Lancer09

With the duck and venison where overcooking it is tantamount to sin unlike beef you won't need to worry about the skinny end being overcooked and the fat end of a tenderloin being under done. I really really like cooking with it, it's just a new thing I haven't got down yet quite as well as I had searing then finishing in the oven but It'll get there. My wife isn't sold on it yet. I found some 72 hour short rib recipes that look awesome. Will try that at some point soon too. Just need to find some good thick chunky short ribs or osso buco shanks.

I don't think I got the skillet hot enough either. I thought with legs I'd give the broiler a go first but without having skin covering the entirety of the leg I didn't want to over cook the exposed meat so I switched to the gas top. That prime rib sounds good... Real good. I think Next thing I'm going to do next is try and sear BEFORE cooking with the sous vide. I've read of a few people trying that so when it's done it's set and good to go. I think with cooking after I've cooked some of the juices out and it's still not as moist as it could be. I think a venison loin, or duck breast is going to be next. I also found a bomb recipe for some 24 hour chicken and pork belly adobo that I may give a try to. Cooked WITH the sauce/glaze and veggies in the bag so that it all melds together during the 24 hours of cooking.

I really need to put a thermometer to the water and see. I feel like mine may be running a bit hot just based on the steaks AI did a while back. I see a ton of stuff saying 135 should be medium rare but they definitely weren't. If I'm running a bit hot I may need to re-calibrate if I can.

Legs were good, Underwhelmed with the rice but it was tasty. I do think for the Sous Vide I'm going to stick bigger, flatter cuts of meat like the breast for chicken. Was kinda hard to get good sear on the legs after I cooked them. May also try a sear first next time then put a glaze of sorts in with the chicken. I was also a little surprised about the temp of chicken. I cooked for a few hours at 165 to get it "hot enough" I don't think i quite needed to go that hot. I think 158-160 would have been plenty hot enough for those legs.

Prepped dinner for last night this evening. Little worried how it's going to turn out but I think it'll be pretty good. Chicken legs are vac sealed with some green onion, shallot, chili powder, paprika, lime zest, lime juice, garlic, S&P, EVOO, and then a splash of Agave Nectar and Tequila. Shooting for a nice Margarita Lime chicken leg and some cilantro rice. Hopping into the sous vide for 2 hours or so at 165 this evening while I have a work meeting and should be ready to sear up the skin when I get back! Here it goes!

Did a few sirloins in the new sousvide I got for Christmas Sealed them with a few paper thin slices of onion on each side, garlic, butter and rosemary. heavily S&P'd We had a busy day so they were on for 9 hours at 135. Was very interesting. Very close to Med well or well done but still pretty tender. Texture was more of a roast than a steak though unfortunatley. I think that had to do with the time. Flavor though.... beyond amazing. you could taste everything that was in the bag. Onion, garlic and rosemary at the very end. Next time I think i'll drop the temp down to 122 or 123 for 3 hours or so before the sear.

Whelp, we got our four off the ice from yesterday which is pretty surprising actually. That pond has had a pair of bald eagles circling overhead for the last week, thought they would have grabbed at least one of them. 4 more gadwalls. 2 drakes and 2 hens.

I've liked all of them I have cooked so far.. Except for the one I tried roasting whole. I overcooked the breast trying to get crispy skin that I never really achieved. I've mostly been hitting them with salt and pepper and thyme. Scoring and searing the skin til crispy then a few seconds on the meat side and eating rare. May do a batch of jerky next.

It must be the vegetation. It's pretty mossy and has a lot of hydrilla as well. Too muddy to have much in the way of invertebrate life. They have all tasted pretty dang good so far this season. Closing in 20 gadwall for the season there, Mallards are the next most shot, with 3, and a mixed bag after that. Been using a canoe for retrieval most of the time and telling myself what a good boy I am when I go pick em up. Ice was completely covering the pond. Too thin to walk on. Too thick to take out and break our way through. Still only 13 out but the sun has got the top layer starting to melt a bit. Hopefully with it getting to the 30's tomorrow we can go grab them.

This last weekends cold weather definitely gave us some fresh birds. Saturday even though it was cold we picked up a few. I think it was 3 birds for three of us so not great, but Sunday it was on! Hunted til 9 with a pair of other guys and by that time we had whacked 5 gadwalls and a pair of hooded merg hens. I don't know what it is about the pond i'm hunting but it's gadwall heaven. The nice thing about the pond I hunt, is that it is about a mile and a half from my office. I can get a nice hunt in and get two hours in til 9, and be clocked in at work by 9:15. Today was not the case. Pond was open last night, but cold, when I parked the car this morning.... 0... when we quit at 8:30... 5 degrees. Talk about cold and frozen clear across. Strong enough to walk on near the bank but would break/crack the further out we got. We ended up stomping a whole the size of 2 or 2 and a half cars or so out there and shot a few ducks this morning. I used some Christmas BP giftcards and grabbed a lucky duck spinner. With a little open water and some motion we had a few passes of ducks and picked up 4. Probably our best shooting day so far. I shot 2 birds on 4 shots, and another guy shot 2 birds on 5 shots.. Third shooter went o for 6. Unfortunately right now the closest bird is 40 yards out on the ice after it finally skidded to a stop, a couple others are closer to 60 yards out. You guys usually wait for it to thaw? Other option is go get a fishing rod with a snagging hook and try to bring them in. One budy has a little pontoon pelican boat that we may use and try to break out way out to them. All options are on the table at this point.. Until then we've just got 4 birds out in the outdoor freezer!

It's bee an off and on season around here in the KC area. Either just a few ducks or a whole lot. had a few good hunts back in november then it shut down basically until This weekend. Went from 1 to 2 birds for our group to 7 that three of us shot Christmas eve. Popped 4 this morning as well before we all just got too dang cold. Might have to give a Tablerock hunt a shot to extend teh season even just a little.

This is just turning into my seasons diary. Nailed my first double today on a group of 4 gadwalls that came in together. Really hoping that the cold weather tomorrow makes a big push of birds for hunting Saturday. Anyone got any tips on roasting a whole duck for Christmas this year? From what I saw over on Hank Shaw's blog I should fly the legs and wings first before the whole thing goes in the oven so that I don't have to over cook the breast to get the legs and wings done. I figure I'll be just Winging the plucking, cleaning and roasting of it.

Been a big season of learning. Killed a greenhead on saturday at 10 yards landing in the decoys. Knocked down a ringneck and a gaddie this morning. Doing pretty much everything self taught or from youtube it's been pretty dang rewarding figuring it all out. From decoy placement, blinds, to how far to lead birds has been quite the season to figure it all out.

I've killed a couple of greenheads (lost one that dove under and got stuck in some weeds), 2 gaddies and a shovelor hen. My wife wants a few different drakes mounted along on/along a long wood slab angled from the floor to the ceiling. I really like those spoonie and bluebill drakes.

You killed more birds in one hunt than I've in 5. Something tells me your shooting percentage is substantially better than mine.

I only killed a doe during rifle this year and had the same thing happen. Granted I ended up getting her it, I missed twice before I finally hit her. I thought She was 250 ish out... I counted out to 330 ish when I stepped it off and found first blood. It's a good thing I was aiming high already. I was real lucky frankly because she had worked far enough to my right that I was shooting standing without a rest too.

Beginning in July each year I can't buy anything for myself, because when I do, it's usually something that has already been bought as a present. If I do buy something it needs to be something I have NEVER brought up in conversation. Woman has the memory of a darn matriarchal elephant.

Billet that venison looks amazing. Exact reason I want a sous vide. I think I'll be picking one up soon if it doesn't come from the wife for Christmas... Been dropping hints for 6 months now. One thing I did see that I think would be pretty neat. Awesome, and terrifying was a recipe for 72 hour short rib recipe. Cooking for three days!

Is all I did this morning... Teaching them that they can come hang out by me all they want and not get shot. Got out this morning and should have had a limit by 6:45 this morning. From Shooting light til 7:45 I never went more than five minutes without at least getting to work birds. had 8+ groups all cupped up and coming in. At least two more landed out of range including a group of 7. All I had to show for the day was a bunch of empty shells and one duck. I'm hunting a farm pond that is deep in the center 15+ feet but super muddy and super weedy pretty much everywhere now with so much silt coming in from the cattle. This pond used to be even deeper with no moss or weeds. But that one duck I shot at a quartering away and he sailed out into the middle. My first Greenhead. He was 90-100 yards out and I didn't think taking a shot that far would do any good and I'd just be wasting shells. I've been using my canoe to hunt the other side of the pond so I grabbed it and as I was putting in he dove, and never came back up. Saw my last group of birds at 7:45 and nothing else. Unfortunately I even had a bad wind today. 10 mph right into my face istead of back out across the point I'm sitting on like usual. Didn't matter birds still wanted to be there and I just couldn't get it done. Picking up 40 decoys solo, in a canoe, in the wind really sucked. So did paddling the whole 10 acre pond trying to see that duck below the surface. Oh well. Time to work on being patient and shooting those cupped up birds dropping in instead of just being able to hit the passing by shots. Time to move on to deer for a bit.

Was pretty slow for me. I'll probably be out one or two more times before Saturday. Saturday I hunted afternoon/evening. Jumped 1 group of 8 ish mallard drakes off when we got there. Sunday morning bright and early I think it was the same group circling above my decoys as I went ashore in my canoe and they bolted out... was around 6 am ish and still pretty early, left the decoys out from the night before. Eventually had a few teal come over and missed a shot on one. Ended up dropping one mallard out of a group of 10 that came in low and hot over me, Had to work the birds back to me but ended up dropping one.

Getting ready here! Got a small family farm pond that is perfectly clearing up some of the nasty moss from the cattle and more ducks are showing up every day. Watched a red head this morning for about five minutes. Had a mix of Mallards, teal, and gaddies on the pond the last few days.

Dig it. I usually use a few more saddles after the first layer of bucktail for more swimmy action. Like the rattle idea back off the bend. Ever dealt with short nipping fish pulling it off?

The large skunk I shot a few weeks back actually fell to one of the redfires. Single shot to the top of the head and he was done.

I like them actually. They definitely aren't as heavy as the rockets which is why I don't like them at the longer distances but up close they are deadly. There is a good bit of mushrooming compared to other pellets in .177. There is no doubt when you make a hit with them. There is a noticeable pop when the redfires find there mark.

I actually picked up the Gamo Hornett Maxxim in July to pick off squirrels that were getting tomatoes in the garden. I'm still picking tomatoes and still popping squirrels out of there. Yesterday number 45 took a dirt nap. There was also a very large skunk living underneath my front porch as well that met its demise. I wanted it in .22 but when I went to bass pro they only had it in a .177. Seems to be doing the job pretty good for me though! I'm shooting a mix of Gamo rocket pellets (got a copper bb in the nose) and the gamo red fires. I know the red fires are 2 grams lighter so they shoot a bit higher but at close range they hit harder than the rockets. The rockets shoot better for anything over 20 yards or so.