That is a beautiful pup. Looks so happy, too. I like that you met your grief head on and adopted another into your life so soon. It's the best medicine, in my opinion. Your old friend can never be replaced. But, it's so easy to get a new friend with these lovely creatures.
She was about 10yds and facing me as it got dark last night in the clover plot thats back behind the house. I couldnt help myself hahahaha... Pup is getting big, 12 1/2wks and is 22lbs... she loves the dead deer!! She goes nuts licking my boots each time!
Not him, and i think he is just rut roaming. We have a good many of them though, as its a sign of over population and interbreeding. I see one a year on average i would say.
These are all Sika deer right? Remind me again how they got there. Do you need tags to hunt them or are they considered an invasive species? They don't look like spotted sika and have body colors of a whitetail. Are they inter-breeding?
Finally cut the beans.. I didnt hunt yesterday due to the rain.. i couldnt this evening due to a 4:30pm conference call, however its killing me knowing he came out. We’ll try tomorrow, its still bow season so its not easy.
Been a while since I updated. I was really hunting that buck and got a chip shot on him last saturday at 60-65yds in the woods. Raise the gun and the ‘06 barked and he ran off... nadda... couldnt see the beech branch/twig that was in the way thru the 4.5x12x50 scope..... hard pill to swallow. After that he obviously MIA, uugghh... So I went to marsh and busted a sika Wednesday and then doing a little maintenance on bean eaters tonight after work on the farm.
Congrats again! How do the Sika compare in taste to the whitetail? Do you have a preference? Do you butcher your own or get them butchered?
Sika is way better... but there is so much work involved in harvesting a sika its unreal. Mud 3’ deep is a reality, they dont live in easy to reach places, so its rarely given away! I use a local butcher for standard cuts, hes literally 1/4 mile from my farms gate. He gets $50 a pop for me freezer wrapped. It takes me several hours a deer plus supplies and clean up, $50 is worth it! Now that we have enough standard cuts for the next year, Im getting ready to make an hour trek to what i call a specialty butcher. He smokes hams, spirals them, chips them etc etc... he also makes hot dogs, italian sausages etc etc, as well as scrapple and bacon with them. Im not going to lie, its really expensive, however its amazingly good. If it isnt obvious, venison is a major staple in our diet. They take from my pocket book, so making them our groceries evens it out I guess in a way. I spend about $1,500-2k a year on butcher fees (specialty guy being the majority of that. So $30-40/wk on meat ends up being the bill. However that figure is off as I do give family and employees as well as a few hard to do neighbors more than enough to keep them healthy.
Those Sika sound tough to hunt but well worth it. $50 for standard butchering is a great deal especially with the number of deer you harvest. I haven't looked in a while but last I did it was over $100/deer here. With this I still need to "clean it up" before cooking to remove the fat and silver skin. Therefore I debone my own (maybe one a year ) I keep the select cuts like the loins, backstraps and the odd roast and then take the rest to the specialty butcher to be made into sausage and pepperettes. Like you said, this isn't cheap but it is worth it. I am going to try and make some sausage myself this year. I bought a small grinder last year and I just ordered some sausage casing.
