Submitted by StrongPlan3 t3_ygnzrg in springfieldMO
Hey everyone,
I just moved to the area from Florida. I grew up deep sea fishing but have never been hunting. I would like to learn the ropes if possible from an experienced hunter so I can hopefully make it out myself next season.
I can definitely pull my own weight and help carry any gear that is required though I don't have any of my own yet.
Wow, thank you so much for the detailed walkthrough. My last resort was YouTube however I was hoping maybe I could tag along with someone to see the process first hand. Hopeful, I know but I'd figure I'd try. I am working on doing the hunters safety course as well, I just have a licensing exam coming up for the hospital and that takes priority.
My plan is to get a rifle this year, think 6.7CM, and familiarize myself with it. Hopefully be prepared for next year. I'm just worried about field dressing the deer my first time as I don't want to foul the meat.
Might have to just rely on YouTube and wing it 🤷♂️
I forgot to say that, in my opinion, deer hunting is mostly sitting still and quiet, and luck. Shooting skill is important, and being where the deer are is lucky. A tree stand or a blind will help immensely.
I wouldn’t say shooting a gun requires much skill though 😅😂 more like knowing how it works and pulling a trigger.
*laughs at why the military and every armed force spends so much time training this supposed easy skill, when this guy knows the one trick that the rest don't. *
The military and hunting are two different things but okay. Sorry I hurt your feelings.
Look, of you are a conservationist and believe in limiting the animals suffering, you put effort I to making a good shot, which requires skill. You aren't upsetting me, it's just ridiculous to assume no skill is involved. Aiming for a fist sized target past 100byards through light brush and foliage takes skill. Lots assume that bows are more skillful but it's just different skills.
Killing a deer at 25 yards without a scope takes more skill than killing a deer at a 100 yards with a rifle. Bow hunters also use groupings. Sure they both take skill, but bow hunting requires more practice and patience.
Speaking broadly, i think most people are not as good of a shot as they think they are, and I've been around a lot of shooters over the past thirty years. Any decent deer rifle should be able to consistently group tighter than a half dollar at a hundred meters. Most people that don't shoot a lot would probably struggle to group tighter than a grape fruit at a hundred meters supported. And unsupported at a hundred meters? Forget about it. This is all opinion, I've done no research and would hope to be wrong. But you'll hear way more gun shots opening morning of rifle season than you'll see hunters with dead deer.
I bow hunt and rifle hunters just shock me with how terrible they are lol
Thank you!
If you prefer you can donate the deer to share the harvest. https://mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/deer/share-harvest
Field dressing is easy. You're basically going to fit the deer from groin to sternum. I make sure the deer's belly is facing downhill if there is any grade at all, as gravity will fight you otherwise once you try to pull the guts out. Next, I start at the lowest point of the groin and cut years the sternum. Super important to make sure your knife gets just under the skin, and stays that way all the way through the cut. You don't want to cut organs, especially the bladder. Otherwise you'll get urine on the meat.
Once you've got it open just reach inside and pull all the guts out. Then, cut the intestine and bladder near the anus, and reach up into the cavity of the chest and pull out the lungs and heart. You'll have to reach way up in there to cut the trachea (throat). So, just remember, the organ system is a tube coming in and two tubes coming out, with a bunch of stuff in-between. You cut the tubes last. Then you leave all that stuff for the critters. Birds and coyotes will consume it by morning.
Field dressing will take about 40# of weight away, making it easier to get to the vehicle. And leaves all the guts in the forest for animals.
I usually carry a pair of disposable gloves. Makes it easier to clean up afterwards. Make sure you take those back out of the woods...leave no trace.
Personally I would not feel comfortable taking someone on a hunting trip if they didn’t know they needed gear or that spotlighting deer isn’t illegal… I’m not trying to be rude, but please take a hunters/gun safety course before going off into the woods with someone. I would also recommend learning the different seasons. You sure can go watch someone hunt, but you can’t promise they know what they’re doing either.
Valid point and no offense taken. Working on doing my hunters safety course now.
I personally would try to find someone with private land (if you can.) In my experience with public land people don’t know what they’re doing and you won’t see a deer a mile away because they’ve run them off.
I have family in Arkansas that have 5 acres with deer that behave like they've never seen a human before. Should I give that a go?
Fyi...over $100 for Arkansas non resident license. You will need to finish the safety course to purchase.
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Fees here:
https://www.agfc.com/en/resources/licensing/huntinglicenses/
Lots of info here (antler point restrictions, etc.):
Thank you so much!
It’s more that on public land you have a higher chance of the deer being spooked from other hunters, but if you have the money to get an Arkansas license I would give it a shot on private land!
Awesome! They're begging me to come out. So I might as well 🤷♂️
To be honest this is a bad place to ask this question. The majority of this sun hates Springfield, Missouri, and most of the people living here. I will say your best bet after getting a hunters education is to hunt Missouri conservation land. Most of them only allow black powder, and archery methods. If you’re not familiar with a bow get a crossbow and practice. Archery season will be the best time fit you because there will be less people hunting, and less pressure on the deer. The MDC offers classes every year on hunting, shooting, butchering, and even cooking. If you would rather hunt private ground for free then your best option is to just start knocking on doors, or sending well thought out letters. It’s not easy to get someone to let a stranger on to there property. You can also find a lease, but isn’t usually very cheap. If you have any questions you can DM me and I can try my best to answer them.
Are you absolutely sure that asking random strangers on the internet, strangers that live in one of the most statistically crime ridden cities in the United States at that, to take you into the woods with a bunch of guns is a good idea?
People keep saying how bad this area is and it's kind of absurd to me. I lived in Miami right next to overtown where they film the first 48. When you have gunshots going off to the point of it sounding like the 4th of July every night, live in a neighborhood cops won't go into and wake up to bodies on the street, let me know cause Springfield really isn't shit. Most everyone I've run into or had conversations with here has been unbelievably friendly. I really don't get this whole idea that Springfield is some crime riddled shit hole. There's a drug problem here, yes. Guess what? There's a drug problem everywhere in this country and it's only going to get worse with the economy going where it's going. You have a meth problem here where I came from it was crack and heroin/fentanyl.
Shush you, the Karens will clutch their street cred pearls and not feel like they can say they grew up in a hood and know what its like to see the rough side of town. lol.
It isn't bad, but has a few bad parts, most crime is drug related, or domestic.
Lol it's wild to me. I understand hating you're hometown, where you grew up. I did too but on a serious note, do these people never leave their house for the fear of big bad Springfield?
Only to go to nice restaurants or out of town to beds and breakfasts and musuems. Something to note, location based reddits attract the same people that apps like nextdoor or other weird ones attract for busybodies to post stupid stuff while being inside to much. The posts that make sense or the rest trying to ignore the crazies. Just take a large amount of these with a huge grain of salt, and remember that its likely someone cooped up in their home to much and imagines the outside is a boogeyman because they are denied it due to health, disability, mental health issues, or just a social shut in and remember that playing the reality card does nothing to them.
Ignoring it is the best bet for your mental health in the long run, and letting professionals deal with the social issues that those issues cause.
Edit: That said, be careful downtown at night, a few months back there was a group beating people with baseball bats near parking garages. I think that settled down and was a weird outlier like the knockout game trend, but its to recent to not be healthily paranoid after dark downtown.
True. I must say though this sub has been wildly helpful since I moved here. Every once in a while though some of these threads turn into an echo chamber evolving around Springfield being a third world warzone lol
lol, I've been in Afghanistan, Springfield is paradise comparatively.
Some of these redditors could definitely use a trip and see, at least something, outside of Springfield.
Welcome to the big show my friend! No need for gear as long as you got a pickem up truck, a spot light and a rifle you’re good to go! Mostly recommend throwing out a pile of corn by the ole rail tracks north of 65 out by the underground. Just park and wait! Would recommend to use the hazards lights as well to let everyone know your hunting. 😉
Awesome! I was looking to learn how to dress and quarter a deer mainly because I've never processed a deer before. Give me a filet knife and a fish and I'm golden. This is all foreign territory to me however.
I also have zero of the above mentioned supplied lol
Just a side note all above mentioned are highly illegal. I just wanted to see if your one of them “ crazy Floridians” we always here about up here. Was going to wait to check that box until I heard about it on the news but…… I just can’t in good Conscience.
I will say tho the Missouri department of conservation is pretty good about what they do. We have tons of public land that you are able to hunt. If you get on the web site and look around the area for conservation areas you can pick one and take a little walk in the woods to find a spot. But I would recommend putting in the research on laws and practices first.
Edit to mention: don’t be that guy taking your walk in the woods during season. Find your areas before hand and make sure you are wearing your hunters orange, public land can be a little sketchy so make your presence known to others in the area
Lol see I really am out of my element in this arena. I do believe, however, that I am one of the more level headed Floridians but that's my own opinion 😅🤷♂️
turned_out_normal t1_iua2xjb wrote
First, your have to take a Missouri department of conservation approved hunter's safety course. I'm sure you can find those on the MDC website. You might not be able to hunt legally this year. Any place that sells hunting permits abs tags should have hunting regulation booklets. Are you planning to hunt archery season or rifle season? Rifle season is i think a week and a half long, archery season is four months long i think. As mentioned by another poster, there are a lot of pubic hunting areas around, but they might have different species rules, so be sure to check it the booklet and the poster boards at the various MDC parking lots. Be aware that there are a lot of overly ambitious hunters in the woods on opening morning. That makes me a nervous enough to avoid rifle hunting opening morning (to be fair I don't know anytime that's been shot in a hunting accident, and my closest call was when I was doing to good of a job calling in a turkey). There's a lot of MDC land or by pleasant hope, around Stockton Lake, and there's a few thousand acres south west of Miller. Like someone else said, you really need to scout before season. Generally deer are more active right around sunrise and sunset, but during the rut they're out there running running around like oblivious horned up teenagers.
For me, working a deer up will take most of a day. One favor archery hunting and I favor waiting until the weather is cooler so I don't have to be in as big a hurry. Typical you'll field dress the deer where you kill it or nearby. That is disembowel it. For food safety reasons take care when cutting out the anus. Does are easier to butcher in this area because of the shape of their pelvis. You'll want a gambrel and hoist to hang the deer. Of course sharp knives will make the job easier and are safer. Skinning some deer is easier than others. I've seen videos where people successfully pull the hide off by hand (and with a gold ball and a four wheeler), but I usually pull and cut at the same time. If you want to tan the hide (which I've never done) i think you want try to get as little fat and muscle of with the hide as you can. Also, it's generally not recommended that you hose the carcass of at any point as that can facilitate bacterial growth. I typical find it fairly easy to quarter the joints out just by following the contours if the muscles with the knife, feeling for the tendons and ligaments. The front legs aren't really in a socket, so they might be easier. Depending on the damage done by the kill, i usually carve the meat off the neck rather than take the neck of like the legs. I should back up a little. When the hide is pulled before the knees i typically just cut the shins of with some limb loppers (yep, with my tree pruners). To remove the skull, i follow it's base through the meat with the knife, cutting some tendons, and then I'm usually able to twist it off the rest of the way. I usually turn almost all of the legs and neck into ground meat and jerky. Sometimes I'll cut roast or steak out of the back legs. I'm not a trained butcher, so I just cut it up how i feel like. I do tend to cut my deer lean and then grind some of it up with beef fat. Some of it I leave lean. I weigh it to get an 80% 20% ratio, but that my preference. I do that mainly for burgers. Everything else (meat loaf, chill, hamburger helper) I'll general just use lean. Sometimes I'll grind in some bacon ends for fun, and I use of fat if I'm making sausage. I've been able to get super cheap scrap fat from a butcher i know in the past. People often call the back strap a tender loin, but that is imprecise. The tender loin is in side the rib cage sort of behind the kidney area. If gutted properly, they should be pretty obvious. They're usually not very big compared to a pork or beef tenderloin you'll find at the grocery store. The back strap (probably like a human trapezius?) it's generally the hunter's favorite part of the deer. Your fish fillet skills might come in handy here. They're on either side of the spinal ridge running from the neck to nearly the pelvis. You'll run your knife down each side of the spine, then along the back of the ribs. I usually cut these down to one and two person serving sizes with maybe one or two family sizes depending on the size of the deer. I should have prefaced all of this with, I'm far from an expert, but this is what works for me. YouTube is our friend. I typically have discarded most of the ribs, but I might get a bone saw this year and try some smoked or bbq'd deer ribs this year. Also, I've seen a guy butcher a deer without gutting it. He had it hung, skinned it, cut off the quarters and back straps, and just made a longish incision in the lower abdomen and just sort of pushed the guts to the side and pulled the tender loins out. I'm more loquacious than i am experienced, but if you have any questions feel free to DM me.