HuntingNet.com Forums - View Single Post - Do you process your deer or take it to the butcher?
Old 10-07-2013, 08:31 PM
  #8  
Murby
Fork Horn
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Michigan
Posts: 269
Default

I hunt on my own property..
Pick up the kill with tractor bucket and transport to outdoor table.. Gut it, collect heart and liver for dog, lungs for chickens. Digestive tract into 5 gal bucket. Dog/Chicken stuff into large boiling pot w/water.
Have 2 inch steel pipe 10ft tall with L on top and pulley.. Hang dear by hind legs and use garden hose to wash out insides.
Skin it and chop off head. Hacksaw takes off ribs and into boiling pot for dog.
Take shoulders, back straps, tenderloins for us. Chop off spinal column assembly and throw it into boiling pot for dog. Cut and take hind quarters for us.

Once inside the house, meat for humans goes into spare fridge set at max cooling to bring meat down to almost freezing. Heart, lungs, liver goes into small boiling pot for dog and chicken.
Dog gets heart as soon as cooked and cooled.. Chickens get lungs whenever.
The next day I will bone out the meat.. All scraps, bones, fat, cartilage, tendons, and other non-desirable stuff goes into boiling pot for dog and chicken feed.

The next day, when boiling pot has cooled, the fat floats to the top and gets skimmed off for the chickens. Meat for dog will have separated from bones and will be frozen for later treats. Small bones go to garden to add phosphorous and calcium to soil, large bones become dog treats.

All edible meat for people is usually processed into venison jerky and hamburger.. and soon I'll be making summer sausages. I am really good at making jerky.

Each year, we waste less and less of the animal.. We currently only throw out the head, skin and fur, and legs below the knees. I am always looking for ways to use more and more of the harvest.
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