not proud of this fact, but growing up I probably consumed more venison that had been taken out of season than in season. We were farmers and raised and sold beef. Beef costs money, those dang deer were free for the taking. It was a different time and money not as ready available as it's been in my adult life.
one of the last trips home when my dad was still alive, he, myself and my 10 year old rode around his farm, I had a new to me 7mm'08 and shooting off the tailgate for a rest, made a nice lil cloverleaf group @ around 100 yds, with the first shots I fired out of the thing. Dad was impressed with the accuracy of the lil rifle.
We came across some wild turkeys and he encouraged me to head shoot one, I declined by asking do we really need the meat? And I've got a 10 year old lad in the back of the pickup, I'm trying to raise him to obey the game laws. Dad mulled it over and said you're right, old habits die hard, growing up farming there was always a rifle handy, usually a .22 magnum and that dispatched most of those deer we ate with a neck shot. I didn't see a wild turkey until I was 12 years old. But once they started showing up they were fair game too.
When we were hungry and relatively poor, we used game as it was intended. These days it's probably cheaper for me to buy beef than eat moose, but we prefer moose and I still like to hunt. Our regs here leave me shaking my head quite often though.
