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WonderMonkey

Hunting Season Has Arrived

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oh a crop field is the best way to attract them.... a combine will not catch every single harvested grain morsal, plus the scent of the harvested grain / dust et,  and machine noise will draw them critters in, just like any other animal they get used to certain things, just like a dinner bell is used. 

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15 hours ago, Goober said:

Do you all eat your black bear?
I like it makes great jerky but i don’t wanna bite into a bear that’s been baited with garbage. 

We did but only the back straps. Marinaded for few days then I bacon wrapped & grilled. They were really good. Use mayo & hot sauce mixed together for the dip.  

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I use a sous vide for cooking preseasoned elk and venison. For a loin, 3 hours at 130F. For tough cuts, more time (shanks, up to 3 days!

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I've done a poor job at cooking my venison.  I end up grinding it all up, except for backstrap and loins to make into burger.  I need to do a better job.  I butcher the deer while at camp and let everything age in the cooler.

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I got my rifle buck, muzzleloader doe and enjoyed practicing on them before doing my elk.
after skinning, remove the inner loins. Then the outer loins (backstraps).

Then quarter the animal.

i start by doing the shoulders. My favorite is to separate the flat iron steaks from shoulder stew meat. You can always grind stew meat into burger.

then i do the rear quarters. Be careful to remove the gland found at the center of those muscle masses. You have a top, bottom and eye roast but there’s much more going on there. You have tri-tip—sirloins etc. All these other pics are from two rear elk quarters

Review some YouTubes on butchering elk—that really helped me. 

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59 minutes ago, WonderMonkey said:

I've done a poor job at cooking my venison.  I end up grinding it all up, except for backstrap and loins to make into burger.  I need to do a better job.  I butcher the deer while at camp and let everything age in the cooler.

Bring the deer meat to a  processor , cost a bit , but well worth it 

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Really a pain to do more than coarse butchery in camp. Guys wanna drink and talk and some don’t know how to cut! i hated going to a pheasant camp that used a dirty shop workbench as a cutting table. Guys there never cleaned their pliers🤢
 

Ideally you have a good clean cutting table, sanitizing agents, gloves, knives and sharpener, paper and tape. The team I’m on is real good ( I’m the newby). I bought a used cutting table and replaced the poly boards—it gets packed into the trailer.

 

 

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Just now, Goober said:

Really a pain to do more than coarse butchery in camp. Guys wanna drink and talk and some don’t know how to cut! i hated going to a pheasant camp that used a dirty shop workbench as a cutting table. Guys there never cleaned their pliers🤢
 

Ideally you have a good clean cutting table, sanitizing agents, gloves, knives and sharpener, paper and tape. The team I’m on is real good ( I’m the newby). I bought a used cutting table and replaced the poly boards—it gets packed into the trailer.

 

I'm not the best butcher but I do my own hogs, currently.  If all I'm doing is deboning and keeping just few specific parts, it's not as hard (obviously).  I have a table, my knife set, hose, etc.  I'll set up some music and the other fellas will probably sit around and critique my every move.  Good times!

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1 hour ago, WonderMonkey said:

 

I'm not the best butcher but I do my own hogs, currently.  If all I'm doing is deboning and keeping just few specific parts, it's not as hard (obviously).  I have a table, my knife set, hose, etc.  I'll set up some music and the other fellas will probably sit around and critique my every move.  Good times!

Down here it all has to be deboned to cross state lines ---- all my  buddies are into making sausage out of everything now days ,  except the lions ----  some really good sausages out there by the processors , then they package it also , can't go wrong ---- I like 50/50 pork / deer -  jalepeon cheese sausage 

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6 hours ago, WonderMonkey said:

 

I'm not the best butcher but I do my own hogs, currently.  If all I'm doing is deboning and keeping just few specific parts, it's not as hard (obviously).  I have a table, my knife set, hose, etc.  I'll set up some music and the other fellas will probably sit around and critique my every move.  Good times!

Wonder- I always butcher my deer as soon as possible, especially if it's above 40F. The enzymes in venison age it over twice as fast as beef. I use an electric fillet knife to cut my steaks. Way easier and faster when the meat is less than firm. Other than inside the body cavity try not to get the meat wet. It's not like poultry. Use a damp sponge to get any hair off. After wrapping the meat we put the packages in garbage bags, put in bottom of cooler with ice packs on top. If at home they go in the freezer. When freezing, don't leave in a box all piled up. Spread the packages all over the shelves to freeze them faster. Meat that is too slowly frozen develops ice crystals in the meat which puts very small cuts in the meat. This results in bloody steaks when you thaw them. You will notice that fresh cut or flash frozen meat won't do that. My very best tasting venison is that which has been butchered and froze in 3 days or less.

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last time i cut up a deer was before my strokes in 2010. i still have a piece of channel in the basement to hang deer on. a nice cutting board is the cutout of the sink in your kitchen. still have one. double sink. back then ya could get them free, cabinet makers for the kitchen always had the cutouts. my board was for a double sink.

field dress the deer, hang it in the basement. skin it, then cut the meat.. my nephew held the head once, while i used the hacksaw, to cut it off. i probable trimmed off more fat, then i should, but , the fat, left on, taste bad to me. the top meat, along the spine, can go from the tail, to the base of the head. the sweet meat is inside, along the spine. the legs, aint much there, worth eating. just cut off at the knees. for me, the excess. cut off the meat. tendons, that which wraps muscle, etc. never did i hang a deer to mature the meat. i dont believe in it. deer aint beef, beef has to hang, for a few days, deer dont. just wrap the cuts in freezer paper., newspaper on the outside of that, an stick it in the freezer. not only will it last, but it will last for a long time. the newspaper is to prevent freezer burn. eliminates the defrost cycle. warm it up, then let it freeze again. makes the taste worst. whats on the outside of the meat, is old dead stuff. i still got some deer meat from 2009, i still want to try. long as when ya cut it, it still bleeds, is fine for me. y'all chose your own path..

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thought about this post as I pulled in to the drive last evening from work.

 

a half dozen deer standing in my side yard..they just lift their heads and watch me..always curious.

 

these are the core doe and fawns that nurseried in the side yard...so they have grown over a couple generations now, being used to us there.

 

I can't get closer than about 30 yards before they'll jog off a bit...but the side yard is about 2 acres so they get out to a point and wait for me to go back in the house or do whatever else I'm doing.  The wife wants me to get another bag of corn...they get all but petting distance when I'm tossing the corn out.

 

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On 9/20/2021 at 11:29 PM, PROV said:

Wonder- I always butcher my deer as soon as possible, especially if it's above 40F.

 

I field dress immediately.  And like you mentioned for temperature, I will butcher, even if it's just rough cut, according to the temperature.

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i seen where the KFW, KY [fish an wildlife], is saying to take the deer home then field dress. i have to see whats up with that. also find out more what, @ Prov said about blood coming out the meet from older,  yet wrapped meat. got my curious up..

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On 9/20/2021 at 10:29 PM, PROV said:

. Other than inside the body cavity try not to get the meat wet. It's not like poultry. Use a damp sponge to get any hair off. After wrapping the meat we put the packages in garbage bags, put in bottom of cooler with ice packs on top.

 

 totally different approach down here , the meat is put in an ice chest with ice and water and allowed to soak for a while , at least a day , to get all the blood out the meat --- 

 

I have always heard deer have no veins , the blood is pumped thru the meat , don't know if that story holds water or not 

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18 hours ago, LedFTed said:

i seen where the KFW, KY [fish an wildlife], is saying to take the deer home then field dress. i have to see whats up with that. also find out more what, @ Prov said about blood coming out the meet from older,  yet wrapped meat. got my curious up..

 

I'd be curious about this as well, since I hunt in KY.  However, there is no way I don't field dress right away.  The only delay I've ever had is waiting to see if any deer that was with my kill was hanging around.  Other than that, I am basically done for that morning or evening to go take care of things.

 

I have a tree near my stand that I'll take my deer and hand to field-dress.  Oh so much easier to do it that way.  I'll use my atv winch to raise and lower and it's great.

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9 hours ago, Fishfiles said:

I have always heard deer have no veins , the blood is pumped thru the meat , don't know if that story holds water or not 

 

I would think it would be physically impossible to just pump through meat.  I would think they have the standard progression of blood flow that we have, and is the same as other mammals.  Obviously I'm not trained up on this, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't that way.

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2 hours ago, WonderMonkey said:

 

I would think it would be physically impossible to just pump through meat.  I would think they have the standard progression of blood flow that we have, and is the same as other mammals.  Obviously I'm not trained up on this, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't that way.

I know they do have veins as thats what you want to hit -----   maybe its their  capillaries that are different and blood runs thru the meat -----   I heard that story with  the story that  when you shot one walking the meat is not as nearly pumped full of blood as when one is running  

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6 minutes ago, Fishfiles said:

I know they do have veins as thats what you want to hit -----   maybe its their  capillaries that are different and blood runs thru the meat -----   I heard that story with  the story that  when you shot one walking the meat is not as nearly pumped full of blood as when one is running  

 

Could be.  Possibly the muscle is more dense?  I've not heard that but it would be interesting to know what's behind it.

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32 minutes ago, WonderMonkey said:

 

Could be.  Possibly the muscle is more dense?  I've not heard that but it would be interesting to know what's behind it.

another thing I use to always hear , if the deer was shot on a still hunt , the meat would be more tender than if shot running , as the meat tenses up when running and the blood flows thru the meat  -----  I always soak the deer meat in milk over night , for at least 8 hours before cooking it , it takes blood out the meat and might help take the wild out of it -------  I like the lion , cut thin , battered with flour and fried in olive oil , then sprinkled with Romano and Parmesan cheese ---- stew is ok , sausage is my favorite 

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What IS proven, and goes along with what you are saying, is that a stressed deer has chemicals released into its blood.  So if a deer doesn't die right away, or is being chased, etc. 

 

From one of the articles I found while looking for a more authoritative source:

Quote

It’s chemistry. Stress is the number one factor in affecting the taste of meat. Stressed deer are bad tasting deer. The longer the animal remains alive after being shot, the more stressed they become. The stress releases chemicals in their bodies that make for bad tasting meat. I’ve found that deer that die instantly are better tasting, even when rutting and age are a factor.

 

Many global and domestic agricultural organizations such as the USDA have studied the effects of stress on the taste of meat for decades. Meat characterized as dark cutting or dark, firm, and dry (DFD) is considered “high pH,” which in the meat industry is considered unusable. While game meat is generally darker in appearance than domestic cattle, the same principles still apply.

DFD results when an animal’s muscle glycogen reserves are depleted prior to expiration. At death, muscle glycogen is converted into lactic-acid. Lactic acid is the magic ingredient that makes meat tender and flavorful because it is responsible for the decline of pH during rigor mortis. Once a deer is hit, stress in the body causes adrenaline to be released into the system, prohibiting the production of lactic acid.

 

Whether you rifle or bow hunt, shot placement is by far the most important skill in executing a clean kill. Personally, I like to use a 7mm rem mag for meat hunts because it puts the animal down instantly.

 

Also, investing a little extra in ammo which is specific for deer is totally worth it. I’ve had some really good experiences with Barnes Vor-Tx, especially at long distances. Remember, the faster the deer expires, the better the meat.

 

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Another week until opening day, and these guy’s know it. They have a calendar and go nocturnal, well most of the time until the rut. 
image.jpeg

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On 9/23/2021 at 9:29 PM, 01RUBY500 said:

Another week until opening day, and these guy’s know it. They have a calendar and go nocturnal, well most of the time until the rut. 
image.jpeg

 

Is that where you have a salt block?

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