2019 Deer Hunt and Processing in the Books!

[tallbm]

LOL---Yup, No open season on Pine Bears in PA !! (Look Out---Another Bear Story!!):
I did however learn about hunting land in Texas. In 1970 I got my orders for Ft Hood, so I took my old British .303 along on the drive to Killeen. Then first chance I got I went and bought a Hunting license. Then I went around looking for places to hunt (Should have done this before buying the license). I went to ranches & Farms, Etc, and I got answers like "I lease my land to some hunters, and I have no say on my land during hunting season". So eventually I gave up & stopped in a bar in Austin, figuring I could get some advice from some of the locals, since I always got along good with other Bar-Flies. So it all came down to "You have to either Own or Lease a part of this Great "Deer-Filled" State to be able to hunt in it. So I got a few comments from the peanut gallery, and the question of "You're from PA, where do you hunt in PA---It's all cities---No Deer up there!!" I told them, In PA we harvest a few hundred thousand deer & a few thousand Bears every year, and when I want to go hunting, I just drive to a part of the Millions of PA State Game Lands or the Millions of PA State Forest, pull over, making sure all 4 wheels are off the road, get out, walk in & hunt. They didn't seem to believe that, but there was another Vietnam Vet there from New Jersey, and he said he hunted in PA every year, and that's the way it is there.
So I ended up with an unused Texas Hunting license for in the Scrap Book, Mrs Bear kept going.

Bear

Hahahaha great story! I guess everyone in the bar learned something that day.
You gave it the good 'ol college try. I bet if you would have bailed some hay for a land owner he would have let you lease or hunt free.... well not free since you would have been breaking your back bailing hay hahahaha :D

 

[chopsaw]

I bet if you would have bailed some hay

Or put hydraulic hoses on his tractor ...
I hunt on the edge of a neighbor farm . Deer come out of his woods cross the pasture and back into the woods . I will not shoot over a fence onto a property with out permission .
So my buddy said , lets ride over there . All he can say is no , and he did . I could see he was trying to work on his tractor .
I told him I respect your answer , but while I'm here do you need help fixing the tractor ? No strings , I'll just help you . So 2 hoses installed . bled and all workin good , said our good bye's .
Later that day I got word that he said it was ok to shoot into the valley , and to come get my kill .

 

[tallbm]

Or put hydraulic hoses on his tractor ...
I hunt on the edge of a neighbor farm . Deer come out of his woods cross the pasture and back into the woods . I will not shoot over a fence onto a property with out permission .
So my buddy said , lets ride over there . All he can say is no , and he did . I could see he was trying to work on his tractor .
I told him I respect your answer , but while I'm here do you need help fixing the tractor ? No strings , I'll just help you . So 2 hoses installed . bled and all workin good , said our good bye's .
Later that day I got word that he said it was ok to shoot into the valley , and to come get my kill .

Yep it's funny how that works out. I'm glad you got your hunting situation fixed up :)

 

[Fueling Around]

Minnesota rules vary by area.

Food plots is something growing even though you intentionally sow plants that attract deer. You can legally hunt around them.
Feeding or baiting is spreading an already harvested crop or manufactured products primarily to attract deer. You cannot hunt around this area unless it was removed or consumed at least 10 days prior to season.
Attractants include doe in heat and salt or mineral licks. Mostly allowed around the state.
With the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, there are more restrictions on food plots and all feeding or attractants is banned.

Lots of state and some federal lands open to public hunting. I have not hunted them as there are often jack asses that think they control the privileges to be there.

With the amount of public land, many private lands available on quid pro quo basis that chopsaw related.

Bear is another story. Baiting is legal. Live in the prairie area of the state. When a bear appears you may get paid by land and property owners to harvest due to the destructive nature of the critters.
A friend of a friend makes a very profitable living selling bear bait.
I have no desire to go bear hunting as I don't like the meat and no desire for the rug.

 

[smokinbarrles]

I have just wrapped up the processing on my big yearly meat hunting trip! The hunt was a great success and the meat has come out tasting great so far!

Here are some pics and then I will write it all up.

My freezer filled again for the year! (Top is Venison Brats, 2nd from top Pork Franks, 3rd from top is pure 100% ground Venison, Bottom shank and heal meat)

DSC_9433[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

6 of the 9 deer. These are the ones me and my girl took, I had already broke down the other 3 my brother took when it dawned on me to take the full meat cooler picture lol.

DSC_9422[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

Venison Brats. 80% pure ground venison, 20% trimmed pork back fat, LEM's Backwoods Fresh Brat seasoning. 30 pounds of Brats made.

DSC_9427[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

DSC_9428[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

We were itching to get some feral hogs but they know when we are coming and they decide to hide from us hahaha. This is store bought pork ($0.99 pork butts) I turned into pork franks. 28 pounds of pork franks. I am going to try some skinless ones in the smoker this year and they are in the black cellulose casings in the gallon bag waiting to be smoked this week.

DSC_9429[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

DSC_9430[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

DSC_9431[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

Now for some nature pics!!

Big beautiful white Fallow Buck.

DSC_9407[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

Nice Whitetail buck.

DSC_9374[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

Axis doe, white Fallow doe, and little Whitetail buck passing by the feeder.

DSC_9371[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

Some deer running through camp. This pic was taken from the pack porch of the trailer we slept in.

DSC_9425[1]

• tallbm
• Oct 24, 2019

It was a great trip of hunting. We hunted early morning and evenings. We started last Thursday and by Saturday night we had shot out our number of 8 does and 1 little spike for 9 deer total. This was nice since it gave me time to break down the deer on Sunday afternoon and be done in time to watch the evening football game and it was a good one

We process in my garage and we knocked it out in record time of 3 days this year. Normally it takes 5-6 but I had great help and efficiency was fantastic due to the lack of beer for my help to drink while working hahahahhaha!
When all of the processing was done we had 117 pounds of cleaned meat off the bone so 39 pounds a piece (3 hunters).
I make a deal with my brother and he gets UNCLEANED backstrap and tenderloins which saves a huge amount of time. He cleans them up as he opens the packages to cook them. My favorite way to eat venison backstrap is to bread and fry it but I don't do much breading and frying so all other ways of cooking it just can't compare for me. So I started grinding it to make the PRIME venison burger grind
This deal has my brother making the most of it and saves me time in processing it. Don't knock the backstrap grind until you try it. It's is amazing Venison grind!

In all we had:

• 34.4 pounds Backstrap and Tenderloins
• 24 pounds of scraps for Bratwurst sausage grind (add 6 pounds pork fat for 30 pounds of sausage total) - this comes from front shoulders and other odd scraps
• 42.2 pounds of pure 100% Venison burger grind (we add no fat to the pure grind) - this comes from hind leg roasts
• 17.2 pounds of Shank and Heel meat. This will go for braised shank, pot roast, and stew meat dishes.
• 28 pounds of pork franks from $0.99/lb Pork Butts that were on sale this past Tuesday

I took 1 deer using my 300 AAC Blackout with a 110grain Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos (old brass version) bullet via my handloads. I took the other 2 deer with the 30-06 (evening hunts, I don't like tracking in the dark) using 150gr Horadny GMX I also handload.

My girlfriend took all 3 of her deer with my bolt action Savage Axis 300 AAC Blackout (I swapped a .223 barrel with a 300BLK barrel to make this Savage rifle), using the same 110gr Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos handloads of mine.

My brother took his 3 deer with a 7mm Magnum with some loads he gets from one of my fathers retired railroad buddies that reloads. When he shoots a whitetail with his rifle they fly all the way into the walk in cooler back at camp hahahaha.

We do doe/spike meat hunts on Trophy hunting ranches so we can get so many animals and it helps them reduce the population so it's a win-win. These are MLD properties so we use their tags, if you were wondering how I/we legally get to harvest so many deer each year. Texas MLD properties are regulated differently and hunters use the ranch's tags (which they have hundreds of tags) rather than our own.

I tried to put as much info into this post as I thought people would like to know making it waaaaaaaay long. Feel free to ask away about anything regarding the processing, the hunting, the trip in general, or any other questions you may have. Enjoy!

Looks like alot of work but well worth it! ill looking for some whitetail myself opening of rifle season.

 

[tallbm]

Minnesota rules vary by area.

Food plots is something growing even though you intentionally sow plants that attract deer. You can legally hunt around them.
Feeding or baiting is spreading an already harvested crop or manufactured products primarily to attract deer. You cannot hunt around this area unless it was removed or consumed at least 10 days prior to season.
Attractants include doe in heat and salt or mineral licks. Mostly allowed around the state.
With the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, there are more restrictions on food plots and all feeding or attractants is banned.

Lots of state and some federal lands open to public hunting. I have not hunted them as there are often jack asses that think they control the privileges to be there.

With the amount of public land, many private lands available on quid pro quo basis that chopsaw related.

Bear is another story. Baiting is legal. Live in the prairie area of the state. When a bear appears you may get paid by land and property owners to harvest due to the destructive nature of the critters.
A friend of a friend makes a very profitable living selling bear bait.
I have no desire to go bear hunting as I don't like the meat and no desire for the rug.

Thanks for the info, its cool to know how different places are regulated and what goes down :)

Looks like alot of work but well worth it! ill looking for some whitetail myself opening of rifle season.

Yeah it is but it comes out so gooooood!
I wish you the best of luck when rifle season comes around :)

 

[indaswamp]

Good day of hunting...and processing tallbm! We have 3 deer and 2 hogs down towards our big processing day in February.

 

[crazzycajun]

W

LOL---Yup, No open season on Pine Bears in PA !! (Look Out---Another Bear Story!!):
I did however learn about hunting land in Texas. In 1970 I got my orders for Ft Hood, so I took my old British .303 along on the drive to Killeen. Then first chance I got I went and bought a Hunting license. Then I went around looking for places to hunt (Should have done this before buying the license). I went to ranches & Farms, Etc, and I got answers like "I lease my land to some hunters, and I have no say on my land during hunting season". So eventually I gave up & stopped in a bar in Austin, figuring I could get some advice from some of the locals, since I always got along good with other Bar-Flies. So it all came down to "You have to either Own or Lease a part of this Great "Deer-Filled" State to be able to hunt in it. So I got a few comments from the peanut gallery, and the question of "You're from PA, where do you hunt in PA---It's all cities---No Deer up there!!" I told them, In PA we harvest a few hundred thousand deer & a few thousand Bears every year, and when I want to go hunting, I just drive to a part of the Millions of PA State Game Lands or the Millions of PA State Forest, pull over, making sure all 4 wheels are off the road, get out, walk in & hunt. They didn't seem to believe that, but there was another Vietnam Vet there from New Jersey, and he said he hunted in PA every year, and that's the way it is there.
So I ended up with an unused Texas Hunting license for in the Scrap Book, Mrs Bear kept going.

Bear

Wow if it was that way in 1970 I can’t imagine trying to hunt there now.