rwc
Member
{Gory warning}
I posted earlier about hunting deer and ducks in Montana over the Thanksgiving holiday. As much to help me remember what my father-in-law has shown me as anything else I thought I would type this out and share it. This is the process he and his wife have used for decades. It works for them and I'm not knocking it.
[insert one freshly shot deer]
We field dressed the deer out to quarters on-site. While my Father-in-law wasn't a surgeon he's pretty darn good with a 5 in. Buck knife. He did half (mostly to remind me of what not to do) and then I did the other half.
Basic steps -
Notch your tag with the date and stick it in a big ziplock (more on that later). Drag the deer down to a level to slightly sloping area. Get out a surgical drape for dressing it out on (minimizes dirt, grass, and sticks on the meat). Have a few heavy duty garbage bags, surgical gloves, a couple pieces of twine, and a nice sharp knife. It also helps to have water and paper towels in the car to wash off your hands, etc. You will almost certainly get bloody (don't wear anything field dressing game you aren't willing to toss in the wash).
Start -
Open up the throat, locate the esophogus and tie it off before cutting it off above the twine (it will retract and be slippery as a devil if you reverse this sequence!). Then open the arteries and let the deer bleed out a bit (this did me little good as most of its blood was in the chest cavity).
Then open the belly skin, going around the teats, then up the centerline to the neck. Go back and cut around the teats to save them along with the tail as proof of sex in the ziplock bag with your permit. Carefully cut around the **** and vagina, opening up the entry through the pelvis so that you can group them together and tie them off.
Cut the scent glands off the legs and toss them in the bush. Cut down to the bone so you cut under them and not through them. Dis-joint and remove the forelegs at the knee.
Skinning -
Go back to the belly cut and open it up. My FiL likes just pulling back on the skin, cutting the fascia loose with his knife. He's good at it, but for me, I'll sometimes miss and nick the meat or cut on the skin and leave a tuft of fur attached to the meat. For this part it works easier for me to just thrust my hand between the carcass and the skin and loosen the skin from the body with sweeping motions of my hands. I can loosen most of the skin this way, including about half way up the remaining legs. It's pretty quick.
Go back to the main cut up the skin over the belly and open it up all the way to the neck if you haven't done so already. Skin off the fore and rear leg on one side until the hide is completely off one side of the carcass.
Gutting -
Carefully cut the guts loose from the inside of the rib cage and the pelvis. You want to use care not to perforate the digestive tract and set digestive enzymes loose on the meat. Go back up the diaphram that separates the guts from the lungs and heart. Get everything loose. Use a saw to cut through all the ribs on one side of the sternum, allowing you to spread the chest open. Go back to the neck and remove the head (cut it off and discard) and any connective tissue still holding the windpipe and esophogus in the neck (there's a fair amount of potential hamburger in the neck so try to save it). If all the organs are loose you should be able to roll the deer onto its belly and have the gutpile flop out on the ground. This is also handy if there is a lot of blood in the chest cavity as this way it can drain out while you stand up to stretch your back (You've been squatting for a good while by now).
Quartering -
Lift up the foreleg and carefully work your knife under what would be a flank steak on a cow, the broad band of muscle that fans out from the front leg to the rib cage. Then start near the neck and cutting close the spine, cut the front shoulder loose. Try to keep as much muscle on the shoulder and not the rest of the carcass as possible.
Drop the shoulder in one of the plastic bags. [You will want to bag the haunches seperately to balance each other if you have to carry them. The shoulders either get bagged seperately too, or together. You can then bag the tenderloins, backstraps, and any misc. burger meat in another bag. Weak bags will break - don't make my mistake...]
Go to the rear leg and start cutting the rear haunch off the pelvis, cutting the muscles off the pelvic bone in almost a scrapping motion. Again, to keep as much meat on the haunch as possible. As you expose the pelvic bone the end of the femur should appear. Cut around it, and through the ligaments and tendons in that area. The rest of the haunch should come clear as you work your way around it back by the spine.
The best for last -
Cut the tenderloins clear from the inside of the spine, staying as close to the bone as you can. Same with the backstraps along the outside of the spine. With the backstraps it seems to work well to cut straight down the centerline until you hit the first spinal process (ridge) and then work down to the second ridge. Then you make your second cut from a 90 degree angle, cutting until you reach the end of your first cut. This should give you a nice, long, whole backstrap that is attached at either end that you can then cut free at both ends.
Roll the carcass over on its other side, take a stretch break, remove the skin and repeat the process. Once done you can cut as much random meat loose for hamburgers as your time and fatigue dictate. There is a diminishing return for this effort - be your own judge.
You should end up with two shoulders, two haunches, the backstraps, tenderloins, and misc. burger meat in plastic bags. Get them in a cooler to save for processing at home in a couple days.
Processing at home -
When you get home you want to take the meat out of the bags and wash it clean of any hair, grasses, twigs, etc. that may have stuck too it while field dressing. Then put it in a bag with some clean rags (to absorb loose blood) and get it back on ice for a couple days (freezer packs in a cooler left outside). You don't want it to freeze, just cool and "set."
When you are ready to home process, clean the entire area and all tools (kitchen counters, cutting boards, knives, etc.) with a bleach solution and then rinse and dry. With four people we have two cutters, one person grinding hamburger and helping the cutters and the fourth vacuum bagging, labeling and weighing.
We boned out the shoulders and haunches. Starting at the knee work a sharp, thin knife down to the bone, back to the shoulder/hip socket. Then follow the ball of the bone (femur end, etc.), also freeing the meat from the entire bone as you go.
If you want roasts, leave the large muscle groups together. If you want steaks break them down to the size/group you want and slice across the grain.
Work carefully with each piece of meat, removing all the "silver" fascia off the surface of the muscle and leaving just muscle fiber. Don't worry about losing meat doing - that's what hamburgers are for (and who wants to eat fasia and tendon enayway?).
Generally we process down to tenderloins, sections of backstap (whole for roasts or sliced for cutlets), roasts from the shoulders and haunches, cubed stew meat, and random bits to be ground up into hamburger.
It helps to have a knife sharpener handy and to use it often. Keep a couple large bowls near labeled "stew" and "burger." Keep a tap running cold water at a trickle in the sink to clean knives and fingers as you work. Use a drain trap in the sink or you will be paying a plumber to remove the suet/tendon/fascia ball that should go in the trash.
Dedicated meat grinders work a lot faster than the mixer attachment ones.
We vacuum seal everything in 12-16 oz. portions (except for a couple large roasts). This minimizes freezer burn and frankly, last year's deer is indistinguishable from this year's model.
Packed this way a home freezer will take a couple more days to get everything frozen rock-solid.
Travel -
If you are traveling you can be an optimist and come with an empty cooler. Pack your meat in the cooler just before you leave for the airport. A few days worth of newspaper layered on top will help insulate the meat and minimize heat intrusion while you travel.
I use a medium-large Coleman cooler from CostCo that has a couple of "beverage" indents in the lid (Keyhole shaped with drains). This allows me to thread a 6 ft. cam-strap (kayak strap) around the cooler along the long axis, under the handles (so they are still usable), and with the buckle of the cam strap resting in the round beverage indents and the straps protected in the drain cut-outs. This cooler weighs a bit under 10 lbs. and with ~40 lbs. of deer stays under the 50 lb. weight limit for checked luggage.
I posted earlier about hunting deer and ducks in Montana over the Thanksgiving holiday. As much to help me remember what my father-in-law has shown me as anything else I thought I would type this out and share it. This is the process he and his wife have used for decades. It works for them and I'm not knocking it.
[insert one freshly shot deer]
We field dressed the deer out to quarters on-site. While my Father-in-law wasn't a surgeon he's pretty darn good with a 5 in. Buck knife. He did half (mostly to remind me of what not to do) and then I did the other half.
Basic steps -
Notch your tag with the date and stick it in a big ziplock (more on that later). Drag the deer down to a level to slightly sloping area. Get out a surgical drape for dressing it out on (minimizes dirt, grass, and sticks on the meat). Have a few heavy duty garbage bags, surgical gloves, a couple pieces of twine, and a nice sharp knife. It also helps to have water and paper towels in the car to wash off your hands, etc. You will almost certainly get bloody (don't wear anything field dressing game you aren't willing to toss in the wash).
Start -
Open up the throat, locate the esophogus and tie it off before cutting it off above the twine (it will retract and be slippery as a devil if you reverse this sequence!). Then open the arteries and let the deer bleed out a bit (this did me little good as most of its blood was in the chest cavity).
Then open the belly skin, going around the teats, then up the centerline to the neck. Go back and cut around the teats to save them along with the tail as proof of sex in the ziplock bag with your permit. Carefully cut around the **** and vagina, opening up the entry through the pelvis so that you can group them together and tie them off.
Cut the scent glands off the legs and toss them in the bush. Cut down to the bone so you cut under them and not through them. Dis-joint and remove the forelegs at the knee.
Skinning -
Go back to the belly cut and open it up. My FiL likes just pulling back on the skin, cutting the fascia loose with his knife. He's good at it, but for me, I'll sometimes miss and nick the meat or cut on the skin and leave a tuft of fur attached to the meat. For this part it works easier for me to just thrust my hand between the carcass and the skin and loosen the skin from the body with sweeping motions of my hands. I can loosen most of the skin this way, including about half way up the remaining legs. It's pretty quick.
Go back to the main cut up the skin over the belly and open it up all the way to the neck if you haven't done so already. Skin off the fore and rear leg on one side until the hide is completely off one side of the carcass.
Gutting -
Carefully cut the guts loose from the inside of the rib cage and the pelvis. You want to use care not to perforate the digestive tract and set digestive enzymes loose on the meat. Go back up the diaphram that separates the guts from the lungs and heart. Get everything loose. Use a saw to cut through all the ribs on one side of the sternum, allowing you to spread the chest open. Go back to the neck and remove the head (cut it off and discard) and any connective tissue still holding the windpipe and esophogus in the neck (there's a fair amount of potential hamburger in the neck so try to save it). If all the organs are loose you should be able to roll the deer onto its belly and have the gutpile flop out on the ground. This is also handy if there is a lot of blood in the chest cavity as this way it can drain out while you stand up to stretch your back (You've been squatting for a good while by now).
Quartering -
Lift up the foreleg and carefully work your knife under what would be a flank steak on a cow, the broad band of muscle that fans out from the front leg to the rib cage. Then start near the neck and cutting close the spine, cut the front shoulder loose. Try to keep as much muscle on the shoulder and not the rest of the carcass as possible.
Drop the shoulder in one of the plastic bags. [You will want to bag the haunches seperately to balance each other if you have to carry them. The shoulders either get bagged seperately too, or together. You can then bag the tenderloins, backstraps, and any misc. burger meat in another bag. Weak bags will break - don't make my mistake...]
Go to the rear leg and start cutting the rear haunch off the pelvis, cutting the muscles off the pelvic bone in almost a scrapping motion. Again, to keep as much meat on the haunch as possible. As you expose the pelvic bone the end of the femur should appear. Cut around it, and through the ligaments and tendons in that area. The rest of the haunch should come clear as you work your way around it back by the spine.
The best for last -
Cut the tenderloins clear from the inside of the spine, staying as close to the bone as you can. Same with the backstraps along the outside of the spine. With the backstraps it seems to work well to cut straight down the centerline until you hit the first spinal process (ridge) and then work down to the second ridge. Then you make your second cut from a 90 degree angle, cutting until you reach the end of your first cut. This should give you a nice, long, whole backstrap that is attached at either end that you can then cut free at both ends.
Roll the carcass over on its other side, take a stretch break, remove the skin and repeat the process. Once done you can cut as much random meat loose for hamburgers as your time and fatigue dictate. There is a diminishing return for this effort - be your own judge.
You should end up with two shoulders, two haunches, the backstraps, tenderloins, and misc. burger meat in plastic bags. Get them in a cooler to save for processing at home in a couple days.
Processing at home -
When you get home you want to take the meat out of the bags and wash it clean of any hair, grasses, twigs, etc. that may have stuck too it while field dressing. Then put it in a bag with some clean rags (to absorb loose blood) and get it back on ice for a couple days (freezer packs in a cooler left outside). You don't want it to freeze, just cool and "set."
When you are ready to home process, clean the entire area and all tools (kitchen counters, cutting boards, knives, etc.) with a bleach solution and then rinse and dry. With four people we have two cutters, one person grinding hamburger and helping the cutters and the fourth vacuum bagging, labeling and weighing.
We boned out the shoulders and haunches. Starting at the knee work a sharp, thin knife down to the bone, back to the shoulder/hip socket. Then follow the ball of the bone (femur end, etc.), also freeing the meat from the entire bone as you go.
If you want roasts, leave the large muscle groups together. If you want steaks break them down to the size/group you want and slice across the grain.
Work carefully with each piece of meat, removing all the "silver" fascia off the surface of the muscle and leaving just muscle fiber. Don't worry about losing meat doing - that's what hamburgers are for (and who wants to eat fasia and tendon enayway?).
Generally we process down to tenderloins, sections of backstap (whole for roasts or sliced for cutlets), roasts from the shoulders and haunches, cubed stew meat, and random bits to be ground up into hamburger.
It helps to have a knife sharpener handy and to use it often. Keep a couple large bowls near labeled "stew" and "burger." Keep a tap running cold water at a trickle in the sink to clean knives and fingers as you work. Use a drain trap in the sink or you will be paying a plumber to remove the suet/tendon/fascia ball that should go in the trash.
Dedicated meat grinders work a lot faster than the mixer attachment ones.
We vacuum seal everything in 12-16 oz. portions (except for a couple large roasts). This minimizes freezer burn and frankly, last year's deer is indistinguishable from this year's model.
Packed this way a home freezer will take a couple more days to get everything frozen rock-solid.
Travel -
If you are traveling you can be an optimist and come with an empty cooler. Pack your meat in the cooler just before you leave for the airport. A few days worth of newspaper layered on top will help insulate the meat and minimize heat intrusion while you travel.
I use a medium-large Coleman cooler from CostCo that has a couple of "beverage" indents in the lid (Keyhole shaped with drains). This allows me to thread a 6 ft. cam-strap (kayak strap) around the cooler along the long axis, under the handles (so they are still usable), and with the buckle of the cam strap resting in the round beverage indents and the straps protected in the drain cut-outs. This cooler weighs a bit under 10 lbs. and with ~40 lbs. of deer stays under the 50 lb. weight limit for checked luggage.
Gotta go buy sausage casings and some bacon pieces. Can't wait for Christmas. 
