Thanksgiving venison (WARNING: dead animal pics within)

We're out at our land (as usual) for Thanksgiving. I really wanted to get out and hunt in the evening as rain was forecast for the rest of our time here so we moved Thanksgiving dinner to 6pm.

Well, I ended up not getting Thanksgiving dinner until 10:30pm because I shot a nice 10 point whitetail and it was late by the time we finished skinning and dressing him. He was nicely matured and as big as he was going to get. He came into a clearing boldly by himself although he had a harem of doe around him. This guy was probably king of that area where I was hunting but we have some immature bucks that I've seen that will take his place next year. The population is flourishing around here and I'd like to think it's due to good management. This has never been a particularly deer-rich area compared to much of Texas.

He was tough too. My shot was a tad forward of where I wanted to place it and it shattered his shoulder, passed through some vitals, and exited. Even with a shattered shoulder this old boy was able to run, jump a barbed wire fence, and then run another 40 yards or so (probably on pure adrenaline) but died quickly after that and I feel good about the shot.

Please, we've had the "You're a barbarian for killing that poor animal" discussion before so please start a new thread if you want that. If harvesting one's own meat offends you then you should have heeded the thread warning.

Here are some pics:





brad cook

 

Sorry, this deer was pure Texan. No carne on him...just a lot of meat.

brad cook

 

Yes, that's true and I would never hunt like that on public land. We have 350 acres that goes way back in our family (originally awarded to my ancestor for his help in defeating Mexico during the Texas battle for independence) so I know exactly who's hunting out there and where at any given time...unless someone's trespassing of course.

brad cook

 

:scowl:

brad cook

 

Yeah, that's probably what I'm going to do. My friend offered to do a Euro mount for free but my wife isn't really into the skull look. I would love to do a full shoulder mount on this guy but I certainly can't afford the 300-500 bucks. So, antler mount it is. I'm also going to do steak, sausage and chili mounts on my dinner plate.

brad cook

 

The shot was only about 40 yards. I used a stainless Remington 700 BDL .30-06 with synthetic stock topped with a Simmons Whitetail Classic. I'd like to get a better scope on it and will at some time but this one is doing me ok for now (obviously!). Scope is a 3.5-10x but I had it on 3.5. The load was a Remington Core-Lokt in 180gr. 180gr is overkill for Texas Whitetail but I just didn't ever find the time to buy some 155 or 165 gr loads and get to the range to sight them in. Also, core-lokts are not my first choice of bullet but I had enough faith in a 180gr core-lokt to take a whitetail. That was the last thing I shot at the range so I used it because I knew it was dead-on.

Snap into a slim jim.

brad cook

 

Depends on what it is. It needs to be cooked a little less because it's lean and if it's cooked too much it gets too dry.

The backstrap is just cooked and eaten like steaks. Same with the tenderloin, but the rest can be turned into whatever you want. We'll get some made into sausage, some into chili meat, maybe some bacon-wrapped ground patties, some cutlets (which can be used to make excellent chicken-fried deer steaks) etc...

Tonight for dinner we made marinated shish-kabobs from backstrap venison (not from the deer in this thread though) and it was delicious. Better than anything I had on Thanksgiving Day.

brad cook