The act of taking a deer’s skin off intimidates many novice hunters. After all, there sure is a lot of it. But in fact, it’s a quick and easy process to skin a deer. The hanging method is a neat and easy way to skin your big game animals, provided you have a place to hang them and the strength to lift them. Learn how to skin a deer step-by-step by reading this article.
Materials Needed
- Field knife: You will need a knife to cut through the fascia or connective tissue that attaches the skin to the muscle. To completely separate the hide, you might even need to cut through a tendon or ligament. The sharper the better for this reason.
- Meat pole: Your deer will need to be hung from something. The easiest way is a meat pole suspended between two supports or trees, though some hunters like to make a meat pole consisting of an arm attached to a single support.
- Gambrel hook: The best way to hang your deer from your meat pole is with a gambrel hook because it fits perfectly into its two hind legs. A pulley system, which is frequently provided with the gambrel hook, is the best way to secure the hook to the pole. This makes it simple for you to hoist the deer carcass into the position needed for skinning.
Deer Skinning Tips And Tricks
Use Two Knives
Although you only need one field knife to skin a deer, it’s a good idea to keep an extra on hand. This way, you can switch them out if one knife starts to become dull or, more importantly, if it accumulates a lot of hair.
Wash The Carcass After Skinning
It’s always a good idea to use a hose set to low pressure to rinse the outside of the deer meat after you’ve completely removed the skin. You don’t want to later discover hairs or dirt in your hamburger, even if you were extremely careful.
Just be mindful of the weather. If the temperature is going to drop below freezing, you shouldn’t spray the deer down before hanging it to age it. This will definitely result in a freezer burn. The speed at which meat spoils will also increase if it becomes warm. You can still wash it. Just butcher it as soon as you can after that.
Find A Buddy
You can skin a deer by yourself without a problem, but after a while, the deer’s constant movement becomes a pain. Having a friend there to steady the process makes it go much more smoothly. This can be a hunting partner, your wife, or even a bucket if it will prevent the deer from swaying.
Skinning A Deer Step By Step
Hang Up The Deer
However, if the deer is suspended in the air, preferably with pulleys, you can maneuver the deer and make the process less laborious. You can skin and clean the deer while it is lying down on a surface.
Make sure the rope wraps around the deer’s neck at the base of the skull, under the chin. The meat at the top of the neck should be easy to reach.
Make Cuts In The Hide
Make a long cut from the neck down the chest to the belly after cutting the hide around the neck. I used a regular buck knife with a slightly curved blade for this step. In order to access the meat, you must cut through the hide.
Between the hide and the meat, there is a thin, watery region. When you make your first cut, go slowly. The red meat will be visible once the skin has been cut through. Stop cutting once you feel that you have pierced the skin, then continue all the way around the neck and down the chest.
Start Skinning The Hide Away
You should only cut the membrane that lies between the meat and the skin. By doing this, you will avoid damaging the lovely hide and wasting meat.
Hold the hide tightly in your hands so you can see the membrane separating the hide from the meat. The entire animal must be cut in half, with the hide and meat simply separated from one another.
Make Cuts Down The Front Legs
Cuts should be made all the way down the legs, to the knees, after you have skinned the body from the neck to the beginning of the legs. Following your fresh cuts, continue separating the hide by slicing the membrane that separates the hide from the meat all the way around the legs.
Given that we will be using the hide, I decided to separate it from the genitals. Mother Nature has created the perfect seamless bag for a deer. If you are skinning the deer already, there is no reason to waste it.
When you get to the back legs, you’ll need to continue cutting the leg hide. Keep going until the deer hide is released.
Peeling It Toward The Tail
As soon as the hide is separated from both legs, you can work with the fur on the back. The layer should begin to come off as soon as you apply a little pressure. Holding the tension throughout the tail, pull the hide.
Cutting The Tailbone
Cut your hide quickly from the base when it reaches the tailbone. At various points throughout the process, you might need to use the knife a few times.
Continue Peeling
Try to hold the slack coat with your left hand as the hide is now flapping over. Following this, make a loose fist with your right hand and press down on the skin’s edge with this hand as your other hand pulls the hide at the same time. The coat slides easily with this pulling and pushing technique.
Skinning The Neck
The skin quickly separates from the front legs after we’ve cut them. Your hide ought to be completely free of the legs by this point, hanging over the deer’s head. Make an incision at the throat and neck region with the hide, facing the stomach portion.
It will be simpler to skin the neck if the fur is removed from it. Keep in mind that it becomes more difficult to roll the skin away from the neck as the white membrane thickens there. To peel off in some places, you will indeed need a knife.
Chopping The Neck
Once the hide has reached the very end of the neck, you can quickly and gently cut off the head. Without skin and the skull, you will only have a carcass. To remove the remaining portion of the esophagus, proceed to cut a slit in the throat.
Cleaning
You want the interior of your meat to be completely hollow. If there is extra blood or dirt accumulating in the deer’s crevices, you can hose down the body to get rid of it.
To obtain the sirloin tip, front shoulder, back ham, and back straps cut the meat appropriately. Most deer have a good amount of meat, so don’t forget to cut the ribs too. A select few people refuse to take ribs because there isn’t any meat on them.
Hong Long Does It Take To Skin A Deer?
Most of the time, it only takes 20 to 30 minutes to skin a deer. It might take a little longer if you’re completely new to the process, and of course, seasoned hunters might go even faster. It is preferable to take your time so you can ensure there is no hair or dirt in the meat and you end up with a deer that is simple to butcher.
Should I Skin My Deer Before Hanging It?
If you want to hang your deer to age it, this rule about immediate skinning does not apply. The hunting community is divided on whether to skin the deer in this instance or leave the hide intact.
Leaving the hide on helps prevent the meat from freezing or drying out when exposed to the air. However, as the deer gets older, skinning becomes much more challenging.