# opening day



## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Tomorrow is opening day for firearms deer season here in Indiana.
My boy will be going with me, his first deer hunt.
Wish us luck, and, above all else, to all the other hunters out there, be cautious and careful out there.


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## Phil V. (May 31, 2013)

Good luck. Plan on going next week after everything is settled down around here.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Good luck! The only thing better than bagging a deer on opener is having your son bag a deer on opener.


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## montysky (Aug 21, 2006)

Best of luck to you and your boy.


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Well, I got one, a good sized for, about 135 pounds or so. My boy didn't get one, yet. I am glad I got a deer, but would have been absolutely thrilled if my boy would have gotten one.
Oh well, we still have the rest of the season.


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Talk about luck....
Got to my spot this morning, waited about an hour, then a herd of 7 deer came running past, 2 buck, 5 doe.
I shot a buck, dressed out about 170, 8 pointer, then one of the does actually turned and started running straight at me. Pumped spent shell out of gun, new one in chamber and I shot her too. Perfect shot, right between the front legs. She is about 110 pounds.
Both have been skinned and are hanging now.

Pretty good, tho, 2 deer in about 15 to 20 seconds.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

good luck , ours opens Saturday morning at sun up


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

Wow.. so Indiana will let you take two in a day?

Although, even if they didn't, if I had a PO'd deer charging at me, I'm gonna shoot it too... I've been stared down at 5 feet by a big buck, and didn't think I was going to walk away from it.... I learned... SHOOT...


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

In Wisconsin we can take as many as we have tags for as fast as we want and when we party hunt you can **** as many as the hole group has tags for , i have shot 2 standing next to each other , by the time the second realized what had happened she was falling also 

my best year yet was 4 in 3 days that was 3 bucks and a doe had a few years with 3 in 2 days


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Yes, we can take as many a day as we have tags for. But party hunting is illegal in Indiana.
Buck is still hanging in the barn with a bag of ice in his chest cavity, but he has been skinned.
Doe has been butchered, mostly. I have her stripped to the bones, her skeleton is still hanging in my garage, I have a couple large pots of chunks of meat in the fridge. Got too tired while processing tonight. 

But I do have 5, 1.5 pound +/- bags of burger in the freezer and 6 pkgs of steaks in freezer.

This is my first time ever butchering a deer, and I know I am not getting it done "correctly", but it doesn't matter to me what proper cuts are supposed to be. It will all eat the same.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I keep the back straps and tenderloins , cut the hams up for jerky what i can get good slices off of any way then grind all the rest 

it all grinds the same , and works good in so many thing 

it's going to be kind of sad with only 8 of us in the party this year we have had as many as 14 then we can really cover some ground


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## dkhern (Nov 30, 2012)

love hunting and being outdoors love vinson. putting up meat is a pain. canned 52 pt and 26 qt over the weekend/ its a job


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

dkhern said:


> love hunting and being outdoors love vinson. putting up meat is a pain. canned 52 pt and 26 qt over the weekend/ its a job


It is a lot of work for one person , I can do about 3 deer a day by myself and it takes 6-7 hours and by then I am beat , and sore 

but if a few people pitch in 3 people can have a deer done every 30-40 minutes or so with skin and bone out , canning just doen't get much faster unless you can be running 3 pressure cookers .but having a person or to to divide up jobs with like one to keep jars washing and lids , and when they aren't doing that helping trim and cube meat , while you pack and shuttle jars in and out , at 90 minutes a run with 3 cookers going you almost don't stop between packing and moving jars around 

but what you really did was save hours in the kitchen later. potted meat cooks so fast ,and no waiting to thaw


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Dixie Bee Acres said:


> This is my first time ever butchering a deer, and I know I am not getting it done "correctly", but it doesn't matter to me what proper cuts are supposed to be. It will all eat the same.


There is no such thing as "correctly" when it comes to converting a deer to venison. As long as it remains edible from the woods to the table, that's the main thing. One time I was given a monster buck which was so old that the meat was purple rather than red. Canned 27 pints and ground remaining 125# to make into jerky. There was no other way to turn that beast into anything else. Otherwise it's mainly large chunks for roasts and steaks or ground meat. 

I've been promised at least one deer for Thanksgiving Day but with an option of as many more as I can handle. (For WI members, they'll be coming from Grant County with unlimited $2 Herd Control Unit 73B tags.) How they are butchered will depend upon size and how many. 

Martin


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Well I finished my doe. Just went out to garage to take down her skeleton, and saw that had I known what i was doing and had more patience, I might have been able to get a few more pounds of burger.

Oh well, live and learn.
I also went to town today and bought a couple pork butts. Fattiest and chrapest cuts of pork. Will grind that in with the meat from the buck at a 80/20 ratio and make some sausage.

Soon as wife gets home from work, I start on that.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

You could also have saved some of the doe fat to mix with the lean buck meat. Not necessarily the pure fat but the strips of marbled meat from between the ribs. Even the buck should have some fat in those strips. Definitely include them in your mix. That usually isn't nearly as strong-tasting as rump or back fat may be.

Martin


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I save the tallow and render it down for use in black powder bullet lube mix , it has great properties for that.

as for the meat we clean all the fat , If i want it to patty up I add an egg

but mostly we use the ground as loose meat in spaghetti with meat sauce , chilli , sloppy does , meat loaf , and canned for biscuits and gravy 

this year i am saving livers , not because i like liver , liver is ok but i like the gravy and potatoes more than the liver so why bother, but to cut in nice little cubes and use for bait , for trapping but i did have a guy telling me he caught more on liver than any other cut bait when fishing. he was using beef liver about to expire from the grocery store down in south Carolina , but I may try it around her never know.


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Got my buck done up as a European mount, got it back today.
I'm going to make a wood plate to affix to it so I can hang it on the wall.

Going to try to load a pic....


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

Surprise surprise, still can't upload pics from an android phone.


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