doe

[trapper]

Shot a doe with the muzzle loader this afternoon for my son.  That makes 4 with 4 shots in the last 3 years. 120 yards.  only deer he had this year was one 12 year old got in youth season.  9 year old granddaughter tracked my deer. Only about  40 yards.  12 year old grandson is getting good at tracking.  Good thing as I am not.  Grand son uses my 243 cva compact single shot.  So far he has gotten 2 deer with it. 

[Magicman]

Sounds like you are on a roll Marv.  I love to see the young ones getting into the action.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Congratulations to you and your grandson. I try to put 2-3 deer a year in the freezer as we like it and use a lot. Our ML season starts next week and I may again then plus we have a couple youth/senior days and a couple more antlerless days before the end of this month when our season goes out.

   BTW - how big are your typical Wisconsin does? Ours seem to run around 110-120 lbs live weight with the biggest one I weighed at 144 lbs. 

[Jeff]

Good going Marv! 

[gspren]

Not sure about live weight but on Saturday I shot a doe here in southern PA that weighed 95 pounds with no innards, and while that wasn't my biggest she was nice.

[Chuck White]

I got one, back on Nov 24 and she weighed 115# dressed!

Nice one!

[WV Sawmiller]

   The next time I shoot one I may have to weigh before and after gutting it. I just looked it up and saw several estimates of about 30% for the guts. One estimate used 28%-33% Based on that @Chuck White doe should have weighed about 150 lbs live weight which is a big doe for around here.

 I am never over about 1/4 mile (all mostly downhill) from where I shoot my deer so I don't field dress them. I find they are lost easier to skin intact. Besides Sampson expects to get his deer heart and liver. :D

[gspren]

Only a slight drift here, I loaded my doe into a little trailer then brought her in near the barn where there's a water hydrant to gut. I later put the innards back in the trailer and deposited in the soybean stubble behind the house where the wife likes to watch the buzzards feed only this year the Eagles got there first. We had a mature bald eagle and an immature bald eagle without the white head but we also saw what appeared to be a golden eagle although they would be rare around here. The bald and golden were not there at the same time.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I have a very nice set up to skin and process my deer built on to the back of my boatshed. I have a locust upright far enough from the corner of the boathouse far enough to drive an ATV between and a locust crossbeam with a big eyebolt with a small block and tackle. All my other equipment is hanging on the back of the shed - spring scales, gambrel, back to back meat hooks, etc. I added a cast iron sink with drain board on the opposite side of the upright and a bench/shelf to put knives and pans and such. I have a pump with a faucet 10-12 yards away. I like to let the deer hang overnight if the weather is cool but not freezing then I debone everything right there. I take my guts, hide, head and bones up in the pasture and leave for the foxes, possums, bobcats, crows and buzzards. So far I have not seen any eagles there but we have plenty of them on the river and lake starting 4 miles away and they sometimes come up this creek. We love to watch and photograph them while fishing and just on the lake. They are really neat.

[Chuck White]

I wouldn't be surprised if the one I go would have weighed 150# before gutting her out!

But then gutted or not, they always seem heavier when you're dragging them! ;)

[WV Sawmiller]

   My problem isn't dragging them down the holler to where I can get to them with the ATV as I have gravity on my side there. My problem is loading them in the ATV when fresh killed and still totally limp. I used my ATV winch over a 6' high horizontal limb on the last one but he was not real big and there is seldom a convenient limb like that handy. Anyway 150 lbs is a big doe in my neck of the woods.

[trapper]

The logrite trailer and a rope comealong is so easy my 12 yo grandson loads mine.  We gut them on the trailer and then back the trailer into the pole barn where i have a pole 12 feet up with a pully attached. A hand boat trailer winch  is used to suspend the deer.  A little water and the trailer is clean  again.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Probably the best skinning rack I ever saw was 2 telephone poles about 10' apart with a 3" heavy pipe up 10-12 ft high with 2 hooks welded on it in the middle about 2' apart. The pipe/crosspiece was resting in 2 pillow block bearings and on one end and they had welded a big hay rake wheel. Someone had braided loops into a couple of nylon ropes about 6' long with and S hook on the opposite end. The loop end of the rope was thrown over one of the hooks on the crosspiece and the S hooked into the deer's tendon's then the hayrake wheel was turned. The ropes wound outward on each end spreading the deer out more the higher you lifted making it easier to work on. A short chain with another S hook was attached to the pole next to the hayrake. A small person could wind up a big animal. When you got to the desired height the hook on the short chain was hooked around a spoke on the hayrake wheel holding the animal there while we worked on it. A 100 lb woman or kid could have lifted a big steer on this rig. It was more effort and expense than most of us would put out but sure worked good.

[goose63]

I just hang them from the loader bucket on my tractor 8)

[Bricklayer51]

Not a doe but a 3 pt I saw 3 days before opener limping bad didn't see him for two weeks thought the yotes got him but he showed up Thursday so yesterday while enjoying some tenderloin a partridge hit the window so a pat in the oven tonite

[Chuck White]

They're really good eatin', but kinda hard to come-by!

[Bricklayer51]

Chuck was a good year for them there are some old apple trees on the lane going to my blind there were 7 in the one tree and I kicked some up almost every day but when there are a lot of yotes and cats owls etc all you find are feathers

[randy d]

We had one fly into the side of our garage last year I don't hunt them any more but when they volunteer well I don't mind eating them either. Randy

[Bricklayer51]

Randy there is a plus no bbs