How do you dress out your deer?

We load the deer in the truck whole and gut it to a spot we do not hunt and try to shoot coyotes on the gut pile. Skin it at home and let it hang as long as we can before butching.
 
We always gut it on the spot, hang it with the hide on for about a week as weather will allow and then skin it and butcher it. I find the meat is not all dried out if you leave the hide on plus it helps to keep the birds from pecking holes all through the meat.
 
I've never gutted one in the woods, always take them out whole, hang them up, skin then gut the same as I do a beef, I find it keeps things much cleaner and I avoid hair pickin detail.
 
Gut it on the spot, all of 3 minutes. If i can get it home while its still warm, I skin it out hanging, with an air compressor.
 
In the past I would let the meat hang but now I don't bother. I find it has no effect on taste with deer. Personal opinion.

I was asking at a local Abattoir about hanging and I was informed " Venison doesn't need ageing, it just spoils when you hang it."
Which, unless I'm wrong is exactly why you hang things, correct? It slowly allows the meat to develop the enzymes that break it down= therefore, more tender cuts.
As far as the original question; depends how far away from home I am. Close; go get the tractor and return to dress the animal, the cat's have to eat too. Too far, drop the guts on the spot. Skin after I get home, depending on whether I want the strip loin right away.
 
tokguy said:
In the past I would let the meat hang but now I don't bother. I find it has no effect on taste with deer. Personal opinion.

I was asking at a local Abattoir about hanging and I was informed " Venison doesn't need ageing, it just spoils when you hang it."
Which, unless I'm wrong is exactly why you hang things, correct? It slowly allows the meat to develop the enzymes that break it down= therefore, more tender cuts.
Click to expand...


Some meat fibers are stronger and more course than others and need to break down such as beef. Pork and sheep are not course fibers and are only flashed cooled over night and butchered the next day. Venison is the same, it can be cut right away, but has no ill effects to the meat if it hangs for a week at proper temperatures until its more convenient to butcher.
 
SuperCub said:
I don't why some folk have such a problem with washing them down. As long as they are dried off and hung in a non-humid environment, you will never have a problem. End product is much cleaner and hair free. I cut up a deer for a guy this fall who took a pressure washer (on low setting) to his. It was perfectly clean with no issues what-so-ever.
Click to expand...

Most of the time there is snow on the ground and the hoses are put away. I hang the deer in the pump shed so hosing it off in there is not really an option. So for me, picking a few hairs off is the lesser of the available evils.
 
If I can get my vehicle close enough I use my hoist that fits into the reciever hitch and hoist them up, skin and gut right there. I then wash it down with some water I bring along, and wrap it in a old clean wet bed sheet. It is ready for hanging, and It hangs for a week. I used to make my living cutting meat, and have done my own and many other deer for friends for the past 40 + years, and I can tell you they need hanging. My house never smells when cooking venison, you can cut the steak with a fork, and many people that have had venison in my home couldn't beleave that is what they were eating, and they want me cut thiers up next year.
 
I guess I am in the minority big time. Unless I know I won't be able to make it back home before 1 hour (give or take a couple of minutes), I take it home and do it all there. Typically the gutless method. Which I thought I was the only one to do until I found out recently that I'm not. The only gutting is to cut the rectum out and possibly moving some things to the side to grab the tenderloins. I've found a lot of people are too messy in the field. Getting piss and guts on good cuts of meat. I'm not into that. As clean as possible with all the meat.

Skin it.
Take the front legs off.
Cut the back straps out.
Take the tenderloins out.
Cut the spine just below the rear legs.
Separate the two rear legs.
Debone.
 
stuckon308 said:
I guess I am in the minority big time. Unless I know I won't be able to make it back home before 1 hour (give or take a couple of minutes), I take it home and do it all there. Typically the gutless method. Which I thought I was the only one to do until I found out recently that I'm not. The only gutting is to cut the rectum out and possibly moving some things to the side to grab the tenderloins. I've found a lot of people are too messy in the field. Getting piss and guts on good cuts of meat. I'm not into that. As clean as possible with all the meat.

Skin it.
Take the front legs off.
Cut the back straps out.
Take the tenderloins out.
Cut the spine just below the rear legs.
Separate the two rear legs.
Debone.
Click to expand...

so you don't use the ribs?
 
always gut ASAP in the field in case of punctured gut , wipe out with snow,spread open ribcage with stick, drag out, load in truck, hang & skin in cold shed ASAP , wash down with water. let freeze , Limb and then cut on butcher boy meat saw.
 
stuckon308 said:
I guess I am in the minority big time. Unless I know I won't be able to make it back home before 1 hour (give or take a couple of minutes), I take it home and do it all there. Typically the gutless method. Which I thought I was the only one to do until I found out recently that I'm not. The only gutting is to cut the rectum out and possibly moving some things to the side to grab the tenderloins. I've found a lot of people are too messy in the field. Getting piss and guts on good cuts of meat. I'm not into that. As clean as possible with all the meat.

Skin it.
Take the front legs off.
Cut the back straps out.
Take the tenderloins out.
Cut the spine just below the rear legs.
Separate the two rear legs.
Debone.
Click to expand...

I mostly do the same thing. I will add that when I skin I take every bit of visible fat off with the hide. I don't cut the back bone, I cut the back legs away from the hip bone at the leg socket. The hip bone stays with the skeleton.
When I finish boneing, I trim all and I mean all the remaining fat from between the marble of the meat, as well as any bloodshot damage.
Most of my hunting is within a few miles of home and I try to complete the entire process within a couple of hours of the animal hitting the ground (moose or deer).
I started using the above process 20 yrs ago when I knocked a buck down in an unusualy warm spell and had no choise but to process right away. Before we started this, I brought home some meat, that the wild-gamey smell would almost drive the wife out of the kitchen when cooking. I don't know if it is the removing the bone from the meat as quick as possible or removing all the fat (personaly I think it's a combination of both)but the wife won't allow any wild game meat in the house that isn't looked after as above.

Removing all the fat will make the meat a little dry so I add fresh pork to the sausage and hamburgers. when cooking roasts we cook with a can of con'some of some kind.
 
Gutless method almost every time.

I don't open up the abdomen until the end, to remove the tenderloins and any offal I may want to take. I don't see the point in dragging anything anywhere when a deer can be cut up into a back pack portable package in about 30 minutes or less.
 
Gatehouse said:
Gutless method almost every time.

I don't open up the abdomen until the end, to remove the tenderloins and any offal I may want to take. I don't see the point in dragging anything anywhere when a deer can be cut up into a back pack portable package in about 30 minutes or less.
Click to expand...
Many of my deer are shot at last light. Doing a gutting job in failing light, or with a flashlight/cap light is about as much as I care to tackle.
I thought this year I could have got the ATV in to where I shot my buck, but when I tried it in daylight I got hung up and had to winch myself out of a dangerous hole on the side of the ridge. If it were not for a handy tree I think the machine might have rolled on down the ridge.
I've often thought of trying the gutless method on deer shot in good daylight, but I'm not set up for it, and the tried and true works well for me.
 
We hunt fall in the boreal, Nov. locally. Locally is all walk in - drag out; which means likely a couple miles from the truck, and the boreal, well, if we shoot something it's a safe bet we're more than a mile from the truck.

We've started boning them out on the spot. I skin the back legs up to the breastbone, gut it, then skin out one half to just past the backbone. Roll over on the hide, skin the other half. Remove the front legs and bone out, bone out one back leg, "skin" the ribs from the breastplate back and take it off including the backstraps. Bone out the neck, don't forget the tenderloins, and we pack out only one rear legbone from the knee up with the hip (in Ab you need proof of ###, species, and tag all on one quarter).

It's surprising how little time it takes. Carrying out the meat is enough of a challenge, no need to pack out the bones. For a few years we used a gamecart. Quite frankly a packboard is less work. Plus, by the time someone walks back to the truck to get the gamecart you could be halfway back with the meat.

It only takes me maybe 2-3 minutes to gut a deer and with having to keep the proof of ### and species(tail), it's just easier.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom