[spence13e]

Fall in KTOG Land...

...And it appears that I am the lucky one to draw first blood in KTOG land, as well as the Spence and Mrs. Spence family.

Decided today was a good day to finally hit the field, 7 days after muzzle loader season opened.  Came home, talked to the fella that farms this place and hunts here too.  Found out where he was going tonight, came back to house, threw on camo jacket and orange vest, grabbed reloads, ball starter, grunt tube, and binos, head out.  Walking south toward the tree line to get to my stand and wife is headed same direction except 50 yards west by the pond, to get her pony.  

All I can say is what I heard.  Some commotion, look over, see Bear hauling balls back north.  WTF?  Did a horse piss her off and she's chasing after it?  Thought she was smarter than that!  Then she's yelling at me, where am I?  Well, just over here.  "There's a deer in the pond!"  HUH??? WTF???  Cross fence, run over.  Bout that time, she's on the west side of the pond, looking at me.  I'm thinking about plugging her except I don't want to fish her out of the water.  Wife yells "YOU CAN'T SHOOT HER IN THE WATER!"  Bull, but then she decides to take a hike.  Except I draw bead and drop the hammer.  

Yup, she's gone.  Stop to reload, she wasn't phased at all.  Better make sure, though.  Walk over, look on the south side of west pond, doesn't look promising, might be an unusual hump but it can't be no deer.   No blood, nothing at side where she hauled ass.  Hm, might as well check that the unusual lump isn't a deer.  Well, all be DAMMED, she's laying there dead as a hammer, less than 75 yards from where she took my slug.  

Discovered when she was gutted that it went in her guts and skipped forward, blowing a nice hole in the liver and VAPORIZING the heart.  Core was in there somewhere, however I have the jacket and it expanded beautifully.  I like my 240 gr XTPs!

edit: PHOTOS! there are also more to come...
and i got it hung up in the garage, went out and cut off the back straps and grilled 'em on the spot. quite tasty, wife loves me more now! she didn't have to cook.

 

[spence13e]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

dangit! i keep forgetting there's the "great outdoors" section. guess this will be moved in short order...

 

[Jdeere562]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

Nice going spence. Bow season in Iowa opens Oct 1. Trying to make my mind up to do it this year or not. My freezers are about full from last year, meat specials at the stores, and a big batch of frozen sweet corn. Shotgun season comes in Dec, so gotta make some space by then.

If I do bow hunt, the daughter and hubby will get all the meat. Just means an extra day of work for me, after the hunt processing and wrapping meat! If I do it again this year, they get lessons and will help. Then next year, they get a field-dressed deer dropped off at their door. See if they still want a yearly deer for the freezer after that.

My son has cerebral palsy and only one good arm, so I guess he still gets one on me. He's not too helpful on meat cutting or wrapping.

So is this your one and only, or are you hunting for another? We can get God knows how many in my county, depending on the different hunting methods. Iowa even has quite a few meat lockers, where you can drop off a field dressed deer to donate the meat for the needy. I'm considering that as well. Have the fun and help the less fortunate with less work. I never pay to have my meat processed, so a Sat harvest, means a Sun of work here.

 

[spence13e]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

this year i believe i could tag and bag seven of them. i do all my own processing as well. well, dress and boning. i don't have a grinder and that's what i think i want with almost all of it this year, going to haul in all that's left in the freezer and whatever we shoot and have 'em grind it for us.

i don't know if i'm going to buy another tag or not yet, however bear's got her tag, but she'll wait for rifle season.

 

[Deuce3]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

Good start on the meat season. Too bad you ruined the heart and liver.
Muzzle loader starts weekend after next here. Bow season's been in a while but it's too darn hot and buggy to be doing that in south GA.

 

[Jdeere562]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

I'm SOOOOO MUCH, about ready to get back to hunting solo again! We have an average of 13 hunters and around 25 tags to fill. The guys keep buying the extra doe tags in our area, trying to thin the population. It's getting to be too much work and taking out the fun part. We hunt Sat and Sun to fill most tags. I take Mon as a vacation day, along with a few others to pick up the remains and fill them all. Of course, after the hunt, we quarter them all up and put the meat in plastic totes. Thank God, one guy has a walk-in cooler so they can rest until the next weekend.

The next weekend, we bone, cut, grind and package the meat. Takes both days, that's with electric saw and grinder too. Our wives come to help wrap. We all bring food, so it's a great social event, but you have no rest for two weekends. (in Iowa, you miss the weekends you should be Christmas shopping)

If I hunt alone, be it bow, handgun, shotgun or rifle, I have a rule. Thou shalt only slay a deer on Sat. Then I can cut, grind and wrap on Sun and have it a done deal. Don't have an electric grinder here, so it takes a little more time, but it cleans up easier too. I can knock a deer out in 3-4 hours and have it in the freezer. I just have one of the old fashioned hand grinders, the ones you see at antique stores now. :-[

I always try to get an approximate weight of the meat, that I wish to grind into hamburger. If I have 25 LBS of ground deer, I buy 25 LBS of cheap 73% lean hamburger. Run deer meat thru the grinder once. Mix deer and hamburger together 50/50 in 5 gallon buckets by hand. Then run mixture thru the grinder again. The hamburger fat makes the deer much better. By myself, I can make it a one weekend deal.

 

[burley]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

 I can knock a deer out in 3-4 hours and have it in the freezer.  :-[

Clubs or bare knuckle ? We just shoot em and get it over with

Got a couple of them hand grinders myself and my opinion is they belong in a museum

 

[spence13e]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

well, i'm doing better. i had it boned and ready to freeze in just a tad over an hour and a half. need to check into getting it ground now. might do what was just said and get some 73/27 beef, might wind up being cheaper than paying the extra for straight beef fat being added when grinding...

 

[haugrdr]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

well, i'm doing better.  i had it boned and ready to freeze in just a tad over an hour and a half.  need to check into getting it ground now.  might do what was just said and get some 73/27 beef, might wind up being cheaper than paying the extra for straight beef fat being added when grinding...

Wow...I took a lot of deer back in Michigan. Usually would cut one up for steaks and chops and roasts, make summer sausage out of at least one more...and anything else I shot got ground into burger.

Me and my buddies would never think to mix beef of beef fat in with the ground venison. We like it just the way it is.

Must be a Michigan thing.

 

[burley]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

Nah ,maybe a midwest thing. I never add fat to my ground game for my own immediate family. I enjoy the leanness and taste/texture.
I will hand mix some beef 50/50 when making a 'pot roast meatloaf' for the family members who don't like/ain't used to the game flavor...

 

[haugrdr]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

Nah ,maybe a midwest thing. I never add fat to my ground game for my own immediate family. I enjoy the leanness and taste/texture.
I will hand mix some beef 50/50 when making a 'pot roast meatloaf' for the family members who don't like/ain't used to the game flavor...

I got to thinking, deer I've taken down south didn't taste near as good as our corn fed deer up north.

Maybe that's the difference?

That and all the feed we gave them in front of our blinds.

 

[fnsmoak]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

Good writing Spence. Makes me want to get the stand ready.

And a spouse that'll work WITH you. Dang, you got it good!

GUNSMOAK.com

 

[spence13e]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

let's put it this way. we shoot a lot of younger animals (like last year's fawns). those don't really need it because they're already pretty darn tender and don't have the gamey taste. if it's a large, mature doe/buck, i have no problems adding in some fat to help tenderize, and a little beef doesn't hurt to hide a bit of the taste if it's real bad.

and i'm told often that our deer are MUCH better than colorado deer are. and larger. the guys around here are alfalfa, corn, and milo fed. they is NOT hurting for feed at all.

that and there's a ready supply of beef year round, mixing can help spread the venison around for longer through the year! however if our plan works this year like we hope, we'll start shooting probably twice as many of them.

 

[Bert]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

[quote author=Jdeere562 link=1285644870/0#5 date=1285740573]
 I can knock a deer out in 3-4 hours and have it in the freezer.   :-[

Clubs or bare knuckle ? We just shoot em and get it over with  

[/quote]

Clubs are for use when they are asleep floating in the pond. It doesn't wake up the others...

 

[Brewster6514]

Re: Fall in KTOG Land...

congrats on the nice looking deer spence.

 

[Bert]

Dismal Deer Hunting day !



I went deer hunting today, and all I saw were lousy elk !

 

[torrent]

Re: Dismal Deer Hunting day !

Cool! I have saw elk tracks around this pond that my stand is near but have yet to see her. At least I think it's a cow. Can you guys buy tags for the elk down there?

 

[Bert]

Re: Dismal Deer Hunting day !

Cool!  I have saw elk tracks around this pond that my stand is near but have yet to see her.  At least I think it's a cow.  Can you guys buy tags for the elk down there?

Elk Hunting in TN started two seasons ago, and has been limited to quota hunts with 5 permits per year so far.

I will note this... I have had a few dozen encounters with them so far, and *none* of them are afraid of humans.  For now, it is mostly like shooting cattle.  Hopefully they will develop a fear of hunters.

Yesterday, My dad shot at a deer during a muzzle loader hunt.  An elk happened to be grazing in the same field.  The elk completely ignored the boom of the ML, and just continued feeding. It was back today ("Ethel", that's "Fred" behind her), and watched me all afternoon.


B.

 

[torrent]

Re: Dismal Deer Hunting day !

Elk meat is pretty tasty... Wouldn't be much sport in it from the sounds of things. Maybe once the herd grows a little bit and people start hitting them with cars then your state will open up more tags to the public. I bet it makes for some nice viewing though, having elk walk around your stand all day.

 

[lop]

Re: Dismal Deer Hunting day !

Heck, what better way to make the deer feel safe than to have some elk kickin back and enjoying the scene? As annoying as squirrl can be, they atleast give the woods that "it safe now" sound, assuming they arn't fussing at you. Saturday I saw seven squirrl and on the way out, 10 turkey. No grey ghosts.