wolc123

Happy 32 Bionic. I like red cabbage on fish tacos but lettuce is great on venison ones.

I usually tie the carcass tags to the freezer door handle and leave them there until the last package is gone. The packages in the freezer are marked: "ven, YR, #". If and when a DEC officer comes over to check out our freezer, it would be simple to "connect the dots". The buck carcass tags eventually get stapled to the back of wall mounts or stuck inside the skull of euros. Most often when I give it away, it is a properly tagged whole deer, but it looks like I will have to make sure that I include a little more info on the individual packages that I sometimes distribute. Thanks for the tip.

It may have been many years ago, but I see nothing in the current regs about that. I usually mark the year on the packs and a number to indicate what order the deer were killed in on that season. I try to use that which has been in the freezer the longest first, the exceptions being the grind from the first one each season. That is not vacuum sealed, so it gets used prior to any left-over vacuum sealed stuff from the prior season(s). That is the point we are at right now, having just consumed our last pack of non-vacuum sealed stuff from last fall. Like I mentioned earlier, if you are going to eat it within 6 months, you are wasting your time with vacuum sealing venison. Not so on fish though, as that looses its fresh taste a lot faster, if it is not vacuum sealed.

Light it up for extra propulsion.

Those vacuum sealers are nice. My first one finally crapped out after about 12 years. I thought it went bad (4) years ago, but before tossing it, I took the pump apart and found a little speck of grit on the inside. I cleaned it off, reassembled and it started working again like new for a few more years. I picked up another cheaper model for backup, just in case. I also started using it year-round for fish at that time. Last fall, it finally gave out, so I had to use the backup to finish up the last deer. I tried taking the pump apart and cleaning it again with no success. While good for venison, it is even better for fish. I always used to put fish in zip-loc bags and fill them with water prior to freezing. It tasted ok that way but not as fresh as fresh caught and it was a pain thawing it out to cook, waiting for all the ice to melt. Now I dry the fresh fillets with paper towels, then seal them in vacuum bags and freeze. Up to a year and a half later, they still taste like they were just caught, and they are a snap to thaw out and cook.

I have a good misfire story: A couple of my buddies (brothers) and I were grouse hunting one time and the younger brother shot at one, down in a creek-bottom. He claimed to see it hit the ground, but was not able to find it. We walked a long way down that creek bottom, then turned around and walked back towards the truck, after switching sides. When I got back to the spot where he had shot, I noticed the dead grouse laying below a bush. I aimed my shotgun is a safe direction and fired a shot. It sounded like only the primer and a little powder went off, and the load just made it out of the barrel. The noise was not enough for the brothers to hear over on the other side of the creek. I fired off the other barrel of my side-by-side 16 ga, which went off fine. I yelled across to the brothers: This is how you do it, you see it hit the ground and then you walk over to that spot and pick it up. He had shot a jack-rabbit on that hunt, which tasted pretty bad. I did share some of that delicious grouse with him. When we finished eating, I told him the whole truth. I would have told him prior, but I was not sure if he would have shared. I have also had a couple of misfires with factory loads while shooting trap. I always carried a few extra shells in my jacket for when that occurred.

Some years we do better than others, so I always try to keep some in reserve. That is the best thing about the vacuum sealer. I don't ever remember running out of roasts, but we have ran out of grind a few times. The last time was on October 7th, 2016. Fortunately, I killed a doe a week later, up in the NZ with my ML, and the kids only had to go a couple weeks without tacos. It was extremely warm on that hunt, so I dropped it off at the processors where they had a cooler. I asked them to grind the whole thing, except the backstraps and tenderloins. That turned out to be a record year for us, ending with 5-1/2 deer in the freezer. Last year was not as productive, with just two. For some reason, I always seem to do better every other year. Maybe this year will be real good. I also like to go into hunting season with a near-empty freezer, so if I do have grind left, I give it to my brother in law. He raises beef cattle and makes excellent jerky using a 50/50 mix of ground venison and beef. That combination makes much better jerky than 100 % one or the other. The straight beef is too oily and the straight venison is too dry. p.s., I also like to keep some button buck around for special occasions and they only seem to come around every other year.

I know they get real big ones thru the ice down there.

I always freeze the grind from the first one each fall in zip-lock bags. That is faster and cheaper than vacuum bags. As long as it is eaten within 6 months, it don't make much difference in terms of fresh taste and freezer burn. I vacuum seal all the rest and they have tasted fresh up to 3 years later. We just finished the last zip-locked bag from last fall, so our next tacos will be from an Adirondack buck that has been vacuum sealed for about a year and a half. After that, it will be a southern zone doe from last gun season. It is looking like we will have just about enough to make it until the fresh stuff starts coming in this fall. The girls really love tacos and I love spaghetti with meat sauce, lasagna, stuffed cabbage and peppers, so we usually always run out of grind first. All of that stuff is way better for you, and tastes just as good with ground venison as it does with ground beef. I usually grind about half of every deer, with the rest usually making 6 roasts, the backstraps, and tenderloins. I started getting two extra "hidden tenderloins" from each one last year, thanks to that Grant Woods video that someone posted on here.

There is some dandy smallmouths in Cuba lake. I had a big one pull me around in my canoe a little bit about 6 years ago. Try a weedless bass jig with a plastic craw trailer in the middle of some of those big weedbeds.

When I kill one, the first thing I do is look at the long range weather forecast. If the conditions are favorable for skin-on aging in our insulated garage, that is what I do. The predicted daily high temperatures over the next week (or more) have to be below 50 degrees for me to do that. Leaving the hide on keeps the carcass from drying out and insulates it from temperature extremes. I cover the windows of the garage to keep out the sunlight, and open them at night (when the temperature usually dips into the lower thirties) to let in the colder air. When the predicted temperatures are warmer, they get skinned right away, carcasses cut in half, and placed in a big old fridge, that is only used for that purpose. The racks and shelves are removed. The rear half of the carcass hangs from hooks on the tendons, and the front half rests on the neck on the bottom. The fridge keeps it at 35 degrees, and leaving the door closed keeps the carcass from drying out, even though the skin is off. It is definitely tougher to skin a cold deer, so I usually skin the cold carcasses on one weekday evening and process them on the next, to split up the workload a little. They don't dry out too much after one day. Any daylight time that I have free during hunting season is usually spent hunting. Aging time varies by the age of the deer. 6 month don't need any, 1-1/2 year olds about a week, 2-1/2 year old 10 days, and older about 2 weeks (not that I have to worry about too many of those). Any red meat goes thru rigor mortis and if you do not let it break down prior to freezing you are not getting it as tender as it could be. Even the grind is chewier without aging. The flavor will probably not change much. If you don't believe this by all means don't take my word for it. There is tons of info on it out there on the internet. The real test is if your wife or girlfriend likes your venison. The odds of them liking it would be much better if it was properly aged. It sure is nice when they like it and push you to spend more time hunting.

I agree with you on that part. Many on this site have no clue how much better venison can be if it is properly aged. Processing before rigor mortis has broken down is about tied with over-cooking for the main reason why folks don't like venison. Everybody has different tastes. it sounds like we need a poll to find out who likes venison better than beef. So far it looks like about a 50:50 split. There does seem to be a correlation between the "antlers first" guys and favoring beef.

Our girls love them. So much that my youngest named this year's crossbow buck "Taco".

You are right, we should probably try and keep it a secret. Remember how fast those venison sandwiches sold out when Arby's offered them ?

How do you know that "He" is not a "She" ?

A fine, corn-fed button buck would make you change your tune. I wonder why you get so upset about folks killing them, but don't mind killing does after the rut, which might be carrying two. At least the meat/antler poll shows that you are clearly out of touch with the vast majority here.

It looks like a big red-fin shiner to me. Great musky or pike bait.

It happened to me about 25 years ago, back before in-lines and scopes were legal. It was near dusk on the last day and a fat grey squirrel showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time. I aimed for his head and pulled the trigger of my old 50 caliber side-lock, The cap went off and there was about a 2 second delay. I continued to hold in place until the charge went off, neatly decapitating him. I never did get a deer with that gun. The following season, again on the last day, a heavy buck walked directly under my stand. He had already dropped one antler and had 4 points on his remaining side. I squeezed the trigger as he was quartering away, and this time only the cap went off. He looked up at the "crack" and just kept on walking. By the time I got another cap on, he was out of range. It took two more to get the charge to ignite. I later seemed to correct the problems with that gun by priming the channel behind the nipple with a little powder. I never fired it at another deer though. The inline that I use now has corrected the issue, and killed the deer every time I pulled the trigger. My own piss-poor tracking prevented the recovery of one of those however. I learned my most important lesson the hard way on that one: Assume that every shot is a hit until PROVEN otherwise. That was the last deer that I shot at and lost with any weapon. Some say that my luck will run out some day. I won't believe that until I see it, because I know that luck has nothing to do with it.

I love it and so does my wife and our two girls. At this point, it takes about 250 pounds a year to satisfy them and they eat more every year. I am very thankful to live in the meat-hunters paradise that NY is these days. It would be a bit easier keeping the family fed if they would open up crossbow in the Southern zone on October 1st. It looks like I will have to wait another year or more for that. As far as the taste of the venison compared to beef, we all like it better. A lot depends on what the deer eats, how it is cooked, how it is aged after it is killed, and how it is killed. If all that stuff is done right, It tastes a lot better than beef. The secrets are : (white oak acorns, clover, or corn), (medium rare or rare), ( about a week on average at 33 - 43 degrees F), and very quickly. If you screw any of that up, then I can understand why you would prefer beef.

Mine also. I have no use for chicken or turkey, which taste kind of like cardboard, almost completely flavorless. Grouse, on the other hand, has a rich somewhat nutty flavor that is way better than any other white meat I have sampled.

I have seen similar stuff in my home zone (9F). Killing mature does during hunting season is especially tough here because they get hammered pretty good earlier, by farmers with crop damage permits. Those are only good for antlerless deer. By October 1, the ratio of antlered to antlerless (which includes button bucks) is usually around 1:1. The does are very skittish, because they start getting hammered around June 1st. The easiest deer to kill here during hunting season, by far, are 1-1/2 year old bucks. Judging by my own kill numbers in this zone over 36 years, I would say that harvesting 2-1/2 year or older bucks or does is about equal in difficulty. The year that I switched from a smooth bore to a rifled shotgun, doubling my effective range, was the only year that I was able to take more than one mature doe from our farm. The old girls wised up quick to that though, and I have not done it since. It is a lot different up in the northern zone however. Up there I see about 6 antlerless deer for every one with antlers, which makes it much easier to kill does. My trouble up there is that there are no DMP tags, so I can only take a doe during the ML week (or the 3 days prior with a crossbow).

It looks like two more jumped in who say that meat is more important to them. That cancels out Buckmaster finally deciding on antlers, so we are still 2:1 in favor of those who say the meat is more important. I really do appreciate the "antler" folks, because without them and the deer they pass, it would be a little tougher for those of us who try and live a subsistance lifestyle, off the fat of the land. I really hate getting meat at the supermarket, or worse yet from raising domestic livestock. I do like a little lamb once in a while though. Is that what you were talking about Treeguy ?

Will do. If we get a few more pages, I will tally up the votes again. There was a couple years when antlers were more important to me. That was back before I learned how to cook venison (my mom always overcooks beef so she really destroys venison). My wife refuses to purchase beef now, because she has been "spoiled" by the venison. She says that watching the fat come out of ground beef in the frying pan grosses her out.

I am sorry about that Steve, this was my first attempt at a poll. I intended to put up the boxes where folks could have checked which of the two (meat or antlers) was the more important to them. It is interesting how this has worked out though, with 16 of the respondents either unable to decide or unwilling to state which one is more important to them in public. Of the 18 (slightly more than half) who were able to make up their minds, 12 picked meat and 6 picked antlers, So twice as many say meat is more important to them. It looks like I did overestimated the percentage of those with whom meat is more important than antlers, however I was a lot closer than FSW who claimed 95 % cared more about antlers than meat. I did not count on so many not being able to make up their minds. This was not a "Why do we hunt" question, it was simply: What is more important to you as a deer hunter: Meat, or Antlers. "Why do we hunt" has been asked many times and is the subject for another thread. I do not care why others hunt and I actually love the trophy hunters, including FSW. The "substanderd" bucks that they pass might just end up being what keeps my own family from having to eat more chicken on some years.