How to butcher a deer

[DM]

Originally Posted by nhlivefreeordie

When you put one down out in a bog far from camp, it is either a chainsaw or an Axe, have done both, and you do use vegetable oil in the bar, just like when cutting ice with it.

I personally have shot AT LEAST 25 moose, and helped with a lot more, and i've yet to use a chainsaw or ax to clean one, including ones shot in a swamp.

DM

[Mitch]

ROTFLMAO! A chain saw huh? If your gonna use a saw, a sawzall works.

Deer here are like rats, there are so many of them it is a waste of time to really worry about every little scrap of meat. First, if your hunting for a "trophy" and have dreams about Boone and Crockett I worry about you to start with! That has nothing to do with meat hunting and feeding yourself. The last thing you want to eat is an old buck! Chronic wasting disease and the deer version of "mad cow" is far more likely in that old buck. I never want anything past a 4 point or a 2 year old doe. Bambi suits me just fine

At a kill, or if a deer is brought to me by one of these hunters that don't want to clean it, I lay it on its belly with the legs out to the side and make a cut accross the tail about 6 inches or so and take a sharp knife and cut under the skin on each side to the back to the head. Then I take a beaver skinning knife and peal the back area of the hide and then cut out the backstrap all the way to the head. I then cut out the shoulders and hams to the joint, front and back, and pop the legs out at the ball joint and remove the legs, skin and all. The rest is left or hauled to the ditch. All I am missing is a little neck meat and the tenderloin. I do not open the body cavity.

When I get home I can quickly skin out the legs and cut off the feet and wash it down, clean off the hair and pop it all in the refrigerator to age. I do not even think about gutting and skinning as I would a beef calf. Any of the deer processing places will either give you all the deer hides you can haul or sell them to you for 50 cents to a dollar. I will not be caught skinning a deer for a 50 cent pelt

As to germs, pleeeeese! Ever been to a feed lot and a slaughter house? They stand 'em in manure for weeks until they are covered and coated in feces. Then they kill them, hose them down with a little water and take a big saw and cut them in half! I am sure that blade does not carry that residual feces throughout the meat. That is why you never hear of a salmanilla outbreak

Mitch

[Toad_Sticker]

Bump
since it's that season again...
TS

[bigriks300]

For the record I love goat meat. It's like deer lite.

My processor increased his price by 20 bucks this year and wants to charge me 15 for skinning; youch. That increases my cost by 175 bucks over last year.

I'm just gonna have to eat it this year because I'm simply not set up to butcher it myself in the new house; not less the lady of the house don't mind sharing her afternoon soaps with a couple of deer carcass'.

I have private land to hunt this year and there are 3 perfect does giving me that come hither look. We'll see thursday how many of them come home with me.

[bigriks300]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzYGB...eature=related

I really like this guys video; he is so damn thorough he even gets a couple of tri-tips out of the legs.

Oh, about the ribs, cut the meat from between them and add it to the jerky pile. No reason to keep the meat on the bone. When I make jerky I use a meat wheel to thin slice all the roasts from the back legs and I'll marinate it with soy sauce, worcester sauce and brown or raw sugar and some smoke; I'll let it sit 3-4 days but others say 2 is enough.
Then dehydrater or you can use the oven on a low setting.

I just really really love jerky and I'm not much of a roast man.

[bigriks300]

Just one more little thing. If your knife costs 10 bucks you will want to kill yourself before you get done; GET A DECENT BONING KNIFE AND A GOOD sharpening steel. Used properly a steel will keep your knife razor sharp deer after deer; provided you don't try to cut a bone with it.

Oh, side note, a boning knife doesn't really cut through bones.

[Ironclad]

YOW!!... some of you guys are really certified mountain men, hairy assed human animals, who make the rest of us seem like woosy-boys!!

Using chain saws and 48 inch cleavers!!??? Good Grief!!

Ive gotten "bloody" before, but you guys take it to another level. My Dear Old Dad, before he left this shitty world, he told me about one of his first real jobs after he left "the farm". He went to work in a local Packing Plant. He worked on the Killing Floor and then graduated to another room for the basic splitting process. He tried to explain to me "the horror" of doing that eight hours a day, until he finally just had to quit the job.

Anybody can pull a trigger. I guess it takes a "real hunter" to finish the job?
--Ironclad

[Ironclad]

Originally Posted by bigriks300

Just one more little thing. If your knife costs 10 bucks you will want to kill yourself before you get done; GET A DECENT BONING KNIFE AND A GOOD sharpening steel. Used properly a steel will keep your knife razor sharp deer after deer; provided you don't try to cut a bone with it.
Oh, side note, a boning knife doesn't really cut through bones.

Mr BigRik,
Can you suggest any certain brands or models; or... just anything more than ten bucks?

[land steward]

Dont be too hard on people using small chainsaws with moose. If you are in the bush especially when time is an issue. Like getting dark and the Grizzlies are getting closer a chainsaw with vegetable oil does work. I do prefer a saws all and a small generator. Regarding deer ribs. I understand why people dont like them. Very tallowy. I boil them for a while then slow cook them for hours. The best way to cook deer ribs is underground. Similar to cooking a pig but ofcourse not as deep. You can give them 24 hours and they are fantastic. I dont put them into burger cause of the fat taste. Not many people talk about canning deer. My pressure cooker holds 14 quarts. A decent sized deer will barely fill 14 quarts! When you think about it a quart of meat is alot. It is like a small roast. Lots of work to bone and cut up into chunks but let me tell you, it is amazing when you open up the can. In the 40's my grama and her sister cut up two elk and canned both of them in 3 days. They did this with water bath canners over wood heat outside in the middle of summer. No electricity back then. Lots of work especially considering they were both pregnant at the time. Tough folk back then.