Do you gut your own deer?

[Spruce Grouse]

Of Course! I also always butcher them myself so that everything is done the way I want.

 

[steve-o1979]

These days i'm getting lazy and like to get it over with, so I have been skinning and doing it all right out in the field , then bring it home and cut it up and straight into the freezer. BUT! that said , one year I shot this little doe, some jackass saw the little one and the mother, wanted the mother and shot her, then couldn't recover her either and stormed out of there (some folk just should never have a gun , let alone be allowed to hunt) well i found the little doe 2 days later still hanging around mama's rotting corpse , so i took her with my last tag ( last day of hunting too ) and I field dressed her out there and took her home and hung her from first day of December to middle of February (actually forgot I had her still hanging) anyway , checked her out and was surprised she was still viable meat. Long story short , took her in and butchered her up and ended up being the BEST meat we have ever had. She had hung for 16 weeks with skin and fur on , and was so tender, i almost didn't need a knife to butcher her with. So I tend to do one like that every once in a while still. -5 C with fur on , in a reasonably low humidity place, you'll get a skim coat of white mold (wipe of with a water vinegar solution and won't grow back then) Try it some time The meat is to die for .

I have had meat that has hung for a while, but didn't really notice too much difference. Maybe it's the deer around here and when we shoot them. If you get a deer around here that makes 200 lbs, you have shot an old monster... they are tiny compared to deer in other provinces. Also, it seems like most of the deer are shot early in the season before they are into the rut real good. The majority of hunters in this area work in the lobster industry...and that starts when the hunting is just getting good for the old big bucks.
Actually, I have to add to this. The deer in this province aren't really that small....just not what you'd call big by any means, and even then it's only the deer on this side of Nova Scotia. Down towards Truro and that area, 200 pound deer seem to be common...but on this end, if you get one to go 180 lbs, you have an old champ. I have only shot 4 deer... one spike-horn, and three 8-pointers... of the 8-pointers the biggest was 175 lbs dressed. Naturally the bigger the deer, the more you might want to let it hang to make it good and tender....but where I hunt we don`t have to worry about that too often lol.