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11-29-2013, 08:57 PM
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There is more to hunting than just shooting animals.
On opening day of modern gun season while hunting with my father and my two sons (oldest just out of college and youngest in high school) I killed a nice 8 point whitetail deer. It was only about an hour after daylight, I saw where the buck dropped and I’d seen a number of does earlier so I just sat tight. After about 30 minutes a light rain started so I sent a text message to my youngest son, who was closest to me, to come on over so we could drag this deer out to the trail.
After he hiked over from his stand I pointed out where the deer lay and he went over and found it. I climbed down and we dragged it out to the old logging trail, then he went back to where we’d left our ATV and rode it back so we could load up the deer and haul it back to our deer camp.
Once we got to camp, we hung the deer from our skinning post, and commenced to skin the deer, then quarter and cut it up for the ice chest. My oldest son and dad came in as we were skinning the deer and fixed breakfast. Later that afternoon, my oldest son killed a 9 point buck and when he got it back to camp, he and my dad skinned and dressed it while my youngest son and I fixed a dinner of pan fried potatoes and venison tenderloin from my buck.
I’ve deer hunted with my dad as far back as I can remember, and I’ve been bringing my boys to deer camp in south Arkansas to hunt with me and their grandfather since they were about 6 or 7 years old. It’s a tradition we look forward to every year.
At the end of the weekend hunt I took the big ice chest with the two deer to a buddy of mine, Steve, who is a meat processer. He does a good job and he processes hundreds of deer every season and I’ve been doing business with him several years. This year I told him to fix me up with some jalapeño and cheese summer sausage, venison and pork breakfast sausage, venison polish sausage, venison bratwurst, hot links, teriyaki snack sticks, Tex-Mex snack sticks, and then leave me some sliced up so I could dehydrate my own jerky. He said he was pretty loaded up and would call me in about 10 days or so when it was ready.
He called me first thing the morning after Thanksgiving and said it was ready, so drove over mid-morning to pick it up. I backed up to his loading dock and went inside and paid him. As we were loading it in the back of my truck another pickup backed up to the dock beside me. Out from the cab stepped out three young men in their 20’s who’d obviously been out hunting that morning. I glanced over into the back of the truck and there were five does in the back. None of them had been skinned or even gutted. I’ve never deer hunted anywhere other than Arkansas, but you must have your deer duly tagged and reported when you take it to a processor or he won’t accept it. Fortunately, these boys were all legal and had their tags and confirmation numbers from the Arkansas Game & Fish.
One of the boys looked at me and said, “Good morning Deputy Faulkner.”
It took me a moment, but I finally recognized him as a boy who’d played on the same Little League baseball team as my oldest son a few years back. “Hello Josh. Looks like you boys had some luck.”
“Yes sir, but we didn’t see any bucks.”
Just for grins, I had to ask, “do you boys not know how to skin a deer?”
They looked over at me and one of them replied, “No sir. We just always bring them here and drop them off.”
“You’re kidding?” I said. I looked over at Steve and asked, “how much do you charge for that?”
“$65.00 if they bring ‘em in with nothing but a bullet hole in ‘em.”
“Boys, I don’t want to take any business away from my buddy here, but do you realize that you could save over $300.00 if you just skinned ‘em out before you brought them here. I could skin all five of these in not much more than an hour once I got them hung up. You boys aren’t scared of a little blood and guts are you?”
“No sir.”
“You guys seem like fine young men and I’m certainly not one to tell you how to spend your money, but there’s more to hunting than just shooting animals. I bet $300 is a day and a half to two day’s pay for you guys and that sure seems like a lot to pay for somebody else to do something that a young man ought to know how to do himself. Surely with all the internet skills young folks have these days you could find a YouTube video that shows you how to do it.”
As we loaded the last of my deer in the truck, Steve laughed and told me that about a third of the deer he receives were brought in just like those the boys brought. He said a lot of folks these days just don’t know how to field dress a deer. I find that amazing.
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Last edited by Faulkner; 11-29-2013 at 09:24 PM.
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11-29-2013, 09:13 PM
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In my family you shoot it, catch it you clean it, normally there was someone to help skin the larger critter.
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11-29-2013, 09:19 PM
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That just blows my mind. I've never seen a deer brought into a processor that wasn't field dressed to keep the meat from spoiling. I hope that meat never gets mixed in with mine.
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11-29-2013, 09:23 PM
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Some of my best hunts didn't have a shot fired. Me, my Dad, Uncle, Cousin and assorted family friends sat around the fire just having a good time. We'd take turns cooking, cleaning deer etc. I remember one great hunt when it rained most of the time and all we did was shoot the proverbial bull and laugh together. The killing of the animal etc was second to the relationships.
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11-29-2013, 09:29 PM
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Those are gonna be some funky steaks lol.
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11-29-2013, 10:08 PM
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I can't believe people take their deer meat to a processor at all. I process all my own meat and I don't think anyone in my family ever used a meat processor. I would never trust someone else to do it as well as I do.
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11-29-2013, 10:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ranger514
I hope that meat never gets mixed in with mine.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arjay
Those are gonna be some funky steaks lol.
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Actually, around here, most hunters would just have to add about 5-10 minutes to the elapsed time between the shot and the time the deer is gutted if they let a processor do it. So, bringing the deer to the processor without field dressing doesn't necessarily result in meat spoilage. Last one I shot personally, I loaded on the truck and was at the processor within 15 minutes of the shot.
I have cleaned dozens (seems like hundreds) over the years. Now, my hands are arthritic, and I lost a bunch of the feeling in them due to carpal tunnel. I am afraid I would cut myself trying to skin a deer.
I agree that any self respecting deer hunter should be able to handle the animal after the shot. From here on in, though, all mine will be at the processor within 20 minutes or so.
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11-29-2013, 10:29 PM
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Cleaned, Gutted, Skinned?
Field dressed works for me.
Ever hunt a gut pile?
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11-29-2013, 11:09 PM
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A few people that I know who do not hunt just dont understand.
The actual "pulling the trigger "part of hunting is only like 2% of the whole experience.
For turkey season, it is the scouting out location, patterning the shotgun and hanging out with friends.
Practicing with the call box, the pre-sunrise walk in the woods.
And the waiting, soaking in the scent and the sounds of the woods.
So peaceful.
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11-29-2013, 11:14 PM
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First deer I ever field dressed was when I was 26. Nobody told me how-I just kinda figured it out-nothing more than a great big rabbit And this was before internet and all that! Today with all the info you can get on the net-there is no reason one should not do their own, unless for reasons like redlevel. Me, I'm cheap and would rather save the money
To me that is part of it-you kill it you clean it-you owe it to the animal. I was shown my first fish, first rabbit, first squirrel, first oyster first crawfish, etc. After that I was on my own. I'm still pretty proud of the fact that nobody ever taught me the deer.
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Last edited by CAJUNLAWYER; 11-29-2013 at 11:17 PM.
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11-29-2013, 11:20 PM
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11-29-2013, 11:28 PM
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Last year I took a younger (13 years junior) colleague elk hunting. He had been 8 times prior and had never seen an elk. I shot one first hour opening morning (tried to get him to shoot, but he couldn't see it). He asked if I would teach him to field dress the elk. We took our time and quartered her out, then hiked her back to the truck, all nice and cooled off. Over the next few days, I put him on 2 other elk, but he was so excited he missed both shots. His comment was that he had the best time and learned more than all other hunts combined. I split the elk meat 50/50 with him...he is hooked!
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11-30-2013, 01:50 AM
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Before the private property I used to hunt was sold . I had a crop damage permit. One year I took 14 deer EVERY ONE WAS FIELD DRESSED IN MINUTES AFTER THE KILL. After I got home I'd wash out the inside hang and skin then quarter it and put it in a fridge I had in the garage within a couple of days I'd bone out the meat vaccum seal it and freeze it. A few times I'd grind the complete deer and make my own sausage or hamburg just adding pork butts or beef fat so not too lean. When I first met my wife and her two boys they said eewwww to game meat but they got used to it quick. As said the shot is only a small part of the hunt.
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11-30-2013, 02:06 AM
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It don't matter to me the least bit if anyone in camp
kills a deer. It makes things more fun and interesting
to sit on stand if your seeing deer but just the laughs,
fellowship, dining, and overall good time mean more to
me than killing a deer.
We may not skin all our deer before we take them to a processor
but they will always be gutted within 1/2 hour of the kill usually.
Like Redlevel said, some folks with bad hands or backs might
not be able to but those young-uns sure should be cleaning their
own deer to save a little money if nothing else.
Chuck
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11-30-2013, 02:17 AM
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First deer I shot at was less than 50 yards and I gut shot him, TWICE.
NOBODY would get near that deer to instruct me how to properly field dress it.
It was trial and error.
Biggest thing I ever harvested before my first deer was a 17 lb Nutra Rat.
When I was invited on my first deer hunt I was 19. Boy was I GREEN. I wasn't going to go spend nearly two weeks pay on a rifle, scope, and accessories for a hunt that I KNEW I would hate. I'd just use my 870 Wingmaster and chunk some slugs in the general vicinity of any buck that walked within range. BIG MISTAKE.
Since that day I've learned that a properly placed head or neck shot from a 30/06 or .270 drops them in their tracks without disturbing the "Vitals" and field dressing is a "Breeze", if you're up-wind .
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11-30-2013, 04:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Faulkner
“You’re kidding?” I said. I looked over at Steve and asked, “how much do you charge for that?”
“$65.00 if they bring ‘em in with nothing but a bullet hole in ‘em.”
“Boys, I don’t want to take any business away from my buddy here, but do you realize that you could save over $300.00 if you just skinned ‘em out before you brought them here. I could skin all five of these in not much more than an hour once I got them hung up. You boys aren’t scared of a little blood and guts are you?”
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I'm wondering if there was a little mis-communication going on, or if the deer aren't the only things getting skinned (i.e, $65 charge for skinning and gutting). The last time I had a chance to deer hunt back home in NE OK was 2010, and processors normally got around $60 to $70ish for the basic job no matter how the animal arrived, and all the little extra things that are popular now like snack sticks, sausage, etc, added charges by the pound. They probably wouldn't have many takers adding $65 for skinning and gutting.
I can clean and put up my own deer, have done it before, but sometimes hitting the easy button wins out.
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11-30-2013, 04:49 AM
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My 2 sons had watched me field dress a few deer & I explained each step along the way. When they each got their 1st, I gutted it for them. The rule was to pay close attention, because it's the last 1 I would do for them.
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11-30-2013, 09:16 AM
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I am a Bird Hunter and once a year we go on a week long Pheasant Hunt Upstate - about 3-4 separate hunts during that week where we get plenty of birds. We have two dedicated Hunting Dogs that are owned by a friend there and they always get the birds! The rest of the week we spend laughing, joking, a few drinks and cigars and lots of great meals! In between we do lots of target shooting, informal CAS, Sporting Clays, etc.
Once in a while I'll take a walk in the woods locally to kick up a Pheasant or two, but here at home I don't have a Hunting Dog, so we don't use one. Our family Golden Retriever would rather sniff the local trees! We will get a Pheasant or two once in a blue moon but it's definitely NOT just about shooting the Birds. I LOVE to walk through the fields and woods even if we never see a bird that day.
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11-30-2013, 10:46 AM
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When I was a teenager I worked for a processor as a skinner. 600-900 animals during gun season alone. Of the thousands of deer we took in during the years I worked for him, I saw less than 50 come in already skinned and of those 50 less than ten that were skinned well-almost all were covered with hair that was "dried-in". What a mess! We preferred to do the skinning (there was not an extra charge for this service and no discount if already done). 25-40 bucks was the total charge. Marv wouldn't even charge extra for the very few that came in needing to be gutted, which I would not do. Glad a third of ours didn't come in with just a bullet hole in 'em! You shoot it, you dress it! Except the folks with some kind of disability, that is....
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11-30-2013, 11:34 AM
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While I can truly understand Faulkners' point, and I gotta say- a wonderful thread, BTW!! I will take his tact and either explain to young hunters how to do it, or take some time and help them with it.
I have found that a lot of the next generation of hunters are young folks whose families did not hunt with them.
Many of my sons' friends, and quite a few of the guys I hunt with I taught, because their dads or uncles did not hunt or fish much. The kids whom I taught had parents who could not afford hunting, or were immigrants from Mexico and did not even understand they could own a gun, let alone go shoot animals. Also, many of them just fear legal complications, so they shy away from guns, and police.
I have had quite a few who were shooters, even military, but just never hunted. But, going for game looked fun to them when I would go with the other guys, so they were interested.
I am happy to see that some young folks take the initiative to get themselves into hunting. I try to show them the ropes on anything they are not real familiar with, and show them that anyone can do it for the most part, and with some practice, they can get pretty good at it.
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11-30-2013, 11:43 AM
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This brings back lots of memories of hunting with my dad and his buddies. Back in the mid to late '60s, pickup trucks were farm vehicles, and most of the guys chained up the tires of their family cars to go hunting when it snowed. It was tricky driving on some of those old forest service logging roads. Only a few guys were lucky enough to have Jeeps or other 4-wheel drive vehicles, and the deer we harvested were normally lashed to the front or rear fenders, or hung part way out the trunks of those older cars.
Since part of the hunt was helping others in our party fill their tags, we hung our deer in the rafters of a wood shed, and stayed at camp until we had to leave for work or school. We played cards, read books, napped, or just shot the breeze. No electricity, no generators, no outside distractions.
Inside the enclosed front porch, a faded old hand painted sign from the Prohibition Era proclaimed "No Flappers Allowed." My dad had to explain to me what "Flappers" were. Anybody here know the answer? Back then, there were very few women who hunted, and our camp was normally all guys.
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