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
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 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.
Maybe. I love looking at the spine after I'm done and picturing how disappointed a Canadian Jay would be.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.
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.
Yes, but they are inside the body cavity. You have to remove the guts to get to them.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.