Never hunted moose...but we always leave hides on deer until the day we take them to the butcher. We hang em outside, hose em off real good prop open the chest cavity for cooling and let them hang. Yes they are harder to skin when their cold but it ain't that bad w/ 2 guys tuggin'. Stops meat from drying up as said before.
Hanging game with Hide on???
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We always leave the hides on our deer, but they are usually frozen cs soon afterwards. Wouldn't quartering with the hide on cover everything in hair? Unless you are like buddy and carry clippers with you (wouldn't that make you say wtf if you stumbled upon him in the bush shaving his moose...even sounds kind of kinky when put that way).
Northman999
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- Southern Yukon
What do you guys do with hides that are all quartered?
Sounds like it might be a good idea, but up here it's illegal to waste a moose hide, so I'd still have to have it tanned or something. Do you guys just toss it?
Sounds like it might be a good idea, but up here it's illegal to waste a moose hide, so I'd still have to have it tanned or something. Do you guys just toss it?
In Saskatchewan you can leave hide in field as long as it's tagged. If it is Bull only season antlers must accompany the carcass.
This butcher takes the hide off ASAP!
It helps cool the meat faster, which is important under all conditions. I'm not sure about all this drying and shrinkage people claim. I hang game for up to a week (in proper temps) and have never had a problem with shrinkage. It does dry a bit, but none of the meat is wasted. It's a whole lot easier to skin warm game than game that has been dead for a few days and cold. After the skin comes off, I completely wash it down with cold tap water from the hose. This cleans off all the hair, blood and/or any fecal matter from a bad shot.
If you visit an abattoir, you will surely notice that the hide comes off FAST and the carcass is washed. In the days before cryovaced beef in boxes, the beef was quartered and hung for up to 21 days. Why should game be any different, except a shorter hang time due to less fat content in the muscle?
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I do the EXACT same thing with the hose, some guys look at you like your nuts for getting your meat wet. I then wipe it off with paper towel to dry the surface.
I then trim any funky looking or blood shot meat or bone away from carcass.
With the Moose we got this Fall we had some guts issues due to a broke off arrow and when he fell it punctured his guts.
The lake I camp at is a Canadian shield lake and I have drank the water out of the lake before so I know it is clean. We parked truck on angle and flushed out the chest cavity with 5 gallon pales and wiped dry. I am sure the ice cold water sucked some heat out of his as well.
If I notice any hair that I missed later I use a small blowtorch and singe it off.
SuperCub, How long do you reccomend hanging Moose or Elk??? I only hung this one for 4 days because it was too warm to hang any longer.
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I can't say about elk, but I shot a small moose this year and hung it for four days in a cooler. It turned out fine. I would have hung it longer but the owner of the cooler needed to room for other game coming in and was doing me a favour. I prefer to hang deer or moose for 5 to 7 days and would go longer for a big moose if the conditions were perfect. The longer you hang, the more connective tissue breaks down and improves the eating.
Hanging time depends on two things. Temperature and humidity. You need low temps, as in a few degrees above freezing and very low humidity to hang for longer periods. High temps/humidity will cause elevated bacterial growth.
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When I used to hunt moose, we would always quarter on the spot and leave the hide on.
Cut handles in the skin for ease of transport to canoe or ATV trailer( they weigh about 175 LBS or more). Leaving the hide on has it's own virtues, by keeping it cleaner and able to be rough handled for transport. Once cooled down, the hide also helps to insulate from heat of the day( bet you all never realized that).
The quartered moose spread out on a bed of well aired logs with a tarp over head to keep any heat from the sun( heat shield), off the quarters goes a long ways in keeping the meat cool by day, no matter how warm the day may get,
once the carcass is cool with hide on, it would take a lot of heat to warm up the quarters.
Hope I helped some!
Cut handles in the skin for ease of transport to canoe or ATV trailer( they weigh about 175 LBS or more). Leaving the hide on has it's own virtues, by keeping it cleaner and able to be rough handled for transport. Once cooled down, the hide also helps to insulate from heat of the day( bet you all never realized that).
The quartered moose spread out on a bed of well aired logs with a tarp over head to keep any heat from the sun( heat shield), off the quarters goes a long ways in keeping the meat cool by day, no matter how warm the day may get,
once the carcass is cool with hide on, it would take a lot of heat to warm up the quarters.
Hope I helped some!
We had this debate in our deer camp last year. I was taught to leave the hides on until butchering, to prevent the meat from drying out. We always wash the body cavity out with water and hang it. We have a buther come to our camp and cut and wrap everything that night and all the trimmings go to the buthcher shop the next day. We skin the deer just before arrives. We have never had a problem with meat going bad.
I am going to invest in some heavy cotton game bags for next season. All I have right now is cheese-cloth type.(apparently these are not as good) and fly eggs go right through them.
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That's an interesting take! I've never heard of that for deer before, but it certainly sounds like a good idea. Kinda best of both worlds.
I hunt rifle in Saskatchewan, so we're pretty much guaranteed cold weather. As soon as I get the guts tore out, I wash the body cavity out with snow, then pack it with snow, and toss it in the back of the truck. We usually take the hide off as soon as it's hanging, but I'm interested in the shave method.
My wife made me cotton game bags from old sheets.
If I'm alone a fair hike from the truck I'll skin the critter out where it drops and bag each individual quarter in the cotton bag for backpacking out.
If I'm near the road I might skin it out there then pop it into a cotton bag big enough for the whole deer, or transport it hide on and skin it there before bagging it.
Cools fast and the bags keep it clean and I can tape the opening to keep flies out. Works for deer and moose quarters too.
If I'm alone a fair hike from the truck I'll skin the critter out where it drops and bag each individual quarter in the cotton bag for backpacking out.
If I'm near the road I might skin it out there then pop it into a cotton bag big enough for the whole deer, or transport it hide on and skin it there before bagging it.
Cools fast and the bags keep it clean and I can tape the opening to keep flies out. Works for deer and moose quarters too.
Wasn't there a thread some time ago from Westicle?
No, wait. That was a different topic.
I'm surprised no one else had mentioned this.
I recall one year we brought home two moose in temps that were around freezing overnight but warmed up to around 20C in the day. We skinned (as both were quartered - hide on) them in my buddy's shop, late afternoon, using the forklift (very handy). Took them to the butcher and he was really surprised to feel just how cold the meat still was from the night before. He was certain the meat was going to be spoiled due to the warm temps.
It was excellent.
If you want to have food possining go for it and then hang the buchers that told you that. Skin all game right away. If hot out debone right way. never use a bandsaw to cut through meet debone all gane only. and ya hand the dum butchers that told you that.
Funny there's literally THOUSANDS of hunters that hang with the hide on and we're not getting sick. Its like the whole head down and head up hanging stuff. Personal preference that probably doesn't make any difference to our enjoyment of the meat. My venison is sweet and tender with no gaminess at all and I hang hide on, head down, for several days to a couple of weeks. I'm sure yours is the same.
But to print absolutes like those you did is just plain silly.
