations, and for the fun of blasting the birds whether they are in the air or on the ground. In the case of the pheasants, this must be said. Pheasants are pretty smart birds--they seem to know, almost instinctively, when hunting season starts. When I was young and hunted them, the day before hunting season, they'd be up on fenceposts everywhere, scoping things out. The day the season started, they were nowhere to be found. It took an experienced hunter to flush them--they would try to wait one out, stay put where they were in ground cover, and when they did flush, one never knew if they would run on the ground, under cover, or fly. I would go every season as a kid and see only a few, shoot at fewer, and get even fewer than that. Seventy in a few hours would have been a complete impossibility in real-world conditions.

Cheers.

in a day is doing it just for the fun of killing a bird. Bag limit here in Texas last year was 5 per day, max possession 15 (assuming 3 days of hunting). I doubt very seriously that he keeps them in the freezer for consumption, it is just for plain killing

wish i could find one of the gift cards for sale on ebay.

gee, uncle dick gave us a dead bird this christmas, sorta like a turkey or ham?

on edit: lame spelling

Have you noticed that most of the people who could afford to wear furs don't?

I think the majority of the rich don't like hunting and find the idea of canned hunting utterly revolting.
Not very different from the population as a whole, I'd guess.

A lot of people at all demographics and income levels have just discovered how truely disgusting the people who have taken over our country really are.

The Armstrong "Ranch" is a preserve for "canned hunting".

The quail they "hunt" are tame, farm-raised birds. Possibly they were just released from a sack just before Cheney and his party drove up.

When they want to "hunt" larger game, that game is tied up so the "hunters" don't have to overexert themselves by actually hunting it.

So yes, it really does come down to the "fun" of blasting birds and other animals.

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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

Those hunting farms are nothing more than a way for lazy rich people to say they bagged one. It's disgusting.

They are not hunters. They slaughter animals for their own pleasure.

A real hunter is in the animal's own territory and usually at a disadvantage. The animals being hunted can outrun, smell, see, or fly away. Sometimes they'll even attack.

Hubby was chased by an elk and he had to climb a tree. Stayed there for over an hour.

This is something that really needs to get out more. cheney and his buddies were not hunting. They were slaughtering animals at a ranch because they were too goddamn lazy to go on a real hunt. I doubt any of them know what one is.

disgusting things I ever heard.

I'm still eating meat, so I certainly would never condemn a real hunter. But it takes a special mindset to shoot at something utterly helpless - for pleasure. That's terrible.

-----------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

so that way it 'feels' like they hunted :eyes: Crazy, I know.

hardly makes it any better.

Monarchs of the 18th century "hunted" like that.

And like monarchs of the 18th century your administration is behaving more and more. Bush certainly is as I could observe when the war criminal visited (afflicted, plagued) Germany. The whole region was shut down on his request.

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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

came from a similar situation. Some people invited Teddy Roosevelt on a bear hunt. When he got there, he found a bear tied to a tree. He refused to participate in that type of "hunting". Shortly after that story became public, someone invented the teddy bear to honor TR.

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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

with an Ohio mule deer buck. We tend to hunt these animals while they are in rut- hormones coursing all through them. When they get mad, watch out.

My stepdad and his brother did some quail hunting with a friend of theirs. The dog would ferret them out, the birds would fly and someone would shoot. Each one would take a turn so that person would know who got what and how many.

Sometimes the birds are far enough away that only one would get hit. These are more or less pellets and given the distance most of the time, the bird is wounded. Sometimes the wound was enough they couldn't fly again and other times it was enough to startle them and they'd fly away.

Hunting requires a lot of patience, walking and knowing where to look. I was raised in a family that firmly believed you hunt for food and you eat what you kill. Period. Hunting put food on the table during times when we had little. It's never been a sport in their eyes nor in mine.

Those who do it for sport, that don't really need to or just to go out and kill something, are not real hunters, IMO. They have no respect for the wildlife or nature. We were in the outdoors quite a bit growing up so respect and love played a huge role.

Oh, and quail is very edible...good, too. In all the times I ate it, there were only two that had any in them. Each had one. That was because my mom didn't find them when she cleaned them. It wasn't a common occurrence.

Yuck, it totally ruins the whole experience. After biting on the first piece of lead, the rest of the meal was ruined for me, I couldn't enjoy it anymore, even though it was quite tasty, having been wrapped in bacon and broiled.

most bird shot is not made with lead, as using lead for watergame is illegal in Texas. I have not seen lead bird shot in some time

on edit: tungsten and steel shot are the most common I have seen.

It could have been any metal, I just said lead cuz that's the material I associate with firearms! lol

Nearly broke a tooth, anyway

I don't have any problem in the world with anyone who hunts and eats their kill. It is probably more honest than buying a package of meat prekilled and sanitized from a supermarket. I do wonder about the lead shot...


And I also wonder about the lifespan of Mr. W...who is highly seasoned and peppered. They left a whole bunch of shot in him, and if it is lead, isn't that a bad thing? Doesn't that make him sicken and die before his time?

Why is nobody asking if this is lead or steel? I have seen it reported as both...but also that lead shoots the birdies dead so much better. Mr. W is lucky to be alive, but I wonder how much longer he will be in that state.

Metallic lead is not a big problem, it is the various oxides and salts that cause problems.

blasted bodies of shot birds being oh-so-generously given to "the poor" in some fashion. I think I recall reading something like that when he shot 70 farmed pheasants - PEASANTS would surely have been more fun for him - in an earlier manly expedition.

Too bad the poor won't have dental insurance - those little pellets are impossible to remove completely before cooking. And then, if it's LEAD shot....

- they are very small birds and the breast meat is what is eaten. My spouse hunted both quail and dove and I would dredge the breast meat in flour and fry it similar to chicken. Also, you can remove the meat from the bone and pressure cook it, then make a milk based gravy so that you have creamed quail or dove served over biscuits.

The birdshot is very small and is designed to mostly stun the bird as you don't want bunches of pellets in the meat to be biting on. Since we humans don't have that exterior covering of feathers, it penetrates our skin.

My cousin had a situation many years ago similar to the Cheney incident where he received a smattering of pellets. It certainly doesn't happen everyday but it is not unknown amongst those who bird hunt frequently.

that run, jump fly requires far more shooting skill than beer cans or skeets.

In my early days growing up in the country many of my compatriots used squirrels, rabbits, pigeons for target practice. Shoot em leave em. The sport is in the skill. Nothing more.

Quick draw Cheney was honing his reactions nothing more. Asshole never grew up.

180

defenseless animals in a controlled environment so they can "feel like a man" after their tiny penis stops working. Same with the canned buffalo and other large game "hunts", they stake them out or keep them in a pen so the animal can't even run away. Disgusting.

with his Dodge Magnum!