Date - 15 November 2015; late afternoon

Location - A section of private land including several hundred acres south of Chinook, Montana

Species - Large mule deer doe; estimated at least 3 years of age, estimated at least 160 pounds

Stalk - Approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile, along a shallow drainage in otherwise-open country.

Range - 70 to 80 yards

Rifle - Marlin M336 CS in .30/30

Ammunition - Hand-loaded 150-grain Speer Hot-Core bullets

Damage - Heart/lung shot between the ribs

Meat wasted - Absolutely none!


The details above pretty much say it all; this was my youngest son's first deer and as far as I can see, he pulled it off like a veteran. Working on the deer's home ground, he stalked closer than I ever expected him to, chose the largest deer out of a group of 5 that were peacefully browsing around, raised his rifle and brought her down with a single shot. In my opinion, the conditions made it a very challenging stalk for anyone who would have attempted it; however, every step he took was completely flawless, and I am very proud that he did such a good job at it.

I have four sons, and it is good to know that no matter what happens in their lives, they will always be capable of feeding their families.

Weidmann's Heil, Roger!

Outstanding Tas! Congratulations to the young man and Congrats to the Dad for taking the time!

Memory making for sure!


.

Tas,
Make sure you save the heart and liver for a couple fine loaves of scrapple!

I just used an whole elk liver, and such, to make 9 loaves of the delicious meaty treat (provided you like liver).

Your posting of your son's hunt is a fine recipe for success! You and your son should be proud of the fine work!

Zeke

You're a good Dad tasunkawitko. I'd be willing to bet your son will regard this amongst his finest memories for life. A job well done.

Congratulations to you and your son.

Didn't happen if there ain't pictures.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for the kind words!

I was pretty impressed, and told him so - this kid pulled off a stalk on a muley in open muley country and got within 75 yards of a muley before shooting her with a .30/30 and hitting her right where he was aiming in spite of the .30/30's "rainbow trajectory."

Unfortunately, there is no photo. My dad was with us and in a hurry as light was fading fast. I'll try to get one before we skin her and cut her up, but by then of course it is just a "meat shot." and not a good hunting photo. Now that I think of it, I might go out and get a photos of the place where it happened, showing the area of the stalk and the kill. I know that every parent tends to play up their children's' achievements, but the boy really did good with this.

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:

Make sure you save the heart and liver for a couple fine loaves of scrapple!

Excellent idea, Zeke - I normally make a Slovak sausage with the heart and liver called Jaternica, but it is very similar to the scrapple, and that would be a great new project. Do you have a favourite recipe? Let me know, and I'll see if he wants to give it a try!

Tas,
You're always so good to share your creations that it would be my pleasure to share mine.

Add or subtract according to taste:

Our old family (everyone probably does it like this) scrapple recipe. I always do 2-4 batches at once because I like to use elk liver and they're huge. We love deer liver fried so we don't use it for this recipe.

1 lbs ground liver
1 trimmed, ground heart (you can sub 1 lbs of hamburger and it's fine)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt
2 quarts water
4+ cups yellow corn meal

Put water, spices and meat in a large enough pot and boil for 5 minutes.

Now turn the heat down to low

SLOWLY stir in the corn meal until you think you'll break the spoon and the mixture in THICK and sticky. Remove from stove heat and allow to steam for a couple minutes.

Spray Pam into bread/meatloaf pans and spoon gobs of the delicious mixture into them. Allow to cool until the top isn't too sticky and press firmly into the pan.

Allow to thoroughly cool, cover and refrigerate.
Remove from the pans the following day and plastic wrap completely.

It keeps in the fridge for a week just fine and I freeze the balance.

To serve: cut off about 1/2" slices and brown in butter (it's already fully cooked) fry up a couple eggs and serve with toast or hash browns.

Yum, I just had some this morning.

Zeke

Looks good, Zeke - really good. Many thanks!

And it's also very similar to the jaternica, except for a couple of ingredients (rice instead of cornmeal, marjoram instead of sage etc.) and the fact that jaternica is stuffed into a casing.

I'd like to give this a try, and will report back in the "recipe" section when I do!

Perfect!
I'll keep an eye out in the recipe section for your review.

Thanks again for sharing your son's successful adventure with us.

Zeke

Tas,

Well done by both you and your son. Both of you are lucky.

I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have a father that encouraged my interest in hunting.

Well done! Keep him interested.

Many thanks to all for the congratulations - they are much appreciated!

Zeke - I should be giving that scrapple a go within the next couple of weeks. Might be a little longer but I intend to have it done by Christmas!

BaaE - I regret that it seems you didn't have such an influence in your younger life. Some of my best life memories are of hunting with my father...and my sons.... The time spent in the field, at the butchering table - heck, even in the pickup driving to and from hunting, I learned (and taught, I hope) more and experienced more about real-world, useful wisdom at those times than any time spent in a classroom or lecture hall. Not to mention just the pure and simple TIME spent with them.... It's very safe to say that I am who I am because of those times, and a better person than I would have been otherwise.