HT congratulations.... 👍

Lookin to be a banner year for the HT gang. Congratulations guys.

Cool Deer, Tuna! Lots of good eating there!   Now you can focus on fishing, hard water or soft, with this early February! 

I just got back from 4 days in DSR.  I don't get out at dawn , but I'm on the river as hard as an aging curmudgeon can be.  Randy Jones pimps the river really well, too.

So the not so fun stuff of processing a deer, and multiple. I find them the hardest of any animal to. I've spent about 20 hrs so far on 4 deer. I'm no expert.
I'm down to 1 left and also some slicing more for jerky on the cuts we made on some.
We are getting lots of prime meat from mature deer and very well placed shots.
I'm very picky but pick them over well as not to waste a harvest. Haven't done and won't be able to weigh but my guesstimate so far is about 120 lbs packaged plus with 1 to go.
Freezers are full again. Fishing is so much easier, lol

Just some fyi I should have spread earlier.
While buying things is fun stuff and I prefer to shop local small businesses . I'm no fool and do like the convenience of online and delivery to my door.
In last 4 years I've been working a warehouse retirement job , wasted talent, but it's what it is. I receive lots of deliveries everyday.
One thing of caution, now is NOT the time to shop online. The trucks are chock full and drivers are stressed. Your packages are not handled by any care at all and tossed all over the trucks to find .
If you order anything fragile or of size, it's most likely to be damaged.

Just saying

Welll see in the news that 'massive troves' of UFO documents are now publicly available.
Seems some UFO believer has 'released' all of his files to the public.
Yikes- here 'they' come.
Makes me remember my early days on the PD when some drunk guy called repeatedly about the lights in the sky from the South end of town. He reported ufo's constantly and we  made out sighting reports.
The reports were knowingly tongue in cheek not just because the guy was a well know tipster of magic fluids but that the local airport was on the south end of town and night flights by planes with their lights flashing were commonplace.
But- hey--who knows.
Fondly recall the night a couple of us took a gullible Sgt outside and showed him the lights- he ran back in and called the Air Force- he was a believer too - we got called in and told off for that one- but they had a bit of a chuckle over it while admonishing us.
We all got a kick out of it till a couple of days later when the Air force guys showed up to interview the Sgt.--we hadda confess.
Some nights were quiet in those days and young guys find stuff to do.
Hey- they were real complaints and it was our 'duty to follow up without personal opinions or common sense getting involved.

Wasn't sayin there is an is't sayin there aint-  just sayin the folks who called us weren't- lol.
It IS huge out there---

Rg, it's pretty funny because I never would have thought about UFO since 40 years ago until today.
Is this good or bad on our parts.
You brought it to my attention on this www site .
TV is now broadcasting it tonight which I rarely watch.
It may be a sign..
Turn off the news and build a garden instead of the alternative I've been doing

Great photo Rich-wow -THATS a pile of bunnies.
 
Been looking for the swamp donkey all season-he's too elusive so far--again -hunting him now the third season.
Took a shooter- not him- 2 years back second to last day.
Took a little spike with the bow early last year and a small flathead early this year-both on another property- then been passing all season--Waiting for HIM-
Been seeing his track bout twice a week on the farm  but it seems he has gone nocturnal again.
I know where he is during the day but its a nearby NO place.
He's there all Summer but when the landowner season starts early, and my cousins get busy, the deer always leave during the day to this other bedding area - sometimes until the last few days of muzzel-got till 12/31 this year.
2 of my last 3 shooters there were on the last day or two of the season in Muzzel.
Just kinda nice to know he is still around- gotta be 7, at least.

Here in my local the rabbits are scarce,used to be plenty but they have dwindled the last ten years.I think the reason for that lies in the heavy use of weed killer in farming.

Yotes, Bears, Bobcats, Opossums  Birds of prey all take a heavy toll on bunnies.
Not to mention wet Springs-even with more than one liter a year loosing one is a factor.

r3g3
Yotes, Bears, Bobcats, Opossums  Birds of prey all take a heavy toll on bunnies.
Not to mention wet Springs-even with more than one liter a year loosing one is a factor.

I had bunches of bunnies in my woods. When I cut brush to clear paths, I piled it up to make brush piles and then would dump blackberries on it to make it narly. Have seen as many as 7 out at a time in deer season from my treehouse.

Then, zero. I’m sure the line coyote that circles through every couple of weeks gets some. The eagles get some when they set up hunting here for the month of May. But what took them to zero are the fishers. Saw one along the creek near the rabbit hutches almost everyday hunting deer. Despicable weasels.

I don't hunt farmland but in our hardwoods the only neighbor ( real deliverance type) is always busier than a beaver running chainsaw, tractor and log splitter. I mean real deliverance like 3 mobile homes tied together to make a house with tarps connecting them together, more junk than a scrap yard and if you ever wondered why your yellow mail box never got delivered, I bet I could give you 1 or a thousand and 1.
Their noise really doesn't bother the deer at all. I actually hunt my best stand right behind his compound ( on our property) because the noise and smoke from the wood boiler provides great scent and noise cover. The deer have no clue I'm there. The only thing that gets annoyed is me from hearing the equipment .

Rg,
Do you process your deer yourself ?
I've cut countless deer. One thing I despise is cutting small deer. Unless one dosen't care what goes into the " mix " ( generally a butcher) I would rather shoot nothing than shoot what we consider a pass based on size. My son's have been very good at understanding this. I'm also trying to teach them good shooting. Wait for the " shot " meaning close is better and head shots waste no meat.
A shooter deer is always based on body mass, never antlers or not.

Good luck out there.
I have a bunch right now hanging out at the bird feeders as I type

We will have to agree on a disagreement towards young vs older.
Forage animals taste the same regardless of age. They all taste what they eat.
The only difference to me is mussel to meat ratio. All have both and in the same locations, smaller deer have less meat and more mussel building.
Larger deer have more to offer, again I judge body size not necessarily age or antlers.
We see a ton of 1.5 small deer and pass unless its body size is appropriate.
Given that, I also pass on larger antlers but body does not encourage a shooter.