I've been looking for ways to make skinning and butchery a bit quicker, and after watching this video, where he hangs the carcass from the front legs, I thought I'd give it a go. It took me exactly half the time to skin the animal as usual, and produced a cleaner carcass with less hairs on. I honestly can't see any drawback - why do we all hang the carcass and skin from the hind legs?
Skinning from the head end - MUCH quicker!
- Thread starter pazmino
- Start date
HonestJohn
Well-Known Member
Who says we all hang from the rear?
Ha! Quite right, but I think it's the usual way, and was certainly the way I was shown.
After watching that I do it that way. Less mess with hair. Only thing is the tendon snaps a lot easier when you’re pulling down on it!
A cracking video for anyone doing their own butchery.
That deer is fresh that morning so soft! Neat but not come out cold from a chiller.
it is easy just cut in the right place!
Should have seen the neck meat carnage when I was looking for the right place the first time! haha
Ratcatcher
Well-Known Member
Very good, no matter how many of these videos I watch, I always seem to see someone do it better 
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
In many other parts of the world they hang game by the head and skin downwards.
I think a lot of our practices are tradition and its the way you are taught, and the way you are taught is how the teacher was taught etc etc.
You only need to look at the huge variations in old tools to see how different skills were. Just look at billhooks and hedge laying, or thatching, or how timber buildings and boats were constructed etc. Huge variations from place to place, indeed big variations over not very long distances.
What is also really surprising is how influences from afar occur. Take the Edinburgh Shotgun action introduced by McNaughtons and Dicksons. It actually uses a trigger plate lock which is of German design. There was a journeyman gunsmith of German extraction who had apprenticed in Suhl who ended up in Edinburgh.
I think a lot of our practices are tradition and its the way you are taught, and the way you are taught is how the teacher was taught etc etc.
You only need to look at the huge variations in old tools to see how different skills were. Just look at billhooks and hedge laying, or thatching, or how timber buildings and boats were constructed etc. Huge variations from place to place, indeed big variations over not very long distances.
What is also really surprising is how influences from afar occur. Take the Edinburgh Shotgun action introduced by McNaughtons and Dicksons. It actually uses a trigger plate lock which is of German design. There was a journeyman gunsmith of German extraction who had apprenticed in Suhl who ended up in Edinburgh.
If you watch cattle sheep pigs on the line they are hung by their back legs then worked on, this seems to be the norm all over the world. They are not hung by the front legs.
Why as they are cleaned out that way, you don't see people hanging deer in a chiller from the front legs
Is that because it works best, or because they hang head down to bleed and turning them is too slow for the line speed?If you watch cattle sheep pigs on the line they are hung by their back legs then worked on, this seems to be the norm all over the world. They are not hung by the front legs.
Why as they are cleaned out that way, you don't see people hanging deer in a chiller from the front legs
Freeforester
Well-Known Member
Hanging them by the hocks prevents blood or fluids running over the haunches, a valuable part of the carcass, and worth caring about.
Skinning them is better, quicker and cleaner by far as shown on the video. You can even attach the snare loops to the front legs as it hangs from the hocks, swing the forelegs upwards, free the haunches, skin the beast ans shown and rehang them from the hocks again for cutting down later.
Don’t ask me how I know!
Skinning them is better, quicker and cleaner by far as shown on the video. You can even attach the snare loops to the front legs as it hangs from the hocks, swing the forelegs upwards, free the haunches, skin the beast ans shown and rehang them from the hocks again for cutting down later.
Don’t ask me how I know!
Well in deer "all the money " is in the back legs and the loins/fillets! I have cut people some thinner steaks from the shoulders off Reds but with deer being shot around the front end not stunned and bled from the off then from what you can get from deer for me is just stew meat.
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