This event was many things for me: a personal blessing, 1st deer processed in GA & my entire lifetime, trying out carcass-processing equipment (gambrel, come-along, tree-fort built for nieces/ nephews, etc)
Back around April 7th, my across-the-street neighbor took her 2 chocolate lab-retriever-mix dogs to a nearby open field for exercise. Well, by golly if them 2 brother hounds didn't go and chase-around, corner, trap, bring-down and kill this here spike buck:
Well, my neighbor was all horrified over what her "boys" had done and just brought her dogs all home while leaving the body of the buck right where the dogs had killed it. Heard about the tale from my folks and called my neighbor to ask where the deer was. Drove over, found it, strapped it on my never-before used roll-up sled and hauled it over to my Ford F-150. Loaded into the rear bed and got on home.
Once home, got the body all hung-up from our backyard tree fort [2-levels, 20-feet up, 3 sided with excellent backwoods view] using (never-before used) leg-hanging gambral-triangle and come-along winch.
Got the body all skinned, gutted and quartered by 10 pm that night. Used a backyard/ garden hose to wash-away lots of blood, hairs, bugs and dirt.
Reckon that this poor boy had been close to 110 to 120 pounds in life. Total weight of the meat was probably between 30 to 40 pounds including both shoulders, both back legs/ hams [except for where the dogs had chewed], loins, back-straps and a few supra-costal sections from the abdominal walls. Buried the guts, ribs, skin, hooves and head under rocks, dirt and fire ash.
So the next days were spent further processing the meat for smoking and jerky-making (using my never-before used Excalibur dehydrator oven). About half the meat was smoked and dried; the rest was wrapped in parchment papers-with-tape and frozen in deep-freeze for future usage.
For first time deer processing, I reckon that:
1.) could have used a gut-hook blade that I plumb forgot about,
2.) buried the carcass further down-hill so that the smell would not travel so close to our backyard,
3.) used less than 5 hours to dry the jerky strips,
4.) cut the strips into squared-off ends rather than triangular ones [because the dried points will puncture Food-Saver vacuum-seal bags,
5.) cut all the fat off the jerky strips
and
6.) have designated polymer deer meat cutting board [used my momma's wooden boards instead].
I sure hope to get another deer from my neighbors dogs sometime again this year or the next.
Back around April 7th, my across-the-street neighbor took her 2 chocolate lab-retriever-mix dogs to a nearby open field for exercise. Well, by golly if them 2 brother hounds didn't go and chase-around, corner, trap, bring-down and kill this here spike buck:
Well, my neighbor was all horrified over what her "boys" had done and just brought her dogs all home while leaving the body of the buck right where the dogs had killed it. Heard about the tale from my folks and called my neighbor to ask where the deer was. Drove over, found it, strapped it on my never-before used roll-up sled and hauled it over to my Ford F-150. Loaded into the rear bed and got on home.
Once home, got the body all hung-up from our backyard tree fort [2-levels, 20-feet up, 3 sided with excellent backwoods view] using (never-before used) leg-hanging gambral-triangle and come-along winch.
Got the body all skinned, gutted and quartered by 10 pm that night. Used a backyard/ garden hose to wash-away lots of blood, hairs, bugs and dirt.
Reckon that this poor boy had been close to 110 to 120 pounds in life. Total weight of the meat was probably between 30 to 40 pounds including both shoulders, both back legs/ hams [except for where the dogs had chewed], loins, back-straps and a few supra-costal sections from the abdominal walls. Buried the guts, ribs, skin, hooves and head under rocks, dirt and fire ash.
So the next days were spent further processing the meat for smoking and jerky-making (using my never-before used Excalibur dehydrator oven). About half the meat was smoked and dried; the rest was wrapped in parchment papers-with-tape and frozen in deep-freeze for future usage.
For first time deer processing, I reckon that:
1.) could have used a gut-hook blade that I plumb forgot about,
2.) buried the carcass further down-hill so that the smell would not travel so close to our backyard,
3.) used less than 5 hours to dry the jerky strips,
4.) cut the strips into squared-off ends rather than triangular ones [because the dried points will puncture Food-Saver vacuum-seal bags,
5.) cut all the fat off the jerky strips
and
6.) have designated polymer deer meat cutting board [used my momma's wooden boards instead].
I sure hope to get another deer from my neighbors dogs sometime again this year or the next.
