This is a series of photos I took last weekend. I was on the way home from Grandma’s house when I saw this pass me by. Can you believe it? Only in Texas.
Imagine the conversation with my 8 year-old daughter in the car. On top of that, I was trying to stay up with the car in order to get the pictures.
Although it is distasteful, I wasn’t too offended by the sight of this. It was about 40 degrees outside so the meat was refrigerated.
When you hunt in Texas what you really are doing is “Herd Management” or “Culling” or some other euphemism to describe killing a deer. Based on the size of these two deer (Yes, there are two. Count the legs) I’d say this was a meat hunt.
What’s a meat hunt? That’s when you go kill a doe or two just for the meat. IT’s not about the hunt but about getting a couple of pieces of back strap. You take the whole carcass down to the processor and ask for jerky, sausage, chili meat and of course back strap filets.
To hunt this way you need just a deer stand. Any will do. I hunted a brush blind once. It was all of about 30 yards from the feeder. I was waiting for a trophy buck (not a meat hunt) and was covered up with does. One got so close to me that I poked it’s side with the end of the barrel of my gun to scare it off. It jumped and ran like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing how smart and how STUPID these animals can be.
OK, so you’re sitting in the deer stand. The deer you want to take home for meat arrives in a group. You pick out the meatiest (use your own judgment here), scope in the shoulder, pull the trigger. If you’re using a 7mm mag then the dear drops over. Dead. If you’re using something else, you may have to go for a walk to find the deer. What you’re supposed to do next is “gut” the dear. That’s the process of removing the innards. You just slit the skin from the sternum to the butt and then cut out the insides. It’s a delicate operation because you don’t want to puncture the innards or else you end up with a rather smelly mess.
Now you have a dead dear (still warm) that has no guts. It’s going to look just like the pictures to the left.
Traditionally the deer carcass is strung up at the cleaning station at the camp. Even the most rag-tagged deer camp will have a cleaning station. That’s where you string up the deer with a spreader bar. That device hooks through the legs at the ankles between the Achilles tendon and the bone. Then you pull the skin off, cut the back straps out, and cut the carcass into quarters. Those pieces are supposed to go into a ice chest. That way you can discreetly transport the meat to the processor without raising to much alarm.
Or you can do like this fool did and travel down Interstate 35 with your prize strapped to a luggage rack on the back of Mom’s taxi. What a duffus.
Comments
19 responses to “How NOT to transport your deer to the processor”
Not sure what you mean by “distasteful”here but, the luggage rack is due to the fact he does not want to lay the deer inside the vehicle. Not only is that the way they are transported in TX, but all over the United States. Looks like there are 2 deer on the hitch-haul and probably 2 hunters in the vehicle. If the deer were harvested legally, then I am not sure about the oddity you are referring to? the purpose of quartering the game is usually when you are in the field and have to get the animal back to the base camp (on foot)or if you plan on being in the field after that and skin and quarter and ice down in coolers(to then be transported to the processor). Your explanation of “Meat Hunt” is misrepresented and distasteful in itself. Maybe you should try explaining to your 8 year old in a tasteful way about the conservation/management behind the harvesting of any wildlife! By the way…trying to keep up with a vehicle on the interstate and snapping pictures does not seem to be in the best interest of safety for you or your 8 year old daughter! Just my 2 cents.
you know that looks like a good way to do it i will have to try it some time i am from Arkansas and we have doen it better ways like i told somebody one day the best thing about deer is when you can eat the jerky sitting in you chair at home watching bambi on your big screen tv and look at the head of the deer hanging on your wall
have a rice day
treehuggers
Im with ya on this one Dennis, thats the way its done down here in TX and if you don’t like it then move to California where you can save all the trees you want. And yes culling or “meat hunt” like the guy said is good for the area. It keeps the population of Deer managable as well as good quality for the other ones to thrive.
I transport my deer this way all the time. I usually cover the animal with a smaller blanket I always keep in back of my SUV. This keeps the treehuggers (while driving their little kids) from giving me a one fingered salute. This year was different. My deer was a 5.5 year or older, 155 class 10 pointer, w/ a 45 inch chest. He stuck out both sides of the blanket. The rack was very visible, but I hid the field-dressed slit with the blanket. There are several stoplights between my hunting area and my home. I got many, many thumbs up on the way home, and one mom who rolled down her window and asked if I was trying to keep the deer warm. Really!!
That’s funny!
that is AWESOME i would so do that!!!! its not stupid by any means
Well, I guess if it was cold enough outside it might be OK. Can you imagine though, if the temperature rose above 45?
There’s nothing wrong with this. There’s also nothing wrong with hunting for meat. My family has been living off the two doe I harvested around Thanksgiving. That old boy needs to move back up north
I don’t suppose the author thought that perhaps the “dufus” driving was handicapped in some way? My uncle is handicapped, but still loves to get into the woods when he can. He has limited ability to man-handle deer, (though he is damn good with his bow/rifle), and he uses a hitch-n-haul to transport his harvest. While you are busy driving distractedly, taking pictures, and giving false descriptions to you child (who would die with you in the fire crash you are inviting) you might want to attempt to get the full story before you start slinging mud and your unwanted, narrow minded opinion around the web…
well there is gonna be exhaust flavored meat
Funny enough – this is exactly how I brought my 4×4 Muley home this year – with the only exception being that I had wrapped the head in a mover’s blanket. My 6 year old and I were eating breakfast at BK waiting on the taxidermist to open, and a guy came in and asked: “Is that your deer out there?” I told him it was and he said,”Why do you have it all coveed up like that – I’d be driving up and down main street with that one out for everyone to see.” It was in that moment that I realized how right my decision to move to Montana was.
There should be a season on treehuggers.
I live in SD and we do that all the time. I don’t see what is wrong with it. Ya they should open up a season on tree huggers or move them all to California or something. I shot an elk this year and the son of a gun was sticking out the bed of my pickup. I suppose that guy has a problem with that too. What an idiot.
Uh….wow. Is there something “wrong” with hunting for meat? Isn’t that the most important point of hunting? For food? Sure, getting meat at the grocery store is easier but for some, it’s getting quite expensive. Between climbing gas and grocery prices, bullets are cheaper than driving to the store to pay for food someone else shot. Mmmmm….Bambi….
Beautiful picture. Thanks to the op for showing us some successful hunters. I’ll bet you never had meat without steroids and growth hormones. Very healthy, natural, organic food. Bet you also didn’t know that it is mentioned in the Bible that God told us to eat animals.
Leave the pictures up but please edit (totally delete) everything you wrote.
Though I quit hunting when a close relative passed away (hunting was never my forte’), I love to target practice and I support the right of those who hunt. I was raised with the philosophy of the thrill/sportsmanship is in the hunt, and you do not kill something just for the sake of killing it…like for a “trophy”!
Venison has fed mankind since we became meat eaters. I have far more respect for someone who goes on a so called “meat hunt”(?) than an alleged hunter who is seeking a trophy buck at a feeding station.
Side note: As a photographer, I’d love to know what you were wearing that covered your scent and visibility so well that a “dumb” doe was close enough for you to poke it with your rifle. Also, why would anyone scare away a doe since does attract bucks; not to mention, when one deer takes off, the others are are usually right behind it.
As others have said, you risked the lives of others with your distracted driving. When your child has questions about hunting, you should answer them, not try to be an amateur paparazzi. Last, but definitely not least, if you indeed have firearms in the house, enroll your 8 year old in a children’s firearm safety class (NRA Eddie Eagle, for example). From your posted photos and comments, you are not the one who should teach her about weaponry.
Damn! I feel like my IQ just dropped a little just by reading that stupid ass story! And I can imagine the conversation going on in that vehicle with your kid….You know that look you get from a child when they are thinking “what the $%*k are you talking about!!! Yea! That’s it! You got it didn’t ya???
all I can say is REDNECK INGENUITY