Pigs Who Want And Waste

[protrapper]

Saturday I came upon three dead grouse on side of trail. They were field dressed by ripping the breast out and leaving the legs. One they ripped to hard and ripped the breast and left the whole bird.

This is want and waste and illegal. You can eat the legs they taste like the breast. doesnt take much time to clean them right. And how stupid leave them on trail so every person walking bye can see.

Show respect for the animals. If you can't stay home and eat store bought chicken.

[Benny]

The person who did that should be tied behind my ATV and pulled through the thisal patch.
I to have seen that manner of dressing a bird, don't mind it if they take a few seconds longer to cut the legs and thigh off.
Sure the legs are boney, they do cook up nice and if done right will seperate from the bone like nothing.

Bad,bad,bad sloppy hunter!!!

Benny

[MNice]

I beleive the correct term is "wanton", not want and. FYI.

[setterguy]

I am not condoning the action, however what if they truely didn't like to eat the legs, would it make you feel better if they took them home and then threw them out? At least this way some other creature gets enjoy some grouse too. I know the law, you may not throw away a useable part of an animal. Well define useable part. Some would say that the bones are useable, and others would say that the feathers are too. Now what about someone who has a fish mounted? They just wasted all that meat. Should they be arrested? I think this law is aimed more towards big game hunters that shoot a buck and cut the head off. Like I said earlier I know what the law states, but personally I don't know anyone who doesn't toss "some" of the "useable parts". The law is in very vague language, and I think that it was written that way on purpose.

[Scott Steil]

The hawks on my land don't eat the legs of the pheasants either.....The term is Wanton Waste, I believe that is how the regulations read.

[traveler]

I get the meat back fom the taxidermist when I get a fish mounted, it doesn't need to be wasted.

[greenman]

Setterguy,

Fish mounts these days don't use real fish.
The mounts are made from fiberglass molds, the fish is a foam and fiberglass construction. In this manner you can catch measure take a photo then release the fish.
Then contact a taxidermist and ask for your specific fish in the length and action position you want.

[slabberknocker]

I may catch heck for this but here it goes. I hate eating pheasant legs. Therefore when I clean cocks, I rip the breast out, and everything else goes in the can. Now people may think that is waste. How many people keep the heart, gizzard etc. Many people eat these items. Is that considered waste if you dont keep them? The real issue and the only issue here is that they littered the field with guts and feathers. That is a shame that they did that and hopefully they will get caught sometime. But lets not turn this into an issue if legs are waste or not. The rules are very vague on this issue. About the torn up breast. Was it all shot up? I have unfortuanthy had to throw a pheasant or two away that got up too close and I hammered it. That is my fault but no one is a perfect shot everytime. I am sure everyone has messed up on a crappie fillet and ended up throwing that side away. Let's stay with the issue of littering.
I'll step down now
Slab

[Surface Tension]

Well I cant say I've hauled a gut pile out of the woods but I've never gutted a deer in a parking lot either or on a trail for that matter.
Dogs love to roll and eat rotten guts, looks bad and non hunters don't appreciate grouse and pheasant carcasses on trails and parking lots.
Take it home or ditch it in the woods.

[Surface Tension]

How bout fish guts and carcasses, do you leave them at the landings and lots?

[Scott Steil]

For years I carefully cleaned the whole pheasant keeping the legs. However, we would never eat them. Now I eat only the breast and throw the rest. The best part is you don't have to mess with the guts if you are breasting them. Not only does that make them easier to clean, you are decreasing the risk of contamination.

------------------
Mille Lacs Guide Service
www.millelacsguideservice.com

[Grabs]

I agree that leaving the remains on the trail or parking lot is in distaste and I personally have never and will never do such a thing. We often burn the grouse remains back at camp during that evenings camp fire. But when I am hunting by myself and I breast a bird out the guts get tossed back into the woods for something else to use them.

[Guest]

Seldom keep the legs myself, and generally clean my birds on the lake or stream shore, where the varmints such as mink can come along and have a snack. Sometimes, if time permits, we will carefully skin out a partridge, make a mud "form" and create a dummy partridge next to a road/trail. Have had many a laugh out of this one. It works best to have the upper half of the bird "peeking" over a log, which hides our handiwork below.

[Surface Tension]

Grabs My post wasn't pointed at you or anyone else here.

I was hunting WMA's in Stearns county for opener and one parking area had 2 skunks dumped in the lot which made it impossible to park there and the 2nd lot had a dead coyote in the lot. I just have a thing for carcasses right now.

[jiggy8974]

sorry protrapper, but i don't agree with you on this one.

i've never taken the legs out of any bird. grouse, ducks, pheasant, goose. i just breast em out. that's the way i was taught, and that's how i do it. there's just not enough meat on the legs, especially a grouse leg. they're usually all stringy with tendons too.

i also discard my carcasses back into my woods. this way at least they'll be used by something else for food. i don't see the harm in that.

it is true that these guys should have thrown the carcasses back further in the woods and not right on the trail, but other then that, i don't think they did anything wrong.

don't mean to start anyhting, that's just how i feel

[Grabs]

I too have never saved the legs off a grouse, not in all the years I've hunted. Now a pheasant, there is some meat there that is worth while saving, but on a grouse,..come on unless your grouse are just huge in comparision to the ones I'm shooting I just don't see the need.

I too agree that discarding the guts, feathers etc into the woods isn't harming anything. Many other birds, insects and mice rely on those remains. Do you bag up your gut pile from your deer and bring it home??

[MNice]

Grabs, LOL!!! I can see it now, some poor fool toting a garbage bag full of deer innards. Good one!!

[Guest]

I have to disagree too to an extent. I breast grouse, there's nothing to the legs. Step on the wings, pull on the legs. Leaves the head and wings attached for legal transport.

I fully pluck and gut pheasants. I cook up the whole pheasant, in fact, the other night while eating a leg I choked on a tiny bone. There were tons of small bones! There was some meat on a leg, but not much.

[huskminn]

Don't know if any of you cook with a pressure cooker, but that is one way to get the meat off of both pheasant and grouse legs.

Throughout the season, if I'm lucky enough to get birds, I'll freeze the legs separate from the breasts. Once I've accumulated 8-12 legs, I'll thaw them and pressure cook them for 10-15 minutes. The meat will fall off the bones, tendons can be easily pulled out and the meat remains very moist.

I'll then make a wild rice casserole with the meat or a turrine or I've even made pheasant/grouse salad sandwiches.

We've all grown up being taught to do one thing or another and I was taught to save the legs. I guess it does seem somewhat wasteful to me to not save them, but I'm not about to condemn someone who doesn't.

I have to admit, though, I've never saved the legs from a woodcock or dove! Now those are some small legs!

[Surface Tension]

I can a lot of my grouse. All the meat falls off the legs, thighs and wings and those little tidbits are to die for. Their so cute all bunched up in a pint jar.

[BLACKJACK]

huskminn, that a good idea on the pressure cooker, I'll have to try that! I have a good recipe for pheasant pot pie that calls for cooked, boneless pheasant.

[huskminn]

Blackjack,

Hey....now that's a good idea...mmmm...pot pie!

Glad you mentioned it, as I've got a bag full of sharptail legs in the freezer right now.

And yes, canning is also another great way to tenderize ANY meat....becoming a lost art, really. I can venison frequently and have done northern, as well. Never thought to can birds, but I'll have to think on that one, too.

[sparetime]

I don't want to get this off subject, so I started a new post under recipies, anyone willing to share their canned game bird recipes?

[Capt'nJosh]

huskminn, That is a great idea. Last year I saved up the legs, smoked them and took em with up to LOW for our annual ice fishing trip. They turned out horrible and ended up getting thrown away. I just got back from opener in SD and the legs got tossed this year because I couldn't think of a way to use them. I will definately collect the rest of them this year and pressure cook them. Looks like pheasant soup is in my future, if I can hit any more birds that is

Capt'nJosh

[Surface Tension]

You'll need a pressure cooker.
Raw Pack:
Pints 75 minutes at 10 lbs psi
1/2 tea salt
Don't add any water
Canning is a process that must be followed to the T. County Extension offices give the information freely, do a search on the web for full instructions.