How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Well, this is another topic that I never would have thought of until I read this board.

Growing up we always hung the deer up by the hind legs and skinned them from the back legs forward. That's just the way we did it. Never saw anyone else skin a deer and never thought anything of it. We cut a slit down from where you already had the deer open from field dressing it to the back knee, got it started and just pulled it down over the shoulders and neck and then cut the head off after you got it down to the end of the neck.

Reading some threads and seeing how people have deer hung up it looks like others may skin deer from the head down.

I'm just curious whether I'm in the minority on this or not.

Nathan

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

always hang them from the rear

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

I have butchered all my own deer for thelast 20 years, and all have been skinned from the hind legs down to the head while hanging from the rear hocks.... except for one,.. the first dear I did the other way and realized pretty quick that it had to be easier the other way.
I haven't tried thegolf ball trick myself yet but have seen it done a a freshly killed deer....it looked pretty slick.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

I have hung them from the neck before but have always skinned them with the hind feet up and skinned from the tail to the head






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RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

i guess im the only "head up" guy so far.

thats the way my father does it, thats the way his father did it, and im going to guess his father did it the same way. Cut from the chest cavity up as far as possible on the neck and then all the way around. Then once you get past the neck it all folds down keeping the hair off the meat. I dont see a need to flip the deer over, I dont see how head down would make it any easier.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

I didn't expect it to be this lopsided! I was way in the minority on my last question about waiting before going after a deer when you shoot it so I thought this might be the same way.

We always hung our deer with their head down from the start. We didn't hang them by the head and then flip them over to skin them. Sometimes if the weather was above freezing we would put a piece of wood to hold the body cavity open to let it cool but I'm not sure if that was useful or not and didn't happen very often in Northeast Montana (usually you didn't need to worry about a freezer during hunting season).

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

I've always skinned from tail endto head end. Just because??? Haven't tried the golf ball thing yet either.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Gotta hang em by the hind legs! Less time consuming!

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

You can do it with an ATV or Truck. Here is Awsucks from the Crossbow Forum doing it with an ATV.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

head up

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

HEAD DOWN FOR ME, WORKS WELL. THE GOLF BALL TRICK WORKS WELL WITH AWINCH

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

hang'm by the rear legs.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

alwyas hung them by the hind legs. but next year when im in my new house an my garage a place to pull on the deer im gonna give the head up an 4 wheeler trick a try.. cant hurt to much

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Head down all the way.....I will try it head up next time....as for winching the hide off or pulling it off with an atv.....I trust my hand with a knife, and I personally feel there is too much new technology involved in the sport already....I like things to be simple and to be traditional in my hunting....but that's just my opinion and I don't expect any of you to have the same....I certainly don't want to start a head butting/toe stepping contest because of it!

~Cam

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

I agree with what Fuzzy says, but, if I get lucky enough to get a moose permit I would try the atv or my truck as it will be a lot of work cutting it up.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Always hung from back legs and skinned toward head.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Head down for me.
Could someone explain what is the golf ball trick? My hands and a knife are usually enough!

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Head down, boning out the meat as I go.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

head down.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

head up is the easiest and quickest way and cleanest way of skinning. I used to skin and butcher deer for a living.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

I have also alwasy done it head up.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Head down!!

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

It all depends on my mood I have done it both ways. Large Deer 160 lbs + head down. Under 160 head up. Anything above 160 hind quarters are a pain to get off with out them hitting the floor.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Ive done them head down heads up kind of prefere heads down[8D]

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Why?

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

I posted a picture of Heads Up skinning! Buy the time a person can do one with Heads Down, I can do two Deer with Heads Up bypulling the hide offand same with Hogs!:)

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

We've always done it head up. I have never tried it any other way (though the golf ball trick has been discussed during the process:D)

For those who have tried both, does the heightof the deer while its hanging,affect the ease at which you can skin the deer?

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

if you shoot a buck that you want to mount, how can hang it any way but by the hind legs? you can't have that rope mark around the neck.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

:D:D:D:D:D:D:DEvery one you kill, you mount it? Of course you would protect the head and have a different approach to the issue of skinning it!

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

As long as temperature averages at least 38 degrees,cut throat, andI hang head down for three days. It Keeps blood out of hind quarters.If I have to hang it outdoors and exspect rain, I hang head up as hair grows down and the rain runs down and off.When I can hang insideI skin right away and hang head down. when it is warm I don't fool around , it gets butchered.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Head down .... if you are hanging them for any amount of time, like Denny said, you want the blood draining from the hinds .... at least that's the way me pappy always taught me ;)

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

why would you ever cut a deers throat?if you gut the deer it will bleed all it going to,unless you wait a long time . hanging head up for rain makes no sense either , rain wont hurt the hide either way.

i would never hang a deer by its neck because i save all of my capes ,my best friend is a taxidermist hae takes them all. taking extra capes to your taxidermist is a great way to get discounts on your mounts. he will always find a need for capes whencustomers shoot or cut there's up.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

hang'em head up
skin'en hed down

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

im part owner in a custom killing and processing slaughter house and we do both. For my own personal deer I skin from the hide legs down. We process deer for hunters for the hungry and we skin those from the neck down. But its not really skinning. I cut the front shoulder hide away and up around the neck in the circle, then hook a pair of welding vice grips on the hide which fastens to the floor. Then raise the deer by its neck with a hoist while the hide peels right off like a rabbit. I can skin faster the other way though from the rear down, but when you have 30 deer to do ina few hours the hoist and clamp makes it much easier on the hands! We processed 200 deer just for hunters for the hungry this season just to try it out.

like said above, if you want to mount a deer, then you must skin from the hides down since you can cut around the neck lol

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

i started hunting many years well 27 years ago and nobody tought me how to skin ., so i hung it head first., have done so thruout the years., but when there is one for mounting ., or wanting the hide.,then i hang hind up., maybe cause i have done it for many years with the head up ., i do have some troubles skining with the hind qts up.,(but thats just me) ., i do know that for me, i get less hair when i hang the deer up from its hind qts.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

In reply:srwshooter.

Sometimes,even up here, during the day it will warm up and by making a cut the blood will run out on floor not hang in deer.As far as rain, I don't hang that way to protect hide. I just don't like to get meat wet. Each his own.
Sometimes I remove windpipe then also.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

Denny. I see what you are saying.. some dont spit the rib cage down far enough and blood also tends to sit in there if you hang the deer from the hind also. Cutting the neck for draining definitly cant hurt anything. On cattle thats how we do it. But they are still somewhat kicking and by cutting the neck all the blood pumps out but we hang them also while its still pumping to. If a deer's been dead for awhile, then cutting the neck wont help much blood get out since its already clotted in there.

to each his own and if something works for you fine, then by all means keep doing it:)

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

We are on same page.usually after first day it is fairly well dried up. Splitting the chest is ,I think really important,Forgot about that, in fact I throw a board in there to keep spread and let air in.

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

I have never had that problem. never shot anything worth paying for a mount for.
And i cut around the neck anyway, so the rope mark wouldnt really be the problem, seeing as there is no hide connected to the head to protect anyway

RE: How do you skin a deer? Head up or down?
 

i hang him from the neck the use the ol' golf ball trick:D