Skinning tips for deer?

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Jul 26, 2009
353
0
My Front Room
Usually I hang it by the lback legs, start at the highest point and peel down. I seem to loose a lot of the meat at the front shoulder.

Whilst in Africa I watched the local chaps with a goat. They skinned it first from head down then sorted the rest.

Any tips please?
 

Loenja

Settler
Apr 27, 2008
718
1
forest row
dont puncture the stomach!!!!!
that is not nice. first time we tried we managed to release a huge quantity of foul gas.
Lonja ;)
 

Loenja

Settler
Apr 27, 2008
718
1
forest row
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;)
 

trixx

Member
Jul 14, 2010
46
0
Scotland
Any tips please?

Depends on when you skin them. They are easier to skin cleanly while they are still warm. Hanging by the back legs is fine, you can also lie them on their backs on a skinning table. If you do it the first way, you start at the hocks and work down. On their backs, you start from each side of the centreline (the cut you made when gralloching and splitting the sternum) and work towards the spine.

Advantage of skinning them when warm - a cleaner carcase. Fine if you are going to put it in a chiller but no good if the temperature is higher or there are problems with flies.

If you leave the skin on while they are hanging and then skin them just before butchering, it protects the carcase against much in the way of drying out and fly strike, but makes for a more difficult job skinning. You will find that the skin seems to be more tightly attached to the underlying tissue, due to a degree of dehydration. In some spots - around the top of the rump, and around the shoulder area - small muscles are attached quite closely to the fascial tissue and these can be torn off when you are skinning. Much of that can be prevented by taking particular care with those bits, but it will happen to some extent depending on which fascial plane you are separating while skinning. So you will probably be left with a slightly less clean-looking carcase.

Bottom line, if you have access to a chiller then skin them warm. If not, keep the skin on until they are ready to butcher and accept it will be a bit more tricky.
 

stovie

Need to contact Admin...
Oct 12, 2005
1,658
20
59
Balcombes Copse
... I seem to loose a lot of the meat at the front shoulder....
Any tips please?

After paunching and blooding, hang head down and cut length of belly and chest, then inside inside fore and hind legs. Use tip of knife to seperate flesh from hide, with tension on the hide and work your way around the whole beast, gradually removing. If a scout can do it...

roebuck009copy.jpg


roebuck011copy.jpg
 

Roe Ring

Forager
Oct 6, 2010
165
0
N. Wales
I'd agree with trixx.

When I skin roe, they have normally been hung in a chiller for at least a week, I hang them by their back legs and skin the back legs first, pulling the skin down to the line of the waist. Now you need to carefully start to skin the belly skin off the thin belly muscle, working from the old gralloch cut, round the waist to the back of the deer. You will notice a thin muscle wall attached to the skin right where the back leg joins in at the waist; you'll need to get behind this and I find once I've started, it's easy to prise off with your fingers. From this point, keep working down the carcase making sure you dont start to leave any thin muscle on the skin. This thin muscle running from the waist joins in with the muscle that holds the front shoulder blades in place, so its important to look out for it early on in the skinning process. I find once I've skinned down to the rib cage, I dont have to be too careful an can pull the skin out with one hand whilst using the ball of my other hand or my fist to push down on the inside of the skin, pulling it off the carcase.

Dont worry about how it looks first time round, you'll soon get the hang of it and the deer skins far cleaner and easier once you do.

All the best.

RR
 

Dougster

Bushcrafter through and through
Oct 13, 2005
5,254
238
The banks of the Deveron.
I get mine from a mate. He shoots them at tea time and I skin and butcher than after breakfast. Trixx had it spot on but my hands always ache at the end of one.

If I get one myself I do it all ASAP. Much easier.
 

forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
So does washing your hands...
...and people wonder why we say the world's gone H&S mad...
... they're all still alive BTW...

I'm used to the large scale (10 men and one or two moose) process, and also, if you have to work a moose on top of a ridge it is easier to discard some gloves than to get dried in blood of your hands. For home consumption I don't care.
 

stovie

Need to contact Admin...
Oct 12, 2005
1,658
20
59
Balcombes Copse
I'm used to the large scale (10 men and one or two moose) process, and also, if you have to work a moose on top of a ridge it is easier to discard some gloves than to get dried in blood of your hands. For home consumption I don't care.

Fair comment forestwalker...the scale and temps you're talking about I agree with your methodology...a small roe buck is not in that league...having never eaten moose myself, how does it compare to other "venison"?
 

Bushwhacker

Banned
Jun 26, 2008
3,882
8
Dorset
Usually I hang it by the lback legs, start at the highest point and peel down. I seem to loose a lot of the meat at the front shoulder.

Whilst in Africa I watched the local chaps with a goat. They skinned it first from head down then sorted the rest.

Any tips please?

A sharp knife helps for a start. Just nailed a roe deer today and have it up at the farm on the fork lift truck ready for skinning tomorrow.
Fork lifts are ace for this type of task.
 

Bushwhacker

Banned
Jun 26, 2008
3,882
8
Dorset
So does washing your hands...
...and people wonder why we say the world's gone H&S mad...
... they're all still alive BTW...

Done mine today out in the field and washed my hands in the stream. I suppose it's dangerous to do that in case there's a dead sheep in the water upstream and then I ate a ploughmans with my bare hands straight after too. I don't reckon I'm going to grow old bones.
 

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