Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Recip saw for working down deer

Just like the title read, anyone using a reciprocating saw for deer work? Worth pursuing? I imagine keeping it clean, internally, to be tedious.

why?

That is what I use. I have stainless steel meat saw blades for it. Works like a champ. Clean up I hose down the working end with hot water when I get done. No issues.

Make cutting hoofs off, splitting the pelvis and sternum easier? I find our meat saw to be perpetually lacking.

YES I do.

You are right about the pelvic bone, legs, splitting rib cage, neck or head
etc. Much easier & quicker and clean up with water hose & spray nozzle.

I can’t remember when I started using the recip saw but it was before 2012.
Why do it the hard way ?


Jerry

Yeah. Brother in law is a engineer with Dewault/Black and Decker, they have a friends and family sale twice a year. Figured I would buy a cordless recip to donate to the hunt club.

You don’t need to do any of that. You don’t even need a meat saw for those things. 2 good knives should do the trick.

What is hard about ringing the azzhole, freeing the pecker and pulling stuff out from the front, and leaving the pelvis intact? Or by using a knife to remove lower legs or a knife or hatchet for the sternum. Cut thru a little meat and a tendon to twist off the head? You can do all that in the field without having to hump power tools around. But I get it. ANY excuse to buy a new power tool.....

You don’t cut the hoofs off, cut out the pelvis, split the sternum and cut the head off? I guess you’re just deboning it without letting your meat hang?

This guys makes fast work of processing with the aid of a cordless reciprocating saw.

Huh? I just told you how I do it. The only thing I split is the sternum. I prefer a hatchet, but any knife that you can control with two hands will split any deer sternum, as will a little pruning type folding saw. And no, I don't 'cut the hoofs off', I take the whole lower leg by ringing the tendon at the knee or hock and bending it until it pops open. You never even have to touch bone with your knife to remove legs. As to the pelvis, I do as I said. Ring the azzhole, free the weenie to the pelvic channel and cut inside, all around the channel. When you pull the guts out, everything comes out from the front (azzhole and all), because you've freed it from the back. Lemme guess? You're one of those guys that hang a deer by punching a hole for a gambrel and then skinning around the gambrel and trying to 'cut off hoofs' while hanging? Here's my 'Helpfull Hint from Heloise'. Do all that [bleep] on the ground before you hang. Leave the guts and legs where you kill them. Why have a stinkin' ol' gut bucket and deer 'hoofs' laying around the yard? If you looked at the little vid I done in the zipper knife thread, you can see the work at the ass end of the deer, and the rear lower legs were skinned below the hamstring for hanging, was already done BEFORE I even gutted. As to your 'guess' that 'just debone it without letting my meat hang' is wrong as per usual. Some folk should learn how to do all this kinda stuff, BEFORE they take up meat care..... Oh yeah. Here's a pic of my deboned deer, per my plains deer thread....

Seems you think your wayS are easier and quicker.

I’ve done it your wayS longer than with a recip saw and from experiencing it
BOTH ways, it IS easier & quicker FOR ME w/the saw.

I don’t have guts, legs, hide, head etc. in my yard. The other side of my yard fence
is pasture and buzzards, Eagles (yes), crows, coyotes and/or dogs clean them up
in short order.

You do your way. I’ll do my way. All is good.

Jerry

+1 Jwall,
I can dress game the strictly-knife way, done it many times in God forsaken shale draws...but a repricrocatimg saw makes bone cuts in seconds. Its a vital part of our butchering arsenal for hanging game and I don't care what anyone else does or thinks.

That's a pretty decent instructional vid. But, man, I gotta tell ya, my reaction to the amount of meat left in yanking the loins was as if someone threw battery acid on me.
The recip saw might save me 3 minutes of time but I only cut legs and head.

But... the legs (hooves) come off pretty easy at the knee joint and it can be easily done with a knife in the field.

No need to split the pelvis, especially in the field. But if you want to, there is a Sagen Saw, that fits in your pants pocket and works in about 7 seconds for that task. It's made for that task.

Sternum is easy with a quality knife.

The head comes off easily at the neck. Again, no saw needed. just a knife.




Sometimes, yes. But, I do let the meat hang most of the time. Not once have I ever used a saw to debone a deer.

And Jesus walked every where he went.

Want to try that ?



Is one way Right ? Is the other way Wrong ?

What's the problem?


Jerry

I have cut off a lot of legs with a knife, both deer and beef. Same with splitting the pelvis. If you know how, it is easily done on both beef and deer with a knife. Never elk hunted so I can't speak to that. I prefer to saw the sternum, but have done it with a knife and also with a cleaver, using a rubber hammer to drive it through. That works great as it does with splitting the hams apart, down the backbone instead of de-jointing them. I have also used a recipicating saw to cut off the legs above the knee joint to make things fit into my cooling fridge better. miles

We use a carpenters saw.

If skinning while hanging I always split the halves. When hunting in hot country it lets the meat cool much quicker. Splitting was always the greatest PITA until I went on a hog hunt and the guide had a recip saw. Never done it by hand since.

i have very little use for a saw in butchering. i do hack off the legs and head if its a buck with a meat saw but then everything else is done with a knife. i leave the whole carcuss intact and just debone it. many years ago i used a reciprocating saw and it was not worth the hassle.