Exactly. The main tool I use in butchering is a little 4 inch Rapala filleting knife and I typically only use the first 2 inches of it. You simply find where the muscles originate on the bone and "tease" them out by using the tip. I keep a big Henckel chef's knife to the side the square off the cuts after they come off. I take of the front legs first and bone them out on the table. Everything else comes off of the still hanging carcass. I take the neck meat off first and then remove the muscle groups from the hind legs and then take out the back straps. All that is left hanging is the skeleton with the rear shanks and tendons left. I have a hook that I put in the pelvis to hang the deer while I take off the remaining pieces of meat from the shanks.
I did 8 of 9 deer that way this year. By the last one I was skinning and deboning an entire deer in just under an hour. Add in the other half hour it took the wife to vac pac and label everything and it is not a daunting job at all but something you can get done after work and before supper (which should be a couple of the choice cuts from your deer).
The last deer was a buck fawn with meat the same color as pork. We cut him fresh, took the ribs, got the shanks with the bone in and then cut up the rest of the bones. Roasted the bones for 6 hours, got three big stock pots going and then reduced the three pots into a half pot of syrupy deer goodness. Sear a deer steak off and then add a bit of red wine and deer syrup to the pan and you got a perfect sauce for your meat.
