How many have you eaten?

[elmacgyver0]

I have never killed a deer also. I always thought I would like to but probably will never happen.
Raised on a small farm I know where meat comes from so that's not the problem. Deer seemed to be non existent in eastern Iowa when I was a kid.
I did kill my share of bunny rabbits, sold the meat to fund my .22 shells. My dad liked pidgin soup so I shot those as well and cleaned them.
My mom cooked the pheasant I shot in with a duck as I didn't care for the greasy duck.

[richhodg66]

Well, I hunt, don't have a problem with it, but do find myself the past few years not really wanting to kill things much. I need a pretty good reason, and eating what I shoot is a good enough reason, but still not as enthusiastic about it as I used to be.

A lot of guys on here raise stock to eat. I never have, and I think I would find that much harder for me to do than hunting. Seems like it would be harder to nurture something for a long time and then kill and eat it than to hunt wild game.

I'll keep deer hunting and eating venison as long as I'm able, I prefer the meat to store bought stuff and enjoy the experience.

[WinchesterM1]

I have killed 7-8 deer a year to feed my family for the past 9 years but I hunt in Zone 1 where it’s unlimited deer tags

[BUFFALOW RED]

Used to get 4 a year between me & my boy but not as many deer here now

[Lloyd Smale]

Well, I hunt, don't have a problem with it, but do find myself the past few years not really wanting to kill things much. I need a pretty good reason, and eating what I shoot is a good enough reason, but still not as enthusiastic about it as I used to be.

A lot of guys on here raise stock to eat. I never have, and I think I would find that much harder for me to do than hunting. Seems like it would be harder to nurture something for a long time and then kill and eat it than to hunt wild game.

I'll keep deer hunting and eating venison as long as I'm able, I prefer the meat to store bought stuff and enjoy the experience.

i kind of chuckle at the farm we shoot at. Its a potato farm but they do raise cattle to sell for meat too. the two sons now about 35 that run it lived around killing all there lives. raised cows from new born to put in 4 h shows and had no problem killing them which to me would be much harder then killing a deer. We were talking dogs one day and one of the sons says without any emotion he just put down his lab last weekend Said it wouldnt get up and had been sick for a while so he shot it. Told him i dont think i could kill my own dog. Id have to take it to the vet. He said "its an animal not your son" Hes been around it all his life and so have there kids. They know that animals dyeing is just a natural thing. I guess im somewhere in the middle. I dont kill what i wont eat or donate to someone who needs it. I dont waste. I make every possible effort to recover every animal i shoot even if it means tracking all night. But i sure dont tear up when i come up on a dead deer. To me its like walking up to the meat counter at the supermarket. but i guess im a bit of a hypocrite because i treat my dog like a son and wouldnt leave him outside in a dog house in the summer!

[Thumbcocker]

We are looking at some amazing amounts of meat here. Using 50 pounds of meat per deer as an arbitrary average; 100 deer amounts to 5000 pounds. 2.5 tons of meat. Really makes you take a whole new look at deer and their value as a resource. Factor in ammunition sales, license fees, gas, lodging, and I guess body shops the impact of deer on the economy has to be pretty substantial.

[koger]

You are pretty close on your weight, a #100 doe will make about #30 of grind plus the backstraps, if no meat is blood shot. A buck that weighs between #140-160 gutted will make about #50-60 pounds. That is the average weight of deer around here in KY, where I live. That being said, in ML season the wife an I took does that weighed 134 and 120 gutted. As our herd has went thru a drastic increase the past 10 years, we are seeing does getting older and much bigger. The ones we shot, out of 2 different herds were both barren does. We both killed ours out of a herd of 7-8 each.

[Lloyd Smale]

weve found about 30 lbs of meat total out of a 90-100lb doe. Now i dont fool with ribs but do take flank meat to grind. I basically keep the loins and tenderloins for steak. most of the hind quarters go to roasts and cube steak with the trimmings off the hind quarters, flank meat and front shoulders go to burger and summer sausage making. I make probably an average of 300lbs of sausage and the rest goes to burger. Probably 2/3s of the sausage is given to family and friends. Keep in mind too when i say we average 50 deer a year thats two of us. Best year was a 121 deer worse was last year with 15. This year was 62. 39 i shot and 23 the buddy shot. But we split it all even. Keep in mind too that a 100lb doe is a good sized doe here. We get a few bigger and a few smaller but most are in the 90 lb range. Thats gutted weight.

I chuckle at those alaskan shows where they claim they have to shoot a deer for the winter meat. They have to about be vegans! Costs us 20 bucks a day for gas and then add all the work involved and we need to average a deer every other night to make it worth while. Get a slow year like last year when we went sometimes 3 days between deer and we would have been better off buying beef. If it got to the point where i knew it would cost me money id quit in a heartbeat. Dont get me wrong we have alot of fun and get the opportunity to test guns and loads but bottom line is i do it to get meat period.

This year was a real good one because we got 62 which was far from our best but were both getting old and dont go every night like we used to. We blew off many days this year because after cutting up 3 deer in the morning we were just to beat to do it again that day. so even though it was the best number it was probably the best we did with venison obtained vs cost of gas. You also have to factor in the wear and tear on you truck driving it a 100 miles round trip and oil changes ect. I can see it comming to an end soon. Im not getting younger and my buddy is borderline right now in not being able. For the most part i have to do the gutting, dragging and then skinning and quartering the deer. He is to the point he shoots and his wife butchers his. He takes so much pain med that he cant even drive back and forth anymore.

[MT Gianni]

It is situational. I drive 5 miles to a friends farm. I can legally shoot 7 whitetail only one of which can be antlered. I rarely shoot more than three as that is plenty for the four of us. I buy half a beef every other year from a local rancher and half a pig from local 4H kids buddy pigs.

[richhodg66]

When I first replied, I forgot about the eight or ten my sons killed when they were teens so probably more like 40 for me.

I'm no animal rights activist, but I do admit there are practices th meat industry does that I'm not that comfortable with. I really would rather go out and shoot a wild deer, at least it had a life, not born to die and kept penned up like chickens and hogs are. At least cattle live outside for the most part, more or less left to do what they do. I've never personally put a pet down. It's always torn me up to watch a vet do it, just don't think I could bring myself to do it

I have gotten a lot slower to pull the trigger on anything the past few years. A few months ago, right after coming back inside with the dog, I saw a big skunk in the back yard just casually wandering around, first thought was "Thank God to dog didn't see it", then the second thought was "I really should shoot it so the dog doesn't have another chance at it". There really wasn't any reason not to shoot it, I just didn't want to, and I may very well regret not doing it if knuckle head dog gets sprayed, but I couldn't see killing something just for being what it is and doing what skunks do. Guess I'm getting soft as I age.

[marshall623]

I've never gave it much thought till now , Va. started an app in 2016 that you can buy your license check deer , turkeys and this year bear in on . Your license and tags are on your phone through the app . When you check in a kill in , it saves your check in history, so since Oct 2016 I've killed 14 deer . I've been hunting for 38 years and of course a few of those I goose egged . It would be fair to say for 34 years I averaged 1 a year . So that puts me conservatively at 48 deer .

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[white eagle]

to many to count

[Yooper003]

We have eaten most of everyone I have shot,(do give some away to friends & neighbors. Have hunted archery, muzzleloader& firearm seasons for 69 years, guessing the number somewhere around 150.

[WebMonkey]

2 to 3 deer for the last 8 years or so.
half a deer to one full deer a year for the 50 years before that.

i grew up in the suburbs.
my maternal grandparents lived on 300 acres near herman, mo.
so i grew up understanding a lot about wild game but not about year 'round usage.

then the army career.
finally moved to my 'forever home' on 120 acres to hunt/process/preserve myself.

eat a LOT more wild game now.

[richhodg66]

A few years ago, I butchered out two in a season, was living away from the family at another post, so not much to do in off time, so I was very careful about butchering and weighing and it seemed to me I concluded that you seem to get about a third of the on the hoof weight back in meat if you do a good job butchering, does that sound about right to you guys with more experience at this than me?

[DougGuy]

3 or 4 a year was good for just me and the 2nd wife, so 30-40 while I was with her? Single now 20yrs so down to 2-3 a year, but I am very saddened by the fact that the treatment for tonsil cancer left me where I can barely chew and swallow any lean meat, so I can't really hunt deer like I used to. I avoid pork chops, white meat chicken, lean beef, except in pasta sauces, I have to hunt out fatty steaks it sucks but hey at least I am alive and kicking!

I could probably have deer sausage or deer chili no problem. Just can't do a whole roast in the crock pot.

[woodbutcher]

Hi Thumbcocker.You mentioned"body shops".A few years ago,I read an article about what deer/motor vehicle accidents were costing the insurance company`s every year.
Are you setting down?Try 1BILLION dollars a year.And like I said,that was a few years ago.
As to eating deer ,I have probably eaten about a dozen.Plus some elk.Mighty tasty too.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[dk17hmr]

Since 2015 according to the pictures on my phone I have killed 10 deer, 7 elk, and 12 antelope, last year I didn't hunt elk because I was given 2 bull elk. Numbers include the 7 animals I have taken this year.

I haven't hunted bears in several years but one of my coworkers hunts them every year, our agreement is I process the meat (usually sausage) and keep 1/2 of it. I think he has dropped 3 bears off here in the last 4 years.

We go through alot of meat and I give alot away. The old man across the street stopped by shortly after Rona hit and asked my wife if she sees burger in the store to pick it up for them and he will pay us back because all the meat was basically sold out at all the stores in town. Needless to say we opened the freezer door and filled a grocery sack up with a little bit of everything. When I started filling tags this year I gave him another 20# of game burger from our freezer from the 2019 season instead of turning it into sausage.

[marshall623]

A few years ago, I butchered out two in a season, was living away from the family at another post, so not much to do in off time, so I was very careful about butchering and weighing and it seemed to me I concluded that you seem to get about a third of the on the hoof weight back in meat if you do a good job butchering, does that sound about right to you guys with more experience at this than me?

Sounds about right the head,hide , rib cage is probably a good 1/3 to 1/2 of live weight . I don't do deer ribs , I get the lean flank at the back of the ribs and after I cut loose the hams from rib/back bone there is some big chunks of lean in there as well . I started last year boning out the hams and separating out the 3 big roast and freezing them whole for jerky , steaks and canning the rest of the hams and other chunks .I freeze shoulders dejointed at the first joint whole unless I need one or both to make a canner full . Back straps get made into steaks and neck is a roast . If kill another one this year I want grind some into burger with bacon in it , tried a small batch last year and was good . Shoulder's after season is over go into Bologna and ground meat jerky .

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[sharps4590]

Counting all of them, just as you described, including the ones my wife and son killed when he was home, we're right there with you at 50, give or take a few either way. Momma is in her blind as I type this. I don't derive a lot of pleasure in it any longer but, I'll go when these winds lay down some...if they do. I have become so bad about being a fair weather hunter and fisherman. Used to, I would have hunted all day yesterday in the driving rain and wind we had. Great stalking conditions. Those days are long over!!!!