The girl, the buck and the biology class

[Dr Mordrid]

Firearms deer season opened today....

Detroit Free Press....

Dexter teen scores 8-point buck -- and uses its heart to ace her biology class

You could say – and be entirely accurate – that Alicia Klocek dedicated her deer hunt on family property near Dexter this morning to the advancement of science.

Alicia, 17, admits she skipped classes at Dexter High School to be in her tree stand as her classmates were dissecting a testicle.

But her teacher cut Alicia a deal. If she brought the heart of a deer into class Wednesday, she wouldn’t hold the absence against her. It seems the class had just done a cardio section and used a sheep heart, but her teacher said a deer heart is closer to a human heart and she’d appreciate having one for ... well, science.

(Kind of warms your left ventricle, eh?)

With the teacher’s deal enticing her, Alicia did what she’s become pretty good at the last few years — she dropped an 8-point buck at about 100 yards with a sabot from her 20-gauge shotgun.

“I’d been sitting in stand about an hour and a half and I stood up to stretch my legs and turned around to look behind me and saw a deer. I could only see its head and its tail. The rest of its body was blocked by a tree. Then it took a step out and I shot it. My dad said it weighs a little over 200 pounds.”

The buck is so impressive that her dad is going to have it mounted.

Alicia explains that she’s been hunting since since she was a little girl.

“I’ve been doing it all my life. I love hunting.”

So much, in fact, that she’ll be back on stand this afternoon.

In the Klocek household, she said, “I honestly can’t remember the last time we had beef.”

Venison is a staple of their diet, said Alicia, who swims and plays water polo for her high school teams.

Next year, she hopes to attend Michigan State University and, asked if she’s going to hang that buck head on the wall of her dorm room, she said: “Of course!”

Today, her buck is hanging on the buck pole at the Mill Creek Sport Center.

[Dr Mordrid]

More tales from the kid deer hunters front.

Michigan kids can hunt deer, elk and bear starting at age 10.

Ashley Herrin got her first deer, a 10-point buck in Newaygo County. It had an
outside spread of 20 inches and dressed out at 180 pounds.



April Mueller, 12, bagged the 8-point buck in Mason County. It's her first deer.
April is a seventh-grader at White Pines Middle School in Grand Haven.



Brett Steele, 12, of Waaterford, got this 9-point buck in Sears, MI. It's his first deer.



Joey DeBoer bagged an 11-point buck. Joey dropped it from about 120 yards.



Danny DeBoer shot a 13-point buck. The 13-point deer came walking through
the brush in the evening and Danny dropped it at 120 yards.



Riley Kutzli, 12, shot this 8-point buck in Osceola County on private land.

[Umfriend]

Are they eaten? I understand they are are the Kloceks', but generally?

[Dr Mordrid]

Oh, Hell yes!! That's one of the primary reasons people hunt since you can easily end up with >100 lbs (45.5 kg) of meat per deer, and if you hunt more than one season you can take 2-3 a year per hunter. I've taken Whitetail deer that dressed (gutted) out still weighed over 250 lbs (114 kg). The record dressed weight is from Tennessee at 400 lbs (182 kg), with an estimated 510 lb (232 kg) live weight. Fills the freezer fast.

Venison (deer meat) is a delicacy you'd pay dearly for in a high end restaurant. Like all red game meats it has to be properly prepared, meaning de-fatted completely and soaked in mild salt water for a bit, but absolutely delicious. Very, very lean. Check out these recipes, and that's the short list.

One of the best parts is the liver (de-fatted but not soaked) which unlike other livers is quite mild and even a bit sweet. As such most hunters take flour, onions, butter and pepper to camp with them and the liver never makes it home.