One of my favorite aspects of hunting is butchering my own deer. I love to know I am putting my own meat in the freezer and that I will get all of my meat from my deer. I figured there were a few guys on the fence about doing this themselves and figured I would give you a few tips of how I do it, and what tools I use to get it done, and the steps I take. I will run down the costs of what I use, and am requesting input from other guys on other methods that they use. I do all of my butchering on a budget and do it in my garage. You can do this with a simple meat pole as well for the quartering process.
Let me start with what are necessary items that I use in my butchering practices.
Place to hang deer:
I use a doubled up rafter in my garage, I have a cheap 1 ton engine hoist that is chain driven. You can use a standard meat pole as well. There are pulley systems out there to help as well. I use rope to spread the deer's legs, but have been given a metal spreader from one of the guys I work with for here on out. I am contemplating buying a cheap electric winch and mounting it to a work bench or garage wall in the future.
Tarp/ plastic/garbage bag:
I like to have at least 4'x4' centered directly under the deer. This makes a nice surface for fat/ and other trimmings to fall too. You will protect the floor, and make clean up a breeze. I drop the hide and everything onto this tarp, and let the trimmings fall right to the plastic. Once it is all over, you can just wrap it all up and place it in a large bag.
Table:
I like to have a nice table that does not require me to be bent over for long periods of time while deboning. I like to have a 4' x 4' table for all of my needs, and placed about 6-10 feet from the deer. I use a cheap plastic table cloth overtop, so if I set a quarter on the table it is protected. Also this makes it easy at clean up time to collect small pieces of fat/tendon that are snipped off of the meat. I don't like any fat or tendons in my meat.
TOOLS
Knives:
I use a single knife for all of my processing needs. I use a standard 5" kaybar knife. I use this knife for field dressing, skinning and deboning as well as cutting steaks and meat. It is important that after you field dress you thoroughly clean and disinfect this. I wash the knife with antibacterial soap in very hot water. I air dry and use a disinfecting wipe as well. You do not want any remnants on this knife. It is better to have two knives but I am cheap, so a thorough cleaning is all mine gets.
It can be beneficial to have a not so sharp knife as well. I use this knive to scrape the fat off, and cut through heavy fat masses. This fat can dull your knife quicker than anything.
Game shears:
Get yourself a decent pair of game shears. The ones I use are farberware, and are around 6-8 dollars. These save a ton of time, as well as you knives when removing fat, tendons, and other tissues from meat.
Sharpeners:
I use a variety of tools to keep my knife sharp. I use a standard wet stone for the initial edge. I use a steel rod for mid processing, sharpening, and have a small tool that has two stones in a v shape for keeping and edge, this same tool has tow rods placed inside for sharpening your shears as well. Having a super sharp knife is imperative throughout the process.
Cutting board:
I like to have at least a 24" cutting board in front of me while deboning. This can handle most of your hind quarters and set it right on the board. I lay the meat on the cutting board and trim the fat off first, then de-bone the meat and separate the muscles. Then use the board to cut steaks and such.
Meat grinder:
I use a Gander mountain guide series grinder. It is a little over 1 horsepower and works pretty decent for doing a solo deer. I have had mine for about 5 years and done a lot of deer with it. I will be buying the first replacement blade for it this year. The replacement blade is about 10 dollars. If anyone has tips on sharpening your blade please fill me in, I would rather sharpen mine then spend the extra cash.
A 2 hp or better grinder will save you a bit of time, but the cost increase is not worth it to me. By removing fat and tendons you will extend the life of your grinder.
Bowls:
I use 2-3 large plastic bowls while butchering. I use these throughout the process. I will go into this a bit more later but basically I have 2 bowls in front of me while butchering. I will take the front quarters and flank off first, 1 at a time and remove fat and tendons, and debone, This meat is then placed into one of the bowls for a burger/ chunk meat bowl. Depending on the size of deer you harvest you may need two bowls for this. I then remove the straps and place them into the other bowl. Take the hind quarters and debone and separate the muscles. Once the muscles are separated, I trim them into straight edges and start my steaks. Any left over meat that is not big enough for steaks is tossed into the burger/chunk meat bowls.
Strainer/ Collider:
This comes in after you have all of your meat off of the bone and into the bowls. You want one that has a lot of holes, especially in the bottom edges. I take my meat in the bowls into the house, and rinse them all very well to be sure I get any hair off of the meat, I set them into the strainer to get the water and blood off then, back into another bowl once they are free of most water. I do this with my steaks and such first, then the burger/chunk meat.
Vaccume sealer:
This is a pretty important tool, when saving roasts, straps, steaks, and stew meat. I vaccume seal all of these cuts.
Ziploc 1/qt freezer bags:
These are what I put my burger into. I guestimate on about a pound or so in each bag. I will be getting a small scale for this in the future. I love these bags and think they are best for storing venison berger.
Computer paper:
Not a typical butchering tool, but I use this to put around my burger when placing in the freezer. Put the paper down, and place the 1 qt bag on top of the paper, then wrap the edges. When you place the burger in the freezer, place the paper side up agains the wall or rack, then place the next bag, paper side to the exposed side of the next burger. This will extend the life of your burger, and make removal from the freezer a breeze. I reuse this paper, and pile it at the bottom of the freezer.
Rags:
I like to have a few rags on hand for wiping knives while skinning and such, this will really cut down on the amount of hair you have to clean later.
Hack saw/ saws all:
I use this to cut the legs off, as well as cutting the hips at the hind quarters.
COSTS:
GRINDER- $130
KNIFE- $30-50
TABLE- $50-100
LARGE PLASTIC BOWLS -$10
VACCUME SEALER- $100-130
SHARPENING TOOLS- $50
SPREADER/CABLE TOOLS- $50-100
ZIPLOC QT BAGS- $7 PER DEER
COMPUTER PAPER- $6
HACKSAW- $10-12
STRAINER- $6
RAGS- $2
GAME SHEARS- $6-8
TARP/PLASTIC- $3
CUTTING BOARD- $10
TOTAL INITIAL START UP COST- ROUGHLY $400- 500-(INCLUDES VACCUME SEALER, AND CABLE SYSTEM, NOT NEEDED)
Now that I have run through the material that I use, lets go to the butchering practice.
First things first, remove the "fish" or "preachers meat" These are two small strips of meat located in the inside of the hind quarters. Some guys do this in the field. It is imperative to get them out as soon as possible, and rinse the blood off of them. This is the most tender meat on the deer. Some larger deer will have this between their front quarters as well. Get these out and rinse, and marinating pronto!
Now after you have the deer field dressed it is time to start skinning/butchering. I like to have the deer elevated with its feet in the air, and nose facing down. this will help with any blood leaving the chest cavity, if you can afford to let the deer hang. Lets assume you are not caping the deer for a trophy mount.
I first start by cutting the hide in a circle around the front leg bending point below the shoulder. Cut the whole way around and completely serperate the hide. Next take your knife and insert it under the hide pointing towards the elbow. Follow the place where brown meets white all the way up past the shoulder. Next take you knife and start at the brisket/sternum, and cut down to the base of the neck. I then connect the lines from the neck to the inside of the elbow and pull the hide away. Pull the hair up from front leg joint towards the shoulder. Once this hide is removed, take your hack saw and cut the legs off. You can remove the ball and socket with your knife but I find it easier to use the hack saw. Be sure to remove the hide first to keep any hair out of your front quarters. Now remove the hide off of the front shoulders and brisket the best you can. You will end up with the hide removed from the front legs, and brisket but still attached at the neck dangling.
Next cut the hide the whole way around the neck. Cut throught the esophagus and such. Do not use your knife to cut the head off and try your best not to let your knive come in contact with any spinal chord fluid or other material. Use a separate knife or saw to remove this as this is where CWD and other issues are found.
Now lets move to the hind quarters. Start at the hind quarters on the inside of the deer's leg. Start you first cut centered and cut up towards the tarsal glands. I split this hide then peel outwards toward the front of the deers legs. I pull a bit then if necessary use my knife to help it along. Work this around the leg the hole way up to the tail. I think cut the hide above the tarsal glands, making sure not to make contact with the knife and tarsal glands. If you do, take and clean the knife and disinfect it before cutting other meat. Any time you cut through the hide against the grain take a rag and wipe off any hair that my accumulate here. this will save on rinsing time. once you have each hind quarter free of hide, cut the tail off. There is a lot of fat deposited on the rear end here, so I suggest using your duller knife to get through this, once the tail bone is cut you can then peel down the hide a bit.
Now you are ready to pull the hide the whole way down. We have our front shoulders and brisket area skinned and now we can pull the hide down all the way to the neck pretty easily. Be careful when pulling down from the rib cage, as you may remove any flank meat that can be added to your chunk/burger meat.
I peel down all the way to the shoulders, and since we have this already separated the whole hide should come down to the neck. The neck is the toughest part about skinning a deer. I like to pull as much down as I can, but often have to use my knife a bit more to remove this. The hide likes to get bunched up here. I opt not to extend my brisket cut as you get a lot more hair on your meat this way. Keep pulling and guiding until the neck is almost free. It will pop out and your hide will be on the plastic.
Now go inside and wash you knives, and put a fresh edge on it. this will reduce hair getting into the meat, and aid you in removing your quarters.
I first move in and separate the front shoulders. The muscles that attach the shoulder extend onto the rib cage, up above the back strap, and into the brisket and neck. Start cut at the rib cage and work your way towards the brisket, this will be relatively easy. Once you get down the the brisket pull the shoulder away from the rest of the deer, and use you knife to cut throught the connecting tissue. The muscles above the strap will start to peel off and stop at the center of the strap. Continue up the neck and remove as much as you can from the neck. If you want a neck roast, stop at the base of the neck. You should now be left with the whole front quarter that is attached at the top of the back bone area, and separate from the strap. Take this and cut it off. Do not cut into the strap.
I debone them one at a time from here. Start by removing the fat and other tissues first. Then separate the muscles in the flank, above the shoulder and into the neck. Set the remaining front shoulder aside, and cut the fat and other tissues from this meat. Set the cleaned meat into the chunk meat bowl. Next move to the blade area. There is a bone that is raised in the blade. Make your cut into the meat and follow this bone down. Now slide your knife into the blade and fillet this meat off. Do this to both sides. You can cut this off at the elbow. Do this to the back side as well. Once you have this separated, cut the fat and tendons off and cut it into decent sized sections of meat and throw them into your burger bowl. now the lower leg has the most tendons in the meat. Separate this meat and use your game shears to cut the tendons off. These are hard on your grinder and make your burger meat very chewy and not good.
Repeat this process with both shoulders.
my next move is to remove the belly meat. I will not do this if the deer has been gut shot or liver shot. Toxins can become present in this meat. These sections of meat run from the hind quarter to the last rib. Remove these and trim and fat and such. this meat will have the most blood on it from field dressing. I elect to keep this meat separate from the other meat until It is rinse free of blood. You may not want to use this meat, but I have never had any issues from it. Again do not use this if the deer is gut shot or liver shot.
After the belly meat is removed I double check the flank an ribcage for any more meat I may have missed. I then remove the straps. I cut right along the back bone from the hind quarters down to the neck. Use your knife like a fillet knife and angle this toward the spine. Next cut from the hind quarter towards the spine. I then go back down to the neck and cut down and then bring the knife back up along the rib cage, keep it tight to the little shelf formed in the ribs. I run this all the way up to the hind quarter.
I take the strap to the cutting board and remove and fat and other tissues. I DO NOT REMOVE THE SILVER SKIN UNTIL I AM READY TO PREPARE THE MEAT. I do this so it acts as a barrier to help keep the meat fresh.
Once you remove the straps, go back to the neck and debone the meat from the neck, this adds a few pounds of meat for your chunk/burger meat. You can also elect to cut the neck off for a neck roast, but I do not like to cook my meat with bones in it.
Once the straps are removed and neck deboned, separate the carcass from the hind quarters. Use a different hacksaw for this as it will be coming in contact with spinal chord fluid. Cut across the back bone and let the carcass drop to the plastic.
Now cut down through the hips with the saw, and serpate the hind quarters from one another. After they are separated, use a different saw to cut the legs from the hind quarter. Take the hind quarter over to the table and remove all fat and other tissues. You will see that the lower section of hind quarter is full of tendons and such. Remove this and get rid of the tendons. Cut for burger meat. Now move up to the hind quarter. I separate the muscles You get mainly 3 major muscles here. I name them, sqare steak, round steak, and tips, This may not be the scientific names for these cuts but they work for me. I then take the square steak section and trim it square, any left over meat is added to the burger pot. The round steak section looks like a tear drop. You can cut this into steak or save it as a roast. I elect to keep it for roast but they do make really nice steaks. The tips section is a small section of meat that s about 2" round and about 10" long depending on size of deer. I do not cut my steaks until all meat has been rinsed.
Now lets go inside and start the rinsing.
Now when you go inside to rinse the meat you have 3 separate bowls. Take you steak/roast/strap bowl and start with that meat. I througholy rinse each section of meat then place it in a strainer. I try to get as much water off as I can then set it on the cutting board. Once all meat is rinsed and free of hair, lay it on the cutting borad. I then cut the straps into sections and set them back in the strainer, to get more water and blood off. Next cut your steaks from the round, and square sections. Once this is done, remove your straps from the strainer and dry them with a paper towl, and vaccume seal.
Once you are done sealing the straps, do the same with the steaks then vaccume seal.
Now put these aside or into the freezer.
Now start rinsings you chunk meat. keep your shears with you and snip any remaining fat from the meat, and tendons, Place the rinsed meat into the strainer. once you have them rinsed and strained place them into the bowl that you had from the steaks, Repeat this until all meat is rinsed and free of hair.
Now you are ready do grind, set up your grinder and place one of the large bowls under the output. Take the other chunk/burger meat and set it aside. Pull meat from there and put it into the strainer again, to further remove blood and hair, do not rinse it a second time, you are only doing this to have dryer meat go to the grinder. Once the first meat is strained, move it into the grinders hopper, place more meat in the strainer and start grinding. Continue this until all the meat is ground and ready to be bagged.
Now all you have left is to take the burger and bag it. Take your Ziploc 1 qt freezer bags and add a little over a pound to each bag. I will be getting a scale for next year. Use one "dirty" hand to add the meat and the other to grab the bag. Leave the bag open with meat in it. Continue this until you have all of the meat into bags. Now rinse your hand and dry them off. Now you can squish the meat to fill the bag, and remove any air then zip tight. If you do this all at one time you are left with nasty bloody bag of burger that stick together in the freezer. AGAIN HAVE ONE CLEAN HAND TO PICK UP THE BAG, ONE DIRTY HAND TO FILL IT WITH MEAT, LEAVE THE BAG OPEN UNTIL ALL ARE FULL, THEN WASH AND DRY HANDS, AND SQUISH THE MEAT! This is one step you wont regret skipping.
Now all that is left to do is place the 1 qt bags ontop of a sheet of computer paper and wrap around the bag and place the meat in the freezer.
All and all it is a longer process. Your initial startup cost are not too bad and you will see benefits after your first 3 or 4 deer. You will be left with a lot more meat in the freezer, and a lot better meat with a lot less fat. You will get to "finalize" the harvest and have the satisfaction of knowing you did it all by your self, and saved your self some money. After the start up costs, you will only have to buy Ziploc bags and food saver bags.
If you have anything to add feel free, and if you have an questions PM me.
Let me start with what are necessary items that I use in my butchering practices.
Place to hang deer:
I use a doubled up rafter in my garage, I have a cheap 1 ton engine hoist that is chain driven. You can use a standard meat pole as well. There are pulley systems out there to help as well. I use rope to spread the deer's legs, but have been given a metal spreader from one of the guys I work with for here on out. I am contemplating buying a cheap electric winch and mounting it to a work bench or garage wall in the future.
Tarp/ plastic/garbage bag:
I like to have at least 4'x4' centered directly under the deer. This makes a nice surface for fat/ and other trimmings to fall too. You will protect the floor, and make clean up a breeze. I drop the hide and everything onto this tarp, and let the trimmings fall right to the plastic. Once it is all over, you can just wrap it all up and place it in a large bag.
Table:
I like to have a nice table that does not require me to be bent over for long periods of time while deboning. I like to have a 4' x 4' table for all of my needs, and placed about 6-10 feet from the deer. I use a cheap plastic table cloth overtop, so if I set a quarter on the table it is protected. Also this makes it easy at clean up time to collect small pieces of fat/tendon that are snipped off of the meat. I don't like any fat or tendons in my meat.
TOOLS
Knives:
I use a single knife for all of my processing needs. I use a standard 5" kaybar knife. I use this knife for field dressing, skinning and deboning as well as cutting steaks and meat. It is important that after you field dress you thoroughly clean and disinfect this. I wash the knife with antibacterial soap in very hot water. I air dry and use a disinfecting wipe as well. You do not want any remnants on this knife. It is better to have two knives but I am cheap, so a thorough cleaning is all mine gets.
It can be beneficial to have a not so sharp knife as well. I use this knive to scrape the fat off, and cut through heavy fat masses. This fat can dull your knife quicker than anything.
Game shears:
Get yourself a decent pair of game shears. The ones I use are farberware, and are around 6-8 dollars. These save a ton of time, as well as you knives when removing fat, tendons, and other tissues from meat.
Sharpeners:
I use a variety of tools to keep my knife sharp. I use a standard wet stone for the initial edge. I use a steel rod for mid processing, sharpening, and have a small tool that has two stones in a v shape for keeping and edge, this same tool has tow rods placed inside for sharpening your shears as well. Having a super sharp knife is imperative throughout the process.
Cutting board:
I like to have at least a 24" cutting board in front of me while deboning. This can handle most of your hind quarters and set it right on the board. I lay the meat on the cutting board and trim the fat off first, then de-bone the meat and separate the muscles. Then use the board to cut steaks and such.
Meat grinder:
I use a Gander mountain guide series grinder. It is a little over 1 horsepower and works pretty decent for doing a solo deer. I have had mine for about 5 years and done a lot of deer with it. I will be buying the first replacement blade for it this year. The replacement blade is about 10 dollars. If anyone has tips on sharpening your blade please fill me in, I would rather sharpen mine then spend the extra cash.
A 2 hp or better grinder will save you a bit of time, but the cost increase is not worth it to me. By removing fat and tendons you will extend the life of your grinder.
Bowls:
I use 2-3 large plastic bowls while butchering. I use these throughout the process. I will go into this a bit more later but basically I have 2 bowls in front of me while butchering. I will take the front quarters and flank off first, 1 at a time and remove fat and tendons, and debone, This meat is then placed into one of the bowls for a burger/ chunk meat bowl. Depending on the size of deer you harvest you may need two bowls for this. I then remove the straps and place them into the other bowl. Take the hind quarters and debone and separate the muscles. Once the muscles are separated, I trim them into straight edges and start my steaks. Any left over meat that is not big enough for steaks is tossed into the burger/chunk meat bowls.
Strainer/ Collider:
This comes in after you have all of your meat off of the bone and into the bowls. You want one that has a lot of holes, especially in the bottom edges. I take my meat in the bowls into the house, and rinse them all very well to be sure I get any hair off of the meat, I set them into the strainer to get the water and blood off then, back into another bowl once they are free of most water. I do this with my steaks and such first, then the burger/chunk meat.
Vaccume sealer:
This is a pretty important tool, when saving roasts, straps, steaks, and stew meat. I vaccume seal all of these cuts.
Ziploc 1/qt freezer bags:
These are what I put my burger into. I guestimate on about a pound or so in each bag. I will be getting a small scale for this in the future. I love these bags and think they are best for storing venison berger.
Computer paper:
Not a typical butchering tool, but I use this to put around my burger when placing in the freezer. Put the paper down, and place the 1 qt bag on top of the paper, then wrap the edges. When you place the burger in the freezer, place the paper side up agains the wall or rack, then place the next bag, paper side to the exposed side of the next burger. This will extend the life of your burger, and make removal from the freezer a breeze. I reuse this paper, and pile it at the bottom of the freezer.
Rags:
I like to have a few rags on hand for wiping knives while skinning and such, this will really cut down on the amount of hair you have to clean later.
Hack saw/ saws all:
I use this to cut the legs off, as well as cutting the hips at the hind quarters.
COSTS:
GRINDER- $130
KNIFE- $30-50
TABLE- $50-100
LARGE PLASTIC BOWLS -$10
VACCUME SEALER- $100-130
SHARPENING TOOLS- $50
SPREADER/CABLE TOOLS- $50-100
ZIPLOC QT BAGS- $7 PER DEER
COMPUTER PAPER- $6
HACKSAW- $10-12
STRAINER- $6
RAGS- $2
GAME SHEARS- $6-8
TARP/PLASTIC- $3
CUTTING BOARD- $10
TOTAL INITIAL START UP COST- ROUGHLY $400- 500-(INCLUDES VACCUME SEALER, AND CABLE SYSTEM, NOT NEEDED)
Now that I have run through the material that I use, lets go to the butchering practice.
First things first, remove the "fish" or "preachers meat" These are two small strips of meat located in the inside of the hind quarters. Some guys do this in the field. It is imperative to get them out as soon as possible, and rinse the blood off of them. This is the most tender meat on the deer. Some larger deer will have this between their front quarters as well. Get these out and rinse, and marinating pronto!
Now after you have the deer field dressed it is time to start skinning/butchering. I like to have the deer elevated with its feet in the air, and nose facing down. this will help with any blood leaving the chest cavity, if you can afford to let the deer hang. Lets assume you are not caping the deer for a trophy mount.
I first start by cutting the hide in a circle around the front leg bending point below the shoulder. Cut the whole way around and completely serperate the hide. Next take your knife and insert it under the hide pointing towards the elbow. Follow the place where brown meets white all the way up past the shoulder. Next take you knife and start at the brisket/sternum, and cut down to the base of the neck. I then connect the lines from the neck to the inside of the elbow and pull the hide away. Pull the hair up from front leg joint towards the shoulder. Once this hide is removed, take your hack saw and cut the legs off. You can remove the ball and socket with your knife but I find it easier to use the hack saw. Be sure to remove the hide first to keep any hair out of your front quarters. Now remove the hide off of the front shoulders and brisket the best you can. You will end up with the hide removed from the front legs, and brisket but still attached at the neck dangling.
Next cut the hide the whole way around the neck. Cut throught the esophagus and such. Do not use your knife to cut the head off and try your best not to let your knive come in contact with any spinal chord fluid or other material. Use a separate knife or saw to remove this as this is where CWD and other issues are found.
Now lets move to the hind quarters. Start at the hind quarters on the inside of the deer's leg. Start you first cut centered and cut up towards the tarsal glands. I split this hide then peel outwards toward the front of the deers legs. I pull a bit then if necessary use my knife to help it along. Work this around the leg the hole way up to the tail. I think cut the hide above the tarsal glands, making sure not to make contact with the knife and tarsal glands. If you do, take and clean the knife and disinfect it before cutting other meat. Any time you cut through the hide against the grain take a rag and wipe off any hair that my accumulate here. this will save on rinsing time. once you have each hind quarter free of hide, cut the tail off. There is a lot of fat deposited on the rear end here, so I suggest using your duller knife to get through this, once the tail bone is cut you can then peel down the hide a bit.
Now you are ready to pull the hide the whole way down. We have our front shoulders and brisket area skinned and now we can pull the hide down all the way to the neck pretty easily. Be careful when pulling down from the rib cage, as you may remove any flank meat that can be added to your chunk/burger meat.
I peel down all the way to the shoulders, and since we have this already separated the whole hide should come down to the neck. The neck is the toughest part about skinning a deer. I like to pull as much down as I can, but often have to use my knife a bit more to remove this. The hide likes to get bunched up here. I opt not to extend my brisket cut as you get a lot more hair on your meat this way. Keep pulling and guiding until the neck is almost free. It will pop out and your hide will be on the plastic.
Now go inside and wash you knives, and put a fresh edge on it. this will reduce hair getting into the meat, and aid you in removing your quarters.
I first move in and separate the front shoulders. The muscles that attach the shoulder extend onto the rib cage, up above the back strap, and into the brisket and neck. Start cut at the rib cage and work your way towards the brisket, this will be relatively easy. Once you get down the the brisket pull the shoulder away from the rest of the deer, and use you knife to cut throught the connecting tissue. The muscles above the strap will start to peel off and stop at the center of the strap. Continue up the neck and remove as much as you can from the neck. If you want a neck roast, stop at the base of the neck. You should now be left with the whole front quarter that is attached at the top of the back bone area, and separate from the strap. Take this and cut it off. Do not cut into the strap.
I debone them one at a time from here. Start by removing the fat and other tissues first. Then separate the muscles in the flank, above the shoulder and into the neck. Set the remaining front shoulder aside, and cut the fat and other tissues from this meat. Set the cleaned meat into the chunk meat bowl. Next move to the blade area. There is a bone that is raised in the blade. Make your cut into the meat and follow this bone down. Now slide your knife into the blade and fillet this meat off. Do this to both sides. You can cut this off at the elbow. Do this to the back side as well. Once you have this separated, cut the fat and tendons off and cut it into decent sized sections of meat and throw them into your burger bowl. now the lower leg has the most tendons in the meat. Separate this meat and use your game shears to cut the tendons off. These are hard on your grinder and make your burger meat very chewy and not good.
Repeat this process with both shoulders.
my next move is to remove the belly meat. I will not do this if the deer has been gut shot or liver shot. Toxins can become present in this meat. These sections of meat run from the hind quarter to the last rib. Remove these and trim and fat and such. this meat will have the most blood on it from field dressing. I elect to keep this meat separate from the other meat until It is rinse free of blood. You may not want to use this meat, but I have never had any issues from it. Again do not use this if the deer is gut shot or liver shot.
After the belly meat is removed I double check the flank an ribcage for any more meat I may have missed. I then remove the straps. I cut right along the back bone from the hind quarters down to the neck. Use your knife like a fillet knife and angle this toward the spine. Next cut from the hind quarter towards the spine. I then go back down to the neck and cut down and then bring the knife back up along the rib cage, keep it tight to the little shelf formed in the ribs. I run this all the way up to the hind quarter.
I take the strap to the cutting board and remove and fat and other tissues. I DO NOT REMOVE THE SILVER SKIN UNTIL I AM READY TO PREPARE THE MEAT. I do this so it acts as a barrier to help keep the meat fresh.
Once you remove the straps, go back to the neck and debone the meat from the neck, this adds a few pounds of meat for your chunk/burger meat. You can also elect to cut the neck off for a neck roast, but I do not like to cook my meat with bones in it.
Once the straps are removed and neck deboned, separate the carcass from the hind quarters. Use a different hacksaw for this as it will be coming in contact with spinal chord fluid. Cut across the back bone and let the carcass drop to the plastic.
Now cut down through the hips with the saw, and serpate the hind quarters from one another. After they are separated, use a different saw to cut the legs from the hind quarter. Take the hind quarter over to the table and remove all fat and other tissues. You will see that the lower section of hind quarter is full of tendons and such. Remove this and get rid of the tendons. Cut for burger meat. Now move up to the hind quarter. I separate the muscles You get mainly 3 major muscles here. I name them, sqare steak, round steak, and tips, This may not be the scientific names for these cuts but they work for me. I then take the square steak section and trim it square, any left over meat is added to the burger pot. The round steak section looks like a tear drop. You can cut this into steak or save it as a roast. I elect to keep it for roast but they do make really nice steaks. The tips section is a small section of meat that s about 2" round and about 10" long depending on size of deer. I do not cut my steaks until all meat has been rinsed.
Now lets go inside and start the rinsing.
Now when you go inside to rinse the meat you have 3 separate bowls. Take you steak/roast/strap bowl and start with that meat. I througholy rinse each section of meat then place it in a strainer. I try to get as much water off as I can then set it on the cutting board. Once all meat is rinsed and free of hair, lay it on the cutting borad. I then cut the straps into sections and set them back in the strainer, to get more water and blood off. Next cut your steaks from the round, and square sections. Once this is done, remove your straps from the strainer and dry them with a paper towl, and vaccume seal.
Once you are done sealing the straps, do the same with the steaks then vaccume seal.
Now put these aside or into the freezer.
Now start rinsings you chunk meat. keep your shears with you and snip any remaining fat from the meat, and tendons, Place the rinsed meat into the strainer. once you have them rinsed and strained place them into the bowl that you had from the steaks, Repeat this until all meat is rinsed and free of hair.
Now you are ready do grind, set up your grinder and place one of the large bowls under the output. Take the other chunk/burger meat and set it aside. Pull meat from there and put it into the strainer again, to further remove blood and hair, do not rinse it a second time, you are only doing this to have dryer meat go to the grinder. Once the first meat is strained, move it into the grinders hopper, place more meat in the strainer and start grinding. Continue this until all the meat is ground and ready to be bagged.
Now all you have left is to take the burger and bag it. Take your Ziploc 1 qt freezer bags and add a little over a pound to each bag. I will be getting a scale for next year. Use one "dirty" hand to add the meat and the other to grab the bag. Leave the bag open with meat in it. Continue this until you have all of the meat into bags. Now rinse your hand and dry them off. Now you can squish the meat to fill the bag, and remove any air then zip tight. If you do this all at one time you are left with nasty bloody bag of burger that stick together in the freezer. AGAIN HAVE ONE CLEAN HAND TO PICK UP THE BAG, ONE DIRTY HAND TO FILL IT WITH MEAT, LEAVE THE BAG OPEN UNTIL ALL ARE FULL, THEN WASH AND DRY HANDS, AND SQUISH THE MEAT! This is one step you wont regret skipping.
Now all that is left to do is place the 1 qt bags ontop of a sheet of computer paper and wrap around the bag and place the meat in the freezer.
All and all it is a longer process. Your initial startup cost are not too bad and you will see benefits after your first 3 or 4 deer. You will be left with a lot more meat in the freezer, and a lot better meat with a lot less fat. You will get to "finalize" the harvest and have the satisfaction of knowing you did it all by your self, and saved your self some money. After the start up costs, you will only have to buy Ziploc bags and food saver bags.
If you have anything to add feel free, and if you have an questions PM me.
