Wouldn't want to use the hide as a pack these days, unfortunately. Too many idiots in the woods who don't wait for positive ID before shooting. Other than that that's exactly what I do, except it's not just my wife that does the processing. I hang the deer up on the back porch and skin and quarter them there. As each piece comes off, I bring it in and cut it up into whatever my wife feels we need. The tenderloins get eaten immediately, usually while we're cutting up the rest of the deer. The backstraps get sliced about 3/4" thick and frozen in 1-2 lb bags. Hindquarters get cut into roasts if it's a doe, stew meat if it's a mature buck. Neck gets cut into one or two bone in roasts, depending on size. Front legs and trimmings from all the other parts gets ground and frozen in two lb. bags. All the rest of the bones, ribs etc get cooked down in a turkey fryer and the meat pulled off and then canned in quart jars. The broth from cooking it down also gets canned. We don't buy any beef.Post #68 reminds me of an account I read somewhere of how a Cherokee hunter would skin and quarter a deer, using the hide as a mat to keep the meat out of the dirt, and using that same hide to pack the meat home. On arrival home, the meat, hide, and other parts were given to the women who didn't hunt to finish processing, but nowadays, it'd be refrigerated to cut up later, and the hide fleshed/salted to finish later or taken to a tanner.