Shooting Hibernating Bears. Where's The Skill In That?

**RiderInBlack** · 5th September 2006, 20:44

Just a point of clarification here:
I am not against all hunting. I have no problem with killing if if ya going ta eat it and you have respect for what the environment can sustain (But then I have no problem with other forms of life killing us to live ether). I have no problem with killing if it is needed to control a species from causing environmental disasters (too bad we can't thin the Homo Sapien Epidemic down too, just half pie joking there).
Hunting for sport I can understand were some skill and risk is involved, and I respect hunters that care enough about their pray that they make a effort to ensure that species survival.
BUT I have no time for any wally that is in ta pointless killing, that has taken very little skill or risk, just because they can.

**jrandom** · 5th September 2006, 21:05

Originally Posted by Fish

helping me butcher a goat or three...

By the way, chaps, when I say 'butcher', I mean butcher. I'd already shot them earlier in the day. Properly, with no slow painful deaths involved. And I bloody well knackered myself out carrying the hairy bastards several klicks back across country, too, so don't anyone ever accuse me of being a degenerate dilettante pseudo-hunter.

Goats may be pests, but I've never been able to bring myself to shoot them like possums or rabbits. They're just a bit to intelligent to deserve being gunned down without some useful purpose in mind. Like curry.

Mmmm. Curry.

Actually, if one isn't up to the intricacies of curry cooking, a nice tender haunch of goat, rubbed down with olive oil and rosemary, with a few cloves of garlic chopped up and stuffed into slits, and roasted slow in the oven with root veges, is just magic. I'm salivating even as I type.

**RiderInBlack** · 5th September 2006, 21:50

Good on ya Fish. It takes a bit of skill ta shoot wild goats. They are a danger to New Zealand's environment, and ya made an effort to use the meat instead of just wasting it. That's real hunting.

**Swoop** · 6th September 2006, 15:36

Originally Posted by Fish

Mmmm. Curry.

Actually, if one isn't up to the intricacies of curry cooking, a nice tender haunch of goat, rubbed down with olive oil and rosemary, with a few cloves of garlic chopped up and stuffed into slits, and roasted slow in the oven with root veges, is just magic. I'm salivating even as I type.

I have been informed that the female goat has better taste since the male urinates over itself to increase its "scent". Any truth in this?

I also love the quote "I'm a vegetarian, not because I love animals but because I HATE plants!"

**jrandom** · 7th September 2006, 10:33

Originally Posted by Swoop

I have been informed that the female goat has better taste since the male urinates over itself to increase its "scent". Any truth in this?

Yup. Older billies smell and taste foul. I ate a young male a few months back that came out fine, though. I've heard that the trick is to cut off their nuts straight away. No idea if that's urban legend or not, but I do it religiously. Can't hurt. Also, it's fun to chase your mates around a paddock with goat testicles.

I try and shoot the smaller goats for the pot. Better chance of getting a nice tender girly. Of course, for population control it's good to get the males, but I'm not trying to make a living off DOC bounties and I don't have a farm of my own to clear, so I don't care.

The old males tend to be much smarter, too, they know how to take cover and they don't panic and freeze when they hear shots, so they tend to get dropped less often. It's quite something to see a billy goat dash for cover, stay quiet a few minutes, and then sprint from one area of bush to the next, zig-zagging across open ground.

Sheep may be dumb, but goaties ain't...

**Patrick** · 7th September 2006, 11:23

Just a couple o things Fish...

"I've heard that the trick is to cut off their nuts straight away. Can't hurt."

Huh??? Shoot them first next time fella! Gotta hurt like hell otherwise!!! Makes my eyes water just thinking about it!!

"Of course, for population control it's good to get the males,"

I thought the males don't have babies?

"The old males tend to be much smarter, too, they know how to take cover and they don't panic and freeze when they hear shots, so they tend to get dropped less often. It's quite something to see a billy goat dash for cover, stay quiet a few minutes, and then sprint from one area of bush to the next, zig-zagging across open ground."

Now that is just plain funny... clever bastidges...

**jrandom** · 7th September 2006, 11:28

Originally Posted by Patrick

JHuh??? Shoot them first next time fella! Gotta hurt like hell otherwise!!! Makes my eyes water just thinking about it!!

Oh yeah. Bastidge goaties deserve everything they get. "Y'all hold them legs apart, Billy-Sue, and ah'll hack ahf his danglies, yee haw!"

"Maaaaaaaa! Baaaaaaaa!"

Originally Posted by Patrick

I thought the males don't have babies?

Woops. Of course. You make a good point. I've been taking a totally ineffectual approach to population control. Guess I'd better start clear-felling cabbage patches.

**Ixion** · 7th September 2006, 13:30

Originally Posted by Fish

,,

The old males tend to be much smarter, too, they know how to take cover and they don't panic and freeze when they hear shots, so they tend to get dropped less often. It's quite something to see a billy goat dash for cover, stay quiet a few minutes, and then sprint from one area of bush to the next, zig-zagging across open ground.

Sheep may be dumb, but goaties ain't...

I don't like the sound of that. Give them a few more years, and they'll start tossing grenades back at y' while their mates lay down covering fire.