Record buck killed by WV meat hunter during 2015 bow season

[WV Sawmiller]

   Okay. I admit it. I am a meat hunter. During either sex seasons, when presented with the opportunity to kill either an antlered buck or a larger doe, I shoot the doe. News flash - if the opportunity presents itself again I will do the same thing. The only reason I normally prefer to shoot a buck is they are generally larger with more meat.

    One thing I generally do when several deer appear at the same time is I try very hard to shoot the wildest one in the bunch to prevent it from passing along the survival genes that make the herd so hard to hunt. I will allow the nonchalant animals to go but shoot the spooky one that is ready to bolt at the first sound or motion. My herd selection process must be working.

   This afternoon while hunting on the back side of my property during archery season I am convinced I shot what has to be a new record - the stupidest deer in WV. He did everything but impale himself on my arrow.

    I have a shooting house up there and a feeder. I hunted it this morning and noticed the feeder was getting low on corn. I saw a couple of fawns and one decent doe but let her go hoping for a bigger deer and better shooting conditions (more light and a good broadside shot in the clear). I came home, bought some more corn and took a bag of corn back up the steep hill and humped it over to the shooting house/ feeder. I set my bow and gear down planning to hunt till dark once the feeder was refilled. Once the feeder was refilled I started to go climb up in my stand and looked up and nice spike was standing about 10 yards away. He stood right there while I unzipped my bow case, pulled out my bow, pulled out and arrow, reached back in my case for my release and loaded. The spike moseyed around a bit within as close as five yards but he never left the area and when he turned broadside I shot him through the heart/lungs. The arrow passed through and stuck lightly in an oak tree behind him. He trotted off about 50 yards, reversed course and fell over dead on the spot. I don't think he ever knew he had been shot.

   He's skinned and hanging in the shed tonight cooling and I will bone him out for sausage and some cubed steak tomorrow. With survival instincts like that I probably should have left him alone - Nah, he's was probably too dumb to mate.

   I took a picture but it was too blurry to post.

[Magicman]

Spike bucks are generally the dumbest.  They leave the doe when they are small, but the young does stay with her.  They are on their own to learn the ways of the world.  Without a teacher, they have no reason to fear.  They generally will pair with other bucks and learn by sight and smell that man is to be feared.

Congrats on the meat buck.

[Ken]

Congrats on the successful hunt for good meat.  When you do sausage do you add anything besides spices?   Personally I am not a big fan of deer meat but love deer sausage when they are done up right.   

[WV Sawmiller]

Ken,

    I made about 30-40 lbs last season for first time ever and we ran out because we used it, 2 of our granddaughters like it and my new SIL likes it so I will make more this season. We just make patty style breakfast sausage and do not try stuffing to make links. We learned last week on a different deer to use the coarse plate on the grinder as the fine plate (1/8" holes I think) especially since I am not as diligent about removing all the sinew and such as I should.

   Anyway, IRT your question I go to my local grocery store and buy cheap (fatty) tubes of breakfast sausage (come 2.5 lb per pack) and about mix 4:1 (I.e one 2.5 lb pack of cheap fatty pork sausage to about 10 lbs of deer meat) to add the required fat to cook properly. I also buy sausage seasoning at a local sporting good store. A box has 2 packs and makes 24 lb. for $4.99. The pork sausage is already seasoned so I add seasoning based on the amount of deer meat used. If you use more or less than the directions on the box it is just a little hotter or milder and not a problem.

   I grind and sometimes regrind the deer, add the pork sausage and knead in by hand then regrind one more time to help complete the mixing. This time I made up golf ball sized "meatballs", my wife put 4 or 8 to a 11" wide vacuum seal bag and flattens them out to about 1/2" thick in the bag then vacuums and seals them. When used if frozen she can break them at the seams.

   Probably no right or wrong as to seasonings and additives just personal preferences.