In the “Hunting Food Plots 101″ series, I will attempt to put a fairly complex subject —food plots— into layman’s terms so that anyone can successfully plant food plots the first time around. I will cover everything from beginning to end, sharing my past experiences and let you “ride along” throughout the food plot life cycles. This is by no means an exhaustive list of things to do and to think about when considering food plots. This series will stick mostly to the basics of food plots. This is the first installment of the series.

When creating food plots to enhance the wildlife habitat of a property, the first few things you need to do is come up with an initial strategy, select your sites based on this strategy, and perform soil tests on those sites.

Food Plot Initial Strategy

Why create food plots?

There are two main types of food plots, nutritional and hunting. Nutritional food plots are usually larger (1+ acre), and hunting food plots (“kill plots”) are smaller (<1 acre).

Here are some more detailed reasons to create a food plot.

• To provide nutrition year around, especially during the stress periods of summer and winter
• Increase the carrying capacity (the amount of deer the habitat can properly provide for)
• Reduce browsing pressure on native vegetation and enhance forest regeneration
• To attract deer during hunting season for harvest (kill plots)
• Create “kill plots” near stands to increase your success during hunting season

Some food plots are created to accomplish all of these, while others may only target one or a couple. It is up to you as the steward to determine what your property needs.

In example, the land that I live on and hunt most every day during hunting season has large farms adjacent to it, providing abundant soy beans and corn for the deer.

The last couple of seasons the farmers have cut their crops so late that the deer had access to that nutrition well into winter. This removes the need for me to create acres of food plots, because I certainly can’t compete with hundreds of acres of corn and soybeans, and thus would be wasting my money.

That said, I do have several smaller “kill plots” that provide nutrition almost year around.

Food Plot Site Selection

When selecting a site to create a food plot, there are many variables to consider. Here are a few questions that I ask myself when selecting a site.

A nutritional food plot can increase carrying capacity.

Why am I creating the food plot?

If it is for a “kill plot”, it can be fairly small, and close to your hunting stand. “Kill plots” can be large, especially for rifle hunters, but tend to be created to attract the deer in close for a safe kill. Find a relatively flat area near your stand that gets at least 4-6 hours of sunlight (Your food plot seed choices greatly diminish with less sunlight).

If you are creating the food plot to increase the carrying capacity of your habitat, you will want to plant a larger area. Most wildlife consultants will recommend two to five percent of your property be encompassed in food plots, but you can actually see an impact with as little as one percent (This of course depends on where you live and the available nutrition in your area). Select a relatively flat area that is fairly large. Most larger food plots are done in open fields and therefore receive many hours of sunlight.

Is the soil and moisture adequate for proper forage growth?

Make sure you select a site that can provide for plant growth. Soils subject to drought, flooding and erosion are poor choices. There are many food plot seed choices for clay or sandier soils, but adequate moisture is always a necessity.

Am I having problems keeping the deer on the property?

On my property, the deer come in during the early morning and late evenings, retreating to the forests (most of which I do not own) during the day. This greatly minimizes the time they are on my property during daylight hours.

If this sounds like you, I recommend planting the larger nutritional food plots closer to the middle of your property. This will pull the deer in further, forcing them to expose themselves for longer periods of times.

In general, food plots should be spread out evenly on your property, so I am not suggesting clump 5 food plots all together in the middle of your property. Again, you need to make the decisions based on your goals and circumstances.

Food Plot Soil Test

The soil test is probably the one thing that you have control over, that will save you the most time and money, as well as relief of stress from a poorly performing food plot.

Dig down 6"-8", and then take the sample. The amount in the shovel is enough to send off for the soil test.

A soil test is simply sending off the dirt from each plot to a lab to determine the pH and fertility of the soil. They are inexpensive and can be mailed via your local co-op or to any of the major food plot seed companies.

You can buy a core sampler tool, but I just use a shovel. I pick two or three spots on a given food plot, dig down 6-8 inches and then take my sample, putting it into a plastic bag. Each bag should be marked so you know which food plot belongs to which bag. You don’t need a lot of dirt and can usually have the results back within a week.

The soil tests will tell you how much lime and fertilizer (as well as the makeup of the fertilizer) you need. This keeps you from overspending while optimizing your soil for plant growth.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Hunting Food Plots 101: Initial Strategy, Site Selection and Soil Tests

The month of May offers plenty in the outdoors. You can ride your Yamaha ATV or Side-by-Side. When enjoying your four wheels, fishing and even some late-spring and summer hunting are also options. “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal,” the saying goes. Get out there and enjoy yourself.

FISH: It’s safe to say, residents of all 50 states are enjoying fishing right now.

If you’ve got kids, it’s a great time to start them angling. Choose a bobber and bait for easy introduction. Graduate to fly fishing later if the interest continues. Panfish and stocked trout provide steady opportunity as do youth fishing events.

As backcountry rides and angling go, there’s no better time to get out there. Check rules and regulations as always for trail use, plus overnight camping and fishing laws. Be safe.

SCOUT: If you’re a hardcore hunter, scouting is a year-round deal.

It might include seeking new permission from landowners. Have your longtime hunting spots been developed? Maybe you want to plot where to hang tree stands.

Waterfowl hunters might gauge how to use their spots more wisely. Blinds will be built. Plans hatched.

As pure game watching goes, you can see how the turkey hatch has been, note duck and goose broods, and even watch deer with fawns later on, and summer bucks in velvet.

For information on what hunting offers for the month of May, please visit – http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/events/dynamicevent/2/1638/yamaha_outdoors_tips_-_ride_fish_scout_and_hunt_.aspx.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Ride, Fish, Scout and Hunt

What has worked for you?  Do you need ideas on how to get this started?  Shoot me an email at jason@salesproxie.com.  I would love to hear from you.  For more ideas on social media marketing for the outdoor industry, visit my blog www.mudontheboots.com.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Is Your Bragging Board Brag-Worthy?

Trail camera pictures clutter my computer’s desktop and congest my electronic photo library; thousands of whitetail pictures filed into hundreds of archived folders, which are then saved to several sub-folders. I’ve managed to sort through the good, bad and the ugly to find some of my very favorite images of 2011.

Below you will find some neat snapshots taken from a slew of Moultrie cameras at a good friend of mine’s whitetail outfitting operation. Mark Schuh, owner Schuhter’s Outpost in Buffalo County, Wisconsin – where big buck photos are of plenty has made trail cameras his virtue and prized possession to putting his clients on mature whitetail.

Early seasons bucks are simply incredible. Their sleek muscular body combined with the light summer coat and fuzzy antlers makes for a stellar shot, especially if he has headgear like this buck shown above. This near 200” buck was photographed throughout the entire summer and into hunting season before making a presence on some lucky hunter’s wall last year. This particular photo of him was captured during a morning as he browsed through one of Mark’s hunting plots consisting of Evolved Harvest’s ProVide, a mixture of forage clover and chicory.

The next photo is of a deer I was lucky enough to kill during the Wisconsin archery opener. He was nicknamed “High Tower” and for a good reason. This 4-½ year old production of Buffalo County’s very finest had skyscraping tines that blossomed out of his gnarly main beams. His knack for deception and clever skill set deemed him one of the most sought after trophies on Mark’s deer infested farms.

We were able to capture him on trail camera several times before sneaking into his living room with perfect wind conditions and successfully put an arrow into him at 20 yards. I’m now able to look at the handsome shoulder mount on my wall and share fond memories with friends thanks to analyzing photographic evidence of High Tower’s uncanny travel patterns chronicled from a stealthy trail cam.

My last photo of choice is Mark’s late season muzzleloader kill. This 11-point Boone & Crockett animal loved the camera, but duped every hunter that tried slapping their tag on him. During a fresh snowfall and severe drop in temperature, I was able to film Mark killing this world-class whitetail after pinpointing where he was the night before by checking cameras.

Trail cameras provide an immense amount of data about whitetail’s daily characteristics and lifestyle trends. It’s almost like breaking into the mystical culture of North America’s most popular big game species. I find it even more alluring that photos script into unforgotten memories, which tell stories. I will always find a photograph to be truly spectacular in so many ways. I urge everyone to use these tactical devices to help improve your own hunting insight and increase the storage on your very own memory bank!

Got any good trail cam pics to share? Post them in the comments below!

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - A Camera’s Killer Sense: Trail Camera Pictures from the Field

This article comes courtesy of John M. Buol, Jr. of FirearmUserNetwork.com. Check out his site for more articles like this.

When I was volunteering as a certified hunter education instructor for the Wisconsin DNR, they published a compiled list of statistics for each season’s hunt. Being one of the top ten states for deer hunter participation, this makes an interesting and accurate case study. Let’s go over the lessons learned from the compiled numbers and see what we can discover about trends in field shooting and safety skills of hunters.

First, the good news. Organized events, even those as rudimentary as basic hunter education, are marvelously effective at improving safety skills. In 1907, decades before hunter education was established, there were 97 reported firearm mishaps statewide of which 41 resulted in death. The total deer harvested count was about 6,000.

In 2002, over five decades after the first hunter education program was established, the number of incidents was less than half that (47 total) despite a much larger hunting population taking the field: 618,945 licenses sold with 277,959 deer harvested.

According to the National Safety Council there is currently an average of seven firearm-related incidents for every 100,000 hunters in the United States. Wisconsin’s 2002 rate works out to 7  incidents for every 92,184 licensed hunters; close to the established national average.

This is yet more proof how safe shooting and hunting can be IF participants bother attending even the simplest, organized, skill-building event. Wisconsin’s hunter education course is a scant 10 hours with a large number of topics in the curriculum and there is no shooting proficiency test or standard. Twelve-year olds find the coursework simple. Worst of all, no follow-on events are offered or even suggested. Yet, the difference between the most vestigial training and none is astonishing.

Hunter education instructors and administrators deserve a pat on the back. Not too hard, though, as there are still a number of embarrassing problems to iron out.

In other articles and reports I’ve pointed out that about a third of all hunting “accidents” are self-inflicted and half are perpetrated by a hunting party member (someone the offending hunter knew was there.) That means there is no acceptable excuse for at least 80 percent of the mishaps.

The 2002 statistics prove this yet again. 14 of the 47 incidents (29.78%) were self inflicted and 24 of the incidents (51.06%) involved a hunter shooting a member of his or her own party. These incidents can be traced to abject incompetence due to unfamiliarity.

Actual hunting experience, without continuing range experience and training, is of little help. Tim Lawhern, Wisconsin’s Hunter Education Administrator, has noted in print that hunters with a number of years of hunting experience are often some of the worst offenders, not the new, inexperienced kids.

The numbers bear this observation out. Nearly half of the perpetrators (22 out of 47, 46.8%) were over the age of 35 and had hunted without mishaps for years. How can this be?

A new hunter takes basic hunter education and learns rudimentary skills. The tentative newbie is cautious with the lessons fresh in his mind. Unfortunately, after this one required event most hunters do nothing to further their field shooting and handling skills beyond this kindergarten level. As the years pass with incident-free hunts, and with nothing done to relearn and reinforce lessons learned, complacency sets in.

We see this with alarming frequency when adult hunters attend a field day with their kids – at least when we can get them to actually toe the line and shoot in front of the class. I’ve learned that the “experienced” hunter often has to be watched even closer than the kids at first. The new student’s safety procedures are just beginning to approach the Consciously Competent level. He may have to think about it first, but he knows what to do. The hunter who has neglected to reinforce these lessons too often reverts back to the Unconsciously Incompetent level, and doesn’t realize how much of the little skill obtained years back at the mandatory hunter education class has been forgotten. The most basic safety protocol violations, improper muzzle control and failing to keep fingers clear of the trigger, have to be watched for and corrected for a few rounds before the hunter begins to remember them again. Without a semi-regular refresher, such as a class, match, or other event, too many hunters learn the hard, painful way and end up as statistics in reports like this.

I’m continually amazed and disappointed at the number of really dumb and preventable gun mishaps. Some typical examples:

• “Victim reholstered pistol after a shot with finger on trigger, shot self in thigh.”
• “Victim had safety off and finger on trigger, shot self in foot.”
• “Victim sat down against tree and gun discharged.”

The numbers confirm the need for skill-refreshing events. Nearly two-thirds of the self-inflicted incidents (9 out of 14, 64.2 percent) involved hunter education graduates shooting themselves, and exactly three-quarters of the perpetrators who shot their hunting partner (18 out of 24, 75 percent) were graduates as well.

This is NOT a condemnation of the hunter education curriculum or instructors, rather, it is further evidence of the need to provide and promote adequate follow-on activities and sufficient participation by the majority of hunters and gun owners. As noted above, the most basic training experience makes a huge difference. It’s the follow-up, getting rank-and-file gun owners and hunters to bother to show up to shoots once in a while, where we drop the ball.

In summary:

• Organized, skill building events work! The huge drop in negligence due to hunter education proves it.
• Follow on experience is essential or the lessons will be lost. A mandatory, one time event is not enough.
• Raw number of years spent hunting is a poor indicator of skill. Hunters sometimes wait a year (or more!) between hunts. Refreshing skills in between through organized shooting events is vital.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Lessons Learned from Hunter Education: Keep Learning!

This article comes courtesy of John M. Buol, Jr. of FirearmUserNetwork.com. Check out his site for more articles like this.

The effective range of the .30-30 is about 150-170 yards. Some of the wizzy new Magnums can outperform this by roughly 300 percent, at least on paper. But can the hunter outperform the .30-30? Can you?

The .30-30 WCF (Winchester Center Fire) was a hot little number when first debuted in 1895 but today’s hunters complain about this “obsolete” antique. Standard wisdom states this cartridge is best contained within a range of 100-175 yards. A .30-30 will push a 150-170 grain bullet out at approximately 2200 fps or so. With a 150 yard zero, the bullet will be about two inches above line of sight at 100 yards and around five inches low at 200.

Few hunters possess enough shooting skill that warrants better performance than this. Are you one of them? Find out with the .30-30 Drill.

Begin by getting a good 150 yard zero for that anemic .30-30 (or whatever your favorite hunting rifle is chambered in). Set up a Y-ring steel target at 150 yards. If you don’t have a quality, self-resetting steel target that is about 8-10 inches in diameter, a paper dinner plate at 150 yards makes an ersatz substitute. Get a shooting timer, or a buddy with a whistle and stop watch, to record the time.

Start from standing up. On the start signal adopt a sitting position and fire one aimed shot at the plate. Stand back up and repeat the drill for a total of three shots. After completing this three string/three round sequence from the sitting position, do it again adopting and shooting from prone.

We are shooting at the distance we zeroed giving point-of-impact at point-of-aim on a nice, level playing field with no intervening brush, trees, etc. All the shooting is done from the two most stable positions available in the field. Furthermore, the target is presented whole, as opposed to a large animal with the vital zone hidden somewhere inside, thus eliminating the need to estimate target angle. Just hold center and let ‘er rip!

Regardless of elapsed time, a hunter claiming to need something better than a .30-30 should get at least 5 hits out of 6 shots (83% hits) or better on this six MOA target every time. If so, our hero can actually make use of the ballistic capability provided by a .30-30 or equivalent for field shooting. If not, their maximum effective range in field shooting is shorter than 150 yards and the capability of a .30-30 rifle exceeds their present level of skill.

A more competent hunter-shooter who can get those same hits in ten seconds per shot or less just might benefit from a “better” rifle. They possess sufficient skill to warrant extended range.

Variations:

We can repeat this drill out even further. Use the same target and set at 200, 225, 250, 300, or out as far as you dare. Give the shooter an extra three seconds or so for every 50 yards beyond 150. Sight in appropriately and shoot. For example, .308/.30-06 and cartridges of similar ballistics can set their zero to 200-250 yards.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Shooting Skills for Hunters: The .30-30 Drill

Author’s Note: Even if you’re not a professional deer hunter, if you do the work that professional deer hunters do, you can take bucks like a pro. Most professional hunters hunt year-round. Here’s the tactic that some of the most consistent deer hunters in the nation use to help them find and take the biggest bucks on the property they have to hunt throughout deer season.

“To take the biggest deer on the properties I hunt, I start putting out a deer attractant like C’Mere Deer in mid-May,” Jason Harvison who lives north of Nashville, Tennessee, explains. “Throughout the late spring and early summer, I put trail cameras in the places I hunt much of the year, to make sure I have quality bucks to hunt during deer hunting season. Other hunters set out feeders to determine the number of bucks they’ll have to hunt each year, before the season arrives. You can also watch the antler growth as the bucks come into velvet in the spring and summer and learn which areas of the property should have the biggest deer.”

The next step, once you know which areas are holding the biggest deer, is to determine what natural food sources the deer are feeding on during daylight hours at different times of the year. Your state wildlife biologist can provide that type of information for you. Try to find those natural food sources as close as possible to the area where you’ve been feeding or attracting deer. This is especially true if you’re hunting in a state that doesn’t permit baiting of deer; fertilize these regions of naturally-occurring deer foods. Then when you can no longer bait or feed the deer, the deer will come to the spots where you have been feeding deer and eat the natural browse during hunting season. Because you’ve put in the work before the season to train the deer to be where you want them to be, your chances of taking bucks at those sites will be greatly increased. Even though this tactic isn’t guaranteed, using this strategy, you often can find the biggest buck on the property, determine the number of bucks you’ll to have to hunt and attract those bucks to certain spots in the woods where you want to try and take them.

This is just a sample of what you’ll learn in the new Kindle eBook, “Deer and Fixings.” by John E. Phillips. Go to Amazon.com to order the book and download it to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, smart phone or computer to read the book with.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Now’s the Time to Find a Big Deer to Take in the Fall

Did you know that the rut has happened as early as October in Illinois?  There is one factor that will start the rut a month or month and a half early.  Do you know what it is?  Temperature!

The reason the cold temperature will trigger the rut early is because that is how nature helps put the scent of does in heat all over the woods.

This is how nature helps the bucks find the does.  When a deer smells you 99% of the time, what does he smell?   He smells your perspiration.  He also smells it in a liquid state.  In fact, all animals smell in a liquid form, even a snake runs his tongue out to pick up the moisture from the air to help him determine what is around him. When you are really hot and it is very cold outside, you give off a lot more perspiration.  The same is true with does in heat.  This is why it is called “in heat.”

A doe’s temperature rises to about 112 degrees when she is in heat.  An example of this theory can be seen if you have ever peed outside when it was very cold.  Steam from the warm liquid goes straight up and then down and all around.  A deer has a normal body temperature of 104 degrees.  When she is in heat, the scent steam is coming off of her private parts and everywhere she goes it floats all through the woods sticking to every bush, blade of grass and tree it comes in contact with.

If you have ever owned a female dog that has come in heat, you will notice every male dog around – most of whom you’ve never laid eyes on before is at your house trying to find your female dog.  How did they know where to come?  Scent.  Specifically, the scent of the dog in heat which has been carried throughout the neighborhood and deposited on every bush and blade of grass around.  That is why male dogs go around smelling every bush they come by

This is identical to the steam or perspiration coming off of the doe in heat and being carried down through the woods by prevailing winds and sticking to every bush it comes in contact with.   When a buck smells this scent, especially a 5 or 6 year-old, he smells the liquid form of the scent and knows it is the real thing.  He won’t question scent in a liquid form that is disseminated through the air.  He will come straight to the source – or doe – to mate every time.

This is where The Vapor Maker comes into play.  The Vapor Maker is the only scent dispersal system on the market that you have total control of.  It requires no batteries because it is a pump up bottle that holds 16 oz. of liquid.  It has a special atomizing tip that will take any kind of scent and put it in the air exactly like nature does.  It also has a 3 foot hose with a clip to hook to a limb down wind or out to your side in a tree stand.  Because the bottle is made of a durable plastic you cannot hurt it or break it if you drop it from the tree stand. You can turn the bottle on by turning the ball valve, and with a 3 mph wind it will carry the scent 1/8 of a mile through the woods.  The more wind, the further the scent will go.  As you walk through the woods you can spray the bushes and low hanging tree limbs to lay a scent trail straight to your stand.  Because scent in the air in a liquid form is the natural way deer smell, it needs to be watered down.  A deer can smell 1000 times better than you and I.  If it is strong to you it will overpower the sensitive olfactory system of a deer.  You have to make the smell the same as nature does in order to fool the deer.

Deer are naturally inquisitive and may do anything at any time, but we want them to do it all the time because it is a natural instinct.  So a 1 oz. bottle of a strong scent would need about 8 oz. of water to make it smell natural.  At Vapor Trail Scents, LLC our scents are 100% natural – made from a food source deer and other animals love.   We gather the food source and make the scent ourselves.  We have found that 8 oz. of water to 4 oz. of our scent, My Sheila Doe in Heat, is perfect to fool all the bucks in your neck of the woods.

We also make the only cover scent and attractant – 33 Point Buck – that will eliminate the smell of gasoline.  The 33 Point Buck is so good we have a patent on it. We have tested it against all the top scent killers on the market and the 33 Point Buck consistently beat out the competition in eliminating all types of scents.

We are confident the 33 Point Buck will totally cover up your scent.  Used with the Doe in Heat, these two make an unbeatable pair to optimize your hunting experience.  We recommend 4 oz. of 33 Point to 4 oz. of water.  You can also spray it directly on your clothing using The Vapor Maker.

Our company also makes Dominant Buck and Wapiti Scents.  Read about us and our products at www.vaportrailscents.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkdKvC02Z1A

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - How Animals Really Disperse Scent

Opening day can prove to be one full of oddities as many accidents and strange occurrences can happen as sportsmen and wildlife get back into the swing of things. And sometimes, hunters can run afoul of coyotes who are on the prowl for breakfast.

“I’ll never forget looking up and seeing a jaw full of teeth coming at me,” Bill Robinson, 39, from Maine said in an interview with Bangor Daily News.

On April 30th, Robinson was hunting turkeys with a decoy and mouth call. His sat covered in some brush on private property near the Washington County community of Cooper. There was a short, but thick spruce tree that had grown so thick that it was difficult to see past it. Ten minutes after dawn, the coyote came up from the edge of the field to stand on one side of the tree, with Robinson on the other.

“The distance involved was only about four feet,” Robinson said. “But that tree was so thick that he couldn’t see me, and I couldn’t see him. He was determined to have turkey for breakfast and was also determined that the sound he heard was a hen turkey.”

The coyote came in at a high angle so that his prey wouldn’t have the chance to fly away. It bit Robinson on the upper arm so fiercely that it punctured skin through four layers of clothing; a heavy jacket, sweatshirt, long sleeve shirt and t-shirt. Robinson took off his layers to reveal two holes in each arm that burned and bled.

But the coyote was just as shocked that it encountered a human as Robinson was that he just got stalked by a coyote, that the beast sprinted away across the field at “100 miles an hour.”

“I took a shot at it, but it was too far off by then. I turned it around for a second when I hit him in the haunch with a few pellets from my turkey load, just to say goodbye,” Robinson said.

He packed up immediately and headed to his friend’s house, a game warden, where the men took pictures of the wound before Robinson was coaxed into seeking medical help. He has received seven vaccine injections for rabies since the incident.

“I don’t blame the coyote. It was doing what coyotes do, hunting. My guess is that coyote was perfectly healthy and was not rabid. He was big, probably 50 pounds. I’m just glad it didn’t grab my neck.”

Robinson’s friend said that was the first time he has witnessed something like this. For the most part, coyotes run off when they realize a hunter is making the turkey calls. This just proves what a good turkey call Robinson has.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Opening Day Doozies: Coyotes, Turkeys and Hunters, Oh My!

Looking for a quick and easy solution for dinner tonight? Here’s a twist on a classic recipe for stroganoff that will spice up your dinner menu and create a meal the whole family will be talking about. Plus it’s a great way to clean out the freezer and get ready for this year’s Elk season.

Serves 6

Inactive Prep Time:  20-30 minutes

Cooking Time:  Approximately 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 lb elk round steak
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 oz. button mushrooms, quartered
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped fine, divided
• 1 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped fine, divided
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1/3 cup red wine (or dry sherry)
• 1 cup low sodium beef stock or beef broth
• 8 oz sour cream, divided
• Additional salt, pepper and Worcestershire Sauce to taste
• Egg noodles, cooked per package directions (top with butter after cooking and draining)

Directions:

Slice elk into thin strips about 2 inches long and place in a bowl.  Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce and 1 Tbsp of the olive oil,   Stir to combine.  Set aside to marinate at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat; add remaining olive oil.  Add elk and cook for approximately 2-3 minutes, turning to sear all sides.  Remove elk from heat and set aside.  (Elk will not be cooked through.)

Add onion to skillet and cook until soft, 3-4 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add mushrooms, half of the thyme and half of the dill.  Cook for 5-6 minutes, or until onions are very soft and mushrooms are cooked through.

Sprinkle the flour over the onions and mushrooms and cook for about 1 minute, stirring frequently.  Add the wine and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Stir in the beef stock and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium low and stir in half of the sour cream until well-blended.  Stir in the remaining thyme and dill.

Add the elk back to the skillet and cook until the meat is cooked to medium doneness, about 3-4 minutes.  Serve over hot buttered noodles and top with remaining sour cream at the table.

Tip:  After each addition of vegetables, add a few dashes of additional Worcestershire Sauce and a few grinds of black pepper.  Finish the dish with a very light sprinkling of salt, to taste.  I use homemade stock made with no salt.  If you’re using canned beef broth or salt, use less salt in the dish.  Be sure to taste the sauce before adding more salt.

Jessica Beaver is the Accounting Coordinator for the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance. An award-winning amateur chef and baker, Beaver enjoys the challenge of developing recipes for big game, fish and more that can be seamlessly integrated into a busy family’s lifestyle.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Quick and Easy Elk Stroganoff Recipe