Not to long ago when I started Ben G. Outdoors as I was searching and trying to find more blogs of similar content I ran across The Wild Side. From there I found more blogs, and I kept seeing the badge for the Outdoor Bloggers Summit. Eventually I gave in and clicked on it. To my surprise the OBS was much more then I expected, but me being who I am was a bit skeptical at first.

I had to check out the web site a few more times before I was convinced. While checking out the OBS blog found I found tons of useful information about blogging. I also found this site to be a very valuable spot for meeting other bloggers with similar interests via the links.

Finally after about three days of checking , I decided it was time to join the ranks of the other outdoor bloggers I had come to look up to in the short time I had been frequenting them. So now here I am sporting an OBS badge of my own, and very proud to be a part of such a great organization.

I would also like to Credit Elizabeth from the Deer Passion Blog for asking me to join the OBS just as I was composing an e-mail to Kristine.

Hey everyone I was out reading some posts the other day and stumbled upon this hilarious post at Montana Elk Hunting. It's called Got Hosed? Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hope you enjoy it.

~Ben G.

A couple of weekends ago I went out to the Sand Dunes State Forest scouting for turkeys, and I ran across quite a few disturbing piles of deer carcasses. Not only is this illegal, but it’s not very ethical. I guess if you own the land it’s not as big of a deal, but it still poses the threat of spreading diseases like CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease). Again this is public land please respect it and others.

Taken not more then 10ft from the parking lot

I am just disgusted someone would not take the responsibility to properly dispose of their deer carcasses. I know it’s not very hard to find a land fill that will accept carcasses, because most landfills will take them. If you are having trouble finding a spot please contact your local DNR officer, and I am sure they can point you in the right direction.

Thanks

Ben G.

Saturday was a busy day for me, but very enjoyable. The morning started out with everyone in a rush to get out the door. Amber and Wyatt were off to get pictures taken with a bunny and a lamb, and I was off with Daffy to get a good long walk in the park. After a nice long walk through the park Daffy and I hurried home so I didn’t miss my ride to the Northwest Sportshow. Lucky for me Luke was a bit behind seclude, so Daffy and I made it home with time to spare.

Luke showed up and we were off the Show. Surprisingly we didn’t have any trouble finding parking. It has been quite a while since I had been to this show and was very excited to get there and see all of the great stuff it had to offer. As we walked through the doors I was at once over whelmed by the amount of booths and people. After the St. Cloud show I guess I had expected something much smaller.

Luke and I wandered back and forth through the Iles and saw tons of resorts, outfitters, game farms, sporting goods stores, and some other miscellaneous stuff. We stopped by some booths, chatted with some of the outfitters, and checked out a couple of guns. There were also lots of impressive Deer, Elk and Moose mounts along with lots and lots of huge Muskie mounts.Time just flew by and three hours later it seemed as though we had just gotten to the show.
When we got to the last booth we both looked at each other and said, “Is that it”. Not saying the show wasn’t huge and didn't have a ton of exhibiters, but we both expected to see some sort of new equipment, something that made us go ”Wow I want one of those”.

We decided to grab one of the maps and see if we had missed any thing, and to our surprise we had miss one very important room. It was the wild turkey room. As most of you know I am going turkey hunting this spring and Luke is going with me. Now very excited we headed toward the turkey room. As we walked trough the doors I was very disappointed there were only about five booths. After that we called it a day and headed home.

When I got home I had about an hour until I was off to a game feed, put on by my brother-in-law Matt’s church and two other churches. I had a wonderful time and eat way too much. The menu was as fallows Bacon Duck Wraps, Cheesy Goose, Deep Fried Fish, Buffalo Sloppy Joe’s, Antelope Chili, Pheasant Chili, Venison Meatballs, Venison Roast, and lots of bars and cookies. Oh there were also some veggies. They raffled off lots of prizes like fishing rods, DVD’s, hats, and Knives. Speaking of knives the featured speaker was Chuck Buck of Buck Knives. He gave a great speech and had the crowd laughing and cheering for him a couple of time. I learned a lot about his company and the charity work they do. The one thing that really stood out to me was that Buck Knives moved from California to Idaho (tax reasons), and with in the next two years they will be making all of their products in the U.S.A., and not in China. Chuck seems like a great person, and he runs a great company.

A good friend of mine sent this to me not sure where it came from, but I had to share it. This is one hunt I don't think I would want to be a part of.

More Video

Bear Dance

~Ben G.

I was contacted by Jerome Philippe founder of Africa Hunting.com on March 10th and he asked me if I would be willing to do a write up about his site. I thought I would take it one step further. I asked Jerome if he would take the time do an interview with me. Jerome agreed to do the interview, so I called him up on Wednesday afternoon and did and interview with him. We chatted for about a half an hour. I want to highlight some of the things we talked about.

Can you tell us about a little bit about yourself?

I was born in France and grew up in Namibia Africa. I moved to the States in the late 80’s to go to school, during that time I met my wife. We got married had a child and moved back to Africa. In 1996 we moved back to the States to give my handicapped daughter more opportunities. My family and I own a large hunting property in Namibia where we have an outfitter service. I have been promoting in online for 12 years at http://www.africanhuntingsafaris.com/.

When did you get into hunting?

I was basically born into it. Both of my Grandfathers hunted, and so did my Father .

What is your favorite type of hunting?

I enjoy Bird, rabbit, and boar hunting; my favorite is bird hunting when there is a high volume of birds and lots of action.

Where did you come up with the Idea for Africa Hunting.com?

Being on the web for 12 years I found there was not a place to find information about all of Africa for hunting. Any thing that came close was very out of date. I also wanted to make Africa more accessible to the world, but mostly the US. I wanted to make it very easy for someone to investigate all the aspects of hunting in Africa like getting, permits, lining up your pass port, and licenses just to name a few. Currently I have around 2800 companies listed in the Africa Hunting.com Directory which supports ratings and reviews.

When did you launch Africa hunting .com?

September 2008

Explain to us why Africa hunting.com is a good site for people to go if they enjoy hunting in Africa or for some one just checking it out?

It has a good rating and reviews section which allows someone to research a lot of different outfitters. The review section can help to expose the bad outfitters and highlight the good ones. Guides can also use the site to promote them selves if they are switching outfitting companies. It also makes Africa hunts accessible to everyone for as low of a price as $7000. (I would rather say: Most Americans would be surprised at how affordable hunting in Africa can be, a nice first time plains game hunting safari including 4 to 5 species, can be around the same price as a guided Elk hunt in North America.)

What advice do you have for someone dreaming about hunting in Africa?

First of all go to my site, and ask people who have done it before questions. Ask your friends about their experiences hunting in Africa, get references, and actually call the outfitters.

Do you have any thing else you would like to tell the readers?

The site is open to every one interested in hunting in Africa; it also has forums, a photo and video gallery and places for writers to post any thing about hunting.

Thanks

You can also view posts about Africa Hunting.com on the Whitetail Woods and Deer Passion Blogs.

Ben G.

Other Interviews

Interview with Warrior Outdoors

Proceeds used to restore and protect grouse and woodcock habitat

The Rum River Chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS) will hold a "Cabin Fever Shoot" on Saturday, April 4, 2009, at Pheasant Ridge Shooting Preserve, 1547 Imperial Street, Ogilivie, Minnesota beginning at 9 a.m. rain or shine. According to Gary Lillion, registration is $75 and includes birds (1chuckar, 2 pheasants) and a Rib-eye steak dinner after the shoot. (Guest dinner is $20). Teams will consist of 1 shooter and 1-2 dogs. Time limited to 30 minutes per team. For more information, reservations and/or directions contact Lillion at 763-689-5627, 763-843-9417, or by e-mail at lillion4@hotmail.com . All entries must be submitted by March 15. Proceeds from this event will be used to restore and protect grouse and woodcock habitat. Established in 1961, the Ruffed Grouse Society is the one international wildlife conservation organization dedicated to promoting conditions suitable for ruffed grouse, American woodcock and related wildlife to sustain our sport hunting tradition and outdoor heritage. Information on the RGS, its mission and management projects can be found on the web at: www.ruffedgrousesociety.org.

Press Release found at the Outdoor Wire

Fist Turkey Track

Turkey tracks every where

Roost?

Droppings under Roost

The most promising of the two fields

Daffy on the way back to the car at the end of the day

Ben G.

Related Posts

Turkey Hunting Addiction (Part 1)

No Turkey

Turkey Tags

I know this really doesn't have much to do with the outdoors, but I just had to post it. I came up the stairs last night to see My wife Amber, Son Wyatt, and Pup Daffy all sitting just like this. I grabbed the camera and snapped a photo.



Enjoy



Ben G.

I started thinking yesterday after my post from the http://www.outdoorsweekly.com/ about the Minnesota moose population and the videos I saw on Way In The Bush. I have had a few memorable encounters with moose in the past and I thought it would be fun to share them.

The first time I ever remember seeing a moose was in the short time I lived in Alaska (six months or so). I was about six years old and my Mom, Ryan, and I lived with my Uncle and his family just outside of Anchorage. We were on our way to town just pulling out of the driveway in my Mom’s tiny car and there it was a giant bull moose standing in the ditch staring right at me. I remember being so scared I unbuckled my seat belt and hid on the floor until we were a long way away from the huge moose. I did see many other moose in the short time I lived up there, but none as memorable as the first.

I did not see another moose until I moved to Idaho about ten years later. I was snowmobiling with some friends off Lightning Creek Road. As we were going by some brush on a logging road out popped a cow and a calf right next to me. If I was not so startled, I bet I could have almost reached out and touched the cow. In my sheer amazement, I let off on the throttle just a bit, and in no time flat, they were off the logging road and into the forest out of sight.

In the following fall, I was out deer hunting with my good friend Josh. We were on our way back to Josh’s house from a long day out in the woods. Along the way, we heard something off in the distance. Then I saw some movement in the trees behind us. We both got our guns ready to shoot at what we expected to be a large Mulley buck, but to our surprise, it was a lot bigger then we originally thought. It happened to be a young bull moose running right in our direction. Josh yelled, “Moose!” We ran as fast as we could in opposite directions and out of the moose’s path (What a rush.) To this day, I still think something else spooked the moose because he did not even seem to see us as he ran past. I have not seen a moose since that wonderful fall afternoon.

Some day I hope to get the chance to see more of these beautiful, strange looking animals we call moose.

~Ben G.
Does this moose look real to you

There are many different aspects of deer hunting one of them is processing your kill. Lots of people decide to bring their deer into a meat locker or meat shop, and have all of the processing done for them. From what I understand this can bring with it quite a hefty price tag depending on what you have out of venison made into.

Processing your deer all starts shortly after the kill when you field dress the deer. I don’t care who you are or where you come from if you don’t field dress your animal as soon as possible it can cause major damage to the meat. Although there are a few different ways to dress your deer this step is the just about the same for every one.

Now I will let you in on some of the secrets we have found out over the years of hunting and processing our own venison.

Our party believes the best time to skin your animal is shortly after you bring it in, from the woods or at least with in the same day. The reasoning behind this is the animal is still warm the hide comes off with little effort. When you let it hang for an extended period of time you may have to use a four wheeler to pull the hide off, or spend a large amount of time removing the hide. This can create a much grater risk of damaging or wasting meat.

The next step we take is cleaning the deer off and trimming excess fat. When it’s cold out like most Novembers here in Minnesota your hands get awfully chilly and sometimes numb. Cutting off the excess fat allows the meat to cool much faster during the evening, and washing it gets rid of any debris you may have pick up out in the field. I could go into details here, but it is pretty basic.

Depending on the weather we will leave the carcass hang for up to three nights, but if it is warm which it has been in the past we try to cut it up that night shortly after it is all cleaned up. De boning of the meat is usually a group effort and takes very little time. We try to cut it into bigger pieces so we have the option to make jerky. No matter how good you are there are going to be some scraps, so we make two piles one for sausage and the other for the big roasts. We always cut out the back straps, and tender loins and cook them up that evening. Which makes for a great meal after a long day. Once the meat is cut we seal it in an air tight bag with a vacuum sealer. Then put it in the freezer.

Some time with in the next month after the deer season is over we all get together to make the sausage. First we grind all of the pork shoulder on a course setting, then the venison on the coarse setting as well. Now we go back and grind each one of them again on a fine setting. As we are grinding the meat some one else weighs out the correct portions to make a 60/40 split (60 venison 40 pork). We use to have a butcher grind all of our meat, but after having a couple bad experiences my uncle decided to invest in a grinder. After the correct amounts are weighed out we mix by hand the meat and seasoning.

We typically buy either pig or sheep intestines to use for casings. We use an old antique sausage stuffer to stuff the casings. You just put the casings on the nozzle, fill the stuffer up with as much meat as possible and crank. As you crank the stuffer meat it pours into the casing.You have to make sure you pinch one end so the meat doesn't shoot out the end. Once the lengths look good we cut it, and tie both ends together with a piece of string. Now it’s time to seal it in an air tight bag and take home to freeze. We usually have this set up so two guys are stuffing while two are tying, packaging and labeling everything. It goes pretty quick.

Summer sausage is very similar but the casings aren’t eatable and they are a whole lot larger. After a day or two we hang the summer sausage in the smoker for a while and then you seal it in bags and freeze.

Although processing venison isn’t really hunting, I feel it is part of the whole experience. I have had some really great times with my hunting buddies while processing our venison. If you have never done it before I suggest you try it out not only does it save money, but it makes you appreciate your tasty snacks that much more.