I'll Stick To Cooking

While visiting my son in Laramie Wyoming I met an interesting young man,Marc. He is a friend of Ty's and really interested in shooting sports. Both archery and guns. Marc furnished the meat for tonight's meal. Now I'm not sure if it was harvested with a bow or rifle but I understand he is capable of some pretty good shooting with both.
Four of us went to a private shooting club one day. It has ranges up to 1200 yards. I know he is really good up to 800 yards, as that was the furthest we shot that day. He asked me if I wanted to try my hand at long range shooting. Being the competitive guy I am, I said sure. I took my place at the shooting bench. He help me load a shell into the gun. I believe the shell itself was longer than most of the shots I was used to taking. The target he said was by the scrub tree out there. I looked through the sights, slowly squeezed the trigger. A near miss. The spotter yelled "only 50 yards high!". I couldn't even see the target. It was just under a half mile away! He helped me again and I shot for a second time. It was better! They said I was 25 yards low. Finally after actually locating the right scrub tree I tried again. After that third shot I heard them yell "hit". I still don't know if I hit it! It was way too far for me to see. I think they may have just wanted to make an old man feel good, and get the rifle out of my hands before someone got hurt!
Marc gave me some Mule deer before I came home. He said it might be a little "gamier" than some of the other varieties of meat he gave me. So I looked for a recipe that might help with that. I selected a recipe "Beef Steak Fajitas" from "Simply Recipes" found on the web. I of course substituted the Mule Deer for Beef Steak and put the meat in a marinade of lime juice, olive oil, garlic, ground cumin, jalapeno pepper and cilantro for about an hour before cooking. I cooked the "Back Straps" just as I would have beef steak. Except since others were possibly eating these, I cooked to Medium. Normally I would cook Medium Rare. I did not taste any "gaminess" at all! These Fajitas were wonderful. If this is representative of all Mule deer meat, I won't turn it down! And since I had left overs, I see a Fajita Omelet or Frittata coming in the morning.
Maybe, some day I can make a meal for Marc and his family. And I did learn something at that range. The way I shoot, maybe I should leave the harvest to others and just stick to cooking!
Update ! I did blend two cultures with the left overs. I made a Mule Deer, Fajita Frittata. It turned out good as well and nothing wasted.

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