This story was originally published in the November, 1952 issue of Outdoor Life.
Every year a big quantity of game meat is eaten and enjoyed. And every year, a vast quantity is thrown away as unfit to eat. That’s unfortunate, for originally most game meat is clean, sweet, and flavorsome, and becomes rank only because it is badly handled. And the critical handling time comes in the first few hours after the animal is killed.
Heat is the villain in the piece-heat and certain glands. The glands must be removed promptly, the abdominal cavity cleaned, and the body cooled. Sometimes still another factor enters into the case-a long chase of a wounded animal. The attempt to escape produces a feverish condition in the animal, and that tends to impart a strong flavor to the meat.
It’s not my province to instruct you in making instant kills; Jack O’Connor can help you there. But I do have advice on how you can avoid the other risks and errors.
Cooling means letting the body heat escape from the carcass. The sooner this starts, and the faster it proceeds, the better your game will taste. Inadequate cooling is probably the biggest reason why venison and elk meat sometimes tastes bad. And the danger of insufficient cooling is very great in mild weather. Then improperly cooled game may sour after it is placed in a quick freeze or freezer locker.
In cold weather you can work leisurely in dressing out big game. You don’t have to hang the carcass right away, and you can leave its hide on to protect the meat during the journey home. But when days are warm and humid — humidity is especially detrimental — work fast! Do everything you can to speed up cooling.
Empty the abdominal cavity immediately; this operation alone removes a big source of heat and fermentation. Get the carcass off the ground so that air can circulate completely around it. Separate it into quarters as soon as it’s convenient and legal to do so. (The legal caution applies only in states that require identification of sex before dismemberment.)
Before you start to dress out a biggame animal, be sure it is stone dead, not merely unconscious. Shoot again if there’s any doubt, because a buck deer or bull elk that suddenly comes alive from the prick of your skinning knife can be an ugly customer. Some hunters insist upon sticking game to expedite bleeding. A gash across the throat accomplishes this best but is likely to spoil the head for mounting. The alternative is to shove the knife deep into the breast at the base of the neck, then twist its point sideways to sever the big arteries. Sometimes a well-expanded bullet does a fair job of bleeding.
Before sticking, pull the head backward toward the shoulders so it won’t become bloodstained. If the animal lies on sloping ground, twist it around so the belly is downhill, because a rot of blood and paunch excreta will emerge during your work and it’s easier to keep the meat clean if you let the refuse run away by gravity. Sometimes you can hasten bleeding· by working the legs back and forth vigorously to empty the large veins. Again, be sure the beast is stone dead before you grab its foot.
You need a large abdominal opening to empty the paunch, so cut down the middle of the belly from the breastbone to the anus. But before you do this, take steps to protect the meat from musky gland odors and taint from excretions of anus and genitals. Deer have scent glands near the hock of each hind leg. They’re marked by tufts of hair. Slice these glands away, cutting down to the bone to be st.Ire of removing all objectionable material. Take care not to touch the glands, or your hands will carry their taint to the meat.
Also cut around the anus and genitals so they and surrounding hair and skin can be laid back away from the carcass and tied securely with string. Be sure urine doesn’t touch meat for in some species it gives a very disagreeable flavor that penetrates deeply from surface contact. When you’ve done these things, wash your hands in cold water or snow, or wipe them well on cloth, leaves, or grass before you proceed further.
When opening the belly, insert two fingers of the left hand under the skin and spread them a little to make room for the knife. As you proceed, press intestines and stomach back so you won’t cut into them. The fingers also guide the blade. Let the entrails roll out, freeing them with the knife where necessary. Remove and save heart and liver. Cut away lungs, reaching up into the neck as far as possible to sever gullet and windpipe. Dressing and quartering are much easier if you have a light ax to chop through the rib cage and down between the hams.
In wooded country it isn’t hard to hang a deer; one man can do it if he carries a short piece of rope, as most hunters do, and he won’t strain his back either if he uses a woodsman’s stunt to concentrate his strength. One way is to bend a springy sapling down with your weight and tie its top to the deer. When you release your hold its resilience helps raise the dead weight. Or procure three poles, tie them into a tripod, and spread butts wide so the tops are near the ground. Hitch your deer to their juncture and lift by pushing the poles inward, one at a time, thus raising the center. A rather heavy carcass can be elevated by this plan if you go slowly.
To cool or dress a deer, you can hang it by the head or by the heels.
Either way expedites escape of body heat, but head hanging is better if you plan to save the head and horns and don’t want them bloodstained. The lifting rope can be tied to the horns. To heel-hang a carcass, cut a gambrel stick, sharpen its ends, and push it through cuts made in the hock skin between the big tendon and the bone. When you are able to lift only part of a heavy carcass, elevate the rear quarters because they have thicker meat and need more time to cool than the shoulders.
Read Next: Best Hunting Knives
You have to figure out something different when game is killed in treeless regions. If there is brush, cut a pile and lay the carcass on top. Build the heap high enough so that when it compresses, the meat is still a couple of feet off the ground. Sometimes you can lay a deer or antelope across a couple of tent poles or rocks so air circulates underneath. Always prop the body cavity open with a spreader stick so air flows inside; do this too when game is hung from trees.
When the rough dressing out is finished, a little fancy work is in order on blood clots, rough edges, and bloodshot tissues about the bullet hole. Cut the bad spots away and smooth up edges to eliminate pockets where moisture, flies, or bacteria could lodge. Wipe out the inside of the cavity if you have material available. Some hunters carry clean cloth for this, others use grass or leaves. It is best not to wash the cavity with water; bloody areas can be scraped clean with your knife.
Blow flies, if they’re in season, will promptly get in their licks and lay maggot-hatching eggs in raw surfaces. Cloth bags to enclose the carcass or the quarters are the best protection against them, but you should use the bags judiciously and be sure the fabric is not thick enough to retard cooling.
If small areas of meat are exposed, rub blood from around the heart over them. It dries into a hard layer that flies won’t sting through. Or sprinkle exposed meat liberally with black pepper to repel their attacks.
Since a skinned, quartered carcass cools more than twice as quickly as a whole one, perform these operations as soon as possible when game is taken in warm weather. When temperatures are cold it is best to leave small and medium-size animals whole, because they cool anyway and the hide protects the meat in transit. Large game like moose must be quartered before it can be handled. Quartering can follow rough dressing and the spread-down hide will protect the meat from dirt until you get it into your cloth bags.
Hung game should be protected from rain, snow, and sun. All wreak havoc with the meat’s keeping qualities. In bad weather it may be necessary to erect a tarp above the meat rack or pole.
When big game is shot in rough terrain you may have to leave the dressed, cooling carcass on the ground or in a tree overnight until you can get help to bring it in. Then a hanging carcass should be protected from jays and magpies with cloth bags. If you must leave it on the ground, cover it lightly with a brush. Your man scent will usually keep small predator animals away; to be doubly sure, tie some personal article like a handkerchief to the meat.
Cooling should be completely finished before game is transported any great distance. Much meat sours when impatient hunters throw half-cooled carcasses across auto fenders and start home. In warm weather it is safer to spend another day in camp so the meat can hang that much longer. Then in the early morning, when it is still cool from the night’s chill, wrap it in a blanket or quilt to keep out sun heat and begin the return trip.
If you stop overnight en route, unpack the meat so air can again reach it, suspending it from a tree or laying atop the car. Then repack it before sunrise. Carrying game on a fender close to the hot engine is risky unless the weather is quite cold. The trunk is a cooler place, especially if you can fix its cover partly open or if you have special ventilators installed in its sides. A luggage rack atop the car is also better than the fenders.
Big-game hides have a practical and monetary value even if you don’t want to use them as trophies, so prevent them from heating and softening, or shedding hair. A hide taken in cold weather need only be rough-scraped and dried in camp. Rough-scraping means to lay the skin over a smooth surface and then scrape or cut away fat, membrane, and meat sticking to it. Cut off tag ends and very bloody edges, pull the wrinkles out, and hang over a rope or pole in a shady place, hair side in. When almost dry, roll loosely with flesh side out. That way it should come through the home trip well.
Read Next: 9 Expert Butchering Tips to Make Processing Wild Game Easier
In warm, humid weather you should scrape the hide more carefully and then apply salt to its flesh side. Remove all the debris, then spread the hide flat on the ground, hair side down, and rub salt into every square inch of surface. Salt absorbs moisture, thus hastening the drying process. It also tightens hair and prevents rotting. Even if hair is to be removed later in making buckskin or leather, use salt now to give the hide better quality. When the salt covering the hide is soaking wet, scrape it off and put on a fresh, dry coating. When it’s almost but not quite dry roll it loosely for transportation home. Rolling a very dry hide may cause unsightly crack lines tb.at will show up after the skin has been tanned. It will be too late then to do much if anything to fix the damage. For best results, handle hides carefully.
Read the full article here
