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Up until my 30s we used to butcher them ourselves. I remember one year we had 12 of them hanging in a canopy my dad built for a motorhome. Motorhome was gone but the canopy came in handy. Dad would freeze much of the meat then take it to the machine shop at the mill and slice it with the bandsaw...lol....I'm pretty sure he took sanitary precautions.....Maybe not...lol

My 49th year of enjoying the tradition of Buck Season at the Headhunter Camp. I haven't hunted for 20 years or more but still enjoy hunting season at the cabin. The old timers that were regulars have been passing away and the numbers of hunters at our cabin is dwindling, but I figure the tradition survives until the last of us are gone. The unquestionable wisdom of the PA Game Commission has decimated the deer herd, at least in the area of our cabin. We're now as likely to see elk as deer. When I was young, there were deer EVERYWHERE. You didn't always make it to your stand before getting your deer. Not so much anymore. It's been a few years since anyone's gotten a buck on first day. As for me, I enjoy taking a walk into the woods on first day and check out my old spots. I did a little over 5 miles in the woods, walking slowly and never saw so much as a tail. I only heard 2 shots off in the distance. We used to have a 90% success rate first day....Wow, how things have changed. Anyhoo, we all still had a great time, but I fear I won't be the only one who won't be hunting there next year. Doesn't matter, the tradition still lives. If it was only about harvesting a buck we'd all hunt in Ohio. Heck, I have them running around my backyard all the time. I still look forward to buck season every year.

We went and picked up our new 8 week old toy Australian Shepard today, she weighs all of 1.9 pounds.

I do miss deer camp. There were 21 of us that spent 2-3 weeks at our 1866 farmhouse that we called 21 Club or the Luther Hilton. We all hunted our 1600 acre lease that consisted of swamp, farm fields and rolling hardwood forest. When I first joined the camp the deer were thick as flies on cow shit! You could count on there being a nice snow cover on the ground, being in the woods or swamp was beautiful. At least half the guys would have a buck hanging by dusk opening day. As the years went by the deer numbers fell and the oldtimers began passing, it was sad to lose so many that were like family. After 40 years leasing the property (we owned the house) the land owners put the property up for sale, it sold to 6 different owners that had much deeper pockets than we had. It was a sad day. I withdrew from the club when i was forced to hunt surrounding public land.