Poll for recreational stalkers: how many of you take home the deer you shoot to eat?

[Pine Marten]

Good morning again.

This is a sort of control poll for the one aimed at stalkers who take out clients, or rather it's the other way around. I make a point of eating all the game and fish that I shoot or catch. I intend to do the same with deer, and to that end will try and limit myself to the smaller species as I cannot realistically process and store the larger ones. I realise there are practical limitations to this to do with storage and transport. Also, if you shoot more than one deer, it wouldn't be reasonable to expect people to eat the lot of them. It's a lot of meat! Hopefully you're shooting with a proper deer manager, and you're helping out with the cull, even if you don't eat the deer.

From a personal perspective though, fieldsports and food are intimately linked, and I'd even go so far as to say that it's the fact that we eat the quarry that makes it OK to do what we do. But I don't know how universal this feeling is. This isn't a poll on feelings though, it's about your actions.

 

[davidm]

Never- as I didn't have the facilities or the know how on breaking a carcass down but still enjoy deer stalking as a hobby/sport so felt until better understanding in butchery would leave it with pro-stalker.

David

 

[nuttyspaniel]

Depends if Ive freezer space, theres only so much Venison a freezer can hold.


nutty

 

[murrayb]

I can safely say that 100% I take the carcass - although... Having been out with a mate a dozen times, I got my first - on my tod - on Saturday. I had always said that my first was MINE so - back to his larder it goes, where I shall butcher it and take all the meat home.

In the future this won't be the case. The carcass is his because its his permission and he lets me go on. The outlay was his so he should be able to recoup his money from the beasts shot. I will take some as I need it and pay the going rate.

I would have shouted about it on SD and posted a picture but ... after the shot - where I kept thinking to myself "it hasn't gone yet - it's still there! " I was so concerned about the gralloch that I only took a quick and frankly crappy picture to wind my mate up and got down to work. And for a first time - did a pertty good job ...although very very slow

 

[nuttyspaniel]

Never- as I didn't have the facilities or the know how on breaking a carcass down but still enjoy deer stalking as a hobby/sport so felt until better understanding in butchery would leave it with pro-stalker.

David

It isnt rocket science, plnety tips on you tube, then theres trial and error.

nutty

 

[Amhuinnsuidhe]

I wouldn't be able to eat everything I shoot, I give a few back to my landlords as payment for stalking rights and gift a few more out to worthy people then sell the rest.

 

[Pine Marten]

Fair enough! It still gets eaten! I've never "dismantled" a deer, but if one assumes that all the bits are the same in a bigger format as on a rabbit or hare, and that the individual pieces are about the same as joints of lamb, it really can't be that hard, given that I can deal quite happily with the aforementioned. It will take a bit of exploration and experimentation, but it should be fine. I've installed a recyled brass curtain rail to the roof of my shed to hang deer from. It's a low-ish shed, so skinning will have to be done on my knees, but then it's only for occasional use.

When/if it happens, I'll post photos!

 

[timbrayford]

I much prefer to have a decent carcase rather than have a trophy. atb Tim

 

[davidm]

No it's not rocket science your correct and I will give it a go as I have seen a demonstration taking part in it also.so any I shot will be giving it a try.

David

 

[I. Farticus]

I process my own... I bought a double door Lucozade fridge off eBay within which I have hung 2 Roe (with space for a Muntie). I then butcher them myself, and have a small box freezer.

The livers go to my Mum who makes pate, and I let friends and family have a leg or filet if I'm feeling generous Everything else goes to feed the family as it's such good meat and I know the provenance (to a point, anyway).

Cheers
i.

 

[bobt]

I usually take home everything shot,
If we dont eat it, I have plenty of willing friends wanting venison,

 

[20/20]

+1 on above

 

[Wingy]

I take home everything I shoot and eat myself or give to friends or family. I never shoot more than I can deal with.
For example I regularly spend Friday evening to Sunday morning on my syndicate spot. By Saturday morning 2 deer down, pack up and go home
Wingy

 

[Drag1]

I eat the Roe and Munties but sell the Reds and Fallow as i can't cope with that amount of meat

 

[bobjs]

from time to time ill take home 1, I do not have the room or the wife to let me have a carcass sat in a chiller anymore.

the rest of the time its to the game dealers.

bob.

 

[Pine Marten]

Makes sense. I have a further limitation which is that I can put a roe in my large, collapsible coolboox (American-sized giant US angler's picnic model...) and carry it quite happily on trains without anyone noticing, but not a dirty great red stag or fallow! I know that some people have asked for photos of me swaggering through Victoria Tube station with a dead deer on my shoulders like Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood, but much as I'd sort of love to do that (especially bashing other passengers by swinging its' head and antlers at them), it's not going to happen.

Munties would be a doddle. A perfect suburban deerstalker-sized quarry!

 

[shotguntom]

Any deer i take off my own land come home with me for myself or family consumption. If i am out with a guide i will rarely take a carcass home as i can get it for free from my own land, With the exception of the other day when i took a fallow calf home as i had not shot or tried one before and they do not appear on my permissions.

Tom

 

[Tamus]

I ticked the 100% box... but... not every deer I shoot is fit for human consumption. I still take them home though, even if I have to bury them on the farm.

There have also been a few stalks on friends' gound where I only took a courtesy amount like a liver and kidneys or a leg too... but I do only really "shoot them to eat them".

As for your argument against going after the larger species... you'll quickly learn that a surprising number folk will hold up their hands, if you ask for help in consuming a carcase... ... I'm lucky to keep a leg and the backstraps most of the time... then again all of my family loves venison.

 

[andibrains]

I take em all home and butcher and eat them. I need to shoot a couple as I have done a deal with the hotel for my wedding where I will provide roe haunches for the wedding breakfast. Obviously since agreeing this I have been on my longest dry patch in terms of shooting deer since my level 2!!!

 

[Pine Marten]

I take em all home and butcher and eat them. I need to shoot a couple as I have done a deal with the hotel for my wedding where I will provide roe haunches for the wedding breakfast. Obviously since agreeing this I have been on my longest dry patch in terms of shooting deer since my level 2!!!

In all my life there has been only a single occasion when I've managed to shoot or catch something for a specific occasion. If I go shooting on a Saturday, my wife always goes to the butcher's while I'm away. There was this occasion in the Lake District when it was Good Friday, I was 16, and my parents went off in search of a fishmonger. They came back empty-handed. At which point I had the smuggest moment of my life as I produced a salmon that I had caught (OK, poached...) in Lake Ullswater. That was the first and so far only salmon I'd ever caught. It tasted of fresh water and triumph.