collapse

Advertisement


Author Topic: First deer ever, and some questions about meat  (Read 5491 times)

Offline simpleperson

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Tracker
  • **
  • Join Date: Jan 2016
  • Posts: 25
First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« on: October 24, 2016, 10:56:51 AM »
First off: thanks for the members here! This would not have happened without your help!

Took my brother out hunting yesterday. First time either of us have gone deer hunting. Arrived at the gate at 5:00 AM and hiked 3 miles in. 30 minutes after legal shooting hours, we had a dead deer -- unbelievable! Just started walking through the edge of some clear cuts, and there he was, a spike buck. After gutting, the hike back was brutal. We had no idea how heavy it would really be. We tried everything from dragging it, to ultimately tying it to a tree and walking back.

The unfortunate part of this story is that we had no idea what we were getting into when it comes to taking care of it afterwards. We had watched many youtube videos, but there's nothing like getting your hands dirty. It took many hours to get it on ice. We didn't skin it till we got home around 2:00 PM. Also, the shot went through the lungs, but, unfortunately, through the stomach too. We ended up discarding all of the midsection of the animal, besides the backstraps. The meat was quite a bit more gray than we were expecting as well. In the end, we had to wash it off really, really well, as best we could when we got it home. The parts that we salvaged didn't smell off, a bit more "wild" smelling than beef, but certainly not strong and gross like the guts we pulled out of it. We are planning to take it to a butcher to get cut and wrapped.

Two questions:
1) Does it sound like the meat is ruined?
2) Any recommendations for what to ask from the butcher? I think I'm going to ask to use beef fat when grinding.

Again - thank you everyone for such an invaluable resource.

Offline yakimanoob

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2016
  • Posts: 1102
  • Location: Naches
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2016, 11:07:20 AM »
Congrats on the deer!  I'll let more knowledgeable folks answer your questions about the meat, as I killed my first deer yesterday as well :)

I shot mine about 1k feet into a steep canyon and my friend and I packed it up to the truck.  It was LOTS of work but we made it fine.  It would have been totally impossible to get the entire deer (3x3 mullie) out of that canyon.  We quartered it, pulled the backstraps and tenderloins, and trimmed off some of the other obvious meat, and packed it out in game bags. 

This was the most helpful instructional I found on the method we used:


Congrats again!

Offline Squidward

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: May 2014
  • Posts: 1580
  • Location: Centralia
    • https://www.facebook.com/ed.brooks.3781
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2016, 11:20:48 AM »
Congrats on the 1st deer for both of you guys. if you got it cleaned up good it should be fine, smell it. when taking to a possessor you'll want to make sure it's clean, as any hair / dirt on it when you take it in. most likely will be there when you go to eat it. 
I've eaten a few deer that had some guts spilled inside, however I did die. LOL

Offline Hilltop123

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jan 2011
  • Posts: 2087
  • Location: Up on the Ump
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2016, 12:40:39 PM »
Sounds like  you greenhorns, did just fine. I also second, the make sure it's clean comment, clean carcass in, clean meat back. If in the future, you plan on hunting those kind of distances from your rig, invest in a pack board and learn the guttless method. I'd rather pack one five miles, than drag one a mile. Oh and post a pic, we would all love to see your deer!

Offline yakimanoob

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2016
  • Posts: 1102
  • Location: Naches
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2016, 01:14:46 PM »
 :yeah:  pics or it didn't happen  :P

Offline Wetwoodshunter

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+8)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2014
  • Posts: 1164
  • Location: Sekiu, WA
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2016, 01:15:14 PM »
Awesome job on your first harvest. in a situation like this I would go through the meat and anything that is grey or has visible bloodshot trim off the meat. You can use white vinegar mixed with water 50-50 in a spray bottle and paper towels to try and wipe down the meat and get the junk off. You don't want to soak the deer with liquid use the bottle sparingly, the spray method works the best for dirt and non-hair contaminants. For me hair seems to be easier to get off by picking it off, your effort will increase the quality substantially.

If you leave grey meat it will turn the meat next to it and spread quickly, also often the inside of a grey area has not spoiled. So as you cut off grey meat you may uncover good meat and less than you anticipate has spoiled. Once its trimmed deer meat doesn't spoil very quickly, you just need to keep it cold and dry.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck in the future, it gets easier from here. Losing some meat to spoilage is part of hunting, the key is to minimize it.

Offline simpleperson

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Tracker
  • **
  • Join Date: Jan 2016
  • Posts: 25
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2016, 09:28:13 PM »
Ending up cutting out the gray parts and ended up with 35lbs of meat from the butcher. We were super conservative with it so that we didn't get anything spoiled. I'm sure we can do better, but definitely some lessons learned!!

Can you recommend a pack board? Never heard of this before

The plan atm is to build a small cart we can tow behind mountain bike, allowing us to get further in and easier trek out.

Offline SureThing

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Tracker
  • **
  • Join Date: Oct 2012
  • Posts: 30
  • Location: Over the Hills and through the Woods on the wet side
  • Groups: RMEF,WSAA,IBO
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2016, 11:00:53 PM »
I use a large internal frame backpack. You can ditch the pack and game bags with your bike. You can pack out a whole deboned deer in one trip. If you are after elk or packing in a camp the bike cart is a good idea. After you gut, skin, debone and put quarters in game bags you can take the first quarter to your vehicle then pick up your trailer and haul out the last three quarters in one trip. One in the pack and the other half in the trailer. Be careful going down steep hills with a heavy load like that. You will need brakes on the trailer or just walk it down and up steep hills or it will get scary fast. Congratulations on your deer.
Another thing to think about is if you can't get the meat to a cooler quickly and it is above 55 degrees outside you can always put your deboned meat into a large cooler and ice it down. Drain the water a blood out of the cooler once or twice a day. You can do that for about a week and it will actually make that backtail deer taste much better.


Offline Bucks2Ducks

  • Political & Covid-19 Topics
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Longhunter
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2010
  • Posts: 586
  • Location: Skagit
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2016, 06:03:22 AM »
Good looking Buck! I've done the tree thing back to the rig once before, never again! Invest in a nice pack, and leave the bones in the woods.
When the buffalo are gone we will hunt mice, for we are hunters and we want our freedom-Sitting Bull

Offline Hilltop123

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jan 2011
  • Posts: 2087
  • Location: Up on the Ump
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2016, 07:41:13 AM »
I used the term pack board, generically. Any pack designed for large, heavy loads, either internally framed or externally. The bike trailer idea is a good one, if I hunted gated logging roads, that would be the way I would go. Should be a lot on Youtube for ideas.
  I want to commend you and your partner, not to many new hunters venture that far from there vehicle. Most are intimidated, either by the unknown, large predators or being in the dark, the woods can be scary if your unfamiliar with some of the noises the woods make in the dark or the task of getting your game back to your vehicle. Not an easy task, as you have learned.  In doing so you left much of the crowds behind and had a enjoyable, memorable and successful hunt. You have learned things that some take years to learn, you now have a better idea as to what to bring and what was just extra unneeded weight best left at home or in the vehicle. I'm a huge proponent of the idea, "It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it an not have it", but this philosophy gets thrown out, when doing pack in hunts. Weight, space and need become the determining factor.
 Again congrats, now you have a year to fine tune, retool, equip, scout and get ready for next year! :tup:

Offline simpleperson

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Tracker
  • **
  • Join Date: Jan 2016
  • Posts: 25
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2016, 09:38:15 AM »
I used the term pack board, generically. Any pack designed for large, heavy loads, either internally framed or externally. The bike trailer idea is a good one, if I hunted gated logging roads, that would be the way I would go. Should be a lot on Youtube for ideas.
  I want to commend you and your partner, not to many new hunters venture that far from there vehicle. Most are intimidated, either by the unknown, large predators or being in the dark, the woods can be scary if your unfamiliar with some of the noises the woods make in the dark or the task of getting your game back to your vehicle. Not an easy task, as you have learned.  In doing so you left much of the crowds behind and had a enjoyable, memorable and successful hunt. You have learned things that some take years to learn, you now have a better idea as to what to bring and what was just extra unneeded weight best left at home or in the vehicle. I'm a huge proponent of the idea, "It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it an not have it", but this philosophy gets thrown out, when doing pack in hunts. Weight, space and need become the determining factor.
 Again congrats, now you have a year to fine tune, retool, equip, scout and get ready for next year! :tup:

Thanks a ton! Not just you, but everyone on this thread. A ton of very helpful information here.

It was a very surreal experience in hindsight. Definitely walking through pitch-black woods at night with only one headlamp was a bit creepy, and the weight of the animal was surprising, but it was an experience to cherish!

We hope to hunt for elk, but are probably even less equipped in knowing what we're doing! But we have been joking that even if it's 4x harder to hunt elk, and it took us 30 minutes to get our black tail, math would tell us we would have one in just 2 hours. :D

Offline simpleperson

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Tracker
  • **
  • Join Date: Jan 2016
  • Posts: 25
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2016, 09:42:24 AM »
I use a large internal frame backpack. You can ditch the pack and game bags with your bike. You can pack out a whole deboned deer in one trip. If you are after elk or packing in a camp the bike cart is a good idea. After you gut, skin, debone and put quarters in game bags you can take the first quarter to your vehicle then pick up your trailer and haul out the last three quarters in one trip. One in the pack and the other half in the trailer. Be careful going down steep hills with a heavy load like that. You will need brakes on the trailer or just walk it down and up steep hills or it will get scary fast. Congratulations on your deer.
Another thing to think about is if you can't get the meat to a cooler quickly and it is above 55 degrees outside you can always put your deboned meat into a large cooler and ice it down. Drain the water a blood out of the cooler once or twice a day. You can do that for about a week and it will actually make that backtail deer taste much better.

Interesting, do you mean to just put the deer meat straight on ice in a cooler (no bags), and just let it drain several times? Won't that purge the meat of all color?

Offline jackmaster

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Old Salt
  • ******
  • Join Date: Nov 2010
  • Posts: 7011
  • Location: graham
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2016, 09:43:25 AM »
Where are you located? I don't have time to read all the replys to see if anyone asked, but if your close to graham I will run over and help you out after work, do not take that deer to a butcher, do it all yourself, there is nothing difficult about it and you really can't mess up
my grandpa always said "if it aint broke dont fix it"

Offline JakeLand

  • WA State Trappers Association
  • Trade Count: (+27)
  • Frontiersman
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2011
  • Posts: 4105
  • Location: Wet side
Re: First deer ever, and some questions about meat
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2016, 10:25:17 AM »
Take jackmaster on his offer you could learn some very valuable and hard to find knowledge! Even if you have to drive it's worth it

 


* Advertisement

* Recent Topics

Let’s see your best Washington buck by high_hunter
[Yesterday at 10:31:08 PM]


Bearpaw Season - Spring 2024 by actionshooter
[Yesterday at 09:43:51 PM]


Walked a cougar down by MADMAX
[Yesterday at 08:31:53 PM]


Which 12” boat trailer tires? by timberhunter
[Yesterday at 08:22:18 PM]


Lowest power 22 round? by JakeLand
[Yesterday at 08:06:13 PM]


1x scopes vs open sights by JakeLand
[Yesterday at 07:29:35 PM]


Long Beach Clamming Tides by Encore 280
[Yesterday at 05:16:00 PM]


WTS Suppressors I Can Get by dreadi
[Yesterday at 03:30:33 PM]


SB 5444 signed by Inslee on 03/26 Takes Effect on 06/06/24 by Longfield1
[Yesterday at 03:27:51 PM]


Straight on by kentrek
[Yesterday at 03:04:53 PM]


2024-2026 Hunting Season Proposals by trophyhunt
[Yesterday at 01:51:40 PM]

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal