all the hair!

[triggertrav]

How many of you guys butcher your own deer? And if so, does anyone have a secret on keeping hair off the meat? I always cut hide from the inside out and try and be careful, but i still get hair everywhere. Then if you get hair on the meat, what do you use to clean it? I have been using a torch to burn it off, but that doesn't seem to work that great. I have tried rinsing, but that is a bigger pain in the a.

Lets hear all your secrets or maybe just a better way than i do.

Thanks.

[crawler harness]

First off how are you hanging your deer when you skin it? Try hanging it by the legs and skin the deer out right away when it is still warm. The skin just peels right off,"like a hot knife going into butter." Then to prevent it the meat from drying out wrap some damp towels around the carcass. My group would always wait a few days to cut our deer up and would get hair all over the meat, then I suggested we start taking the hides off right away. They said why didn't you think of this before.

[motley man]

Biggest trick I've leaned is the skinning part. Cut around neck and pull all loose hair away, cut down to open area from gutting and do same. I only skin down enough to get a golf ball wrapped under skin and put a rope around golf ball. I then hook it to 4 wheeler and winch it down as far as possible, then I back up to pull it off. This works so slick with less hair transfer from grabbing and pulling. I cut legs off before starting this process. Give it a try sometime.

[reinhard1]

i also take great care when i skin a deer but hair does remain. i have a bucket of luke warm water with a clean medium towel and squeeze most of the water out of the towel and then wipe the exterior of the deer down with it. i remove any fat and unusable meat first with my knife. if after that as i proccess my cuts on the table there are any hairs left i pick them off prior to wrapping. this may not be the best way but it works for me. good luck.

[mrklean]

we hang them buy the legs and pull the hide down we get a little hair on the meat but it washes right off. It works to cut them up right away, but if you let them sit over night the fat comes off in chunks better less cutting.

[sticknstring]

We do our own and use the method crawler mentioned and have never had any problems. You might come across a hair or 3 while cutting/grinding but nothing to worry about.

[triggertrav]

yes we hang it by the legs and skin down. most of the hair is coming from cutting around the legs and out to the edge of the hide.

we have tried the 'golf ball' trick, but i ruled that out.

thanks though.

[hockeybc69]

I have never had an issue with using the torch to clean up the hair.

[reinhard1]

i had a guy tell me that once but he used a rock instead of a golf ball but pretty much the same. i kind of rolled my eyes on that one [he was having a few beers at the time] but since you mentioned it i will try it. this would save a lot of time in the skinning proccess. good luck.

[Cheetah]

I have hung by both neck and a gambrel in rear legs, I don't get much hair on my meat unless I am rushing and not being careful about it.

[T.S128]

i've used a torch before, worked out but like reinhard1 said a bucket of warm water and a rag will get it done no problem.

[swampbuck]

I use a small propane torch after I have the animal skinned singes all the hair that is left or fell off during skinning, works really well.

[not_nuf_time]

I was thinking of trying this when skinning mine this year(but didn't). Since most of the hair comes from the initial cut around the neck, I was thinking of rolling back the hair in the area of the cut, and making a wrap of duct tape around rolled back hair, then also doing a wrap of duct tape just below where the cut would be. I would think this would grab alot of the loose hair.

[Lipriper84]

Check out the golf ball trick on Youtube. They have a few videos of it there. Looks pretty slick hahaha.

[MOSSY]

We do about a hundred deer a year use a small propane torch the key is to let the animal hang for at least a day after skinning to let the exterior dry a little then the hair singes right off.I skin all mine from the head down unless I am caping one. Takes me about six minutes to skin one unless it is frozen.

[Ferny]

We hang ours upside down on a big gambrel in the rear legs. We start skinning on the inside of the thigh and cut from under the skin to the outside. That seems to help rather than cutting through the hair into the skin. Then we just grab the hide with our hands and pull using little cuts when needed. When we get down to the front legs we saw them off and keep pulling. When we get to the head we saw that off. Our deer hang an average of 3 days before we butcher. I do the front shoulders while the other guy cuts the back-straps, saw the carcass off, then split the hinds up. We wash down the table after each quarter is cut. There is some hair here and there, mostly from the cut legs. We usually do all the wrapping trying to keep the blood off the paper. We don't go overboard trying to De-hair the meat. When you unwrap the steaks or roast to eat, wash it down and do a final trim and cleaning. Never had a problem doing it that way. We did 5 this year. I might look for something to grip the hide better. My hands were sore after 3 deer.

Ferny.

[bottom-bouncer]

for those of you that have never tried the golfball. You should this is how I do all of our deer I can usaully skin one in about two minutes, and there is no mess.

[remington 300]

i believe the golfball trick will work best if the deer is freshly killed,

not stiff/frozen. we tried our first golf ball skinnning on opener monday on a deer that hung for two days and it wasnt all that slick, could have skun it by hand easier we felt.

my 2cents,

mike.

[bottom-bouncer]

i believe the golfball trick will work best if the deer is freshly killed,

not stiff/frozen. we tried our first golf ball skinnning on opener monday on a deer that hung for two days and it wasnt all that slick, could have skun it by hand easier we felt.

my 2cents,

mike.

WOW! your stronger than a 2500# winch I am impressed.

[Gordie]

Ive used the golfball trick quite a few days after the deers been hanging the trick is to use two guys then one to run the wheeler,truck or winch and the other to touch the sticky spots with a sharp knife.

I also willtake a clean warm wet rag and wash off the whole deer before I quarter it this seems to help alot I havent tried burning the hair off yet but may give it a try.

[mrklean]

what is the golf ball trick?

[hockeybc69]

I love the rope this guy uses. LOL

[reinhard1]

looks like a quick way and less hair. good luck.

[mrklean]

interesting to say the least, i think ill stick to my knife and pulling the hide method

[Ebiz]

From personal experience... The golf ball works well on full size deer, however we tried it one year with a fawn my buddy shot and let's just say it didn't work as planned. Halfway through wound up with a head swinging back and forth and the carcass flying into my hood