Well my freezer is full already and the rut hasn't hit yet and i still have 3 months till the end of the season. I guess i can donate some venison to the hungry. What do you guys do when your freezer is full and you still have plenty of season left to hunt?
Yep, I have a second chest freezer coming to me in about 2 weeks. Sad part is my upright is empty, hope to change that tomorrow though.
Definitely buy the bigger freezer. I've got a GE chest freezer thats 28 cubic feet. I've yet to fill it to capacity, but I know from past experience that it'll hold 3 deer, a whole beef, whole lamb, whole hog, and roughly 50 lbs of bass, catfish, and crappie fillets. I've even packed a few geese, ducks, dove, pheasant, and quail into that mix too. Nothing better than a freezer full of meat!
Wish i had your problem... It could happen though, i took my 1st bow doe ever on opening day and going out Thur & Fri :-) Lets keep our fingers crossed.
I have two uprights... One for a backup or while waiting for butchering. When I get enough... I stop shooting and start looking for Deerzilla or start taking kids hunting. I also go back to fishing which is good here through the winter.
Help out family and friends, put a pile in the dehydrator, send some to get processed to open up some more space.
A couple years ago, I shot a large doe for my sister in law and family. They had eaten my wife's venison roast and wanted some. Well, we carried an entire processed deer to Kentucky for them. My wife cooked a roast for them and we left the rest for them later. My wife's was incredible as always but every time my SIL tried to cook it... boot leather. I think they ended up wasting the rest of the deer. If the friend or family isn't an accomplished venison cook... burger may be a better option for them to start out with.
We are running in to the same problem. I think we will be needing to buy a bigger freezer as well. Right now, we have my doe, my buck and Dave's bear in our freezer. We have 2 in the family still bowhunting and then 4 of us hunting gun, if the 16 year old girl doesn't find something better to do...hahaha. Last year, we did give my brother in law one of our deer. This year, we have asked people in advance if anyone wanted venison so that we know how many tags to fill. With 4 hunters in the family, that can add up pretty fast and we do not want to waste any.
We have 40 cubic ft of freezer space. When I reach the limit on venison I switch to fox, squirrel and crow hunting. I also go back to cutting wood in the deer zones around my house. When I reach the limit on venison I am tired of processing deer at that point too.
