Deer hunting BS thread

Muzzleloader season ends today in Ohio - Cold & Windy Saturday NO luck for the 3 hours I was out. RAINED most of the day Sunday - stayed home. Monday wind chill was in the lower single digits all day - stayed home. Light snow now and light wind low teens wind chill. Have to go today to at least shoot/empty my flintlock...waiting for the snow to stop.

Ohio's BASIC deer seasons this license year:

Archery: Sept 25, 2021 - Feb 6, 2022
Youth gun: Nov 20, 2021 - Nov 21, 2021
Gun: Nov 29, 2021 - Dec 5, 2021
Dec 18, 2021 - Dec 19, 2021
Muzzleloader: Jan 8, 2022 - Jan 11, 2022

 

Come on over! Can’t be that long of a drive

36-ish hours of soaking in the super strength peroxide has already made a big difference, shouldn’t be much longer I don’t think.

 

Have you used bleach powder and 40% peroxide?

 

It’s currently soaking in a tub of 40% peroxide diluted with enough water to cover everything up. It’s an old skull that wasn’t really cared for so I’m going low and slow with it to try to keep everything intact. So no heat like I did with the deer skull. That one just got brought to a boil for maybe 5 minutes and was done, but it started to deteriorate the bone pretty quick. So the bear is just soaking at whatever temp the garage is at. If it stalls out I might add the aquarium heater to it just to get it warmed up a little, but so far room temp has been fine

 

I get good results soaking skull in water for 24hrs then 50/50 bleach powder and 40% peroxide. Overnight to 24hrs. Rinse off and its whitened. Bear have a lot of fat so wouldnt hurt to soak in a degreaser

 

No deer or even squirrels or tweetie birds seen yesterday. Once the wind picked up (blowing into my face) and the wind chill hit single digits, I called it a season. Couldn't make it the last hour+. My feet however, were comfy due to the boot warmers that my in-laws got me for Xmas in 2020. Started on medium and figured I only needed the batteries to last a few hours so used my cell phone to turn them up to high!!! Wish these existed 50+ years ago when I started hunting - that was always my biggest issue, cold feet!

Very disappointing season overall, only saw 1 deer in 9 days out (I didn't really try my hardest this year due to my shoulder surgery/torn biceps) hardly heard any shooting during both gun seasons and ZERO shots in 2 days of muzzleloader. My flintlock shot like it should when I emptied it yesterday tho.

Anyway, while waiting for spring gobbler season, time to start tying trout flies again and get out into the wood shop and get started on a few projects for my wife and daughter.

 

My biggest issue was always cold feet as well. I finally figured it out, my feet sweat and when I get in a stand and sit they get cold cause they were moist. If I wear my insulated boots, I don't tie them, I just slip them on and walk. That allows my feet to breathe and helped me a lot.

 

Same here, except my problem was wearing multiple pairs of socks. I discovered wool socks and my feet have been warm ever since!

 

https://darntough.com/

got me a few of these

 

I think I got the ones from Bass Pro with the lifetime warranty

 

the darn tough have a lifetime warranty as well

 

Try some merino wool socks and maybe some sock liners. Don’t have to break the bank with the high end stuff as it’s all performed about the same in my experience. There’s a reason hikers and snow skiers swear by them!

 

My feet sweat driving over; when its really cold I change socks right before I walk to my hunting spot, that seems to help alot.

 

them tough socks have merino wool...and i avoid ass pro, even tho there is one 6 miles from my home

 

So if my math is right, I'm 18 days into this ham cure if you count the first 3-4 days with regular salt... Anyway... I'm calling it a success. I just cut a small sample too see. I even cut the sample in half expecting it too be so salty I would need to soak it... It's as near perfection as I could hope for. It really taste very close to salt cured pork ham..
Can't wait to cut into this for real

 

Are you open air curing?

 

Yeah I guess you call it that. I have it in a casserole pan uncovered in the fridge and every other day or so I flipped it and checked on it

 

Interesting. Hopefully with the salt bad bacteria stays away.

 

Yeah it hasn't molded, or got any off smell. It did start to develop a little crust on a few spots like you would see on dry aged beef and I imagine if I let it go another week it would be nearly covered in pelicos but I'm probably gonna debone and slice it all this weekend and freeze most of it for a later date

 

Reminds me of my grandparents smokehouse full of hog meat laying out on tables or hanging.