How do you hang and skin?
- Thread starter Sflutes
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If somewhere convenient, I have used the rock with rope attached to the truck bumper trick. The carcass comes out clean with no loose hair on it at all. Otherwise I hang as you mention.
lancetkenyon
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Gutless method...
LanceK
Well-Known Member
Hang him by his head and skin down.
FIGJAM
Well-Known Member
I found the gutless method several years ago and it changed my life. Never again will I gut an animal or haul an entire carcass back to the truck. That baby is processed on the ground where it took its last breath.
If at all possible, gut and take the whole animal (white tail deer) out of the woods. Liver, hearts, kidneys and caul fat get packed out in freezer bags for quick consumption - venison liver is best never refrigerated, fresh from the field. Hang from hind legs by gambrel in well ventilated cool dark shed/garage. Remove tenderloins and enjoy - venison tartare is so good it will make you cry. Once on the gambrel, 12" above the floor, wipe interior down with heavy salt solution, cleaning the cavity. Cut sternum up to top of rib cage and prop open cavity for ventilation. Hang for as long as temperature and humidity allow and to your preference. (Best I ever hung was a 28 day very large doe). Remove skin by hand beginning with the hind legs - aging will make this task less difficult - take your time and leave on any fat that you can. Fabricate into desired sub-primal parts, leaving on silver skin or fat to be trimmed just before cooking (prevents freezer burning). Vacuum seal if possible. I will usually fabricate large roasts - or whole top rounds to be used for 2-3 meals after defrosting. The more you break the animal down, the less time you can keep the parts frozen. We have two whole bone-in hinds that will feed 3 of us for a week or more.
Was exposed to the gutless method on elk hunt last year and see the necessity, but **** the coyotes get some good stuff. Would love to shoot one close enough to the truck to take the whole beast back to a processing spot - I can imagine how good dry aged elk ribeye would be...
Was exposed to the gutless method on elk hunt last year and see the necessity, but **** the coyotes get some good stuff. Would love to shoot one close enough to the truck to take the whole beast back to a processing spot - I can imagine how good dry aged elk ribeye would be...
FIGJAM
Well-Known Member
If you do the gutless method right, there is very little that goes to waste. You can still take rib meat and it is easy to get to the heart and the tenderloins. I don't know about the liver and kidneys - personally never had an interest in those - and even if I forget rubber gloves I am not covered in blood, maybe a little on my finger tips is all.
JOHNNIE WALKER
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It depends on where I'm at. Around the house, I gut it out real quick and drag it down to the tractor path so it can get hung up in the shop. If I'm out west if gets handled we're the critter falls. For me, it's what ever is easier at the time.
tmmcampbell
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I've skinned many elk in the snow by tying the back legs to a tree skinning the back legs and around the anus then tying the hide to a pickup and driving off. Cleanest method I've ever found. No hair anywhere except where the back legs were skinned. If I can't get it out whole I prefer the gutless method. I agree with Fig if done right the only thing left is bones.
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Yeah, I do mess with the innards. Sadly, the gutless method exempts the tenderloins from the equation - the very best of the animal. And, that elk was flipping HUGE once it was on the ground! Dealing with all those innards on the "outards" would have been a sideshow in the dark and 28 degrees and dropping. I am just a very food conservation minded chef in the field.
And there's nothing better that meat on the bone. My guide wondered why I was so game to take the shanks - those 12 lb elk hindshanks were the most amazing game dinner item for 8 I've ever served.
tmmcampbell
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I never leave the tenderloins. After I'm done I just reach through and cut them out. You can move the carcass so you can reach them without removing the guts. It is criminal in our state to leave eatable meat.
Do you go in under the last ribs? I've butchered many an animal and that's pretty crafty! Where do you reach through?
I've skinned every way possible, with just about every knife imaginable, skinning with a truck is the most effortless, cleanest and most efficient way to skin a deer. I have a
1 1/2 inch, square piece of oak that I use to tuck under the skin in the neck area. The first time that I ever saw a deer skinned this way I couldn't believe that I had been skinning doing something else all of these years.
