Warning! Deceased critter content! This morning's buck...

I'm pretty inexperienced. I have only shot one deer. I cleaned it out and skinned it my self, but took it to a meat processing company that we like. They do an excellent job on the meat, their jerky and pepper sticks are the best I have ever had.

I helped butcher an elk a while ago, but we had "adult" supervision. He just handed us quarters, and told us to take off the major muscles, trim, and cut into steaks.

My neighbor hangs a couple beef every year in the cold to age in his garage, then processes them. He promised to call me over to learn this year. He will typically butcher one, sell the meat, and it pays for another one for his family. He literally never "pays" for his beef, because he has this skill to do it for others who don't know how.

I would like to learn more about the process my self. I know it is not rocket science. My real questions are just on what cuts of meat should be cut up in what way to take advantage.


I make my own jerky on a smoker. The next deer or elk I shoot I am going to make a fair amount of the jerky in my back yard, though I don't have a big smoker. Just a grill with a side box.

When you get a helping hand for photo's please post them up. The more I can learn, the better.

I did not buy a deer tag this season.

You are correct, it isn't a difficult thing to learn and to do. It just takes practice to learn. And I am not a hog or beef butcher either, though I have done it.

I didn't buy the big game license either. I may yet though before the season is over. I have some health issues that make hunting difficult at best.

But I get a cut of every deer I process, so I have plenty of deer meat. In fact, while the jerky went pretty fast, I still have a few tenderloin butterfly steaks in the freezer from last winter. I chicken fry them the bake with nions and gravy the way some folks do liver, and in fact, deer liver is good that way. Just be sure to soak and rinse it several times to get all of the blood taste out. I made just over 150# of venison jerky last year. That is finished dry weight. Five pounds more or less makes one pound of jerky. And then there were all of the other cuts, reserving tenderloins for myself.
 
"When the deer is down, the fun is over and the work begins"... one of my favorite sayings.

Yep. Even more so with an Elk. Congrats to the nephew on his first buck. I won't leave behind a heart or liver. I love the liver, but in all honesty, I've never tried heart.

My best friend says, the heart and liver belong left with the rest of the gut pile :D He doesn't, because he knows people that really enjoy getting them, but he won't eat them
 
Organ meats. Yes. A surprising number of people will eat none of them. And that is fine. There are some I've never eaten, mostly because of cultural or personal prejudice I suppose. I haven't ever known anyone to eat the brains, though some people do favor pork brains. My grandfather thought squirrel brains were a treat. "Ick factor" aside, I wouldn't eat deer brains or those of any other cervid because of the disease factor, uber-rare though that might be. I don't save and eat the kidneys though I understand some people do like them. Same thing for lungs and intestines, stomach and tongue and fat and marrow. Would I eat many, most or all if I were in a survival situation where the major muscle groups were either not available or not enough? Yes I would. But likewise I would also eat animals and insects that I never would willingly eat otherwise.

Deer fat, to me, has a strong flavor and spoils easily. For this reason, I am meticulous about removing it from the meat before freezing, cooking or jerking. Likewise I won't store deer meat bone-in for the same reasons. Perhaps I am texture sensitive about my food, but I also go to a lot of trouble to remove ligiments and connective tissue.

Back to bones for a moment. Over the years I have heard on occasion that so-and-so broke his knife while dressing a deer. I've never had this happen. It is usually associated with cutting through the sternum or pelvis. As for the sternum, it is cartilidge. It can be tough depending on the age of the deer, but one shouldn't encounter bone.

Splitting the pelvis? I don't see the need on a deer sized animal. The only reason I can imagine is if one wants to reduce a deer to true quarters and hasn't the time, patience or knowledge to take it apart at the joints. I have seen a few hunters do this though, under the impression that the pelvic girdle had to be split to remove the bladder, colon and anus. I personally don't find it needed. With a reasonably small, sharp knife I can reach and remove those things just fine from inside and outside (anus).

Speed in quartering? In the case of group hunting where a carcass has to be quickly divided between two or more parties, I have seen folks use a hatchet, axe, handsaw or even a chainsaw to split the deer from appetite to arse. I hate this because I dispise bone chips and bone dust in my meat.

Another way I have heard/seen knives broken is when using the tip to pry joints. Don't do this! Once the muscles and ligaments overlaying a joint are severed, the joint can be articulated to gain access to the inside for severing the last tissue connections. Here again I have seen hunters use and axe or saw, mostly on legs (which are the only real joints that have to be seperated, IMHO). Shoulsers on these animals have no ball/socket connection like the hip and lower leg joints.
 
Here is a video just posted on youtube by Mewolf1, Kent, showing the use of the Ryan Weeks SPK knife in boning out a deer shoulder. He works much faster than I do, but uses much the same methods, using the belly of the blade to "rub" the muscle from the bone, and usingextended fingers to guide the relatively small blade.

[video=youtube;qugWu651LjI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qugWu651LjI[/video]

This video and other still photos are posted in the "SPK" thread over in the customs forum.
 
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Do you age any of your meat? (I have not yet but I'm intrigued.) how do you make your jerky?
 
Sometimes I age it, but not always. Usually it ages somewhat during my butchering, boning and processing time. I don't rush it unless it is unseasonably warm weather.

Jerking is an easy process (to me). I have done it in an oven but prefer using a commercial dehydrator. Mine holds 5# of meat at a time. It has more precise heat control and better air flow than my electric oven, particularly at the low temperatures required for proper dehydration. Sometimes I make my own seasoning and cure, but while it is more expensive, I get better results using commercial cures. I still doctor them myself from time to time to suit the hunters I process for. And I have used both dry and wet cures. Both work, but in my opinion, the wet cures leave the meat heavier and a bit less appropriate for long term storage than the dry cures.

As previously mentioned, removal of all fat and fiberous connective tissue is a must. I partially freeze the meat to stiffen it after fine butchering the various individual muscles, then run it through my commercial slicer to get the most consistant thickness. This helps not only to get complete penetration of the cure and spices, but also to get consistant drying times. I hate haveing to babysit my trays and having to pick out individual pieces as they dry at different rates. "Hi Mountain" is a brand of commercial spice/cure that I prefer and it is available on the web and in many sporting and outdoor stores.
 
Thank you for the details. I tried smoking some jerky earlier in the year but must have had too much charcoal in the smoker. The directions I found suggested smoking for 6 hours but mine was crispy in 2! Live and learn.

Locally, the weather has just now cooled off. I'm looking forward to setting up my treestand soon as I just have been given permission to hunt some private land from a friend. This thread has got me itchin to get outside. Thanks!
 
Temperature and duration are important in making jerky. The idea is not to cook it, but to sterilize it and dry it. Preservation, at least in my view, is highly dependent upon removal of moisture that bacteria and mold need to grow, and an agent in the cure to aid both. In my case, that agent is sodium nitrite (.85%). It also helps the seasoning penetrate the meat.
 
I hope you do. It can be a very rewarding pastime and a good learning experience, even if you don't score a deer for a while. You learn to really tune into your environment. Filling a tag, occasionally or often, is just icing on the cake.

It depends on a lot of things. Air temperature is low like it was today (low 40's warming to mid 50's), a deer doesn't spoil fast. There is plenty of time to recover, load transport to a check station and bring it to me. I still have plenty of time to do my work, meanwhile the deer is still cooling down. In fact, rigor was not complete when I finished some four to five hours after the shot. But if there is a lot of tissue damage, contamination by stomach contents and urine, water from dragging through ditches and puddles, warmer temps etc., the time lessens. Or increases with lower temps, less internal tissue damage, no spilled stomach or bowel, bladder contents. Insects are a factor too. Left exposed, flys can blow a carcass pretty quickly. Today, I only saw one fly and no wasps. Yellow jackets love a fresh carcass and, while they do little real damage, they do make the work miserable with repeated stings. If the weather had been much warmer, I would have skinned and hung the deer in a muslin bag in the shade until tonight. Another factor is lactic acid in the muscles. If the deer was stressed prior to death (ran, multiple shots, etc.) the meat will taste stronger and, I think, spoil faster. I can't prove that though. So maybe that one is just a "Codger's Myth".

There are several old hunter myths that I have discarded. Cutting off leg glands for one. Why do it? You just contaminate your knife. Slitting a throat. A good bleed out makes for tastier meat, but how much blood is left after the deer is opened and entrals removed? And since I do the whole process, I bleed the butchered meat twice before making the steaks or jerky.

Codger you are bang on about lactic acid ruining meat. At the slaughterhouse around 1994 the gov't inspecters started testing the hams of freshly killed hogs with a probe and computer machine. It gave lactic acid count and they could tell if the hogs were shipped stressed or handled roughly from the barns to the killing chute. They found that it made the hams more watery (water loss = money)and meat separation (tougher)etc.

We started dimming the lights, taking more time moving the hogs in stages with gated compartments in the chute, banned the guys from shouting and retrained some or removed the hardcases doing it the old way. The hams were firmer, more tender and less water loss.

Hope I can find the time to head up north and knock one down this year, pest control is still crazy busy right now.
 
I've done a bit of experimenting on the aging of deer meat. My dad usually let him deer hang for a couple of weeks , weather permitting(40F or below)
This was never a problem here in MN as the firearms hunting season is in the first part of Nov. However in the last 20 years or so we wonder if there will be snow for Christmas. That being said, I saw a program on the most expensive age Beef in a New York resturant that was aged for 7 weeks in a cooler. Yes, there is alot of waste! This story brought me to the idea that red meat can go for a long time, if kept cool, and would actually improve if left to do so.
A few years back I left a hind quarter in my garage for 8 weeks to see what I ended up with. Leg steak is not the most tender part of a deer, but I assure you the what was in the center of the hind quarter was some of the most tender venison that I have ever eaten!! Yes, there was alot of waste and would not and do not do this to large amounts of game because I hate waste. What I do know now is that if it's below 40F, your animal can hang for a month and only get better. DO NOT SKIN THE ANIMAL DURING THIS TIME! The hide protects the meat! The only waste will be about 1/2" on the inside of the hinds. This method does make it harder to skin, but then, that what a knife is for:D If skinning is done ASAP, it'll come off like a pair of clean socks with little knife work needed. The Tannery will appreciate it too.
 
Brad, Kent... thanks for adding to the discussion.

My feelings about the lactic acid came from years of hunting deer with hounds and with recovering poorly shot and "second shot" deer. My friends and I could taste the differences. Likewise we learned the difference between "calf, poor bull and fat cow". That is one thing that turned me from being an aspiring trophy hunter to being a meat hunter, picking them for good eating rather than huge body, horns or advanced age. That preference increased as our herds increased and season limits became more liberal. While we are linited to a total of three bucks for all methods/seasons here, there are no such limits on antlerless deer. Three a day is the limit. It doesn't bother me in the least to get a yearling or small doe. Both of these were forbidden under both the old game laws and "ethics" while the herds were rebuilding.

Here is the extent of my current antler collection. the rest of the boxes were given away. This was a buck my Grandfather shot in Emboden, Arkansas in 1959. Most of you can understand why they are strung this way and what I have used them for, aside from remembering my mentor, Papa O who passed in 1963.

293hkb4.jpg
 
Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with us Codger, and everyone else. I really appreciate it.

It must be a really sentimental feeling to bring in deer using those antlers.
 
Nice deer, I'm hoping to take my first deer around thanksgiving this year, I refuse to go out by myself for the first time. I'm going with my uncle then. Once I learn, I'll be out every chance I get. and on a side note, I lost my dad when I was 2, and i'm using his deer rifle and buck 105. I can't wait.

again, congrats on the deer
 
Best of luck Crazyengineer. Having a mentor to give you tips and put you in an area where you have a good chance of seeing deer helps a lot. Deer are scent and motion oriented. If you can overcome those two obsticles, your odds of taking one greatly improve. When I was most heavily into deer hunting, I went all out on scent control. Wash clothes in scent free laundry soap, line dry and store in a plastic bag with pine boughs or oak leaves, not dressing until arriving in my hunting area. Later, I learned more about how scent travels, how and where deer travel and further improved my odds while backing off of the scent control. It is important to learn the art of nothing. Being able to remain hyper aware of your surroundings and yet entirely motionless. And how to move when you do have to move. Deer have very keen hearing too and silence is important. But at the same time, they can be curious and there are a few sounds they can't resist checking out.

Taking one with a bow, rifle, shotgun or pistol that belonged to your father or grandfather is a special event for most of us too. While they were not trophy deer by any stretch, I well remember the first deer I killed with my father's .357 revolver. And his '94 winchester. And his 7.7 Arisaka that he brought back from WWII. Likewise my own first bow kill was quite memorable. Even now, twenty five years later, I can close my eyes and see it all unfold. I remember the fluke scores too. While I know they happened, to this day it is still hard to believe. A lifetime of memories to be sure. Enjoy.
 
thank you my friend,

I got to go for a couple of days with my uncle last year, but didn't get a shot, saw a few, but they were moving to fast to me to switch to the lane. Oh well, I get another chance this year. It also didnt help that the first time I had a bad cough (I was really pissed about that).

thanks for the advice as well, once I take my first with my uncle, I will be hunting on my own on my family's property, I already know where the deer are on that property, which will make it easier. They cross our field at the same time every morning and evening.
 
I mentioned their response to sound. I've used that to my advantage more than once to attract them when they were hidden behind brush or trees, but often, depending on what spooked them, it can be used to stop a moving deer. The deer I began this thread with was taken with just such a ruse. The deer was moving away from the hunters at a trot and was just about to jump a creek, moving too fast for an accurate rifle shot from that distance, even though the hunter was shooting from a secure rest on an elevated stand. His uncle made a sound at the right time and the buck stopped, quarter turned to look in their direction and took a bullet for his curiosity. The sound my friend made was an approximation of a deer vocalization, "Unnnghhhh". I've used a clash of those antlers, or blown across the top of an empty cartridge, rapped my wooden stock with my knuckels, and various other deer sounds like, "Meeeeyyyahhhh" and "Pshhhewww". They make various devices now that mimic most of these sounds (bleat cans, grunt tubes, diaphram calls, rattle bags), but done right the human voice will cover many of them.

As to why they are moving like that in the first place, it might be that other hunters stirred them up or they might have winded you. I like hanging strands of surveyor tape at varying distances from a stand to work like airport windsocks. When stalking, stillhunting or jumpshooting I will hang a thread from the end of my gun for the same reason. Then I can hunt into the wind or crosswind, not upwind of the deer.

By the way, I asked about the rifle used to kill the buck and it was a .270 short mag (.270 WSM).
 
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I need to learn those jerky skills, my last batch could have patched boots (or maybe a leather-ish knife sheath) it was made in the oven around 200. We age all of our venison in a homemade walk in cooler. No waste and have not got sick yet on rare steaks. It does not matter much on a young buck or doe but seems to make a difference on an old doe/buck. I am no trophy hunter either, just meat. As long as it doesn't have spots and a milk mustache its fair game, would pass on a doe if she had young fawns as they would be coyote food. Scent and movement is the whole game. I have had deer bust me while drawing the bow, if they can't smell me they just bob their head and stare trying to figure out what you are. Probably thinking damn that is a big squirrel. They are very inquisitive and will come investigate sounds but will usually try to circle down wind and bust you. I try to get scent free, but wind direction is the best they can still smell you regardless of scent control, they might think you passed through or are further away than you are, but they have a keen nose. Good luck all this season, I am on vacation soon and looking forward to deer, duck, raccoon and coyote hunting.
 
With the jerky, temperature and time are important. I never have been able to get consistant batches in a conventional oven. My commercial dehydrator has good thermostatic temperature control and a small fan to circulate the warmed (not hot) air. 200 is too high to my thinking. I use 155-165 tops. And the relative humidity of the air in my kitchen affects drying time as does the moisture in the meat. I am very unscientific about determining when it is dry enough. I give it a flex test and then a chew test. Sometimes i take a batch out and let the trays cool only to find that it is still not dry enough, and have to return them to the dehydrator for an additional 15-30 minutes. Warm, it should bend but not break. It should not compress. Cooled, it should just begin to break, but not snap, nor be rubbery. I use an Excalibur 3900B 9 tray.

egd9cm.jpg



You may possibly be slicing the meat too thick or the wrong direction. I use an adjustable electric meat slicer and feed the meat when almost frozen so it is stiff, but not rock hard. This gives me the most consistant thickness because the neat doesn't bunch up around the blade or stretch as it is cut.
 
With the jerky, temperature and time are important. I never have been able to get consistant batches in a conventional oven. My commercial dehydrator has good thermostatic temperature control and a small fan to circulate the warmed (not hot) air. 200 is too high to my thinking. I use 155-165 tops. And the relative humidity of the air in my kitchen affects drying time as does the moisture in the meat. I am very unscientific about determining when it is dry enough. I give it a flex test and then a chew test. Sometimes i take a batch out and let the trays cool only to find that it is still not dry enough, and have to return them to the dehydrator for an additional 15-30 minutes. Warm, it should bend but not break. It should not compress. Cooled, it should just begin to break, but not snap, nor be rubbery. I use an Excalibur 3900B 9 tray.



egd9cm.jpg



You may possibly be slicing the meat too thick or the wrong direction. I use an adjustable electric meat slicer and feed the meat when almost frozen so it is stif, but not rock hard. This gives me the most consistant thickness because the neat doesn't bunch up around the blade or stretch as it is cut.

Thanks will check that dehydrator out been thinking about getting one for fruit and wild mushrooms anyway. I did the jerky at 200 based on a recipe and it might have worked if it would have been thin sliced and uniform, some pieces were good, some the dog had trouble getting down. I killed some geese last weekend and might give goose sausage a try, had some at a wild game banquet and was impressed, kind of bored with goose breast in the crockpot with mushroom soup (I rarley pluck them)
 
Goose, duck and other wild birds can make decent jerky as well. High Mountain makes marinades and dry rubs for them specificly and for other wild game as well (fish too, IIRC). You can practice with store bought meats. I generally make up fifty pounds or so of beef jerky each year for a fellow who prefers that to venison. Same basic guidelines apply. You just have to be selective about the cuts with beef to avoid marbling of fat.

You can buy direct from the dehydrator manufacturer, or from any number of online suppliers. Some swear by the round dehydrators, but I prefer the air flow of the Excalibur, horizontal forced air, not vertical. The unit I use has a MSRP of about $300 but can be found slightly cheaper. Watch the shipping though as the unit in the box is large.
 
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