So who on the forum can

Max

Well-Known Member
So who on the forum can skin a Muntjac clean, by this I mean no meat on the skin.

After 20 + years the hell if I can.

I have tried skinning from haunch to neck and neck to haunch, hanging from the winch and in a cradle.

Hung a few days, hung a week, although I have yet to try it still warm. It does go against the grain somewhat NOT to hang the carcass for a week.

Just once I would like to to skin one without just tearing the flank meat off with the skin.
I know the flank meat is niether here no there but it does come in handy to cook up and mix in with the dogs dried food.

Really, i just want to crack it once without it taking all day :zzz:

So what is your sure fired way :idea::!:

ATB

Max
 
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So who on the forum can skin a Muntjac clean, by this I mean no meat on the skin.

After 20 + years years the hell if I can.

I have tried skinning from haunch to neck and neck to haunch, hanging from the winch and in a cradle.

Hung a few days, hung a week, although I have yet to try it still warm. It does go against the grain somewhat NOT to hang the carcass for a week.

Just once I would like to to skin one without just tearing the flank meat off with the skin.
I know the flank meat is niether here no there but it does come in handy to cook up and mix in with the dogs dried food.

Really, i just want to crack it once without it taking all day :zzz:

So what is your sure fired way :idea::!:

ATB

Max
Hi i have not seen a wild muntjac & heard they are a bugger to skin & would love to have ago at shooting & skinning them. Try a compressor in each leg & blow it up to free the skin away from the meat thats how i skin. Even on roe/red thats what i have skinned the haunches have a soft bit of meat that will come with the skin & a knife needs to be used on this area & i assume it to be the same for all but hope the compressor trick will work for you.
 
Skin immediately and whilst still warm. I have a colleague who is a slaughterman by trade and he swears that it so much easier. Watching him skin is indeed a wonder to watch. Absolutely nothing left on the skin.

How old are the animals that you are generally culling by the way ? Unless they are older than 3 ish don't bother to hang at all. I do know of 1 stalker who lets them hang for around 2-3 weeks (in the skin) but then most of the animals that he culls are the older ones.

Rocky
 
I whole heartedly agree with your slaughter man friend. Skin ASAP.The old the beast the sooner you can peel off the jacket the better. IMO

I skin from the neck down and use a roller pulley or quad to pull the jacket off. Head shot beasts skin off clean 90% of the time, you'll always get a bit of tearing with chest and shoulder shot beasts mostly around the exit wound . But then with Munties that hardly matters as the off side is usually scrap anyway and only fit for the dogs.

I don't bother cooking the trimmings that get fed to the dogs. They don't seem to mind either way and it saves me fannying about getting the boiler fired up.

A mate of mine simple cuts the rear end off around the 6th rib and chucks the whole front end, minus the head. in with his dogs, skin and all. They then spend the rest of the day pulling it apart and crunching their way through the bones. They do all right on it that way. What's left just gets dumped in the midden.
 
Hi Max

Good to chat with you the other day.

There is no doubt that skinning when warm is so much easier but then you have to hang the deer 'naked' and as you no doubt know doing so in the chill it dries and blackens them.

On Sika we normally run a blade down the middle of the back along the spine line and pull them off in 2 halves. So much easier than trying to take it off like a sock!
 
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Thanks all

Seems like skin when warm is the way to go. Not sure about the "compressor method" v-max but worth a try maybe:-|

Ditto jamross65 :)

ATB

Max
 
At kennels to skin cold we used to use a winch setup, head + legs off score up, then loop of skin on neck through a locking noose, another noose round forelegs onto a loop on the floor and away it went! Works every time.

But skinning warm is easier, although as mentioned you get the chiller problem. Next time I am at the abattoir I will have a chat about it though :)

Cheers

Tom
 
Max I to tend to skin Muntjac warm as the longer you leave them the tougher the buggers get to skin, I also butcher Munties immediately as I find hanging them niether adds to or takes away from the taste unlike larger Deer.
 
I used to shoot alot of them when i lived in the south east. I'd skin as soon as possible, working my fist between skin and flesh. Leave them a day or so and they are alot harder to skin.

Smear oilive oil on the carcass before putting in the chiller to stop it drying out.
 
I know you have meat handling issues in the UK but here in the US I like to go from field to freezer asap. I also will skin them while warm. The last three does were quite fat and the skin rolled off like it was attached with a smear of butter. Very little knife work. The carcasses were hung until morning then butchered and frozen. If we'd gotten in from the hunt earlier they would have been butchered that night.~Muir
 
Thats good advice from you all and thank you very much, never to old to lern.

I guess I will skin warm and butcher straight away from now on, that will negate any chiller issues.

Hevens sake Muir, I didn't know Ifor & Williams had got across the pond :eek: those little Muntjac buggers are getting everywhere :-|

By the way, the Marlin is up and running fine now thanks to your advice :D:D

ATB

Max
 
I must have tried every method going and believe I have now perfected the art of Munty skinning although it is never easy with an old Buck! The neck skin is about 1cm thick!!:eek:

I normally unzip the front and do a suspended gralloch including opening the sternum and all the way down to the chin.
I skin by hanging up by the back legs and skinning the haunches as normal. Cut any small sinews to prevent tearing along the haunch sides as you go. The secret comes when you get to the tail/vent area! I then take a tripe knife and open the skin all the way down the spine. It normally jams at the base of the neck and takes a little effort to get all the way to where the head has been removed. This can also be done with a gut hook, EKA swingblade style knife with blunt tip etc..
The skin is effectively in two pieces, one each side.
As you now pull down on the haunch skin you should find that it naturally pulls away from the spine towards the flanks and then the sturnum of the animal. Not only is it easier, you get very little meat left on the skin as the meat is not already cut as it is at the front where you have unzipped it.;)
When you get to the back of the front legs, use the tripe knife again to open the back of the leg down to the ankle - takes about 2 seconds!
Each side of skin can now be pulled straight down and even comes off the neck easily.
Again cut any small sinews if it begins to tear.
You will still get small amounts of flesh on the skin but not much.
This method is so much quicker than any other i have tried!

I'm not a fan of skinning warm as i prefer to hang them for a week. They have pretty much 0% body fat and not much body mass and therefore dry out very quickly! The only succulence in the meat is the water content and when that is gone you have nothing but tough dry meat.
I have skinned warm and it is much easier but I would always butcher immediately. You can still leave it in the fridge to mature for a while wrapped in polythene or vacuum packed!;) Hope this helps?
MS:)
 
I've tried every other conceivable way so this will be worth a try. If it's a really tough one I'll parcel it up and send it to you:D
 
I think it maybe just that i've skinned more than i can remember over the last few years but,

I find it no problem to skin them, you'll not get away with leaving some of the flank on the skin - its so thin that its not worth worrying about - i know butchers that skin these privately for people and say the same.

Sharp knife - surgically sharp - and keep it sharp! I find helps....

Sounds stupid but, ive seen so many people try to skin off the legs - blunt the knife and wonder why its so hard to skin them!?! I aways skin from rear to front hung on a gambrel - when you get past the haunch, and the sides start to touch the flanks - i guess its just knowing when to apply the knife in such a way as to save the meat - i too give it to the dogs...

I also find skinning the front legs before you get to that area helps in getting the skin off around the neck - be firm with this area too - (its only the neck and is only dog food anyway!)

Tom
 
if were shooting a beast for skinning (not for the game dealer) il skin it when lardering it and leave it to hang for at least a week the venison will go quite dark but thats the way its always been done, if there going to the dealer i leave the skin on. also when skinning use the knife as little as you can and use your fists to punch the skin off. the end result looks better and you wont cut flesh from the carcase.

fly tyer.
 
V-Max
MaxHi i have not seen a wild muntjac & heard they are a bugger to skin & would love to have ago at shooting & skinning them. Try a compressor in each leg & blow it up to free the skin away from the meat thats how i skin. Even on roe/red thats what i have skinned the haunches have a soft bit of meat that will come with the skin & a knife needs to be used on this area & i assume it to be the same for all but hope the compressor trick will work for you.

I would like to see that being done, how long does it take to skin a deer. You'll have to put a vid up on You Tube.
 
Hi i have not seen a wild muntjac & heard they are a bugger to skin & would love to have ago at shooting & skinning them. Try a compressor in each leg & blow it up to free the skin away from the meat thats how i skin. Even on roe/red thats what i have skinned the haunches have a soft bit of meat that will come with the skin & a knife needs to be used on this area & i assume it to be the same for all but hope the compressor trick will work for you.
Me and my brother tried this method years ago with a roadkill fox - about 30 years ago when you could get about £25 for a good red fox pelt!:eek:
We had it in the back of his old Morris 1000 van and sneaked into the local shell garage to use the airline. We pretended we were inflating the spare wheel inside the van.;):lol: The old boy who recommended this method had instructed us to make a small incision in the belly skin of the ungutted fox, just big enough to take the airline hose. It was then just a case of letting it inflate and thus pulling all the skin away form the flesh - 'a bit like blowing the paper wrapper off an ice lolly' so he reckoned. What could possibly go wrong?:rolleyes:
Well, my brother let rip with untold amounts of PSI into old Reynard! All seemed to be going ok, well,for a few seconds it did!!:eek:
This was closely followed by what seemed like the entire contents of the fox exiting either end at about mach 3!!:doh:
His last semi-digested meal hit one side of the van and a torrent of roadside fermented, jet propelled Fox Shoite hit the other. :eek::cry:
Honestly, you've never smelt anything so rank in all your life!! It still makes me retch now to think about it!
MS:D
 
Me and my brother tried this method years ago with a roadkill fox - about 30 years ago when you could get about £25 for a good red fox pelt!:eek:
We had it in the back of his old Morris 1000 van and sneaked into the local shell garage to use the airline. We pretended we were inflating the spare wheel inside the van.;):lol: The old boy who recommended this method had instructed us to make a small incision in the belly skin of the ungutted fox, just big enough to take the airline hose. It was then just a case of letting it inflate and thus pulling all the skin away form the flesh - 'a bit like blowing the paper wrapper off an ice lolly' so he reckoned. What could possibly go wrong?:rolleyes:
Well, my brother let rip with untold amounts of PSI into old Reynard! All seemed to be going ok, well,for a few seconds it did!!:eek:
This was closely followed by what seemed like the entire contents of the fox exiting either end at about mach 3!!:doh:
His last semi-digested meal hit one side of the van and a torrent of roadside fermented, jet propelled Fox Shoite hit the other. :eek::cry:
Honestly, you've never smelt anything so rank in all your life!! It still makes me retch now to think about it!
MS:D

Thats the funniest thing I have read all day:rofl:
 
Me and my brother tried this method years ago with a roadkill fox - about 30 years ago when you could get about £25 for a good red fox pelt!:eek:
We had it in the back of his old Morris 1000 van and sneaked into the local shell garage to use the airline. We pretended we were inflating the spare wheel inside the van.;):lol: The old boy who recommended this method had instructed us to make a small incision in the belly skin of the ungutted fox, just big enough to take the airline hose. It was then just a case of letting it inflate and thus pulling all the skin away form the flesh - 'a bit like blowing the paper wrapper off an ice lolly' so he reckoned. What could possibly go wrong?:rolleyes:
Well, my brother let rip with untold amounts of PSI into old Reynard! All seemed to be going ok, well,for a few seconds it did!!:eek:
This was closely followed by what seemed like the entire contents of the fox exiting either end at about mach 3!!:doh:
His last semi-digested meal hit one side of the van and a torrent of roadside fermented, jet propelled Fox Shoite hit the other. :eek::cry:
Honestly, you've never smelt anything so rank in all your life!! It still makes me retch now to think about it!
MS:D

Now we all now where the funny smell comes from Ha Ha:D:D
 
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