Skinning which way up?
- Thread starter Dickie
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Overlay
Well-Known Member
Skinned a couple of Munties and a Roe doe out last week hanging from the front legs using a stainless steel bar with two holes each end with sliding loop each end - works a treat, the munties needed a yank down to lock the wire in, I use 7 strand stainless wire which is thinner than most but bites in better, I made a loop in the middle to use as a hanging point and adjusted balance using the two holes each end
it worked out pretty well, but although I slit the fur up to knuckle prior to hanging For skinning , next time I’ll skin the legs off first and go straight on the flesh / bone and discard the first bit of the leg on butchering
overall - particularly on munties it did work out easier, I now leave muntjac to hang for 5 days minimum before skinning them out it’s a lot easier
I think front legs hung up and skinning from front to rear is easiest. Basically I skin the front legs on a bench hang it up on stainless hooks then work the skin off. The hind legs are just tunnel skinned. I avoid touch the meat because it transfers hair on to it. I dip my hands into a bucket of cold water every now and then and it's amazing to see the hair floating on the top
deerstalker.308
Well-Known Member
You can cut the head off...... or, hang it with a hook inserted under the chin through the jaw and skin down, it works well.....
As above.
Most of the skinning I have seen done was with the deer lying on its back on a trestle and with minimal use of knives.
Regards
JCS
Regards
JCS
Believe me @caberslash, when you’ve got half a dozen dead deer fresh off the back of the ute, steaming n the cold rain, it’s 4°C, the deer carcasses are hairy as, muddy, smelly... only one way is gonna be the right way.
We actually hang them off a heavy beam in the shed in a row, rather than lie them flat on the ground. Winch them up with the Hilux, then tie them off. Let out a good length of rope from the winch, back up a bit, attach hook to the cord around the golf ball, and pull of the skin with the winch. Nice and controlled that way, and you can see what’s going on.
We actually hang them off a heavy beam in the shed in a row, rather than lie them flat on the ground. Winch them up with the Hilux, then tie them off. Let out a good length of rope from the winch, back up a bit, attach hook to the cord around the golf ball, and pull of the skin with the winch. Nice and controlled that way, and you can see what’s going on.
Freeforester
Well-Known Member
Guessing you don't neck shoot, or rate the silversides, half of which were left with the skin?
Hang to mature, with the head on until ready to skin (stretches the neck so it is straight rather than bent round); using a rounded nosed tripe-knife or roeing knife, slit under the skin of both front legs from inside of leg and forwards toward the gullet, as opposed to straight up toward the brisket (you'll get on cleaner and easier this way);
Point of knife indicating exit point of first incisions made along the inside of each foreleg;
make an incision across the inside of the meaty bit of the foreleg, a bit like cutting its wrists, about 3/4" above the joint where the foreleg was removed (to give your loops something to bite into, without wasting meat as such, it's all tendon nearest the joint);
Slitting the 'wrist' so the loop can 'bite' in, little wasted meat!
hang up about 8-9' off the ground, and begin to pull down the way on the pre loosened skin of the lower 'arm' of the foreleg; once you come to the shoulder area, you may want to stop there, and pinch hold of the tapered strip of skin left between the pit of the shoulder and the gullet, this will peel back pretty easily.
Some care is required both as you leave the shoulder and peel down either side of the split brisket, and also when going forward to free the neck, as the meat there is fairly tender and can tear, this can be avoided by running your knife more or less parallel about a centimetre in on to what looks like the neck meat, but is actually the soft tissue surrounding the jugular vein running along either side of the neck (not recommended eating, so no waste in doing this); the head can be freed at the atlas joint along with the skin, with minimal hair left on the carcass neck.
The rest should pull down fairly easily, but like everything in life, practice makes perfect, there's no great rush, and better to have something clean and hair free at the end, which after all is the objective of the exercise. If the deer has a tail this will have to be severed at the root, which is readily enough achieved through the joint. The haunches can be barrel skinned, ie no knifework really necessary, but you ay wish to go very carefully when pulling the skin off the upper thigh/hip area, so as not to tear the silversides, this is where judicious use if the knife to seperate the connective tissue from the meat is worth considering.
Done in this way, you are pulling always down and away from the clean carcass, and with a modicum of care you can end up with a hair- and fingerprint-free result.
Showing the cuts made from inside of foreleg to gullet; the back legs are more often than not hanging down toward the floor at this point, rather than still hanging up;
- a little tricky in the 'best practice triangle' (here unmolested!), but otherwise plain sailing to this stage; all loose skin and hair with debris falling down and away from the edible bit
Head removed in the thumbnail below, some more pics next post, 5 file limit...
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Freeforester
Well-Known Member
The tools: gambrel with loops, wire or Amsteel/Dyneema/Kevlar type braid, knife, tripe knife with rounded blunt end;
Freeing the tail through the root joint;
The point in the proceedings where you begin to bend your back...
'Righted' once more, and ready for the next steps. Note small incisions made for the gambrel through the hock, no need to make the slit big enough for a wooden gambrel, they're long gone! Prevents fly-strike in the shank, if the hole made is too long it's one of the first places the flies will lay into.
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John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
In the abattoirs there is only one way that animals are suspended and that is by the hind legs.
I do note that quite few US pics show deer suspended by their heads,I have oft wondered why.
I do note that quite few US pics show deer suspended by their heads,I have oft wondered why.
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
I skinned a couple of lambs yesterday- they had got out into the woods and were caught with the 243. Give a roe deer anyday!
What is the best way of dealing with really mucky wet winter fleece with lots of droppings hanging around the back end? Or is it just one of those jobs.
What is the best way of dealing with really mucky wet winter fleece with lots of droppings hanging around the back end? Or is it just one of those jobs.
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