I squeezed the trigger on the Ravin R29X crossbow and immediately heard the loud “Ka-WHAANGG!” of broadhead smacking metal.
What the hell? Did I just miss the deer at 30 yards and hit the metal feeder?
I looked over at my hunting partner that morning, Grey Ray, co-founder of Outdoor Solutions. My expression must’ve said it all.
“You hit her,” he said, meaning the whitetail doe which had stood broadside just a second before.
“You sure?”
“Ah, I think so…”
We climbed out of the elevated hunting blind, me seriously re-evaluating my career as a hunter and writer, replaying the shot in my head, trying to remember the moment when I’d apparently pulled my shot high.
I felt real relief when I spotted the round dent on the feeder’s metal leg and the blood around it, a clear indication that my arrow had struck the doe, passed through her, and then smacked the feeder leg.
She piled up in the brush, maybe 25 yards from the feeder, at the end of a wide trail of blood. I later found the arrow, the broadhead missing, and the aluminum front of the arrow pulled back into four separate strands like a banana peel.
The Outdoor Solutions 'Field to Table' Concept
I had a deer on the ground. The question for many hunters at this point, especially newbies, is now what?
Fortunately, this hunt was only one part of a larger event, one designed to provide many answers and options to the all-important now-what question.
I attended the Outdoor Solutions Field to Table hunt, held in November 2025 at the Cross Bell Ranch www.crossbellranch.com near Copan, Oklahoma.
Greg Ray and his wife, Deborah, founded Outdoor Solutions over a decade ago to offer clients high-quality hunting and fishing trips around the world. But some clients who’d signed up for Western States elk and mule deer hunts came back with a concern.
Their outfitters said clients needed to be ready to make shots out to 400 yards, given the wide-open landscapes of the West. But many of these client hunters lived and hunted East of the Mississippi; few had done any shooting beyond 150 yards. They needed to help those clients.
OS began offering its Long Range Shooting Schools to its hunting clients and anyone else who wanted to become more proficient as a shooter. With instruction from professional shooters, class participants learn the basics of long-range ballistics, perform range shooting at distances up to 1,000 yards, and then participate in hunting scenarios at 600 and 700 yards in the field.
This educational experience soon revealed to Greg and Deborah the need for another kind of education. More and more people were hunting for the first time, specifically to harvest organic meat from wild game. State game agencies and conservation groups were holding new hunter courses.
But what about the meat?
Field to Table events launched a few years ago and have become very popular at OS. For the Cross Bell event, each participant took one whitetail doe and wild hogs as the opportunities presented themselves. We then received instruction on the cleaning and butchering of our own animals.
Lastly, we prepared and ate various game dishes.
Ravin Crossbows and Crossbow Training at the Range
Ravin Crossbows supplied the crossbows, arrows, and targets, plus a crossbow tutorial, to the ten hunters at the Cross Bell event.
After lunch on arrival day, we headed to the ranch’s shooting range. We received an overview of crossbows and their uses from Doug Guthrie, Vice President of Ravin’s Product Development, and John Hernandez, Director of Marketing and Product Integration.
We each selected either a Ravin LR or R29X crossbow and began practicing, starting at 30 yards and eventually moving onto targets at 50 yards. We used Ravin arrows (Ravin calls them arrows, not “bolts” as other crossbow makers do) outfitted with Ravin field tips. On our actual hunts, Ravin mechanical broadheads tipped our arrows.
Propelling a 400-grain arrow at a whopping 450 feet per second, my R29X featured an integrated cocking system, a manual safety, and a kind of thumbhole pistol grip for great stability. The compact bow was powered by Ravin’s own HeliCoil technology, which uses a series of rotating cams to generate impressive velocities.
My R29X was also outfitted with the Oracle X Crossbow Scope from Burris Optics, a high-tech unit with a built-in rangefinder that provided the exact distance to the target and a red dot aiming point for that distance.
That crossbow and scope combo was dead-on accurate, as proved during my practice by the three arrow group I shot at 30 yards, which measured just one inch.
Skinning and Field-Dressing
With my doe down, the first thing was to field-dress her as soon as possible.
I’ve field-dressed deer many times. It’s pretty basic, though it can get messy. Essentially, the hunter makes a cut from the pelvis to the bottom of the neck, being careful not to puncture the stomach, and removes everything from the trachea to the anus.
Some people prefer to hang the animal for field-dressing; others perform it with the carcass lying on the ground. Either way, they remove the internals to start the very important carcass cool-down.
But when I mentioned field-dressing my doe, Greg said he wanted Wesley, one of our hunting guides, to do a video back at the ranch on how to skin a deer. So, we loaded up the doe and drove back to the ranch.
Wesley did the skinning and video within an hour of me dropping the deer, which is what you want — to skin the animal while it is still warm. It’s much harder to do once the carcass cools down. Once skinned, Wesley performed a quick field-dressing.
Butchering 101: Breaking Down a Deer With Chef Joe Colistro
Next up, we learned how to butcher a deer, guided by Chef Joe Colistro.
When he was young, Chef Joe’s father ran a catering business and a restaurant. Cooking was an early passion for young Joe, who was also a hunter and angler. It was natural for Joe to begin using and experimenting with game meat as a key ingredient.
After a career in law enforcement, Joe became the head chef at the Portland Yacht Club. He and his father also wrote and published the cookbook, Giuseppe’s Recipes: An Adventure With a Fork. When not working Field to Table events, Chef Joe prepares meals at hunting lodges around North America.
Although I am a veteran hunter, I’ve only butchered a couple of deer, and I pretty much “butchered” those deer. Think weird-shaped cuts of venison, and everything covered in deer hair, bits of fat, and various debris. By the end of it all, my deer carcasses looked like they’d stopped a hand grenade blast.
So, I very much need the education Chef Joe provided.
With our dressed and skinned deer carcass hanging before us, Chef Joe showed us the finer point of removing the tenderloins and backstraps, and then the best way to separate the leg quarters from the trunk.
Basic advice throughout: keep the tip of a sharp knife running alongside the bone, and you will come away with a whole cut of meat. Chef Joe recommends a knife with a four- to six-inch blade and a flexible tip.
With the leg quarters set on nearby tables, we began our hands-on education of what Chef Joe called the "highway of seams." For example, a deer’s hindquarter consists of muscle groups, and shiny seams of connective tissue outline each group.
The trick is to insert the tip of the sharp blade into the seam and then along it, slowly cutting to separate each muscle group.
Easier said than done. The tip of my knife got away more than once, but nothing too terrible. I soon had a back leg broken down into the muscle groups/cuts: sirloin tip, top round (inside round), bottom round (outside round), eye of round, tri-tip, the sirloin/butt, and the shank and heel.
Our group butchering session took all morning and into the early afternoon. When finished, I had a tray of vacuum-sealed steaks and roasts, and trimmed meat for the grinder.
Time to start making dinner!
Cooking Wild Game: From Venison Cuts to Chili and Roasts
In one of the ranch kitchens, we split into groups of two or three, each assigned a dish or two to prepare.
I teamed up with Matt K., a long-time hunter from Idaho who came to the event for the butchering education and the chance to hunt with a crossbow for the first time.
Matt and I were assigned two entrees to prepare: Venison and Wild Hog Chili with Roasted Italian Sausage and Jo Jo Potato Wedges. Chef Joe had ground and seasoned the venison and put together the Italian Sausage.
Another team prepared a roasted, smoked top round of wild hog, and the last team prepared a rectangle of venison ribcage meat (which we had learned to remove earlier), rolled, stuffed, and baked.
During our butchery sessions, Chef Joe taught us the best cooking methods for various cuts, and he reinforced this as we worked as game cooks.
For example, with hindquarter cuts, the sirloin, butt, and top round are tender and can be grilled, broiled, pan-seared, or roasted. The less tender sirloin tip, tri-tip, bottom round, and eye of round do best with braising, grilling, roasting, or smoking.
Last, the heel and shank muscle groups are very tough but flavorful, and should be cooked low and slow to break down the collagen in the tendons and ligaments.
Once the meals were prepared, each team served its own entrees to the other hunters, plus a large contingent of ranch staff. The food was delicious. Seconds and thirds were served, and very little food was left over.
With my hunting education so complemented, I’ll be the butcher for my next deer or hog. And when it comes time to cook, I’ll head to the Outdoor Solutions website for a great selection of wild game recipes.
Note: Other OS Field to Table events focus on turkeys/wild hogs, Axis deer/hogs, and Pronghorn antelope. Check for upcoming Field to Table events, plus how-to videos and wild game recipes at www.fromfieldtotable.com/events.
Are You Cravin' More Ravin? There's more great Ravin Crossbow content living on hookandbarrel.com. Try these two solid recommendations:
• Ravin LR Review and After-Hunt Action Report
• Tour Ravin and Read The Ravin R470 Review
