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.

[greenhead_killer]

I’ve done it this way multiple times. In fact, just did it with a bear I shot on Sunday. Hauled it out whole, a pain, but was able to hang and skin first then gut.

Like said, once skinned, zip from pelvis to sternum. Take a saw and split chest cavity. Around the butt, knife all the way around to loosen tissue/muscle up. Then take one of the front hooves (works with deer/elk/etc) and jam it down the shoot to push the butt hole out etc again. Everything will shoot out In one clean swoop. Super clean.

[hard hunter]

We do this with all the deer and elk we shoot at the uncles farm in Idaho. 

[Alchase]

I prefer to gut out immediately. No matter where I kill it. If I have a long drag I will knock the knees. Less to get hung up. Then when back in camp, hang head up, and skin. I find I get a ton less hair on the meat when skinning head up. And I can slip the game bag right up to the neck without repositioning.

[Stein]

I prefer to gut out immediately. No matter where I kill it. If I have a long drag I will knock the knees. Less to get hung up. Then when back in camp, hang head up, and skin. I find I get a ton less hair on the meat when skinning head up. And I can slip the game bag right up to the neck without repositioning.

That kind of makes sense as the neck area is the hardest and I can see how having that at eye level and doing it first would help.

I have this dream of getting my deer and antelope, if I do, maybe I'll do one heads up and one heads down.  If I had a stronger hoist I would just tie the hide to a fence post and drive it off.  Now that I think about it, I could put it in the bed of the truck, tie the head to the tie down against the cab and do it that way.

[elksnout]

Who the hell gets a deer out whole?

Elksnout

[Stein]

Easy, you just have to hunt the right areas.

I got two out at the same time last year, I was too lazy to make two trips and wanted to see if the cart could handle it.  I have to use a game cart, if you can drive out it's even easier.

Field dressing at the truck with a hoist gives me so much better of an end product.  I consider myself pretty good in the field with a knife, but if you get them out whole there is zero chance for dirt on them and you just have to worry about hair, thus this discussion.

[kball4]

I've tried gutless method, head up, head down.  I prefer gutting immediately, I always split the pelvic bone to make sliding the entrails easier, then head down skinning.

[Alchase]

Another thing to think about is to use the teraign to your advantage. I will lay a buck down stomach facing uphill while I make my cuts from the rear up to the throat. This helps keep guts down towards the backbone. Then I flip it over stomach facing down hill. Most imes the guts will roll right out.

[Okanagan]

Have done the last ten or 12 family deer that way, skinning first, plus one moose.  Before my geriatricity, I backpacked many more boned out ones... 

I start as Stein described, skin down past the hocks before hanging and cut around the anus on the ground or with rump barely lifted.  If I need to keep the tail attached as evidence of species, I pull a clear plastic bag over the tail.  Cut the hide through around the tail bone and cinch a cord around the base of the tail and bag, with all hair inside the bag, tail bone still attached. That keeps tail hair from  getting on the meat.

 I've done this skin first approach right where some animals fell, hanging them on a tree limb or tripod of poles. 

I cut the pelvis after it is hung, not getting the saw teeth into the pelvic channel much, to avoid the bladder.  I use a pull saw for all of this.  The bladder hangs down away from the blade when it is hung up.

Then I saw open the sternum before starting gutting.  Saw from the brisket up to the diaphragm.  A cut into the lungs or heart does not matter, but I keep the angle close to the sternum, not letting much of the saw inside the body cavity, and stop before entering the gut cavity.  It opens access more if you cut the flank flap loose from the ham. When cut loose from pelvis the guts then roll right out.  The diaphragm is right there with easy access to cut around the edge along the ribs.  One light push down and the ribs spread as it all drops out.  A tub is a good idea or a snowy hill slope to roll the guts/lungs assembly out of the way. 

It leaves an amazingly clean carcase.  We did my grandson's opening day archery buck that way a couple of weeks ago.  It was so clean it looked like a training video.

Re skinning from the head down:  have done many that way, and it has advantages and dis.  An older Native lady told me that if I skinned head up the thin red meat on the back and sides would stay on the carcase rather than stay with the hide. She is right. If you save the hide to tan, skinning head up may be better.  I get more hair on the meat when skinning head up but I could improve that with better starting technique at the top of the neck.

[jeffro]

I’ve been going the gutless method for the last few years.
Skin out some, remove, bag meat, repeat...
The only hard part is the tenderloins
And if you want the heart/ liver
Save that for the end

[Okanagan]

Would add  re skinning before gutting a hanging deer:  If you cut off the head when the skin is down to the back of the skull, then you can take out the entire anus to Adam's apple internals in one unit.  A slit down the neck after entrails and lungs roll out will free the esophagus and wind pipe to go out with the rest.  No cutting either esophagus nor windpipe inside the chest cavity.

 We only do this method when we can get the gutting done soon after the animal goes down. If the critter has to be left for awhile or overnight, gut it even if you plan to bone it out later.

There is no best way to gut and skin, because terrain, nature of wound, temperature, time of day, distance to pack, etc. are all factors that decide the best method for that deer in that situation.  I started to gut a blacktail one time and quickly discovered the worst gut shot I've encountered due to a bullet that changed direction and penetrated where I didn't expect.  Instantly I reverted to gutless and boned out the critter without opening the gut cavity till the last reach-in for tenderloins.  I've boned them out beside a vehicle and hung them way out in the bush.  Different strokes for different deer.

[kball4]

I don't saw through the pelvic bone, I use a rock and thick blade knife and it splits right through it. As long as the game is still warm the bones are soft.

[dvolmer]

I don't ever see a reason for me to ever gut a deer again.  Gutless method is by the far the way to go.  All you come home with is a few bags of meat with no hide or carcass to deal with.  Leave it all in the field for birds and coyotes.  Plus you don't have to haul all that stuff out of the backcountry that takes a lot of physical effort.  When you get home its just a quick job of spraying off and cleaning the meat and then doing whatever you have planned with it.

[Stein]

The reason I haven't gone gutless is that I save the heart, liver and ribs (when allowed per CWD regulations).  I could do that gutless but it seems like more work than just gutting it.

Additionally, I like to keep the animal as whole as possible up to the cutting table as it gives me more freedom for different cuts as well as minimal loss due to dirt and dry meat where previous cuts were made.

It's a personal preference for sure and doesn't apply to an animal shot 5 miles from the road for sure.

In a few years, I may be back to quartering, but I like to try new things and see what works best.

[dvolmer]

The reason I haven't gone gutless is that I save the heart, liver and ribs (when allowed per CWD regulations).  I could do that gutless but it seems like more work than just gutting it.

Additionally, I like to keep the animal as whole as possible up to the cutting table as it gives me more freedom for different cuts as well as minimal loss due to dirt and dry meat where previous cuts were made.

It's a personal preference for sure and doesn't apply to an animal shot 5 miles from the road for sure.

In a few years, I may be back to quartering, but I like to try new things and see what works best.

I agree totally that it is up to the hunters preference.  I don't care for the Liver and heart on a deer but I will keep an elk heart when I can.  What I really like is that I don't have to deal with the hide and carcass after I get home.  I used to sneak down and dump them in dumpsters and or have to take them for a long drive into the country.  I really like not having to do that.  Every guy has different likes and situations.  So whatever works for you is what is best for you.

[Stein]

That's a good point, I will be hunting on private land and they don't want a gut pile attracting dogs or messing with machinery so I need to figure out what to do with the guts, bones and hide.  I think I'll either find a rest area with big dumpster or go to an actual landfill.  I have heard it's illegal to put them on public land but haven't actually seen any laws about that, it's obviously legal to leave animal parts you shot there but maybe not legal to move them from one place to another.  Due to CWD I want to leave them as close to the kill site as possible, but ironically that might not be legal?

[nwwanderer]

Depends on time, temp and shot placement, get'r'done