Skining

Spotted Owl · 11-09-2003, 07:04 PM

This year we saw two animals in another camp, both haning by the head while the hunters were skining them. I have never see anyone skin with the animal hanging by the head. We always use a gambrel and hang them by the back legs. Does haning by the head make it any easier to skin.

How do you skin your animal if you have the
luxoury of hanging it whole? Or do you have any tricks for on skinning on the ground that some may find helpful?

ICHTHYDEMON · 11-09-2003, 07:32 PM

For deer I always hang it with the head down,and usually have the luxury of skinning it whole. When I skin a deer,I start at the legs,and get the skin free from the rear end. I then grab a handfull of hide and start pulling. I can get the majority of the skin off without using a knife. It sounds hard to do but is actually pretty easy.

Its alot more time consuming to skin an elk on the ground,but its pretty easy also. We start with the elk on its back and start around the legs,and work down one side. After we get the hide free from one side we start on the other side. The hide acts like a tarp to keep the meat clean as you work. You'll have to get the skin free from the spine area,and your done.

brshooter · 11-09-2003, 07:48 PM

This is how we skin an animal when we don't have to quarter it to pack it out.
Place the deer or elk on a clean tarp with it's head tied off to a tree. Cut the hide around the knee joints and up the inside of the leg. Cut the hide down the underside of the neck from the base of the head to the opening in the chest cavity you made while field dressing the animal. Cut the hide around the base of the neck and skin down until you have enough loose skin to wrap around a golf ball sized rock. Tie one end of a rope around the bundle of skin wrapped around the rock and the other end to the back of a truck. Start pulling with the truck. Hide peels right off and the carcase ends up on a clean tarp. Then you have a nice clean skinned animal to hang.

I was told about this method and was a bit leary of it. We gave it a try and it worked great. Have done it many times since.

dimwit · 11-10-2003, 10:25 AM

I saw the method brshooter describes done by an ODF cop at a youth hunt. I thought the guy was crazy at first but it really worked and the meat was completely clean of any hair. Unfortunately, I've never had the luxury of getting an elk close enough to a vehicle to try it on my own. Another way that works well is to, without gutting the elk, lay it on its stomach and cut the skin down the spine and each leg from the top. Then peel the hide down and using the hide as a tarp, bone out the meat.