Time for Cleaning Deer

[Hodag Hunter]

Based of the "how they hanging" thread seems a lot here skin and clean their own deer. How long does it take?

Obviously size of critter matters, but an average.

After the animal is hung, I can skin and quarter a deer in 20 minutes or less, by myself.

The whole animal hanging, cutting, deboning, steaks,freezer and clean up in the house is 2 hours by myself. This is with out grinding the trimmings......freeze trimmings from each deer and wait until we have about 30-50 lbs and do the grinding seperate a differant day.

Most of the time wife and kids chip in and we get it down to a little over an hour.

Good buddy and myself have done it in 45 minutes but that's not the norm.

[Hodag Hunter]

double post

[Hodag Hunter]

double post

[Sam Ubl]

Jason, that sounds about right on all accounts.

Skinning: Warm Vs Cold

A factor to consider for those who are new to the task is the difference between skinning a warm fresh killed deer and a cold, been hanging for a couple days deer. While it maybe obvious to some, I think it's important to point out that a warm fresh deer skins much easier than one who has been dead long enough to get cold, especially one that has been hanging on the meat pole for a couple days.

Another thing to consider for those just getting started is the difference between skinning a lean fawn and an old doe or buck. The older the deer, and I'm not talking about an ancient withering deer, the more fat there will be. Skinning can be a little tougher warm or cold, and there are layers of fat to cut through to get to the meat.

A method I emplore when peeling the fat away is I use my fingers to slip under the strips of fat and pull away from the meat. This allows you to find the edge of the fat and carefully cut away with a blade to protect from hacking the meat.

Good topic, I'll save room for others to dish out a few tips.

[Sam Ubl]

Awwe geez, post number 400 is looming... One more quick tip.

Removing Hair:

Getting hair on the meat is nearly impossible to avoid. One way I eliminate the mess is by always having a Burnzomatic on hand. The little torch burns the hair away if you use it appropriately. I use it quickly and from a safe distance where the hair noticably burns away, but does not bubble the fat or dry the meat anywhere.

Because the meat and fat is so sticky, using a hose just doesn't work very efficiently.

[Spysar]

I take a little longer, but I'm a little more picky about how I care for the meat. Yeah, I could do it quicker, but I don't like hair on my meat, and I don't like fat, ligaments, silver skin, or bone in the meat. I'm not great at butchering, but I get the job done. And what is there is high quality meat, not a giant neck roast getting freezer burnt in the back of the freezer.

One tip I use is to make all your cuts for skinning prior to pulling it off. Then you can dust all the loose hair off and then pull. Then I wait after pulling the skin off for the carcass to get dry, and the few hairs that get on can be dusted off easier than if it was moist.

Magics skinning technique from the other thread looks pretty cool.

[Sam Ubl]

Removing Silver skin:

Best knife I've found to remove it cleanly is a long flexible filet knife that you would use for fileting fish, in fact that's exactly what I use. I like to remove from the backstraps with one clean sweep along the full length of the strap.

The thin flexible blade allows you to angle against the silver skin with little chance of breaking through the tough stuff. A stiffer blade will likely break through and will not perform as clean of a cut.

[Spysar]

Sam, that's the way I like too. Just like skinning a fish.