Cost of starting Hunting - Venison cost in year 1 and beyond

[@ManjaroBlack]

If you don’t value your time then hunting can cost less per lb. Don’t get into hunting to save money. You can work a weekend, make a minimum of $200 and buy lots of meat. Just saying. Get into hunting for hunting. For wild meat. Invest in it. Enjoy it.

[@5678seth]

You only get about 35% of the actual deers gutted weight in meat

[@kevingary7018]

What do you look for in a healthy white tail deer? I'd hate to consume a zombie deer and become one of the walking dead.

[@dakota.zimmerman]

As long as the deer comes in looking and acting normal (feeding, smelling, looking around, reacting to sounds and smells, ect.) you are most likely fine. Anything just walking circles, drooling excessively, and doing weird stuff is pretty noticeable. It's actually quite rare to come across a diseased deer unless you are in a high CWD area, which you can test for by having the DNR (or equivalent in your state) come cut out the lymph nodes or you can cut them out yourself for testing. Wait for the results before consuming the deer and it's up to you to decide whether to eat it at that point since we have yet to see the jump from deer to humans. I personally wouldn't consume it if I knew it was positive but many people do and I probably unknowingly have at some point since it is becoming much more common in my area. Once you shoot your deer just look for infection or other signs of problems like bald spots and things like that. Especially in states that allow dear drives and party hunting, it's not uncommon to see small areas of puss where a deer had been shot or injured previously. As long as that is localized and not everywhere on the deer, cut that area out and discard it and you are fine, that's actually a sign of healing. Rotting flesh and a really nasty smell in multiple areas however would be cause for concern. I've only seen and shot one deer in my life that was very heavily diseased and in the process of dying. It came in and stood looking at me at about 35 yards, I didn't see it until it was there so couldn't do much observing but it looked normal from that distance aside from not reacting when I moved to get my gun on it. Took the first shot and it didn't move, shot again, didn't move, shot a third time and it fell over. This was with a muzzleloader so keep in mind there was time in between the shots. Obviously very confused I went up to it and immediately could tell something was very wrong. The entire hide wasn't attached to the flesh anymore and after slicing the hide in a few spots and having puss and infection come pouring out I knew I wanted nothing to do with this deer. I couldn't even find where I hit the thing, it just didn't bleed. This was my one and only zombie kill so far.

[@spittle8]

Tagging out with 130lbs of meat your first year on public land? Optimistic.

[@bradbradshaw-i4n]

if you only went because of the cost per pound you wouldn't go.

[@5678seth]

Yeah you just hope your wife doesn't sell all your stuff for what you told her you paid for it