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Hunting, Trapping & Fishing for Food

How to put wild meat and fish on the table year after year without emptying the hills and rivers: why the rules exist, local game and its habits, clean shooting and tracking, field dressing and cooling meat in our heat, butchering and using the whole animal, traps, snares and deadfalls, fishing, nets and fish traps, crawfish, mussels and lamprey, and the diseases that come with wild meat. The books are in Hunting\ (How-To, Game-Species, Butchering-Meat-Care, Disease-Safety), Trapping\ (Disease-Safety, Hides-Tanning) and Fishing\ (How-To, Nets-Traps, Mussels-Lamprey, Shellfish-Safety), with survival manuals in Manuals\ArmyFieldManuals. Seasons, hunting units, local waters and trapping rules are on Illinois Valley — Start Here.

⚠️ Rules that prevent the worst outcomes

• Be sure of your target and what is beyond it. Bullets pass through game and keep killing. Never shoot at a sound, a color or movement.
• Cook all wild meat through. Bear, cougar, raccoon and beaver can carry trichinella worms that survive freezing, smoking and drying.
• Wear gloves to skin rabbits, rodents, beaver and anything with fleas (tularemia, plague). Never shoot a deer or elk that looks sick, and never eat its brain, spine, eyes or lymph nodes.
• Check every trap every day at first light. Never set man-killing traps where people or pets walk.
• Take the surplus, never the breeding stock. Never poison a stream, strip a mussel bed, or use mesh that kills young fish.
• Cold rivers drown strong swimmers. The Illinois and Rogue stay cold all year. Stay clear of logjams.

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Take the surplus, never the seed

Every year a wild population has two parts. The breeding stock is what the land can carry through the hard season. The surplus is the animals that will die anyway before next year's young are born. Take the surplus and the land feeds you again next year. Take the breeding stock and it doesn't (NY trapper manual, p. 13).

Game laws were written to do exactly this, after the last time it went wrong. While ODFW and the state police still work, follow the rules. If enforcement stops, the reasons don't:

• Elk nearly vanished from our forest. In 1910 the Forest Service called elk "very scarce" on the Siskiyou National Forest, and in 1932 it counted about 40. Elk mate in October, calve in June, and have one calf, so a shot-out herd takes decades to recover (Bailey 1936, p. 114; p. 115).
• Deer: "unrestricted hunting soon cleans out the deer." Keep no more than about 5 does per buck. If does aren't each raising their usual two fawns, there are too few bucks or too many predators (Bailey, p. 120; written for mule deer, but it holds for blacktails).
• Spare the hens. "Adult hens are the backbone of Oregon's forest grouse flocks." They are most exposed early in the season while tending chicks. Spring turkey is one bearded bird only, because hens are nesting (ODFW bird regs, p. 32; p. 24).
• Let small fish go. Fit traps with escape gaps (drawing). A gill net's mesh should be about 0.4 × the girth of the fish you want; smaller mesh kills young fish before they spawn (FAO, p. 24; Twinework, p. 64).
• Lost gear keeps killing for days or months, and nylon nets never rot. Mark and anchor gear, and tie one panel with cotton or plant twine that rots away (FAO, p. 59; Twinework, p. 41).
• The Hupa weir. On the Trinity River, about 70 miles south, Hupa families built a salmon weir in late summer, fished it at night, and kept family fishing spots that were "always respected." The first high water swept it away (Goddard 1903, p. 34; p. 36). A weir left across a whole river all season would take the whole run. Leave gaps, and fish only part of each night and part of the run (general practice). Illinois River coho are federally threatened.

📚 Go deeper: NY trapper manual, p. 13 — surplus and carrying capacity; Bailey, p. 120 — how deer herds were shot out; Goddard, p. 34 — Hupa fishing.

Local game and its habits

Animal	Where to look, how to tell	Notes
Black-tailed deer	Thickest forest and chaparral; feed cautiously at evening; same home area all year	Rut Oct–Nov, fawns May–June. Wary fast once hunted (Bailey, pp. 121–122)
Roosevelt elk	Dense timber and brush in the mountains	Scarce here; see above
Black bear	Wades streams for fish and crayfish	About 910 on the Siskiyou NF in 1929. Poor eyes, keen ears and nose: hunt with the wind in your face (Bailey, p. 391)
Ruffed grouse	Steep, north-facing brushy streamsides	All grouse pick grit within an hour of dawn and dusk; walk closed roads early and late
Sooty grouse	Open ridgetops; fir stands later in fall	(ODFW bird regs, p. 32)
Mountain quail	Long, straight head plume	California quail: curved plume, scaly belly (p. 23)
Western gray squirrel	Runs up a tree	Protected game mammal
California ground squirrel, cottontail	A ground squirrel runs for a burrow, not a tree	"Unprotected." Ground squirrel fleas carry plague (see below)
Brush rabbit	Never far from cover	Overgrown closed logging roads, very early morning (ODFW big game regs, p. 74)

The track guide on the drive shows eastern species only. For tracking, use Seton's chapter, pp. 392–412 — track drawings of cat and dog and rabbits.

📚 Go deeper: Bailey Mammals and Life Zones of Oregon, p. 121 — every Oregon mammal's habits; ODFW bird regs, p. 32 — grouse and quail ID.

Safe shooting, shot placement and tracking

The four rules (Hunter ed, p. 40):

1. Point the muzzle in a safe direction.
2. Treat every gun as loaded.
3. Be sure of your target and what is in front of it and beyond it.
4. Finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.

Shot placement (Hunter ed, p. 61; CT DEEP, p. 3; where the organs lie in deer, elk, bear and small game):

• Big game: heart and lungs, just behind the front shoulder, broadside. With a bow, a third of the way up the chest when the near leg is forward.
• Never take head-on, rear-end, running or straight-away shots. A wounded, stressed animal suffers, and its meat tastes stronger.
• Turkey (gobbler and hen): head and neck. Rabbits and squirrels: head or chest (Ohio DNR, p. 2).

Oregon's legal minimums are also humane-kill minimums: no .22 rimfire on deer, elk or bear; broadheads unbarbed and at least 7/8 in wide; bows at least 40 lb draw (ODFW big game regs, p. 22). Not a law, but keep bow shots to 40 yards or less (Hunter ed, p. 70).

After the shot (Hunter ed, pp. 62–63):

1. Watch every move the animal makes after the shot. Wait 30–60 minutes unless it is down in sight.
2. Follow blood, hair, kicked leaves and broken twigs. Wounded animals often head downhill toward water. Flag the trail; if you lose it, search in a circle or grid.
3. Approach from above and behind the head. If the open eye doesn't blink when touched with a stick, it is dead.

📚 Go deeper: Hunter ed manual, p. 61 — shot angles with drawings; Big Game Recovery — reading blood sign; CT DEEP — vital zones.

Field dressing and the gutless method

Field dressing (PNW 517, pp. 7–8; Hunter ed, p. 64; step drawings; step photos):

1. Prop the animal on its back with its head slightly downhill.
2. Cut the hide from the inside out, so hair stays off the meat. Open the belly without cutting the stomach (rumen).
3. Cut the diaphragm and the windpipe. Tie off the colon before you pull it through.
4. Don't touch the dark-haired glands inside the hind legs, just below the hock. They taint the meat.
5. Drain the blood. If you must drag it, sew the cavity shut.

Gutless method — best on steep ground, alone, or in hot weather (Kentucky, p. 1; PNW 517, pp. 9–10; illustrated steps):

1. Skin the top side. Take off the front shoulder (no joint holds it on) and the hindquarter.
2. Take the backstrap and neck meat. Ease the tenderloins out last, without nicking the gut.
3. Flip the animal and repeat. You never open the body or saw the spine, which also avoids the spinal cord (chronic wasting disease).

Drag the gut pile at least 25 ft from where you hang the meat (PNW 517, p. 11).

📚 Go deeper: OSU PNW 517 Big Game from Hunt to Home — dressing and quartering with photos; Kentucky gutless method; Kentucky elk quartering.

Cooling meat in our heat

Heat is the enemy. Cave Junction's summer average is 67 °F and Grants Pass has hit 108 °F (Josephine soil survey, p. 5), and archery deer season falls in late August and September.

• Get the meat below 40 °F within 24 hours (PNW 517, p. 6).
• Hang it in a shady thicket at night. By day, wrap it in cold canvas and lay sleeping bags over it to hold the night's chill. Skin the carcass unless the night will freeze (Montana State, p. 2).
• Don't wrap warm meat. Game bags, canvas and paper hold heat in. Keep it in moving air until it is below 40 °F (PNW 517, p. 11).
• Meat from a warm day, or from an animal that ran hard or was wounded, should not be aged. Cut it up and preserve it as soon as it is chilled.
• Scrape off blowfly egg clusters. Black pepper on moist spots and flapping cloth strips keep flies and ravens off (p. 12).
• Birds: keep them at 40 °F or below (NDSU game birds, p. 2).
• With no refrigerator, cut and preserve meat the same day: can it, cure it in winter, or make safe jerky (see the Preserving Food guide).

📚 Go deeper: PNW 517, p. 11 — cooling, game bags and flies; Montana State Field Care — keeping meat cold in warm weather.

Butchering, using the whole animal, and hides

Bone it out (Wyoming B-884R, p. 2; p. 4):

• Take the shoulder off along its natural seam, then the loin. Follow the hind leg's muscle seams into the sirloin tip, top, bottom and eye of round (photos of each cut).
• Grind the tough heel and trimmings, and preserve trimmings the day you cut them.
• A 349-lb field-dressed cow elk gave 148 lb of boneless meat, about 42%.

Use the whole animal:

• Heart, liver, tongue and kidneys are good. Wash the heart and liver in cold water at once (PNW 517, p. 12). A healthy liver is smooth, wet and deep red-purple. Throw out a spotted or odd-colored liver; the muscle meat may still be fine (general practice).
• Beaver, muskrat and raccoon are good eating: the quarters and back. The rib cage is usually discarded (Trapper Education Manual, p. 106; FM 3-05.70, p. 153).
• Save the fat. People living on lean meat alone get sick ("rabbit starvation," (rule of thumb); see the Rabbits guide).

Brain-tanned buckskin, no chemicals (Farnham 1916, pp. 73–74; brain tanning):

1. Soak the hide in water, or water and wood ashes, until the hair slips. Flesh it, then scrape off the hair and grain (unhairing).
2. Boil the brains about an hour in a gallon of water. Cool until you can hold your hand in it.
3. Work the hide in it, and stretch it while it dries. Repeat until soft (softening over a stake).
4. Smoke it over smoldering punky wood, never flame (p. 145).

Use brains only from healthy animals, and wear gloves (chronic wasting disease). Bark tanning one heavy cowhide takes well over 100 lb of finely ground oak or hemlock bark, added 30–40 lb at a time over about 4 months (USDA FB 1334, p. 14); our tanoak was the old "tanbark" (general practice). Full tanning steps are in the Clothing & Leather guide.

📚 Go deeper: Wyoming Skinning and Boning Big Game — cuts with photos; Farnham, p. 73 — buckskin the old way; USDA FB 1334 — bark and alum tanning.

Trapping, snaring and deadfalls

Where you set matters more than the trap (FM 3-05.70, pp. 127–128):

• Set on a run (small, used by one species) or at feeding, watering and bedding spots. A trail is used by many species.
• Funnel the run with sticks down to just wider than the animal (drawing). Don't use freshly cut green wood, which smells of sap. Hide your scent with mud or smoke.
• A squirrel pole carries several wire nooses 2–2¼ in across, set 1 in off the pole (p. 132; drawing). Check current ODFW rules first: western gray and Douglas squirrels are protected game in Oregon.

Traps with no store-bought gear: the figure-4 and Paiute deadfalls need only sticks and cord (FM 3-05.70, p. 137; Paiute deadfall). Harding's 1907 Deadfalls and Snares shows many more (spring-pole snare, trail snares). A box trap keeps rabbits unhurt ("the best for eating") and lets you release a cat, dog or hen unharmed (p. 146; drawing).

Figure-4 deadfall: where the notches go on the upright, release and bait sticks, and the set trap holding up a log (FM 3-05.70, p. 137).

Paiute deadfall: a cord and a 2-inch catch stick hold the diagonal stick; when the animal moves the bait stick, the weight falls (circles: close-ups of the catch) (FM 3-05.70, p. 138).

Check every trap every day, at first light. Most furbearers move at night. Early checks mean less suffering, fewer escapes and less theft by other animals. Don't set more traps than you can check, and stay away from places where pets roam (Trapper Education Manual, p. 99; NY manual, p. 3).

Keeping pets out (AFWA body-grip guide, pp. 9, 15–16):

• For raccoon, use sweet baits (marshmallow, molasses, corn syrup, corn) that dogs and cats ignore, not meat or fish.
• Raise body-grip cubbies 4–6 ft up a tree (cubby on a tree).
• Set trail traps 5–6 ft in front of a fence crossing, not under it, so big dogs pass by (trail-set drawings).

Beaver: #330 body-grip traps or cable devices at slides, scent mounds and channels. Bait with fresh poplar, willow or cottonwood sticks. Use sliding-lock sets in water so the beaver drowns quickly (Trapper Education Manual, p. 138).

📚 Go deeper: Trapper Education Manual — sets, baits and running a trapline; Harding Deadfalls and Snares — illustrated improvised traps; AFWA dog-friendly sets — keeping pets safe.

Fishing, nets, fish traps and fish care

While the rules are enforced (ODFW fishing regs, p. 19): one rod per person, lines closely attended (so no unattended set lines), and no snagging. Local waters and seasons are on Start Here.

Nets and stream traps (AFH 10-644, pp. 311, 314):

• Set a gill net at a slight angle to the current so debris washes off (drawing). Check it at least twice a day.
• In small streams, a brush or stake fence that funnels fish into a pen works. Leave a way through for most of the run (general practice) (fish-trap layouts; maze traps).
• Nets are knotted with the sheet bend, using a netting needle (drawing) and mesh gauge (drawing) (Twinework, p. 46). A fyke net (a netting hoop trap with wings) is the river version of a fish trap (p. 137).

A gill net seen from above, set at a slant to the current (arrow) so drifting debris slides off (FM 3-05.70, p. 145).

A basket trap and a stake pen whose funnel mouth faces the current; the stone tidal-flat trap is for the coast (FM 3-05.70, p. 146).

Fish care (NDSU, p. 2; NYSDEC, p. 4):

1. Bleed the fish by cutting the throat. Pull the gills and guts (filleting drawing).
2. Scrape out the dark kidney along the backbone. Wipe it and keep it cold.
3. Don't let cleaned fish sit warm more than 2 hours.
4. Contaminants collect in fat: skin the fish and trim the fat (where to trim).

Smoke alone does not preserve fish. Hot-smoked fish must reach 150 °F inside (160 °F better) for 30 minutes, and still keeps only in a refrigerator (PNW 238, pp. 1–2). Without one, can it or salt it (see the Preserving Food guide).

Mercury: Oregon has a statewide mercury advisory on bass, and Applegate Lake has one for resident fish. Sea-run salmon and steelhead carry fewer local contaminants. Children under 6 and pregnant or nursing women should eat the fewest resident fish (ODFW fishing regs, p. 24).

📚 Go deeper: Practical Twinework — making and mending nets by hand; FAO Fishing with Traps and Pots — funnels, doors and escape gaps; NYSDEC Care of Your Catch — cleaning and filleting.

Crawfish, mussels and lamprey

• Crawfish (signal crayfish) come out at night. By day, look under stream stones. They grab offal tied on a string; pull them in before they let go. Cook all freshwater shellfish and fish (FM 3-05.70, p. 118). While the rules stand: open all year, no license, by hand, line with no hook, net, ring or trap, 100 a day (ODFW fishing regs, p. 22).
• Freshwater mussels are famine food only. Some, like the western pearlshell (shells), live over 100 years. About 1 in 100,000,000 larvae becomes a young mussel, and the larvae must ride on salmon or trout to survive (life-cycle drawing). A bed stripped bare does not come back in a lifetime (Xerces, p. 12; p. 18). Taking them is illegal while the rules stand.
• Pacific lamprey: leave it to the tribes (photo on the ODFW Rogue fishes poster). The Hupa netted lamprey on warm spring nights and dried them over the fire (Goddard, p. 35). Tribes still prize it as food and medicine, but it is in steep decline (PLCI fact sheet, p. 1), and Oregon allows it only by tribal or Willamette Falls permit (ODFW, p. 22).

📚 Go deeper: Xerces Freshwater Mussels of the PNW — ID and why beds don't recover; PLCI fact sheet — lamprey and the tribes.

Cooking what you took

Meat you worked hard for deserves not to be ruined in the pan. Full recipes, and what to cook them on, are in Food from Scratch ("Meat: roasts, pot-roasts and tough cuts", "Fish, eggs, milk and cheese", "Broth, soup and stew").

The rules that matter most (NDSU, p. 5):

• Game is leaner and stronger-flavored than farm meat, and the strong flavor is in the fat — trim it off big game. Then put fat back another way (butter, lard, bacon over the top, cream in the pan) or the meat cooks dry.
• Do not overcook it. Use a thermometer if you have one.
• Game substitutes for beef in any stew, soup or chili you already make.
• Hang it at least two days before you cook it, or it will be tough and tasteless (Kephart, p. 295).

Tender cuts — broil over coals. Cut at least an inch thick, sear it in the flame for a moment, then broil in front of the fire with a pan underneath: 1 inch thick 5 minutes, 1¼ inches 10 minutes, 2 inches 20 minutes. Venison usually wants pounding first; don't gash it, and don't salt it until it is done. No broiler? A clean frying pan almost red hot, covered, turning the meat often without stabbing it, does a large venison steak in 10 minutes and keeps the juices (Kephart, p. 297).

Everything else — braise it. Shoulders, rounds, neck and shanks go in a covered pot with about 2 inches of hot water and a bit of bacon or salt pork, about 15 minutes to the pound, seasoned half an hour before the end; make gravy by pouring off the grease and rubbing flour into what is left (Kephart, p. 301). Bones, neck and trimmings make broth (Food from Scratch, "Broth, soup and stew").

Birds: check the joints first. Stiff joints and brittle bones mean an old bird — braise or stew it. Flexible joints and soft bones mean it can be fried. A plucked bird roasts without drying out, because the fat under the skin melts into it; a skinned bird needs bacon laid over it, or a slice of bread dipped in egg and milk. Roast a duck back up, uncovered, at 325 °F for 1–1½ hours, cavity filled with quartered apples, basted every 10 minutes; or dredge any bird in seasoned flour, brown it, add 2 inches of milk, and simmer or bake it to at least 165 °F inside (NDSU, pp. 5, 9).

Fish over the fire. Rub the broiler with fat bacon. For a big fish, head off and split down the back, not the belly, with strips of pork across it, over a moderate bed of coals so the inside cooks without drying. Small fish go fast over hot coals, heads on. No broiler: push a sharpened green stick through the mouth into the body and turn it over the coals, basting from a bit of bacon on another stick. Frying: wipe the fish dry or it soaks up grease, have the fat very hot, and add pieces one at a time (Kephart, p. 326). A big fish can simply be boiled with potatoes in well-salted water until a fork goes through easily — 2 lb of fish to 2 potatoes (NDSU, p. 10).

Heart, liver, tongue and kidneys are the first meal off an animal, and they do not keep: cook them the day you take them (above). Trimmings become sausage — ⅓ fat to ⅔ lean, and per 4 lb, 5 tsp salt, 4 tsp sage, 2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp sugar (FB 2138, p. 45).

⚠️ Cook bear, cougar, raccoon and beaver through — see "Disease and safety", below. Jerky is not cooking: it needs its own safe temperatures (Jerky in Food from Scratch).

📚 Go deeper: NDSU Wild Side of the Menu 1: Care and Cookery — game, bird and fish recipes and kitchen safety; Kephart, Camping and Woodcraft, p. 295 — every way to cook meat and fish on a fire.

Disease and safety

Trichinella in bear, cougar, raccoon and beaver: wild strains survive freezing (larvae lived 5 years in frozen bear meat), and curing, smoking and drying don't reliably kill them. Cook it through (FDA Bad Bug Book, p. 142; NY manual, p. 26). Jerky is safe only if the meat reaches 160 °F (PNW 632, p. 8).

Tularemia (rabbit fever) comes from rabbits, hares, beaver and muskrat, and from ticks and deer flies. An infected liver and spleen have white spots. As few as 10 bacteria breathed in can infect you, so don't make dust or spray while skinning. Wear gloves and cook thoroughly (Trapper Education Manual, p. 92; Bad Bug Book, p. 64). It needs antibiotics for 10–21 days, depending on the drug (doxycycline 14–21) (CDC, p. 34).

Chronic wasting disease isn't in Oregon yet but is in California, Idaho and Washington. Never shoot or eat a deer or elk that looks sick. Never eat the brain, eyes, spinal cord, spleen or lymph nodes. Bone out the meat, and soak tools in half bleach, half water for an hour (ODFW big game regs, p. 48; Hunter ed, p. 65; Kentucky elk guide, p. 2).

Ticks: the western blacklegged tick (Lyme disease) lives here (tick photos and sizes). Soft ticks in rodent nests in rustic cabins spread relapsing fever, in the hills above about 1,500 ft. Pull a tick with fine tweezers close to the skin, straight up, no twisting, no heat or petroleum jelly (removal photos). Treat clothing with permethrin (CDC, p. 50; ODFW fishing regs, p. 15).

Grip the tick right at the skin with fine tweezers and pull straight up, with no twisting, heat or petroleum jelly (a diagram drawn for this guide).

Plague: southern Oregon is one of the two US plague regions. Its main flea lives on the California ground squirrel, and a trapper caught plague from a cut while skinning a bobcat. Bag any flea-covered catch at once, spray insecticide in the bag and tie it shut (Plague in Washington, p. 4; Trapper Education Manual, p. 102).

Hantavirus comes from deer mice. Never sweep or vacuum droppings. Soak them in 1 part bleach to 9 parts water for 5 minutes, then wipe up with gloves (cleanup steps). Use snap traps, not live or glue traps (CDC 2021, pp. 11–12).

Lead: fast-expanding lead bullets threw fragments 5–14 in from the exit hole, and lead turned up 18 in away. Rinsing didn't help. A solid copper bullet left few fragments, mostly within about 4 in. Trim wide, throw out bloodshot or bone-flecked meat, and grind one animal at a time (Minnesota DNR, p. 6; PNW 517, p. 1). Give lead-shot meat to adults, not children or pregnant women (general practice).

Coastal clams and mussels: paralytic shellfish toxin and domoic acid aren't destroyed by cooking or freezing, and there's no antidote. Numb lips or tingling hands within hours means get help. With no state testing, leave coastal shellfish alone (ODA, p. 1; OHA, p. 1).

Cold rivers: the Illinois and Rogue stay dangerously cold even in summer. Sudden cold water causes gasping (cold shock) and drowning, and water drains body heat 25 times faster than air. Strainers (logjams, overhanging branches) pin people under (OSMB handbook, p. 17; p. 14).

📚 Go deeper: CDC Tickborne Diseases — tick ID, symptoms and treatment; Minnesota Bullet Fragmentation — the X-rays; OHA PSP sheet — symptoms that mean get help now; Field Care guide — treating illness with no doctor.

⚠️ Old advice in the library to ignore

• "You can eat these raw" for sea fish caught far offshore, and "there are no poisonous freshwater fish" (FM 3-05.70, p. 121). Ocean fish commonly carry worms, and mercury advisories apply here. Instead: cook all fish.
• Poisoning fish with rotenone plants, lime or walnut husks (FM 3-05.70, pp. 148–150; AFH 10-644, p. 315). It kills every fish, the young salmon and the insects they eat, and ruins a stream for years. Never do it.
• Bow traps and pig-spear traps (FM 3-05.70, pp. 138–140), which the manual itself calls deadly to people. Instead: snares, deadfalls and box traps, never near homes, trails or where children walk.
• Smoked meat eaten "without further cooking," eating the brain (FM 3-05.70, p. 154), and sun-dried raw strips (p. 156). Smoked or dried bear still carries trichinella, and deer and elk brain carries chronic wasting disease risk. Instead: cook it through; jerky reaches 160 °F.
• Ixodes dammini as the Lyme tick (Trapper Education Manual, p. 92), an old eastern name. Ours is the western blacklegged tick, Ixodes pacificus (CDC, p. 4).
• A "minimum" 4-inch trim around the bullet path (PNW 517, p. 1; also repeated on the Start Here page). Instead: trim much wider; fragments went 5–14 in (Minnesota DNR, p. 6).
• Aging birds at 40–45 °F (Wyoming waterfowl sheet, p. 1). That is above the danger line. Instead: 40 °F or below (NDSU, p. 2).
• Arsenic sprayed on hides (Farnham, p. 64), plus the book's chrome (bichromate) and sulfuric acid tanning. These are poisons. Instead: brain, bark, or salt and alum.

📚 Go deeper: CDC Tickborne Diseases, p. 4 — tick ID pictures; USDA FB 1334 — safe tanning methods.

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Pictures & diagrams

Look before you try it. 🖼️ = drawings in the books on this drive; 📷 = photos in the offline Wikipedia.

Game and fish to know

• Deer, elk and bear — Black-tailed deer; Roosevelt elk; American black bear
• Grouse, quail and turkey — Ruffed grouse; Sooty grouse; Mountain quail; California quail; gobbler vs. hen, Hunter ed p. 60
• Tracks — Seton, p. 396 (cat and dog); Seton, p. 400 (rabbits)
• Coho, chinook and steelhead — CA Sea Grant ID sheet, p. 3; ODFW Rogue fishes poster; Coho salmon

Shooting, field dressing and butchering

• Where the heart and lungs lie — CT DEEP, p. 2; Hunter ed, p. 61
• Field dressing, step by step — Hunter ed, p. 64; OSU PNW 517, p. 7; AFH 10-644, p. 358; Field dressing
• Gutless quartering — Kentucky, p. 2
• Skinning big game — NDSU, p. 4; AFH 10-644, p. 356; FM 3-05.70, p. 152
• Skinning small game — FM 3-05.70, p. 153
• Boning out the cuts — Wyoming, p. 2; Wyoming, p. 3; NDSU, p. 6
• Hide tanning tools, unhairing, staking — USDA FB 1334, p. 7; p. 11; p. 21; Buckskin

Snares, deadfalls and traps

• Funneling a run — AFH 10-644, p. 301
• Simple and twitch-up snares — FM 3-05.70, p. 130; p. 132; Snare
• Squirrel pole — FM 3-05.70, p. 133
• Treadle spring snare — FM 3-05.70, p. 136
• Spring-pole and trail snares (1907) — Harding, p. 123; Harding, p. 136
• Figure-4 and Paiute deadfalls — FM 3-05.70, p. 137; p. 138; Deadfall trap
• Pole deadfall and trip triggers — Harding, p. 21; Harding, p. 87
• Box trap — Harding, p. 147; AFH 10-644, p. 303
• Dog-safe raccoon sets — AFWA, p. 15; AFWA, p. 16

Nets and fish traps

• Netting needle and mesh gauge — Twinework, p. 15; p. 16
• Sheet bend, right and wrong — Twinework, p. 46; Sheet bend
• Knitting and setting a gill net — FM 3-05.70, p. 144; p. 145; AFH 10-644, p. 312; Gillnet
• Mending a torn net — Twinework, p. 152
• Stream traps, weirs and fyke nets — FM 3-05.70, p. 146; AFH 10-644, p. 314; Twinework, p. 137; Fishing weir
• Trap funnels and escape gaps — FAO, p. 23; FAO, p. 24
• Filleting and trimming the fat — AFH 10-644, p. 360; NYSDEC, p. 5

Shellfish and disease

• Mussel life cycle and western pearlshell — Xerces, p. 10; Xerces, p. 38; Signal crayfish
• Ticks and tick removal — CDC, p. 5; CDC, p. 50; Ixodes pacificus
• Cleaning up after mice — CDC hantavirus, p. 15

Related guides

• Illinois Valley — Start Here — seasons, hunting units, local waters, trapping rules
• Preserving Food — canning, curing, jerky and smoking the meat and fish
• Clothing & Leather — tanning hides and making buckskin clothes
• Field Care guide — wounds, ticks, hypothermia and sickness with no doctor
• Food Security guide — fitting wild meat into a ration
• Chickens and Rabbits — dependable meat you raise instead of hunt
• Navigation & Weather — finding your way in the backcountry
• Knots, Rope & Cordage — the knots that do nearly every job, lashing, blocks and tackle, making cord
• Dams, Weirs, Ditches & Ponds — beaver and muskrat damage to dams; salmon passage
• Skills of the Valley's First Peoples — acorns, camas, salmon, cordage and baskets, houses, and tending the land with fire, the way people here lived for thousands of years.