Looking for relatively cheap or home-made gear that can make your duck season more successful? I did a roundup of my latest hacks as a free post on To The Bone, a Substack newsletter.
Click here to check it out!
© Holly A. Heyser 2022
Showing posts with label how-to. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how-to. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Video: Dove hunting for beginners
One of my greatest passions is helping new hunters. Usually I do it at in-person events or on my own YouTube channel, but then Covid happened, and then the world Zoomed.
Here's a recent webinar I did for beginning hunters about how to hunt doves in California.
© Holly A. Heyser 2020
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Video: How to identify amanita vernicoccora
Lots of mushroom hunters see this treat and pass right on by out of concerns it might be a destroying angel or death cap, which can kill you. Not me and Hank - we love these things! In this video, Hank points out the six traits that confirm this mushroom is an eater.
© Holly A. Heyser 2020
© Holly A. Heyser 2020
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Videos: How to pluck a duck, how to recycle duck-plucking wax
I've got two new videos in my series about processing ducks: how to pluck a duck cleanly (no-wax method), and how to recycle duck plucking wax. Why would you have duck plucking wax to recycle? Well, you can see why in another (much older) video about waxing ducks. Why would you want to wax a duck? Because it does a really good job of getting rid of down.
But for those who don't want to deal with the time and mess of wax, the method in the first video comes awfully close.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Videos: Benelli Super Black Eagle 3
Did I need a new gun? No. But last fall, Benelli invited me on a hunt in Saskatchewan where I was one of four shotgun/hunting writers to try out the new Benelli Super Black Eagle 3, before it had even been released. I liked it a LOT, so as soon as it was available, I bought one.
The gun is getting rave reviews, so I figured there are people out there who might like to know how to do a few things with it, so I've made a few videos: how to assemble the SBE3 out of the box, how to reverse the safety and how to adjust drop and cast.
All three videos are below, as is the story behind the video about how to reverse the safety - feel free to enjoy a good laugh at my expense!
Now, the story:
As soon as I got my SBE3, I took it apart, reversed the cast and reversed safety so it was good for left-handed shooting. I had zero trouble doing it. So then the next weekend I did a re-enactment so I could make a how-to video.
Reversing the safety involves removing a retaining pin that holds back a tiny, 1/2-inch long spring. At one point in that process, I didn't realize I'd pushed the pin all the way out so I turned it around to look at it. Snap! ......... Plink!
Oh. My. God. The spring had flown out and hit something metal somewhere behind me, which could've been one of the dozens of photo prop tables I have, a sheet of corrugated metal, a refrigerater, a freezer, the Instant Pot sitting on the freezer, the electric slicer sitting on the box next to the freezer, the water heater, the washer or the dryer.
At this point it's worth noting that I was working up one of my MONSTER headaches and I was not feeling good, and getting more nauseated by the second, both because of the headache and my predicament. I watched the video up to the point where I started saying "Oh God" over and over. Unfortunately I had pulled the trigger assembly out of the frame, so I couldn't see which way it'd been pointing.
But it sounded like it had hit the corrugated metal behind me. Right underneath that metal was an enormous wad of duck blind camo grass, like a roll of brittle shag carpet. So I tipped it upside down and shook. Nothing. Then I started picking up and shaking every single photo prop/table. Then I tipped the frame that holds the tables and looked underneath. Then I reached into a corner that looked like a great place for a family of black widows and pulled every piece of junk sitting there.
Hank came home at that point, so I pulled him in. He pulled out the fridge. Took out all the pieces of camo grass and shook them separately. Helpfully (not) pointed out that it might have hit the rafters and gone God knows where. Dear God. Not the decoys! Nausea increased. I decided to look by the water heater and asked him to put all the grass back into its plastic bag, which is akin to putting a genie back in a bottle, which is to say it didn't really happen the way I'd envisioned.
While he worked on that, I began picking up each item of dirty laundry near the water heater and shaking it. This was mostly Hank's filthy gardening clothes and bloody elk processing towels and aprons, which is to say it was all dank and crusty. Still nothing.
Despondent, I resolved to give up and hit the Brownell's website to order a replacement spring and cancel my planned Sunday shoot at with a friend. So I put the laundry back in its pile, shaking each item again for good measure. And after the last item was on the pile, I looked down on the floor and there it was: the spring.
It had been two hours since I'd lost it. But my persistence - honed by 11 dogless seasons of searching for ducks that drop in terrible places - had paid off.
So, I rallied! I finished the filming, went inside the house, took some meds for the headache, and thanked my lucky stars.
So if you watch that video and you can see how much my hands are shaking as I work on the trigger assembly, it's because I could barely see straight at that point. But I got it done!
© Holly A. Heyser 2017
The gun is getting rave reviews, so I figured there are people out there who might like to know how to do a few things with it, so I've made a few videos: how to assemble the SBE3 out of the box, how to reverse the safety and how to adjust drop and cast.
All three videos are below, as is the story behind the video about how to reverse the safety - feel free to enjoy a good laugh at my expense!
Now, the story:
As soon as I got my SBE3, I took it apart, reversed the cast and reversed safety so it was good for left-handed shooting. I had zero trouble doing it. So then the next weekend I did a re-enactment so I could make a how-to video.
Reversing the safety involves removing a retaining pin that holds back a tiny, 1/2-inch long spring. At one point in that process, I didn't realize I'd pushed the pin all the way out so I turned it around to look at it. Snap! ......... Plink!
Oh. My. God. The spring had flown out and hit something metal somewhere behind me, which could've been one of the dozens of photo prop tables I have, a sheet of corrugated metal, a refrigerater, a freezer, the Instant Pot sitting on the freezer, the electric slicer sitting on the box next to the freezer, the water heater, the washer or the dryer.
At this point it's worth noting that I was working up one of my MONSTER headaches and I was not feeling good, and getting more nauseated by the second, both because of the headache and my predicament. I watched the video up to the point where I started saying "Oh God" over and over. Unfortunately I had pulled the trigger assembly out of the frame, so I couldn't see which way it'd been pointing.
But it sounded like it had hit the corrugated metal behind me. Right underneath that metal was an enormous wad of duck blind camo grass, like a roll of brittle shag carpet. So I tipped it upside down and shook. Nothing. Then I started picking up and shaking every single photo prop/table. Then I tipped the frame that holds the tables and looked underneath. Then I reached into a corner that looked like a great place for a family of black widows and pulled every piece of junk sitting there.
Hank came home at that point, so I pulled him in. He pulled out the fridge. Took out all the pieces of camo grass and shook them separately. Helpfully (not) pointed out that it might have hit the rafters and gone God knows where. Dear God. Not the decoys! Nausea increased. I decided to look by the water heater and asked him to put all the grass back into its plastic bag, which is akin to putting a genie back in a bottle, which is to say it didn't really happen the way I'd envisioned.
While he worked on that, I began picking up each item of dirty laundry near the water heater and shaking it. This was mostly Hank's filthy gardening clothes and bloody elk processing towels and aprons, which is to say it was all dank and crusty. Still nothing.
Despondent, I resolved to give up and hit the Brownell's website to order a replacement spring and cancel my planned Sunday shoot at with a friend. So I put the laundry back in its pile, shaking each item again for good measure. And after the last item was on the pile, I looked down on the floor and there it was: the spring.
It had been two hours since I'd lost it. But my persistence - honed by 11 dogless seasons of searching for ducks that drop in terrible places - had paid off.
So, I rallied! I finished the filming, went inside the house, took some meds for the headache, and thanked my lucky stars.
So if you watch that video and you can see how much my hands are shaking as I work on the trigger assembly, it's because I could barely see straight at that point. But I got it done!
© Holly A. Heyser 2017
Monday, March 6, 2017
VIDEO - Fillet & gut: a super-clean way to clean and break down your birds
There are many legitimate ways to clean your gamebirds, but I have developed a method I like a LOT: fillet & gut. It's a great way to work cleanly, get all you can out of a bird, and maximize how much meat and fat you get off of it.
The short version is that I pluck a bird whole, then fillet it off the carcass. Then I separate breast, leg and wing on the meat side so I can see exactly where the muscle groups begin and end, as opposed to guessing while cutting each carcass off the whole bird. This is also cool because you're removing those parts before gutting the bird, and gutting is when you're mostly likely to puncture intestines and get poop on your meat. This is not the end of the world, of course - a good rinse will make everything fine again. But still, better to be clean from the start.
The next cool thing is when you've taken all the meat off the carcass, you can pull off the breast plate like a lid and all the wobbly bits - heart, liver, gizzard - are waiting for you on top of the bird, no reaching up into the darkness and grabbing.
Here's the video that shows this process in detail. It's not short - just under 10 minutes - but if you're looking for a clean way to maximize your birds, this is it! And there's an FAQ below the video.
And here's an FAQ:
Q: Why not just cook the bird whole? A: Breast meat needs to be cooked hot and fast, and medium rare like a steak, and legs and wings need to be cooked slowly to break down the meat, which can be tough. If you cook the whole bird, you're either going to overcook the breast or undercook the legs and wings.
Q: Why did you save the feet? A: You can throw them into stock! Just like pig feet, which can be used for the same purpose, they contain collagen that makes your stock silkier.
Q: That duck looked easy to work with - why? A: Two things: First is after plucking it, I put it in the fridge overnight. It's much easier to slice a cold duck, especially if it has a lot of fat, which can turn your fingers greasy. The second is that he was a perfect specimen with very little shot damage to the body. The reality is that birds killed with a shotgun will be messier, especially if shot hits the guts.
Q: What do you use duck fat for? A: It's a great substitute for butter or cooking oil in many recipes. When I pan-sear duck breasts (my favorite treatment), I start with a bit of duck fat in the pan. I'll throw duck fat into the rice cooker too.
Q: If I break the gall bladder, will it ruin the meat? A: Nope. Just rinse whatever that nasty juice touched. If it still smells bad to you, pat it dry and put it on a paper towel in a covered container in the fridge and check it the next day. I find a lot of smells that are present during cleaning disappear with a little time.
Q: What do you do with all the parts after breaking it down? A: I rinse and pat dry everything then put the parts on paper towels in plastic containers and let them sit in the fridge for 2-3 days, changing the paper towels once or twice a day. This brings out extra moisture and the meat ages just a bit, condensing flavors. Then I vacuum seal and freeze anything I'm not going to eat within one week of the day I shot the bird.
© Holly A. Heyser 2017
The short version is that I pluck a bird whole, then fillet it off the carcass. Then I separate breast, leg and wing on the meat side so I can see exactly where the muscle groups begin and end, as opposed to guessing while cutting each carcass off the whole bird. This is also cool because you're removing those parts before gutting the bird, and gutting is when you're mostly likely to puncture intestines and get poop on your meat. This is not the end of the world, of course - a good rinse will make everything fine again. But still, better to be clean from the start.
The next cool thing is when you've taken all the meat off the carcass, you can pull off the breast plate like a lid and all the wobbly bits - heart, liver, gizzard - are waiting for you on top of the bird, no reaching up into the darkness and grabbing.
Here's the video that shows this process in detail. It's not short - just under 10 minutes - but if you're looking for a clean way to maximize your birds, this is it! And there's an FAQ below the video.
And here's an FAQ:
Q: Why not just cook the bird whole? A: Breast meat needs to be cooked hot and fast, and medium rare like a steak, and legs and wings need to be cooked slowly to break down the meat, which can be tough. If you cook the whole bird, you're either going to overcook the breast or undercook the legs and wings.
Q: Why did you save the feet? A: You can throw them into stock! Just like pig feet, which can be used for the same purpose, they contain collagen that makes your stock silkier.
Q: That duck looked easy to work with - why? A: Two things: First is after plucking it, I put it in the fridge overnight. It's much easier to slice a cold duck, especially if it has a lot of fat, which can turn your fingers greasy. The second is that he was a perfect specimen with very little shot damage to the body. The reality is that birds killed with a shotgun will be messier, especially if shot hits the guts.
Q: What do you use duck fat for? A: It's a great substitute for butter or cooking oil in many recipes. When I pan-sear duck breasts (my favorite treatment), I start with a bit of duck fat in the pan. I'll throw duck fat into the rice cooker too.
Q: If I break the gall bladder, will it ruin the meat? A: Nope. Just rinse whatever that nasty juice touched. If it still smells bad to you, pat it dry and put it on a paper towel in a covered container in the fridge and check it the next day. I find a lot of smells that are present during cleaning disappear with a little time.
Q: What do you do with all the parts after breaking it down? A: I rinse and pat dry everything then put the parts on paper towels in plastic containers and let them sit in the fridge for 2-3 days, changing the paper towels once or twice a day. This brings out extra moisture and the meat ages just a bit, condensing flavors. Then I vacuum seal and freeze anything I'm not going to eat within one week of the day I shot the bird.
© Holly A. Heyser 2017
Monday, June 27, 2016
How to choose a shotgun for hunting
The only real piece of advice I got was to buy a 20 gauge because I'm a chick, which really did me a disservice. I'm sorry, there's absolutely nothing about being a woman that makes a 20 gauge a better choice. I ended up upgrading to a 12 gauge within a few years, which made me much happier. It's a duck hunter thing.
After meeting a lot of hunters who used a variety of shotguns, I came to realize that the type of shotgun that's best for you really is first and foremost a function of your personality, so I created a personality test to help prospective gun owners see what might be best for them. I blogged about it back in 2012, and I recently updated that blog post to hand out at a California Waterfowl workshop for new hunters.
Click here to view a printable PDF. Feel free to share it with friends, but if you'd like to reprint it in a for-profit publication, please get in touch with me.
© Holly A. Heyser 2016
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Two new videos: how to fillet a duck, and how to cook a duck fillet or duck breast
I'm obsessed with using as many parts as possible from the birds I kill, so I came up with a filleting method earlier this year that uses ALL of the meat and skin, and is easy to eat, too. The first video shows you how to cut a duck into two boneless fillets, and the second shows you how to cook those fillets (though, conveniently, the technique is the same for cooking breasts alone).
If you watched the PBS Food/Original Fare video in which I took a newbie duck hunting then cooked up a pintail for her, this is the method I used.
Enjoy!
© Holly A. Heyser 2013
If you watched the PBS Food/Original Fare video in which I took a newbie duck hunting then cooked up a pintail for her, this is the method I used.
Enjoy!
© Holly A. Heyser 2013
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Video: How to pluck and gut a dove
I think most hunters like to breast out their doves, but you know me - I'm a fan of eating as much of the bird as possible. Besides, I once watched my boyfriend Hank cook whole doves for a group of men who were used to breasting them out, and they were nearly in tears it was so good. Definitely had some converts that day.
So for all my kindred spirits out there, I've created a video showing how I pluck and gut the bird. I'm already bracing for the comments on YouTube: "Brah, there's an easier way. Just breast 'em out." Yes, I know, Brah. I'm showing you another way. If you're not interested, don't do it.
© Holly A. Heyser 2013
So for all my kindred spirits out there, I've created a video showing how I pluck and gut the bird. I'm already bracing for the comments on YouTube: "Brah, there's an easier way. Just breast 'em out." Yes, I know, Brah. I'm showing you another way. If you're not interested, don't do it.
© Holly A. Heyser 2013
Thursday, June 21, 2012
VIDEO: How to Gut a Duck
I know we're smack in the middle of "Not Duck Season," but I've finally edited the third in a series of videos about cleaning wild ducks.
This video features Hunt, Gather, Cook
author Hank Shaw demonstrating how to gut a duck, saving the wings, gizzard, heart and liver, as well as the feet (for stock) and fat (for rendering).
To see the "How to Pluck a Duck" video, go here.
If you have sea ducks or other waterfowl that have an off taste, try skinning them - the flavor (and aroma) lives in the fat and skin. The skinning video is here.
And yes, I know it's easier to breast out your ducks, but you're wasting half the meat when you do that. Want proof? Read this.
© Holly A. Heyser 2012
This video features Hunt, Gather, Cook
author Hank Shaw demonstrating how to gut a duck, saving the wings, gizzard, heart and liver, as well as the feet (for stock) and fat (for rendering).
To see the "How to Pluck a Duck" video, go here.If you have sea ducks or other waterfowl that have an off taste, try skinning them - the flavor (and aroma) lives in the fat and skin. The skinning video is here.
And yes, I know it's easier to breast out your ducks, but you're wasting half the meat when you do that. Want proof? Read this.
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