experiancess in the field

[Kevin Stenberg]

I really feel good when what i pass as knowledge turns out spot on.
I have seen quite a few examples of bucks chasing does during the rut. last night i was sitting on my bow stand, and a doe came trotting by an it showed no sign of slowing down. I noticed her tail was straight out which told me she was telling all of the guy's around she was ready to breed.
I have seen bucks that were following a doe that had their nose almost touching a does butt. And i have seen bucks following a does trail 1/2 hour after the doe passed by me.
Back to the present. I kept watching all of the area i could see, but paying more attention to the trail the doe had come from. Sure enough about 5 to 10 minutes latter i see movement coming my way. He steps into the open. The first thing i notice his neck is about 2 times larger than normal. I look to see how big his horns are an determine he in one of the 9 points we have on our trail cameras. Wouldn't you know i had promised the wife and myself i wouldn't be taking anything bigger than a 4 point this year. In the 3 to 4 minutes he was in front of me he was always broadside and standing still and 40 Yards away and not having a clue i was there.
This week ( the week just prior to our rifle season) is when i have taken more bucks consistantely over all of my bow hunting time.

 

[Winelover]

This is the best time of the year to take mature bucks. Their out chasing does, at all hours of the day.

There is a reason, gun season is always after the main rut/breeding season................gives the does the opportunity to mate and replenish the herd.

 

[fiver]

our Deer rut won't start for another 2-3 weeks, it used to coincide with the muzzle loader hunt so they canceled it.

pro tip.
anyone looking to take pictures of exceptionally BIG mule deer, needs to head over to the Pinedale, Midway, and LaBarge Wyoming area, but just about anywhere between Kemmerrer and the Hoback will turn up a few along that highway.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Ours should be Second week in November. Sometimes first like last year. Sometimes third week. Only nature knows.

CW

 

[Rally]

The rut is usually the second week of season here, but like Kevin mentioned, other guys bow hunting have said the same thing. Our season is a week later this year, and we have had early cold spells and snow, so I'm betting Kevin is spot on this year.

 

[Rick H]

Here, most of the breeding is done around the 15th of November the "Peak of the Rut", and does will have bucks locked up for a day at a time. Starting Halloween the bucks go crazy, we call it "The Chase". A very few does are in heat and the bucks run all over the place at all hours of the day or night trying to find them. It is bow season here in Michigan but that first week in November, right now, is the time I would choose to try to kill a big buck.

 

[L Ross]

If I wanted to kill a big, stinky, sticky, neck swollen chunk of tainted meat, now would sure be the time. They're running around with their tongue's hanging out completely under control of their doe stabbers.
I sure wish as a land owner I could just pop one of the decent eaters wandering through my yard without using a sharpened stick and without breaking the law. We have CWD and a huge deer herd, but the mighty 'Bow Hunter's Lobby" forbids any type of population controls by normal rifle users. Then the gov't gives out hundreds of AG tags that farmers only use themselves or for selected friends.
My Dad raised me never to be a violator and I just can't bring myself to cheat the rules.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

Ross please don't sugar coat what you think. I agree. Give me a doe everytime.
CWD is centered about 30 miles from here.

 

[L Ross]

Ross please don't sugar coat what you think. I agree. Give me a doe everytime.
CWD is centered about 30 miles from here.

Yup, that's me, the old sugar coater.

 

[Rally]

Kevin,
Guess where that CWD came from? I bought a tag for the area ,because I’m trapping through most of the East side of it. Problem is I have to debone it in that area and surrender the carcass before leaving the area. They have a skinning station set up at the DNR building in Aitkin. Problem is they work daytime hours, and most in that building are working from home now! Tags are only $2.50, so no big deal if I don’t use it.

 

[Hawk]

If I wanted to kill a big, stinky, sticky, neck swollen chunk of tainted meat, now would sure be the time.

We get all the gamey flavor out by leaving it on ice, in a cooler for a week.
Drain the water off every day and top off the ice.
After a week, butcher it and the gameyness will be gone.

 

[Winelover]

I learned, years ago, to take the first legal deer that presents a good shot. Especially, if one expects to fill the larder. On my acreage, I've only taken bucks and most, using archery tackle. The buck to doe ratio is heavily skewed. I probably see ten bucks to every doe. This year, while out in the field, the only two does I've seen came with button bucks. Posted the video of the two buttons that were sparing and yesterday AM, a large doe came past me, with a button buck in tow. No wonder, I have so many bucks around.

Usually, bucks travel alone, so there is only one set of eyes watching out for predators. Much easier to get a shot off unseen. This is exasperated when hunting with archery equipment, and a couple of does and young are afoot.

I've taken a few bucks, during the rut, with swollen necks. I never experienced this gamey/rancid meat. Here in Arkansas or in Michigan. Diet has more to do with the taste of venison. Providing, you take care when field dressing your deer.

 

[RBHarter]

Mulies are best when gutted as soon after the shot as possible and skinned within 5 hr . Keeping in mind it may take 2-3 to get back to a truck . When butchering bone everything out . Freezing on the bone is the fast track to gamey .

 

[Rick H]

I believe "gameyness" is a result of two things, failure to properly handle it in the field and improper butchering.
Gutting and cooling down the carcass as soon as possible is important, and keeping it clean helps too. Dragging a gutted deer through a wet cedar swamp and filling its body cavity with mold mud and God knows what else does nothing to add to the flavor of the meat.

I think a lot of people make the mistake of butchering deer like they were cattle. Another mistake. The only deer I ever killed that was gamey was my very first. My buddy's father was a butcher for a supermarket and took the deer and butchered it just like he did beef or pigs. Running the meat through a saw, leaving fat and silverskin on like a butcher cutting a T-Bone and chops does nothing for the taste of the meat. I now debone all my venison and remove all the fat and silverskin I can. Unlike Beef, where the fat adds flavor and the marbling aids in tenderness, deer fat has a rancid taste. Get rid of it and your meat tastes much better.

 

[RBHarter]

Removing fat is also vital in mulies at least those that live on sage , bitter brush , pine nuts and sparse grass .

 

[L Ross]

I believe I used the words, big, stinky, sticky, neck swollen and tainted in my slightly hyperbolic description of the meat of a rut crazed buck. However I will stand pat that a rutting but is not my preferred eating deer.

As far as how I care for my venison. Well typically our deer are skun and hanging to cool under an hour after they hit the ground. For example, my brother-in-law called down to the house last November that he had just dropped a doe and would I help with the extraction. My small 6 pt. buck was already hanging under the leanto already skun and cooling. I got the call from Doug, through on my coveralls and took the UTV up into the woods. With a little maneuvering, I was able to get within 10 feet of the downed doe. I finished field dressing it for him because I am good at it. A doctor friend once looked at a moose I had just finished field dressing and said it looked like a surgeon had done it. We loaded the doe into the Ranger and drove it back to the yard. I used my Kubota tractor to peel the skin off just like peeling a rubber glove, almost hairless too. Forty two minutes after I got the call from Doug we were washing up in the house for lunch and his doe was hanging next to my buck. My other friend hunting the property got a small doe and by Tuesday all three deer were butchered, the hamburger ground, and 40+ pints of meat were canned.

A classic example of big buckishness occurred here at Thorn Hollow in 2018. My brother-in-law shot a big 11 point buck, with a neck swollen like a keg. We got 18 lbs. of boned out meat from that neck alone. I don't think we got even 3 lbs. of fat for the bird feeder off that entire buck. His flesh just devoid of fat. He was a 3 1/2 yr. old buck and had been running hard. The meat was tougher, and even the canned meat had that hormone laden stronger buck taste. Our mature bucks 3 years and older have a 30% chance of being CWD positive also. I'm sure I have eaten quite few positive deer over the years. The odds just say so.

So I'm fairly satisfied with my description. Big, yup, stinky and sticky, gosh yes their hock glands and even their flesh smell of testosterone and breeding/fighting hormones. Neck swollen, yup, they spent weeks sparring with trees and shrubs and then with each other, toughening the meat and reducing the palatability. When a farmer has to butcher a bull it goes into bologna and burger. I don't even want to think about eating an intact boar pig, yuck.

The poorer quality of the meat of an intact, mature male animal has nothing to do with how it is handled. It is less than ideal to begin with. Now to all of the hunters who equate the length of the G-2's with their penis size, well, as they often tell me,"My wife and kids don't eat that shit anyway."

 

[Tomme boy]

This is why I only shoot does now. I have had my fill of antlers. I have a 189 3/8" 15pt here on the wall I got with my muzzleloader. Probably will never ever get a bigger one so I just shoot does now. If I see a bigger one than I have I will have to think real hard about shooting it. I might just take a pic and say there, you are dead.

The rutting bucks just taste awful. That 15pt neck was so swollen it made his head look like a baby deers. The meat looked like spider webs in the neck. It ran 15 yds from where it was shot and I drove my truck right to it to load it. It never had a chance to get drug through anything. It was sub 328 that day and gutted 15 minutes after shot. Most all of our deer we drive right up to them and load them out. Others in my group will shoot anything with bone sticking out of its head. And they all tasted the same as the big ones. We are right at the end of the rut when we get a chance to shoot them. Most all the bucks have zero fat. The does on the other hand seem to have about 2" all over their whole body. They eat very well in the areas we hunt. Corn and bean fed. Plus tons of acorns. We have a couple of persimmons tress on one farm. It is a magnet for deer.

 

[Tomme boy]

Not the best pic but the only one I have on this computer. Forgot. 235gr cast 0.40 cal lead bullet in a 50cal sabot over 150gr Pyrodex pellets.

 

[Rockydoc]

I hunt on my brother in laws farm. When we shoot a deer we load it onto a vehicle and take it to a barn with a chain hoist. We hang it and pull the skin off down to the head. We cut off the front feet, the carcass hangs on a gimbal by the back legs. We then remove the back straps, the front leg/shoulder, and then cut through the hip joints and remove the back legs, hams. The back straps and shoulders and hams go into an Igloo and covered with ice from the commercial ice maker there in the barn. The head, hide, spine, and body cavity(unopened) are then disposed of in a bury pit. We don’t care for the liver and don’t have to touch the guts. The meat never touches the guts. After the meat is well chilled and at the hunter/butcher’s leisure it is deboned.

 

[Joshua]

Thanks for the stories guys. I just finished two weeks “in the field”. I saw very little deer. What I did see a whole lot of was hunter orange. Where I live in Western Washington is very close to the population centers that run north to south on Interstate 5. Lots of people on public DNR timber land, or Private Timber land.

The classic beginner scenario is to get to a clear cut at first/last light, sit on a stump, and hope a buck walks in front of you. It worked for my buddy this year. Just not for me.

We had a full moon, clear skies, and warm day time temps. Great for night time feeding, and getting to bedding early.

I did no scouting this year, other than one walk in the woods. This was my initial mistake

I have read quite a bit about our costal blacktails on a local forum. From that reading I have come to a few conclusions about my recent failure.

One, don’t ignore the midday hunt. Many deer are taken between 10am to 1pm. They eat every 5 hours. I didn’t know that they take lunch breaks. Also, they pattern the hunters and know that at midday every one walks back to the truck and gets lunch.

Two, I could have used a rattle bag or some type of a call. Our underbrush is so thick here. I heard way more deer than I saw. Many successful hunters in my area, either rattle, use a fawn distress, estrus bleat call, or grunt call.

Third, I need to get away from people. I did not utilize my bike enough, to make distance from people. I hunted with friends when I would have made less noise and smell, had I hunted alone. Just another mile or two in might have changed things.

Josh