Meat wastage

I agree Deano, and in fact recall several threads about similar issues - where many voices of experience said that the biggest meat waster is velocity. Small bullets + high speed = nasty blood-shot meat. Figure that a .22 cal bullet screaming along at 3500 fps (or pick your speed) turns a groundhog into muck, (pick it up and shake it, and it rattles), that bullet is going to cause a lot of damage if used to hunt deer.

Doug
 
While shot placement is of course important, I do believe caliber & bullet choice is also important! Haveing picked pieces of schrapnel the full length of a body cavity away from proposed bullet path :rolleyes: I have deff come to the conclusion a slower heavier bullet does less damage by simply plowing thru than those higher fps & light bullet type guns!

A lot of blood shot meat can be salvaged by simply soaking it in clean water:)
 
I wish every shot I took would hit where I was aiming and every bullet or arrow that hit the animal would not hit bone and/or change it coarse in the animal and the animal would drop dead without running any distance. This would be in a perfect world and not in the world of hunting.
 
I tend to agree even hit hard in the front shoulders meat waste is minimun and I would tend to put a figure on it at worse I have seen is less that 5 to 10% meat waste. Seen some pretty rough shots in the field that we were able to clean up and cut out the shell shock from and save alot of meat taking care of that day.
However as mentioned these were front end hits. I have also as many hunters here have, some texas heart shot that in fact did NOT turn out so well, and infact lost major % of meat.
Keep em in the front!

As for a cartridge that shell shocks theres not doubt in my mined that speed is nastey!
Seen some of the worse meat waste from poorly shot splattered bullets from a 243 and light bullets.
As for the big slow ones such as a 45/70 lead load , seen that you can eat to the hole.
 
Last edited:
mdbucle...BINGO!!!

Shoot a moose with a 223 and there's going to be a lot more meat wastage than if you shoot it with a 458WM.....Why?
Because there's a good chance the entire moose is going to Run away and die.....Giving the wolves a free meal...
Use enough gun.....put the bullet through the heart/lungs=full freezer

Russ...
 
You have to tear a hole to knock them down... a clean kill is far more important than 10 pounds of hamburger.
Arguing about meat wastage is only relevant to the uninitiated and inexperienced wannabes who fancy themselves hunters.
If you kill enough game.. you are going to waste some meat... get over it or take up badminton.
 
Gettin a little rough on us there REDD aren't you !

Surely your not advocating a 460 weatherby or 600 nitro for deer hunting :confused: talk about a clean kill :eek:

Experienced hunters DO know that the wrong caliber & bullet choice does indeed waste meat unneccessarily!

If you don't believe that try shooting a deer anywhere with a 300mag & some nice pointy 125g bullets :p then try the same with a 45-70 & some 500leadys lumbering along about the speed of your badminton birdy :D
 
senior said:
Gettin a little rough on us there REDD aren't you !

Surely your not advocating a 460 weatherby or 600 nitro for deer hunting :confused: talk about a clean kill :eek:

Experienced hunters DO know that the wrong caliber & bullet choice does indeed waste meat unneccessarily!

If you don't believe that try shooting a deer anywhere with a 300mag & some nice pointy 125g bullets :p then try the same with a 45-70 & some 500leadys lumbering along about the speed of your badminton birdy :D
Click to expand...

I don't think the wrong caliber is what wastes meat so much as the wrong placement... geez now I sound like Bartell.:rolleyes:
There are no absolutes when shooting big game and you never know for sure what is going to happen when you pull the trigger.
I am not saying bigger is better... just that you are going to waste some meat at some time no matter what you do. It is impossible to kill bloodlessly with a firearm....
That is the experience factor... and when you have seen enough dead deer you just accept and expect the odd mangled shoulder.
I am not condoning meat wastage or justifying poor shooting, I'm just accepting the inevitable and knowing the odds.... experience.
I thought you of all people here would understand that senior.:confused:
 
I think :confused: the thread started about excessive wastage !

Sure meat is & will be wasted but no-one wants to see it unnecessarily done!

BREDD wrote "Arguing about meat wastage is only relevant to the uninitiated and inexperienced wannabes who fancy themselves hunters."

^ARE YOU ARGUEING WITH ME HERE ^ :( :D
 
BREDD wrote "Arguing about meat wastage is only relevant to the uninitiated and inexperienced wannabes who fancy themselves hunters."
Click to expand...

It's also important to the tree huggers and the CO's they call when they see a carcas that has too much meat left on it. This can occur from bullet damage, but it can also occur from shortcuts when butchering. For example, clipping off the limbs, and cutting out the backstraps is not sufficient for deer. My cousin got a fine because he left the front legs attached to the carcass after shooting a 270 clean thru both shoulders. Ya, it was a pisspoor shot, however he could have done a lot more to salvage the meat than he did. He paid the price for being lazy.

I've heard hunters targetting the front shoulders with the intention of leaving everything except the backstraps, ternderloin, and hind quarters. This is unethical, lazy hunting.

I blew thru both front shoulders of a whitetail two years ago. I got lucky and only caught the offside shoulder blade. The only waste was the thin layer of meat on the outside of the shoulderblade, and some meat around the entry wound.
 
Last edited:
senior said:
I think :confused: the thread started about excessive wastage !

Sure meat is & will be wasted but no-one wants to see it unnecessarily done!

BREDD wrote "Arguing about meat wastage is only relevant to the uninitiated and inexperienced wannabes who fancy themselves hunters."

^ARE YOU ARGUEING WITH ME HERE ^ :( :D
Click to expand...

Actually, the thread was started, and still should be, about guys who ##### about using the right tool for the job, and use that lame excuse to use a smaller round thatn they should. Further, it was also intented to point out to folks that they should be more patient and wait to take a better shot. Some guys will shoot some deer right in the ass and then ##### about how much meat they waste. The hunter might even go on to complain about the particular round he was using and say "That cartridge wastes too much meat, it sucks." Finally, I challenged the whole concept of meat damage. I mean, we are shooting an animal, some meat is going to get ruined, but for the most part, the meat that does get ruined is usually, but not always, poor quality anyway and would be Hamburger even if it wasn't shot up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom