Found these still attached yesterday evening (crossbow at 25 yards). Hanging in the barn. Was hoping he stuck around. Nice spread and tine length, but without the velvet, the mass was a little light. Still a nice deer. Passed on an old one with good mass, but not so big, on Oct 8 because I took similar deer the last 3 years as culls, and decided I take a nicer one this year even though he was young.
I took a doe with my crossbow last week. First deer with a bow of any kind. At 68 I wanted to get it done before I turned 70. Ha! I just am not comfortable standing up in a ladder stand and longer. That’s a nice buck Rah. We have a lot of smaller bucks running around here. I did see a big 8 pt late yesterday. We’ve decided to pass on him this year. Very big bodied deer.
8 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (didn’t make it. 0 seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) I think we have survivors! I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
I should really have passed on him since I estimate he was only 3.5 years old, but I have been leaving the same go the last 3 years never to be seen again, so I succumbed to temptation... I did leave 3 of the same or better caliber that I know of, in the hopes that they make it through. Hearing single gunshots hours after dark during bow season does not leave me hopeful.
Hearing single gunshots hours after dark during bow season does not leave me hopeful.
I hate poachers!
At least you were safe since they were shooting after dark.
One of my buddies had a bullet go past him in his blind during bow season, when guys stopped on the road and shot rifles into the woods to push the deer out into the meadows.
I just here the shots. Could be taking coyotes I guess?
Poaching deer - bad. Eliminating some coyote predation - good.
Good thing you don't have feral hogs in Indiana. I hear some of the people in Texas cull them at night with lights on the feeders. I guess if you use a fat, sub-sonic round like 300 Blackout and a suppressor, you can eliminate multiple hogs at one time.
My 14 year old son is just getting into deer hunting. We have a lot to learn. Built a raised blind with help from his Gpa. Probably way more deluxe than it needs to be with flip up windows and a tin roof. He learned to paint it and I had fun guessing on what kind of camo pattern one might use for a winter scene while mixing together all kinds of old house paint I had left. I found out you can only store cans of paint so long and the lids rust on. Glad I found out before the room was ready to repaint inside. I mixed and matched and went for a more gray background with brown trees since the backdrop of the blind now shows trees, sky and no leaves. If the deer hunting isn't his thing the kids can surely use it as a very nice playhouse the other 3 seasons!
He has a crossbow but isn't keen on using it. He wants to sit in the blind and watch and wait for now, use trail cam to see what might be out there and actually shoot come gun season. That means hunter safety course, picking out his first gun, learning how to use it safely, how to clean it, how to store it. Then pick a scope, sight in the scope. All new to me but I ask for help from nephews who know the ropes. We are getting ready!
In August he created two food plots with rototiller, rake and hand seeder. Apparently they are working since we are seeing does and a few bucks on trail cam. We are in a wooded area with houses on roughly 1 acre lots and some protected land due to power lines and swamps/ravines that make houses not possible to build.
The groups of does and young ones are almost like domestic pets as they watch cars go by in the neighborhood and seem unfazed. We see a smaller buck out in the open but the trail cam caught a much nicer buck. I'm going to try to see if I can get the video to upload here. His body seems lean but rack looks nice.
Last night another group of hunters came near by his blind after dark and said they shot a large buck with cross bow but lost the blood trail. Hopefully it wasn't this guy.
Tons of fun sitting in a deer blind with the Gkids, waiting on that nice one to come along. A nice deer blind is maybe a little of an overkill for kids but as I get older I cant handle an open tree stand in all the elements, them seats get hard and cold and I gotta be able to move around a little or I get stiff, not gonna lie, I got a little propane heater in my blind, a fellow don't have to put on as miserable many clothes, to the point that you cant move with a little heat. Also I am more up and ready to go if its a comfortable experience. I have spent plenty of time in a cold, open tree seat, with freezing fingers and toes, even rainy and wet, not being able to move because there is no room and also in the wide open you are liable to spook the big one if you move in the least.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
Well, the snow storm of 2022 rolled in and we have had snow squalls on and off, blowing and colder temps. My son has been in the blind but not seeing much. Certainly not the one that is posted in the video above. I think another hunter may have gotten that one already.
This morning about 8am my wife and I from in the house could see through a clearing a smaller buck wandering through a mowed area and stopping here and there to try to reach any remaining leaves on the bushes along the edge of the clearing. We knew our son was in the blind and could not imagine why he was not shooting it! It spent at least 15 minutes slowly moving across his line of sight. We imagined maybe he felt the shot was too long, or maybe he was hoping to shoot a bigger one??
Eventually the buck went into the woods where he couldn't get a shot and wandered off. He came in later and said he didn't want to shoot in the direction of the house and didn't trust the sighting on his scope at that range. I have to hand it to him to think about safety first. I'm pretty sure shooting from up in the blind down at an angle towards the ground with a 20 gauge rifled slug that would have gone through a wooded area before reaching our back yard that he would have been fine shooting it.
We figured that was the end of hunting today with so much snow and wind. But he went out with his buddy from school late afternoon. It was good he did since he was looking out one window to the east and his buddy spotted a buck coming out of the woods on the window that looks to the west. It was dusk and light was fading fast. The buck wandered along the edge but this time was moving more consistently and more rapidly. At least this time he was shooting away from the house. He got him in his sights (he told me he has a light up red reticle option in his scope) Then just waited for him to pause. He was shooting further than he had hoped and down into a depression. He said he just aimed a bit high to try to adjust for distance and squeezed the host. He could see the deer react and try to circle out into the woods but was running awkwardly as if hit in the spine. He and his buddy went after him and saw no blood trail. They could see him still trying to move away but unable to really make any forward progress. They came up on him and put a second shot in his neck.
A relative was happy to come over and assist in field dressing. Still very little blood. While dressing it showed possibly why. The shot must have hit just behind the lungs basically through the stomach, a gut shot. Blood must have stayed mostly inside. They dragged it through the snow back to the house and did the best they could to wash it out. It is quite cold and can't get processed till Monday. It will be frozen solid soon after tonight's cold and snow.
You can't tell much from the pictures but it has 3 large curved 'tines' on the rack (forgive my ignorance about these matters.) Both sides have about a 2" spike (4th tine) coming straight up which I guess makes it a 8 point with 4 on each side but the 2 spikes in the middle are small. One side that small spike actually looks a bit thicker at the base and was broken off.
We are going get it processed. First time for everything! My wife is not a big fan of plain venison, kind of a new taste to get used to. I don't think we really would value trying to make steaks or roasts from it. I would like to see how the backstraps or 'loin' meat would be but how do we prepare it? I guess that means most will go into ground venison. We do like summer sausage so probably will make several pounds of that and probably should try some jerky too right?
Other ideas on how to divide it up? WE didn't weight it but it isn't a big deer. Hopefully meat is suitable despite gut shot.
I'll try to post pictures if the picture manager allows me.
My son was pretty disappointed this morning and pretty geeked that the deer came back and gave him another chance despite the weather. Dad and Mom were glad that all the work that went into making the blind payed off!
I need advice on this. My nephew who helped hang it said this is how they do it. My brother in law saw the picture and chastised us for hanging it legs down. He said you don't want all that blood going in the meat!! He said you are supposed to hang it head down as you don't eat the head! It is done now and everything is still so we won't be switching it but if that is the best thing to do then we will certainly learn and do it differently next time!
Thanks to all for the encouragement! Really grateful we had the opportunity to shoot this on our own property and gain the experience in the process!
My wife is similar to your wife in not liking plain venison. However, she now adds ground venison at 50/50 for nearly every recipe that calls for ground beef.
Just last night she made chili that was half venison and half beef. She actually likes it better since the venison adds a little "richness" to the flavor of the dish. She also does spaghetti, burritos, stews, and no-sauce pasta dishes with 50% venison. It is also good when the other meat with the venison is pork sausage.
She did learn to put the ground beef in the skillet with the frozen venison to brown. You need the fat from the beef in the pan while thawing the venison, or it will burn since it has no fat.
Also, my processor makes excellent deer sticks (like Slim Jims). I usually make 2# of those. They are expensive, but very tasty. My youngest daughter is not a big fan of venison but could eat a pound a day of those if the fridge was always stocked!
My wife is similar to your wife in not liking plain venison. However, she now adds ground venison at 50/50 for nearly every recipe that calls for ground beef.
Just last night she made chili that was half venison and half beef. She actually likes it better since the venison adds a little "richness" to the flavor of the dish. She also does spaghetti, burritos, stews, and no-sauce pasta dishes with 50% venison. It is also good when the other meat with the venison is pork sausage.
She did learn to put the ground beef in the skillet with the frozen venison to brown. You need the fat from the beef in the pan while thawing the venison, or it will burn since it has no fat.
Also, my processor makes excellent deer sticks (like Slim Jims). I usually make 2# of those. They are expensive, but very tasty. My youngest daughter is not a big fan of venison but could eat a pound a day of those if the fridge was always stocked!
We grind up wild pigs when they are fat and it mixes very well with deer meat. We also like to wait till deer fatten up ( we don’t eat the tallow) on acorns giving them a much better flavor
Thank you for all the advice! The tips about making it edible are great. I guess a friend of the family on my wife's side processes deer and cows so he is going to process. I have no idea what he offers in terms of a summer sausage or jerky but we will be sure to get some of each. I don't mind mixing ground venison with ground beef. I think my wife has to get the image of eating deer meat that was hanging in the side yard out of her head and get used to it!!
Anyone have an opinion on hanging deer head up vs head down?
The best venison that I ever had was due to my late father-in-law spending a day removing all the connective tissue from one of the deer that I shot. The only aging was thawing out the meat for this processing and grinding into hamburger and then refreezing. I do not really enjoy venison, but the meat from this deer tasted like the best beef that I ever ate (no lie). I simply do not have the patience to remove all that connective tissue. My wife field dresses and then butchers almost all of my deer (near 100 so far) and she hangs them head down. No complaints from me:) And no she does not have a sister that you can court:)
Thank you for all the advice! The tips about making it edible are great. I guess a friend of the family on my wife's side processes deer and cows so he is going to process. I have no idea what he offers in terms of a summer sausage or jerky but we will be sure to get some of each. I don't mind mixing ground venison with ground beef. I think my wife has to get the image of eating deer meat that was hanging in the side yard out of her head and get used to it!!
Anyone have an opinion on hanging deer head up vs head down?
We hang deer and pigs head down. First we don’t field dress, skin all the way past the shoulders. Then remove front legs at the joint. Next remove legs and shoulder from carcass. We wash it and paper towel it dry and bag it pressing out the air and refrigerate it. Next take back straps off and do the same. Nextmake incisions into gut area to expose loin steaks (we call them gut steaks)and remove them . Next cut out around the anus and pull all that out from inside. Oops do that before removing gut steaks ….. since we don’t mess with the ribs that’s why we don’t field dress… saw the backbone and drop all the guts which you don’t touch much except to pull anus out. Wash the hindquarters out while hanging. We use a sawzall to separate the hindquarters. Wash again to remove bone dust. I wrap a bag around each leg and hold it in one arm then with a knife cut at knee joint and bag it the rest of the way and into fridge for a week….. then spend 6-8 hours separating the meat from bone. Big chore but worth it
No antlers but I tagged out with my last doe yesterday morning on opening day of muzzleloader in high wind conditions. Took my targeted buck (from trail-cam pics), second allowable archery deer (a doe), and 2 bonus does early in archery season so I was tagged out for the regular gun season. One downside of being experienced in anticipating where the deer will be is less time in the woods. I was pretty cold yesterday and my hands were getting unbearable, so I looked around and started down the ladder. Just then, the herd came around the corner. Took the muzzle loader off my back, opened the scope covers and waited on the ladder for the largest doe to get within 30 yards and put her down. She was a big doe. Then got back to the house and waited until my hands stopped burning and brought her back with my wife. Could not have loaded her on the cargo carrier myself. Wife field dressed this one like the nearly 100 before. It's still very cold, so it will need to thaw a bit before my wife can butcher her. Life is tough:) I have 2 weeks of vacation coming with no hunting left... Neighbor can start trapping on my place though, so he should be happy. Need to get through the trails in the woods and do clean up of limbs after the heavy wind. Happy hunting to all the pond boss family!
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/cW1UFjp.jpg)
