The Official Deer Season 2010 Thread

Me and my bros have been butchering everything we kill together for almost 15 years. It's nice cause everybody knows what they're doing so we're pretty quick and efficient. About 7ish years ago we all chipped in and made our own custom super grinder so making our burger and sausage/brats is a snap. Back in the day grinding sucked ass and took forever! The packaging is the slowest part now but that's cause we vacuum seal everything.... but it's soooo worth it for the sake of freshness.:D

We all dig the look of European style mounts too so while the processing is happening there's 1-2 peeps outside boiling skulls and removing flesh.... a REALLY nasty ass job but they look cool and require zero coin.;)
 
I vaccuum pack too, my wife won't help cut so i'm more often than not doing it alone.Bout 5 years back I got a vaccuum sealer, I dig it. After I seal it, I spread the meat flat inside so it stacks in the freezer and thaws easier, first couple critters were frozen in blobs, not user friendly
 
Yep, we figured that out the hard way too!! And as far as thawing goes there's no comparison.

That sucks that you gotta do it all yourself!! That's a lotta work for one guy to do alone.... I give ya props for that!
 
I am a wuss. I can't eat what I skin.. :lol:
If someone butchers the animal just down to the larger pieces, I will take it from there. I cook like a mofo though. :D
I wish I had a vacuum sealer Willie. I should get one as I buy large cuts of meat and portion them down.
 
The Branch Doctor said:
Yep, we figured that out the hard way too!! And as far as thawing goes there's no comparison.

That sucks that you gotta do it all yourself!! That's a lotta work for one guy to do alone.... I give ya props for that!
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Ya, don't think I have the motivation tonight. Bubba helped me do the front quarters and backstraps last night. I just do steak, burger and jerky anymore, simplifies the process
 
sotc said:
Ya, don't think I have the motivation tonight. Bubba helped me do the front quarters and backstraps last night. I just do steak, burger and jerky anymore, simplifies the process
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That's cause you don't have anybody to help ya.... I'd prolly do the same thing if I had to do it by myself.... but I don't have to worry about that one cause unlike yourself.... I have friends. Ha ha:P




:D
 
We used to hang 3-4 at a time and just me and my wife did all the work by hand. I would skin, de-bone large sections and she would take it over inside house and break it down to what each section of meat was going to be used for while de-membrane all of it and getting ready for the electric grinder, electric slicer, etc.

What really used to get me is when they froze while hanging with hide on. I used the 4x4 to skin one like that once while hanging.
 
I had one hanging and I knew it was going to freeze. I went out to the barn and started working on it. I couldn't work with gloves on and my fingers started getting frozen. My girlfriend and her teenage daughter and younger son came home to me working at a butcher table set up in the living room. They got over it.
 
Seems to me that Oak would work well for a bow, and easy to find straight grain. Black Locust splits surprisingly easily for such an otherwise hard and resilient wood. The strength holding the fibers together is not there. Yew is light, a good feature, but straight grain often requires some searching. I suspect that a laminated bow would be a good way to go, and you could laminate a reverse curve. Just make a form, easy peasy...
 
How about some pics of your guys homemade bows?

I got 3 older recurves for instinct shooting. Bear, Indian 60's-early 70's, Shakespeare.

I know my dad had the Indian back when I was about 7, because I snuck it out and shot a arrow into the air.
It stuck in a roof of a neighbors garage.
Long story getting it back after I sold it for him when I was 20's and tracking it back down when my son was born about 10-12 years later. I wanted it for family later on.
 
Wasn't Yew the preferred wood for the English longbow? I here Osage orange is supposed to make a nice strong bow.
 
Osage is what some of the Indians used. Finding a good straight piece is tough. I have a hedgerow out back. Have to take the 4 wheeler for a ride. Anybody know the right time to cut it? In the winter I would think.
 
The Branch Doctor said:
That's cause you don't have anybody to help ya.... I'd prolly do the same thing if I had to do it by myself.... but I don't have to worry about that one cause unlike yourself.... I have friends. Ha ha:P




:D
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I have friends too! .... Well, one, but that counts too!:P
 

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Heck of a friend too, he bought me that benchmade in my hand for my wedding gift!
 
The famous English longbow, long a staple of medieval warfare, was originally made of English (European) yew, but Spanish yew became more prevalent since it is actually better for bows (it grows straighter).
 
Yew is really a beautiful wood with a lot of character, ages to a deep color and polishes up to a high degree. Some of the best English chairs also utilized it, particularly in the Windsor style. Technically a soft wood, but not a particularly easy one to work with. I've never seen an English or Spanish Yew bow, but would be very interested to see the workmanship.

Northern California has a lot of Yew, and the native peoples liked to use it for making sacred items.
 
We occasionally get a request for a special forest products permit to harvest a few pieces of yew for bows. Not often, but once or twice a year.

I recall many years ago one fellow bringing in a longbow he'd made. It was beautiful, with a nice stitched deerskin handle cover.

There was a period of time in 90's when we had to stop issuing any harvest permits for yew...back when some thought it was going to be the source of the next miracle drug for cancer treatment. That blew over after 4 or 5 years.
 
One of the things that make yew so special to work with is the fact that the amount of radial and tangential shrinkage work together, so it won't split or ctack when drying.
A rough turned bowl in yew doesn't hardly warp during drying, so It is really easy to put back on the lathe for finishing.
Unfortunately it is rare to come across yew of more than 8-10 inch diameter in Denmark.
In England they grow a lot bigger.
 
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