Somebody said Shanks?

I don't won't to upset our US members on here, but from what I have witnessed here and over the pond most are lacking in the skills we have.
They are big on the 'gutless method' which has major failings.
One American visitor specifically asked for me to show him how we gralloch and inspect the lymph nodes, he also learnt how to use the knife instead of the saw!
Rinella is over rated, I have Hank Shaws book, brilliant.
 
I'm not sure that's the case, pretty sure there are states that harvest more deer in a season than the entirety of the UK.
That might be the case, but how would you know as what i discovered in Montana is they don't require you to report your success
So out of 17000 big game combo tags to NR hunters I wonder how many succeed and how many fail?
Are all states the same?

BTW we kill ( not harvest ;)) a huge amount of deer in the UK!
 
I'm not sure that's the case, pretty sure there are states that harvest more deer in a season than the entirety of the UK.
Maybe, but individual recreational stalkers here in the UK probably shoot more deer in a year than an American hunter shoots in a lifetime. We have no bag limits. A "hobby" stalker here might easily shoot a hundred or more deer in a season, and is allowed to sell the venison. So there's plenty of opportunity to practice the butchery, and a financial incentive to get good at it.
From what I've seen / read online, it would appear that an individual hunter in the states rarely kills more than a couple of deer a year.
 
One of my friends went over 4 years without shooting a deer, actually a lot of them haven't shot a deer in a while thinking about it.
I am baffled when they tell me they shoot a deer and eat it... zero inspection at all.

The ironic thing Is they find the lymph node in the haunch and call it a "gland" and too remove it because it tastes foul I dont know about you folk but it hardly tastes like anything nor-ruins the meat (plenty of bone in haunches roasts tell me that) makes me think that rumor PROBABLY came to be because the deer had a bloody localized infection no one bothered to check and ran with it.....

no... I dont eat nodes intentionally but I do like a good bone in roast lmo so I've def ate portions over the years.
 
Really common in american butchery videos. Steve rinellawhen in scotland was shown how and looked very suprised

Where was this video? On YouTube?


shanks are one of the top cuts but they take a lot of freezer space up for the amount of meat.. I usually save them up and do 4 or 6 at a time
 
A "hobby" stalker here might easily shoot a hundred or more deer in a season, and is allowed to sell the venison. So there's plenty of opportunity to practice the butchery, and a financial incentive to get good at it.
I doubt there are many in UK who shoot 100+ deer and butcher them all themselves. Or even 50+ deer.
 
I doubt there are many in UK who shoot 100+ deer and butcher them all themselves. Or even 50+ deer.
More than you think, I reckon.
But aside from that, the point I was making is that a recreational stalker in the UK has far more opportunity to practice butchery skills than his American counterpart.
I follow quite a few American hunters on social media, and often see pics of their venison supply for the year all butchered up ready for the freezer, and it rarely, if ever, exceeds one or two deer.
It wouldn't be unusual for a UK recreational stalker to be shooting one or two deer every weekend.
 
That might be the case, but how would you know as what i discovered in Montana is they don't require you to report your success
So out of 17000 big game combo tags to NR hunters I wonder how many succeed and how many fail?
Are all states the same?

BTW we kill ( not harvest ;)) a huge amount of deer in the UK!
Agreed, I don't like the word harvest either, I was simply following the vernacular used in the conversation.

As far as the numbers, I have little faith in our states wildlife management agencies. But there is one thing the have to do that is based on numbers not opinions, count animals, issue permits, and then based on reported numbers come up with estimates. While they could surely be off by some, I don't think they are off enough to make a large disparity in reports. Forgive the cursory investigation, but google says the UK deer population is somewhere between 500K and 2 million. I don't know if that's true, but if it is hunters in just the states of AL, GA, NC, SC, report to kill off around that many every year. Of course these could be wrong, or off by a bit. I also have no idea if google is using all deer species for the UK or not. Whereas the numbers for the US states I looked up are for deer only, not counting elk, moose, or other animals.
Maybe, but individual recreational stalkers here in the UK probably shoot more deer in a year than an American hunter shoots in a lifetime. We have no bag limits. A "hobby" stalker here might easily shoot a hundred or more deer in a season, and is allowed to sell the venison. So there's plenty of opportunity to practice the butchery, and a financial incentive to get good at it.
From what I've seen / read online, it would appear that an individual hunter in the states rarely kills more than a couple of deer a year.
That may be the case, I know that after a year of not cleaning a deer, I find myself remembering things I already knew but forgot due to time passing. I usually clean and butcher 3-6 deer every year during our hunting season, and usually an elk or two as well. By the time I do the last one I feel like I'm back in a groove, just in time to forget again until next season:lol:.
I taught my self butchery, first few attempts i ended up with alot of mince!!
Same here, I've moved to a lot of bone in cuts, as it seems less meat is wasted that way. But experience has helped.
I think we need to be carefull not to sound to critical of the op. Hats off to him for writing the articles he has.
Thanks for that, I hope you've enjoyed them. I appreciate this forum, as it seems there is quite a bit of knowledge here. I hope none of what I've said comes across as inflammatory towards UK stalkers, I enjoy the discussion.
 
Really underrated shanks.
Osso buco is lovely with some lentils, or a lovely madras.
I tend to do my shanks same as venison ribs. Done on low in the slow cooker with coca cola, plenty of garlic,soy, bbq sauce then made into pulled venison baps.Red cabbage coleslaw,fries and home made onion rings.
 
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