HELPFUL TIPS FOR DEER HARVESTING By: Gail Veley
• Sponsored by WOO
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hile preserve hunting includes the added amenity of processing a deer for you, every hunter still owes it to themselves to be self-sufficient and knowledgeable about the protocol involved in processing a deer. Experienced free-range hunter, deer farmer and Oklahoma native Kyle Herndon, 38, shares the following tips and advice for processing your own deer: 1. You don’t have to be a professional butcher to properly process your deer. 2. Immediately after expiration, gut your deer in the field. This will eliminate approximately 40 to 50 pounds of weight and make it much easier to drag. Within 12 hours coyotes and opossums will have eaten these remains.
3. If the weather is appropriate (between 32 and 40 degrees) let your deer hang inside a shed for three to four days. Or allow them to hang in a walk-in cooler for the same amount of time. Place a tub underneath to catch the blood. Allowing the deer to “rest” for this period of time causes the fat (tallow) and meat to begin to break down and typically makes for more tender steaks. 4. If the weather is not ideal and you do not own a walk-in cooler, plan on processing your deer immediately. 5. Focusing on one quarter of the deer at a time, cut the meat away from the front shoulders for steaks and roasts. Remaining meat that doesn’t lend itself to those types of cuts from the shoulder can then be ground up for hamburgers, spaghetti, tacos, meatloaf or for a variety of other meals. 6. Remove the backstrap and make that into steaks. Then remove the tenderloin from the inside of the rib cage area for steaks. Any remaining meat from that area as well as the neck area can also be ground up and utilized for meals. 7. With each remaining hind quarter, cut the meat into slices and make jerky through a specific process of marinating and dehydrating the meat, and then storing it in sealed plastic.
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8. Be sure to buy sizable freezers for storing your deer meat, as you may have quite a bit of it on your hands. Two large freezers are even better, especially if you make a habit out of regularly harvesting deer. 9. If possible, during the hunt (when focusing in for your shot) hit the deer behind their front shoulder. They will typically expire more quickly, and you will not lose the back strap, one of the tastiest parts of a deer. In addition, chose a hunting rifle that will not fragment the bone and cause you to lose any of the meat, regardless of where it is located. Herndon, who annually harvests six deer, personally feels that older does are the tastiest and most tender, compared to bucks. He never harvests
a buck under four years of age. He also shares his hunting passion with his daughter, Kylee, and son, Kolton. And although he has many fond memories hunting with them, this story might be his favorite. “It was Kolton’s first year deer hunting and he was asleep in the blind,” recalls Herndon about Kolton, who was six at the time. “And a deer came out and I nudged him to wake up. I said there was a good buck out there. We got him up and on the gun. We got him lined out and he shot, and the deer just stood there. After a second shot it fell over. His first shot had been in the belly. When I asked him why he shot the deer in the belly he said, ‘you were rushing me!” So perhaps as a final piece of advice, Herndon offers “keep your cool and your poise. Don’t rush your shot. It always pays off.”
