successful hunting photos thread

[hillclimber]

Last year...

Two years ago...

Nothing this year...Yet...

[hd45hunt]

 

Was an awesome morning! After two weeks of seeing not much more than squirrels and woodpeckers, I was blessed with this lovely creature.  Making it doubly awesome was the fact that I shot it with my Dad's gun (Ithaca Deerslayer that he got for Christmas the year I was born) and field dressed it with Dad's knife.  My Dad passed two days before bow season in 98 and was a consummate hunter, so this is always a special time of year for me.  Then I spent the afternoon cutting wood.  Two of his favorite pastimes.   

[The Sage of Monticello]

Great harvest and great story behind it HD45!

This was definitely a special hunt for you.

While I came up empty for my doe tag this year and since all I saw was a massive buck less than 50 yards (that is frustrating), I still feel really good about landing my one buck earlier in the season. Just had venison burgers today and my harvest keeps paying off.   

I did see Elk after 3 weeks of hunting from October to the end of November, had a broadside shot at 300 yards but missed low because I got too excited and forgot to adjust high for distance since my rifle was zeroed at 100 yards. I was really embarrassed by missing but I certainly learned from my buck fever mistake.

I still have 2 Elk Tags good this season but the Wyoming winter is making it impossible right now in 2-wheel drive (yes I know that's another story). Good luck on everyone still in late season!

[radtke]

no luck this year 

[gundog]

I hunt exclusively with my Blood brother and his two boys (16 and 20) The last two years we have shot 15 deer between us......LOL A couple decent racks but nothing huge. Some management bucks and several early doe. Those early (october) 1-1/2 year old doe are the best eating, I would rather shoot one of those for the freezer than anything.

I know one thing, we are all sick of venison.....My freezer is full and my wife says if I make anything with venison for another month she is not eating it. LOL

[geoffreys7]

My son and his hunting friends;

[TwoBluesMama]

I know one thing, we are all sick of venison.....My freezer is full and my wife says if I make anything with venison for another month she is not eating it. LOL

Gundog - that's an awesome problem to have.

We have the opposite in the TwoBlues household - our daughter grew up eating wild game and doesn't like anything else except chicken - she doesn't care for the taste of beef. Now that she is grown she comes over and raids the freezer every chance she gets.  Her request for Christmas dinner was antelope steaks. I use venison, elk, antelope and bear meat in all my recipes and unless I tell someone they are none the wiser.

Didn't get my elk this year though.  Didn't even see any to shoot at as the weather was way too wacky.  Hopefully I'll be able to try again next year. At least the DH got a couple of antelope and an elk so that filled the freezer.

And hd45hunt - nice pics!

[gundog]

Gundog - that's an awesome problem to have.

We have the opposite in the TwoBlues household - our daughter grew up eating wild game and doesn't like anything else except chicken - she doesn't care for the taste of beef. Now that she is grown she comes over and raids the freezer every chance she gets.  Her request for Christmas dinner was antelope steaks. I use venison, elk, antelope and bear meat in all my recipes and unless I tell someone they are none the wiser.

Didn't get my elk this year though.  Didn't even see any to shoot at as the weather was way too wacky.  Hopefully I'll be able to try again next year. At least the DH got a couple of antelope and an elk so that filled the freezer.

And hd45hunt - nice pics!

Ah what I wouldn't give for some good antelope steak.....I only had it once (there's no antelope in new england) It was great.

[gundog]

Dug out some of the pics for this year I had on my phone.


My nephew did well in two states.......VT and PA




last day meat deer......


Other nephew with his "youth" buck.


Good few days of hunting for the four of us.


My dog with a woodcock......he put around 25 grouse in the bag.

[TwoBluesMama]

Yep antelope is definitely the best - so tender. We've been blessed to get one or two every couple of years.

Most of my female friends all would say yuck at these photos and hide their eyes (sad fact) but I think they're awesome. I think it's a job well done and I'd rather eat venison or any wild game over ecoli-burger from the grocers.

Nice pics thanks!

[Wingman115]

Nice looking photo's. Thanks for sharing.

[The Sage of Monticello]

TwoBluesMama,

any favorite way you prepare antelope? I've heard soaking in buttermilk, and various methods, just curious what you recommend.

I put in for antelope tags this year since they are abundant here in Wyoming. And I would love to try antelope jerkey and stew.

I am excited for hunting this year. Need more meat!

[Herew]

I've got some friends who live in Wyoming and hunt Antelope every year. They always make some of it into breakfast sausage and it is the best sausage in the world! I don't know if it's the meat it self, or the blend of spices, but I can never get enough!

[TwoBluesMama]

TwoBluesMama,

any favorite way you prepare antelope? I've heard soaking in buttermilk, and various methods, just curious what you recommend.

I put in for antelope tags this year since they are abundant here in Wyoming. And I would love to try antelope jerkey and stew.

I am excited for hunting this year. Need more meat!

Honestly I don't do anything special but because it is so lean just don't overcook if you're grilling or frying. I haven't bought any beef for a long time.  I substitute game meat for any other way you'd cook beef but being careful due to the lack of fat.  I think wild game just makes everything taste better.  I use our antelope for grilled steaks (of course), we make hamburger out of it (aptly named ant-ger which in the freezer denotes a difference between elk-ger; deer-ger and buff-ger - LOL!); I also use it to make chicken fried steak, homemade veggie "beef" soup; "beef" & noodles; "beef" pot pie; and I'm sure there's stuff I'm not thinking of.  Ooo - I just remembered I make like a philly cheese steak sandwich out of antelope hearts - yummmm!

I wish you luck hunting and of course we expect pics.  We put in for antelope too along with elk and the DH also will hunt deer and bear (permits allowing). I have gotten several antelope over the years and they're fun to shoot but tricky cause they run like lightening.   Blessings TBM

[endurance]

Along with TBM's recommendations of not overcooking, I wrap the steaks in aluminum foil, completely sealed with some Yoshida's Gourmet Sauce and toss on the grill for about 10 minutes before ripping it open and grilling normally.  It really saturates the meat and keeps it moist in the grilling process.

[The Sage of Monticello]

Thanks for the tips on antelope. I will be posting photos this season.

[heliotropicmoth]

Ok, this is the first thing I have ever killed except for fish, so go easy on the laugh track. My fiance and I ate him last night night sauteed with a giant puffball mushroom, onions and butter. Delicious!

[TwoBluesMama]

heliotropicmoth +1 for hunting your dinner. No laughing here.  I figure the more anyone does now to learn to feed themselves off the land the better off they are when stuff gets bad.  My mom tells of her older brother hunting squirrels so they had food in the depression days - of course now she won't eat at my house because she won't eat ANY game meat.  I guess it's her loss.

TwoBluesMama,

any favorite way you prepare antelope? I've heard soaking in buttermilk, and various methods, just curious what you recommend.

I put in for antelope tags this year since they are abundant here in Wyoming. And I would love to try antelope jerkey and stew.

I am excited for hunting this year. Need more meat!

And to Sage - you asked about soaking game meat in buttermilk - something I've never done but my DH got his black powder deer and wanted liver and onions so I soaked the liver overnight in regular milk. The next day I cooked a mess of bacon and then took sliced onions and sauteed them till golden added a  tablespoon of sugar and let them caramelize for a minute. Then sliced the liver into 1/4" wedges and dredged in flour with salt & pepper and cooked it for about 1-1/2 minutes to 2 minutes each side and OMGoodness it was awesome and I don't like liver.  I think the soaking in milk helped that bitter liver flavor.

DH will be hunting antelope this coming weekend - hoping he comes home with two.  I will be hunting elk in a couple of weeks. 

[heliotropicmoth]

Thanks TwoBluesMama,

Here is a pic of dinner:



Check out my blog post on the subject:

http://www.littlecountryhouse.blogspot.com/2012/09/wild-dinner.html

I plan on hunting deer this year for the first time. I would love to be back here in a couple weeks with a good pic to share. We eat a lot from our garden, I am trying to add more wild food when I can.

[TwoBluesMama]

Not sure if this really counts as a successful hunting photo but because the weather was UGLY there were no pictures and this is the best I can do.  So here's DH's antelope that I canned. I got 27 pints of hamburger and 4 quarts of broth and froze the tenderloins and a couple of nice roasts.

[ID_Joker]

Took off Wed this week for opening day.  Had a beauty in my cross-hairs as the ;opening bell chimed'.  Alas, no antlers.  That was the only deer I saw all morning; hardly heard any other shots either.  A friend hunting the other end of my property saw nothing.  We found a better spot for evening and saw 7 more does and 2 cow elk.  Totally skunked.  Will try again this weekend; if nothing else maybe it means I'll do ok once antlerless deer opens up in Nov!

[gundog]

Not a bad weekend for me and two grouse hunting partners.



Some fillets getting prepared ......and an almost gone bottle of Famous Grouse.


This wasn't all of them.....we had already eaten a few. LOL


The dog crew.

[ID_Joker]

Wahoo!  Got my first one!



Of course it was dusk when I shot it so I got to figure out how to clean it and get it to the car in the dark. On the bright side, it was on my own property, was close to a logging road, and I had the tractor to help get it to the truck.  (Maybe I should also include a picture of the new cabelas gambrel that bent in half when I tried to hang it.  Funny now that it's sitting in my living room...less so at the time!)

Now I get to try out some of my new canning tips from TwoBluesMama!

[LibertyBelle]

Way to go, Joker!!!!

[radtke]

Not sure if this really counts as a successful hunting photo but because the weather was UGLY there were no pictures and this is the best I can do.  So here's DH's antelope that I canned. I got 27 pints of hamburger and 4 quarts of broth and froze the tenderloins and a couple of nice roasts.

i would say preserving the harvest definitely counts

[VegasAR15]

Here is my first successful hunt two weeks ago. 300 yards, bang flop.





The one on the left is mine, the right is my buddy's wife's.

[TwoBluesMama]

I love the hunting photos - way to go gundog, ID_Joker and VegasAR15 - nice job! Mmmmm! Such yummy dinners for you all.

I got the whole "you're a Bambi killer" speech yesterday from my Insurance company's secretary.  BUT by the time I was done with her she actually changed her mind about hunting and then asked if I'd take her to the range and teach her how to shoot a pistol.  Sometimes it just takes a little explaining (nicely) and anti-gun/anti-hunting people can become converts. 

And thanks Radtke for the kind words.

So you all please keep your fingers and toes crossed as we are heading out later today for my elk season (opens in the morning) and I SO BADLY want to get an elk.  Thanks and blessings, TBM

[Greywolf27]

Ok, this is the first thing I have ever killed except for fish, so go easy on the laugh track. My fiance and I ate him last night night sauteed with a giant puffball mushroom, onions and butter. Delicious!

I think that smile on your face says it all.  Congrats on a successful meal!

[endurance]

I'm prayin' for snow this week.  Went up this weekend for my deer and elk and it was so hot that I stripped down to just pants and a t-shirt by the end of the day.  No chance of getting an elk without colder temperatures and snow to drive them down. 

I'm going to run up tomorrow morning to give the deer one more shot in a spot my buddy saw some does on Saturday.  I'll be happy with a deer, but really hope we get some snow and I get get an elk.

[The Sage of Monticello]

Yup, same problem for me in the Briger-Tetons for Elk. They finally moved down after I left. I am going back next week.

It's been a miserable hunting season for me so far, most of it is my fault.

I hunted for deer in a new area this year and it was so heavily pressured by general taggers that I could not get within 300 yards of mulies. I had my chance but blew it hoping for more mature does. I had 2 doe tags.

I was unsuccessful for small game looking for cotton tail and snowshoe hares in the Medicine Bow forest, saw 1 the entire trip. I was unsuccessful in never seeing elk last week as it did not snow hard until I left.

I missed an antelope in the Shirley Basin into 45mph cross winds at 300 yards, and had problems getting within 700 yards of the antelope in my area that gave out like around 800 tags. I am having problems with my new Nikon BDC scope which I hate.

I had sighted in initially into a cross wind with my new scope on a day it was blowing 30+mph at the range, I suspect this impacted my zero but I could be wrong.

So now I am scrambling to find a non-windy morning this week to field test out my 200-300 yard hold over points on my scope.

Live and learn, should have fine tuned the scope this past summer instead of fishing. 

Hopefully, I get my scope worked out then I can head out with confidence.