experiancess in the field

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Josh. I know what you mean by thick brush. I’m west of the Cascades here in Oregon. I much prefer drawing a tag to hunt the Eastern part of the state. A bit flatter and a lot more open. And mule deer vs black tail.
 

Missionary

Well-Known Member
And rub your gear and especially boots with wind fall apples. I have corn crunchers track me every year I am up there in the river bottoms.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
9:30 A.M. and noon has given me most of my deer. That is the time bracket for my success.
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
My guess is that most of my deer come between 8:30 and 9:30 am. That being said I have observed and killed them from first light to just before dark. It pays to stay out all day. There is always a flurry of deer activity when everyone else heads for the truck for lunch.
 

MW65

Wetside, Oregon
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

Hey Josh, i passed on deer this year, but concentrated on picking mushrooms. Lots of blaze orange close in the state forest here in Oregon, but the further and more obscure places I've found fewer folks.... Coastal blacktail are one of the hardest deer to hunt... And they get into some pretty thick stuff, don't pattern, and will surely surprise you when you aren't looking. I like hunting down in southern Oregon, where there's some more oaks and a few other options for deer and bear
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
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.
What????? You throw out the tenderloins? Jumpin' Jehosaphat, where do you throw them carcasses? No neck roasts? Aaarrrggghhh! And I feel guilty cuz I don't trim between the ribs then spend an hour peelin' those tiny strips of meat out like my Old Man did. Of course he was somethin' when it came to frugality.
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
I have read about the no gutting technique particularly on elk. They claim they go in from the backside through the ribs to get the tenderloins, I don't know how that works or if it would be possible with deer. I would have to see it a couple of times before I tried it. I have always gutted deer first, even when we were way back in and ended up quartering them to get them out.

I gave up on trying to get the ribcage meat too, way too much work for the little bit of meat you get.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
you could easily get the tenderloins by reaching in from where the back strap meat was, and where you dis-jointed the rear legs on a deer with the guts still in it.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
you could easily get the tenderloins by reaching in from where the back strap meat was, and where you dis-jointed the rear legs on a deer with the guts still in it.
Maybe. I love looking at the spine after I'm done and picturing how disappointed a Canadian Jay would be.
 

Rockydoc

Well-Known Member
What????? You throw out the tenderloins? Jumpin' Jehosaphat, where do you throw them carcasses? No neck roasts? Aaarrrggghhh! And I feel guilty cuz I don't trim between the ribs then spend an hour peelin' those tiny strips of meat out like my Old Man did. Of course he was somethin' when it came to frugality.

I don’t like messing with the guts and bladder. I don’t care for the organ meat.

On a small Florida deer the tenderloins are so small I don’t think they are worth the trouble. Also the season is so long and the bag limits so generous I only go for the prime cuts.
 
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Winelover

North Central Arkansas
I don’t like messing with the guts and bladder. I don’t care for the organ meat.

On a small Florida deer the tenderloins are so small I don’t think they are worth the trouble. Also the season is so long and the bag limits so generous I only go for the prime cuts.

Against the law in Arkansas. Suppose to use all the edible meat.........no wanton waste. Our bag limits are generous also, up to two bucks and four does. That includes, archery, muzzle loader and modern gun season.
 

Tomme boy

Well-Known Member
The tenderloins can be removed with your hand. I just get a thumb under the the meat and slide it down under them. They come right out without a knife.

Good luck proving wanton waste. Most all states have that. Thats used more for not trying to retrieve your game that has been shot. You have to at least make a effort to look. Read above what he is keeping. No game warden would ever go after him.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Wanton waste is generally a secondary charge for trophy hunters after the trophy and those that would kill it to kill . It's used like tax evasion was on Al Capone , if you can't get enough proof to make the crime stick get a pound of flesh for what you can or that they'll plead to . At least that's what I've seen reported .
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
As bad as intentional wanton waste is, waste through stupidity and indifference. For a change I'll refrain from a long post. The short version is 5 Pennsylvania hunters on a horse back trip into Snell Mountain in Colorado. Semi deluxe drop camp with cook and wrangler, no guide. I was hunting from my tent camp I set up with two buddies off a remote gravel road and hunting on foot.
When the "dudes" came on on the fourth day with an 8 horse pack train and the outfitter riding 200 yards ahead looking like he could eat rail road spikes, they had 3 large 6x6 heads and one Coleman cooler of meat.
Shot 3 all three bulls before 9 am on opening day. Field dressed them and left them lay on the ground while the 5 of them group hunted to try to fill the remaining two tags. They reported he bulls down when they returned to the camp at night fall opening day. The wrangler chewed their behinds. The elk had "bone soured". The outfitter was livid!
I walked over as they were loading up to congratulate the hunters and heard the story in bits and pieces. After the hunters were driven out in one truck, the outfitter had loaded the horses and old me the rest. He quoted one of the hunters, "My wife won't eat that sh*t anyway."
I had a very big cow hanging and we boned it out in camp. The whiskey jacks were so tame they would take scraps from your hand. We got driven out by the snow. 4x4 with chains, max speed 12 mph for two hours until we hit the oil road.
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
I seem to remember a case where an angry neighbor turned in a fellow for disposing of his spoiled venison because his freezer gave out...(not sure if power failure related or not). Seems some trigger happy CO was more than willing to write out a ticket for wanton waste of game. Montana I think??? I have trouble believing that would get very far in a courtroom. Just shows that it takes all types.

I like venison, process my own meat but leave the organs in the field with the rest of the innards and I don't mess with rib meat either. Some might call that wanton waste too. I will live with it.
 
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Rockydoc

Well-Known Member
they are actually quite easy to remove, they lie right up along the backbone and are in an area with no bones or gut attachments.
Yes, but they are inside the body cavity. You have to remove the guts to get to them.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
nope.
you just have to make a cut down past the ribs and above the hip bones.
then reach in and slide the meat out, maybe cutting the ends where they attach to the back bone.
they show you how to do it in any video that explains the non gutting method.