Breaking Down Deer - Some Basics
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marzig20 Ken1261 The move to CNC manufacturing in the firearms industry has reduced most of the need for skilled hand fitting during assembly on many production guns.
Factory guns are built with tolerances that are tight enough to give some remarkable accuracy right out of the box.
Of course the best match guns will probably always need someone skilled to do the final fitting and do QA, just like marzig20 was doing for RR.processhead said in Breaking Down Deer - Some Basics:
marzig20 Ken1261 The move to CNC manufacturing in the firearms industry has reduced most of the need for skilled hand fitting during assembly many guns.
Many factory guns are built with tolerances that are tight enough to give some remarkable accuracy right out of the box.
Of course the best match guns will probably always need someone skilled to do the final fitting and do QA, just like marzig20 was doing for RR.The cost of a large CNC machining center is very high, as much as a million dollars or more. RRA has several machine shops that do this for them. Chuck has purchased and owns several machines for one small local shop because they simply couldn’t afford to buy them themselves. In order to be profitable and get a faster return on investment, these machines need to be run for at least two shifts a day.
The tolerances they are capable of is incredible. But you have to have a good engineer, a good computer design person and good machinists to program, do the setups and run these machines.
Then you have to have good shops to provide the raw forgings for receivers and other critical parts. It’s a dance or a ballet for everything to come together but the results are amazing.
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processhead said in Breaking Down Deer - Some Basics:
marzig20 Ken1261 The move to CNC manufacturing in the firearms industry has reduced most of the need for skilled hand fitting during assembly many guns.
Many factory guns are built with tolerances that are tight enough to give some remarkable accuracy right out of the box.
Of course the best match guns will probably always need someone skilled to do the final fitting and do QA, just like marzig20 was doing for RR.The cost of a large CNC machining center is very high, as much as a million dollars or more. RRA has several machine shops that do this for them. Chuck has purchased and owns several machines for one small local shop because they simply couldn’t afford to buy them themselves. In order to be profitable and get a faster return on investment, these machines need to be run for at least two shifts a day.
The tolerances they are capable of is incredible. But you have to have a good engineer, a good computer design person and good machinists to program, do the setups and run these machines.
Then you have to have good shops to provide the raw forgings for receivers and other critical parts. It’s a dance or a ballet for everything to come together but the results are amazing.
marzig20
The interdependencies and specialization that goes into manufacturing of almost everything these days is pretty amazing. No wonder breaks in the supply chain can be so tough on manufacturers.Paul
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marzig20
The interdependencies and specialization that goes into manufacturing of almost everything these days is pretty amazing. No wonder breaks in the supply chain can be so tough on manufacturers.processhead I remember at trade shows different people would say, so you don’t actually make all of the parts you assemble your firearms with. I would think to myself, so I guess we would actually have to go out and mine the ore and smelt the metal out to make you happy.
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Deepwoodsbutcher Years ago I was talking with my father who was a farmer in Nebraska when he was younger about buying some land down in Missouri and setting up a small custom processing plant. To do deer processing and processing of hogs and cattle for their owners. He just nodded and said well I’m sure your capable of some of that. Then I said well I would be able to raise a couple of hogs and a steer for our own meat. He said are you kidding if you had any livestock you’d name them and turn them into pets and wouldn’t be able to put any of them them down. He was right and a very wise man.
marzig20 said in Breaking Down Deer - Some Basics:
Deepwoodsbutcher Years ago I was talking with my father who was a farmer in Nebraska when he was younger about buying some land down in Missouri and setting up a small custom processing plant. To do deer processing and processing of hogs and cattle for their owners. He just nodded and said well I’m sure your capable of some of that. Then I said well I would be able to raise a couple of hogs and a steer for our own meat. He said are you kidding if you had any livestock you’d name them and turn them into pets and wouldn’t be able to put any of them them down. He was right and a very wise man.
I had the similar issue with my family when we raised our own livestock. The kids and wife named them all and when it came time for the come to Jesus moment everyone left. I dispatched and got things all processed and learned not to tell what was for dinner until the meal was long past. Now no issues, I just never had a problem and grew up that though. But our boys know where their food comes from and what cuts of meat come from where and at least one likes to make sausage and such.
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smokinbubba I don’t think people realize the actual weight after processing. Are you going out next week?
GWG8541 I am not. I usually don’t take gun week off. I will take the 450bm out for the bonus weekend in a couple weeks. That’s usually all I need to top off the freezer. I’m starting to pressure can this season just to free up some freezer space.
R U going out? -
Just posting some pictures of recent deer butchering.
The deer was shot 36 hours ago and field dressed at that time. The carcass hung overnight in 28 degree outdoor temperatures and was just starting to freeze in some of the smaller parts.
The following morning (24 hours ago) I skinned it, cut out the back straps and quartered it before carrying it home and putting it in the refrigerator.
At this point, all the quarters and trim on this doe that fit in a single heaping full meat lug. As a point of comparison, the buck I shot earlier filled up 2 and 1/2 meat lugs.
This morning I broke down the hind quarters as pictured. There are many methods for doing this. Some guys will even bone out the entire deer while it is still hanging.
I am not really set up for that and do better with more conventional methods that allow me to work as much as I want and then take a break for a while.
Everyone has a process they like. This one work pretty good for me. YMMV.
Here is picture with the pelvis, femur, and shank bone removed from the hindquarter.
Next is a picture of the main muscle groups separated from the hindquarter.
Next is a picture of the muscle groups with some of the silverskin, larger tendons, and most of the fat trimmed.
This is normally where I stop with hind quarter roasts. The shank meat on the far left goes in with the sausage trimmings meat.
The hind quarter roasts are wrapped and frozen, ready for use as pastrami meat, or whole muscle jerky projects.Next up are whole back straps as trimmed off the hanging deer carcass. Also pictured below are the inner or “Hanging tenders” tenderloins. Probably the most delicious and tender part of a deer. They are delicate an dry out quickly. Best removed immediately while field dressing. These got removed the following morning and are already beginning to darken on the exposed side.
Not too much to do here. Trim off some silver skin and then I slice into chunks about the right size for cooking or grilling for two people. I use a fillet knife to get most of the outer silverskin off. I like to leave primals in the largest size possible and do all final slicing prior to cooking. My theory is that uncut meat just freezes and store better.
Next they get vacuum sealed, dated and labeled.
Front should deboning: I left the bone in the shanks for some osso buco . The rest gets boned out, fat and blood shot trimmed away and reserved for sausage or other grinding.
One of the shoulder blades took a direct hit from my arrow (2-blade Rage mechanicals tip). The arrow passed through the should blade bone, caught the top of the onside lung, took out the offside lung, and passed through the off-side rib cage. I am always checking the wound channels on deer I take, but won’t be posting pictures in the interest of decorum.
processhead
Kind of a late reply on this but is pretty spot on to how I do this as well.
One thing not many talk about is the trim. Curious how picky everyone is at boning out a deer? For instance, lower leg tendons, ribs, upper neck etc.There is a point when you have to say, enough already!
Thanks for sharing this processhead
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GWG8541 I am not. I usually don’t take gun week off. I will take the 450bm out for the bonus weekend in a couple weeks. That’s usually all I need to top off the freezer. I’m starting to pressure can this season just to free up some freezer space.
R U going out?smokinbubba yep, Im heading to Ross county Sunday night. Work interfered with bow season this year. I plan on hunting the first few days at least. At this point I’m just looking for meat, Buck or Doe will do.
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processhead
Kind of a late reply on this but is pretty spot on to how I do this as well.
One thing not many talk about is the trim. Curious how picky everyone is at boning out a deer? For instance, lower leg tendons, ribs, upper neck etc.There is a point when you have to say, enough already!
Thanks for sharing this processhead
PapaSop I’m not as picky as I used to be. Used to take me 8+ hrs to process and package a deer. Not now. 2.5hrs tops. For grinder trim, I remove all tendons but don’t worry much about silverskin. For backstraps, I do remove it all. I just canned a bunch yesterday and used some backstrap from last year. I didnt butcher my own last year and the locker did not remove the silver skin from the backstrap. Made for much more work for me! Didn’t want that stuff in my jars.
If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy - Red Green
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PapaSop I’m not as picky as I used to be. Used to take me 8+ hrs to process and package a deer. Not now. 2.5hrs tops. For grinder trim, I remove all tendons but don’t worry much about silverskin. For backstraps, I do remove it all. I just canned a bunch yesterday and used some backstrap from last year. I didnt butcher my own last year and the locker did not remove the silver skin from the backstrap. Made for much more work for me! Didn’t want that stuff in my jars.
smokinbubba said in Breaking Down Deer - Some Basics:
PapaSop I’m not as picky as I used to be. Used to take me 8+ hrs to process and package a deer. Not now. 2.5hrs tops. For grinder trim, I remove all tendons but don’t worry much about silverskin. For backstraps, I do remove it all. I just canned a bunch yesterday and used some backstrap from last year. I didnt butcher my own last year and the locker did not remove the silver skin from the backstrap. Made for much more work for me! Didn’t want that stuff in my jars.
Hear that. For years I tried to get every piece of trim I could get. Not so much anymore.
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PapaSop smokinbubba
It is interesting how much of the silverskin gets filtered out behind the grinder plate and knife when you are grinding deer. -
Excellent post!
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