Living entirely off of game meat.

[new2hunting]

So this is a goal of mine I have had since I first got interested in hunting, fishing, gardening and all that stuff. I am just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the subject, whether it be the healthiness of it, how hard it would be, or whatever. maybe some of you currently do this yourself, if so I'd like to hear how you manage it.
I for one think that living off of game meat and meat you raised yourself in a free range environment is by far the healthiest way to eat your protein.

[KLM]

I'd love to try it, but I'd need a couple of freezers.

[FrucksOutdoor]

It is do able but it would depend on many factors such as family size, the ability to raise your own meat. etc. When we lived on a farm we were able to come close to it. With a little more effort, we could've done it but our jobs made it difficult.

[wolfhunter]

most farmers do it... sort of

[MikePal]

Unless you can get a 'sustenance' exclusion or you are/or able to hunt with a native then it will be pretty hard pressed to fill your freezer with enough wild meat....at least with the way the present tag system works.

I've been raising the majority of my own meat for going on 20 yrs now. I have to barter/pay for beef from a neighbour but all the rest; pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, rabbit and of course wild turkey and deer come from my own property. I have 5 full sized chest freezers running and life is good.

I can also warn you, the cost to eat this way are way over what it would cost if you buy your meat locally from a butcher. The cost of bag feed and hay etc, has skyrocketed over the past 10 yrs so that it's hard to get a return at all. Hay alone used to cost me $1.25 a bale..it's now over $4. When you buying 1,000 bales it sure adds up.

Add to that the cost of processing your meat thru a butcher and those pork chops I eat from my own raised pig cost me over $4 /lb...minimum. It cost me over $200 just to process a 225 hog.

I have about $10 invested in a 8lb chicken ($1.25 for a day old chick, and $4 for processing and $5 for feed over 2.5 months)

A 5 lb rabbit, which I raise and butcher myself, still cost close to $20 each once 5 months of feed is factoring in.

Don't be dissuaded by these facts, I won't go back to feeding my family store bought 'cellophane' meat. If I ever scale back operations here, I will only buy my meat from a local butcher or on the hoof at the sale barn and take it directly to an abattoir.

Good luck and feel free to PM me if you want more specifics.

[skeeter1]

My wife and I eat mainly wild game and I am in Southern Ontario. We are blessed with extra tags for deer and a no possession on Canada geese. Couple that with three turkey per year and we do pretty well. I am with Moe on the "good steaks when on sale" as I always enjoy a nice steak I do need to get back into fishing as we must buy fish, but it is always a sustainable product. And along with Mike we do not do it becasue it is cheap, I am obsessed with gear so if I added it all up my meat probably costs me about $500.00/lb LOL. But good luck and you can certainly make it a big part of your lifestyle.

[400bigbear]

Yup even roadkill costs with the price of gas these days but it's there for the taking . Just gotta beat the ravens to it .

TD

[greatwhite]

I use to grow all my own vegetables and buy a whole cow from my neighbour down the road. my garden was 900 sq ft and we froze all our own food for the winter. after a few years doing that I realized I could buy the food at the farmers market cheaper than I could grow it. As for buying a cow from the farmer down the road it was cheaper than the store and I knew what the cow ate.

To live off what you could hunt, well you would probably need to spend about 5 days a week in the bush and you would definetly need to get a Moose tag every year. I suspect in the end you will require much more time than you have available.

Like MikePal I raise chickens mostly for eggs but will start meat hens actually this week. I'm raising them for myself so I just butcher them myself. If your going to pay someone to butcher them it will cost you much more than buying in the store. The other thing you need to keep in mind in land. How much land do you have? I have 3/4 ac just enough to raise some chickens and maybe a goat or 2 (don't have any yet). You can always do somethings but very time consuming to raise all your own food.

[topher]

Mike pal
Why pay $4, to process your chickens? Build yourself a whizbang.. Can de feather 2-3,chickens at a time... In under 1 minute... Sure may. Most a couple hundred to make... But the money u save on processing...
I raise my own turkeys.
and chickens (eggs) I Ku pay to process what I will sell.. (Stupid legalities) but I get good money for organic Free range... Especially here near Toronto..

[werner.reiche]

Yup even roadkill costs with the price of gas these days but it's there for the taking . Just gotta beat the ravens to it .

TD

On the 417 east of Ottawa, roadkill gets grabbed pretty quick.

Even excluding the cost of time taken off work to hunt, wild game is not a cheap way to eat.