# My First Time Butchering an Animal



## TheDarkLordChinChin (Aug 4, 2020)

Helped a neighbour butcher a sheep today. It was my first time ever doing it. I had seen others doing it before but never attempted it myself.
Went quite well, the hide came off intact and I didnt cut the meat too much, that was the main thing I was worried about. Took my time with it.

The one thing I did fcuk up on was I accidentally cut through a tendon on one leg, which is why the carcass is strung up with ropes instead of hooks in the second picture. Wont be making that mistake again!


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## CentaurG2 (Aug 4, 2020)

Mutton. Yucky! You got to be hungry to eat mutton. Heck, I would eat lobster over mutton and I usually put them sea cockroaches into the chowder.


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## Haironyourchest (Aug 4, 2020)

Good job! It's a pile of work, if you're not skilled and set up for it. Put a few fresh roadkill deer through the freezer, hares, chickens, ducks, pheasants. Lot of effort but worth it for the good meals and keeping the tradition of self sufficiently alive.


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## olyman (Aug 4, 2020)

TheDarkLordChinChin said:


> Helped a neighbour butcher a sheep today. It was my first time ever doing it. I had seen others doing it before but never attempted it myself.
> Went quite well, the hide came off intact and I didnt cut the meat too much, that was the main thing I was worried about. Took my time with it.
> 
> The one thing I did fcuk up on was I accidentally cut through a tendon on one leg, which is why the carcass is strung up with ropes instead of hooks in the second picture. Wont be making that mistake again!
> ...


great friend of mine, now passed, grew up on a ranch out west,,learned how to butcher sheep..he said main thing was, don't let the oil of the wool touch the meat or you will cry greatly..he said otherwise, is great feed!!!!!!


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## holeycow (Aug 4, 2020)

Ya gotta be in a bad way to eat mutton or roadkill.

lamb and properly killed wild game on the other hand...

did the sheep die by slit throat?

ps, I like sea cockroaches. To each his own I guess.

pss, you can get the hide off a sheep with an air compressor..


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## CentaurG2 (Aug 4, 2020)

Tourists hype lobster meat to the moon here. I am not a big fan of it. Far better seafood to eat than them cockroaches. Fried lobster with some lemon is actually pretty good but I only know of a few clam shacks will do it and it is always on a Friday. Lobster rolls are not too bad. Here, the meat is coated in a light mayonnaise. Further south it is coated in butter. As of Sunday (when I was on the sea coast) lobster was $4.49 a pound.

I cannot stand mutton or lamb. I don’t even like the smell of it cooking.


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## TheDarkLordChinChin (Aug 4, 2020)

Yep the sheep died by slit throat.
I'm not the biggest fan of lamb or mutton either, too fatty for me.


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## Bobby Kirbos (Aug 4, 2020)

Nice job. Our ancestors figured out how to get it done with a pointy stick and a sharp stone (and without the aid of youtoob). It's easier than most people realize.


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## Jethro 2t sniffer (Aug 4, 2020)

I sure hope that is a halal certified kill


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## TheDarkLordChinChin (Aug 4, 2020)

Nah, I made the sign of the cross before the cut.


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## Jed1124 (Aug 4, 2020)

Love me some lamb or mutton! Smother it in mint, mustard, and garlic......good stuff!


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## sean donato (Aug 4, 2020)

Not a lamb guy myself, but I've had some that was real good.(that was cooked by someone else) growing up on a beef farm, you learn to butcher young. Dont live in the farm anymore, but all our wild game we butcher as well as helping out my uncle with his chickens and turkeys. My 4 yo was having a blast helping pluck last years Thanksgiving turkey. Trying to keep the basics alive in the next generation has turned out to be fun and fulfilling. Congrats on your first, mate....


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## jrider (Aug 6, 2020)

Looks to me you slaughtered and field dressed an animal. Butchering is making different cuts of meat such as steaks, roasts, etc.


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## TheDarkLordChinChin (Aug 6, 2020)

*Slaughtered and skinned my first non-aquatic animal


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## jrider (Aug 7, 2020)

TheDarkLordChinChin said:


> *Slaughtered and skinned my first non-aquatic animal


Butchering is fun to me, slaughtering no so much. Every 4 legged animal is basically the same. You mostly follow the membrane that separates one muscle from another. Just be sure to keep your knife sharp!


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## Haironyourchest (Aug 7, 2020)

Commercial butchers saw through the bone to get their traditional cuts, I prefer to disarticulate at the joints. I believe this is how our ancestors would have done it, it's way more efficient then trying to cut or break bone with stone or bronze tools. Of you're home freezing and not bothered about roasting presentation peices, it's even easier to just cut the muscle off the bones and bag it soft.


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## EchoRomeoCharlie (Aug 7, 2020)

That picture of it hanging by the ropes reminds me of 'If you can't tie a knot, tie a lot!' lol

I've been butchering deer since I was 10. It's great being able to go field to table all by myself. Great skill to learn and practice regularly.


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## TheDarkLordChinChin (Aug 7, 2020)

I enjoyed the skinning. Felt like trimming a hedge.


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## Haironyourchest (Aug 8, 2020)

Did you salt the hide? I've tried it once, salt and alum, on a hare pelt, kind of worked but not as well as I'd hoped. I know people who are good at it and have nice pelts of different animals. My hare pelt was removed very carefully, sock fashion, especically the face, as I wanted it for a hand puppet. Padded out the head cavity with a foam toe protector and used teddy bear eyes, glued from the inside. Front legs and paws still attached, so my middle finger and thumb went in, the thing looked absolutely horrific and came alive on my hand. I used to cradle it in the crook of my left arm and honestly it looked like a live albeit very weird looking hare. Used to walk around town and scare children with it. People would approach me to stroke it and I'd keep a straight face and make it bury it's head in my elbow crook like it was scared. Their reaction as the penny dropped was varied. One woman told me there was "Something wrong" with me. Left it with a friend in Germany years ago, covering a wine bottle. If it still exists it's probably fairly rank by now...


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## TheDarkLordChinChin (Aug 8, 2020)

My neighbour did salt the hide, but I was not there for it.


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## stillhunter (Aug 10, 2020)

If the outside temperature is 70s/80s+ you want to get the guts out asap after the kill and not wait to hang it to skin and gut.


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## ATpro (Aug 10, 2020)

Never liked Lamb but cut up 1000's of them in the market over the years. We always called them Greyhounds because that's what young Lamb look like skinned and hung up. The process is a little different than cutting or breaking beef or pork and the product you produce is different. We had a large Jewish population that shopped with us in one market and another store that had a large Arab population so we learned early the traditional way to process Lamb to satisfy them. The Arab's were big on Lamb eyeballs so we called the packers and ask them to save the eyeballs and send them to us. We got them in Gallon jugs packed in salt brine. They would serve them in a big bowl of rice with eyeballs looking at you.


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## John Lyngdal (Aug 11, 2020)

This is how I skin my game animals and it really is as easy as shown, not to mention resulting in a clean hair free carcass.


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## alleyyooper (Aug 15, 2020)

I like mutton and if you think those nice chops you buy in stores are from a lamb your sadly mistaken.
Calling it lamb sounds nicer than calling it what it is mutton. 
My wife is so cityfied she won't buy pet food if it says lamb & what ever. really thinks it is those cute little baby sheep.

 Al


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## TheDarkLordChinChin (Aug 15, 2020)

alleyyooper said:


> I like mutton and if you think those nice chops you buy in stores are from a lamb your sadly mistaken.
> Calling it lamb sounds nicer than calling it what it is mutton.
> My wife is so cityfied she won't buy pet food if it says lamb & what ever. really thinks it is those cute little baby sheep.
> 
> Al


I have met farmers with that attitude. Our people have been so domesticated.


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## holeycow (Aug 15, 2020)

That statement is plain wrong alleyyooper.

It's been a long time since I've had sheep, but it goes something like this; at about 13 months? (Varies a little by breed and individual) the cannon? bones in the front legs fuse. This is when each lamb matures into mutton. The difference in flavour is distinct and unmistakeable.

the value of the carcass changes dramatically.

if your store is selling mutton as lamb they are stealing from you, as well as not promoting the delicious meat that is lamb.

the people that don't like lamb have never had good lamb prepared well, or they just don't like meat or something.

oh, and the golf ball guy is a hack.


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## Haironyourchest (Aug 15, 2020)

Is the expression "Mutton dressed as lamb" a thing in America?


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## alleyyooper (Aug 16, 2020)

We do not worry about bad mutton or lamb. We have been invited to take care of coyotes on several sheep farms and they butcher and always donate some to us.

We also buy a few legs of lamb and lamb chops for our winter freezer meat from one of the farmers.

Al


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## jrider (Aug 17, 2020)

John Lyngdal said:


> This is how I skin my game animals and it really is as easy as shown, not to mention resulting in a clean hair free carcass.



Does it have to be done while the animal is still fresh/warm? Does it save any time? With a sharp knife, it doesn’t take long at all to skin a deer


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## John Lyngdal (Aug 17, 2020)

jrider said:


> Does it have to be done while the animal is still fresh/warm? Does it save any time? With a sharp knife, it doesn’t take long at all to skin a deer


I've only used this method with a freshly harvested animal. My deer "hunts" are in my backyard apple orchard, so after it's down I go and get the tractor and start the process.
I am going to try to skin the carcass before dressing it, as some have said that it works really well. We will see.....


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## EchoRomeoCharlie (Aug 17, 2020)

jrider said:


> Does it have to be done while the animal is still fresh/warm? Does it save any time? With a sharp knife, it doesn’t take long at all to skin a deer



Yeah, I'm thinking the same. I could definitely skin a fresh deer faster than it would take to get all that equipment together, and when I am done, the deer is already hung up and ready for quartering. 

Now, if you have to let the deer sit for days after killing it, or it freezes in between killing it and skinning it, then this could be useful as the carcass does get more difficult to skin in those situations. But a fresh kill, the skin damn near falls off.


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## jrider (Aug 18, 2020)

John Lyngdal said:


> I've only used this method with a freshly harvested animal. My deer "hunts" are in my backyard apple orchard, so after it's down I go and get the tractor and start the process.
> I am going to try to skin the carcass before dressing it, as some have said that it works really well. We will see.....


So does that mean you butcher it and wrap it before it cools down as well? I’m sure it’s an old farmers thing but my dad always insisted whatever animal we were processing had to lose all of its body heat naturally before going in the freezer


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## EchoRomeoCharlie (Aug 18, 2020)

jrider said:


> So does that mean you butcher it and wrap it before it cools down as well? I’m sure it’s an old farmers thing but my dad always insisted whatever animal we were processing had to lose all of its body heat naturally before going in the freezer


I've done a couple un-scientific tests with this. Mostly it was to test the 'aging' of a deer carcass and it's effect on the taste/texture of the meat.

It's much more convenient for me to skin/quarter/cut/wrap/freeze right away when I kill them. I hunt 5 minutes from my house, and on average I'm freezing my deer within 3-5 hours of death. But I've always been told that the carcass needs to hang and age or 'bleed out' or it will taste 'gamey' or be tough. 

So over the last few years, my friends and I have tried to shoot similarly aged deer and let them hang for different amounts of time before butchering and doing taste tests. These deer are being hung in a walk in cooler.

So far, we have gone up to 21 days of hanging and I personally(and most of the other guys) see no difference in taste/texture between the 21 day aged carcass and the deer that I'm putting in the freezer just hours after I made the kill. 


I'm convinced that, for deer, it simply doesn't matter enough to make me hang the carcass for a significant amount of time. Added benefit is skinning a recently dead carcass is extremely quick and easy.


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## holeycow (Aug 18, 2020)

Best shot; through both lungs, miss the heart. Bleeds out beautifully inside in the cavity. Skin, cool, cut and wrap.

very lean meats need no ageing.

well-killed animals generally taste "clean". Stressed kills taste gamey.

imho.


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## esshup (Aug 31, 2020)

holeycow said:


> Best shot; through both lungs, miss the heart. Bleeds out beautifully inside in the cavity. Skin, cool, cut and wrap.
> 
> very lean meats need no ageing.
> 
> ...



In one ear and out the other works really well too. No lactic acid build up in the muscles from running.


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## John Lyngdal (Aug 31, 2020)

I'll have to see if I can find the before and after game camera pictures of a C1-C2 spine shot I made on a deer feeding under my apple tree a few years back.
The nose position in the two frames only changed an inch or two before and after.


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## holeycow (Aug 31, 2020)

When you take em out the way I described they just drop like a bagoshit, bleed out perfectly and completely in the cavity and there is certainly no lactic acid buildup. Animals don't move without both lungs.

it is absolutely the best shot, imo, but hard to replicate reliably although one lung is pretty good too.


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## ATpro (Feb 6, 2022)

Beef normally is aged 28 days, it allows the beef enzymes to break down the muscle tissue. I'm sure the same would apply to deer but as stated above not sure it would make a difference.


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## esshup (Feb 9, 2022)

ATpro said:


> Beef normally is aged 28 days, it allows the beef enzymes to break down the muscle tissue. I'm sure the same would apply to deer but as stated above not sure it would make a difference.


It doesn't work that way in deer because the deer don't have marbled fat in the muscle like beef.


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## Mad Professor (Feb 9, 2022)

Old thread pops back up.

I got started harvesting animals/small game as a kid (fish don't count). Rabbits birds and squirrel. Then moved on to deer, and at a farm cows and pigs. A whole cow is a lot of work

I always clean out the innards before skinning. Over the years got better at the butchering part, making sausages/burger, and more tools to do the work (grinder, vac sealer, knives/sharpeners). 

It's nice to know where your food comes from and how it was processed.


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## Ryan A (Feb 10, 2022)

I found “ The Bearded Butchers “ on YouTube to be pretty informing. Check them out if you’re Into processing animals.


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