We hang them by the neck here … because that’s how we’ve always done

… and I think they peel faster thataway

… how bout ya’ll

By the back legs. That was the way my grandpa taught me how to do it. I’ve hung them by the head, put prefer to process them hanging by the back legs. Eric

… and why ?

Back legs. Only cause mine never have any antlers lol

I think the idea is to drain blood out when you cut the throat

Hind legs

How I saw them done when young plus....what else do you skin from the head end?

back legs. just what my deddy does and his deddy

… do does the same way … only time they get skinned upside down around here is for a shoulder mount

… hope you get yourself a nice buck this season smasher

haha mine are split 50 50 sm time antlers sometimes not haha

That line of thinking makes some sense… but I like to bust them behind the shoulder and let em pump out the blood on the run…. I’ve seen purple hams on neck shot deer … why I won’t shoot them there unless I have no choice

Always by the horns or neck, just like yours Savell. Didn't know there was another way.

we also hang by neck Hang to strong beam, limb or tractor bucket. after we work the neck down far enough, we put a rock or golf ball in the lose skin and tie a
rope around the lose hide and pull down with pickup or fourwheeler. Works good

I do both, easier to gut if hanging by neck. Nice buck btw

… we do it similar… but me and the boys grab holt and yank the hide off … those suckers are swinging when it breaks free lol

Hang by the legs is how we do it. Same way as skinning everything else. The way I butcher deer, face down works better for me. Take shoulders off, get burger meat off neck and brisket areas, then back straps,Cut carcass free of the back legs, lower legs to working height and debone them.

I hang by the legs, or occasionally through the pelvis. Mostly because I think they are easier to skin that way, and dad taught me to hang by the back legs.

Hind legs .....peel down and pull head off with the hide

Easy to bag that way , keeping tics , Flys, and yellow jackets off the meat

Same as Savell by the neck unless skinning for a shoulder mount.

By neck. Better hold and then I can cut around neck hook barge rope to neck skin with 4 wheeler to jerk hide off. Then go to work little hair remains. Now days with cwd regulation. I live in a non cwd unit but because I harvest in cwd unit. Probably because a high employee MDC unit not cwd I shoot what regulation allow. telicheck. Process were it fell ungutted. Then throw head in back of my truck. Take to check point. Go through process. I did know all the workers. Most likely do not know any now because they retired or moved on. They always ask if I wanted head and they smile I told them I could not take into my unit so do what ever you want with it. At my age I had very little field 1/4 ing experience for years you had to take deer to a check station (miss the old days. ). Then get home throw in coolers and ice and worked up in my fur shed. Only bad thing I had to pick hair off for a while. But small detail when you always followed the regulations and always will

Laying on ground, or tail gate is easier on my back. Slit skin down back and all legs. Peel off one side and take out hind quarter and front shoulder and the back straps then flip over on skin and do the other side. Last I gut and save the catfish and the carcass is for dog food.

I like to run a cut up the back and remove the backstraps first, eaisest to carry on the run if the warden shows up mid show.

This^^^ is the way I do it.

No particular reason why other than...

I cut meat off the bone as I work down to shoulders/neck.

If a doe....headed is never cut off. De-boned carcass (with guts still inside...I do open abdomen enough to get those tender loins) is loaded and hauled off to carcass dump

Typically hang them by their neck with a 2' nylon chocker.

Easier for me to gut them this way. I'm usually hunting somewhere that's within 10-15 minutes of the house. And I can drive right up to them with the system and my low sitting 4x6 trailer. Works great in my world

I worked in a locker plant in high school, always hung by back leg.
And skin them on the rail.
I still skin them that, and if cape the head out it's just plain easier.
Never worry about the bleeding out, that part comes when loading into the pickup.

Just the way I've been doing it for years now.

Head up. Always done it that way. Seems like it would be easier quartering but never tried it the other way. Andt there isn't a Gambrel at deer camp

Gamble stick and hang em head down

How many you guys bring them home with the guts still in them?

I gut where they drop, too hard dragging with guts in.

Gutted where they die, then hung by the back legs. Camp down the road always hang theirs by the head. They do it their way for the same reason we do it our way - because that's just the way it's always been done.

We hang by the antlers like Savell. Skin from the neck down, that way hide is rolled over by the time you get to the the best cuts of meat, loin and hind quarters, no hair on meat, except for a little on the neck.
Like others stated if doing a shoulder mount then from hind legs.

Yup. No reason to haul the guts around.

From the head, so I can skin down off the neck skin around the front legs so I can roll a golf ball in the neck fur, crimp with a snare and chain to hook to the 4 wheeler and use it to peel down.

By the back legs, so once you have got past the back straps you can stop there, pull them straps and cut the meat off the hinds and throw the rest out for coyote bait to snare around. Right?

Butcher shops here hand from hind legs. I learned hanging ‘em from the neck. Six of one half a dozen the other I suppose.

… spoken like a yank that never had a good shoulder roast lol

WHY are folks dragging extra weight?
Hanging to.gut?
I gut them.where they drop and it's still a fight getting some out.

Or do you just have Jeeves retrieve it with the Range Rover and have your man servant gut and skin it?

I've had plenty of good shoulder roasts Savell, but they didn't come off a deer. Jerky, sausage, and steaks from the back straps are all the edible parts of a deer.

By the back legs so you can half them while still hanging. Then take the front quarters off, process them then do the hindquarters (which are still hanging on the gambrel).

How do you do that when they're hung by the head?

Hind legs, skin comes off easier. I've done it both ways. Question for those who only skin from head down. How do you cape the deer for a head mount?

Hang by the head, skin, then debone all of the meat off of the carcass.

Back legs here that's how it was taught to me growing up never really thought about doing it any different. If we get any hair on the meat we use a small propane torch to burn it off.

By the time Lugnut is done there ain't enough left to feed a small bird. He uses all but the eyelashes I think.

Slow cooked shoulder is delicious. Fall apart tender after 12-14 hours at 200. Put the meat in big roaster. Pour some bone broth in. cover with dry onion soup, then put the lid on. I hang up with a gambrel head down. Its easy and the way great grandad grandad and dad did it. I start gutting as soon as I get to them. On the ground. Easy and no mess. Less weight to put in the pickup and or drag. Always been said in my family to get the guts out right away and the meat is better.

Hanging wildlife/farm animals for gutting and skinning was traditionally done by the back legs. Was passed down for centuries when one was more concerned about cooling down carcasses in the days before refrigeration. Hind legs were spread by the whipple/grapple, opening the abdominal/chest cavity to the cool air.

Back legs usually. Unless I am packing it out quartered.

I like it that way, because I don’t gut deer for the most part. I use the gutless method. Easier to skin that way without messing with the guts pressing down on the hide and whatnot.
To each their own.

By the back legs always . I was told they hang beef that way so you hang a deer that way.

Reported.

Although, a good bait pile it would make.


So yeah.

By looking at all the answers here...and the location...

There is definitely a Yankee way .

And a Rebel way..

FWIW I don't really do that. I know there are a few here with no sense of humor. lol Those front quarters and neck meat make good ground meat for sausage and sticks and such.

…that’s how figured it was going to play out … but noticed a few southern hands are going about it the wrong way lol

…. I ain’t buying it … I have no sense of humor and take every typed word literally

… so you can go pee up a rope you wanton waste loving piece of garbage lol

Can't you just cut around the tail, step on it, grab the back legs and pull the hide off them jackrabbit sized deer down there like a squirrel? Or make a little slit in the middle of the back and pull the hide off both ways with your fingers?

…. We got the biggins in East Texas … twice the size of a jackrabbit!

That's how we do it here.

Hind legs; less/no hair on the meat.

Prefer by the hinds. Have done them both of the two ways and quite often on the ground.

lol

lol.

Back legs down. Because that’s how we always did it

Frankly it’s just nice to see trappers skinning their own and not taking them to a processor.


Carry on.

I agree with you there. I used to process 300 or so a year for folks that were either too lazy to do it, or too lazy to learn how.

If I kill one close to the time I am going to work it up, I don't gut it. I hang it by the back legs and skin it with the guts in. The guts all pretty much settle in the chest cavity and stay out of the way of the knife. I can still get to the inner loins without busting the gut since they have settled down toward the chest cavity.

Cool thread. I have always hung em by the back legs with a gambrel. But i got trained that way from growing up working in a slaughter house doing hogs and cows that way. I will see if i have a pic

Yup

Youre doing them upside down Texan lol

Although, with that said. I guess processors need to feed a family also and pay bills. So it’s a balance.

I have a few great friends that cut deer and other critters for a living. So don’t want to take business away from them. lol

But… it’s not hard… to do it yourself.

Used these to skin sows. Hang by hocks cut back legs off, skin around hams. Hook the chain around feet thru loop and hook to an eyelet bolted in cement floor and hit the chain hoist up. Pulls em off similar to ADCs coon rig i saw on here years ago

With the gutless method I used in the south, I hung them by the back legs. Then you don’t have to gut them.

Haven’t figured out how to make food out of the bones yet.

…. You can get the tenderloins out from the back … although usually gut in the government woods as I have to drag them a ways

I figured you ground them up to make bone meal for your garden Lugnut. lol

LOL

Gut in the field and take the heart to eat and the liver for bait. I've skinned backwards but prefer head down because that's the way we always did it. When I get the hide off what few hairs are left go poof with a quick pass of a butane torch.

Generally skin em where they lie. Start at the belly and skin just past the other side of the spine. Flip the hide out, take the rear, front, strap, then neck meat. Flip it over and repeat using the hide to keep the meat clean. Then put it on your back like god intended and hike it off the mountain.

Yup. Or out of the marsh.
Because we don’t have mountains. Lol

Hang em by the hind legs. Just how we’ve always done it for generations. That spot on a deer on his back legs where the skin gets thin and the tendon is thick just seems like it was made for hangin.

As your trimmin , toss the junk in the rib cage. I don’t use a saw just pop the joints and cut with a good knife, no bone dust. When your done you have the hide connected to the head and rib cage with all the trimmings/legs inside there, one trip to the dead pit. Works for me. Deer skin so easy I don’t see a need to hook em to a pickup to snatch the hide off .

I always skinned from the hind legs. Why that’s the way we did it on the slaughter house kill floor for everything else.

wws

Hang by the hind legs, my grandfather was a butcher for a living and that's the way he did it.
Guts stay in the woods, heart and liver come home.
Use to do 100 a year for Christmas money for the kids and wife.
Never saw a butcher hang one by the neck
As for skinnin', hide only takes a couple minutes on a cold deer and a little less on a warm one to skin.
As for leaving the guts in...I don't like cutting or quartering warm deer. I guess down south you don't have a choice without a cooler. And I like heart and liver

Back legs on a gambrel ... Easier to open them up for cooling, and if it's really warm, thoracic cavity holds a bag of ice wrapped in towels.

Skin them to get the meat out.
I've seen hogs butchered skin on.
Probably unacceptable internet practice today.
Shave n burn.

Watch the Bearded Butchers on you tube. Going to try their method.

Head up,head down, or deer laying on the ground. Don't matter. Probably good reasoning behind getting those hams spread apart.

Exactly why I switched, we always hungum by the head before.

Take one :p

Find proper tree, drag to tree, hang by the back legs, no gutting, skin, remove shoulders, cut out backstraps, bone out hindquarters, and any other parts I want.....I use a self locking block and tackle...pack parts in game bags and walk them off the hill in a framed back pack....can stick 2 medium deer in it...

if no tree, then on the ground using the hide to keep the meat clean ish, lol, a couple leaves or hair is just added roughage! A warm deer peels like a banana , from dead to packed up about 25 minutes and on to the next!

Back hocks if it’s a bear or trophy cut deer/elk. Hang deer by the neck otherwise spread open to cool.

Osky

neck. Easier to break it down.

Bigger thing for many people is having the facility to do it. Many people also the meat is a by product of the hunt. They've already dumped thousands into this years hint, what's s few hundred more?

We do gutless on almost everything now unless a deer falls right by the road.
Some times we hang with the hide on, sometimes we skin if too warm out.
If taken out whole it gets hung from the back hocks, skinned down to the neck then hide and head are cut off.
Guts never go for a ride, they stay in the field.

we have always hung by the neck

then when I started cutting my own up about 22-23 years ago I would let them down from the tree , and hang them up in the garage by the rear legs because that was what I saw at other places

one year I had a bunch to do and no help so I grabbed an orchard ladder and left them hung and did them all hanging in the tree head up , worked good haven't done them any other way now in several years at deer camp

at home I have done them laying on a table and on a tarp in the front yard , because I had one and was just doing it quickly some of those were road kill so it was get the 1/4s and don't open the gut

this is exactly how i do it and it just keeps 95% of the hair most guys get on the meat off the meat super clean and super easy. almost like a skinning machine. its awesome. i dont do it any other way now. can peel a deer in 3 minutes total.

I pull all mine with my skinning machine, just switch out the gambrel for a wider one.

Same boat as Wytex. 99.9% of everything gets quartered out using the gutless method, take trimmings and back straps off the half you are working on at the time. Then everything that comes out with us is edible meat. No hauling guts and useless carcasses out. Dont even touch the guts anymore other than to reach in and pull tenders and heart.

By the legs.

I learned by being a skinner in a deer processing place.

It was easier to do it that way when a person brought one in that had been strapped to the roof of a car then driven 150 miles in freezing weather.

I now skin mine by the legs and using the golf ball method and an ATV method.

if they are gutted and hanging by the neck from the tree

I start by cutting the front legs at the knees sliding knife in then out to cut very little fur

run that up to the inside of the front legs mostly skin out the front legs

then I cut up the sternum and up the neck , I stop about an inch or two short of the rope they are hanging by
that cut turns and goes around the neck just below the rope an inch or two.
everything is slide the knife up then pull out this minimizes any fur on the meat.


then I start working the hide down the back

We hang them upside down, most of the time! We just always did it that way.

I've always hung mine by the back legs because once the hide is off it's easier to split them in half and quarter them. I use a sawzall to split them.

We hang them by the head at camp (field dressed), mainly to let them drain in the beginning. Then at home for skinning and breaking down we hang them by the hind legs.

Just the way we've always done it.

Hang from head if I golf ball skin them and then rehang from hind quarter shanks so blood drains to the head and doesn't pool in the hams.

If I knife skin, then I hang from the hind quarters to start with.

edit: I have walk-in cooler so I always let mine hang about 10 days before processing. If skinning and processing all at the same time, shortly after harvesting, I don't reckon it makes a difference which end you hang them from.

ol' dad

If you got loose dogs around, see what happens when you hang them heads up...

Yup, seems like every few years someone has a pic of a head hung deer with hams eaten. Usually blame it on Mountain lion or pack of coyotes. When I tell them it was most likely dogs they always say the same thing. “No dogs around me”. I always say, “ there are more dogs around you than mountain lions, that’s for sure.”

Gut in woods. Once at home, we take the head and lower back legs off to hang in cooler, hide on. Out of the cooler, we hang by the hocks by hooks on the ceiling. Tie front legs to hook on floor. Wrap chain around neck skin and attach winch cable, push button and peel hide off.

Geez, I can't remember the last time I shot one small enough to bring out of the woods whole like that.

… I know your mo 160 … ride that 4 wheeler up to em … sissy lol

Gut in the woods , but toss the heart, liver, and caul fat into the body cavity. Break every thing down on the tail gate at home. Too warm to hang . Too simple.

You Rebs should skin them miniature Deer like ya do a rabbit, from the middle and pull both ways.

…. Somebody already beat you to that one hippie

… you should try reading the replies…. It can be interesting sometimes

dang,

Too many to sift thru for me.

… I don’t care to hear it

… you want to run that mouth… it’s your duty to be sure nobody beat you to it lol

Might help slow ones to hear it twice

3--2--1--

Might help if you knew what you were talking about… I’m in deep East Texas .. the deer are bigger than angus bulls … takes five grown men to drag them out … and one usually dies along the way

lol,

Ya drag the dead guy out too or use him later as a bait pile?

… we make a raft out of discarded pallets from the feed store… place the fallen in it …. Light it on fire and push it out into lake Livingston while Willie Nelson gospel hymns play on a turtle box speaker

Well, some are only 5'9" so they ain't really full grown yet. That might be why it takes 5 of em.

I usually break mine down so I can load them myself. Back end gets hung by the feet, front from the neck

When we were hunting west TX we cut from the neck down and take the back straps, tender loins by making a small cut and pulling them out and then take the back legs a if the front were big enough cut them out of buck Cape it out and roll the ribs and guts off all together.

Not understanding how you get the tenderloins? Or anybody doing gutless method, please educate me. I have trouble picturing things.

randy newburg has videos on his fresh tracks youtube channel for the gutless method. im not smart enough to explain it sorry.

Guts fall to the bottom of the rib cage, small cut and they're right there, reach in and cut em out...

Always hanging from the hocks on the hind legs. Once it’s skinned, the front shoulders pull off easier ( gravity ). The big advantage is that it’s easier to split the deer in halve, or to separate the two hind quarters.


Years ago, all the old time hunting camps here in Pa always hung their deer on the meat pole by the neck. But I think that was mainly for show.

We hang them by the back legs.