Skinning before gutting

[Stein]

If you can easily get a deer or antelope out whole and have a way to hang it, anyone ever do it in "backward" order?  I have a hitch mounted hoist and was thinking of trying something new to see if it's easier and cleaner.  The thought would be to do the b-hole, skin down the back leg past the Achilles, then hang it.  From there, skin as normal and then gut and if the weather is cold enough to bag the thing whole and leave it in the truck until I get where I can process it.

It seems like this would prevent the hair I always get in the sternum and pelvis area.

[h20hunter]

I have. Works great as long,  imo, as it's a very quick or minimal time from animal down to skinning pole.

[Bigshooter]

I've done it with antelope and a trailer hitch pole.  Worked out very well.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Highly recommend what you are thinking.  We've hung deer up in a tree by the antlers and totally skinned them. Put the quad trailer under the hind end and then removed the guts. By far the cleanest operation we have done.

[Crunchy]

It is definitely more clean by far. 

[10thmountainarcher]

I did this with a bear I shot years ago. Dragging it out was one of the worst experiences in my life, but once we got him home it went smoothly. We used our backhoe to lift or lower him as needed.

[Twispriver]

I've always wanted to try it - I watch the butcher do the steers and hogs and I think it would be a slick way to go if everything was lined up to do it quickly after the kill

[Stein]

Yeah, it will be to the truck quickly.  I don't want to start another road hunting thread, but let's just say it isn't much of a hike when it works.

[Twispriver]

I was thinking of more of a farm hunt where you could just run out with the tractor and grab it up - most of the deer I shoot are with a bow so I have that pesky tracking job that eats into my window of elapsed time so I doubt it'll be something I get to try. 

[Bango skank]

Yeah, it will be to the truck quickly.  I don't want to start another road hunting thread, but let's just say it isn't much of a hike when it works.

Shooting something near a road isnt necessarily rd hunting.  Driving around hoping to spot something from your rig and shoot it is road hunting.  Some killer spots very close to vehicle access are totally overlooked.  A guy can park his rig, walk 100 yards or less into the timber, and have the world to himself and hunt quality animals while everybody else just drives past.  You just gotta sniff these things out.

[teanawayslayer]

That’s the only way they do it in the southern states. It is slick and very fast. But when your doing multiple animals at once you need a couple of drums. This guts get heavy.

[j_h_nimrod]

I can’t quite visualize, if you skin then hang by the Achilles, how are you dropping the guts without a lot of effort?  I can see this, but would hang southern style by  the neck. I am pretty experienced and a bit OCD so rarely have problem with hair and don’t  see a benefit over my normal methods.  Personally, peeling the skin without gutting would be more difficult for me to keep a clean carcass.   Always open to discussion of different ideas though.

[Stein]

The guts fall right out, the diaphragm keeps them from going into the chest.  Start up by the pelvis and zip it down to the sternum and the guts literally fall out.  They, you cut the diaphragm, reach into the chest to cut the windpipe and the whole thing falls out with a small final cut of the diaphragm right at the sternum.

I am only going to skin to just past where you would hang it on the gambrel, just past where the achilles attaches, maybe 6-10" or so down from that joint, then cut the lower leg off and leave it hanging for something to pull on.

It must be regional to some degree, I've never seen anyone hang a deer head up.  Gutting them hanging upside down is done all the time, I've just never seen it done after skinning, always before.

[teanawayslayer]

The guts fall right out, the diaphragm keeps them from going into the chest.  Start up by the pelvis and zip it down to the sternum and the guts literally fall out.  They, you cut the diaphragm, reach into the chest to cut the windpipe and the whole thing falls out with a small final cut of the diaphragm right at the sternum.

I am only going to skin to just past where you would hang it on the gambrel, just past where the achilles attaches, maybe 6-10" or so down from that joint, then cut the lower leg off and leave it hanging for something to pull on.

It must be regional to some degree, I've never seen anyone hang a deer head up.  Gutting them hanging upside down is done all the time, I've just never seen it done after skinning, always before.

it is slicker than slacks on a duck! The old timers I used to hunt with all used to hang them heads up. I always gave them crap about hanging them by the head. I worked at a hunting lodge in South Carolina 20 years ago and would gut and skin 10 hogs a night. The first time I gutted one in the field and my boss tore my arse. Bring them back to the lodge, hang,gut,skin. Very fast and efficient. I went to a wild game processor one time down there. There were 15 deer laying on the floor of his shop in a pile. People drop them off whole. Who knows how long they had been sitting there.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Yeah, it will be to the truck quickly.  I don't want to start another road hunting thread, but let's just say it isn't much of a hike when it works.

Shooting something near a road isnt necessarily rd hunting.  Driving around hoping to spot something from your rig and shoot it is road hunting.  Some killer spots very close to vehicle access are totally overlooked.  A guy can park his rig, walk 100 yards or less into the timber, and have the world to himself and hunt quality animals while everybody else just drives past.  You just gotta sniff these things out.

Boy ain't that a fact.