Venison for Christmas Dinner

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Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15997

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 21 8:52 am Post subject:

There are various laws and rules that cover hunting deer in the UK. The first is a gun licence. Getting one in the UK is far harder than some states in the US, although I understand it is very variable there. Then there are various types of licence; shotgun, rifle, and I think a different one for shooting deer, and an even more restricted one for shooting wild boar. Then there are the Countryside and Wildlife Acts, and the additional ones re animal cruelty, hunting with dogs, and possibly special deer acts. It results in only certain people being allowed to shoot deer, at certain times of day, not in certain places (e.g. across roads, paths etc.) and males at one time of year and females at others. Only exception is muntjac with are introduced and fast becoming a pest which can be shot at any time of year and day within reason.

We do have a couple of native species; roe and red. Fallow were the main ones of deer parks in the past, and they are quite common not far from us. Luckily so far they have not crossed the trunk road in large numbers, as they can destroy an area of fresh coppice overnight, being a herd animal. We don't get red deer round here as they are more heath and moorland animals, but we do have roe and some muntjac. Other introduced ones are Sika and Chinese water deer.

After a very heavy, and probably illegal culling by someone in the woods north of us, we didn't see any roe deer for a couple of months, but yesterday we saw 4. I think they do tend to congregate at this time of year, so hopefully not too many around, as they do go for the coppice quite badly, but otherwise, nice to see them.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2573
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 21 4:45 pm Post subject:

I don't hunt but have some hearsay information about hunting here in New Jersey. Here's a link to an online page for all regulations: https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/njregs.htm
You can dive deep and find a page specific to farmers, etc.

And in case you don't care about turkeys, etc here's a page specific for rules about taking deer: https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/pdf/2021/regsets21-22.pdf

Basically there are different seasons for bow, muzzle loader, shotgun that also limit whether taking doe, antlerless buck (button buck), buck.

Permits are purchased for certain regions. Used to be that the man who hunts our property had to get a second permit to hunt here, That was in addition to the permit for where he lives. This year he was able to purchase a permit good for both areas.

Any successful hunt - the deer must be tagged using tag(s) supplied with permit.

We're happy to have someone who knows what he is doing, hunts safely, makes a clean kill - and then shares some of the meat.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 21 8:28 am Post subject:
sensible, if a bit complex and similar to ours in many ways a mix of sustainable and kindly and safe is best a big difference is your rules are citizen based, ours are ruler based with a few more modern tweaks for useful peasants

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15997

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 21 8:35 am Post subject:
We don't hunt either, but son belongs to BASC, who are the main shooting organisation in the UK as he has an air rifle. No good for most things but have used it to kill squirrels. The grey squirrel which was imported from the US is a pest round here and regarded as vermin.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 21 8:43 am Post subject:

i like the trout regs, ideal if you only get a couple of days fishing a year and have a smoker/freezer

you also seem to have plenty of clean rivers, no point stocking with trout unless the BOD is low and the O2 levels for trout can be maintained in that type of water flow etc, they also need a clean river/river margins for food

as a small aside, our gov have just permitted the water companies to discharge raw sewage rather than build better sewers

our trout regs will now be irrelevant

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2573
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 21 3:56 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose, gray squirrels are small but make good eating. Traditional was burgoo, a slow long cooked dish of any / everything available::"The true origins of burgoo are obscure – some trace the basic recipe all the way back to Wales. On the early Kentucky frontier, burgoo seems to have been the result of community efforts. Everybody brought to big events whatever meat they could provide – very often wild game such as venison, squirrel, wild turkey, quail, opossum, rabbit, and raccoon – and into huge iron pots of water it all went along with generous portions of whatever vegetables and seasonings might be at hand. This rich blend was cooked over open fires very slowly and stirred constantly until the meat nearly dissolved into the thick broth."

Contemporary recipes seem to mostly call for soaking meat in buttermilk, then dusting with seasoned flour and frying.

Interestingly, one site I was checking mentioned that since covid-19 they were getting many more hits.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15997

Posted: Sat Dec 04, 21 9:51 am Post subject:

As you say Dpack, discharges into rivers or the sea are now allowed, which should please Southern Water who have recently been fined a very large sum for doing precisely that. In this area they discharge into the sea, making the local shellfish inedible.

Jam Lady. Interesting. When my son was at college, his lecturer got the gamekeepers to have a blitz on the local squirrels ( we have only greys here and no native reds) and held a 'squirrel soiree' with squirrel cooked in various ways. If we ever get a trap it is a meat I want to try. So far I have only had pheasant, rabbit and pigeon; the pheasant from accidents and the pigeon courtesy of the peregrine falcon who tends to drop them. Son did phone me from work once and say if he brought home a rabbit, could I skin it and use it, which I did.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2573
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Sat Dec 04, 21 2:41 pm Post subject:
Wild caught game I've prepared includes venison, raccoon, woodchuck and pigeon. Farm raised includes rabbit and pheasant.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6612
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sun Dec 05, 21 1:05 am Post subject:

I've heard that woodchuck takes some skill in removing some odorous glands.

I wished that I had time to experiment with some of the porcupines I dispatched this year, but summer is busy and I want sure the outcome would be worth the effort (probably would be if I didn't have to overcome the lack of familiarity processing wild game learning curve).

I was hoping to harvest a deer this hunting season, as our state was eager to give out extra antlerless ("any deer") permits this year, but an in law's passing and other things took over most of the scant free time

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2573
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Sun Dec 05, 21 1:15 am Post subject:
It's no big deal, Slim. There is a small yellow bean like gland in the woodchuck's forearm "pits." Take it out intact and you are good to go.

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