When he was growing up, Joseph Magnelli spent a couple years living with his uncle in Central Oregon. At his uncle’s house, Joseph learned to live off the land, only eating what his uncle hunted, grew, and gathered.
“That made a huge impact on me growing up,” Joseph, 32, says.
When Joseph moved back to Sonoma County with his parents, his way of life changed because no one else in his family hunted. He fished but really only for stress relief, stopping by a lake in Santa Rosa on his way home from work to unwind.
One year ago Joseph decided to get into hunting and eat everything he killed or caught. He saw hunting and fishing as a way to give the middle finger to the factory farming industry, save some money, and get outdoors. One of the ways many people find ways to save money when it comes to hunting is to buy ammo in bulk (such as from https://bulkmunitions.com/buy-ammo/rifle/223-rem-556×45-ammo/, to name one example), and there are other areas where costs could be saved.
Over the year Joseph has killed and cooked wild turkeys, fish, jackrabbits, and other game, all with a bow. He’s still waiting to land that first deer, which can yield 40-50 pounds of meat, enough to feed him and his wife their fill of red meat for a year. Although Joseph mainly hunts to fill his and his family’s stomach, Oregon is a state that catches the eye of many recreational hunters as well. It has everything that big game hunters love and hope for every season. People who travel to Oregon for hunting purposes must keep in mind that hunting permits and following the state’s gun laws (https://gunlawsuits.org/gun-laws/oregon/concealed-carry/) are a must.
Hunting deer can be a risky business, especially if it not done in the proper or most humane way. Unlike Joseph, some people don’t agree with the idea of deer hunting and would rather let them live their lives in the wilderness free of danger. For those people who enjoy shooting but don’t want to endanger an animal’s life, perhaps look into airsoft guns to feed your hobby. This is much less dangerous and is unlikely to kill an animal. But for hunters, being able to catch animals like deer, is at the top of their list. Reading important information from somewhere like Feed That Game in regards to deer food can help hunters to establish how they can increase the population of deer to be used for hunting. And who knows, if Joseph implements this, it may not be long until he has caught his very own deer.
The ultimate goal is to hunt and fish enough to stop buying meat from the grocery store. As a result, he says he’s supporting animal rights, which many non-hunters don’t understand.
“Either way you do it, animals are going to die from what you’re eating,” Joseph explains. By hunting for his own food, Joseph is acting humanely-hunting animals that have lived full lives in the great outdoors and not ones kept in cages on a farm somewhere.
Joseph limits waste by using every part of the animal he can. He narrowly chose photography over culinary school and he still has an appreciation for the skill set. He knows how to properly cook gamey meats and use the bones, gizzards, and organs for meals. He even vows to catch a coyote one day and see what he can do with that.
“It helps because I understand food,” he says. “When you know how to cook you kind of have an understanding of how to use every single part of the animal.”
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Joseph Magnelli
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