Its not about the size/trophy for me, its about what I get in my freezer! Though I do only use my Bow to get the job done, otherwise it would seem like cheating with a gun of any kind.
DH shot a 200 lb uck 2 years ago... he tasted really gamey...
I prefer the young does, they taste not so bad as other deer and arent so dry/tough. Of course, pineapple juice usually takes care of the toughness. I plan to hunt the first few days for a big buck, I was raised that you hunt for a big buck, then take a doe on the last day or so if you havent gotten the buck yet. In the end its about feeding the family, but the competition between DH and I is going to reign supreme.
I alway grind in beef fat with mine. You can use it just like you would ground beef and can never taste the difference.
Once the beef fat starts to cook down it gives the meat that flavor, and cheap! Most butchers will save up the trimming from choice cuts for free or very little money, pennies...
Just a much more efficient way to fill up a freezer for 5 people who eat like horses all year. We bow hunt after we have a good start on filling 2 freezers up. We don't trohpy hunt either but it sure is nice when a trophy buck walks out instead of a little doe. Bow hunting is alot of fun though too.
I love yearlings and small deer the best. That is what we eat the most of besides does and little bucks. We grind the bigger bucks up into ground meat, cubed steak and sausages. We don't grind any beef into the deer because deer taste a heck of alot better than any cow on this earth!
Someone mentioned they were hunting widows during season LOL I know the feeling. My Dh gets up and goes hunting before I am out of bed and then goes to work and then comes home and then is back in the woods until dark every single day of season even when he is dead tired. I rarely get to see him during season. He's gotta go though or we don't eat.
We also hunt for the old man down the road who is too old and they don't have much money. We take them as much as we can spare.
This is off topic a little but about bows n arrows - Has anyone ever been fishing with a bow? Now that IS A BLAST!!!!! It is the most fun I have ever had.
.OH, and nice wildlife cam shots too 60acres!! I love to see all the deer ya'll post in those pics. I am going to have to get us one one day!
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It's 20 years in the making...years ago I went to eat Thanksgiving and we all sat down to eat, I asked where the turkey was ~ my aunt just laughed...he had gone out that morning and shot a couple of rabbits!
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I don't ever have gamey tasting meat. I thaw the meat out in the morning if I'm planning on having it for dinner. Then I slice it up into cooking size filets. And I put it in a bowl of salt water for 4 or 5 hours. I don't do this all the time. But if I have company coming over I do. Especially if they've never had it before.
Here are a few of my pictures. Please forgive the size. I'm on a slow WiFi connection right now and it took me forever to even upload the pictures. I don't have time to make them smaller
Got this one on the last day of the season with about 5 minutes of daylight left. Talk about down to the wire. Not a Trophy but decent considering all of the people that hunt within the 1 square mile I got him in. That's my Min Pin Hot Rod I used to have. He loved to track deer and then he claimed it as his for the rest of the day.
Got this one in Missouri at my Grandparents farm.
Some in my front yard. I use a Scott Grass Seed Spreader and fill it with corn or pellets and spread corn over the yard. These I don't shoot. They are pets and I just feed them. Well fed them. After corn went up so high last year I quit buying it. And now I spend money on chicken feed instead.
I prefer using this over a wheel barrel or sled for dragging them out of the woods. But then again. You don't have to make payments on a wheel barrel