I’ve been hunting with a bow for much of my adult life. For a couple decades I hunted deer exclusively with a compound bow and enjoyed taking advantage of hitting the woods in early October, a full month ahead of the general firearms season. I still do a bit of bowhunting each year and usually take some venison but like most veteran deer hunters, it is the traditional opener of the general season in early November that I look forward to most.
Today it’s possible to hunt with a rifle, muzzleloader, big bore air rifle on any legal means on managed land permitted ranches at the beginning of archery season. I’ve already put a couple of deer in the freezer this year with my CVA centerfire rifle. It’s nice to have venison to cook at deer camps when the real season (general season) opens in early November. Most deer hunters including myself consider this the opener of deer season, the opportunity to hunt in October is nice but it’s those frosty mornings in October when the bucks are rutting that get most deer hunters excited!
Opening day of deer season brings back fond memories that in my case span several decades way back to 1960 when I was a ten-year-old budding deer hunter. I knew next to nothing about the habits of whitetail deer nor did my dad; there were very few deer in East Texas back then and most veteran hunters had cut their teeth hunting squirrel, rabbits, quail and waterfowl.
I remember vividly getting off the school bus at our little farm in Red River County, quickly going to the feed room and getting a coffee can of horse and mule feed for my horse, Molly, and then racing back to the house, grabbing my Mossberg .410 and the three rifled slugs I actually never shot...possibly I’d snatch a biscuit or sweet potato my Mom had on the stove and head out to hunt deer.
These early hunts were actually sits in the fall woods waiting for deer that never showed. But I was out there, HUNTING DEER! I truly believe that those early years when I desperately wanted to learn about hunting deer was the spark that ignited my lifelong love of hunting these magnificent animals.
I get as excited today about the opener of deer season or any hunt I’m planning as I did as a youngster. Today most deer hunters go into each season these days knowing that the opportunity to kill a buck or meat for the freezer will happen. The decision we make is which deer we wish to harvest. Hunting deer back in the early sixties in East Texas was a far different endeavor.
I remember seeing only one buck on our place back in my formative years as a deer hunter. I was home from school with measles looking out the back window of our farmhouse. In the back pasture stood a majestic buck. Of course, back then the sighting of any deer was an epic event but this was truly a heavy-antlered monarch of the woods.
Later, a ranch owner nearby put a bell on a half-tame doe and I would occasionally hear the bell tinkling while I was hunting and I once actually sighted the deer. Of course, doe were off limits back then and I had been instructed that I was to shoot only a buck with antlers. Good luck with that...I never saw a deer but did once encounter a sounder of wild hogs that came close to eat acorns under the oaks around which I was hunting. As much as I wanted to shoot a wild porker, I kept still.
Sighting wild hogs in the woods back in those days was a rare event. I had watched the movie Home from The Hill which was about a young boy shooting a huge wild boar. The mere thought of bagging a boar caused an adrenaline overload back in those days and how I wanted to attempt a shot at one of those hogs. But I was deer hunting and didn’t want to diminish my chances at a big buck like the one I had seen in our pasture!
The rut (breeding season) is just getting underway across much of the northern and eastern parts of Texas. Bucks are beginning to make scrapes and have largely broken away from the bachelor herds. They are on the move in the early stages of the breeding season, checking does that will go into estrus in a matter of a couple weeks. By opening day those mossy horned old bucks that remain secretive during daylight hours will give hunters the opportunity to bag the buck of a lifetime. Hunting during the rut is what whitetail hunters live for and our time of year is almost upon us!
I have a bow hunt planned this week with my good friend Jeff Rice that owns a ranch in Wood County on the upper end of Lake Fork. Jeff has hunted a couple of days recently and reports seeing several good bucks including one fully mature ten-point. His trail camera pictures indicate he is at least five years old, possibly six and in his prime. We are hoping one of us gets a shot at him but just being ‘out there’ hunting deer is enough for a couple of old deer hunters!
We plan to set up a gravity-flow Mag feeder filled with Timber Tines deer food in a new spot that we hope to pay big dividends come the opener of rifle season. Acorns are very spotty this year and deer have been hitting feeders hard.
I had ossobuco cuts made from both of the doe I killed earlier this month. This is the shank meat, including bone and is a delicacy. I have always ground the shank meat into burger but decided to make ossobuco barbecue.
Shank meat is obviously the toughest cuts on an animal and requires long, slow cooking with moisture at low temperature. I seasoned the cuts with salt, pepper and garlic, put them in an aluminum pan and smoked them uncovered at 225 degrees in my Smokin Tex electric smoker for two hours with hickory wood. I then added Texas Best BBQ sauce up to the top of the meat and added a bit of beef broth.
Wrapped tightly in foil, the ossobuco cooked at 200 degrees the entire night. The next morning, the meat was fall-off-the-bone tender. I deboned and drained the barbeque and seasoned again and then added fresh BBQ sauce. This is THE BEST venison barbeque I have ever cooked or eaten. The marrow from the bone gives the meat an added flavor. If you’ve never tried ossobuco, I highly recommend it!
Dinner at camp later this week will be venison barbeque and baked sweet potatoes.
Listen to Luke’s weekly radio show/podcast “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” just about everywhere podcasts are found or on his website www.catfishradio.org. Email Luke through his website.
