hate to look foolish but any one ever process a deer

[Doyle]

Liberty, I'm sure your're right about the heart and liver if you eat them. I don't eat heart. I do like liver however there is a danger there. If the deer have been feeding on a certain type of white acorns (which happen to be somewhat common in the south) the liver can become quite toxic. You don't hear about it too often but every once in a while you read or hear about a hunter who got sick eating some of that tainted liver.

[shortwave]

I've field dressed, butchered,skinned and cut and wrapped over a hundred big game animals and never done half the crap some of the "experts" on this this site claim are necessary!!! If you have done a squirrel of a rabbit you know how to do a deer!!!! It's all the same just a little bigger or smaller. Get a life people!!!

Liberty,

Now that you've gotten the somewhat offensive (to some) 'snarkism' out of the way in a thread that was going otherwise, very politely... would you mind posting your vast wisdom on the subject and actually adding somethin positive to the thread.

No doubt your way is the best way and your constructive input would be greatly valued so why don't you just post how you process your deer from the time it's shot till in the freezer so that those here that are tryin to learn can do so without feeling insulted.

Thanks in advance for your valued 'constructive' contribution.

[treg]

Like Kriagwy said, start cutting, you'll see steaks, roasts and hamburger as you go. K.I.S.S.

Rinse, rinse, rinse. Rinse before you skin, rinse after you skin, and rinse the cuts and burger meat. This is a huge advantage you have by doing your own and you will notice it in the flavor of your meat. Yes, urine, blood and feces will rinse off your meat.

Another thing is I have shot deer at dawn and had them in the freezer by noon and not noticed a difference from meat that was hung for a period of time. It has some advantages too. A warm deer skins easier, if it's cold out your hands don't get cold on warm meat and you don't have to deal with the hard layer of dried meat that develops as it hangs.

[Doyle]

Speaking of hanging, I saw a show on TV that was discussing meat processing. They said that the "aging" of meat during the hanging process had to be done in a very carefully controlled temperature range. I think it was between 34 and 38 degrees or something like that. If the temp fluctuates outside those ranges (like it does in a natural -non controlled - environment) then you not only don't improve the meat you can actually harm it.

[shortwave]

Don't think this has been touched on yet and I'm to lazy to read through this whole thread again so if it has been...well... it's worth repeating.

Whichever way you choose to process your deer, always stay alert for foreign objects such as old broadheads, pieces of broken broadheads or things such as barbed wire, etc. that may be hidden somewhere inside the cape. Stay alert through the entire process from in the field to the freezer.

Nothing will ruin your day faster then reaching inside the cavity to remove innards in the field, grabbing a handful of cape close to the meat while skinning or snatching ahold of of a piece of meat you're going to remove from the bone and sticking a nice sharp broadhead in your hand that may have been placed there by a hunter the day prior to you taking your animal.

Look the deer over in the field for wounds, scars and stay alert throughout the process as older wounds may have externally healed over.

I used to hang my deer as well but for the most part, stopped doing it some time ago for the same reason Doyle suggested. While I feel 'aging' produces the best quality meat(tenderness and taste), I just can't provide the steady temp. ranges required to do so.
But let that extended forecast be predicted for steady temps. in the mid 30's for a week or two and there will most likely be a deer hanging from the barn rafters. With Ohio weather, that just never seems to happen.

[TimSr]

Doyle I can think of 2 very good reasons to gut the deer, they are called heart and liver!!!! While those tenderloins may be small on your deer they are very edible meat and it would get you a big ticket where I hunt if you left them to rot!!!!! Another thing is how are you going to destroy any meat by spilling a little urine or fecal matter, I call it ****, on the inside of a deers body cavity? Even if the animal is gut shot how does all that nasty stuff get into the pores of the meat? Simple it doesn't!!!! You would have to marinate the CUT meat in that nasty stuff for hours to affect the meat at all. Why is the throat being cut? Surely not to "bleed" the critter, its DEAD and as bled out as its ever going to be. Remember that sloshing noise you heard when you move the animal into position to field dress it? That was BLOOD sloshing around inside the body cavity!!!! Its as bled as its ever going to be!!! That's what happens when you put a bullet or a broadhead thru the heart or lungs, they bleed out FAST!!!! As far as getting in up to your shoulders I don't get that far in on moose, elk, or caribou much less a 175# deer. I've field dressed, butchered,skinned and cut and wrapped over a hundred big game animals and never done half the crap some of the "experts" on this this site claim are necessary!!! If you have done a squirrel of a rabbit you know how to do a deer!!!! It's all the same just a little bigger or smaller. Get a life people!!!

I couldn't agree more. Nobody ever taught me to field dress and then butcher my first deer. To me it was really big squirrel. Wasting tenderloins, the best steak cuts on the entire deer, on an Ohio deer is considered an abomination. The heart is delicious, and has the taste of any other muscle group. I don't like liver, but the dogs love it, as well as the other "unedible" scraps trimmed away. I freeze them in small packages, and boil the pack contents and allow to cool before serving to the dogs. Its funny watching them go nuts in anticipation wheneever deer scraps are boiling n the stove!

[shortwave]

[QUOTE]The heart is delicious, and has the taste of any other muscle group. I don't like liver, but the dogs love it, as well as the other "unedible" scraps trimmed away. I freeze them in small packages, and boil the pack contents and allow to cool before serving to the dogs. Its funny watching them go nuts in anticipation wheneever deer scraps are boiling n the stove![QUOTE

TimSr,

I like the heart as well but don't care for the liver either, but it is always retrieved and used to be fed to the dogs as well till I found out a buddy of mine in Cols. likes them. He gets them now and the dogs don't like the idea. But they do get a lot of the extra trimmings that would normally be thrown away at a commercial processor. Not much goes to waste.

Another big reason I like to gut/field dress, besides retrieving heart and liver for eating, is it gives me a chance to inspect main organs(lungs,liver, heart etc) for discoloration,tumors etc. to help insure I'm going to eat a healthy animal.
Correct me if I'm wrong TimSr but seems I remember about 7-10yrs ago the ODNR strongly encouraging hunters to inspect main organs for abnormalities?

I do the same with smaller game(rabbits,squirrel) as well.

PS. ...and yes, those tenderloins are surely coming out.

[jimbob86]

Why is the throat being cut? Surely not to "bleed" the critter, its DEAD and as bled out as its ever going to be. Remember that sloshing noise you heard when you move the animal into position to field dress it? That was BLOOD sloshing around inside the body cavity!!!! Its as bled as its ever going to be!!!

Nope, not to bleed him out- he's done bleedin', as you said...... it's just that I've found it to be darn hard to rip the viscera (lungs, heart, intestines) out of the animal if they are still attached firmly to the animal at the top end...... the windpipe and esophagus are attached pretty solidly at the pharynx (back of the mouth) .... if you cut them under the chin, they'll pull out of the neck without having to split the whole front of the carcass.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Tip: Chill your pre-trimmed chunked out steak meat in your refrigerator's freezer until its semi frozen. {Freezer meat should be positioned in the freezer the same way you would have it on your cutting board in front of you.} 1 to 1-1/2 hours should be sufficient time to semi-freeze larger chunks. Smaller pieces require less time of course. {Check on the meats freezing occasionally so it doesn't freeze beyond to a rock hard state.}
Pre-Stiffened meat helps its butcher cut evenly side to side for repeatable nice looking cut steaks one after the other. And also helps when cubing stew meat.

Steak evenly cut side to side cooks up better than steak thick on one side thin on the other. Seen some poorly cut pork chops like I said (thick to thin) in my time sold by store front butcher shops. Reminds me of what my father told me when I was a teenager: "Never buy meat from a butcher shop that cut unevenly. Or from a butcher that has long finger nails." One will cheat you the other will make you sick. Oh those old folks sure had their ways & sayings.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Originally Posted by shortwave

Another big reason I like to gut/field dress,...

And yet another is to inspect the damage done by the bullet. I like to see what's been done. It helps me decide if this animal ran 100 yards by fluke or by bullet failure, for instance, or if it was DRT did I blow the heart up or did bone fragments severe the spine, etc, etc.

[603Country]

I've seen deer skinned in about every way you can imagine, but I still do it pretty much like Doyle does it.

Points to make, after skinning a couple hundred deer over the decades:

- I no longer field dress deer if I can get them back to the house/barn inside half an hour, and if it isn't too hot. One exception to that is if I have managed to gut shoot them, or if the grandson has.

- I don't cut their throat. I used to, but finally wondered what the heck I was doing that for. Seems unnecessary to me.

- I hang em by their back legs and skin toward the head. Very little chance of damage to the mount if you do it that way. And you can see the bladder for careful removal.

- Generally, with these small central Texas deer, I don't gut them. I skin and debone them and leave the guts and tiny tenderloins in the cavity.

- If I do gut them, my favorite knife is the old KaBar with the 7 inch blade. Great for reaching down in there and cutting the connections between guts and spinal area.

It seems like everyone has their favorite way to skin deer. And I am all for it, particularly if they want to show off their skill and technique in skinning my deer for me. Yessiree.

For many years, when I was back in Louisiana, deer skinning was a team effort at my brother's house. My Dad, whether he shot it or not, would come sit and watch while I did all the messy work. One of the kids would go to the house and bring us all coffee or hot chocolate. I'd skin, with one of the younger kids helping. We'd throw chunks of scrap meat or bones to my brother's big dogs and his cat would be prowling around trying to get a scrap or two, and the cat would eventually get blood all over the top of his head. We'd all tell stories about how somebody else in the group had missed the big buck, and sooner or later we'd kid my brother about how he could never sharpen a knife. I think that was why I did all the skinning. I had sharp knives. Hmmm, I wonder if that's why the brother never sharpened his knife. Maybe he played me. Dang.

I sure miss those days. Dad is gone now.