Any hunters?

[kingcohiba]

Thought I'd see if there were any hunters here? I'm 41 years old and just took it up myself in September.

I have a few acres of land in the country where I don't live that I've cleared out with my tractor in order to do lots of gardening, we're putting in a home vineyard, I have a cross pollination hobby that requires some space. But the deer just seem to destroy everything I do constructive out there. We're wanting to build out there in the near future.

The dnr gave me a special permit this summer to shoot 5 deer in the summer, but I had to find a licensed hunter to do the shooting. I was there for 3 of them, and they left my stuff alone for a while, but it kind of got me interested in hunting myself.

So I've been lucky enough to shoot two deer so far this season. I'm allowed to get one more. My wife is allowed to shoot three too. We have skinned and done the butchering ourselves and it's a lot of work. It's also a lot of meat. We've decided to do brats, ground, roasts and some steaks (I still prefer beef steak) but it's not bad at all. Helps when you cut it with pork or beef but I must say that I'm a bit taken back by how quickly you can accumulate that quantity of meat.

Never in a million years did I ever think I'd be doing something like this considering I didn't grow up learning it as a kid. My dad taught me how to hit long drives and sink long putts (still am working on that one).

It's been very interesting and rewarding so far. Figured there must be others here?

It's definitely not cheap to get started. Lots to learn.

[DBNInc]

I went bow hunting with the old man when I was younger (at my request, he wasn’t a hunter).  We had zero experience hunting, so we ended up just sitting in the woods for hours at a time.  Still fun though.

[kingcohiba]

Yeah that sounds like me. Zero experience but quite familiar with shooting accurately a lifetime ago.

My grandfather was a very serious hunter in his younger years but not when I was growing up. He killed everything. But was especially fond of coon hunting.

It's a nice way to get away from everything. Gets a little boring until the deer come and it seems to give you a sort of rush.

I've got a lot to learn but it seems like if you really are quiet, well hidden and don't smell like a person it's not too tough. The skinning and butchering I could do without.

[DBNInc]

I’ve heard from people that if you find a local butcher, they’ll do it all for a small fee or a cut of the meat.

[kingcohiba]

Yeah most butcher shops will do it. But they will usually require you to have it skinned out and everything. By the time you skin it you might as well do it yourself! But what a big job for a new guy. And it's kind of weird too.

We have a meat grinder and sausage stuffer attachments for our kitchen aid mixer that were going to be using. I'm getting all kinds of seasoning products in the mail I found on Amazon and casings for brats, etc.

I'm going to be a little pissed off if I don't like what we end up with! Takes some decent coin to get started in this. Cou have been spent on cigars!

[DBNInc]

If you gotta skin it, that’s already most of the job!  Well, it’s your first time with an ingredient, I wouldn’t expect miracles lol.  Should be a great learning experience though!

[Stump]

Good thing is though that if you're not happy with how stuff turns out, you might be able to pawn it off on a friend or donate it to a food bank.

Here in PA, a lot of hunters don't end up using everything and they can donate the rest. When i volunteered at our local food pantry last year, I handed out at least half a ton of frozen ground venison that was donated through hunters/local butcher shops.

[DBNInc]

Hahaha yea, there’s always willing victims, er, friends to give experiments to.  I didn’t even know that donating was an option!  Thanks for the info

[Johnny-O!]

Brian...on those lonely winding roads in Indiana/Ohio stop by one of those gas stations that is also a post office and has hunting supplies or sells the tags. You will know you're in the right place when you see pics of all the deer harvested. You are likely to find someone that will do your butchering for 1/2 the meat. A few things that will change the flavor of your meat: You cant let it get over 50F for very long, it needs to be field dressed within the hour. There are differing schools of thought on how you hang it, especially if its a male. The person that is going to help you out has to be on call, you don't want to be cutting it up 3 days later. So you might try to find 2-3 that are willing to do it. Also what gun are you using/ammo? Try to find cleaner ammo that uses steel, brass that does not expose the meat to lead. It will cost a bit more but save a lot of your meat. You really don't want to eat anything that has touched lead. Oh, and you gotta build a tree house or two. Post some pics if you have them. John

[kingcohiba]

[quote author=Johnny-O! link=topic=51458.msg199623#msg199623 date=1605732885]
Brian...on those lonely winding roads in Indiana/Ohio stop by one of those gas stations that is also a post office and has hunting supplies or sells the tags. You will know you're in the right place when you see pics of all the deer harvested. You are likely to find someone that will do your butchering for 1/2 the meat. A few things that will change the flavor of your meat: You cant let it get over 50F for very long, it needs to be field dressed within the hour. There are differing schools of thought on how you hang it, especially if its a male. The person that is going to help you out has to be on call, you don't want to be cutting it up 3 days later. So you might try to find 2-3 that are willing to do it. Also what gun are you using/ammo? Try to find cleaner ammo that uses steel, brass that does not expose the meat to lead. It will cost a bit more but save a lot of your meat. You really don't want to eat anything that has touched lead. Oh, and you gotta build a tree house or two. Post some pics if you have them. John
[/quote]

HI John! I actually know a guy who lives a few miles from my land where I hunt that offered just that, clean it for half the meat. He actually lives in an old school house, in a town in ohio that doesn't even have a light, a mile north of a highway that will take you to indiana in 15 minutes! The problem is, I don't want to give up half of the meat and the guy just quite frankly gives me the creeps. Last year I had a party out there and he saw it from the highway. I noticed as I was making my rounds he was talking to my wife a lot and around 3am tried to offer us a place to stay in a camper he had out in his yard.... I don't think I would have slept.

We've (by we I mean my wife) field dressed both of the deer within an hour. She's a veterinary technician so she did a better job than I would have. But due to the temperature we cut them both up into quarters that night, refrigerated the quarters for a couple of days and then broke them down further. In fact we made some ground sausage (about 40 1 pound packs) that is half deer and half pork shoulder. I have to say it's the perfect mix and just downright delicious. It's not all greasy like straight pork and it's not at all gamey.

It's bow season right now in ohio. I shot these deer with a compound crossbow and rage mechanical broadheads. Neither made it more than about 75 yards before they dropped.

I'd like to go somewhere that has the wild hogs. I heard the ones in Florida take out a lot of sugar cane and the farmers are very willing to let people in to hunt them.

I don't have many pics but I'll try to post what I can. I've never been successful in learning how to post a picture here but I am going to try!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uHZHVJwqprHev8MT8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hYmpx9Y9aNCUs9ub6

This was the first one, it was a quartering to shot which I shouldn't have taken but I did. I also didn't know that it was such a young one or I probably wouldn't have shot it. Was just getting dark too. I shot through a shoot through screen from my portable blind and I swear it changed the direction of my arrow.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z62Wy2HzC6jPh99x5

https://photos.app.goo.gl/z2c5pxZgCvjxPZJ86