hate to look foolish but any one ever process a deer

[BuckRub]

If you're gonna move the deer to skin and quarter it only cut the tarsal glands off and don't gut it until you move it if its only gonna be 30 minutes or so. Also I like a small 5-6 inch pocket knife for deer. Gotta be good quality and real sharp. To me I go between knuckles on legs to cut off waste bones and small blades are easier than large knifes or hachetes or meat saws. Also watch alot of videos on YouTube. You'll soon be like a pro.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

You know Doyle that makes perfect sense. {Why gut at all.} That's all I take is the full loin (head to tail) front legs & back legs. Heart I could wait until someone gives me one. Liver is too strong or full of flukes. Bloody little tender loins. {They always end up being canned.} Plus I do skin my deer the same day or evening. I always hang the rib cavity on a hook for the birds anyway. I'll have to try out that non-field dressing routine (soon.) I like your idea Sir. Thanks for the Tip O wise one.

[btmj]

Where I hunt, we are pretty far from any kind of civilization. We have 2 or 3 100 qt coolers with us, with about 30 lb of ice in each. With a hunting party of 5, we have to plan as if we might get two in a day (even though we never have), and we also have to plan that it might be 75 degrees.... Thus, the coolers.

We have drug carcasses back to camp if it is close, and then processed near camp... and in other cases, we have butchered down to roasts backstraps, etc, and hiked it out back to camp to put it on ice. My buddy gets these gigantic 3 gallon ziplock bags, and they are very useful.

If you can do all of this close to a cabin with running water and a place to clean up... I envy you. We have resorted to taking a "bath" in a fast moving 33 degree river to wash the blood off of our arms and shoulders. The guys who clean up in cold water are worthless for about 15 minutes... no hand/arm strength at all...

[myfriendis410]

We also avoid using a saw when processing because (I believe) that bone marrow contributes an "off" taste when it comes in contact with the meat. We also hang our carcasses (the deer's, actually) in a reefer for several days to allow the meat to dry and age. Lots of places like Colorado or Wyoming you get the same results with a night in the garage as it's so dry.

The actual butchering is done with a good quality kitchen knife set aside in our kit. I'm the designated sharpener and they are SHARP. The deer is disjointed with the knife and the cuts are then made for packaging. Basically you want to follow the muscle groups in the hams and you will get round, sirloin etc. that can be cut into roasts and steaks and chops. Don't forget the "poison meat" inside the body cavity up against the pelvis: it's called the tenderloin. THE best piece of meat on a deer or hog. If you like ribs, that's when the saw comes out. The front legs we usually debone and grind for burger and to mix with wild pork and fat for sausage.

Finally; we have been using a vacuum sealer for several years and I will not willingly process game without one ever again. It makes a huge difference six months later when you pull a roast out of the freezer.

[Ought6]

If a deer, or any game animal is dead there is absolutely no reason to slit it's throat.

[johnwilliamson062]

I watched it done 4 times by someone that knew what they were doing before I tried it. Read a few articles and watched some youtube videos during that period. Still strugled the first time I tried with someone watching and the first time alone was a bit trifling.

Got the job done though. It isn't all that complicated. Mostly a matter of how fast it gets done.

[Kreyzhorse]

Jimbob, excellent instructions. Very well done sir.

If a deer, or any game animal is dead there is absolutely no reason to slit it's throat

I don't slit the throat either and don't believe that it has any advantages. That said, unless you are going to the taxidermist it doesn't hurt any thing either.

In addition to my hunting knife, I also carry a multi-tool with a saw blade. It makes quick work of the pelvic bone and is easy to carry and quite handy for branches and what not.

[jimbob86]

Do not be cheap on your knives.

My hunting knife was free- found in the "odds and ends" drawer in my grandparents house, after I forgot my k-bar at home .....

It's a "Utica Sportsman" and even with the matching hatchet is worth like 20 bucks ...... the steel is good and holds a shaving sharp edge through several deer .....

My skinning knife is home-made..... made out of a spendy chopsaw blade that I broke some teeth off of ....

My butchering knives, OTH, are Wusthoff Classics ......

There are probably better knives out there ........ but mine have been doing the job well for many years ..... I doubt I'll ever drop a bunch of money to replace them......

[reynolds357]

I use a Wyoming knife. The easiest way to get the hide off is with a Rope, golf ball, and your truck.

[jimbob86]

The easiest way to get the hide off is with a Rope, golf ball, and your truck

Dynamite is even easier yet, but the results are not as good.

I have seen the rope and golf ball thing ..... tore a lot of meat off the lower ribs ..... and the knot would never ever in 1000 years come out of that rope.

[Doyle]

If you REALLY want to get the skin off easy, go to Youtube and search for the videos of skinning deer with an air compressor. I want one.

[shortwave]

Have seen deer skinning done using a truck, garden tractor, front-end loader, boat trailer winch and even a log splitter but never the air compressor trick.

Haven't watched the vid. yet but am assuming they use an air nozzle blowing air between the cape and the body while pulling on the cape. If that's the case, I hope they have a good inline water filter/trap inst'd on the air compressor.

[ChasingWhitetail91]

I usually cut a couple finger holes up by the neck and start tugging. As for knives a nice sharp paring knife is all you need aside from something to get you through the bones.

[Doyle]

Haven't watched the vid. yet but am assuming they use an air nozzle blowing air between the cape and the body while pulling on the cape.

You don't even have to pull on the cape. The skin blows up like a balloon. It is really effective on the head if you are trying to cape it out for a trophy. I don't see the need for an effective filter. On an oil-free compressor the only thing traveling down the air line will be air and maybe some water vapor. No harm in that.

[jimbob86]

My air compressor blows air that reeks like bilge water .... ain't putting that anywhere near my meat.

[Catfishman]

We just:
Hang em
Skin em
Debone the hind quarters
Remove backstraps
Remove tenderloins (without gutting)
Remove front shoulders and debone
Wash and put in ice chest with layers of ice and meat
Make sure melted ice water is drained daily
Process myself or take it to a deer processor for sausage

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

One thing nice about pulling their hide off with a tennis ball. (See 1.) Very little to No picking of hair is needed. As jimbob86 stated pulling its fur off can at times be troublesome concerning the loss of incidental meat as I call it. (rib & or flank meat) Another problem area. If one doesn't make just the right hide cuts is on the animals front shoulders prior. {To help assist hide removal.} Its very possible you could tear a front shoulder completely off or perhaps see both sides torn off. I've seen that happen a couple times in my neighbors yard. (one side occasionally seen being torn off)

1. golf ball doesn't work as well on the Northern deer in the late Fall. "To much fur."_ Ropes slip knot will keep slipping over its golf ball when being stretched. Tennis ball seems to work much better. But again requires more neck hide being skin down prior by hand to completely cover the larger ball.

A comment:
As far as cutting of the animal throat first thing. What? hasn't anyone ever seen a dead deer get up and run away!! I have. On more than one occasion I've gotten out of my Stand to quick walked over towards or up too my shot dead deer an watched it get up and run away.__
But those that do cut the animals throat first thing in the field. You go ahead and keep doing it. There's certainly No harm no foul in doing so.

[shortwave]

On an oil-free compressor the only thing traveling down the air line will be air and maybe some water vapor. No harm in that.

I went out and bought an oil free compressor for the sole reason of airing of the bike after I washed it. Left a darker colored film on the bike that was very hard to remove. Having done that and thinkin about using a non-filtered compressor on a deer, I doubt you would notice that same film on the meat. But it was surely noticeable on shiny, chrome and painted surfaces and again, was really hard to remove. Thinkin it may have been and mixture of condensation and aluminum from the compressor itself.
Plus, without a filter system, you will also be pumping a certain amount of rust particle from the inside of the metal tank itself.
Went out and bought an electric leaf blower for the bike and that works fine.

Have since inst'd a nice trap and separator for the oil- less same as on the big oiled compressor and I like the oil- less better to do things like prime/paint etc. But you still need to keep the tank/trap drained on a regular basis and I could have never painted without a filter system.

Anyways, I'm thinkin I will try the compressor thing this fall. Deer skin easily by pulling cape but always like to try something different.

Thanks for the post.

[reynolds357]

Jimbo, I get the knot out every time. I have never torn any significant amount of rib meat off the animal. I actually use a crane, but the principle is the same. You can use a rock as well, so long as it does not have any sharp edges.

[markj]

Your DNR should have butchering tips there. Or go to google and put in a search or it.

My dad showed me how to do large animals when I ws like 3

[btmj]

So how do you do a moose ?... assuming you are in deep woods, backpack country, no access to a truck, tractor, or crane ?

I assume our ancestors would have had horses to help them. I guess a horse would be real useful in pulling a moose carcass up to a stout branch of a tree, as well as packing out several hundred pounds of dressed meat.

[Doyle]

So how do you do a moose ?... assuming you are in deep woods, backpack country, no access to a truck, tractor, or crane ?

I've never done an animal that large but there is a technique I've done with hogs that might come into play here.

You lay the animal on one side and zip down the spine then across the sides of the font and back legs on the side that is up. Then, you start pulling/cutting the hide off until it those two quarters are fully exposed and the skin is attached only on the belly/chest. You cut out the backstraps and remove the font and hind quarters then trim that side of the skeleton of any small bits that can be ground up. When that side is finished you roll the animal over (rolling towards the belly side) onto the skin you just cut off and you do the other side the same way. When you are done, you have a deboned carcass with the rib cage still intact and the skin still held along the belly and chest.

[jimbob86]

I doubt you would notice that same film on the meat. But it was surely noticeable on shiny, chrome and painted surfaces and again, was really hard to remove. Thinkin it may have been and mixture of condensation and aluminum from the compressor itself.

I doubt I could see even the film from my oily Stanley Bostich twin tank ..... but that's not the point: Unless you are lubing the thing with olive oil (and cleaning it all out and changing the oil on a weekly basis- rancid cooking oil is just as nasty, if not moreso, than 5W30) ...

It's food. If it tastes BAD, it probably is.

[markj]

Seen a mexican do a goat using a water hose, took the hide right off. Made him a water bottle from that hide.

[LIBERTY]

Some people would make a big deal over dying. 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!!!