One thing I love about Missouri is the Department of Conservation and the great things they do for wildlife, hunters and outdoorsy people. I hunt on their lands, I camp on their lands, I hike on their lands, everything is free. Tonight I attended a deer processing class, also free. I learned to turn this:
Into this:
Actually not that hard, I can process small game and this is just the same, on a larger scale.
The guy teaching the class is a hunter and professional processor, his insights on how to best treat and prepare your deer pre-processing to get the best flavour were eye opening, I learned a lot.
And no, he wouldn't share the meat, he's having backstrap tomorrow and the rest will be in his freezer this evening.
Oh, the missing head? He shot it in the head with a .300 Weatherby Magnum, he said it wasn't very pretty.
Heck, I learned how to do that when I was 16; The year before that, we brought our deer to a local St. Paul shop famous for their venison processing. What we got back wasn't only our deer, which was immediately gutted, skun, and cooled. We got back some of somebody else's gut-shot swamp buck mixed in with ours. I never did sent one of my deer out again. We did bring Skipper's 8 point buck in to a local place aorund here, and we did get back his deer. I was a little surprised at how much processing fees had gone up in 30 years.....
"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." -Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus
Murphy was an optimist.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an
invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a
sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the
dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an
equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects - Robert A. Heinlien
When I was 16 I lived in a country where all you could do was hunt rabbits with an air rifle, unless you were seriously wealthy. I'm happy to learn the skills now that other people had the chance to learn at an early age.
When I was about 12 I was taken on my first deer hunt. It was cold as can be, and all I could think about (besides being warm), was that if I managed to bag a deer, I was gonna have to gut that thing. I had gone trapping at that point, and can dress small game, but I did not care to take on a large specimen. BTW, I climbed out of that freezing stand, and went to sleep in the truck. I am pro hunting, but not for me.
“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell, English novelist, essayist, and critic, 1903-1950
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
I have more fun processing my deer than I do hunting them. Such a gratifying feeling knowing that no one but me touched that meat until it goes on my family's plates!
Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the night. Set a man ON fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Someone found this and posted it on the Facebook page for our local High school. You couldn't get away with doing that in a lot of places around the country but this is Louisiana, Sportsman's Paradise and well just about everyone hunts here so most people not only appreciated it but wished they were this good at skinning a deer. He does it in 1:48 I've never paid anyone to process a deer but I don't mind paying to have hogs done. I've killed and cooked lots of hogs but they were always cooked on a spit or in a pit whole. I've only processed one hog and that was enough for me.
WeldonHunter wrote:Someone found this and posted it on the Facebook page for our local High school. You couldn't get away with doing that in a lot of places around the country but this is Louisiana, Sportsman's Paradise and well just about everyone hunts here so most people not only appreciated it but wished they were this good at skinning a deer. He does it in 1:48 I've never paid anyone to process a deer but I don't mind paying to have hogs done. I've killed and cooked lots of hogs but they were always cooked on a spit or in a pit whole. I've only processed one hog and that was enough for me.
How much hair did he get on that meat by skinning it that way? Even with rabbits you cut under the skin and out, if you cut towards the meat you cover it in hair.
WeldonHunter wrote:Someone found this and posted it on the Facebook page for our local High school. You couldn't get away with doing that in a lot of places around the country but this is Louisiana, Sportsman's Paradise and well just about everyone hunts here so most people not only appreciated it but wished they were this good at skinning a deer. He does it in 1:48 I've never paid anyone to process a deer but I don't mind paying to have hogs done. I've killed and cooked lots of hogs but they were always cooked on a spit or in a pit whole. I've only processed one hog and that was enough for me.
How much hair did he get on that meat by skinning it that way? Even with rabbits you cut under the skin and out, if you cut towards the meat you cover it in hair.
I'd say it's probably not a huge amount and it rinses off fairly easy. It's a bit coarser than rabbit fur. I cut the hide both ways when skinning and never noticed hair on the meat that was worth worrying about.
Tips I have learned: I teach dissection so I have learned some tricks:
Always wear gloves and change em. You have a better grip and your hands stay warmer. If you stick yourself with your knife, you have squeegeed off the knife as it went through the glove.
Change knives, the gut knife is not the butcher knife. I use a fillet knife for the delicate butt work and thats all I use it for. Tying off the intestine with a piece of twine helps prevent cross contamination.
Bungii cords make a great second pair of hands.
Washing a body cavity doesn't ruin the meat.
Neck meat makes great chili.
My favorite butchering knife is a Chicago Cutlery boning knife. Have a diamond hone.
Look up how to butcher by deboning. No bone chips.
I use a lockback folder for the main gutting.
A cheap Schrade sharpfinger is great skinning knives.
A shingle blade in a utility knife is a cheap disposable gut hook.
Get a folding plastic table and cover it with butcher paper. Easy to work on.
The faster and cleaner you get the meat on ice the better it tastes. I have served venison to people and they never knew it was veinson.
In my opinion feral hog tastes better than deer. But, deer are pretty clean to butcher and feral hogs are covered with fleas and ticks. A deer and a hog are a perfect combo, feral hog fat isn't gamy. Javalina taste good but they are worse to clean than hogs.
I take a lot of 1 to 2 gallon zip lock freezer bags.
mogunner wrote:Well, now I know who to call if I get one this year....
Sure! Invite me down there to hunt and we can get a couple each then have a processing party.
Come down anytime, just give me a holler when you reach Greenville so I can come in and guide you out the rest of the way! The "short way" road is terrible, all washboard and road base sticking up through, people are pissed at the county for not doing any maintenance on it at all this summer. Neighbors have all complained and went to the meetings, they offer the excuse that the grader operator retired and the guy they hired had to be fired...of course we don't care about their employee problems, just want the road maintained! So we have to go on down the highway about 6 miles more and take the back way in, basically a barely graveled Forest Service road through the woods, adds about 10 miles each way to a trip anywhere.
I've got a couple good spots picked out...might even show ya one! We've got a carport-looking shed here that's had a ton or two of deer hung in it according to the folks we're getting the place from. They'll be down opening weekend, will have to see if it gets as crazy here as they make it out to. Hopefully there won't be many hunters close by as we're pretty much up in the corner of the public land.
See, it's easy! So far, I haven't had a chance to do one this year; Muzzleloader starts tomorrow, and there's a doe-only season Dec. 6-13. Maybe I'll go hunting on my BD.
"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." -Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus
Murphy was an optimist.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an
invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a
sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the
dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an
equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects - Robert A. Heinlien
entropy wrote: See, it's easy! So far, I haven't had a chance to do one this year; Muzzleloader starts tomorrow, and there's a doe-only season Dec. 6-13. Maybe I'll go hunting on my BD.
It's antlerless season here now, alternative firearms (muzzleloader and pistol) starts mid December, I'm going to try and get another one during that season.
Way to go Mike. I see you have a pulley to hoist your's up with. I really need to get one but have forgotten any time I'm some place that sells them. Sure makes it easier to lift them I guess. I've been throwing the rope over a beam behind the workshop and grunting it out. That's ok some major improvments are coming around here and that's going to be a part of it. I'm actually thinking about getting a crank like they use for small boat trailers. too.
You should rig up something in the bathroom so you can do it over the tub, makes cleaning up after a lot easier. Roy DeMeo perfected that technique disposing of over 100 inconvenient people at the Gemini lounge back in the 70's down in Brooklyn. It was such a good clean way of disposal that most of the bodys were never found. Deer are smaller and easier, blood down the drain, no smelly spot in the back yard afterward, no flies.
Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
WeldonHunter wrote:Way to go Mike. I see you have a pulley to hoist your's up with. I really need to get one but have forgotten any time I'm some place that sells them. Sure makes it easier to lift them I guess. I've been throwing the rope over a beam behind the workshop and grunting it out. That's ok some major improvments are coming around here and that's going to be a part of it. I'm actually thinking about getting a crank like they use for small boat trailers. too.
I picked the hoist up at Harbor Freight yesterday morning, not much money and VERY nice to have!
If you have power to the workshop you could even consider a small electric winch, a 1000lb ATV winch would be plenty and fairly cheap.
Junk Yard Dog wrote:You should rig up something in the bathroom so you can do it over the tub, makes cleaning up after a lot easier. Roy DeMeo perfected that technique disposing of over 100 inconvenient people at the Gemini lounge back in the 70's down in Brooklyn. It was such a good clean way of disposal that most of the bodys were never found. Deer are smaller and easier, blood down the drain, no smelly spot in the back yard afterward, no flies.
That would actually be easy in our house, I put a 6ft shower pan in one of the bathrooms a couple of years ago, I think I'd rather keep the deer funk outside as possible though.
