POLL: How do you cut up your animals?

Just curious.
Also, please justify the quartering/backstraps method. I don't understand it

We do the "full" way, because wasting meat is very frowned upon, at least for/by us.

Thanks!

I gut, skin and use everything except for the ribs.
Didn't see that as an option so I voted quartering even though I do more.
Then use the ribs for the dogs.

When I was a kid , the Ranch we hunted had some illegals picking pecans one season. We shot a deer and they asked for the guts to eat. I have to say I do not take it that far to eat the guts. I was open to giving the poor guys the hams also, but they only wanted the guts.

I get everything I can get. I have too much respect for the life I took.

You do understand that quartering doesn't mean taking only the hind quarters. Once the backstraps are removed, there is basically no meat left between the shoulders and the hams. The two front shoulders and the two hams make up the four parts "quarters". The meat taken home from an animal that has been field dressed and quartered is: the neck, the two front shoulders, the two hams, the backstraps, the tenderloins, and the heart and liver if you wish. The justification for doing this is so it will fit in an ice chest....

^^This^^

Cept for hogs.The giant ones can feed the buzzards for all I care.

I mean ribs included.

The only things we don't eat are the guts and of course inedibles like bones (-heart, (liver, kidneys if exotic), and occasionally lungs). Sometimes we even have brain, tongue, and hooves/leg bone marrow.

I save all the meat and the heart. Don't mess with the liver or other organs. Even if it was okay to not take it all, we need every bit. It's tough to make 8 Texas deer last a whole year for us.

We pretty much take every scrap we can get including shoulders, neck, even the flank in some cases

A properly prepared neck is about my favorite. It also makes excellent tamales... Chital has me beat eating the bone marrow. I hit the big bones with a hammer and let the dog have them...

X3

Those of you who use everything. How do you cook the intestines ?
Do you eat the intestines on every animal you harvest?

With a knife...a chain saw is too messy.










I save the heart - makes great chili
I save the liver - makes great coyote and bobcat bait
And all salvageable meat, I only buy bacon any more.

It's called cowboy stew around here.
Clean and boil, then throw in pot with rabbit food.

As quick as possible

We keep all the meat. Backstraps, tenderloin, front and back legs meat off the neck, flank, and cut inbetween the ribs and get that meat too. Sometimes we don't use the shank if it is too full of thorns which is common.

I just take quarters, backstraps, and tenderloins.

Have never tried the neck meat, but I've heard it's good. Have taken the heart and it's very good.

Salvage everything but ribs (used to get them but they ended up staying in freezer so long they freezer burned every year), and no guts/organs. Neck goes into roast, as do shoulders. Backstraps, tenderloins and some of back hams into fry meat (sometimes I like to grill the tenderloins). The rest goes into either fry meat, sausage or hamburger (lower legs front and back stripped into jerky meat). Usually I attempt to get 3 does for the freezer.

gut, skin and take all salvageable meat here. I used to keep heart & liver, as my mom really liked those (me too when she fixed them). We made hindquarter & back straps into steaks/roasts, pretty much everything else went into hamburger/chili or sausage. Occassionally, we would keep a whole shoulder for mom to make a bone-in roast. Same for feral hogs although I don't recall keeping heart/liver from those.

I have never understood this, to me it sounds hipocritical. You have respect for the deers life and small hogs life, but the big ones can go to the buzzards? For the record I dont shoot hogs and leave em lay, but dont have a problem with people doing so. But when people say its disrespectful or unethical to not take the ribs on a deer but will leave a whole hog lay I find it ridiculous.

And forgot to say we take shoulders/quarters, straps, tenderloins, and as much neck as possible

While I don't necessarily condone a willy-nilly half-effort processing job, I'm not going to get bent out of shape about it. Where this thread will eventually end up: an episode of South Park, just like the latest HF threads.

You see, no one can draw the line where waste begins. Where is it? "I took the rib meat, but I left meat on the skull." You wasteful hunter, you!

Bottom line is that if your deer (or other animal) doesn't look like a museum-quality skelton when you get done with it, you've wasted something.

Why don't we just worry about our own processing methods and let the other guy worry about his. Life will be a lot happier that way.

Finally, it bears mentioning that nature, in fact, wastes nothing.

I do both
deer, gut and skin then whole thing goes to processor.

hogs, sometimes whole animal other times hind quarters and back strap

justification... when it's hot and it's important to get hog iced down quick
OR when we trap several and don't want to clean them all

The reg book says you need to take/attempt to take the 4 legs and backstraps.

Hogs fit in a different book to me. I shot a trap full of 20-30 pounders couple weeks ago. They weren't the fattest looking things in the world, it was hot, I had a lot to get done and it was the last day of the trip leaving at noon. They fed the scavengers and I don't feel bad at all. Hogs are an invasive species and a nuisance. I couldn't care less if people shoot them and never eat/attempt to eat one. Javalina, deer etc. I feel differently about they naturally belong here.

Neither one. I can use a gutless method and take all four quarters, the back straps, tender loins and the neck meat as well if I so choose.

With a sharp knife as I see fit.

Question to those who do take ribs/rib meat: what do you make with it?


We make pulaw or pulao, which is basically rice pilaf. MMmm good

For us backstrap and 2 muscles in the back legs gets made into steaks, cubed for making carne guisada etc. The rest of the deer is ground and becomes german sausage, burger, or chorizo.

Mmmmmmm...chorizo...

I clean all my animals on the ground, I cut up the back and then out each leg...peel back skin and remove blackstrap, front and rear legs and flip it over and repeat. I NEVER gut my animals and there is not enough meat on ribs to keep

We make ribs if they're not shot up. Hamburger if they are.

Yep!!! Buzzards got to eat too!!!

Backstraps and back hams for hogs. Deer go to the processor gutted.

hang, remove hocks, skin, cut out backstrap, remove front shoulders place large bucket underneath deer. Carefully disarticulate hip joint. When I do it right it leaves 2 hams hanging on the spreader bar and the rest in the bucket. I don't guy them anymore. The only reason I did before was to get to tenderloins or to ice them down. With the set up we have now cooling isn't and issue when we quarter and throw in ice chest. Isn't worth the risk of hitting that feedbag for two little bitty steaks...

Pigs, if we kill one 80 or less I MIGHT backstrap it. But that's about it. We don't do whole hog cooking though If I had a cooker I would try. Over 80 lbs I get the gut hook and unzip their bellies so the varmints can make them disappear faster. I swear it cuts the stink time in half. Also i'm eradicating hogs, not hunting them, the meat is a bonus the goal is removal so I leave 95% lay.

all our guts and bodies general leftovers go to a pit we up on the west side of the place that we always make a point to make a set at when we are calling. Have called in SEVERAL critters there.

teach me how to get the tenderloins without gutting... i'd love to learn

skip to the 4:00 minute mark (this is for an elk but same concept with whitetail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4kJIrW1IDM

Field: Buck 110 and a Swing Blade with a gutting blade on it.

Field dress & haul it to the house since this lease is only an hour away. When we were way out there we quartered and trimmed and put it on ice in a large ice chest.

Process at home: Knife set with skinning, caping, boning, & butcher knifes. Has bone saw, knife sharpener, shears, cutting board, and rib separator. All is in a plastic carry case.

Every piece of edible meat is used. We used to do the grinding, but it's faster to keep a separate pile for grinding and just take it to the processor (It's not very expensive and they grind by the pound). I trim out all the meat between the ribs and put it in the the grind pile.

Last place I paid to have meat ground was about $0.14/pound. That's about 50-60 bucks a year for us, not counting making an appointment dropping it off etc. having to go back and pick it up, having your meat mixed with all the gut shot ones that rode on the back of a pickup for 2 hours with no ice in 75 degree weather etc. A grinder is well worth it for us.

Everything but the innards.

As much as leases, corn and gas cost nowadays I'm taking everything I can get, which has included the heart, and on one occasion, his manhood went on the grill.

Processor I use is only 4 miles from the house and no appointment needed (...at least I haven't had to make one).

hey hnf do you use old plantation?

He's a little further than 4 miles from Old Plantation.

Nope! Last time I tried to use them I couldn't get anyone to answer the door and the night drop was locked. I use J.R.s (on the road right behind Old Plantation). They've answered the phone anytime I've called.



That's as the Crow flies. If the Crow has to walk and stay on paved roads it's about 6 miles!

if he's big enough I'll take the ribs and smoke them. I also take the heart and the liver.

THANKS! I'm gona bookmark this

quarter - because it won't fit in my cooler whole.

I take everything, though.

I give all of it away. In our area, there's a line out the door of people that will appreciate and enjoy the meat way more than my family will. I don't even like venison that much unless it is elk. A while back there was a thread condemning guys like me, but I'm not going to quit my favorite hobby just because some people think what I do is unethical. At the end of the day, all the meat gets used off the farm and that's all that matters.

ewe....

Its Illegal here in Alaska (except Brown Bear and Black Bears in the fall)...it's called Wanton Waste if you do not Take ALL edible meat. Basically I bone when I can..But in some units the meat must be on the bone of the quarters to prevent too much waste from inexperienced hunters trying to bone everything out.
It definitely is different hunting here..especially Moose...once you get one down you are in for an incredible amout of work, Last year I packed my Moose .82 miles...9 packloads @ 842 pounds! Do the math....those are heavy packs..because the last pack was the antlers and they were about 70lbs.

I remember that thread!!! At least the meat is not wasted!!!

i like ta use laytex gloves for gutting & skinnning, some times my arss goes ta itchen

the only meat I have been known to leave is the rib meat and some organs like the liver and heart

The shoulders and neck meat are good grinding meat to me.

Anyone grinding up the neck should try using it as a roast. One neck off a small deer will make one roast. A larger deer will make two. Very good eating if you like a good roast.

I take everything that I can salvage and usually debone everything at the same time.I pull the meat off the shoulders as well as the neck. No ribs though, just not enough there.