bigtim6656

I have been on the fence about weather i should butcher mine or have it done. Alot of you guys make ogod points about the crap butchers can do form taking some. Using scraps from another deer for your hamburger.
One issue that is on my mind about doing it myself is hair. I helpa neighbor hang, skin and quarter a doe last year. For some reason he did not use the front legs and gave them to me. Then after he hung the rest of it for a day or so he gave me one of the back legs. i cut them up into steaks roast and stew meat. One issue i had was hair. there was hair all over most of it. I washed it off and was real carefull. I never found a hair after cooking any of it. Though there where a few out of the freeze nothing some water did not take care of.
SO how to you keep the hair off the meat when you butcher it. I thought about skinning it then washing it with the hose. Will that work

razor6570

Hair is surely a problem. If you take your time skinning the deer, hair can be kept to a minimum. After sknning wash it down with a hose. That will normally take care of 90% of it. When butchering, I wash the meat again and keep an eye out for hair. If you butcher the meat correctly (removing the fat and tendons) you will get all the hair. I have butchered for about ten years now and I can honestly say that I have never pulled meat out of the freezer and found hair. I cannot say that about some of the meat that I have received from "professional butchers".
Now there some very good butchers around but far and few.

mauser06

hair is almost a non-issue once you learn to skin properly...

trick is to cut the hide not the hair...i use a knife with a REALLY pointed blade...i poke that into the hide and get it under the skin with the blade pointed outward, like it is when you open a deer to gut it...if you use your knife to cut through the hair, then the hide, you'll have a mess with hair everywhere...cutting the hide with the blade away from the meat also keep you from cutting meat...

after you make your cuts on the hide around the legs and down the inside of the legs and down the belly to meet your gutting cut, the rest is pretty much pulling the hide off and no to minimal knife work...

a trick ive heard of for hair is running a torch over the carcass to singe the hair...never tried it...but skinning how i do, i never had much hair...but many guys skin with the knife cutting through the hair to cut the hide...gotta slip that blade under the hide with the blade pointed towards the hide and it'll be easier, faster, and cleaner...easy to do even on cold frozen carcasses...but its REAL easy when its still warm and the hide is loose..

JNTURK

hang and skin or use a vehicle to skin the deer.....if you use the vehicle method you will get very, very little hair on the animal and you can mostly get it off with your knife and going over the meat sideways with the knife.

YooperMike

Skinning properly, like others have said, will GREATLY reduce the amount of hair you have on the deer. Once you ring the legs with your knife, that should be about it as far as cutting into the hide. The fewer holes you make, the less hair that will be around. Go SLOW on your first one!

bigtim6656

Ok guys i guess the only thing i will need to look at now will me temp when i get the kill. Which i doubt will be a issue with the weather we are having. I think i am going to order one of the good videos.

kateraxl2381

skinning it properly is a must...however, even the most seasoned skinner will come across some hair...take a propane torch and simply burn it off..it leaves no tastes or anything of that nature behind..it does smell tho.

JNTURK

try youtube

DeBauche11

if you do get any hair on the meat, take a blow torch and quickly burn the hair off the meat. Obviously dont torch the whole deer but once the deer is skun out go back over it with the torch real quick and lightly and it will take care of all your hair problems

Champlain Islander

Good points on the skinning. I wash it down after skinning if there is any blood or hair left it usually goes down the drain. I haven't tried the torch but have heard it works.