The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Dicky on March 12, 2013, 10:06:32 am
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I picked up a very fresh roe deer buck off the side of the road yesterday morning:
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o84/Pythman/IMG_9866.jpg)
Gutted it:
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o84/Pythman/IMG_9868.jpg)
Skinned it:
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o84/Pythman/IMG_9870.jpg)
And butchered it. I got 16 lbs of meat and a load of scraps and bones for the dogs:
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o84/Pythman/IMG_9873.jpg)
THis is the second one I've picked up in the last few months. I'm very pleased to have a freezer full of free venison. ;D
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bit gory for this early in the morning but well done you !
I am probably not brave enough to judge the freshness of the meat but if i saw it being hit i wouldnt have taken it home till i just saw your pictures so thanks for that.
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This was found on a route that I travel on every evening and morning so if I see something I know it's not too old, and the fact that it was -2.5C was helpful as well. The joints were still loose and movable and there was fresh unfrozen blood still coming out of it's mouth so I judged it to be pretty fresh.
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Yuk .... need the vomiting emoticon thingy
Our neighbours regularly pick up rabbit and pheasant roadkill. When we visit, the children always ask what's in the sausage rolls ??? ? ...... with wicked glints in their eyes :roflanim:
Well done .... no waste.
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Thanks for the warning. Looks as if you did a good job there. I have never tasted venison :(
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I actually forgot to put a warning on and when I came back to do it it was already there.
Seems such a shame to waste such an animal, especially considering how much you would get charged for all that venison from a butcher. ALong with a wheel barrow and somewhere to hang it up these are the only tools you need:
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o84/Pythman/IMG_9872.jpg)
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We went to a shooting friends house for a game supper, the main course was a road kill doe in foal. Like our friend said, " so sad but even sadder to waste the meat"
I did however have to switch off a bit but its no worse in fact possibly better than animals being slaughtered in other ways, that is providing its quick!!
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Haha - great picture but cant help thinking the tools would have looked better before they were used. :roflanim: :roflanim:
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Yup, the tools remind me of a film....arhh....Texas Chain Saw Masacre!!! :innocent:
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If you need any digging doing - just send your OH on holiday for 2 weeks and post that picture anonymously to the polis. :innocent:
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The wheelbarrow's a great idea - I'll remember that one.
That's twice now that wifey has tipped me off about a fresh deer on the road, but by the time I've got there somebody else has always beaten me to it. You've got to be quick around our way! ;D
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I've picked up one before too. I had passed the point on the way to pick up my son, 10mins later on the way home I found it ...fresh, fresh, fresh! Typically thou this had to happen just before we were due to set off for my sister's wedding (a three day affair) so we had hang it, get back on a Sunday night, butcher it (lovely hangovers) then get set for work/school etc. Totally exhausted by the end of it, but worth it!
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Where we used to live in the UK we regularly picked up 'one car' phesants...still warm.
I did leave the two car ones though...tooo much mess.
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You lucky beggar. We got given a quarter of roe deer by the local hunt. Best joint I have ever had. Rubbed it in olive oil and french mustard - overnight in fridge and roasted it. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
No chance of road kill here - isolated lanes and deer fence on the main roads.
I see 6 of them every day when I walk across a few fields to cut wood. If I stand still so will they they. I plan to swap the chainsaw for my crossbow as I am sure I can get a shot off and hit one of the group. Just have to let my AC ( shoulder) joint heal before using the crossbow.
Good cutting job! I have a set of knives and saw in a nice case that are sold to hunters to do the job you did. Best present ever!
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out of interest MAK, is it legal to hunt with a crossbow in france? We have one and would love to hunt with it, but obviously can't over here.
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Good cutting job! I have a set of knives and saw in a nice case that are sold to hunters to do the job you did. Best present ever!
Thanks. The tools I used are nothing too fancy. Not sure what that type of knife is called but it has a long narrow blade with a very sharp point, and I sharpen it as much as I can. The hacksaw is just an old one from the garage and the block was made from a bit of left over kitchen worktop.
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I have no idea if it is legal to hunt with a crossbow- sorry. It is a very lethal weapon and I treat it like a gun.
France is a very large country - we live in a department with just 3 significant towns ( 8 - 14 k people) - so it is vast and very rural. If it is legal to kill your neighbour " a known thief" for stealling truffles , or for a hunt to kill 2 mushroom pickers then I am not too worried of the punishment if someone does actually see me and reports me to the authorities.
I will pop into one of the hunting shops and ask about hunting with a crossbow.
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Totally illegal in uk , get caught hunting here with a crossbow or bow and you will get 5 years . May well be different in france etc . But whatever the law in whatever country , they have to catch you first !
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haha catch u and prove it!!
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Plod : " i arrest you sir , for hunting with a crossbow "
hunter : " me officer ? Never , what makes you think that ?".
Plod : " the dead deer over your shoulder sir ! " .
Hunter : " what dead deer ?" , hunter looks at shoulder and sees a dead deer and throws it to the floor screaming " oh my god , who put that there ? " .
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;D something like that yes.
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Lucky U! Would be shame to waste all that meat! Bet your dogs would love the antlers- my dogs love them.
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One morning my son, then aged about 8, looked out of the window and said there was a stag in our garden. I looked out and realised it was towing it's entrails. It had jumped our gate - the type with spikes on top - and had obviously not jumped high enough to clear it. Obviously we couldn't leave the poor thing to die in agony and if we'd rung the red deer commission to report it, it would have sufered longer so we called our neighbour who had a shotgun. There was enough meat on our half to half fill our freezer. My ex buried the skin in the front garden every day and every evening our dogs dug it up again. :roflanim:
We sold antlers from on the hillside in our workshop so ex decided that a full set, mounted on a shield, would be worth a bob or two. To speak up decomposition, he buried the head, just leaving the antlers above ground. He tied a sack over one and put an upturned bucket over the other. Every week or so he checked on it and one day announced happily that it was almost ready to finish off. the next morning he was furious to discover that one of the dogs had knocked the bucket off and gnawed one antler.
Those dogs risked life and limb frequently. Often when out he would pick up road kill rabbits if he knew they were fresh. One day he got home having picked up a large one just down the road. We were very hard up and free meat meant we ate meat. He came in the house furious burt laughing as well. It was his own fault for forgetting the dogs were in the back of the car when he threw it in. They had a lovely feast.
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I want to keep the skull too, but not sure what to do with it. At the moment the whole head is just sitting in a bucket in the barn. With the last deer I had I buried everything and a fox dug it up and chewed all the flesh off it, but I'd like to keep this one in good condition. I'm thinking I might just skin it and leave it in the barn for the rest to rot off. I've got a squirrell head in there at the moment that is going the same way.
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Dicky, my dogs picked up a lovely dried out deer head with little antlers the lot, I took photos and left it stuck in the garden as a feature, then one day my dogs got it back and ate nearly all of it, we often find deer heads due to poaching, I know my son in law has had one mounted but my daughter hate it :innocent:
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Go on YouTube, you'll probably find someone on there who'll tell you how to deal with the deer skull. I want on there to find out how to skin a fox. It was great. I skinned Mr Fox and now my friend is tanning it for me ;)
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game keepers up the glens from me boil the heads , that cleans them off , then hang them to dry the bone out
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My other half (who was a real squeamish townie until he met me..) Is fascinated by skulls.
After he culled a cockerel recently, he boiled the head in Daz. It ment the kitchen didn't stink, and the skull is lovely and shiny white!. He didn't understand why the guinea pig skull he boiled split along the mandible, I had to explain re the madibular symphasis.
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Not sure what that type of knife is called but it has a long narrow blade with a very sharp point, and I sharpen it as much as I can.
It looks very much like a boning knife to me. A few years back when I was writing my crime novel called "Death for the Butcher's Daughter" I went into our local butcher's shop and asked, after explaining why I wanted to know, which knife would be most suitable for stabbing someone up under the ribs and into the heart. He kindly laid all his knives out of the counter and we were discussing which would make the best murder weapon, when a customer came in, looked at us and was heading for the door again when the butcher spoke to her. Fortunately, she saw the funny side and he didn't lose her custom.
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I ran over a pheasant on tuesday, for some reason i thought it would get out of the way like chickens etc do but no.......thump thump and a cloud of pretty orange feathers in the rear view mirror. Did feel sorry for the mechanic who had to put 2 new tyres on the car 3 minutes later when i got to the garage who probably had to deal with some unidentifiable bits around the wheels :innocent: