Skinning Muntjac

[hottopic]

We have been shooting rather a lot of these recently and I decided to skin one for the freezer. It was a young buck and although I should know better I thought "that wont take too long", the result as usual was a carcass looking like it was attacked by a puma!

I have tried to do them hot, cold, old, young and they are all buggers - no wonder the game dealers dont like them.

Have any of you tried the air line method of blowing the skin off? We do it with fallow and it works really well.

 

[Monkey Spanker]

There is no easy way mate, but I find that slicing the skin down the line of the spine with a gut hook or tripe knife helps. The skin then comes off in two strips but you will still have flank meat attached to the skin and not the animal!
MS

 

[Brithunter]

Sorry but I know how you feel. My hands ache just thinking of fighting the skin off those little buggers. If they didn't taste so good!

 

[unlacedgecko]

I find hanging them head up helps.

 

[pete evans]

my preferred method is to get someone else to do it. Never had an easy one.

 

[Cry Havoc]

Pete-couldn't agree more...!

Unlacedgeko - that's how I did the buck I shot with Pete, and fond the skin comes away from the flank a lot better.

I think one of the problems is you can't use the the weight of the carcase to pull the skin away, line you can with other species.

 

[Lateral]

So been there. Had a Muntjac, & Roe doe to do last time out, and after doing the Muntjac first, struggled to face doing the Roe. Had a chat with my God son, who mentioned hearing about people using compressed air to part the skin.

So, on with the compressor, and using a 24" air duster rod, skinned the Roe in minutes (I'm still very much the novice !)

I'm hoping the same method with work on Muntjac next time.

 

[geoshot]

the toughness of munty neck hide never ceases to amaze me
I can unzip just about any other deer with a tripe knife or such like, but when it comes to the munty it takes a fair bit of effort - and the knives I use on the little blighters always need a re-hone afterwards

What's this with the airline? Anyone got a video?

I'm with BH, if they didn't taste so good, I'm not sure I'd bother - just pass them on and let the dealer take the hassle

 

[Paul 600]

Try David Strettons skinning method, works well.

 

[hottopic]

Only in America!

Thanks guys as I thought no easy way - well the rest will go to the game dealer and we will keep the fallow and roe.

 

[norma 308]

dont find them too bad except the big old bucks which can be tough around the neck area ,hang all mine for a week in the chiller then skin in the usual way from gambrel hanging dont knife off apart from the before mentioned neck .
atb
norma

 

[User00023]

Why bother when you can have a smokie!

 

[Munty Hunter]

It looks like the compressor works fine provided the deer hasn't been Graloched or bodyshot!

 

[WAYNE DAVIES]

Try David Strettons skinning method, works well.

I once straightened a 6mm "S" meat hook winching the neck skin off a buck in this method it flew about 10 yards out of the door luckily away from me as it was about groin height , I know knife the neck skin off before pulling the rest off.

The compressor method would be no good with my mates, too many holes in 'em

 

[Monkey Spanker]

There's a method of skinning sheep known as 'fisting' which involves getting the hand inbetween the skin and flesh and effectively punching the hide away from the animal. It is fairly effective on muntjac too. If you google 'fisting sheep' i'm sure you'll find something interesting!?
MS

 

[Paul 600]

There's a method of skinning sheep known as 'fisting' which involves getting the hand inbetween the skin and flesh and effectively punching the hide away from the animal. It is fairly effective on muntjac too. If you google 'fisting sheep' i'm sure you'll find something interesting!?
MS

Bad man! You might want to search for punching out, possibly add skinning or slaughter to the search engine.

 

[bobt]

its half way down here

http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/home-butchering.html

 

[375 mag]

Only ever skinned 2 muntjac i found them easier than roe deer