Deer camp traditions

[badgerboy]

Heading down to deer camp tomorrow for opening weekend of rifle in WI. Anyone have any camp specific traditions? I did a quick search and didn't see anything.


For us, it's cards, pickled eggs, and anything but Bud Light. Camp owner doesnt like Budweiser so we don't bring it around.

And of course, card games.




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[Mojave]

We used to catch brook trout out of a creek and do a couple nights of fish dinners.

 

[Jstumbaugh]

Fresh heart and loins are eaten same day. New one for us this year....30 pack bet. Each guy bets a 30 pack on the best buck on opening day. Winner gets 4 -30's. Could make for some interesting shooting choices around 4:30pm Saturday.

 

[badgerboy]

Fresh heart and loins are eaten same day. New one for us this year....30 pack bet. Each guy bets a 30 pack on the best buck on opening day. Winner gets 4 -30's. Could make for some interesting shooting choices around 4:30pm Saturday.

With a 30 rack bet, I am going to go out on a limb and guess you are in Wisconsin too? Good luck!





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[WildBoose]

Most of our camps older generation have gone on by now...fathers, uncles, grandfathers, older friends. We keep their memory alive by cooking a few specific meals each each year.
1. Deer vegetable soup on opening day for supper, with stuff mushrooms.
2. Molasses every morning on biscuits.
3. Smoked bologna for lunch of opening weekend.

I love hunting and have hunted most of my life started at 8yrs old...but the camps are one of my most favorite and look'd forward too aspects of it. Taking off work tomorrow to head down and get supper ready for the camp....it use to be 16-20 of us, now were lucky if 6 of us are there. Just as the older generation has moved on though, the new one is moving in...each year more of us are brining our children down to enjoy/experience "Cabin Life"

 

[sconnieVLP]

I have been thinking about this all day, I'm an hour away from heading to the airport to fly back home for gun season. We don't have a real "camp" since I hunt on the land my parents live on, but we operate out of the shed for a week.

We do a dinner/fire Friday night and cook up all kinds of stuff people have killed up to this point in the year. Saturday morning we'll have a breakfast that rotates hosts from year to year, then Saturday/Sunday lunch host gets rotated year to year as well.

Man I'm excited.

 

[go_deep]

Years ago when I lived in Wisconsin we all went out for Friday night fish fry the night before opener and Thanksgiving morning deer drives till 11, then eat!

 

[coloyooper]

Used to be a pallet of Busch light at my old camp in the UP

 

[badgerboy]

I have been thinking about this all day, I'm an hour away from heading to the airport to fly back home for gun season. We don't have a real "camp" since I hunt on the land my parents live on, but we operate out of the shed for a week.

We do a dinner/fire Friday night and cook up all kinds of stuff people have killed up to this point in the year. Saturday morning we'll have a breakfast that rotates hosts from year to year, then Saturday/Sunday lunch host gets rotated year to year as well.

Man I'm excited.

Sounds like a trip worth taking and a nice place to enjoy! Good luck!

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[Sturgeon]

WI Opening weekend, my dad and I will each take a thermos of hot chocolate and we make sandwiches with venison summer sausage from last years deer. It’s usually the only time all year I have hot chocolate.

Used to do a lot of drives Thanksgiving morning and then go into eat. Then next day doing drives and eating turkey sandwiches in the marsh.

 

[Northpark]

We used to hunt behind my grandparents house. Dad, grandpa, uncle Bob, then later me and my brother. We both killed our first deer back there. Mom used to let us take opening day (November 15th every year in MI) off school though eventually the school made it a holiday since none of the teachers were gonna show up either. There was always ham and bean soup for opening day lunch. Grandpa always had werthers original hard candies in his pocket. Can’t eat one without thinking of his deer blind. I still have grandpas rifle even though it never leaves the safe. One day I’ll pull it out again.

 

[Swamp Fox]

[...]

For us, it's cards, pickled eggs, and anything but Bud Light. Camp owner doesnt like Budweiser so we don't bring it around.

And of course, card games.




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It's funny you mention this ....


Have you heard the news?



LOL

 

[TJRNER]

For many years at our rustic camp, the night before opening day was grilled venison back strap over charcoal, bush baked beans, & potato chips sitting around a campfire. It was always good meeting up with the gang and dining on last seasons harvest. It was hard holding on to that back strap all year. Good times for sure!

 

[87TT]

New guy digs the crapper hole.

 

[Banded_spooney]

If you miss you do all dishes until you kill or the next guy misses.

 

[CMP70306]

For us the PGC changed the season start from Monday after Thanksgiving to the Saturday after Thanksgiving a couple years back which upended almost 40 years of our traditions. We used to travel 3 hours to camp on Friday then Saturday and Sunday used to be full of camp projects, small game hunting, checking the stands and clearing out your spot, sighting in the rifles, cooking stew in the big pot and spending a couple nights having drinks around the campfire.

With the change in opener moving up two days to Saturday all of that went away as we simply don’t have the time anymore. Now we spend Friday going up and getting everyone settled into camp then a quick dinner and we are off to bed. On top of that due to people no longer hunting or passing away only half of our original crew is still around with a new crew taking their place after the change.

As such the only two traditions we currently have left are our shots of Blackberry Brandy for the toasts and the Miss Jar. After one weekend of particularly terrible shooting in muzzleloader my Dad stated that he was offering a monetary incentive to shoot better. His proposal, every time you missed a deer you would be required to put a dollar in the jar and at the end of rifle season the person with the biggest buck would get the money.

After a couple years we changed it so that the money now goes to the camp fund for Brandy and we’ve been doing it for at least 10 years now.

 

[Randle]

Every new hunter drags their first deer out.
All hunters should experience that just once

 

[imw001]

It's all about the food at the shack - venison chili, bacon wrapped fillet mignon, baked goods, etc. I'm still a newbie there, but I'm a home cook and I'd like to challenge myself with something overkill - like pizza on my propane oven, or smoked ribs or pork butt.

Hot Brandy at night - that's a tradition courtesy of grandpa.

 

[Boarmaster]

We have a few at the Ohio camp I go to every year.

Friday after Thanksgiving : the guys come over to sight in the guns. Theres usually a Boston butt , slaw and beans involved. Various dips are brought in from some guys. Its a big party to mark the start of gun season.
Saturday after the end of the hunting week is the deer processing day. Hunters show up to process their deer. Theres food and its big party as well. Its a well oiled assembly line and we are usually done buy about 3:00. Venison is fried in small bite size peices. Not unusual to eat a small doe Up that day.
Lots of laughs and partying.

 

[Coopsdaddy]

Don’t smoke or drink much but my lifelong buddy rolls his own cigarettes.A few are enjoyable in moderation with a nice micro brew.