For small species, do you keep everything?

[Sol]

Obviously no discrimination too anyone that does not, everyone does have different "goals" regarding stalking (not all are heavy into cooking and like to keep it simple) but I'm curious for people here that are either shooting small amounts, or large amounts of the smaller species are you taking time too bone out every shoulder, neck and any rib trim, even if there shoulder shot and vice-versa?

I know some people that skin half way and only eat the back legs, and loins and others that utilise the entire carcass down to rib trim (though, I'm dealing in only roe) but I'd have to assume A: some are too swamped in meat and have to be a bit wasteful, and others simply dont shoot enough to warrant getting a mincer out for a muntjac that they shoot every 3 months.

And then there's the butchery time involvement as well Its minutes to butcher the back half, but probably near an hour too deal with the front end since it needs to be skinned out and usually cleaned up and trimmed up to get rid of shot damage.

thoughts? I keep everything, and have done for the better part of a year but obviously the deer I shot a few days prior (posted in this section a few posts below) effort wise, time wise, and rational thinking It was not worth attempting besides a few undamaged bits of shoulders, the neck and a little bit of loin that was still left when we sawed the saddle of.

 

[Tim.243]

Obviously no discrimination too anyone that does not, everyone does have different "goals" regarding stalking (not all are heavy into cooking and like to keep it simple) but I'm curious for people here that are either shooting small amounts, or large amounts of the smaller species are you taking time too bone out every shoulder, neck and any rib trim, even if there shoulder shot and vice-versa?

I know some people that skin half way and only eat the back legs, and loins and others that utilise the entire carcass down to rib trim (though, I'm dealing in only roe) but I'd have to assume A: some are too swamped in meat and have to be a bit wasteful, and others simply dont shoot enough to warrant getting a mincer out for a muntjac that they shoot every 3 months.

And then there's the butchery time involvement as well Its minutes to butcher the back half, but probably near an hour too deal with the front end since it needs to be skinned out and usually cleaned up and trimmed up to get rid of shot damage.

thoughts? I keep everything, and have done for the better part of a year but obviously the deer I shot a few days prior (posted in this section a few posts below) effort wise, time wise, and rational thinking It was not worth attempting besides a few undamaged bits of shoulders, the neck and a little bit of loin that was still left when we sawed the saddle of.

The bigger the deer the smaller amount you will waste, a quartering muntjac will take out nearly both front legs I tend to go high to miss the greens, both muntjac shot last night were head/high neck. There is no meat value in the fillets or ribs (to small) last fallow my friend had 2 kidneys 2 fillets 2 backstraps the neck 2 front legs 2 rear, the ribs went to the fox.
I cut the shanks at the lower joint and they go for the dogs

 

[TringSaint]

Where possible I will either neck or head shoot cwd and muntjac so that you don’t lose too much meat.

Typically I can get around 6kg of meat from an average carcass which is made up of haunches, loins as joints and the rest as stewing / mince.

However, hit a shoulder and you can lose one of both to damage!!

 

[SSN100]

If I have head shot I skin, take the fillet mignon out which I normally eat that evening. Take the loins of which I keep whole and usually cook as steaks - also nice made into lomo. Hocks taken off and kept for slow cooking. Haunches boned out and saved for roasts. Shoulders, neck, ribs and any bones get roasted off and then in a slow cooker to make ragu. You end up with just a skin and a pile of clean bones to go in the rubbish.

 

[HarryG]

I’m shooting roe. I skin the whole thing hanging up, salvage what I can of the neck and front legs (mostly chest shot) but I often damage both legs. I remove the loins, tenderloins and haunches but don’t bother with the rib meat. I mince everything except topside, thick flank, silverside, loin and tenderloins. I’m lucky to have loads so I probably am quite wasteful. I reckon if it’s not going to add much to my mince (gristle or damaged meat) then I bin it.

 

[norma 308]

I don’t take meat between ribs I have a bone man who has mastiffs and a neighbour who has ferrets but most everything else is utilised offal for my own dogs too far less waste now we feed raw

 

[Sol]

Thanks folks, interested to see all responses.

 

[Mr Tree]

Muntjac ribs although small are bloody delicious, cut down backbone, cut into chops, marinate in soy sauce honey & garlic, barbecue till charred but still juicy. My favourite part !!! Muntylollipops

 

[VSS]

I use as much as I possibly can off a carcass, regardless of size.

 

[User00056]

I use as much as I possibly can off a carcass, regardless of size.

I do the same. I mostly shoot roe, so there's not a huge amount of meat to behind with. I try to neck shoot as much as possible, and even trim out between the ribs for sausage on a clean carcass. I hate seeing meat lost

 

[Phil fox man]

all that goes in my bin is dried boiled bones and the skin

 

[weblyish]

I use as much as I possibly can off a carcass, regardless of size.

Same here

stripping as much meat as possible
trimming the shot site, jerky from the intercostals, stock from the bones
even small game - always upset me to see people just crown the pigeon or take saddles off the rabbits - I try to use everything

but then again it's a hobby for me not a job

 

[geoshot]

I take every bit of edible meat that I can
Anything damaged goes to the dog with the rest of the trim - she'll even eat the tripe and guts, and it doesn't seem to do her any harm at all
Neck etc goes into the slow cooker for "pulled venison"
Basically, the mutt or my family eat every bit as far as possible, I even take the tongue out of muntjac or cwd - that really is a morsel!

 

[cjm1066]

I take pride in a clean carcass either for the game dealer or myself and use as much as possible.

After a safe shot and humane kill priorities, the management plan influences the shot I take, a shoulder shot muntjac is better than letting it go for another day if reducing population is the key deliverable.

 

[sy247]

Muntjac ribs although small are bloody delicious, cut down backbone, cut into chops, marinate in soy sauce honey & garlic, barbecue till charred but still juicy. My favourite part !!! Muntylollipops

Yes I like to do mine as chops sometimes. Lovely

 

[Sol]

I love chops, had some off a red deer calf a few months ago delicious! I think I'll start doing it with all the roe I can cut the backstraps out well enough now, but there's always a little waist that isn't there if you keep them as chops.

For people here that arent too interested in stewing or slow cooked, are you trimming shoulders and necks freezing and grinding at a future date? or are you grinding each time you have deer/multiple ready to be butchered?

 

[TringSaint]

As a slight diversion from the topic, what do peeps on here use to split a carcass on here? Standard bone saw or an electric recip saw?

 

[pob]

I shoot and butcher a lot of muntjac. For years I stripped every piece of meat I could from the carcass, to do it justice, but I was spending far too much time butchering. Then I learned a few short cuts from this site; life's too short to strip the meat between the ribs, from the neck or from the shoulder, in my opinion.

Now, I saw the neck into chunks and break the ribs into rough chunks with a cleaver. I tidy up (remove shot damage, fat and connective tissue) then roughly chop the shoulder too, sometimes just taking off the lower joint. (If it's a largish shoulder, I might nick the blade steak/flat iron steak first). That all goes in what I call a "Biryani bag". I vac pac that and freeze it, though the sharp bones can be a bugger for puncturing the bag. I chuck in a salmon board or two if it's particularly spikey.

I brown the chunks well, then use in a variety of slow cooker dishes (tagine, ragu, curry, Japanese kakuni). I put all the browned chunks, bone and all, into mesh bags in the cooker and, when tender, I lift the bags out and sort the bones and gristle from the meat, then return the meat to the dish.

It works well, I think. Less time butchering, lots of collagen from the ligaments and silverskin to thicken and flavour the pot, and no bones for family or guests to pick out.

As for shanks, these are so easy to cut off, tidy up and vac pac, and I get more compliments from people on them than anything else. Also, people are quite comfortable cooking and eating lamb shanks, so they know what they're doing with them.

I've not been saving any tongue, but I should. I fancy trying to start saving deer cheeks too. Anyone tried it?

 

[Sol]

Not done it, but for a roe I think a decent enough bone saw would work well enough, the red we done we used a recip saw though.

 

[pob]

As a slight diversion from the topic, what do peeps on here use to split a carcass on here? Standard bone saw or an electric recip saw?

Dewalt cordless reciprocating saw