Processing deer

[Ayla]

Finally shot my first buck that wasn't a cull - with a .308. Not the one I wanted from the game cam pictures, but still a nice one. Going back this weekend for final hunt so maybe I get a nice tender cull to go with this one!

[Deathrow Jethro]

LINK NO WORKY?

[Ayla]

Sorry - I'm a newbie and the pics haven't been cleared by the moderator yet. Soon I hope.

[Eason]

pics? Where in the pineywoods do you hunt?

[Hunting Consult]

Where do you hunt? Ayla

[Ayla]

Just north of Jasper.

[Jon-Paul]

Congrats on your first

[Burnadell]

Nice buck! Congrats!

[Grillen Joe]

Nice deer !

[shunter14]

nice buck, congrats

[JMG]

Congrats on the buck. Very nice. Good luck finding the other one.

[Ayla]

Well he's all in the freezer now. Let him sit iced in the cooler for 7 days as many suggested and the first meat we cooked up was quite tender. We have always been neurotic about getting the deer processed within a couple days and the meat was usually tougher than I would like, even with younger deer. Any suggestions for dealing with silverskin? I just sort of fillet it off, but it's tedious. I unfortunately felt like I wasted a lot of meat (wasn't really wasted as we gave it/bones to neighbors for their dogs) from the smaller leg muscles because of the tendon, sinew, etc. Anyway to make it better - I spent 2 days cleaning and bagging all the meat.

[Devin]

Congratulations on your first buck. He's a nice one.

Looks like you're headed the right direction with the processing. More and more practice will make you more efficient and faster. For the silver skin there's really nothing other than filleting it like you did. The smaller leg muscles that have a lot of silver are best simply left for grinding instead of attempting to fillet each muscle.

[Bonesplitter]

Congrats! Fine animal.