Eating Good On Deer Meat

My son shot a deer a few weeks ago, and lately we’ve been eating pretty good.

My tummy is still full from the carne guisada tacos my wife made last night for supper. A few days before, she made chicken fried steak out of back strap. I made a pot of venison chili last weekend.

I’m pretty proud of my son, Sam. This year, he went hunting, shot a buck, and loaded it up all by himself. I only had to help him clean and process it. Next year, maybe he’ll be able to do it all by himself.

I’m also really proud of the way he hunts. He shoots an old Soviet Mosin Nagant. I bought the gun for him several years ago. The manufacture date says 1934. It came with the original bayonet – matching serial numbers and everything. There’s no telling what it has seen. I’m guessing it was rebarreled at some point, or someone took really good care of it, because the bore is shiny with good rifling and it shoots straight.

No scope, just iron sights. But where Sam hunts, there’s no way to take a shot past about 80 yards. This time, the buck was standing under the feeder when he walked up. No cattle have grazed that part of the farm in a while, so the grass was pretty tall. He was able to sneak up on the buck. He knelt down and took a shot from about 65 yards. The buck fell where it stood with a shot through the neck.

When he got home, I asked him what way the wind was blowing. He wasn’t paying attention and didn’t know. I bet the wind was blowing his scent away from the buck, I told him, because that spot never works when the wind’s at your back walking in. I’m sure he’ll remember the wind next time.