My Week with the BK9

C

coote

Joined
Apr 3, 2006
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A few days back I was hunting for hares on a friend's property, when I was surprised to spot a red deer. I managed to sneak close enough to get a shot at maybe 170 yards. I had my Ruger American .223 loaded with Barnes 55 grain MPG projectiles which are very accurate, but which have shown a reluctance (in my tests) to expand. Fortunately I got a central hit on the spine in the neck and it dropped on the spot. It took me a while to find the bullet hole. The bullet had hit a join in the spine and just made a tiny hole without a hint of expansion. It was one of the biggest deer I've ever got.
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A South African neighbour gave me some tuition in making biltong. My first batch (made from the deer shown above) was more than acceptable. The 'nine easily coped with cutting it into nibble portions
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And just today I've been making a few trap trigger components with the 'nine. I've caught hundreds of animals, including dozens of pigs, in primitive style traps. The particular trigger I am currently experimenting with seems to be used widely in Indonesia and Malaysia. It is designed to grab an animal by the leg with a soft rope noose. If you are interested in such traps, you can go to YouTube and look up jerat babi hutan. I don't condone some of the ways the animals are dealt with in some of these videos.... but I guess it isn't easy to own a firearm in those places.
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I've been playing in the bush for many years. And I still think that the BK9 is one of the best multi-purpose knives. Best wishes.....
 
Thanks for the comments.

The meat is not cooked. I cut the slabs with the grain (like milling a log to get lumber). The slabs were maybe 5/8" thick. There are various ways of preparing the meat at this stage.... and there may be advantages to using different methods. However I rolled the meat around in malt vinegar, then rubbed with a mix of coarse plain salt, a little black pepper, and crushed, toasted coriander seed. The very wet meat is placed in a bowl in the fridge for several hours to overnight. It is good to turn the meat to ensure that the salt and vinegar coats it thoroughly.

Different recipes and different operators may use differing amounts of salt and spices. In the old days the salt may have been essential to the preservation process, but if you are going to keep your biltong in the fridge and eat it within a short time, you may get away with less salt.

After marinating, I squeezed each portion to force out all the moisture I could. I then dried it in an electric dehydrator. In the past I have dried meat just in the open air or above a woodstove and it has worked. However this time I stuck to the method that my neighbour showed me. I suppose my total drying time at a moderately warm temperature was about 20 hours. The thinner bits of meat can get quite hard, so it might be best to remove them from the dehydrator earlier than the fatter slabs.

Cutting the meat as shown in the opening post, you cut across the grain. This results in short fibres which separate relatively easily as you chew. The first few 'chews' should be gentle, but it gets relatively soft in a short time and it tastes pretty darn good.

Dunno if you'd call it 'cured' meat. There may be some development of lactic acid bacteria, but they don't have long to work before the meat dries. So I'd just call it 'salted and dried'.

When I was younger, I wasn't aware of my family hanging venison to allow it to become more tender. Sometimes a deer might have hung for a couple of days as a matter of convenience. But it would generally end up in the freezer in a short time. Over the last few years I've hung deer and all of them turned into tender meat. This last deer was butchered and frozen within hours of being shot. It is a tad chewier than I'd like it to be, but it is still very edible.

Yes... totally agree... shot placement is more important than caliber. Accuracy is the number one quality I seek in a rifle or cartridge. But it is nice to have some expansion (or a "pre-expanded" bigger caliber) to help things along. I was very lucky to hit the spine when I aimed for the neck. I may have never found that deer otherwise. But I've had a lot of what you might call 'lucky' experiences just like that when I've been hunting. I'd never shot a deer with a .223 or .222 before, although many people down here have. I'm still a bit anxious about where to place the bullet on the next deer I see when I have the .223. Most deer I've shot with a military surplus Lee Enfield shooting army full metal jackets though, and they certainly did the job. And one day a deer popped up maybe 15 yards away when I was carrying a .22 rimfire loaded with Peters hollow. I shot it between the eyes and the whole deer seemed to turn to jelly and it collapsed instantly. We have no closed season for deer here, and there is no caliber limit on private property.

I have become quite a fan of the .223 with a scope on it. I've not used scopes on bigger calibers much, but dang.... I've found that if you are careful the bullet will hit pretty close to where you hold the cross-hairs !!
 
Have you ever had an expensive, moldy steak? (Aged)

it melts in your mouth..... 😁😁😁😁😁😁

thanks for the info. My mom would do beef jerky a lot as a kid.
I'm big into fermented foods, I've even done Fish.
Raw, fermented for over a month... Ha
adventurous, but good
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Have you ever had an expensive, moldy steak? (Aged)

it melts in your mouth..... 😁😁😁😁😁😁

thanks for the info. My mom would do beef jerky a lot as a kid.
I'm big into fermented foods, I've even done Fish.
Raw, fermented for over a month... Ha
adventurous, but good
Click to expand...
No..... never had a mouldy steak, but I think some of my earlier dried meat developed a bit of mould which didn't hurt me as far as I recall.

Never made fermented fish either.... unless you count supermarket fish sauce as being close enough.

I'm very interested in what you are saying.

I fermented some jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) once. I understand that this might make them a bit more digestible,.... evidently fresh sunchokes aren't fully digested by humans and they make you fart a lot. The fermented ones were ok with me, but my wife wasn't keen on the idea.

The way I see it fermentation should be a good thing. We are dependent on microorganisms in our gut to break down our food anyway.... so why not give the process a head start?

I was raised to not drink alcohol, but the process fascinates me. I have made plenty of ginger beer though... and I believe that must contain at least some alcohol.

I also enjoy cheese and salami.... and I bake bread quite often. Maybe I need to take my fermentation experience to the next level. I imagine fermented fish might have an odour that doesn't appeal to everyone.
 
coote said:
No..... never had a mouldy steak, but I think some of my earlier dried meat developed a bit of mould which didn't hurt me as far as I recall.

Never made fermented fish either.... unless you count supermarket fish sauce as being close enough.

I'm very interested in what you are saying.

I fermented some jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) once. I understand that this might make them a bit more digestible,.... evidently fresh sunchokes aren't fully digested by humans and they make you fart a lot. The fermented ones were ok with me, but my wife wasn't keen on the idea.

The way I see it fermentation should be a good thing. We are dependent on microorganisms in our gut to break down our food anyway.... so why not give the process a head start?

I was raised to not drink alcohol, but the process fascinates me. I have made plenty of ginger beer though... and I believe that must contain at least some alcohol.

I also enjoy cheese and salami.... and I bake bread quite often. Maybe I need to take my fermentation experience to the next level. I imagine fermented fish might have an odour that doesn't appeal to everyone.
Click to expand...
The fish was very clean, and surprisingly mild.
Sounds grosser than it was.

The steak too.... I was sorta joking about the mold.... All the mold is cut off before grilling.... But it aged a good while.
And like you said, lots of moisture gets removed.

Lots of food preservation relies on moisture being removed.
Whether by drying
Packed in salt
Or packed in sugar as in Jams and preserves.

Ginger beer sounds awesome, I love ginger.
Obviously with my name, I brew beer, but also make wine and meads. ;)

We used to have an old world salami maker here. The gov shut them down, because they were confused by them....

I took a salami tasting class.
The instructor/owner said salami will last Forever, because of all the bacteria in it (good)

I've got a few that are over 10 years I think?
 
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That is all good stuff Crag. I guess it is good to have the health authorities inspecting and testing stuff, however I think that sometimes it doesn't hurt to eat a few bugs. Man... 10 years is a good shelf life for a food product. It would certainly last long enough to take on a decent camping trip.
 
the boys at work were watching video of a guy trying to eat fermented fish... i don't have a link but it's probably on that tube site where you can post things. anyway, i almost wretched listening to the video guy retching.
as a kid, i remember being offered pickled herring. i don't think i tried it. a couple of years ago i tried smoked eel... wished i hadn't. tasted like something that sohouldn't be in my mouth. i guess i wasn't hungry enough.
back on topic though, nice shooting. that biltong looks tasty. i'm no hunter, but i may suggest it to some of the guys i work with. they usually do pepperettes with their deer. about 50/50 venison and pork.
 
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