Backyard Deer Hunting

This site primarily concerns my new book, Backyard Deer Hunting: Converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound. Although I do update it occasionally, the real action is at my more general content website,  www.hoveysmith.com and blog http:\\hoveysmith.wordpress.com. The blog has video clips on cleaning deer and hunting alligators in addition to comments on how to make inexpensive meals from products gathered from the outdoors.  A click on the above links will take you there.

Backyard Deer Hunting: Converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound is now available for purchase through the AuthorHouse.com website. This book contains 271 pages, 11 Chapters, 100 photos and 50 recipes. A following section in this blog contains the chapter headings and Introduction. The retail price of the book is $19.95 and it may also be purchased at a reduce price directly from AuthorHouse’s webpage or as an electronic book from AuthorHouse for $7.99.  Go to www.authorhouse.com , open the bookstore block on the upper right part of the page and follow the instructions.

This book is intended to help novice hunters and wild-game cooks hunt legaly, safely and effectively and also to properly process and cook the game that they take. It includes sections on salvaging road-killed deer, along with materials on how to cook small game and geese, turkeys and other large fowl.

Written from the author’s own experiences, this book relates a number of unexpected events that took place on the author’s hunts. Rather than repeating information that has been commonly published before, this approach make for an intertaining read while simultaneously providing useful information.

For more information on this and the author’s  books on crossbow hunting and bowfishing go to blog, www.hoveysmith.wordpress.com  and website www.hoveysmith.com. 

Crossbow Hunting was published by Stackpole in 2006 and is available from bookstores and electronic outlets such as Amazon.com. It contains information on a variety of crossbows having different capabilities and price ranges, hunting instructions, hunts from all parts of the globe and concludes with chapters on cleaning and wild-game cooking.

Practical Bowfishing is no longer in print, although  copies are now being sold from Amazon.com for between $70-$125 a copy. The author still has a some books which may be ordered by sending a check in the amount of $50,00 to Wm. Hovey Smith, 1325 Jordan Mill Pond Rd. Sandersville, Georgia. If you send me a receipt for the purchase of a copy of Backyard Deer Hunting from any vender I will sell you a copy of my bowfishing book for $20.00. For more on my books go to www.hoveysmith.bellsouth.net.

For any author who has worked on a book manuscript for months, it is a significant event to finally see his thoughts realized in the proof for the book cover. With conventional publishers, the cover design is often not even run by the author with the result that sometimes embarrassing things happen like the author’s name is misspelled or some vital fact about his life is wrongly stated in his biographical information.

Having been on both sides of the picture from designing and publishing many of my own books to depending on trade publishers to do it, my present dealings with AuthorHouse have been a welcome combination of the two. I came up with the rough design of the cover materials (both front and back) and the spine printing, and they came up with the background colors, type fonts, arrangement of the printed materials on the pages and positioning of the prominent photos on the cover.

My cover is distinctive in that it uses two photos. The top photo is a nice adult doe standing in a backyard setting. The bottom photo on the page is a table set with a number of cooked deer products from the recipes in my book. Prominent arrows connect the two photos reinforcing the “Converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound” theme of the book.

The dishes are nothing fancy, but in fact were the least expensive that I could purchase at my local Walmart Superstore. The overall result is to give the impression that hunting and cooking local deer is an activity that anyone can do, and not an activity that can only be done by the financially affluent.

   Although not discussed in my book Backyard Deer Hunting, but completely covered in Practical Bowfishing; carp have almost

started to come into spawning mode where I live in Central Georgia . As temperatures warm in regional lakes, they will start to spawn there too. This is the time to bowfish carp and either put them in the freezer, canning (making salmon in common speak) or smoking them. It does not take elaborate equipment to bowfish carp. An old recurve bow, boat and trailer such as I use can do the job very well. They may be also be shot by wading in the shallows. May is a prime month for taking carp in most of the country.

These three carp were bowfished one day, and one of them became my dinner the next day. The other two are now in my freezer. I like to used these for baked fish and then use the remainder to make a fish salad with diced pickles and mayonnaise.

Practical Bowfishing  may be ordered from me by sending a check for $17.95 to Wm. Hovey Smith, 1325 Jordan Mill Pond Rd., Sandersville, GA 31082. This book not only contains information on gear, fish that may be bowfished but also has recipes for cooking carp, gar and other fresh and salt-water fish.

Backyard Deer Hunting

Converting deer to dinner for

pennies per pound

 

by

 

Wm. Hovey Smith

 

Table of contents

                                         

                                                                                  

Introduction

 

Chapter 1.  Setting up your hunts

           Finding an area                   

                  Getting permission to hunt        

                 Local regulations and licenses   

                 Hunter safety instruction

 

Chapter 2.  Getting the gear                 

          Clothing                         

                 Hunting boots                    

                Butt comfort                      

                Crossbows                         

                 A crossbow hunt                  

                Conventional bows                 

                Guns                              

                 Muzzleloading rifles              

                  Accessories                     

                  Recommended loads               

                  Sighting in and shooting        

                  Cleaning                        

                  Hunting with muzzleloaders      

                   A muzzleloader hunt      

                Cartridge Rifles               

                 Calibers                        

                  A cartridge gun hunt            

                Shotguns                          

                 Shotgun cleaning                

                  A shotgun hunt                  

                Used guns   

                  A second gun                     

                Knives                             

                 Sharpening                       

                 Sheaths                          

                 Hunting knives                   

                Deer stands                       

                 Built-up stands                  

                 Ladder stands                     

                 Climbing stands                   

                 Metal tripods and towers          

                 Insects

                           

Chapter 3. Scouting for deer                  

                Your, a friend’s or family lands  

                 What to look for                

                Recognizing deer sign

                 Tracks

                 Beds                            

                 Deer rubs                       

                 Scrapes                         

                Placing deer stands

                 Food

                 Water

                 Travel paths

                 Prevailing winds

                Ground blind or tree stand?

                 Ground blinds

                 Tree stands

                Preparing for

                opening day                                           

                 Essentials                       

                 For longer hunts

                Baiting

                Walking out the door

                

Chapter 4. Deer hunting                        

                Stay put, kill deer

                 Labs as deer decoys

                The responsible hunter

                 Can you physically do the hunt?

                Safety                             

                 Ten commandments of firearms safety

                 Added precautions for muzzleloaders

                 Archery safety

                  Added precautions for crossbows

                 Safety with knives, spears  and axes                        

                Interacting with partners             

                 Buddy hunts                      

                Relations with your host           

                Respecting the land and the game   

                How much time?                      

                When should I go?                   

 

Chapter 5.  Humanely killing big game      

               Game anatomy                        

               Making that first shot count

               Learning to use new hunting tools        

               Size of the sure-kill area

 

Chapter 6.  Finding and extracting your deer     

          After the shot

           Double-duty retrieve

           At the shot site

           Where is it?

          Using dogs

           Labs as deer retrievers

                Deer drags

                 Drag sheets

                 Homemade deer carriers

                 Deer sleds

                 Processing in place

                 Packing it out

 

Chapter 7.  Skinning and cleaning

                Skinning tools

                 Deer skinning

                 Mechanical aids

                Tanning deer hides

                Cleaning deer

                 Getting started

                 Simple tools can work

                  Saws

                  Axes

                  Clippers and shears

                The yuk factor

                Safety

 

Chapter 8.  Larger and smaller game

                Really big game

                 A packer’s share

                 Some dos

                 Some don’ts

                Small game

                 Squirrels

                 Rabbits

                 Birds

                Large fowl

 

Chapter 9.  The road-kill café

                Salvageable deer

                 Cleaning

                  Sorting and packaging

                  Deer for your pets

 

Chapter 10.  Long-term meat storage

                 Basic butchering

                  About hogs and bears

                 Wrapping

                 Canning

                 Drying

                 Salt and sugar-cured meat

 

Chapter 11.  Cooking

                 Basic implements

                  Small electric appliances  

                  Where do I get this stuff?

                 Basic foodstuffs for the kitchen

                 Outdoor cooking

                  Sheet iron cookery

                 Deer Recipes

                  Basic deer burger recipes

                   Pan-fried deer burgers

                   Grilled deer burgers

                   Deer puffball meatloaf

                   Deer potato skillet

                   Sausage making

                    Southern sausage seasonings

                    Italian sausage seasonings

                    Bratworst mix

                    Boudin

                    Sausage loaf

                    Sausage potatoes

                    Sausage sweet potato soufflé

                    Eggplant deer sausage savory

                    Dill deer potato salad

                   Spaghetti sauce

                    Cooking pasta

                   Deer chili

                   Weather day beans

                  Cut meat recipes

                   Gaucho deer

                    Shish ka-bob

                   Deer roast and pot roast

                    Deer roast

                    Pot roast

                   Cubed and country-fried steak

                    Cubed deer steak

                    Country fried deer steak

                   Deer stew

                   An adaptive Indian curry

                  Other critters

                   Squirrel stew

                   Steamed rabbit and onions

                   Road Warrior pheasant

                   Road Warrior duck

                    Duck rice

                   Cooking large fowl

                    Giblet gravy

                    Turkey dressing

                     Egg bread

                     Hoecake

                     Southern cornbread dressing

                   Poached pecan panfish

                  Vegetables

                   Sweet corn roasted on coals

                   Roasted yams or sweet potatoes

                   Hunter’s ratatouille

                   Garlic-ginger-olive potatoes

                   Socko succotash

                   Bean soup

                   Enhanced pork and beans

                  Desserts

                   Homemade apple sauce

                   Fruit or berry bread

                   Poached pears

                   Fruit bread

                  Homemade pumpkin pie

                   Pumkin pie spice mix

                  Putting on the Ritz

                   Mississippi white sauce

 

Supplier’s Addresses

Index

Author’s books and publications     

 

 

              

Backyard Deer Hunting

Converting deer to dinner for

pennies per pound

by

Wm. Hovey Smith

 

Introduction

 

      This book is about providing information on how to find, kill and ultimately eat deer and other game animals that live near your home. My objective is to explain how to put meat on your family’s table as inexpensively as possible. I used deer in the book’s title because whitetails are the most frequently seen big-game animals in North America. The information is also applicable to wild hogs, bears and other big-game species.

      Although outdoor writing may appear to be a glamorous profession; it is more often an obsession, rather than a vocation. Writers are paid little, late, have their work as often rejected as accepted and may spend hundreds of hours producing materials that never see print. I have often fed my family on deer and other game shot a few hundred yards from my house. I have drawn on my experiences in feeding a family when my income was sharply reduced. You can do the same. This book is designed to take someone who has never hunted through every step required to kill, clean, process and cook big game.

      I have done everything that is described in this book. I have salvaged thrown-away hunting clothes from a Dumpster, drug road-killed deer off the roadside and safely consumed them. I have used nearly every knife, gun and crossbow that I have described. Where expedient items can be used or adapted, I have recommended them. Although in some categories it is impossible, most of the products that I have recommended are American made. I have concentrated on the least-expensive really workable items of their types that are available.

      This book is not about looking good, owning fancy gear, impressing anyone or putting trophy heads on the wall. This book is about killing deer, wild hogs, bears and other meats-on-the-hoof and eating them. Although born in Georgia, I have spent significant parts of my life in Arizona, Alaska and Minnesota and have commonly hunted elsewhere. These experiences have been used to provide much of the information in this book.  

      I have always felt that my books should consider topics that were not beaten to death by other authors. My two previous outdoor books, Practical Bowfishing (Stoeger, 2004) and Crossbow Hunting (Stackpole, 2006), have been noted for their complete treatment of the subject and the inclusion of information on game processing and cooking. Backyard Deer Hunting follows the same format.

      You, the reader, will be frequently addressed in this book, and I will offer my best guidance on a given subject expressed in simple language. Does this mean that I know everything about everything? No. However, I have hunted all of my life, lived in many parts of the country and mostly eaten things that I shot. I almost never buy meat, but live off the deer, hogs, wildfowl and small game that I hunt. I have published 13 books and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles. I have accumulated in some 67 years a great deal of knowledge that I am more than willing to share in as straight-forward a manner as possible.

      Some photos in this book show big-game animals being killed and butchered. If you are going to kill and clean animals, you need to be prepared for the results. I will attempt get you ready to do these necessary tasks. I have seldom met people that I could not teach something to or learn something from. You should adopt the same attitude in using information from this book.

      You can also learn from other hunters’ experiences to add to your store of practical knowledge. Grandpa or even Great Grandma may also have useful information about wild game from a time when much of the meat on the family’s table was killed by the same hands that served it. It is proper that this should be so. It does honor to the animal that gave its life and to the hunter who killed the animal to provide food for his family. This is a practical demonstration of the eternal cycle of life, death and renewal that is much more realistic than the plastic-wrapped packages of meat at the butcher counter.

      Women can hunt too. Although hunting is often considered a “guy” thing, women can be as good hunter-providers as men. The typical stereotype is that men hunt and women cook, which is bullshit. I know, and have known, many women who were excellent shots and hunters and many men who were marvelous big-game cooks. In a family, it is most true that the person who kills something is the one who is also going to have to clean and cook it. When it can cost more than $150 to get a deer processed and you can do the same job with $15 worth of materials, it makes since to do as much of this as possible. Particularly, if you are out of work and have more time than money.

      Teaching yourself to hunt is a productive activity that brings financial and psychological benefits. Although every hunt may not produce game, you are going to do it better next time, and hunting gets you out of the house. Financial hardship brings stress on families, and it is good to periodically step away from the noise of everyday life, enjoy nature and accept any gifts that might be offered.

      There is no reason why your spouse and kids cannot participate. It often helps to have another pair of hands when processing meat or cooking. This provides the spirit that “we are all in this together.” Think about the life that your grandparents had. Everybody in the family did something to keep the family going. There was work about the house, in the garden, in the yard, with the livestock, in the kitchen and keeping the family in clean clothes. This was more about doing the job that needs to be done and not about “my job” or “your job.” I have lived alone most of my life, and with the death of my wife five years ago am alone again. Whatever gets done at my house, I do. If I can live by myself and maintain a reasonable lifestyle, that means that a family with more pairs of hands can, at the least, do equally well.     

      Some very practical reasons for consuming wild-game meat are: 1. It taste good. 2. It is free of antibiotics and other things that may be injected in commercially-prepared meats. 3. Wild game meat is naturally a low-fat product. 4. You know exactly how your meat has been treated and what went into it.           

5. Removing excess game animals keeps the wildlife population healthy. 6. Animals taken from near-urban areas reduce deer-car collisions. 7. Hunting provides a psychological getaway while also providing outdoor exercise to relieve stress. 8. When done close to home, hunting provides low-cost, high-protein meals for better family nutrition.

      The need for this book was recognized by many publishers once I presented the concept, but none felt that they could publish it rapidly enough to be available on by mid-summer of 2009. Fortunately, Author House, a print-on-demand publisher, provided a means to produce this book in time for it to reach the hands of those who needed it.

      Thanks also go to fellow Georgia outdoor writer, author and friend, Jeff Samsel who edited the book. Samsel’s contribution was valuable because he is a fisherman who seldom hunts and could view this material as a perspective user, rather than as an expert advisor.

 

 

Wm. Hovey Smith

Whitehall

Sandersville, GA

February, 2009

 

 

     Backyard deer hunting: Converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound is a new book designed to allow people who have never hunted or cooked wild game to take advantage of North America’s abundant game populations to feed their families. It has been a  year-long struggle to get this book into print because many potential publishers could not see the need, felt that my one-book treatment of such a complex subject was impossible or that the millions of people who are likely to be unemployed this next hunting season would buy books.

At this moment, April 29, 2009, the book has been received by the publisher, and I am promised galley copies of the text and the cover in 15 days. This will permit the book to be published in June, which will be in time for the 2009-2010 hunting season.

It appears that the book will be about 230 pages, have 100 illustrations, 50 recipes, a supplier’s list and index. It will be available as both on-line and in soft-cover editions from Author House.  As of this time a price has not been set.

I have written this book in an easy style, like talking to a favorite grandparient, and sprinkled it with many real-life events from my own experiences. My objective is  making this book not only an an informational read, but also an enjoyable one.

In later postings, I will share some of the contents of the book and trace its progress towards release.

Wm. Hovey Smith