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Hey guys, longtime reader that has never posted before. Just wondering what you guys do after the kill. I want to start butchering the deer myself and am just trying to figure out the best way to get started. What are some things that you do that work well at home, such has hanging, skinning, quartering etc.? I will be confined to my garage as I live in a neighborhood, so hanging the deer in a tree outside is out of the question. Main thing I am worried about is shooting one in the early season and it still being too warm out to leave it hanging for a couple days to age the meat.
Thanks,
Edit - Anyone know how to change my username and profile info? Been over a year since I have logged in and my username isn't MrBones and my info isn't correct. Not sure how that happened.
If it's cool enough out for consecutive days I let it hang for up to a week or when I have an opportune time to cut it. If it's warm out, I quarter it up right away and put the quarters and trimmings in the refrigerator to cool down good prior to cutting up.
I converted a chest freezer into a fridge. Built some wire shelves inside to lay meat on after its quartered or deboned. Keep it at 35 degrees for a week then cut and package. I paid 50 bucks for a freezer used and 35 bucks for a thermostat on amazon. I can fit 4 deer deboned inside with airflow.
I do as live2hunt. Hang it the first night. Two decisions at this point. Skin it now, and quarter it, or let it hang a day. Almost anything killed earlier than November gets skinned and quartered the first night. I can skin and quarter a deer in about an hour to 1.5 hours. Into big (unscented) garbage bags, and into the fridge on the coldest setting. The following day, I clean, dissect, and bag everything. Loins and tenderloins stay whole. Front shoulders almost always chunked up for grinding for burger and summer sausage. A few roasts, and the rest, cleaned for jerky. Freeze it and label it into ziplocks, and vacuum wrap them a day later after frozen. I hang my deer from the gambrell, and I use my quad runner hoist over a piece of round pipe in the rafters. I use one inch all thread between the gambrells to lift the deer. No slipping with the all thread, and it works great. Another thing I've done lately, is gutting the deer while hanging. I've never been keen on gutting a deer where I hunt, because I hate feeding coyotes, and gutting them while hanging is super clean and easy. A 55 gallon drum below your deer, with the head inside a garbage bag is slick and easy. I just toss two bags in the dumpster. Guts in one bag, and carcass in the other.
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You got me when hanging a deer outside is a no. Used to be proud to hang a deer. So were the neighbors. And their neighbors. Modern times. Garage is better anyway but not Sept 13. From my experience the meat gets slimy from being in a garbage bag in the fridge. Your not gonna get it aged unless you bone it out and put it in some porous net game bags. With as a previous poster said lots of airflow. That means the door ajar.....meh not good
Pete do you have better luck when vacuum sealing after the meat is frozen? I have never tried it that way but you got me interested. Yes I admit..... I am addicted to vacuum sealing and always looking for slight improvements.
Yes, no worries about moisture at the seal. I freeze it solid first, then I can draw all the air out once it's frozen. I do it with my bird skins for taxidermy as well. Best part is, you can slip a piece of paper inside a thin sandwich or snack bag between the ziplock and the vacuum bag with a very nice label that never gets distorted by frost.
Thanks for the input, much appreciated. That's what I was thinking with skinning and quartering right away when its warm out, but wasn't sure since i have never done it on my own before. After quartering has anyone put the quarters and trimmings in a cooler on ice? Currently the only fridge I have in the garage is a mini ridge full of beer and I don't think the wife would be too happy with it in the main fridge.
I did a cooler out west for a day till I could get the meat to a butcher. You don't want to let the meat get soaked with water. The refrigerator in my garage has beer, extra food and other items in it, but it was and is understood the big reason for that fridg was to put venison in when I need to. You can pick used ones up pretty cheap if not free. The freezer idea above is a good one also.
Be prepared. Have a gambrel hanging and ready to go. Have a sheet of plastic to lay beneath the deer when you hang it. Use a bucket to place under the nose to catch blood that initially comes out of the nose. Freeze water in half gallon or gallon milk jugs to use either as block ice in a cooler or to place inside of the cavity if you aren't going to butcher the same night and it's warm out. Have a table available. Use a tote to put all your butchering things in one spot - knives, sharpeners, cutting boards if they fit, freezer tape, sharpies, hide puller (comes in handy sometimes), paper towel, bleach wipes, cling wrap, freezer paper and anything else you need. Press and Seal cling wrap is awesome. Tear off as many pieces as you have room to lay out and put your meat on them as you cut. Wrap them in the cling wrap and repeat the process with freezer wrap. I write the date of the kill, just the initial(s) of the hunter, the cut of meat and I just use the sex symbol to indicate buck or doe. The less things to write the better. If you grind your own meat and use the commercial bags (chubs), use one color for whitetail and another color for anything else you may hunt for. That way you don't have to write bear or elk on everything and you can tell from the color its not venison. If you're just breaking the animal down so that you can get it in a cooler or fridge, you can leave the bone in the front shoulders. Place the backstraps in the bottom of a garbage bag and tie a knot, add your next cut of meat and tie off. Use less bags that way and keeps your cuts separated. When you're done butchering, fry some inners and onions and serve with fresh turnips from your foodplot.
Whether you leave it hang for a while or process it right away, in my opinion, the easiest way to cut up a deer is to bone it out while it's hanging upside down from a gambrel hanger. I can process an entire deer with one or two knives and no saw needed.
After skinning, first thing I do is fillet off the shoulders and put them on a table. Then I peel out the backstraps and remove the inner tenderloins. Next I slice down to the femur on the inner side of a hind quarter, work the knife around the femur, up around the knee and fillet the meat off at the pelvis. The entire hind quarter comes off the bone with one slice down the inner center.
When both hind quarters are done I trim off the ribcage, brisket, neck meat, etc and then fillet the shoulder meat off of the shoulder blades.
Once that's done I cut the backstraps into whatever length I want, lately I've been leaving them in bigger chunks and grilling them whole rather than cutting them into smaller chops. Then I separate the hind quarters into the individual muscles and either cut into streaks, make roasts or grind for burger, sausage, etc.
When you're done you can put the entire skeleton into a contractor trash bag. At that point you can make the skeleton more compact by separating the bones at the various joints with a knife.
The pic is one I did on an out of state hunt last year.
Mike, that looks like a scene from Monty Python's Jabberwalky!!
If doing it in your garage buy plastic kiddie pools. Most years (maybe not 2020) stores get rid of them for $1-$5. They are small enough not to get into your way as you cut around the deer and hold mass amounts of fluids or fat chippings. Rinse to use again or cuts apart with utility knife for garbage disposal. *** When hanging a deer make sure the gambrel is SUPER supported so it holds the weight. Wife and I always said some choice words as I was bear hugging a deer standing on a small ladder as she tried to get the gambrel in place. I use my atv winch now and we both sleep better
The Deer Coffin
The Deer Coffin
Like Mnhunter1980 did.
A chest freezer with plug in thermostat from amazon set to 39 deg.
Shoot, gut, hoist into freezer from otter sled, close the lid and open a beer. :)
An electric hoist makes this a 1 person job.
