wolc123

It was a good year up in the big woods. I am already looking forward to next year. I did not cover that many miles, and killed both my deer close to camp, but next year I am hoping to venture out a bit farther. My rifle (Ruger M77 30/06) is a bit long and heavy for that though. Now I miss my old Marlin 336 30/30, but I never had a good place to use it while I had it. Those new compact versions of the Ruger American in .243 look like they would be perfect for still-hunting up there, and that is likely the way I will go.

Welcome back Belo, it is good to hear from you again. I don't believe in "a" higher power, but I do believe in "The" higher power, Jesus Christ. He is all I need, to know for certain that it WILL all work out. The time we have here is fleeting, but eternity with Him is forever. You are very right about the "guide" part though. He has "guided" every deer I have shot at (and even many that I did not) over the last 10 or so years, into "deer heaven" - our food supply. All I had to "do" was pull the trigger. He also "guides" me to hone my marksmanship skills, and to hunt where the deer are. He even went so far in the subject deer on this thread, to align it perfectly with my rifle barrel. That resulted in minimal meat was damage, and gutting was as clean as a whistle. If these were just isolated incidents, or if I failed to capitalize on even one deer that I shot at over the last 10 years, the "coincedence", or "dumb luck" arguments might hold some water. I find it odd that some of these folks who are accusing me of taking "unethical" shots have posted this year or last about "clean misses" they have made, or deer they have struck, but were not able to recover. Once again, every deer I have shot at over the last 10 years was recovered and eaten by my family or friends. Now tell me who is "ethical". The best thing about faith in Jesus Christ is eternity in Heaven, but there are fringe benefits as well. Full freezers, and live-wells are just a few of the lesser ones. You can't force that faith, but you can stack the deck in your favor. Regular Bible reading is a good place to start, as is hitting a weekly Church service and giving to and praying for those in need.

I have one DMP left for home (9F), and another for my in-laws (9A). Both of these zones are overpopulated, so I will try a little more to fill at least the one at home. Hunting the flat-lands around here just don't do too much for me now, with no more buck-tag, a full freezer, and after getting a good taste of Adirondack hunting this year. I will donate the deer if I do get it next Saturday, my last day of shotgun hunting. That might feed some hungry folks, save some ag crops, and landscaping, and maybe even prevent a automobile accident. Some good friends invited me to their camp in the Southern Tier for the following late ML long weekend. I have no deer tags left for that, but I am going anyway. I am not bringing my ML, because it is a pain to clean and I already got a doe with it in the early season up in the Adirondacks. I am bringing only my crossbow and my largest hunting knife. Squirrels will be my primary objective. I am 2 for 2 on deer with my crossbow, so I am up for the challenge of the much smaller kill-zone. My secondary objective will be a bear. Hopefully, I won't need that big knife. One of the guys took a beauty from that camp a couple years ago.

That right there is as good of an explanation with the problem of "Trophy Hunting" that I have seen. This site sure seems to be a "target rich environment" when it comes to trophy hunters. Hopefully a few of them will read this and wise up a bit. Meat is where it's at, that is why God gave us such fine-eating creatures.

Sorry about the lost meat. I usually hang the hind quarters in the fridge from hooks up top and rest the front on the neck ( a little lost neck meat is no big deal) on the bottom of the fridge. One week like that is usually good.

I don't know about the steak, but I did just happen to have two meals of corn-fed button buck liver this fall, and one of black Angus liver. The BB definitely had a slight edge in flavor. The Angus was damn good however and I am looking forward to the other two packs in the freezer this winter. When it comes to the steaks, the corn-fed deer are definitely on par with the Herford's we used to raise. Angus steaks are very good though, especially the fatty ones. I just don't know how many of those my old heart could take.

This slob will be eating very well this winter thankyou. That buck was the cleanest to butcher of (4) I did this year including two archery kills and another "thru the ribs" gun-kill. Tag-soup just does not do it for me. The Good Lord was exceptionally good to me this year, who am I to pass on His gifts?

I would not put soybeans in in the spring again. I did that last season and it was a coyote magnet. I would prefer the does be someplace else during fawning season. Soybeans are a great "sweetener" to add to late summer wheat/clover mix plantings however. September is the perfect time to draw doe's with fawns onto your land, after the fawns are big enough to evade the coyotes. My suggestion would be to stick to corn as a spring planting, or skip it entirely and concentrate on late summer plantings. I will be squirrel hunting post season. I will pack the crossbow until the ML big-game season ends, just in case a bear shows up (I would settle for one of those, having no more deer tags for where I am headed to). I don't expect a bear (probably hibrinated), but killing deer with a crossbow is like taking candy from a baby compared to squirrels and I am up for the challenge (for one long weekend anyhow). After ML ends, I will tote my Ruger 10-22 for the tree rats, until the end of February. Then it will be ice fishing and jig-tying time. A little bit of squirrel, bear, or fish would be nice to go along with the (5) fresh deer in the freezer this year. I would like to provide for my wife to mix things up a bit, so the kid's don't get too sick of that. I won't worry about deer again until spring plowing time, to get ready for some larger corn plots. I am all in there next season, since that kept my boneless venison cost below $1.00 per pound this year after subtracting all input costs.

I could eat rare venison every day. Some day's, when I am butchering, I am tempted to try it raw, right off the knife. I have often eaten raw walleye cheeks off my fillet knife and washed them down with a big swig off Genny cream ale. That has never made me sick. Maybe that would work on raw venison. Our youngest daughter likes it rare also, but our older one and her mother like it a little more cooked. On the grill, I usually just cook it all rare and let them put it in the microwave if they want it more done, or stick to the thinner parts on the edges.

I always de-bone them. The only thing I use the meat-saw for is cutting thru the bone to remove the head, lower legs, and rear section from the front. I throw all the bones, trimmings and hide (other than tails which I keep for making fishing lures) onto a pile, about 100 yards, straight behind my bedroom window. I have shot coyotes at night out of that window several times.

I also butcher most of the deer I kill, in addition to the occasional road-kill, nuisance permit deer, or "gifts" from friends. On very rare occasion (such as my ML doe this year up in the NW Adirondacks when it got up to 80 degrees later that day), I will take them to a local processor. I have got to say that Nolt's, down in Lowville did a heck of a job on that 1-1/2 year old doe. It looks like they trimmed away most of the fat, tendons, and silver skin. The best thing was the price, just $47 skinned, cut up, and freezer wrapped. If I could get that kind of price and service in WNY, I would not cut up so many of my own. I have processed (4) this year so far and have had about enough of it. I gave my last doe to my brother in law, but I just finished cutting up my Adirondack buck last night (after one week of aging in my deer fridge). Processing them yourself is not too bad, as long as you have the right equipment. A sharp knife, firm table, grinder, old refrigerator, and vacuum sealer help out a lot. I go to extremes to maximize the quality of my venison, from putting in foodplots (mostly corn and clover), to killing and gutting them as quickly as possible. For that reason, I like to know I am getting my own back. I like it best when the outside temp is between 30 and 50 degrees over a week. That happened twice for me this season, and I was able to hang them in my insulated garage, skin-on, for a week. Usually, I skin them the day prior to processing. That breaks up the work-load a bit, and leaving the skin on, as long as I can, helps insulate against temp swings and keeps the meat from drying out too much. On average, It takes me about an hour to skin and 3 hours to process , including set-up and clean-up time. Fat does or badly shot-up deer take longer, with more trimming time needed. I am fussy about trimming out as much of the fat, silver skin, tendons, and bloodied-up meat as my patience will allow. When temperatures in the extended forecast are predicted to be above 50, for extended periods, I skin the deer right away, and saw the hind quarters off. I hang those from hooks on the top of my deer fridge, and rest the front section on the neck in there. I holds them in there at 35 degrees for the week. The parts do not dry out too bad in there (it is an old, non-frost free GE unit from the 1950's). This adds some time to the process, as that fridge has to be cleaned later to remove all the blood. I find that even the grind is tough to chew if you do not allow the riggermortise to get out of the meat before freezing. Aging solves that issue. Aging time depends mostly on how old the deer was. A couple days is plenty for a 6 month deer, a week is good for a 1-1/2, and 10 days works well for older deer.

This subject has came up in several threads lately. Specifically, folks have said that deer from the central/South-east Adirondacks taste like they must just "eat bark" and are terrible compared to beef. I can't relate to that at all and do not recall ever having bad tasting venison. I think there is much more to it than just "what they eat", but that may be the primary factor in how they taste. How the deer was killed (the quicker the better) probably affects flavor. Getting the guts out fast has got to help. Those folks who "back out and wait until the next morning" are almost certainly going to pay the price on the table (if the coyotes don't get it first), especially on the choisest cuts (tenderloins). Proper aging makes the meat tender and I think lots of folks end up processing their deer too fast, near when riggermortice is at it's peak ( 6 - 24 hours after kill), but probably has little if any effect on taste. As far as the "what they eat" effecting taste, I don't have the data to support that, since virtually all deer I have eaten over the last 25 years or so have been on a corn/clover or white oak acorn diet when killed. My first deer was a bark-eating button buck down in Allegheny state park 35 years ago but I don't recall the taste of that one. I do remember how good the first venison I ever had was, a few years prior to that, when my dad killed a nice buck at the edge of a corn field at home. No one in our family could tell that it was not beef, which have been raised on our farm going back to the Civil war days. We got rid of the last of the cattle after my grandad passed in the early eighties and I certainly don't miss it, because the venison tastes just as good and is a lot better for you (grandpa died of a heart attack). I was a little surprised to find a belly full of corn in the buck I killed up on the NW edge of the Adirondack park this year. That may explain the excellent flavor of the tenderloins that we had for dinner this week. The last buck I killed up there 2 seasons ago had a belly full of white oak acorns, was at least a year older, and tasted just as good. My father in law said there was a big field of unharvested corn a short distance down the road from his camp up there this year. I know a lot of hunters who say they like their venison, but the real test is what do the non-hunting wives, kids, friends, neighbors, or strangers think about it? None of those groups has realized they were not eating beef when the local corn-fed, aged venison was offered at our house.

I am a pure meat hunter but I do prefer killing bucks over does for three reasons: They are easier for me to butcher because there is less fat to trim away, the antlers make nice grab handles to drag to the tractor, and they provide nice reminders of successful hunts in past years. I would oppose any further restrictions on buck harvest, be it AR's, one buck only, or no bucks for one or more years. I don't consider any hunting season completely successful unless both of my buck tags are punched. It does not matter to me, if they are filled with spikes or 10 pointers. I am thankful that neither of my bucks this season was worthy of a shoulder mount. They both had significantly larger bodies than smaller bucks I passed earlier and, along with 2 does and a BB, will provide our family and friends with plenty of food. Now I can put the $500 that a mount would cost into a new rifle for my oldest daughter for Christmas. So the bottom line is that I would still hunt if only does were allowed, but I would be pissed off about the restriction. The only folks who it would benefit is the "trophy hunters". The non-hunting folks are far more supportive of meat hunters than trophy hunters, so I don't suppose we will ever have to worry about such a silly rule.

If you are in a zone where they give out 4 DMP's, then you should take out every antlerless deer you can when the opportunities arise. If you can not use the meat, donate it to help feed the homeless. Most of the big processors will accept such donations. Those hunters who save their DMP's, in such zones, are not doing anyone else much good. When you punch your DMP's in those zones, you are benefiting the local deer herd, feeding people some excellent food, preventing car-deer collisions, reducing crop and landscaping damage, and saving the next generation of forest.

I slept in a little this morning and did not get out until just after sunrise. When I walked past the first hedge row out back, an antlerless deer (probably one of the BB's I have been after since the start of Cross-bow) bolted across a clover plot into some thick brush. He got lucky this time. His cousin not so much on opening day a couple weeks ago. I thawed out the other half of his liver and I am getting ready now to fry it up for lunch. Corn-fed BB liver is about as good as food gets. If I had been up in the stand a half hour prior to sunrise, it would have been a nice "chip-shot" at sun-up for my last DMP at home.

It has been more than 10 years since I used more than three on a hunt, and most of the multiples over that time have killed two deer. I am carrying 9 this weekend, not my usual 10, because I only have 1 DMP left for home, and I don't want to open another box. I used 2 for my opening day doe, spine on the first shot, and a head shot to finish her. I did throw an old, leftover, off-brand sabot into my pack so I don't have to waste one of them $3 ones if another "finisher" is needed.

1 acre might be too small for spring-planted corn or soybeans. I would clear the acre in the spring and summer and get it ready to plant in late summer. Get the soil tested and add lime if needed. Get the ground worked up and plant a mix of winter wheat, soybeans, and white clover. The emerging soybeans, in the early fall will be like candy, drawing deer to the plot as soon as they sprout. The attraction of soybeans is the greatest while they are just sprouted. It is dumb to plant soybeans during spring fawning season because the fawns will attract coyotes (I learned that lesson the hard way last year). The winter wheat in that mix will hold the deer there thru gun season. The wheat should be mowed the following spring, before it goes to seed. The clover will last several years, with just a clipping or two per season. The clover will also add nitrogen to the soil, and after a few years, grass will start to invade, fed by that nitrogen. When the grass begins to take over, it is time to work the ground up and convert the plot to a high nitrogen user like brassicas or corn. A small plot of corn can be optimized for deer if you take out the 2 major competitors. Weeds and raccoons are you biggest issues. RR corn makes taking out the weeds cheap and easy. Racoons are about the easiest furbearer to trap. If you wipe out the weeds and coons, 1 acre of corn can support a lot of deer. Deer are very efficient users of corn. They eat every kernel off the cob right on the stalk. Coons knock the stalks down, just eating a bit of the tender stuff from the ends of the cob, before knocking over the next stalk. Turkeys will clean up what remains on the ground. No foodplot comes close to the effectiveness of corn, during hunting season, because it provides exactly what they need at that time - COVER to hide in and CARBS to build fat to make it thru winter. At this point of this season, we have taken 7 coons and 4 deer off 4 acres of corn on our farm. There is not much left now, but I am hoping to fill my last remaining DMP, in this zone, before the last kernel is eaten. There are several effective ways to hunt a corn plot. On windy days during archery season, walking into the wind. perpendicular to the rows can be effective. I bolted my crossbow buck this year, just as he stepped out of the corn, less than 20 yards from my stand. The other three this year (2 big does and a BB) were killed as they traveled from the corn to their bedding areas. Good luck with your foodplot. If nothing else, it will give you something productive to do in the off-season. I gauge the success of my plots by calculating the cost of boneless venison after subtracting all input costs (fuel, fertilizer, etc.). This has been a very good year as it is coming in at well under $1.00/lb.

I always try to do a careful job gutting, trying to avoid getting any stomach/intestine contents, piss, crap, etc on the meat. After everything else behind the diaphram is out, I cut thru the pelvis with a folding saw and make sure that passage is very clean (even when the "Butt-out" is used first). With the deer still on it's back, I then cut out the diaphram and remove the lungs and heart. There is usually plenty of blood left up there, and that is all I use to "rinse" the inside of the deer. I get the front up a little higher and wash the back out with that blood as it flows down-hill. The tenderloins have always tasted excellent using this method. That blood from up front washes out any of the nasty stuff that may have escaped in back. Also, the "fresh-blood" rinse is always faster and easier than a water rinse.

I prayed for Trump, and was not surprised when it got answered.

I just finished cleaning my rifle, lubing it, and putting it back into long-term storage. It got the job done almost perfectly on my buck this year and I have no further use for it this season. I got to thinking how quick and easy that is to clean compared to my ML. At that point, I made the decision to carry my crossbow during the late ML season (if I have a DMP left, or for bear if not)., Not only is cleanup a non-issue with that, but meat damage is less and silence is nice. I will stick with just the shotgun at home for the last two weekends of regular season however (cleanup is easy on that also).

Believe me TF, it was all I could do to not mention my "secret weapon", but since you brought Him up on this thread: I killed my first and largest buck this season with what else but a Cross-bow, on the only day I took my Bible up in the stand this season. It was also on a Sunday afternoon, when I skipped the morning hunt to take my family to Church. Three big coincedences there I suppose, right Chef?. Even though the range was short, it was also not a super-easy, angle (quartering to). Somehow that bolt struck right where it needed to and put that buck down within sight. How much "dumb luck" can one guy have? I can't help but notice that the better I keep things with my buddy JC, the luckier I get. One thing is for sure, after every clean kill (and they have all been clean for quite a few years now), the first thing I do is give Him thanks for the blessing. As good as He is to me with deer, He is even better with fish. So my bottom line here is not what makes or breaks a hunter, but what makes or breaks a man (or woman). The answer to that question is Faith in Jesus Christ.

Makes: 1) Killer Instinct 2) Adaptability 3) Recourcefullness 4) Wisdom 5) Determination 6) Physical strength and endurance Breaks: 1) Aversion to taking a life 2) Rigidity 3) Wastefullness 4) Lack of knowledge 5) Lack of focus 6) Physical weakness

Reeltime, I know what you are saying. While I was 99.5% certain that buck would be killed right where he stood, I was fully expecting a messy gut job and a significant amount of damaged meat. It sounds like a few of the others on this thread, who have taken similar shots, have experienced that. The only physical explanation for it would be that the bullet did not encounter any significant resistance until it had traveled most of the way thru the buck. That would require near-perfect shot-placement on the center of the bung-hole, coupled with near-perfect alignment of the buck's body. I simply am not that good on my own, therefore I give 99.5% of the credit to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I don't care if anyone has a problem with that. I will pray for them anyhow.

Grow, you stepped over the line when you falsely accused me of making an "UNSAFE" shot. The words "sky-lined" were the specific words you "assumed" and used. I understand you are having a rough season, but that is not a good reason to go into attack mode on those of us who are not. I don't mind your attacks on me (my skin is thick), but please think twice before going after others. Chef, I give you some credit for making me stick with the "Butt-out 2" after a couple earlier failures. It worked perfectly on this buck. I will say a prayer for both of you to hopefully avoid some "tag-soup" in the remaining weeks. The "texas- buck" is now aging comfortably at 35 degrees in the old "deer-fridge" out in my garage. Buckmaster, thank you for your support. Thanks also for your service.

Yup