Deer hunting BS thread

I've heard you can make a pretty good roast with them that way. Maybe I can try that on them this year.

They won't eat them red enough to not be chewy.

Two years ago my brother and I ate the tenderloins within a few hours of shooting the deer. They were still warm when we put them on the grill haha. Good eating.

 

To me it's when there's too much blood in the meat still (for ground venison).

 

My wife describes it as a strong liver taste. As in a lot of extra Iron

 

Lots of young bucks being killed. Let 'em grow a little! Still haven't shot this year, but I've been seeing some nice ones.

 

Your boss is also your best friend? That TOTALLY explains why I get snapchats of you in the gym or hunting in the middle of the day now lol. Jealous....it's not that fat kid you're always fucking with, is it?

I do something very similar to your cooler/ice method, except I add salt every time I add new ice. I keep adding new ice until the water is completely clear of any blood (usually takes 3-4 cycles. Each time I drain the ice, I rinse off the meat and add new ice. After that, I process it myself. You can get a good all-in-one cuber/grinder/jerky slicer from Bass Pro for $400-$1000, depending on how big of a motor you get.

strong. Have you ever eaten beef straight off the farm? It tastes nothing like store-bought. It just has a more "meaty" flavor because they're able to eat what's in the woods, opposed to man-made feed.

Man, that rack on the left is perfect. I like to let small bucks walk, too, but some of us have asshole neighbors that shoot anything with a pulse. It's frustrating.

 

Haha no. It's actually his uncle.

And I'm in the same boat. Everyone here shoots everything they see. While it would be nice to kill a bruiser, I'm not gonna eat the horns anyway, and I don't feel like paying to have it mounted, so I don't care too much about how big they are.

 

If I ever do kill a hoss, I'll pay to have it mounted. Right now, I have a friend do skull mounts for me for a bottle of Evan Williams lol

 

Just a little about meat quality:

Beef carcasses are graded before any cuts are made. Most do not make prime or choice grades. The prime and choice grades will be aged 7-10 days in a controlled environment. It is unfair to the game and the person eating to expect and treat wild game the same as prime beef. You just won't get the same results because the meat is so different. Deer meat would hardly make select grade and would probably be standard or worse.

Many people don't like venison, but I'm convinced for most it's because of the way the meat is handled after the kill and the way it is cooked. What I see a lot of people do with their kill, it's no wonder nobody wants to eat it. You have to have a plan before you shoot, whether its back yard or back country, and take care of the meat properly.

If I am able to hang meat in cold storage, I do. If not, I have it on ice as soon as possible, not at the end of the day once it's ridden around in the back of my truck. I am not a fan of soaking meat before processing, as I know of no professional butcher who does the same. There is very little blood in meat to begin with. The red color to the water it is soaked in is from the myoglobin in the muscle.

When cooking, you have to realize there is no marbling of the meat, so you just can't cook it the same as beef and expect the same results. I like acidic marinates for at least 12 hours prior to cooking. Low heat and time are your friend. If I am cooking steaks on the grill, they need to be aged and marinated, other wise they go in the crockpot. Steaks in the crockpot are great for many things like pepper steak, fajitas, stroganoff, etc. Roasts can be used for more than just traditional roast. We like to slice them and make French dips from them. Tough steaks, like shoulder steaks, can be battered, fried, covered in sauce, on a bed of potatoes, etc., and then put in the oven for 60-90 minutes at low heat and come out as tender as anything ever will be. If you have to cook a steak on the grill well done, cook smaller, thinner steaks so you don't use as much heat. Tough meat in the crockpot with any type acidic sauce comes out very tender. Tomatoes and wine are good acidic ingredients.

My family eats 99% wild game verses store bought red meat. Wild game is everything that people claim to want these days. Free range, grass fed, hormone free, antibiotic free, non gmo, low fat health food. I have fed many people who say it is the first venison they have eaten that they liked. Not because I'm a good cook, but because I want it to be of high quality before I even pull the trigger. I process my own meat so I know how it's been treated. I only grind quality meat and not just whatever scraps I get off the floor.

The only meat I have had that I did not like the flavor of was antelope. I didn't stop eating antelope, I just found a way to cook it that my family liked. We found it was great in chili, so for many years the antelope would be cut up for the year supply of chili meat. If you or a family member don't like the meat, try something different with it. You might have to change your cooking habits a little, but you can probably come up with something good for everyone.

 

Well every animal has their own flavor, elk tastes different than deer, deer tastes different than moose, etc. Depending on your location some pick up sage brush flavor which is bad...but if theres lots of fields/grass/acorns etc they pick up a sweeter flavor. We have pretty much gone to wild game for our red meat unless we go to restaurants. We only buy ribs or brisket. Most ground we use is wild game. I cant remember the last beef steak Ive had, prob 5 yrs ago at least.

Some of the "gamey" flavor is in not cooling down the animal and letting it hang. pooled blood in the meat gives it a gamey taste. The other thing that makes a gamey taste is when the bucks are in rut. It too can be strong tasting.

someone just posted in here about a Liver taste, which kind of makes sense. This is the reason I say it needs to be hanging to drain out the blood.

 

all this people don't like it, ive never had bad tasting deer (minus summer sausage that I didn't shoot or process). I mean honestly it tastes better than beef....elk and deer are the best red meat available... also buffalo is good too.

 

If I had to only have one kind the rest of my life, I'd pick moose. The best steaks I've ever had were caribou that were aged 7 days in the field due to weather. The meat I enjoy the most are mnt goat and sheep due to the hunt and not necessarily the taste of the meat.

 

We don't have none of that in GA from what I know... Unless @dwalden2 is smuggling in blue ridge

 

How about axis or fallow? Those are good eating. Seems like I remember seeing some area of the southeast having a growing population.

 

Nope. I don't have any black market meats up here. I would like to go kill an elk. Closest is Cherokee NC, but I don't know if they even let you hunt them up there yet considering they just reintroduced them a few years ago.

 

No hunting in Cherokee... My dad has a video of 2 elks fighting from there though...

 

Axis or fallow? I haven't hunted to long... What do u mean

 

Axis deer and Fallow deer are exotics that have gotten loose in the south and survive well. Here in the Texas Hill Country there are lots of Axis deer to hunt. Great meat

 

If I'm hunting and it's brown I'm going to shoot it...

 

You should add a sarcasm emoji to that statement

 

Sounds like my daughter. She's yet to meet a deer she doesn't want to shoot. Or a coyote, squirrel, rabbit, ground hog, etc...