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It was a chilly day last fall in north central Oregon. With Mt. Hood looming in the distance, I hunted game: venison, bison, quail and a menagerie of other wild creatures.

There was, however, no need for weaponry—beyond a fork. Along with 500-odd others, I was tasting game prepared during a cook-off at the annual Wild About Game festival, which runs again this weekend in Welches, Ore. I recall some exquisite rabbit, made fierce by a Scotch bonnet consommé; partridge tucked into a phyllo hand pie; and venison, emboldened with…