Hunting with the Badger 2024

[Fishmanic]

congrats WB.
Nice rack you got there.
Guess you wont need to shop for meat in the supermarket for a good while.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

congrats WB.
Nice rack you got there.
Guess you wont need to shop for meat in the supermarket for a good while.

Nope, should be good for meat for the next year or so. The meat will age in a walk-in cooler for a week or two until the CWD test results come in, and the aging will tender it up a bit and make it taste even better. Tonight I'll get to work on the head, which I plan on making into a European-style skull mount. I also kept the hide, but I haven't decided whether I'll make buckskin or veg tan leather. Either one should be really nice. Elk leather is extremely beautiful and useful stuff. But wow, what a mess. This guy was right at the end of the rut, when they wallow in water holes, and his fur is all caked with mud. Gonna be a lot of fun de-hairing this one!

I had pondered saving and cleaning out the hundred feet or so of small intestine, which I suspect would make excellent bow strings and thread for leather projects. But after three hours of crouching, squatting, and bending while quartering the meat, I decided maybe I'd call it good and leave the guts for the coyotes. Elk will make you rethink choices like that. I did dig in and get the heart, which I recently learned can be excellent eating. The natives believe that eating an animal's heart confers some of its strength and courage to the eater. I'm not sure if that's true, but I guess I can use all the help I can get.

I'll head back out in a week or two and try to find an antelope. Pronghorns are diurnal, which means you don't have to be out at dawn and dusk to find one, and they are extremely plentiful and easy to find. So I can just take the Badgerling out some afternoon and have a better than even chance of coming home with one. The antelope will get made into jerky and sausage (and maybe a nice buck skin), and we'll be going into winter with a bursting freezer.

 

[Fishmanic]

Where is the walk in cooler? I Wouldnt think you'd have that in your house.
I wouldn’t have stomach for butchering an animal.

 

[Fishmanic]

You could practice boxing in your meat locker ala Rocky Balboa.

 

[Fishmanic]

I did dig in and get the heart, which I recently learned can be excellent eating. The natives believe that eating an animal's heart confers some of its strength and courage to the eater.

I couldnt eat the heart. I wouldn’t have the courage.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Where is the walk in cooler? I Wouldnt think you'd have that in your house.
I wouldn’t have stomach for butchering an animal.

My favorite hunting partner is a professional brewer. (And yes, we tend to have better-than-average refreshments in elk camp) So once we moved a few kegs aside, there was room for my elk meat in his cooler. Butchering an animal isn't really any worse than eating one, if you think about it. It isn't that bad. There's a beauty to how they're put together on the inside. But wow, it's hard work. I can get a quarter done in a few hours after work, so it will take the better part of next week to get everything cut, ground, smoked, and in the freezer.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I couldnt eat the heart. I wouldn’t have the courage.

I found myself humming this song while digging around in the ribs trying to find it.

 

[GaryE]

I've been feeding my neighbour's cats while he's been out hunting. Last night I realized he was back after I'd walked over. He was at the very end of loading a couple of hundred pounds of moosemeat into his freezer, and looked like something his cats had dragged in. His wife disagrees with his hobby, and is the cook in the house. She eats next to no red meat to begin with.

Up to now, I suspect he's never been a really successful hunter. His mid-life thing seems to be becoming a woodsman type. This time he killed an 800 pound bull moose. Bullwinkle, I think. I don't know if Rocky the Squirrel got away.

When she gets back, I can see the extended family doing well with moose being given away. We don't eat much meat either, so it won't be to us.

I think he's in a be careful what you wish for bind. Next up, serious cooking lessons.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I've been feeding my neighbour's cats while he's been out hunting. Last night I realized he was back after I'd walked over. He was at the very end of loading a couple of hundred pounds of moosemeat into his freezer, and looked like something his cats had dragged in. His wife disagrees with his hobby, and is the cook in the house. She eats next to no red meat to begin with.

Up to now, I suspect he's never been a really successful hunter. His mid-life thing seems to be becoming a woodsman type. This time he killed an 800 pound bull moose. Bullwinkle, I think. I don't know if Rocky the Squirrel got away.

When she gets back, I can see the extended family doing well with moose being given away. We don't eat much meat either, so it won't be to us.

I think he's in a be careful what you wish for bind. Next up, serious cooking lessons.

My wife has no interest in hunting, but she does enjoy eating the meat. Nutritionally, venison doesn't really count as "red meat," since it has next to no cholesterol or fat in it. I think I could live on elk meat as the main course in just about every meal. Looks like I'll be putting that to the test this year!

 

[GaryE]

My ex-brother in law, who was a hunter and a butcher, used to bring us moose steaks, and they were a workout for the jaws. He'd talk about having the perfect recipes, and about how tender the steaks were, and I'd get nostalgic for the cheap bubblegum of my childhood. I'm hoping for my neighbour's sake that his moosemeat is more tender.

It is a lot of meat if the family isn't as excited about hunting as the hunter is. It's not a problem I'd ever thought about before.

I've never even seen a North American antelope or an elk, so I hope the habitat and diet make a difference. What kind of weight can a bull elk have?

I can't wait til you start posting about feeding Discus with elk heart.

 

[gwand]

When I quit hunting that was the end of my supply of yeti meat. Talk about tough!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My ex-brother in law, who was a hunter and a butcher, used to bring us moose steaks, and they were a workout for the jaws. He'd talk about having the perfect recipes, and about how tender the steaks were, and I'd get nostalgic for the cheap bubblegum of my childhood. I'm hoping for my neighbour's sake that his moosemeat is more tender.

It is a lot of meat if the family isn't as excited about hunting as the hunter is. It's not a problem I'd ever thought about before.

I've never even seen a North American antelope or an elk, so I hope the habitat and diet make a difference. What kind of weight can a bull elk have?

I can't wait til you start posting about feeding Discus with elk heart.

I should get around 250 pounds of meat from this beast.

One thing about venison that a lot of people don't realize is you can't treat it like beef, because it has almost no fat marbled in the meat. So if you overcook it even a little bit, it turns into boot leather. Also, like beef, you have to be very aware of the cut. Backstraps (what you'd call the prime rib in beef), tenderloins, and rounds in younger animals can be quite tender and can be sliced into steaks and broiled, never past medium.

The other cuts have to be cooked low and slow, with moist heat. The gristliest cuts, like the shanks and the neck roasts, are some of the best eating on the animal if you pot roast them for several hours. But if you just throw them in a frying pan, you're likely to need a visit to the dentist afterward...and maybe the chiropractor, too.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Finally got my cwd test results in last night, and we're good to go. I was 99% sure already, as this was a huge, robust, healthy body-builder of an animal. But good to know for sure. So, I'll be butchering elk today! Woo hoo! Hard work but very enjoyable.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

13 hours carving meat. I killed the elk, and the elk darn near killed me...

 

[WhistlingBadger]

When I quit hunting that was the end of my supply of yeti meat. Talk about tough!

I think you'd have to grind it. Yetiburger. Tastes kind of like chicken.