Ask Fishwhenican about hunting

[Fishwhenican]

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do you want to sell your bucktails? Have you gone on a blackpowder shoot? i've heard that they're a blast (literally and figuratively).

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I suppose I would sell my bucktails but it would seem like more trouble than it would be worth. Never had anyone ask but I would probably just give them to someone if they wanted them?? I would assume for fly tying??

No, I really do not do anything with black powder. If Montana would ever start a separate blackpowder season I would. I have shot blackpowder rifles before and it is fun. I like archery a lot more though.

[belgianbeerlover]

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We fill a freezer in the fall and pretty much just eat wild game throughout the year.


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What wild game do you like eating the most? How do you prepare some of your favorites?

My buddy is a big hunter. He gave me some BBQ stew. It was strips of meat, peppers, onions, and a sweet tangy BBQ sauce. It was really good. I was pretty surprised when he told me the meat was deer heart cut into strips. Apparently his group freezes all the hearts and when they have enough they make heart stew. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Fishwhenican]

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We fill a freezer in the fall and pretty much just eat wild game throughout the year.


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What wild game do you like eating the most? How do you prepare some of your favorites?

My buddy is a big hunter. He gave me some BBQ stew. It was strips of meat, peppers, onions, and a sweet tangy BBQ sauce. It was really good. I was pretty surprised when he told me the meat was deer heart cut into strips. Apparently his group freezes all the hearts and when they have enough they make heart stew. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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Of the game I normally hunt elk is our favorite. It had a very good flavor, much like beef but a lot leaner. With elk we will just take steaks/chops and grill them with a little Lawrey's and Garlic powder. I will usually take elk burger and mix it with a little Soy Sauce, Liquid Smoke, Olive Oil, Lawrey's, garlic powder and whatever else hits me at the moment and made burgers for the grill. I have also just pattied up straight elk burger and it was fine that way but I just like it better when it's spiced up a bit.

Deer would be the next favorite. Our deer around here have a very good flavor to them. It is pretty unusual to get a deer from this area that has that real "gamey" flavor. But, I will usually take deer steaks/chops and marinate them a bit before I grill them. I'll also take deer steaks and cook them in the slow cooker which is really good. I take a couple of packs of steaks and put them in the slow cooker in the morning to cook all day. I will add a can of beer, Au Jus powder, Garlic powder, Minced onions, some soy sauce, liquid smoke and a couple of bay leaves. When it is time to eat I remove the meat from the juice, strain it and make gravey! WAY GOOD!!! We use deer burger for Tacos, chili and spagetti sauce. We will occasionally have different types of sausage made from deer as well.

Antelope is good if the meat is handled right but it can get a bit gamey if it is not handled correctly or gets hair on it. I took an antelope this year and cut out the backstraps and injected it with terriaki marinade and let it marinade for a few days and then put them on the rotisserie on the grill and they were fantastic! I used the rest of the antelope to make jerky. Usually we will take and antelope and make him into sausage (Fresh Brats) and that is great as well.

I have had Buffalo (Bison) and it is very very good, right up there with elk, but I do not get that as often. I have also had moose and it is very good as well but we do not get that very often at all. I want to go up to AK in the next couple of years to Moose hunt and that would be great since that meat is so good! It would also be quite an adventure.

I am not all that big a fan of heart, liver and other gut pile type of stuff. I have had heart and liver and it's not bad but I usually do not mess with it. Fried Elk liver is pretty good though. I will save the heart and liver a lot of times for some Native American friends we have that just love it though.

When we get a buffalo I always have my native american friends bugging me to save the stomach (Tripe) as they use it in Menudo. Grosses me out but they love it so I usually try to get part of it ("the bible", which is one of the stomachs) at least.

I have one buddy I hunt with (Native American) who always has a big piece of raw liver when he get a deer or elk. I have actually tried the raw elk liver with him and it wasn't horrible but I wouldn't go out of my way to get it again. Much better cooked in my opinion.

[Fishwhenican]

I had a good question asked in a PM about hunting that I thought I would share. The person had just watched Pryor15's video and was asking about the moose not just dying right away. They basically wanted to know if it was normal for an animal to keep moving after it was shot.

Answer:
It is not at all uncommon for animals to take a while to die. It is actually a bit unusual for things to drop dead instantly. Usually you try to get a shot in the chest taking out both lungs and even better the heart as well. This does not kill instantly but if it is a good shot it shouldn't take long for them to bleed out and then die. The only way an animal drops dead is if you hit it in the neck and break the neck and spinal cord. Then, it is usually lights out and they just fold up right where they stand. I have done that with the buffalo I have shot and I have done that with deer as well. I will only do that, though, if it is a shot that is close enough and I am 100% sure I can make it. If you miss there is a big chance of not just missing but of wounding the animal badly where it does not die until much much later. I have seen deer that have had their lower jaw shot off and still lived but they couldn't eat. That is pretty awful.

With archery an animal will virtually never drop from a shot. Usually they do not even know they have been hit. They will go a ways and as they bleed out their lags get weak, they will lay down and basically go to sleep. It is probably a much more peaceful death than a rifle shot. But, a rifle shot is usually much quicker.

I have had many times where an animal is shot and runs off and you have to track it. It is not at all unusual. Hopefully there is a good blood trail and you find it right away. Sometimes it is not so easy and you have to look for a long time before you find it. Then there are times when no matter how hard you look you do not find the animal. That is not usually the case but it can and does happen. The most frustrating cases have been when an animal is hit and you track it to private land where you do not have permission to go. Ethically you shouldn't let the animal go but legally you cannot just cross the fence without permission.

[illeagle]

I'm interested in reloading. Roughly how much would it cost to acquire the tools and supplies to be able to reload 2 or 3 different types of cartridges? Know of any good online information resources on the subject?

[Fishwhenican]

It has been a long time since I got my reloading equipment so if I forget something, I apologize up front. Also, I only hand load for rifle. I do not do pistol reloads or shotshell reloads although I may still start that in the future I do not have any good advice for that other than if you want to do reloading for a pistol you need to get a progressive reloader because it is much much faster.

I use RCBS equipment. It is well made and just about everyone I know uses their stuff.
I got their Master Reloading Kit and it had most of what a person needs to get started.

There are smoe more things a person has to have in addition: You need a shell holder for you particular size cartridge for the reloading press. I do not think they were too much, maybe a couple of bucks each.
You will need reloading dies for each cartridge you want to reload. I think these were around $40 give or take a few dollars
I also highly suggest you use Hornady Case lube instead of the pad of lube you get with the reloading kit. It is much easier to use and less messy!
A case tumbler is nice to have to keep the cases nice and shiny clean.
I also got a powder trickler and that is really nice to have.
There are also all kinds of other little things a guy could get as well. I think If I were going to change something it would be to get an electronic scale and then the electronic powder measurer.

I do not have any specific site to suggest for more information on reloading. The RCBS site does have some information and I am sure there are others that could be found with a google search.

Reloading is really not hard, it just takes a bit of time and being careful.

I am trying to remember how much I had into all my equipment so far and I am not 100% sure. I would guess, not including supplies like powder, bullets and primers about $400 to $500

[Mrs. Utah]

Did you grow up hunting? Have you always lived way out where hunting is, it seems, a necessity?

Have you had to kill a predator that may have been threatening you/family, property etc...?

I am a big fan of pictures...any you would want to post?

[Fishwhenican]

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Did you grow up hunting? Have you always lived way out where hunting is, it seems, a necessity?

Have you had to kill a predator that may have been threatening you/family, property etc...?

I am a big fan of pictures...any you would want to post?

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No I haven't hunted all my life. I actually got a pretty late start. I grew up in Columbus Ohio, in the city, Moved to SE WI when I was about 20 and was there for 19 years. I used to think I lived in the country when I was in WI and moved to a little town about 25 miles outside of Milwaukee with only 10,000 people or so. I am WAY more rural than that now. I had no idea places like this existed before I ended up here.

My father did not hunt but my grandfather, on my mother's side, was a big hunter. He grew up in Northern WI and spent a lot of time up in Canada as well. I remember whenever we would visit I always loved to fish with him and listen to his hunting stories. His favorite one was when he get a moose up there in Canada.

I hunted a little bit the last couple of years I was in WI but I really didn't start hunting seriously until I ended up here in Montana. I have been here over 7 years now and have been hunting all of those years pretty seriously. I am very fortunate to have made some very good friends who are very serious hunters and have been very good about teaching me and helping me learn. I also studied magazine articles and books and everything I could to learn more about it as well.

I think calling hunting a necessity is not 100% correct. We could certainly buy food but it is a preference to hunt and eat wild game most of the time.

I have killed predators (coyotes and foxes) but never anything that was attacking. We hunt them for sport and because it helps keep the populations down. The ranchers like that as coyotes can be a problem for them. We hunt them buy setting up and calling them in. We use a call that sounds like a rabbit being attacked. It is kind of like ringing the dinner bell for coyotes. A lot of the time if you call them in they come at a dead run right at you! I had one that I thought was going to end up in my lap for awhile. I threw up my rifle and shot him and when we stepped it off he had put the brakes on 15 yards from me!

Pictures:

Buffalo (Bison) I took with my bow


Me and an Elk I took a couple of years ago
Me and the Elk (not for the squeamish)

Me and a nice whitetail buck I got a few years ago


Wife and her elk from last year


Wife and her Antelope from this year


Wife and her elk from last year packed out and into the back of our Polaris Ranger. We had to quarter this elk and get it about a mile out of the woods to a road. That was fun!
Elk on the truck (not for the squeamish)