Steve Beckwith - Maine Hunter

Friday, December 12, 2014

Using a new fallen snow to your advantage on rural or suburban public land!

Here's a tip about using a new fallen snow to your advantage when you can't track them without pushing them out of hunt-able areas like in a suburban hunt on public land! If the morning sit doesn't produce investigate a little in the open hardwoods and trails for late and early morning activity locate where they headed for bedding without pushing them out of their secure hiding place and use that knowledge for tomorrows early morning setup!
This knowledge not only works the next day, but can help you with that early morning setup next year too! Deer are creatures of habit, and follow ancestral instincts handed down from past survival methods in any woods this holds true on rural hunts as well! Many hunters find opportunity, where they have found it before! 

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Corned Venison Brisket - A Crock Pot Delight!

Corned Venison Brisket Brine Recipe & Crock Pot Cooking Instructions
This recipe is my own twist compiled from several reviewed corned beef recipes, tried and tested to be excellent dinning by my friends and family!
 
The meat cut: Bone out about 4-5 lbs of  venison. (Front shoulder, neck, rump all work great.)

The Brine Recipe:
  • 2 quarts cold well or bottled water (avoid Chlorinated water)
  • 1 cup Sea salt or Kosher Salt
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 stick of cinnamon (or 1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon in a pinch)
  • 2 tablespoons of whole black peppercorns 
  • 1/4 teaspoon powdered clove or 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice powder
  • 1 teaspoon minced ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed rosemary
  • 3 bay leaves crushed
  • 5-8 garlic cloves crushed (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder in a pinch)
Instructions for preparing Brine and Brine time

Step 1- Place all the above ingredients into a large kettle and heat on medium heat stirring constantly until the salt and sugars dissolve thoroughly when the liquid just starts to boil /steam remove from heat. Allow to cool completely to refrigerator temperature COLD!  Do not use hot or warm brine on fresh meat. (Cooked meat will spoil during brine process if you add hot liquid onto fresh meat!)

Step 2 -I find using a vacuum sealer with large bags works best for this, but you can use large zip lock bags or even a ceramic type bowl and cover. But what ever choice you use, the brine must engulf the entire cut of meat during this process. I make a vacuum sealed bag place the meat inside and fill the bag with the COLD brine solution, then using the bag sealer, I remove as much as I can without sucking up fluid into my sealer machine and seal the bag top. I then massage the brine into the meat through the sealed bag and place the bag into a large mixing bowl (In case it leaks) in the refrigerator for 4-7 days, the longer it sits in the brine the more flavor in the end result! But even a 4 day brine is excellent! Remove brisket daily and repeat the bag massage and flip over. If you used the bowl method simply flip the roast daily in the bowl.

Step 3 - Remove meat from brine and discard brine. Thoroughly rinse the meat removing all spices, and herbs and place back into the refrigerator in Ziploc bag or other suitable container. You can cook it right away or wait up to 3 days before cooking.

Slow Cooking your Corned Venison Brisket 9-10 Hours
  • Serves 4 - (Increase vegetables for large portion and if your crock pot size allows! )
  • 4-5lbs Corned Venison Brisket
  • 4- carrots halved
  • 1-2 medium onions cut into wedges
  • 4-6 red potatoes quartered
  • 2-3 celery stalks cut into halves
  • 1 head of cabbage, cut into 6 wedges
  • 1 tablespoon (your favorite spices) Pickling Spice, Corned Beef Spice, or be creative!
  • 12-20 OZ bottle of dark beer (Guinness Stout works great)
Using a large crock!

1- Place all vegetables except the cabbage into the bottom of crock pot.
2- Rinse meat again
3- Place on top of vegetables
4- Add the bottle of stout beer, spices and add water to cover the meat.
5-Cover and cook on LOW heat setting for 9 hours
6- Remove meat and vegetables from crock pot and cover with foil to keep warm
7 - Turn crock pot to HIGH and cook cabbage about 30 minutes
To Serve:
Slice your corned venison brisket across the grain and serve with vegetables.
Place a small container of the cooking juices broth for added flavor on your table and enjoy!  

Copyright Steven E.F. Beckwith - 2014

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Cooking Wild Game in New England

 Corned Venison Roast

There's a great group on Facebook for all you interested in sharing and learning more about cooking wild game! Share your favorite recipe or tempt us with your recent wild game home cooked dinner delight! 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/549820581796645/

My recent post in this group!

Corned "Venison" I marinated the boned out front shoulder of a deer, about 5 Lbs. in a brine with herbs, spices, sea salt for 4-6 days and then slow cooked in a crock pot with onions,carrots,potatoes for 9 hours and then topped it off with cabbage for the final hour. I eliminated the the "salt Peter" (The gun powder element!) from most the recipes found online that gives it the traditional red, corned beef "look", it makes for a healthier roast and it tasted excellent and has the same texture of any typical corned beef roast, except that it was a Corned Venison roast! This is a definite Do-Over!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

A Much deserved plug for two great products!

Antler Ice used in combination with Buck Cage make for easy application and storage of scents.


In 2014 here in Maine I took on two new product sponsors for my Maine Hunters TV show and I set out to put them to work. Honestly folks, if I am sponsored and the product doesn't cut the mustard?  I simply will not promote it.  In the case of both of these products I stand behind them as top notch tools for your bag of tricks hunting here in New England!

This video speaks for itself and these products, because it was self filmed on location before this deer was field dressed and at the height of my excitement of harvesting this nice Maine buck using these two products jointly!

The Antler Ice scent product,  Doe In Heat,  is doe estrus captured and delivered to my door via US mail. It arrived packed in ice packs frozen solid and it was kept in my freezer until the night before hunted!  Antler Ice also has their own ghost wicks for their product usage, but because I had Buck Cages, I preferred to use these over a standard wick material.

 I used two Buck Cages and placed the Antler Ice - Doe In Heat inside them, Buck Cages have "polymer beads" that absorb and hold scent longer, they don't air dry as fast as a typical felt type wick material does, giving stronger and longer scent application to your hunting area. I placed the Buck Cages one at 18 inches off the ground and the other about 3 feet off the ground, spread about 10 ft each side of me so that the scent would mask my odor even with a wind direction change after I set up! The other beauty of the Buck Cages is they come with a nice way to hang them built into the cage, and they each have their own plastic capped vial to keep them in and makes it simple to handle the scent and to make quick moves to a new location, the Buck Cages hold 1/2 once of scent that last for a couple days or more!

The other fact you will hear in this video is that I used my Apple Iphone 5s and a hunting call AP which I downloaded, called HuntPro and used the Estrus Bleat call in conjunction with these products. I did not use an amplifier with my phone, it was a very calm foggy morning and sound traveled very well. This buck heard the call, smelled the scents and came running right in on a trot directly to wards the sound and smell, the deer was harvested at 20 yards, as I let him come right on in close! Check your State laws for electronic calls before using cell phone aps in your State, but Maine allows the use of electronic calls for deer hunting.  Happy Hunting!

Monday, December 1, 2014

The Lil' Can used two ways for added volume on windy days!

The Lil' Can is an awesome tool to have in your pocket during the deer season, rut typically starts about the 11th of November plus or minus few days and runs right through mid December, depending upon the activity in your area you hunt. Bucks once they go into rut often can be tricked by an estrus or in late season December hunts the doe grunt call is my staple.



In this video you will see that I blow into the can call, and the trick is to not blow to hard into the hole, actually allow some of your air to escape outside the hole when you blow, and make sure the slide in the can is not tipped all the way towards the vent holes of the can, keep the slide allows your air to flow around it and out the exit sound holes. A little practice before you hit the woods and you'll have a louder estrus bleat call for windy days!


Sunday, November 30, 2014

Deer Hunting 101 in Maine - Pressured Deer Tips


Deer are under pressure this time of year from the pounding of hunter traffic in their forest over the first 3-4 weeks of hunting here in New England!  Especially when you are breaking out muzzle loaders for the last two weeks of hunting here in Maine, pressure is at it's peak and deer go very nocturnal!


But here is a little tip that often works well for me. Deer are always heading for thickets, swamp and cover early morning as the sun is rising this time of year, sometimes they move right at a 1/2 hour before sunrise, and sometimes even earlier, and yes..sometimes you get lucky and they drag their feet and move between sunrise and 9 AM, they are feeding in the hardwoods right now on acorns during the night hours, because of hunting pressure, so when hunters start crunching into the woods in the morning this time of year the deer head for the thickets, the thickest stuff known to mankind for the day! Set up in the morning with the wind in your face or at least pushing your scent behind your setup, with open oak feeding areas on your right or left and your back towards the least likely approaching direction! Hang one or two doe estrus scent wicks around your stand about 18 inches off the ground, use a doe grunt call and make very soft doe grunts every 5-10 minutes! You will not only call does and young bucks to this call, but bucks will often show up to check out a vocal doe, so watch the thickets as well as the runs coming from the hardwoods. You can also reverse this setup during the last 2 hours of hunting each day too! 

Bucks will be following close behind and often during muzzle loader season, I call in bucks with that soft doe grunt as they cruise the thickets, wispy saplings or hemlock and swamp bogs they are still listening for does early daylight hours hoping for that last encounter before taking their hiatus to the thickets for the day!They get big for a reason..They know how to hide!

The other key is to get in at least 15 minutes to your set up before legal shooting, 1/2 hour is best, dress warm, and as scent free as you can, use the wind to keep your scent away from a deers nose, use doe estrus on wicks to help disguise your cent and attract bucks, it puts them at ease when they hear a doe grunt and approach quickly when they come in! Staying at this every morning that you can until it all comes together will make you more successful, as this setup is not a guaranty, but it works for me over and over again throughout my life as a still hunter!  


Saturday, November 29, 2014

ThermaCELL Heated Insoles Field Review at 6-7 Degrees in Snow!

Reading instructions and using ThermaCELL heated insoles as instructed is the key to using this product effectively for up to 5 hours!
In the event that you may have received a defective pair, contact ThermaCELL.com and they wll take care of your problem they have great customer service!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

I will be posting tips, tricks and live action hunting reviews via my "smart phone" when service is available.

Today I started filming live from the wilds my new video tip segments!  I will be posting tips, tricks and live action hunting reviews via my "smart phone" when service is available. Hope you all like this little added tidbit and hopefully it will help another hunter out in his or her quest for hunting and outdoor knowledge!  Thanks for watching! Steve 

  

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Don't Be Fooled Maine Does Produce Monster Bucks! (Hunting Tip)


Steve's 11/12/2014 Southern Maine Rack Mass

Time and time again I hear the same story when I attend sportsman shows across New England! People are saying that Maine's deer population is down, that all they see on their hunting trips to Maine are trees and more trees! When the fact is that Maine has monster bucks that are flooding my news feed pages on Facebook for the past three years. From the NH border where I live in North Berwick, Maine to Allagash, Maine, we have monster deer and it is Maine's best kept secret!
My great friend and Vermont Master Tracker - Lane Benoit, calls monster bucks "smasher bucks", for a reason and Maine has plenty of smasher bucks!

I am not sure if I should keep this my own little secret or scream it at the top of a mountain to encourage all you mid western deer chasers to come to Maine and higher myself as a guide or one of the other very capable Maine guides in this State to put you on the most challenging whitetail hunt you've ever experienced!  With that said, Maine has plenty of public land where you can test your own skills and hunt down one of Maine's elusive monster bucks! Frankly.. that's where most hunters that come to Maine go wrong, they attempt to do it all themselves and fail because most hunters that come to Maine on a deer hunt think they have all the skills needed to locate, read deer sign and shoot a big buck, so why hire a Maine guide?

Maine is part of  New England it has vast wilderness and even in the more rural areas of the state locating pinch points and funnels where a buck travels are not the same as locating these in say, Ohio, or Illinois. There are few agriculture crops here or planted food plots. Maine has natural crops like beech, oak, clear cut saplings and hemlock and in most buck areas in Maine a pinch point is where one forest type edge meets another and a 50 yard growth of hemlock borders between beech, oak or pine thickets that lead to the nastiest swap you've ever seen, one that no man walks through without a month of 10 below zero weather so it is frozen like a lake below! These perfect pinch point locations are not easy to detect, or get to quietly, because there are so many forest edges in the vast continuous acreage that not all forest edges I just described produce monster bucks! It seems simple, but many hunters forget or get caught dreaming of a big buck wherever they hunt, but big bucks are only located where big bucks actually are or live! Many hunters waste an entire week or more of their hunting trip just scouting and sitting near deer sign, a buck scrape line, or rub in Maine finding these clues do not mean that a monster buck lives there, it just means a buck lives there! Reading all the other sign in the area to determine if a old buck resides there comes with many years of local area woods knowledge and practice here in the Maine woods!  This is where a good Maine guide will put odds in your favor and helps take a little luck out of your one week hunting trip here in Maine! Guides like myself have been walking these forests for over 40 years.

Getting that monster Maine buck is an achievement that many professional TV show deer hunters actually avoid, and I won't name names, but if you ask them why they have never hunted in Maine their answers will always be, "I don't have the time to learn the woods, and skills necessary to hunt monster Maine whitetail"! I've seen articles where these famous whitetail hunters that hunt big racked bucks in the western USA to Quebec are quoted as saying, "credit must be given to the skills of a New England guide/hunters because there is a superior skill and knowledge which is found in very few places in the world that can compare to hunting whitetail deer in New England."

We have bucks with frequent weights from 175 lbs to 290 lbs. here in Maine.  We have massive mature racked deer that will turn any hunters heads and they are all 100% natural, no corn feeders, no high fences, no massive food plots and agricultural farmlands. Many deer found along Maine's coastal areas sport drop tines and 120 to 180 class typical racked bucks and actually the bucks anywhere in Maine sport these stats!

There are so many factors in locating and harvesting a mature Maine whitetail buck that a book would have to be written, not an article like this, in order to achieve the skills necessary to effectively hunt Maine's monster bucks. One either has to hunt with their grandfather and father here in New England for 10-50 years or hire a Maine Hunting Guide, I myself am a Maine Licensed Specialized Hunting Guide, there are many great guides in Maine some are multiple licensed guides and cater to recreation activities, ATV's, snowmobiles, hiking, hunting, camping, fly fishing, trolling, ice fishing, salt water tide fishing, sea kayaking and lodging activities.  So when it comes to hiring a "hunting guide" make sure they are avid hunters themselves! For example: I don't have a lodge and kitchen to maintain therefore I don't exhaust my time repairing roofs, clearing walkways of snow, cleaning cabins, making beds and doing dishes. Most of my hunts are about hunting, not the accommodations and food. I offer several options for super lodging and food services that work quite well at some of the best lodges across northern Maine for moose hunters. For southern Maine hunts what most of my clients prefer is staying at a hotel and fixing their own meals to save a few dollars on a quality guided hunting trip without traveling another six plus hours to northern Maine when southern Maine has great monster bucks, a doe management program, super archery season opportunities with one buck tag and unlimited over the counter antlerless tags,  the best turkey hunting areas in Maine with two spring bearded birds and two fall either sex birds on same tag and small game and predator hunting opportunities too!

Deer hunting in Maine is the ultimate challenge to any deer hunter, we have plenty of deer and monster bucks too! One can be lucky and stroll into a piece of woods and stumble upon a nice buck in the rut, odds are slim but it does happen to a few weekend warriors here in Maine every year, but in order to be successful in New England it takes time and years of woods knowledge to increase your odds and find that monster Maine buck! The key is to hire a good hunting guide if you are only coming here for a short period of time.

For more information about planing a hunting trip to Maine contact me! Follow this link to my website and use my contact form at:

MaineGuidedHunts.com

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Coyotes in Maine are an "Invasive Species" - (Steve's Viewpoint)

Time and time again we read the same old statement put out there by anti-hunters claiming to be experts on coyotes,coy-wolves,coy-dogs,and wolves, that is "compensatory reproduction"! This is nothing more then a theory that is not a "proven" theory. It is a suggested theory in many scientific research papers that is put forth to protect predator species like the wolf and coyote from human control. These organizations love to play the game called, a "play on words"!

The fact of this matter is, if coyotes are reduced by hunting pressure...coyotes are in fact reduced, they're dead folks! They do not miraculously trigger faster reproduction or larger litters to re-populate their species because they were shot by a hunter. (Compensatory reproduction occurs when a specie is eradicated to near extinction! ) If they did as these so called scientist (Or quacks with a college degree) imply, then killing coyotes would only increase populations and the tree hugging puppy lovers of the world should be basking in their glory every time a coyote gets harvested, because the surviving females would all have an increased litter size from 6-8 to their suggested 14-18 pups! If their suggested theory were true you would look out your window and see a coyote every five minutes in Maine!  
 
Any person (anti-hunter, sportsmen, woman, child, teacher or educator)  should be able to read between the lines here to figure out that this simply is not even a valid argument in the case against Maine DIFW's biologists current laws for reducing the coyote population in Maine. Set up to help the animals like deer, moose, turkey, rabbits, grouse, racoons, and all non-game species such as song birds, and ground animals to thrive and populate naturally.

Coyotes are not native to Maine, they are an "invasive species" that simply does not belong in Maine, much like that of animals like the Nutria of Florida, that are destroying Florida's canals and waterways, eroding peoples front lawns so much they fall into the rivers and are lost forever. The sportsmen and State DIFW,  do not want to eradicate the coyote (Coy-Wolf) species that is here in Maine, the sportsmen and State only wish to control the species and keep it in check with other species that live here in Maine. Humans can not allow one species of animal to dominate and take over hundreds of other species. Humans have protected and brought back many species from extinction, coyotes and wolves will eradicate species that we will never get back if they are left to run rampant destroying all the lesser species on the food chain, then the ferocious predator the Coyote in Maine which is known to attack adult humans, house pets, children and farm animals! Coyotes prey on healthy large animals they are able to pack and take down a large bull moose, healthy deer, turkeys and their young are destroyed with a fierce vigor each spring slowly wiping out other less dominant species that are "native" inhabitants of the great State of Maine!   

Organizations like, Project Coyote, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Wildlife Alliance of Maine, The Humane Society of the United States, The Maine Wolf Coalition, and the Wild Dog Foundation are quick to flap their jaws, spend their non-profit monies to oppose any harvest of predator species. Their attitude that predators should not be harvested by sportsmen or managed by State wildlife agencies is simply put, radical and reckless behavior! It is one thing to form a group to protect a species that is wavering on extinction but to create or use an existing  group to oppose the controlling of predators in a geographical region that they really do not belong in is just plain idiotic and needs to be stopped! Especially when here in Maine coyotes are simply being controlled for the benefit of other wildlife that naturally lives here! No one wants to see coyotes become extinct!


Because coyotes have been left uncontrolled for many years by sportsmen here in Maine, mainly because they have no food value to sportsmen, coyotes have increased to unhealthy numbers for Maine's native animals and we humans that live here. Coyotes are like weeds if left to grow they will choke out all other animals here in Maine. It is our human right and our duty as stewards of the land to reduce the coyote population for the benefit of all species. These organizations that oppose the harvest of their cute puppy dog like creatures are easily mislead and simply because they have a college degree or "claim" to be an expert does not give them any rights to impose on the way Maine's DIFW and Maine sportsman chooses to protect our heritage.

In 2014 the coyote population in many areas of the State have been reduced to acceptable levels and are maintainable, but there are still many problematic areas where hunters and trappers have not been able to effectively control the over population of coyotes!  More hunting and trapping is the key to reducing these problematic predators and Maine hunters are learning ways to outsmart the Maine coyote, but expense is the issue for these problematic areas because of the remoteness involved! It's just another obstacle for the Maine hunter to overcome and why Maine hunting of any animal is known for the challenge!   

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Maine Hunters TV - Visit The Team

Hey folks!

If you found this blog and would like more current information on what MaineHunters.com crew is up to! Follow us on our Facebook page! We are now on ROKU with our own network, find us in the Channel Store on ROKU under Outdoors/Fitness New England Outback Productions Network
Follow our netwrok on Facebook too:  https://www.facebook.com/NewEnglandOutbackNetwork

Maine Hunters TV page:
https://www.facebook.com/mainehunterstv

Steve also administers a few great groups on Facebook

Maine Hunters Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/746287608759529/
New England Hunters Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewEnglandHunters/
New England Turkey Hunters Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewEnglandTurkeyHunting/
Maine Coyote and Cat Hunters Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MaineCoyoteandCatHunters/
Maine Moose Hunters Group
 https://www.facebook.com/groups/428488543850141/

Stay connected on Facebook!

Or visit us at our website at:
http://mainehunters.com