Dressing and butchering a deer help

[Drm50]

I open it from pelvis to neck, split pelvis and cut out windpipe. Dump all the guts, I don't eat organs out of anything. Hang upside down and skin it out with a Skinning knife, about 4" blade with no point. About 10mins to skin, cut off at knees, head. I keep belly hair to dye and tails for fishing lures. I take back strap, roasts & stakes and bone the rest and grind for burger.

I would much rather dress and butcher deer, steer or hog than clean a stringer of fish.

[JWFilips]

One Thing to remember! You can not ruin good meat.... you may not cut it to industry specs but in the end it is all good meat! No matter how you cut it up!
Meat is meat .....it all taste good depending how you cook it! Commercial butchering of venison is a whole bunch of BS! Cut the meat, wrap it well, and it will all taste better then you can buy from a butcher shop!

[davidheart]

I save the hides and salt tan them. Done a bunch in the past few years and if I don't save the hides I feel like I'm wasting an animal. Skin it as cleanly as possible with a slightly dulled knife. I like to do this so my blade has less risk of cutting through the skin. When the skin comes to a certain point on the deer I'll sometimes wrap my forearm in the hide and rest my weight into the deer to pull the hide down. At the tail you'll need to cut at the base so it doesn't rip the hide. Grab yourself a 4x6 piece of plywood and a bunch of penny nails. Start at one end and tack it down the board without completing the circle. Go to the other end of the hide and stretch it to the other side of the board. Continue until the hide is completely tacked. Cut any large pieces of meat off the hide. Then pour a thick, even coat of cheap table salt all over the hide. I prefer to use the cheap salt and not coarse ground so an even coat could cover the hide. Let rest for a day and blood/fluid from the hide will pull into the salt. Remove the salt using a dustpan, wide sheetrock trowel, or similar. Coat again with salt and remove after a day. Repeat the process until you coat with salt and no fluid appears. Usually 4-5 days. Shake out the now stiff hide. You could roll it up and store or use it as you see fit.

Never had a problem with bugs. The bugs don't like salt. I suppose even ticks that were on the hide before leave when the blood is remove and salt is applied. One hide I have is 7 years old and I never had a bug problem. Two hides are on top of my freezers for decoration. Another in my son's room for decoration. My wife is wanting one on the wall in the living room next to the European mount skulls I've made. No bugs. No smell.

I use every bit of a deer and it's a very long process but extremely satisfying. I'll even save the caul fat if it's not tainted and use it to wrap meatballs or liver/heart. The spine and bones are used by my wife to make bone broth. The ribs are defatted and cooked or deboned and used for grind. The neck is our favorite roast. The jowl meat is ground or given to our pasture guardian. Shanks turn into osso bucco. Etc. Sometimes those videos on YouTube irritate me with how much waste is done to a deer.

On the contrary though, I'll use the gutless method for dressing our wild boar or sometimes small deer. I'm a Messianic Jew, so while I know "pig" is "clean" in God's eyes (not a sin to eat), I still know boar could carry parasites that might transmit to people. We also trap a fair amount of boar and they'll sometimes show up while I deer hunt. That said they are not as "precious" in my eyes as deer. I do not save the hide, heart, or liver of a boar. All remotely questionable meat is thrown away or given to the dogs. They're also very heavy sometimes (250+) and they stink so I have no desire to hang one. I'll clean the tailgate of my truck and take care of them there. I'll cut up the spine from tail to head and skin down one side, leaving it attached at the belly. Then I'll fold the skin down and quarter as I would a hanging deer. After removing the legs and backstrap, I'll remove one side of the ribs, leaving the skin attached at the scapula. At this point I'll also remove the tenderloin with my hand. Then I'll fold the skin back over, grab the opposite legs and flip the animal over. Repeat the process, removing the neck last. What you'll have left is a gutsack, spine, head, hooves, and skin to dispose of.

No matter how many animals I've butchered I always need to remind myself how to do the hind legs, but if you cut on the inside of the pelvis while placing a slight amount of pressure, you'll run into the ball joint and the leg will "pop" free. Then you could trace around the pinbones and free the hind quarter.

Hope these explainations help! 8 deer and 10 hogs since the beginning of the year and I'm still learning. Take your time and respect the animal.

[Minerat]

Heres one put out by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife on field dressing an elk. It can be applied to deer too.