krr
10-15-2009, 06:26 PM
Got my first deer ever back on Oct 3. I went hiking out back of the in-law`s with my wife Kirstie.
We started out around 6:30am in the morning and then sat up on the edge of a valley running out of the back of the property that had a farily well used game trial running down it. Around 11am we spotted a spike buck heading up the trail. He got to around 50yds out and then I shot him through the heart, lungs with 30.06 180gr. He fell straight down and did not move again after that.
This was my first time ever cleaning a larger animal but it went just as I learned how to do it in my CORE course. I got him cleaned, (went very smoothly, I did not puncture the gut or intestines, that was my big worry first time cleaning)
Once I was done field dressing I hauled him down to the father in laws barn and hung by the hind legs. (called srupp because I was not sure if I should skin right away) I skinned him right after talking to Steven and then wiped it down with vinigar and water. Deer was fully skinned within 1 hr of shooting it.
I let it hang for two days and then butchered it myself. I got stome steaks out of the backstraps as I have heard that they are very tender sections of meat. The rest I turned into ground meat as Kirstie like to cook with it. (And I like to eat what she cooks :biggrin:) The ground meat came out very clean as I was very carefull to cut all of the fat I could off.
In the end I got 68lbs of meat off the dear and it tastes great! Next year will be aiming to get something bigger, this was a great learning experience being my first year hunting.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p296/bigrosten/DSCF0293.jpg
We started out around 6:30am in the morning and then sat up on the edge of a valley running out of the back of the property that had a farily well used game trial running down it. Around 11am we spotted a spike buck heading up the trail. He got to around 50yds out and then I shot him through the heart, lungs with 30.06 180gr. He fell straight down and did not move again after that.
This was my first time ever cleaning a larger animal but it went just as I learned how to do it in my CORE course. I got him cleaned, (went very smoothly, I did not puncture the gut or intestines, that was my big worry first time cleaning)
Once I was done field dressing I hauled him down to the father in laws barn and hung by the hind legs. (called srupp because I was not sure if I should skin right away) I skinned him right after talking to Steven and then wiped it down with vinigar and water. Deer was fully skinned within 1 hr of shooting it.
I let it hang for two days and then butchered it myself. I got stome steaks out of the backstraps as I have heard that they are very tender sections of meat. The rest I turned into ground meat as Kirstie like to cook with it. (And I like to eat what she cooks :biggrin:) The ground meat came out very clean as I was very carefull to cut all of the fat I could off.
In the end I got 68lbs of meat off the dear and it tastes great! Next year will be aiming to get something bigger, this was a great learning experience being my first year hunting.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p296/bigrosten/DSCF0293.jpg