Great to have good friends

[Eric Krewson]

I have been laid up with bum knee since Nov 14th, just had surgery. The deer around my house have been thumbing their nose at me because they know I can't recover one if I shot it. I saw 14 one day out the back door before the storm and average seeing 6 a day every day. Yesterday evening there were 5 does on my plot, later a big 8 point joined the party and decided to take a nap at the edge of the plot.

My unused ladder stand at 4:30 a couple of days a go, the deer know they are safe.



I am watching these deer and a friend who knows I can't hunt calls and says "want a deer"? He said he had a little doe, turns out he was messing with me.

He showed up with a monster buck that was killed several counties over where the rut hasn't come in yet, he wasn't even stinking. The hunter is going to do a skull mount and gave the meat to me to make sure it gets used, it will.



Thank goodness for front end loaders, this one is too big for me to handle with a bum knee.



Fortunately I have  a big burly younger friend who has volunteered to help me skin and cut up this monster.

I am going to give this one at least a week in an ice chest to mellow out with salt water and possible some vinegar for the first day or so. A friend cures them this way and the biggest, rankest buck turns into something special this way.

[Pappy]

Yep nothing like good friends, I soak mine also for at least 3 days before processing but just in ice water changing it daily, never really had a bad , bucky tasting deer since i started doing that, really can't tell the difference in a buck or doe as some say they can, even a stinky old buck taste fine after soaking. 
 Pappy

[JB G]

Rut hitting good yet down yer way?

HH~

[BowEd]

Yes it's nice that other people are thinking about you.I'll drop off some summer sausage to a couple later here too.Cut up in a cooler on ice is the way I've done it for years too.Even october shot 7 year old bucks taste just like does.

[Eric Krewson]

Hunting has turned nightmarish here lately, they found one, just one deer with CWD and the DNR went crazy with a kill everything that moves edict in the county where they found the deer and the adjacent county, no limit or antler restrictions.

Then they put a restriction on where you can get one processed to only one place in two counties. This processor is as nasty as they come, they cut 4 or 5 deer at a time and you will probably not get all your deer back and probably get part of someone's that may be a stinking buck. They also charge you an arm and a leg for processing. My normal place charges $40 for a cooler deer, $80 for one on the hoof, I always take him one in a cooler that I have aged first.

Of course I have the option of cutting it up myself but being a beat up old man with a bad back, replaced hip and a bum knee I prefer to drop one off and say "call me when it's ready". I have an electric grinder and minute steak maker and have even cut up a bunch of deer back when I used a hand crank grinder but don't car to do it now. I also like the breakfast sausage my processor makes out of my deer.

The rut in my county, which is up against the TN line has come and gone, peaking around Christmas, the rut in the county across the TN river where my gifted deer came from doesn't come in until late Jan and early Feb, our season runs until Feb 10th.

The deer in my county are a mix of local deer and deer imported from Wisconsin for restocking many years ago. The Wisconsin strain has mixed with the local population but remnants of this strain and cross breeds still have a peak of the rut around Thanksgiving. At my  house we have an early rut around Thanksgiving and the major rut at Christmas.

[JB G]

Think i may go hunt Fort Rucker for hogs and deer.

HH~

[Eric Krewson]

I made a pass through Ft Rucker in 67.