Deer

fiver

Well-Known Member
I don't know for sure how they work it here.
out of state license and tag are about 500$, but you can take a black bear with an OOS deer tag and then go buy a second deer tag for your deer.
it's quite a bit cheaper than most other places and we get a lot of out of state hunters because of that.

areas that I used to do well in are over run with road hunters doing 35-40 mph and passing me left and right while I'm working the spotting scope.
they started catching on to what I was doing when they would come past me for the 5th time that day and see us loading a deer into the truck.
it was so bad last year that I cut the road in when it had over a foot of new snow on it and was passed by 6 trucks before I made it 4 miles up the road.
2 miles later I had passed 4 of them buried in the ditch and could offer no assistance on my 4 wheeler.
during that ride not one single side road had been used and there were no foot prints going up any of the trails except the one I went up.
by noon, when I come back down, the road was pounded into flat mud.
any other time of the year I can drive the full length of the road [about 45 miles of dirt] and might maybe see one other truck.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
The $30 lifetime is only for seniors, I'm old so I qualify. :D They do have lifetime licenses for whipper snappers too but a whole lot more money. Dunno how much more but a bunch. John has the fish & game book so maybe he could look it up.
 

Tony

Active Member
The Arkansas 65+ Lifetime Combination License now costs $35.50. The non-expiring lifetime resident hunting and fishing sportsman's permit is $1,000.00. I'm not John but I have the 2017 AR Hunting Guidebook.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
it worked out good for her.
I went up with her hubby, then pushed down through the draw I jumped the big buck out of yesterday.
I guess this guy was laid up on the edge about halfway down and decided whatever was above him was making too much noise and decided to bail.
he come out and kept looking back at me and scooting along so I stopped and sat down on a log in an opening where he could see me.
he finally decided I was no threat and settled down into heading back into cover.
unfortunately for him the edge of that cover was where I had her sitting
he wandered by at about 125 yds. and she give him a little whistle.
he stopped and looked at her from behind the brush line he was following and she punched him right through the white patch under his chin.
he went down so quick I missed the whole thing and looked for him running off through the Bino's I finally swept back to where he had been standing and could see his 4 feet up in the air.

I swung the Bino's over to where she was and she waved good bye and was walking back down to the truck to take the Baby back from Grandma.
I went over and cleaned the guts out and the boy was up there with the oldest girl following along to drag him down to the truck about the time I was done. [I was wondering where they all were Tuesday when I had to bring mine down by myself]
I swapped vehicles with them and waited for the SIL to come down off the ridge top while they took the Buck down to hang and skin before taking the kid to some Dr. appointment.
Trystan heard the shot and decided since he whiffed on the buck he seen he might as well come down and help.
by the time I got him home they had the deer hung up and about 75% skinned out.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
Congratulations to Dawn!

They don't have many smooth head deers up there? All seem to have pointy handles on their heads. ;)

Fiver's guna need a drag or cart at this rate. I bring the drag on flat land hunts, bring the cart & 1600' of rope on a garden hose reel for the hills & gullies.

AND right after having a baby...? Tough cookie, should be most proud, fiver. Way to go.:)
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
we got lot's of the flat top deer running around.
too many still, but they just closed the either-or youth hunt.

I liked the idea of letting kids 18 or under take a Doe, it would reduce the numbers towards a more balanced number between them and the Bucks' and it allowed the kids a chance for success.
instead of sucking it up like I had to and just sit there and watch 50 deer a day parade past.
I'm still seeing a high B/D ratio but it's better then it was and is probably down to 8 to 1 now.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
heavy and a lot heavier?
the 2.5 point was probably walking around at 150-160 lbs.
the other one weighed probably closer to 220-230, he really needed another year to reach full maturity.
the 3x4 I shot last year had about 15 lbs of muscle on him but nowhere near as much fat.

by the time they are all broke down for the freezer I'm guessing 110lbs of meat.
we still got one more to go unless the wife or oldest girl decide on a tag.
I might go back out tonight with the SIL we have a snow storm coming in sometime tonight/tomorrow and seen a couple of bucks down in the hay fields last night.
we just need to walk back to the north a little further [another mile or so] to get between their daytime hang out and the food source.
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Sometimes if I kill one back in a ways I bone them out and carry them out in a backpack. It adds some time at the front end and an extra trip to fetch the pack, but carrying is easier than dragging. You ever do that? Dunno if that is legal out there.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
yeah boning them out is no problem.
I was gonna take my day pack just for that reason.
I line it with a garbage bag, then pull out the parts I want from the inside and the back straps.
fold that bag over, and put another one on top, bone out the front legs and neck.
then take the back legs and put them on top with the evidence of sex left attached to the one leg.
I tie the head on back of the pack with a towel over it's head.

we generally take the first few day's of the hunt and back pack in a couple of miles and hunt from camp.
I have my normal pack set up so I can tie a couple of things on the outside and carry the back legs inside and the head on the outside same as the day pack, then distribute the rest of the meat to anyone else with me.

I also have just a fanny pack type arrangement which is what I had with me that day.
it carries lunch, rope, water, knives, gloves type stuff, and is good for about half a day.
I usually go get help but that wasn't an option so I just sucked it up and got it down the best I could.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
they'll hang in the cold for another week then they will get processed.
we now have 3 of them to do.
we got the SIL a nice little 3x4 almost the same size as the one I got last year.
I figure we will get about 90 lbs of burger between the 3.
the majority of it will be made into hamburger and mixed with beef fat.
then we can make a bunch of it into jerky.

the back straps will get cut into medallions and wrapped with bacon. [I figure about 40 of those]
we will get 4 real nice [4-5lbs each] neck roasts, and we should be able to get a dozen good 10-12oz steaks.
plus enough [1/4" square X 2-3"s] strips of good meat to make 8-9 lbs of fajita strips. [my favorite]
 
F

freebullet

Guest
Beautiful!

I cut all the steak I can, turn the rest into brown sugar breakfast sausage. Sometimes add pork fat sometimes don't. It caramelizes a bit to quick without.

Fortunately it isn't cold enough for aging here yet.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I make all the steaks I can, then divide the rest into two piles depending on if it will fall through my 3/4" cast iron grill grate openings or not. Suction-bag it all and freeze it. I can make stew, chili, or jerky out of the small stuff later as wanted. It takes forever to process it with just a knife but I'm just not into grinding stuff and not much for deer roasts. Wild pig and beef can stew in their own sweet fat and make a tasty roast but venison is a tough one to do very well.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I'm real picky about what we grind and will take the time to cut out all the silver skin and all the fat off everything.
it probably wastes a few lbs of meat but I get real good quality and no off/gamey taste.
it'll burn up the entire Sunday and take 4-5 of us to get it done but it's worth the effort.

we talked about doing some sausage and I might pick up a couple of pork shoulders [or see if I can get just some pork fat] to mix up and squeeze into some casings just for something new.
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Steaks, backstraps, and ground for us. I like to let them hang as long as possible, even all winter if we have killed enough. Gets rid of any gaminess and tenderizes the meat through enzymatic action. True, the hide sticks pretty good after the winter and can be hard to skin off. I use compressed air under the hide to loosen the grip.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I have left the hide on when hanging them and hoboy is it hard to get off after a while.
it does a good job of protecting the meat though.
I also don't like it when the meat gets real cold while it hangs that makes it hard to deal with too.