Actually the season for me is over even though we have till 02 January to hunt. While I never got to pull the trigger on an antlered buck this season the three antlerless deer I did get will provide my family and I many good meals till the season rolls around again. I spent a lot more time hunting this deer season then last and although the weather was a bit warm for my liking it wasn’t to bad.

We added some additional property to land we lease some will continue to lease next year and some will let go. The land I got into in the eastern zone of the state, Harnett County, looks the most promising. I got into that club late so there was little time to scout or get the lay of the land before the season rolled in on us. I did some scouting on the fly so to speak and while I didn’t see any monsters I saw the sign that tells me there are some nice ones in there. Once the season gets out I can walk some more of the property and begin making plans for next year.

Some land we leased in the central zone we had some negative encounters with neighbors who for years had just hunted this land for free. With us leasing it there was some hostile encounters and a near fight or two. I’m getting a bit old for those types of shenanigans so we’ll just let that lease go.

Deer season is measured in more than just tags filled; its days spent with friends moving stands, dragging deer, filling feeders, planting food plots, sitting around swapping lies. Hunting Camp is great time and a time we connect with one another. The pressures of the world may invade our minds and the camp from time to time but there is a bunch of guys who’ll do whatever you need or help ya any way they can like I’ll do for them. Deer Season might be over or about over but there is still small game to chase and waterfowl to hunt and before you know it Turkey Season will be here.

Lets Hunt

With plenty of venison in the house what to make for Christmas? I knew it would have to have venison in it so that’s when I decided to try to make a Mincemeat Pie for Christmas.
Never heard of mincemeat? Well it is an old pie that is older than our country, and probably was made by some of the first settlers to travel over from England.

Mincemeat developed as a way of preserving meat without salting or smoking some 500 years ago in England, where mince pies are still considered an essential accompaniment to holiday dinners just like the traditional plum pudding. This pie is a remnant of a medieval tradition of spiced meat dishes, usually minced mutton, that have survived because of its association with Christmas. This pies have also been known as Christmas Pies. Mince pie as part of the Christmas table had long been an English custom.

Today, we are accustomed to eating mince pie as a dessert, but actually “minced” pie and its follow-up “mincemeat pie” began as a main course dish with with more meat than fruit (a mixture of meat, dried fruits, and spices). As fruits and spices became more plentiful in the 17th century, the spiciness of the pies increased accordingly.

Whats Cooking In America

Mincemeat pie is one of those old fashion pies that I remember from my childhood growing up in New England. Many people are unfamiliar with this pie that does like it’s name suggest contain meat. The mincemeat pies I’m most familiar are made with moose or deer meat, typically neck meat. They also contain apples, raisins, and other dry fruit. Commercially made pies and pie mix no longer contain meat just the fruit and not traditionally enough for me and Christmas.

Having never made a mincemeat pie I first set out to get a recipe which proved a little bit more difficult. My inquires with family and friends finally paid off when my sister in law sent me one she had but hadn’t yet tried. After looking the recipe over and then trying to acquire the necessary ingredients I began to make some changes to replace ingredients I couldn’t locate and to add some things I’d seen in some of the other recipes I found on line. The following is my recipe for Mincemeat Pie.

Moose’s Mincemeat Pie
Ingredients: (makes 2 pies)

Two 9” Pie Crusts
2 lbs. venison
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 lb. beef suet
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 lbs Macintosh apples
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 cups apple cider
1 Tbsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup raisins or currants
1 tsp ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of dried papaya, pineapple, mango
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions:
- soak papaya, pineapple, mango in brandy (at least 2hrs but longer be better)
- Simmer meat covered in water for 2 hours, adding suet for last 1/2 hour; drain, chop meat and suet fine and set aside.
-Peel, core and chop apples.
-In apple cider apples, raisins and dried fruit soaked in brandy; set aside.
-Combine dry ingredients with nuts.
-Prepare 2 nine-inch pie crusts.
-Combine meat and suet in apple juice mixture and then add dry ingredients; mix and let sit 5 minutes.
-Fill pie crusts with mixture and cover with top crusts, cut vents for steam.
-Place pies on cookie sheet (catch any filling that may boil over) in pre-heated oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes; then reduce to 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove and cool on rack.

The recipe my sister in law sent me called for citron( I could not locate any) which I replaced with dried fruit mix soaked in brandy. As far as the beef suet goes your local butcher shop should be able to help you out with that but be sure you tell them you need it for a recipe cause most people get it for bird feeders. I used some of my deer meat left over from last season so the quality was a bit better than neck meat but with this seasons success I’ve got plenty of deer meat.

Well how did this experiment in pie making go for me? You’ll have to wait to see.

Food Networks Recipe

I pulled the December Field & Stream and magazine from the mail box and tossed it into my hunting pack to take it with me to deer camp. As I was thumbing through it a few days later I came across the article “Following Our Father” the amazing story of Faith and the life journey of two brothers after the tragic death of their father in the PA Deer Woods. Now they share their story and their faith at Sportsman Dinners and Churches around the country.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.

“And all I could think was ‘You are the wretch, God, for allowing this to happen to my dad,’” Dan says. “I internalized all the anger. It just built up in me.”
For Dan, spiritual healing was first revealed in a conversation he had when he was in his early 20s, with a former neighbor named Peter Cabin.2 At the time of Witt’s death, Cabin owned one of the hard-drinking bars in Meyersdale, and when Dan questioned God about his father’s death, the question was always the same: Why Dad and not a man like Peter Cabin?
Then one day, while visiting his grandmother, he heard someone calling his name from a nearby house trailer. It was Cabin, and he wanted to talk.
“I knew who he was,” Dan says. “And I was thinking, ‘You’re the one that should be long gone. I should be talking to my dad.’” But Cabin told him an astonishing story. Walt, as it turned out, never passed up an opportunity to share his faith with Cabin, and after the hunting accident, the barkeeper converted fully to Christianity.
“And that’s not all,” Dan says, shaking his head, amazed at the turn of events even after 25 years. “He sold his tavern. He started preaching. He began a ministry in retirement homes because he felt that those people didn’t have much time left before eternity. And for years he helped smuggle Bibles into China. All because of my dad’s death.
“When he told me that story,” Dan continues, “it was like God hit me right between the eyes with a two-by-four. This light came on of God telling me, ‘Dan, if you were in charge of this, if you were God, Peter Cabin would be dead today, and he would have to spend an eternity with no hope. I didn’t make a mistake with your dad.’ It was an epiphany, and the beginning of the healing process for me a decade after Dad’s death.”

Field & Stream
A story that would be more common for Guide Post was a refreshing addition to the Field & Stream. I encourage you to read the entire story and see how God has used this accident to change lives. When you get right down to it our Faith is more important than any hunting trip or tip. So if you’re not sure if you died today where you would spend eternity I urge you to check out “Peace With God”

With only a few minutes of shooting light left the four deer slipped into the field. The largest one was the last to enter and I was fairly certain it was a doe. As they trotted across the backside of the field I tried to get a good visual confirmation that it was truly antler free. It didn’t take me long to do that but they were moving away from me so I grunted to stop her and I fired. The doe spun around and ran back the way she came flagging all the way making me think I may have missed her.

I got down out of the stand and crossed the field to see if I could pick up her trail. It was dark by the time I got there and with my flashlight I couldn’t find any sign of a hit. I spent about an hour going all the way back across the field searching for any sign of a hit to no avail.

That night I played that shot through my head a number of times wondering what I did to miss. I could see any reason for me to miss other than I just choked. It was pretty cool that night so I knew in the morning I could look some more and still recover the deer if my shot had been on the mark.

The next morning I spent most of my time while sitting in my stand trying to recall exactly where the deer was standing and marking the spot. I got down out of the stand and went back across the field to look. It didn’t take me long to realize I had been in the wrong spot the night before and I almost immediately found where my bullet had gone into the ground. Only a few yards in front of that spot I found hair confirming I had hit her. Not far from that I found a small amount of blood so I began the task of trailing her. Across the field I never found a lot of blood and much of the trailing was done on my hands and knees and was pretty slow going. Once I found where she entered the woods the blood trail became more visible and a lot more blood.

What looked like would be a cake walk of a blood trail from the woods on took another strange turn when I got to an area where a flock of turkeys had gone through earlier that morning. The blood trail was lost by the turkeys scratching looking for acorns and other food. Luckily I was able to find some trees that had blood on their trunks that gave me the travel direction and eventually lead me back to a section of woods the turkeys hadn’t been and it was only a short distance after that I found the doe.
She had climbed under a blow down making her virtually invisible. She was just a tad bit smaller than the other doe I shot earlier. The cool weather overnight kept the meat fresh. She’ll provide a lot of healthy meals over the next few months.

I guess the lesson I learned, or at least had reinforced, was to persevere on the track no matter what gets thrown at you. I could of called it after Friday’s search and I found nothing but I had to go back the next day just to be sure. The skimpy blood sign in the field was hard to follow and some might of thought it was so scarce that it was only a superficial wound rather than a fatal wound. The turkeys while not the first time they have messed me up while on a trail I was able to stay on the track and recover the deer.
So this is deer # 3 for the season.

Between work, hunting, and the holiday I’m behind in my updates. First off I tagged my second deer of the year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I had 3 does come into the field together and I picked out the biggest one and shot her. She ran off into the brush so I had to do a bit of blood trailing to get her. She only went about 75 yards as the crow flies but as any of us that hunt know a wounded deer rarely goes straight. She did not disappoint zig zagging her way through blackberry bushes and brush ending up piling up in some cedars. I got some videos I shot that day that shows a little bit of the blood trailing.

If you’ve never blood trailed before or have just a little experience I would recommend a few things;

1. Mark the spot…. where the deer was standing when you shot and where you last saw it
2. Wait…… Don’t rush to get on the track a wounded deer can run a long way if pushed
3. Find the Impact site…. look for hair, blood, and bone and other clues
4. Follow the trail…. mark the blood and look for the next sign remember it may not necessarily be on the ground if it gets caught on trees or bushes.
5. Trailing by yourself can be difficult but trailing with to many people can be frustrating. I like to trail with one or two other people leaving one person on the last sign and the others looking for additional sign. I find to many people can damage the trail and mess up the track.
6. Be careful on the trail not to damage any of the sign cause you never know when and if you’ll have to go back and look at it.

I’m sure there are countless other tidbits that can be offered to help and if anyone has advice feel free to add them in the comment section.

NCWRC sent out a notice for hunters to be on the look out for deer suffering from hemorrhagic disease.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is alerting hunters that they may encounter sick or diseased deer afflicted with hemorrhagic disease. Two closely related viruses — epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) virus and bluetongue virus — cause hemorrhagic disease and both are spread by biting flies, called midges.

The Commission is asking hunters to report any sightings of the disease, which has no human health implications but is one of the most significant infectious diseases of white-tailed deer in North Carolina. Hemorrhagic disease should not be confused with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), which is a distinctly different disease that occurs in members of the deer family. Extensive monitoring since 1999 has yielded no evidence of CWD in North Carolina and strict regulations are in place to prevent the introduction of this disease.

Symptoms of hemorrhagic disease in deer vary widely. Some diseased animals will exhibit no symptoms. Some may appear bloated, very thin and weak, while others suffering from the disease for longer duration may drastically lose weight. They also may have foot, mouth and internal lesions. High fever associated with the disease can make deer thirsty, so dead and dying deer are often found near water. Hunters may observe cracked or sloughing hooves on harvested deer, which is another classic symptom of the disease.

We had a break out a few years ago in Caswell County where I hunt and it knocked down our deer population for a few years. We found a number of dead deer concentrated around water sources.

To report sightings of symptomatic deer, or dead and dying deer, contact the Division of Wildlife Management at (919) 707-0050 or wrccomments@ncwildlife.org.

When people report sightings, it allows Commission biologists to determine what areas of the state are experiencing outbreaks and the extent of those outbreaks. It also gives biologists opportunities to obtain tissue and blood samples for virus isolation by veterinarians at the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS) in Athens, Ga. Reported occurrences are summarized annually and sent to SCWDS where the occurrence and outbreak extent is monitored collectively for all states.

Commission biologists have observed outbreaks of the disease this year in deer across North Carolina — the most prevalent in the northeastern part of the state in and around Halifax, Edgecombe, Northampton, Bertie and Gates counties. Evidence of the disease also was documented in the western part of the state in Cherokee and Yancey counties.

The disease does not pose a threat to humans so hunters should not be concerned about any potential exposure.

Last Saturday I decided for the afternoon hunt to drag some doe urine in to my stand to see if I could get a buck going. Well this little spike horn certainly got fired up and put on a little show for me. Now if I could only get his daddy or granddaddy to show up that be cool.

I heard him down in the brush long before I saw he came out and headed to a mock scrape with a dripper over it. I didn’t get that on film because I had my TC in my hand not sure what all was coming out of the brush.
I got the camera up and shot it through my binoculars as he got a whiff of that rag with doe urine on it about 50 yards away from the mock scrape.

He went in looking for that doe and ended up trotting the back trail on the scent I had laid down hours before. Well this is a good sign now if I can get some of the bigger bucks to try the same I’ll be in business.

Back to the woods in the morning I’m excited.

Update on Death of a Louisiana Warden his death in the line of duty was initially thought to be murder has been reclassified as an accidental self inflicted shooting.

State Police detectives have concluded that the Sept. 30 death of a Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement agent was an accident, a State Police spokesman said Friday.

The body of Sgt. Paul Stuckey was found on River Road in St. Francisville between the Mississippi River and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mat-casting plant.

Lt. Doug Cain said detectives reported their findings earlier this week to Stuckey’s family and the command staff of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Stuckey was investigating an active complaint of night hunting in the area, Cain said.

“It was obvious that he was setting up surveillance and had an accidental discharge of his shotgun,” Cain said.

The Advocate

Sad news and a reminder that the job of keeping us safe and protecting our natural resources can be a very dangerous job. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sgt Stuckey’s family and friends as they deal with this tragic loss.

The town of Carrboro in an effort to control deer has banned supplemental feeding of them in an effort to reduce their numbers.

The feeding ban comes in response to concerns about the town’s growing deer population and the effect on landscaping, gardens and public safety. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission estimates Orange County has 30 to 44 deer per square mile.

The new ordinance prohibits residents from placing fruits, vegetables, salt and other materials outdoors on public or private property to feed or attract deer. The law does not apply to natural vegetation, crops or feeders used for domestic animals or livestock. The town will give violators 48 hours to remove illegal food or feeding devices before levying a $25 fine.

Read more: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/orangechat/carrboro-bans-deer-feeding#ixzz1chUMoba9

While banning feeding may help as a long term effort the deer population needs to be dropped a bit quicker and hunting is the most cost effective way to do that. There is a group urging town lawmakers to do just that but given the political leanings of Carrboro I’ll be surprised if that flies. Bow hunting is safe and very effective method to kill deer and can be used safely in urban areas.

Then again with no supplemental feeding it will take a long time for the deer to starve to death cause I’m sure landowners are going to keep replacing bushes and flowers that the deer eat.

Hunting instead of work is always a great thing so this is shaping up to be a nice Halloween. I’m actually back at my truck getting some lunch after the morning hunt trying out my netbook to update the blog. Don’t worry I still have my flip camera with me so you’ll get some of my stunning video as well at some point.

Reports of the rut beginning to kick in seem to be a bit premature at least on the land I’m hunting. I’ve seen little sign of scrapes and rubs around the farm here in Alamance. I’ve yet to see a buck but have seen a number of does. I know it is just a matter of time before the rut kicks in and when it does the does will be the key to seeing the bucks.

As I’m writing this I just got a call and one of my club members killed who was in deer camp with us last evening killed a spike buck in Caswell on some land we have there. Well it looks like someone has had some success and hopefully soon I’ll be dragging a deer out of the woods.

Well I guess I’ll finish my lunch and get back in the stand.

For my readers in the New England area know you are in my thoughts and prayers as you dig out from this freak storm.