Muntjac Skinning

Stacka

Well-Known Member
Can any one offer me any advice on how to skin a muntjac without taking my fingers off or loosing half the good meat.

bloody hardy things
 
I hang them on a gambrel. Get a ball ended knife and don't worry about trying to get the shin off in one piece? I also use pliers to get a better grip as I pull it down. Hopefully that helps a little bit?
 
Thank you all, all my venison is for home consumption. But still I like it to be done correctly
 
I get a number of them, with a bigger % being bucks, they go in my chillier for 1-2-3 days depending on what I am doing.

They are tough to do from out of the chillier, they are a lot easier to do if you leave then to relax for 2-3 hrs.

I use a boning knife with a very thin tip and a skinning knife, they need to be very sharp, I have found the 3 sticking points are the inside of the front legs, 2 inches either side of the tail, and on the outer part of the rear leg.

If you don't tease these bits with the knife then it will tear, nearly 40 years of heavy manual work have left me with hands like a vice and I have pulled on the fur with out running the knife over and done just that.

With them being so small then a good chance that some of the front will have taken a hit so if one front leg is
rough I usually take it off with the fur.


Just make sure the knifes are super sharp and take your time as it is not a race....


Tim.243
 
I use a curved blade skinning knife with the deer hanging by its rear legs starting on the inner thigh try and almost shave the meat off the skin. You need sharp knives touched up regularly, there are no short cuts that I know and always take your time you can't pull the skin off like a rabbit
 
Watch the pinned video in this section with expert BigScott270 showing the cleanest way to do it on a roe.
 
V sharp knife and lots of patience.

+ 1 very sharp blade and nice and steady, take your time, it's worth it when you're looking at a decent skinned Carcase afterwards.

I gave a mate a freshly grassed grandad of a muntie Buck, who happens to be a pretty dab hand at rabbit skinning etc etc, after nearly two hours he rang me and asked what on earth did I give him " it won't give his coat up".
 
I've never really had that much of a problem with them.

Some old Fallow does can be pigs to skin, just persevere.
 
are they easier when still warm?

Yes, definitely much easier when still warm.

A dear old friend of mine, to whom I regularly give Muntjac, freshly shot and still warm, sets about skinning the carcass straight away....... with his compressor and airline :eek:.

The skin is off in minutes. My pal is now 89 years of age, so no spring chicken but fit as a fiddle.

I am going to call on him later this morning with a carcass that I shot at sunset, so will be well cold and set. That will take him a bit longer to skin no doubt.
 
Try splitting the skin down the back along the spine and doing it in two halves. Its easy to just ease the skin of to the pin bone then just pull! The hide isn't going to be tanned and what little meat is attached to the hide is irrelevant, its a Muntjac and the front end is normally stew or dog food. The boat winch style skinning rigs are a great idea for these.
 
I have just copied and pasted this from my post on the roe skinning thread.

I used to skin carcases as per your photos etc., until I went to a slaughter house in Norway where they killed and skinned Sheep and Reindeer.
Since that time I skin from the front end, hanging the animal by the front legs, the skin comes of a LOT easier and cleaner eg little flesh left on the skin.
It makes skinning munties a lot easier!

I have bad arthritis so find it difficult to pull skins of, s I do them as above but use an electric winch to pull them of.


 
I have just copied and pasted this from my post on the roe skinning thread.

I used to skin carcases as per your photos etc., until I went to a slaughter house in Norway where they killed and skinned Sheep and Reindeer.
Since that time I skin from the front end, hanging the animal by the front legs, the skin comes of a LOT easier and cleaner eg little flesh left on the skin.
It makes skinning munties a lot easier!

I have bad arthritis so find it difficult to pull skins of, s I do them as above but use an electric winch to pull them of.



+1 for skinning from the front end down. I find the flesh does not get pulled away with the skin any where near as much.
 
Skin whilst warm, else it's like getting bark off a tree. Still need patience and a good knife and strong fingers.
 
Back
Top