This is the way.Head laid on the ground.
I'll clean one on the ground next to a gambrel
I trapped when I was younger and also skinned everything head down, generally hanging by one foot. Deer on the other hand, being much larger, I find more difficult heads down….but heads down seems to be winning right now! Lol.I skin everything head down from deer to muskrat. It's the natural way to to skin animals.as you're going from the thickest part of the animal to the thinnest.
On deer, coyotes and other long legged animals for non taxidermy purposes the front legs get cut off at the elbow. I'll split the hide from the breastbone where my gut cut stopped and run it down to the throat of the deer then ring the neck to make that section skinning easier.
That's unfortunate. I would show anyone that wants to learn. I've also offered to travel to help people learn and had a side gig doing deer for some of my wife's family. It's not a difficult thing to learn, but a person really needs to be hands on to learn it.I have never had anyone show me how to do it and I kinda learned as I went but this is the way I've done it.....
And that is my mine gripe about learning to do all this stuff on my own...to get a hunting license i had to go take a safety class that really didn't/doesn't teach u anything about hunting... Only gun safety. No talk about shot placement, blood trailing, or what/how to do if u kill something. When I visited my family in Alaska my little cousin in 6th grade learned to skin/quarter/butcher a moose and fish in public school...
If I'm ever at the check station and somebody brings 1 in I will try to watch without being too much of a creep. I haven't had good luck with other hunters being friendly to me and wanting to show a newbie
Think this is a great point. There are many of us just making it up as we go along because we didn't have anyone to teach us tips and tricks about a thing. Some of us really only been taught by the tube.I have never had anyone show me how to do it and I kinda learned as I went but this is the way I've done it.....
And that is my mine gripe about learning to do all this stuff on my own...to get a hunting license i had to go take a safety class that really didn't/doesn't teach u anything about hunting... Only gun safety. No talk about shot placement, blood trailing, or what/how to do if u kill something. When I visited my family in Alaska my little cousin in 6th grade learned to skin/quarter/butcher a moose and fish in public school...
If I'm ever at the check station and somebody brings 1 in I will try to watch without being too much of a creep. I haven't had good luck with other hunters being friendly to me and wanting to show a newbie
I'm exactly the opposite. I grew up using a gambrel, and tried just putting a noose around the neck and skinning head up for the first time last year (it may or may not have been because my gambrel wouldn't fit between the legs of the monster deer I shot). I'm a head-up convert now. A few things:I grew up skinning them head up. Last year I tried a gambrel and head down. I'm defiantly a convert. Skinning was a just as hard/easy either way but breaking it down on the gambrel was way better imo.