Hanging a deer.

[SCUMFROG]

What's the best way to hang a deer? From the head/antlers, or rear legs?

[Eric Wettschreck]

talk to 20 guys and you will get 20 answers to this one.

I hang them from the rear legs with a spreader in the gut cavity.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I'm a legs guy too... This way you are draining the blood away from the choicer cuts of meat..

[Stratosman]

rear also, I think it's easier to skin as well.

[catman71]

we'll have a hard time actually getting 20 answers, but here is a third choice; my garage ceiling is very low so i usually hang them by both left legs......

[RussDaBuss]

I have done both... But hang from the rear legs more lately. With it being warmer and heat rises it will most likely cool off better if the heat can escape the gut cavity instead of hanging by the head and haveing all the heat hang around the inner head neck area!! Good Luck ALL!

[Guest]

I usually hang mine by the neck.. but for a reason. I butcher my deer immediately and this makes it easier to skin... If the deer is very fresh, one can usually cut around the neck and hook a cable off to the hide an pull the hide off with a vehicle... I dont know a faster way to skin.

This doesnt work for me if hung by the rear legs.. I tried once and one of the rear quarters pulled off... oops.

Most people I know hang them by the rear legs.

[Gissert]

I've done it both ways, and either one works just fine. I prefer to butcher with the head up, so that is what I use most of the time.

If you are going to do the 'power skinning' method with a rock or golf ball, hang them by the head.

I bought a good gambrel for elk hunting, and have not used it yet. I might try hanging and skinning that way, and do the butcher job on a picnic table this year.

The MOST important thing is, IMO, get that hide off ASAP and get them cooled down ASAP regardless of head up or down hanging.

[JEV]

I've hung them both ways and prefer the head down. I made a gambrel a couple years ago and its my preferred method now. Seems to go quicker and it goes easier to have the hind quarters up higher when deboning the deer.

JEV

[SCUMFROG]

What is a gambrel? I'm new to all this.

[Gissert]

A gambrel is a metal device that hooks on each rear leg around the leg bone/tendon. You can do the same thing by running a stick through the legs and hoisting from that.

[Cooter]

Scumfrog, its basically a heavy duty shirt hanger with hooks on each end in appearance.

[Studer]

I usually hang them from the head, but I can see if you have a mountable deer then the legs should go up being that the cape is not cut so high. It all works

[eyes']

I hang from the head but then the next day I turn it around and put in the gambrel and skin... I guess that was the way I was taught.

[bigbucks]

I've always done head because that's how I was taught. I'm sure obviously from all the people I've read about & know that do it the other way, that both work just fine.

[FOOT]

We've always hung the deer from their antlers.

Seriously, we hang the deer from the head/antlers. The past 15 plus years we've been hanging them the same way but have had access to well water, pump and a hose. Therefore we split the pelvic bone, cut the throat and then rinse the body cavity really good.

I don't know that it makes any difference but I'm always surprised at how much blood is still left in those critters.

[toughguy]

I usually try to shoot them. Hanging is too cruel and it's realy hard to catch 'em first. lol After that I’d say lethal injection or gas chamber followed by electric chair.

[lunker651]

It don't really matter to me, both works well. But I prefer hanging by the head. I heard that if you hang them by the head, the bloods drains out better and the meat gets tender faster. I'll only hang them by the legs when I want to mount the head. It don't really matter how you hang your deer, as a matter of fact, you don't even have to hang your deer.

[FOOT]

Toughguy, there is a fourth option, the firing squad.

This must be the approach used by a hunting party across a road and to the South of where I hunt. If I hear one shot I know it's going to be followed by 10 - 20 more. In fact I can picture in my mind the deer running the gauntlet as the shots ring out usually from East to West.

I wouldn't set foot in that section of woods for all the money in a WPT TExas Holdem' Tournament.

[lawdog]

I'm surprised no one has said anything about the fluids that supposedly drain from the brain and ruin meat if you hang it from the head. I don't know that I even beleive that, we've hung lots of deer by the head and never noticed it. We do hang some by the feet now, but honestly most we don't even hang, just take em in to the cooler to get cut up...

[Big-Al]

Hide off asap and hind legs. No other way for me.