Dressing and butchering a deer help

[nelsonted1]

One day I was gutting a couple deer during an intense snowfall. Everyone was standing around watching and talking. Dad suggested we should at least have a gun ready instead of leaning on a tree twenty feet away. He walked a few yards away to watch in one direction while a doe came piling down the hill we;d just covered sliding and kicking up rooster tails in a hurricane of deer-powered snow. We just watched her blaze right by us with our mouths hanging open. All of us standing around, stupid as a pail of hammers, with Dad walking back asking about the brand new trail crossing behind me.

[rking22]

I agree Winger Ed, I am not leaving my lunch inside that deer, and the heart is a favorite as well. When I am done removing meat from the bones, the buzzards aren’t even interested. I just thought it would be good to include the pros and cons of each method. Oh, I shin from the head as well, and have been known to shuck him with a truck and strap. Actually works pretty well. And I also pull the anus inside still attached to the chitterlings, just slide the knife around using the pelvic opening as a guide, comes out with everything else. To me, they are just big rabbits

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Offer your friend a good bottle of bourbon and a decent dinner if he'll do it for you.

I am that friend!

[nelsonted1]

The thing I always watch for is not tearing the "skin" inside the deer's body. I think it is called the mesentery. When the hide is pierced don't go any deeper. when you look inside there is a kind of skin-mesentery- holding everything. If you don't peirce that you won't cut the stomach, guts or bladder. That's the theory, my theory, anyway.

[DougGuy]

I guess I have gotten lazy. I used to hang 'em by the hind legs, skin and gut and leave the gutpile in the rib cage while I took all the meat off the outside then cut the hams in the middle and separate them.

Now? I lay them on their side, split the skin at the back, pull it down far enough to get the backstrap off the near side, then I cut the shoulder and save that, then cut the meat off the bones in the ham by cutting the white lines and leaving whole muscle groups, not cutting cross grain into steaks, flip it over and harves the other side and I bag that up and dispose of the carcass. Easiest way I have found for a smallish eastern NC deer.

[nelsonted1]

You also have to keep in mind when I suggest flipping the deer over and bouncing the innards out that I am referring to northern deer. A 250- 300 lb doe will have a lot of wieght in guts so they drop easy. Bucks even more so.

[koger]

Go to Facebook, Ky Afield, and look for the video on processing your own deer. Sim Harp is the butchers name and he does a fantastic job teaching how to process a deer, and each cut as it relays to a beef. Having been a butcher for 5 years, and processing my own deer for 30+ years I highly recommend it. Makes it look so easy, and it really is. Using the same method, in ML season, the wife and I took out time, and in a little over an hour and a half, processed a big doe, and a really big buck. We ground them up the next day. All that is left of the carcass, is the skeleton and the hide.

[DougGuy]

Gotta also remember, there is the same amount of fascia or deer snot between the muscles of a small deer as there is in a big deer, you just have a LOT less meat between and with a small one it isn't worth worrying over saving the neck, brisket, ribs, etc. It's a lot of work for not much edible meat, so I stick with the major parts, shoulders, backstraps, and hindquarters.

[dk17hmr]

I dont gut anything and have never left tenderloins in an animal I don't know why that myth is still around. The tenderloins and heart are the last thing to come out/off the animal. 2 minutes with a t handle saw and they are in my game bags.

I don't drag anything, nothing gets hung whole, almost everything I kill comes out on my back. Last year I killed two deer, two elk, and an antelope.....we ate a bunch of tenderloins

[white eagle]

I have harvested one deer, a doe. I somehow skinned and gutted it without any help or advice. Then I butchered it into roasts and stew meat and dog food mostly.

Well I need some advice on how to field dress both a doe and a buck, and how to butcher the critter. Folks say, easy just to on YouTube. The issue is I don't know which videos are good vs which ones are garbage. I've seen folks ripping the hide off a deer with a 4wheeler for crying out loud.

So could those that have a sound idea of the proper way post a link to a video that will give me a sound education. Also, any website or post here that will give insight to the process would be helpful.

Thanks for any help.

Bazoo

It all comes from repetition you will find your way
just a matter of doing it
the separation of muscle groups is laid out for you
just follow the map
I respect the animal far more than to rip the hide
off with a four wheeler
sorry just had to say that

[brewer12345]

As a leatherworker in training, I also want to keep the hides. Go slow and do it by hand and you get a nice hide.

[Bazoo]

Brewer, could you give me some tips on saving the hide?

[remy3424]

What I do to drop the bung when field dressing, I have a short piece of chain (for hanging florescent lights) with a s hook on one end, clip the chain on your belt, hook the anus and lean back applying tension to the s hook . It frees up both hands to cut the rectum free, generally, your on your knees with the legs of the deer wrapped around your head and between fighting legs, trying to hold on to a rectum and trying to cut it out cleanly.

That is a cleaver idea, I might have to throw a piece of chain in my pak and try that! This, to me, is much easier and fater that trying to saw or break the pelvis. Thanks for sharing that tip Jeff.

The field dressing is easy, well, after you do 3 or 4. The butchering will take longer to become proficent at. Watch a bunch of videos, these guys will all do one thing or another a little differently, but all will get the job done. Keep processing them and it gets easier once you find what works best for you and the set-up you have. Good luck! Oh yah, it won't be nearly as quick and easy as the guy make it look in the vids, they have processed 100s of deer.

Addition...I use a hide pliers (Cabela, Scheels type of stores) to grip and pull on the skin if the deer isn't fresh (warmer yet) makes life easier. A meat hook (from a butcher supply store or amazon I am guessing) makes boning the rear quarters somewhat easier also.

[brewer12345]

Brewer, could you give me some tips on saving the hide?

Heh, I am lazy, so I carefully skin it and then drop it off at a tanner with some money.

[waksupi]

I appreciate the suggestions and advice. Thanks for the good ball/stone idea for pulling hide. I haven't looked through all the links yet.

The one I did before I gutted it on the ground and finished by cutting the intestines right at the inside of the anus to separate it. I have a book on the subject, game care and cookery by Sam Fadala. It helped a lot but the pictures weren't that great. I hung the carcass by the neck to skin it and remove the legs.

One of the things id like to do differently is save the hide. Those folks in AK use dried caribou hides for floors in tents and I'm thinking a deer hide would do similar. So I want to dry the hide and keep the hair on. I gather all I have to do is flesh it, rinse the blood out, tack it to a board and let it dry?

If you have a hollow haired hide in your house, they will never stop shedding, and your wife will hate you. If you leave it as a raw hide it will most likely draw hide bugs.

[WinchesterM1]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PoawhsmKIEY


I butcher around 10-15 deer a year for my friends family and my self, I can get it down to about 2 hours from fur on to in the freezer. I butcher almost exactly like Scott does here it’s a very handy and helpful channel, he also teaches you how to cook it

[Bazoo]

Well I got a small 6 point buck earlier.

I started by cutting up the belly. It wasn't pretty but I was able to loosen the guts and all the organs, cut the wind pipe from the outside and get everything down to the bung remaining.

The book I have said cut around the genitals and then around the bung and shove them through. I tried this and pulling on the inner section of rectum at the same time and pulled it in two. I quickly removed it and poured water on the pelvic opening. Not sure if I'll lose anything. I think it's okay, it wasn't a huge mess and was quick.

How can I tell if any of the meat is tainted? Will it smell bad or will I only be able to tell when it's cooked and I take a bite?

Next I'm going to have to figure out how to cook the backstraps. Last ones I didn't like. Was like gum. I like the roasts and stews best.

[richhodg66]

I usually cut the back straps into steaks and pound them with a mallet for making chicken fried steaks. I started doing more venison pot roasts last year and have been having better luck with that than I used to, but I think venison stew is about as good as food gets and use a lot of it that way. I always grind ours pure, don't add any beef or pork fat, we like it that way in chili, etc.

If you got the body cavity washed out quick, it'll be fine.

[Jeff Michel]

Well I got a small 6 point buck earlier.

I started by cutting up the belly. It wasn't pretty but I was able to loosen the guts and all the organs, cut the wind pipe from the outside and get everything down to the bung remaining.

The book I have said cut around the genitals and then around the bung and shove them through. I tried this and pulling on the inner section of rectum at the same time and pulled it in two. I quickly removed it and poured water on the pelvic opening. Not sure if I'll lose anything. I think it's okay, it wasn't a huge mess and was quick.

How can I tell if any of the meat is tainted? Will it smell bad or will I only be able to tell when it's cooked and I take a bite?

Next I'm going to have to figure out how to cook the backstraps. Last ones I didn't like. Was like gum. I like the roasts and stews best.

Feces, urine,milk, gall or pus is considered contaminants. Trim off affected tissues with a knife. Do not wash, Do NOT wash. Washing or flooding with water will spread the contaminant to unaffected areas. This was and is how the USDA viewed it at the packinghouse level.

[brewer12345]

Make sure you remove the silverskin on the backstraps and any other steaks or roasts you cut. That is why it was like chewing gum. I highly recommend you get a copy of Hank Shaw's buck, buck, moose cookbook.