Should I bother going this deer season?

[dakota.potts]

Over my birthday in August, I got all excited and got a shotgun to go dove hunting. Life responsibilities turned around and smacked that excitement in the face, and I went up going for dove only once (and goose not at all, like I had planned).

I live in an apartment. I don't have facilities to process my own deer. I also don't have a truck. I don't have a rifle in hunting configuration currently. I do have a VZ 58 which I feel comfortable within inside of 100, maybe 150 yards. I also have a Mosin Nagant which could be put in hunting configuration with a small amount of work.

I also don't have a freezer that can hold any appreciable amount of food, because my small freezer in my fridge is filled already. I don't really have the money or the space for a larger freezer.

The biggest problem is time. I have about 70 hour weeks currently. I go to school Monday through Thursday for Machine Tool/Gunsmithing from 8am-1pm, and then I work at a call center every day except Wednesday and Saturday from 4PM-1 in the morning. If I wait until November, my off days will switch to Sunday and Monday. Sunday hunting is banned on public property in my state (good old blue laws at work) so I would have no days off after November, so my other option would be going after school on Monday or before Work on Friday or Saturday. I'd also have to find a processor and a vehicle to transport my deer in.

Looking at it all, it just doesn't seem like this year is going to be my year. I really would love to go, but I won't kill just to kill and I like to use everything possible. I actually requested the guide cape my last hog and give me the hide, which I donated to a local guy who teaches a survival school and will use it for leather for knife sheaths or other projects. I just don't know that I can do all of that this year. I'm not a lifelong hunter and I've only been a couple of times. It's not my priority, but I was kind of looking forward to it. Anybody been in a similar quandary?

Alternately, does anybody in mid Carolina-ish have some private land and need a hunting buddy or partner this season? lol

 

[FrankenMauser]

I say go, if you can work it out without causing yourself trouble.

If you drop a deer, you can bag it and tarp it in a car (use multiple layers known to be puncture-free!).

Drop the carcass off at a processor, and fill out the forms to donate whatever meat you don't want to keep for yourself. Generally, the processors don't charge much if you're only keeping 10 lbs or so for yourself.
You still get to hunt.
You get as much meat as you can handle.
You can feel good about donating meat to (insert local charity here).
And it shouldn't cost much, if anything. (Some processors will pull a few cuts of meat off of the carcass for you for free, if the carcass is donated - since they process the donated carcasses for free, anyway.)

It just may be a week or three before the processor gets to your carcass, since the donated animals are typically done after paying work.


Here's an example of donation options: SCHftH Processor List.
And that's just one program. Usually, you can find at least 2-3 options in any given state. Some states have up to a dozen programs available.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

As you said, you aren't ready, haven't prepared, things are financially tight, you don't have much time, vehicle issues, no real personal storage, etc. This isn't your year.

 

[Hunter Customs]

If you are not overly concerned with killing a deer or filling your tag just being in the woods can be pleasurable in itself.

I started deer hunting in 1970, bagged my first buck, since then I've killed so many deer I've lost count.

I have many nice racks however I'm no longer interested in antlers, it got so easy I actually lost interest in deer hunting.

Two things got me started again, one was I started hunting with a handgun only, if I fill my tag fine if not that's fine too, I've already killed two deer previously with handguns.

The other thing, which is most important to me is one of my twin granddaughters likes to go deer hunting and I sure would like to be part of her getting her first deer.

I was with my oldest grandson, son and brother when they got their first deer, it sure felt good being part of their hunts and I have a lot of life long memories.

If you can make the time go to the woods, kick back and enjoy yourself.

 

[Art Eatman]

I've never had any of the OP problems, but I've spent many a day during hunting season just meddling around in the brush. Watching critters is really more fun than gutting and butchering, much of the time.

 

[JWT]

If you have the desire, by all means go. You'll probably regret it if you don't.

 

[T. O'Heir]

Bambi will still be there next year.
Your Mosin Nagant is ready for deer just the way it is. Your having found suitable ammo and are sighted in. Scopes are not mandatory.
"...don't have a freezer..." Rentable or you must know somebody who does. The freezer doesn't have to be big either. Think in terms of about 80ish or so pounds of meat wrapped up.
You don't need a truck either.
According to your DNR, an average adult male weighs 175 pounds while a female weighs about 120 pounds. That's not how much meat you end up with. That 80ish pounds would be a big SC deer.

 

[dakota.potts]

I've got my Mosin Nagant partially disassembled for refinishing as part of a project and the front sight I stuck on it won't elevate properly with the Mojo peep, so I need to get some barrel bands for it and put my new Smith Sight on for it to be ready. Then I need to sight the combo in.

Our rifle season doesn't start until the 11th and goes until nearly the New Year. I think I'll keep an eye on opportunities but not make it a priority. There's always next year, or other seasons such as bird.

 

[NateKirk]

Just spend the season observing, learning, and preparing for next.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Our rifle season doesn't start until the 11th and goes until nearly the New Year. I think I'll keep an eye on opportunities but not make it a priority. There's always next year, or other seasons such as bird.

There you go. Nothing unreasonable about that.

 

[Right on the mark!]

The first two seasons I went hunting I didn't even fire one shot. Most of that time was spend learning the ways of hunting, how to walk quietly but quickly, and observation techniques (how to spot a deer). It really comes down to what type of deer you are hunting and where you are in the country. I hunt whitetail deer in the wonderful steep terrain of North Idaho. Very challenging to say the least but I have learned a lot over the last three years hunting here. I filled my tag the previous two years.

I would go if I were in your shoes. You can figure out what to do with the meat. The experience is priceless.

 

[Panfisher]

I have been similar circumstances before. I have gone during those times and was never happy really, even though I enjoy the woods a lot, I just couldn't help thinking about all the stuff I should be doing instead. And killing a deer just made it worse, now I have to contend with the work that comes with. If it was me I would opt out this year and wait until I had time to actually enjoy my time in the woods, I don't like things that turn my fun time into work, also why I don't fish tournaments. '

On the other hand going and not intending to kill anything has been some very good times in the deer woods, sounds silly but spending a few hours "pretending" to deer hunt can be like a mini-vacation and provide some much needed mental relaxation.

 

[Gunplummer]

I have hunted a lot out of state, and not on "Private land". It would have to be very cold before I did not cut up a deer at my camp. I don't waste meat like a lot of guys do, I bone out the ribs too. The only thing I leave the bone in is the neck. It makes great soup and you lose too meat much trying to bone it out. The average deer fits in the top freezer of a refrigerator if you bone everything out. Once you get rid of the head, hide and bones, there is not much left on a deer. Anyway, there seems to be no end to people that will "Take extra meat off your hands".

 

[TimSr]

Sounds to me like a list of excuses for the purpose of talking yourself out of it. Nothing on that list is insurmountable if you really want to go, so the only question is, how bad do you really want to go?

 

[FrankenMauser]

(...)I don't waste meat like a lot of guys do, I bone out the ribs too. The only thing I leave the bone in is the neck. It makes great soup and you lose too meat much trying to bone it out. (...)

I would be very "wasteful" by your standards, then.

But, perhaps you would too, if your deer fed primarily on sagebrush and pine. It results in a very strong, very pungent, turpentine-based scent and flavor, with a hint of 'free range' cow pie.

There are people in this part of the country that eat rib meat, cook neck 'roasts' whole, and otherwise enjoy nearly every edible morsel from Mule Deer.
But the vast majority of hunters here (meat hunters included) won't touch it on Elk, Deer, or Antelope. The fat and tallow is typically so foul that even die-hard game eaters don't want anything to do with it.

And, since the fat deposits are hardest to eliminate in the neck meat, and in the layers that make up the rib meat, that meat gets special care or is left in the field. (Most people pick the neck muscles apart and turn it into burger.)
Seeing someone keep rib meat is very rare, even if the animal was a doe or cow.

I pick through my neck meat and usually turn most of it into burger. From larger game, you might get a roast or some stew meat out of it, but it's usually all burger.
Rib meat is left for the scavengers (or sent to the landfill, if butchering at home).


One of the worst things to see, in my opinion, when opening up a fresh kill, is a whole bunch of marbled fat. It means good meat, but the women and children are going to taste the extra gaminess and not want any more of that animal. So that leaves just 3-4 adults eating however much meat that animal represents (~40 lbs on an antelope, ~80- lbs on a deer, ~200-450 lbs from an elk ... maybe more).

 

[tirod]

You have a firearm that works right now, capable of the range that most deer are shot at max - 125m. You drove there, a car is capable of hauling it out. My first deer went home in the trunk of a 66 Mustang. I'm currently driving a 99 Forester and the cargo space in back has a high curb rubber mat. Good to go. Should I need it the seat backs fold down. Some deer cool to an extended position as rigor sets in. The deer in the Mustang was peeping our from under the trunk lid.

Gun, car, opportunity, go hunt. What I have found is when I don't - however unsuccessfully the seasons have strung together - I miss being out in the weather and defeating it when necessary, or just observing things. Naps on a 60 degree afternoon waiting for sun down are pleasant, too. Scouting a new place, or simply realizing it's not going to last forever. Some day sooner than I want I won't be able to go further than the deck out back.

However, previous owners have shot deer from it. And I think I could twist one of the boy's arms to get out.

One of my more memorable hunts was the last day of the season, I'd just returned from two weeks at Ft Polk training. It blew in an early sleet storm quite out of the ordinary. Two/three inches of fluffy ice. I went - temps were below freezing, I put on all the ECWCS I owned, including Matterhorn boots, and went hunting. It sleeted nearly all day. Hot pork chow mien MRE for lunch.

Only day I got to hunt that year, and glad I went.

 

[jimbob86]

I would go.

But then again, I have left a warm fire to walk into the teeth of a blizzard to go after a buck .......

As for freezer space...... small chest freezers are cheap- $150 New, and very efficient.

 

[rickyrick]

The suggestions that you go out and observe this year are excellent.

I learned a great deal about coyotes and hunting them just by sitting out and watching.
I did the same thing with other animals.
I don't see why this wouldn't work for deer as well.

If you have a place you hunt often, or plan to hunt often in the future, having your scent and presence as part of the landscape is beneficial

 

[Gunplummer]

Fraken mauser, I can believe that. When I was a kid I had antelope. I would not eat it again unless I had to. Anyway, that is why I started boning everything out. A mountain deer will leave a bitter taste from the bone marrow, depending on what it was feeding on.

 

[upstate81]

Sounds awful. Glad all our deer are apple, corn and bean fed im willing to bet once you get out in the woods and all the stresses of school and life drift away you will be typing a thank you post that very same evening!