wolc123

I will admit that these BB tenderloins tasted as good as any of the bb ones that I remember. Maybe you are onto something and there is more to them big antlers than meets the eye, but it also might have something to do with the high corn diet. It’s nice to have a few old pros like you around, to civilly talk the finer points of deer hunting with, while I am off work on a paid holiday, and can’t legally hunt deer.

After I retire, maybe I will try for 11 NY openers, and add in the early SZ and NZ archery, early NZ crossbow, and late NZ ML. Right now, I am leaning towards retiring up past your neck of the woods, in about 10 years. I will try and maintain my 2 wny spots as long as I can, just so that I can hit those SZ openers and come back for those fine wny corn-fed bb’s and BB’s, from time to time. I will have to have you over for a bb roast, if you are still around and able to make it a little past Harrisville at that time. Best of luck on your Holiday hunt for your sw target if you head back out this way yet this winter, and Merry Christmas to you and your family.

The math and water percentages might also depend on wether or not the heart and lungs are removed before the deer goes up on the scale.

There are many reasons why I don’t like scales: 1.) Waste of time and effort, after a chest girth chart becomes available and is calibrated, with a local conversion factor: - to calibrate your chart, weigh your deer then measure it’s chest girth. Divide the weight you measure with the scale by the weight indicated by the chart. Use the resulting “scale factor” as a multiplier to determine the weight of the deer the next time that you need to. Based on measurements taken by myself and 4 or 5 other members of this site, back in fall of 2018, the PA chest girth chart is rather conservative for estimating the field-dressed weight of a wny deer. There could be various reasons for that. Maybe, the farther north you go, the heavier the deer are. Also, while my deer was weighed on a “certified for trade” butcher’s beam-balance scale, I can’t speak for the other members, who likely used those cheap foreign-made spring models like you most likely use, and that several have offered me for free several times in the past. 2.) The field dressed weight of a deer is not that important to me, since roughly 75 % of that weight is made up of water, which has no nutritional value. I am more interested in volume of edible meat, and the chest girth method provides for a more direct estimate of that. Volume is more important to me because I know how many quart-sized packs of boneless meat that I require. A “quart” is a unit of volume, not of weight. Because of that high water content, the field-dressed weight is highly dependent on how fast the deer is weighed after it is killed. The chest girth does not vary so much with time, and hanging conditions. I weighed my “chart calibration buck”, after it hung outside in the breeze for 9 hours at 34 - 43 degrees F. The calibrated-corrected numbers on this years “photogenic” buck, for edible meat, looked pretty close at about 90 pounds, when I finished processing. He was quite lean with very little edible lost to trimming fat. Also, the center rib cage broadside shot with a slow moving foster 16 turned very little edible meat into grape jello.

Nice spot. They have a great stadium at the high school where our town’s field hockey team is currently undefeated:

Of all the changes that NY DEC made this year (3 of which have already put deer in our freezer), this one is my favorite. Never has it been better for a meat hunter in this state. I have a plan in place for opening day on Sunday. This is the first year that I will be able to hunt 7 “opening days” in NY (early antlerless gun, NZ early ML, NZ gun, SZ early crossbow, SZ gun, SZ ML, SZ Holliday ML). That’s like getting to be like a kid again at Christmas 7 times in one year. I am going to start the morning in my new “trailer park” stand with my crossbow for 3 reasons: First, that has been my favorite deer weapon since it was legalized in 2014. Second, I don’t have a deer yet In the crossbow harvest thread this year. Third, I have only met the owner of one of the dozen or so “double wides” that are between 300 and 500 feet of that stand so my ML is a “no go”. That is because it is a firearm, which may not be used within 500 feet of a building without permission. The setback for a crossbow is 250 feet. After the morning hunt, I am going to my parents house (just around the corner from the trailer park) for lunch. I will bring my chainsaw, and open up a bunch of trails, that were blocked by the recent 70mph wind storm. Hopefully, my chainsaw will stir up a deer or two over there, and I can get one on the evening sit behind their house with my ML, from my new stand on the edge of a clover plot. I spent $ 20 on materials for that stand this year. It has put about 120 pounds of meat in our freezer so far. It would be nice to get another one or two deer from it, and bring the cost per pound down a little more. I like my meat to come in at under $ 1 per pound, after subtracting all input costs, and I have a legit shot at that this year. Name me another state where a guy can do that. Trailer park stand: Clover plot stand:

I have a legit shot at that this year, with two down now (just one with protruding antlers), and three remaining dmp’s tags in addition to my bow/ml either/or tag. I may have had ten two buck years in the past, and maybe two or three with three (including one button). I fully expect little “forky” here to tempt me one more time, during the Holliday ML season, and it is going to be difficult for me to hold off. He seems to have taken up permanent residence at one of my spots, along with the twin brother of a button buck that I killed there in September. He first showed up on opening day of crossbow season, when I still had high hopes of grandure later, only to have that season truncated by our daughter’s field hockey playoff run. I made no attempt to call him in for a shot that day. The reason that I am in the fence about taking him, is that his rack is tiny but very symmetric. If he survives, he would likely be a beautiful 2.5 next season. My fear is that he might run across a road, or chase a doe across, and get somebody hurt or at the very least do some serious damage to a vehicle. He will also consume cosiderable amounts of corn from a couple neighbors, slightly driving up the cost of “Egglands best”, milk, and ethanol for many. If he lives another year or more , someone might get a crack at a “nicer” trophy, up on their wall. If he dies, someone will surely get a bit of high quality meat, and a car, lots of corn, and maybe even a human life could be saved. If he stands in front of me again, like he did for this photo on opening day of gun season, I am leaning towards the pass. That is right up until my January 1, 2022 pm hunt. I was rewarded with the “photogenic” 3.5 year old, 4 days after that last pass, on opening day of gun. History could repeat, if I passed him again prior to January 1. I will likely do it purely for that “selfish” reason. Screw the corn farmers and the motorists. I won’t hesitate at all if his little brother, without the protruding antlers, shows up prior to January 1. I am planning on being in that stand this coming Sunday afternoon. In the end, God will decide how many bucks that I end up killing this year, just as He has for my last 40 years. No matter what happens, between now and January 1, His will will be done, and I will thank Him for what has already been one of my best years of deer hunting. I also need to thank the NY state DEC, for the changes they made this year, without which our freezer would be in mighty sad shape right now. There would not be a 4-month “fatted calf” in there, without that early September antlerless season. There would not be a mature Adirondack doe in there, if they had not opened that back up during the early October ML season. Most significantly of all: the photogenic big one right there on the end of my buttout, would still be out there driving up the cost of eggs, without that extra half hour of hunting time after sunset that they gave us this year. Some of our resident Antler worshipers seem to think that they have taken it on the chin by those changes, and even more so by the upcoming Holiday ML season. Hopefully, they, and the VAST MAJORITY of us, who value meat MORE THAN antlers, will be blessed with a very merry Christmas.

No affect on me because I mostly just fish for and eat bass.

He was that lean. Processing went fast, because there was so little fat to trim. He must not have eaten much thru the rut, but his stomach was full of corn the evening when I shot him. There were also a few kernels of corn stuck around the edges of the exit hole that chunks of rib pushed thru the hide. I thought he came out of the swamp but apparently he had been in corn field. The 16 gauge foster slug didn’t make it thru and dropped out of the cavity while I had him on the hoist. It was relatively intact as you can see in the photo of it:

Would it make someone a hypocrite if they opposed the Holliday season yet still hunted it ? (Asking for a couple friends).

Looks like another classic case of sunlight deprived vitamin D deficiency. That happens to lots of folks in NY at this time of year. TLR is in need of a sunny vacation.

Congrats, looks like a solid 2.6 year old. Those extra points bump it up by 3 in Rob’s contest. He will need to recalculate.

I think the value of whitetail deer meat, compared to antlers, would go way up if more hunters figured that “aging” thing out. It always amazes me that some folks here, including one supposedly educated chef, do not seem to understand that venison is red meat and subject to rigor mortis, just like beef. Many of them are eating their deer meat, right near the stage of maximum toughness, because of that. Inadequate temperature control, during the aging process, is a lame excuse. How hard is it to find an old refrigerator ? Thats mine (probably from the 1950’s in the background). I didn’t need it on that particular buck, which hung hide-on for 9 days in our insulated garage, because the outside temp was nearly ideal thru that stretch. Leaving the hide on thru the aging process helps insulate the meat against temperature extremes and keeps it from drying out too much. I pulled the tenderloins from that 3.5 year old buck, the day that it was killed, and put them in a ziplock bag in a newer fridge in the house for 6 days (photos #118 &119). Those are located on the inside of the carcass and are totally unprotected by the hide. They definitely would have dried up thru that 9 day aging process. They practically melted in my mouth after frying them up in olive oil.

Picture #117 shows the only measurement on that buck that matters much to me: Merry Christmas FSW. Are you heading down to Letchworth after to try for your southern target ? If so, I hope you get him.

I am really looking forward to it. I probably wouldn’t be, if I hadn’t finally broken a long slump with my in-line ML, during the early ML season up north this year. Also, I still have a buck tag. Antlerless deer get pretty sparse in my two local spots after October 1. I am planning on hitting it pretty hard, because I have 5 of those 7 days off of work and I only had to use one vacation day. I don’t know if I will do an all day sit, but there is a good chance that I could make 10 morning and evening hunts. The January 1st hunt(s) excite me the most. This is a great excuse to take it easy at this years New Years party (unless by some miracle I can punch all 4 of my remaining tags prior to that). I would be very thankful for just one more deer. We have enough meat in the freezers for about a year and a half now, but I have some extended family members and friends who I would like to give some more to. My grandpa’s old grinder kicked az, on the one deer that I put thru it after replacing the knife and screen with new ones this year. I’d rather not wait 10 months to use it again.

I only drink the negras up in the Northern zone where my FIL is buying. This is my favorite make and model at home in WNY:

What about the two broken off points on the right and the extra sticker on the left. He’d be lucky to net 70 points as a typical. Thanks for your generosity.

Good to hear. Is mountain lion and mountain goat good eating ? I have tried most of that other stuff, but not those. I would put moose ahead of corn-fed white tails (especially the tongue), and elk and caribou about equal. The only wild game that I didn’t care for at all was mule deer, antelope, fish eating duck, and spring Tom turkey. I also like squirrel a lot better than rabbit and hope to get a few of those yet, before the season closes in February. No warm weather vacations planned for me this winter, but work might send me to Southern CA. I am sorry if you felt that I attacked you. My intent is to help you into a better course. It really isn’t ALL about the antlers. I will admit that it isn’t ALL about the meat either (just mostly for me).

I don’t mind the personal attacks directed at myself, but not all are blessed with such thick skin. You may want to take a vacation in the sun some where, or at least take some vitamin D supplement. That may help you not to be so inclined to switch to attack mode, at this time of year. No worries though, and I hope you have a good Holiday season, even if you choose not to hunt.

Merry Christmas, any other requests ?

Why is that, do they taste different after they shed ? You and the other two ought to spend a little more time worshipping God and a little less worshiping antlers .

I love the trophy hunters because the “cute little” deer they pass up sometimes end up in Heaven over at our place.

That’s 90 pounds of meat in our freezer and I put it up again just for you , Chris, and FSW because they just love seeing it.

I am loving the changes they made this year and have been able to capitalize on three of them: 1) early antlerless season 2) early ML antlerless reopened in Adirondacks 3) extra half hour before and after Daylight. So, I wish to offer you a sincere “thank you” if your complaints helped contribute to those positive changes which have contributed greatly towards my own sending of 3 deer to Heaven so far this year. Hopefully, I will get to send at least one more there during the upcoming Holiday ML season. Another big Thankyou to my friends with the Northern Erie Snowseekers for doing what they have to make sure that special season takes place. May you all have the merriest of Christmasses , and thanks so much for your contributions to those three early gifts which the Good Lord had already blessed our family with.

What is you’re address there ?