Another great MAN DIY moment
How to Skin a Deer
You’re going to be doing the field dressing, or to take the internal organs out while you’re still in the woods or as soon as you get it transported.
Tag it before you move it of course.
Remove the organs.
The basics behind skinning a deer is to follow the built-in guidelines of the body of the deer, and work from that standpoint. The skin and muscle tissues of the deer are naturally separate from one another because of the protective membranes, making the process of skinning a lot more like following a built-in blueprint than like trying to lift a rug in the dark.
You should first hang the deer. This makes it easier for you to use your body weight in the skinning process and creates a greater leverage point for skinning the deer. This also ensures that the meat will stay clean. Whether you hang the deer from the neck or from the legs, there is no particular difference.
It is important to try to skin the deer within an hour or two of the deer’s death, making the skinning process a whole lot easier.
Your knife should be very sharp. My dad, an old Blackfoot said, nothing in the world is more dangerous than a dull knife or an unloaded gun.
Supposing the deer is hung by the legs, find the large tendon connecting the lower leg segment to the rest of the deer’s leg.
You should poke a whole with your knife in between the tendon and the bone there, then use your fingers to feel the lump that is created by the deer’s double-jointed bone.#Once you have found that lump, sever the lower leg at the lower end of the two parts of the double joint.
Cut the skin and the tendons here and then snap the deer’s leg over your own leg, using your body’s leverage to break it.#After you have broken the deer’s legs in this fashion, make several incisions around and near the tendon areas.
There should be a hole between the tendon and the bone of the lower leg, as well as several incisions near the front legs.
You will then sever and snap the front legs as well, making the skinning process easier.
After you have made the initial incisions, you will begin the process of undressing the deer of its skin.
Use your finger tips and thumbs to get inside the skin near the lower leg incisions and begin to pull the skin off.
The skin should easily peel from the meat because of these membranes, creating little risk of tearing the skin or tearing the meat.
The most important aspect in skinning a deer is the use of your hands and the pull of your own body weight. With these two integral tools, the aspect of skinning a deer becomes incredibly simple. In fact, skinning a deer can typically be completed in about ten to fifteen minutes without any serious complications.
Essentially, the pulling of the deer’s skin should work a lot like pulling a tight jacket or pair of blue jeans off. It may be a little bit awkward, but the layer of meat revealed below the skin should be a more than ample reward.
After the skin is pulled off, you will notice the meat is ready to go and the separation of the meat thanks to the deer’s membrane has made the whole process a lot simpler than you ever thought possible.