processing big game..

[ronatron]

im new to hunting and have never taken a big game animal, this is the year hopefully. unfurtunatly i am teaching myself. After i drop the animal and track it, i would clip my tag clean out the chest cavity and try to cool the meat. besides that what would i do next. i have never skinned an animal or qaurtered one. I plan on getting a cutter to proccess the animal , but i would like to learn i have the space to do this in my nice cool shop. do you know of any articles or videos that would give me a little more insight on this..

thanks for your help..

[Glenny]

I.m sure youtube will have some good game cutting clips.

[Kalum]

Lot's of instructional video on youtube on how to quarter and clean. Here's a link to a fairly good descrption on the gutless method http://elk101.com/webisodes/gutless-video/

[bigshooter]

Just remember to go slow and do a clean job. Get a cheep tarp. Up untill last year, all my animals that I gutted, I cut from ass to ribcage, stopping at the ribcage, last year was the first time that I split the ribcage, this made it alot easier and it will cool faster. If you quarter an animal you need to know were the cuts need to be made if you want the stakes and roasts to turn out. Youtube is great.

[Mr. Dean]

DVD.

Deer Processing 101
Seneca Creek Productions/Outdoor Edge

~ $20 and 3 hrs long.
Very detailed on ALL aspects of handling game once the trigger is pulled. Wish I had it when I started out.

[Bow Walker]

im new to hunting and have never taken a big game animal, this is the year hopefully. unfurtunatly i am teaching myself. After i drop the animal and track it, i would clip my tag clean out the chest cavity and try to cool the meat. besides that what would i do next. i have never skinned an animal or qaurtered one. I plan on getting a cutter to proccess the animal , but i would like to learn i have the space to do this in my nice cool shop. do you know of any articles or videos that would give me a little more insight on this..

thanks for your help..
I'd suggest that you do this in reverse order...........

[ronatron]

thanks for the usefull replies...

and for you bow walker the critique, what i meant was track the blood trail....

[bigshooter]

Shoot it right and you don't have to track a blood trail.

[Bow Walker]

Just kidding - I found what you said to be amusing. Go to You Tube and do a search on "Game cutting" there are a ton of useful videos - as has been mentioned.

Good luck this year.

[guywitha270]

check this one out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijmge8_NJw

[Black Bird]

I would recommend "Dressing and Cooking Wild Game" from the 'Complete Hunter Series' (http://www.basspro.com/The-Complete-Hunter-Dressing-and-Cooking-Wild-Game-Book/product/87704/-548795). But, as mentioned above, there are many U-Tube videos that will help out. If you are able though, I would suggest going out for your first few times with someone who knows what they are doing. While the videos are great, some of what you watch will be forgotten when you get right down to it. If the person you go out with butchers their own then I would suggest that you go with them and learn. It really is not all that hard.

Cheers,
BB

[moose2]

Not all situations will allow you to deal with a large animal in a shop. This is how deal with moose and elk when I get one. 99% of the time I will get the animal while I am walking and will be returning to quad it out. I will flip the animal on its back and tie off a couple legs to keep it there if theres no one to help hold legs. When gutting I like to start with my knife at the throat and work my way down to the ass, I find the stomach dosn't want to pop out and interfer as much this way. After its split from top to bottom I will use a hand saw to cut the rib cage and the pelvic bone be careful not to cut the piss bag when doing this. I then grab the wind pipe and start pulling towards the bottom of the animal using my knife to free any attached tissue then I will cut down both sides of the diaphram getting as close to the spine as I can. I will keep pulling now heart ,lungs will pull clean now and liver and stomach will follow. Stomach can be rolled over side of carcass. I then lift out the intestines and piss bag through opening in pelvis and pull everything to the back cut around ass and remove that. Now the cavity is completly clean I will count 3 ribs up from the bottom and cut between 3rd and 4th rib from the top of the rib cage down to the spine on both sides including the hide. I will now use my saw to cut the spine in line with my 2 rib cuts this will allow me to cut the remaining meat and hide on the back. Now the animal is in half and this is when I do a quick cleaning to get most of the blood out. I will leave it this way spread out as much as possible to cool while I go for my quad. If I return with help we will cut of the head remove lower legs and take off antlers and lift it onto the racks in halves. If I am on my own I will quarter the animal with a chain saw so I only have quarters to lift. I will cut down the center of the spine from top to bottom on the hinds and bottom to top on the fronts. I try not to saw through the hide with the saw. Once the bone is completly cut through I will finish cutting through with my knife ( it keeps things cleaner that way)Then back to camp for hanging, skinning a good cleaning and finally cheese cloth to cover the quarters. This is not the only way to do it but it's what works best for me, and I have tried other ways over the years. The key when learning is to go slow be paitient and careful and always clean up the meat well. Remember the meat cutter won't always be able to clean a dirty animal that well , so what you take them might end up in brown paper.
Hope this helps Mike

[Glenny]

check this one out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijmge8_NJw

Wow! That was amazing. Gotta try that in super slomo.

[ronatron]

check this one out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijmge8_NJw

very impressive video thank you very much.

i have heard of people hanging the dear carcuss for up to a few days before debonning it , what does this do to the meat and why..

[krazy]

Not all situations will allow you to deal with a large animal in a shop. This is how deal with moose and elk when I get one. 99% of the time I will get the animal while I am walking and will be returning to quad it out. I will flip the animal on its back and tie off a couple legs to keep it there if theres no one to help hold legs. When gutting I like to start with my knife at the throat and work my way down to the ass, I find the stomach dosn't want to pop out and interfer as much this way. After its split from top to bottom I will use a hand saw to cut the rib cage and the pelvic bone be careful not to cut the piss bag when doing this. I then grab the wind pipe and start pulling towards the bottom of the animal using my knife to free any attached tissue then I will cut down both sides of the diaphram getting as close to the spine as I can. I will keep pulling now heart ,lungs will pull clean now and liver and stomach will follow. Stomach can be rolled over side of carcass. I then lift out the intestines and piss bag through opening in pelvis and pull everything to the back cut around ass and remove that. Now the cavity is completly clean I will count 3 ribs up from the bottom and cut between 3rd and 4th rib from the top of the rib cage down to the spine on both sides including the hide. I will now use my saw to cut the spine in line with my 2 rib cuts this will allow me to cut the remaining meat and hide on the back. Now the animal is in half and this is when I do a quick cleaning to get most of the blood out. I will leave it this way spread out as much as possible to cool while I go for my quad. If I return with help we will cut of the head remove lower legs and take off antlers and lift it onto the racks in halves. If I am on my own I will quarter the animal with a chain saw so I only have quarters to lift. I will cut down the center of the spine from top to bottom on the hinds and bottom to top on the fronts. I try not to saw through the hide with the saw. Once the bone is completly cut through I will finish cutting through with my knife ( it keeps things cleaner that way)Then back to camp for hanging, skinning a good cleaning and finally cheese cloth to cover the quarters. This is not the only way to do it but it's what works best for me, and I have tried other ways over the years. The key when learning is to go slow be paitient and careful and always clean up the meat well. Remember the meat cutter won't always be able to clean a dirty animal that well , so what you take them might end up in brown paper.
Hope this helps Mike

Yup, good post ... only thing I do different is that I do not pull everything down through the pelvis but instead remove the piss bag and entrails up and out to the side and then pull the windpipe down to the shot area then everything goes out the side right there - this way I don't risk distributing potential contaminants created by the shot over otherwise clean meat.

Chainsaws? Very quick but a bit messy and not always available when you need them. If you want to get the animal quartered before heading out for the quad or extra help (perhaps to speed up the cooling process) then a couple small axes and a knife will take you a bit longer but get you the same results.

[Bow Walker]

Hanging meat for a few days does a couple of things to it. Firstly it stiffens the carcass and stretches out the hind legs into a more "beef-like" posture.

Secondly it "ages" the meat. There are a few differing opinions on whether or not aging helps - either the taste or the texture. Aging is primarily done to tenderize the meat, such as beef being aged for 21 days before being cut.

What they don't say about the aging process is that it is done in a controlled temperature/moisture environment. Venison is very tender as it is - it doesn't require aging to make it more tender.

Some people contend that aging imparts a better flavor to the meat. Well (IMHO) all it does is start the rotting process a lot quicker and it results in more meat having to be cut away because of drying out, or mold (in the case of damp air around the carcass), or stickiness as the meat deteriorates. All of which has to be removed and discarded to get to the edible parts of the meat.

Each to his/her own, I guess.