Caring for wild game.

[AWPForester]

This site seems to be amassed of truley dedicated and smart hunters. Hunters who know what they are doing and how to do it. So my question that I ask, is how do you go about caring for your animal after the kill. What are the processes and why you do those things. As we all know wild meat can and is as good if not better tasting not to mention so good for you versus commercial meat we buy. So any additional tips as to increase that value that we could all share may help another brother in his attempts to enjoy his kill that much better.

And lets face it, hunting season is coming quickly. Lord willing, I got some empty freezers that need replenished. Praise the Lord! Good day and God Bless.

[onesharpbroadhead]

I field dress as soon as I find the whitetail. If it is cool enough I will skin and butcher it the next day - if not - that same day. I butcher so all my cuts are boneless and I get rid of as much fat as possible - except on the ribs - those I leave alone - for some reason if you smoke venison ribs - even the fat tastes good, but the fat from any other part is nasty. We make sasuage and venison bacon with the trim.

[Venator]

A few things I have learned for packing an animal out;
Learn the gutless method for breaking an animal down.
Invest in high quality game bags, even if they are a little heavier. This can help with keeping the flies off of the meat. If flies are really bad place the game in a garage sack if the trip back to the truck or camp isn't too long.
Invest in high quality coolers that are large enough to place a full boned elk quarter in.
Know the different regulations for each state for proof of sex and what all you need to leave on the animal to determine it.
Learn how to butcher your own meet.
Heat spoils meet quick, work fast, and know where water and deep cool draws are at, and the quickest routes back to the truck or camp.

[Littlebigman]

tips above are great. One thing young hunters don't know is to keep your hands away from the scent glands while skinning . Wear gloves , change them in between skinning and butchering. Dirty fingers translates to dirty meat!

I also do not cut my steaks until i thaw the portion of meat out the day I am going to cook it. By leave the meat in larger cuts it seems to keep better in the freezer and cuts the time butchering a deer in half.

[Tradman]

i pretty much bone it out in the field and put it in my heavy game bags and either hang it in camp or run it down to town to be put in a cooler then cut and wrapped.never ever put meat in plastic bags as it cannot cool this way and will have a bad taste if left long enough.

[Killdeer]

I'm with onesharpbroadhead here. The game laws have changed, but I do it the same old way. I field dress at the site of recovery, and drag into camp. It is late by then, usually, so I hang the deer and figure out the weather, If it is cold, it hangs. If it isn't, it gets butchered and laid in the cooler. Yes, boneless, and minus as much fat as possible.

The best use for ribs is over the fire, where the bad dry fat gets burned off, and the tasty wet fat remains.
Killdeer

[AWPForester]

I gut as soon as possible if dragging, debone if packing. Get it cooling and pack to camp ASAP. If a whole deer the hide comes off immediately. If too hot de-boned into cooler, if not it hangs as long as possible. The key too really good wild game is cooling quickly, then get all the no good off when processing. the less blood in the meat the better it is. So whatever it takes to get the blood out before processing is what I do.

[Coaster500]

I think most everything has been covered above but I will ad one more tidbit. I like to spend a bit more time wrapping meat for the freezer. I use two layers the first layer is Seran Wrap; I like it as you can squeeze out 99.99% of the air and that is as important to good tasting meat as any other part of the process. The second layer in probably unnecessary but I wrap the Seran packages in freezer paper. I have a vacum sealer but this works as good or better IMO.

[Van/TX]

I do the Saran wrap thing to and then freezer paper. No burn...Van

[Ben]

Only thing I can add...is that I have always had good results with allowing venison to hang for a while (3-5 days) ,weather permitting of course. If temps are gonna be around 40 or below, I let the carcass hang in my garage. I have butchered deer that has not been able to be hung due to warm weather, and we can tell the differenct in taste and tenderness. Funny thing too, my wife and daughter actually have been complaining this year because i didn't get enougth deer to fill the freezer last winter....we've been eating beef and they've been giving me crap for it!!