Piedmont wrote:
> I've finally started to prepare to make my road kill venison sausage. A
> friend of mine sent in his final payment on his pick up truck and that
> night ran into a deer! He brought me in a hind leg to make into
> sausage. Just took it out of the freezer along with some pork fat. From
> eyeballing it the leg looks like I might get maybe 3-4 pounds off of
> it. Deer down here in SC don't get very big.
>

Recipe looks interesting but are you sure that it was a
deer? 3-4 pound QUARTER?!? Sounds more like a poodle. ;-)


--
Steve

Nonnymus wrote:

> Having lived in Raleigh NC, let me assure you that the description of
> the deer hind quarter is about right. In the Carolinas, deer are very
> small. I'd say they are about the size of a large Doberman. They run in
> herds in even the urban areas, grazing anything that grows. You can't
> have a decent flower bed or shrubs if you live in the suburbs or (worse
> yet) the boondocks. Day Lily's and Hosta come up and are grazed off
> just as the buds begin to open. Shrubs are stripped of everything up to
> about 3' in height. Fruit trees have no limbs that are closer to about
> 5' to the ground. The reason is that deer will rear up on their hind
> legs and use their front legs to break off all branches to get the
> apple, pear, peach etc.
>
> We lived in the boonies and one night my daughter arrived home about
> 10:00a. She spotted at least a dozen deer inside our garage, eating the
> dogfood we'd left out. One was using the apple tree technique on the
> food dispenser over the dog's dish.
>
> I suspect that the size of eastern deer is a function of the food
> supply. There are just too many deer.

Wow, never heard of deer that small. We had small deer where
I hunted when I was young in NW PA but even they were around
110 or so. Seen deer in NY, PA, and Maine (but they have
monsters up there), never seen or heard of deer that small
before. Other than fawn. ;-)

Not trying to start anything, I just can imagine a deer with
only four pounds of meat on the hind quarter.


--
Steve

I've finally started to prepare to make my road kill venison sausage. A
friend of mine sent in his final payment on his pick up truck and that
night ran into a deer! He brought me in a hind leg to make into
sausage. Just took it out of the freezer along with some pork fat.
From eyeballing it the leg looks like I might get maybe 3-4 pounds off
of it. Deer down here in SC don't get very big.

Anyway, here is the recipe that I decided on. I found it doing a Google
search on recipe, deer, sausage. Looks like i could be a winner as I
like complicated seasonings for depth of flavor.

It will be stuffed into casings and grilled.

Moyer's Venison Sausage
(Pennsylvania Dutch Style)

3 1/2 lbs. venison - defatted and ground
1 1/2 lbs smoked bacon-ground
(can be ends/pieces or fresh ground pork)

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. salt
(add more salt if fresh pork used)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. coriander
2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. savory
1/8 tsp. cumin
to taste - hot sauce

Mix all together well. Shape into patties to fry. May be frozen.

--
Regards,

Piedmont

The Practical Bar-B-Q'r at: http://web.infoave.net/~amwil/Index.htm

The Secret American Government: http://tinyurl.com/rbwbz

"Steve Calvin" > wrote in message
...

>>> I hunted when I was young in NW PA but even they were around
110 or so. <<<

I clobbered a large buck about 3:00 am one morning with a freightliner
running 70 mph +, got him with all 5 axels. When I stopped for coffee a few
miles down the road I told the waitress about it and she called her hubby.
He went out and scraped it up and salvaged quite a bit. They guestamated it
at about 160 - 170 lbs. RM~

PS, It was in N.E. Okla. (Ozark country)

Rob Mills wrote:
> "Steve Calvin" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>>> I hunted when I was young in NW PA but even they were around
> 110 or so. <<<
>
> I clobbered a large buck about 3:00 am one morning with a freightliner
> running 70 mph +, got him with all 5 axels. When I stopped for coffee a few
> miles down the road I told the waitress about it and she called her hubby.
> He went out and scraped it up and salvaged quite a bit. They guestamated it
> at about 160 - 170 lbs. RM~
>
> PS, It was in N.E. Okla. (Ozark country)
>
>
>
Oh yeah, there's definitely some biguns out there. The 10
pointer I got in Maine 2 years ago dressed out at 240. (no,
that's not a typo)

--
Steve

snip
> Wow, never heard of deer that small. > Steve
snip

North Georgia's deer ain't much bigger. We face the same overpopulation
problems and hunters I know say the deer aren't near as big as they used to
be.

ag

ag (at dot) wrote:
> snip
> > Wow, never heard of deer that small. > Steve
> snip
>
> North Georgia's deer ain't much bigger. We face the same overpopulation
> problems and hunters I know say the deer aren't near as big as they used to
> be.
>

Are the small southern deer whitetail, or some other type?

I know there are several varieties, but don't know much about anything
other than the Michigan whitetails that get pretty dang big up here.

-John O

:
> > snip
> > > Wow, never heard of deer that small. > Steve
> > snip
> >
> > North Georgia's deer ain't much bigger. We face the same overpopulation
> > problems and hunters I know say the deer aren't near as big as they used
to
> > be.
> >
>
> Are the small southern deer whitetail, or some other type?
>
> I know there are several varieties, but don't know much about anything
> other than the Michigan whitetails that get pretty dang big up here.
>
> -John O


Purely anecdotal and I've not researched this, but I've observed from
living in various parts of the country, that deer tend to be smaller as you
move south. I think the "easier" living in temperate climates increases the
deer herds to the point they compete with each other for food and territory.
That along with fewer predators may alter the natures law of "the survival
of the fittest" --or not--

Larry T

> snip
> Are the small southern deer whitetail, or some other type?
>

people I know call em whitetail but wether they are the exact same or not I
don't know.
I am not a hunter so I only go by what I am told
/nothing against it, just not high on my list

ag

ag (at dot) wrote:
> > snip
> > Are the small southern deer whitetail, or some other type?
> >
>
> people I know call em whitetail but wether they are the exact same or not I
> don't know.
> I am not a hunter so I only go by what I am told
> /nothing against it, just not high on my list
>

I did a bit of googling last night, and apparently there are several
varieties of whitetails, distinct by regions.

FWIW, the deer population in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Alabama are about
the same...near 2 million each. (NC claims half that) Considering that
food in the northern states is so much more scarce during the winter
than in southern states, I wonder about the size differences being due
to dense populations/food supplies. Our first hard freeze is typically
around the middle of November, and green stuff doesn't start coming out
of the ground up here until late March or early April...

Anyway...

-John O

"JohnO" wrote ...
>
> I did a bit of googling last night, and apparently there are several
> varieties of whitetails, distinct by regions.
>
> FWIW, the deer population in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Alabama are about
> the same...near 2 million each. (NC claims half that) Considering that
> food in the northern states is so much more scarce during the winter
> than in southern states, I wonder about the size differences being due
> to dense populations/food supplies. Our first hard freeze is typically
> around the middle of November, and green stuff doesn't start coming out
> of the ground up here until late March or early April...
>


IIRC the size difference is due to evolution and the surrounding habitats.
small deer can get thru the thick underbrush we get in the south, while
larger deer can reach more fodder in the trees during northern winters. If
you put a large deer down here, it would have a hard time getting away from
predators. It's not always survival of the "fittest".
--
lampy

Life is like a cribbage game...
No matter which cards you play, you might still end up in the same spot.

> >
> > I did a bit of googling last night, and apparently there are several
> > varieties of whitetails, distinct by regions.
> >
> > FWIW, the deer population in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Alabama are about
> > the same...near 2 million each. (NC claims half that) Considering that
> > food in the northern states is so much more scarce during the winter
> > than in southern states, I wonder about the size differences being due
> > to dense populations/food supplies. Our first hard freeze is typically
> > around the middle of November, and green stuff doesn't start coming out
> > of the ground up here until late March or early April...
> >
>
>
> IIRC the size difference is due to evolution and the surrounding
habitats.
> small deer can get thru the thick underbrush we get in the south, while
> larger deer can reach more fodder in the trees during northern winters. If
> you put a large deer down here, it would have a hard time getting away
from
> predators. It's not always survival of the "fittest".
> --
> lampy

> Life is like a cribbage game...
> No matter which cards you play, you might still end up in the same spot.
>
That makes some sense too. But it would still be survival of the fittest,
as fitness is relevant to where the animal is. Being fit for 100 feet under
water is different than being fit for artic habitat. Maybe natural selection
is a better way of putting it.

Larry T

Actually body size is related to climate and large size is an
evolutionary cold weather adaptation. A large body loses heat slower
than a small body. Whitetail deer in Canada are the largest of all.
Northern states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, North and South
Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota have the large bucks that
hunters prefer. At just 18 months old, Ohio bucks in farm country
weight over 200 pounds. This doesn't seem possible to Southern hunters
but it is true.

Buck