Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Which way to hang a deer?

BCR...I saw the dad/son at the place I hunt east of Goldthwaite do one in right at 10 minutes once. You could tell they had done it together for quite a while. They used the head up method with a rock under the cape of the neck with a rope tied to the truck bumper to peel the hide off.

Growing up in the Midwest, we always used a gambrel and head down. I've become partial to the head up peel them with the truck method in the evening when its dark and hot enough they are going directly in the cooler. I can do one by myself that way in about 30 minutes but I'm mostly thumbs.

A pard and I were trying to politely run off an "acquaintence" that started inviting himself along several years ago. We were getting ready to take care of the uninvited friends deer and my pard told him to grab that cotton rope there in the back of the truck and hang it in the tree. It was some old rotten 1/2" stuff. Of course when the truck pulled, the cotton broke and the gutted deer came right down on the ground with the cavity open. Tempers flared a bit....and he found some nicer folks to hunt with after that.

I wish the deer here had some meat on their ribs. I do like ground chili meat. I do bone out the neck and shanks but the only time I boned out the ribs I got about a teacup full of meat for my time and trouble. It ain't happening again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I think you southern boys are missing out on something. We hang our deer by the head, and let them hang for 5-10 days ,weather permitting. That long hang tenderizes(mellows) the meat and its the best venison you can get. Mark.

I always hang them head down, it's a lot easier for me. I also don't gut them in the field, by the time I got that done I can already have them back at camp, hung up and knocked the guts out of them, and put away in the cooler. It takes maybe 10 minutes if I'm taking my time to get the guys out of one. We like to hang them in the cooler for 2 weeks at 38 degrees, makes the meat nice and tender.

I had a guy come hunt with me once who killed a doe on my place. He hung it head up and went to work. It took him about an hour and a half to do what I could have done in 15 minutes doing it my way.

NuAg the winch on an ATV works good too. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
The problem I always had with hanging one head up was spliting the brisket so I could get all the goodies out of the chest. I hate to crawl head first up in a deer trying to get that stuff out or cut the tip of my thumb off doing it blind.

PDS maybe we ought to look for some of them three and four hundred pound deer they was talking about on another thread. On the deer I shoot there ain't enough meat on the ribs to interest a buzzard.

BCR

IIFID:
Just noticed where you were from, you know about the heat. Talking about hanging, do folks in your area rent coolers to hang their deer? Some parts of the state that seems to be a popular option, but haven't seen it in my area...

I like the head down method. That is probably because of the way that I learned from helping butcher beef and hogs. I have tried it heads up, but did not feel comfortable with it. When I hunt my own place, which is most of the time, I leave the guts in until I bring it to the house. I then skin out some of the back legs and cut off the feet. I saw through the brisket, you can do it with the knife, but it is hard on your edge. I also split the hitch bone in the pelvis. I the use my four wheeler winch and pully to start lifting the deer by the back legs. You can remove the guts as you go up with the deer and save a lot of bending over. I then rinse the cavity out with cold water (not leaves or moss as used to be recomended in magazines). Depending on the weather, I leave it hang over night or start skinning. Goes very fasts. miles

I'm surprised - I always figgered you Texans just held them up in one hand and skinned with the other...

I let my venison age too. I have a fridge in the garage for that purpose. The quartered and boned out meat goes in there for a few days before I process it and put it away in the freezer.

On my last deer lease we built a walk in cooler to hang our deer. We all hung them head down. I want anything that might drain out to go away from the hindquarters, not on them.

Pedestal1:

In my area no one that I know of rents coolers, but I don't circulate around a lot, so that is not a certain answer. I've contemplated buying/building one using used components, but frankly, I've eaten a lot of deer and I'm sure that aging has to help it, if done properly, but I personally can't tell it helps and in some cases, I have sure been able to tell it hurt. I like venison, so I and my wife don't usually go out of the way to disguise it with heavy sauces, gravies, marinades, etc. On occasion for a change, but not very often.

Of course, just like you, I handle it properly and quickly, we rarely have gut shot deer, and the tenderest deer by far that we eaten this season was a younger 8 point that my son (then 9) killed for his first deer on Christmas afternoon, hunting by himself in a ground stand, one shot, TC .223 with 64 gr Powerpoint reloads, blew his heart up. He then went on to kill a pretty big doe on the second to last day of our season, Jan 24th, one shot, one dead doe, same gun and load. Guess you can't tell I am a proud Papa. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I was going to post a pic him and his deer but the process was more trouble than it was worth. A certain Alaskan must have a lot of time on his hands. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> His buck was literally "cut with a fork tender" and that is compared to maybe 5 does and a spike or two that we took beside him....go figure.

BTW, just for comparison with Praire Dog Shooter, we are required to weigh all of our deer and our largest doe this year weighed 92 pounds field dressed (dry and older), smallest that wasn't a young of the year was 59 (shot by moi she was in the wrong place at the right time), most are in the low to mid 70s. The 8 point that my son shot weighed 119 FDed.

JOG, Naaah, we put them in our hip pocket, take them home and hang them on a nail. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />


BCR

I've been out on a project with the day job and haven't had a chance to weigh in. To the answer to your question head-up or down, I say, "Yes."

In my normal SOP for deer, I hang head up for field dressing, after dragging it out ungutted. Once in a while I gut out while I'm in the woods, but I prefer the comforts of home and the lack of leaves and dirt in the body cavity. The front porch of the house is converted to a game pole starting every November. Deer are hung by the front legs on a gambrel and the head is belted to the top. I then use a block and tackle. If I tie off to the back of the truck, the deer is hoisted as the truck pulls away.

Once that's done. I can just hang a utility light at night, and I can run in for a quick wash off. I can have a quick second breakfast, or just hang loose for a while and tell big lies about the bigger one that got away.. With the head up, gravity is working with me as I gut out the carcass. If I'm taking it to the processor, I keep it like that until it's ready to go in the truck for the last ride. Usually I have my deer at the processor within a couple of hours of them taking their last breath.

If it's too late to get it to the processor, I will rehang it with the head down so it will drain blood better. I would also do that if I am going to skin it out.

If it's warm, or I'm going to haul it back to town, the body cavity will get a bag of ice. However, I have 3 processors within a half hour, and they do a carcass cheap. These guys have room in a refrigerator for the meat to age a couple of days under proper conditions. They have a clean operation, and they have a big enough freezer that the meat gets down to zero much quicker than trying to put in any of my freezers.

One handy tip to remember: the quicker you get the meat frozen, the better. I used to work in a meat factory. They put in a flash freezer to get the pre-cooked meat patties frozen quickly. If they had put the patties unfrozen in a box and then frozen them, the interior patties would have rotted before they froze. You need a large freezer to get a whole deer down to zero before the taste is affected.

you dont gut your deer? I have never heard of that and dont believe i would do it i shoot an animal i get the guts out right away. helps to cool the carcass and makes the meet better

It usually takes me an hour or less to get a deer out of my woods and up to the house. I figure a lot of times hunters have to wait 6 hours or more to find game that has gotten away from them, and in most cases the meat is still good. If I can, I drag the carcass out, throw it on the truck and drive the 1/2 mile or so to the house before processing it further. The big one this year was right at my threshold. It took me two hours to drag it up the hill. Girlfriend met me with the truck. About half way through I thought about stopping to gut the deer, but this was a prime spot. I didn't want to queer things any more than I had to.

My son's doe set the family record-- from trigger pull to processor in less than 90 minutes. I called the guy and he said he was closing at 7. I didn't want to wait until Monday morning and miss a half day of work. We made it with 5 minutes to spare. I got tired of switching knives about halfway through. I am here to tell you all, that you CAN gut a deer cleanly with nothing but a pruning saw.

My big guy is anything but spoiled. Girlfriend made him up for the Superbowl as Venison Wellington. MMMMMMMMmmmmmmMMMMM. We had him for breakfast this morning as steak and eggs, and we'll probably have him tomorrow for at least 1 or two meals.

Suffice it to say that if I shot a deer, and it took over 2 hours to find I'd probably gut it first thing. Ditto if I bagged one on a hot September afternoon. I keep the gambrel and block and tackle, garbage bags, rope, etc. along with a coon hunting light packed in a knapsack for those eventualities. In a couple of situations, I've gone all the way to quartering before hauling it out. It just depends. One thing is for sure: gutting a deer on a prepared game pole makes things SOOO much easier.

this is the best that i have used, but it doesnt work well for bigger deer. my tuck came with a hoist that slips in to a slot on the rear of my rack. it works well and is nice.

we skin the deer right in the field after gutting them out. then take them home and hang them by the back legs.

I too am baffled by not gutting your deer in the field. You have to go back out into the field to dump the guts or do you just leave them laying in the yard?

Well, I can't speak for shaman, but I do it both ways. If the deer is close to a road, then I'll usual load it in the truck or on the 4 wheeler and haul it home, which is about 5 minutes away. There, I'll hang it, gut it, etc. Like he said, it is easier to do when they are hanging. In my case, I usually catch the guts in a big container and haul them off along with the hide, legs, head (if I don't need it for processing which I usually do myself). Sometimes I load the deer in the truck and field dress it on the tail gate, letting them fall off on the ground. On the other hand, if I've got to drag it very far, I gut it immediately on the well proven fact that dragging 75 pounds is easier than dragging a 100. It all depends, there are lots of ways to skin a cat or a deer either. Judging by his posts, I suspect that he is like me and does not live on a city lot. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I don't live on a city lot either. I dumped hide and carcass out on the corner of my pasture thinking the coyotes would take car of it and can't keep the dog out of it. She goes out to go pee and comes back in all stinky and then wants you to pet her. If I can, I will usually pitch it in the river. "the river washes all away"

We've got hungrier coyotes and bigger pastures around here. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hunt moose. Ain't no question of up or down, or gut right away or not! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Of course- my friend Parker did once kill a bull on his way to winch firewood out of the woods. That wrecker truck came in right handy! Head up, I think. Got a lot of double-takes on his way back into Achorage.