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

Head down here.

It was a pleasure and an honor to share a deer camp with Josh, Tom, Andy, and mini-man. Josh is my pastor from church, and a better friend I'll never have. Tom, in a moment of insanity a couple years ago invited me to join him and Andy and hunt his spots up by Duluth. It's tough, challenging hunting. A true northwoods adventure. Then there's mini-man, Tom's boy. Every time I see this neat little kid, I'm jealous of Tom and what he's doing with this young man. Jackson's about as cool a kid as you will ever meet. He's going to be a good hunter, but he's got some big boots to fill. Dad's definitely bringing him up right. My health issues this year have shown me that my best hunts are behind me now. Now it's the little things that are much more important to me. A young boy's laugh, a good meal with good friends, the sun peaking over the trees. There's a lot more to a memorable hunt than notching a tag. That's always nice too though.

I hope all the veterans had a nice day.

I did. Most of my co-workers think I was a Corpsman in the Marines or something medical like that, and I got free coffee today.



Yesterday was the one that "matters" anyhow.....

Head up, of course.

Happy birthday by the way.

239 yrs old and we don't look a day over 100.

Lol.

Head up or do more work later.... Haven't you fools tried to skin a burbot tail-up?:)

Oh this stings....I had to go to Denver for work Monday to Wednesday and my brother hunted. Yep, he saw a big 10 pointer right by my stand! Ouch. That hurts. I wish I didn't have to work for a living.

Right back at ya, even if it is a day late.

He saw it, but did he shoot it?

I had a great day hanging out with my girls, worked on the basement trying to finish the remod. it's actually looking like a bedroom with/bath. one more day and it should be ready to tape/sand and paint.

just 3 more days til rifle opens west river. hoping I can bag my buck by then with a bow. gettin nervous! -3 the truck said this morning when it grumbled awake. so much for the nice fall we had, winter is here with white stuff falling since monday morning early. good luck to those who are still braving the cold!

Had a great veterans day, boss cut me loose early and since the boys were visiting their mom I headed out to the stand.

Sitting there thinking of some old friends I was surprised when a 8 point walked out.

No one had seen him around the area. One shot and that was it.

Not a giant but enough to make me happy

Congrats BD!

Thank you sir. We still have one tag for the youngest yet. We're gonna head out again this afternoon to get his tag punched hopefully.

Awesome BD. Let's see some pictures!!

way easier to skin head down, and i find easier to break down into quarters as well. We used to hang them head up, but found there was a lot more hair on the meat, and it was a lot harder to skin, plus its hard to cape a buck if'n ur hanging him by the part ur trying to take to the taxidermy man :-D

Head down for me. I don't find a difference in how hard it is to quarter em, but there is a lot less hair on the meat when I skin em head down.

Nice!

When I do hang em head up, I have a couple of meat hooks I sock into the neck and hang em. (I have a couple but I only use one per deer).

That way the quarters are free for removal and ..... I used to be pretty sure you get less hair on the meat when pulling hide head up.

Since those days, I've disassembled deer and elk
Head up, down, east, west, in a cavern, in a tavern, back of truck, out of luck, in a river, with a sliver, belly up, belly down, in the swamp and on high ground.

It don't matter to me really, you have to take em apart, trim, cut, wrap and freeze. How you do it is usually dependent on the situation you are in, temp, time available, recources available etc.

OK, I am trying it head-down next year.

We do usually hang them head-up from a tree at camp and rinse off the inside before bringing them into the garage. If we bring them home to the shop to skin and quarter, it is just as easy to hang by the rear legs when we get there.

I do think it is nice to have them head-up for rinsing, but we have not ever gut-shot one, so I don't know if it really helps anything to rinse out the body, we've just always done it before cutting out the tenderloins for the grill.

Oh my....

You know what you have to do now right?