Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

3M property? Well, our company uses some of their office supplies.
Heck, I'm essentially a client then, no???

Oh hell yeah it's fun.

Pretty hard to beat sitting inside a shack out in the woods with no electricity, just a wood stove to heat the place, wind howling outside, -20 degrees out & you're staying nice & warm inside with a crackling fire goin in the old cast iron stove.

(it's fun until you have to go to the outhouse in -20)

then it's non fun momentarily

I hope ole fork toes is still around & I would really like a crack at him.

I'm really focusing on trying to put my wife in the right stand to better her chances though. I'd really like for her to get something out there.

I guess if i could shoot a decent buck i'd be pretty happy but otherwise i think i'd probably let anything else walk. We're sitting pretty good on meat now.

What i should do is head out there this week with a shotgun & try to get a half dozen grouse. Wife has a recipe that calls for about 6 birds & it is absolutely wonderful. It makes a fantastic holiday meal.

When i was making winter trails with the snowmobile on sunday I happened across a grouse burrow hole in the soft snow in front of the sled. I knew what it was as i approached it & about when the ski tips strattled the burrow up he popped out of the soft snow "bloop!" He shook off quick & took off flying. poor little guy, bet he was having a nice cozy peaceful rest too.

I'd say you're part owner....

I have to in to the mine where all the deer are on occation and the have no firearms or bows signs all over. Must be a buch of hippies running the place over there...it's silly with deer. It's got an 8' fence around the whole property which is about 2 mi square. The fence doesn't really keep them out, but there are gates and they come out of them like crazy at the withcing hours.

Look for the grouse in those pines with all that snow durring the day. Go to the aspens in the evening and early am.

I remember when I was 14... out in the back yard shooting the NEF 20ga I got on Cristmas morning. I was shooting cans and paper plates and whatever I had at the time... I finished the box of shells, went to pick up my mess, and and 3 or 4 grouse flew out of their snow forts 50' behind my targets. They were frustrating me back then too I guess... lucky little suckers.

Can you share the recipe or is it a family seceret? I LOVE them little birds on the table. I have 9 left so a recipe for 6 would work if you don't mind.

Tom

I'll look for it tonight (recipe)

it's fantastic. I remember you breast off the meat and i think you bread somehow, then brown the breasts by pan frying in butter, then you have this sauce made up, it's like a heavy cream & lemon sort of white sauce, you put everything in that sauce in like a cake pan or something & you cook it all in the oven for an hour or what ever, man it's the best poultry I've ever had let alone the fact that it's wild game. Tender... rich.. oh man it's just fantastic.

can't say enough about it.

I'll dig around tonight & see if i can find it. I'll post it when i find it.

Thanks dave,

I'm always up for new ways to cook grouse. People who cook them wrong say they are dry...well I guess they are if you don't use oil or some sort of sauce, or just plain cook them too fast.

Those little birds are tender for sure. I just ate lunch and now I want some grouse, partridge...whatever we call 'em.

Dave,

Any luck with the bird recipe? I'm lickin' my chops here

oh crap.

I have load the task into my external memory, then I will be sure to remember.

(I have to e-mail my wife & tell her to remind me)

OK Tom, I found it.

this is for 3 birds. (double the sauce for 6 birds)

Breast off the fillets from the birds & coat the meat with "fry magic"

brown the meat in a fry pan with butter.

in a sauce pan add the following & bring to a boil:
3tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth

add:
1 tsp lemon juice
3 tbsp cream or 1/2 & 1/2

Stirr & remove from heat.



place browned meat in a casserole dish, pour sauce over meat, cover & bake @ 300 for 2 hours.




this is damn good stuff.

If you or anyone reading this is looking for an alternative to the cream-o-sumthin soup grouse in a crock pot type recipes, you really should give this a try.

We got this recipe from a family that operates a local bank, they gave it to us quite some time ago & told us it is a favorite for them. They like to save some birds for christmas time for this recipe, a traditional holiday meal for them as I recall.

Later dudes,

dave

Thanks dave,

That is exactly what I was looking for, an alternative to the cream-o-sumthin soulp.

That sounds pretty good. We'll have to try it soon.

it's good stuff.

might have to go looking for a few birds myself tomorrow cause i'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Rifle deer opener is about a week away....

hey, didn't we just do this?

orange hat is on.

deer opener tomorrow....

I can't believe it.

Heading for the shack tonight, rifles are cased, clothes are packed....

Here we go again folks!!

Take 2!

Action!!

I wandered away from the 'campfire' to take a leak a few weeks ago and been walkin and searchin ever since. Guess I should have taken a left at the 2nd jackpine.
Dave, I spotted 'ol fork toes crossing the water ditch by the 90* turn on the shack trail this am when I come a stumblin out of da bush. He is wearin a big 'ol target on his side with a 'Propurdy of Nordurn Dave' sign swingin from his neck. He was headed right toward your stand and he looked really, really tired.

lordy be.


i'm a gonna git yew ole forky toes...

the trails in the forest, deer trails, they are becoming fewer & more condensed.

I believe deer numbers are the same, it's just that they are all using well busted paths, more concentrated travel routes....

I just hope ole forky didn't lose his horns yet, they been droppin early this year.

I have been hearin they are droppin their antlers early. Have you ever tried the grouse recipe on pheasant?

Rooster,

I think the grouse recipe would be great on the pheasants too. Its FANTASTIC on the little birds. THANKS DAVE.

The bucks around here are droping horns left and right. A lot of times we are seeing them into the end of Feb, and sometimes early March. My pa had a half rack 10 in his yard a few days before Christmas.

The little bucks hitting the feeders aroud here have racks, but a forkie did come in with only one side.

Dave,

we are all still waiting for a picture of 'ol crooked toes. You get him yet?

Tom

Yeah Dave - didja get 'em? didja get 'em????

no I didn't get that ole web footed freek deer... dang it!!

lots of tracks, that's the thing about having good snow, it's a real teaser cause you can see everyplace they have been!!

there is a logging opperation setting up on public land south of our property... not sure what to think of that but I know there is nothing we can do about it so... we are just waiting & watching, wondering how big of a hole in the forest they will make, what kind of opperation they run (how messy will it be when they are done)... and will it be a good thing or a bad thing for us?

time will tell.