# Sticky  How We Butcher Deer



## fhalum

I've seen some threads about which processer is best for taking deer to, and I've seen a couple of folks recommend a DVD to learn how to do it yourself, but I haven't seen anyone just post pics of how they do it, so I thought I would. I'm by no means an expert, but I've had good success with doing my own deer for several years now, and the photos below show what works well for me.

First, find a dead deer. Here's a doe my wife shot this year.









I failed to take any pictures of field dressing, hanging, and skinning the deer. Hopefully, you're able to do that on your own. If not, maybe I can remember to snap some photos next year. Anyway, you'll want to get the carcass to your butchering location, and then we'll go from there.









A good set of sharp knives makes the work a bit easier. We have a couple of sets of Rada knives, and the sharpener that comes with them. I just sharpen everything before we begin so that as knives dull, I can just reach over and grab another.









We start by cutting off the front shoulders. With the way God put deer together, there are no bones to work around. It's just a straight circular cut through muscle. 









Here is the first shoulder removed. The process is just repeated on the other side. 









After removing the front shoulders, we just cut all the meat off them for grinding. It's important to get as much of the sinew, silver skin, and other "non-meat" substances off as possible. If it's not bright red, cut it off. I've got a picture toward the end of this thread that shows what that meat looks like after it's been cleaned up really well and is ready to go through the grinder.

After the front shoulders are off, I like to work on the roasts on the back end. Some people use a bone saw to cut through the pelvic bone. WE NEVER DO THAT! If you've ever had venison that tastes "gamey" or is a little "off" in flavor, there's a good chance that some of the silver skin or fat or bone marrow is on/in the meat. The bone marrow gets on the meat when you use a bone saw. Here's how we cut the roasts out/off without using a saw.

Look on the inside of the back legs of the deer.









If you poke around just a little with your knife tip, you can find the end of the bone that is part of the ball and socket joint. I'm pointing to it here with my knife.









Another way to find it, as I'm showing on the other leg, is to follow the bone up through the leg to where it ends. If you just tap the tip of the knife on the bone, you can work your way up from the bottom of the leg toward the top. That will get you to that ball and socket joint, too.









Either way, once you're there, you just want to start cutting the muscle out from around the bone. 









Just keep peeling back and slicing gently, and you'll begin to work the bone free from the muscle.









Eventually, you'l be able to pull the leg out of the socket and away from the biggest leg muscles, like this.









And when you flip the now-free leg muscles over, you'll be left with this, which will be cut into roasts...









...and this, that you can cut meat off of for grinding.









With the roasts, it's really just a matter then of following the natural division of muscles. I don't know how to explain it, really, other than you just open it up and slice where it naturally wants to slice. For example, this is the same muscle group shown two photos above. I've just flipped it over and started "unfolding" it.









A little more unfolding and cutting along muscle divisions looks like this.









And then when you cut off the fat and silver skin stuff, you're left with roasts that look like this. Of course, there's another set just like this on the other leg, too.









The tenderloins are pretty simple. They can be found on the inside of the carcass, up against the spine. (I don't know why this photo turned out so bright red compared to the others...)









Just cut them out and clean them up a bit and they look like this.









Then, you can set the deer "upright" and work on the backstraps. The backstraps are located on the "outside" of the deer, on either side of the spine. Just jab your knife in right against the spine.









You can work along the spine, cutting away with the knife and pulling the backstrap away as you go.









Just work your way along the deer, cutting and pulling, and then repeat on the other side.

















Clean them up just a tad, and you'll have this that remains.









We usually cut them into butterfly steaks. Marinated with 1/2 italian dressing and 1/2 juice from a jar of jalapenos, and grilled outside, they're AMAZING!. There are lots of other ways to prepare and cook them, but that's our preference. Some people I know don't fool with making butterfly steaks; they just cut them into "medallions" or whatever they're called, and still others just cook the whole backstrap at once. Whatever you want to do with them is fine. At least you've got them cut off the deer now.

The only thing left to do is to finish cutting off any extra meet from other locations on the carcass - the neck, spots missed along the spine, the ribs, the remaining muscle on the legs, etc. How much time you take is up to you, but I figure if the deer gave its life to me, the least I can do is respectfully get as much meat from it as I can.









Here's just a little of the meat that is prepared for grinding. We ended up with MUCH more than this, but I wanted to show a picture of what the meat looks like before it's ground up - virtually free of sinew, silver skin, fat, etc. That makes for a much more tasty batch of ground meat than we'd get if we left all that in there. Put the clean meat through a grinder, and that's pretty much it. 









I know this overview is pretty basic, but it gives you ground meat, steaks and roasts. We'll usually make some sausage, too, and sometimes we use the neck for cutting into stew meat, but I didn't include all that. I just wanted to show a basic way to work up a deer and get it ready for the FoodSaver and the freezer. Hope someone finds it helpful.


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## Sasha and Abby

I do it just about the same way... Excellent post. Thanks for taking your time to show us all. With your permission, I am going to make this a "stickey".


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## zogman

fhalum,

Great to have this. Thanks :beer: I do it very similar but your pics and instructions are good to have.

It always seem like a waste of money to pay someone. Cause it's not that hard.


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## fhalum

Sasha and Abby, it's fine to make it a stickey.

Zogman, agreed. I think people are sometimes just scared to give it a try. The beauty of it is, even if you mess it up, you might just lose a roast or a butterfly steak or two, but you can always just take the "oops" meat and grind it up. It's not like it's a big loss. The more you do it, the easier it gets. And it's more satisfying and a heck of a lot cheaper than having a butcher do it.


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## duckmander

Thanks for a great how too post.

If it would be ok? I would like to add. I do similar as you describe. With just some minor differences.

I skin and bone while hanging. When I finish this part I have all the meat that you have without the bone. I only have the bone in the front shoulders. all else stays with the carcus.

My only other difference is I use a fish filleting knife for my butcher block work.

Give this a try. take a back strap lay on block with silver skin down. with fillet knife cut in at a distance of about two or three steak lengths all the way down to the silver skin. (do not cut the silver skin). at this point turn the knife flat on its side as you were filleting a fish. While applying downward pressure on the knife (you may want to saw the knife back and forth some) Pick up the chunck of meat where you left the 3 uncut steaks and pull on it. leaving the knife statinary. And flat against the board.

When this cut is complete pull on the silver skin and repeat the process on the small end you were using to pull with.

It takes a little practice but that silver skin comes off just as easy as skin on a catfish.

When complete there will be a very thin slice of meat left on the silver skin. Very minimal waste.

Other then these two things I think we do the rest the same. These two steps work good for me as I dont have to carry all the bones into the kitchen and then back out again. And I dont have to slice slice slice on the silver skin.

One last thing I see you didnt mention is. When cutting up your steaks, ALWAYS ALWAYS cut across the grain of the meat. "NEVER CUT WITH THE GRAIN" for steaks.

I do cut with the grain when slicing a roast for jerky. everything else is cut across the grain


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## Fallguy

Thanks for taking the time to put these pictures up.

I do pretty much the same thing, except as was said, I hang the carcass in the garage and butcher/debone as I go. Usually that means doing a little at a time over a few evenings as I have time.

I also use a fillet knife or a good boning knife for all the work.

Also, I use a small butane torch to singe off any hair that remains on the carcass after I skin. I used to rinse the hair off but that almost seemed to make hairs stick worse. Singeing works awesome!


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## FoldEmXtreme

Nicely put together!


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## Bauer

EXCELLENT POST!!

My addition:
Electric fillet knives work excellent for deboning. Dont recommend them for cutting up roasts and such though. My first year using one this year, and probably shaved 30mins off the process.

:beer:


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## outdoorsportfan

Thanks for taking the time to put these pictures up.It is a good post. :beer:


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## szm69

I remove the meat about the same way but I do it while the deer is still hanging right after I skin it. No need to remove the rear legs just cut around the bones and remove the roasts like you show in the pictures. I also like to skin them and bone them out while they are still warm, I don't believe in "aging" wild game.

I have a deer skinned, boned out, and the carcase bagged up in about 45 minutes.


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## Sask hunter

take the tenderloins cube them and season them with montreal steak spice. Melt some margarine in a frying pan and have it about half heat and brown the the cubed tenderloins. They turn out amazing, not to mention it's easy and fast too.


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## antlrking

yep, thats how i do it.


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## tigerdog

Like several others, I do it similarly but do most of it with the deer hanging. Can anyone who has done it both ways comment on which way is easier/better and why? I'm wondering if there is an advantage to either method or if its simply personal preference. 
I like doing it with the deer hanging because I can do most of it right there outside or in the garage without setting up a table. That leaves me with less clean up. I have my boning knife, steel, meat lugs, and a cutting board (I only use the cutting board when removing silver skin and such). I usually, but not always, use a saw too to remove the head and ends of the legs prior to this process.


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## Sask hunter

I usually have it hanging and cut the shoulders, backstraps, etc. off and then take it to the the table to debone and everything else. I find it easier to cut off pieces if it's hanging cause then it's not rolling as your trying to cut a shoulder off or anything else.


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## Sam I am

I used to take my deer in to get processed. In the past I had helped my father do his, but never did it my self. Last season I did two deer by myself and it turned out great. This post would have been useful, but if you can fillet a fish reasonably well, you can probably butcher a deer.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the best tasting venison I've ever had was last season's venison that I processed myself. You'll be putting money in your pocket and you'll be thanking yourslef every time you fire up the grill. :beer:


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## huntnmike

I do it the same way! thanks for taking the time to post this! I am still trying to get my deer so I can enjoy this process!!!!

thanks again!


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## Duckslayer100

Sam I am said:


> I don't think it's a coincidence that the best tasting venison I've ever had was last season's venison that I processed myself. You'll be putting money in your pocket and you'll be thanking yourslef every time you fire up the grill. :beer:


Amen to that! I processed my first deer more than a decade ago and haven't even considered bringing one in since. Not too difficult and, IMO, the venison comes out tasting MUCH better! More than worth the time and effort.


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## nilgooser

Very good post especially the pics to help out a beginner. Having been butchering deer for 20 years I have a couple comments to add. One, in my opinion it easier to remove the meat while the deer is hanging. With the whole deer laid on a table there is a lot of slipping and moving around, not a good idea with sharp knives. I have done and liked taking the deer while hanging and cut it with a saw lengthwise so I now have half a deer on the table at a time. With the cut side down the deer stays in place much nicer. Also, if someone wants more steaks out of their deer take off the sirloin tip(front of rear leg, looks like a football) and cut it into steaks as well. Very good, big, tender, round steaks. Finally, I am gonna disagree with your statement that the silver skin, sinew, makes the deer taste "off". Yes, removing it will make for nicer ground but that's not what affects the taste. Fat, hair, and field care will give it the "off" taste. I'm not saying to leave it all on, but it not nessecary to take ALL of it off.


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## fred meebley

Great post, thanks for sharing your knowledge with the hunting community and refreshing my memory. My mother was an excellent butcher. She helped me process my first deer 15 years ago. Now that I have started hunting again, this has given my the confidence to try it on my own.


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## bgraftaas

Dittos! Thanks for putting the time into this. I also leave the deer hanging and de-bone as I go. We always skin and hang the deer to cool as soon as possible (usually within 1-2 hours or shooting it). Our venison tastes much better that if we took it to a butcher, because we are cutting out all the tallow and sinew. I like the idea of using a fillet knife on the loins -- I'm going to give that a shot.

Thanks again,

Brian


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