WE GOT A DEER!!

Our deer on its last breath

OK so this post is a little off my usual postings but at about what comes to about $0.80/lb of meat, hunting was something we decided we had to take up. Instead of rifle, David opted to start with bow hunting because, we have neighbors within shooting distance, arrows are reusable, and the bow season is longer.

For a while, we considered ordering half a grass fed cow. But even though price per pound would have been quite reasonable, the overall cost was prohibitive. After about 2 years of soul-searching, and whether or not it was in us to take another creature's life for food, we decided that since we were not going to turn vegetarian, hunting was the best and most natural route to get our meat.

Choosing to hunt for meat meant the meat we ate grew up in its wild natural state. This would even be better than organic meat! It meant that the life we took did not suffer an cramped, diseased cages, and was not pumped with antibiotics.

Then came the bow research and planning.

After a mix of:

• Converting Staples ink rewards into cash (by buying free after rebate software with ink rewards)
• Taking advantage of Groupon's ebay gift cards for 50% off (offer is no longer available)
• Using the Staples cash-out to buy Bass Pro's gift cards from Plastic Jungle at a discount (15-17% off when we bought them)
• Price-matching (luckily for us, Dick Sports had the $900+ bow marked down to $500+ for a short time) and using competitor coupons at Bass Pro (We used Dick Sports coupons from the Entertainment Book but I suggest keeping an eye out for those 25% off coupons that Sports Authority issues a few times a year).

We were able to buy a $1400 bow set for about $200 out of pocket.

We then applied for hunting licenses while David practiced shooting. We managed to get a doe license and purchased a left over buck license for $30. I thought the buck license would be a waste of money since it was valid for a mere week. What would our chances be for that?

Then, lo-and-behold, on the last day of our buck permit, a buck was standing just outside our house! We were VERY lucky. So lucky in fact that it didn't get spooked when the first shot missed. The wind was in our favor and the second shot hit it.

Regretfully though, it was not a kill shot. There was a chase and the buck was still alive 3-4 hours later. The buck had to be shot again to put it out of its misery. We were also lucky that it was Sunday and our very kind neighbors, who are veteran hunters came to help with the kill, field-dressing, skinning and even let us use their walk-in fridge to age the meat.

We were also sent home with elk scraps for the chickens (scrapes that used to feed wild magpies now help lower our feed costs)!

So now we have a year's supply (hopefully) of meat for cheap!