What calibre for 1st stalking rifle?

jwshooter

Sparks wrote: »

...unless he didn't actually know who Griffin was and thought he was just a (very good) wildlife photographer...

he knows him all right

kakashka

jwshooter wrote: »

a lot more than some one that bought a rifle two years ago

there was 10 people that returned a 100 or more deer on there licence last year ,i would think john was one of them

Information that you should not have JWya..

I've shot a lot of deer(a LOT more than you have with all your rifles combined) with a 6.5 and found it very trustworthy for my style,i still use it from time to time without any fear and with total confidence,every calibre has different characteristics,the key is knowing them well before you hunt

greenpeter

Off topic,
what would anyone do with 100+deer a season?

It wasn't me!

greenpeter wrote: »

Off topic,
what would anyone do with 100+deer a season?

Presumably, as many as you can eat and freeze, then as many as you can give to family and friends (the savage horde) then the rest to the game-dealer, or whatever balance of those you like. Probably not going to have much hassle getting rid of a lot of deer to friends and family anyway.

macnas

I can recommend .243, .30-06 and .300 WSM.


oh and .308

Sparks

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Probably not going to have much hassle getting rid of a lot of deer to friends and family anyway.

Definitely not. Venison's just too tasty, whether it's roast, braised, stewed, or the sister's favorite, venison and pheasant pot pie...

It wasn't me!

Sparks wrote: »

Definitely not. Venison's just too tasty, whether it's roast, braised, stewed, or the sister's favorite, venison and pheasant pot pie...

Fillets, rare, treated like the finest beef steak you ever had.

Sparks

Never tried the tenderloin IWM, did most of my cooking with what would be the sirloin or striploin or rump cuts on a cow (I don't know how the butcher's terminology goes for deer, and given how wierd it is between cows, sheep and pigs, I'm not going to guess ).

But any animal that has a tenderloin, well, that's going to be some of the nicest eating on that animal (at least for fast cooking - if you cook slow, it's the other way round and the best taste's on the worst bits, if you follow me).

jwshooter

kakashka wrote: »

Information that you should not have JWya..

I've shot a lot of deer(a LOT more than you have with all your rifles combined) with a 6.5 and found it very trustworthy for my style,i still use it from time to time without any fear and with total confidence,every calibre has different characteristics,the key is knowing them well before you hunt

your another one in the top 10 so.

kakashka

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Presumably, as many as you can eat and freeze, then as many as you can give to family and friends (the savage horde) then the rest to the game-dealer, or whatever balance of those you like. Probably not going to have much hassle getting rid of a lot of deer to friends and family anyway.

You'd be surprised how few ppl actually eat Venison,not as easy to give away as you might think.

jwshooter

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Fillets, rare, treated like the finest beef steak you ever had.

i have two in the fridge for tomorrow eve .
pan fry in olive oil add black pepper and a grind of chili, sliced onion mushroom and a glass of red near the end.
mashed spud with parsnip, roast root veg .

Sparks

kakashka wrote: »

You'd be surprised how few ppl actually eat Venison,not as easy to give away as you might think.

Crying shame, that. Too many people telling lamb from chicken by the colour of the styrofoam tray these days

It wasn't me!

jwshooter wrote: »

i have two in the fridge for tomorrow eve .
pan fry in olive oil add black pepper and a grind of chili, sliced onion mushroom and a glass of red near the end.
mashed spud with parsnip, roast root veg .

Yeah, that's about as good as food gets, as far as I'm concerned. I'll hopefully have the rifle sorted out soon and will be able to provide a few for myself before the end of the season.

kakashka

Sparks wrote: »

Crying shame, that. Too many people telling lamb from chicken by the colour of the styrofoam tray these days

Yes i dont understand it myself,ppl kill for a bit of Venison in other Countrys,yuk is reply you'll get from most here,attitude towards it seems to be improving a little every year though,i'd much rather give it away to Joe Soap than give it away to Joe Dealer

jwshooter

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Yeah, that's about as good as food gets, as far as I'm concerned. I'll hopefully have the rifle sorted out soon and will be able to provide a few for myself before the end of the season.

i love it would have at least twice a week . i have a mincer the best bit of kit a stalking man can buy.

i cook a savage stew.

Sparks

kakashka wrote: »

yuk is reply you'll get from most here

Which is wierd - there's an italian coffee shop/deli/restaurant place in the middle of Dublin here that serves a braised venison ravioli and they can't make enough of the stuff to keep up (and it is really excellent). And all it is, is venison braised in a little red wine and then wrapped in a little pasta. It's about as complicated as a sausage roll.

BTW jw, fillet fried in a pan and then you put in a glass of red? That makes no sense to me at all. Searing hot pan (a good solid lump of a thing made from cast iron, heated until it's a step away from glowing), the oven turned to about 180C and warmed up, a good one to one-and-a-half inch thick fillet at room temperature, some salt (not table salt, proper sea salt), a grind of pepper and left sit there while the pan heats then a brush (literally, one brush) of olive oil and into the pan and don't touch it for two minutes. Then turn the fillet, put the pan in the oven and close the door and after four to five minutes, take out the fillet, put it on a plate and cover in tin foil, leave to rest for at least five minutes, and then serve. Put the red wine in the glass at the table, leave the onions in the cupboard, and the roast veg in the pantry and serve with a chunk from a baguette. Proper steak, that, seared on the outside, still pink in the middle, all the juices still in the steak, and no bloody parsnip trying to drown the taste

CJhaughey

I must try that pheasant and venison pie,that sounds tasty.
Venison has been highly rated by anyone that I gave some.
I had a whole shoulder roasted ala HFW and it was pretty spectacular.
Hard and fast for 30 mins then slow for an hour and half.
Sika have small fillets and I find they are nice cooked whole as Venison Wellington with chanterelles.

kakashka

Any dinner invites knocking about for your bestest boards.ie buddies Sparks:D:D..

jwshooter

Sparks wrote: »

Which is wierd - there's an italian coffee shop/deli/restaurant place in the middle of Dublin here that serves a braised venison ravioli and they can't make enough of the stuff to keep up (and it is really excellent). And all it is, is venison braised in a little red wine and then wrapped in a little pasta. It's about as complicated as a sausage roll.

BTW jw, fillet fried in a pan and then you put in a glass of red? That makes no sense to me at all. Searing hot pan (a good solid lump of a thing made from cast iron, heated until it's a step away from glowing), the oven turned to about 180C and warmed up, a good one to one-and-a-half inch thick fillet at room temperature, some salt (not table salt, proper sea salt), a grind of pepper and left sit there while the pan heats then a brush (literally, one brush) of olive oil and into the pan and don't touch it for two minutes. Then turn the fillet, put the pan in the oven and close the door and after four to five minutes, take out the fillet, put it on a plate and cover in tin foil, leave to rest for at least five minutes, and then serve. Put the red wine in the glass at the table, leave the onions in the cupboard, and the roast veg in the pantry and serve with a chunk from a baguette. Proper steak, that, seared on the outside, still pink in the middle, all the juices still in the steak, and no bloody parsnip trying to drown the taste

a baguette .

Sparks

jwshooter wrote: »

a baguette .

Yeah. A slice of Pat the Baker's finest isn't going to be much use when you're trying to mop up the juices off the plate at the end of the meal, there's not enough crust on it and it tears too easy. Hallah and brioche are worse, rolls have too much crust, vienna loaves not enough crust (but they're better than the others if you've no choice). Baguettes are perfect (no shock there, this is what they're normally used for).
We might laugh at the french because the americans think it's funny to do so, but they know their food better than anyone on the planet. So yeah. Baguette.

And you can get them in your local spar if you don't know how to bake them.

(And it means you don't have to go digging through a mound of veggies to get to the steak. Veggies are barely a cut above salad, and repeat after me, "salad is what food eats" )

kakashka

Sparks wrote: »

Which is wierd - there's an italian coffee shop/deli/restaurant place in the middle of Dublin here that serves a braised venison ravioli and they can't make enough of the stuff to keep up (and it is really excellent). And all it is, is venison braised in a little red wine and then wrapped in a little pasta. It's about as complicated as a sausage roll.

Are you sure thats all they do with it?i have a couple of Italian (Restaurateur) friends and they marinade every little bit of Venison they use regardless

jwshooter

Sparks wrote: »

Yeah. A slice of Pat the Baker's finest isn't going to be much use when you're trying to mop up the juices off the plate at the end of the meal, there's not enough crust on it and it tears too easy. Hallah and brioche are worse, rolls have too much crust, vienna loaves not enough crust (but they're better than the others if you've no choice). Baguettes are perfect (no shock there, this is what they're normally used for).
We might laugh at the french because the americans think it's funny to do so, but they know their food better than anyone on the planet. So yeah. Baguette.

And you can get them in your local spar if you don't know how to bake them.

(And it means you don't have to go digging through a mound of veggies to get to the steak. Veggies are barely a cut above salad, and repeat after me, "salad is what food eats" )

it would be ok in a school lunch .but not for a grown man ! .

It wasn't me!

Actually, I remember getting a recipe from Sparks for chili if he'd share it. It used steak as I recall, and would be perfect to use with venison too. Never got around to trying it yet, but it sounded excellent.

Sparks

CJhaughey wrote: »

I must try that pheasant and venison pie,that sounds tasty.

I can't remember where she got the recipe, I think it was in some Nigel Slater book. Bloody nice meal though.

Sparks

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Actually, I remember getting a recipe from Sparks for chili if he'd share it. It used steak as I recall, and would be perfect to use with venison too. Never got around to trying it yet, but it sounded excellent.

Chilli's kindof a cross between religion and addiction though - and everyone's got a different recipe, from Heston Blumenthal who'll take three days to cook his, go through about four cuts of meat doing it, use twelve kinds of chilli (three of which are rather hard to get a hold of) and make a cornbread muffin and a sour cream sorbet to serve with it; to the standard greasy spoon muck which is ground meat fried with onions, drowned in a tin of crushed tomatoes and ketchup and mixed with a tin of red kidney beans and sweetcorn, then kept simmering for six days in an underwashed soup tureen...

My current recipe changes every few weeks while I tweak stuff. Basicly, get cheap cuts of meat (with beef, I'd use something from the shoulder cuts if I've time, rump steak if I don't), trim the fat and nasty bits of gristle and cut into small cubes, then put the pressure cooker on the hob on full blast and let it get as hot as it can. Sear the beef in batches and as each batch gets almost done, throw in a tablespoon of adobo sauce (kinda hard to find outside of fallon and byrnes unless you order it on the net, but it's the difference between so-so chilli and a religious experience in a bowl), set the beef aside in a large mixing bowl and turn down the heat. Add onions and a tablespoon of oil (not olive oil - vegetable or peanut or corn oil) to the pot and fry them off with a good pinch of salt. Add sliced fresh chillis and some rehydrated dry chillis at this point too (new mexico reds are good for the dry chillis, and pretty much any mild chilli you can find is good for the fresh. Don't use birds-eye chillis or habaneros unless you've so far spotted six things you don't normally do in your tuesday chilli...). After a few minutes, add a few sliced cloves of garlic (and a tablespoon of tomato puree if you've got it) and fry those with the onions and chillis for about a minute, then tip the whole lot into the bowl with the beef. Now tip a can of beer into the empty pot, and keep your head away from the pot (if the alcohol does flame, it takes about six weeks for eyebrows to regrow). Stir the beer - you're trying to get the small burnt bits of beef and onion and chilli off the bottom of the pot. After a minute, tip everything from the mixing bowl back into the pot of the pressure cooker, top up with more beer if there's not enough liquid to make it look like a stew, and add some chilli powder and some cumin (if you have the seeds and grind them yourself, that's going to be about ten times better than if you just get some powder from tesco). Then lid up, turn up the heat till it's up to pressure, then drop back to a simmer and cook under pressure for at least an hour but no more than 90 minutes (or you'd get soup). Now lose the lid and add some flour to thicken things up (there's a specific kind of flour called masa that you make tortillas from - that tastes great, but any flour will do really. You could even mash up tortillas and dump them into the pot before the hour's cooking if you really wanted the taste and couldn't find the masa). Cook for a while longer on a low simmer to cook out the raw taste of the flour and to let it thicken up, and then serve. If you want beans, add them just after the flour. But beans and chilli is like the pope and christianity.

The basic idea though, through all of that, is that chilli's a dish for poor people. Adobo sauce is rare here but it's used to pickle stuff in mexico and about as rare there as vinegar is here. Masa's the same way - it's the mexican version of odlum's flour. And the meat's important - it can't be too expensive or the meat won't have enough connective tissue to convert to gelatin while it cooks (if you used fillet you'd get a horrible chilli). And don't mince the meat. You want chunks in your chilli, not a paste.


(and no, I didn't forget the tomatos. Chilli's not supposed to have any)

clivej

Sparks and JW its good to see you both swopping cooking recipes instead of swinging handbags at each other.

Aprons on now girls.

It wasn't me!

clivej wrote: »

Sparks and JW its good to see you both swopping cooking recipes instead of swinging handbags at each other.

Aprons on now girls.

I reckon a competition is in order, with a panel from here to adjudicate.

kakashka

As a totally unbias and independant hungry person i'd like to put my name forward for the judging panel:D:D

It wasn't me!

Me too. I'll even bring my own baguette.

kakashka

It wasn't me! wrote: »

Me too. I'll even bring my own baguette.

No way i'm bringin a baguette...best lead lined handbag i can find,bound to get dirty!!!:D:D

Sparks

What is it with you lot and cross-dressing?
It's got to be a wicklow thing, none of the mountain rescue lads back home were this wierd. Sure, you got the odd damaged corpse, but at least they never complained...

Sparks

jwshooter wrote: »

it would be ok in a school lunch .but not for a grown man ! .

You might want to tell that to everyone you know in the building trade so jw, because everyone I've ever seen in a hi-vis round dublin has been eating these for breakfast from the local spar:


And that's a baguette. Shorter, yeah, but a baguette nonetheless.

Vegeta

As a mod I am going to abuse my powers and call dibs for a seat on the judging panel for any cook offs that may take place.

Ye're making me hungry here lads.

Excuse my ignorant pallet if the competition is declared a draw and to decide any competition a second desert will be required.

greenpeter

You could charge at the door, i'd pay to see Sparks and Jw in the same room, would be some laugh.:D

meathstevie

Folks, back to the rifles for a second. My mission for this year is getting deer permissions and I'd be leaning towards a .308, quite likely a CZ. The reasons for choosing .308 are : versatility of ammo and relatively cheap quality ammo out there. I'd be using the lighter stuff for the odd fox as well. Am I making a substantial error in my line of thinking somewhere ?

jwshooter

Sparks wrote: »

You might want to tell that to everyone you know in the building trade so jw, because everyone I've ever seen in a hi-vis round dublin has been eating these for breakfast from the local spar:


And that's a baguette. Shorter, yeah, but a baguette nonetheless.

what are you trying to say mark .

Sparks

I'm trying to say that a baguette is the right choice for that meal, and the fact that it has a name that sounds funny in Ireland shouldn't be counted against it. If it's good enough for everyone who ever bought a breakfast roll in the local spar, then it's good enough for us.

kakashka

Sparks wrote: »

What is it with you lot and cross-dressing?

Well i just thought in the interest of fairness that i'd bring a handbag,i mean what kind of man would use a club on two apron clad handbag wielding er emm men??

arrowloopboy

jwshooter wrote: »

a lot more than some one that bought a rifle two years ago

there was 10 people that returned a 100 or more deer on there licence last year ,i would think john was one of them