Wild game

[drinksgin (deceased)]

I was just trying to list the wild game possibilities in the U.S..
So far, leaving out the large animals, I have come up with, doves,  quail, , grouse, , ducks, geese,several species on all these,  cranes, turkeys, chacalacha, squirrels,several species, rabbits, hares, again several species.
I am including the bigger rodents, wood chuck,marmot, beaver, nutria and muskrat.
What have I left out? Yes, I left out the possum and armadillo, my feelings toward the possum are about the same as Paul's about weasels and I just cannot picture an armadillo as other than buzzard breakfast on the half shell though I have heard some people say it is good over charcoal.

[sakorick]

Coon, Possum, Crane & Pigeon.

[drinksgin (deceased)]

Actually, I covered everything except coon, which is a nice eat if young.

[gitano]

Snakes. I've eaten both rattlers and water moccasins, and I found both very good. For birds, rails and coots. (Yes, people most certainly do eat coots.) Pheasants.

I'd like to see the "dove, quail, grouse, ducks, geese," species fleshed out. There are A LOT of animals in there, even without 'splitting hairs'. Ditto for the "squirrels, rabbits and hares", again without splitting 'hares'. :)

Paul

[drinksgin (deceased)]

Dove; in Texas,, mourning, whitewinged, white fronted, white tipped are legal at some times,red billed , band tailed, inca and ground are protected, rock doves,( barn pigeons) and the european ringed dove are not protected at all.
Bob white, scaled and Mearne's are available in season.
I do not eat diving ducks, taste like over aged liver, but the puddle ducks, mallards, wood and such are good.
We have 3 rabbits, desert cottontail, eastern cottontail and swamp and one hare, the jackrabbit.
beaver and nutria are common in the eastern part of the state, coons every where.The lesser and greater prairie chicken are available,but very limited in range.
For geese, greater and lesser canada, snow and speckle belly migrate here..
The sandhill crane is a winter visitor, too.
The whooping crane is VERY protected, shoot one and expect to go to the pen.
Snakes are not bad, except for the  bones, they have a BUNCH!!!!!!!!
The fox and gray are the common squirrels , with the rock squirrels being more common in the  hill country.
We do have prairie dogs and a bunch of smaller ground squirrels, but the amount of plague bearing fleas on some of them makes it too risky to eat them.
I have eaten coot, rails, we have several species, the corn crake, sora and common are the ones that are actually shot some,actually nice eating, just pretty scrawny.
Really a lot of eatable critters around here, if a person goes after them.
Some taste good, some fair and a few, not especially good.
A lot depends on what they eat, how well you take care of the meat and your individual tastes.

[sakorick]

Has anyone actually tried Muskrat? I'll bet they aren't bad and I'm fixin' to shoot one soon.There is actually a season on Rails in Kansas.....I think I'll pass.

[gitano]

I have eaten muskrat. It's "OK", but I don't like 1) the 'look' of a rat, 2) the REALLY 'dark' and therefore 'strong', meat. I could eat them if I needed to, but I wouldn't do it under 'normal' circumstances. Ditto with beaver, but I consider beaver 'better' than muskrat. Contrary to what many "experts" say: porcupine is DISGUSTING! I shot one one time, and couldn't gag anything down but the heart, liver, and kidneys. When I hadn't eaten anything for the next three days I killed another one. I BURNED it so I could gag it down, and I was three-days-hungry.

Paul

[JaDub]

Rick,  you forgot the word " despiration" under  "a lot depends on....."  8-)