The complete guide to hunting, butchering, and cooking wild game Volume 1, Big game

572 Pages·2015·146.92 MB·English

by  Steven Rinella

A Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperback Original Copyright © 2015 by Steven Rinella and Zero
Point Zero Production, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division
of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
SPIEGEL & GRAU and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random
House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rinella, Steven.
The complete guide to hunting, butchering, and cooking big game / Steven Rinella.
volumes cm
“A Spiegel & Grau trade paperback original.”
Contents: volume 1. Big game
ISBN 978-0-8129-9406-3—ISBN 978-0-81299407-0 (ebook)
1. Hunting—United States—Equipment and supplies. 2. Hunting—United States.
3. Big game hunting—United States. 4. Game and game-birds, Dressing of.
5. Cooking (Game) I. Title.
SK273.R56 2014
799.2—dc23
2014013333
www.spiegelandgrau.com
Book design by Christopher M. Zucker, adapted for eBook
v3.1
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
SECTION 1: Gear
SECTION 2: Tactics and Strategies
SECTION 3: Big Game: Species and Methods
SECTION 4: Butchering
SECTION 5: Cooking Big Game
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Photo Credits
Other Books by This Author
About the Authors
INTRODUCTION
The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild
Game is meant for any hunter or soon-to-be hunter who is looking to
forge a more intimate and adventurous relationship with the natural
world through the process of acquiring and preparing wild meat. In
today’s world, in which we measure the difficulty of a task by
counting how many clicks on a computer it requires, engaging in
such a time-consuming and ancient activity is certain to strike some
folks as being backward or even downright barbaric. Why would
anyone choose to kill an animal when you could just buy it, already
killed and packaged, from a grocery store? But since you’ve already
made it past the cover of this book, I’ll assume that you’re free of the
misguided notion that we can escape the ugly realities of our
existence by turning our heads in another direction. Instead, you’ve
probably already achieved what I consider to be a completely honest
and enlightened perspective on meat: if you’re gonna eat it, shoot it.
If so, you’ve come to the right place. Within these pages you will
find a trove of hunting know-how that will educate, inspire,
challenge, and even dare you to become a better hunter. This
information is divided into five primary sections. Section 1 offers a
comprehensive overview of equipment and apparel for the versatile
big game hunter. Section 2 covers everything from identifying
potential hunting areas and preseason scouting to specific hunting
strategies and thoughts on proper shot placement. Section 3 gives
insightful and relevant biological descriptions of fourteen North
American big game species, along with detailed information about
hunting each animal across a variety of landscapes using both
firearms and archery equipment. Skinning and butchering big game,
both in the field and at home, are covered in Section 4. Finally,
Section 5 introduces you to a couple dozen big game recipes that
capture the nose-to-tail spirit of the hunter who appreciates
adventurous foods as well as classic wild game preparations.
The organization of this guidebook will help you navigate it
without much hassle, but to get the full value you need to study the
whole thing. Hunting knowledge is not always easily
compartmentalized, and many crucial pieces of information will be
encountered in places where you might not expect to find them. For
instance, you might be disappointed that some specialized piece of
hunting equipment is missing from Section 1: Gear. If so, you’ll
probably find that it’s covered in detail in a later section where its
purpose and use are explained in a better context. You will also find
that many pages offer tips and tricks about specific aspects of
hunting that can easily be borrowed and applied to another area.
For instance, the buffalo passage in the Species section includes
advice on handling large animal carcasses that might be relevant to
a hunter of moose, elk, or bear. Likewise, there is information about
wind direction and thermals in the Tactics and Strategies section
that would be important for a hunter whose personal interests
might lead him directly and exclusively to the whitetail deer
chapter. So make sure to take your time with this book; every page
has something valuable to offer.
Some readers might wonder why so many pages in this book
address subjects that might feel somewhat arcane. This is not a
mistake or oversight; rather, it was my intention in crafting this
book to give thorough treatment to those vitally important pieces of
knowledge and opinion that have been missing from the greater
body of instructional hunting material. But this book also addresses
basic information, placing it in its proper, comprehensive setting, so
that you’ll come away with a better working knowledge of its
meaning and importance.
I’d like to clarify that this book is not the product of a single
author. While I’ve been hunting my entire life and have pursued and
eaten many dozens of species across several continents over the
span of thirty-plus years, I still don’t know half of what I hope to
learn about hunting by the time I die. I suppose it’s unorthodox for a
guidebook to include an admission of the author’s limitations, but I
want to be extremely clear about the fact that this book is the result
of not only my own experiences but also the experiences of dozens
of other hunters I’ve known through correspondence and personal
interaction through the course of my life. You will meet many of
these hunters by name within the pages of this book; others, you
will meet only through the transmission of ideas that they’ve shared
with me.
Finally, I should point out an unfortunate truth: no amount of
words, photos, and illustrations can teach you how to become an
effective and versatile big game hunter. As with every worthwhile
pursuit, expertise as a hunter can only be achieved through real-
world field experience. In fact, you’ll need some amount of field
experience in order to fully understand the resource that you’re
holding in your hands. Once you’ve gone into the woods and made a
few mistakes, you’ll return to this book with an enhanced
appreciation for what it can do for you. Then, the next time you go
into the woods, you’ll be all the more deadly.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking that hunting success is
measured only in meat, hides, and horns. The benefits of the
hunting lifestyle are much too complex and beautiful to be so
narrowly defined. A true hunter recognizes that experiences are the
ultimate hunting trophies; he takes pride in walking the ancient and
noble pathway that was laid down by his forebearers; and even
when he returns from a hunt cold, wet, and empty-handed, he does
so with a full heart.

SECTION 1
GEAR
Gear is like booze. As you get older, you realize that quality is more
important than quantity. I’d rather own one reliable, straight-
shooting rifle than an arsenal of cheaply built guns. But a painful
fact about high-quality hunting gear is that it tends to come at a
high price. When you’re considering your gear budget, it’s important
to step back and take a wide-angle look at your spending habits. I
was once hunting elk in Montana when a guy pulled up to a
trailhead in a shiny new $40,000 pickup in order to study a distant
mountainside through a pair of $20 binoculars that would do little
more than impair his natural vision. Of course, there’s no way of
knowing if that guy actually owned that truck, but you get my point:
a serious hunter would have sacrificed the status car in order to
afford a set of hard-core binoculars that could tear the mountainside
to shreds.
That said, it’s certainly true that gear does not make the man (or
woman). If you don’t have the discipline and drive to become a good
hunter, no amount of high-dollar equipment is going to make up for
that. But my theory on gear is that the hunter should be the
weakest link on a hunt. I expect my gear to outperform me, so I have
only myself to blame for my hunting failures. If I bail on a hunt early,
it better be because I couldn’t hack it, not because the sole of my
boot peeled off or my rifle scope started making rattling noises after
getting dinged on a rock.
When it comes to selecting hunting gear, I’ve found that personal