First deer of the 2020 season!
 

Today was opening day of bow season here in NY. Saw three bucks this morning and this on came in this evening with about 10min. left to shoot. Will be cutting it up for the freezer tomorrow.

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Nice congrats!

I envy you guys who can say "first deer of the season". Here in Washington, we get one. All season. And, for the last 30 or so seasons, we have had to choose one hunting method, one hunting season. Used to be we could hunt all three - bow, muzzle loader, modern firearm - but even then, we were limited to one deer, regardless of which season or method proved successful. That's a large part of why I have not hunted my own state in probably 15 years.

My first hunt will be MI, Nov. 15-19th. Our normal hunting camp in the MI upper peninsula not happening for the first time in 20 years due to covid :( We are going to some ancient places we know in Western MI (Baldwin area for those that care).

Will hunt OH firearm and possibly muzzleloader.

Higgins, I think we have talked about this before. When I first got to WA, being a lifelong hunter, I went and picked up the guide to see what the regulations were. Well, first off, why is the guide like 80 pages long? And why are there these insanely detailed maps that show topographical maps, where you are on one side of a ridge, and its all good, and on the other side of the ridge, they confiscate your truck, and you get fined some crazy amount of money. I don't want to have to hire a ******* attorney to figure out where I am suppose to hunt. I'm with ya....no thanks. Another state can get the $$$ I spend on hunting.

Quite early to take a good one, not a chance to breed. That one looks to have good genetics, now taken out of the pool.

What do you figure it is aged? I guess 4yrs. Nice buck. I never liked hunting before the rut.

That a great way to start the season Von !

Great looking buck! Do you use a tree platform?

my neighbor just took a bear locally and since im not a hunter i had plenty of questions. i was astonished that it's been in an ice bath for a week now and he will be giving it a couple more days before he finishes what he calls the aging process. says he does the same with his venison, although just for a few days, not as long as the bear.

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with that said what is you hunters take on this approach? he is off to the store everyday for a couple big bags of ice and drains the water off multiple times a day. he stated that aging the meat does wonder for flavor, texture and tenderness. im surprised at this, although i know aging of beef is not unheard of and apparently is good for the meat and prices reflect such.

the bear was partially dressed down, quartered or the like gutted and obviously skinned prior to the process.

Oh yeah, we have commiserated over this at length. Washington is simply not a "hunter friendly" state. Not only are our regulations vastly over-complicated and our seasons far too short, there is a notable lack of game here anyway. Hell, we can go back and read Lewis and Clark's journals, wherein they commented on the dearth of suitable game. Their party was forced onto "starvation rations" when they crossed the Snake River into this area. So, yeah, most of my hunting has been out of state for the whole of my hunting career. It's sad, and as I get a bit older, I would really like to not have to travel so much just to hunt. Oh well.

Hoo boy - amongst hunters, this is kind of like the ubiquitous "oil thread" on car forums. There is no agreement, and we actually see some very heated arguments.

Personally, I have never aged any game meat, at least not on purpose. By that I mean if I can get the animal dressed and into a freezer I will. There are times, however, when that is impossible. For example, I have found myself far out in the Alaskan wilderness with caribou down and the bush plane that is going to retrieve us is still a week out. So we hang them and "age" them - there really is no choice.

I will say, however, that bear are different. There is an enzyme in their fat that breaks down very rapidly and permeates the meat, rendering it all but unpalatable for most of us. The bigger the bear and the more fat the worse it gets. There are "eating size" bears and there are "trophy size" bears and never the twain shall meet. Even at that, "eating size" bears need to be very thoroughly butchered with an eye towards removing all visible fat before it ever even gets wrapped. And that as soon as possible. Otherwise they just get all stinky and nasty.

Hoo boy - amongst hunters, this is kind of like the ubiquitous "oil thread" on car forums. There is no agreement, and we actually see some very heated arguments.

great example to get me up to speed....

this bear apparently is a large bear for the foothill according to what the neighbor relayed from the game warden that verified the animal and tag. although i got game cam footage of one on my property last december that appeared much bigger and more muscular. granted this one had been gutted when i saw it and took the pictures and but it appeared smallish to me. other than the legs and paws it seemed not to be much bigger than a very robust male Rottweiler.

this was the closest ive ever been to a bear, so what do i know? what i can say is the front paws and claws were very impressive. he says i will get a piece to taste for myself and im looking forward to the experience.

oh, and congrats to the OP for a fine looking deer.

I got a deer one year in Northern Michigan. It got it mid day, and we were facing a 12 hour drive down state the next day, so we could not get to our processor for basically 48 hours. Did I mentioned it was the 70s?! Very warm for that time of year. So we cleaned it up, and packed in 15 bags of ice in the game sled.

I hope you’re not hunting near Robie Lake just south of Baldwin. Haven’t seen hide nor hair of a deer going on 15 years!

Wow, the deer are thick around here. They need to open the season longer. I see a dead deer on a regular basis along the side of the road.

[QUOTE=HardDrive;11048304]My first hunt will be MI, Nov. 15-19th. Our normal hunting camp in the MI upper peninsula not happening for the first time in 20 years due to covid :( We are going to some ancient places we know in Western MI (Baldwin area for those that care).


As a teen, my father and I would hunt in that area every year. Luther (about 15 miles from Baldwin) was our go-to-place. Lots of deer..lots of hard areas to negotiate.
In the last year, I have seen 3 black bears in the Luther/Reed City area.

Yes I was in a tree stand, same one I use every year and seem to get a nice buck from every year! Got it cut up yesterday and ready to wrap and put in the freezer. Buck weighed 180lbs dressed, so it was a big one for around here. I can still get 4 more, but will only take one more, as that is all we can eat between my wife and I.

Well I am just about done for this year, the freezer is just about full. Got this large doe around 4:30 this afternoon. She dresses about 115lbs is my guess, will know tomorrow when we butcher it.

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Jeff, come out to my front yard anytime...........we're up to 7 resident pests at any one time. Dumb as rocks...........

Jeff, Oregon must be similar to Washington...I gave up hunting decades ago. You'd need a Chicago law firm to figure out all the regs.

Maybe 20 years ago, a NY state friend whose hubby hunts, said he'd like to hunt elk here. I picked up a copy of the then hunting regulations, mailed it back there. Never heard another word...

We made a recent drive of 100 miles each way to Enid, OK. We saw 6 dead deer on the way up and 7 on the way back. And several bloody patches where likely a deer was hit and picked up already. The state is pretty proactive about pickup up the corpses. They don't want coyotes crossing the road to eat the dead deer and more collisions.