Freezer filler ideas

[skydiver386]

At least once a week, Tina and I have wild game or fish for dinner. We have pheasant, quail, deer and some locally caught fish currently in the deep freeze, but last week she said "Our wild game supply is running low, what are we going to do?".

So I find myself casting about for ideas.

There are Bison hunts that would certainly fill the freezer with top quantity table fare. Cow elk hunts would be equally fine eating. A southern hog hunt would be fun, but an outfitter should be carefully selected so as not to end up in a "Pig in a Poke" situation.

I've considered Gizmo's Rockin G Ranch, the Comstock Lodge, and a few others

What type of hunts would be fun, inexpensive and add a large quantity of meat to my larder?

...and yes, this is the same gal that 5 years ago said "I don't want any guns in the house"!

 

[Altitude sickness]

Cow Bison can be reasonably priced.

 

[K-man]

Also consider a Nilgai hunt in south Texas. Great meat, short hunt and easy to do.

 

[AckleyHunter]

Everything is so expensive now. Axis does used to be $400 in Texas. I think they are more like $1000 now. Pigs are generally the cheapest.

Buying half a moo cow might be the best option.

 

[SETH RINGER]

SOUTH TX. NILGAI COW

 

[Hunt anything]

I would go with nilgai, they have meat that is great and either sex make excellent rugs and the bulls make interesting trophies. Second would be an axis, interesting thing about axis there is normally different stages of antler growth in the herds, some will be in hard antler, some in velvet and some having just dropped their antlers.
Axis is really tasty as well.
A bison would be nice as well but I would want to take one in the winter when the coat is in prime condition for a rug.

 

[Rem280]

Gulf of America will be open for red snapper soon. Plenty of amazing charter boats.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Nigai! While in Texas, you can also go to a HEB grocery store and get some of their skirt steak fajitas. They are already marinated and you just throw them on the grill and they taste as good as any Tex-Mex restaurant.

 

[Hunt anything]

Gulf of America will be open for red snapper soon. Plenty of amazing charter boats.

Hard for us to “fill the freezer” with a 2 fish daily limit here in Alabama, I wish they would go to 4 a day and increase the size limit to 20”. Always good to have a backup spot loaded with vermilion snapper, mangroves or lane snapper.

 

[SETH RINGER]

TAKES OUT THE FUN FACTOR OF SQUEEZING THE TRIGGER BUT brokenarrowranch.com CAN FILL A FREEER WITH WILD GAME

 

[jomw10]

Another vote for Nilgai in South Texas!. A lot of meat and great hunts.

 

[pilar]

Go Nilgai hunt or find a deal on a eland , oryx hunt on a Texas game farm
Some farms still have culls from the 2021 freeze where one of the horns froze off
Horn fin feather has both nilgai and Oryx hunting, in wild animals on giant ranches

 

[thriller]

Hard for us to “fill the freezer” with a 2 fish daily limit here in Alabama, I wish they would go to 4 a day and increase the size limit to 20”. Always good to have a backup spot loaded with vermilion snapper, mangroves or lane snapper.

2 fish a day is why I don’t bother to snapper fish

 

[skydiver386]

I hadn't even thought about Nilgai.

 

[JimP]

Cow bison hunt, and they even make a nice mount.

 

[Hunt anything]

2 fish a day is why I don’t bother to snapper fish

That’s one of the reasons I haven’t repowered my boat. And the $40,000 it would take.
I do love to tuna fish though, a group of guys could charter a boat and fill up several freezers on a hot offshore bite.

 

[pilar]

I hadn't even thought about Nilgai.

It’s getting really hot for nilgia out on the ranch but maybe they have a opening because it’s the off season
But the catfish are stacked up on the docks and bulkheads/sea wall right now on the lakes here in Texas
Bag limit is 25 per person per day ( big meat haul for sure)

 

[Rem280]

Hard for us to “fill the freezer” with a 2 fish daily limit here in Alabama, I wish they would go to 4 a day and increase the size limit to 20”. Always good to have a backup spot loaded with vermilion snapper, mangroves or lane snapper.

Cry me a river. Here on the Atlantic side. RS have ate everything. RS, jewfish, or sharks.

 

[Hunt anything]

Cry me a river. Here on the Atlantic side. RS have ate everything. RS, jewfish, or sharks.

Yep, it’s hard to find anything but red snapper on many spots.

 

[mdwest]

Find you a TX lease holder or land owner with a pig problem.. and build a relationship..

Not everyone "sells" pig hunts.. there are people out there that would gladly have you come remove all the pigs you want and not charge a dime as long as you treated their place with respect and behave etc..

Proceed to fill the freezer...

I no shit shoot WAY more pigs every year than I could possibly eat.. between my little lease (just 135 acres) and the big property I hunt on fairly regularly (26,000 acres) my wife and I will take a dozen every year.. and we're not even really trying.. and we're certainly not making a dent in the population..

Pig "hunting" in Texas really isn't hunting as you'd know it in most of the world..

Step 1: Go somewhere you know there are pigs..

Step 2: throw some corn and/or attractant on the ground (my pigs love Pig Out.. drop a gallon of that on the ground and at least 3 out of 4 times a sounder will be on top of you within an hour no matter what time of day or night you put it out)..

Step 3: Go sit behind some concealment (or in a blind) 50-100 yards away and wait..

Step 4: Shoot as many pigs as you can as fast as you can when the sounder arrives...

You'll fill a 9 cf freezer in a weekend if you're motivated enough to clean and process everything you shoot..