Hanging big game head up or down?

I have seen many photos of deer hung with the head up and thought
man that’s strange !
I worked 25 years in the meat industry as a knifeman , slaughtering , processing , production boning .
Animals always hung from the gamble tendon head down

If possible always get the hide off and abdominal cavity and thoracic cavity cleaned out as quickly as possible to facilitate cooling
 
Last edited:
I harvest my deer late fall and they hang outside for a few days. So I gut them, remove trachea and hang head up with hide left on from a tree beside my house. Head up allows rain and snow to shed off the hide and seems to keep birds out of the body cavity best.

A day before I butcher I hang legs up and skin the deer. One day hanging like this allows the meat to dry a little bit to make butchering easier. I don't like losing a lot of meat to being dried out which is why I don't skin right away, if temperatures permit.

Too hot I skin, debone and put meat in a fridge I have for this purpose. If below freezing I also skin right away since skinning a frozen deer sucks, I let it hang covered in a tarp and then thaw it out to butcher as time permits.

Never had a deer go bad on me in 35 years so my process seems to work.
 
SuperCub said:
Head down. Skinned ASAP with the lower legs cut off. Throat opened up to remove the trachea. Ribs propped open and them rinsed off with cold, clean water which will remove all dirt, hair and blood while cooling the meat faster. Wipe it out and set up a fan to dry it off and let hang for 7-10 days.

Don't let any of the many housewives here tell you that rinsing ruins the meat. It doesn't, in fact it improves it. :)
Click to expand...
I’m with you, we always clean the meat with water, what ruins the meat is not getting it wet, but keeping it wet so drying is important and the fans are a great tools to keep the meat cool too!!
 
Last edited:
My gutting method starts with basically opening the deer up from a-hole to chin.
Zip around the diaphragm. Cut the windpipe up above where the head will be cut off, use it as a handle to roll the whole package out over the pelvis, before cutting the ringpiece loose from the carcass.

I use a gambrel, or a pair of tie-down straps, and since there is no decent places to hook on to the front end of a headless deer, it's gonna hang neck down...

And yeah, big fan of wiping out, and off, the carcass, and a quick blot dry with some clean paper towel or cheesecloth.
 
Head up if outside to help keep the elements out. Otherwise it just doesn’t matter. I find it much easier to butcher head down but that is just personal preference
 
In the old days, my dad hung all their deer heads-up. After becoming a seasoned hunter, it only made sense to have the hind quarters up. The main reason, to allow gravity to drain blood away from the main meat source, plus, easier to hang.
 

Attachments

  • 104857116_3078924425529864_8145383883940245685_n.jpg
    104857116_3078924425529864_8145383883940245685_n.jpg
    92.1 KB · Views: 15
  • 053.JPG
    053.JPG
    112.8 KB · Views: 16
SuperCub said:
Head down. Skinned ASAP with the lower legs cut off. Throat opened up to remove the trachea. Ribs propped open and them rinsed off with cold, clean water which will remove all dirt, hair and blood while cooling the meat faster. Wipe it out and set up a fan to dry it off and let hang for 7-10 days.

Don't let any of the many housewives here tell you that rinsing ruins the meat. It doesn't, in fact it improves it. :)
Click to expand...
I don’t remember seeing you in our deer camp??
That’s EXACTLY what we do.
Nice mild venison that everyone likes
 
I am convinced that much of the bad tasting venison I had as a kid, was due to improper handling of the carcas resulting in contamination. I have never had any off tasting meat as long as I have been doing it.
 
Our deer and moose, when we still did that, got cleaned on the ground, with the hind quarter downhill to let gravity help with evacuating the organs/guts.

We would then hang head up, and rinse with water, then hang head down to facilitate more rapid cooling of the body. Lots of work, but nothing spoiled.
 
patricksbb391 said:
Our deer and moose, when we still did that, got cleaned on the ground, with the hind quarter downhill to let gravity help with evacuating the organs/guts.

We would then hang head up, and rinse with water, then hang head down to facilitate more rapid cooling of the body. Lots of work, but nothing spoiled.
Click to expand...
Yeah, like I said before (and I think I posted some pictures of, long ways back, lay it on it's back, unzip it, roll it ALL out the back end (which should also be the LOW end) and then hang skin and cool. Not really a slow process... Washout may be optional, but if you can come up with a liter of clean water and half a roll of paper towel, you should be able to manage!
 
Grizzlypeg said:
I am convinced that much of the bad tasting venison I had as a kid, was due to improper handling of the carcas resulting in contamination. I have never had any off tasting meat as long as I have been doing it.
Click to expand...
I’m 100% sure that’s why the people who don’t like venison don’t like it.
Anyone who has had venison from our camp likes it.

The hide is the first thing to start decomposing and it stinks. Leaving it on the animal makes the meat stink.
The faster you cool the meat the better it will be. And it cools faster with the hide off.

If you are at a fly in camp or similar, take a jug of vinegar and pound pepper with you and wipe the animal off with vinegar and put some pepper on it and that keeps a lot of the flies away. A big cheesecloth bag is handy also for keeping it clean
 
SuperCub said:
Head down. Skinned ASAP with the lower legs cut off. Throat opened up to remove the trachea. Ribs propped open and them rinsed off with cold, clean water which will remove all dirt, hair and blood while cooling the meat faster. Wipe it out and set up a fan to dry it off and let hang for 7-10 days.

Don't let any of the many housewives here tell you that rinsing ruins the meat. It doesn't, in fact it improves it. :)
Click to expand...
Rinsing only improves it, if you can subsequently dry it and are in a cool area. Wetting down meat and then stifling air circulation in an enclosed space or wrapped in a warm area breeds bacteria and meat can spoil RAPIDLY. Generally, I do not wash meat in the bush unless the temps are hovering near or "slightly" above freezing. Once you are home and can control the environment washing the meat is fine. I have seen many animals spoiled due to being left wet in warmer temps or put away wet in coolers. Friends of mine lost a moose in 36 hours, and then took fines, from C.O's, for allowing game meat to spoil, when the butcher reported it... they blamed the butcher for leaving the damp meat in the coolers overnight, he said they didn't tell him that it was wet... he should have known to open the coolers at least. To fight the fine, they would have had to take time off work and do a 30 hour round trip, so they just paid it, but losing the meat hurt worse.
 
hoytcanon said:
Rinsing only improves it, if you can subsequently dry it and are in a cool area. Wetting down meat and then stifling air circulation in an enclosed space or wrapped in a warm area breeds bacteria and meat can spoil RAPIDLY. Generally, I do not wash meat in the bush unless the temps are hovering near or "slightly" above freezing. Once you are home and can control the environment washing the meat is fine. I have seen many animals spoiled due to being left wet in warmer temps or put away wet in coolers. Friends of mine lost a moose in 36 hours, and then took fines, from C.O's, for allowing game meat to spoil, when the butcher reported it... they blamed the butcher for leaving the damp meat in the coolers overnight, he said they didn't tell him that it was wet... he should have known to open the coolers at least. To fight the fine, they would have had to take time off work and do a 30 hour round trip, so they just paid it, but losing the meat hurt worse.
Click to expand...
Butcher was a real jackass if he left the meat in coolers overnight and then reported spoilage to authorities next day. A butcher who didn't know meat in coolers is going to be wet is incompetent.

I expect this butcher knew he screwed up and this is how he decided to play it so he wouldn't be liable for loss of the meat. Offense is the best defense.
 
I mentioned my career in the meat business prior to.
Every animal that is slaughtered gets washed at the end of the process line .
But then they are placed in the cooler with high cool air circulation ( blast cooler )
 
I shot a young fat buck in +10c temperatures. We were a long ways out from civilization and walkin coolers.

Skinned and quartered the deer on the spot, then dipped the quarters in a cool, running creek for about 30 minutes. Water temp was probably under 5C. Hung it, dried it, left it hanging overnight and took it to town next day. It was fine.
 
Last edited:
jethunter said:
I shot a young fat buck in +10c temperatures. We were a long ways out from civilization and walkin coolers.

Skinned and quartered the deer on the spot, then dipped the quarters in a cool, running creek for about 30 minutes. Water temp was probably under 5C. Hung it, dried it, left it hanging overnight and took it to town next day. It was fine.
Click to expand...
Good use of available resources!

Probably could have hung it in a quiet section over the creek and enjoyed the benefit of the cool temp. But I wasn't there, so won't second guess! :p
 
jethunter said:
The night-time temperatures were +/- 3C territory. So no problem cooling once the sun went down.
Click to expand...
Cool! Literally!

I have been on hunts where the first thing we had to do was designate a guy to run it a couple hours down the road to the first available refrigerated location was. We were not as prepared as we thought we were!

Cold (cool) nights change the math a lot. Find a place that has the cool effect from running water, and combine that with due care and management, you can store your meat outside, pretty reliably.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom