Bill's Nevada Hunt: The Real Story
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First posted November 23, 2010 Last edited November 23, 2010
More data for you numbers wonks-
Hind- 60#, fore- 35 #, backstrap- 15#, tender- 2something#; add another 10# of neck, etc. (I didn't get it all, and lost some). Double it for the other side, and I (and Roscoe the horse) brought out some 235 pounds of meat, bone, and scrap.
Today I butchered one of those hind quarters. Got 45# of edible meat, those huge bones weigh 9#; so I tossed some 6# of scrap.
I saved the tongue for Mom; she's enjoying it.
I had 2 or 3 # of scrap from one backstrap-- that's nearly the weight of an entire deer strap!
These things are big! Paul, did you get to watch your buff get butchered?
The rib meat is worth taking, and I did from one side (though it smelled like guts, after being left on overnight, so I later tossed it). It's thin but about 2.5" wide.
The antlers sawed off the skull weigh 25 #, as I've said. I brought them down attached to the head, though with much skin, etc. cut off. That load weighed 50#. From rear of antlers to nose tip measured 19 inches.
Ted said: Looks like you set up camp in your living room. Must be a bummer not being able to toss the scraps just anywhere.
Yeah.
Those roll-up tables come in handy. I can use floor space instead of our already-in-use family room table. Mom's giving the scraps to the guy who's painting our house, for his dogs.
We've been eating elk. ("It's what's for dinner")
Good, mild, tough. Twice I've fried up some loin trimmings, made tacos- kind of chewy. I barbequed a tenderloin (didn't do that in camp, a tradition)- steaked, kind of chewy; in a hunk, medium-rare for mom, not quite as chewy. Last night she made swiss steak with a round steak, and that was very good. The long cooking tenderized it.
Zero (0) fat on the bull, as you could see in the pic of the round. He must have worn it all off during the rut.
If you want a meat animal, get a cow tag!
November 17
All done butchering. All the ready meat is in freezers.
The bones of a fore weighed 9#. I'll guess I got nearly 25# of meat from a fore, the amount of an entire antelope.
Since I've been home, I've eaten elk tacos thrice, had BBQed tenderloins, a stroganoff-type meal, and Swiss steak, and I've got a pot of chili on the stove and a rack of jerky in the oven.
It's chewy, will require prep thought.
What else I got
I'd been at my second, and final, camp for a couple of days. I'd heard a little scratching, but then I found that my Reese's Peanut Butter Cups had been invaded. That meant WAR!
I found no hole chewed in my tent (whew!), so figure that the mouse snuck in the door while I was out front eating in front of the fire.
I dug out the four traps that I carry for camping, set one left and right of my doorway, one on the outside wall by the place inside the tent where my little food stash was, and, until it broke, one inside.
The first evening, I nabbed 17 mice. The catch tapered off, but to a total of 32.
