So, did anybody get any deer this year?

I missed a shot at a great 8-pointer this year, but had a great time...

It sure was snowy and I froze my ballz off up in the rickety old deer stand!  That thing was made of old untreated scrapwood probably over 10 years ago.  When the 25mph gusting winds would blow, the whole thing would sway a good 3-4 feet with the tree!!!

This year I decided to process my own deer for the first time.  It's been a fun & educational experience to say the least!

I'm normally NOT the kind of person to recommend one brand or one product over another.  I'm just not a 'Name Brand' kind of guy.  However, I recently discovered something cool...

I learned that with the right KNIFE and a decent saw it's actually VERY easy to do.  I learned that some professional processors are switching to the new Outdoor Edge Cutlery - 'SwingBlade'.  I thought it looked 'Gimmicky' at first, but when I saw it in the hands of a pro...  I was convinced - I HAD TO BUY ONE!!!



Getting to watch a pro, I learned there are 2 ways to process a deer:

1.) The 'Trophy Buck' way (aka - the 'Right Way').

2.) The Quick & Dirty way.

Even though this was just a little buck, I decided to do it the trophy buck way for practice my first time around!

I spent a few hours and I got the buck skinned, cleaned, torched, washed, and quartered!  I was impressed with how quickly this new knife worked its magic!!!

Even though the temps dropped below freezing and the all of the fat, connective tissues, & sinew, etc., all started to freeze pretty quickly last night, this slick knife still made a pretty easy job of the skinning & quartering work!!!  



What makes THIS knife so special and different from other skinning/gutting knives is the Gutting Blade!  Most skinning/gutting knives have a 'gutting hook' which requires you to cut a slit in the hide, insert the hook, and pull the handle downward while applying a slight downward pressure to keep the hide from slipping off the hook!  Sometimes the little downward pressure scratches/digs into the meat below the skin...  That's not good.

Another problem with traditional 'hooks' is when skinning the front legs.  If you make the initial slit and slide the hook down the leg, when you reach the 'underarm' gap or 'armpit' area (a gap/valley between the front leg & rib cage) usually the handle butts against the ribs, and you can't get the hook down into that underarm gap/valley area easily.  And to do a trophy buck just right for mounting, a taxidermist needs the hide cut in EXACTLY a certain spot.  This reduces the amount of stitching the taxidermist does, and he can easily hide it easily along the edge where the two different colors of fur are bordering.  Hooks are 'pulled' handle-first, and simply cannot get down into that gap properly.  Some people can make the cut with a normal blade, but then you've got two problems:  You're cutting the fur, which will get more into your meat, and your cutting into your meat since you can't easily control the depth when making that cut.

This goofy knife has a strange gutting blade that you actually slide in under the hide, and then simply slide it down the animal blade-first.  It cuts the hide from the INSIDE Outward!  So, you never actually CUT any of the hair, you only cut the Hide, and the hair stays in the hide as it spreads apart! GREATLY reducing the chance of any loose hairs getting in/on your meat!

It's easy as unzipping a coat!!!  The only difference is this goes blade first, doesn't scratch/score the meat in any way, and due to an oddly designed tip, it simply CANNOT accidentally cut/pop/slide out of the hide like traditional hooks do.  This way you don't have to keep trying to re-hook, and slide it down further, and further, etc...  That's annoying and damaging to the meat.  For that pesky under-arm area, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  All you need to do is glide the blade down the leg, and down into the 'armpit' area of your buck.  Hold it at a 90 degree angle, and just pull up!  It's slicker than s#!t!!!  You get a perfect 'trophy cut' hide every time!

In the hands of a PRO, I've seen an entire deer completely skinned in a matter of minutes!!!

Since it was my first time I was going slow, and with the freezing temps it took me a while to finish skinning my deer, but it went easily due to this goofy lovable knife!  I just can't stop saying good things about it.

The optimum temp range for processing your deer is between 33 and 40 degrees.  IF the temp is 32 or below, it can start freezing, and at 41 or above, bacteria will try to grow on your meat!




Anyway, it was a VERY educational experience, and I think I'm going to keep processing my own deer from now on.  It'll save me the $180 to $200 for full processing, sausages, jerky, etc...

All it took was to finish the butchering/separating the neck/brisket into the various steaks, chops, roasts, & burger meat...  The butchering/separating the rear legs, and the front legs and she's done!!! (and that should account for the perfect aging of my meat before freezing it)

I find it funny that many 'Survivalist' people I know keep telling me that whe 'The S#!t Hits The Fan' they're going to 'Bug Out' to some location (even though they have no specific plans on a specific location to go), and they're going to 'live off the land - you know, hunting & such')...  When the fact still remains that MANY of them have never hunted a day in their lives, and of those who have, even FEWER have actually ever fully processed their own deer!  Of all the 'hunters' I know many of them have hunted over 25+ years and have taken DOZENS of large bucks, but not a single one of them has ever processed their own deer!!!

How are you going to survive when you honestly have never done it before???  I think it's better to test yourself, to test your tools/weapons/equipment, and to test your skills BEFORE your life actually depends upon them!  Especially if the lives of others may also hang in the balance someday.

I'm so glad that I learned how to do this, I can't begin to convey how happy I was to finally accomplish this little feat.  It will save me some serious $$ in the long run as well!

Mmmm...  Backstraps...


(This is just part of what I got off the neck & rib cage!)  

All that meat & burger for under $50!!!  
(Note:  Most of the steaks, chops, roasts, & burger not shown - but it's enough to fill my freezer pretty good).

A good size deer, a couple cases of canned chicken meat, some bulk beans, rice, pasta, canned/jarred sauces, and bulk soup mixes and I've got enough food to feed my Wife and I for AT LEAST a full year.  I'm still working on eating last year's 12 Point Buck.



Edited to add:

I thought the most entertaining part of doing this whole thing was the look on the next-door neighbors' faces when I started skinning the thing while they were eating dinner!  

Their fancy dining room has a large picture window that looks right out across my back yard!  I saw they were eating in there, but I wasn't gonna wait until later (colder & darker) to get started on the skinning!

They looked like they were gonna be sick!  

I noticed it didn't take too long for them to clear out of their dining room!

So, did anybody else get any deer this year!?!?!?

I've never tried canning or jarring...  Any good info/links I should check out???  100% of my meats are frozen (except the canned chicken chunks I buy)...

Learning how to do it myself might be worth looking into considering the unstable economy & markets.

Yes, the Knife was $50.
THe Deer Tag was about $45
The Rifle, Scope, and Ammo was exactly $0 (Borrowed from Father In Law)
THe heater is an old wal-mart special my wife had since college a few years ago (Free to me)
The hunting clothes belonged to my In-Law's family...  They're FREE Hand-Me-Downs because I seem to be the weight the used to be when they first bought them!   (Free to me).

But I guess what matters most is the perspective from which you look at it all...  Since MOST of the stuff (aside from the knife) were things I used for free belonging to my wife, or her family, I guess that means those things are the most expensive of all...

Let's See, the cost of the engagement ring was $X,XXX.XX
Divide that by...  Awe F(_)ckit.  I guess that means it was pretty expensive.  

But as was previously mentioned, the more you use it, the cheaper it gets...  That's what happened this year!  Didn't spend a single penny on beef!  

I agree though.  If only I could get a garden started that was capable of producing worth a darn, perhaps I could skip most trips to the Grocery store as well - for everything but Cheese, Milk, and TP!  

I was told by one of my in-laws (who likes to hunt but hates venison) that he's heading out for Muzzleloader/blackpowder season this year, and if he gets another deer he was wondering if I had room in my freezer for it.  Well, it's getting tight for space, but I might be able to make it fit!  We'll see how fast I can do it the next time around.  

Thanks for the comments!  

I guess the goofy look on my face does look a bit 'psycho' though!  

Good deal on the 3 does.  Never shot a hog before.

I think I might borrow a friend's vacuum packer to see how good they work, and if it's worthwhile to buy one of my own!  Until then, I've just been using freezer paper.

My wife always loved baking in college so she has a big kitchenaide mixer machine with a bunch of attachments.  One was a meat grinder, another attachment was a juicer setup.  She never used the meat grinder part but now she's glad she got it way back when...

Her grinder worked out great though!

Thanks for the great information on the Canning/Jarring book!

I'll have to see if they have a copy on hand at my library!  Usually I'll borrow/order a book from the library, read it over a little, see if Canning/Jarring is a feasible option, and then I can go out & buy the book if I decide to do it - to keep the info on hand for reference.

Good point, I should have titled the thread Cheaper than Cheaper Than Dirt!  

I never take go to the bathroom anywhere within 100 yards of my stand!

That's a surefire way to scare away any deer!

I hunt with some real die-hards!  They all wake up at the ass-crack of 3:45 AM, Be dressed and in the loaded truck by 4:15 AM.  That means the second you wake up, run to the bathroom and grunt out any sh!t you might have in your guts!!!

Grab a small bite to eat before jumping in the truck, and bring a bag of food, drinks, & TP to keep in the truck.

As for my clothes and the 'scent', I wait until VERY LATE FALL, pickup a bunch of TOTALLY DRIED leaves, and put them in a tupperware bin.  Throw the hunting clothes in the bin ~1-2 weeks before opener...

Usually we're at the hunting land by 5 AM, we make it to the stands stands by 5:15, and we're waiting for ~6:45 AM when you can finally fire a shot.  Wanna try to be IN your stand at least 90 minutes before you can shoot - this way if you spook anything out of the area, they might return before the morning 'movement' starts.

Come 12 Noon, I usually crawl down from my stand, hike back to the truck to take a bathroom break, grab a bite to eat, and then take a nap for ~1-2 hours.  Then get back to the stand until dark...

I usually don't fart much or have rip-ass problems getting in/out the stand because I usually don't eat much the day before!  I hate going to the bathroom outside when it's 20 deg F outside!  With the frosty wind-chill nippin' at your nuts!!!  I hate droppin' trou, and while you're goin' you gotta 'boot scoot' to keep the pee/snow slush from flowing toward you –– All the while your hot pee in the freezing cold temps makes the steam rise up and then you smell abit like pee...  I learned the first hunting trip that's bad!

You PEE standing up, then cop a squat for #2 so the steam doesn't stink up your clothes & scare off the deer.