To deer or not to deer?

[fabsroman]

Okay, there are issues here dealing with laws and then issues dealing with practicality.

In Maryland, you have to tag a deer before you can start butchering it, but the tagging stations are all around. They are even talking about registering deer over the internet now which would make life a lot easier.

Maryland also has a program where you can donate the deer to feed the hungry. We have the option of donating money to the program when we buy a license and that money is used to pay butchers to process the deer for the hungry. I have killed several deer over the year, and most end up going to other people either via the feed the hungry program or to friends that want the deer. I have never had a problem getting rid of deer. Geese on the other hand have been somewhat tough a couple of times.

If you want to process the deer in the truck before bringing it home, think about getting or making some type of hoist that you can put into the rear trailer hitch to hang the deer on. That will make the process a lot simpler. I know they sell things that work like a crane on the trailer hitch so that a single person can load large game into the truck. Such a contraption would be able to hold the deer up while you butcher it.

As far as the hide is concerned, I usually throw it away.