My 2009 deer hunt

[JC-jetro]

Just to share a few pics of my deer hunt. I had 5 tags, one any deer and 4 doe tags. I bagged a buck and a doe in the early season, and two does in the normal season. Have one left over tag to fill in late Jan1-10 season.

JC,

PS. Merry Christmas ya'll.


Buck#1, did not have my camera with me for Doe#2.

Doe #3 and #4

 

[Oleozz]

Nice harvest and good pics. General consensus in this area is to get the hide off quick and then let them hang for awhile, unless it gets to warm. Looks like a lot of good eating.

 

[JC-jetro]

Nice harvest and good pics. General consensus in this area is to get the hide off quick and then let them hang for awhile, unless it gets to warm. Looks like a lot of good eating.

Yes, I don't like to hang them with the hide on as they get stiff and a bit more difficult to skin. I have at times aged the whole thing but got to take the fillets out to avoid them to dry out. I get rid of rib cage, head and skin right away. I hang the rest in the shed and take a ham or shoulder in to butcher.

JC,

One deer processed, 30-35 lbs of solid meat.

 

[JB4310]

JC,

Bountiful harvest indeed, nice work, looks like you didn't waste much.

Merry Christmas to you and your family

JB.

 

[JC-jetro]

JC,

Bountiful harvest indeed, nice work, looks like you didn't waste much.

Merry Christmas to you and your family

JB.

Thanks John,

Wish you and your family a very merry Christmas and safe holidays. probably more than %65 to %75 is waste.

JC,

 

[Thomas]

Congrats on some fine tender looking freezer fillers JC.

 

[teg]

Had a 135#, 5 point and a 115#, doe - have not thought about weighing the meat afterwards... It's a freezer full and it last us the whole year. I quarter the deer, "aging" it in coolers about 40* for a week, then cut it up or ground it up and vaccum sealing it... after that, I don't feel like doing anything else but eat it!!!

 

[czechsonofagun]

Happiness is a full freezer

Congratulations!

 

[jinman]

Very nice, JC. It looks like venison will be on the menu quite often at your house.

 

[JC-jetro]

Thanks guys,

We try our best to the extent possible to eat naturally raised, organically grown stuff reason why I try to harvest as many deer as I can get tag for. In Kansas city In Shawnee Mission Park very recently county folks had to hire sharp shooters from the local police and sheriff offices to cull between I guess 300 to 500 deer in the park and meat provided to harvester. Food is plentiful in our country but the quality is diminishing all the time with associated cost to our environment. We use deer meat for just about everything you can think of knowing what works where. In reality 150 to 180 lbs of solid meat for a family of 6 (when my #1 son is back from college) is not a lot of meat per serving.
We like to eat our "potatoes with the meat" rather than the opposite.

JC

 

[jayste]

Jc, that's a nice harvest! That pic of those big old backstraps sure made my mouth water! I'm like you. I process my own and like to get the hide off as quick as possible. I usually quarter mine and cut the rib bones off of the backbone and hang all of it for a few days in a "gutted" refrigerator I have in my shop building. After several days of curing I'll process it. 4 or 5 good Kansas deer will fill a freezer, huh?

Jay

 

[JC-jetro]

Jc, that's a nice harvest! That pic of those big old backstraps sure made my mouth water! I'm like you. I process my own and like to get the hide off as quick as possible. I usually quarter mine and cut the rib bones off of the backbone and hang all of it for a few days in a "gutted" refrigerator I have in my shop building. After several days of curing I'll process it. 4 or 5 good Kansas deer will fill a freezer, huh?

Jay

Jay,

It is always questionable the deer meat you end up if you have it processed by a butcher shop. It might be somebody else's gut shotted deer that stayed in it's juices for a while. I know my knives and chopping board are perfectly clean, and I pack them how I will use them. Each package is enough meat for one meal for my family. I double bag and put a label on the first bag. The labels stay the package solidly and also shows which part of deer it came from such as BS-1 for back strap deer #1, R-1, (roast), G-1 (ground), f-1 (fillet) and K-1(Kabob-1). I know Oklahoma deer is as good as Kansas and on young does and fawns I don't emphasize too much in aging although it never hurts. My first deer last year was big ole buck called Marv. he was a tough fella ,even with some aging. I ended up grounding him after couple of meal made with the roast. 4-5 deer completely fills my 5 1/2' tall freezer.

JC,

 

[czechsonofagun]

Last year I killed 6 deer - the whole license - actually in Northern VA you can buy 2 more does for $18 if you wish and hunt till the end of March and there is no limit on does. I made one whole deer into jerky - and my kids ate it in two month in their school lunches. But I don't care, the jerky is much better than Slim Jim or candy bar for a snack.
The last shank from the last season we finished on Sunday - friends over and it fed 11 people with leftovers. I will remember the dinner for a while, it is so nice to share food and hear compliments on my cooking and dumplings, LOL.
I vacuum pack all the meat, feed dogs with scraps and tan all the hides - the tanning is rather getting old by the end of the season, but my family from overseas is always happy to take them from me. This year I am tanning two to be buckskins for small art work and one as a felt - still has three more deer to go if I am lucky.

One thing I realized - when you cook extensively with deer meet, the beef gets boring as far as the taste goes.

 

[JC-jetro]

One thing I realized - when you cook extensively with deer meet, the beef gets boring as far as the taste goes.

Czech,

You are so right if you eat a lot of deer after a while you become much finickier with beef. Although good quality aged beef is great but they are not the stuff you can buy from chain grocery store with consistently good quality. If I lived on my acreage, I would have then used all parts of the deer as I think I'm being wasteful. Although, there has not been a confirmed case of espongiform encephalopathy (deer wasting disease) in eastern Kansas and just to be on the safe side I do not ever used any bone saw cutting at all. I have read the meat is okay even if the deer is sick and the virus is in the spinal cord. I'm a bit concerned even with bone marrow so I do not use any of the great bones. Just imagine the possibility of the great stocks one can make from that. I don't have dog in town to serve them the misc stuff. I corn deer and the boys absolutely love the Ruben sandwiches I make for them.

good eats
JC,

Corned deer ruben sandwich

Gyros sandwich with deer meat a Greek treat, Opa

 

[JB4310]

Oh man JC,
Come on, it's just after lunch and I haven't eaten yet, and you gotta show your menu in living color.

2 Reubens to go, please,

JB.

 

[EddieWalker]

Great pictures and story. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

Eddie

 

[JC-jetro]

Oh man JC,
Come on, it's just after lunch and I haven't eaten yet, and you gotta show your menu in living color.

2 Reubens to go, please,

JB.

Yes sir John,

Would you like fries with that?

JC,

We hardly ever eat french fries but quite a bit of roasted wedges of potato

 

[Piperflyer]

Shrink wrap that vension and it will last forever

 

[JC-jetro]

Shrink wrap that vension and it will last forever

That is certainly a true statement. Our venison never last beyond 9 to 12 months. With meat totally boned out, I'm not at all packing any air at all. It is probably %95 vacuum wrapped. If I freeze a piece of salmon that I filleted , I'll wrap it with saran wrap tight and then use my heat gun and shrink wrap very easily and efficiently without using much equipment. I always double wrap anything I freeze.

JC,

 

[JC-jetro]

Great pictures and story. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

Eddie

Thanks Eddie,

I'm sure your family does much natural foraging when and where available. I'm telling my wife, god forbid if a famine hits us , we'll be the last ones to die if there still is a critter out there. Being very choosy in the choice of critter right now but anything goes if it is matter life and death. I don't know if I can take it to extreme like Chinese folks can

JC,