Skinning

John Y Cannuck

John Y Cannuck

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Why are some easier than others?

Even on a hot carcass, there are differences.
I've had hides that practically fall off, and those, like the fat road kill I did last, where the hide tears, and needs to be followed with the blade over much of the shoulder and butt areas. It tried to pull muscle from the carcass. It reminded me of doing a frozen deer. But this deer was steaming.
The two of mine that I skinned at camp were easy jobs that, once the initial cuts were done, simply pulled off by hand. And they had hung for 24 hrs before skinning.
Ideas?
 
Deer with lots of fat and warm deer are always easier to skin.
If your asking for advice for the new guys here is my two cents.
Hang them from a gamble by the back legs and use a winch to raise and lower the deer so you are working at a comfortable level and use a "proper skinning knife" not a drop or sharp point field knife!
Work carefully and only one guy on a deer at a time... coffee with whiskey or baileys in it is necessary for proper skinning.
 
I use two Russel Original belt knives to skin and keep a sharpening steel on hand to keep the edge fresh.

For some season wild game (moose & deer) is harder on knives than beef and pork and dulls them quicker.





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John Y Cannuck said:
Why are some easier than others?

Even on a hot carcass, there are differences.
I've had hides that practically fall off, and those, like the fat road kill I did last, where the hide tears, and needs to be followed with the blade over much of the shoulder and butt areas. It tried to pull muscle from the carcass. It reminded me of doing a frozen deer. But this deer was steaming.
The two of mine that I skinned at camp were easy jobs that, once the initial cuts were done, simply pulled off by hand. And they had hung for 24 hrs before skinning.
Ideas?
Click to expand...

Big deer vs small deer ........ buck/does?? Maybe the farmland deer aren't as tough as the woods critters. I've never noticed a big difference here. :confused:
 
Nope, there are tough ones, and easy ones. Gutting can be similar, sometimes the guts seem to just fall out, sometimes, the deer seem to have all their inards attached with crazy glue.
My wife was bragging about how she barely got any blood on her when she gutted her first deer (Actually my deer, just her first gutting job).
She gutted the last road kill I got, and it was a guts glued doe. She brags no more :D
I wonder if there is a connection.. so to speak... That deer was hard to skin too. Something to watch for.

The Russel SC mentioned is a nice shape or a skinning knife.
Just enough belly in it to avoid the tip cutting the hide through.
That tip must be sharp though. Or you'll need another knife with a sharp tip. deer hide is not usually easy to puncture when you want to, only when you don't.
 
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Interesting. All the deer we have skinned have all been skinned within 2 hours of being shot and the hide has always come away fairly easily. We usually use the knife for initial cuts and then pull to the front legs (we hang head up), use the knife around the legs and then pull to the hind legs with little knife assistance.

:confused: I'm stumped.

However, on gutting I agree. Sometime I have cut them open and then turned them on their side and the guts almost spill out with little need for a knife and then sometimes I have had to use a knife endlessly to release the gut from the cavity.
 
Skinned, gutted and processed 50 plus deer. Never noticed any real difference other than on the neck of big rutted up bucks where the hide seems to be cemented on. Started using my ATV winch to pull it off there so that I don't have to slice all the time wiht the knife. Of course size affects maneuverability and smaler deer are easier to move around to get at. As for guts, I've never had to use more than four cuts to release them and get them on the ground.:confused:
 
I know exactly what you are talkinig about. My reasoning is the older the deer the harder is is to skin, fawns and 1.5 year old buck/ does peel realy easy.

Also I have noticed that deer older than 1.5 or 2.5 have darker meat. Next time you have a few deer down look at the colour of the meat and compare it with how hard it is to skin. You will see there is a link between the two.

(Talking about whitetails only)
 
1.....was it hanging head up or down?

2...... was the throat cut right away?

3.....was the wind pipe removed at the gutting site

4....did you have a note to be off work that day?

5....did you wash hands after that pee two hours ago?

6...why are you skinning a deer some one else shot???how will they ever learn?

7...other then that.....im stunned also:eek:
 
Well, yes, I'd prefer to pull too. But when you can hang off the deer and it isn't moving, I think it's time for the knife.... Or the rock and rope skinning method.

Funny thing, the one doe had a couple of strange muscles across her abdomen. I wonder if she could have been injured before?
 
BIGREDD said:
Hang them from a gamble by the back legs and use a winch to raise and lower the deer so you are working at a comfortable level and use a "proper skinning knife" not a drop or sharp point field knife!
Work carefully and only one guy on a deer at a time... coffee with whiskey or baileys in it is necessary for proper skinning.
Click to expand...

and a electric forklift (the kind they use in the hardware stores).:D

the deer is never any higher or lower than your chest.;)
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Hey Bigredd, why not just nail the hide to the floor, and crank 'er up? :D
Click to expand...

I have a boat winch bolted to the wall and a four by four with eight big eye hooks in it for the pulley sitting up in the roof trusses. We just winch em up and hang each deer from a eye hook. I nearly pulled the trusses apart a few times putting too much weight up there, hence the support 4X4. I don't think I would try to use the winch to skin them with them hung from the ceiling.:eek:

You can see the boat winch in the left of the picture... real easy to winch them up and down for skinning. These pics are a few years old.
hang1.JPG


A little too much weight to be sure.... this is your chance to nail me on hanging the little buck down-side up Bob!:rolleyes:
hang2.JPG
 
BIGREDD said:
this is your chance to nail me on hanging the little buck down-side up Bob!
Click to expand...
I noticed that as well, but alas won't go there. :p

Question to BR .... Why not cut off the rear legs on the downside of the knee and skin out the tendons at the knee? I see alot of people leaving the legs on like that.


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Question to BR .... Why not cut off the rear legs on the downside of the knee and skin out the tendons at the knee? I see alot of people leaving the legs on like that.
Click to expand...

Yeah we thought it was easier to just cut the leg off after... we were wrong... our butcher does it the way you mention. It is much cleaner and easier to skin the leg down a little and saw the bottom portion off below the hock. We will do that now when we have to hang them before delivery. Good point Super!
 
Man it pains me to see some guys still skinning the old hard way!!:p
Head-up, cut off legs, split neck & leg skin right to gut opening, (no tendon skinning needed:mad: ) now after a little carving around the neck to get it started & a couple little knife touches at the leg pits (arm pits:D ) it just pulls right off.
Next we lower the winch (yes a couple boat winches works perfect) & transfer the animal to the meat locker hung by the gams.
For the meat locker a couple pieces of TV tower firmly attached to the ceiling allows multiple & easy accessably hanging purchases!
 
senior said:
Man it pains me to see some guys still skinning the old hard way!!:p
Head-up, cut off legs, split neck & leg skin right to gut opening, (no tendon skinning needed:mad: ) now after a little carving around the neck to get it started & a couple little knife touches at the leg pits (arm pits:D ) it just pulls right off.
Next we lower the winch (yes a couple boat winches works perfect) & transfer the animal to the meat locker hung by the gams.
For the meat locker a couple pieces of TV tower firmly attached to the ceiling allows multiple & easy accessably hanging purchases!
Click to expand...

Even Cave Men knew better than to hang them wrong-side up... poor deluded senior.... :runaway: :dancingbanana: :p
 
senior said:
Man it pains me to see some guys still skinning the old hard way!!:p
Click to expand...
WRONGO!! ......... That's why the good Lord put the tendon hanger thingies on the other end, so intelligent men could take advantage of his good idea and hang their deer head down. :rolleyes:


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