Dressing wild game.

[Russell James]

Fellas Ive shot and dressed heaps of game over the years {rabbits and Roo's} etc mainly for feeding to dogs and the like[ I kept most of the bunnies for myself] but recently have got quiet a few wild pigs. These are worth good $ here but I would rather eat them than sell them {plus its tied up with a fair bit of red tape to sell them to the chiller boxes in Aus}> Anyway if anyone knows where I could find any detaled drawings or pictures on the correct way to dress hogs or any beasts I would be real happy to know, especially what to look for regarding disease.
Regards Russell James

[Bodydoc447]

Try to find a copy of "Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game" by John J. Mettler Jr., DVM at your local library or on the internet. I got mine from Amazon.com. Lots of drawings/diagrams for game, fowl and the usual quadripeds. Don't remember any 'roo dismemberment in it, though.

HTH,
Doc

[Junior1942]

If you can dress a roo, you can dress a rooter. An animal is an animal.

[trickyasafox]

this is the only guide I found with pics
http://www.leafpile.com/TravelLog/Romania/Farming/Slaughter/Pig/Pig.htm

[corvette8n]

I found this from NZ
http://farmlet.co.nz/?p=157

[dogrunner]

This is the quickest, neatest way to skin a hog I've ever seen. Used to be in a hunt club in Central Fla. & this is how they did it.

If possible, catch the critter alive and kill him at camp....if not...clean it asap. Most of the fellows I hunted with had a pit bull or two and would catch one alive for a camp barbeque.

Using a welding clamp to hold the critter by his snout haul him up to a comfortable level for skinning & gutting. DO NOT GUT PRIOR TO HANGING!

Hose him down & use a stiff brush to get all the sand & grit out of the hide you can.

Using a carpet cutting razor knife cut around the head just below the ears completely thru the hide.

Using that same razor knife begin to make verticle cuts from the original incision to the posterior of the animal. DO NOT penetrate the body cavity at this point. Make each cut about two inches or so apart.

Pull and strip each strip of hide till you've a hideless carcass.

Place about a five gallon plastic bucket underneath the animal and open up the abdominal cavity.....cut thru the diaphram and sever all the attaching tissue, the trachea, lungs etc & roll all the foregoing plus the intestines out and into that bucket. Sever the lower bowel from the anal opening and you are done!

At this point do your quartering from the hind end up.

It is without doubt the quickest, cleanest method of hog skinning I have ever seen.


PS: It's good advice is to ALWAYS wear rubber gloves when cleaning pigs.....Met a game biologist some years ago that refused to do any bio sampling of them as he'd contracted a nasty blood infection from one and nearly lost an arm.....Naturally the very next one I shot I managed to cut my hand to the bone while cleaning it, but that's another story....I did learn that windshield cleaning fluid is a good (if somewhat painful) cleaning and sterilizing agent, tho!