Butchering a deer

I killed this deer last sunday. So it has hung for a week. It’s been just below freezing at night here so it’s perfect for hanging a deer. At this time of year I hang my deer with the skin on so the meat doesn’t dry out. I know there are a lot of people who will say the hide has to come off right away but I don’t agree. As long as I can get the meat cooled I’d rather keep the skin on while it hangs.

The deer was gutted at the kill site. I kept the heart liver and kidneys. The rest of the entrails were left there for the coyotes who would likely have it all cleaned up by the next morning. When I got home I hung him up and removed the sternum and windpipe in order to open up the chest cavity more and get the meat cooled down.
So now we’ll butcher. First I removed the tenderloins. Two strips of the choicest meat on the deer that are found inside the rib cage, along the spine, just in front of the hips.

Next we’ll start skinning.

I cut along the line where the hair changes color on the back of the hind legs. Then start pealing the skin down using only my hands, not a knife.

After you get past the tail you can really give it some good pulls.


So now we can start the cutting. First thing I do is take off the front legs. They are easy to separate. There’s no real joint there, they are just held by muscle. Pull the leg out sideways and cut through where it appears to be the weakest connection.

Now I filet of the backstraps. This is some of the best meat on the deer. You do this almost the same way that you would filet a fish.


Now I take off the head then the main portion of the neck and set it aside to be a neck roast which is one of my personal favorite meals from a deer. To remove these pieces, you cut through all the muscle and meat so only the spine is holding it, then twist until the spine breaks. This way you only need a knife.
Then the ribs. I just use a carpenters saw to cut them off. First cut is half the side of ribs then the half closest to the spine.

My model decided she wanted to be the photographer now.
So here I am separating the hind legs from the pelvis and spine. This takes some feeling around with the knife. You have to separate the ball and socket joint where the legs join to the pelvis. I try to cut as close to the pelvis bone as I can so most of the meat is left on the hind leg when it comes off.



I trim as much meat off the spine and pelvis as I can. Some years I will break the spine up into pieces that fit in our big pots and cook it all down for broth, then can that in quart jars. We already have a lot of broth this year so the spine will get put out in the woods for the coyotes and bears to have a meal.
Here is the brain which my daughter was very anxious to see since she had never seen one before.

If you would like to see a more detailed description of good skinning, here is a link to an article I wrote for my friend Matt Richards.

I got everything but the hind legs cut and wrapped for the freezer yesterday. I’ll finish all the packaging today. Then I’ll be ready to go hunting again.
When I cut, I have four bowls that I put the meat in. Roasts, steaks, stew/stir-fry, and grinder meat. Then I wrap those up into packages that would make a meal for our household.
The stew/stir-fry meat I cut thinner than you would for just stew meat. That way I can use it for either one.
The grinder meat I package up before I grind it. When I want some, I thaw it out and grind it up. I have a hand crank grinder and it’s a bit of a work out to grind all of it up at once before freezing. This way I can just grind it one meal at a time.

We ended up cutting all the leg bones to fit in the pots and to let the marrow out. We boiled them till all the meat came off easy then canned the broth. We got 18 quarts canned and a big pot of stew out of it, just from the leg bones.

I guess this thread is all mine.
I went hunting again this morning and was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to receive a gift of a beautiful mule deer buck. I was a ways away from the road. It took me three hours to drag him back to my truck, but I now have him hanging at home here. I’m pretty sore and tired tonight. It was a toss up between dragging him out whole or cutting him up in the woods and packing him out on a pack frame in two or three trips. He’s quite a bit bigger than the whitetail in the pictures above. I’m glad now that I have him here in one piece so I can have all the bones and hide.
My plan is to make jerky from almost all of this one. I’ll post some pictures of the set up I use when I am doing it.

First of all, your deer butchering only looks impressive because of the ridiculously cute carcass princess you have vanna-white-ing all over the place.

Okay, alright, jeez that looks awesome. What a good piece of work. I wish I coulda helped out and learned a thing or two!

As far as the three hour haul, jeez. I can’t wait to see your jerky set up!

Sometimes I read threads that really excite me, and I don’t even think to comment on them. Thanks for posting all this.

Yeah thanks for these posts heyvictor.I really like these posts that are all about an actual event instead of philosophical stuff.

I have a question.

When you grind the meat, what do you add for seasoning (if anything)?

I just grind the meat. Some people add beef or pork fat because deer is really lean. I don’t. I just put oil in the pan when I fry it.
As far as seasoning, if I’m making Italian food I use oregano and those kinds of things, if I’m making burritos or chili I use sage and chili powder and mexican style seasoning.

Last year my old hunting buddy and I were cutting up a couple of deer together. He has a pretty big electric grinder and he raises cattle so we put some beef fat in with the deer burger. It was good. It kind of holds it together better for if you want to actually make burgers to bbq or something.

When I cut my own at home I just grind the straight deer meat.

Carefull, guys. Ai just read that muscle meats produce carcinogens when cooked with high heat (frying, grilling, etc.), though not when cooked at low heat (boiling, lowheat longtime baking). Seems like another civilised problem to me. >:(

I can’t quite picture boiling a hamburger.

I’m fairly certain that this is only a real problem with deep-fat frying, which gets to temperatures way higher than grilling or pan-frying. Plus, there’s that issue of breaking down the healthy fats in oils, and getting trans fats and all that junk.

They say the same thing about smoked meat. Poor bastards.
Don’t believe everything you read.

I spent 8 years as a vegetarian. Know what I learned? It’s waaaaay too easy to get obsessed with minute amounts of toxins in food.