hanging animals for cleaning....

All,

I did not want to interrupt a previous post, so I am starting a new one. It may be right, may be wrong, but wwhen an animal has been field-dressed, I hang it from the front legs, nose up, tail down.

I have looked at others' hanging animals and am trying to figure out if I have been doing it wrong all these years.

It may be thatif you happem to be close to a water/rinse source, or if its the way you were taught, but it there a "better" way?

I figure after a field dressing, an unwanted fluids would drain via the tail end...although the chickens get hung by their feet until I dispatch them at the neck.

Perhaps I need to reconsider,and hopefully I do not start a "what oil do I use" type of discussion,

D.

I always hang deer head down....I don't want all the guts and nasty running over the hindquarters. I also skin it before the gutting takes place.

I’ve always butchered head down, but there’s no wrong way. Its just a matter of preference, usually the way we were taught.

I've always gutted them on the spot where I shot them. The few I've skinned and cut up myself I've hung from the hind legs.

I think it's mostly a matter of habit.

I never gut a deer hang by the back legs skin cut off shoulders hams and backstrap the rest is good coyote bait.

We gut them in the field, right where they drop, no sense hauling that extra weight anyplace. when we get them to the cabin I hang them head up and wash them out with cold water, lots of it. Once they get done dripping they go in the garage and get hung head down to skin them, I was told you get less hair on the meat that way. The deer in N MN have really long hair on their neck. I was also told that the brain tissue spoils first and you don't want it to drain down into the meat, that's another reason for head down.

We generally field dress deer in the woods and skin them head down. With bear we bring them in to the garage and gut head up and skin head down. Gary

If you have ever been to a butcher you'll see the animals hanging from the hind legs. Why is that? It is an attempt to drain as much blood out of the meat as possible. It also makes it easier butchering the animal. I've always hung meat by the hind legs and never have I seen it the other way.

Gut a deer where it drops. Hang it by back legs and skin while it's still warm. Easier when warm. Hang for a week to tenderize and then enjoy.

It has been a few yrs. since I hunted but I always gutted in the woods on the spot where it fell. I also believe it is the law in NH. or was the law back then.

We bought the $100 hoist that goes in the receiver of our Mule. Gamble in the hind legs hoist it up and gut just like a beef. Let gravity do the work and keeps it out of the mud and blood! We carry a meat saw in the Mule. Everything comes out so easily you usually don't even need to wash out. Just like butchering a beef.... get the hide off right away and let it hang in <45 degree temp for 5 or 6 days.

Bill

Today's PUN:

Growing up I helped my uncle with his rabbits....slaughter was 2 nails in a 2x4 mounted on a couple of posts, knock out animal, hang by Achilles Heels, skin, and starting from the crotch, slit down the center of the animal to the neck.....letting the entrails fall out over the back of your hand as you used 2 fingers to keep the entrails off the knife edge as you cut down the outer skin, letting the contents fall as they may and then tarting at the crotch, complete the plumbing removal.

Fast forward....Urban native, very limited farm experience, married, 4 kids, trying to raise a family and looking for ways to eat good at minimum cost, liked experimentation, friend at work had a farm and raised Bovines. Plan is to go to farm, shoot selected victim, drag to nearest tree and dress him out......just like I did the rabbits.

Only one problem with that.....rabbit weighed a couple of pounds, Bovine, 6-700 give or take. Everything went according to plan till I got to the slit the skin and letting the entrails fall. I was standing in front of the animal, like I did the rabbits, and cut pretty fast down to the ribs.....what I didn't think about was the weight differences between the two operations and...........

Out comes the stomachs and as they do, the ribs didn't provide adequate support and as they rolled out, at least one of them burst on it's way toward the ground................spraying me head to foot with the contents........was out in his pasture and only water was a 7 gallon water bottle like used in office water coolers, no rags...........

But that's only part of the story.....one of these days I'll tell you about trying to get several hundred pounds of hot beef (it was August in Texas besides animals temp at the time) cooled down in 3 domestic (maintenance type) freezers (not commercial large scale units designed for the job), and then the packaging process with no meat processing equipment, just a few knives of assorted functions.......

I never deer hunted so I didn't have those animal processing skills like you folks that do.

What about the tenderloins on the inside? Couple pounds of good stuff in there.

Took slaughter class as part of my ani sci major , take off feed for 24 hour, stun and cut jugular/carotid, hang by flexor tendon off hind leg, have water source near, tie off rectum once cut away from perineal area, drop head between atlas-axis joint, tie esophagus shut, proceed to eviserate gut.

Here is a video someone made but it is the process I use:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v _ Wdwjlu9mY

I haul em back to the house, and am fortunate to be able to do that because I own the land we hunt on. I hang from the head, make a neat cut through the hide, separate the hide as much as possible from top to bottom. Cut in all around the hole on the backside and when the guts drop out, I have a tub to catch all of it, and the weight of same works with you. Once done, I drive the loader to where the hose reaches, and rinse the carcass thoroughly. The weather dictates what I do next. Most times I leave them hanging from the head, tag visible in case a DEC agent shows up.

I like the carcass to cool off and in my opinion, it makes dealing with the fat a lot easier. It does not smear nearly as much and generally just easier to deal with. Usually, the next day after the kill, after a night of cooling, I then make the necessary cuts, rig up a hitch, and pull the hide right off. I load the carcass into the cart and bring it inside to my chain fall hoist with a spreader bar that goes through the hind legs. From there I do all the deboning of the meat. That is usually followed by cleaning the meat. Last thing I do is bag it up and mark the bags, date and type of cuts. I carefully bag in storage bags, no zipper, then a ziplock, pressing all the air out. Will last well over a year like this.

I filled 2 tags last week and had all the meat taken off the bones, stored same in bags, in a tote outside, been cold all week, perfect for this. This afternoons project is to complete the cleaning and trimming, then freeze.

This all changes if the weather is above freezing by much, say into the 40's. I agree that you want that hide off, and the fat trimmed off quickly. The warmer it is, the sooner the better to get it done. When it's cold, the above works great, there is no tainting of the meat by the fat causing a "gamey" tasting meat. I had a piece of back strap last week from the doe I got, it was extremely satisfying, fillet mignon texture right off the bone. You do not need to tenderize these cuts like some do, just cut the size you want, prepare as you desire, grill on each side 5 minutes each or less, depending on heat and ones grill, serve with a side and a beverage of choice, eat like a king and enjoy !

Boy, did I flunk that course (so to speak). Grin

So, besides being empty, I guess the gut weighed more like 20#???? rather than the 150 I assumed. Obviously one time did it for me. To the slaughter house after that experience......and that too is yet another story....a bovine in a borrowed ex-U-Haul trailer, like one of the originals, made of wood, fully enclosed....friend used it on campouts....I doubt he ever did again but I had no idea as to what I'd find when I opened the doors at the slaughter house....boy was I in for a shocker!!!!!! And trying to get it cleaned out before I returned it is yet another story!!!!!

I really like that, he is really good with a knife! I had a plumber friend that used a sawzall 40 years ago.