Crossbows are easy to use and don't alarm neighbors. Venison is delicious and nutritious. Butchering a deer is a fun and educational project for the whole family, and requires very little equipment: knives and a big table, plus a tree limb and some rope for the initial skinning. This is yet another problem that people could solve for themselves, if enough of them cared to do so.
Most land in Scotland is owned by large estate owners (think castles and thousands of acres).
We have extremely strict gun control and hunting is usually limited to employees of the estates or visitors who have paid a hefty fee to hunt on the estate.
Hunting here is much more controlled and limited than it is in North America or elsewhere.
Source: Highlands born and raised, live in Canada.
I grew up eating deer and partridge (ruffed grouse) and in my opinion, they aren't delicious. They don't taste good because the have very little fat. (Moose do taste good for some reason.) To make deer hamburgers you have to add beef fat.
If you have eaten wild game that tasted good I suspect it was augmented in some way. We used have some sort of gravy or marinade on deer meat and pin some bacon on partridge.
"Gordon Ramsay Demonstrates How To Cook Venison With A Red Wine & Chocolate Sauce"
I haven't eaten partridge. Venison is low in fat, so it requires different techniques than beef or pork. Braising (even crock-potting) will work better than roasting or grilling. Frying, including stir-frying, also works well. To me these are simply different techniques, but those who consider gravy exotic might call them "augmentation". If one must roast, by all means do as Mr. Ramsay and fry first. I submit that his dish would have been better sous-vide, but the loin will be good as long as you don't burn it.
> Butchering a deer is a fun and educational project for the whole family
I would find it gross and traumatic to the point where I might lose my lunch. I eat meat, but if I had to butcher my own meat I'd go vegetarian.
I like your solution though, I'm surprised that the market doesn't just solve the problem to the point where we're worried about there being too few deer - is hunting limited or is there not enough demand for venison?
I suspect that hunting, field dressing, and butchering lost their mainstream appeal soon after industrialization.
It's one thing to do these things once a month on a hunting trip for leisure versus doing it nearly every week in order to maintain your property or community. It's like the difference between gardening as a hobby versus farming as a lifestyle.
The amount of hunting needed to control the deer population and the population of able bodied and sufficiently interested hunters simply doesn't scale properly in most communities.
Predators who hunt as their main purpose and niche in life seems like a more viable solution if we determine how to keep the livestock predation to an acceptable level.
> I'm surprised that the market doesn't just solve the problem to the point where we're worried about there being too few deer
The market has solved the problem of food: it is plentiful, cheap and varied. That has decreased the need to hunt to the point that most[1] of those who do so are making a lifestyle choice that is not strictly economical but does in some way provide a respectable and different experience or quality of life they enjoy.
[1] As always I feel compelled to remind people that “most” is not a synonym for “all”.
> I eat meat, but if I had to butcher my own meat I'd go vegetarian.
I don't mean to be impolite or judgmental, but I'm wondering if can you share a bit more about how you're able to justify it when someone else is doing the dirty work? I too eat meat, and part of my desire to learn to hunt is to experience the full effect of it, from stalk, to kill, to cleaning, to plate. I've never cleaned anything larger than a redfish, but it's something I'm intensely curious about.
>I would find it gross and traumatic to the point where I might lose my lunch
That's just because you're not used to it. My grand-mother used to kill and butcher chickens, guinea hens and rabbits in front of me as a kid and I've been to quite a few post-hunting parties. It just doesn't move anymore.
Thats a side effect of a life sheltered from nature.
I'm a city boy, but I was sent to the countryside every once in a while to learn how to kill and butcher animals so I could respect what nature has given us.
My grandparents owned/ran a farm, so I grew up in a city but spent my summer holidays there. I learned pretty early on that we don't give names to the animals.
That said I've no qualms about doing the "dirty work" myself, if necessary. I can't imagine how it ever would be, but I'm kinda grateful I got to see where meat, and to a lesser extent crops, come from. As well as appreciating exactly how much work it is.
Nowadays I have a small allotment for growing food, but I know damn well farming life is not for me. For fun at a tiny scale is interesting and rewarding. Doing it commercially is a hell of a lot of work. (Though I know nothing of the American-styled "super-farms" with all the automation.)
> Butchering a deer is a fun and educational project for the whole family
Yep, children will always remember with joy their first exposure to the marvels of Cephenemyia. Like catching apples in a barrel but a much more vibrating activity.
I killed my first when I was 13. I have killed many with rifle and bow, from treestands and from the ground, in rural Missouri and Colorado. I replied to an observation about suburban Midwestern USA deer, which is a completely different thing. Deer that won't leave your yard can be killed with a crossbow shot from your back porch. I recommended a crossbow because they are legal in most states now during the lengthy bow seasons (a development to which I strenuously if foolishly objected), they aren't as disturbing to your neighbors, and they are safer to use in a suburban setting.
I certainly don't recommend anyone "stalk" across the denuded Scottish hills.
