First Deer

I've spent the past month building a deer stand (Ben's treeless tree house) in the back yard behind the carport. Have tried to spend as little as possible on it. Until I build some walls and a roof, the shelf that supports the bales of wheat straw will have to do. The stand is right on the edge of the woods behind us. I still have some camo painting to do.

Tuesday, business was slow, so I decided to take my new crossbow out to the stand and see what might happen. I've only shot the bow less than 20 times. It took only 3 shots and 2 adjustments of the scope to zero it. So I figured that I was ready to hunt.

I was in the stand for 30 to 45 minutes before I saw a deer approaching. I got an arrow loaded and waited. There were two does slowly making their way toward the salt lick that I put out in the woods at a distance of about 25 yards. A few times, the larger doe stopped and looked in my direction. I thought for sure that she saw me in the stand (I was peeping out through an opening between the bales of straw). It was another 20 minutes before she ended up between the salt lick and me, standing broad side toward me at a distance of about 20 yards. I pulled the trigger. The arrow hit her just behind and a bit above the front shoulder. Since I was shooting from at least 11 feet above the ground, the arrow angled downward and went right through her vitals. Perfect shot! She went right down. I did have to put her out with a shot from my .22 pistol, though. We now have some venison in the fridge, which we will enjoy this weekend.

Karen wanted me to add the photo of the deer after I had skinned it, so don't scroll down past this point unless you want to see it. I used the Harris Gutless Deer Butchering video found on YouTube. You can see the laptop, on the bale of straw, I was watching as I processed the deer.

I couldn't see gutting the deer, since it was my first one. And after watching many videos on how to field dress a deer, I think I'll stick with the gutless method. It seems to me that there is a lot less risk of contaminating the meat by not exposing the innards. And most of the meat can be removed from the bones using this method. Field dressing a deer is a must when out in the field, but with my kitchen and refrigerator within 150 feet of the stand where I shot and hung the deer for processing, there really isn't a need to make a big mess by gutting it.

Now to the good part! Just pulled a package of steaks, from the hind quarter, out of the fridge. Look how lean that meat is!

Seasoned the meat with Louisiana Cajun Seasoning Salt, placed it in a cast-iron skillet on the stove with a little olive oil. Cooked for about 3.5 minutes on each side, until rare to medium rare in the center. MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! There was absolutely no gaminess to it. If placed before me without knowing what type of meat it was and blindfolded, I would have guessed "a slightly tough beef ribeye". And it really wasn't chewy at all. I've had tougher beef. I will probably never buy meat from the grocery store again. At least, I hope I won't have to.