Leo

Re: Easiest way to skin/clean a turkey I skin mine. Breast meat makes awesome fajitas. Lot's of guys toss the drumsticks on mature 2yr or older birds cause the meat is super tough. I did for awhile but not anymore. Take one whole skinned drumstick bones and all, put it in a crockpot and cover it with chicken broth (canned stuff). You can add a little water if you don't have enough broth (figure at least three cans depends on pot size) but don't dilute it too much. Make sure it covers all the meat. Put the top on and set the crockpot on low. Leave the leg in there at least 12hrs (overnight is about right, don't worry about over doing it, the longer it's in there the more tender. You can put it in the night before, go to work the next day and finish that night. Just make sure you leave that thing on.) Save the broth. Let the drumstick cool and you should be able to pull tendons and bones out clean and easy. Throw out the bones and tendons. Dice up the meat. Use the broth instead of water to make a pot of Yellow Saffron rice. Add the meat after the rice is done. Add a little more broth to get it soupier if you like. Once it warms thru dig in. It's worth the effort and not nearly as hard as it may sound. Makes a decent meal out of what a lot of folks figure is junk.

Re: Blood [ QUOTE ] Bright red can also mean muscle hit, hopefully your bright red blood has bubbles in it, and is very short. [/ QUOTE ] Agreed. Bright red with no bubbles in it is often bad news. And it may indeed be a muscle only hit. Lung blood always has bubbles and is sometimes very pink. Keep in mind it's not unusual for the blood trail to change character as you follow it. The first blood you find may only be muscle blood. If after 40yds that's still all you are finding, I get worried. Lung hits don't always show in the first few yards of a blood trail. They almost always do within 40 though. When you find it, push on, you got him. Dark blood that is almost black though many archers hate to see it is a pretty certain sign of a solidly hit animal. These hits are inevitably fatal. If the arrow punched thru the deers diaphragm and missed lungs they still usually don't go far. And there's a good chance you will hear the animal fall after the shot. A hole in the diaphragm disables both lungs pretty quick. The blood trail may be dark but it's not liver damage that killed it. If you do suspect that it was a liver only shot. If at all possible, wait 24hrs before following up or you will be chasing that deer awhile. Left alone with a liver only shot they will stove up pretty close to where you shot it. Then they just lay down and go to sleep. Honestly I think that's probably kinder than pushing a wounded animal for hours.

Re: are rattlesnakes poisonous? Honestly depends on what the snake you are calling a rattlesnake really is. No offense but that kind of question leads me to believe you don't know a whole bunch about rattlers. I assure you, you're not alone on that issue. I have seen lots of snakes people killed swearing they were rattlers, copperheads, moccasins, etc. they called me to look at them afterward. As a result, I've seen an awful lot of dead quite harmless garter snakes, rat snakes, hognose, and plain belly water snakes. As mentioned by others above in this post ND has Prairie rattlers and they are indeed venomous. Do yourself a favor and read up on them here. Prairie Rattlers North Dakota

Re: Antler Question for ya! [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] Antler decline in older deer is a perfectly normal result of tooth wear and the corresponding inability to intake food combined with the stresses they face each year from their seasonal activities. If the deer are in a captive environment and have a free choice supplemental feeding source, the decline is much less noticeable. I don't think there's any way to look at a really old deer and determine what his past antler growth was like, just that at one point in time he was probably considerably larger. [/ QUOTE ] Ditto. Buckmasters did a photo essay on a few bucks that were in captivity. It was interesting. Thing is, we never see it as hunters because of a few factors, namely, most deer never reach 6 or 7 years in the wild. [/ QUOTE ] For what's it's worth in my experience diet and nutrition can play an enormous part in this phenomena. If the diet is pathetic and forage lacking in proper nutrients and minerals, a deer can appear to decline far earlier in life than 6 or 7.

Re: GIANT DEER STATE OF CHOICE ??? Good point BC180. But I believe years and years of Kansas denying non-residents to hunt big game undoubtably affected their status in the record books. Now their borders are open and it's always one of the top choices you hear to pursue big deer. What does that tell you?

Re: Antlers [ QUOTE ] that whole thing with getting blood on them after you shoot them makes sense and ties in with the blood and velvet! Now i know where them spots on all my mounts keep coming from! So you say they can some off? [/ QUOTE ] It comes off easiest if the blood hasn't been on too long and penetrated the antler yet. Careful light scrubbing with a medium bristle brush gets it off pretty easy. Old blood stains are a different story. Be very careful trying to remove these or you will whiten up that spot on the antler. You can ruin an otherwise decent looking rack with too much elbow grease.

Re: Antlers I got major flames on a forum one time for stating the blood theory. We can kill deer that are still in velvet here starting in August. Last year a friend of mine killed a deer that had just (probably that day) shed it's velvet. There was still a few scraps of velvet on it and the rack still was covered with wet sticky velvet blood. It sat in a bucket in his garage, and guess what? It got darker all by itself. I can see diets with different minerals causing different colors. Just a tip. When field dressing a deer, be careful of not getting blood on the antlers of any rack you want to keep. It's not a disaster if it happens just don't let it get too dry. It is far easier to scrub off the color of antlers along with the blood than most people think. Done it myself. Learned my lesson.

Re: Its time for my yearly tresspassers issue to h I understand your reluctance to take legal action, but honestly that is EXACTLY what these dirtbags are counting on. Don't face them alone or without an authority. Make sure they understand that now you know exactly who they are. Much of their bravery is their own perceived anonymity.

Re: prayersneededinnc........ SENT.

Re: bowhunting in the rain Rain makes deer harder to track after the hit. Depends on typically how difficult it is to find the deer after the shot in your area when it's not raining. IE. If you know you need a blood trail to retrieve the animal in the area you are hunting, don't hunt in the rain. Some places bloodtrails are not as necessary as others. It's up to you to honestly decide if where you hunt qualifies or not.

Re: Are these the same or differnt deer? From the data on the photos. Both of these pictures were taken from the same spot, same day, less than one hour apart. Because these bucks are quite similar, that data alone might lead you to automatically assume they are the same deer. Photo angles do weird things to antler appearance. Though a different angle can't add points it sure can make tines appear longer or shorter. Honestly, I think it's a tough call, just looking at the antlers. However, the white throat patches in both pictures are clearly visible and different. Throat patches differ from deer to deer. If you get a photo of a deer before he sprouts his antlers. Make note of the throat patch. Shape, color and size vary more than you think. The first buck has a throat patch that cuts straight accross the neck with well defined almost sharp corners. The second buck's throat patch has a clearly rounded bottom and rounded corners. The different angles don't hide these attributes. IMO, different deer.

Re: KANSAS BUCK DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ow! I know even getting this nice deer doesn't take the pain of loosing one away. Usually if you clip a deer's diaphram they won't make it 3hrs. If I felt I had done that, 3hrs is plenty of wait. However, if you connect with liver only, even though that's absolutely fatal it can take 24hrs for him to stove up. Liver shots are notoriously hard to track. Take heart, searching the thickets around the edges of the nearest water source may still turn him up though. If your arrow was blooded end to end. You still might find that sucker.

Talked to the Sauceman himself today. His family and he are settling into their new home. He has no phone hooked up yet. Phone companies still working on it. Hopefully it will be soon. He asked me to let you all know they are all doing well. I promised I would. Those of you who have his cell number do him a favor. Wait till the weekend to call and help him save minutes. They get out of control in a hurry when that's all you got. Trust me I know. Well wishers ran up a $458.00 cell phone bill on me in nothing flat when I got hurt. Thankfully the phone company discounted some of it (they didn't have to do anything, even with this gesture, the bill was still pretty big). Though my wife appreciated all those that were concerned. After awhile with your husband in critical condition your heart skips a beat every time a phone rings. Incoming calls on cells usually aren't free, even if you call from a land line. Most folks don't think about the person paying on the receiving end of a call. Pray it all goes thru for him smoothly and he is back online posting soon. Also pray for him in general that everything about his health and situation takes a turn for the better. I am sure it would touch him greatly if everyone who is praying for him, would post what they want for him on this thread. What a surprise he would have when he gets back online. God Bless Norm. Your friend, Leo

Re: shot my first south carolina deer but can`t fi Some of these South Carolina swamp bottoms redefine what the word THICK. Some you can only crawl into. Keep this in mind. If that deer went through any bamboo after the shot. There is a lot of that stuff in the creek bottoms here. Don't forget to look up for blood. A deer can easily push through that bamboo. They bend the stalks over leave blood on the bamboo then boing it stands straight up again after the deer passes. Blood sign might end up being a couple feet off the ground then.

Re: My 10 point........(pics) [ QUOTE ] Sealed the deal, WTG bud! He looks to be just slightly over 140" to me. [/ QUOTE ] I agree with Tominator. High 130s low 140s

Re: MY WORST NIGHTMARE CAME TRUE TODAY!!!!!! (PICS [ QUOTE ] id get him shoulder mounted... in a way you harvested him... he deserves to be shoulder mounted and in a post above that said have some trail cam pics around the mount thatd be cool [/ QUOTE ] Agreed. What if you found the deer dying in those trees and had no choice but to finish him off. Would you feel differently? Probably not. I am guessing you would still feel cheated. Cheer up. Many of us have pursued a monster deer that disappeared and never knew what happened. Perhaps the outcome was similar and we never found the evidence. Your one up on those of us who have experienced that. Bottomline. You know exactly what happened. You are not chasing a ghost. You have the deer and the pictures to tell the story. I believe a good story should go with every mount. You got a dandy. Enjoy. This may indeed be a blessing.

Re: KANSAS BUCK DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Uh Oh. It's getting late. Hope he just hasn't had time to tell us about it cause he's still celebrating.

Re: All Bucked Out 13 pointer (pics) [ QUOTE ] Shoot forgot one of the most important and disturbing things. When we were caping him out at the taxidermist he had a scar on his neck evidently from fighting, but when we skinned him a dang bullet of small caliber fell out on the ground!!!!!!!!!! I will be contacting the warden in the area to alert him of poaching going on in our area, DANG I hate that SOOOOOO Bad! [/ QUOTE ] I least you got him and some dirtbag didn't. A much happier ending I would think. That's a great great deer! I know your thankful for that dude.

Re: My budy\'s stud deer Yep QDM works! Gotta admire that guys restraint passing 120 class animals. That's a stud mature animal. No doubt.

Re: Scrapes and Game Cam question. Thanks for the very helpful reply Brule. This confirms my suspicions the exact same nocturnal visits by the big boys are occurring here.

Re: Add a buck to our pile CSM and Stellfox Good job!!! Like MCH says looks like we are moving up

Many of us have found them and hunted them with no luck. I include myself among those who have struck out on scrapes. I personally have only ever taken one buck near one. He wasn't working it but he was scent checking it from a thicket I was hiding in. He was 80yds away from the scrape. I didn't find the scrape till I tracked him after the shot. I honestly didn't know it was there till then. The deer came in at last 20 minutes of legal shooting light. This was after a I had sat that stand since sunup. It was a long long day. Right now, my injuries would probably prevent me doing that hunt again. I do know, if I had been within visible distance of the scrape, "hunting it", I couldn't have seen him at all. So what I learned from that experience is get downwind of the scrape in the thickest stuff you can find within 80-100yds of it. Pretty conventional wisdom nowadays. But still, applying this knowledge hasn't made scrape hunting a very successful tactic for me. Even successfully set up mock scrapes that get hot and a lot of activity produce hardly any deer sightings. I am coming to the conclusion that for the most part scrapes just aren't visited much (if at all) during the day. Maybe it's just in this area, don't know for sure. My Question is: With so many folks owning game cams, nowadays. Has anyone ever set one up on a hot scrape and photographed a decent buck working it during legal shooting hours? If you have tried this, or have the ability to, please share with us. I for one would be really interested.

Re: Got one of the Big 8\'s Nice deer for sure. Rut's on

Re: I CAN\'T BELIEVE I MISSED ANOTHER BIG BUCK If it had been me, I'd be taking that gun to the range and punch about 10 rounds through paper at that distance. That would be the only way I would be able to determine if it was just me, something changed on the gun or I need some practice. I hate it for you. Dust yourself a figure out how you can prevent it in the future. Even if you get real real good mistakes happen. That's why there is a silver and bronze medal

Re: Need some help asap...Tikka T3 or Ruger M77 Ma I am another very happy Tikka owner. Mine is a 30 06. Besides the outstanding action, the trigger on these rifles is absolutely the best on a production rifle I have ever experienced. I predict it will shoot 180gr bullets the most accurately. The Finns like heavier bullets and the rifling twist in these barrels reflects that. The M77s I have shot are in general rougher guns. But they are sturdy no nonsense performers. Be warned the T3 is a light rifle. A 300 win mag in a T3 gonna kick the shortening out of a biscuit. You will absolutely want a limbsaver pad on this gun after a trip to the range. For a 300WinMag Tikka I would also go with the heavier laminated stock vs the black synthetic. If you have your heart set on a 300Win Mag and you are recoil sensitive, go with the heavier M77.