Doefever

Has anyone seen the video tape>"Venison Processing The E-Z Way"?
I want to butcher my own deerfor the 1st time. In the video a deer is skinnedand butchered. I always thought it would be a bloody mess,butin the video the deer after it was skinned looked fresh and there wasn'tmuch blood at all. Was this due to hanging in a freezer for a while or some other way, or is that the norm? My wife has a friend who said her husband butchered a deer and it was a bloody and gooeymess. I want to know what i'll be in for. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

DaveH

When a deer is hit through the vitals, most of the blood will be in the chest cavitywhich will be emptied when field dressing your deer. If the weather is cool enough, I like to hang my deer for a few days to cool and for any remaining blood to drain. However, during the early season, you have to butcher quickly due to the warm weather. Even then, I haven't found there to be much blood left and the butchering process isn't a "gooey mess" like your friend said.

antlerchaser

Dave H is right in what he says. That is a great video , I have it and cut up my deer just like that. I have another one that is really good and use some techniques from it as well but I can't think of the name. I have butchured all of my own game for as long as I have been hunting but that is partially because my dad used to be a butcher and he showed me first hand. Funny thing is I do it totally different today that what he showed back then.

Might Mite

Once a deer is shot, gutted, etc, the blood it at a minimum. Like Dave said though, in the early season, you don't want to have it hanging long because of the hotter temp. My grandpa has a butcher shop, so I have been doing it since I was little. You will get great joy in taking care of your own deer.

drstalker

I started doing it a couple years ago and found that it is not messy at all.One of the smallest and troublesome things about butchering is keeping hair off the meat,yet that's not that difficult either if you treat it properly in the field.I bought two videos back then one is "care and processing of venison"by Bill Hesselgrave,and the other is "Butchering Field to Table"by Milos Cihelka ,which in my opinion is the better of the two.The video Bill does is interesting because he addresses CWD and shows how to remove the "Nodes" in meat.Bill Is a butcher I believe in a Chronic Wasting Disese area of Wisconsin.For processing my own I bought a set of knives,butcher paper,and some bus pans.The front quarters take a bit more time, the the hinds,the backstraps,flanks,and of course the tenderloins are the most simple to do.Also I prefer to more or less filet the meat off a deer rather than having meat with bone in it.A good sharp boning knife andd a meat saw is pretty much all ya need.

atlasman

Deer butvhering begins in the field...........not your garage. You get out of it what you put into it. A poorly field dressed animal will be a mess to butcher........a properly field dressed animal will be no problem. You will always have some blood of course, but it has never been something of concern for me.

We always have a 5 gallon bucket of water with us to wash out the field dressed deer before they ever hit the truck. This helps cool them quicker, and gets rid of a lot of blood. We usually rinse them again when we get home and then hang them up to cool.

You have a good video there..............follow it.

antlerchaser

Atlasman , I have read many times that you should never rinse the cavity of a deer out with water but I do and will continue to when I have clean water to do so. I guess the concern is more in warm weather and bacterial growth butI dry the cavity out with a towel and it dries fast so who knows.

Windwalker7

I use a small propane torch to get some of the hair off after skinning.

Just light it up and quickly go over areas where there is some hair. It will burn up fast. Just don't hold the flame there.

Phil from Maine

I try to let mine hang to cool it down if possible. If the night is to
be cool enough I will put pepper on the openings to keep the blow
flys off. Then first thing in the morning before it gets to hot I will
start the skinning and butchuring from there. If the weather has
been to hot I like to quarter it up and try to cool it off in the fridge.
Then when cutting I like to put some on a cookie sheet and set in
the freezer for about an hour to help firm the meat up for cutting.
I do not find the mess you are talking about at all.

Buellhunter

It is easy after you have done it a couple times.
I use only a knife
I don't cut thru any bones.
All that is left when I am done is a big deer skeleton

Take your time on the first one, figure about 2 hours minimum
Use a really sharp knife
Helps to have a helper
Be careful
Have fun