KZ Newsletter – Fred Hall Edition
Volume 1, Issue 2
March 2010
| Welcome to the Fred Hall Show.Kill Zone Outfitters is proudly sponsoring the KILL ZONE at the Fred Hall Show. KZO is at both shows, Long Beach California March 3rd to the 7th and San Diego (Delmar Fairground) March 24th to the 28th. KZO staff will be at both shows to answer questions and provide information on hunting waterfowl in North America. Two of the KZO guides will be putting on seminars about hunting in California and Oregon. KZO will be taking reservations for a special spring hunt in Klamath Falls Oregon from February 20th to March 10th, daily limit of 2 Specks and 4 Snows. Ask about this hunt and others. For more detail on the Fred Hall Show go to www.fredhall.com |
Kill Zone Outfitters, Staff Biography By Daniel Willan
Jason Fromm is a guide for Kill Zone Outfitters in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Jason started hunting with his dad Dave Fromm, at 3 years of age, walking with or being carried to the duck blind. He was born in Lacy Washington, and was raised in Yakima WA and later in the Seattle/Tacoma Washington. Throughout his youth and till today, he has mostly hunted waterfowl and on occasion some pheasant in the eastern Washington area.In high school Jason, while scouting the area, found honey holes and turned friends on to them. Something you might not know about Jason, he was a Professional Rodeo Steer Wrestler. Jason says “I gave up wrestling due to I was getting older, I didn’t heal as quickly and I had bills to pay.” He met his wife Lee, they married in 2005. Lee works in a local veterinarian office. Jason is a step father to two boys |
| Inside This Issue |
| 1 |
Fred Hall and KZO welcome |
| 1/2 |
KZO Guide Biography |
| 3 |
Working Dogs of KZO |
| 3/4 |
Why’s of Dry Aging, http://www.wildeats.com |
| 5 |
Western Outdoor New Article |
| 5 |
William Underwood Memorial |
| 6 |
2010 KZO Calendar |
| 7 |
Recipe of the Month, How to get a hold of us |
| 8 |
KZO Friends and Contributors |
| Jason Fromm, Kill Zone Outfitters Guide |
| Kill Zone Outfitters, Staff Biography from page 1 |
| Taylor who is 17 and Cameron who is 15. Both are involved with the Guide Service and help out when needed. In addition to the guide service, Jason and family raise live stock; club Lambs, for 4H and FFA. Besides the farm animals they have a Doberman named Bentley who is Lee’s pet. They call home a 6 acre spread in Klamath Falls, Oregon.What is one of the funniest moments you have had while guiding? It would have to be one of my long time clients missing a duck that was flying 3ft off the water at 30ft out from him. Normally he was a great shot, it is really funny because of who it was. He is a 78 year old and funniest guy I guide. If we are not cracking jokes on each other we are capping on each others missed shot. What is one of the scariest moments you have had while guiding? I guide a couple, Keith and Alberta Frey, they have been with me for a number of years and both are up in age. During the hunt I have to help both them into and out of the boat. We got to our take out spot, I helped Keith out of the boat, told him not to move and turned to help Alberta, Keith didn’t stay where he was told to and slipped and fell face first into 6” in the water and was stuck in this position, he couldn’t help himself up so I had to act fast. I had to set Alberta back into the boat and went after Keith. He was shaken, cold and wet but his true spirit showed and they hunted for a couple of hours. Keith scored a honker for his tenacity.Jason how was the past season? Duck hunting was the worst we ever seen, the bird numbers down, it was the toughest season in all fly ways, the pacific flyway had a late migration. He talked to guides in Washington and their numbers were down also. Normally ducks migrate in October they fly from Canada to Oregon until we freeze up. But due to an extremely mild winter, it delayed the migration. We were frozen up here and they passed on by. Canvas back and blue bills helped save the season. Mallards were really few and far between. We salvaged the season with hard work scouting the area and find the ducks when they did land and stay in the area. The goose hunting wasn’t the best I ever have seen but got into them every trip. Everyone got a few birds. The weather and different migration patterns are affecting everyone’s hunting on the Pacific Flyway.What do you have to offer to KZO clients? We have a spring hunt that has been going on for 4 year. The dates are February 20th to March 10th, for 2 Speck’s and 4 Snow Geese. This would be considered a depredation hunt? Yes, it is to haze the geese off of the private fields because they are doing a lot of damage to the fields. How has the hunting been in past? Outstanding last year a little slow because it is determined on what happens in Sacramento Valley, they stage here to fatten up and then fly to the breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska. What was your hunting success last season? Our kill count last year was 200 geese, for 18 trips, not bad for a difficult season. How is booking going for this spring hunt? We are real busy answering the phone and scheduling trips and we are booking fast. What are the details? We are hunting everyday from February 20th to March 10th, and we are hunting multiple properties. We have thousands of acres of private land to hunt with multiple layout blinds locations. We have pit blinds available but mostly shoot from layout blinds. You can get a nonresident hunting license for 3 days, and there are some nice local motels for a reasonable price. Kill Zone Outfitter can help you make arrangements.What do you do after the spring season is over? I will do construction work to pay the bills, work around the home stead; I’ll work with the dogs, and get ready for next fall. When does the next season start? The fall Oregon waterfowl season is the 2nd weekend in October, opening day is always great.
For scheduling of the 2010 Oregon spring hunt or fall waterfowl hunting in Oregon contact Kill Zone Outfitters at 888-866-5455. |
“WHYS” of Dry Aging can’t begin to tell you how many people want to know, “ How do I get rid of that gamey taste in my – ducks, geese, venison, elk, caribou, moose, boar etc”. And, “it always comes out tough”. Well we can address both issues at one time.First we need to understand what we are dealing with in a wild game animal – they are the equivalent to an Olympic athlete. When you think about it, all they do is fly thousands of miles during migration or run up and down 10,000-foot mountains for a living. This may not be the case all the time but I think you get the picture. These strenuous activities create highly developed muscle tissue. The only way to breakdown the structure of these muscles is reduce the internal moisture that is naturally present at a very slow rate. This process is referred to as “DRY AGING”.Yes, I know there are thousands of myths and remedies for making your game meat tender and eliminating the gamey flavor. And, yes, there are chemical enzymes that break down these tissues, the problem with them is that they also breakdown the wonderful natural flavors of this terrific meat source. There is a more natural way to achieve better results that allow this meat the opportunity to meet its maximum potential at the table.Just like there shouldn’t be a fishy flavor in fresh fish… there shouldn’t be any gamey flavor in game meat. If properly handled wild game meat is the most flavorful, natural form of protein we can consume. It certainly has it’s own character, a little richer flavor, yes, but not gamey where it’s offensive. If it is aggressive then a number of things could have contributed to that.
- One of the field cleaning or handling procedures was over looked or abused. 2. The internal body temperature was allowed to stay within an area known as “the danger zone.” 45°F – 140°, this is wear bacterial growth is accelerated. Unfortunately this is exactly wear most warm-blooded mammal body temperatures lie. While we are alive we have antibodies that fight these bacterium, but once we are dead these anti bodies no longer function. Thus the internal temperature of a very well insulated animal if left alone will begin to spoil in a very short time.3. Your shot didn’t hit a vital, causing the animal to die in an adrenaline filled state, making it very tough to breakdown the aggravated fiber structure.4. Your animal was very old, sick or at the peak of the rut, which is the same as being full of adrenaline… you guys know what I mean!Your meat is too fresh and not properly aged, elk
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Working Dogs of Kill Zone Outfitters
By Daniel Willan
Jason’s Fromm working dog staff is made up of three dogs. His main dog is a Black female Labrador retriever who is 6 years old named Cabela. Jason describes her as the duck getter. Jason says she is a crazy dog her intensity to get the bird is insane. She once went on a 400 ft blind retrieve through tulles and marsh to get a duck and got it. Clients love her, she interacts well with them, she likes to cuddle up with the when the hunting gets slow. She will settle down after the morning hunt, make herself a nest and fall asleep. Jason says that she busts through ice and charges to get the bird. He has seen her with icicles hanging from her muzzle. Jason trained her when she was a pup, also he had help from Lynn Hannigan who Jason helped with Lynn’s dogs and in trade polished Cabela retrieving.The second dog on the staff is Cameron Fromm’s Black Labrador retriever who is a 3 year old male by the name of Hammer. He helps out with Cameron and helps Cabela. He is a young dog but is a force to contend with running for the duck trying to get to it before Cabela does. The other dog in the Basin Guide Service staff that is new is a male Yellow Labrador retriever 2 year old new dog named Sonar he is new to the program, Jason says he is coming on strong and learning everyday from Cabela and Hammer. Jason is looking for good retrieving from Sonar in the future as he matures. |
| Whys of Drying Cont page 4 |
5.14 days, deer and other medium sized big game animals 10 days for maximum results. This is a total dry age time and can include time in the field (with the right temperature conditions), in a meat locker and even re-introduced when removed from the freezer.
- The actual size of the frozen meat will determine the exact amount of time need to achieve a proper amount of dry aging. The smaller the piece the less time needed. You should be able to squeeze through a piece of meat with your fingers and feel the fiber structure yielding to the pressure of your handles. If not it will be rubbery and bounce back from your touch. · As a general rule of thumb it’s much better to freeze a piece of meat in block form. One you’ll get a much greater yield when you have to trim off all the darken meat around the piece that you dry age and secondly a blocked form of meat is less likely to get freezer burn simple because there is less surface area to dry out in the freezer.If you are unfortunate to harvest an animal that is sick, wounded or near death, well that’s just bad luck. Sooner or later, if you spend enough time in the wild it will happen to you. It happened to me a couple of years ago. I was in Colorado on a late season hunt and came across a beautiful 6×6, feeding out on the open at 3 pm. It was very strange to see an animal of this magnitude out in the open at that time of day. He was across a large open basin without any cover between us so I was forced to take a rather long shot. My 300 Mag. did a fine job, dropping this bull in its tracks. When I came upon him, I noticed he had been arrowed right through the abdomen several months earlier during archery season. How he managed to survive for that long was miraculous. All my attempts to save whatever meat I could get fell in vain. Basically, he was inedible… just bad luckMost of us don’t have the perfect aging facility, 38°F, with low humidity and good air circulation. So we leave that to the butcher, outfitter or just hang our meat at camp and hope it will hang long enough, at the right temperature and dry enough to achieve a proper DRY AGE. At best, these situations are volatile. Most people don’t realize that you can re-introduce the dry aging process even after your meat has been frozen, piece-by-piece! All it takes is a little organizational discipline. Instead of taking out that frozen block of steaks and leaving it out on the counter so it will be ready for you when you return from work, take your meat package, on a plate and place it into the refrigerator. Leave the wrapper intact. We want to slow the defrosting process down to a minimum. This will allow the meat to retain its natural juices. To completely defrost the average sized package will take about three days. When it is totally thawed out remove the wrapper. Discard the blood that has accumulated. Dry off the meat and place it onto a rack. Place the rack over a container that will catch the draining blood, an aluminum sheet pan will work just fine. Arrange the meat so they don’t touch and make sure there is plenty of room under the rack so the meat isn’t sitting in the blood. Place the meat back into the refrigerator, uncovered. Make sure there is good air circulation around the meat. The exact amount of time needed to properly age will vary depending on – the age of the animal, the condition of the meat before it went into the freezer, how long if at all it was aged originally and the size of each piece of meat. You’ll have to plan ahead. That’s why I said organizational discipline. Don’t worry the results will be more than worth the time.What happens during this process is a slow evaporation of the internal moisture of these muscles. Remember the developed muscle structure we talked about earlier, without the internal moisture the fibers that give this muscle its strength begin to deteriorate. At the same time, you’re draining off the excessive blood. Blood is responsible for a good portion of the aggressive flavors associated with wild game meats. After three to five days, you will have a tremendous amount of accumulated blood in the tray below your meat. THAT is what you were used to eating. This is what contributed to the aggressive flavor in your meat. The blood that is present in a body is the bi product of what they eat. The perfect situation is when someone will say , “boy that deer tasted like sage.” Well, you would too if all you ate for 4 or 5 years was sage. All that sage is being broken down in the blood of the animal. If we don’t properly drain out the blood we get to eat that strong aggressive flavor. On the other hand if we age that meat and allow that blood to drain from the meat, then not only does the blood depart but so does that SAGE flavor!As I said the exact amount of time will vary but you can check to see if your meat is ready by squeezing it with your fingers. If the meat yields slightly to the pressure, it is ready. If it feels rubbery and bounces back, it might need a little longer. Trim off any excessively dark meat. The color of the meat will also change from an eggplant purple color when it’s full of blood to the color of a young beef of beef. Cut your meat into steaks across the grain, I recommend no larger than 1 – 1 ½ inches thick. Larger cuts are exposed to heat for too long and therefore have a tendency of loosing a good amount of their limited natural juices. Cook as quickly as possible (for tender cuts of meat- loins, racks and certain cuts from the leg). Dry Aging, although timely, will give you results you never thought possible This process gives you the best of both worlds, tender and mild. Now, I don’t think you can ask for more than that. You’ve worked very hard for your harvests, enjoy them to their maximum potential. I can’t tell you how many dinner guests of mine where amazed at the tender, subtle flavors of my wild game meals. Your guests will be just as amazedLIFE’S SHORT…EAT WELL BY John McGannon For more information see John at http://www.wildeats.com
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| Whys of Drying Cont from page 3 |
| Western Outdoor News Article Kill Zone Outfitters, a newly developed waterfowl hunting service, is geared towards promoting exciting waterfowl hunting at many prominent locations throughout the country.Yusef Hussainy & Bill Underwood Jr. founded Kill Zone Outfitters in 2007 with the idea of simply offering a quality hunting experience with proven outfitters to take the guess work out from hunters looking to book a quality hunting trip.Yusef and Bill have been friends and hunting partners for many years so the thought of sharing their passion of waterfowl hunting with this new venture came very easily.“We decided to build a brand and guarantee that the hunting will be the best in that particular area. We know that hunting is still-hunting; you have good days and bad even with a guide. One of the benefits of booking with us is that we guarantee that the guides will be professional and courteous. When hunters book a trip with Kill Zone we want them to know it’s with an outfitter they can trust”.Our guides use the latest equipment available to ensure an enjoyable day a field and to offer the best opportunity to decoy the birds right to the “Kill Zone”.
Kill Zone currently offers hunters premier guided pit blind hunts in the rice fields in the Sacramento valley, Canada goose and Mallard hunting in Klamath Falls Oregon and world-class duck hunting in Northeast Arkansas.
Look for Kill Zone Outfitters at the Fred Hall shows to help you book the waterfowl hunt you have been looking for. |
Memorial
Underwood, William M., SrMay 3rd, 1950 – January 25th, 2010
William Underwood was born and raised in Yuma Az. his family came to San Diego, CA in the 60’s where he settled in El Cajon and Lakeside. Bill was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, successful businessman, contractor and auctioneer who succumbed to a 4 year battle with cancer on Monday, Jan 25th, 2010. Bill’s passion was the outdoors; he loved to hunt and fish. He spent many days hunting for upland game and waterfowl from Yuma to Sacramento. He enjoyed sharing his passion by spending time in the field and on the water with his children and friends. Those who crossed his path with his same interests would become great and lifelong friends.William Underwood served his country in the United States Marine Corp. Bill did a tour of duty in the Vietnam War. He married his lifetime love, Celia in Sept. 19th, 1971. They had two children, son Bill Jr., and daughter, Liz. William’s family grew with Bill Jr. marrying Sonja and Liz marrying Jason.Bill was a devoted friend, husband, father and grandfather. He gave his all for his family and friends. He touched the lives of many with his sense of humor, quick wit and compassion.
William is survived by wife, Celia, son Bill, Jr., daughter Liz, daughter in law; Sonja, son in law; Jason. William’s pride and joy were his three grandchildren: Angelica, Sheridan and Savanna. Bill also is survived by his two brothers, Phil Underwood and Johnny Curtsinger.
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Recipe from www.ducks.org
Pan-Seared Snow Goose Breasts, Peppers and Onions
4 servings
4 boneless snow goose breast halves, skin removed
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (Tabasco)
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup tomatoes, seeded and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Slice goose breasts thinly across the “grain” of the meat. Combine half of the olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and hot pepper sauce in a glass bowl. Add sliced goose, cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. Heat remaining oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, peppers and garlic. Cook until onions are medium brown. Remove goose from marinade. Drain well and discard marinade. Add goose and stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes or until just cooked, but not past medium-rare. Stir in tomato and season to taste with salt, pepper and additional hot sauce. Serve over a bed of Cajun rice.
If you have a recipe you would like to share, send it to dan@killzoneoutfitters.com and we will publish in the next KZO Gazette. |
| Kill Zone Outfitters P.O. Box 302 Lakeside, Ca. 92040 |
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