First time butcher
 

My buddy and I have been trying to skin and quarter our own deer up these past couple of years. The problem is we are kind of sloppy, or just don't have the right technique yet. We usually hang them by the back legs, cut around the back legs, and make our way down. Then we cut out the backstraps, all the quarters, and some of the neck meat. I don't worry about steaks too much, because we make rolls of deer sausage out of our deer, so bad cuts don't matter. Our problem is hair. For some reason I can't get the deer started cutting around the legs without getting hair all over. Is this just normal. Also, after I'm done, I usually wash all the meat real good, place in trash bags, wrap with paper, and stick them in the freezer. Is this proper, or do I need to let the meat dry after washing.

Another side topic. I've watched a video on this website http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/hunting/photogallery/article/0,13355,1254741,00.html It is about quartering the deer in the woods before skinning it. Would this be legal in IL? What do you think about it?

Thanks for helping out a newbie,

Justin

RE: First time butcher
 

I found this info helpful-

http://home.rochester.rr.com/sevendzero/

RE: First time butcher
 

Do you usually wash the meat after cutting and put it in a freezer? Or does it have to dry some before being put in the freezer?

Justin

RE: First time butcher
 

Well what my dad has always done, something I think he learned early on was that once you've got it skinned to take a blow torch and burn the hairs that had stuck. Seems to work very well, and doesn't harm the meat. Sure eliminates the hassle of the hair.

RE: First time butcher
 

I remove the backstraps......the tender loins......quarter the animal and put the mea tin a cooler. I then go over to the gaden hose.....wash all the meat off.....rinse out the cooler....and place the mea tback in the cooler.

I put a bag of ice in the cooler.....and I age it for a few days.....then I take it to the processor.

I have really no issues with hair.

Jeff

RE: First time butcher
 

This is definetly a situation where there very well may be 100 ways to skin a deer.

Here is my .02.

Hang the deer by it's neck not the back legs. Using a knife cut all the lower limbs off. Starting on the inside of what remains of each limb, cut the skin down to the center of the body. Cut a ring around the neck of the deer. Cut down the center of the sternum. Start skinning.

You will get much less hair on your deer this way. At least that has been my experience.

The few hairs that are left you can use a blow torch or in my case a propane torch to singe them off. Just wave it back and forth along the carcass.

Tom

RE: First time butcher
 

Anybody ever tried the "golf ball method" to skinning a deer?

I'veheard about it and I may have seen it on video some years back but can't remember exactly how it's done.

RE: First time butcher
 

I never field dress deer. I get them hung up usually within an hour where we hoist them up by the hind legs with a gambrel where they are skinned. Then we gut them, then use the garden hose and spray nozzle to wash them off. You keep washing til you get them clean. Then they go in the walk-in for a few days. They hang by a hook that comes up through the pelvic opening. Then they are quartered and cut up and whatever.

RE: First time butcher
 

You still have to skin the back legs and sever the tail. Fold the hide over a golf ball and tie a rope around the hide (that is covering the ball), connect it to your truck or ATV and pull. Skin will come right off...it's pretty easy.

RE: First time butcher
 

I have found cutting off the legs, head and starting the HQ to be skinned while still on the ground gets less hair on the deer than hanging it from the get go. The propane torch is what I use to burn off hair that stillgets on the meat.