The Greatest Method To Course of A Deer in 2024 & Past

Congrats! You simply harvested a deer! However now the onerous work begins. It’s time to discipline costume it, drag it to the truck, and course of the scrumptious venison. It feels like loads, but it surely’s not as sophisticated because it initially appears. So let’s get began with one of the best ways to course of a deer.

How To Course of A Deer

It’s essential to notice that everybody has a barely totally different manner of processing their deer. The one outlined under has labored effectively 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 imagine taking it to a neighborhood meat processing plant is one of the best ways to course of a deer. 

I’m not in opposition to this, however I not often 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 purpose is as a result of I wish to management what occurs to the meat. Lastly, I believe studying to course of a deer is a really precious talent, beginning with discipline dressing it.

Useful Instruments

• A number of sharp knives (one with a intestine hook is good)
• 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 discipline dressing the deer helps cut back the chance of contaminating the venison with fecal matter, urine, and the rest housed within the abdomen. You’ll typically obtain an additional cost should you don’t field-dress the deer earlier than taking it to the processor, so it’s essential to understand how to do that as a hunter.

Subject dressing is best when utilizing a knife with a intestine hook, but it surely’s not needed.

1. Step 1: Reduce by the pores and skin across the anus till the rectum is free.
2. Step 2: Reduce a 2-3 inch lengthy gap by the pores and skin slightly below 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 reducing 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 slightly below the sternum. In case you don’t have a intestine hook in your blade, you should use two fingers to create somewhat area between the stomach wall, abdomen, and intestines whereas reducing the pores and skin so that you don’t by chance minimize them (that’s a foul day, belief me…). 
4. Step 4: Reduce or noticed the pelvis, you probably have a small hand noticed (butcher noticed) accessible, to permit the decrease gut to cross by with out tearing.
5. Step 5: Noticed or minimize by the highest of the sternum, permitting for simpler entry to the center and lungs.
6. Step 6: Reduce the diaphragm (skinny muscle/membrane) from the rib cage on each side. 
7. Step 7: Rigorously minimize the esophagus and windpipe above the center, as far up as you possibly can go.
8. Step 8: Use the windpipe to tug the heart from the carcass, saving the center and liver (should you or somebody you realize 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, it’s good to 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 minimize the tendon. Doing so will forestall you from hanging the deer, making reducing the meat with out getting particles throughout it way 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 ought to be about eye stage or at the least till the pinnacle is off the bottom. Elevate and decrease the deer based on what’s most snug.
3. Step 3: Now that it’s off the bottom, minimize a skin-deep ring across the leg with the blade edge dealing with out (as a lot as attainable after the preliminary minimize) to forestall the hair from getting onto the meat. 
4. Step 4: Now you can minimize 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 minimize 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 greatest 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 at present holding up progress. Press/pull out and down on the tail and minimize the cover throughout it, then rapidly pull down/ pop the tail to separate the joints the place the tail and butt meet earlier than reducing by the tail.
7. Step 7: Transfer right down to the entrance legs and pores and skin them such as you did the again legs. You may have to put the leg you’re reducing between your legs to maintain the deer from spinning. You’ll be able to 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 greatest to maintain reducing the membrane as an alternative of simply pulling it. 

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

Growing older The Meat

Hanging a deer to let it age will depend on the surroundings, temperature, deer age, and private desire. Since my deer processing occurs within the storage, I not often get to let the deer hold for so long as I’d like. 

When you have a walk-in cooler that may hold the meat above 32°F and under 40°F, it’s best to let it hold for five to 14 days. This enables the nice micro organism to interrupt down muscle fibers, tenderizing the meat and making it rather less gamey-tasting.

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

De-Boning/Butchering

As soon as the deer has aged to your liking or the temperature has made that choice unviable, it’s time to take away the meat from the bone and place it in a cooler. It’s greatest 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 ought to be slightly below eye stage contained in the carcass. They need to come out simply by reducing close to the groin space and gently pulling (they have a tendency to go increased than most individuals assume). They’re concerning 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. You need to discover the place the muscle groups overlap; that is the place it’s best to start reducing and separating the muscle groups from one another. 
4. Step 4: As soon as a few of them are separated, you possibly can higher attain the bone and minimize it off the bones and joints. There’s not a fairly manner of doing this apart from following the bone.
5. Step 5. After eradicating the meat from many of the hind quarters (should you take away all of it, the deer will not hold since you minimize the meat hooked up to the Achilles), it’s time to maneuver on to arguably the perfect meat on the deer: the backstraps. It goes up into the hind quarters, so now that they’re eliminated, it’s best to see precisely the place to make your minimize. 
   1. I prefer to run my knife down the spine, carefully following each vertebra to get as a lot meat as attainable. Then, I minimize perpendicularly throughout the highest, pulling and reducing the backstrap off the bones till I reached the neck, the place I minimize perpendicularly throughout the underside to free the meat from the carcass. Set each apart for later processing (butterflying the backstrap). 
6. Step 6: As soon as the backstraps are eliminated, you possibly can minimize off the entrance shoulders (You’ll be able to 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. You don’t must 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’ll be able to minimize the rib meat off the bone or minimize the rib bones (this takes up more room in your freezer). There’s not a ton of rib meat, and it’s fairly robust, so most individuals grind or slow-cook it. In case you’re reducing the meat off the bone, begin on the prime of the ribs and work your manner down; that manner, gravity is working with you. Merely observe the bone together 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 possibly can start butchering the neck. Start the place you chop the backstrap and observe the backbone down and across the trachea. 
9. Step 9: Take your time and end reducing off any chunks of meat you might need missed or initially ignored. Then, you possibly can take the deer down and minimize the meat off the Achilles space. 

Making ready the Meat

Now that many 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 sometimes begins with rinsing the meat.

Washing

Cleansing the meat is important. Nobody desires dust, grass, hair, or particles of their deer stew, burger, or steak. You’ll doubtless have to clean a few of it together 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 possibly can start trimming and grinding the meat.

Trimming & Grinding

In case you’re not an enormous fan of wildgame, it’s in all probability as a result of whoever processed the meat did a poor job trimming it. I favor to chop out as many tendons and connective tissue as attainable; this consists of the silvery membrane the place many 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 practically in half. That is known as butterflying the backstrap, and it turns it right into a scrumptious steak. If you would like a thicker steak, minimize the chunks somewhat 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 just a few tendons; now’s the time to take away those you see. 

I sometimes go away the entrance shoulder meat hooked up to the bone and smoke it, however that is very robust meat, so you may as well minimize it off the bone and gradual cook dinner it or use it in a stew after eradicating as many tendons as attainable.

If I discover quite a lot of particles, I favor to scrub the meat one final time to make sure it’s clear earlier than flippantly drying it and inserting it in a freezer bag or vacuum sealing it in parts my household sometimes 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 dangerous in a 12 months. All of it will depend on how effectively you package deal it. 

Correctly Get rid of the Scraps

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

Parting Photographs: Greatest Method To Course of A Deer

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

I do know hunters who can course of a deer in below an hour and others who take just a few hours. All of it will depend on how meticulous you wish to be and the way effectively 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, growing this talent and figuring out you harvest the deer from discipline to desk is a sense you possibly can’t put a value on.

Wes Littlefield

Wes Littlefield is at present a author for AllOutdoor who has chosen to not write a brief bio presently.