The sun is
fixing to set and you hear a rustling in the trees. You keep watch and the buck
of a lifetime steps out and is fixing to cross your shooting lane at 50
yards. Your adrenaline kicks in and you
start shaking; that excitement is what makes the kill, no matter if it’s a doe
or buck, worth the hunt. You very slowly
move your rifle up onto your shoulder and find the monster in your scope and
put the cross hairs right in the middle of the kill zone, take your safety off,
and gently squeeze the trigger.
BOOM! Monster buck stumbles and
crashes into the tree out of sight.
Still shaking you work the action of your rifle and put it back on
safety and sit and wait as patiently as you can. You don’t want to get out of your tree too
early and take a chance of jumping it up in case it is taking a bit of time to
die. You wait about 15 minutes and
gather your things and climb out of the tree and head in the direction of the
last place you saw Mr. Big Buck. It
takes you just a minute to find the blood trail and see him laying just yards
from where you shot him. As slow as the
adrenaline will allow you, you walk up to him, making sure he is down for the
count, and then whoop for joy as you get close and see the true massiveness of
the animal. Grabbing your cell phone you
snap a selfie so you can start the bragging process of text messages and
Facebook posts.
Now it’s
time to field dress and cape the massive buck and get him headed to the
taxidermist and get the meat into your freezer.
But how do you do that and keep your taxidermist happy and with enough
of a cape to make your mount look amazing?
I did a little research for you and talked to my friend Christine Seaton
of Turing Heads Taxidermy to get you some tips on exactly what and what not to
do. First off, Christine says there are
two major issues she sees when she gets a deer in the taxidermy shop. First is the cape did not get cooled down
quick enough and the hair is slipping and/or the hide is growing bacteria. Second, the hunter cuts the cape too short in
the armpits.
To start
caping you want to make a cut around the mid-section of the animal, four to six
inches back from the shoulder blades to ensure there is enough skin to cover
the shoulder mount. Then cut the back
from the middle toward the head, stopping two to three inches from the back of
the head where the spine and the skull meet.
Next make cuts around the front legs, remembering to leave plenty of
hide around the armpits, and remove the skin from the legs.
Next you want
to get the cape cooled off as quickly as possible. If you are still in the field, lay it flat in
the shade to cool while you finish processing the animal. If you are where you can, get it in an ice
chest, refrigerator, or freezer as quick as possible.
A few
recaps and tips for caping:
·
Skin your kill as quick as possible but
remember to leave enough of the hide for the taxidermist to work with.
·
Keep your cape clean as possible
·
Cool it off quickly. Do not let it set in the sun. The ears on a deer are especially susceptible
to heat damage when left in direct sunlight.
Heat also promotes bacteria growth and can cause the hair to slip off
the cape.
·
If you are putting your caped buck in an ice
chest do not let it get wet. This can
also cause hair slippage.
·
It is best to fold the hide inside out to keep
dirt and gravel off the hide.
·
Make sure your knife is sharp before starting
the caping process.
·
The initial caping is fairly simple, but leave
the detail work around the nose, eyes, and mouth to the professional.
·
If you put the cape in the freezer make sure
it is wrapped good and is not allowed to dry out or freezer burn. Again this
will cause hair to slip and make it hard for the taxidermist to work with.
·
Do not drag your buck or wrap a rope around
its neck. This will cause baldness on
your cape. If you have to drag him, tie
the rope around his antlers and put a jacket or something under his shoulders
to keep the hide from rubbing on the ground.
·
Never cut the throat to bleed out the deer, it
will ruin the cape and you will be very disappointed.
Now that
the cape is taken care of you need to process the deer for the freezer so you
can feed your family all winter long. You want to be sure and get your caped and
gutted deer cooled off as quickly as possible so you have no spoilage or bacteria
growth. To age the deer cool it between
32 and 42 degrees for two to seven days depending on the age of the deer. The older the deer the longer you want to age
it to combat toughness in the meat. I personally
do not have a cooler to hang a deer in and don’t like the possibility of
getting blood in my frig so I quarter my deer and put them in ice chests to
age. Keep the water drained off and the
meat covered with ice. This technique
has served me well.
1 1) The first part of the deer we butcher is the front shoulders. The
shoulder should be pulled away from the torso of the deer to expose the pass
through cut zone. Cutting with your knife’s blade parallel to the rib cage, you
will pass through the shoulder joint. If having a difficult time finding where
to cut, pull the front leg away from the torso and aim you knife strokes for
the hinge area.
2 2) Before removing the back straps, you can shave off any excess fat that
has built up in the area. After fat removal, we need to find the knobby part of
the hip bone. We will cut just under this bone and to the back bone on both
sides. After cutting this initial cross section of the back strap, we will now
run our knife down and along the back bone. This cut will run all the way
through the neck. We can now return to the initial cuts we made and start
peeling and freeing the back strap with our knife. Take your time and try not
to leave any of this valuable meat on the back bone. Once you have the back
strap down to the front shoulders, you can cut them off.
3 3) The neck of the deer can have quite a bit of meat that is very good for
grinding. Pull the meat from the back strap incision and skin the meat off the
neck bone. You will work this meat from the top of the neck to the deer’s wind
pipe.
4)
If you desire, you can now carve out any meat left on the front
half of the deer. This can be anything from meat along the rib cage (brisket)
to rib cage meat itself. Any of this boned out meat will be excellent for
ground meat use.
5)
Once done with the front half of the deer, we can now saw the
backbone leaving us with the hind quarters.
6 6) Starting from the knee of the hindquarter, work your knife parallel with
the leg bone until you reach the hip. Now turn your knife 90 degrees and finish
the cut
7 7) We leave the hind quarters attached to the pelvic bone during this final
butchering stage. Starting on the rear of the leg and just below (upward on the
animals leg) the Achilles tendon, cut in and to the bone. Now work this cut
around the knee and continue to cut so all the meat will be freed from the leg
bones and the pelvic bone. This will leave you with a large hunk of roast meat
which will be made up of around 3 muscle groups: rump roast, bottom round, and
the eye of round. You can pretty much separate these muscle groups by hand with
minimal knife work.
8)
Now is the time to salvage meat left behind which we can use for
stew meat or ground.
9)
You can wrap in plastic wrap and butcher paper for storage, use
freezer zipper bags, or vacuum seal the meat.
Make sure and remember to label the packages.
In closing, get out along The
Corridor, hunt hard for those trophy bucks, properly care for them, then you
will have memories to hang on your wall for a lifetime and food in your stomach
for a season. Speaking of food in your
stomach, if you have more venison than you know what to do with look up Hunters
Against Hunger, you can find a list of processors at www.wildlifedepartment.com. This program
operates primarily through the state’s deer processors, gives nutritious, fresh
meat to those who are hungry in our state. Many tons of venison are donated
annually to food banks statewide, providing many thousands of nutritious meals. Happy Hunting.
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