Bear Sausage and the Cost of Admission

One of the best parts of hunting has never been the moment the tag gets punched. It’s what happens after. The sharing. The phone calls. The texts that start with you still got some left.

When you hand someone wild game, you’re not just giving them food. You’re handing over effort, miles, cold mornings, heavy packs, and a story they didn’t have to earn. That’s why I have a disclaimer. If you take meat from me, you are required to send photographic evidence of it being cooked and eaten. No photos, no future allocations.

It started as a joke. Then it became policy.

The truth is, there’s nothing worse than wondering if the meat you worked hard for ended up freezer burned, forgotten, or tossed because someone didn’t know what to do with it. Wild game deserves better than that.

This season I had a pile of bear sausage. The kind that smells right the second it hits heat. I handed it out to friends and family with the disclaimer attached, half serious, half laughing, fully committed.And the photos came rolling in.

Cast iron skillets and dinner plates. Sausage browned just right. Proof of respect.

The unexpected bonus came at a Christmas party last night,  I brought some bear sausage along, knowing full well that for most people this would be their first time. There’s always that pause when you say the word bear. Then curiosity wins.

By the end of the night, it was one of the biggest hits on the buffet. Empty tray. People asking questions. People going back for seconds. That moment when wild game stops being a novelty and just becomes really good food.

That’s the point of all of it.

Sharing wild game isn’t about bragging rights. It’s about connection. It’s about bringing people closer to where food actually comes from. It’s about making sure the animal didn’t just get harvested, it got honored.

So yes, there’s a disclaimer. And yes, I mean it.

If you’re going to take the meat, you’ve got to show me what you did with it.

PS: if you're interested in using my labels, I'd be happy to send you the printable PDF