Game Processing

Breaking Down Big Game in 8 Simple Steps 

While hunting is an enjoyable sport, it’s important to remember that we’ve taken to the woods as hunters for centuries, first and foremost, to provide food for ourselves and our families. And because no one knows your preferences better than you, it makes sense that you take care of butchering harvested animals yourself.

For decades, walk-in coolers have required heavy, expensive and inefficient refrigeration units – a barrier that has kept thousands from being able to justify owning one. That barrier has been torn down by the innovative CoolBot® controller. This simple temperature-control device has completely revolutionized the industry by allowing you to use a standard window-mount air conditioner to refrigerate your walk-in cooler.

Ridding your meat of fat and gnarly tissue

We crave the melt-in-your-mouth richness of densely marbled meat produced by cows. In fact, the fat of most domestic animals tends to be an appealing and necessary ingredient in most recipes as it enhances flavor and succulence. Far fewer of us have the same appreciation for the fat of game animals. Why is this so? The short answer is the fats of wild animals aren't as predictable as the fats of domestic animals that are bred with the purpose of becoming the main course.

Most people who go hunting are thinking, “I can’t wait to get my hands on my deer,” not “I can’t wait to gut my deer.” While field dressing is rarely the favorite aspect of a successful hunting trip, it’s one of the most important parts. Properly field dressing game allows the meat to cool quickly and stops bacteria growth. Whether it’s your first time field dressing or you’re a veteran at it, you should keep these things in mind to ensure your kill cools quickly, is clean and stays fresh.

Much like domestic beef, wild ungulates have many different muscle groups, each with their own best use. While it isn’t a disaster if the meat doesn’t come off the bone in perfectly separated muscle groups, it does degrade the quality of the meat somewhat. By not combining two muscle groups into one cut, you limit the amount of tough gristle and inconsistencies in tenderness. Pictured above are the main muscle groups found on most big-game animals. Sizes will vary, but shape and usage will be similar from species to species.

HIND-QUARTER

Growing up under the watchful eye of a custom butcher, there were a few things my brothers and I learned quickly: keep your knife moving away from your body, grinder blades face outward, use as much of the animal as you’re able and keep everything clean from start to finish. It might be hard to believe that my most painful memories from my father’s butcher shop don’t involve careless slips with just-sharpened blades, but it’s true. They involve keeping each piece of meat I handled as clean as possible. They involve neck cramps, blurred vision and involuntary cussing. They involve hair.

Even among hunters, butchering is often the point of disconnect between hunted animal and food on the plate. Whether from lack of knowledge, time or resources – real or imagined – this is a job many hunters feel comfortable handing off to a processor, even though it’s where the magic happens. On the butchering table, your harvested animal is turned into choice cuts for your dinner table, making it a step best left for your hands.

TIP:
When butchering game, a sanitary workspace and high-quality tools are vital.

There Is More Than One Way to Skin a Buck

For hundreds of years deer have lost their coats to an old fashioned skinning post and a sharp knife, but that doesn't stop hunters from striving to make the process faster and more efficient.

After decades of declines, the number of hunters in certain areas of North America has actually increased in recent years. This bodes well for the future of hunting, as more hunters means more funds for conservation and habitat preservation, more political clout, and overall more "relevance" in today's increasingly urbanized society.

While properly field dressing game is a key element in the race-against-the-clock effort to preserve your harvest, a hunter's work is not over once this has been done.