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My Maiden Quest For The Perfect Venison

Drop Bear

By Drop Bear
in Sport

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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I love eating venison. I have never shot a deer before but I have always wanted to get my own rather than buy farmed animals and have been told there are a surprising number of deer around. After telling Angus about a recent trip i went on he encouraged me to put up a little report as in his words "It shouldn't be surprising that a lot of the people on the forum love hunting as well". So if you are not into deer hunting probably don't read this. Sorry there are no photos but I didn't shoot for trophies and I didn't want to take photos of dead deer.

So a little about me and why I wanted to hunt deer. I used to be a chef but it all got a bit much for me. I am happy that I no longer work in this industry but am glad that it has left me with a great appreciation of quality produce and what to do with it. I eat meat and I prefer to know that the animals I eat come from a sustainable source, have had a good life and die humanly. This has drawn me to fishing for my whole life and, only in the past few years, has sparked my interest in hunting deer. I had hoped that hunting a deer would let me feed my friends and family the most sustainable and humane meat that I know of. The feral deer are not fenced or fed. They spend a lot of time in the national parks and on farmland. The farmers are glad to have them gone so they no longer compete with their cattle. I am not after heads so would head shoot my deer for venison and try to eat every part of the deer that I can. 

According to the hunters I know in Kilcoy, feral deer numbers are on the increase. There are many other reports of deer in Jindalee, Cannon Hill and around Brisbane airport. In Kilcoy the Red deer have increased in numbers so much that they are regularly seen in town. I have a friend with a property in Kilcoy and he said I can shoot there anytime I like, just as long as I can tell the difference between a deer and a racehorse. He wont eat venison "it's not as good as a good steak". We agree on most things like the best rum to drink and how to have a laugh but this is one thing that we don't agree on. I have had several trips up to his farm trying to get a deer with a borrowed 7mm 08 but as yet have had no success. While I have a licence I am yet to purchase a gun.

Anyhow last Friday I decided to try something different. I tee'd up with another friend that also lives up that way to try and bag a meat deer for Christmas lunch and hopefully a second one for friends, dinners and Angus wanted to make sausages. I drove up to his house and got a tour of his huge shed. He is one of the best hunters in the area (perhaps Australia) and his shed is lined wall to wall in caps. So many impressive antlers, some of them huge, and apparently records (i think 15 points?). He had just gone on a trip to the Kimberly with his son and proudly showed me the 4 enormous buffalo caps he had gotten up there. This friend does eat Venison and told me he basically brought up his family on it. Cheaper than going to the butchers.

He said he knew where the deer should be. He rang ahead to his friend who was more than happy for us to shoot on his land and we left his house at about 4.30 in the afternoon (sorry there are no names). On a property about 30 mins from the center of Kilcoy we saw a herd of about a half dozen Red deer standing and sitting under a tree waiting for nightfall. My mate drove past them turned right behind a small hill to get down wind.

My mate normally shoots alone but let me sit in the back with his Browning X-Bolt Hunter 270 Win (I'm not a gun expert so sorry if the jargon is a bit wobbly) and said for me to use the roof rack as a rest. He would shoot from the drivers seat using the mirror as a rest (naturally he has a cruiser). He said that if I F*&^%D around he would take the shot so I was determined not to mess about. We idled over the hill and scoped out the parcel of deer. There were 3 does and one buck with small buds starting to form standing up and 2 other deer lying down. I wanted a yearling and saw a few faint spots on one of the small deer on the ground. I was quite nervous. I had been trying to get a deer for a very long time and it was very exciting to be actually scoping a yearling. I wanted to make sure I shot straight. While I had been to the range quite a few times, this was different. Blood thumping in my temples, the flies wouldn't stop buzzing, but most insistently, the words of my mate rang in my ears "don't f#$k around" so I took the shot and it dropped immediately. "F#$K" came from the cab as he wasn't expecting the 270 to be that loud or as close, as I said he normally hunts alone. He steadied and took another shot and dropped a young doe.

I was so excited/happy/hungry/proud. The other deer ambled off. We could have shot more but we had what we came for so left them to wander down to the creek and into the treeline. A bit later we saw them out in the open. I was surprised that at no time did they sprint off. My friend explained that the locals didn't shoot here much as it is private property and you would need permission from the landowner. It seemed all too easy, almost like going to the freezer isle of the supermarket.

We field dressed them and I grabbed the liver from one but left the hearts, lungs and kidneys. I wish I had grabbed them now. I'm unfamiliar with using them but next time I will and will put them in some of Angus's sausages and learn how to cook them up. 

We had a wee dram of Glenmorangie to toast the deer (not too much as I had to drive back to Brisbane) but I wanted to show some gratitude to them and Scottish salute seemed appropriate.... and delicious.

The plan was to skin and butcher them that night but some other friends came over for dinner so I hung them in the garage overnight. We ate some of the liver cooked in butter with onions garlic and bacon. My family don't like seeing dead deer, so I shut the door of the garage and instructed them to not go in. The next day we were flying to Sydney on an 8am Tiger airways flight and I had to deal with the venison before we left for the airport. I got up extra early and although I have a good idea what to do with them I'm not that well practiced at it. But after dropping them a few times, giving the dog Jackflash some treats and having to split one of them up half skinned so I could lift it back onto the hook I got them nicely prepared and into the freezer..... but we missed our flight. Santa can I have a cold room for Christmas??? Please.

So now I have a dressed deer for Christmas. I have given about half of the other deer to friends and have enough to make some sausages tomorrow.

It was a memorable trip for me. It feels good to have meat that was not fed silage, born and raised in a cage or trucked out and killed in a factory.  I'm new to this but it has sparked a deep interest in me and I will be back.

Drop Bear

P.S. I will try and post some shots of the cooked end results :)

 

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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20 minutes ago, Angus said:

(maybe a kayak paddle in some of the water up there)

My mate's dad used to have a Mary River Cod hatchery and a series of ponds near the same creek where we camp. About 5 years ago it flooded and the fish were all pushed into the creek. Is it ok to neck a Cod for dinner or is this not the done thing?

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Angus

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4 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

My mate's dad used to have a Mary River Cod hatchery and a series of ponds near the same creek where we camp. About 5 years ago it flooded and the fish were all pushed into the creek. Is it ok to neck a Cod for dinner or is this not the done thing?

It is not commonly done due to opinions on the fish however the legality of it varies system to system.

As an overview, any dam, creek or waterway that flows into the Mary River system it is a total no go.

In the stocked impoundments however it is OK to keep the bag limit (of one I believe) although as I said not many do (or admit it anyway). Those creeks etc around where you are talking flow into Somerset so like the Stanly River even without the cod you are talking about it would make sense there would be some.

 

Angus

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