Enigma

I think there was a period of time when the preferred method of hunting deer in the Adirondacks was chase them with people and dogs into a lake. People would row up on the swimming deer and pop it in the head with a rifle, throw a rope over it and tow it back to shore. It was more "sporting" than waitng in one spot to ambush one. Pretty sure it was pre NYS regs or licenses. The good old days lol.

Saturday 12/19/20. 815AM. 7P stateland. NEF Huntsman, 250gr TC shockwave. 40 yard shot, 40 yard recovery. My contribution to the @Swamp_bucks stateland smokepole snowshoe spike slaughter. I was just the lucky chump pulling the trigger. Best day and most fun I've had in the deer woods in 15 years all because of SB. His generosity and drive to help a fellow hunter knows no limit. They don't come much better than him.

Nice! Completely forgot about the OKM as a source for sausage spices. Thanks for the reminder. I need summer sausage and Italian.

I remember being 16 and my grandfather telling me to move his Ford pickup. Wasn't hard to learn and just seemed the "right" way to drive a truck. Had a job one summer in the early 90's driving tanker trucks. It was before the CDL license nomenclature and was a Class III. I thought I knew how to drive one until I tore up the Hi/Low range on a small tanker the first week there. "Leave the damn button alone!" said "Pappy" the mechanic. He wasn't pleased with me lol. Something very satisfying about the whole 4 speed, double clutching, hi/low red button popping sequence to operating a commercial vehicle. Was driving a beastly '92 Silverado 4x4 w/ a 4 speed for much of last year. Funny thing. I just purchased a new to me large sedan for my daily driver. Big cabin inside. My brain subconsciously thinks its a standard as a drive it lol. I pull up to a light and my left foot instinctively moves to push in the clutch that's not there! Weird.

Very nice. Could you elaborate on your: Venison to pork (?) ratio Grind. 1X? 2X? Plate size? Casings. Size? Hog? Sheep? Recipe. Yours? Mix? Thanks

Didn't want to hijack @fasteddie 's robotic soldier thread. Trespasser, line hunter, crappy neighbor: "What's that hum?" (getting louder) TF19 dropping into the canopy to even treestand height: Poof.

Flip the script with him. Call him and ask him how many tags he has left. Tell him how many you have left. Ask him if he wants to get together and hunt and kill a deer. Tell him if he wants to donate it you'd take it and be very grateful and appreciate it, but you can't pay him lol. Try and be a mentor one more time. Tell him the same stories about your father and his FIL that you just told here. Laugh, smile and lay it out to him one more time. I know it sounds like a completely opposite train of thought but sometimes you have to kill them with kindness. Some get it. Some don't. Make plans for next year. Now. Times change. Roll with it and consider it a new hunting challenge. The other place you have to hunt may have issues but they all do. You need a psychology degree these days to deal with people when it comes to killing deer on land you don't own. Keep telling your father it's all great. Hunt with him as much as you can there. Drive him over the next time he delivers sausage to his friend. Turn the 35yrs hunting there into 45 for your pops.

That's just wrong on sooo many levels.

Interesting. What do you mean by the phrase "take a life for such little meat"? I'm assuming you mean net weight edible venison correct? The last fawn I processed netted 24# +/- of boneless meat. It might not be worth it for you or other's to shoot a fawn for the meat but I look at it this way. End of the day I end up with 24# more than I started with that morning. If three deer walk up to me at the very same moment during the season, all other things being equal, of course I would shoot the largest body size individual deer first. Simple instinct to survive right? But if only one does and its small well I'm still shooting it. I don't enjoy killing but I do enjoy my food security. I feel no difference between taking the lives of 10 squirrels or 50 chickens or one deer for my freezer. Whether they are big, small, run, fly, swim it makes no difference to me. I don't anthropomorphize. Once fawns are weaned they can physically survive on their own. It may be advantageous for them to be able to follow a big doe around for some time (during hunting season) but isn't biologically necessary for their survival. Just putting out a different perspective on it that's all. Momma deer's not going to hate you or cry when you kill her fawn. And the little button buck's not goin to start shooting up smack from the trauma of seeing his mother get hit by a car or you slamming her with a slug. Doesn't work that way lol.

Scent contamination is from two sources. Body odor on your base layers and the introduction of "external" scents onto your outer layers (breakfast at the diner or pumping gas, etc.). Some people go nuts with scent control using ozone bags and other stuff. I just try to start with scent free clothes at the beginning of the year and try to minimize scent contamination as I go. I air dry my clothes outside after the first wash of the year. At this point I like to think they're as scent free as possible. I wouldn't air dry them inside 'cause they'd stink like bacon lol. In a pinch I've also dried clothes in a dryer with an earth scented dryer earth sheet. Some of my outer layers cannot be washed so yes, I hang these outside for a week or two before the season to air out. Like @Arcade Hunter I have two totes, one for scent free base layers and one for scent free outer layers. I keep the sealed tote with my base layers in my bedroom. Included is a set of loose overalls and a sweatshirt. These are my travelling clothes so to speak. Dress in base layers from the tote at home and then put on the overalls and sweatshirt. I travel with tote #2 scent free outer layers in my car. Arrive at hunting site and swap out the now scent "contaminated" outer layer for your scent free outer gear in tote #2 (yeah it can be somewhat nipply when it's 20 degrees out standing in your skivvys changing clothes but you'll survive). Travelling clothes go onto car seat not into any tote. Hunt happy all day. After hunting it depends. If my outer layers are dry I return them to tote #2 for next time, slip on my travelling clothes and leave. If my outer layers are wet I take them home to air dry outside or wash again and then air dry etc. Most of the time I reuse my base layer a time or two but I always swap out first layer socks, t shirts etc because of BO after one hunt. It's not really complicated just a process kinda. Everyone has there own routine. Main thing is start w clean scent free stuff, keep it sealed up if you can, don't cross contaminate and don't air it out or dry it inside your home.

Pre season I wash most my clothes in the washer with maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup baking soda per laod. No detergent. Air dry outside then into a typical rubbermade tough tote. I add some earthiness to the tote with basic stuff like pine needles, leaf litter or whatever in a gallon ziplock bag, opened half way. The scent in the bag kind of infuses the clothes w cover scent. Don't put scent contaminated (hunted in) clothes back in the tote. Worked well for me bowhunting. I d advise against just shaking loose soda powder into the tote or directly on the clothes. The clothes will get wet at some point and then sticky, even if you shake them out before use. Then stuff starts to chafe lol. Ask me how I know. The deodorizing box of Arm and Hammer soda could be used in place of any cover scent in the tote to keep it scent free I guess. Good luck!

Rory. Just don't do it . . . " Call it what you want . . . "

1991 Glam rock. Who doesn't like a smoking midget and a horn trio? "You better change your att tit tude"

We don't care for the sirloin tip as roast or steaks. Corned venison is the way to go for that piece as @Pygmyis spot on per usual. Brined, rubbed and smoked it makes pastrami that is out of this world. Best gift to an "I don't like venison" person after deer jerky.

Some folks here were adamant about not doing gutless because "You can't get the heart!, Oh my!" Bull. I wasn't concerned. #1, because like you, quite often when I gun shoot a deer the heart's not salvageable. Not bragging just saying. And #2, it takes about 30 seconds with a small folding saw to cut 3 ribs, open up the chest cavity and go fishing in the soup for the heart. It's the last thing I do now. I'll chuckle with every bite of this lol.

Pickled venison heart with onions.

Nice job. Classy and elegant.

Nature's Expressions, Sherburne. Chucky Houck. Great guy. Shot my first bow deer 30 years ago on Shawler Brook road in Sherburne and he and another guy helped me find it. Tanned some deer hides for me. Can't vouch for his work but he's a stand up guy.

Very nice. Keep them coming.

Kids, they have no filter. I wanted to hunt some new places this year and one of the places I had on my list was my cousin’s farm in 7M. She and her husband had purchased the old family homestead awhile back. I grew up hunting it when I was young so I wanted to get back there and hunt. They are devote Christian homesteaders who home school their seven children. Their farm is a menagerie of cows, goats, chickens, ducks, pigs, cats and dogs. All of the children understand where their food comes from because they tend to it daily. The two boys, “O” (12yo) and “R” (9yo) are very interested in hunting but their father’s time is limited working six days a week and he’s self-professed “not really a hunter.” Well don’t you worry boys, Uncle E’s gonna show you this fall how we gather up and cook some wild game! I started showing up at their place this summer and put up a pop up blind in a nice spot not far from the house. The place was thick with sign and I knew chances were good something would walk past the blind at some point. My plan was to get father and his sons in the blind for opening day so they could get some quality time together watching the sun come up, eating snacks and goofing around. Killing a deer was secondary really. Fast forward to Saturday morning, opening day. I was pumped! I get dad and the boys in the blind at first light, all set up ready to go. I left them and settled in not far away on a hedge row in the same field. Well I don’t have to tell you that we hunted most of the day Saturday and saw nothing! Not a tail, an ear or let alone a deer. Drats! We all talked on the walk back to the house that night that we all had a good time even though we didn’t shoot anything. Before I left I made sure it was ok with the father that I could come back the next day and hunt in the morning. I knew the family would be busy with church and didn’t expect them to hunt with me, just wanted to get his thoughts about hunting on Sundays. He told me I was welcome anytime. I told him I’d see him in the morning when I would need to grab the boys quick to have them help me track my deer. His eye roll spoke volumes lol. Sunday, 11.22.20. 7AM. I’m in the blind less than 20 min and out pops a doe, broadside at 50yds. After the shot she face plants and plows back into the brush where she came from. I was very confident she would not and could not have gone far. If you’ve read this far you know the feeling. We’re on the board now baby! Ain’t nobody goin’ hungry because we just put some jerky DOWN! Somewhat high on adreneline I text my cousin at 7:10AM. No response. 7:20AM I find myself knocking on her back door. I think it was about 7:22AM when the first of the family was up, and then very quickly EVERYONE was awake, including a not so happy father. Apparently not everyone gets as exited about killing deer as we do, especially very early Sunday mornings before church! Now the humor begins. I grab the boys and off we go in our orange vests, down the tractor path to where I thought we’d find the deer. I’ve got my rifle because you just never know. First thing young R decides he gonna take a header in the creek as we cross it looking for the trail. Soaked him head to toe lol but onward we go! I’m trying to coach them some telling them to go slow and look for blood, a white belly or a white tail. About 15 yards in I see the deer laying stone dead right off the tractor path. I asked the boys to stop and look real hard. “See anything?” I ask. “Nope” they say and off we go walking right past the dead deer! We get 20 yards further down the path and I tell them I KNOW she’s back there, we just need to look harder. Turn around, walk back and O see’s her and lets out a whoop. I don’t believe either one of them had seen a deer that close before. R walks up to the deer and says “Hmmm, it doesn’t look that big. Not much bigger than a goat really”. First time on a deer track courtesy of Uncle E and now he’s a hunting critic! I tried to tell him it was an adult deer but he wasn’t buying it. O asks “Where’s it’s horns?” “Antler’s you mean? This is a doe, a mother deer, not a buck or father deer.” I say. “Oh” he says, “I can see she’s got teats but that’s a small udder. She probably wouldn’t give much milk.” R starts in on me again about how small it is and how much meat is on it ‘cause they have “three freezers and one’s empty. Looks like all that would fit on one shelf in there” he says. At this point I’m starting to feel deficient lol. A quick picture and back to the house we went. Dropped off the two new hunters in time for breakfast and church. I was laughing to myself on my walk back to the woods to take care of the doe. Young kids are sooooo funny because they have no filter. They just tell it like it is. My last words to them was I’ll be back soon to kill a buck. And we’ll keep on putting them in the freezer until it’s full. All smiles when I left.

At this point it'd suck. And rain would too. It's all kind of a frame of mind thing for me though. If I think I'm prepared for it, with a headlamp, some small leds on those adjustable legs etc., I'd get it done. Wouldn't be enjoyable but I'd get it home. I'm stubborn like I guess.

I will do it again. In all honesty 2.5h from time I started to in the bags and strapped on the pack. Couple of breaks included lol. Ideal conditions really today but i think with practice I can cut that time down quite a bit and get a cleaner product in the bags. I figure at this point my skinning and more than half the butchering is done so I'm pleased.

Update. Rifle doe this morning in 7M. Gutless method and than a pack out to the road. #1 lesson learned: Just 'cause you can load the pack heavy doesn't mean you're man enough to haul it out haha. Got all the meat I intended. Need to refine my process but a success for today. Shout out to @Dinsdale for the support and advice. Sorry @wolc123, I got the heart but left the liver. And my bud @chrisw. I didn't kill her from a saddle and you were correct, it wasn't as clean as you're garage but still a nice change of pace. Appreciate everyone's input and thanks again.

"Hideaway" A blues standard. The crowd is raucous and JH sends them home the only way JH knows, mind blown and wanting more.

Stevens 200 in 308 Win with a Nikon Prostaff 3x9. Ugly and utilitarian but I throw it up to my shoulder and stuff dies. Love it.