Lets talk about deer skinning methods......

foggy

5 year old buck +
I got a nice deer arch for hanging deer. Was surfing youtube a bit.....and saw this skinning idea. I have everything but for a pulley location on the ground to pull with a winch. Thinking about a concrete anchor point .....or perhaps a storm anchor screwed into the ground directly below my arch.

Any other good ideas folks use for skinning? Lets post 'em up before I start my project. Thanks!

Here is the youtube clip (the concrete idea would be a major improvement - but patio stones could work too) :
 
If you already have a similar set up and can add a ground anchor that seems like it would be pretty slick.

We hope to build something similar by our barn in one of the sheds to get out of the weather. We would also have a scale there as well. Then we could easily use the old milk house for cleaning the deer as well. Maybe next year we'll get around to getting that project started.

What we have done in the past is use the skid steer bucket to hang deer by their head and start cutting the hide away around the neck and then wrap the right sized rock into the hide and wrap a chain around the hide and with the rock in the middle so it holds it in place (hopefully that makes sense). The other end of the chain would be hooked up to the pickup hitch and then slowly drive the skid steer backwards while someone is watching the legs and other parts that need a little extra attention. It peels off pretty similar to the video above. Then we could drive the skid steer up to the basement door, put it on a sled, push it down the steps and start cutting it up.


You could also do it like this guy:

 
Would a 4" diameter, 24" long "storm anchor" screwed into the ground be strong enough to provide the pull point from below the deer?
 
Would a 4" diameter, 24" long "storm anchor" screwed into the ground be strong enough to provide the pull point from below the deer?

I would think so, but I am no engineer. It seems like those mobile home anchors would be designed to handle a lot more weight than it takes to pull the hide off of a deer. A small concrete pad would be nice for cleaning up blood, hair and other stuff. Could probably do it with bag concrete fairly easily. Maybe a hole with an extra bag or two for the anchor. It would probably be over built which can be nice. Do you have pics of your current set up?
 
I would think so, but I am no engineer. It seems like those mobile home anchors would be designed to handle a lot more weight than it takes to pull the hide off of a deer. A small concrete pad would be nice for cleaning up blood, hair and other stuff. Could probably do it with bag concrete fairly easily. Maybe a hole with an extra bag or two for the anchor. It would probably be over built which can be nice. Do you have pics of your current set up?

I've posted them previously on the dark side......but I doubt if I can find them anymore due to my poor filing system habits. I have 4x6 treated post uprights concreted about three feet into the ground, and about six feet apart.....so I can pull a small "recovery trailer" between them. The cross beam is same size material and about ten ++ feet high. I usually over-build my stuff.....so I don't see any problems if I pull down and have good anchor points. Plenty of room for my scale and hanging gear.

I think I could have some problems if I were to pull away from my tree....as if I pulled with a pickup truck or my tractor. Lots of leverage with ten foot high posts doing that.

I will give the storm anchor a try and buy another small winch. Maybe next year I will make a concrete pad - if I like this set up.
 
We always hang them them upside down using 4:1 gambrel that has a locking leaver on top.

Us younger guys hoist them up, and the older guys do most of the skinning knife work. The younger guys pull the hide down as necessary.

The hide pulls down easier when fresh, let it hang over night and it becomes a harder job.

If I were to use a winch I would still use the gambrel between the legs.
 
A guy I know butchers deer for Von Hansons and has done so for many years.

He said hang by the head. Reason being is that when you do that, the legs are hanging down, so you are pulling "with the grain" so to speak.

He skins deer in 3 minutes when they come in warm and told me to come down this fall and watch the process. I am all game on that.
 
A guy I know butchers deer for Von Hansons and has done so for many years.

He said hang by the head. Reason being is that when you do that, the legs are hanging down, so you are pulling "with the grain" so to speak.

He skins deer in 3 minutes when they come in warm and told me to come down this fall and watch the process. I am all game on that.

Yep.....that's the way I think it should be done too. Watched a few videos on skinning.....and the easiest always appears to be hanging by the head.
 
If you have electricity handy one of the small winches that Cabelas sells is the cats meow. I have two. One is in one of my garage bays, I use it for caping customers deer and skinning my own deer. Sharp knives are always a must when skinning deer, I am always amazed at how many times I hear in a season "Dang! Those are some sharp knives you have." my thought is usually it needs to be sharpened! Make sure your support is tall enough. Wish I could get them about another 18" higher in my garage.
 
The locker I take mine to essentially hangs the deer by the head on an electric hoist (mounted onan over head rail) and uses a cable attached to an anchor in the floor and using the hoist to pull the hide off - they sometimes reposition the "ground cable" if they run out of height on the host. No gambrel or anything like that. They then quartter the deer out as it hangs to get it in to more managable pieces and then go to town de-boning it on tables. They cut the legs off at the joint first as well. I don't do my own.
 
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