Aqualung
Blackhawk
News from Camp Aqualung...Saturday started PA's October muzzleloader season for antlerless deer. Saturday morning at "shooting light" we passed on a couple does that were really small...not much bigger than Phil's dogs...they kept hanging around and I kept saying to them "Go away! You're too little!"
Then around 8:20, I saw another doe coming up toward me in the high grass at about 100yds. She stopped, quartering uphill a bit and was looking around. She wasn't about to give me any better shot, so I lined up and squeezed off a round from my inline. I didn't see her drop through the smoke, but the weeds were moving around and then stopped.
I finally got down there (I move pretty slow nowadays due to leg circulation problems) and didn't find her, but a long drag path and a decent blood trail. So, I followed that and found her down in the woods about 75 yards. What and absolute BEAST! I field dressed her and got my drag rope on her to get her back out to the field where my uncle and Dad could get down there with the John Deere with the deer rack. I threw my whole weight (we won't get into numbers, but I'm a big, big guy) and she didn't budge! I finally got her moving and with a great deal of huffing, puffing, cursing and a bunch of rest periods, I finally got her back to the field. The whole while I was saying to myself "Why the heck didn't I shoot the little one?!".
It took both my dad and me to get her up onto the rack so my uncle could drive her back up to the garage. Poor Dad, he had to walk back up to camp with me (he rode down on the rack)...an uphill trek that took us both a long time and effort. We were darn near spent, and it was just about 10:45.
We had a quick breakfast and then started butchering. At around 5:00, we finally got all the meat off the bones and trimmed of all the fat (she was a fattie!) About an hour later, we had everything for the grinder ground up.
After a quick dinner, I packaged up all the ground meat into 1lb, 2lb and 5lb packs and in the freezer. The backstraps, a small hindquarter roast and the neck, I left in the fridge to trim up and package (or cook) on Sunday...I was spent!
Sunday, I packed up the little roast (my uncle wanted to try cooking a roast at home) and one of the backstraps. The other backstrap got sliced into 1" medallions and went into the crockpot with baby carrots, mushrooms and chunked-up taters to stew for 8 hours. Amazing!
Ended up with over 35lbs of meat plus the neck that still has the bones (about 3lbs). Mrs. Aqualung uses the neck to make stock for venison vegetable soup and stew.
So, Camp Aqualung and Arby's..."We Have The MEAT!"
Then around 8:20, I saw another doe coming up toward me in the high grass at about 100yds. She stopped, quartering uphill a bit and was looking around. She wasn't about to give me any better shot, so I lined up and squeezed off a round from my inline. I didn't see her drop through the smoke, but the weeds were moving around and then stopped.
I finally got down there (I move pretty slow nowadays due to leg circulation problems) and didn't find her, but a long drag path and a decent blood trail. So, I followed that and found her down in the woods about 75 yards. What and absolute BEAST! I field dressed her and got my drag rope on her to get her back out to the field where my uncle and Dad could get down there with the John Deere with the deer rack. I threw my whole weight (we won't get into numbers, but I'm a big, big guy) and she didn't budge! I finally got her moving and with a great deal of huffing, puffing, cursing and a bunch of rest periods, I finally got her back to the field. The whole while I was saying to myself "Why the heck didn't I shoot the little one?!".
It took both my dad and me to get her up onto the rack so my uncle could drive her back up to the garage. Poor Dad, he had to walk back up to camp with me (he rode down on the rack)...an uphill trek that took us both a long time and effort. We were darn near spent, and it was just about 10:45.
We had a quick breakfast and then started butchering. At around 5:00, we finally got all the meat off the bones and trimmed of all the fat (she was a fattie!) About an hour later, we had everything for the grinder ground up.
After a quick dinner, I packaged up all the ground meat into 1lb, 2lb and 5lb packs and in the freezer. The backstraps, a small hindquarter roast and the neck, I left in the fridge to trim up and package (or cook) on Sunday...I was spent!
Sunday, I packed up the little roast (my uncle wanted to try cooking a roast at home) and one of the backstraps. The other backstrap got sliced into 1" medallions and went into the crockpot with baby carrots, mushrooms and chunked-up taters to stew for 8 hours. Amazing!
Ended up with over 35lbs of meat plus the neck that still has the bones (about 3lbs). Mrs. Aqualung uses the neck to make stock for venison vegetable soup and stew.
So, Camp Aqualung and Arby's..."We Have The MEAT!"
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