Got a copy of “Slice of the Wild” for Christmas. Lots of good information and recipes in there.
And I just ordered a copy of it for the wife and me, along with Sausage Season and three of John's handloading books. I am looking forward to receiving them all!
I just killed a Coues Deer on the ridge up behind my house in Tucson three days ago. He's been hanging in the carport since, and I plan to butcher tomorrow. It got to over 60 on the day of the kill but has only gotten into the high 40's in the days since and it gets to freezing overnight. I skinned him immediately and have let him hang in just a loose sheet to keep off bugs overnight, and then I slip a cold sleeping bag around him in the morning to keep him cool through the day, remove it at sundown. He dropped instantly from a high shoulder shot, and all the whitetails I have been glassing since the season started two weeks ago have been eating barrel cactus fruit almost exclusively - I'm interested to see how that's going to taste. I have good hopes.
I drew a Nevada Pronghorn tag back in '94 and killed my buck on the first morning of a 5 day planned solo camping trip. It was too nice a country to come home to Las Vegas from so I did the sleeping bag trick then too (I had brought and extra with me). It would get into the 30's overnight and up to 70s in the day. Each evening, when I would get back to camp from my hiking and playing around with my .22 Hornet, etc, I'd go to the lone juniper I hung him in and slip my arm down into that sleeping bag around him before I pulled it off for the night. It would be so cold inside that mummy bag it was amazing. I boned him out on the last day of the trip and brought him home in a couple coolers - the meat was great. This trick might help folks in the early seasons out west where we get those 35-40 degree swings through the day - that's why I got so wordy on it.
Thanks for all the good information on this thread.
Rex
