Hunting

Crossbow?

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

A recent change in Texas laws made it permissible to use a crossbow during archery season (deer hunting).

I recall long ago (well before I became a gun owner) I never had a problem with hunting, just that it wasn’t for me. I always said tho that if I did hunt, I’d want to use a bow as it seemed more challenging. True that it is. Am I going to get into bow hunting? Likely I will someday, but not any time soon. One of my in-laws is a big bow guy and in talking to him it’s evident that there’s a lot of investment to get started. There’s the gear, but then also the time to know the gear and get good with it. I don’t have the time to dedicate, nor the desire to split my studying (and after all this home renovation, I don’t feel like spending the money). I’m trying to regain some focus in my life.

Nevertheless, as deer hunting season approaches, I can’t help but think about venison. I’m not really out to hunt for a trophy rack, just some meat in the freezer. Does are good for that, and does are rather plentiful. Texas Park and Wildlife has been working on herd management and has been instituting antler restrictions. For instance, you can bag a total of 4 deer during all seasons, up to 2 can have antlers, and the antlers must have at least a 13″ inner spread. I understand the reasons for the restrictions, and there’s a lot of debate on them. Not going to get into that here. Then there may be additional restrictions that prevent the taking of antlerless. So what does that mean? Either you bag a trophy buck or you go home empty handed. What does that do for meat hunters like myself? Leave an empty freezer. *sigh*

However, during archery season, antlerless could be taken.

The learning curve for a crossbow is a lot less than a bow. That same in-law of mine did work to talk me out of using a crossbow, and I respect his opinion. Still, the thought crosses my mind…..

Readers… any opinions to offer?

EPA Lead Ban?

/ hsoi

The EPA is considering banning lead, like from ammunition and fishing weights.

Boneheaded move for many reasons. Clicky for details and how to address the schmoes in Washington.

ETA: While they may be schmoes, being rude or screaming declarations and ranting at them is not going to win them over. If anything, it will just reinforce their belief that gun owners, hunters, fishermen, etc. are just redneck morons that need to be herded and lorded over and controlled by any means necessary.

Put your emotions aside, write a brief letter expressing your opposition. In fact, you don’t really have to go into detail about it, just say “yes or no”. With the volume of correspondence they receive, yours will not be read, merely skimmed for key words. When I wrote my Congress-critters about the recent firearms excise tax issue, I received boilerplate “I support the rights of gun owners” responses from my 2 US Senators… when of course, I was writing them about taxes, but they just saw the “gun” keyword and that’s how it was registered.

Phrase your correspondence well.

Uncle Ted, WTF?

/ hsoi

I like Ted Nugent. I read that Ted pleads no contest to deer baiting in California:

MARYSVILLE, Calif. – Rocker and celebrity hunter Ted Nugent will have to pay a $1,750 fine after pleading no contest in California to baiting a deer and not having a properly signed hunting tag.

California Department of Fish and Game spokesman Patrick Foy says game wardens saw Nugent kill an immature buck on a February episode of his Outdoor Channel TV show “Spirit of the Wild.”

Investigators found that the deer had been eating bait called “C’mere Deer.” Baiting wildlife is illegal in California.

Nugent originally faced 11 charges, including killing a deer too young to be hunted. In a deal with Yuba County prosecutors, Nugent’s attorney on Friday entered no contest pleas to the two misdemeanors.

WTF Ted? I have no problem with baiting, but if you’re not supposed to bait there (either by law or say by the request of the landowner) then you need to follow that law/rule. Then you don’t have the right tag. Then you target a deer that you shouldn’t have (and I’d reason with all your field experience you ought to know how to age a deer). And to top it all off, you got caught because you filmed it and decided to play it on your TV show.

Good f’ing grief!

Come on, Ted. What were you thinking? Or rather, why weren’t you thinking?

Updated: A posting to Ted’s official Facebook page:

To my Fellow Outdoorsmen…. You may have read the news that I pled no contest to two misdemeanor game violations in CA. I should have been better informed, more aware and I take full responsibility. Our honorable hunting lifestyle is my deepest passion. Ted Nugent

Barnes VOR-TX

/ hsoi

A couple of weeks ago, Barnes Bullets announced a new line of loaded ammunition called the Barnes VOR-TX. I obviously missed the announcement, and I’m quite the fan of Barnes Bullets (even a member of their Club-X). Another page on the VOR-TX here. Apparently it will be available on August 1, 2010.

While I’m starting to lean towards 6.8 SPC for hunting, I still can’t get away from .308 Win as my go-to caliber. Barnes will be offering this VOR-TX in both 150 and 168 grain TTSX (for .308 Win). That’s what intrigues me about this round: factory ammo with a 168 grain TTSX. No one offers factory ammo with a 168 TTSX; International Cartridge Co offers 150 grain TSX and TTSX, and DoubleTap Ammunition offers a 150 grain TTSX. But again, no one does 168 grain TTSX.

I’m still not doing a lot of rifle ammo reloading, so for now I still have to look to factory ammo for my hunting rounds. I’ve been using Federal’s P308H, which is a 165 grain TSX bullet and an overall fine round. Everything I’ve taken from hogs to deer to that water buffalo was taken with that round. But again, it’s a TSX bullet.

The Tipped TSX bullet (TTSX) is the evolution of the TSX. That polymer tip improves the ballistic coefficient. A .30 caliber 168 grain TSX BT (cat# 30844) is listed as having a B.C of .404  & S.D. .253 (the 165 grain TSX is B.C. .398 & S.D. .248) (source). A .30 caliber 168 grain TTSX BT (cat# 30878) is listed with a B.C. of .470 & S.D. .253 (source). That’s a nice improvement. Of course, the reality is the distances that I’ll be hunting with this? an improved B.C. won’t have a huge impact (but every bit is welcome). So what then? Well, that polymer tip greatly aids in getting the bullet to expand. Useful that.

Granted, to use the TSX vs. the TTSX isn’t a no-brainer as there are still advantages and application situations to one over the other. Nevertheless, to see the 168 grain TTSX offered in a factory load is welcome. Who knows… I may buy a box and see how it fares. Or, if I know what’s good for me, I’ll ignore all of this and get my butt to working on 6.8 SPC hunting loads instead. That .277″ 95 grain TTSX is panning out to be “the” bullet for 6.8 SPC.

What to cook… what to cook?

/ hsoi

While out camping I got the call from the butcher that the water buffalo meat was ready to be picked up.

I got home from camping, unpacked, and figured that as long as I had the momentum, might as well get out and pick up the meat.

The chest freezer is full. I mean, all the way. It was probably 1/3 full of assorted beef, venison, and feral hog.

It’s a blessing for sure.

So… what to do first? 🙂  Wife took out a roast. We’ll crock-pot it tomorrow and see how it goes.

Anyway… now that I’m home, I’ll slowly be catching up on things. Bear with me.

A little more about buffalo meat

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

Yesterday I did a quick little sampling of the water buffalo meat.

It paid off.

For dinner, Wife sliced the loin meat into maybe 1/4″ or at most 1/3″ slices against the grain. That is key — going against the grain. She then also pounded the meat with one of those tenderizing hammers, and sprinkled some meat tenderizer (the salty stuff) on it. Let it sit for a couple hours.

That made a difference for sure. Eating that meat for dinner and the meat was far “softer”. It’s still got a little bit of chew to it, that’s just gotta be the characteristic of the meat. But it made for a positive difference.

So that seems key in preparation: do things to help tenderness.

Again don’t get me wrong, it’s not a tough meat, but there is more “chew” than beef. Once I get the rest of the meat back from the butcher, we’ll see how that goes. That meat is aging at least a week. And then we’ll see how other preparation techniques work out on other cuts.

Water Buffalo is TASTY

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

So a couple days ago I harvested a water buffalo.

I took the bulk of the meat to the butcher to be processed, but I kept a couple smaller pieces for myself to try out. I assume these are the tenderloins. You know the backstraps? They’re on the back of the spine. These cuts came from the front of the spine, down by the hips. Not very big.

I left them sitting in a pan in the fridge for about a day. The meat is red, very akin to beef. But there’s almost NO fat, no marbling. Maybe saw a dot of white here and there, but it’s mostly all just red meat.

I took the loins (I’m going to assume that’s what they are), cleaned them up, then cut off a couple small pieces (maybe 1/3″ thick?) and threw them into the frying pan. Totally plain. All I wanted to do was taste the pure meat with nothing to season it: no salt, no pepper, no smoke, no nothing. I want to know what this meat tastes like pure and simple, then we have a baseline and can figure from there what to do with it.

Oh Lord. It’s delicious. 🙂

It’s almost beef. I can’t put my finger on just what it is, because it isn’t cow beef. But it’s amazingly close in flavor. I figure if someone didn’t know what they were eating, they’d figure by the flavor they were eating cow beef. I want to say it’s a little richer tasting, a little stronger, but like strong in a good flavorful way… not like strong “gamey” or anything like that. Basically if you like beef, you’ll like this. Nothing to be afraid of.

Texture tho is different. I don’t want to say the meat is tougher than beef because I don’t think that conveys the right impression. It’s tender; sure cooking affects this and in my case it was in a medium heat pan for minute or two on one side then flip and another minute or two, just until you started to see the juices sweating through the flesh on the “up side”. But there’s certainly a little more chew to it than beef. Now, when we cut the loin to make these pieces we just cut. Looks like we ended up cutting with the grain. We made a few more slices against the grain and tried those. Made a fair improvement, but Wife pointed out something. Going against the grain helps on the initial chew, but after a little chewing it’s still the same sort of “chew” feeling in your mouth because the slicing only breaks it down so far… the rest of the breaking down that chewing does well, it’s the same in the end. But don’t let this deter you. It’s really not that bad, just different from beef.

Frankly, I’m stoked! 🙂

So, we’re about to commit heresy in the eyes of some. We’re chicken frying it. 🙂  Slicing up the loins against the grain, about 1/4″ to 1/3″ thick. A little flour, salt, and pepper (no heavy crust, just dusting), then into the pan they’ll go. Should be damn fine eating. Yeah it’s not high class, but I really don’t care. I’m about to wind up with a lot of it in the freezer… I’ll be able to be high-class and low-class and everywhere in between.

I’m certainly curious to see how the rest will turn out. For instance, how will steaks be? How will low and slow cooked roasts be? A beef roast in a crock pot could take 6 hours… would this need 8 or 10? A lot to figure out, but it’ll be fun.