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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,262
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,262 |
A 3/4hp Tor Rey isn't overkill, it's probably ideal. Overkill is my buddy's 1 3/4hp model with the #42 grinder from Cabela's. He always buys the biggest he can find.
I bought the 1 1/2hp Cabelas's with the #32 grinder on it and it's really bigger than I need, but I didn't have any prior experience to base my purchase on.
I'll bet neither you nor I ever have to buy another one because we wore these out.
I saw a movie where only the military and the police had guns. It was called Schindler's List.
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,418
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,418 |
I usually start with a deer, preferably, dead, then ---------
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,950
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,950 |
Adding beef fat (suet) to good venison is an abomination. If you want the best venison hamburger you ever tasted, grind one package of bacon with every 10 lbs of venison. Just before cooking, season it with salt and pepper only. Mmmm...
Our God reigns.
Harrumph!!!
I often use quick reply. My posts are not directed toward any specific person unless I mention them by name.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 7,731
Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 7,731 |
I'll be ordering Elieen's book and keeping an eye out for a decent deal on a grinder. I'll also try to pick up a goog thin filet knife/bonning knife and I shouls be good to go. Peter is sending me a few dvd's and all I will need is to rig my hoist and get a hard surface to work off of. Thanks so much for all the replies guys.
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 8,648
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 8,648 |
Adding beef fat (suet) to good venison is an abomination. If you want the best venison hamburger you ever tasted, grind one package of bacon with every 10 lbs of venison. Just before cooking, season it with salt and pepper only. Mmmm... I was given the same advice about 25 years ago, and I have to say that even though it costs a bit more, the bacon does make for the nicest-tasting meatloaf and burgers! I used to get maple-cured bacon from a local butcher shop and boy did that make for some great smells while cooking the ground venison! Dang, I am making myself salivate like one of Pavlov's dogs just thinking of this -- and I cannot get maple-cured bacon here in Sweden!  John
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 7,731
Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 7,731 |
How about sausage! I don't want tube sausage like brats or anything. Just breakfast sasuage like the little jimmy dean packs that you make your own sized patties out of. I assume all I'll need is the grinder, some fat of some sort and some type of seasoning? I bet this is covered in her book.
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,046
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,046 |
Yes, it is covered in the book. There are directions on making several kinds of sausage. All are good but my favorite is the Italian....
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 79
Campfire Greenhorn
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Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 79 |
I'll describe my little innovation for hanging game to skin and butcher: 6 or more 24" lengths of medium-heavy chain from the hardware store, and a half-dozen or more 3" s-hooks from same. With the critter lying under the meat pole, beam in ceiling, swing-set frame or whatever, toss a length of chain over the pole and secure with s-hook, leaving as much as you can hanging down. Put a second piece of chain at least 3-4 feet away from the first.Hang the other lengths of chain onto the ends until it is low enough to reach a leg of the animal, we use the rear but front works too it you are so inclined. Hook into the achilles tendon at the hock of one rear leg,[we saw off the lower leg to get it out of the way] then onto one of the chains. It is NOT necessary to lift the animal much, if you can congratulations but this method works great for old weak people like me because it requires little physical strength.
To raise the critter takes two people, one to swing the animal so you can hook the other leg up on the other chain with another s-hook, and the other to do the hooking on. At first you merely drag it, as you work back and forth up the links it raises up to the working height desired. Skin the rear legs at a comfortable working height, then raise the carcass up a little by swinging and hooking up a few links at a time until it is raised to the height you want. The carcass does not swing around on you like a singletree, and if you want to hang just the quarters later the chains and hooks are great for that too. This even works for larger animals than deer, we did it on a yearling cow elk, we had enough people to drag it for the first couple of swings but once it is up off the ground just two people can do it. I tie the s-hook onto the hock with a piece of cord so it doesn't fall off when you are trying to hook it onto the chain. As you work up you can remove the lengths of chain that hang down, and scoot the top loops closer together if you want, it is the wide spacing that allows you to swing and raise it without much exertion at first. Hope this description makes sense to anyone interested!
"Mama tried..."
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 12,895
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 12,895 |
I'll describe my little innovation for hanging game to skin and butcher: 6 or more 24" lengths of medium-heavy chain from the hardware store, and a half-dozen or more 3" s-hooks from same. With the critter lying under the meat pole, beam in ceiling, swing-set frame or whatever, toss a length of chain over the pole and secure with s-hook, leaving as much as you can hanging down. Put a second piece of chain at least 3-4 feet away from the first.Hang the other lengths of chain onto the ends until it is low enough to reach a leg of the animal, we use the rear but front works too it you are so inclined. Hook into the achilles tendon at the hock of one rear leg,[we saw off the lower leg to get it out of the way] then onto one of the chains. It is NOT necessary to lift the animal much, if you can congratulations but this method works great for old weak people like me because it requires little physical strength.
To raise the critter takes two people, one to swing the animal so you can hook the other leg up on the other chain with another s-hook, and the other to do the hooking on. At first you merely drag it, as you work back and forth up the links it raises up to the working height desired. Skin the rear legs at a comfortable working height, then raise the carcass up a little by swinging and hooking up a few links at a time until it is raised to the height you want. The carcass does not swing around on you like a singletree, and if you want to hang just the quarters later the chains and hooks are great for that too. This even works for larger animals than deer, we did it on a yearling cow elk, we had enough people to drag it for the first couple of swings but once it is up off the ground just two people can do it. I tie the s-hook onto the hock with a piece of cord so it doesn't fall off when you are trying to hook it onto the chain. As you work up you can remove the lengths of chain that hang down, and scoot the top loops closer together if you want, it is the wide spacing that allows you to swing and raise it without much exertion at first. Hope this description makes sense to anyone interested! A chain also makes a good alternative to a traditional hanging bar as once it's ends are secured to the chain horizontal, "S" hooks can be hung from the links meaning they won't slide about.. A 10' length of chain is also easier to carry to camp in your vehicle and can be used for other things such as towing ect..
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 19,093
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 19,093 |
I bought a 12 volt winch, on sale, at Harbor Freight that works great. It's seems a little slow at first but it beats lifting them. winch It has a plate that will go over a trailer ball or you can run a chain through it. I think I gave a little over $40 for mine and have used it for three or four years. miles
Look out for number 1, don't step in number 2.
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,046
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,046 |
Bluedoe,
That's a nifty little trick.
I've a related trick for getting animals hung up off the ground on the prairie so they could be skinned easily. All you need are three poles and around 6 feet of rope. Make a tripod of the three poles (the top smaller top sections of lodgepole pines are perfect), wrapping some of the rope loosely near the top. Leave enough rope hanging down to tie to a hock on the animal.
Then just raise each leg of tripod a little at a time. It helps if the downward ends of each pole is somewhat pointed, to keep them in place. Pretty soon your animal is off the ground, and the untied hind leg swings against one of the poles to keep the animal from twirling while you skin. Afterward the carcass is up in the breeze where it can cool off.
Mostly I used this on pronghorn, but have also used it on deer.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 11,942
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 11,942 |
Adding beef fat (suet) to good venison is an abomination. If you want the best venison hamburger you ever tasted, grind one package of bacon with every 10 lbs of venison. Just before cooking, season it with salt and pepper only. Mmmm... Adding pork fat is a much better option than beef. All the fat is removed from the deer first either way. That bacon deal sounds good! .
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Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 2,691
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 2,691 |
I once boned and muscled out a mule deer on top of a "mountain" (some of you mountain west types might call it a hill) while a pretty good brother-in-law hiked about two miles to get a cooler. Like an idiot the only knife I had with me was a Swiss Army Hunter model. I did have a poncho in my pack to spread over a large rock, skinned and boned him out right there working on my knees (no trees to hang him in.) Hey, it worked. Then we carried him back to the truck in the coleman and got him on ice a short time later. Not the best tool for the job, but it held an edge just fine. Sure beat carrying a field dressed deer that far. Did keep the horns-had to bring the head cut off just behind the ears. FYI: The big boys tell me that bacteria doesn't grow on wood, so use some kind of wood for your cutting boards. Sure, they need to be cleaned, but do provide a margin of error. Best to all, Jack
"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people...who have...rejoiced in their loss of freedom....Blame the people who hail him when he speaks of the 'new, wonderful, good, society'...to mean ,..living fatly at the expense of the industrious." Cicero
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 16,554
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 16,554 |
Adding between 25% and 50% fresh ground pork is a traditional method, and season to taste. Some prefer beef, all or in proportion with pork. I'm not a sausage maker, I'd get Eileen's book. I have some old recipes somewhere in my cooking notes but new ideas from someone that knows what they're doing are always good. For something new to me, I'll start with an established, tested recipe (like Eileen's I'm sure) that sounds like what I'm looking for and make a small sample. Then make changes to suit my taste, another small batch, and probably more changes - don't change too much at once. You needn't make all your sausage at one time.
The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh
Which explains a lot.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,247
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,247 |
444, after youv'e bought your grinder and you want to speed up production, then buy a "Bag Horn" and a supply of the plastic bags made for ground meat and sausage. I coarse grind my venison first and the grind it a second time with a medium size plate. A bag horn looks like a huge (2") sausage stuffing tube and I attach it to my grinder for the second grind. As I stuff the meat in the grinder my wife slips plastic bags over the bag horn and fills the bags as I grind. It's a tremendous time saver!
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 28,605
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 28,605 |
havent read everything and will just post what we do....
i do most the rough butchering, keeping knives sharp and butterflying the backstraps.....
rough butchering: a place to hang so i can skin them and use a hose to wash off any clotted blood and stray hair(i gut in the field aswell) i take the front quarters off first, takes maybe 30 seconds with a sharp knife, take them inside where my wife has an old 5x4 table top she sets on our kitchen table that is only used as a butchering board, she trims them up while i go remove the tenderloins and backstraps and bring them in and throw them in a cooler of ice till im ready for them...
go back out and remove the rear quarters, i dont use a saw, just a sharp knife and cut around the joint socket.....find the final product is alot better this way.....bring them in and put them on ice so they are ready when my wife is done with the front quarters....i then butterfly the backstraps and start wrapping and labeling everything as the wife gets it done....we use a cheap old 70's model electric grinder that we got from her parents for burger and sausage....it keeps ticking so we havent upgraded......
in all reality we do it all with our fix blade hunting knives(rough butchering), some of our kitchen knives(fine butchering in the house), an old grinder, butcher paper and freezer tape and a marker.....thats all it really takes.....good sharpening steel to keep the blades nice and sharp and we are good to go....we can process two big bodied deer in 4 hours from the time we start hanging the first one to get it skinned to the end of clean up....im sure with some more experience we could get it done faster, the steaks arent always the nicest looking cuts but they eat fine....
you can set yourself up damn cheap if yah need to......most important part of the equation is sharp knives.....
Last edited by rattler; 07/26/10.
A serious student of the "Armchair Safari" always looking for Africa/Asia hunting books
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,046
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,046 |
jt402,
Welcome to the Campfire!
Guess I'm an idiot too, because I've boned out more than one animal with my Swiss Army knife as well--and have field-dressed too many to count. All but one, however, were deer and antelope.
The worst was a water buffalo. I eventually had some help, but the outfitter I hunted with was totally unprepared, and I was the first guy to dive in, so to speak. It took a few hours, but we got 'er done.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 16,554
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 16,554 |
There's a lot to be said for technique, my dad once field dressed a deer in the dark with his pipe knife! Fortunately he didn't have to go further as the knife was usually dull from scraping pipe bowls, you don't want it very sharp for that job.
The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh
Which explains a lot.
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 79
Campfire Greenhorn
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Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 79 |
MD, love the tripod idea--very clever. Lifts the animal up by working smarter, not harder.
BD
"Mama tried..."
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 950
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 950 |
Best pictorial of cutting a deer I have seen on the net or in print for those who learn by looking. Deer Processing 101 Best site I have found on the sausage making and smoking \ curing of meat,fish. Sausage Making Doing it yourself is a very rewarding experience and makes the hunt that much more in the total package of life. Enjoy
I used to only shoot shotguns and rimfires, then I made the mistake of getting a subscription to handloader.......
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