@ All of the Hunters!

Well, it's still early in the season but I must share this one. This little guy wakled in the patch as the sun was setting, needless to say once my heart started to beat again I got a shot off and well, take a look.

This bad boy has 10pts. and weighed right at 168lbs., it was a very nice deer this early in the season. I have some pictures from my camera of some bigger than him. I went about 2 weeks ago and sat in the shooting house and took some pictures with my digital camera and I saw a 4pt.

 

I'll be drooling when I get the meat, I'm fresh out! :\

 

Nice looking buck there, BJ! Looks like someone will be dining well for a while.

 

Yeah, when I get it anyway. The locker plant I took it to told me 2 weeks, I was like dang. lol

 

Hmmm. Do they let the meat 'hang' for a while, or do you do that? Long while since I've had venison, but I seem to remember it was a lot better if hung for a good while in a cool place. I presume that's what the locker plant does, after processing?

 

Yeah, after they clean it they hang the whole deer up in a huge cooler. When it goes in the cooler its' completely cleaned as in skinned, gutted, etc;. It hangs in here for a while then they get to the meat as in what you choose. I get deer steak, deer burger and sausage. When I kill a doe I'll clean her myself and get the loins and hams and cook them the southern way on the grill.

 

wow....nice shot, i bet when you saw him the heart started to pump!
looks as though you got him just in the ribcage area...and with a bow! Im impressed, always wanted to try bow hunting but i cant seem to give up the shooter.....We go for wild buffalo and pig here in the NT of OZ, its a tad more dangerous but we dont have the thrill of the stalk so much as deer!

Its great to see that you will gain the meat to eat...do you collect the horns as a trophy and use the skin at all?

Regards....

 

I just about had a heart attact to be honest, I didn't expect to see him this early in the season. When I saw him walk out I was like, CRAP, I knew I should have brought the rifle even though gun season isn't in yet.

Luckily I was able to hit the right place, only had to track for about 30 yards so I was lucky all around. I can say this, it probably won't ever happen again because this shot was about 15 yards with a light wind.

I love the meat! I have about 4 racks on my wall from previous bucks, they have to be over 6pts or a spread greater than 18in. for me to mount. The reason is because all of the taxidermist around here have gone to $400 per mount.

I have a gun rack we made, it's 2 deer legs with the ankle bent up to hold the gun. The guy at the locker plant takes all the extra skin and uses it for mounting deer. Sometimes people bring in deer to mount and they have been drug or shot in the upper part of the body and he will use some of the extra skin to fix it up.

 

So do just pay the locker plant folks a fee, then they do their bit, or is their pay on hides and cuts of meat ya don't want. Maybe a bit of both?

{Oh yeah, nice shootin' to man. Pretty much a perfect shot! }

 

You take the deer to the locker plant and tell him what you want as in meat. There is a $10 cleaning fee plus the meat when he's done. You can get all sausage, all deer steak, all deer burger or whatever you want. I get a little of all because I can't get enough of deer meat. It's very low in fat and IMO is the best meat you can eat.

Thanks, I couldn't believe it to be honest. I have a bit more confidence but still like my rifle the best.

 

this ones for my husband.....

 

I'll be honest about this, I've got kahuna's, but not big enough to shoot at something that big with teeth or better yet be in his territory. lol

Very nice though, I would like the head on my wall.

 

Like kangaroo meat over here. I've only had it twice. The first time it was okay, very lean and a little 'gamey' tasting as I'd expect from a grass eater. The second time it was horrid and tasted foul. I assume it was an old 'Roo, or the person who cooked it didn't know hat the hell he was doing. But that kinda put me off.

Kangaroo meat and hides is much unutilised resource, i.m.o. (Were talking the Greys here, which are more numerous than at first settlement, apparently).



Nope, wouldn't catch me anywhere near a bear that big either, and I aint no wussie.

 

As soon as I got the guts to do this, I would kill the one and get beside it to take the picture and out of nowhere here comes the mom or dad and poof I'm history. That would happen to me, I know it would. LOL!

 

i'm not a hunter myself and was just lazily reading this thread until i saw this! DAYAM! i agree with bj....that takes some balls right there!

 

Sweet 5 pointer (as we call them up north) BJ *Drools* We are having serious thinking on how to approach our hunting next year. Oregon is hard enough to hunt, but now logging has drastically reduced, it means scrub has drastically increased, making it impossible to move around undetected. Lucky black tails

My husband and son-in-law just brought back a spike elk from Eastern Oregon, and just got done cutting it up. You don't do your own?

We love to make pepperoni with some of ours, and also hamburger from what doesn't get cut into steaks.

 

If I kill a doe I will do it myself so I can get what I want and can have it right then. Anything else I have it processed so I can get sausage as I don't have the equipment to do this.

 

I see. I am so sick of greasy, tasteless beef (in comparison). Such a shame we didn't get any bucks this season.

Ever had bear sausage? A friend got a bear recently and had some made into sausage. It was totally awesome!

 

I havn't had anything bear, I bet I would love it though.

 

Amazingly enough it is really tender, not as chewy as deer or elk, and kinda sweet as they eat lots of fruit. Yeah, you'd love it

 

When I get some extra time and actually do it, I am coming out west and go elk hunting. I've always wanted to and so help me I will, just may take a while.

 

Cool! Keep me posted and I'll help out where I can with contacts, places to stay, etc, if you want.

 

Thanks!

 

Very nice deer bj.

Sadly, we won't be getting any deer meat this year as my husband didn't get one.

 

Nice Work BJ!

I was only able to hunt on 11/4 - 11/5 and didn't see anything. Last wednesday a friend of mine was hunting that I was hunting with that weekend and picked up a 10pt buck with a 12 ga.

Can't wait till next year, I might look into bow hunting!

 

just thought id let you know that, that photo with the man is not my husband for those that may of got confused with my last post, my husband is a hunter (unlike myself who hates it.)
my brother in law emailed it to us and my husband wanted me to post it in this thread, this is what my husband wishes he had the guts to hunt..lol

its one big bear hey? even though its dead id sh*t myself standing next to it.

 

Congratulations BJ. Great shot, and a great buck.

 

I hate to hear that, when is hunting season there?

 

Dang, I've missed many deer using a shotgun, mainly because the deer was too far but I have got lucky with a shotgun. I've actually killed a deer with a 9mm before, lol.

It's different, it makes it more challenging but makes it better when you kill one. I will say this, if your like me and used to gun hunting and start bow hunting and something like this walks out, you will panic even more. I never thought I would have killed him like this, now my gun would have dropped him where he stood. The only downside to bow hunting is that 99% of the time you will track one a good ways. Luckily where I hunt, my grass patch is surrounded by woods but it's very flat and easy to walk thru, it's not real thick so that makes it easier to track.

 

Thanks, it sure has everyone local drooling. Suprisingly, that's a small deer compared to some hunters from out of town, they brought in a 210lb 13pt. buck yesterday evening. If I can I will try an get a picture for everyone because that deer was absolutely amazing.

 

Ahhh! I love hunting and I wouldn't mind trying this type of hunting but my rifle would have to be replaced with a bazooka or fully automatic ak-57, lol.[/QUOTE]

Like I said, even though it's dead doesn't guaratee safety. As soon and the picture was taken the dead bears mother or father would have be for lunch. LOL!

 

@bjgarrick.............lol i think the bazooka would be the way to go. This bear apparently was a man eater so he had a reward on his head Ive got photos of people the bear attacked but wouldn't dare post them for the are so gruesome and I'm sure all the heads of this site would delete them.

 

Yeha, like that guy that loved them so much, thought he could trust them, finally spent the night in the woods with the bears, god rest his soul.

 

Yeah.lol......don't know how he thought he could trust them and in there own environment......some people cant even trust there own dogs who have been brought into civilization (you hear of dog attacks all the time)....so why in the hell would you think you can trust wild animals..i guess its been brained washed into us with teddy bears, smokey bear, yogi bear, and of corse all the teddy bear songs and nursery rhymes...but anyone with common sense would know bears aren't truly like that.

 

Yeah, some people amaze me.

 

9mm LOL that is funny, how many shots did it take?

 

I actually was bowing hunting over a grass patch when a buck walked in, he wasn't big like this one. He was a 6pt but weighed right at 200lbs, this was about 4 years ago. I saw him come into the patch and I got nervous because I was bowing hunting. I am not the best shot with a bow, I get lucky when I hit the deer.

Anyway, I was scared I would lose him if I shot him with the bow so I waited for about 30 minutes when he got about 15 yards from me and I shot him 3 times with my 9mm pistol I carry anytime I hunt or fish. Just to give you an idea, I was sitting in an open tree stand, this was before we built the shooting houses.

It happended once, I couldn't do it again because it felt weird shooting a pistol at a deer but I was determined I was not losing that deer.

 

Understandable, specially for waiting 30 min for it to get closer. Nice work.

 

I've only did it once, mainly because I didn't want to lose him. It was a story to tell, very few people believed me at first.

 

My buddy who hunts with me just called me and told me he got the camera off the primary patch we hunt and he claims he saw at least one buck 10pt or better and a few 6pt bucks. I havn't seen them yet but it seems we will have a good season. He also has informed me a few nights we had coyotes in the patch which isn't good. :\

 

Nicely shot bjgarrik. When I was in my twenties, I hunted with a couple of bow fanatic pals. They hunted with compound bows, while I carried the Lee-Enfield .303. In Canada, the bow season is early, so the rifle remained hidden until we were up in the trees on wooden platforms behind our portable blinds. I usually set up about 50 yards up the face of a drumlin on a boulder that was usually sun-warmed. This particular vantage, is used by rifle hunters later in the season, and because it is near water with an open meadow, it's like shooting fish in a fishbowl. My buddies were in the trees along a well known deer trail, and with the compound bows they had to be close to the action. In six seasons, we got one each year, and I only had to fire once. The one I hit with the .303 had 2 arrows that penetrated through the back and out the abdomen. One arrow went through a lung, which dropped it to it's knees, rump up. They usually fall down when this happens. However that big buck, slowly got up, and I could see the vapor of it's laboured breathing in the cool autumn air. Then all at once, it threw its head back and made a dash for the tree cover. I shot it 5 seconds later, after a slow deliberate pan. I hit it's right shoulder, and it dropped to the ground hard. I was a long time coming down to inspect the kill. My tear stained face would not have looked cool to my bow wielding buddies who were hooting at me to come down. I felt I'd committed murder that day and I was sad that I'd been a part of killing that magnificent beast. In Canada, when we count the "points" of a buck, we only count one antler. He was a 10-point ( that's 20 points if both antlers are counted) and because of his size we couldn't haul him out to verify a bow kill. My share of the meat was usually 35-40 pounds of venison. That year, I got 90 pounds. That buck's head is mounted and most hunters who see it are totally impressed. He must have weighed over 300 lbs when he died, and as it turned out, that was my last year hunting. I'm not against hunting, but I regret taking that particular big buck with the heart of a lion.

 

Had a similar experience prometheos, but couldn't put it better than you did, great read

 

prometheos,

That's awsome, I would love to go hunting in Canada and out West. I love hunting and I never get tired of it, I would like to try other types of hunting though.

That sounded like an awesome hunt!