Facing my Fear

Just curious..... Do you have problems cutting up chicken, beef or fish from the grocery store?

The fix is easy, grab a live wounded bobcat *just once"; you will learn to appreciate good and dead.

I think you'll just have to work through it, find an experienced hunter to help you at first if you can. You tube is your friend-lots of good vids out there on game processing. It did take me a while to get used to working with warm animals, though I've cleaned hundreds of fish. I usually pop my rabbits in the freezer, that can help your appetite if you get squeamish about cleaning your kills as it will let you disassociate eating from the butchering. Do wear gloves! 
Good luck!
John

I guess when I was a little kid I would always pick up a dead bird by wing feathers also. When I started hunting it just seemed natural to run up and grab my prey. Even at times while shotgun bird hunting ringing their necks to end them. "It is what it is".
The only thing that grosses me out now is animals that are infested with parasites. 

I'm not squeamish about it but I think about it. I do almost always wash my hands or use alcohol after handling a rodent. I will actually use pliers to pick up a dead opossum or especially an armadillo. Deer no problem. Still wash my hands. Pig? I'll go out of my way not to touch a dead pig. Usually use short pieces of rope slip knotted around a leg if I have to drag them somewhere. Won't eat em either. I've watched guys string up a pig and have to spray it down with insecticide then hose it down and stand back a while for a couple thousand fleas to die off.

Didn't bother me startin' as a kid. I'd been fishin' & learnin' to hunt since I was seven. Always cleaned my own prey or catch. Cooked'em too. Not much different than skinin' & guttin' fish, if you clean'em that way.

Isn't this exactly why Harbor Freight sells "Nitrile" gloves?

Thurmond

Yup. Got a new one that took over the Sears tool center up the corner too!...Gonna look into their small metal lathes too. some of the guys said it's pretty good for small parts & stuff we'd be doing as well. But the gloves sure are handy for keeping ickystickygreasygrimygopherguts off your hands.

Topcat, the first thing is go get some of them gloves. I have been doing this all my life. I started using them a couple years ago. Will not do without again. The next time you shoot something put on the gloves and pick it up. Pack it about five feet and set it down. Leave it lay for a little while and do it again repeat till you get it to the place you throw them. Or bury them. When that doesn't make you sick anymore it will be time to start the skinning. This sounds funny but it will work. I have watched big mean men get sick while trying to gut a dear. I know one guy that had his wife gut his dear for at least 3 years before he could do it. But he did get to the point he can. You can to.

Jimmy

ickystickygreasygrimygopherguts, not heard that in a long time.

Paper towels changed my life when it comes to scooping out quail innards! I do my birds bare handed.

I thought some would appreciate a lil old grade school humor. Remembered that one from ST Mary's where I met my wife the first day of first grade. The girls used to walk around in little groups chanting stuff like that. Don't think I ever figured out why?...oh crap, I'm turning into Sheldon again. NNNNNNOOOOOO!
​Seriously though, what freaked me out, even sickened me a bit, was a scene they reused occasionally in War of The Worlds, TV series. Where the Martians had like 6mil plastic screening off an area where they'd hold a human up by the neck, rip out their guts -ALIVE!- & tear off their skin to wear. EEEEEKKKKKKYEEEAAAARP! But skinning & gutting critters didn't bother me. Humans splattered all over a car I found fascinating...in a Bones kinda way...

Just to bring in another perspective, perhaps killing animals isn't your thing and something is trying to tell you that? Just a potential, not saying that's it for sure. But something to put in the mix... 

Sorry, but if you are killing them you should have enough respect to dispose of them properly. this is called hunter ethics.
You could always use a dip net to pick them up.

"wolfdog"Sorry, but if you are killing them you should have enough respect to dispose of them properly. this is called hunter ethics.
You could always use a dip net to pick them up.

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Well, there's hunting and then there's removing pests. We have hundreds of squirrels on this place. I only shoot the trouble makers and my dog does a fine job of recycling those. Pigs? That's what vultures are for ... and other pigs. They're cannibals you know.

"Topcat"I have a fear of touching animals especially dead ones! "I see guys who will go right over to a squirrel they just shot and grab it off the ground with they're bare hands"
I even have a problem picking up the corpse in my own yard. I'll usually leave it out for bait or a meal whichever comes first. I want to be able to examine the bodies and or learn how to dissect them.
One day I plan to move up into medium size to large size game, but first have to get over my fears! 
Can anyone offer advice how I get get over this fear? Birds I can pick up...but only by the tip of their wings, which seems a bit odd!

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Thick gloves!

oh and never ever, ever, ever, ever kill an opossum on your own property. Never. They smell so bad that it will make you even more afraid of dead animals. I still feel nauseous about my experience with it. They are the grimmest nastiest filthiest creatures ever.


In some cases, the fear is justified! Certainly not all game is diseased, but a lot of it is. And some of those diseases are transmittable to humans in various ways. As a bubonic plague surviver, I am living proof. Woodsmanship (knowing your surroundings) is an important skill we all need to learn. As the old adage states, forewarned is forearmed!