Federal government lists are vulnerable to inaccuracy, and misuse by
politicians to push political agendas. The proposal to use the no-fly
list as the basis for stripping U.S. citizens of constitutional rights
is a case in point. Regardless of one’s position on gun control, using a
secret government process to tinker with the Bill of Rights is wrong,
and very dangerous.
“What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect
to buy a semi-automatic weapon?” President Obama recently asked,
suggesting falsely the no-fly list is a list of known terrorists,
inferring that using it would have made a difference in San Bernardino,
although the names of neither of the San Bernardino terrorists appeared
on it. In his exploitation of yet another terrible gun tragedy, the
president has created a false argument, politician-speak, internally
consistent, but based on untruths. Who indeed would argue for allowing
terrorists to buy semi-automatic weapons?
The problem is not people the president would have you believe want
terrorists to have guns, but politicians, lacking imagination, who want
to use a flawed, unreliable, secret government process to brand U.S.
citizens as terrorists, without a court hearing, and then deny them
their constitutional rights.
The no-fly list is demonstrably inaccurate, a product of subjective
decision-making, using the lowest possible legal standard of proof, to
identify people “reasonably suspected to have engaged in terrorism or
related activities.” The courts recognize the standard, but it is not
enough to arrest or indict anyone, or even get a search warrant, much
less a criminal conviction. It’s best described as gut instinct, the
kind that allows a police officer who sees something not quite right to
stop people briefly, and question them about what’s going on. The
president would use gut instinct to tinker with fundamental freedoms.
There is no shortage of stories about Americans wronged by the no-fly
list: children under 5, a Marine returning from Iraq, a brigadier
general, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Rep. John Lewis, Rep. John Young, reputable
journalists, outspoken political figures, the list goes on and on. In
some cases, the mistake is so egregious that it helps the victim to
muscle their way through an opaque bureaucracy to get off the list, but
that is not true for most folks. For them, redress is virtually
nonexistent, a fact recognized as a violation of the Constitution by at
least two federal courts. A classified government document, leaked in
2014, showed that about 40 percent of people on the watch list had “no
recognized terrorist group affiliation.” This is the president’s list of
“terrorist suspects.”
Read more @ The Washington Times here
Sunday, December 27, 2015
New York: Legislators Propose Outrageous Ammunition Restriction Legislation
Via NRA-ILA
Two New York legislators have announced that they are introducing legislation in 2016 that would severely limit ammunition purchases. State Senator Roxanne Persaud (D-19) and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon (D-52) want to pass a law that would limit ammo purchases to twice the capacity of the firearm during a 90-day period (3 months)!
Undeterred by the failed SAFE Act, anti-gun lawmakers in Albany seem determined to pursue the same failed policies and will not stop until the Second Amendment is completely dismantled. The SAFE Act has done nothing to lower crime in New York and has turned law-abiding citizens into criminals. The SAFE Act had its own ammunition restrictions and required ammunition background checks which were suspended after Governor Cuomo embarrassingly realized that such a system was impractical. In addition, the last attempt to regulate how many rounds a person could load into a gun was overturned by a Federal District Court in New York and ruled unconstitutional. Persaud and Simon are justifying this bill by pointing to terrorism, as if terrorists are going to voluntarily ration ammunition. There are so many problems with this legislation that it would be impossible to highlight them all herein. Again, for the sake of New York citizens, we would hope legislators start focusing on the serious issues facing the state and stop introducing these embarrassing ideas.
It’s readily evident that the two lawmakers know next to nothing about the subject of firearms and ammunition. Manufacturers don’t even package ammunition with such a random number of cartridges in many cases. This is one of the most absurd bills being introduced in the entire country. However, because anti-gun legislators in New York have a history of defying logic, we will treat this legislation as another serious attempt to infringe on your constitutional right to self-defense.
Two New York legislators have announced that they are introducing legislation in 2016 that would severely limit ammunition purchases. State Senator Roxanne Persaud (D-19) and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon (D-52) want to pass a law that would limit ammo purchases to twice the capacity of the firearm during a 90-day period (3 months)!
Undeterred by the failed SAFE Act, anti-gun lawmakers in Albany seem determined to pursue the same failed policies and will not stop until the Second Amendment is completely dismantled. The SAFE Act has done nothing to lower crime in New York and has turned law-abiding citizens into criminals. The SAFE Act had its own ammunition restrictions and required ammunition background checks which were suspended after Governor Cuomo embarrassingly realized that such a system was impractical. In addition, the last attempt to regulate how many rounds a person could load into a gun was overturned by a Federal District Court in New York and ruled unconstitutional. Persaud and Simon are justifying this bill by pointing to terrorism, as if terrorists are going to voluntarily ration ammunition. There are so many problems with this legislation that it would be impossible to highlight them all herein. Again, for the sake of New York citizens, we would hope legislators start focusing on the serious issues facing the state and stop introducing these embarrassing ideas.
It’s readily evident that the two lawmakers know next to nothing about the subject of firearms and ammunition. Manufacturers don’t even package ammunition with such a random number of cartridges in many cases. This is one of the most absurd bills being introduced in the entire country. However, because anti-gun legislators in New York have a history of defying logic, we will treat this legislation as another serious attempt to infringe on your constitutional right to self-defense.
A year of reckoning: Police fatally shoot nearly 1,000
Nearly a thousand times this year, an American police officer has shot and killed a civilian.
When the people hired to protect their
communities end up killing someone, they can be called heroes or
criminals — a judgment that has never come more quickly or searingly
than in this era of viral video, body cameras and dash cams. A single
bullet fired at the adrenaline-charged apex of a chase can end a life,
wreck a career, spark a riot, spike racial tensions and alter the
politics of the nation.
In a year-long study, The Washington Post found that the kind of
incidents that have ignited protests in many U.S. communities — most
often, white police officers killing unarmed black men — represent less
than 4 percent of fatal police shootings. Meanwhile, The Post found that
the great majority of people who died at the hands of the police fit at
least one of three categories: they were wielding weapons, they were
suicidal or mentally troubled, or they ran when officers told them to
halt.The Post sought to compile a record of every fatal police shooting in the nation in 2015, something no government agency had done. The project began after a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014, provoking several nights of fiery riots, weeks of protests and a national reckoning with the nexus of race, crime and police use of force.
Race remains the most volatile flash point in any accounting of police shootings. Although black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year, The Post’s database shows. In the majority of cases in which police shot and killed a person who had attacked someone with a weapon or brandished a gun, the person who was shot was white. But a hugely disproportionate number — 3 in 5 — of those killed after exhibiting less threatening behavior were black or Hispanic.
Regardless of race, in more than a quarter of cases, the fatal
encounter involved officers pursuing someone on foot or by car — making
chases one of the most common scenarios in the data. Some police chiefs
and training experts say more restrictive rules on when to give chase
could prevent unnecessary shootings.
Like a growing number of police shootings, the death of David Kassick
on a snow-covered field near his sister’s house in Hummelstown, Pa.,
was captured on video — a technological shift that has dramatically
altered how Americans perceive officers’ use of deadly force.
In two minutes and 10 seconds of harrowing footage, the Kassick video serves as an almost perfect Rorschach test in the national debate over when it is justifiable for an officer to take a life.
Lots more @ WaPo here
In two minutes and 10 seconds of harrowing footage, the Kassick video serves as an almost perfect Rorschach test in the national debate over when it is justifiable for an officer to take a life.
Lots more @ WaPo here
Lawsuits seek to abolish country’s bail bond system
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Crystal
Patterson didn’t have the cash or assets to post $150,000 bail and get
out of jail after her arrest for assault in October.
So Patterson, 39, promised to
pay a bail bonds company $15,000 plus interest to put up the $150,000
bail for her, allowing to go home and care for her invalid grandmother.
The day after her release, the
district attorney decided not to pursue charges. But Patterson still
owes the bail bonds company. Criminal justice reformers and lawyers at a
nonprofit Washington, D.C., legal clinic say that is unconstitutionally
unfair.
The lawyers have filed a class
action lawsuit on behalf of Patterson, Rianna Buffin and other jail
inmates who argue that San Francisco and California’s bail system
unconstitutionally treats poor and wealthy suspects differently.
Wealthy suspects can put up their
houses or other valuable assets — or simply write a check — to post
bail and stay out of jail until their cases are resolved. Poorer
suspects aren’t so lucky. Many remain behind bars or pay nonrefundable
fees to bail bonds companies.
San Francisco public defender
Chesa Boudin says some of his clients who can’t afford to post bail
plead guilty to minor charges for crimes they didn’t commit so they can
leave jail.
Boudin represented Buffin, 19,
after her arrest for grand theft in October. Buffin couldn’t afford to
post the $30,000 bail or pay a bond company a $3,000 fee and so
contemplated pleading guilty in exchange for a quick release from jail
even though she says her only crime was being with the “wrong people at
the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Fortunately, the district attorney declined to charge Buffin and she was released after being held for three days.
“My family was worried,” said
Ruffin, who lost her $10.50 an hour baggage handler job at the Oakland
International Airport after her arrest.
The lawsuit filed by the Equal
Justice Under Law in San Francisco federal court in October seeks to
abolish the cash bail system in the city, state — and the country. It’s
the ninth lawsuit the center has filed in seven states.
“The bail system in most states
is a two-tiered system,” said center founder Phil Telfeyan. “One for the
wealthy and one for everyone else.”
Telfeyan said a win in
California could add momentum to the center’s goal to rid the country of
the cash bail system, which the lawyers say is used by most county
jails in all 50 states. The federal system usually allows non-violent
suspects free without bail pending trial and denies bail to serious and
violent suspects.
“The country watches what
happens in California,” said Telfeyan, a former Department of Justice
attorney who founded the Washington organization in 2013 with a partner
and the first-ever grant from the Harvard Law School Public Service
Venture Fund in 2013.
Telfeyan said it’s not his goal
to put out of business the classic neon-advertising bail bonding
industry, but conceded the business model would become obsolete if he
convinces courts that the cash bail system is unconstitutional.
The industry didn’t acknowledge Telfeyan’s first lawsuits filed earlier this year.
But on Monday, lawyers for the
California Bail Agents Association filed court papers seeking to
formally oppose the San Francisco lawsuit. The association argues that
government lawyers for San Francisco and the state are offering only
“tepid” opposition to the California lawsuit.
San Francisco Sheriff Ross
Mirkarimi argues that most jail inmates are awaiting resolution of
minor, non-violent crimes and that letting them free while awaiting
court hearings will save the city millions of dollars. Mirkarimi said
non-violent suspects can be monitored electronically and with frequent
visits from law enforcement officials to ensure they don’t flee the area
and attend all their court hearings.
In January, Telfeyan and his
colleagues from Equal Justice Under Law will ask a judge to temporarily
suspend San Francisco’s cash bail system until the lawsuit is resolved.
Telfeyan said a victory in San Francisco and the elimination of cash
bail in the city will most likely lead to the abolition of cash bail in
all of the state’s 58 counties.
Maggie Kreins, who is president
of bail agents group, the says the longtime system of putting up money
or an insurance-backed bail bond is better at getting people to show up
in court and it saves the public costs of monitoring defendants or
hunting down bail jumpers.
Kreins said that California’s
“bail schedule” could be reformed to lower bail amounts for minor
crimes, but that scrapping the system completely would be a mistake.
“What is the incentive to go to court if you don’t lose anything for failing to appear?” Kreins said.
Ohio Deer Harvest
According to the ODNR,the 2015-2016 deer season harvest is up slightly...
Up by 3,742 over last year,however,the deer season was changed,there was no
Oct. doe only muzzleloader season
plus there's an extra two days of gun season,tomorrow and Tues.
The muzzleloader season is a week later than last year as well.
Jan. 9th-12th is this year's muzzleloader season.
We hunted 5 of the 7 days of gun season,and never saw a deer in gun range.
We hunt in Ashland county,the harvest there is almost the same as last year,
there's an eight deer difference.
The ODNR apparently listened to us hunters at the meetings they held last year,
when we said there were way too many does being harvested,and deer numbers
were way down from the year before,and have been dropping for the years-as
antlerless permits were only sold in ten counties.
2015/16 Deer Harvest Totals
The 2013/14 and 2014/15 deer harvest totals here
There's still plenty of time to get a deer,and get some venison in your freezer,
we have the 2 days of gun season,the four days of muzzeloader season,
and the archery season is open 'till Feb 7th.
What's important to deer now is food and cover,they need more food because
it's colder,and the bucks are still recovering from the rut.
For morning hunts,set up so you can catch the deer coming back to the
bedding area,for evening hunts,set up so you catch them going from
bedding area to food source. If there's a water source between the bedding
area and the food source-that's the perfect spot ot set up-as the deer will
drink water on their way to the food source and on their way back to the bedding area.
Read.
Learn.
Train.
Do more PT.
Up by 3,742 over last year,however,the deer season was changed,there was no
Oct. doe only muzzleloader season
plus there's an extra two days of gun season,tomorrow and Tues.
The muzzleloader season is a week later than last year as well.
Jan. 9th-12th is this year's muzzleloader season.
We hunted 5 of the 7 days of gun season,and never saw a deer in gun range.
We hunt in Ashland county,the harvest there is almost the same as last year,
there's an eight deer difference.
The ODNR apparently listened to us hunters at the meetings they held last year,
when we said there were way too many does being harvested,and deer numbers
were way down from the year before,and have been dropping for the years-as
antlerless permits were only sold in ten counties.
2015/16 Deer Harvest Totals
The 2013/14 and 2014/15 deer harvest totals here
There's still plenty of time to get a deer,and get some venison in your freezer,
we have the 2 days of gun season,the four days of muzzeloader season,
and the archery season is open 'till Feb 7th.
What's important to deer now is food and cover,they need more food because
it's colder,and the bucks are still recovering from the rut.
For morning hunts,set up so you can catch the deer coming back to the
bedding area,for evening hunts,set up so you catch them going from
bedding area to food source. If there's a water source between the bedding
area and the food source-that's the perfect spot ot set up-as the deer will
drink water on their way to the food source and on their way back to the bedding area.
Read.
Learn.
Train.
Do more PT.
Friday, December 25, 2015
Merry Christmas from the Police State – Cops Have Now Killed Someone In All 50 States
On Tuesday, December 22nd, 56-year-old
Kenneth Stephens was gunned down by law enforcement officers executing a
no-knock raid at his Burlington, Vermont apartment.
Federal, State, and local authorities executed the warrant, reportedly looking for evidence of drug trafficking. “Officers executing the search warrant confronted a male subject inside the residence,” according to a statement from State Police official Major Glenn Hall. He continued, “Officers discharged multiple rounds at the subject, resulting in his death. None of the officers involved were injured.” According to the initial DEA complaint written by Agent Robert Estes, Stephens was suspected of having a gun in his home. Due to this information, police no doubt conducted this raid with the pretext of encountering an armed suspect.
Although police initially refused to say if Stephens was armed or had fired at officers, officials stated the following day that he had pointed a muzzle loading rifle at the band of armed gang members, but did not fire at them when they invaded his home. In response, DEA Special Agent Tim Hoffmann and Trooper Matthew Cannon fired 13 shots at the man, at least one of which missed the suspect and hit a neighbor’s home, nearly striking a resident.
This prompted Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger to request a federal investigation into the shooting. Weinberger, who was elected to a second term earlier this year, said in a statement, “I am very concerned that bullets from the law enforcement operation left Mr. Stephens’ apartment and strayed into another home.”
According to Weinberger, the DEA announced that they will vigorously investigate themselves, telling Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo,
Read more here
Federal, State, and local authorities executed the warrant, reportedly looking for evidence of drug trafficking. “Officers executing the search warrant confronted a male subject inside the residence,” according to a statement from State Police official Major Glenn Hall. He continued, “Officers discharged multiple rounds at the subject, resulting in his death. None of the officers involved were injured.” According to the initial DEA complaint written by Agent Robert Estes, Stephens was suspected of having a gun in his home. Due to this information, police no doubt conducted this raid with the pretext of encountering an armed suspect.
Although police initially refused to say if Stephens was armed or had fired at officers, officials stated the following day that he had pointed a muzzle loading rifle at the band of armed gang members, but did not fire at them when they invaded his home. In response, DEA Special Agent Tim Hoffmann and Trooper Matthew Cannon fired 13 shots at the man, at least one of which missed the suspect and hit a neighbor’s home, nearly striking a resident.
This prompted Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger to request a federal investigation into the shooting. Weinberger, who was elected to a second term earlier this year, said in a statement, “I am very concerned that bullets from the law enforcement operation left Mr. Stephens’ apartment and strayed into another home.”
According to Weinberger, the DEA announced that they will vigorously investigate themselves, telling Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo,
“The DEA’s Office of Inspector General will perform a serious after-action review of this incident so that all agencies involved in protecting the public in this City can benefit from its lessons.”Kenneth Stephens was the 1174th person killed by police in 2015. His tragic death marks the first killing of a citizen, by police, in the state of Vermont this year. One day after Kenneth’s murder, a candlelight vigil was held to commemorate his life and protest the tactics used by police.
Read more here
12 Reasons Why Your Venison Tastes Like Hell
Is your deer meat tough, dry and
gamey-tasting? It shouldn't be. Check out this list of 12
deer-butchering sins to find out why your venison tastes bad -- and how
to make it better
I’m often amazed at the
people, deer hunters included, who tell me they just don’t like venison.
That statement is usually followed by a qualifier: it’s tough; it’s
gamey; it’s dry. And so on.
In warm weather, deer should be skinned and quartered ASAP. I’ve eaten a lot of good deer meat. But I’ve eaten some really bad deer meat, too. I’m only a self-trained butcher, but I process five or six animals each fall, and have been doing so for a decade or more. I’m no Scott Leysath, either, but my wife and I do eat venison in some form two or three meals per week, year-round. I think we eat pretty good.
Some things consistently make venison really tasty. And some things will ruin the flavor, too. Here are a dozen of the worst offenders.
1. Poor Field Care
In the real world of hunting, things happen. We all make bad shots on occasion. And while we know not to “push” a deer that’s been hit marginally, realize that the longer it takes for the animal to die and the farther it runs, the more adrenaline and lactic acid builds up in the animal’s system and muscles. Ever had a glass of good-tasting acid? I didn’t think so.
The faster a deer hits the ground and can be field-dressed, the better the meat will be. Some of the best-tasting deer I’ve ever had have been shot in the head with a gun. The animal is killed instantly, and the meat is uncontaminated by blood and entrails from the chest cavity. That said, head shots are risky. The lungs remain the best place to aim.
2. Failure to Cool Quickly
Internal bacteria rapidly takes over after death, expelling gases and causing the animal to bloat. That’s the first step in decomposition. This process is accelerated in warm weather. Learn how to field dress a deer, and get to it ASAP. Removing those organs is the first step in cooling the animal down.
On a cold night—in the mid-30s or lower—a deer can be left hanging skin-on overnight. In especially cold weather, some hunters like to age a deer in such a manner for several days (more on aging in a bit). I live in a warm climate, and most of the deer I shoot in a season’s time are during early bow season, so I don’t have that luxury. When I find my deer and get it field-dressed, I plan on having it skinned, quartered and on ice within the hour.
3. Shot the Wrong Deer
Modern deer hunters are in tune with deer herd management. We’ve learned of practices that contribute to the health of a herd, including which deer to shoot. Given the chance, most of us want to shoot a mature buck with big antlers. Me included.
Old bucks are perfectly edible, but rarely the best. Muscles get tougher with use and stringy with age. An old buck that’s spent a full autumn fighting, rubbing, scraping and chasing does will be lean. Expect chewy steaks. Same thing goes for an old doe that’s burned all her summertime calories producing milk to nurse fawns. I usually make hamburger, sausage and jerky out of such animals.
For steaks, you can’t beat a young, crop-fed deer. Deer that spend a summer munching on corn and soybeans have an easier life—and more fattening food sources—than those that spend a lifetime wandering the big timber in search of scattered mast and browse.
Field dressing is the first step in cooling a deer down. Get to it fast, especially if the weather is warm.
4. Failure to Age / Purge I’ve been told that aging venison on ice is a mistake, but I don’t buy it. The mercury rises above 50 degrees on most days of deer season in my area. That’s too warm to let a deer hang, so icing them down is my only option. I line the bottom of a cooler with a layer of ice, add my deer quarters on top of that, and then cover them with more ice.
I keep the cooler in the shade with the drain plug open and on a downhill incline. That’s very important. The idea is to let the ice slowly melt and drain from the cooler. This not only keeps the meat cold, but purges an amazing amount of blood from it. Do this for at least two days, checking the ice a couple times per day in especially warm weather. (Note: if you do this without a drain plug, you’ll get the opposite effect; deer quarters that are essentially marinated in bloody, dirty water. Does that sound tasty? Didn’t think so.)
5. Dirty Knives and Power Saws
A deer’s legs are held together just like yours: with ball-and-socket joints and connective tissue. Learn where these are, and you can cut an entire skinned deer apart within minutes with a good pocket knife. Laying into a deer’s legs and spine with a power saw puts bone marrow, bone fragments and whatever mess was on the saw blade into your venison. Would you season your steak with bone fragments and wood shavings? Didn’t think so.
I keep three sharp knives handy when I’m cleaning a deer. One is for field-dressing. This one will be a stout knife with a drop point for prying through bone. Another is for skinning. Though a skinning blade with a gut hook is nice to have, I’ve been using a long-bladed fillet knife the last couple seasons, and it works beautifully. These knives can be honed to a razor’s edge and quickly re-sharpened. Other than quickly dulling a knife’s edge by slicing through hair, skinning is not taxing on a knife’s blade, so a flexible fillet knife works fine. Finally, I swap over to another knife—again, with a heavier blade—for my quartering. The point to take from all this is to keep your knives separate so you reduce contamination of the meat with blood and hair.
6. Poor Trimming
Unlike beef fat, deer fat does not taste good. Neither does the sinew, membranes and other connective tissues holding the various muscle groups together. Venison, whether destined for steaks or hamburger, should be trimmed free of anything that’s not rich, red meat.
For great deer burger, try blending the ground venison with a little cheap bacon.
7. Burger is Too Lean Ironically, because fat needs to be trimmed away for the best flavor, venison often becomes too lean for hamburger purposes. Patties made for grilled double cheeseburgers often fall apart soon after hitting the hot grate. The solution is to add some fat, either beef or pork, when you’re grinding venison. We use cheap bacon, mixed at a rate of 5:1 (5 pounds of venison per pound of bacon). It makes our patties stick together, and the bacon adds a great flavor.
8. Used a Cut-Rate Processor
Some commercial deer processors do a great job. But some do not. I once took a deer to a processor, filled out my paperwork and watched him disappear to the freezer room. He weighed my animal and returned with a corresponding amount of packaged, frozen venison. “We mix all our meat together and package a lot of burger at once,” he said.
For all I knew, the deer I was getting could’ve been gut-shot, left to hang in 90-degree heat, and then dragged along a black-top road en route to the processor. No thanks. That was the last deer I ever took to a processor. Insist on getting your own deer back when you have processing work done. If that’s not possible, I’d advise doing business elsewhere.
9. Marinade Problems
“First, soak for 48 hours in Italian dressing …”
It’s enough to make a venison-lover cringe.
Good venison needs to age a few days. One good way to age is in a cooler of ice with a drain plug open and pointed down-hill. This purges blood from the meat.
10. Cooked Too Cool, for Too Long Venison recipes, especially grilled recipes, often call for removing the meat after a couple minutes per side. For many, the result of that is, “this is raw and gross.” And so they place it back on the grill. After a while, it turns gray, chewy, dry … and still gross.
Grilled venison is best when eaten with a medium-rare interior, but the outside needs to be cooked. In order to do that, your grill needs to be hot enough to instantly sear the meat surface and lock in those flavors and juices. Flip your venison steaks one time. If you don’t have nice grill marks after three or four minutes, the grate isn’t hot enough.
11. Improper Packaging and Freezing
Freezer burn doesn’t help the flavor of ice cream or anything else, deer meat included. Modern vacuum packaging systems are handy and save on space, but I’ve used some that resulted in freezer-burned meat after a few months. If you’re buying a vacuum-sealing unit, get a good one.
We package our deer the old-fashioned way, first wrapping our portion in clear plastic wrap, and then covering that with heavy-duty freezer paper. Each package is clearly labeled, not only so we know what cut of meat is inside and when it was killed, but also which deer it came from. If one animal proves especially tough, we know to use that meat for slow-cooking recipes.
12. Getting too Fancy
There’s no big mystery or secret to cooking venison. Treat it as you would treat very lean beef, and you’ll get outstanding results day in and out. We substitute deer burger for beef hamburger in virtually everything—chili, tacos, sloppy Joe’s, burgers on the grill, spaghetti and who knows what else. We never plan on a “wild game night” at the house. We just plan to cook dinner, and that usually means wild game by default.
In warm weather, deer should be skinned and quartered ASAP. I’ve eaten a lot of good deer meat. But I’ve eaten some really bad deer meat, too. I’m only a self-trained butcher, but I process five or six animals each fall, and have been doing so for a decade or more. I’m no Scott Leysath, either, but my wife and I do eat venison in some form two or three meals per week, year-round. I think we eat pretty good.
Some things consistently make venison really tasty. And some things will ruin the flavor, too. Here are a dozen of the worst offenders.
1. Poor Field Care
In the real world of hunting, things happen. We all make bad shots on occasion. And while we know not to “push” a deer that’s been hit marginally, realize that the longer it takes for the animal to die and the farther it runs, the more adrenaline and lactic acid builds up in the animal’s system and muscles. Ever had a glass of good-tasting acid? I didn’t think so.
The faster a deer hits the ground and can be field-dressed, the better the meat will be. Some of the best-tasting deer I’ve ever had have been shot in the head with a gun. The animal is killed instantly, and the meat is uncontaminated by blood and entrails from the chest cavity. That said, head shots are risky. The lungs remain the best place to aim.
2. Failure to Cool Quickly
Internal bacteria rapidly takes over after death, expelling gases and causing the animal to bloat. That’s the first step in decomposition. This process is accelerated in warm weather. Learn how to field dress a deer, and get to it ASAP. Removing those organs is the first step in cooling the animal down.
On a cold night—in the mid-30s or lower—a deer can be left hanging skin-on overnight. In especially cold weather, some hunters like to age a deer in such a manner for several days (more on aging in a bit). I live in a warm climate, and most of the deer I shoot in a season’s time are during early bow season, so I don’t have that luxury. When I find my deer and get it field-dressed, I plan on having it skinned, quartered and on ice within the hour.
3. Shot the Wrong Deer
Modern deer hunters are in tune with deer herd management. We’ve learned of practices that contribute to the health of a herd, including which deer to shoot. Given the chance, most of us want to shoot a mature buck with big antlers. Me included.
Old bucks are perfectly edible, but rarely the best. Muscles get tougher with use and stringy with age. An old buck that’s spent a full autumn fighting, rubbing, scraping and chasing does will be lean. Expect chewy steaks. Same thing goes for an old doe that’s burned all her summertime calories producing milk to nurse fawns. I usually make hamburger, sausage and jerky out of such animals.
For steaks, you can’t beat a young, crop-fed deer. Deer that spend a summer munching on corn and soybeans have an easier life—and more fattening food sources—than those that spend a lifetime wandering the big timber in search of scattered mast and browse.
The tastiest venison I’ve ever eaten came from a 1 ½-year-old fork horn shot through the neck near a picked corn field during early bow season.That young deer had nothing to do all summer except get fat. Am I saying to forgo everything the QDMA is teaching and whack every young buck that walks by? No. But I am saying if a deer for the freezer is your goal, young bucks from the early season are usually good eating, and have more meat than does to boot. If you want to shoot one and it’s legal, go for it. You don’t owe anyone an apology.
Field dressing is the first step in cooling a deer down. Get to it fast, especially if the weather is warm.
4. Failure to Age / Purge I’ve been told that aging venison on ice is a mistake, but I don’t buy it. The mercury rises above 50 degrees on most days of deer season in my area. That’s too warm to let a deer hang, so icing them down is my only option. I line the bottom of a cooler with a layer of ice, add my deer quarters on top of that, and then cover them with more ice.
I keep the cooler in the shade with the drain plug open and on a downhill incline. That’s very important. The idea is to let the ice slowly melt and drain from the cooler. This not only keeps the meat cold, but purges an amazing amount of blood from it. Do this for at least two days, checking the ice a couple times per day in especially warm weather. (Note: if you do this without a drain plug, you’ll get the opposite effect; deer quarters that are essentially marinated in bloody, dirty water. Does that sound tasty? Didn’t think so.)
5. Dirty Knives and Power Saws
A deer’s legs are held together just like yours: with ball-and-socket joints and connective tissue. Learn where these are, and you can cut an entire skinned deer apart within minutes with a good pocket knife. Laying into a deer’s legs and spine with a power saw puts bone marrow, bone fragments and whatever mess was on the saw blade into your venison. Would you season your steak with bone fragments and wood shavings? Didn’t think so.
I keep three sharp knives handy when I’m cleaning a deer. One is for field-dressing. This one will be a stout knife with a drop point for prying through bone. Another is for skinning. Though a skinning blade with a gut hook is nice to have, I’ve been using a long-bladed fillet knife the last couple seasons, and it works beautifully. These knives can be honed to a razor’s edge and quickly re-sharpened. Other than quickly dulling a knife’s edge by slicing through hair, skinning is not taxing on a knife’s blade, so a flexible fillet knife works fine. Finally, I swap over to another knife—again, with a heavier blade—for my quartering. The point to take from all this is to keep your knives separate so you reduce contamination of the meat with blood and hair.
6. Poor Trimming
Unlike beef fat, deer fat does not taste good. Neither does the sinew, membranes and other connective tissues holding the various muscle groups together. Venison, whether destined for steaks or hamburger, should be trimmed free of anything that’s not rich, red meat.
For great deer burger, try blending the ground venison with a little cheap bacon.
7. Burger is Too Lean Ironically, because fat needs to be trimmed away for the best flavor, venison often becomes too lean for hamburger purposes. Patties made for grilled double cheeseburgers often fall apart soon after hitting the hot grate. The solution is to add some fat, either beef or pork, when you’re grinding venison. We use cheap bacon, mixed at a rate of 5:1 (5 pounds of venison per pound of bacon). It makes our patties stick together, and the bacon adds a great flavor.
8. Used a Cut-Rate Processor
Some commercial deer processors do a great job. But some do not. I once took a deer to a processor, filled out my paperwork and watched him disappear to the freezer room. He weighed my animal and returned with a corresponding amount of packaged, frozen venison. “We mix all our meat together and package a lot of burger at once,” he said.
For all I knew, the deer I was getting could’ve been gut-shot, left to hang in 90-degree heat, and then dragged along a black-top road en route to the processor. No thanks. That was the last deer I ever took to a processor. Insist on getting your own deer back when you have processing work done. If that’s not possible, I’d advise doing business elsewhere.
9. Marinade Problems
“First, soak for 48 hours in Italian dressing …”
It’s enough to make a venison-lover cringe.
Look, Italian dressing and BBQ sauce taste fine, but you’d better be a ravenous fan of them if you’re using them to soak venison steaks for two days. At the end of those two days, your steaks will taste just like … Italian dressing or BBQ sauce.There’s nothing wrong with a little splash of flavor enhancement, but try lighter flavors that complement, rather than mask, the flavor of deer meat, and keep the marinade time short. My usual maximum is three or four hours. A favorite marinade for grilled venison steaks is a mixture of olive oil, a spoonful of balsamic vinegar, a spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, some minced garlic (with the juice), a squirt of mustard and salt and pepper to taste.
Good venison needs to age a few days. One good way to age is in a cooler of ice with a drain plug open and pointed down-hill. This purges blood from the meat.
10. Cooked Too Cool, for Too Long Venison recipes, especially grilled recipes, often call for removing the meat after a couple minutes per side. For many, the result of that is, “this is raw and gross.” And so they place it back on the grill. After a while, it turns gray, chewy, dry … and still gross.
Grilled venison is best when eaten with a medium-rare interior, but the outside needs to be cooked. In order to do that, your grill needs to be hot enough to instantly sear the meat surface and lock in those flavors and juices. Flip your venison steaks one time. If you don’t have nice grill marks after three or four minutes, the grate isn’t hot enough.
11. Improper Packaging and Freezing
Freezer burn doesn’t help the flavor of ice cream or anything else, deer meat included. Modern vacuum packaging systems are handy and save on space, but I’ve used some that resulted in freezer-burned meat after a few months. If you’re buying a vacuum-sealing unit, get a good one.
We package our deer the old-fashioned way, first wrapping our portion in clear plastic wrap, and then covering that with heavy-duty freezer paper. Each package is clearly labeled, not only so we know what cut of meat is inside and when it was killed, but also which deer it came from. If one animal proves especially tough, we know to use that meat for slow-cooking recipes.
12. Getting too Fancy
There’s no big mystery or secret to cooking venison. Treat it as you would treat very lean beef, and you’ll get outstanding results day in and out. We substitute deer burger for beef hamburger in virtually everything—chili, tacos, sloppy Joe’s, burgers on the grill, spaghetti and who knows what else. We never plan on a “wild game night” at the house. We just plan to cook dinner, and that usually means wild game by default.
(Editor's Note: This Retro Realtree article was originally published in October of 2012)
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