I have just wrapped up the processing on my big yearly meat hunting trip! The hunt was a great success and the meat has come out tasting great so far!
Here are some pics and then I will write it all up.
My freezer filled again for the year! (Top is Venison Brats, 2nd from top Pork Franks, 3rd from top is pure 100% ground Venison, Bottom shank and heal meat)
6 of the 9 deer. These are the ones me and my girl took, I had already broke down the other 3 my brother took when it dawned on me to take the full meat cooler picture lol.
Venison Brats. 80% pure ground venison, 20% trimmed pork back fat, LEM's Backwoods Fresh Brat seasoning. 30 pounds of Brats made.
We were itching to get some feral hogs but they know when we are coming and they decide to hide from us hahaha. This is store bought pork ($0.99 pork butts) I turned into pork franks. 28 pounds of pork franks. I am going to try some skinless ones in the smoker this year and they are in the black cellulose casings in the gallon bag waiting to be smoked this week.
Now for some nature pics!!
Big beautiful white Fallow Buck.
Nice Whitetail buck.
Axis doe, white Fallow doe, and little Whitetail buck passing by the feeder.
Some deer running through camp. This pic was taken from the pack porch of the trailer we slept in.
It was a great trip of hunting. We hunted early morning and evenings. We started last Thursday and by Saturday night we had shot out our number of 8 does and 1 little spike for 9 deer total. This was nice since it gave me time to break down the deer on Sunday afternoon and be done in time to watch the evening football game and it was a good one
We process in my garage and we knocked it out in record time of 3 days this year. Normally it takes 5-6 but I had great help and efficiency was fantastic due to the lack of beer for my help to drink while working hahahahhaha!
When all of the processing was done we had 117 pounds of cleaned meat off the bone so 39 pounds a piece (3 hunters).
I make a deal with my brother and he gets UNCLEANED backstrap and tenderloins which saves a huge amount of time. He cleans them up as he opens the packages to cook them. My favorite way to eat venison backstrap is to bread and fry it but I don't do much breading and frying so all other ways of cooking it just can't compare for me. So I started grinding it to make the PRIME venison burger grind
This deal has my brother making the most of it and saves me time in processing it. Don't knock the backstrap grind until you try it. It's is amazing Venison grind!
In all we had:
I took 1 deer using my 300 AAC Blackout with a 110grain Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos (old brass version) bullet via my handloads. I took the other 2 deer with the 30-06 (evening hunts, I don't like tracking in the dark) using 150gr Horadny GMX I also handload.
My girlfriend took all 3 of her deer with my bolt action Savage Axis 300 AAC Blackout (I swapped a .223 barrel with a 300BLK barrel to make this Savage rifle), using the same 110gr Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos handloads of mine.
My brother took his 3 deer with a 7mm Magnum with some loads he gets from one of my fathers retired railroad buddies that reloads. When he shoots a whitetail with his rifle they fly all the way into the walk in cooler back at camp hahahaha.
We do doe/spike meat hunts on Trophy hunting ranches so we can get so many animals and it helps them reduce the population so it's a win-win. These are MLD properties so we use their tags, if you were wondering how I/we legally get to harvest so many deer each year. Texas MLD properties are regulated differently and hunters use the ranch's tags (which they have hundreds of tags) rather than our own.
I tried to put as much info into this post as I thought people would like to know making it waaaaaaaay long. Feel free to ask away about anything regarding the processing, the hunting, the trip in general, or any other questions you may have. Enjoy!
Here are some pics and then I will write it all up.
My freezer filled again for the year! (Top is Venison Brats, 2nd from top Pork Franks, 3rd from top is pure 100% ground Venison, Bottom shank and heal meat)
6 of the 9 deer. These are the ones me and my girl took, I had already broke down the other 3 my brother took when it dawned on me to take the full meat cooler picture lol.
Venison Brats. 80% pure ground venison, 20% trimmed pork back fat, LEM's Backwoods Fresh Brat seasoning. 30 pounds of Brats made.
We were itching to get some feral hogs but they know when we are coming and they decide to hide from us hahaha. This is store bought pork ($0.99 pork butts) I turned into pork franks. 28 pounds of pork franks. I am going to try some skinless ones in the smoker this year and they are in the black cellulose casings in the gallon bag waiting to be smoked this week.
Now for some nature pics!!
Big beautiful white Fallow Buck.
Nice Whitetail buck.
Axis doe, white Fallow doe, and little Whitetail buck passing by the feeder.
Some deer running through camp. This pic was taken from the pack porch of the trailer we slept in.
It was a great trip of hunting. We hunted early morning and evenings. We started last Thursday and by Saturday night we had shot out our number of 8 does and 1 little spike for 9 deer total. This was nice since it gave me time to break down the deer on Sunday afternoon and be done in time to watch the evening football game and it was a good one
We process in my garage and we knocked it out in record time of 3 days this year. Normally it takes 5-6 but I had great help and efficiency was fantastic due to the lack of beer for my help to drink while working hahahahhaha!
When all of the processing was done we had 117 pounds of cleaned meat off the bone so 39 pounds a piece (3 hunters).
I make a deal with my brother and he gets UNCLEANED backstrap and tenderloins which saves a huge amount of time. He cleans them up as he opens the packages to cook them. My favorite way to eat venison backstrap is to bread and fry it but I don't do much breading and frying so all other ways of cooking it just can't compare for me. So I started grinding it to make the PRIME venison burger grind
This deal has my brother making the most of it and saves me time in processing it. Don't knock the backstrap grind until you try it. It's is amazing Venison grind!
In all we had:
- 34.4 pounds Backstrap and Tenderloins
- 24 pounds of scraps for Bratwurst sausage grind (add 6 pounds pork fat for 30 pounds of sausage total) - this comes from front shoulders and other odd scraps
- 42.2 pounds of pure 100% Venison burger grind (we add no fat to the pure grind) - this comes from hind leg roasts
- 17.2 pounds of Shank and Heel meat. This will go for braised shank, pot roast, and stew meat dishes.
- 28 pounds of pork franks from $0.99/lb Pork Butts that were on sale this past Tuesday
I took 1 deer using my 300 AAC Blackout with a 110grain Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos (old brass version) bullet via my handloads. I took the other 2 deer with the 30-06 (evening hunts, I don't like tracking in the dark) using 150gr Horadny GMX I also handload.
My girlfriend took all 3 of her deer with my bolt action Savage Axis 300 AAC Blackout (I swapped a .223 barrel with a 300BLK barrel to make this Savage rifle), using the same 110gr Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos handloads of mine.
My brother took his 3 deer with a 7mm Magnum with some loads he gets from one of my fathers retired railroad buddies that reloads. When he shoots a whitetail with his rifle they fly all the way into the walk in cooler back at camp hahahaha.
We do doe/spike meat hunts on Trophy hunting ranches so we can get so many animals and it helps them reduce the population so it's a win-win. These are MLD properties so we use their tags, if you were wondering how I/we legally get to harvest so many deer each year. Texas MLD properties are regulated differently and hunters use the ranch's tags (which they have hundreds of tags) rather than our own.
I tried to put as much info into this post as I thought people would like to know making it waaaaaaaay long. Feel free to ask away about anything regarding the processing, the hunting, the trip in general, or any other questions you may have. Enjoy!
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