Bleeding Question
- Thread starter Total_eclipse
- Start date
- Location
- AB foothills
Nor particularly wish to.^^
OP (Total Eclipse) asked a perfectly legitimate question that all big game hunters ask themselves when starting out. Is blood drained from the game animal desirable? Yes it is in order to harvest a carcass in the best possible condition it certainly is.
Can that be best achieved by a heart lung shot traversing the animal and causing massive organ failure. Yes, particularly since there will be always be massive amounts of bleeding internally. The tiny bit of meat lost in a straight thru and thru (taking care of course to stay away from the shoulder) is inconsequential.
Heart lung shots also have the added advantage of being significantly larger vital areas in which a high percentage of humane killing shots can be achieved - particularly at any distance. The head is very uncertain and many times is the result of very horrific wounds when not executed precisely. I have seen evidence of this in the field. Jaw shot off etc. No clear advantage is gained from a head shot and there can be many downsides as pointed out earlier.
My advice to OP is give yourself every possible break to harvest a prime animal in peak condition that you can proudly share with family and friends.
You shouldn't have to apologize for game than is less than the best you can deliver. Happy Hunting!!
OP (Total Eclipse) asked a perfectly legitimate question that all big game hunters ask themselves when starting out. Is blood drained from the game animal desirable? Yes it is in order to harvest a carcass in the best possible condition it certainly is.
Can that be best achieved by a heart lung shot traversing the animal and causing massive organ failure. Yes, particularly since there will be always be massive amounts of bleeding internally. The tiny bit of meat lost in a straight thru and thru (taking care of course to stay away from the shoulder) is inconsequential.
Heart lung shots also have the added advantage of being significantly larger vital areas in which a high percentage of humane killing shots can be achieved - particularly at any distance. The head is very uncertain and many times is the result of very horrific wounds when not executed precisely. I have seen evidence of this in the field. Jaw shot off etc. No clear advantage is gained from a head shot and there can be many downsides as pointed out earlier.
My advice to OP is give yourself every possible break to harvest a prime animal in peak condition that you can proudly share with family and friends.
You shouldn't have to apologize for game than is less than the best you can deliver. Happy Hunting!!
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canadian hunter312
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Brant County
canadian hunter312
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Brant County
Having trouble with multiquote on my phone….
What does any of this have to do with your previously incorrect comment? Now you’re trying to say you meant the heart would be done beating by the time you get to the animal in the field?
C’mon man, just admit you were very wrong and move on.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
If you butcher and vac seal a deer the day it has been shot versus after a week of hanging then you will see a difference in the package when you defrost the meat.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
On prairie farms was pretty common to handle your own meat every Fall - was usual to have a "butchering day" - chickens, turkeys, a couple pigs, a beef. As I recall, the beef was dressed and skinned and the carcass was hung as long as it could be kept cool and not freeze - 10 days or more. Pigs - I have ground up pork meat while still warm from the butchering - we did not think it needed aging. So, wild game meat was sort of in between - many deer were frozen stiff by the time we got back from hunting - so about no aging occurs when frozen - and others got a day or two hanging, without freezing, before I got time to cut them up. Others that I know would have deer hanging with hide on for months - frozen solid - I am not sure what that was accomplishing - except it was not usually spoiling that way. A Ukrainian butcher in North East Sask told me he liked to hang "big" moose or elk bulls for several days or weeks in his cooler before he cuts them up - actually he said he hung them (at plus 2 C or 3 C) until the outside of the carcass felt "sticky" to the palm of his bare hand - although he cut up the smaller bulls and the cows that I got, within a day or two of me getting them.
most of that will just be water content though, not actual "blood". It's just because its been dry aged for a week.
The reason it's so "wet" after thawing is the water crystalizes+expands and breaks the cell walls that contained it.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
I would add that the "cook" makes significant difference as well - my wife came from an essentially non-hunting family - much experience on West Coast with wild things from the ocean, but not so much with wild things from the land. She tells me is very different to do a deer roast versus a beef roast - wild animals typically do not have fat layered or marbled within the muscles - meaning you likely want to go slower to cook wild stuff and to use a "moist" method, if possible. Has to do with your ethnicity and background I think - her GrandMa was basically "Cornish", from England, and was "known" that you had to soak grouse overnight in salt water before cooking it - was totally "news" to us "stubble jumpers" that grew up on the Canadian Prairies.
Some will use the differences to their advantage - beef sausage should not taste like pork sausage or like deer sausage - neither should the roasts. But very lean ground deer makes very rich, nice gravy - is just excellent in a chili or stew - done very lean - more so than you can buy in a store. To the point that we now take the back straps and freeze them in about 8 inch to 12 inch (20 cm to 30 cm) lengths, then marinade overnight when sliced into about 3/4" (2 cm) thick pieces - then on to the BBQ. I sometimes will take a few roasts from rear end, but most of the rest of a deer will get trimmed very lean and ground up. Others are very much into "steaks" and so on - good for them - our preference is for better beef steaks, when we decide to have steak, which is not more than a time or two a month.
It is my impression that "good" meat can be ruined by not handling it properly - an unnecessary delay in getting the guts out or the hide off, for example. Or not being fussy enough when "field dressing" and leaving bits of gut or other offal in the carcass. Letting the meat freeze and then thaw, a couple times, does not seem to do it any good. Especially with start of that CWD, we no longer cut across bone - our deer are essentially "filleted" - not freezing any bones in the freezer, any more.
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True.
350tracker
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Interlake Manitoba
I have found this as well. So now I let the deer hang in my garage for a few days but even with all this, the trimming I place in tubs will still have blood at the bottom of the tubs the next day.
What you are seeing is not blood. It is water and myoglobin.
The reason for the difference is a loss of moisture from hanging.
That red liquid is water mixed a protein called myoglobin. See as meat ages, the muscle tissue breaks down – and it doesn't take long. The water and myoglobin cells inside the meat are released and voila, a red blood-like liquid emanates from the meat when it is prepared.
If it's protein and water from outside the cells it is blood. If it's from inside the cells it is not blood.
The blood that was in the circulatory system just stays there...
A guy should take a cut from a deer that drowned, put it in the fridge and listen to guys say the red stuff isn't blood but water and protein.
The blood that was in the circulatory system just stays there...
A guy should take a cut from a deer that drowned, put it in the fridge and listen to guys say the red stuff isn't blood but water and protein.
Now you're comparing a deer that drowned to one that's been shot? Keep moving those goalposts, you'll get there eventually...
Nobody is saying blood CAN'T be in meat. You're arguing against a point nobody is making.
No, You claimed meat that has been killed, had the blood drained, then been aged a few weeks, THEN butchered, is still bleeding at the grocery store.
That is simply wrong. There may be TINY amounts of blood left, but that is NOT what those maxi pads as you call them are for, and what you see in the bottom of your steak package is not blood, as evidenced by the fact it doesn't turn to jelly.
