Skinning Deer: Head up or Head down?

[2Sloe]

Skinned a lot of deer over my lifetime, always with the head up. I have seen a few skinned with the head down using a gambrel.

I skinned a doe by myself using a gambrel last week and was miserable the whole time. Then I skinned another doe by myself a few days later head up and it was no problem. Now I understand experience plays a role here, but dang it seems like the gambrel is just much more difficult. It’s also not lost on me that most butchered meat is done on a gambrel.

This is how I skin head up: Hang the deer by the neck and hoist. Ring the neck, ring the front legs, cut the hide down the throat to the brisket then down the top of both front legs. I skin the front legs back to the carcass then Skin the neck down far enough to wrap it around a tennis ball or rock, put another rope with a slip knot on the end over the ball or rock and pull the hide off with a truck or 4 wheeler. Remove legs quarter up, tenderloins, backstrap, neck meat and I’m done.

Do you prefer Head up or Head down and is there a specific reason you prefer that method? Let us know if you’ve actually skinned a deer both ways. If you have some other method besides those two tell us about your method.

 

[Loopwing]

Always done head down, like my father did, his father before him and his father before him. Hopefully this weekend I will try the head up technique. Have you tried the no gut method head up???

 

[shamus275]

Head up because that’s the way I was taught and they way the hunters in my family do it. After ringing the legs and neck we use one of those knives that slide under the hide and run it from neck to tail down the center of the back. It seems to make pulling the hide off easier to do it in two large sections.

 

[MNFarmHunter]

Head down.

With the head touching the ground, start at the crotch and slit up each hind leg ringing it at the gambrel. Once the hind legs are caped back to the butt, continue working towards the head raising the carcass as you go. Front legs are cut off at the distal joint then caped. Keeping skinning until you hit the head then cut it off. Lastly, slice the length of the neck and rip out the trachea and esophagus.

 

[Nutterbuster]

Head laid on the ground.

I'll clean one on the ground next to a gambrel

 

[2Sloe]

Always done head down, like my father did, his father before him and his father before him. Hopefully this weekend I will try the head up technique. Have you tried the no gut method head up???

No, cuz I generally have to drag them out and I’m 59 so I need all the relief I can get. Don’t want to be dragging those guts lol.

 

[Wirrex]

Head laid on the ground.

I'll clean one on the ground next to a gambrel

This is correct.

 

[Buckhole75]

Head down or laying down because I generally do not gut my deer unless it is gonna be a while which is not often

 

[Hunter260]

Head up for me, it’s just so much easier.

 

[Ozarkshunter5106]

I’ve done both and prefer head down. Skin up the inner hind leg, ring around the joint, and skin down to the tail. After taking the clever to the tail bone, I notch two holes in the back hide for my hands, and peel down the back as easy as a banana. Takes about two minutes. Now this is how I learned skinning for $5 a deer at rifle camp as a kid, but I’ve found some advantages for how I like to break down an animal to go in the cooler prior to processing in the kitchen. I like to take the shoulders whole for the crockpot but bone out the hind legs for steaks and burger. With the carcass head down on a gambrel, the shoulders are easy to wack off and the hind legs are spread apart and eye level so I can be detailed in separating the muscles groups. Now the few times I’ve cleaned deer hung by the head is when I’m in the situation to hang the deer immediately and don’t have to gut before transport. Hanging by the head makes for an extremely easy gut job as gravity is good at it’s job and a five gallon bucket between the legs will catch it all. Both ways work very well, I think it just comes down to how you prefer to break an animal down and if you are in the position to hang before gutting.

 

[sweats]

How long do you let the deer hang? The only advantage I can think of for head down would possibly be less blood settling in the hind quarters where most of the meat is.

However, I've never tested that theory and I'm sure it's easier to quarter hanging by the neck.

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[GCTerpfan]

Head down if skinning by hand, head up of using an ATV and rock to pull the hide off.

 

[MNFarmHunter]

How long do you let the deer hang?

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Temp dependent. As long as it's below 50 degrees, I'll let it hang for at least 12 hours. If nothing else, it dries out the fat making it easier to remove. Also have to cape it while warm, I learned that the hard way one year.

For quartering, I remove the tenderloins and backstraps first followed by each shoulder/front leg and bone it out. Then the neck and ribs. Once everything is cleaned to the pelvis, I'll cut the spine off, lower the gambrel down then take each leg off the pelvis to bone out.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

I have always skinned them head down. We hang them from their feet makes it easy to get around that belly, neck and shoulders with out hitting guts or wasting a lot of meat. I’ve never tried them hanging by the neck but maybe I’ll give it a go if the next one I clean is in day light lol

 

[thedutchtouch]

i've only ever done this once, on my first deer, i did it head up, but bought a gambrel and plan to do the next head down to see if it's easier for me. i had some difficulty with finding/separating the hip joints the first go, part because of never doing it before, part because i was hunched over so much. hoping that hanging opposite it'll alelviate those issues for me? loonkng forward to testing it out, hopefully this weekend (fingers crossed!)

 

[Pooh]

Head down if I haul the entire deer home. Legs are skinned on the tailgate and loose before getting hung up and the joints legs are cut off at the first joint. I grab and pull the hide with almost no knife work until it's time to take the head off.

 

[Tr33_n1nj@]

Face down, @** up, that's the way we like to... clean a deer with a gambrel.

 

[BTaylor]

If hanging, I prefer head up but if its going to be a drag over 150 yards it's getting field quartered gutless and packed out.

 

[SoILslocker]

I've always done them head down. We always gut them in the field then hang from either a hoist with a gambrel or an old swing set with some rope through the back legs. Like said before, skin from the groin up the back legs then just work the hide off the legs & down. Once you get down far enough you can roll it up in your hands & pull it off pretty easy all the way down to the neck.

 

[kyler1945]

Wherever the deer died, it gets butchered. Unless there's a handy log or stump to sit on within 50 yards, I might drag it there. Hanging a deer to clean it seems like manufacturing another problem to solve. I've done it both ways hanging and they seem the same to me. a table at proper working height seems like an improvement on all three, but i hate transporting whole deers...