Ted the deer slayer Cruz

Curious to know what the hide thinks of donating duck. Because, I have only had ONE, maybe two, duck cooked to where I could eat it. I grew up hunting duck. Ran in the family. Grandfather was a hard core duck hunter, quail hunter, rabbit, etc. But when it came to duck, we gave most away and I can assure folks, we hunted - not guided shit (except 2 years when we had a new lease they wanted to help grandfather into blind so they carried him in!!). Old guy could still call ducks better than anybody I knew then or now - let alone shoot (holy shit the guy was unreal, even 2 years before he died).

That said, the pandering to "humane kill" shit bothers me here. Why wouldn't it be a humane kill? Is there a reason to "justify" it was humane?

Personally, I'm not down with these "baited" hunts where deer feeders and such are all out there. Just me. Guided hunts like that REALLY bother me. Dad went pheasant hunting once and it was guided...worst experience of his life...complained it's not hunting, it's driving around on a preserve finding the birds they let out, then letting dog out and shooting.
Coated in olive oil and rubbed with your favorite steak seasoning. marinated for a few hours in the refrigerator and then grilled?
 
Growing up, I know game animals, specifically deer, belonged to the state. If a poacher was caught killing a deer on private property he went before a judge and was charged with trespassing. The landowner couldn't be reimbursed for the deer because, according to TPWD, the deer belonged to the state, not the landowner. This didn't apply to exotics.

Now, if you were caught poaching, especially on a game ranch, along with heavy fines, jail time, possible loss of vehicle, guns and a felony conviction, you'd have to pay the landowner for the deer. If you killed a 180+ class buck, whew, you are going to be paying that landowner some big money.

When did deer, along with bobcats, coyotes and other natives, become property of the landowner?
When he purchased that right. Just like he has the same right to the trees, water, and any minerals found on the land. Most game ranches are not stocked with wild animals, they purchase and raise "livestock" to be shot. So if someone kills an animal off the property they have essentially destroyed a businesses asset.
 
Ummmm, no. Owning the land, doesn't mean you own the wild animals on it. Timber and mineral rights are also separate from the land deed. If you want them they are usually purchased, sold, or owned separately.
 
Ive got an acquaintance who is a guide on a few different LARGE game ranches in Texas. 40-60k acre ranches. 60-90 square miles... These arent small high fence properties where you shoot animals from the back porch. It takes legit work to hunt these properties. The largest piece of property I was allowed unrestricted access to hunt dove on was a 3200 acre dear "camp" so to speak... We shot our limit of dove every morning and wandered around in the Jeep the rest of the day. 3200 acres IS A LOT OF FUCKING LAND... and thats small potato's compared to the 40-60k acre ranches.

Nothing is shot over or near feeders that I know of(usually explicitly forbidden). One of the ranches bans feeders of all kinds.

They will provide as much or as little "guiding/tracking" as you want.

They get all kinds of people out there that want to do all kinds of stuff. Some want the meat, some want the trophy mount, etc...

So just because you only hunt the free state or federal land and think thats all anybody else should hunt its wrong for others to do different?
-state and federally owned land in Texas is all but non-existent for those of you not from here. I think 98% of land in Texas is private land.

Or just because you eat everything, grind up the bones to make stock, etc... its not ok for somebody else to donate the meat?

Sounds like a bunch of commies around here.
 
Ive got an acquaintance who is a guide on a few different LARGE game ranches in Texas. 40-60k acre ranches. 60-90 square miles... These arent small high fence properties where you shoot animals from the back porch. It takes legit work to hunt these properties. The largest piece of property I was allowed unrestricted access to hunt dove on was a 3200 acre dear "camp" so to speak... We shot our limit of dove every morning and wandered around in the Jeep the rest of the day. 3200 acres IS A LOT OF FUCKING LAND... and thats small potato's compared to the 40-60k acre ranches.

Nothing is shot over or near feeders that I know of(usually explicitly forbidden). One of the ranches bans feeders of all kinds.

They will provide as much or as little "guiding/tracking" as you want.

They get all kinds of people out there that want to do all kinds of stuff. Some want the meat, some want the trophy mount, etc...

So just because you only hunt the free state or federal land and think thats all anybody else should hunt its wrong for others to do different?
-state and federally owned land in Texas is all but non-existent for those of you not from here. I think 98% of land in Texas is private land.

Or just because you eat everything, grind up the bones to make stock, etc... its not ok for somebody else to donate the meat?

Sounds like a bunch of commies around here.
In West and South Texas, 3200 acre's is a hobby farm,
 
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My experience is different than that. Can you point to the regulation? I used to work with a man that ran hunts in a high fenced area. I know that it had to be certified clear of native deer before his deer went in there. The areas that he had only had trophy bucks (no does). I know that he worked with TP&W but I don’t know what license he had. His clients didn’t need a non-resident license, or so I was told. His was not a bootleg operation.
I have not looked up the regulations for “deer breeders.” It is possible that the ranch you worked operated under a breeders license. But…

Up until very recently, a license was required to kill feral hogs (except for depredation, and only by a land owner or with his/her written permission), and they enjoy less protection than anything else. A license is required to shoot exotics- even behind a high fence- and they are treated as cattle by the state. I find it very suspicious that a license was not required to kill a WT deer anywhere in Texas- even if the operation was a breeder.
 
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Coated in olive oil and rubbed with your favorite steak seasoning. marinated for a few hours in the refrigerator and then grilled?
If I still duck hunted, I may try that. But, since I no longer have access to the "Duck Capital of the World" not worth the hassle to shoot "public grounds." Too crowed, competitive and much sky-busting and people shooting your ducks when you're working them. But, that sounds like how I'd attempt to cook them now that I'm flying solo.
 
If I still duck hunted, I may try that. But, since I no longer have access to the "Duck Capital of the World" not worth the hassle to shoot "public grounds." Too crowed, competitive and much sky-busting and people shooting your ducks when you're working them. But, that sounds like how I'd attempt to cook them now that I'm flying solo.
Coated in olive oil and rubbed with your favorite steak seasoning. marinated for a few hours in the refrigerator and then grilled?

That, and only shoot puddle ducks like mallards, pintail, and teal. Leave the divers for others...
 
That, and only shoot puddle ducks like mallards, pintail, and teal. Leave the divers for others...
Now THAT I know. :). You could throw Gadwall and Widgeon in too; they're not divers. Scaup, Mergansers...yuk. Same with shovellers. Didn't see a lot of divers in The Duck Capital; mainly mallards, gadwall, teal. Pintail have been hit very hard with habitat issues (or were, hopefully they've come back...beautiful bird)
 
Ummmm, no. Owning the land, doesn't mean you own the wild animals on it. Timber and mineral rights are also separate from the land deed. If you want them they are usually purchased, sold, or owned separately.
My post was in response to the before mentioned idea about high fence ranches. Non native species are the property of the operator. Native species are also the property of the operator but must be hunted during state assigned seasons. These ranches purchase and raise these animals for hunting, they are not wild animals. Therefore they are owned by the ranch owners and are their property.
You are talking about something different than me. Read the thread before you try and correct my statement.

Conquista Dela
 
I believe people who say they like venison about the same as I believe people who say they like fried squirrel. I'm not saying I can't prepare it so it's edible, but I am saying that it takes a great deal more skill and technique to make it taste good than it does a similar cut of Elk, or Moose, or Caribou, and none of those are as easy to make delicious as beef. Believe me, if it was so fucking good people would be farming the shit out of road goats, which are alot easier to keep alive than cattle or other domesticated food animals. They don't because it sucks and no one would pay for it over just about all other meat.

When I kill a deer I process the ever living fuck out of it so you can no longer tell where the hell it came from.
https://www.gwsausage.com/
These guys will make anything that they sell out of your deer, and it will taste almost as good as their regular products made with domesticated meat. The thing is that they charge you the same even though you're providing the meat. This is not the deer processor for the poors!
It's about $300 to get it made into Grants Farm Brats, Landjager, and a few cuts, but it's so worth it. The brats are exactly like their pork ones except a little drier so that it's better to steam them in a pan than grill them. The Landjaeger is a German deer sausage but the best I've ever eaten.

Gone are my days of deboning in the barn, and then spending an evening grinding and mixing with suet. I field dress, and let G&W deal with the rest, and then my family will actually eat it without me having to hide the ground in chili or mixtures, beat it with a meat hammer and marinate it for days. Gut, hang, remove hanging straps and back straps, rest of the carcass to the G&W.

I ate at least a deer a year for most of my life (because I like deer camp and killing deer), and I'm just over it. Now I don't put shit in the freezer unless I am actually looking forward to eating it and it doesn't take hours of preperation to make it even edible.

Rant over. Nice buck Ted!
 
When he purchased that right. Just like he has the same right to the trees, water, and any minerals found on the land. Most game ranches are not stocked with wild animals, they purchase and raise "livestock" to be shot. So if someone kills an animal off the property they have essentially destroyed a businesses asset.
Game ranches may have exotics but if one were to do a survey I'm betting whitetails, stocked or natives that were managed, make up the foundation of the animals hunted.
 
I believe people who say they like venison about the same as I believe people who say they like fried squirrel. I'm not saying I can't prepare it so it's edible, but I am saying that it takes a great deal more skill and technique to make it taste good than it does a similar cut of Elk, or Moose, or Caribou, and none of those are as easy to make delicious as beef. Believe me, if it was so fucking good people would be farming the shit out of road goats, which are alot easier to keep alive than cattle or other domesticated food animals. They don't because it sucks and no one would pay for it over just about all other meat.

When I kill a deer I process the ever living fuck out of it so you can no longer tell where the hell it came from.
https://www.gwsausage.com/
These guys will make anything that they sell out of your deer, and it will taste almost as good as their regular products made with domesticated meat. The thing is that they charge you the same even though you're providing the meat. This is not the deer processor for the poors!
It's about $300 to get it made into Grants Farm Brats, Landjager, and a few cuts, but it's so worth it. The brats are exactly like their pork ones except a little drier so that it's better to steam them in a pan than grill them. The Landjaeger is a German deer sausage but the best I've ever eaten.

Gone are my days of deboning in the barn, and then spending an evening grinding and mixing with suet. I field dress, and let G&W deal with the rest, and then my family will actually eat it without me having to hide the ground in chili or mixtures, beat it with a meat hammer and marinate it for days. Gut, hang, remove hanging straps and back straps, rest of the carcass to the G&W.

I ate at least a deer a year for most of my life (because I like deer camp and killing deer), and I'm just over it. Now I don't put shit in the freezer unless I am actually looking forward to eating it and it doesn't take hours of preperation to make it even edible.

Rant over. Nice buck Ted!
OGC.d828923b66520f09bdb406739ef7be35
 
My post was in response to the before mentioned idea about high fence ranches. Non native species are the property of the operator. Native species are also the property of the operator but must be hunted during state assigned seasons. These ranches purchase and raise these animals for hunting, they are not wild animals. Therefore they are owned by the ranch owners and are their property.
You are talking about something different than me. Read the thread before you try and correct my statement.

Conquista Dela
I need to ask about this. Texas is strict and very protective of it's native wildlife. You can't even own a 'coon or a fawn you found and are raising. There was a big story once where a family that raised a javelina from a piglet as a pet had it confiscated by TPWD wardens who, after removing it from the home, shot it.

I knew a warden growing up and if he learned someone had a pet deer or varmint he would confiscate it as it was considered a 'wild animal', no matter how tame a pet it was.
 
you know - this case really exemplifies the whole debate over sport hunting. I have no problem at all with sport hunting.

I don't necessarily agree with small tracts with high fences but generally fair chase hunt...if you want to kill a trophy go for it.

Eating what you kill has no bearing to me. If you want something to eat go to your local butcher. It will be a lot cheaper than these hunts cost. Now, I can't eat red meat so I can't eat what I kill anyway, but i also don't get off on killing some animal that is just trying to get some water.

It's kinda why I quit hunting - for one thing it really isn't that hard if you can shoot really well. Also, the amount we spend on "hunting" totally dwarfs what we could spend on prime rib every week.

But whatever floats your boat - like I say, if you want to measure your dick by the size of the antlers that happens to walk past you while you are in some artificial stand so be it.

As for Ted Cruz...sure he's a politician but he's one of the few politicians that actually stood up to the Dems in the last couple years. I'd vote for him before I would some RINO like Crenshaw and I damn sure would before I'd vote for Robert "Beto"
What’s the angle here?

If you buy a steak from a butcher he’s going to put in another order to fill that empty space in his fridge. Those animals are likely confined to small pens and near force fed grain to increase the marbling of the meat you’re buying.

I don’t get off on shooting animals trying to get some water. (Actually, that’s a bold faced lie- I do.) I’m not sure how paying someone to slaughter an animal that’s spent it’s life in confinement with a pneumatic hammer is morally superior to shooting one yourself in the wild though. If anything, I’d argue the opposite.
 
I feakin LOVE deer meat. Whitetail and muley. Most folks I know, don’t eat the heart, so I have them save them for me. I process my own meat. The only part of game animals that I grind are the stuff not suitable for my Game Stew in the slow cooker. I usually throw a shank in for an extra meal. I’d climb over a supermarket of meat to get to clean killed properly processed deer meat.

Modern man has grown soft having been raised primarily on ranch produced sweet-beef.

 
What’s the angle here?

If you buy a steak from a butcher he’s going to put in another order to fill that empty space in his fridge. Those animals are likely confined to small pens and near force fed grain to increase the marbling of the meat you’re buying.

I don’t get off on shooting animals trying to get some water. (Actually, that’s a bold faced lie- I do.) I’m not sure how paying someone to slaughter an animal that’s spent it’s life in confinement with a pneumatic hammer is morally superior to shooting one yourself in the wild though. If anything, I’d argue the opposite.
...and a lot less fun!
 
I need to ask about this. Texas is strict and very protective of it's native wildlife. You can't even own a 'coon or a fawn you found and are raising. There was a big story once where a family that raised a javelina from a piglet as a pet had it confiscated by TPWD wardens who, after removing it from the home, shot it.

I knew a warden growing up and if he learned someone had a pet deer or varmint he would confiscate it as it was considered a 'wild animal', no matter how tame a pet it was.
Pets are not game species. I do not understand what you are missing in my post. Whitetails that have been purchased are classified as "native species" as in native to the land unlike non native species like Kudu etc. that don't naturally exist in Texas according to the state. This governs the hunting seasons around these animals. Animals that have been purchased are owned by the one that purchased them. It's not a difficult concept to understand and something tells me you are digging around in the weeds to justify your own personal belief or opinion on the subject.

Either way it doesn't matter and you can believe what you want. The law is very clear about what is property and what isn't, and all the "ethical" debates from the boyscouts about the issue never helped anyone. If you don't like high fence hunting, don't go. But if it's not illegal and it's not animal abuse, then it's legal hunting that should be encouraged in order to grow the practice. The same people in here crying about the ethicality of the practice are the same ones that wonder why more people don't get into hunting and the activity is and has been on the decline.
You learn first to tread water, not to swim a marathon. So maybe instead of pissing on "canned" hunting, it should be encouraged, especially for kids, because if they enjoy it then they may actually put more time into fair chase hunting in the future instead of sitting at home on the computer.
And none of what is stated above is an excuse for Cruz. Politicians are exactly what they are and that's the only thing to say about them. How much attention they think they get verse who actually cares are miles apart.
My posts have been directed at the sentiment of individuals that complain bc others aren't acting exactly as they perceive they should.
If you still don't understand what I'm saying, just PM me and we can have a longer chat about it that everyone else doesn't get a notification for.

Conquista Dela
 
As stated, Texas is very protective of their (our) native wildlife. Anyone that thinks a landowners "owns" the wild native animals that reside on their property in Texas is sorely mistaken. (For example, If you buy a buck from a breeder and put it on your property, you can only harvest that animal during the appropriate season, using the legal means proscribed in the hunters' handbook. And, if that animal escapes your property, you cannot capture and return that animal to your property. As a non-breeder, you do not have the legal right to move that deer. And, that deer has been entered into the system as having been transferred out of the breeder network, and is no longer a transferrable animal. For all intents and purposes, the animal you paid to have transferred to your property is 'wild' and enjoys all of the protections of any other wild animal of that species.) What a land owner controls is access to those species. Unlike other states where it is common practice for the 'orange army' to run rough-shod across property boundaries, crossing property lines in Texas- even to retrieve down game- without landowner permission (I believe It says 'written permission' in the handbook) is illegal.

That said, there are carve-outs in the law for deer breeding. But, even then, the practice is heavily scrutinized...


I haven't read through the rules and regs, but my impression is that a person has to really like colonoscopies to get involved with TPWD in wildlife management.

Edit to add: If you pay to have a deer transferred from a breeder to your ranch, and that deer is subsequently poached from your property, you do not have a legal right to restitution from the poacher. But, the state will fine the poacher, and assess a "trophy fine" based on the score of the antlers. That money goes to the state, not to the landowner.
 
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Since we are fully off topic here. I'll add my 2 cents. We usually eat a a couple deer and most of an elk.

Our blacktail are extremely mild flavor. You wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't beef if you didn't know. However we will Usually just backstrap and grind the rest into burger. I also hunt mule deer every year. I much prefer whitetail or blacktail to mule deer though. So hunt camp is more for the experience then shooting deer.
 
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What’s the angle here?

If you buy a steak from a butcher he’s going to put in another order to fill that empty space in his fridge. Those animals are likely confined to small pens and near force fed grain to increase the marbling of the meat you’re buying.

I don’t get off on shooting animals trying to get some water. (Actually, that’s a bold faced lie- I do.) I’m not sure how paying someone to slaughter an animal that’s spent it’s life in confinement with a pneumatic hammer is morally superior to shooting one yourself in the wild though. If anything, I’d argue the opposite.
No morals at all - that's my point. I don't have a problem hunting for sport. So I don't care what he does with the meat.

But arguing for hunting because you need the meat doesn't make economic sense when you factor cost of hunting club/tags, equipment/clothing, transportation etc. It's cheaper to get the farmed animal meat. If you like to eat what you kill - awesome. I've never cared for it. Moot point now since I have an alpha gal allergy and can't eat it
 
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Pets are not game species. I do not understand what you are missing in my post. Whitetails that have been purchased are classified as "native species" as in native to the land unlike non native species like Kudu etc. that don't naturally exist in Texas according to the state. This governs the hunting seasons around these animals. Animals that have been purchased are owned by the one that purchased them. It's not a difficult concept to understand and something tells me you are digging around in the weeds to justify your own personal belief or opinion on the subject.

Either way it doesn't matter and you can believe what you want. The law is very clear about what is property and what isn't, and all the "ethical" debates from the boyscouts about the issue never helped anyone. If you don't like high fence hunting, don't go. But if it's not illegal and it's not animal abuse, then it's legal hunting that should be encouraged in order to grow the practice. The same people in here crying about the ethicality of the practice are the same ones that wonder why more people don't get into hunting and the activity is and has been on the decline.
You learn first to tread water, not to swim a marathon. So maybe instead of pissing on "canned" hunting, it should be encouraged, especially for kids, because if they enjoy it then they may actually put more time into fair chase hunting in the future instead of sitting at home on the computer.
And none of what is stated above is an excuse for Cruz. Politicians are exactly what they are and that's the only thing to say about them. How much attention they think they get verse who actually cares are miles apart.
My posts have been directed at the sentiment of individuals that complain bc others aren't acting exactly as they perceive they should.
If you still don't understand what I'm saying, just PM me and we can have a longer chat about it that everyone else doesn't get a notification for.

Conquista Dela
Don't get your panties in a wad, especially when you're the one thats confused. I never said 'pets' are game species, quite the opposite. Reading comprehension is important here.

And I'll piss on 'canned' hunts. A canned hunt is more of an execution of a semi tame or tamed animal, or animal held in a confine and some freak pays to shoot it. It's not hunting. If you defend canned hunts we have nothing more to discuss anymore than if you voted for Biden/Harris.
 
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Did any of you consider maybe Ted's freezer was full.

Maybe he was honestly sharing the bounty.

Maybe had an empty spot on the wall with a crack in it he wants to hide.

I live in Texas and get invited to ranches to cull scruffs.

Scruffs taste just fine and let's the landowner manage the resource some of which may be compensated for the costs of maintaining a property.

Shooting scruffs is not the easy button on managed land I can tell you for a fact.

I shoot on low fenced managed places and some exotics are there at times. Sometimes they are on the hit list and sometimes not.

This season I missed a head shot on a spike and have yet to figure out that guns problem.

Days worth of waiting for that shot with aoudad sheep and trophies walking around.

Ram head on the wall would be cool and was available for harvest but I don't like eating them (I don't even like domestic) so they got a pass. A couple were 30 inches I think maybe nearing 36.

Someone's else's trophy not mine.
 
I don't think thats a current pic of Cruz, as there was one of him last year of him taking a big S. Texas buck. If it is a current deer taken this season, good for him.
 
I'm assuming you're saying non-residents didn't need a non-resident license to hunt whitetails in Texas?

Since they were non-residents they couldn't legally hunt with a resident hunting license, so in essence they didn't need a license at all.

Never heard of that. Almost sounds like a canned hunt, which are unethical and shameless.
For wild hunting in Texas you normally need a hunting license. Non-residents of Texas are required to purchase a license just like residents. These deer were not free range “wild” deer. They were, in effect, cattle. Now, I was not speaking to the ethics of this hunt, just commenting on the need for a license in my original post. I suppose I could be wrong but this is what I thought at the time. These pastures, they are heavily wooded, were 100 acres, give or take. Not all hunters were successful. Is that a ”canned” hunt? Maybe.
 
I have not looked up the regulations for “deer breeders.” It is possible that the ranch you worked operated under a breeders license. But…

Up until very recently, a license was required to kill feral hogs (except for depredation, and only by a land owner or with his/her written permission), and they enjoy less protection than anything else. A license is required to shoot exotics- even behind a high fence- and they are treated as cattle by the state. I find it very suspicious that a license was not required to kill a WT deer anywhere in Texas- even if the operation was a breeder.
I didn’t work on the ranch, I managed airplanes for his company. What I know comes from conversation with him. Maybe I am mistaken.

Feral hogs in Texas have never been considered anything but livestock and did not require any license or other permission. They were essentially invisible to wildlife biologists until they became such a huge factor in wildlife depredation. They kill more whitetail fawns than the coyotes do. If you were hunting hogs in Texas you either owned the land or were there by permission anyway except for National Forest land. I know that hunters have been taking hogs from there for more than thirty years of my direct experience. Non-residents were required to have a small game license, but that has been changed. The only place I know of that a license is required to hunt hogs is on one of the drawn hunts conducted by TP&W on the properties they manage.
 
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Feral hogs in Texas have never been considered anything but livestock and did not require any license or other permission.
On this, you are also mistaken. Up until a 2019, a hunting license was required to hunt feral hogs in Texas. And, it is important to point out that a hunting license is required to hunt hogs on public lands in Texas.


I am getting the feeling that the land owner fed you a pile of bull and you swallowed while saying "Yes, more please..."
 
For wild hunting in Texas you normally need a hunting license. Non-residents of Texas are required to purchase a license just like residents. These deer were not free range “wild” deer. They were, in effect, cattle. Now, I was not speaking to the ethics of this hunt, just commenting on the need for a license in my original post. I suppose I could be wrong but this is what I thought at the time. These pastures, they are heavily wooded, were 100 acres, give or take. Not all hunters were successful. Is that a ”canned” hunt? Maybe.
Thats not a canned hunt I'm referring to. Canned hunts are when there's an animal waiting for slaughter by some weirdo who pays a lot of money for that pleasure. I saw one video where a big cat, maybe a leopard that had been a zoo animal, ended up in the hands of a canned hunt broker. They delivered the cat in the back of a truck in a cage, released it in front of a pack of hounds and instead of the animal running it ran under the truck to escape the bedlam of the hounds. And thats where the waiting client shot it, under the truck.

Another example was where a Giant Kudu that belonged to a family in Wimberly, TX. that was raised from a calf and was a pet that you could hand feed and pet, was rustled off the property, exchanged hands on the black market by brokers and ended up in a canned hunt in S. Texas, delivered to a small pasture and shot by some POS or maybe the POS's son who was trying to make him into a great white hunter before he turned into a nose ring'd transgender.
 
On this, you are also mistaken. Up until a 2019, a hunting license was required to hunt feral hogs in Texas. And, it is important to point out that a hunting license is required to hunt hogs on public lands in Texas.


I am getting the feeling that the land owner fed you a pile of bull and you swallowed while saying "Yes, more please..."
I doubt it, but my memory may not be filling in all the gaps. He was a licensed breeder. I am certain he was complying with the law.

Texas is an open range state. Hogs are livestock covered under the open range laws. Many counties have stock laws that closed the range. Most of East Texas is not closed. East Texas is where most of the public land, or “commons” is. People there have been running their hogs on the commons for centuries and it was still a common practice until recently.

Game Wardens in Texas assume that if you are in the woods with a rifle, you are hunting. If you have a .270 you are deer hunting. If you have a .22 you are squirrel hunting. If you have a .22 with a light on it you are poaching deer. If you say, “I was hunting hogs!” He says, “Tell it to the judge.” If you have a hog dog, he says, “Good luck”.

If you take a hog with someone else’s earmark on it, that’s stock theft.

Amazon product ASIN 0806127422Amazon product ASIN 0817304584
 
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No morals at all - that's my point. I don't have a problem hunting for sport. So I don't care what he does with the meat.

But arguing for hunting because you need the meat doesn't make economic sense when you factor cost of hunting club/tags, equipment/clothing, transportation etc. It's cheaper to get the farmed animal meat. If you like to eat what you kill - awesome. I've never cared for it. Moot point now since I have an alpha gal allergy and can't eat it
All good. I’ve raised beef cattle and will do so again in the near future. I’m indifferent either way.

I used to live near wineries. Nuisance permits and DIY butchering made for some cheap, lean meat. On account of the amateur butchering, we had more ground venison than normal. It got me through some tough times while I was trying to gain lean mass though.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.
 
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In West and South Texas, 3200 acre's is a hobby farm,

Its north of San Angelo... And yea, im aware that 3200 acres isnt big by Texas standards... but im saying we Jeep'd all over it for 3 days straight and probably didnt see it all... My point was people thinking the big 40-50k acre game ranches are "like shooting fish in a barrel" have never been on a piece of land that big. Most people think their 200 acre deer lease in Wisconsin is "fucking huge"...
 
Its north of San Angelo... And yea, im aware that 3200 acres isnt big by Texas standards... but im saying we Jeep'd all over it for 3 days straight and probably didnt see it all... My point was people thinking the big 40-50k acre game ranches are "like shooting fish in a barrel" have never been on a piece of land that big. Most people think their 200 acre deer lease in Wisconsin is "fucking huge"...
I had access to a 4k acre ranch growing up in the Hill Country west of Austin. It had hills, deep canyons and Barton Creek with towering bluffs cutting through the middle. It would take all day to explore small sections on horseback and deep canyons in the back with dark, mysterious cedar brakes I never did explore. Even with a jeep you couldn't cover it all in one day.
 
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I believe people who say they like venison about the same as I believe people who say they like fried squirrel. I'm not saying I can't prepare it so it's edible, but I am saying that it takes a great deal more skill and technique to make it taste good than it does a similar cut of Elk, or Moose, or Caribou, and none of those are as easy to make delicious as beef. Believe me, if it was so fucking good people would be farming the shit out of road goats, which are alot easier to keep alive than cattle or other domesticated food animals. They don't because it sucks and no one would pay for it over just about all other meat.

When I kill a deer I process the ever living fuck out of it so you can no longer tell where the hell it came from.
https://www.gwsausage.com/
These guys will make anything that they sell out of your deer, and it will taste almost as good as their regular products made with domesticated meat. The thing is that they charge you the same even though you're providing the meat. This is not the deer processor for the poors!
It's about $300 to get it made into Grants Farm Brats, Landjager, and a few cuts, but it's so worth it. The brats are exactly like their pork ones except a little drier so that it's better to steam them in a pan than grill them. The Landjaeger is a German deer sausage but the best I've ever eaten.

Gone are my days of deboning in the barn, and then spending an evening grinding and mixing with suet. I field dress, and let G&W deal with the rest, and then my family will actually eat it without me having to hide the ground in chili or mixtures, beat it with a meat hammer and marinate it for days. Gut, hang, remove hanging straps and back straps, rest of the carcass to the G&W.

I ate at least a deer a year for most of my life (because I like deer camp and killing deer), and I'm just over it. Now I don't put shit in the freezer unless I am actually looking forward to eating it and it doesn't take hours of preperation to make it even edible.

Rant over. Nice buck Ted!

I would respectfully disagree. We eat lots of red meat at my house, virtually all whitetail. We greatly prefer it to beef. Occasionally, we will get invited to a steak dinner, and the typical conversation on the way home is that it wasn't as good as the last whitetail backstrap steaks that we had.
 
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@Major Wader
Im with you I love venison.
All of it.
IA or NE whitetail. Mountain and sagebrush mule deer.

If the beef someone is serving is not as good or better, either they are buying that soy fake meat crap or are horrible cooks. 🤣
Just sayin.

Just bustin.
I love it all.
Except that soy fake meat stuff. Honestly cant say, as I have never tried it.
 
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I believe people who say they like venison about the same as I believe people who say they like fried squirrel. I'm not saying I can't prepare it so it's edible, but I am saying that it takes a great deal more skill and technique to make it taste good than it does a similar cut of Elk, or Moose, or Caribou, and none of those are as easy to make delicious as beef. Believe me, if it was so fucking good people would be farming the shit out of road goats, which are alot easier to keep alive than cattle or other domesticated food animals. They don't because it sucks and no one would pay for it over just about all other meat.

When I kill a deer I process the ever living fuck out of it so you can no longer tell where the hell it came from.
https://www.gwsausage.com/
These guys will make anything that they sell out of your deer, and it will taste almost as good as their regular products made with domesticated meat. The thing is that they charge you the same even though you're providing the meat. This is not the deer processor for the poors!
It's about $300 to get it made into Grants Farm Brats, Landjager, and a few cuts, but it's so worth it. The brats are exactly like their pork ones except a little drier so that it's better to steam them in a pan than grill them. The Landjaeger is a German deer sausage but the best I've ever eaten.

Gone are my days of deboning in the barn, and then spending an evening grinding and mixing with suet. I field dress, and let G&W deal with the rest, and then my family will actually eat it without me having to hide the ground in chili or mixtures, beat it with a meat hammer and marinate it for days. Gut, hang, remove hanging straps and back straps, rest of the carcass to the G&W.

I ate at least a deer a year for most of my life (because I like deer camp and killing deer), and I'm just over it. Now I don't put shit in the freezer unless I am actually looking forward to eating it and it doesn't take hours of preperation to make it even edible.

Rant over. Nice buck Ted!
Me and my friends and their extended clans growing up were obsessed with hunting, specifically the local whitetails. I fuc't up my grades in high school because I skipped so much class in the fall and winter to go deer hunting I barely had enough credits to graduate. Some of the rich classmates even paid me to take them hunting.

I filled my tags plus a muley buck from Colo. every year and so did everyone else I ran with. Part of the year I lived on fried, smoked, ground and jerked venison. But one secret I never told my hunting buddies was, compared to beef, whitetail sucked.

The only way I like it now, now that I've outgrown the blood lust of hunting of my youth, is made into smoked link sausage, mixed 50/50 with pork. That is some gourmet shit. Toss it in the microwave for a minute to heat it and the house smells like a barbecue joint or smoke house. What you don't eat, put back in the fridge and eat it cold with crackers and cheese. With a rocks glass of J.B. or your favorite bourbon, it's the food of Gods.

But I can barely gag down fried venison steak anymore. The grain is too fine and mealy as opposed to beef plus with all the pet yard dear we feed I'd feel like a cannibal eating one.
 
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I would respectfully disagree. We eat lots of red meat at my house, virtually all whitetail. We greatly prefer it to beef. Occasionally, we will get invited to a steak dinner, and the typical conversation on the way home is that it wasn't as good as the last whitetail backstrap steaks that we had.
Apples to apples. The loins are the only part of the deer I eat without a ton of preparation. The only venison loins where I think there is a parity with a beef tenderloin is when it’s a fawn (which I have killed a lot of because they’re better to eat). The loins of a big old buck aren’t necessairily tender at all.

I hear Antelope is delicious if you get it on ice fast.

Im not trying to insult any of you. I‘m just calling balls and strikes as I see them.
 
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Apples to apples. The loins are the only part of the deer I eat without a ton of preparation. The only venison loins where I think there is a parity with a beef tenderloin is when it’s a fawn (which I have killed a lot of because they’re better to eat). The loins of a big old buck aren’t necessairily tender at all.

I hear Antelope is delicious if you get it on ice fast.

Im not trying to insult any of you. I‘m just calling balls and strikes as I see them.
I'll tell you what like's deer meat from a rank old buck thats been killed in the rut, catfish. When I go catfishing here on the lake I use bloody, stinky, gamey strips if deer meat steaks cut like a fat worm. The channel cat love it and the blues will literally a yank the rods ten feet into the water if they're not secured. And it's so tough there's no way it gets nibbled or stolen off the hook.
 
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