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Q. 200) Hay Dave, Never killed a deer before. Something about turning 40 and refinding myself says i'll be taking at least one home to the family via Hoyt Ultratec this season. Anyway, been reading every thing I could get my hands on about field dressing etc, etc, and nobody has mentioned anything about this Hunters specialties Wild Gamekeeper Spray. Is this something that I should be putting in my kit? Thanks for your time, Love your show.

Q. 199) Great website. I wish I found this sooner!
I have a question maybe you can help me. I have a freezer full of venison in the garage, however when I went into the refrigerator part last weekend I found the power was off. Apparently the outlet has a breaker in it and tripped, probably from the warm weather we had that week. Anyway, when I opened the freezer section EVERYTHING was defrosted! i stuck a thermometer into the meat and registered a temperature of 58 degrees. Apparently the refrigerator was off for some time..days I'm sure. Anyway, the meat looked ok and didn't seem to smell other than the regular venison smell which seemed alittle more pronounced, but that may be because so much of thawed meat was present...along with now liquid blood, but only from the packs that I didn't vacuum seal, if that makes any differnce to my situation. So I turned the freezer back on, and it's sitting in there now frozen waiting for trash day:(. I was not aware of the process of "aging" deer meat. Always just froze it as soon as it came back from the butcher which is usually a day or two.
What should I do? Is the whole batch trash? Is there a way to tell if it's bad? Does it make any difference that most of it was vacuum sealed? I must have about 70+ pounds of meat in there, and would feel bad throwing it out if it's still good.
Thanks for the help. I appreciate any input.

Q. 198) I have some deer meat that was killed in Dec. 04 and Nov. 05. Both have been frozen and never thawed. None of it is ground. It is a set of ribs (05), shoulder (05), and two hind quarters (roast) one in bone one de-boned. both of which are from 04. I have heard that it is bad and i have heard that it is fine as long as it stays frozen. Can you shed some light on this for me. Thanks.

Q. 197) I tried to roast a large piece of venison, it came out very tuff, not tender at all. How can I cook it and have it be tender. Would appreciate any help. Thank you.

Q. 196) I discovered that my freezer full of venison had been shut off.The inside still felt cool but,all the meat except a few packages on bottom had been thawed through. The burger is brown on the outside and there is a taint smell, maybe a blood smell. I turned freezer back on to refreeze meat for the time being. Should I keep it or pitch it?

Q. 195) I shot two does in in November of 2005. I quartered both deer double wrapped them in freezer paper and put them in the freezer. It is now February. I went out to the garage and took out the hind quarters for making sausage. Apparently sometime in the last two months my freezer quit working. I live in N.D. and the temp has been any where from below zero to 40 above. I took the quarters out and noticed mold on the outer surface. The meat was still frozen except for the outer 1/4" of the surface. I trimmed this off along with the myle(sp) the meat underneath looked and smelled fine. I carved the meat up into chunks for grinding and refroze it. I'm wondering if I should use this meat or chuck it? I plan on grinding it and making summer sausage using cure.

Q. 194) I need to ship som Axis deer meat from Houston TX to Detroit Michigan. I need some ideas on packging the meat and shipping the meat, containers? Carriers?

Q. 193) I have decided to smoke and cook our sausage this year instead of hanging. Can I still hang the sticks, after cooking, to reach a desired firmness that you get with just hanging for a long period of time. The sausage is good, just want it a little firmer. Thank you, this is a great service.

Q. 192) What is the proper way to field dress and skin a whitetail deer. Many say just open it up and get out all the organs. Little to general I think. Any specific information would be helpful.

Q. 191) I use beef suit as an additive when grinding venison, what would you suggest as a good ratio of venison to suit per lb?

Q. 190) My boyfriend had some venison summer sausage and jerky in the fridge for a couple of weeks. I noticed little circles of mold on it. He says he has never heard of it molding, have you?

Q. 189) Our chest freezer went out 3 or 4 days ago. We just realized, it's cold still and the roast are still slightly frozen in the center, but the steaks are thawed. What about refreezing?

Q. 188) Good afternoon, I am hosting a game dinner and I am making venison meatballs, i am trying to figure out the amount of fat or other burger i need to mix with the venison to make good meatballs, any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Q. 187) I have recently been given a gift of the front quarter of a deer. I was wanting to prepare it on my slow cooking rotisserie. Do you have any suggestions as to preparation prior to cooking and if it will turn out ok? Thanks.

Q. 186) We have some deer meat that was frozen. The compressor on our freezer went out and the meat deforsted and only had a few ice crystals on it when we discovered this. Is our deer meat still good?

Q. 185) How do I remove the "wild" taste from venison for meal preparation for my family? Thanks!

Q. 184) I have some venison burger in the freezer that was shot 2 years ago. I was wondering if it is still okay to use?

Q. 183) I shot a deer that appeared to have gangrene from an earlier gunshot wound (a week or two old). The injury was located on its hind quarter comparable to where our knee is. I removed the leg at the hip joint. The meat smells good and looks good. Can i eat it?

Q. 182) Hello. I live in New York state, so I will not be able to take advantage of your offerings. I process my own deer, all of one or, if really lucky, two a season. I've searched and found many articles on the web about processing deer, but they seem to vary. From your website, it sounds like you've mastered the process. I would like to know how to do the same. Currently, I hang the deer and take the hide off as soon as I get home. Then I try to maintain a temperature of 30-35 degrees for a week. After that, I bone out all the meet. Trim off ALL the "silver". Double wrap and freeze the great pieces. Clean all the "burger" meat really well. Double grind it with an equal amount of pork roast.
Any direction from you would be much appreciated.

Q. 181) Assuming an overnight temperature of 32 degrees, if a deer is shot at 5:25pm on Wed, but not found until 8am on Thur, should the meat still be considered good? I have heard both sides of this, one of them being that the meat will be much stronger than if it had been field dressed immediately.

Q. 180) We sent our deer meat to be processed 4 weeks ago and still have not got it back. I was wondering how long will the deer meat stay safe in an ice chest with ice on it.

Q. 179) I have hunted all my life and my Dad has always handled the deer meat after the kill. He puts the deer meat (quartered) into an ice chest and covers with ice. He makes sure the drain of the cooler is pulled so the water can drain out of the ice chest. He puts fresh ice in the cooler once a day. He keeps the meat in the ice chest for 4 days then cuts up the meat and freezes it in individual packages. Is this a safe practice for deer meat? Obviously I'm not dead from eating it for years, but is it safe to store deer meat in this manner? Thanks.

Q. 178) Purchased a Cabella's 1-1/2 HP Grinder for Deer processing.
Grinds Meat Great. Grinds Beef Tallo Great. However, once you try to regrind while mixing the tallo with the meat . . . the grinder 'tube' packs with, what I'm assuming, tallo. You then have to disassemble and clean the tube frequently since the mixture does not 'push' through - simply churns in the tube.
Is there a trick to preventing this?
Fellow hunters are comparing my 1-1/2 HP grinder to the commercial versions at meat markets. They state the commercial versions don't pack up and that something must be wrong with the grinder.
I disagree with them due to the meat or tallo grinding seperately.

Q. 177) I have been web searching for over two hours now to find suggestions about grinding elk meat. I would like to know whether to use beef or pork fat or beef or pork scraps with the elk meat and if so what proportion. I always thought you needed to add fat or the meat would not hold together when wooking as patties.

Q. 176) Last night I was able to shoot a nice 1 1/2 year old spike. I plan to process it on Thursday evening. I think I am ready, but have a question about the silver skin on the primals. Should this be filleted off before cutting into roasts or steaks, or can it be left on for roasts and just be removed from steaks. I assume from other info on your sight that any silver skin you remove you add to your trim for grinding, is this true? Any info on dealing with silver skin would be appreciated.