Recreating a Deer Woods

[Chainsaw]

Canned 16 pints this weekend. Slice of yellow onion in the bottom, pack in raw cubed venison. 1/2 tsp canning salt, 1/2 tsp pepper (fresh ground) and beef bouillon cube all on top. 11 psi for 90 minutes. It was perfect. No extra liquid needed. New favorite and quick way to prepare meal. Especially with a newborn and 3 yr old at home. Daughter really enjoys watching me butcher - very interested in it!! SORRY TO HIJACK THIS THREAD!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

No hijack at all, I'm glad you commented. Taking care of our venison is a very important part of each of our hunts and that is a great photo someone captured there. Thanks for reading and commenting.

 

[Chainsaw]

I cooked your jagermister(sp) recipe for the family and it was a solid 3out of four stars. Wife and youngest loved it, the problem child thought it was okay. That is about as good a compliment as she gives. There were no left overs so I know it was a hit.

Super! We'll take the three out of four; we have had some died in the wool venison haters go crazy cleaning their plates on that recipe. It is just so simple but sooooooooo good! I'm glad you cooked it for your family.

Be sure to try the one labeled ; Korean Barbecue. We wrote in our book--do not marinate for more than twenty minutes and go a bit easier on the soy sauce. I'll bet especially the # 4 odd vote will like that one. Let us know.

 

[Chainsaw]

Thanks HB; our NY property has reached a peak that we had pretty much given up on ever achieving. We have benefited much from this forum and the old forum interactions and couldn't be happier. There are still lots of ongoing hurdles of course; One for example some of the mature bucks raised here get themselves killed while off our property during the rut. All we can do when that happens is congratulate those lucky hunters that do it legally;conversely we work with our DEC officers to provide all the intel we can on those that make the bad decision to kill those bucks illegally. We have a great group of conscientious and competent DEC officers here and those fellow hunters that make any poor decisions regarding following laws have a very tough row to hoe. The DEC officers really dig up every possible detail on each call; the officers provide a great service to those here that do follow the game laws.

In other hurdles like winter feeding of course it is up to us to handle, is within our control to handle in all but the very worst winters and we welcome the challenge to provide adequate winter food no matter what winter throws at them.

 

[Chainsaw]

Mom used a Pressure Cooker until ours blew up one time and we never did find the gauge part that blew off!
Then she returned to "old style" where a simple Roasting Pan with Lid was used and the Jars set inside. Same Principle of Cubed Venison, salt & pepper and a Beef Bouillon Cube placed on top. She would fill the jars with water to the "neck" and leave some space for expansion.

She had a pair of Grips that were made for grabbing the tops of the Jars and would set them out after 90 minutes of cooking. I don't recall she ever pre-cooked the cubes. The meat cooks in it's own juice.

After she set out the done jars she would re-heat the water to boiling and set new jars in. The Taken Out Jars were set on Newspaper laid out on the counter. When the Lids POPPED the Canning process was done.

Just dump a jar into a skillet and warm then add a little flower to thicken the juice and serve over Mashed Potatoes.

We also have a pair of jar grips,glad you brought that up; would be tough to pull the hot jars out of the pressure cooker without them. On the precooking the meat we may be over doing it; the directions we have say to preheat until the center of the meat is warm. Remember our meat is frozen and stored so that we work on a large batch at once. We thaw it in prep for canning but much of it is still partially frozen when we are cutting it. As your mom did we fill just to the bottom of the neck as well as there is some expansion when in the pressure cooker.

Another detail we didn't mention; there are two styles of pressure cookers that I have heard of, ones with gaskets and ones without. we use one made to work without a gasket and are very happy with it; I've not used the ones with a gasket so am not in position to comment on that style.

 

[Triple C]

Dave - One of the crowning jewels on this forum is your thread and the time you take to share so much in great detail with all that you are doing and all you've learned.

 

[Elkaddict]

Thanks Dave. The wife has the supplies as she bottles fruit periodically. Any sense as to whether precooking makes a difference?

 

[Chainsaw]

Thanks Dave. The wife has the supplies as she bottles fruit periodically. Any sense as to whether precooking makes a difference?

No Tom, I'm not sure but what it does is start everything off on about the same temp and because we are not going for rare meat it doesn't seem to matter if it is cooked ten minutes extra either way. In our precooking we are simply filling a tray with meat with a small amount of olive oil, some pepper and salt and and placing in the oven--not a big step at all.

 

[Chainsaw]

Dave - One of the crowning jewels on this forum is your thread and the time you take to share so much in great detail with all that you are doing and all you've learned.

Thank you triple C. Your post, this post you made means a very lot to me!

 

[Chainsaw]

Removed a couple of DMAP deer late afternoon from the property so the freezer will be full again; And there will be two less deer eating our finite winter browse. That makes five DMAP deer removed from the property this year. Our analysis showed we should take fifteen does, the DEC gave us ten tags and we have only used five so far and likely won't use more than one or two more at the most. This will be the first time I can recall we haven't used all the tags we requested and received. The excellent mature buck presence and activity that we enjoyed this year kept us reluctant to add pressure by taking does. Additionally we wanted to be sure to have ample does around to keep deer like this on our property so they can grow to even more than what they are today. Note the browse/cover in the under story; before logging it was wide open here. Visibility was 100 yards, now visibility is twenty-five yards. The deer like the new deal. And I am so glad That I let the deer below walk last year as well.




Thinking next year maybe harvesting does during early muzzle loader season in doe harvesting plots well away from bedding areas and just feet from the road. Early muzzle loader lasts a week and starts around Oct. 12 or so. The weather is so much more comfortable then for cutting the deer up and if planned and done strategically as many deer as needed to be removed can be in only a couple or three days. Note;we say this almost every year to ourselves but maybe next year we will really do it.

Taking out does on years that browse surveys show it is needed gives us all the venison we could ever eat but no matter when we do it the timing is always off; Shoot them very early and there are less does to hold the bucks, shoot them late and the weather is tough for processing them(maybe a heated processing shack is the answer), shoot them in the middle of the season and ruin the rut activity. The almost optimum plan of course is to shoot them early along property lines inhabited by outlaws that repeatedly take more bucks than they are legally allowed to. This takes more planning and work but perhaps next year we can make that happen. Writing it in this post will at least put a little more pressure on me to make it happen as it should.

Chummer, if you are free on Sunday I could use your already demonstrated sharp shooting skills to close out the season with another DMAP deer.

 

[rusty1034]

Chainsaw, you are in an enviable, yet commendable situation. Despite the winters in your neighborhood, you have provided the habitat that allows you to harvest an ample number of doe. Kudos to you on your hard work.

About 100 miles north of you I am plugging away at improving my own little slice.

I took what I'm guessing is a 2 1/2 yr old from one of my food plots earlier this year. Without any doe tags, it made for kind of a short , but rewarding season.



Today I did a cruise of my chunk to take down stands, blinds, cameras etc.

This early winter has me concerned, but it seems as if the plots I have in are being well used.



This brassica plot is getting lots of use, even if there is not much left.

This winter rye plot is obviously getting hit pretty hard.



Got this pix of what I'm guessing is a 2 1/2 yr old who I'm hoping makes it another year.



On the way out tonight I checked a neighboring 20 acre alfalfa field. Was happy to see 26 deer in it, even though there were no bucks.

I'm looking forward to continuing improvements to help the deer, in turn helping me.

Happy Holidays all-

Rusty



Rusty

 

[Chainsaw]

Thank you Rusty. That is great news you have;26 deer in a froze out alfalfa field is a very high amount of deer, hopefully it is not too many for the area to handle. Be sure to take pictures of such occurrences when you can so when you need to apply for DMAP you have the facts that DEC can easily see. Agricultural damage in an alfalfa field is hard to see but a pic of 26 deer in one field daylight or night time is pretty convincing, even a pic of a dozen in one field is pretty convincing in my book. With the clear cutting, firewood cutting and apple tree releasing you are doing and a base of 26 deer-plus, a population explosion is in the making if winter is even half kind to us. As to no bucks in the alfalfa field--no biggie. We seldom -close to seemingly never see bucks in the forty acre alfalfa filed bordering us though it often has many deer in it. You may not be there yet but it is not too early to figure out how to be set up to qualify for Agricultural damage. It sounds like you may be seeing the "problem" of too many deer shortly.


As an aside it is funny that you saw 26 deer in that one field. Coincidentally we have a field named the 26 deer field. Dad had named it maybe twenty-five years ago as he saw 26 deer in it once and thereafter and to this day we refer to that spot as "the 26 deer field".

I couldn't open Rusty's pictures; if anyone knows how please post on here- thank you.

I'm very glad Rusty that you were able to take a 2 1/2 and have yet another on your property. That is huge headway from a couple of years ago and two and a half year old deer are pretty large in northern New York compared to anywhere else. I know what you mean about the short season; the cameras really add to the season here as they actually take as much or more time to set up and manage as our actual hunting does.

 

[Chummer]

Dave I would love to come “help you out” tomorrow but I am hosting Thanksgiving, round two. My cousin was in Boston getting treatment and missed round 1 so we are doing it up again. Otherwise I would be in. I have a pretty slow week coming up, if you want me to break out the muzzle loader pick a day. I will be there with bells on, silent ones of coarse. Don’t count on that buck making it to next year. Anne might have something to say about that. Tomorrow looks like a good processing day!

 

[Chainsaw]

Dave I would love to come “help you out” tomorrow but I am hosting Thanksgiving, round two. My cousin was in Boston getting treatment and missed round 1 so we are doing it up again. Otherwise I would be in. I have a pretty slow week coming up, if you want me to break out the muzzle loader pick a day. I will be there with bells on, silent ones of coarse. Don’t count on that buck making it to next year. Anne might have something to say about that. Tomorrow looks like a good processing day!

Sounds good Jeremy. Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast to be the two best weather days, Tuesday is on the cold side while Wednesday is warmer but will see snow showers in the pm, you pick which day. Actually Anne already has us on doe hunting only now. Let me know either way. It is not an emergency to shoot more does as the growth can handle it but it is best to keep the population in check while our tags are available.

Rusty, I know you are far away but you are more than welcome to come down for a sit next week as well if you'd like; I have enough DMAP tags and does that we can each take a doe if we get the opportunity.

 

[Chummer]

Sounds good Jeremy. Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast to be the two best weather days, Tuesday is on the cold side while Wednesday is warmer but will see snow showers in the pm, you pick which day. Actually Anne already has us on doe hunting only now. Let me know either way. It is not an emergency to shoot more does as the growth can handle it but it is best to keep the population in check while our tags are available.

Rusty, I know you are far away but you are more than welcome to come down for a sit next week as well if you'd like; I have enough DMAP tags and does that we can each take a doe if we get the opportunity.

Sounds good to me. I will give you a call Monday

 

[rusty1034]

So generous Dave. Thanks. I sent you a pm




Rusty

 

[Chainsaw]

Pulled a card yesterday Does and kids are looking great.


This buck looks like he is ready to let the rut end..

 

[Chummer]

That looks like a big buck to me. Is he 3.5 or an over stuffed 2.5? His rack is the typical 2.5for the Hill but body after the rut says older.

 

[Chainsaw]

That looks like a big buck to me. Is he 3.5 or an over stuffed 2.5? His rack is the typical 2.5 for the Hill but body after the rut says older.

Other pictures of him definitely point to a 3 1/2--no question about it. Maybe next year he will have a little mass to his four, five or six point rack and next year he will likely dress at 185 to 200; not a wall hanger but a shooter here NEXT YEAR. I'm amazed he is still alive as he is quite aggressive in his doe chasing and daytime movement on this property; maybe he hasn't ventured off the property much.

With a good amount of cameras out this year for the first year it is evident that while we have some of the worst antler genes going there are also in some cases tremendous antler genes in this area, not out west type genes but still pretty special. Many just need the extra year (4 1/2) to show their stuff.

 

[Chummer]

Other pictures of him definitely point to a 3 1/2--no question about it. Maybe next year he will have a little mass to his four, five or six point rack and next year he will likely dress at 185 to 200; not a wall hanger but a shooter here NEXT YEAR. I'm amazed he is still alive as he is quite aggressive in his doe chasing and daytime movement on this property; maybe he hasn't ventured off the property much.

With a good amount of cameras out this year for the first year it is evident that while we have some of the worst antler genes going there are also in some cases tremendous antler genes in this area, not out west type genes but still pretty special. Many just need the extra year (4 1/2) to show their stuff.

Put my name on him for next year. I can’t explain it but I have a thing for giant bucks with small racks. Perhaps because I see so few big racks. I get fired up for 200 pound deer despite the head gear. Prepare to have your opinion on jerky changed, just pulled it off the smoker and it is top notch.

 

[Chainsaw]

Put my name on him for next year. I can’t explain it but I have a thing for giant bucks with small racks. Perhaps because I see so few big racks. I get fired up for 200 pound deer despite the head gear. Prepare to have your opinion on jerky changed, just pulled it off the smoker and it is top notch.

I'm skeptical but willing to try just one more jerky venison. And even if that 200 lb deer doesn't have a great spread, lots of points, long tines or long beams, he will have a great base diameter measurement and that indicates a wise old buck that has run the gauntlet and survived.