Game Processing

[bearbait]

I've never heard of it in Nova Scotia however never say never. We had 2 moose (that we know of) just a couple miles down the road that had a bad problem, they would just walk around in circles in a farmers pasture and eventually died. DNR were called however never showed which is typical around here. After reading your post I did a quick google search and came up with this as well as others.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/deer-infecte...cid=ps:nationalnews:searchad:ds:dynamicsearch

 

[Ramos]

We process our own venison but keep it simple. Backstrap, tenderloins and a few steaks. Everything else goes through the grinder twice and that is our jerky meat. No soaking or any other bother. Kind of like cheating by using ground meat for jerky but it allows us to use legs and everything else and minimizes waste. We will add pork fat for sausage but use straight venison for jerky. Usually eight pounds per batch and that lasts our family about a week. We made some jerky using beef a while back. It was supposed to be a treat, but we did not care for it due to the higher fat content!

 

[sheepfarmer]

My first guess on your circling moose might be listeriosis, cattle and sheep sometimes get it from silage, and the bacteria is common in the soil. I had a sheep get it, don't feed silage, but she had gotten a stick up her nose.

As far as CWD is concerned, even if the risk is low, the incubation period before symptoms appear is really long. Google kuru, same kind of disease. Avoiding eating brain and spinal cord would help.

 

[Creature Meadow]

We have been lucky on our lease regarding CWD. Over the last 7 years only have witnessed it one time, found 3 deer dead in the creek.

 

[bearbait]

My first guess on your circling moose might be listeriosis, cattle and sheep sometimes get it from silage, and the bacteria is common in the soil. I had a sheep get it, don't feed silage, but she had gotten a stick up her nose.

As far as CWD is concerned, even if the risk is low, the incubation period before symptoms appear is really long. Google kuru, same kind of disease. Avoiding eating brain and spinal cord would help.

Thanks for the info sheepfarmer, good info. I'll have to check with the farmer who told me about the 2 moose and see if they had any possibility of coming into contact with silage. He does raise cattle and sheep. As far as staying away from brain or spinal cord that won't be a problem for us.

 

[Creature Meadow]

Hmmm... I'm wondering if I should write anything in response as it will likely seem more like I'm boasting, or full of BS!

My first buck was an over-mature 8 pointer. He weighed 216lbs field dressed (still with head/hide/legs on). My last buck taken with a primitive muzzle loader was a bit of a monster at 198lbs on the butcher's hook - that's no head/hide/legs, just the carcass ready to be cut. A good doe here will run 160-180lbs field dressed, while a yearling doe will be in the 100-120lb range.

It seems the further north one goes the larger the whitetails get. I guess that's one little tradeoff we get in compensation for freezing our butts off when we go hunting!

I don't think you are boasting at all just stating some facts. I'm a fireman so I have purdy thick skin anyways.

Ya'll just got big ole deer up that way. My first trip to Illinois I was amazed at the size of the deer compared to ours. Years ago some of the midwest strain of whitetail was released in Virginia so not unusual for 200 # deer there. Just rare down here in NC in my area.

I took this buck after letting him walk 2 times last week of the season, 158#'s on foot. He was run down from chasing but at best maybe 165 to 170 if I had shot him the first of November when I first saw hime, our season ends New Year's Day.

 

[Creature Meadow]

My grinder from Cabelas, she is a beast. I invested in the foot pedal, makes it much easier to control.

 

[sheepfarmer]

We have been lucky on our lease regarding CWD. Over the last 7 years only have witnessed it one time, found 3 deer dead in the creek.

That might not have been chronic wasting disease but rather epizootic hemorrhagic disease, a virus spread by midges. A third local scourge. The carcasses are often found near water. One theory is that is where the midges are, another theory is the deer are hot and thirsty from fever. (One of my friends is a State Veterinarian, so I hear all about the local deer diseases.) Outbreaks are sometimes weather related.

 

[bearbait]

You all have me thinking about this now. For the life of me I could never understand how this area that I live in could go from one of the best hunting areas to almost nil. Yes we used to have a lot of hunting pressure and we still have our share of coyote and bobcats but so do other areas, just doesn't make since unless this could be the missing link. Just thinking out loud, sorry.

 

[bearbait]

My grinder from Cabelas, she is a beast. I invested in the foot pedal, makes it much easier to control.

If it's anything like ours I hope you use hearing protection when using it.

 

[Creature Meadow]

If it's anything like ours I hope you use hearing protection when using it.

Mine is not loud and I am crazy protective of my ears. I wear ear plugs when I vacuum the house. I have ear plugs everywhere, When I shoot at my range i use ear plugs and head phones over them.

For ya'll who have those big ole bruiser deer I shot a doe this afternoon that weighed in a 96.5 pounds on foot. Had 3 long noses come out and 2 fawns, she was the biggest!

So we are one step closer to our 12 to 15 doe goal.

 

[Eldubya]

Up here in the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver Island, our deer are TINY!
I shot a 3-point a couple of weeks ago, ground the whole thing into burger, adding about 20% pork fat and netted a whopping 24 pounds! There are lots of them though and that's why we have a three deer bag limit here.

 

[Creature Meadow]

I'm alive again, deer processing been on hold. Fever and nothing would stay up or down since Tuesday, hey I lost 12 pounds though.

Processed some back straps, tender loins, and a heart tonight, in the fridge soaking.

The heart took about 15 minutes to cut into steaks and clean out but man it is some fine eating.

Any of you enjoy the heart?

I cut into 1/2" steaks and clean out really well, wash and trim, wash and trim.

Cup of sweet onions, fresh minced garlic, butter, salt and pepper.

I use a little olive oil in pan with some butter then drop in onions and minced garlic. Cook onions until brown around edges. Move onions to the side of pan, place heart steaks in pan 1 1/2 to 2 minutes each side and then cover with the onions. Remove and let rest 5 minutes, medium rare is my choice.

Back to the stand tomorrow after work, our deer are wintering up now lots of groups with 5 to 8 does and fawns on camera at our stands in the day light.

 

[bucktail]

I like heart. I shot one deer this year and got 3 deer hearts and one elk heart. Because of the thick and thin pieces, I cut it up into smallish pieces. I put oil on the meat, something with a high smoke point like peanut oil, then heat the blazes out of a clean pan and sear the heart. I cook in batches if necessary, the idea is to sear the small pieces and leave the middle pink. I might smoke a couple of them this year since I have so many. I use the same dry brine that I use for pastrami.

 

[skeets]

Heart liver and kidneys have never been anything I enjoyed. A bud's father use to stuff beef heart, tried it one time, that was enough.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Tongue is very tasty and tender.

 

[bearbait]

I love heart and liver but I just can't bring myself to try tongue, maybe if someone cooked it up for me but who knows.

 

[Daren Todd]

I love heart and liver but I just can't bring myself to try tongue, maybe if someone cooked it up for me but who knows.

That's one of those things where I would be fine as long as someone didn't tell me what it was

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[bucktail]

I love heart and liver but I just can't bring myself to try tongue, maybe if someone cooked it up for me but who knows.

Tongue is awesome. You know it can't taste you back, right?

 

[NoJacketRequired]

In these parts we have been warmed for many years about eating organ meat from deer as they tend to bio-accumulate cadmium.

EDIT: with respect to CWD, we have the Ottawa River running more or less north/south and acting as a border between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. This year we have seen several cases of CWD just across the river in Quebec. Living in fear that it will come here in the very near future. Deer can walk across the river ice in the winter.