Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Venison Verses Beef

Cj yes glad to see your doing your part in urban deer control. You mean 300/sq mile that is still super high. And the norm in many urban suburban NE areas. You can follow a CDC map of lyme disease and it follows where deer herds are over carrying capacity. Csteffen that is cool story.

Yes, 300 per square mile... Good lord, if it was 300 per acre it'd be a deer farm! HAHA Or... a high fenced hunting operation... Not that I am against someone paying $5k to kill a buck that way.

I put one of my game cameras down by the pond last week to see what might be visiting. The deer are already trying to get themselves invited in for dinner at our house. Either one will be satisfactory around Thanksgiving time.



And then there is this poor deer! Just look at the flies and ticks on this critter.




I don't really hunt anymore. We just thin them out, just like the bluegills and bass from the pond. But we do enjoy the meat.

The county where CJ and I work is ridiculous. Between the deer and the non-migratory Canada Geese we've got more wildlife around my office (Chantilly) than we seem to have out here in the wilds.

Ken

I haven't noticed an increase in the herd this year, probably cause of the brutal winter we had.
Here's some twin's at the cabin 2 days ago, they looked fine but mom was real thin.

Ya know, guys...wild pork ain't bad either.

We've got a target-rich environment down here.

... i'm so jealous of all you right now. i haven't had venison in probably 6 years, the last time i visited my uncle Dave in Illinois.

I gotta get to Texas and kill me some wild pigs! I've tried everything to get on some of the wild porkers in PA, but there just aren't many of them and the ones that are around are smarter than a 5th grader! I'd love to shoot a wild boar, but I am not going to a high fence place to do it. So that means I gotta head south I guess.

My friend shot a couple of shoats in Virginia several years back. They were in a group with several other little ones and a couple mother pigs. Rumor has it, some guy down the road was raising a couple dozen wild pigs in a fenced in enclosure. They got lose as almost always happens and started breeding in the wild. That is until the locals found out they were lose. They haven't been seen in a several years now. They weren't your average looking feral pig though. They have the more wild Russian boar look to them.

AP, your fawns look healthy. With the hard winter you had this past year, it's amazing the mother birthed twins let alone any... Our deer are pretty thin looking right now also.

Ken, that deer is disgusting with ticks! My dad said he found a dead deer by his house the other day. He said it had so many ticks still attached to it he thinks they sucked the deer to death! I about puked moving a road killed buck the other night at work. The ticks seem to particularly like to attach to the growing antlers. I think its because they are so blood rich with the fast growth. It too was just covered! The antlers didn't have an inch not covered by a tick. Even the new tips where the fresh growth was already had ticks on them... Is it just me or are the ticks particularly bad in mid-Atlantic area this year?

When we moved up here from Virginia 27 years ago, our shaggy dog Nikki was like a tick motel, but after 3 weeks here they all dropped off and he never had any more ticks. I think they headed back south.

Davatsa,
Let me know if you need any help hunting down them pigs! Nov-Feb I have plenty of available time.

Davatsa,
Let me know if you need any help hunting down them pigs! Nov-Feb I have plenty of available time and since last november a stockpile of ammunition.

Nate, hunting and shooting pigs are a lot different. On my place they are 100% nocturnal. I might see them once a year. Maybe not. They come and go and right now, they are mostly gone. And, they are pretty smart. I had a couple of guys come to my place and stay up most of the night hunting them. One night they stayed up until 4 am and called it off. Sometime after they left, the pigs came and destroyed a feeder. I have tried to trap them with no luck. So, I let another guy who has trapped a lot of pigs try. NADA!!

I don't particularly care for venison. So, the deer I shoot wind up as ground meat. I use it for enchiladas, chili, and spaghetti with meat balls. I can still taste a little difference.

Nate,
I'll let you know. February is always a good month to hunt them. The weather is still fairly cool down here and the ticks/parasites are gone.

Dave,
They can be nocturnal here, but we have so many that you can usually spot a few whenever you try hard enough. Plus, since they are a non-game species with no limit, night hunting with a spotlight is a fun alternative even when they're nocturnal.

Dave, for about 6 months I was overloaded with them. Then they moved on and now I only see tracks.

I guess this is as good a time as any to start the 2009 Best Deer Stick Competition.

Hopefully the event can be larger than 2008's which unfortunately had no participants, but many threats to participate.

Rainman and Cecil have tried mine. Well, I think Cecil did, I gave him some. Mebee a taste test comparison at the conference?

Now I really wish I could attend the conference! Just so I could eat lots and lots of deer sticks! Mmmmm...

Sunil,
Get the competition rules and regs etc posted. We probably need one more judge for thursday night. You, Me, and ??? I will let you choose the third member. $10 entry fee mailed to me by Sept 1 or $15 at the door. Grimes and Catmandoo already are in, anyone else think they can make something better than them?

I guess it doesnt even have to be venison, any sort of meat would do? Baked goods would even be fine too now that I think about it?

... so we can start ignoring them this year as well. :p

I guess we could waive the entry fee or simply make it voluntary?
Theo has been assigned to clean up duty.

I think I started too early. All the talk of venison in the last week or so, got my mouth to watering. I dug out about 7 lbs. of backstrap and top round yesterday to start a batch of my venison pastrami. It is now "curing" in salt, sugar, salt peter, pepper, and spices. It takes about three weeks to make, but it seems to get consumed in hours. Maybe there will be a piece left by the middle of September.

But then . . .



If I look behind the dam, the carcass of the last raccoon may still be there! It should be pretty well sun dried by now, kind of like "sun jerky." And, as I was coming into the "old folks home" last night, I saw a pretty nice deer on the side of Route 7. It sure was fat -- looked kind of like a balloon with lots of flies on it. Maybe it will still be there when I head for home on Thursday night.

It may not be quite as fat by then, but I bet it has some rice pilaf with it.

catmando and theo I need to think you for curbing my appetite. I was starting to get hungry reading this no worries now.

I will have to pass as a contestant in competetion due tio fairness since I fully feel I have earned the right to be a judge especially the baked goods segment.

Man how this thread has changed directions.

Ken, when it is ready to eat give me a call, I'll make the trip just to eat some! Mmmmm!