Can you tell the difference between male and female on a skinned deer carcass?

[NewForester]

I shot a Fallow pricket on Saturday morning. I gralloched, skinned, took the head and lower legs off and took the carcass to my village butcher. (I have tried butchering myself but it has been a bit of a mess and I split the meat with the landowner, so I want the meat looking good.)

As the young apprentice was hanging my deer up, he said, "I can tell the difference between male and female deer. The females have a layer of fat on them whereas the males don't because they will need to be athletes" (I guess referring to the upcoming rut). He then pointed to another deer carcass which did indeed have more fat on it and was a little bigger than my pricket. He said that that was the carcass that the local stalker who supplies them had brought in.

First question, is it true that you can tell the difference between male and female deer carcasses at this time of year by the layer of fat?

And second, if that is true, it means a doe or hind has been shot out of season. Should I say anything to butcher?

 

[Big Mat]

I'd say he is talking tosh. Fat covering has far more variables than sex

 

[VSS]

Well the last fallow buck I shot had about 1.5" of fat over his haunches, so that theory goes out of the window! You might expect a doe to be leaner at this time of year due to having suckled a fawn all summer.

 

[CarlW]

I can't tell the difference. However, I can imagine that someone who butchers them day-in and day-out might "get a feel" for gender.

 

[Roestalker39]

Ask him if it’s for charity ...... ie is it sponsored bulls£it

 

[fallow me]

Total Tosh, that's why he's an apprentice,

 

[WH308]

Male, the only thing athletic about this chap was me and a buddy when we dragged him!

 

[nun_hunter]

Male deer have a much narrower pelvic opening. This is really obvious when gralloching, female dear are a lot easier to tunnel out as there is so much more room!

 

[VSS]

Male deer have a much narrower pelvic opening. This is really obvious when gralloching, female dear are a lot easier to tunnel out as there is so much more room!

Not a feature you could identify by simply looking at fat cover!
Maybe the apprentice had already based his judgement on this, and his "fat cover" story was a leg pull? Reminds me of a time when I was teaching a group of young schoolkids to tell the age of a ewe by looking at her teeth. When they had got the hang of it, I went one step further by telling them that a really good shepherd could tell the age of a ewe by simply staring her in the eye. To prove it, I went down the row of pens staring intently at each ewe and then declaring her age. The kids then confirmed that I was correct by checking the teeth. What the kids had completely failed to notice was that each sheep's eartag was printed with her year of birth......

 

[willowbank]

Male deer have a much narrower pelvic opening. This is really obvious when gralloching, female dear are a lot easier to tunnel out as there is so much more room!

I wondered when someone would come to it..... experts

Willowbank

 

[Buchan]

We had a whole lecture on sexing carcasses at vet school. Such a shame I've binned the notes.....

PS, auto correct nearly had that to sex in carcasses

 

[nun_hunter]

No nothing to do with fat cover, most fat I've seen has always been on bucks.

The first few deer I shot and gralloched were all bucks, I remember it being a revelation gralloching the first doe and being amazed at how much easier it was!

 

[Selous]

We had a whole lecture on sexing carcasses at vet school. Such a shame I've binned the notes.....

PS, auto correct nearly had that to sex in carcasses

Thats Liverpool for you!!!

 

[Freeforester]

There's a distinct difference in smell, which is the surest first clue, the anatomical shape of the carcass relative to one another being another, you can see this when there is a male and a female hanging with the jacket off. Oh, and the ease of actually skinning a female compared to a male, particularly round the neck area. Other markers include the relative ease/ practical opening of the pelvic arch in a mature roebuck with just a knife, which is pretty impossible on an mature doe that has calved.

 

[Freeforester]

Haunches tend to be fuller on males than on females, necks much more markedly comparatively slender too.

 

[User00025]

Very easy to tell if just clean and skinned. More difficult when pelvic arch is split.

 

[gixer1]

So when are you taking the fallow hind you shot into the butcher then?

 

[fallow me]

So when are you taking the fallow hind you shot into the butcher then?

At the same time he's taking his fallow stag

 

[sikamalc]

Male deer prior to the rut are usually at their heaviest with layers of fat after a good summer of feeding. After the rut they run a lot of weight off as in many instances, in particular Reds, Sika and Fallow they loose a great deal of condition and weight. If you look inside a Red Stag the fillets will be red raw in colour any remaining fat is pink and this is called a run stag.
I think the young apprentice has still much to learn!!

 

[lochty]

You could always give him the liver from a really run stag to make pate with. After all, it's nearly the same colour......