Hanging deer with hide on.

[Dave Marsh]

At our camp we skin and debone the same day as the harvest. They are on ice in the big white cooler before we retire for the evening.

 

[senseisugarbear]

Here in Nebraska we have to check them in during Rifle season , We can only cut them in half if necessary to carry out of the field. but then we have to leave the genitals on to prove sex of both halves... I leave mine whole skin on let the enzymes do their work tenderizing for a week or so... All this as long as the weather is right...works for me.Be Safe >>>Wally

 

[Bassdog1]

I have done it both ways. Much easier skinning warm so I try and do that when possible. When the temperature is right and if I am going to process myself I skin, rinse body cavity well, then cover with a game bag that my son gets for me. It is important to get any hair off of the meat while aging. 3-5 Days hanging is where I like to be before I process and I never have any complaints about gamey meat and have always had nice tender cuts.

 

[Billy Boy]

Hey folks, my girlfriend walked into the room where I was watching a show and the fellow was just hanging his gutted deer, hide on, and was saying that tomorrow he would skin and start the butchering job. She then immediately looked at me and said, “he’s not gonna skin it now?”. Not sure how to respond because I too have never understood that practice, I just said, “it seems more so to be an Eastern thing.” She’s a farm girl and from a hunting family, I’m a bush guy who also spent a few years on a farm, but have quite a lot of bush experience (hunting, fishing, trapping, guide). I do understand keeping meat clean, but that’s what game bags are for, and proper meat care is absolute paramount to me. This includes cooling as quickly as possible, which means skinning. It is way easier to skin when warm than cold, which also translates to less hair.
So can someone please educate me? Is it an aging thing? A “my family has always done it this way?” Possibly a regional practice of “tradition?”
Walk

Seems to me the quicker the hide comes off the better the meat tastes and the easier they are to skin. Then hang for 3-4 days (weather permitting). I butcher my own just red meat. Can’t see spending a lot of money to make it taste like something else.. Just 2 cents from an old woodtick…

 

[BlackRock52]

@S.Kenton said it,,
It's all about the regional temp during the season. Northern clim's with cool temps, leave the hide on.(but don't let it freeze)
Southern and many Western clim's, better peel the hide quick. Both can be and are proper care of the harvest.
Where I grew up here in Minn, we can let'm hang hide on for a few days to age,, When I lived in Wyo,, peel the hide and ice'm.

Grew up in Upper Minnesota and they all hung for several days to age the meat -- usually 5-7 -- with a couple of sticks to keep chest and abdominal cavity open (like cross braces) Course that was in the 60's & 70's and it was cooler/colder then. The 70's were sometimes referred to as a mini-ice age. I cannot remember ever seeing a hanging skinned deer. Live in Michigan UP now and they hang til you leave camp (with skin on) -- most then take to a processor

 

[bud in pa]

When I lived in Jersey the deer went to the butcher as soon as possible. I lived in the city and there was no room to hang the deer. Now I hunt about 1/4 mile in back of the house. If the weather is right the skin stays on as it hangs in the garage for a few days. If the skin gets hard to pull off I get out the come-along and put a rock on the meat side of the skin. Wrap a heavy duty cord around the rock and attach to the come-along. Easy!

 

[rusticbob]

Up here in Northern New England it is usually kind of cool during the rifle deer and muzzleloader seasons. We routinely hang our deer in a cool spot for a couple of days if possible, with the hide on.
I understand in other parts of the Country that would not be possible. Same thing happens here if we harvest a deer during the early bow season, goes in a cooler in pieces right away. Same with bear and moose.

 

[chorizo]

I recently watched a Bizarre foods with andrew zimerim and another food program that both talked about hide on white tail deer on the east coast. Seems like it is a common practice with does. I use wet ageing and it works well, but the practice of hide on with a "non stinky" deer seems to work well also

 

[Spikebuck]

Hide on or hide off, all depending on the temperature on which way I decide to go.

Same here.

In Minnesota it could be 80 degrees F or -20F during the various deer seasons. If warm my goal is to get the deer skinned and carcass cooled ASAP. If colder, and especially if it's an evening kill and I'm not home with it until late, I'll thoroughly wash it out and hang it skin on overnight. If it's so cold that I think it will freeze solid overnight even with skin on I'll hang it in my closed garage.

Net, good care is taken and I've never noticed a difference in quality between skinning ASAP or within reason based on temperatures.

Now...my neighbors have the first day's kills hanging with the last day's kills over a 9 day gun season regardless of temps. Haven't seen any of them keel over from eating deer but it's not meat I'd want on my plate!

 

[necchi]

Now...my neighbors have the first day's kills hanging with the last day's kills over a 9 day gun season regardless of temps. Haven't seen any of them keel over from eating deer but it's not meat I'd want on my plate!

That's the key isn't it,, proper care while aging lends too a much better palate.
@chorizo makes a good point too, a "non stinky" deer, meaning one that's not a rutty olde buck or gut shot.
Those thick neck big fellers with all their glands oozing, can make a good run before they drop,, they ain't the best table fare for loin, steak or roast.

 

[BillRob]

I lived and hunted in Southern Idaho for three decades - and "learned" to hang a deer for four or five days before butchering. It was cold by the time the deer season came around and I never had a problem..... And yet - since I moved to Eastern Washington a few years ago, it has been way too warm to hang a deer for any length of time. So I have just been butchering asap - often on the day of harvest. I can honestly say the deer have tasted much better. Regional? Vegetation/ diet? Hang time? Who knows! Maybe its because the older I've gotten the more I've targeted smaller - and (easier-to-drag) deer!

 

[BillRob]

That's the key isn't it,, proper care while aging lends too a much better palate.
@chorizo makes a good point too, a "non stinky" deer, meaning one that's not a rutty olde buck or gut shot.
Those thick neck big fellers with all their glands oozing, can make a good run before they drop,, they ain't the best table fare for loin, steak or roast.

Absolutely right! Maybe the formula for hanging time should be some inverse percentage of the circumference of the neck divided by the temperature in celsius.... Never mind - you get the idea! Necchi is right - the those thick-necked bucks make great stories, great photos and great mounts - but they often just don't make great table-fare!

 

[BillRob]

I see that I just graduated from .36 cal to .40 cal. As my friends on SNL (Coffee Talk) might have said about twenty years ago: "Just give me a second - I'm a little verklempt!" Best regards to all of you!

 

[rusticbob]

Up here in Northern New England it is usually kind of cool during the rifle deer and muzzleloader seasons. We routinely hang our deer in a cool spot for a couple of days if possible, with the hide on.
I understand in other parts of the Country that would not be possible. Same thing happens here if we harvest a deer during the early bow season, goes in a cooler in pieces right away. Same with bear and moose.

 

[chorizo]

@BillRob If temp is your enemy for aging your deer (it is mine because I hunt S. Idaho in September), search for my wet aging thread. Aging really doesn't change the flavor much except the initial 5-7 days where it goes into and out of rigor mortis and gets rid of the metallic taste. After that, aging just makes it more tender.

"Stinky" (either from forage or rut) deer and rutting bulls that have been peeing all over themselves. Got to get that hide off and fast!

 

[Nor'Easter]

i have always skinned as soon as i could get them hung. it is easier for me to get the job done than to get back to it.
I lost a deer to bone spoil once and came close with an elk so i like to get it broke down and at least a cut to the bone on the hind quarters.
if i am in back of nowhere i skin and bone the meat out only opening the body cavity enough to get the tender loins.
the last thing i would ever do is say my way is the only way. to each his own. and dumb as i am i know there are those that do it better.

I'm not familiar with the term "bone spoil".

 

[deerstalkert]

I'm not familiar with the term "bone spoil".

heat from the large bones can set up spoilage if it is left covered by meat.
usually we just make a cut to the bone. gives more time to process.
when it is just me and my keeper, with 155 years between us we need all the time we can squeeze out!

 

[Nor'Easter]

Thanks for that, just hadn't heard of it before. Most of our deer kills and livestock butchering has been when temps hover around 32 degrees. Just got my first moose, and was glad my tag was for the last week of October. I would have been concerned by how long it took us to get it to the processor if it had been warmer. That's partly why I haven't worked too hard at taking a black bear, the season starts in early September and it is still quite warm. It runs until the last week of November, and our temps now are 32 +/- daytime and 10 to 15 degrees nightime. So I should have some breathing room by waiting until later in the season.

 

[Okie Hog]

Grew up in WV. Hunters in our area never aged deer: Neither do i. My deer goes to the processor ASAP.

One processor in this area gives a discount for deer that are skinned: If my deer is going to that processor It is skinned prior to gutting.

ASAP after the deer is killed, the throat is cut and the animal bled out. IMO: This is important when the animal was shot outside the front body cavity.

 

[Peregrine]

Get it home and get it skinned ASAP. I call home and my wife moves the car out and has a large piece of carboard on the garage floor ready to hang the deer above. After skinning, I quarter it and trim out the rib cage and all the pieces go on trays covered with plastic wrap in the fridge. Then I cut it all up a day or so later after it firms up a bit. Very few processors around here take deer with the hides on any more.