Been a long deer season

the longest season my friends and family have had in many years. I harvested a yearling early in bow season, my niece got her first deer in youth season,and then I got another nice doe on the last weekend of bow season.
but we had enough meat to break out the sausage press so the whole family came over friday night for the party. beer was drank and jokes were told. the kids all played and it was a great time as usual! in the end we mixed up 150 lbs of sausage (half venison and half pork) and my buddy Mike, who got a nice buck did 80 lbs. all that came out to 68 sticks of sausage for us and 47 sticks for Mike, along with a few lbs we keep for breakfast sausage.
I hung the meat and fired up the smoke house about 8 this morning and it will go until about noon tomorrow. then I think I'll go wet a line fore the rest of the day and that will make this a perfect wekend:biggrin
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Looks like a lot of work but will sure be some nice eating the rest of the year.

Very, very nice. Making me hungry. Glad you got some deer. This was perhaps the worst season in many years with the overall number of deer that I saw. I shot a couple of bucks (1 in MO, 1 in KS), but zero doe.

Did you see good numbers of deer?

was sure a lot of work, and it isn't over yet, but. yes it is well worth it. as for how many deer I saw, well I hunt 2 different areas. the area where I killed my does is a more residential area in franklin county and I saw a lot of deer there over all. there were days when I didn't see any but there were days when I saw 10 plus does in an afternoon. I didn't shoot any deer there with my rifle because it's a small 10 acre plot and I try to not to over hunt the "good spot" so my nieces and nephews have a better chance at getting a deer. my other hunting spot is an 80 acre plot in washington county that is mostly "big woods", and we saw very few deer there during rifle season. the weather was bad most every time we tried to hunt there and the acorn crop was horrible. we planted about 3 acres of food plots there but we didn't see any rain for almost 4 weeks after the planting. the numbers are way down there compared to 2 years ago and we have been passing on does for the most part. I do feel as though EHD hit that area pretty hard, but not near as bad as other areas I have heard of. hopefully the MDC will adjust the limit of antlerless tags available next season, to help the states herd rebound.

Good looking bunch of salami Greg. It was a slow season for me too not a lack of seeing deer but a lack of legal deer, lots of small bucks. The managed hunt my group was drawn for made up the difference though freezer looking pretty good. I think around here the over abundance of acorns, and weather during the firearms first weekend made the big difference. Alot of people I know only hunt first weekend and we know how that was. Looking forward to next year even if it is a slow one.

looks awsome, alot of work for sure, but get enough hands involved and can be a really fun time.

they are taking some nice color to em! Attachment 148957

Nothing like doing it yourself. Lookin great!

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Originally Posted by nvrgvup444

Nothing like doing it yourself. Lookin great!

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thank you! and I agree, I am a do-it-yourselfer all the way. I have more time than money! not too sure how much this much sausage would cost at a processor but I spent 1.20 per lb of locally raised pork butts, bought 100 casings at .30 each and roughly 15 dollars on spices. my family splits the costs 4 ways so that's a little over 35$ per family. come easter time when it all comes out of the shed we will divide it up 4 ways and we all get 17 sticks. that's 2 bucks per stick and the beef sausages at our local butcher shop are running from 8-10$ per stick for sausages roughly half the size.

woo hoo outstanding sir.........................

thanks, Beagle! well, the fire is out and I even managed to get some fishing time in today, and caught a few... topped off a great weekend with some fresh catfish, french fries and some hush puppies that tasted horrible. the weather was great here today, but ya'all get your coats back out cause winter is far from over!
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Looks like some good eating for sure. You are right it was a great weekend. We took a few rabbit and squirrel yesterday that will be supper tonight.

I don't think you should eat it , you should send me a couple sticks and I should try them first. LoL Looking good !!!!

Very nice. Want some.