The Best Way To Process A Deer in 2024 & Beyond

Congrats! You simply harvested a deer! However now the exhausting work begins. It’s time to area gown it, drag it to the truck, and course of the scrumptious venison. It feels like so much, however it’s not as difficult because it initially appears. So let’s get began with one of the simplest ways to course of a deer.

How To Course of A Deer

It’s necessary to notice that everybody has a barely completely different approach of processing their deer. The one outlined beneath has labored nicely for my household and me for a number of years, however we’re always attempting new methods and methods to do it.

Processing a deer can take a few hours, so most individuals consider taking it to an area meat processing plant is one of the simplest ways to course of a deer. 

I’m not in opposition to this, however I hardly ever take my deer to the processor for 3 causes. The primary is the expense. Taking a deer isn’t low-cost, costing round $100-$120, plus any extras you add (like grinding it or turning the venison into jerky). The second motive is as a result of I need to management what occurs to the meat. Lastly, I believe studying to course of a deer is a really useful talent, beginning with area dressing it.

Useful Instruments

• A number of sharp knives (one with a intestine hook is right)
• Knife sharpener
• Small butcher (bone) noticed
• Rope/chain
• Deer hanger
• Vacuum sealer/freezer luggage
• Meat grinder
• Cooler
• Desk
• Water supply
• Bucket

Subject Dressing

Gutting or area dressing the deer helps scale back the danger of contaminating the venison with fecal matter, urine, and the rest housed within the abdomen. You’ll usually obtain an additional cost in the event you don’t field-dress the deer earlier than taking it to the processor, so it’s important to understand how to do that as a hunter.

Subject dressing is best when utilizing a knife with a intestine hook, however it’s not essential.

1. Step 1: Reduce by way of the pores and skin across the anus till the rectum is free.
2. Step 2: Reduce a 2-3 inch lengthy gap by way of the pores and skin just under the sternum (the place the ribs meet), then flip your blade over, utilizing the intestine hook (to keep away from piercing the stomach wall/membrane), and proceed chopping the pores and skin to the anus and as much as the neck.
3. Step 3: Now, it’s time to pierce the stomach wall just under the sternum. In case you don’t have a intestine hook in your blade, you should utilize two fingers to create a bit of house between the stomach wall, abdomen, and intestines whereas chopping the pores and skin so that you don’t by chance reduce them (that’s a nasty day, belief me…). 
4. Step 4: Reduce or noticed the pelvis, in case you have a small hand noticed (butcher noticed) accessible, to permit the decrease gut to go by way of with out tearing.
5. Step 5: Noticed or reduce by way of the highest of the sternum, permitting for simpler entry to the guts and lungs.
6. Step 6: Reduce the diaphragm (skinny muscle/membrane) from the rib cage on each side. 
7. Step 7: Fastidiously reduce the esophagus and windpipe above the guts, as far up as you may go.
8. Step 8: Use the windpipe to drag the center from the carcass, saving the guts and liver (in the event you or somebody you recognize enjoys organ meat). 

That’s it! It’s now time to take it dwelling and pores and skin it.

Skinning

Now that you just’re dwelling, that you must pores and skin the deer. I’ve discovered it most accessible to do that whereas it’s hanging by the rear legs. 

1. Step 1: Reduce a gap giant sufficient to slide the gamble (deer hanger) into between the bone and Achilles tendon on each legs. DO NOT reduce the tendon. Doing so will forestall you from hanging the deer, making chopping the meat with out getting particles throughout it far more difficult.
2. Step 2: Use a rope, cable, or chain over a limb or deer hoist to lift the deer off the bottom; the butt must be about eye degree or at the least till the top is off the bottom. Elevate and decrease the deer in keeping with what’s most comfy.
3. Step 3: Now that it’s off the bottom, reduce a skin-deep ring across the leg with the blade edge dealing with out (as a lot as attainable after the preliminary reduce) to forestall the hair from getting onto the meat. 
4. Step 4: Now you can reduce the cover from the anus to the ring you simply made, following the road the place the brown and white fur meet. 
5. Step 5: Pull the pores and skin away from the meat and reduce the membrane between the pores and skin and the meat, from the again legs to the ribs. Watch out to chop the membrane and never into the muscle to maintain the meat as clear as attainable. A really sharp knife helps finest with this.
6. Step 6: All of the pores and skin across the stomach and again legs ought to now be free, and the tail is presently holding up progress. Press/pull out and down on the tail and reduce the cover throughout it, then shortly pull down/ pop the tail to separate the joints the place the tail and butt meet earlier than chopping by way of the tail.
7. Step 7: Transfer all the way down to the entrance legs and pores and skin them such as you did the again legs. You would possibly must put the leg you’re chopping between your legs to maintain the deer from spinning. You may pull the pores and skin off the again as soon as each entrance shoulders are uncovered as much as the neck. If you wish to hold the cover, it’s finest to maintain chopping the membrane as a substitute of simply pulling it. 

Now that the pores and skin not covers the meat, it’s finest to let it age.

Getting old The Meat

Hanging a deer to let it age relies on the surroundings, temperature, deer age, and private desire. Since my deer processing occurs within the storage, I hardly ever get to let the deer grasp for so long as I’d like. 

In case you have a walk-in cooler that can hold the meat above 32°F and beneath 40°F, you must let it grasp for five to 14 days. This enables the great micro organism to interrupt down muscle fibers, tenderizing the meat and making it rather less gamey-tasting.

Nevertheless, for these of us who don’t have a walk-in cooler, let the deer grasp for so long as attainable (a few days is finest), so long as the temperature is between 33°F and 40°F. This could be in a single day, a couple of days, or just some hours. 

De-Boning/Butchering

As soon as the deer has aged to your liking or the temperature has made that possibility unviable, it’s time to take away the meat from the bone and place it in a cooler. It’s finest to start with the tenderloins. 

1. Step 1: Reduce away the flank meat (the skinny meat connecting the ribs to the hindquarters) to make the tenderloins extra accessible.
2. Step 2: With the deer hanging from the again legs, the tenderloins must be just under eye degree contained in the carcass. They need to come out simply by chopping close to the groin space and gently pulling (they have a tendency to go larger than most individuals assume). They’re in regards to the measurement of a big fish fillet on most deer and among the finest cuts of meat.
3. Step 3: Now, we will work on the hind quarters with out worrying about ruining the tenderloins. The hind quarters are good for jerky and roasts. It’s best to discover the place the muscle tissues overlap; that is the place you must start chopping and separating the muscle tissues from one another. 
4. Step 4: As soon as a few of them are separated, you may higher attain the bone and reduce it off the bones and joints. There’s not a reasonably approach of doing this apart from following the bone.
5. Step 5. After eradicating the meat from a lot of the hind quarters (in the event you take away all of it, the deer will not grasp since you reduce the meat connected to the Achilles), it’s time to maneuver on to arguably the very best meat on the deer: the backstraps. It goes up into the hind quarters, so now that they’re eliminated, you must see precisely the place to make your reduce. 
   1. I prefer to run my knife down the spine, carefully following each vertebra to get as a lot meat as attainable. Then, I reduce perpendicularly throughout the highest, pulling and chopping the backstrap off the bones till I reached the neck, the place I reduce perpendicularly throughout the underside to free the meat from the carcass. Set every one apart for later processing (butterflying the backstrap). 
6. Step 6: As soon as the backstraps are eliminated, you may reduce off the entrance shoulders (You may technically take away the entrance shoulders at any level). That is fairly easy since pulling the entrance leg away from the physique creates an area your knife can naturally slice by way of. You don’t need to be tremendous delicate with this piece, as most of it’s stew or scrap meat. 
7. Step 7: Let’s transfer on to the ribs. You may reduce the rib meat off the bone or reduce the rib bones (this takes up extra space in your freezer). There’s not a ton of rib meat, and it’s fairly powerful, so most individuals grind or slow-cook it. In case you’re chopping the meat off the bone, begin on the prime of the ribs and work your approach down; that approach, gravity is working with you. Merely comply with the bone along with your knife and slowly pull the meat from the bone. Repeat on the opposite aspect.
8. Step 8: When you’ve eliminated all of the rib meat, you may start butchering the neck. Start the place you narrow the backstrap and comply with the backbone down and across the trachea. 
9. Step 9: Take your time and end chopping off any chunks of meat you might need missed or initially missed. Then, you may take the deer down and reduce the meat off the Achilles space. 

Getting ready the Meat

Now that a lot of the meat is off the bones (entrance shoulders nonetheless have bones), it’s time to organize it for long-term storage. Once more, there are a number of methods of doing this, and my course of always evolves. It usually begins with rinsing the meat.

Washing

Cleansing the meat is important. Nobody desires grime, grass, hair, or particles of their deer stew, burger, or steak. You’ll seemingly have to wash a few of it along with your fingers, as grass and hair are notoriously tough to take away as soon as they’ve caught to the membrane.

When you’ve completed the preliminary washing, you may start trimming and grinding the meat.

Trimming & Grinding

In case you’re not an enormous fan of wildgame, it’s most likely as a result of whoever processed the meat did a poor job trimming it. I want to chop out as many tendons and connective tissue as attainable; this consists of the silvery membrane the place a lot of the wild sport style comes from. It’s on the again straps and lots of different parts of the meat. 

Take your time, and also you’ll thank your self later. 

Talking of the backstrap, part it into two—to three-inch chunks earlier than slicing it almost in half. That is known as butterflying the backstrap, and it turns it right into a scrumptious steak. In order for you a thicker steak, reduce the chunks a bit of thicker, or don’t butterfly it.

As soon as as a lot of the membrane and tendons as attainable are faraway from the grind meat, it’s time to plop it into the grinder. You’ll discover you might need missed a couple of tendons; now could be the time to take away those you see. 

I usually go away the entrance shoulder meat connected to the bone and smoke it, however that is very powerful meat, so it’s also possible to reduce it off the bone and sluggish cook dinner it or use it in a stew after eradicating as many tendons as attainable.

If I discover a whole lot of particles, I want to clean the meat one final time to make sure it’s clear earlier than evenly drying it and inserting it in a freezer bag or vacuum sealing it in parts my household usually eats.

Storing

When you’ve packaged all of the meat, it’s time to place it within the freezer. I all the time date it and write what it’s, similar to “As we speak’s Date—Stew Meat” or “As we speak’s Date—Backstrap.” This lets me know what I’m grabbing out of the freezer and the way lengthy it’s been there. 

I’ve had deer meat keep good for a number of years, however I’ve had different venison get freezer-burned, and go unhealthy in a 12 months. All of it relies on how nicely you bundle it. 

Correctly Eliminate the Scraps

At this level, you must have a carcass and scraps to get rid of; don’t be lazy and simply toss it within the ditch. As an alternative, learn your looking rules and get rid of it correctly. This usually entails burying it at a particular depth. 

Parting Photographs: Greatest Approach To Course of A Deer

Now you know the way to course of a deer. After a couple of makes an attempt, it isn’t as difficult because it initially appeared. 

I do know hunters who can course of a deer in underneath an hour and others who take a couple of hours. All of it relies on how meticulous you need to be and the way nicely you perceive deer anatomy. Having a pointy knife additionally helps a ton, too! 

Whereas processing your deer is extra work than taking it to a butcher, creating this talent and realizing you harvest the deer from area to desk is a sense you may’t put a value on.

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