How many deer....

[sbhooper]

I keep three freezers full of wild meat. I normally shoot 6-12 deer a year, a couple of antelope, as well as an elk when they cooperate. We rarely eat anything but wild meat. I have never figured out how much is an average per year, because it varies according to how much jerky and summer sausage I make.

 

[SagebrushSlayer]

Family of five, we eat what we've shot 3-4 times a week just for dinner. Usually add in homemade breakfast sausage a 1-2 times a week with breakfast or biscuits and gravy.

Our annual goal is at least 1 elk and 2 deer. Deer seem to become backstrap/tenderloin steaks, the rest is salami, jerky, and hot Italian sausage. It helps cut costs in buying snacks throughout the year.

2 years ago we bought property and now have raised our own pork and beef. The excess fat from these animals is used in making elk burger and hot Italian sausage. Since we don't need to eat a whole cow, we sell half. This has made it so the only reason we buy meat in the store is for chicken. Although in 2016, we hope to add raising chickens for meat and eggs.

Eating wild game/fish is outstanding and provides for good discussions around the dinner table or when friends come over. It opens a lot of ideas for cooking, hunting, and fishing, that I might overlook or not have tried before.

 

[treedagain]

I have no real idea how much we use but I put 3 elk in the freezer this year. All burger except a few cube steaks and roasts. I have only bought burger 1 time in the last 20 yrs and that was because the freezer to a crap in mid-july while I was in vacation. I do prefer beef ribeyes when I barbque over elk. I normally slaughter a pig every other year.
deer and antelope get made into burger then I will do most of it in jerky

 

[MTPUBLICLAND]

We seem to have grown partial to antelope meat. Really enjoy the flavor of the steaks and how tender they are. Usually 2 antelope, 1 elk for backstraps/tenderloins the rest burger, and 2 deer for jerky meat is about right for us. We give a lot of meat to family and friends that need it and make good use of it. Her and I had a great season this year with 2 bears, 4 antelope, 4 elk, and 4 deer between the two of us. Backpacking meat towards the end was getting a bit old, just to be giving it away, but people really seem to appreciate the meat so that makes it worth it. More tags = more days in the field.

 

[Walkathon]

My wife and I usually eat 3 deer a year. We buy some beef and some chicken but eat a bunch of deer. The 3 deer are usually 2 bucks of various sizes and one doe. They come from MN, NE and MT......

 

[7mm08mo]

There are 5 of us in our family, and 2 boys and my wife hunt. We usually put 7-8 deer in the freezer and this year I got 3 antelope which are very tasty, and some ducks and geese and turkey if we are lucky. We usually have a pig butchered and half a beef, the beef is usually a Christmas present. We totally prefer wild game. I prefer her homemade bisciuts to anything though, no whompin bisciuts here.

 

[7MM MAG]

My wife and I eat 4 deer a year plus some turkeys and rabbits. we buy some pork and chicken to

 

[10Dogs]

My family goes through about 3-4 deer that average between 100-150 lbs dressed.
We wrap the loins and grind everything else which we use in everything from Tacos / Chili / Spaghetti and my wife mixes meatloaf recipe into muffin pans and we call them meat muffins.
This is how the kids 1st ate "brown chicken" ...because everything was "chicken" to them.
This year`s buck from TX was a dressed 166lbs and netted 75lbs shipped home.
We probably eat 1 to 2 tubes of ground a week and loins in the summer.

Happy New Year...........10Dogs

 

[Poke 'Em]

Two adults, kids under 5. An elk, a deer, and some birds will last a whole year, but we don't certainly eat red meat at every meal. We eat game about twice a week. We might eat beef once a year.

 

[Southwind]

I wish I had more opportunity to put an elk in the freezer yearly but my typical deer take is 4.

More when I had the kids at home. We don't eat red meat everyday and for my wife and I our portion size is closer to 8 oz each.

Funny story when my youngest daughter was in High school and went to prom one year at the dinner prior one of the others at the table said they were going to order dead cow. She was confused and said "dead cow?" and they responded " yep, I'm getting a steak" to which she responded "steak isn't cow, steak is deer"

That is where they were at growing up. When we would run out of venison and start feeding them beef they really didn't like it very well.