dressing a deer, who cuts through the hams/pelvis bone?

I've done both ways, and don't really have a preference actually. I do prefer to split the sternum though; I find it much easier to have the extra space to work with.
 
Not me - no splitting. I open up to the base of the rib cage. We age at least 14 days and the less exposed the better. They go in the cooler with the skin on.
 
For many years I would only split the sternum(sometimes not even that if I had to drag or carry the deer a long ways) and just "apple core" the rectum . ....For the last 10 years or so, with the availability of 4-wheelers etc., I have been splitting the sternum and the pelvic bone...easier to gut and cools off faster. I used a hatchet at first , now use a Gerber folding saw with the two blades ...one for wood the other(with flat teeth) for bone
 
EvilDezel said:
Yeah I use the applecore method.

Untill I tried one of these....

Butt-Out.jpg


Its handier than a pocket in your underwear!
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the butt out is an awesome little tool. just shove it up the deers ass, turn it until you feel the tissues break a bit, then tug er out. tie the hose and proceed with gutting. literally takes less than 5 seconds to deal with the ####ter.
 
It's interesting to see the different points of view. When I was doing our version of hunter's ed in the UK, we were told to make the smallest incision we could in the feild to get the stomach and guts out, squeeze the crap back towards the anus and tie a knot in the colon to stop the crap getting back in. We were told that anything more would open the carcass up to contamination, esp if it was to be dragged. Over here I've seen folks open the sternum and pelvis in the feild and then transport them.
I still just take out the stomach and guts, except for a antlerless muley this year that I had to carry out of the coulees. I took it's head off, legs at the knees and split the strenum to get the heart/lungs out.
I did find that hanging time dries exposed meat in this climate, so any cutting will make that worse.
 
Brisket meat, from beef or moose, is about the most flavourful of any cut. Proper cooking makes it a choice piece of meat, in my opinion. Bush Indians think the same as I do, and they had a special way of removing the brisket when they were dressing the animal.
Certainly, a saw or axe is required to split the brisket as we dress the animal. Northern Indians have a unique way of removing the brisket, using only their knife. They take it out in one piece, by making it a wedge shape, cutting the ribs off of the brisket bone, on an angle.
The brisket is also one of their choice cuts of meat on the animal. They slow roast (barbicue) the entire piece over coals. DElicious.
 
H4831 said:
Brisket meat, from beef or moose, is about the most flavourful of any cut. Proper cooking makes it a choice piece of meat, in my opinion. Bush Indians think the same as I do, and they had a special way of removing the brisket when they were dressing the animal.
Certainly, a saw or axe is required to split the brisket as we dress the animal. Northern Indians have a unique way of removing the brisket, using only their knife. They take it out in one piece, by making it a wedge shape, cutting the ribs off of the brisket bone, on an angle.
The brisket is also one of their choice cuts of meat on the animal. They slow roast (barbicue) the entire piece over coals. DElicious.
Click to expand...

You are right there.
 
I field dress cutting the throat, and pulling windpipe back through the chest. The intestine is stripped, and cut so no turds leak back into the body cavity.
When the skining is done, I carefully cut the connective tissue around the anal opening so i can pull the remaining intestine and bladder through the opening. Once the hide is removed, the brisket is removed by cutting through the grissle nubs connecting the ribs to the brisket. With this done I am able to open up the throat opening.
The brisket is seared at 350 for 30 minutes, and the cooked on low heat (200 degree F) for 10 hours. We have had two thoughts on positioning the brisket either open side up or down. There is a lot of "White Meat" in the brisket so rendering the fat off for the extended period helps. The first time I saw the brisket removed was by a Chilcotin, and while I was picking through the fat and grissle, I was chastised for not liking "White Meat".
 
We had this conversation one year, while we were in the middle of gutting the dear. I was taught to split the brisket and cut the wind pipe out all the way to the throat and then cut through the meat and split the pelvic bone with the saw on my leatherman. We then take the deer back to camp and wash out the body cavity to clean out anything that got in the body while dragging it and the bone that was cut. Then we hang the deer head down. Never had any bad tasting meat.
 
migrant hunter said:
It's interesting to see the different points of view. When I was doing our version of hunter's ed in the UK, we were told to make the smallest incision we could in the feild to get the stomach and guts out, squeeze the crap back towards the anus and tie a knot in the colon to stop the crap getting back in. We were told that anything more would open the carcass up to contamination, esp if it was to be dragged. Over here I've seen folks open the sternum and pelvis in the feild and then transport them.
I still just take out the stomach and guts, except for a antlerless muley this year that I had to carry out of the coulees. I took it's head off, legs at the knees and split the strenum to get the heart/lungs out.
I did find that hanging time dries exposed meat in this climate, so any cutting will make that worse.
Click to expand...

interestingly I learned the same method in another part of Europe and used it until I came here. Now I have converted to corign the vent and to split the sternum.

This year though I shot a bison and tried coring around the anus. That ended up a mess and I should ahve used the old European "tie a string". Never done a bison before and they sure are different from deer.
 
H4831 said:
Brisket meat, from beef or moose, is about the most flavourful of any cut. Proper cooking makes it a choice piece of meat, in my opinion. Bush Indians think the same as I do, and they had a special way of removing the brisket when they were dressing the animal.
Certainly, a saw or axe is required to split the brisket as we dress the animal. Northern Indians have a unique way of removing the brisket, using only their knife. They take it out in one piece, by making it a wedge shape, cutting the ribs off of the brisket bone, on an angle.
The brisket is also one of their choice cuts of meat on the animal. They slow roast (barbicue) the entire piece over coals. DElicious.
Click to expand...

I've seen that done by Inuit on caribou, very interesting!!!!

The whole animal skinned,quartered,etc with just a small knife and wrapped into the hide in a neat package to keep from freezing. I was so amazed, I took a video!!!
 
I split using the apparently barbaric method of carefully tapping my knife through with my small hatchet. Don't know why, I just do. The meat tastes pretty much the same.
 
Gatehouse said:
I mostly use the gutless method, so the hams come off.
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My cousin was charged with leaving game to spoil for doing that. He would take the neck as far back as he could. Then the backstraps and drumsticks. The CO was of the opinion that there is sufficient meat in the ribcage of a mulie to justify harvesting it. Maybe he left too much meat on the outside of the ribcage or didn't take the tenderloins.
Can you get the tenderloins with your method?
 
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