How long to process a deer?

[gibbsgirl]

My guys are decent hunters. But, we are getting prepped to begin processing at home for freezer meat, sausages, and jerky with our deer now. So, our skill set isn't honed yet in that dept.

I was wondering how long it takes some of you more seasoned processors to get one done?

I'm also wondering what knives and/or saws you'd recommend for the work?

I think hubby is settled on what grinder he's getting already. But, the other tools we haven't nailed down yet.

[Fishindude]

Immediately upon kill I field dress, then haul the carcass up to the barnyard to skin and hang for cooling. Usually cut the carcass in half so it's easier to handle. This is a 30 minute to an hour project.

After the deer hangs a few days I process it. Leave the backstraps and loins whole, steaks out of the best parts of hind quarters, then grind the rest. Everything gets vac sealed for the freezer. Working solo, I can fully process a deer in about 3 hours, including prep and cleanup.

Built a tall table, as normal folding tables are too low and hard on the back. It has a plywood top that I cover with clean visqueen / poly to keep sanitary. You need a good boning knife and sharpening tools, a large cutting board, a small grinder, vac sealer w/ bags and a sharpie to mark the bags.

Only time a saw is needed is after kill to split the pelvis and to cut spine when halving the deer, use an electric sawzall for that but about anything will work.

I have both a large and small electric grinder and almost always use the small grinder when doing a single deer as it's much easier to clean up than the big grinder.

[Jolly]

We don't use anything beyond some knives and a hand butchersaw.

Skinning and gutting is about a 30 minute job. Since it may get warm in the day, in the early parts of the season, we'll cut out the backstraps, the tenderloins, the front shoulders and hindquarters, throwing everything in an ice chest. Sometimes we strip out the neck and ribs, sometimes we don't. If we do, in the chest it goes.

If the deer is a bit bloody, we may add a bit of salt to the ice chest to draw the blood. The meat is good in there for 1-3 days, although we may have to add ice.

We cut up the deer on a counter-top. We slice the backstrap, leave the tenderloins whole, cut steaks, stew meat or roasts (with a knife) out of the hindquarters and shoulders. We grind some meat, but not a bunch.

We double wrap in freezer paper. The trick is to get as much air out as possible. Our deer will keep in a regular freezer for up to three years.

With three of us working, it's a couple of hours job, from start to clean-up.

[TMTex]

I don't recall how long it took when I was processing my own deer, but here's something I learned the hard way. Don't buy one of those cheap grinders off of ebay, even if they claim to be heavy duty. Saving $100.00 or so now won't do you any good when the cast planetary gear shatters into several pieces. Good luck finding parts.

I rebuilt mine with steel plate, but that took a while to get lined up and all. Even then, I had to reuse the pins from the old gear. Make sure you can find gears and such for it before you buy one.

[moeh1]

we hang ours butt end up and skin them when ready to butcher (which is harder to skin, but doesn't dry the meat out). It takes us about 60 minutes to bone out the deer, using only a knife, no sawing except hoofs and neck - unless you want the ribs. After boning out everything, we spend more time carefully trimming and cutting steaks and roasts.
Block and tackle is nice to adjust your working height. We usually do several at once and grind at the end. I echo the comment to get a good grinder.

[simi-steading]

once I start to butcher it after hanging a few days, it depends..... Depends on what I want to do with it...

If I want to make smoked summer sausage, it takes a lot f time... hours and hours... lots of grinding, lots of stuffing, lots of smoking....

If I want to just pack it up in roasts and meat to grind, maybe 3-4 hours... I go out, cut a quarter off, bring it in the house, and work it, vac packing it, and freezing..

If I want to slice a lot up for jerky, add an extra 2 hours maybe...

So, the answer is, anywhere from 3 hours to 10 hours or more (my sausage recipe is FANTASTIC! so everyone tells me... but it's a ton of work and time)

[Fishindude]

Good point about making sausage and jerky. That will definitely add some time.

[gibbsgirl]

Hubby has pretty bad osteoarthritis in his hands, so he can get run down pretty fast and put out of commission for a few days to work if we're not careful. Since, losing pay $ is a concern, I'm not opposed to spending $ to get a good setup of tools for his situatipn, so his time off can be spent just hunting and processing and not hurting and needing extra time to recover from aggravating his arthritis.

With that in mind, do you have any recommendations for tools in his situation?

Sorry, I didn't think to say that before until I was reading people saying they just used a knife, and it occurred to me he might struggle with that after a pretty short period of time.

The rest of us can certainly help pick up the slack, but he's not really into being a benchwarmer, so I know it would mean a lot if we got stuff that might help him stay as included as possible.

[7thswan]

No saws for me, I debone. If I'm going to make jerky, I'll slightly freeze for thiner sliceing.
I have a Harvest table, Cover it with a sheet of plastic for butchering or cleaning fish.
I quater a deer and put it in the refer i keep for these things and take my time cutting,freezing and canning after it has hung,depending on the coolness of the days.

[TMTex]

Considering arthritis, for a saw I'd recommend a comfortable reciprocating saw. From personal experience, I don't recommend a battery powered one (I had an 18 volt Ryobi that I abused and it fried). I now have a plug in saw that Lowes sells for under $50.00. It's lighter than the battery powered one and can run for hours without a problem.

Craigslist will probably have some for half price used. I get a lot of my stuff of of craigslist now, but always meet in a very public place. Police presence during the exchange is also a nice addition if possible.

An electric catfish knife will debone nicely and save the hands wear and tear.

[agmantoo]

We consume a lot of venison as it is one of my preferred meats. I have processed in excess of 130 animals for myself plus some for others. I hunt on my own property and I process the harvested animal(s) shortly after killing. I do not gut the carcass. From the attached pic you can see a golf ball that is enclosed on the hair side and secured by a nylon rope. After manually disconnecting the cape, the rope is tied to a farm implement and I use either a tractor or skidsteer to lift the carcass with a chain around the neck. The pic also shows the recip saw used to remove the lower leg parts. I just lift the animal and pull backward and the carcass pulls out of the hide and the intact carcass is extracted. Notice in the pic even the tail is skinned using this method. The flesh remains extremely clean. I then quarter and debone the remaining carcass while suspended. I have timed this and it takes 18 minutes. I bought at auction (cheap) some restaurant kitchen work tables and a sink.Often the weather is still hot here when deer season starts. I also took a convenience store freezer bought at auction and converted it to a refrigerator. I have a few meat totes that I place the meat in and then "age" the meat at 32'F using the frig.
The one tool that I have that truly improves venison is a cubing machine. I run all of the good cuts of meat through the cuber and the cubed steaks are really great, good flavor and tender. I also make burger and sausage. I save the briskets to be prepared separately.

[fishhead]

I just use a small (3" blade) knife and chunk the meat as I go. It takes me about 4 hours to completely cut it into chunks but I spend a lot of time taking out the sinews.

I've done them on my tailgate of my Ranger and on my narrow kitchen counter and on saw horses.
The chunks then go into totes with either salt or baking soda water to draw out the blood. I go through several changes of water before freezing. Then it gets partially thawed and put through the grinder and wrapped. That takes maybe another 2 hours start to cleaned-up finish.

I would HIGHLY recommend getting a knife with a guard so that a tired slippery hand doesn't slide down the blade. I don't cut any bones and just a few joints.

[Jolly]

I've used golfballs. The right size rock will work, too. Most I've ever skinned that way at one time was 8.

But back to processing...a meat saw is nice, but I always thought the dust off of deer bone gamed the meat up a little...of course that may all be in my head...

I've got a friend who is still hunting at 71. When he skins and processed a deer, he does it in stages. One round is skinning and putting the meat in a cooler or ice chest. then, he may work half the deer one day, the other half the next day, or just what he feels like doing. Long as he doesn't go over 3-4 days, he has it whipped.

[Riverdale]

in my opinion, the deer is upside down.

I hang mine hind up, tp get the blood out of the back quarters.

YMMV

[agmantoo]

Originally Posted by Riverdale

in my opinion, the deer is upside down.

I hang mine hind up, tp get the blood out of the back quarters.

YMMV

Animals that are stunned in processing plants are hung head down since the heart continues to beat thus pumping blood and then the animals are bled by severing the artery/vein in the neck or sticking the heart. An animal killed in the wild is dead by the time the hunter gets to it and the heart has stopped thus only a small amount of blood will drain on its own. To remove excess blood from shot wild animals most folks will soak the meat and change the water frequently.

[jimbo913]

I imagine it would be tough to skin head down using the golf ball trick. When I manually skin I hang it head down but this year I will try the golf ball method.

Does it help to have the golf ball in any particular location (spine or chest side)? I would think spine side is better..

[agmantoo]

Originally Posted by jimbo913

I imagine it would be tough to skin head down using the golf ball trick. When I manually skin I hang it head down but this year I will try the golf ball method.

Does it help to have the golf ball in any particular location (spine or chest side)? I would think spine side is better..

Cut the neck skin in a circle as close to the head as possible. Next from the underside of the neck, between the back of the jaw bones center, cut a slit through the skin down the center of the neck to center of the chest. Peel the cape off the neck until you have enough skin to encompass the golf ball completely. On the hair side, place the golf ball centered on the cape near where the cape met the back of the head. Fold the cape over the golf ball. Now from the bare side of the skin using a 1/2 inch nylon rope, place the rope, now looped, over the golf ball and draw the rope tight. This is critical as the rope has a tendency to slip off. Affix the loose end of the rope to a fixed object. Using a chain, around the neck, affixed immediately at the area where the jawbone meets the neck start your pull. It will take more effort than one may realize. If the slit made down the neck is not long enough the hide may want to hang as the hide is pulled over the shoulders. As the hide reveals the front shoulders stop and cut through the flesh in the lower front legs and then using a recip saw, cut through the lower leg bones. Leave this attached to the hide and continue the pull. The body portion of the hide will continue to come off, even skinning the genitals and finally the hind legs. Again, cut a circle around the leg flesh and cut through the leg bones with the recip saw. The harvested animal is now skinned. Notice in the pic I already supplied how clean the skinned carcass is. IMO it looks like a carcass of a beef animal at a processing facility. Time taken to skin is less time for this process than it took me to type this reply. Good Luck.

[Shrek]

Using an air compressor to break the hide loose from the tallow when skinning a deer hung from the singletree and a saws all reduced my prep time down to about 30 minutes to skin , quarter and harvest the rib cage on a white tail deer.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

the break down is fast 10-15 minutes , skinning takes a bit , set up and clean up take the longest if your only doing one deer

tools
sharp knives
diamond steel
cutting boards
a gambrel the thing that holds the legs and lets you hang it
a winch or come along
something to hang from
plastic sheeting helps with clean up
a hack saw
a table just above waist high - set it on blocks or make slip over legs to get it to high this saves your back


a fairly clean well lit space , generally any garage will do if the ceiling is high enough but you need the space to not be tripping over things so drag the lawn mower out and clear your self space to work we use my aunts 1 car garage as it is heated sort of the boiler is in the garage it stays above freezing and has a nice high ceiling this is where the plastic sheeting comes in we want to keep using her nice clean well lit garage my uncle manages apartment buildings and saves all the old shower curtains people leave behind , we put some of these on the floor to catch the blood it makes for a lot less clean up when your already tired form hunting all day and then cutting up deer

yes I have done it in the dark with a head lamp deer hanging in a tree at 10 degrees , but I also cut my self that time cold fingers and cuts it's just not much fun

I have done them hanging form the kids swing set , trees but the weather is usually unpleasant in November here to be standing outside and it gets dark at 4:30pm and everyone wants to hut till dark so inside is nice

I like a 5 to 6 inch boning knife most will be six but I actually thin 5 or 5 1/2 is better easier to control it should fit good in your hand and give you good control and take an edge well they don't need to be expensive but they do need to take a good edge, I like carbon steel for cost , and ability to take and edge

http://www.amazon.com/Ontario-Knives...ickory++knives

other boning kinves http://www.amazon.com/Dexter-Russell...457300&sr=1-16


grinder this is what I chose http://www.lemproducts.com/product/l...-meat-grinders
I have had it several years , I like knowing they will have the parts when I need them, grinding plates and cutters will wear it is an investment but I felt it was worth it

a diamond steel http://www.amazon.com/Dexter-Russell...russell+knives

we use a 6 foot poly folding table it cleans up easy with a hose and cleaner we cut on cutting boards , we made pvc legs that slip over the legs to raise the height to comfortably stand at the table

gambrel http://www.amazon.com/Hme-Products-H...ywords=gambrel

really almost any decent hack saw frame with a coarse metal blade will work your only cutting at the knee joints no where else


follow this link deer proccessing to a very good thread we had about this last year in the great outdoors watch the video , this is how I break them down , it makes quick work of them and does a nice job

[moeh1]

Originally Posted by jimbo913

I imagine it would be tough to skin head down using the golf ball trick. When I manually skin I hang it head down but this year I will try the golf ball method.

Does it help to have the golf ball in any particular location (spine or chest side)? I would think spine side is better..

If you hang rear end up, once you get the rear end skinned past the tail, it does the same job as a golf ball, wrap a rope around the hide encompassing the tail, and pull.