Frozen Deer, now what?

[turkeyfeathers]

Wolc , that deer was 190 lbs ? Cmon man. 140 tops. 

[chas0218]

15 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

yeah, ticks suck. How much do you lose using a game bag? seems like the meat would dry out and crust and require a bunch of surface trimming. No?

Yeah I have to surface trim but I would be anyway to get rid of the sinew and fat. I leave all of the fat and everything on then throw the bag over top. I think it is actually a lot easier to trim off all the sinew and fat once it has dried a little. The sinew is not nearly as stringy and slippery. I usually yield about 50%-60% of the deer's live weight (depending on the shot placement), I don't leave much if anything.

Edited November 14, 2017 by chas0218

[WNYBuckHunter]

12 hours ago, turkeyfeathers said:

Wolc , that deer was 190 lbs ? Cmon man. 140 tops. 

Maybe it had 50lbs of ticks on it that jumped off

The buck I shot this year had a much larger body than that and it came in at around 180

[dbHunterNY]

13 minutes ago, WNYBuckHunter said:

Maybe it had 50lbs of ticks on it that jumped off

The buck I shot this year had a much larger body than that and it came in at around 180

the last buck i shot dressed out at 176lbs.  it was about jammed into the back bed of my Honda Ridgeline.  it was laying diagonal and i still had to tip its head and antlers back toward the body to shut the tailgate.  i wasn't there and didn't weigh wolcs deer.  i'm just going to say it seems smaller to me too.

[The_Real_TCIII]

I used to shoot much heavier deer, back before I had a scale

[turkeyfeathers]

I used to shoot much heavier deer, back before I had a scale

I " picked up " much lighter chicks at Brennan's in the early am years ago before I bought scale. Then they were offended when I made them weigh themselves on it before I'd take them home. Game over.


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[Culvercreek hunt club]

5 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

I " picked up " much lighter chicks at Brennan's in the early am years ago before I bought scale. Then they were offended when I made them weigh themselves on it before I'd take them home. Game over.


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See that is where you screwed up. Should have weighed them for record on their way out lol

[growalot]

Frozen deer...love em...you quarter it  which makes sawing easy and then you bring one section at a time in and let it get just thawed enough to start cutting...Man it makes for the most uniformed cuts of steak and don't even get me going on how easy thin slicing jerky is... then there is the vacuum sealing a  lot less blood to deal with so much easier to package......I'll take processing a frozen deer over non every time...

[SilverPharmer]

Thanks for starting tis thread, never thought of the processor not taking a frozen carcass as I've got a 3 hour drive home from this weekend's hunt.  Did call them and confirm it will not be a problem, that they'll let them hang a bit longer.  Glad someone mentioned that as it would have put me in a pinch if they would not accept it.  Every time I go on this forum there is always something great.

Thanks!!

[Culvercreek hunt club]

19 minutes ago, SilverPharmer said:

Thanks for starting tis thread, never thought of the processor not taking a frozen carcass as I've got a 3 hour drive home from this weekend's hunt.  Did call them and confirm it will not be a problem, that they'll let them hang a bit longer.  Glad someone mentioned that as it would have put me in a pinch if they would not accept it.  Every time I go on this forum there is always something great.

Thanks!!

where are you hunting this weekend that you are worried about temps low enough to freeze a deer?

 

[Al Bundy]

Well... my deer also froze this past weekend. I took it to the processor after it hung 3 days. He was pissed at me. He said he was going to have to put it in front of the space heater and thaw it somehow and what a pain in the ass and why did I wait and don't do this next time. I was planning to process myself but it froze hide on so I paid someone to deal with it.  Learned that I need to take the hide off when the temp gets down so low.

 

 

 

[monahmat]

Lots of great info, thanks everyone!  Nice knowing I'm not the only one to do this.  Highs in the low 40's today, tomorrow and Thursday.  Hoping that loosens it up enough for me to get the hide off in the garage and will be processing Friday/Saturday.  

On a side note it's also nice to see others hauling in their SUV's and minivan.  Brought this guy home in the back of my RAV4.  I may be in the market for a hitch carrier next year.

[turkeyfeathers]

14 minutes ago, monahmat said:

Lots of great info, thanks everyone!  Nice knowing I'm not the only one to do this.  Highs in the low 40's today, tomorrow and Thursday.  Hoping that loosens it up enough for me to get the hide off in the garage and will be processing Friday/Saturday.  

On a side note it's also nice to see others hauling in their SUV's and minivan.  Brought this guy home in the back of my RAV4.  I may be in the market for a hitch carrier next year.

Check out uhaul to install hitch for carrier. Dealer wanted $800   Uhaul did the same thing for like $350 out the door. Exact same 2" hitch   

[SilverPharmer]

3 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

where are you hunting this weekend that you are worried about temps low enough to freeze a deer?

 

Northern NY on the Canadian Border, may not be cold enough this weekend, but carcass will have to be stored outside and can definitely happen later on before the season ends. I should have mentioned I was planning for the future.

[Five Seasons]

I’m a one night hanger. I try to hunt around this. If I’m leaving on a trip or have to work I make sure I have a backup to processing and it’s never steered me wrong. Heck I’ve cut up some early bow kills in the afternoon after just a few hours of hanging.


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[monahmat]

Temps warmed up enough yesterday to make skinning manageable.  Everyone's comments were spot on.  The hide came off quite a bit harder than when when I've skinned them fresh.  I had to take two breaks while skinning to regain feeling in my fingers.  Once the hide was off I was able to quarter it and get the back straps out pretty easily.  All-in-all it wasn't as bad as I expected but I'll try and avoid freezing them in the future!

[The_Real_TCIII]

Temps warmed up enough yesterday to make skinning manageable.  Everyone's comments were spot on.  The hide came off quite a bit harder than when when I've skinned them fresh.  I had to take two breaks while skinning to regain feeling in my fingers.  Once the hide was off I was able to quarter it and get the back straps out pretty easily.  All-in-all it wasn't as bad as I expected but I'll try and avoid freezing them in the future!

I broke down and bought those big calipers with the teeth for skinning, they work great