Wild Boar Chili Verde

Wild Boar Chili Verde

Typical California wild boar habitat.  Many boar in California eat acorns.
In the above photo note all the pig rooting under this oak tree.  The boar's
acorn diet gives the meat a mild flavor and builds great porky fat on adult animals.  

I like pig…I like it a lot.  I like it in nearly every possible way pig in tube form, cured, and fresh.  Almost everyone on the globe loves to eat it and pigs have found a way to survive on every inhabitable continent.  From iconic Vietnamese banh xeo stuffed with roasted pork, shrimp, bean sprouts, and herbs to iconic German Bratwurst, to this iconic Mexican chili verde pigs are everywhere enjoyed by many and unfortunately taken for granted by many American sportsman.   Many hunters in North America view the wild pig as a dirty, disease riddled animal not fit for human consumption, which is unfortunate.  I see them as a great resource, a species very adaptable to the current human condition and taste-tee.  Most of the wild pigs I have shot here in California have been very mild, relatively lean, and very clean animals with few parasites.  I have killed California deer with more ticks and fleas than any of the pigs I have shot in California.   I always cringe when landowners tell me they shoot wild pigs and leave them to rot, because they cause property destruction.  This is really another blog post and don’t want to get off on a tangent here but, come on people eat what you kill or don’t kill it.

In general chili verde is made with a pork shoulder sometimes called Boston butt, but I have made it with roasts cut from the shoulder, the ribs and the ham of wild boar.  It is imperative you cook pigs and bear well done to make sure you kill any possible trichinosis bacteria it may carry.  This is true for most all omnivorous wild animals to be consumed by humans.    Braising is the method used here and it makes for a great way to make sure no trichinosis reaches your guts.

What you’ll need:

1 2-4 pound pork roast cut off the bone and into bite sized chunks.  If you have wild boar ribs replace the bite sided pieces with whole ribs and don’t bother removing the bones.

1-2 pound tomatillos

5-8 Polblano or Serrano Chilies

3-5 jalapenos depending on how spicy you like it.

1 large bunch of cilantro chopped

Juice from 2 limes

1-2 quarts chicken, duck, or game stock…  I tend to use duck stock a lot because that is what I make the most of, but any stock will work.

I large yellow onion chopped

5 cloves Garlic chopped

Bay leaf

Mexican Oregano

Large table spoon whole cumin seed

High quality corn tortillas 

Oil (only if wild boar is very lean)

A plastic bag

A large Dutch oven or heavy metal pot

In the metal pot add the meat and brown on all sides.  Sometimes in is necessary to add a little oil if the wild boar is very lean.  Brown meat on all sides and remove from pot, set aside. 

Add to pot Onion cook until translucent add garlic and cook until onion just browns remove from heat.

While meat is browning and onion is cooking, roast tomatillos on a cookie sheet under the broiler until brown or light black on all sides.  If a few parts are still green that is fine.  Be careful to not over blacken tomatillos. 

Also in the broiler or over an open flame roast the polblano or Serrano chilies and the jalapenos on all sides.  Once brown all over and skin starts to peel place in sealable plastic bag for 10 min and let cool on the counter.  This makes peeling the peppers easier.

In a blender combine tomatillos, peeled peppers, jalapenos, ¾ of the chopped cilantro, lime juice and.  Blend together until smooth. 

Pour blender mixture over browned meat onions and garlic in large metal pot or Dutch oven, add stock, and cook until meat is tender about an hour or two over medium low heat.

Add generous amount of Mexican oregano, bay leaf and cumin, approximately 20 min before serving.

Serve over white rice, and black beans.  Garnish with little Mexican crema or sour cream.  Tortillas make a great delivery system from plate to mouth!

A good day pig hunting in the Sutter Buttes
the smallest mountain range in the world.

Whitetail

Clark's First Deer Manville, 2011

The Whitetail

November of 2011 will go down in my hunting history as one of the best, one for the ages, the season I hope many more will be like in the future.  It will be the ruler by which I judge future years.  Not only in the terms of animals seen, shot and chased but for the bond to places and deer I have come to love.  I didn’t really work very much in November this year and took almost three weeks off for the sole purpose of chasing the whitetail deer with bow and shot gun.  I was very fortunate to be able to hunt for whitetails in two states this year, my maternal family’s property in Manville, Indiana and my in-laws hunting haunts in Ozaukee, County, Wisconsin.  While both were great hunts they were very different, though there were common threads between the two, such as the camaraderie between family and friends; and the common white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) a.k.a. the whitetail. 

This was the first double I have ever shot with bow and arrow.

At the Manville farm we archery hunt for whitetail from tree stands, while in Wisconsin it was a shot gun hunt where groups formulate deer drives.  At Manville we have about 20 deer stands strategically placed on 480 acres.  The stands are in areas where deer pass by frequently, and in November the deer move some times all day.  The successful hunter at Manville is patient, quiet and disciplined.  In Wisconsin, they also sit on stands, but most of the late morning and afternoons are spent organizing deer drives and pushing deer in small wood lots towards hunters sitting on the opposite side of said woodlot.  The successful hunter in Wisconsin formulates and executes a plan in accord with their fellow hunters.  The properties we hunted in Wisconsin had smaller woodlots and more agricultural fields than in Manville.  The properties are really very different, illustrating the whitetail’s adaptability to diverse habitats.  The hunting strategies are also very different, illustrating the adaptability of the human.  The struggle between hunter and hunted is what makes predator and prey more alike than different.  Fear motivates both, but in different ways.  The fear of being someone’s dinner and the fear of taking a life are both fear and in my mind equally powerful.  To the outsider looking in these animals couldn’t be more different, but in reality both are motivated by the same things: fear, success, and pleasure.  Stripping down the human experience to that of a common animal puts us in the larger biological context, something that is often lost with iPhones, computers, meat covered in plastic and modern day human life in general.  Wisconsin and the Manville hunt both reminded me of the basic animal needs and how humans truly are just like the rest of the living creatures on this planet. 

The whitetail is my favorite game animal due to its accessibility to the common hunter and its prolific nature in our ever changing man-made environment.  It could be argued the whitetail is the most accessible big game animal in North America.  Whitetails are a dynamic animal; they adapt to the human rhythms well and profit while many other species have been left by the wayside.  Additionally, they taste great and provide a protein source that is sustainable, organic and free range -- the original slow food.

Tree stands Clark and I used to film hunts.

Most everyone can find a place to kill a whitetail.  Many Eastern and Midwestern states sell an unlimited number of licenses for whitetail and in many of these states hunting permissions are granted willingly from landowners.  I’m lucky in that my family has owned property in Southern Indiana for many years.  I have hunted the property since I was 14 years old and have tried to go back to Manville every year.  This upcoming season will be my 22^nd year hunting deer at Manville.  I think I might have it figured out by now, but it keeps me coming back for more. 

Manville is little more than a cross roads today, on the banks of the Indiana-Kantuk Creek.  The farm is made up of bottom land hardwoods like cotton woods, walnuts, beech and sycamores and agricultural fields that sometimes grow tobacco, corn or soy beans; and hills, which are forested and dominated by ash, maple and cedar.  I know the property very well, from individual sticks along path to individual trees that keep getting larger and larger with the passage of time.  Due to the soils underlain with limestone, certain areas are thick with cedar trees.  Walking the property in the very early morning before light gives the hunter intimate knowledge of every sharp stick, pond, and briar patch on the farm.  The kid that grows up hunting is rarely afraid of the dark for long. 

Shelton's Ash Manor. Great spot for deer camp eh?

The dark aptly describes the beauty of Manville.  Most everything is dark here in the late fall and winter.  After the explosion of yellow, and red in October, a crescendo of grays overtake the place.  The colors are muted -- lots of grays, blacks and greens.  I like to describe it as an original American Gothic.  There is a sense of place, in the muted grays, in the wood smoke and the thin layer of ash.  It is a place where beauty is found in the color of a well worn ax handle, a broken posthole digger, a derelict gray ford tractor, a pickup truck missing its hood with a tree where the engine should be and the gray winter coat and white breath of a whitetail buck on a cold morning.  It can be a harsh place where life is sometimes measured in decades rather than centuries, but a place that has been continuously occupied for thousands of years.  The gray and cream chert arrow heads that come from the creek bottom fields are the evidence of previous owners’ occupations.  The grays of the lichen covered ash bark and the gray of an ol’ man’s beard.  This season was much the same as the previous season’s family and friends, good food, and lots of deer.

Below are a few thoughts I wrote down while in Manville this year:

Deer Camp Hands Manville, November 2011

Hands have been stained with buck’s blood and scared by bramble

That bramble is thicker than evangelists in hell. Crickets make one fleeting attempt to mate in the last days of Indian summer.

Tarsal gland, horse shit and drying tobacco fill the barn's air; dogs lick the dirt floor's blood stains and devour the remains of a buck’s diaphragm.

Sounds of chain saws and cloths permeated with diesel fuel and 2 stroke engine exhaust

I found the teeth to a single row corn picker. This place is where implements go to die.

Coyotes sound like a hooker's last drunkin’ stand

Wind has blow down ash tops and cedar wood smoke clings to you like sweat

November rains cool you and the dampness permeates bones

Nicotine and caffeine greets the gray light; followed up by biscuits and gravy.

 To start the tractor you need a screwdriver to jump the solenoid.

The choke on the chain saw is broke; pour some gas in the carb.

Black locus thorns, sharper than a catfish spine, and meaner and than an old raccoon.

Paw-paws and persimmons delight buck tongues.

Soles of your boots worn thin, the happy death of the full yellow moon

The rut is on; bucks acting a fool are powerfully drunk on estrus

In the honey-hole, a murder has found the buck’s gut pile. Burning caul fat covers that top loin over a hickory fire.

A mixture of buck blood, dirt and saw dust under your finger nails, once there is impossible to remove.

Additionally, below are a few links to videos Clark and I made while in Manville. They are a lot of fun, but please realize these are hunting videos there will be blood. Please excuse the foul language; I was really excited for Clark’s first deer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbss-iAYtlA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs2PyT2jiSo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV5VTHgOvcQ&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCYcTlIv6S4

What to do with all that ground venison

I love ground vension. It is so easy to cook and you can really do anything with it. I found this recipe online and adapted it for venison and baby artichokes. It was great. The spice levels were perfect and I'll be making it again.

Moroccan Meatball Stew

Stock (must be made ahead of time):

3-5 duck carcasses

Celery tops

A carrot or 2

Onion peels

Garlic peels

1 small onion

A few cloves garlic

Brown carcasses well in a little oil if necessary. Make sure they are well browned all over. This should take about 10-15 min. do not rush, this is the most import step in making a rich brown stock.

Fill stock pot with water almost to top

Add vegetable waste like skins, rinds, tops, etc.

Cook on very low temps 1-2,  12 hour periods or until liquid is reduced to about half or more.

Drain reserve liquid toss all solids.

Salt to taste.

Meatballs:

1 package venison ( you can also mix in sausage here if you want)

1 egg

Salt

Pepper

Red pepper

Fennel seed

Chopped fresh parsley

1 handful Progresso bread crumbs Italian style

3 cloves garlic minced

1 small onion minced or ½ large

Mix very well and form into balls.  Set aside.

Stew (you need an over safe pot with lid):

2 medium sized onions chopped, then browned in olive oil. You need to get them nearing burnt.

1/3 pound mushrooms

½ green pepper

4 carrots cut into slices

10 baby artichokes outside leaves removed and tops chopped off and discarded.  Take a lot of the outside leaves off, they are to fibrous.

4 celery stalks chopped

Whatever other leafy veggies you have in the crisper like spinach or cabbage.

I large can crushed tomatoes

Enough stock to fill large pot. I make my stock from duck carcasses or whatever bones I have around.  You can also buy stock, for this buy beef stock.

Lots of powder spices for this you’ll need Turmeric 1 large table spoons or maybe a little more, ginger tea spoon, cardamom tea spoon, cinnamon 2 tea spoons, and nutmeg 2 tea spoons

Preheat oven to 350.   After you brown the onions mix in all the spices and the veggies and fill with stock about 2 inches from top of large pot. Bring to a soft simmer. Once soft simmer is reached add meatballs taking care not to over top pot.  Place lid on pot and put in the oven until artichokes are tender about an hour or two.

Serve with herbed couscous, rice, faro, or orzo…

Wyoming Antelope 2011 with the MHC: Part 3

So, I have been on a hunting bender and have not had time to post part 3 for some time. Here you go enjoy. I have a lot of new hunting experiences since this antelope post, and some new twists to throw at you guys with my most recent trip to deer camp in Southern Indiana A.K.A. Manville.

Monday 9-26

Sunny and I over sleep and this time it is Michael and Chet calling to wake us up…the tables are turned… We talk with Brain again at the gate.  He says if we want to shoot does we need to climb up to the tree line.  It is about a 2 hour hike up there.  I guess everyone on the property knows this as we all start the hike up there.    There are hunters everywhere so I decide to bail due to so many people up there.  Sunny and Chet make it up there and are into animals, but getting close would prove difficult. 

Michael and I decide to head down hill and hunt a wide open plateau area.   We hunt there for a while and don’t see much.  We deicide a move is in order.  Michael and I talk and decide we should go hunt another ranch we saw while scouting on Saturday, before we get to the ranch we see a doe and I think it is on a huntable area.  According to the maps we can hunt there, but across the street we can’t.  I can tell Michael is a little worried about this spot because it is pretty close to the road.  I assure him it is fine, but we abort the mission anyway.  As soon as we get almost back to the truck here comes Brian the Worden and he says there is a doe just down the road and we should go after her…. It was the same doe we saw from the truck. And with Brian’s approval we go after her again.  By the time we get to the general area we saw her, she is gone.  We decide the only way she could have gone was up into some rocks.  Sure as shit… we find her with 3-5 other lopes.  Michael and I surmise the ‘lopes are using his area as a short-cut between the alfalfa field on one side of the street and the large open basin on the other side.   Michael and I get up there and find a whole family up there.  We both shoot does at under 40 yards.  We probably could have taken one or more of them with archery gear.

Mike with his doe antelope.  More meat for the freezer.

Me with my doe antelope

While Michael and I are messing around with our does, Sunny was busy killing a doe of his own.  Apparently, after Chet missed some more ‘lopes and not being able to kill some very close due to some miss communication between them, Sunny decides to take a very long shot.  The shot was so long in fact his rangefinder would not take an accurate reading.  The best reading he could get was 360 yards and that was at a minimum of 40 yards in front of the doe he was eyeballing.   So you get it… Sunny shoots the doe with one bullet to the neck at 400+.   At first Chet didn’t see that Sunny had dropped the doe.  They finally saw the doe kicking her feet above the sage brush nearly a quarter mile away.  Now that the doe was down Sunny had to get it back to the truck, he was about 2 miles away.  He had his new pack…so he guts and skins the beast and puts the whole thing into his backpack whole.  He got the whole thing off the hill and to the truck about the same time Michael and I pull into the parking area, with our does.

Sunny with his whole doe in his backpack. 

 So it was only the second day and Michael, Sunny and I each had a buck and doe each.  Chet was another matter all together.  By Monday afternoon he had shot 7-9 times and had yet to kill.  An executive decision was made to give him Sunny’s gun to shoot, as we knew it was shooting straight.  We decided to go back to the spot where Michael and I had shot does, since we had just seen 50 animals in the general area.  The Chet is a relatively new to the hunting world and during this trip he developed the worst case of antelope fever I have ever seen.  Getting him to calm down aim the gun was very difficult.  He must have had a terrible case of the shakes, or maybe he was closing his eyes while shooting...I’m still not sure what was going on in the Indian brain of his, but it is fun to watch. He was pretty freaked out.  It is still kind of funny that a bunch of white guys are the ones teaching an Indian how to hunt. The rest of us are now tagged out and we’re on a mission to get Chet an antelope, come hell or high water we were not leaving Wyoming without a ‘lope for The Chet.

All of us follow Chet into the woods where Michael and I had killed our does a few hours ago.  That where by now already in the meat locker….  Michael sends Chet ahead of us.  We hunt around the wooded area for about 20 min and then hear a shot.  Chet missed!   Boom we hear another shot. Missed it twice!  By this time the rest of us were right behind him looking at a doe antelope just 30 yards ahead of him closing the distance….  Finally, Chet gets a clear shot at about 25 yards.  He smokes the doe…  He had the worst case of buck fever I have ever seen, major mental break down.  After he finally dropped the doe, the look of relief on his face was very telling.  We were all glad he got his doe and there were congratulations all around for Chet’s first big game animal.  He did it and we were all happy and relieved.  I think the Chet will eventually overcome his fever and pull it together, but it was fun to watch. Chet, it does get easier… I shot at tons of deer before I actually got one.  One time when I was about 12 I think I shot 8 times at one whitetail, and never hit it.  

Chet shoots and scores finally.

We hit up Monday night football at the Fireside Bar and Drive through the place with .25 wings.  We order 40 wings, drink a lot of beers, and re-live the last two epic days of hunting.  Somehow our tap is almost 100 bucks.  We get back to the hotel and I can finally sleep.  My head hits the pillow and I’m out.  Mike and Chet keep drinking and decide another frozen burrito with cheese curds melted all over it is in order about midnight.  Sometime, after drinking most of the evening, they decided it would be a good idea to climb on top of a huge bronze statue of a bull and a cowboy that says welcome to Casper, Wyoming on it.

Tuesday 27^th

Tuesday we all decided it was a good idea to sleep in after the night before.  We don’t get going until after 10 am.  Sunny, Michael and I have all tagged out and Chet has one more doe tag.  We all roll out, but Chet is the only one to bring a gun.  We hunt the same place we did the day before in the trees where Chet, mike and I all scored.  We find that another hunter beat us to the spot earlier in the AM.  We find a trail where an animal had been dragged out.  Oh well, there are lots of other spots.  We head to an area where we can see some good spots from the road.  We drop off Chet for the Hat 6 death walk.  He starts along his route and a few moments in he is into the ‘lopes again.  He gets a few long shots, but does not connect on any.  He ends up walking 4-5 miles and Sunny, Michael and I meet him on top of the ranch near a water tower.  He tells us about the missed shots and we decided to set up an impromptu target.  Sunny shoots Chester’s gun at the target to make sure the gun is still zeroed.  It is still the same…  It is confirmed Chet suffers from buck fever. 

Hotel bound we decided to cook out in the parking lot again and party because it is our last night in Casper.  Sunny makes fresh mozzarella cheese in the parking lot and we eat it with tomatoes from Michael’s garden.  Sunny also makes us his deer-camp chili, and throws in the tenderloins from the doe antelope he shot.  It is awesome.  We drink and have a good ol’ time.

Sunny makes hand pulled cheese in the parking lot of the Super 8.

Wednesday 9-29

Time to hit the road, we wake up pretty early.  Michael and Chet have to get up earlier to clean the truck and return it to Dave Blackwell’s pops in Cheyenne.  This is 2 plus hours out of the way…add time to visit you are talking about a day unto itself.  The plan is for Sunny and I to meet up with Michael and Chet in Rawlins and caravan it back to Sacramento.  Not knowing how long it would take Michael and Chet in Cheyenne Sunny and I are early to Rawlins.  Rawlins is full of strange people.  Sunny and I befriend some locals in Tico’s bar.  Tico’s bar is run by Indians, and has cold cheap beer and burgers.  Sunny and I talk to the locals about the mayor and how corrupt he is and how some of the judges are also now under investigation.  Sunny ponders running for mayor of Rawlins, Wyoming… I write a bunch of post cards to people and mail them. 

The locals in Tico’s bar tell us we have to go to the Rifleman Bar just down the main drag.  They were right it was sweet, so after Michael and Chet show up about 2 pm we head to the Rifleman.  The place is full of mounts and even has a two headed cow.  We decided we need to import the Rifleman to Sacramento and rename it the Midtown Riflemen.  It was the ultimate MHC lair. 

After spending way too little time at the Rifleman we need to hit the road…it is already 3 pm and we have not even made it out of Wyoming yet.  Sometime somewhere in Utah we stop and eat the remains of the chili sunny made the night before…it was still awesome.  We drive as far as we can before sleep makes us stop.

Thursday 9-30

We wake up somewhere in Nevada, and start driving.  We get home about 10:30 am.  What a trip. I would recommend this trip to anyone wanting to go.   

Stay tuned for my next posts about Manville, Indiana and possibily about adventures with the in-laws in Wisconsin. 

Wyoming Antelope 2011: Part 2

Saturday 9-23

We meet in the lobby of the hotel for the free breakfast before heading out to scout for the Sunday, September 24, opener.  Sunny and I eat breakfast and Michael and Chet are slow to get moving….I’m seeing a trend here.  The biscuits and canned gravy are actually an improvement from the shit we had the day before in Nevada and I can’t wait for a good parking lot cooked MHC meal.  We finally get to scouting and there are antelope everywhere.  Wyoming must be the center of the antelope universe.  Everywhere we look here are ‘lopes.  There are in fact so many ‘lopes in Wyoming; I think the locals give them a bad name.  We talk with some locals who don’t think they taste very good, but others say they taste great.  I’m thinking most people just don’t know how to cook.

Michael drives us around the areas he and Chet scouted while they were there a few months back during Frontier Days.  Michael has been coming to Wyoming for years to visit friends and party at the annual Frontier Days, a rodeo and large celebration of everything Wyoming.  It was pretty cool to see the lay of the land and pretty sweet to be hunting in a totally different environment than anywhere I had ever hunted.  It was totally different from California or Indiana, my regular stomping grounds.  We see hundreds of antelope.  I’m still sick but don’t care because I’m seriously jazzed after looking around at this new place.  We see lots of likely spots, and from all the ‘lopes we see, it looks like tomorrow will be interesting to say the least.

We make spaghetti in the parking lot of the Super 8 parking lot that night.  Of course, I forgot all the meatballs[1] I made special for the trip… so we have to stop at a Safeway and Michael ends-up buying some horrible Italian sausages made by Hillshire Farms, which taste more like hot dogs than Italian sausages.  Who would think the Safeway in Caspar Wyoming, wouldn’t have good sausages… anyway we eat big piles of pasta knowing that in the morning there will me a lot of dragging and walking.  

Sunday 9-24

Go time.  Everyone wakes up on time and we meet in the lobby.  We hork down some breakfast and are loaded into the truck ready to kill by about 5:00.  We get to the spot about 5:30.  We are the 3^rd or 4^th car in the line.  It reminds me of hunting the California refuges for ducks.  Tons of guys waiting to get into the hunting area on the Eastgate Ranch, jaw jacking and telling lies.  The Eastgate Ranch is a privately owned ranch that is part of the state operated hunter access program.  The ranch is huge, 15,000 acres plus, and is crawling with ‘lopes.  We had to plan in advance to hunt this area and hats off to level headed Clark for doing a lot of the research about this hunt and finding the Hat 6 hunting area.  The Hunter access program pays private landowners 16 bucks for each antelope killed on private lands in exchange for opening up their lands to hunters.  It seems to work really well as there are a lot of these areas around the state.  If you consider doing a Wyoming antelope hunt and don’t really care about the size of the horns, I would recommend these private lands hunter management hunts.  Most of them sell out so you need to apply before the season for the tags, usually in Late Winter or early spring.

We wait around and finally the Game Worden shows up, and lets us know the gates don’t open until 7.  He is a cool guy and checks to make sure everyone has their permission slips printed out from the internet.  I shake his hand and introduce myself and Sunny to him.  His name is Brian Olsen (Norse stock from Minnesota), and I can tell right away that he is cool.  Totally good guy and he is about to get way cooler than I could ever imagine.

So finally, about 6:30 or 7, the gates on the ranch open and it is on.  We are hunting.  We follow all cars in front of us.  Most of the guys in the other trucks around us have been here before and know what they are doing.  We are seeing ‘lopes from the truck.  Some rednecks are jumping out of the trucks and going right at the ‘lopes, which is totally legal as long as you are in the hunting area.  We don’t really want to shoot anything from the trucks… we keep driving.

We find a good spot and Sunny and I take the high road while Chet and Michael take the low road.  There are lots of shots in the distance.  About 20 minutes into our hunt Sunny spots a nice looking buck sky-lined a few ridges over.  He is more than a thousand yards from us, but already is looking our direction.  He also is about to get surprised by Michael and Chet.  Sunny and I decide to try and intercept him once Michael and Chet jump him up, and Michael indeed finds him.  The plan works…. Michael jumps him up and gets an off-hand shot off at him, but misses.  The buck is a nice one and he is running toward us.  Sunny needs to get into position one ridge over to intercept him.  Sunny sprints to the edge of his ridge… I have never seen a Dego with a Model 70 run so fast.  He makes it to the ridge just in time as the ‘lope also makes it…

I’m behind Sunny about a hundred yards or so… I see the buck coming and Sunny gets down to one knee and has his shooting stick ready.  I can tell he is out of breath from the 200 yard sprint and getting a bead on the ‘lope is difficult.  Finally, the buck stops running and is looking directly back at Sunny and myself.  The buck is perfectly broadside.  Sunny drops the hammer on him and puts a great shot on a broadside buck at 200-250 yards.  He hit the buck well and from the sound of the bullet whack I could tell it was a money shot.  The ‘lope runs about 60 yards and piles up.  It did a half dead antelope flip and we have the first MHC ‘lope in the bag 20 minutes into our hunt. 

After we take a few flicks, I leave Sunny to the gutting duties.  I make a large circle around Sunny looking for more ‘lopes.  I see some does, but can’t get a good shot off at them.  I keep hunting around and see more ‘lopes in the distance.  I decided it was about time to start dragging Sunny ‘s ‘lope and I start heading back to where he shot it.  I get to about 50 years from Sunny when we get rushed by about 30 lopes… they are running away from other hunters and are hauling ass uphill broadside to us…..

I pick out a nice buck from the group and try a running shot at 200 plus yards.  I shoot and hit the buck.  It was not a good shot.  I knew I hit the buck but not where.  I look for my buck, there is no blood. I’m sure I hit it.  After the shot the buck ran huge circles around us.  He kept getting lower and lower like he was going to fall over, but just kept running.  Finally he disappears over the hill.  Sunny and I feel he should be just over the hill dead.  We don’t find him. 

In the mean time Michael finds a buck to shoot and he kills a small buck.  He actually thought it was a doe and shot it dead at 200 yards or so.  He actually missed it the first time at 300 plus yards and it ran toward him.  He had to shoot it out of self-defense.  Anyway, he gets it gutted and starts the drag.  I keep looking for my buck but it becomes quickly apparent I didn’t hit my buck very well.  The Chet has missed a few ‘lopes already and he’ll continue to keep missing for the next few days.

I walk back to the truck and drive to pick-up Sunny‘s and Michael’s bucks.  We get back to the parking lot and are admiring the ‘lopes when Brian the warden shows up.  He wants to check the goats but needs to find a wounded buck he saw running towards the highway.  Brian knows about where the buck is going.  I tell him I wounded a buck just down the way and he says…that’s your buck!  Get your gun and get in my truck.  He says we are going to get your buck.  Brian drives rally car style over the graveled ranch roads all the way to the other side of the ranch and then on the paved road approximately 8-10 miles all the way around the ranch.  So we get over there and he gets a call about trespassers on the ranch adjacent to the Eastgate Ranch.  He takes me to the general area where the buck was.  We run into an old timer who also has a buck down.  The old timer is actually from Sacramento and it turns out he knows a bunch of the same people I do.  The old timer saw my buck on his way out and tells me the general area it went.  He also tells me I was successful in blowing its back leg nearly clean off and that the buck is still really moving and he could not get a shot off at it.  So, I start after my buck which has crossed onto some private lands.  Brian goes to knock on the door of the landowners (who he knows) to let them know I’m out there after a wounded buck.  Brian lets me know he is going to hang around for a while and help the old man get his ‘lope out.  I hike about 1000 yards from the road and see a buck another 1500 yards up a valley.  The buck is in bad shape dragging his hind-leg.  I have to crawl to the back side of the valley that will parallel the valley the buck is in.  I start fast hiking knowing that wounded buck won’t hold still for long.  I get to about where I think he is and he is flushed out of his valley and into mine by some other hunter 500 yards away from him.  I shoot him running again, this time hitting him in the spine from about 150 yards.  The new .257 Weatherby rips a huge hole in his back.  I’m a little annoyed with my shot placement, but at least the tough guy is dead and I’m please he is not suffering.  Due to the shot placement much of the best part of the short loin is rendered inedible, which is unfortunate.  Brian hears my shot and after a few minutes here he comes with the old timer in the truck.  I get the ‘lope cleaned up and loaded up and Brian tells me to get in the back of the truck.  He gives me a lift back to the old timer’s truck parked on the other side of the property.  I’m riding in the back of and open bed truck owned by the state of Wyoming….I love this state. 

I just keep thinking this dude Brian rocks.  Now that he has totally helped me out, he says, “Joe now it is time for you to help me out….”

We drop off the old timer at his truck and now it is time to chase trespassers.  We make it to the trespassers who are rolling around in a huge white van… they all have huge beards and are wearing Big Smith overalls and they look like they are straight out of deliverance country.  I joke with Brian, saying these guys look like they’re from the Ozark’s deep woods.  When we get close to their vehicle, sure as shit, they have Missouri plates.  Brian writes them 2 tickets for $220 each.  I talk with some of the Ozark guys while we take blood samples from the ‘lopes.  I could only understand about every 3^rd word out of their mouths through the thick Ozark accents.  The blood samples are for a graduate student studying the effects of blue tongue on antelope and deer in Wyoming. 

Brian and I keep driving around the ranch checking ‘lopes and taking blood samples.  Basically, I’m in charge of taking all the data for the blood samples.  I fill out the informational sheet for every animal.  I record the date, sex, age, name of hunter, and location for each animal.  It was actually pretty cool work.  We take about 30 blood samples in 2 hours.  We finally, get back to where Michael and Sunny are sitting near my truck in the truck’s shade.  It is hot.  I joke with Brian that the 2 Darryl-lects sitting in the truck’s shade have probably been drinking beers since we left.  Brian laughs and says, “well that’s what I’d be doing if I were them….”

Michael and Sunny have already taken their bucks to the processer.  We take a few more flicks of my buck and some with Brian. 

I’m still sick and after Brian leaves I throw up behind the truck.  Michael, Sunny and I decide we better get this ‘lope into the processer as it is almost 80 degrees out.  We leave The Chet to keep hunting.  I’m not sure how many shots Chet has taken today, but it has been at least 4.  We get to Dan’s Meats and meet the skinner Will.  Will is a piece of work, built like a tank, not very smart, strong as hell and dumber than a brick.  He is a Wyoming meat head like none other.  He is apparently hung-over from some party he went to the night before.  He is covered in ‘lope blood and has been skinning ‘lopes all day.  He takes a huge dip with his bloody fingers… at some point during the multiple trips to the processer he tells Chet he is going to stalk him, Chet is scared for his life.  I think if we get into a bar fight in this town I really hope Will is on our side.  Will is a piece of work. 

So, with 3 ‘lopes in the bag for the first day we head for the hotel.  Chet has shot at a whole bunch of ‘lopes today, but has yet to hit one…

At the hotel we make dinner, Michael has a tri-tip and makes homemade mashed potatoes and we grill out in the parking lot of the Super 8.  A home cooked meal on the tailgate of the Batmobile with good friends and a cold beer is a great way to close out our first day of Wyoming antelope hunting. 

We find a great drive-thru liquor store/bar and grab some yellow-bellies, not my favorite beers but hey, they are wet and it’s hot and we’re trying to save the MHC dollars for lodging and gas.  We make a note that the sign for the bar/ drive-thru liquor store has 25 cent wings for football games…..Oh, we will be back.  We are all pretty tired and go to bed about midnight.  I still don’t sleep.  Stay tuned for part 3 in the next few days.

[1]  Joe’s Deer Camp Meatballs- Meatballs are great for hunting trips or at home and I make them mostly from game sausage we make during our yearly MHC sausage fest.  Anyway, I’ll blog about our next sausage fest sometime after duck season. Meatballs (balls) store very well in the freezer, and I usually make them before a trip and keep them frozen until the trip.  Your balls can be made many different ways; you should experiment with whatever you have on hand when the moment strikes to make them.  My  basic balls recipe( which is very fluid based on what is in the freezer at the time) reads something like this:

1 pound ground game (venison, antelope, elk whatever you have on hand)

1 pound spicy wild boar bulk sausage or spicy Italian pork sausage from store

1 pound spicy sundried tomato, or spicy Italian duck bulk sausage (can be replaced with ground lamb or more game or more sausage)

2 large handfuls bread crumbs

2 eggs

1 Medium onion diced fine

1 bunch flat leaf parsley chopped fine

A few shakes red pepper flakes

A few shakes salt

A few shakes black pepper

4-6 cloves diced garlic

A few dashes dried oregano or a few sprigs fresh. 

Mix the balls together well with your hands.  Get your hands in the meat and mix it really well.  Your hands will be very cold.  Now, form the balls no smaller than the size of a racquet ball, but no larger than a baseball.  I like a spicy large size meatball.  Fry the balls in olive oil or olive oil/vegetable oil mixture on medium high heat until cooked through.  Be careful to control the heat and not burn off the olive oil.  It is easier to cook with vegetable oil as it will not burn as readily, but olive oil tastes better.  When done frying, freeze your balls or add balls to your favorite sauce and serve over your favorite pasta.  If you have leftover balls and sauce, eat them on a roll in a sandwich with pepperchinis, red onions and mozzarella cheese yum!

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Wyoming September 2011, with the Midtown Hunting Crew.

Now that you guys know the members of the Midtown Hunting Crew (MHC) and what we’re all about, the next few posts will be about our great time in Wyoming hunting pronghorn antelope, antilocapra americana.  Pre-historically, there were 12 different species of antilocapra calling North America home.  Antilocapra americana are the only species left.  They range throughout much of the Western part of the U.S. and also exist in small numbers in Northern Mexico.  Their diet is made up of grass, sage brush and sedges.  The pronghorn is the fastest animal in North America and can run more than 50 miles an hour.  The only animal faster is the African Cheetah, the fastest on the planet.  Predation of pronghorn is most often done by coyotes, bob cats, mountain lions, and in late September 2011, me, Mike, Chet and Sunny.

Typical pronghorn habitat in and around Casper Wyoming. September, 2011 

For various reasons, Ray, Oggie, Clark and Marshall could not or did not want to go on the Wyoming trip and I think it is safe to say they regret they could not go.  We cleaned house and it was a boat-load of fun.  I’m glad we chose antelope as the first MHC animal, for multiple reasons including but not limited to high success rates, great opportunity for new hunters, good eating, and downright fun.  Wyoming is a great place to hang-out and hunt.  Everyone we met was way cool and was really glad to welcome out of state hunters.  That kind of surprised me -- even the game wardens were cool with us, as you will come to learn in the next few posts.  So here goes in 4 parts….

Part 1: Thursday 9-22 and Friday 9-23: The MHC Hits the Highway

I’ve been sick for the last few days with a really bad cold and have not been sleeping at all.  I’m pretty worried about getting the rest of the MHC members sick on the trip, which starts today.  I go to the Doc and get a ‘script for antibiotics.  I’m hacking pretty well and now I’m leaving and Monica has come down with my cold.  I’m thinking whoever rides with me in the Batmobile[1] is getting sick for sure…

I make it to the doctor, get the oil changed, the power steering fluid changed and the rear differential serviceb on the Batmobile.  She is in tip-top shape…until I realize my spare tire is flat.  So, I go over to the Alfa shop and Sunny fills the spare with air and fixes the seized spare lock with trusty “Lucile”, some kind of crazy air hammer.  So, the Batmobile is ready.  The old truck ran like a charm, with the exception of the limp-dick after market cruise control that would not hold the truck at speed.  I guess after 13 years, all you can get is out of aftermarket cruise control additions.  Regardless, I still like the old Batmobile and she continues to be a work horse for the MHC….

The Batmobile and the Prius outside the Rifleman Bar in Rawlins Wyoming. That dude with the Bacon strips tee-shirt is our president Sunny September, 2011.

Michael and Chet show up at my house about 6:30 pm and we get the Prius (yes, we hunt out of a Prius sometimes and still have HUGE hunting balls) and the Batmobile packed.  Clark shows up and gives us about half the MHC fund to spend on the trip.  We collectively decided to spend it wisely.  It is agreed Michael will be in charge of the MHC funds and he did a great job.  We basically used all the MHC funds for gas, food and lodging.  We estimated the costs for all this nearly perfectly, except for the gas and lodging part.  We spent a little more than expected on gas and lodging.  Next trip we’ll have to do a few things differently and save even more.  All in all, it was pretty sweet -- we spent less than 500 bucks a man for the trip including gas, food, and lodging, but not including our tags.

The Prius average fule consumption of 47 mpg.  A great road tripin machine.

So, we finally hit the road about 6pm on Thursday 9-22.  We’re burnin’ dinosaur bones and the Batmobile is chewin’ up miles of asphalt.  We make it to Elko, NV where we stop for a few hours rest.  Sunny and I figure we shouldn’t bother with getting a hotel room and the 4 of us crash in the vehicles.  We end up in a Walmart parking lot for the night; big box stores are good for something.  I’m still really sick and don’t sleep at all.  At first light, I’m outside the truck and everyone is sleeping…I’m hacking up a huge hunk of lung butter….

Sunny wakes up (probably due to the disgusting noises I’m making) and we decide coffee and breakfast is in order.  I make an attempt to wake up Chet and Michael by throwing change at the Prius.  The turd-burglers[2] won’t get up.  Sunny and I decide to leave them and stake-out a breakfast spot.  We find a restaurant that advertizes homemade biscuits and gravy…we are thinking hell yes.  After a horrible breakfast, Sunny and I still have not heard a peep from Michael and Chet.  They were seriously tired.  Finally, Michael and Chet show up and head for the restaurant’s bathroom together.  So, this is where things start getting strange.  Michael and Chet are in there forever.  The server watches them come in and knows we are waiting for our Daryl-lect[3] friends, to wake up.  She watches them go directly into the bathroom.  20 minutes go by, and Michael and Chet are still in the bathroom together.  30 minutes go buy and the servers are talking among themselves about the 2 guys with California plates that went into the bathroom together and have still not come out.  The server comes by our table and asks Sunny if Chet and Michael are okay in there together…

Finally, they come out and get something to eat.  Sunny and I think they were probably giving each other sponge baths and also comment if they get us kicked out of here they will most definitely win a joint Darryl-lect award.[4]  We finally hit the road sometime after 9 am on Friday the 23^rd of September, leaving Elko, Nevada bound for Wyoming.

Friday 9-23

After leaving the restaurant, we are again burning dinosaur bones and crapping out asphalt.  We finally get the hell out of Nevada, which seems like it takes forever.  While we were in Nevada, Sunny and I spot the first antelope of the trip from the truck at approximately 80 mph.  Now we’re in the land of Mormons: Utah.  We stop for gas at a little spot and they have jalapeño cheese curds.  I have to buy them.  We motor and keep on truckin’.  We find another good stop at a BBQ joint for lunch somewhere in Wyoming just after crossing the Wyoming/Utah line.  It was pretty good grub for no-wheres-ville.  We finally reach the Rawlins turn-off; this is where Sunny and I head to Caspar, while Michael and Chet keep trucking to Dave B.’s house to borrow another 4x4.  It is nice we have another 4x4 for the hunt, it is even better this bad-boy also has Wyoming plates… we just got more street-cred[5] with the locals.  Dave B is a friend of Mike W’s who is a fellow hunter and lives in Cheyenne.  This was awesome of Chet and Michael to make the extra 2 hour drive to Cheyenne.  As it turned out we only used the 4x4 a few times, but had it rained it would have been very necessary and I was glad we had 2 vehicles with 4x4 and one with Wyoming plates that held all of us.  It was a great hook-up that saved us a lot of $$ having a truck to borrow for our hunt…if we had not had it we would have spent a lot more $$$$ in gas to get out there.

Sunny and I arrive at the Super 8 hotel and we check-in.  Dave B. hooked us up with his corporate rate of 55$ a night.  The normal rate is 74$ a night for everyone else, but we got a discount because Dave houses his workers there when they have jobs in Casper.  We get settled in and it is after dark, about 9 pm.  Chet and Mike are just now picking up the borrowed truck in Cheyenne and are hitting the road to meet up with use at the hotel.  About 11:30 I finally get a phone call from Michael and Chet.  They have made it to Casper, but are at the wrong Super 8 hotel.  Who knew they have two Super 8 hotels in a town of only 55,000 people?  Casper is actually the second largest city in Wyoming.  After the boys finally figure out how to get to us it is after midnight.  Chet and Michael decided it would be prudent to get something to eat across the street at the Walmart.  They bring home frozen “gut bomb” burritos and hot pockets -- a great thing to eat the day before you go scouting for ‘lopes while confined to a truck with your friends.  Michael and Chet use the remaining jalapeño cheese curds and melt them on top of the frozen burritos—smart!-- in the hotel microwave.  They swore it was good the next day, between cleaning out their drawers. 

Stay Tuned for more on the Great Wyoming trip of 2011 with the MHC.

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[1] Bat-mobile- Noun.  The truck, also known as a Ford Stranger with flare-side bed, cap over the bed, and a large basket rack on the roof.  Most often parked in Joe Navari’s driveway or at the Rubicon Brewing Company; Joe’s other office.

[2] Turd-burgler (s)- Noun.  Disparaging way to refer to one’s friends.  Examples include: The turd-burgler forgot to bring his deer tags. Or Turd-burgler, bring me a beer! 

[3] Darryl-Lect- Proper Noun or regular Noun or sometimes adjective.  The term was developed on a past MHC trip to describe an individual who is not pulling his weight, or is derelict in his duties, or is in general a dumb-ass. Darryls can also come from different geographical areas and are known to the MHC as Hill-Darryls, City-Darryls or the rare, but not yet extinct Sea-Darryls. 

[4] Darryl-Lect Award. Proper noun.  The Darryl-Leyct award is named after some dumb guy named Darryl Oggie hired to help him paint houses years ago.  Apparently, Darryl was a derelict and never showed up on time, was a drunk, and smelled kind of funny.  The MHC found an old miners helmet that became the Darryl-Lect award.  If the group decides you win it, you get your name written on it and the place you win it written on the helmet.  Past Darryl-Lect award winners have been in car wrecks on their way to hunting trips (Ray-Ray), have forgotten all the food for the weekend (me), and have passed out drunk next to their own poop (The Chet)…

[5] Street-cred- Noun.  Credibility on a local level.  The Darryl-lect has street-cred because his truck has Wyoming plates and the locals think he is from the state.  Another example would be if you are really a die-hard Bears fan but wore a Packers hat into a bar in Green Bay; this would give you street-cred.