Taking care of Wild Game (meat).... Curious..

[nodak7mm]

Hi Guys,

I grew up in the North where temps were never an issue. So it was typical, after the kill/gutting to bring it back to the farm and hang it in the cold shop. Later that week after everybody recovered from the numerous brutal 1/2 - 1 mile "Old World" deer drives thru the woods/swamp/river bottoms, we would get together and skin & process the deer. Needless to say this was a finger numbing, less than enjoyable task...

Upon my return to the North 5 yrs ago, I started hunting with my brother in law in ND instead of my family in NW MN. Wow, what a life changing event, not only could I see past 20 yards, I learned is what I consider the bestest & easiest way to handle the skinning & qtr'n of deer. Just cause I am a hardheaded Norwegian, it dont mean I cant change my ways when shown a better route....

What my brother in laws family does is: After the kill, of coarse it is immediatly gutted/dressed out, hunting then stops. We get it back to the farm, hang it, skin it, & qtr it. Its warm & alot easier. The qtrs are then placed in big 100qt coolers and given a bath to remove all yuckies & hair, cooler drained (poured out from the top, hair floats) and the meat is placed in another cooler to cool. OAT is generally below freezing, so temp is not a factor. This takes all of maybe an hour and all my hard-meat wrestling work is done. Bone it out when I get home...

Since adopting this method:
* The quality of my venison has improved dramatically..
* No question regarding spoilage by seen and unseen matters
* Processing the meat is a joy....

So, whats your routine/method..?

 

[Elkman]

For elk I am typically miles/days away from home base and sometimes from the truck. So a large percentage of mine are gutted, skinned and quartered where they lay. They are then packed out in bags and end up home sometimes several days later. I then hang them clean and wipe them the best I can and let them cool/age for several days. Then a really sharp knife is used to clean off the crust formed and we have fresh cool clean meat underneath. I have more waste that way which I hate but thats my only option in most cases. In the past my deer were also handled this way.
For deer now, I hunt within feet or mins from my house, so my deer are killed gutted, hauled to the vacant barn, skinned, washed cleaned and hung in bags. Very clean nice meat which I cut and wrap it in two or three days before the crust forms on the outside.That my 02

 

[SJB358]

We do it the same as you Rod in Va. We clean it and have it quartered and deboned by the end of the day and most of the time, much faster. We then put it in the cooler till we have a few deer to actually process.

My elk/deer Western hunts are the same as Bills, but I usually bone everything in place. Just don't like to carry the extra weight if it isn't needed. Scotty

 

[1Shot]

Where I hunt I never even gut a deer. I can usually drive the truck right to the deer load it up and be at the skinning shed in 30 minutes. I hang it up by the hocks of the back legs. PUT ON RUBBER GLOVES it keeps your hands clean and when it is cold they stay warmer. :mrgreen: I use a Cuttco double D serrated blade hunting knife to do all the work. I cut the hide around the back legs just below the knee joints as it hangs on both legs. Then take the knife and slip it under the hide and slit it open down to the crotch on both sides and peal the hide off the hams inside and out. Then on the belly side about where the dark hair and the white hair meets I cut the hide down to the edge of the front shoulder and down the edge of the shoulder to about 6" of the hoof on both sides. This leaves a patch of hide on the belly. I take the knife and go between the hide and the meat and separate the hide from the meat to about the center of the back on both sides. Then I go up and cut through the tail bone joint and rectum and then you can just grab the tail portion and rip the hide off all the way down to the neck. Then cut the hide off the front shoulders by going on the inside and outside of the cut you have already made down the edge of the shoulders to within 6" of the hoof. I then make a cut between the back strap and where the ham meet on both sides. Then make a cut on both sides of the back bone all the way down to between the front shoulders. Down toward the front shoulders you can slip your hand between the backstrap and the layer of plastic type stuff and work your hand up toward the hams and pull this away. Then slip the knife in the cut you made between the ham and the back strap where they meet and start cutting the back strap away from bone all the way down to between the front shoulders. It does not take much cutting to remove the back straps. I then go to the hams. With the deers back facing you make a cut between the hams on both sides of it's "gender" down to the ball sockets. Then make a cut on both hams with the knife feeling the pelvis bone on the tops of the hams. You should now have the hams cut all the way around like you are going to cut the quarters off. Now look on the inside the hams. You will see a strip of muscle meat that is about 1/2" wide the runs from the crotch up the center of the ham toward the knee. Just below the knee cut all the way around the shank of the ham down to the bone. Then follow that 1/2" wide muscle line and cut down to the bone and cut the rest of the ham away from this leg bone and you now have the ham deboned. I cut the front shoulder quarters off and debone the meat off of them. I put all meat into a 48 Qt cooler and run cold water to completely cover. I add one to two cups of white vinegar, depends on if it is a smaller deer or large deer, to the cooler and mix it all around good. I usually kill my deer in the evenings so I let the cooler sit in the back of my truck which has a camper top on it with the window cranked open and the lid open on the cooler over night regardless of how warm it is. It is warm most of the time during most of the season in east NC. Been doing this for over 30 years with no problems. Water covers the meat and vinegar pulls out the blood and never had any spoilage problems. Next morning I drain the cooler. Cut my meat into the portions I want and wash it good and put it into zip-lock freezer bags and freeze. I also have my own meat grinder and make burger which takes a lot longer. Average time it takes me to skin a deer and cut the meat off it is about 19 minutes. If the deer is big enough I will cut into the paunch area and cut the loins from the inside. The guts will be laying down toward the chest cavity area and you can make a cut in the paunch just under it's "gender" and reach down in the cavity and cut them out pretty easy.