Hanging a deer
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PapaSop We hang deer in South Dakota up to five days before skining. If it is frozen I hang it in my garage at 50° usually a day and a half and it will be thawed enough to skin. Yes it’s more difficult to skin that way, but we don’t lose any meat to shrinkage and drying out. I’m not telling you to do it, I’m just saying that’s what we do.
Gilley
Sounds good. Haven’t noticed much shrinkage or drying out after two or three days hanging. I have seen a few deer hanging a week or longer around this area. Not sure what the benefit is in that when it’s below freezing.I did read once about pulling the hide down a bit. Putting a baseball on the outside and wrapping the hide around it and tying with a rope, then attaching to your vehicles hitch and pulling the hide off. Never tried it though. Perhaps it was someone’s to many beers after hunting.
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Gilley
Sounds good. Haven’t noticed much shrinkage or drying out after two or three days hanging. I have seen a few deer hanging a week or longer around this area. Not sure what the benefit is in that when it’s below freezing.I did read once about pulling the hide down a bit. Putting a baseball on the outside and wrapping the hide around it and tying with a rope, then attaching to your vehicles hitch and pulling the hide off. Never tried it though. Perhaps it was someone’s to many beers after hunting.
PapaSop when it is a fresh kill you can almost pull the hide off but time taken with a knife and care will always result in a better product for finish
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Gilley
Sounds good. Haven’t noticed much shrinkage or drying out after two or three days hanging. I have seen a few deer hanging a week or longer around this area. Not sure what the benefit is in that when it’s below freezing.I did read once about pulling the hide down a bit. Putting a baseball on the outside and wrapping the hide around it and tying with a rope, then attaching to your vehicles hitch and pulling the hide off. Never tried it though. Perhaps it was someone’s to many beers after hunting.
PapaSop said in Hanging a deer:
Gilley
Sounds good. Haven’t noticed much shrinkage or drying out after two or three days hanging. I have seen a few deer hanging a week or longer around this area. Not sure what the benefit is in that when it’s below freezing.I did read once about pulling the hide down a bit. Putting a baseball on the outside and wrapping the hide around it and tying with a rope, then attaching to your vehicles hitch and pulling the hide off. Never tried it though. Perhaps it was someone’s to many beers after hunting.
I guess things are done differently every where we go. Most around here hang their deer as long as possible. To some that’s only till they break camp. Those who can hang them much longer usually do. We usually will go as long as the weather will reasonably give Us or we get together to get everything put up. Some of my friends who have access to walk in coolers hang their deer 8-10 days. In most cases around here the skin is left on.
More info on why and the benefits are found here.
https://www.uscooler.com/blog/aging-best-deer-meat/
I have witnessed using a golf ball to pull a hide off. No one was drinking and it takes some setting up but it works very well.
Thanks to all that have responded.
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PapaSop said in Hanging a deer:
Gilley
Sounds good. Haven’t noticed much shrinkage or drying out after two or three days hanging. I have seen a few deer hanging a week or longer around this area. Not sure what the benefit is in that when it’s below freezing.I did read once about pulling the hide down a bit. Putting a baseball on the outside and wrapping the hide around it and tying with a rope, then attaching to your vehicles hitch and pulling the hide off. Never tried it though. Perhaps it was someone’s to many beers after hunting.
I guess things are done differently every where we go. Most around here hang their deer as long as possible. To some that’s only till they break camp. Those who can hang them much longer usually do. We usually will go as long as the weather will reasonably give Us or we get together to get everything put up. Some of my friends who have access to walk in coolers hang their deer 8-10 days. In most cases around here the skin is left on.
More info on why and the benefits are found here.
https://www.uscooler.com/blog/aging-best-deer-meat/
I have witnessed using a golf ball to pull a hide off. No one was drinking and it takes some setting up but it works very well.
Thanks to all that have responded.
denny66
Walk in coolers make total sense. Wish that was an option. Thanks for the article and video. Guess it really works. -
I’ve got a question concerning hanging a deer. I’m hoping someone can settle our discussion.
If a person kills a deer, does all the Proper field dressing cleaning of the cavity etc then hangs it. It hung for a couple days then we had some very cold nights (20°) and it didn’t warm up much during the day. More than likely the deer froze. Hide was left on the carcass. As that deer thaws is it still good to work up and process.If I’ve left any needed info out feel free to ask.
denny66 In Alaska we always try to hang our meat if the temperature allows, we try and skin it as it allows the meat to cool faster and we cover it with game bags to keep dirt and bugs off and put a tarp canopy over the meat to keep it from getting wet. One thing that you may have never heard of when hunting near salt water is submerging a gutted animal in cold ocean salt water with the hide on as it will readily cool the meat and keep the meat clean. I have had great success with this for up to a week and when you get the animal home, just skin it as usual and butcher then.
Dave
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denny66 In Alaska we always try to hang our meat if the temperature allows, we try and skin it as it allows the meat to cool faster and we cover it with game bags to keep dirt and bugs off and put a tarp canopy over the meat to keep it from getting wet. One thing that you may have never heard of when hunting near salt water is submerging a gutted animal in cold ocean salt water with the hide on as it will readily cool the meat and keep the meat clean. I have had great success with this for up to a week and when you get the animal home, just skin it as usual and butcher then.
Dave
akdave the salt water dont pull all the blood and water log the meat through the chest cavity doing this?
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akdave the salt water dont pull all the blood and water log the meat through the chest cavity doing this?
Not at all the hide protects the outside of the meat and the internal membrane of the chest cavity protects the inside, you would not want to quarter a animal and do this, but it works wonderful on a full animal. The inside chest cavity looks like you just gutted it. For us that boat hunt for deer it is a great way to keep our meat cool as our deer season starts in August and the temperature can some times be in the 60-70s. One other thing about hunting around the water, it is a lot easier sometimes to drag a large animal in the water than on the ground and the heat transfer from the water is cooling the meat at the same time.
Dave
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Not at all the hide protects the outside of the meat and the internal membrane of the chest cavity protects the inside, you would not want to quarter a animal and do this, but it works wonderful on a full animal. The inside chest cavity looks like you just gutted it. For us that boat hunt for deer it is a great way to keep our meat cool as our deer season starts in August and the temperature can some times be in the 60-70s. One other thing about hunting around the water, it is a lot easier sometimes to drag a large animal in the water than on the ground and the heat transfer from the water is cooling the meat at the same time.
Dave
akdave that sounds like a pretty good idea. Ive always thought about quartering the animals then putting them in a bag then in water… like a wet age.
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I have heard that if the meat is skinned and put in a bag in cool water it will spoil but I have never tried it, I would think that if the cold water is not touching the meat it should not spoil but I don’t know for sure has anyone else tired putting quarters in plastic bags and submerging them without letting the water get to the meat???
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I learned years ago to skin as soon as possible for cooling then let it hang for a week or more . now when you process it trim all the dryed outside off this is what gives it the strong gamey flavor (why some people don’t like wild game) the aging is also what makes it so tender that you can cut it with a fork
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leaving the hide on will allow you to age longer with less meat lost to trimming the outer “rind”
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I’ve got a question concerning hanging a deer. I’m hoping someone can settle our discussion.
If a person kills a deer, does all the Proper field dressing cleaning of the cavity etc then hangs it. It hung for a couple days then we had some very cold nights (20°) and it didn’t warm up much during the day. More than likely the deer froze. Hide was left on the carcass. As that deer thaws is it still good to work up and process.If I’ve left any needed info out feel free to ask.
denny66 It will be ok, we have had deer freeze in the back of a pickup and they were just fine.
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