This will be a multi-part series detailing my introduction to Deer Hunting.
A bit of background first.
I grew up on a farm in Northern Indiana. Plenty of cornfields around, and the neighbors let me tramp along in their woods. This was back in the mid-80's to mid-90's, and our family had lived on that plot since the early 70's. We knew all of our neighbors though we didn't get out to see them much.
As a consequence, I got to learn a little woods lore, and got decent at tracking. My mother was a no-guns-in-the-house type and didn't let the kids go hunting with our dad. However, one of my older brothers had acquired a long bow somewhere along the line, and as I grew older, I pulled it out and got a few target arrows and started practicing on and off. So, my introduction to archery was a traditional long bow. Having no aids or assists, or even someone around to teach me properly, I acquired skill through trial-and-error, and a lot of practice.
I left for the Navy, and it being the Navy and myself being a Nuke Submariner, I didn't get much chance to play with a lot of firearms but I did start getting a good introduction to them via a former army friend of mine who happened to be a FFL in South Carolina. I learned to shoot from a knowledgeable old hand, and I worked to maintain and improve these skills.
After I got out of the service, I worked for awhile in Detroit (no firearms yet), and then worked out of Omaha traveling around (still no firearms). But eventually, I made my way back to Indiana settling down and getting married. It was during this that we bought our first firearm primarily for my wife, and we both got our lifetime LTCH. Soon after I got my own handgun.
Fast forward about 5 years, and I'm married and have two kids, bought our own dirt, and going to school all at the same time. No long arms yet though, which we are looking to rectify.
But last summer at a yard sale, I ran across a compound bow with nearly a full set of gear. This kid was selling it and had a hard minimum price. $150 for the set. A compound bow, several target arrows, some broad-heads, sights, etc, etc. I'd been looking around for awhile and this was something that I wanted, so I haggled with the kid and got me my first official bow. We think the kid was saving up for his first car and was very willing to make a deal, but had that hard minimum price. I had talked him down from $225. After researching the bow afterwards, I soon discovered that even used, I got a $300 bow before all the extras and goodies. We bought our house in the early fall, so we were pretty busy and the chance to go hunting passed me by.
Now, one of my grandfathers bought 40 acres back during the depression and had built it up to several hundred acres tillable over the course of 70 years of farming. He had some good pond, marsh area, and woods as well. I had all the intention of talking to him and going hunting out there, but sadly he passed away earlier this summer. However, he was a good businessman, and he set up the farm as an LLC and passed control onto my uncles several years back. Gladly, the farm and properties remain in the family. The one uncle running the farm though hasn't had much chance to really associate much with me, so I am a bit of an unknown factor. After talking to him (he is a hunter himself), he is considering letting me hunt the property. So one large area of private land is a strong possibility for me to hunt on.
Currently though, my property is an hour and a half drive from the old family farm, and the farm I grew up on was sold off. So, I am looking for land in the area. I live right next door to Potatoe Creek State Park. So, the possibility for hunting public land is there during the times that they open it up. And there is Kingsbury and another one close by as well. Farmland is all around and through the course of some more yard selling, we've gotten to know some of the family of the main farmer landowners in the area. Plenty of woods, water sources, corn fields, etc. We regularly seek deer and turkey from the road, so the possibilities for a good hunt really close to home is abundant.
The gear situation is a bit lacking though. I used to have a lot of camo for paintballing but pieces have dissapeared through the years. I have a decent lightweight camo jacket that was army surplus, and some camo pants that don't match, but as long is it helps break up my form and outline, should be fine.
I still need a good set of field knives for field dressing, and I am debating on doing my own butchering to get rid of the cost of processing. I also need some deer stands, maybe a pop-up blind, etc.
List of things still needed:
I'm hoping to go out with my Uncle for the first few times, but nothing is guaranteed as of yet. Since I have never gotten to actually hunt something, I have never had the opportunity to acquire a basic skill of field dressing a deer (or anything else for that matter).
So, knowing I lack this knowledge, but very good at looking things up, I proceeded to Google and Youtube.
Here are a couple videos that I found extremely useful.
The first one is on a channel called Field2Feast. He has a whole series on the basic setup for archery, cleaning & dressing, etc. He also has vids on hunting other critters including small game, butchering the meat, and cooking.
[video=youtube_share;-BJP-lGlV6c]http://youtu.be/-BJP-lGlV6c[/video]
I especially liked the idea of using the twist tie to assist in field dressing. After looking at several vids, that is a technique that I will definitely be trying in the field. His technique focused on avoiding cutting through as much bone as possible during field dressing and butchering. He even focused on removal of the lymph nodes explaining that this could effect the gaminess taste of the meat.
This next one looks to be more of a traditional field dress. Cutting through the pelvic bone, and removing the esophagus through the chest cavity.
[video=youtube_share;ewCVFkkyQC4]http://youtu.be/ewCVFkkyQC4[/video]
This third video had a great tip for the initial cut around the anus during field dressing.
[video=youtube_share;pceYBon5u94]http://youtu.be/pceYBon5u94[/video]
The 4th video here is a more professional production. The camera views are better and the higher quality video lets you see more detail about what he is actually doing and what things look like. It's the first vid that I've run across that the hunter also keeps the liver and kidneys.
[video=youtube_share;EdFtwFN5G4A]http://youtu.be/EdFtwFN5G4A[/video]
This next video is a bit different from the others on how he makes his initial cuts. He cuts down to the colon from the genital area and makes his initial entry on the gut from their instead of the sternum.
[video=youtube_share;1PWe8TQULsU]http://youtu.be/1PWe8TQULsU[/video]
So, there are a couple different techniques, and certain ones work better in some situations I'm sure. For example, if you are wanting to mount the head and rack on your wall, you'd definitely not want to do a neck cut to get at the esophagus. That would be a technique more for meat deer that you would not be concerned about leaving the neck area pristine.
This video, is supposedly a professional butcher. He makes short work of it, but definitely seems to be rushing along. How close he comes with the knife to puncturing organs makes me shudder. But he did have a good tip on getting the meat to cool as quickly as possible. In this case, he used a foreleg to help prop the chest cavity open.
[video=youtube_share;iGSflgybnfo]http://youtu.be/iGSflgybnfo[/video]
Part 2 will be bow setups and maintenance.
Part 3 will be a gear and tool guide.
And we'll see what we see after that.
A bit of background first.
I grew up on a farm in Northern Indiana. Plenty of cornfields around, and the neighbors let me tramp along in their woods. This was back in the mid-80's to mid-90's, and our family had lived on that plot since the early 70's. We knew all of our neighbors though we didn't get out to see them much.
As a consequence, I got to learn a little woods lore, and got decent at tracking. My mother was a no-guns-in-the-house type and didn't let the kids go hunting with our dad. However, one of my older brothers had acquired a long bow somewhere along the line, and as I grew older, I pulled it out and got a few target arrows and started practicing on and off. So, my introduction to archery was a traditional long bow. Having no aids or assists, or even someone around to teach me properly, I acquired skill through trial-and-error, and a lot of practice.
I left for the Navy, and it being the Navy and myself being a Nuke Submariner, I didn't get much chance to play with a lot of firearms but I did start getting a good introduction to them via a former army friend of mine who happened to be a FFL in South Carolina. I learned to shoot from a knowledgeable old hand, and I worked to maintain and improve these skills.
After I got out of the service, I worked for awhile in Detroit (no firearms yet), and then worked out of Omaha traveling around (still no firearms). But eventually, I made my way back to Indiana settling down and getting married. It was during this that we bought our first firearm primarily for my wife, and we both got our lifetime LTCH. Soon after I got my own handgun.
Fast forward about 5 years, and I'm married and have two kids, bought our own dirt, and going to school all at the same time. No long arms yet though, which we are looking to rectify.
But last summer at a yard sale, I ran across a compound bow with nearly a full set of gear. This kid was selling it and had a hard minimum price. $150 for the set. A compound bow, several target arrows, some broad-heads, sights, etc, etc. I'd been looking around for awhile and this was something that I wanted, so I haggled with the kid and got me my first official bow. We think the kid was saving up for his first car and was very willing to make a deal, but had that hard minimum price. I had talked him down from $225. After researching the bow afterwards, I soon discovered that even used, I got a $300 bow before all the extras and goodies. We bought our house in the early fall, so we were pretty busy and the chance to go hunting passed me by.
Now, one of my grandfathers bought 40 acres back during the depression and had built it up to several hundred acres tillable over the course of 70 years of farming. He had some good pond, marsh area, and woods as well. I had all the intention of talking to him and going hunting out there, but sadly he passed away earlier this summer. However, he was a good businessman, and he set up the farm as an LLC and passed control onto my uncles several years back. Gladly, the farm and properties remain in the family. The one uncle running the farm though hasn't had much chance to really associate much with me, so I am a bit of an unknown factor. After talking to him (he is a hunter himself), he is considering letting me hunt the property. So one large area of private land is a strong possibility for me to hunt on.
Currently though, my property is an hour and a half drive from the old family farm, and the farm I grew up on was sold off. So, I am looking for land in the area. I live right next door to Potatoe Creek State Park. So, the possibility for hunting public land is there during the times that they open it up. And there is Kingsbury and another one close by as well. Farmland is all around and through the course of some more yard selling, we've gotten to know some of the family of the main farmer landowners in the area. Plenty of woods, water sources, corn fields, etc. We regularly seek deer and turkey from the road, so the possibilities for a good hunt really close to home is abundant.
The gear situation is a bit lacking though. I used to have a lot of camo for paintballing but pieces have dissapeared through the years. I have a decent lightweight camo jacket that was army surplus, and some camo pants that don't match, but as long is it helps break up my form and outline, should be fine.
I still need a good set of field knives for field dressing, and I am debating on doing my own butchering to get rid of the cost of processing. I also need some deer stands, maybe a pop-up blind, etc.
List of things still needed:
- Camo gear
- Orange gear
- Field Knives
- Tree Stand or two
- Pop-up blind
- Bow tuned, maybe re-strung.
- Practice time in the yard prior to going afield
I'm hoping to go out with my Uncle for the first few times, but nothing is guaranteed as of yet. Since I have never gotten to actually hunt something, I have never had the opportunity to acquire a basic skill of field dressing a deer (or anything else for that matter).
So, knowing I lack this knowledge, but very good at looking things up, I proceeded to Google and Youtube.
Here are a couple videos that I found extremely useful.
The first one is on a channel called Field2Feast. He has a whole series on the basic setup for archery, cleaning & dressing, etc. He also has vids on hunting other critters including small game, butchering the meat, and cooking.
[video=youtube_share;-BJP-lGlV6c]http://youtu.be/-BJP-lGlV6c[/video]
I especially liked the idea of using the twist tie to assist in field dressing. After looking at several vids, that is a technique that I will definitely be trying in the field. His technique focused on avoiding cutting through as much bone as possible during field dressing and butchering. He even focused on removal of the lymph nodes explaining that this could effect the gaminess taste of the meat.
This next one looks to be more of a traditional field dress. Cutting through the pelvic bone, and removing the esophagus through the chest cavity.
[video=youtube_share;ewCVFkkyQC4]http://youtu.be/ewCVFkkyQC4[/video]
This third video had a great tip for the initial cut around the anus during field dressing.
[video=youtube_share;pceYBon5u94]http://youtu.be/pceYBon5u94[/video]
The 4th video here is a more professional production. The camera views are better and the higher quality video lets you see more detail about what he is actually doing and what things look like. It's the first vid that I've run across that the hunter also keeps the liver and kidneys.
[video=youtube_share;EdFtwFN5G4A]http://youtu.be/EdFtwFN5G4A[/video]
This next video is a bit different from the others on how he makes his initial cuts. He cuts down to the colon from the genital area and makes his initial entry on the gut from their instead of the sternum.
[video=youtube_share;1PWe8TQULsU]http://youtu.be/1PWe8TQULsU[/video]
So, there are a couple different techniques, and certain ones work better in some situations I'm sure. For example, if you are wanting to mount the head and rack on your wall, you'd definitely not want to do a neck cut to get at the esophagus. That would be a technique more for meat deer that you would not be concerned about leaving the neck area pristine.
This video, is supposedly a professional butcher. He makes short work of it, but definitely seems to be rushing along. How close he comes with the knife to puncturing organs makes me shudder. But he did have a good tip on getting the meat to cool as quickly as possible. In this case, he used a foreleg to help prop the chest cavity open.
[video=youtube_share;iGSflgybnfo]http://youtu.be/iGSflgybnfo[/video]
Part 2 will be bow setups and maintenance.
Part 3 will be a gear and tool guide.
And we'll see what we see after that.
