Funny Excuse for Shooting a Small Deer

[pete501]

Our Nephew shot a small forked mule deer. The story told to Grandpa was he passed up two really big ones and settled for the small deer because the big ones were too big to pack out.

I would expect another plausible excuse in the future would be that if he shot a big one he could not afford to get it mounted.

[kootne]

We used to joke about shooting 2, a big one to cut the horns off of and a little one to drag out.
Seriously, Any deer a kid shoots is a more important trophy than any deer an old curmugeon like me shoots.

[Wolfer]

My nephew was giving me grief once when I brought a small buck into camp. I replied that if a bigger one had come by then I would have shot a bigger one.

[country gent]

The little young ones are a lot more tender and tasty than the big old tough ones.

[cwtebay]

My kids will sit and wait forever for a calf or spike to sort itself out of the herd because they know that it will be far better eating than any big old cow.

(This is only true if there isn't some wall hanger in the group of course!!)

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[RU shooter]

The little young ones are a lot more tender and tasty than the big old tough ones.
absolutely ! I've never passed up a legal buck waiting for a bigger one to maybe walk by , because maybe it won't ......

[Texas by God]

I shoot spikes and does because it helps the herd health and quality. The bonus is the tender, tasty meat. A fellow hunter was giving me grief about a little 3 point I shot when we gathered at camp. I was the only hunter who took a deer that day, he and others had passed up does while hoping for a big rack. I asked him if he was going to pass on the fresh back strap supper as well? The lease owners have even personally asked us to shoot more does, but some guys just care about horns.

[Markopolo]

I shoot spikes and does because it helps the herd health and quality. The bonus is the tender, tasty meat. A fellow hunter was giving me grief about a little 3 point I shot when we gathered at camp. I was the only hunter who took a deer that day, he and others had passed up does while hoping for a big rack. I asked him if he was going to pass on the fresh back strap supper as well? The lease owners have even personally asked us to shoot more does, but some guys just care about horns.

this!!!!! folks only looking for a rack dont get hungry in the winter... lol

[BlackPowderLove]

I prefer the little ones for eating anyway!

272375

[seetrout]

Mmmmmmm.

Vealison

[toallmy]

I take em like they come , if they are little just keep still and take another.

[EMC45]

I've only killed a whopping 5 deer in my life, but they are all the ones that walked in front of me. Missed another and cut hair on another. I've never purposely let one walk.

[Woodbridge 30-30]

I prefer the little ones for eating anyway!

272375They call those spike horns Michigan 11 pointers!

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[Murphy]

1. A spike is the dickens to drag, hand keeps slippin' off the horn.
2. A forked horn is the ideal deer for me, hand does not slip.
3. Anything above 4 points is just more things to jab you in the back of the leg.
4. Doe? That's what they make 1/4" rope for.

Packing out? A friend and I discussed this a couple weeks back. We ain't pups no more and dragging one more than 200-300 yards just doesn't make sense if we can find one closer to a road.


Murphy

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Passed up a shot this year for the first time. Landowner asked me to, a doe and two fawns that play in his yard. Everything else goes in the freezer...

[Winger Ed.]

I can relate.

I got invited on a hunting trip, I went, and was having a great time.
Then it came time to go to the stands and I grabbed my camera instead of a rifle.

My buddy thought I'd lost my mind until I told him I was having a great time, and if I dropped a deer,
at that point, the fun would be over-- and it'd be time to go to work on it.

[Norske]

Dragging with a 5/8" rope is more comfortable than with a thin rope no matter the weight being dragged. Antler soup is thin. Vealison is what my late father selected every year. The most difficult deer I've shot to load into a pickup was a dry doe that weighed (on a balance scale) over 200# field dressed. There is nothing to grab that doesn't slip through your hands.

[rking22]

I prefer small deer, tastier and we need to reduce the doe population. Dragging???? I just take a leg and flip her over into the tractor bucket...... advantages to hunting your own farm :)

[jaysouth]

As someone who owned and operated restaurants for decades and was a working chef, I have lots of recipes for tender young deer, but not so many for horns, hide and hooves.

[dale2242]

My great grand daughter got her first buck this year.
Doe tags are hard to draw in our area and she said she did not want to shoot a doe anyway.
She told me she wanted to shoot a trophy buck for her first deer. I said wouldn`t we all?
Hunting season winds down with no trophy buck shot yet. No bucks period were seen by her.
So the last weekend of our season is for youth only.
She shoots a small forked horn because they are tender and this may be her last chance.
She loves Grandmas' venison and corn fritters.
I don`t think she could have been more excited about her first deer if it had been a trophy.

[farmerjim]

I prefer small deer, tastier and we need to reduce the doe population. Dragging???? I just take a leg and flip her over into the tractor bucket...... advantages to hunting your own farm :)

I don't have a bucket loader on my tractor, but I do have a cart that is only about 15 inches off the ground. It is easy to load a deer into it. I take them over to my neighbor where the electric hoist lifts them up while pulling all the skin off. When all the dressing is done they are moved 10 feet over to hang in the walk in cooler to age.
Life in the country is hard.

[kbstenberg]

Deer numbers are down around here. A couple of years i have gone all 7 days of the season without seeing anything. I usually take the first thing that comes by. That said i did pass on a 9 pointer with my bow this year. The last big buck i shot just wasn't as tender as i would have liked.

[missionary5155]

I was wanting to scare that little feller away as I really needed to move about some. But just as I released my arrow he jumped ahead and took it right through the chest.
In real life about 8:30am I did have small spike bed down on a ledge maybe 10 yards from my tree stand down in the bottoms. I needed to get back home so decided to zip a practice arrow above his head. So the first one went overhead 18 inches high. He lifted his head a short time and plopped back down. So #2 practice arrow was only 6 inches high. With that one he jumped up, looked behind and moseyed away to some other quieter spot.

Was on a ladder stand another time and a fawn was standing below me licking the ladder rungs that had apple juice on them from my boot bottoms. So I dropped a practice arrow on top of it's head. Fawn made a quick dash over to mom who was about 30 yards away calling.

[EMC45]

My great grand daughter got her first buck this year.
Doe tags are hard to draw in our area and she said she did not want to shoot a doe anyway.
She told me she wanted to shoot a trophy buck for her first deer. I said wouldn`t we all?
Hunting season winds down with no trophy buck shot yet. No bucks period were seen by her.
So the last weekend of our season is for youth only.
She shoots a small forked horn because they are tender and this may be her last chance.
She loves Grandmas' venison and corn fritters.
I don`t think she could have been more excited about her first deer if it had been a trophy.


I consider that a trophy in my book.

[WinchesterM1]

This was the first thing that walked in front of me this year 22” outside272438

But I had 5 2-3year does follow in the freezer after him

[EMC45]

Nice tall rack!

[dale2242]

We have 10 hunters with deer tags this year.
As stated earlier, we can only shoot bucks.
Oregon made spikes legal this year.
Of the 10 hunters we harvested 6 forked horns and 1 spike.
As you can imagine, we are meat hunters but will take a trophy if he presents himself.

[blikseme300]

Never been interested in trophies on the wall but love the hunt and eating well. This past opening weekend took this small buck with my trusted 458Win using a Lee 450gn. 220yards and dropped right there, severed the neck. Tasty, tender eating.

272524

[1Papalote]

We don't eat working bulls. Why would I want to eat a 6 y/o deer?
CWD started in a penned deer facility.
The pukes are complaining the border wall is preventing critter movement.....but so are high fenced ranches.
Antlers are nice but not necessary. Most of mine are hung in a tree for the squirrels to chew on.
We eat deer meat year round. It is pure and clean and hunting provides family time and outdoor activity. No apologies for the forkhorn on the table.

[Lloyd Smale]

when were doing crop damage we try to avoid the fawns but about half way through it they loose there spots and its hard to tell if its a smaller doe or a fawn out at 3-400 yards. So we end up shooting a couple every year. I dont cry much about it. Fawn front shoulders make great roasts for two people and i give dad a couple hind quarters for camp roasts and keep one or two to smoke. Nothing better then fawn back straps on the grill. At fist my wife wasnt to keen on it but after she ate it she now asks me if i have any fawn straps when im grilling venison. Some may get out of joint over it but the farmer will tell you if anything those fawns are more brazen and destroy more potatoes then the big ones do. He said when the family used to do it the first ones they shot were the fawns. I dont even skin them whole. I cut the hind quarters off with hide on them. Open up the back and take out the back straps and cut the front shoulders off with the hide on it and dont even have to gut them.

[pls1911]

Hiked over to my brothers stand to help field dress a deer after his shot. ( yes we only take chip shots and through the shoulders.)
Sitting in his stand, he directed me to the fallen doe, though several missteps through shin high grass failed to locate it. Finally, behind a small cedar shrub, I stood aghast, spying his deer.
Reaching with my free hand, I hoisted the quarry overhead... with one hand.

Brother had little to say at my questioning expression:
"It looked bigger in the scope, and hey... the spots are really faded... and it was in the shadow [of the grass]!!"

I never before or since prepared venison veal, but will attest that the fine quality after a week's aging rivals any meal I've been privileged to enjoy.

[long_arm]

Mmmmmmm.

Vealison

Ha! I do believe I may have to steal that line, thanks

[Jim22]

We were hunting deer on Kodiak island. My wife, me, and a friend. Wife doesn't hunt. The deer were at the top of the mountains. I was in better shape and got close to the top before they did. Saw a buck and a doe looking over the edge at me so I shot the buck. Climbed up and started working on it. A while later wife and friend showed up to watch. A cloud rolled in. I looked over to see what appeared to be a doe. Friend shot it with his .338 and tore it in two. It was a fawn with no spots. It looked like a larger deer in the fog. He picked it up with one hand, folded it in half and put it in his rucksack. Don't let fog fool you. I have heard of hunters stalking a bear in the fog, shooting it, only to find out it was a porcupine. Be careful.

[M-Tecs]

We were hunting deer on Kodiak island. My wife, me, and a friend. Wife doesn't hunt. The deer were at the top of the mountains. I was in better shape and got close to the top before they did. Saw a buck and a doe looking over the edge at me so I shot the buck. Climbed up and started working on it. A while later wife and friend showed up to watch. A cloud rolled in. I looked over to see what appeared to be a doe. Friend shot it with his .338 and tore it in two. It was a fawn with no spots. It looked like a larger deer in the fog. He picked it up with one hand, folded it in half and put it in his rucksack. Don't let fog fool you. I have heard of hunters stalking a bear in the fog, shooting it, only to find out it was a porcupine. Be careful.

It's going to be hard to top this one.........................

[quilbilly]

This is a good reason to refrain from looking down steep hills while hunting when you are my age. I like to have gravity on my side.

[cwtebay]

We were hunting deer on Kodiak island. My wife, me, and a friend. Wife doesn't hunt. The deer were at the top of the mountains. I was in better shape and got close to the top before they did. Saw a buck and a doe looking over the edge at me so I shot the buck. Climbed up and started working on it. A while later wife and friend showed up to watch. A cloud rolled in. I looked over to see what appeared to be a doe. Friend shot it with his .338 and tore it in two. It was a fawn with no spots. It looked like a larger deer in the fog. He picked it up with one hand, folded it in half and put it in his rucksack. Don't let fog fool you. I have heard of hunters stalking a bear in the fog, shooting it, only to find out it was a porcupine. Be careful.Hahaha [emoji1787]!!!! I watched a buddy shoot a black bear across a canyon. He stayed where he was to mark the spot while I went over. The sagebrush was HUGE, over the top of my head. He guided me by hand signals until I reached down with one hand so I could pick it up and show it to him. I put the ENTIRE bear in my backpack to take it back to him.
The standing joke is that he needs to find another to complete his slipper set.

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[Beaverhunter2]

My Dad always said, "You have to boil horns a long time before they are soft enough to chew...."

[brewer12345]

I have gotten crap for the button buck I shot last fall via a Texas heart shot. I hunted hard all week and after not getting the shot off at a big doe the first day before she bolted, this was the only safe shot that presented itself. Not complaints from me. And yes, vealison is tender.

[Ural Driver]

Grew up hunting for the table......never found a recipe for horns. :coffee:

[fatnhappy]

Packing out? A friend and I discussed this a couple weeks back. We ain't pups no more and dragging one more than 200-300 yards just doesn't make sense if we can find one closer to a road.


Murphy

And that my friend is the #1 reason to take your kids hunting.